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NOTE: 295 words
Time is up.

This weekend, I spent nearly 10 hours on the model but still have much to go. I am done with research but not the annotated bibliography, presentation, or the product.
THE PRODUCT
For the roduct, I finshed the buildings. I also painted teh streets and sidewalks on the I created the LEGO track for the train, which is already created. I needed to order LEGO pieces in order to create them. I ordered over 1000 pieces of LEGOs. Because the LEGO company takes too long to ship LEGOs (nearly one month), I decided to use amazon. I also needed to purchase the other materials including foam, clay, wood and paint. I spent three hourse cleaning a bucket of paint that spilled on my carpet! In addition, I have little people and trees to make the model look more realistic. The product still needs and explanation.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
For the annotated bibliography, I am on source #3 out of fifteen sources. I read through all my sources so it should be easy to finish.

PRESENTATION
As of now, here is the plan:
Go up and present in person. Play a video half way through. Present my product.  To finish, timeline is at the end.

LAST AND FINAL TIMELINE
Here is a breakdown of how I will finish Genius Hour on time:
Monday: Finish annotated bibliography. Finish formatting. Test prototype train on track made of LEGO.
Tuesday: Finish 3D model. Glue everything if needed. Put track on model.
Wednesday: Type explanation of product and presentation script
Thursday: Finalize script and format all documents
Friday: Print documents and make them look nice. Start presentation
Saturday: practice presentation. FInish short video.
Sunday: Practice presentation. Prepare for turn in.
Monday: Bring model to school. Turn in. Present

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NOTE:  316 words
Now is just time for cramming

RESEARCH
Because I am such a dumbo when it comes to procrastinating, i sucessfully ignored my annotated bibiography for nine weeks. Although this may seem bad, I know I will finish by the due date. As stated before, I am done with adding new sources.

PRODUCT
For my product, I have finalized it to be a model of downtown and a very short video. The model will have building and a LEGO train going aroung it. It will be comntrolled with a remote control. This week, I bought all teh supplies. I bought the building blocks, paint, board, sticks, and other materials. I painted the board green and created one building. I need to make ten more buildings and the LEGO system. I have already made the train but I am having a hard time creating the track, as I have a limited amount of LEGOs and the LEGO's needed to create the track are relatively rare pieces. As of now, I have about 3 feet of track out of 10 feet needed. If I am unable to find enough LEGOs to complete the system, I will either buy the specific bricks needed or keep the track short.

ANIMATION
For the animation, I have made little to no progress. During the mock trial project, I brainstormed a few ideas that I could use in my Genius Hour and used them. These include the credits and the introduction. Thetransitions might be included. Although this sounds horrible, I am earning the software better and I am gettting faster at it.

TIMELINE
Tasks to complete:
Video
Model
Annotated Bibliography

The buildings will be complete by the 10th of april. THe LEGO track willl be completed by the 11th of april. The video will be completed by teh 14 of april. The Annotated Bibliography will be completed by midnight on the 20th.

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NOTE: 267
Genius Hour is just getting more fun.

This week I completed a variety of tasks. First of all, I started with my LEGO model. Although I did start planning beforehand, I actually started to put it together today. I bought the 4ft by 2ft board and painted it green. I also am coordinating the building of the system. Because of engineering flaws, I decided to put the system on top of the track instead of under.  Additionally, I am thinking about the buildings I want to put in the middle. As of now, I am looking at putting 3D printed minature buildings in the center.

I also started my animation. I only have ten seconds. My animation is my secondary product. If I finish the model, I will move onto the animation. This is only because of the crunch for time.

Regarding research, I am at the exact same place I was three weeks ago. Because the annotated bibliography bores me, I have been precrastinating it but I know that I will finish it now because the due date is coming up!

OMG! I have been leaving the TED talk outof the plan. I think I want to merge the animation and the TED talk into one video instead of making two seperate videos with the same information. I have not spent as much time on the animation as i wished to.

This week is crunch week, so here's the plan:
1. FINISH model
2. HALF FINISH animation/TED talk
3. FINISH annotated bibiography
4. thats all . . . spend at least 15 hours on Genius Hour

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NOTE: 412 words

This week, I completed many tasks that I have been wanting to do but I have been procrastinating. I worked on my model, my animation, and my research.

