A few months ago we started a project called U.S. Regions. The class would be paired into groups and would research some regions from the U.S. I got paired with my friends Lior, Chloe, and Ruki. We got the Northeast Region. We researched the states Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. We didn’t research all the states because it would be too much.

The first step was to do research on the states. Each member of the group would get 2 states to research. Since the amount of states were uneven. Ruki and Chloe shared a state. I got Maine and New Hampshire, Lior got Connecticut and New York, Ruki got Vermont and Rhode Island, and Chloe got Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Mrs. Edwards made a page of the essential information each group member should research for their state. We had to research the general, history, politics, geography, leisure activities (tourist attractions and sports), more to know about this region, and economy. 

After researching we had to make a presentation of all the research we made. We had a few weeks to finish it. Our group made a slideshow. We had to be creative while making the presentation. So our group decided to include a slide about a famous recipe from that state. We also decided to do a game called Kahoot at the end to test our classmates’ knowledge of the Northeast region. We made each of our categories on a different slide. Everyone had the same type of slides and the same order. We wanted to keep it organized. We also wanted it to be fun. One way we made it fun was by making the politics look like a newspaper.

In conclusion this project was fun because I got to learn a lot about the Northeast Region. I also had a lot of fun making the slideshow because I could be creative and fun with it.

A few weeks ago our class started a big project. It’s called capstone. Capstone is when we choose a topic and then choose a specific question about the topicand research about it. We have 3 choices of how to present it. Our choices are to do an ignite, TED talk, or a movie. I was nervous because I didn’t know what to do for my topic.

The first step was to make a topic. I chose to do Hawaiian Culture because it is unique and interesting. But it was too big of a topic so I decided to do something apart from Hawaiian Culture. My choices were Hawaiian myths, Hula Dancing, or Hawaiian traditions. After researching these topics, I ended up choosing Hula dancing because it is more than dancing. It’s also a way the Hawaiians tell storys.

After thinking of our topic we had to make a question to focus on. There were 4 levels of how good the question could be. The best were level 3 and 4. I wanted my question to show how hula dancing has evolved over time. I wanted to talk about more than the dance. I wanted to talk about the instruments, the clothes, and the chants. So I asked my teacher for help and she helped me think of a question. My finla question is, “What factors have had the most impact on the evolution of Hawaiian hula dancing?”. This question is a level 4, it shows how hula has evolved over time, and I can talk more about the dance.

After thinking of our main question we had to come up with sub questions. These sub questions would be questions about our big topic. We had to make 5 sub questions. Siome challenges were making the sub questions fit my topic. Another thing that was hard was trying to make the sub questions different from each other. These are my sub questions, What is hula? Why is hula significant to Hawaiian culture? How do hula kahiko (Ancient Hula) and hula auana (Modern Hula) compare? How did hula spread around Hawaii? And What influenced hula over time?

Overall I am happy about my topic, main question, and sub questions. I am excited to learn more about hula dancing.