Author Archives: Ryan N

Blog Post for Quarter 2

October 21st, 2025

Recently, my class has been going over stuff regarding teamwork and ways to approach building a software or product. For example, the waterfall method, agile methodology, and scrum have come up in discussion. This has reminded me of POGIL since POGIL was a group used in the classroom semi-frequently.

Because of this correlation, I decide to look at blogs about POGIL. However, I noticed something interesting about the blog I chose. So I chose two just because I found some things interesting. The first was made with WordPress.com, much like the one I’m making here. It was about POGIL. The blog appeared to just be called “The POGIL Project.” Or, that’s what I have surmised after looking at the web address. Additionally, there was some interesting notes regarding how it appears to be designed for faculty teaching or implementing POGIL based team activities. However, the last post appears to be in 2015, which is not as recent as I’d like. (However, there appears to be someone who has the same name as the author of this blog who is cited to be impactful to the development of POGIL. Which is pretty cool, though I couldn’t concretely find evidence that they were the same person.)

So, I looked for an alternative. The author was not listed which isn’t great but it is recent. It appears to also be about POGIL. But the most interesting part was how it was applied to science as opposed to actual computer science. Actually, both blogs do that as well.

This new blog I picked was basically an overview of how POGIL works and why it is good to use. It overviewed the reasons why POGIL is used and what it is intended to do. It basically overlaps with what I know about POGIL already.

In a way, this is interesting in how this mean POGIL is both universal and useful. It isn’t just a weird Computer Science class thing we do, it’s an actual science thing. Which is definitely more interesting to know about considering I rarely encountered POGIL before college. It probably won’t really affect my opinion on POGIL but it is mildly interesting how it is something that I’ll see around. I guess I can keep that in mind.

FIRST INITIAL BLOG: https://thepogilproject.wordpress.com/

SECOND, REVIEWED BLOG POST: https://www.transtutor.blog/pogil-guide-high-school-biology

From the blog CS@Worcester – Ryan's Blog Maybe. by Ryan N and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Blog Post for Quarter 1

October 5th, 2025

Recently, I’ve been working on using Git. This came in the form of using a little bit of GitHub, a little bit of GitLab, and the textbook made to help instruct me on how to use them. I began to learn the basics of repositories, and how to make edits and pull requests.

For example, I am now able to create a fork from a repository, create a remote origin, a clone of that onto my local device, make edits using Visual Studio Code, stage those edits, commit those edits, push those edits back to my remote origin, then establish a pull request. And a little bit more. So far, this Quarter of my class has been pretty interesting. I will note how the public changes and such are very interesting to me. I don’t usually like being in public places often because I assume I should be competent before doing anything in public, but oh well.

For the blog post I selected, I wanted to know just a smidge more about Git, since I was learning about it. (This will be linked below at the bottom of this post.) It mostly discusses the future plans for Git and potential for AI.

Honestly, there isn’t much for me to really do from this. I just note how AI appears to be Git stuff I currently use, so that’s mildly interesting. Though, I found it interesting that Git, much like I, is currently developing. It’s fun to think about how I learn and improve as a person that other things in the world are doing the same. While they are wildly different contexts, I find it cool. Everything is always changing and such. Even as I learn, I make notes that aren’t in the textbook to myself. Git will probably always get things added by various different people as well.

It encourages and intimidates me in some way. It’s very cool that by the time I “get caught up” it’ll be better than what I’m currently using, but at the same time, what if everything I learned becomes redundant? Though, for me, I was always a person to enjoy experiences, and I never really liked the idea of a limit. If anything, it is just more “fun” for me. There’s more to learn and I’ll never be caught up. My experiences will lead to my growth, so when the time comes, I’ll be much more suited to using the new tools that arrive.

https://github.blog/open-source/whats-next-for-git-20-years-in-the-community-is-still-pushing-forward/

From the blog CS@Worcester – Ryan's Blog Maybe. by Ryan N and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

Blog Post 1

September 8th, 2025

Hello! This is a blog? Probably. As a current student, I will (hopefully) be blogging about my experiences in Computer Science. Otherwise, I don’t really know what to do with this. Anyhow:

I currently have some experience with code. I took AP Computer Science in high school, and a Game Design Class (technically twice by two different teachers due to a mix-up in my high school schedule, but frankly, they did different things so I don’t actually regret it.)
This gives me experience with both Python and Java, although at a beginner level. Additionally, my First Year Seminar class refreshed me on Python, and I took the beginner Unix Systems Programming, which taught me a little bit of C.

I did use Scratch to make a game back in high school but I was atrocious at it. I remember having a habit of over complicating my stuff too. Especially in my Game Design Class. I took AP Computer Science the same year as it and because all the other students were seniors, my teacher let me work on my Game Design stuff after the seniors graduated. I took twice as long as everyone else and barely finished my “game.” (Officially, I never finished it and passed in a partially modified older project.) I am near certain the teacher just let it slide because I was working despite having no official assignments in AP Computer Science and helping people in my game design class. (I have like, 2 unfinished projects? Both were intended to be my final program for my Game Design Class, but neither were passed in.)

The reason I decided to pursue Computer Science was pretty simple: I thought video games were cool. Then I just went for it, and it was okay. I had some classes in high school but nothing complicated. But as time went on, I eventually went into my AP Computer Science class which I did okay in. One day, the teacher said I “have a passion” for Computer Science. Frankly, I thought that was a weird statement since I didn’t really do that much coding nor was I particularly good at it, but it made me feel good about myself so here I am. (Nowadays I hear of my cousins swapping Majors from Computer Science to basically anything else so I’m either doing okay or making a grave mistake. Oh well.)

Anyhow, that’s my current experience with Computer Science and I guess I’ll give you all an update later on.

Thanks for Reading,
Ryan Nguyen

From the blog CS@Worcester – Ryan's Blog Maybe. by Ryan N and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.