Archive | May 2019

Capstone Blog Post #4 – Site Visit

May28

Have you ever been to the Hall Of Science in Queens, New York? Well, I have. In fact, I just went there a week ago for my site visit for my Capstone project on YouTube. There wasn’t really any other place to visit so I thought maybe the Hall Of Science would have something about technology that could relate to YouTube. But I was wrong. There was barely anything there to help me with my research.

In the beginning, I had absolutely no idea where to go for my site visit. So then I searched up some places that could be a possibility and found a place in New York City called YouTube Space. But there was no phone number for that place so my dad had to go there and ask if I could visit that place sometime. They said I wasn’t allowed because only people who work for YouTube or need to record/film YouTube videos can go there. And so I looked up others places to go but couldn’t find anything useful. Then I remembered that I could do my site visit at a museum. So I tried looking for any technology museums that might have anything to do with YouTube, but there were none. After that, I tried an even broader topic and tried looking for science museums. I found two: The Hall Of Science and The Liberty Science Center. In the end, I chose the Hall Of Science because on their website, it had more possible things that might help me than the Liberty Science Center did.

When it was actually time for my site visit, my dad took me to the Hall Of Science. When we got there, we looked at the map of the museum, and we didn’t see any exhibits or anything related to YouTube or technology. But we still looked around, otherwise, it’d be a waste of time since the drive from my house to there was forty-five minutes. There were many exhibits on designing things but barely anything that could help me.

Overall, the site visit was really fun and even though it didn’t help me much, it was still a great experience for me.

Capstone Blog Post #3 – Interview

May21

Have you ever interviewed someone who works for YouTube? Well, I certainly have. In fact, I just interviewed someone who works for YouTube. For my Capstone project, I decided to interview James, a friend of my dad’s friend who works for YouTube.

At first, I couldn’t find anyone to interview. And I mean ANYONE. There weren’t many people that worked for YouTube around and if I interviewed a technology teacher, he/she wouldn’t be able to give me much information about my specific topic: YouTube. So I talked to my parents and for the first few days, they had no idea either. Then one day, my dad had an idea. If there were no people around here to interview, why no do the interview by phone so that way, we could interview someone farther away from us! And so my dad asked his friends, who then asked their friends, and soon enough, I had an interview planned.

I had my interview on a Saturday night. I called James, the person I was interviewing, and he picked up. First, I introduced myself. I said something like, “Hi, I’m Alina. My Capstone topic is YouTube and my main inquiry question is: How has YouTube evolved over time?” Then I asked him a few questions about him to get to know him. Soon, I got started into my real questions. While the interview was going on, I was recording everything so I could take notes on it later and listen back to it. The interview took about fifteen to twenty minutes.

So far, Capstone has been going really well. It’s very fun and I can’t wait for the next part of this project!

Capstone Blog Post #2 – Finding A Main Inquiry Question and Sub Questions

May13

Do you know what makes up a good main inquiry question? Well, to get a good main inquiry question, you have to make sure your question is practical, answerable, and has an objective basis. But your question can’t be too personal, the answer to the question can’t be already known, and the answer to the question can’t be a simple fact.

For the next part of my Capstone project, I had to come up with a main inquiry question that I wanted to research inside of my topic, YouTube. After that, I had to come up with sub questions that would help me answer my main inquiry question. My top two choices for my main inquiry question were: “How has YouTube evolved over time?” And: “How has YouTube become so successful and how has is impacted the world?” At first, I didn’t know which one to use, but soon I realized that “How has YouTube evolved over time?” was a better main question and was open to a long answer.

Some of my sub questions are: “How did YouTube work when it first came out?” “How does YouTube work now?” “What are some major changes related to the kinds of videos, technology and ads that are played before the videos begin?” “Why was YouTube created?” And “How did people feel about YouTube when it first came out compared to how they feel about it now?” Sub questions didn’t need to fall under all of the requirements for a main inquiry question, but they still had to be a question where the answer wasn’t a simple fact.

I can’t wait for the next part of this project!

Capstone Blog Post #1 – Choosing A Topic

May1

Have you ever been stuck in a situation where you had to pick one out of two things that you both liked? Well, I certainly have. In fact, I have just gone through that situation from choosing a topic for my classes new project: Capstone.

For capstone, I had two topics I wanted to research. Marine life and YouTube. At first, I didn’t know which one to use. My teacher Mrs. Cooper told my class that we would try out a few different activities to determine which topic would be our final one. One of the activities were to see if you could come up with some questions related to each topic. You also had to come up with questions that fall under different categories like math, science, politics, etc. But they still had to be related to your topic. After trying out many more activities, I finally figured out which topic I would use. And that was YouTube.

I chose YouTube because I love watching it and I want to learn more about it. I have a lot of interest in it and really want it to be my Capstone topic. As much as I wanted marine life to be my capstone topic, I thought YouTube would be easier since my class tried coming up with questions for our topics and I realized I couldn’t come up with many questions for marine life, but I could for YouTube.

Overall, I am happy with my topic choice. I think Capstone is going to be a really fun and exciting experience and I can’t wait!