In the video that was recorded of our groups final debate on Plastic Bags, whether we should or shouldn’t ban them, I think that in general we were all really well prepared, but I think the executing aspect of the debate (when I refer to debate I mean the final one in the video) wasn’t very good. Here are my reasons why:
Our debates didn’t show much energy:
I think that the debate didn’t show much energy because mostly we all were very nervous, I mean I know I was nervous, but I anticipated that the other group members (Ben, Emma, and Ayyan) were nervous too because it was an appearance. On camera, which initially does put a lot of stress on the reader, because it brings the mindset of them needing to be perfect, and not mess up on absolutely anything. Their were things that I noticed from all of our group members. I don’t want to give the input that I am criticizing anyone, I just wanted to remark different things that I noticed, to hopefully help those people, and me improve. I was personally “stealing the show”, because I barely let Ayyan speak because I had so much to say, and more things that I wanted it say. I felt bad for him after the debate because I feel like I stole a lot of the things that he initially was supposed to say. I also want to give a lot of credit to Ayyan because he decided to speak up a lot more than he usually does, although it wasn’t as loud as I hoped for, but it was a massive improvement, and I also understand that there was a lot of pressure because this debate was being recorded. Their were a couple of times that I noticed myself hesitating and not knowing what to say, especially when Ben brought up the point that people were losing their jobs because of the banning of plastic bans in some countries. I actually knew what to say in reality from some general knowledge and creativity, and a little bit of thinking on my feet, but when I paused for a couple of seconds I got terrified because of the camera, and was stalling by saying, “You mean the people that are losing their jobs are lowing their jobs because of the banning of plastic bags in certain countries?” (Which is exactly what he said and I already knew that) I also was thinking about saying, “Well then they can go get a new job like flipping burgers or something, but that would have been off topic. Another thong that I noticed is that Emma was extremely quiet, which was very unusual, but I think again that it was the pressure of the camera. Ok, so in general our debate didn’t show as much energy as I initially hoped for, but it got pretty elaborate at some points and I had a lot of fun. That’s what counts!
This debate unit was really fun and required some deep concentration and thinking in order to get the job done, and I also generally like debating because I have an opportunity to win with words, which I have discovered I have a big toolbox to refer from. Anyways, this unit was really fun and I wish we could do more of these related things. I loved this unit!

Here is the video of our debate:

I have been really deeply working on my Rube Goldberg project, and I over a long course of time have finally succeeded. This blog post that I am writing is trying to push some of the aspects, or lessons that I have learned over the course of this projects duration. This project has taught me many different life lessons that I am very glad did. This blog post also covers my experience and thoughts after the project.
This project has taught me many different things. First, is has taught me to be patient, and to observe and to not over exaggerate from a problem, especially the mental ones, because his project initially made me very stressed. This project has taught me to be patient because of how stressful the project was. The reason why it made me so stressed is because of how a large portion of my plans didn’t even come close to turn out as I think they would. As I stated in the earlier blog posts, I think that one of the downsides of this project, specifically the way our teacher, Mrs. Edwards assigned it, is for our sketch to have a due date that is before the original project’s due date, in this case the movie reporting the project, and about your project itself. It is very reasonable to have the sketch due date assigned before the movie reporting the project, but I think that since I made countless changes compared to how my sketch stated the steps would be, it was very hard for me to “have the cement harden inside the ground structure of the building.” In other words, to have a layout before randomly trying to execute the project. I don’t want to make it seem like I am criticizing anyone, I just have a strong suggestion that I actually think is good for Mrs. Edwards to consider when she hands this project out to her next year of yet to come students. Anyways, the project has taught me persistence because of all of the stress in the project that I encountered. The persistence aspect of the project that has taught me really helped me improve my thoughts and actions in general because it taught me to not overreact to something that is stressful, or that gets in your way. It is like a physical obstacle, but not one that is meant to be avoided, rather one that is meant to be matched with the will of the mind.
This project has also taught me to handle/coupe all of my negative thoughts. It has helped me coupe them by simply testing my mental approach/strength with its intentions to annoy me. And believe me, this project did really annoy me. I really had to stay extremely positive and have a lot of motivation, or something that keeps me fueled that makes me feel like I have purpose, meaning a real reason to do what I am physically and mentally doing in the moment, not meaning because this project is an assignment, more of something that makes me feel like I am doing the project for a good reason, not because it is fun. Actually, I know this statement is really weird, but the motivation that I had mainly was from music. I would put my Beats on and start listening when I am doing the project. Surprisingly this didn’t minimize my concentration, it just made me have more energy and have a more positive approach in terms of my mental approach, which in general really helped me coupe the negative thoughts in this project.
Overall, this project has taught me a lot of things, but I only wanted to point out a couple of them, because then you would be reading 100 pages. I thought that these 2 aspects were the most important aspects/emotions that I encountered during this project. The reason that I love this a project is because it is fun, it inspires creativity, and really builds character and tests you in many ways. This project is one of the best and worst projects of all time! (It is bad because of all of the time it takes to complete, and how stressful it is)

