Capstone Interview (Capstone #2)

In 5th grade, we have a Capstone project. Today, I will be talking about the interview. The purpose of the interview is to find someone to get information from. This part of the research can help greatly or not so much. It helped answer one of my subquestions and got me some new links to check out to help me get some information.

 

First, you had to think of people who could know or help you with your project. My project was hacking. After I went home, I talked to my parents because I was very stumped on who to interview. You could search for museums or people at schools to interview. I was really stuck until my dad made a brilliant suggestion. My tech teacher, Mr. Casal. It was pretty easy for me because we have a tech teacher so I could do it in person but for other people, it was harder because they had different topics. Then, after you found the person, you had to write at least ten questions for the person. The first three to five questions were get-to-know-you questions to get the person comfortable, then you go into your topic.

 

The experience was awkward for me because I knew them. It felt weird interviewing someone you knew. It went pretty well but not as expected. At around twelve minutes, my screen time went out so I had to record the rest on my interviewee’s phone. Fortunately, I knew them so they could let me record. But after we recorded and I said thanks for letting me interview you, I realized that one of my questions was cut off during the recording on my phone because my screen time went out. So I had to go back and finish recording on my phone.  One thing that I learned is that “Hacking isn’t like the movies where people type super fast, it’s about humans talking to each other and that the ‘hacker’ just tricks them into giving up the information the ‘hacker’ wants.”

 

Overall, the Capstone project has been fun but a little awkward.

Capstone #1

Capstone is a huge project Scarsdale schools do for 5th grade, close to the end of the year. During the Capstone project, we have to pick a topic we are interested in but never really learned about it. My topic is hacking. After that, we have to come up with a main inquiry question and 5-6 sub-questions. The sub-questions are questions that lead up to your main question. They break your main question down. You also need to find someone to interview. After that, you research the sub-questions. After you get all that information you can choose to do a WeVideo (movie) or an Ignite (presentation, slides present every 15 seconds), or a Ted Talk (presentation).

 

When you come up with your topic, you have to find something that you’re interested in but you don’t know much about. I came up with a couple of topics: tennis, video games, hacking, babies, and the brain. I narrowed it down to three topics: video games, hacking, and babies. I ended up choosing hacking. I chose it because I was interested in it, I knew nothing about it, and I knew who I was going to interview.

 

After picking your topic, you had to come up with the main inquiry question. My inquiry question is, how does hacking impact the global economy, and what’s being done to minimize hacking? One challenge was coming up with the main inquiry questions because it was hard to find one that wasn’t too broad but not too narrow.

 

After you came up with the main inquiry question you had to come up with sub-questions. Sub-questions are questions that lead up to your main inquiry question. Two of my sub-questions are, how has hacking impacted global stock markets? And, how should you prevent hacking? A challenge was finding five sub-questions to use because you needed to break up the main inquiry question into sub-questions.

 

Overall, the Capstone project has been fun.

Immigration Video

The immigration interview project is a project that makes you find a person to interview, interview them, put it into a script, and make the script into a video.

First, you needed to find a person to interview. I had two people in mind, my grandma and my mom. I chose my mom because she could speak English while my grandma only spoke Chinese. After you find the person to interview, you have to make a list of questions that answers the information you need. You also needed to get the questions to suck in as much information as you can without getting nosy. You had to sound friendly not pushy like, “How did you lose?”. Instead, you could change it to, “When you lost, what did it feel like?” You also needed 10-15 questions (at least 10). Something that was really enjoyable was interviewing them because you got to learn things that you never would have known, finding pictures was also enjoyable. Something that was challenging was making the video because you had to line the pictures up with the voiceover and you had to get over two minutes. Also, getting the photos were a little challenging because, for some of them, you needed to ask the person for a picture. For example, I had to ask my mom for her wedding photo for one picture. Some resources that were helpful were the google doc with all the questions, my friends, Mrs. Cooper, my dad, BrainPop, and the interview videos. They all gave me advice.

