At the beginning of the Capstone project you come up with an inquiry question and subquestions. An inquiry question is a sum of everything you talk about in your Capstone. For me it was hard coming up with an inquiry question because I thought it was like my topic in a question. When I found it was a sum of all your subquestion and I met with Mrs. Edwards I finally found an Inquiry question I liked.

After you come up with your inquiry question you come up with subquestions. Subquestions are smaller questions to the inquiry question and they relate to the inquiry question. For me coming up with subquestions was easier than coming up with the inquiry question because I knew what I was going to talk about already, so all I needed to do was think of questions within the inquiry questions.

Here is my inquiry and subquestions:

Inquiry Question

What are the main mental preparation strategies athletes use to enhance their performance?

Subquestions

1.  How do Mental Game Coaches and Sports Psychologists help athletes mentally prepare?
2. Why is visualization such a powerful tool for success in competition?
3.  How and why do athletes use music to mentally prepare?
4. How and why do athletes use self talk used to mentally prepare?
5. How and why do athletes use breathing techniques to prepare?
6. How do mental preparation strategies improve player performance? Which technique is most useful?

In 5th grade we do one of the biggest projects in Heathcote called Capstone. In Capstone you choose a topic you want to learn more about and your interested in. Capstone is a two month project and at the end of it you have a big presentation. You need to do a lot of things in Capstone. You have to use three web-based sources, one database source, one print source, one interview and one site visit. You also need to do a lot of research.

The first step of the Capstone process was choosing a topic. At first I was thinking teaching people how to be an ESPN analiyst. I really wanted to do something sports, music and anxiety-related. I was interested in that because I love listening to music and I have anxiety before games so I can relate to it and sports is my favorite thing. “I told my mom about what I want to do and she came up with an idea that is all of them in one idea which is How athletes mentally prepare for competition.” It is music because they use music to relax. It is sports because that’s what they mentally prepare for. And it’s anxiety because mentally preparing for a game could help players who suffer from anxiety?

I’m so happy that Capstone is up and running. I like my topic and want to learn more about it.

The Spark Video was going really easy. I needed more ideas and I was stuck. Then, I went back to my interview and I got more ideas. Finally, I thought I finished it. I wondered if my slides were too long. I had to redo my voiceover because I did it in different places so it sounds different. Now I was really done. I finished my editing, my voiceover was clean and my Spark Video was long. I was very excited to present my Spark Video.

I really enjoyed this project. I’m upset that I’m done with it, but I was proud about how I did. I hope I can use Spark Video again.

Here’s the video

https://youtu.be/_bNNK8VtlNo

In our Immigration unit we use a website called Spark Video. On that website you can get images, record audio, make your own video, make captions, add videos and many more things. It is helpful because you put your immigration information on the Spark Video. We can also put pictures of our interview, questions and more. Mr. Casal is continuing to show us more about Spark Video and helping us with what to do and what to not do. Mr. Casal showed how to make an organizer on google drive and it says what to do on the Spark Video. I’m interested to learn more about Spark Video. 

I’m really excited to start using Spark Video.  

I really liked the Rube Goldberg unit. I always wondered how people make Rube Goldberg machines, but now I know I can make my very own Rube Goldberg machine. I have learned a couple things from this unit. One thing I learned was failure can lead to success. I learned  that when everything would not work at the beginning and we learned from our mistakes and made changes and it turned out really good. Another thing I learned was creativity is very important. I learned that when we had two tubes and we tried to tape them, but it just wouldn’t go together. So I came up with to have a paper tube that I cut so everything would go together. I also thought it was so cool how everybody’s Rube Goldberg was different and cool in different ways. I liked seeing other people’s task and that creativity. It was cool to see because I would of never thought of ant of that stuff.

I really liked this unit and I hope I can do another Rube Goldberg. I hope that other people like our Rube Goldberg. This is a unit that I will always remember.

It was really interesting to learn about MLK. MLK was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. Sadly, 39 years later MLK got assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. It is very cool to see everything that MLK did to change our country’s rights. It is so awesome for someone to keep fighting for the rights after going to jail over 30 times. MLK lead a lot of civil rights movements and protests. I have never seen or heard of someone with as much courage and the ability to keep fighting for his rights. Without MLK standing up for segregation we might have segregation still now. If those rights occurred to me I would be afraid to show everyone how I feel about these rights. I found it very amazing how MLK made a speech about what he felt should be the rights in front of 250,000 people, and now it is arguably the most famous speech ever. MLK has changed the worlds rights and without MLK we might still have segregatiom. MLK has inspired many people to lead people, stand up for their rights. MLK was a great role model and he might be the most famous fighters, and he did it without actually fighting.