Computers Merit Badge and Monopoly Game

My computers merit badge is most likely finished now. I finished it off by telling how copyright laws work and different jobs in computer Technology. I also had to write a letter to my fellow troop member's parents, inviting them to a court of honor. You remember when I showed those graphic organizers of a computer and program on two of my last posts? With my grandfather's help, I made another one that showed a campsite plan for my troop. It was another one of the requirements. I could probably show it on my next post.
In other news, I found something quite embarrassing today. I found that there were at least seven merit badges that i earned last summer, and never sewed them on. I sewed on four of them today. I can show you in this photo.

 The ones that i sewed on are the bottom four. From left, the above ones are painting, reptile and amphibian study, and kayaking. The one below them is geocaching.

Return to Croton

I left my Grandfather's house today. On the way home, my dad took Maria and I to a Greek restaurant to have lunch. When we finally got home, Maria got an idea to get out a table so we could play monopoly on it. After that, we started watching a movie called "The Lost Prince". Tomorrow, we don't have anything big planned. Mom and Dad are going to go to work leaving Maria and I at home to do our duties and other activities. I still have a lot to work on for my computers merit badge, but I believe I could complete it.

A Simple Computer and Program

I said on my last post that I was working on my computers merit badge with my grandfather. Today he helped me make these diagrams of a simple computer (above) and a simple computer program (below). The computer diagram above includes a lot of the parts of a computer. He also told me that the part where you see "Arithmetic Unit" is the part that does all of the math in a computer. I know that software is also part of the computer. Grandpa said that the control held the soft ware. The diagram below is a little harder to understand for me. But I think it shows how an application is run inside a computer.

Computers Merit Badge

While going to my grandfather's house this weekend, we started getting to work on The Computers Merit Badge and he was able to get a picture of an old IBM computer from the 1980s. I was working on a plan for a troop campsite. I used a graphics program that my grandfather uses. I put in one fire pit, five tents and a picnic table. After that, I started using this Blogging site for a requirement. Later, I took a bunch of old and recent photos from scouting and put them into a power point presentation. I believe that the next requirement that I should work on is to write a letter to the parents of my fellow scouts, inviting them to a troop court of honor. A court of honor is a troop ceremony where you are rewarded the badges, medals, etc. that you have earned.

The Arrow of Light

 I found a few pictures from when i crossed the bridge for the arrow of light almost three years ago. I cant believe ho small I was back then! 

 This is a poncho that my dad gave me when i turned 8 years old. Today, there are a lot more patches than there are shown in this picture. I might be able to get a picture of it so that I may blog it on my next post.

Lots of people from Croton and from my family came to view this. My school's assistant principal, the town mayor, the priest from our church, and the scout master that would be in the troop i was crossing over to.

Thomas Edison

I went to my grandfather's house for winter break today. We went to go see Thomas Edison's laboratory and library. When we went to go see the library, I thought it was absolutely amazing! I was told that he usually spent his nights at his library as apposed to his home. It showed that there was a bed for him in the corner of the room.

The strange thing about it was that they displayed different paintings and pictures all over the place. But, where else could they put them, but hanging off the railings?

After the library we went down to his work shops. I could recognize a type writer that he made, but I didn't think It would be shaped like so:

There were also a lot of things that I couldn't even recognize. But I think that this one was some type of message writer:

But that wasn't all that he physically constructed. There were lots of things that he powered with his motors and belts.

Last, we went down to his chemistry lab. It showed all of the toxic chemicals that he used in his experiments. When the place was turned into a tourist attraction, they apparently cleaned off all of the ash that was on the walls. But to show us the comparison of how it looks today to how it looked back then, they left a square of dirt and dust on the wall.

It reminded me of how people often got sick in coalmines. I asked our tour guide if he ever got sick, but he said that he did not spend much of his time in the lab. Therefore, he did not get sick at all.
Taking this trip taught me a lot about how he changed society and the technology that we have today.