Category Archives: 5th Grade

Capstone Blog Post #2

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So I just finished my Capstone interview, and I interviewed Andy Costello who is a professor of law. I interviewed him because he knew a lot about Constitutional cases. Since my mom knew him already, she called him and asked when we could interview him, then we did that over the phone. 

The questions I asked were mainly stuff about amendments, Constitutional cases, and a little about his job. The most interesting thing I learned is that gun rights is a more divided and interesting issue than I thought. I originally thought that guns should not be allowed, but then I realized that if the government was ever corrupt that would be bad if guns weren’t allowed, and before guns there were all these ways of killing people, so banning guns isn’t going to change things in the long-term. There will still be bad people out there, and the best we can do is to try to stop them from hurting anyone. That was an insightful part and changed my opinion.

One challenge was that I was very nervous, but eventually I got over that because I began to relax and just ask the questions, because I’m a little shy.

The interview actually gave me the information I needed to complete my research, but now I have to comb through the rest of the audio, so, farewell for now! 

Capstone Blog Post #1

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In school, it’s fifth grade. Now you might be thinking well duh you’ve literally categorized all your posts in 5th grade. Yes, but the point is we’re starting Capstone. Yay! More stressful projects! Fun! Capstone is a project where we learn how to research and learn about a specific topic, but I found it a little tight since it was almost the end of the school year, and usually we wind down in previous years.

Recently we picked our topic and main inquiry question for Capstone. My topic is law, because I’ve been learning about it throughout the year and it’s a very interesting topic, and my main inquiry question is “How have Constitutional amendments been influenced by important legal cases in our nation’s history?”

What was helpful in choosing my main inquiry question was the Zoom we had one on one with our teacher. It really helped me make my question more precise. Also, the slideshow that helped us know what a good main inquiry question looked like helped a little bit in making my first draft of my main inquiry question.

It was challenging to find a main inquiry question that really was interesting and got people to think, because I wanted people to think about my presentation and my message in my presentation. Also, before the one on one Zoom with my teacher I was having technical issues which was stressing me out.

I have learned that when I’m not on time that I stress out a lot and that I also learn more when it’s a one on one because I’m getting all of the attention in the lesson. In all, I’ve learned that I value being on time and that I excel when I have more attention.

Rube Goldberg Post #2

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So after I made the first post, I began working on the video. I asked my partner for the video clips that we had and I also created the video so I was ready to start making. So far, I’ve added an beginning, but that’s all. Some problems that I’m facing are: One, the computer I use at home does not have a microphone so I need to find either a microphone or a laptop that has a built-in microphone. Two, I don’t have the sheet that tells us what we need, so I need to be able to remember. It’s likely I forgot stuff, because I know I already forgot stuff, but I’m going to do as much as I can remember. Three, I don’t know whether I have to build the contraption again, but if I can send an e-mail to my teacher, I can get that question answered.

Things are looking good other than those problems, also, I have solutions to those problems so far. I’ll write another post after I finish my video and after that a reflection, but until then, my fingers are tired because I typed this so fast. See you then, I suppose.

Rube Goldberg Post #1

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So recently because of the coronavirus Rube Goldberg was made optional, but I’m going to post this blog post anyways. Me and my old partner had already built it, but now I’m just going to use the clips at his house. Anyways, it was hard building it but probably easier in the long run because we already knew what would work, and so we only had to do one sketch. My sketch looked like this:

My Sketch

 

 

Since I don’t have the right materials, I can’t build it again, but I’m sure as long as I do other stuff and have the recording that it’ll be fine. Anyways, the last part was definitely the hardest to build because balancing levers isn’t easy, especially with a moving object on top. But we got the hang of it, and it took about 10 runs to get the whole thing to work right, but it was amazing to watch. Fantastic! It made me feel proud that we had built it.

