Capstone Blog Post #3

At the very start of the project, I knew it was going to be a long journey, challenges, fun, learning, and the result. A capstone project is a project where you get to choose what you would like to learn. I had decided to make my Main Inquiry Question about the 100 days of Napoleon, and it resulted in what was the impact of the battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny on the Battle of Waterloo. I had chosen this topic because I didn’t know much about how Napoleon lost and how he lost and I was interested.

 

Challenging this project would not be easy. While researching, I faced many challenges including finding websites and looking for photos. At first, it was easy to find resources but then after I found 4 I couldn’t find another because it all had the same information, in the end, I still found the last one. When finding photos for the video, some of the photos were blurred and didn’t work, so I had to have help finding a picture that is good but isn’t blurred. I learned many things from my experience doing this project. Creating this project was stressful and fun, I had to keep up with the delay I had and the due dates, but after all that, I became excited and wasn’t worrying too much because I knew that it was almost done. Although I was sick for a week, I managed to catch up.

 

After I finished doing research, I moved to my video or the main part of the project, and the final part. I had chosen to do a video. Even though I could probably memorize, I just don’t like to talk much because I’m shy. So that’s why I chose to do a movie so that I didn’t have to talk in front of a lot of people. So I’d say I chose the right one. A challenge that I faced during the project is when I was recording in the hall, people were talking really loud so I had to record many times so that it was at least a bit quieter. In the end, I had to find a good time to record in the hall so that my video could be good.

 

In conclusion, I learned a lot from this project. For example, I needed to be focused and have patience while recording. And while I had to search for resources and images. And I learned to solve problems from the difficulties I had. In the end, I think that it was worth going through the process of the Capstone project. Although it was a big project and it took a lot of time, it was a good experience.

Capstone Blog Post 2

The purpose of an interview is the ask questions to an expert so that you can study more. It is essential because they might give more information that is different than other websites which is very helpful. I thought about this aspect of the research, and I thought it was decent but still nerve-racking because I didn’t know who you were interviewing which can make you nervous because you don’t know them well. Honestly, it didn’t go that bad because I did it through email.

At the start, I had a lot of trouble finding an interview because everyone I found didn’t respond. But one day, my friend told me about a Youtuber who is a historian and told me I could interview him. So I had sent an email and he responded but couldn’t do it on a call or zoom, but it still worked. Writing questions weren’t that hard but only the last few questions, I couldn’t think of anything which made me a bit desperate but in the end, I thought of a question I could use.

When conducting the interview, I did it on Gmail, which didn’t really go as planned for me but it still worked. I learned a lot of things about my topic and sub-questions but also learned that patience is key to finding an interview and getting it done.

In the end, I successfully completed my research and got an interview at last. Which I am very happy about. Now its just a matter of time for me to get the project done.

Capstone Blog Post #1

A capstone is a project where you study a subject that interests you. For example, cars. You research cars and you have to interview experts about cars and make it all into a video so that other people can learn more about your topic. When Mrs. Roberts explained what to do and how to do it, I knew this was going to be hard work but also exciting.

When coming up with a topic, we had an organizer where we would put multiple topics that interests you about different things. Once you had chosen the best 2 topics, you would research both topics, and whichever one you find more interesting or more research on would become your topic. I wanted to know more about war, so I chose the Napoleonic wars and wanted to do his last battles. because I didn’t really know much about his last battles, after a while, I found more sources about the 100 days which were his last days as French emperor, and battles. So I decided to choose that, and so the research began.

When coming up with a main inquiry question, my friend told me something I could do about the battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras. But in my mind, I wanted to do his last battle where Napoleon was defeated. Which was a challenge for me because I didn’t know what to do. But then he gave me another good idea of how the battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras affected the Battle of Waterloo which later on would be worded better into, What was the impact of the Battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny on the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo? By Mrs. Robert.

When coming up with sub-questions, I thought about all the things that could’ve been affected by the battle, like the armies and the plan or strategies. For example, what problems did they face after the battles? And, did winning one of these battles help Napoleon get an advantage? How? To me, it was pretty easy and I could find resources to help me with the sub-questions.

Overall this project is coming along better, but I still need an interview. But so far, I am enjoying this and I think the end will be worth it.

Immigration Interview Blog Post #2

In the video assignment, I had to take pictures and make a story of the immigrant’s life and how they come to America. I had to make a script first and then start planning all the other things and photos. Soon after, I had to record what I had made and finally tell the story of the immigrant.

When making the video, my experience with the script template is that it said that no slide could be more than 6 seconds even though there was no way to make a slide that is not 6 seconds, so I got confused but just assumed that it was a mistake. Also when making the script, I couldn’t really tell how much time I should use so I just made it blank and figure that out later. When selecting images, I sometimes had to upload things from google instead of the pictures they were giving me because they didn’t have accurate pictures. Also, I had to ask my immigrant for pictures and it was pretty easy because she had a lot of pictures, the only problem I had is that there were too many. The voice-over was pretty easy, except I did get interrupted a bit and had to do it again which was annoying. One thing that was enjoyable is when I was looking for pictures of my immigrant.

