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 Social Media: The Genocide of the Youth Although social media can be used to build global connections and maintain friendships, it often is not used in this way. Social media can have many negative effects, especially for young people . Despite its potential, social media has mostly negative effects on its users.  These negative effects include wasting your time, causing constant comparisons, and being an unsafe place to surf.     Social media wastes your time , a resource you can never get back . Social media algorithms are made to be addictive. Many of these algorithms know more about you than you know about yourself. Like any other addiction, t he earlier you start social media, the more addicted you will be. The average teen spends  4.8 hours  on social media ! This   addiction to social media prevents teens from completing  their responsibilities like homework . It can also prevent teens from doing basic daily ta sks such as   exerc ise , sleep ing , and eating. Social m

 

Machine Learning Talk Today in STEM Skill we had a guest speaker named Dr. Schuman. She talked to us about Machine Learning. First, she explained the difference between learning and memorizing. When training an AI, it is important that the machine is learning and not just memorizing the training set. You train an AI by giving it training data and letting it check itself. Machine Learning is used everywhere from Google's search engine to self-driving cars. Then, she told us about k nearest neighbors and how AI can recognize objects. She used the example of apples and oranges and graphed known values for each. Then one must determine  if k of the nearest neighbors are mostly apple oranges. She also told us about Neural Networks and how neurons communicate with synapses. A Chatbot as complex as ChatGPT has trillions of synapses.      The most interesting thing I learned is how Neural Networks and Machine Learning models are models to imitate our brains. It has neurons and synapses tha

 Chatbots   Today in STEM Skill we made our own chatbot. A chatbot is a program that can help automate customer service questions. Although it cannot completely replace humans, it does make customer service jobs much more efficient. One person can manage many different customer calls at the same time. Unless it is a difficult issue to solve.      First, we copied code for a basic Python chatbot. I made the bot recommend an instrument based on the user's favorite genre of music. The code was surprisingly simple. It used loops, if else, and else statements. Here's a picture of my final code:  Then I used Chatfuel to make an interactive Facebook page to tell you what woodwind you should play. It worked like a flow chart and was very intuitive. First, I asked what octave the user wanted to play in and filtered it down to one instrument from there. Here's a picture of my flow chart: Flow is filtering down user inputs to get to one solid answer. It is like a flow chart of user op

 Natural Areas Observation Reports

Data Visualization  Today in STEM Skill we learned about data visualization. We followed a YouTube tutorial for Excel and made a report on the sales of a product in South America. I learned how to create and edit graphs based on sales data. Specifically, I learned how to manipulate the graphs to show data effectively. AI Overview Artificial intelligence (AI) is a computer learning model that learns based on the data given. It generates responses to questions asked by users based on this data. My team used gender, class on the ship, age, and our premonitions about each character to predict who would survive. Gender was our main predictor because, in the movie clips, only women and children were allowed on the lifeboats. We also used class since one man bribed the captain to get a lifeboat and first class was higher on the ship (they would have more time to get on a boat).  The code had a 0.77511 success rate which is higher than using just gender. It did well overall. Through this exerc

This is what my group came up with: think of the delectable Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich and scrumptios waffle fries too reliant on CAFOs to stop now must continue CAFOs or people with starve allows poorer people to afford meat have a more balanced diet people's lives saved by CAFOs are much more valuable than animal's lives sacrificed at the CAFOs

 Are Animals People?  Today in STEM in Society we discussed personhood. Are aliens persons? Could any animals be people?  If you do not meet all the criteria for personhood, does that mean you are not a person? I believe there are different levels of personhood. A human has a different level of person hood than a elephant, fish, or rock. However, intellegent animals still deserve some basic rights. For example, Happy the elephant has lived in solitary captivity for 16 years! This is inhuman as elephants are intelligent creature and she could easily be moved to a elephant sanctuary. Here's an article about elephant's intellect: https://wildlifesos.org/chronological-news/the-remarkable-cognitive-abilities-of-elephants/ Here's a picture of Happy:  On the other hand, fish have little to no personhood and rock definitely have none. We do not even know if fish have consciousness and rocks are not alive. 