I haven’t been writing a lot of blog posts in a while because I have really been spending a lot of time thinking about my potential machine and how to compensate my bad Sketch in the first place with a better and more clear vision on how my project will commence in the proper way. I have been thinking about ways to do this and I decided to use the same method to make a new sketch for my planned contraption. Right now the sketch is in the past, because it was already due last Wednesday, so the reason why I am talking about this is because I wanted to cover the information that I have not told because of this delayed Blog post.
First I want to talk about my sketch and how I managed to compensate for all of that time that I consumed on a unsuccessful sketch. The sketch was really hard, because in my opinion if you wanted to have a successful sketch, you had to experiment all of the aspects on which you plan to use for your contraption. Another way to think about it is the tools that you have on your toolkit, but in order to use them the best possible way, it is best to experiment and test before randomly using your tools without a clear purpose on the way you want to use the tools. And without really changing a majority of your Sketch because if failures in the testing, you pretty much have to start off with a new idea, or pitch in the holes in your Sketch that you are uncertain about. For me, it was very time consuming because I kept experimenting with no luck, trying to find a layout that actually works for my sketch. I don’t want to try to imply a negative feeling, but I wanted p endorses why it was hard at least for me to come up with a sketch, ad simultaneity do the other requirements, especially the blog posts. Ok. Enough of that. Let’s get into reality and what is happening right now.
Right now, which is after I handed in my Sketch, the rest of the project is coming really easily because when I had a successful and clear sketch, my layout for the rest of the building/executing part was very simple and straightforward. And especially since I have done a lot of experimenting for my sketch, I have some of the building part down already. What I am trying to say is that now I have a good sketch, the rest of my project is going to be so easy, and not as hectic. The sketch was really the hard part of this project, far more than the execution aspect of the project. Now, all is left in my way is the blog posts!

Today I have encountered many different things than I mentioned in my last blog post (4th). I have felt like the project is a lot more work than I expected. There have been some major changes that I have made to my plan, after my Sketch was due last Wednesday. I have felt like there wasn’t enough time for the Sketch to be completed, and since I had to rush to make a sketch, I didn’t have as much of the building and experimenting stages of the project to do so that I know if this or that step works or not. I initially had as successful plan that number one was way to simple, and number two, defininty to not have many fails. My sketch was very boring and not as exciting as I wanted it to be. Considering how exciting and risky I imagined my project to be in the beginning, has not came out as I expected, not meaning that the experimenting part of success or not, or how the project steps work as you anticipated go as planned. I mean that I was wanting my project to be very exciting and uplifting, compared to a very easy and basic layout, and how my project in terms of the building part, it unfolding. Me and my mom went to the Art Room, (where my Rube Goldberg is) and thought that in order for my project to be somewhat interesting, we needed to add some steps that would be very unique. I already had some other cool machines such as what I call the elevation machine using dominoes, but that is only one unique step that is more sophisticated, compared to a simple chain reaction such as a classic domino effect. Me and my mom were brainstorming what we should do for my project to be more exciting and interesting. We decided that after the first few steps, that we should add another step that is a little bit risky, but despite it being risky, would definitely be more exciting and be a better experience for the viewers when we share our videos on our Rube Goldberg project. This step involves a simultaneous effect by having one marble complete a very fancy inclined plane that will hit a little cube causing a domino effect, while the other does something (don’t want to tell what it is) to make the project a lot more exciting and interesting for the viewer. It would also bring more steps ot my project, which I had aimed for at least 10, but my sketch ended up to be 9. The number would go up, and it would be more entertaining and more unique. Why I keep saying this is because I deeply think that my project initially was very basic, short, and not very interesting. It looked like I didn’t spend that much time investigating on how to make the project how creativity and lots of thought behind the working aspect of the project, more specifically then the planning aspect of the project.
I really have encountered a lot of unexpected aspects of this project that I thought before were an obstacle that I would never bump into, but as I said before, in Rube Goldberg projects, nothing happens the way you encounter them to initially unfold. (Ok, maybe not nothing, but at least most of the project)