Mr. Boulanger, Computer Teacher

Yearbook 2011

Mr. Boulanger — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:40:29 +0000

If you want to help create the 2011 yearbook, send your candidature by email to Mr. Boulanger. We need a team of 16 highly motivated students to run the new publication. If you are creative and you are ready to publish pages for the yearbook, send Mr. Boulanger an email before Tuesday September 7. The yearbook is open to middle school and high school students.

Welcome back video: Good Food – Bad Food

Mr. Boulanger — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:22:29 +0000

Stop looking for the Twinkie tree…

Click here to view the embedded video.

List of supercomputers in the world

Mr. Boulanger — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:06:36 +0000

If you are looking for all the most powerful supercomputers in the world, here is the list put together by the BBC News website:

Cray XT Jaguar 1.8 PetaFLOPS with 224,000 cores
Dawning Cluster 1.3 PetaFLOPS with 56,000 cores
IBM Cluster 1 PetaFLOPS with122,000 cores

To give you a comparison, the Intel’s Core i7 980 XE has a speed of 0.0001 PetaFLOPS

The whole list of the fastest, baddest supercomputers in the world is available here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10187248.stm

And here is a picture of the winner, the Cray XT Jaguar:

Slow motion video of lightning

Mr. Boulanger — Fri, 28 May 2010 16:32:53 +0000

A very impressive arc hits the ground in super slow motion:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Makes you wonder about the physics behind these doesn’t it? Check this website out: http://regentsprep.org/regents/physics/phys03/alightnin/

your teachers think they are so cool

Mr. Boulanger — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:51:11 +0000

great extra-credit submission by robin.

Click here to view the embedded video.

think of the scenario, acting, movie editing and music skills involved in making this. this is a great one-man show.

Drinking soda will make you fat

Mr. Boulanger — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:21:22 +0000

Drinking soda will make you fat. It is a fact which is well depicted in this video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Example of a Rube Goldberg Machine

Mr. Boulanger — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:13:27 +0000

This video was submitted for extra credit by Chaendo, it is an example of a rube goldberg machine, a machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Other examples can be found here:

- Honda commercial “The Cog” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo

- OK Go music video for “This Too Shall Pass” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

Water resources and usage from around the world

Mr. Boulanger — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:06:23 +0000

A great video created by the website http://good.is and submitted by Malishka for extra-credit. It will explain to you how much potable water is available in the world (a teaspoon full) and demonstrate how much water is used in the western countries compared to the rest of the world. Don’t get fooled by the old style, this was made for world water day in 2008 so all the numbers are recent and accurate. Great find!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Play video games to make a better world

Mr. Boulanger — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:28:34 +0000

This is Jane McGonigal explaining how the skills learnt while playing video games can help you fix bigger problems in real life:

The three games which according to her will change the world are:

Evoke – http://www.urgentevoke.com/

World without oil – http://www.worldwithoutoil.org/start.aspx

SuperStruct – http://www.superstructgame.org/

Learning with mnemonics

Mr. Boulanger — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:42:03 +0000

Mnemonics is the art of assisting your memory by using artificial aid such as rhymes, songs, or acronyms. In this example, you will learn how to count in French until the number six:

“Un.. deux.. trois.. – cat sank!” (oh cease, please!)
(un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six…)

You can find a lot of other examples of mnemonics technique for math, physics, astronomy, etc. at http://www.eudesign.com/mnems/_mnframe.htm.

A beautiful advertisement for safety

Mr. Boulanger — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:00:23 +0000

I certainly wish they paid more heed to this advice in dushi Curacao!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Remember to save and backup often

Mr. Boulanger — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:32:10 +0000

you don’t want to lose everything at the flick of a switch…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Mindblowing video: the Known Universe

Mr. Boulanger — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:45:12 +0000

All my students have had a chance to look at this incredible animation of the universe as we know. This is a full blown 3D map of the Universe to scale and with exact coordinates. You will be able to follow your ascent from the Himalayas, through the solar system, pass the Milky Way and beyond the afterglow of the original light from the Big Bang.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From this video, we also talked about:

How to spot the Milky Way – From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way

The black hole in the center of the Milky Way: From the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7774287.stm

The Voyager I and II explorations – More information from the NASA website: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/fastfacts.html

Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence as a screen-saver – SETI@Home from University of Berkeley: http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Amrit also found a related series of videos which you could be interested in:

The Naked Science series from National Geographic: YouTube channel

Camera phone challenge

Mr. Boulanger — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:14:45 +0000

This video was taken in one shot from a camera phone and made without using any special effect. Can you figure out how they did it?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy New Year!

Mr. Boulanger — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:08:22 +0000

If you were wondering where your Christmas decorations went, see them running away with the sheep:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This was submitted for extra-credit. Great find!

Celebrate Thanksgiving Online

Mr. Boulanger — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:14:29 +0000

You can celebrate Thanksgiving with National Geographic:

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/PeoplePlaces/Thanksgiving-traditions

Or with Kaboose:

http://holidays.kaboose.com/thanks-games.html

Football Hero

Mr. Boulanger — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:37:59 +0000

For the boys to dream this weekend:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Chemical Reactions Party

Mr. Boulanger — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:27:34 +0000

If only I could have seen this video before embarking onto my chemistry classes, I would have fared much better! This anthropomorphic video is an hilarious study guide:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anthropomorphic: Attribution of human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. Here, the elements are represented by humans at a party. This representation is anthropomorphic. Etymology — From the Greek anthropos “human being” and morphe “form”.

How to Use an Apostrophe

Mr. Boulanger — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:21:05 +0000

Ever had any hesitation about apostrophes? Here is the conclusion of a great lesson by The Oatmeal:

Visit the whole website for a beautifully illustrated revision of the life of the apostrophe

Size and Scale of Cells

Mr. Boulanger — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:14:22 +0000

If you are interested in the world of small, and I mean very small things, check out this mesmerizing animation from the University of Utah about the size and scale of cells:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/scale/