Category Archives: 5th Grade

Capstone Blog Post #3

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In my school, we are coming towards the end of our Capstone unit and at this time we are finishing up our final Capstone projects. For my project, I decided to do a movie on Adobe Spark, which is a site where you can create movies and videos and many other things. The reason I chose a movie is that I have done one before and it is an easy way to give you a lot of information and you can make the project totally your own.

I really enjoyed making my project because it was about something I really enjoy. I also enjoyed being able to have a little more freedom with my project because I could do a video instead of doing a live TED Talk and I am really happy about the final project. Sometimes it was hard to make sure that I was not talking too fast or too slow or if the pictures had good quality. But with a lot of practice and preparation I came out with a great Video.

I am really excited about sharing my Capstone project on YouTube because I worked really hard on it so I want to show it to everyone. After I finished I felt like I accomplished something big because this project is a very big project in 5th grade and I am so happy it is finished. Here is a link to the YouTube playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB96r9gj6B-Y-TwRAkZUa93-QMCV 

 

              

 

 

  

       

 

Capstone Blog Post #2

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In Scarsdale, fifth graders are doing our Capstone project. This is a project that we do at the end of 5th grade. It is a research project where we do a lot of research and then synthesize all the notes to make a Capstone project. One of the most important parts of research is the Interview part; this is the part where we have to find a professional in our topic. So, in my case, an animator or someone who studied animation. I interviewed Chris Chien who is a theme park designer and used to work for Disney. I also interviewed Ben Alpi who is a filmmaker and has made his own films. The reason I interviewed two people is that with two different opinions I could get more information.

Before I could conduct the interview I had to email the person to make sure I could interview him and record the interview once he responded back yes  I needed to write some questions to ask my interviewee. First I asked questions about his life. Here are some questions I asked about his life:

 

1. Why did you get into animation?

2. Did you study to become an animator?

3. What was the first job you had as an animator and how did that prepare you for your career?

4. What were some of your films? 

 

After I asked those questions I asked him some questions about animation in general here are some of the questions 

 

5. What are the different kinds of animation?

6. What are the steps to animating a movie?

7. What happens if one of the steps does not work?

 

These are some questions about animation in general. After I asked the questions he answered I had gotten some really good answers and information. Some of the answers I got were very useful in my research. For example, for question 5 he gave me many different types of animation and told me how those are achieved in film making.

I faced some challenges in the process of interviewing for example when I got the yes I could interview I had some challenges thinking of questions because what if the person did not know the answer or it took a while to answer but what I realized is I could send my interviewee the questions beforehand so they were prepared when I asked them. 

I think that the Capstone interview is a very important part of Capstone because it gives you information from an expert and the information is the info you cannot get anywhere else. Also, I enjoyed interviewing because it was fun but it will also prepare us for other projects we will do later in our life. 

Capstone Blog Post #1

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In 5th grade at the end of the year, we do a big research project about a specific topic of our choice where we research our topic and then synthesize all our notes and make them into a presentation like a Google slideshow or an Ignite etc. Capstone is a very fun project because it is a chance to learn about something you want to learn more about and really love.  It is also very important because it is the last big project you will do in 5th grade.  

 There are many steps in the process of Capstone because there is a lot to do. The first step is to pick a topic to research on. It took me a couple of days to think of my topic because there were so many options I wanted to do. Eventually, I chose the topic of movies, specifically animation. I chose movies because I really like to watch movies but I never really understood the background of movies and animation. After I picked my topic I was really excited to start researching.     

The next step after we picked the topic we had to pick a main inquiry question and sub-questions. A main inquiry question is the main question that after you have finished all your research you want to have answered that question. My main inquiry question is “What are the top 5 technological breakthroughs that have revolutionized animation?” Sub questions are the questions that will help you answer your main inquiry question. For example, one of mine is, “Why is animation so important when making a movie?”.

After you pick your questions you have to start your research. There are many ways to do your research. One way you could do your research is to conduct an interview with a professional. The way you would do an interview is to reach out to the person and ask permission to interview them. Then you would call them or email to do your interview. Another way to do research is to use books and online sources to find your information then put all your notes together. 

Capstone is a really fun experience. You learn about something you really like and it’s fun to learn about that topic because you really love it. Also, after it is finished, you get to share it with everyone.          

 

Martin Luther King blog post

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Martin Luther king jr. day is Monday January 20th 2020. It is the day we celebrate everything he did for our country, we also celebrate his life. Most people get off from work and school to honor him for one day. He had many great achievements.  I think MLK was a great man and did so much for the country. I made a timeline with some of the most important things in his life here it is…

 

Date Event
January 5th 1929 MLK was born in Atlanta
September 20th 1944 He enrolled at Morehouse college
February 25th 1948

June 8th 1948

September 14th 1948

 Ordained and becomes assistant pastor at his father’s church.

