Capstone Post #2

Hi, welcome back to another blog post! This is the second part of my capstone project, a school research project. If you haven’t read my first capstone blog post, you should read that now. I hope you enjoy it! Make sure to be ready for my 2 following blog posts.

Currently, I am done researching and have completed an interview. I will have 1-3 more interviews, likely 2 or 3 included the one that I have done. I got a lot of good information from my interviews as I learned entirely new things, & learned new things about a topic that I already knew about. I am in the middle of writing my script for the Ted talk that I will present. Getting and conducting m interview was much easier than I expected. I thought it would be very hard when it actually is pretty straightforward. I am thinking that the hardest part will probably be presenting the actual Ted talk and memorizing it because mine will probably be at least 5 minutes. Finding who I was going to interview, or 5-6 potential people took about 5 hours. Writing the questions took about 1 hour for 4 interviews. About 15 minutes for each one. I had 15 questions for each person. Here are some of the questions I sent to somebody who works in hydroelectricity:

1.     What are some of the pros and cons of hydroelectric energy/other renewable sources?

2.     Are there any recent technological advances in hydroelectricity?

3.     How does the cost of hydro energy compare to natural gas, solar, and wind energy?  

4.     How does storage of hydroelectricity work?

5.     Why is the growth of hydroelectricity slowing down? Are there any new dams/hydroelectricity power plants being built in the U.S.?

6.     What are some things we can do to increase the use of hydroelectricity?

7.     What are some of the biggest challenges in increasing renewable & hydro energy in the U.S?

8.     Are there any significant negative impacts of building hydroelectricity plants?

9.     Is there anything else that you think I should know about hydroelectricity/renewable energy?

10.   Is it possible for me to come for a site visit to see how the process works and what it entails?

Conducting the interview was fun, I did mine on zoom. I took notes while he was saying the answers to my question. His answers were very good and detailed so it was very easy to incorporate into my presentation. It was frustrating because, for some people, it took a long time for the interviewees to respond. Also, sometimes g-mail sent me an email back giving a warning so it didn’t go through. I also have to figure something out because I have two responses for the same time! It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out though.

Overall, I enjoyed the process of conducting my interview as it was very useful. Stay tuned for my following blog posts. My last and most exciting post will be before the end of June.

Capstone Post #1

Welcome back to another blog post! Today I will be telling you about my capstone project, this is my 1st blog post and eventually, I will have 3. For my capstone project, I will research a topic (I chose Renewable Energy) and will answer my question (How can we increase the amount of renewable energy used in America?) by doing research and interviewing people. I will then make a slideshow with pictures and memorize a script and will rehearse my presentation near the end of the school year.

My topic is Renewable energy and I chose it because I was very interested in renewable energy as I have studied global warming before. Renewable energy is what we can use to prevent or slow global warming from having big effects on the earth, (bad ones). I really wanted to learn more about renewable energy and thought it would be really fun to teach people about it.

I was having a little bit of trouble coming up with my main question that I was going to answer. None of the ideas were really good, and something I had to do a lot of research about. Then I started thinking of how we can use more renewable energy. After doing some pre-search, I knew that a lot of countries used a lot of renewable energy but not America, so my main question ended up being, ‘ how can we increase the amount of renewable energy that we use in America?’ I think this is a very good question because I will teach people a lot, and learn a lot. I also think it is a good overall question.

The process of coming up with my sub-questions, was not fun, even though I didn’t really spend a lot of time coming up with them. My main question wasn’t a big question so it was a little hard to come up with even smaller questions. Some of my sub-questions include the following: Why is it important to use more renewable energy? 

What are some other countries doing to use more renewable energy and how can we use that to use more renewable energy? 

What are some pros and cons of using certain types of renewable energy? 

How does the cost of renewable energy compare to other forms of energy?

I’m very excited and a little nervous about my capstone project! I hope you enjoyed my blog post and stay tuned for my 2nd and 3rd blog posts!

