My N@TM Experience!

My N@TM experience was very fun. I personally found it better this tri than last tri because a lot of the CS projects I viewed increased in professionalism and skill. I saw a variety of arcade websites, car websites, and much more. The ‘vibe’ of this tri’s N@TM felt better as well because I thought there were a lot more kids and parents there from other classes this time. Being able to explain our arcade project to students and parents was fun because not only did we get praise for our hard work, but we also got some contructive criticism on how we can improve the project. For example, I realized I should change my worldle game keyboard layout to qwerty..etc instead of abcdefg. That way, users don’t have to spend a long time trying to find each key. In addition, it was interesting to see other N@TM Projects outside of CSP as well.

First Project I viewed: An arcade website created by Max, Jishnu, Alan, and Evan (Period 3 of Mr. Mortenson)

I felt that their website was quite analagous to our website. They have a series of different arcade games in which they utilize backend databases. They focus a lot on their leaderboard and being able to display certain information from their games. I played the snake game Max made and in my opinion, it was very well executed. It was smooth, it was functional, and it even allowed users to store their data/record after the game they play. One thing I told them that they could improve on was not limiting the usernames to 3 characters because it could get repetive and not as unique as a professional game. Overall though, I think they did a very good job. They had clear functionality, clear user input and output, and met all the collegeboard criteria. Mr Mortenson also seemed impressed with their website and how everything flowed together. I also tried playing their checkerboard game, which in my opinion was really good. It felt like a real game. However, if I rememeber correctly, they didn’t have any backend work, so I suggested they added a point leaderboard system as well.

Second Project I viewed: A GPA/Academic Stats website from Alex Lu’s group (Period 5 Mr. Yeung)

In my opinion, this was one of the best projects I saw at N@TM. Everyone had a clear frontend to backend connection and was able to explain the purpose of each of their things. My favorite feature was probably the class rank calculator where we had to input GPA, classes, etc. and it would generate a ranking for each student. It seemed like an enhanced version of Synergy, the gradebook. In addition, they had a schedule feature where students could input their schedules and compare it with other students’ schedules. They also had a cool my day feature where that included a daily schedule and checklist with an esitmated time for completion. Overall, this website was very nice and I feel like many of us students can benefit from it.

Third Project I viewed: A electric car website created by Adi’s group (Period 5 of Mr. Yeung)

This project was very cool in my opinion. The purpose of their website was the educate people about electric car since it is the future for cars. They have a variety of user input where the user could import price, horsepower, range, etc. and match the user with an electric car of their preference and inform them about their car. I really liked the random fact generator they had as well. This made their website, in addition to their other features, much more interactive and fun as a whole. They also all had their frontend and backend connected if I remember correctly, as well as incorporated all crud concepts. Overall, I really liked this project.

Fourth Project I viewed: Another Arcade website from a group from Period 3 of Mr. Mortenson

This was another arcade website that I found really good. They each had functional games and I especially liked this pong game because it was a two player game. This made the gaming experience a lot more genuine. Although they wereren’t fully finished with their frontend, I suggested that they changed the theme from the default to make thier game look even better. Not that the default theme is bad, but it isn’t the best either (in my opinion). I also suggested that they add some sort of backend to frontend connection in order to fufill collegeboard requriements, but further enhance their games. Overall, the game they presented was a good start to something that can be turned into something great.

Fifth Project I viewed: Cat Cafe (Period 5 Mr Yeung)

I couldn’t get a picture of this one but I definitely saw it. I thought this was one of the most unique projects at N@TM. It was extremely fun and interactive (I especially liked the worlde and rpg games). Most of them had clear backend to frontend connections and I really liked what they did with their wordle game. For my project, I’m also making worlde and it was cool to see how different people had different approaches to creating the same game. Overall, I really liked the aesthetics of this groups project and the creativity behind it. They fufilled all collegeboard requirements and I thought it was really well made. Frontend was also really well made and was consistent throughout.

Sixth Project I viewed: A car website created by a period from Period 3 Mr Mortenson Group

This was another car website that I saw at N@TM. It helps people find their dream car and it takes people through a series of filters and quizzes. For example, transmission, car type, seating capacity, power source, mileage, etc. They used an API for this. Users are also able to sign in and create a user for themselves and add cars they’re looking at on their wish list. Users are also able to leave reviews on the website once they sign in. The frontend of this website was very professional with their home tab on the tab and the logo they had. They also had clear functioanlity, user input/output, and met most collegeboard criteria. Overall, I really liked this website.

Seventh Project I viewed: A heart artwork from AP Art Studio

This was an interesting art piece to me. The vivid colors of red and burgundy and the details of the heart really made this piece stick out to me. I also liked the message of the art piece which was to spread and give love to each other.

Eighth Project I viewed: A turtle cup from Ceramics

I really liked this project because it was very unique from the other ceramics I saw. The person made it so that you could not only carry it by the handle, but you could also put stuff in it. I thought that was really creative. I also liked the smooth texture of the project and the way it glistened. The mixture of green and blue was also very nice, in my opinon. I also liked how it matched our group repo name, team turtle.

Conclusion

Overall, I learned a lot at N@TM. Being able to see my peers’ projects was a great experience and it allowed me to better my own project. It was cool to see how everyone did a variety of different things and how they each finished their work to meet Collegeboard criteria. There were lots of cool frontend designs I saw, and being able to also visit classes I’ve never taken was also a cool experience. I hope to attend more events like this in the future.