MY ANIMATION
For my animation, I finally learnt enough to start my animation. I animated the beginning title slide, which is under 10 seconds. I had to draw a subway to drive across the screen. In order to do this, I did not follow a tutorial, but I didn't follow any click for click which is a big deal. That means that I acually learnt something and am not copying. I started to create a script for my animation because I realized that the only thing stopping me from finishing my animation is the script
MY MODEL
The most fun part of my project . . . the LEGOs. This week, I took the borrowed LEGO pieces from my mentor and I downloaded the software needed to program them. I learnt how to program them and programmed them to do a simple task:
Wait for 3 secs, move until reached by a red sign, wait for five seconds, and then loo from the move command.
I was about to go to Home Depot to get the board on which I was going to put my model on as weel as the paint but them I realized that I didn't know which colors I needed or the soze of the model.
I went through at least 10 prototypes and 10 hours of LEGO playing throughout the week before I finalized my model. I tried to use magnetic levitation but then there was no way to move the SkyTran. I tried to use string but that was a total fail. I though about ordering a LEGO set but that would be cheap. I decided to use the robot to run on a track itself on its motor. the track itself would be stationary. The track would be 3D printed because I do not own enough LEGO pieces to make a large track

MY RESEARCH
I have not started my annotated bibliography but I did finally finalize my product and reasearch. I am not adding any new sources or deleting anything.

THE PLAN
I HAVE SCRATCHED TEH IDEA OF MAKING A BOOKLET AND A MAP. For the next few weeks, I have the following tasks:

1. 3D model the vehicle and track.

2. Make script for Animation

3. create animation

4. Finish Annotated Bibiography

5. Create TedTalk

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NOTE: 255 words

This week, I coorinated the details of my product. I looked up many videos and I created a rough craft drawing of the LEGO model. I decided to either use magnetic levitation or attraction on my product in increase the "wow" factor. Currently, the plan is to get 4' by 2' piece of wood and model a block of downtown including cars. Afterward, I was going to place another piece ontop and remove the cars, showing the transformation. I will also make a SHORT animiation (about 5 minutes only) Ten seconds of animation can take hours to make. Making anything longer will result in a decrease in the quality. For the LEGO product, I coordinated with one of my robotics mentors and asked to use one of his $500 mindsorms sets. THis weekeend, I picked it up and I have been playing with it ever since. I decided to make magenets moving within the and having a vehcle that follws this movement used magnetic attraction. I have not started any other section of my project except for thr learning how to animte. I learned for about five hours. Now, I think I have the ability to make a professional animation with teh help of an advanced tutorials. This week, I plan to finish my annotated bibliography and make a script for what will happen during my animation. Next week, I plan to start creating the animation and draft the LEGO 3D model. Lastly, I decided to NOT use 3D printing for the majority of my product. Instead, I will use LEGOs.

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NOTE: 807 words. I ALSO HAVE A QUESTION AT THE BOTTOM.

This week, I  completed three main tasks. I completed my research (hopefully the last time I say that), rethought through my idea completely, and I learned a lot more about ADOBE. Each of these tasks is explained below

SUPERUBER
This week, I though realistically about my product, SUPERUBER. With these answers, I chose to take my project into an entire new direction. I asked myself:

Is it really possible to fund all these subways, light rail, and bus systems? Currently, we cannot even keep the small public transportation system growing.

Would the public like to switch into this form of transportation? Not at all. People like there to be a public transportation system but would not like to be forced to use it through taxation. They may be encouraged to with higher prices though.

Are taxes even possible to implement? If not, will people pay to ride? I think it is possible to increase gas prices and/or toll roads. This, however, is not enough to pay for the system.

What makes SUPERUBER different? Looking back, it is an unrealistically expensive idea. SUPERUBER is different because it makes it seem as if it is more efficient but it is almost the same because of the time of switching between modes of transportation. The good part about SUPERUBER is that is implements bus lanes, biking routes, and pedestrian routes. It also implements higher costs for driving in cars.

Overall,  we can conclude that SUPERUBER  is not such a bright idea due to costs.

RESEARCH
During my reasearch, I looked especially at the polls taken by METRO because i realized I would need to make a system that the public would like (not one we would force people to ride). These are the four factors that the public wants to see:

1. More places

2. Faster and More reliable

3. safety and security

4. Customer experience

5. flexibility

Because of my research, I have concluded that due to suburban sprawl, it is too difficult to gather people enough without cars in order to load all people onto a single vehicle.

THE NEW IDEA

During research, I came across one of NASA's projects called skyTran. This system uses magnetic propulsion in order to move single vehicles around on a track. The track would be installed above the roads with vehicles hanging from it. Why was I so interested?

1. It was able to go up to speed of 200 mph but it only goes to 50 mph while in cities. It does not need any stops nor does it need to slow down for other vehicles. This would solve the "fast and reliable" problem

2. It was a vehicle that carried customers by themselves. This would solve the "customer experience" problem and the "safety and security" problem.