Objectivity and Perspective Today in STEM in Society, we discussed objectivity and perspective in science. A subjective perspective can lead to the incorrect interpretation of an experiment. In class, we used a video to demonstrate human biases. Objective Description of the Video In the video, a Pitbull licks a small bunny. Here is the link to the video:  https://utk.instructuremedia.com/embed/5dc6395e-cff0-4bcf-8fd2-33f76d7c21dc Also, here's a picture from the video: I interpreted the video as the Pitbull preparing to eat the bunny. The bunny seems very scared as it wipes off the Pitbull's spit. The Pitbull cannot resist the temptation of eating the bunny and licks it to prepare its meal.  I think my previous knowledge of Pitbulls being very aggressive effected my opinion on this topic. To remove this bias, I could stop immediately thinking of the Pitbull as a predator and view the video more objectively. After rewatching the video, I can understand how this could be a groomin

3D Printing Today in STEM Skills class we learned basic CAD design. We designed a 3D model that would be printed later. I knew that 3D printing used liquid plastic to make stuff, but did not know much else. I chose to use Tinkercad because I have no experience with CAD.  I chose to make an among us character from the sus remix because I could not think of anything else. Here's a picture: Through this lab, I gained a basic understanding of how CAD design and 3D printing work. I learned how to use holes to cut the space guy's arms off so he could be among us. I also learned how to adjust and resize the shoes to fit on the among us's feet

Python Coding Today in STEM Skill we learned Python. I took a class in Python before and remember some of the basic projects we did such as defining a turtle and making it graph stuff using "for i in range():" strings printing functions I chose the beginner Python path but already learned some of the concepts. I am reminded of how picky the syntax can be and how frustrating that can be. I got to the 3rd section on part 3/6. It helped me gain a deeper understanding of Python and coding in general. 

Although most fields can be easily defined as a science or a pseudoscience, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is an interesting case. Today in STEM in Society class we discussed pseudoscience. Despite the wide range of pseudosciences, they all have common properties: they seem like science with a systematic theory they claim to be science unscientific in a fundamental way Next, we split into groups to discuss an interesting case: the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). My team included Luke K, Samuel K,  Derek Ahn, and Yejoon Ham. This exercise taught me how to work more effectively as a team. We used the following websites: A Primer on SETI at the SETI Institute New Model Predicts That We're Probably the Only Advanced Civilization in the Observable Universe - Universe Today SETI scientists begin huge new hunt for intelligent aliens | Space Technosignatures and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence | News | Astrobiology (nasa.gov) My team concluded

A dilemma about how to program a self-driving car showed me how interdisciplinary some problems can be. Today was my first STEM Skills and STEM in Society class. The class started with a TED-Ed video that raised an interesting question: If you were programming a self-driving car and a box fell out of a truck, would you program the car to let the box hit, swerve into an SUV, or hit a motorcycle. Here is the link to the video. Here's a picture of the situation: This is a hard dilemma to answer. If I were the programmer, I would research each situation and find or calculate the average number of deaths for each situation. Then I would choose the one with the least number of average deaths. This method allows the choice to be made purely on empirical data and not affected by human biases. For example, if the program had a bad experience with a motorcyclist, he would likely choose the motorcycle. Our biases affect us whether we are conscious of it or not. This problem is interesting to

Creating a new form of transportation, the slingshot car, helped me understand the Engineering Design Process and the importance of planning. Today at STEM Skills we learned about the Engineering Design Process by designing a new mode of transportation. We were given Lego-like pieces, wheels, and a rubber band. First, my group thought about the problem. We considered the constraints and criteria that must be met. We decided to make a car using a rubber band to move it. Stretching and releasing the band would allow the car to move. We would use the wheels and long connectors to form the frame and the smaller ones to secure the wheels and make a floor. Here is a sketch of our plan: Here is an improved plan we did later: After planning, we started building the vehicle. We pushed circular connecting pieces in the wheels and attached them to each other with long stick-like pieces. We attached the rubber band to the front of the car, allowing it to function like a slingshot. Here is a pictur

Hello, my name is Luke Akers. I am a rising senior from Memphis University School. At school I am involved in many clubs and play clarinet in the band. In my free time I like to hang out with friends, listen to music, and play video games. My favorite school subject is math which led me to Governers school. I have always been good at math and enjoy it. It is like a difficult puzzle you have to solve. I have some background in the subjects taught at the math program such as matrices; however, I hope to gain a deeper understanding of these concepts. I also hope it can help me for Advanced Topics, a challenging math class I am taking at my school next year. I hope GSSE can help me improve my STEM skills and meet like-minded people. I also hope it can help me narrow down a career choice and gain exposure to the college lifestyle.