Immigration

Welcome back to another blog post! Today I will be sharing the experience of interviewing my dad for a school immigration project. I had a great time interviewing my dad, writing a script, and making a short video on adobe creative cloud express, (I know, it’s a long name). The first step of this long process was brainstorming 10-15 really good/open-ended questions, (I brainstormed 15). I thought I had some really good questions that would get a lot of information from the interviewee and would explain a lot about their journey/life coming to America. My questions got A LOT of information so when I make my video explaining his life, I won’t be able to share all the little details and will kind of have to summarize what he is saying; but I will get in as much as I can. Here are 2 of my Questions and Answers:

  1. What were some push factors from India, and Pull factors to America, and how would/did they affect you?

Some of the push factors from India were that they were limited opportunities, and they were not to my liking. He was also trying to design India’s first composite wastewater treatment plant, but because it was expensive, they weren’t willing to build it. Some pull factors were that there were many opportunities, and there were more jobs.

9. When you first got here, what were some of your jobs, how did you get them, and how long did they take; did you have any money problems when you arrived?

At the time, 1 USD was equal to about 55 Rupees, about 77 now. It had a much weaker purchasing power. He didn’t have money for college and had to be careful because all he had budgeted was half of his 1st semester. He paid by getting part-time jobs, a presidential scholarship, was a teaching assistant in his second semester, and continued this through his 3rd and 4th semester.

 

Here is one of my individual slides from the script without the questions:

Most of his struggles were financial issues and he had to ration his food and money. (3-4 seconds) He overcame them by getting scholarships, being an assistant in graduate school, and by getting a summer internship. (5.3 seconds)

 

I learned a lot about my dad and I also learned the things like how to conduct an interview. I also learned a lot about important lessons in life during my dad’s interview. The first step of my process was interviewing my dad, which didn’t take a long time and was probably the easiest part of the process. The next step was writing a narrative and script (basically planning out my video.) This part didn’t help me at all. The next and final part of the process was making the video and narrating it. This took a while but wasn’t as hard as I thought it was.

 

Overall, I learned a lot interviewing my dad and had a great time interviewing/making a video, and think it was a great learning experience. Stay tuned for another blog post. Here is my final video. I hope you enjoy it because I spent a lot of time making this video.

Poetry

Welcome back to another blog post! I will be posting a poem that I found for my homework, which I think is pretty funny. Here is the poem:

My Missing Shoe By Kate Miller-Wilson

I look for you by the front door,

Under the bed, on the bathroom floor,

Near the back stairs, In the drawer with my sox, Next to my table, and out in the sandbox. My mother is calling me, and I am calling you, Where have you gone, my missing shoe?

Refugee By Alan Gratz Q&A

Welcome to another blog post! This blog post will answer 2 questions that are from Refugee By Alan Gratz. My class is currently reading his book and I would recommend this book for 4th-6th graders because it talks about tough times. It can be read at any age Some 0f the main characters die as they are going through really tough and scary times. Still, it is an excellent book, teaching a lesson that not everything is fantasy, and it wakes people up and shows people what is currently happening like problems in Ukraine. Many people (refugees) are fleeing Ukraine because they are under attack.

Question 1: Why did Hitler hate Jews?

Based on what I know about WWII, I think Adolf Hitler hated Jewish people because of Germany’s depression. A little bit before world war 2, Germany was suffering from a depression that was causing widespread unemployment, starvation, and misery. Hitler didn’t want himself and his government to look weak so he needed someone to blame for his people’s great despair. As a result, he indoctrinated his citizens into believing that Jewish people were horrible and caused their depression. This shows that Hitler wanted someone to blame so he blamed everybody that is Jewish, and when he got power, he abused it.

 

Question 2: Is the boat going to work?

I predict that the boat is going to work. However, it will not be a good boat and will be small like a raft. It probably won’t be too safe either as they may be prone to get bitten by something like a shark. So far, everything the refugees think is going to help them ends up being bad. As a result, I think there may be several injuries. Finally, it also kept getting delayed, so why trust them now? This shows that based on everything that happened, you can’t trust somebody that you don’t know well. There may be something good (the boat working) but there is always a catch. Because of this, there will probably not be a big boat.