3. This system would be able to ride 24 hours a day and would be able to function anywhere that roads are that is worth putting in the system. This would solve the "flexibility" and "more places" problem.

4. This system is economical because the costs are 100 times less than installing a subway

If time permits, I might create a statewide system using the hyperloop idea that has not been implemented. That is another idea  I am choosing to postpone to later in case I run out of time

ADOBE
Adobe products are so annoyingly complex because they function at industrial standards. The second most annoying thing is that there is a separate software for every action so you need to switch software for everything you want to do. I changes the list of software I will use. The list currently is: Illustrator(Drawing), Animate(Animation), Character Animator(Animating Characters), After Effects(Graphic Effects and design), and Premiere Pro(Editing Footage). I took Photoshop off the list because I didn't need to edit photos. I added Animate to the list because it is an interesting software I didn't know about before. Lastly, I took Indesign off the list because I am no longer going to make the booklet

PRODUCT
For my product, I am going to create an animation still. I am also considering making a map for the system in Houston. Lastly, if time permits, I want to create a 3D model of a street block of the levitating vehicle system to prove the concept with a prototype.

TODO
Things I will possibly need to do include:

1. 3D model the vehicle and track.

2. Buy materials for the prototype

3. Assemble Prototype

4. Make script for Animation

5. create animation

6. Create map of Houston including pedestrian routes and bike routes.

7. Finish Annotated Bibiography

8. Create TedTalk

QUESTIONS

1. Is the skyTran idea valid because the concept was already developed by someone else.

2. Am I missing any major components: Research, TedTalk, Product, Annotated Bibliography.

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NOTE: 454 words

This week, I organized my ideas and developed my product. elow, he blog is seperated into three important topics.

SUPERUBER
With guidance from many others, I came up with the idea of SUPERUBER. During my reaserch, I learned that the majority of the types public teansportation can be split into two groups, fixed-route and demand-response systems. Fixed-route has a set time-table and runs transportation systems whather or not people are riding,like teh current METRO system. Demand-Response transportation systems are like UBER and only respond to rider demand. A hybrid of the two creates a group called "flex-route", which have a set timetable but deviate from it because of demand. As a part of my product, I am creating a fourth type of public transportation system, a combination (not hybrid) of fixed-route and demand-response systems. A section of the improved METRO system will be set and t eh other section will respond to demand. The areas that have high population density OR have a constant flow of people will have set timetables. This will include subways under all the highways and a bus system leading to it. This includes rail, which is basically a subway overground. There are set stops for the buses and they wll run at set frequencies at different parts of the day. It is also possible to have the frequency of the buses depend on the demand. The second part of teh system is demand response. It consists of many cars, collecting people from locations and taking them to the bus stops. I havent decided whether this sectionRiders would have an app, similar to UBER. They would input their address and destintion and a computer system generates a route. The computer system plays an important role because it generates a route for the UBER drivers that have maximum efficiency.

PRODUCT
This entire system will be explained to riders in an animation. The animation wil go through the process to ride the system and discuss public transporation and reasons that it was made this way and factors. In order to imbelish my project, I might create create a booklet or map on the side. NOT AS MY PRODUCT.

PLAN
I have the requirements for the research section of Genius Hour but I want at least five to ten more sources. This week, I spent at least ten hours learning the programs listed in the previous blog. I am currently learning Illustrator and After Effects. I have not started Photoshop or Character Animator. Within the next two weeks, I would like to finish learning the softwares. After that, I will leave two weeks for completing the product. The remainder of the time is left for editing, revising, and finializing/organizingmy reasearch binder.