One thing I learned about the immigrant is what challenges she faced like starving at the beginning of when she got to America which I thought was interesting too. When creating a video, I learned that the websites won’t always give you what you want so you have to try to get it yourself, even though I found this annoying but it was still fine.

In conclusion, this project has been really fun on planning and conducting the interview. And also trying to make a video, especially on a website that I didn’t use for a very long time. So I hope that I can get better and improve later.

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #2

When making my Rube Goldberg project, I had a lot of fun because of how challenging, but it was also still a bit frustrating because of how many times I failed. When designing the project, it was a bit easy to get the sketch done because of how excited I was and I finally started thinking harder. After 2 hours I had finished my sketch.

And started building, but I got a bit frustrated because of how some parts were too difficult to make so I just had to get rid of it which I wasn’t really that happy about. One thing that I learned from that process was that you have to revise something because it won’t always work, and this can happen constantly. Once I had finished building, I started working on the video. It was very challenging, because of how close I kept getting to the end of the machine. But once I had done it which I am very happy about,

I had started working on the editing was really fun but I didn’t know what to do, but I still tried my best. I still think I can improve it by speaking louder and putting on less music because it’s too loud, but I think it is good for now. I would like to thank my mom and dad for helping me and jack for giving me some materials. Overall I had a fun time creating this project and am very happy that I finished it.

Here is are some inspiration I used to help me think of my Rube Goldberg sketch:

Sprice” on America’s Got Talent

Joseph’s Machines website

This is the sketch of my Rube Goldberg machine.

This is my Rube Goldberg Machine video.

Rube Goldberg Blog Post 1

Rube Goldberg machines are basically simple machines combined together to do a simple task, for example, my simple task was to get water to pour into my cup even though the water bottle is next to me but that’s the point of a Rube Goldberg machine.

Making a sketch for the Rube Goldberg project was a bit challenging because I couldn’t think of a goal for my project. It was a bit easy for me to find the materials because I have most of the stuff already, but I didn’t have all the things I needed like dominos and pulleys, which was a bit frustrating so I had to ask for some from my friend. Also at the beginning when I was looking for a place to actually build the project, I had no idea because originally I was thinking that I would build it on a wall but I realized that I can’t just glue stuff to the wall because it would just stay there for a long time. so I just ended up using some styrofoam to cover up some of the walls for the pulleys. Also when trying to get a platform in the air I had no idea what I could do so I just put the things on a table instead of putting it high up in the air and I think it was good enough for me. Also, it’s very annoying to set back up the contraption once it fails.

Some revisions were, I had to change the cup for a bowl because the water couldn’t reach the cup without dripping out a bit so I just used a bowl. Also setting up the levers were very difficult because they would just slide off, but once I found that I had something to use from my hot wheel set it became a lot easier since it could bend over. And lastly I decided to just take out the lower lever part because it was too difficult to make.

This was the concept I had when trying to make my project, also I decided to name it the water pourer because he pours water into your cup for you, even though the bottle of water is right next to me, but I’m too lazy to pour the water in.

But overall I think I’m going on the right track on what I’m doing in my Rube Goldberg project but still not completely finished, but I think that I am doing good for now.

Constitution Project Reflection

When I was looking at my options at what to research, I was looking at the 14th and 15th Amendments because I didn’t really know much about them. So I looked at the resources I could use, I saw a resource talking about women and the 14th amendment. So I got interested because I didn’t know the 14th amendment had anything to do with women. So I picked that topic to research about.

When I started to research my project, I had a hard question to answer even though it seemed like an easy question to answer for me, that is why I chose it. But turns out that it was really hard since I couldn’t find my 3rd resource to answer my question. Which was a bit frustrating. So I decided to change my question to an easier one where I could actually find a resource to it. But turns out it was still hard, luckily Mrs. Roberts had a document of a resource where I could actually find my answer. The only problem was, it wasn’t a website so I couldn’t really give a link of where I got some of my information. But I still took valuable information to complete my research since I was tired of looking for a website and the resource was printed.

Overall, this project was challenging because I had a hard question to answer and I got a bit frustrated because of it, but now that I changed my question I think I did a pretty good job answering the question I had even though I don’t think it is 100% perfect. But in the end, I am still happy that I was finally finished it.

 

Persuasive – stop cutting down trees – Daniel

I made a project that took very long and it was very hard, but I am finally done. I learned many things. Like at the beginning I would use a lead, and try to persuade you. My teacher (Ms. Degrazia) taught me how to how to do a claim and examples. And if you cut down trees than you can maybe stop. So I hope you get persuaded.

 

 

Summary for October Ogre

This is my summary, I learned a lot of stuff of how to make a summary. Like you don’t add every single detail , and tell who the detectives are. So I hope you enjoy my summary!

Bradley, Brian, Nate, and Lucy went to go trick or treating at the Shangri – la Hotel. The detectives wanted to find the children that disappeared. But they didn’t know who took children away. So they discovered a crack in the floor beneath them. So they took the candy and, fell and, they found the children.