Rube Goldberg Post #2

Hi, welcome back to another blog post! If you didn’t read my previous blog post, I built a Rube Goldberg. A Rube Goldberg is a series of simple machines completing a simple task at the end. I hope you enjoy it!

My experience building my Rube Goldberg machine was interesting; because I found it exciting and fun but still got annoyed a lot. I mostly got annoyed by my pulley because it was very inconsistent, and it didn’t work too well. Most of my fails were because of the pulley, or because of silly mistakes, like me putting a Jenga block in the wrong spot. I found it really fun because it was pretty fun to build, and challenged me to really think and use my brain a lot. However, my experience recording my Rube Goldberg was not as fun because it took 30 attempts, so I had to build it, and then do the same thing 29 more times from the spot I failed. Trust me, it wasn’t that fun. What was fun, was when I finally succeeded on my 30th attempt! I was so happy when I finished and got it over with, as I had much less stress.

At first, my experience making the final video was pretty stressful as I was worried about every small detail. When I started to get on a roll and figure things out; I worked much more efficiently, and it was more fun. As I kept making the video, my experience got much more interesting as there was a variety of things that I needed to do.

During this process, I learned a lot about simple machines, and about building Rube Goldbergs. After a while, I figured out some useful strategies, and I knew I would succeed quicker if a persevered. Another very important thing I learned was building a Rube Goldberg is pretty annoying and takes a lot of work. I’d say making my video required A LOT of time, a tremendous amount of hard work and I had to remember that I better enjoy sleep when I had time. (I didn’t have much time to sleep while I was making my video). I’d say making the video was harder and more time-consuming than the actual building part itself. I am very proud of the work I did, and how my video turned out. Before you see the sketch and final video, I’d like to give a HUGE thanks to my mom as she spent so much time recording and helping me with my Rube Goldberg. Here is my edited video:

Rube Goldberg Post #1

Hi, welcome back to another blog post! I am going to be writing about my Rube Goldberg Machine that I have been building: I hope you enjoy it! By the way, A rube Golberg is a series of chain reactions leading to a simple task at the end.

The process of building my Rube Goldberg machine was fun, but sometimes it was hard to think of ideas to get on things, from one place to another. The process also involved a lot of trial and error, as it was very hard to make some things work. For example, some things that were challenging were getting my pulley to work and thinking of ways to get something from low, to high. One solution for getting something from low to high is by connecting a string from something low, to something high, and taping them. Therefore, when the item at the bottom falls, something at the top can fall. Getting my pulley to work was probably the hardest part of my Rube Goldberg as I tried using different things but they had to be able to easily roll into my container. I ended up having a string tied to a book, and when it fell a wedge holding a ball fell. Since the ball was on an angle/inclined plane, it rolled into the container causing to drum stick to come up. Another problem I had making the Rube Goldberg was the car that went on the track had a remote control instead of an on and off switch, so I had to think of a different way to get something down the track. I eventually found out that the ball can roll down the slinky, and roll down the track if there were blocks on the side preventing the ball from falling on the turn.

Some supplies I used were balls, tubes, dominos, Jenga Blocks, Books, rope, tape, carabiners, different-sized blocks, car tracks, hockey sticks, and a bucket. It has been pretty annoying testing the machine as The problem was always, the pulley, or some silly mistakes. It was frustrating how I got through the hardest parts, and there is a random silly mistake that there never was before. I think before every test in a Rube Goldberg, you should scan the whole thing and look for errors. If a problem happens multiple times, you should figure out why and how to fix it.

Here are pictures of my drawings of my Rube Goldberg (They go from right to left).

So far, building me Rube Goldberg has been very fun, even though I had some challenges/problems. It has inspired me to think in a fun/creative way, and allowed me to think deeper. I can’t wait to finish the whole process including editing my video and adding some similar effects. Stay tuned for more blog posts!

