An engineers nightmare, a BBC Micro:Bit, funny memes and this months game of the month. Enjoy.
First we will look at an engineers nightmare. ARCHITECTS!
Architects are similar to civil engineers. They both design buildings such as houses. The difference is that architects design things that are more pleasing to look at but engineers design things that are safer and easier to make. Some examples of architecture are:
They are made to look pleasing. They were more modern examples. Engineering on the other hand is more realistic and simplistic. And even easier to build. Some examples of engineering are:
The Falkirk Wheel - Mentioned in my First Newsletter
You can find all the engineering images used on the Wikipedia page here.
These were all made to be easily built and safely used. As you can see in the roundabout picture, There are many different paths and roads going over and under each other to make it safer for pedestrians and safer from car accidents.
Now for the memes. I tried to make them about engineering this month.
I liked them. Did you?
The next topic is BBC Micro:bits. They are basically a little circuit board with some buttons, a 5×5 LED array and some other features that will be covered.
This is what it looks like.
On the front side it has a 5×5 LED array, A & B buttons and the logo on the front is also a button. The back consists of a speaker, and accelerometer, a compass, a reset button, a micro-USB socket and a socket for the battery pack to be connected to. There is also an antenna so you can send data wirelessly from one micro:bit to another.
There is one other thing that I should talk about. You have to code it to do things. Have you ever used the online programming platform called scratch. If not then you can check it out at scratch.mit.edu but if you have then you will know how to code them. This is because the coding language is a block based visual programming tool called MakeCode. It was created by Microsoft (Yes, yet another thing created by Microsoft) and is very easy to use. It also has a very cool feature where you can see what your code will do from the image on the left. You can click the play button and it will show you what you can do. Another cool feature is that you can change what the code viewer is at the top. You can change it to blocks, python or JavaScript.
This is what it looks like.
In the screenshot, it shows some code. This code ,when input into a micro:bit, will make the screen flash 4 times when it starts up.
This month’s GOTM (Game Of The Month) is Minecraft. I found it suitable to make this month’s GOTM Minecraft because on the 4th April, a movie about it releases. I’m sure you have played or at least heard of Minecraft. It is a block based sandbox building game coded in Java and C++. It has many gamemodes such as creative, survival and adventure.
There are actually many types of Minecraft. These include Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. There are actually many more however the rest are coded the same as Bedrock Edition. Some of these are Pocket Edition, Console Edition and a surprising one called Chinese Edition. The Chinese edition is only available in China however you can most likely find screenshots if you wish to see it.
There is also another version called Education Edition. This is used by schools to help teach children learn how to code. I do not have access to this version however you can find the demo version of it if you wish.
Another feature about Minecraft is that every year on 1st April, they release an April fools update. I mentioned at the start that a movie was releasing. Yes. It is called “A Minecraft Movie“ and it is being produced by Warner Bro’s. If you want to have a look then click here.
Sadly, that is all for this newsletter. Have a good day.