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NOTE: 485 words
This week, I completed the research phase of my product. I also brainstormed possible products. Currently, I have the following Ideas. I am thinking about creating one or two fo teh following ideas:
1. A map, replacing the current one, that woudl be super detailed and include pedestrian and bike routes
2.  A guide to riding the METRO system, an addition the map. A whole booklet including the map and logistics.
3. Completely replace METRO with the new idea of indivitual vans on rails. like UBER trains.
4. Proposal to METRO for the original idea of the map. I could also make a twist on my project and make a proposal for public transportation using alternative energy
I am almost done with the reasearch phase of my project. I need 3 more sources and I have the minimum requirement. However, I would like to avoid closing teh research phase of the project because I might encounter holes in my research that I will want to fill in later. The research I included for this week includes
1. Different types of public transportation. THis was very helpful in connecting ideas in my head. I thought about indivitual cars v. large buses and respond to demand v. set timing.
2. I researched alternate energy sources including wind power and solar energy. I think solar powered public transportation is a cool combo
I also have a running work cited page. My to-do list for untill next week's blog is:
1. Finish research phase completely
2. Finish work cited
3. Finalize Product Idea
4. Wait . . . How do I know if got intot he TEDx Talk? Ill ask about that.
5. Whatever I chose as my product, make a plan to finish halfway thorugh april. (YES!! I love planning to being ahead . . .  although it doesn't always happen).
This week, I also contacted METRO. Instead of pasting a transcipt, I put you as a recipient to the email. Lastly, I updated my plan to include video editing for a month. I know it sounds crazy but to make a decent video takes 10 hours (like teh PSA) and to make an outstanding video, it takes at least 30 hours. There is one BIG BIG BIG problem. I do not know how to use the softwares needed to animate characters, draw, or animate graphics. In order to make the most professional video, I chose to add this as a componenet of my project. I will be learning how to use Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Character Animator, and Adobe After Effects. Although this seems like an overdone section of project with a lot of work with little return, I chose to take this path because this is something I am passionate about. That would be the longest task to complete. You will be able to see these skills in the final edited video, my TED Talk

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NOTE: 426 words
Hello! For Genius Hour this week, I updated my Onenote with my resources. I realized that I only have six resources as supposed to the nine I claimed to have from last week. Five of the sources came from the same website, meaning that they are only one source. This realization narrowed my sources down to five. I then got another source and now I have six, only one primary source. One the biggest things I did this week was talk to the head of civil engineering of U of H. He inspired me to look into my passion of designing. At first, for this project, I wanted to add new routes to the current system. Now I want to completely change the metro system, with new routes and new ideas/additions. Because I love to design, I want to design many things regarding public transportation. I want to redesign the metro stops, where people wait for the next bus to arrive. The second major acheivement of this week is that I rode the metro. I was very diappointed with houston's current metro. First of all, I took an e xtremely long time for the bus to arrive. Second, I was the only person on the bus (I wonder how they make profit). I also saw, but did not ride, the metro train. It seems good except that it is too short to be effective. I now have a new understanding of why it is so hard for metro to expand. I hypothesize that their are not enough people on  each bus to make significant profit. While reseraching, I read that the houston metro trains are the most used trains compared to any other one. Although this is true, it is misleading because it is houston's only train. I plan to ride the train during spring break. My to-do list for next week and future goals are:

1. I want to contact METRO Houston to find out about their future plans

2. I need to contact Z-cards to see if I can get a sample with the design I will make because when you only buy a few, they are expensive.

3. I want to reach ten sources and annotate all sources.

4. I want to ride the metro train

5. I want to finish up the research phase within two weeks

6. I want to design a train stop station.

NOTE: These are goals that include spring break time to complete.

Thank you for reading all the way through . . .  if you did. :-)

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Here is the link to the vlog in Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1654uiD56OOJrf6WGLRAVytmtmd8VP-Kq/view?usp=sharing

This is the narrowed-down script of the VLOG:
Hey Mrs. Peel! This is my VLOG for Genius Hour. For my Genius Hour, I am researching Public Transportation in Houston. I already found 9 sources and I plan to find at least 20 sources for this project. I found many sources this week, including a whole lot of census information, which are my primary sources. I also found resources on the METRO and METRONEXT websites. I found the Houston Transportation map, some of METRO's future plans, and an article about energy conservation. As for the primary sources, I have METRO's populations forecast until 2050, a city of Houston, population density map, census information about the means of transportation to work divided by both, super neighborhoods, and council districts , the total population of the districts of Houston, and finally, a document that compares Houston's METRO with the METRO of other big cities. I also applied to the TEDx Talk for 10 bonus points. In that, I will be talking about how public transportation is the right choice because it helps to stop cars from polluting the environment. One other resource I found was a thing called Z-cards. These are cards that are pocket-sized and unfold to become big to display a large amount of information. I first saw these at a large marathon event and they was used to display the map. While doing some research, I found that other METRO systems have used Z-cards to display their maps and to hold the personal METRO fare cards on the side. This got me thinking. Could I create one of these Z-cards as my product? This will definitely be considered as a product. On my to-do-list:

1. I got the contact information of the head of civil engineering at U of H recently at a Robotics event and I wanted to shoot him an email with some questions and possibly interview him.

2. I want to contact METRO Houston to find out about their future plans

3. I need to contact Z-cards to see if I can get a sample with the design I will make because when you only buy a few, they are expensive.

4. Lastly, I wanted to ride the METRO system myself to see how it feels and how it can improved

Thank for listening! See you next week!