Constitution Project

Hi, welcome back to another blog post! Today I am going to be telling you about my constitution project, where I had to pick a research question, write a script, and then make it into a slideshow. I had an extremely good time making this project, and want to make similar projects in the future! My research question is why did it take so long for the government to abolish slavery. I was interested in this topic because I wanted to learn what would happen if the government abolished slavery earlier, and why it was the 13th amendment. I have also been interested in this topic for a long time. The purpose of this project was for us to learn about a specific topic related to our constitution unit: which is what we are studying in Social Studies.  

After I brainstormed a few research questions, I thought that my 3rd one was the best which is: why did it take so long to abolish slavery? After this, I had to research this topic.  Some resources I used were Liberty Kids, Brainpop, and Ducksters. When I had to research my brain when straight to Liberty Kids because I have already learned a lot from it. I found episode 140 very helpful as it gave very important details, which helped me make my script, leading to my slides. Not to my surprise, I got over ¾ of my research from Liberty Kids. It wasn’t about a common topic so it took a while to research and was pretty hard to get so much.

Making my script was probably the easiest part of the process because all I needed to do was to copy my script, and time it right. I also had to find different research: because some research was the same as the other, and I needed a lot. It annoyed me because I had these little errors, or needed a little more research. Timing may have taken a bit of time, but overall it was pretty easy and fun. 

However, the next step, making a slideshow and finding pictures was not so fun. At first, it seemed easy because I was copying the script to the slideshow. Then, I had to add pictures. It was super difficult to find the pictures I needed because they needed to be good pictures, of a specific topic. Also, I couldn’t take pictures that were copyrighted so there was less of a variety that I could choose from. 

The second to last step was to practice advancing the slides while saying the script. For this step, I found a lot of errors, fixed my timing, and kept practicing. After doing this a lot, I barely messed up. During this time period, I practiced a lot and changed some slides: to make them the best that they could be. This helped me: because the next step was to record my final project. 

After about 15-20 attempts, I had 4 that I really liked. I found it super annoying to keep repeating the same thing, over and over again: even if I slightly messed up. If somebody in my family accidentally said something or asked me a question, I would have to start over. After my brother helped me pick my best recording, I edited it so there was no access part at the end.  I did the recording over a span of 2 days because it was too much to handle at once. I had a great time doing this project and learned a lot from it.

I think the most challenging part of this was researching, but the most annoying part was probably recording it. I think the most challenging part was researching because I had a tough topic to research and I needed a lot, that was good, and was related but not repetitive. It was also a bit interesting learning about my topic, getting my questions answered, and finding information. I probably enjoyed the part after I finished recording the most because I was pretty proud of what the final result was, and it felt good to get the whole project over with: even though the process was really fun. I also enjoyed researching, because I got to learn a lot of new facts. One new fact that I learned one reason that slavery was abolished so late is the southern states wouldn’t agree to the constitution if the northern states abolished slavery so the northern states had to wait to abolish slavery. They would rather wait to abolish slavery than to watch their country suffer under the Articles of Confederation.

In conclusion, I had a great time in the process of making this project. I had some ups and downs, and I got frustrated sometimes: but I learned from my mistakes and had a great time. I was very proud of how quickly I made the project, and I learned a lot more than I expected. I am very excited to do more posts like these: and stay tuned for more blog posts!

Here’s the link to my final project!

 

Feature Article

Introduction: Hi, welcome to another blog post. The following slides are going to teach you about global warming, and forms of renewable energy which are alternative forms of energy that don’t cause global warming. I hope you enjoy this story, spread the word, and take action!!

I came up with my topic and message because I have been interested in learning about global warming and renewable energy for a long time. I wanted to tell people about this topic, so they would be aware of the rising problem of global warming, and many ways to stop it. I want people to inform their friends about what is happening and I want them to take action. I wanted to increase their knowledge and try to make the story a bit fun, not with too many facts. In the past, I have researched a little bit about this topic, mostly global warming. I also thought it would be pretty fun if I learned more about renewable energy, what it did, and many forms of renewable energy. In the future, I am looking to do many projects based on this topic, and I want to make items that use renewable energy, or green items. 