Graduates Morehouse college with a  bachelor’s degree in sociology
Enters Crozer Theological seminary in Chester pa.
January 1952 Meets Coretta Scott in Boston
June 18th 1953 Married Coretta Scott in Marion Atlanta
December 5th 1955 Named president of the Montgomery improvement society
January 30th 1956 His home was bombed when he was at a meeting
January 10th 1957 

May 18th 1957

 Named chairman of the SCLC

Delivers his first national address “give us a ballot” at the Lincoln memorial 
September 20th 1958 Stabbed by a mentally ill woman with a letter opener 
February 1st 1960

October 19th 1960

 Moves to Montgomery to focus on civil rights struggles.

King is arrested 
December 16 1961 King and many others are arrested in desegregation campaign in alabama
August 28th 1963

April 16th 1963

 I have a dream speech

He writes his famous letter from Birmingham jail.
December 10th 1964 Wins Nobel peace prize
August 12th 1965 Gives his first speech about the Vietnam war

 

Date Event
January 5th 1929 MLK was born in Atlanta
September 20th 1944 He enrolled at Morehouse college
February 25th 1948

June 8th 1948

September 14th 1948

 Ordained and becomes assistant pastor at his father’s church.

Graduates Morehouse college with a  bachelor’s degree in sociology
Enters Crozer Theological seminary in Chester pa.
January 1952 Meets Coretta Scott in Boston
June 18th 1953 Married Coretta Scott in Marion Atlanta
December 5th 1955 Named president of the Montgomery improvement society
January 30th 1956 His home was bombed when he was at a meeting
January 10th 1957 

May 18th 1957

 Named chairman of the SCLC

Delivers his first national address “give us a ballot” at the Lincoln memorial 
September 20th 1958 Stabbed by a mentally ill woman with a letter opener 
February 1st 1960

October 19th 1960

 Moves to Montgomery to focus on civil rights struggles.

King is arrested 
December 16 1961 King and many others are arrested in desegregation campaign in alabama
August 28th 1963

April 16th 1963

 I have a dream speech

He writes his famous letter from Birmingham jail.
December 10th 1964 Wins Nobel peace prize
August 12th 1965 Gives his first speech about the Vietnam war

 

I especially liked his “I Have a Dream” speech because it was very empowering and his words were amazing. The speech was given on august 28th 1963. It was given in front of the Lincoln Memorial as a symbol of freedom, He talks about what he believes in and is not afraid to speak up. He also repeats I” have a  dream” a lot he says this because again he did many great things and we all love what he did. also without him segragation would still be here and it would be a unfair country.

Rocketry Blog Post #2

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After we finished building our first rocket it was time to launch my whole group was excited to launch our rockets Because we all worked really hard on the rockets.

 

 I think  my teams launch went really well, our rocket went 118 feet in the air I was pretty surprised because  I thought the fins on our rocket would fall off. My team job was the pumper with Rafa we had to pump the bike pump the air pressure to 50. When we finished that the countdown master (Charles) counted down from ten and when he said RELEASE Maddy pressed the button and the rocket went up in the air the rocket landed with nose cone in the ground and the nose cone now has dirt  in it. Also for the other launches you had to be a Clinometer reader were you had to hold the trigger until the rocket reached its highest point you let go and were ever it was that was how many degrees the rocket went.

 

After we launched the rockets we had to convert the degrees into feet after we did that  we ended up with 118 feet. When it was time to make changes to our rocket my group decided to keep the body and the nose cone but make the fins taller and skinnier for our second rocket because we thought that would make are rocket go higher because it will take more weight off the rocket and push off more air.

 

One of the big reasons that my team was successful on the launch was because of teamwork during the launch because we were all on the same page  we had the right timing for example when the countdown master said release the launcher knew exactly when to press the button. During the analyzing and graphing we worked pretty well together  but when graphing everyone had different answers but we figured it out and did the average of all of them.

Rocketry Rocketry blog post #2

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In school we are doing our rocketry unit. We have finished our first rocket and launch. My team name is “The Rocketeers.” There was a lot of research in order to build and launch our rockets. Each group made inspiration boards which had things like quotes, images and research. At first, my group just wanted to go right ahead and start designing our rocket, but before we could do any of that there was a lot of research involved. I am glad that we did research because if we did not we probably would not have a good rocket that went really high.

 

Designing our rocket took time.  We all had to decide on one design.  We had a lot of disagreements, but a lot of agreements. We eventually took a vote to decide on the one we were going to make. We had to start experimenting with different wing sizes, nose cones and body shapes.  We ended up with 3 by 3 inch wings and a small but pointy nose cone and for the body we had to choose a pvc pipe so we chose the skinnier tube to wrap the paper around. When we had everything planned we started building the rocket.

 

Building our first rocket took some time. When we first started building our rocket it seemed pretty easy, but when we tried rolling the paper over the tube it was actually harder than it looked, but when we did get it we had to tape it together which was pretty easy. Then we had to make a nose cone out of paper by folding  it and cutting halfway and then rolling the paper to be a cone. Also, we made a fin template to trace on cardboard. Finally we cut them out and glued the fins on the body and taped on the nose cone and… we had a rocket!

 

I think that my group worked really well together. We had our ups and downs but we eventually came to an agreement.  For example, on our first rocket two people wanted a green body but two people wanted a blue body, so we came to a compromise which was a blue nose cone and a green body.  Overall I think my group worked really well and I am glad I am in this group.