 

My Reflection on The Quest of Doom (Not Really) to the Ardsley Curling Club

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Just yesterday on the 28th, we went to the Ardsley Curling Club for a field trip for PE. Recently, we’ve been doing a lot of curling. Curling is a sport you play on ice, where you have stones and you try to hit the stone inside of the bulls eye which is a flat surface, called a house. Simply, the closer the stone is to the house, the more likely you win. If you have, let’s say, three stones all inside the house and the third one is just further in than the other team’s stone, and your fourth stone is in the house but a little further from the center than the other team’s, you get three points for three stones closest to the middle. Everyone on each team takes turns, so the lead on blue team goes, then the lead on red team, then the second on blue, then the second on red, then the vice-skip (Aka third) on blue, and on and on. I know it’s kind of confusing in words, but that’s what happens when you’re reading a blog, so you should probably get used to it.

Curling is a sport of people being good sports. According to that video but I feel like the video may have been slightly biased, with it saying stuff like “Curling is a great sport and everyone is a good sport.” Or that might have just been me, but it seemed good.

The place was a pretty cool place. There were flags everywhere with mostly countries in the north like Norway, Quebec, Canada, (Quebec is in Canada but I have no clue) and Scotland. They also had some championship banners. There were 6 houses and three on each side. We got these shoe covers which they called “booties” and my booty ripped. That sounded hilarious, didn’t it? Anyways, I took a new one. I went to a different group for our practice so the groups would be more balanced. We learned how to deliver a stone on the ice and how to sweep on the ice. After, my team of four played another team of four, and we tied… 0-0. We only got to throw one stone each since we didn’t have much time.

Anyways, it was really fun but kind of short. We learned a lot about curling on ice, which was definitely different than playing in the gym with stones that have bad wheels on them. It was a little harder, since the houses were so much further away. But I still enjoyed it. Sliding on ice is fun.

Feature Article: The Complete Story (Rated G!)

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Even later than last time, on Epic Blog Post News: The Epic Reveal of the Feature Article has come! Come see it in your local computer or device today! Today, one of the authors of the Feature Article Safe and Secure reveals the whole story… In a Rated G Blog post!

So, I agreed to reveal the ultimate secrets of our Feature Article for the fame and publicity- I mean so everyone can understand. I had a co-author but I did most of the work (OK, maybe I didn’t, but I definitely did my share) and won’t reveal the name of my partner because I’m nice that way.

First, we had to pick a topic. Which is hard, because with me, I can’t really make a decision but I don’t regret our choice at all. I picked School Security but my partner was overreacting that I couldn’t make a decision. Eventually I think she was just so tired that she agreed without really paying attention.

Next, we got this poster board and stuck post-its on it to begin planning, which took a bit but we did it and things were looking up so far. After that, we planned our article on a Google Slides, the same one that we have today, and you will see it at the end of the post. Anyways, we put shapes for different paragraphs and red rectangles for features like pictures or pie charts. This was simple and good because it relaxed my brain for a bit.

Then, we had to begin our research. We tried to look for documents with standards for New York State security but found about nothing. We conducted an interview with Mr. Graham, and got a lot of good information. We still had some questions after that, so we asked Ms. Keane some of our other questions. She was also really helpful. We had enough information to write an article. We also sent out a survey using Google Form to see how students felt about security.

We began writing intros, and we wrote 3 and decided to combine aspects from all 3 to make one intro, and we also looked at real feature articles to look at the intros and to help us know how we should write it, to hook all you readers. Then, we actually did the writing itself. We originally wrote the paragraphs in a Google Doc, but then we copy and pasted it into the slideshow. The font we used in the actual article is called Georgia, in case you were wondering. We were the first group to finish but we didn’t rush either, and we also included some of our information in the surveys that we used and made them into pie charts. The writing was finally over.

Our next assignment was to make a podcast, basically reading an intro and outro for our podcast and reading out the article. It was fun, but kind of simple. We had been practicing reading out loud things previously to prepare ourselves, and it was really easy for me. We got microphones from Mr. Casal (our computer teacher) and those soundproof boxes to put them in, and recorded soundlessly. The last two or three paragraphs I did were out in the open, but the audio in the background wasn’t too bad. Now, we’re giving up our secrets to the world. I’ll include another copy of Safe and Secure in this, and possibly the podcast.

Peace from the other side of the screen,

Me

Oh, Look! I Finished My Feature Article!

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Latest, on the Epic Blog Post News, the Feature Article Safe and Secure has come out! Hip, hip, hooray! If you can’t see it, I have no clue how to fix it, so, er, too bad, I guess. If you can see it, good for you! Enjoy! Have fun reading! For some people I know, that’s an oxymoron, but that’s totally off topic. Enjoy!

