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.

Last month our teacher, Ms Edwards assigned us a project. She told us to choose an important person, event, or an amendment. I chose to do something about Black lives matter. I ended up doing the Greensboro sit-in. I chose to do the Greensboro sit-in because it was something I had never learned about or heard of so I wanted to know more about it. I think that this project was related to our constitution unit, including our work on the Bill of Rights because this project let us explore how rights can be shown and what they are.

The first thing we had to do was research on our topic. We had a few weeks to research. We had to find at least 3 websites.We had to take notes from the websites. Researching was harder than I thought because I found the same information on websites. But I ended up having some good information at the end.

After our research we had to write an essay about our topic. The essay would help us make our script. My essay was about how the Greensboro four affected the fight for civil rights. My answer for this was, it was important because it showed that you can fight back peacefully.

The step after this was to make a script. The goal was to make it 2 minutes and thirty seconds but I ended up making it two minutes. Each part was fifteen seconds long. I copied my information from my essay into the script and then made some changes if needed. I ended up having 8 slides at the end.

After making the script we had to make a slideshow. We had to put images or words on our slideshow. We had to have under 6 words or one image. I only did images on my slideshow. Finding images was hard for me because I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

The final step was to make a screencastify. We had to record ourselves saying our script. I had to do it over again a lot of times because I made a lot of mistakes.

I think the most challenging part of doing this project was making the slideshow. This was hard because I couldn’t find the images I wanted and they didn’t work that well with what I was saying.

The thing I enjoyed most while doing this project was doing the research. This was my favorite part because this was when I got to really learn about the Greensboro sit-in and learn lots of new facts.

One thing I learned about my topic is that the Greensboro four kept coming each day despite the cruelty they faced and they protested peacefully

Overall I think I did a good job and I really enjoyed learning about the Greensboro sit-in. This project was really fun. I am proud of how my slideshow turned out at the end.

Here is a link to my Screencast:

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/oZbdvGMwIrNAELaDqzxe