After all the questions, you had to actually interview them. You could interview them in person, or on the phone. I did it in person because I lived with my mom. After you got the answers, you could record them or write the answers down. I recommend recording them because you usually can’t write the answers down in time. If you record the answers first, you could rewind them and then write it down. It went faster than expected and easier than I thought. It only took about seven minutes. It was also really easy to interview because I already practiced reading them. I learned to not sound nervous, or sound like a robot because if you did that, it could make the person not want to share their information or make them feel awkward. You also didn’t want to be too nosy. I learned that from BrainPop. After you rewinded them and wrote it down, then you had to put in a script. In the script, you had to write what you were going to say and what the audience was going to read, and the picture the audience was going to see. After that, you had to put that in the WeVideo and get the photos and do the voiceover. If you couldn’t get the photo from WeVideo, then instead, you could search on google but it had to be copyright free. The most interesting thing I learned was that when my mom left (immigrated) she left all her family members behind (sister, and parents). 

Overall, the immigration project has been very interesting and fun because you got to learn things you never knew about a person or family member.

Immigration Interview

The immigration interview project is a project that makes you find a person to interview, interview them, put it into a script, and make the script into a video.

First, you needed to find a person to interview. I had two people in mind, my grandma and my mom. I chose my mom because she could speak English while my grandma only spoke Chinese. After you find the person to interview, you have to make a list of questions that answers the information you need. You also needed to get the questions to suck in as much information you can without getting nosy. You had to sound friendly not pushy like, “How did you lose?”. Instead, you could change it to, “When you lost, what did it feel like?” You also needed 10-15 questions (at least 10). Some resources that were helpful were the google doc with all the questions, my friends, Mrs. Cooper, my dad, BrainPop, and the interview videos. They all gave me advice.

After all the questions, you had to actually interview them. You could interview them in person, or on the phone. I did it in person because I lived with my mom. After you got the answers, you could record them or write the answers down. I recommend recording them because you usually can’t write the answers down in time. If you record the answers first, you could rewind them and then write it down. It went faster than expected and easier than I thought. It only took about seven minutes. It was also really easy to interview because I already practiced reading them. I learned to not sound nervous, or sound like a robot because if you did that, it could make the person not want to share their information or make them feel awkward. You also didn’t want to be too nosy. I learned that from BrainPop. The most interesting thing I learned was that when my mom left (immigrated) she left all her family members behind (sister, and parents). 

Overall, the immigration project has been very interesting and fun.

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #2

A Rube Goldberg machine is a complicated machine that does a simple task. I’m finally on the last part of the project. I will have to draw a final sketch, change my build, test it out, get a good recording of the final run, and make the final video. 

To come up with ideas for the project, I had to watch lots of videos to get inspiration. After I did that, I had a good understanding of what I should put in my project. After my first sketch of the project, I had trouble trying to do what I planned in my sketch. The problem with my sketch was that some things weren’t that realistic. Some things like the lever idea I had were nearly impossible to build because I didn’t have the required materials. So I had to cut some things out and figure out something to replace them with. The most challenging part of the project was recording because getting a successful run was extremely hard and exasperating. Every time I had a nearly successful run, a new problem would occur. Then, suddenly, when I’m not recording and testing it, I get an almost successful run. One time, after I set the whole project up to take another video, my younger brother (Max) started the project before I was recording. Of course, that ONE time that I wasn’t recording, I got a successful run. It was the most aggravating moment of my life. After 37 long tries, I finally got a good recording. A thing that was easier than I thought was the WeVideo. I didn’t even start the script but I got everything done in only two hours. I expected it to be harder and take way longer but it wasn’t that hard.

 My first sketch is completely different than my last one. I only had one idea in my first sketch that I had in my last sketch. I had to change most of the stuff because either one, I didn’t have the materials, or two, it wouldn’t be possible to build. Eventually, in the end, I finally got the build done.

The video wasn’t that hard to make. I got it done in two hours. In the video, I included credits, useful websites, my final run, a slow-mo, a fail, and an overview of the final project. My dad helped me with the slow-mo and the overview because by then, I was burned out. After all those hours of testing, building, and videotaping, I was so very tired. But my dad urged me to help him take slow-mo’s of every single part separately and an overview of everything. In the end, it actually really helped. 