One aspect of the article that was very enjoyable was researching. It was enjoyable as I learned many new facts but it could be challenging. It was challenging when I needed to find out about a very specific topic, but it also was fun learning new facts along the way. Another very challenging thing was writing it in a way that readers would be interested in. Another very fun thing but a little annoying was finding a good title and subtitle.  I had to brainstorm a lot, but it was pretty fun because I got to push myself to think and I got to choose which ones were better than others.

One technique that I used very effectively in my writing was using lists. AN example of a list is “Thankfully, it is not too late to stop it, you can help by doing many things including investing in energy-efficient appliances, if you are old enough, buying LED light bulbs, driving electric vehicles and lastly you can SPEAK UP, and tell other people what is happening and how to prevent Global Warming.” I used this list so I could tell the reader what some ways to use renewable energy were. I think that using a list is a very effective way to explain multiple things, under a certain topic. After I used the list, I went into more detail about each thing that I listed.

I am most proud of how I changed all of the words into a feature article. I am proud of all the features, and the interesting text that goes along with it. I am also proud of how I incorporated all of the research into my article in cool ways. Finally, I am proud of how I informed my reader about renewable energy and global warming. I hope they learned from the article, and they try to use renewable energy to prevent global warming. 

One thing that is different between writing a feature article and a personal narrative is that in a personal narrative, you don’t research and it is just a blob of text. In a Feature article, you have to research and you also have to add features. In my opinion, it is a little bit harder to write a feature article than a personal narrative. A personal narrative is a little bit like a list, but a feature article is an organized paragraph of text.

 

Smoky Night & Fly Away Home Comparison

Welcome to another blog post in my universe. Today I am going to compare two short stories, “Smokey Night” and “Fly Away Home”. I am going to be comparing the problems, and Symbolism.

 

The problems in both of the short stories are very different but they are handled pretty similarly.  For example, the problem in fly away home is that the main character, Andrew, and his dad are living in an airport: trying not to get caught. On the other hand, the obstacle in “Smoky Night” is handled differently. Daniel’s cat goes missing after a riot, where somebody burns his apartment down. He and his mother escape the fire at first, but not the cat. They both handle their problems by hoping. Andrew tries to solve his problem by earning and saving his money, he HOPES that he will find a safe home. Andrew and his friends “collect rented luggage carts that people have left outside and return them for fifty cents each. If the crowds are big and safe, we offer to carry bags.” This is an example of Andrew hoping, and trying to accomplish his dreams. When Daniel hopes that his cat, Jasmine, is still alive: the thought leads to him asking many people if they have seen his cat. For instance, when Daniel and her mother are escorted out of the building she asks a firefighter, “Did you see a cat?” “She’s yellow. Maybe she’s still in there.”

 

In both passages, I think that animals represent a symbol of hope. An example of this is in “Fly Away Home,” in the first story, a bird got stuck in the airport, it kept trying but after a few days, it escaped.  When Andrew thinks of the bird, he gets reminded of himself, but just like the bird, he can find a safe and happy place to live. An example of this is Andrew thinks to himself, “Sometimes I just want to cry. I think dad and I will be here forever. Then I remembered the bird. It took a while, but a door opened. ANd when the bird left, when it flew flee, I know it was singing.” This shows that the bird gives Andrew hope and the door represents a safe passage to a happy home. In “Smoky Night,” Jasmine is the reason why Daniel hoped: because he was left in the fire, Jasmine meant hope to Daniel and he hoped that Jasper was alive. If there was a continuation to this story, I think if there was a problem: Daniel would keep on hoping: I think Jasmine gave not only hope but something like a superpower, to Daniel. An example from the text is,”‘It’s a sad, sad night,’ Mr. Jackson says. I ask him about Jasmine. He says he’s pretty sure he saw her. ‘She got out, Daniel,’ he tells me. I hope he’s not just trying to make me feel better. ” This shows that Daniel is hopeful that his cat is alive because he hopes Mr. Jackson isn’t trying o make him feel better.

 

In conclusion, the two passages had many similarities, but also some small differences. Bye, see you next post!

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