I Plan a Newspaper Article

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Feeling great about becoming a newspaper writer? Well today in our not-so-new feature article unit, we began to plan out what our article was going to look like. No idea what I’m talking about? Can’t blame you. Let’s take a large step back.

We all were assigned partners, to begin with. My partner and I looked at each other and were like, “yeah, we’re doing security.” Not really, but we settled on security anyways. So we had began worked on these boards and they had post-its on them, but the problem was the post-its kept on falling off every once in a while, so recently our computer teacher was like “Here, you can also plan it on Google Slides,” and the whole class was like “Sweet.”

So back to where we started. We began to plan what our article would look like and it looks pretty good, like those real newspaper that only talk about politics but with a slightly different layout.

So that’s where we are on now, and we’re probably going to begin writing after we finish planning the second and last page.

Now I’m going to write about feelings. Just a small head start.

I’m liking this whole project mostly except for the fact that it involves a lot of slow movement but whatever, it’s enjoyable. Also, we don’t have to work on our non-fiction reading as much so I’ll take it.

So maybe I’ll make another post but don’t expect too much out of me. Bye.

Rocketry Reflection Launch #2

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On Friday the 18th of October, we launched for the second time but with 3 fins instead of four. This was launch #2 of Apollo 20, and I’m going to talk about that.

Our launch 1 was OK but not too good so we set our ambitions higher and decided to subtract a fin in hopes it would be lighter. Even if it was made mainly out of paper, lighter is usually better. Our first launch went 25.5 meters high. That was pretty good, but we wanted it to be better. So we subtracted a fin and hoped it would go even higher, and on the day of the launch, we all had high hopes.

On the day of the launch it was very windy and cloudy. We were doing the same order, which meant that we were second up. we were about to launch when…

The wind started blowing hard again and our rocket popped up a mere 13 meters, and we were all depressed.

I think that our rocket would have gone higher if not for the bad conditions outside, which means that our rocket had potential. If one day there was a chance we could re-launch I think we should tell for sure if it would have gone a good height or not. We learned a lot about working as a group and I wish we could do it again. Apollo 20 was totally a success because it was great, and I hope you agree.

 

First Launch Reflection

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On October 4th, 2019 Apollo 20 (that’s us!) launched their first rocket in the afternoon. It worked. Really well. After that launch, I thought about the things that happened to make this launch so successful.

The first part of our rocket design was the research. You have to know about rockets to build them (fun fact). The research I did helped a lot with design choices that  we made about our rocket. For example, the reason we decided our fins would be straighter up and our nose cone would be straighter up was to reduce the wind resistance on it, and I would not have thought of it if it were not for that research.

The next step was to practice using the tools. That part was pretty fun. We went into our wing and all took turns using the clinometers (these would take the angle of the rocket in the sky from 50 meters away) to practice with them. That was very fun and it was very much like playing laser tag. The learning of how to use the trundle wheel was not as useful because it’s a pretty basic tool and I feel that we went over it once too many times (we went over it twice) but I suppose some people forget which is fine.

I was assigned the countdown for the actual launch, which was fun because you get to scream to the clinometer groups “CLINOMETERS, READY?” I wanted to say “Are you ready to roll?” but I feel Mrs. Robert would not want that. Everyone in my group was good at their assigned jobs. Our rocket launched pretty high which I was proud of, but as I was clapping and watching the rocket came down fast and landed 3 feet in front of me. Basically, I almost got killed by tape and paper.

Later on when we were clinometer people I kept my clinometer on the rocket and stopped at the highest point. That was my strategy for capturing moving objects, and it was pretty good. I caught the rocket at 33 degrees.

I think that if we decided to make an even thinner tube, it would go even higher next launch. I also am happy with our decisions at the same time since our rocket went so high.

During the launch I felt so nervous I would screw something up, like say the wrong number. But I did everything about right. When the rocket launched it was surprisingly quiet but then again it was only air pressure. I was so excited when it launched but when the rocket landed about 3 feet in front of me I was shocked.

That was probably one of the best 1st launches ever, so that was an experience that was amazing. What a time to be alive!