Overall, the Rube Goldberg project was really stressful and not fun to do because of all the hours of trying to take a video of a good run. 

Rube Goldberg Post #1

A Rube Goldberg machine is a complicated machine that does a simple task. My simple task is to make a ball on the pool table go into a hole. The Rube Goldberg machine has to have at least 8 steps. A step is a transfer of energy. For example, a marle hitting a car is a transfer of energy.

First, you have to sketch the machine out. To sketch the machine, I had to do some research to get an idea of what to draw. The main resource I used was YouTube. It was very helpful because I could see what the Rube Goldberg machine would look like. Sketching and designing were difficult because I had trouble incorporating what I saw. In the sketch, you had to explain each step in detail. You also had to draw your Rube Goldberg project. I incorporated a lever, a screw, and an inclined plane.

When I started testing, it didn’t work at all. Everything was not working the way I planned it to so I asked my parents for help and they helped a lot. Plus, I was running out of time and I wasn’t even close to finishing. Overall, the Rube Goldberg project is very stressful. 

Feature Article Reflection

Overall, during the Feature Article unit, I had a really good time. I was going to do an animal for my feature article but then the thought of doing my feature article about tennis came into my mind. I came up with my topic because I have played tennis for more than 6 years. I came up with my message because I realized that being mentally strong is more important than being physically strong. When I played tennis. I used to get very frustrated easily when I lost a lot of points in a row but now, I learn how to control my anger and clear my mind. 

Some of the enjoyable things were drafting and editing. Drafting was easier and more fun to do because I already had everything planned out in my mind. Editing was pretty easy and fun to do because I usually put punctuation and capitalization when I type. A more challenging thing was revisions because I don’t like changing my draft. I don’t know why, but changing my draft is really hard because it’s hard for me to see my writing differently. I look at my writing so much that it seems perfect to me. Some techniques that I used effectively were telling parts like a story, putting a lot of detail, and pulling the reader in with the introduction. I told pulled readers in by adding questions in the introduction like, “Do you think that Tennis is just about strength? If yes, then your about to be proved wrong.” I told parts like a story by writing, “Imagine that your serving,” or “You reach out towards the ball but you miss,” I put a lot of detail by explaining things or telling facts like, “Tennis rackets are made from graphite, which is soft and easy to weave.”

 I am most proud of my writing because writing improved a lot and is one of the subjects that I struggle with. I struggle with coming up with ideas and doing what I want to do. Overall, my writing experience this year was much better than last year. A feature article can be similar to a personal narrative because could be things that you have experienced. You could write a personal narrative about tennis and then a feature article about tennis or write a personal narrative about a waterslide and write the feature article about waterslides. All in all, writing my Feature Article was very fun!

Choosing a Topic for my Feature Article

Now that we have finished our personal narrative writing unit, we are doing feature articles. Feature articles are informational writing and informational writing is non-fiction. 

It was trouble coming up with multiple ideas because I was sick so I had to stay home and because I felt like tennis is what I’ve been doing for most of my life. I haven’t done anything longer than tennis.

The topic I think is best for my feature article is tennis. I feel like tennis is my best feature article because, one, I’ve been doing it for years, and, two, I have loads of experience and knowledge I can include in my feature article. 

Some information I intend to include is how to start a match, how to hit the ball, what are all the strokes, racquets and how they help you, courts, and top tennis players.

Book Review (Goosebumps)

Goosebumps: The Ghost Next door is a story about a girl named Hannah who thinks her neighbor, Danny is a ghost. Hannah has a plan to find out if Danny is a ghost but will it work? A shadowy figure says to stay away from Danny. Is Danny a Ghost? If you want to know you’ll have to read the book to find out.

I liked this story because it was an interesting story with surprises in store for all of its readers. Also, this story was full of twists and turns, suspense, cliffhangers, and things you wouldn’t expect.

I think Hannah is like me cause I would spy on my neighbor if they kept vanishing into the shadows. 

I highly recommended this book to horror/mystery lovers, so if you like suspense and surprises this book will be amazing. I enjoyed reading this book and I hope you will too.