All posts by 29davidj

6th Grade

Programming Languages

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Have you ever wondered how your computer does all of the things that it does? How do the games that you play on it work? The answer is programming languages! These are the languages that you use to speak to computers! Like in the real world, computer languages are very diverse! In this post, I’ll be discussing three different programming languages.

BASIC

This was an early programming language developed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. BASIC stands for Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. As the name implies, BASIC was designed to be a very easy language to learn. At the time, most computer languages were in numbers, meaning that you had to memorize lots of 1’s and 0’s if you wanted to know how to write a computer program. In BASIC, the language was much more like English, which made the commands a lot easier to memorize. BASIC is, overall, an easy and popular language that is still used today!

C++

Made by Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the language C, C++ is generally considered to be the best programming language for creating large scale applications. This means that it is the best option for if you want to create something that can handle high volumes of data without affecting the quality of the application. However, C++ is considered one of the hardest programming languages to learn. This is because of its complicated syntax, or set of rules. Although C++ may be hard to learn, it is a versatile language that is in high demand, which, in my opinion, makes it worth learning. 

Python

As a high level language developed by Guido van Rossum, Python is a simple language to learn. Part of the reason that it’s easy to learn is the fact that its syntax is very similar to English. This makes it very straightforward to read and understand. Despite being undemanding to learn, Python is a very powerful language that can be used to create websites and collect data analysis. Python also has a massive amount of libraries. Importing a library allows you to call functions that other people have already made, so that you don’t have to spend time making them again. Python is a great first language and is also immensely popular.

So there you have it! In this blog post, I talked about three popular programming languages. I hope you enjoyed reading it and that it might have been a bit useful to you! Until next time, EAT MORE CHICKEN!

 

 

6th Grade, Off Campus

My Trip to Camp Hanes

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Early Thursday morning, me and my classmates went on our first sleep away field trip since 2019 to Camp Hanes in King, North Carolina! We got to ride on a comfy and large bus with plushy seats. On the bus, I sat down in one of the back seats. The trip to Hanes was quite enjoyable, as we got to watch a movie called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. 

We were all very excited when we finally got to Camp Hanes. We first played some team-building games with our counselors, such as Four Corners and Combat Master. Then, we were assigned cabins based on our advisory and gender and dropped off our stuff at our cabins and got ready for our activities. 

After that, we did many fun activities, the first of which was canoeing. We had a great time paddling across the water. We even had a canoe war where we bumped into each other! Our next activity was archery. I did not enjoy this very much. First, you had to wait for a long time, then you only had five arrows to shoot, and you only got to go once! I also did not know how to properly use the bow. Rock climbing was much more fun. We got to put on a harness and climb up many different rock walls, each varying in difficulty. Instead of climbing the rock walls, you could alternatively climb up the Pixie Sticks or many different small rock walls to get up to the Sky Hammock! Unfortunately, I had to get a drink of water and didn’t get a chance to go up to the Sky Hammock. After some team building activities, we went back to our cabins to go to bed. 

On the way back, we watched Madagascar. We had some technical difficulties with playing the sound of the movie, but we eventually got it working. I didn’t get to enjoy it very much, though, because I got badly carsick. When we got back to Durham Academy, we left our stuff in the locker rooms and waited to be picked up. 

Overall, Camp Hanes was a very enjoyable experience and helped me build more bonds with my classmates. My favorite activity was definitely canoeing, although rock climbing was also very fun. This was my first sleep away field trip ever and went very well. I was disappointed that our trip to Camp Cheerio was canceled, but this definitely made up for it. 

 

 













































6th Grade

David’s Backpack

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This summer, I read Finding Someplace for my school. It was about a girl named Reese who enjoys designing clothes. She’s about to celebrate her thirteenth birthday in New Orleans, her home city, when hurricane Katrina hits! During hurricane Katrina, the floodwaters forced her to evacuate from her house quickly and she could only take a few items with her in a backpack. 

Here’s what I would have brought with me. First and foremost, I would bring canned foods and chips because they last for a long time, and water, because without that, I wouldn’t even last a week! Next, I’d bring an inflatable boat. If the flood waters got too high, I could float above the water and potentially rescue people. Next, I’d bring an air pump to inflate the boat. I’d also pack a flashlight and batteries to see in the dark. Finally, I would bring my mother’s credit card and my phone to contact my relatives and for entertainment. That’s what I would bring if I was in Reese’s situation. What would you bring?