Category Archives: Free Write

Immigration Spark Video

Geography: I learned what geography really is/means. I also learned how widespread Immigration really is. I learned that many immigrants came to the US because big companies needed their labor to build railroads. I learned that a lot of immigrants came to America for the Gold Rush.

 

History: I learned a lot about the push and pull factors of the history of immigration and about the details that went into those factors. I learned that some immigrants came to America for more food and some because their voices weren’t being heard in society.

 

Economics: I learned that land=money and that most immigrants are very hardworking. I also learned that the US wouldn’t be the same if immigrants hadn’t come. I learned that immigrants mostly created their own businesses because no one wanted to hire them. I learned that immigrants had a bad reputations. I learned that illegal immigrants were shot if they tried to come into the country.

 

Civics: I learned that civics played a super big part in immigration. I also learned that most immigrants weren’t familiar with the idea of democracy. I also learned that many people came to America because we had better laws. I learned that laws were passed to keep immigrants from doing certain things or even entering the country. I learned that if you wanted to come to America you had to be healthy and strong. I learned that a lot of immigrants were sent away because of disabilities and illnesses.

Overall, I learned a lot from all of these presentations!

Passion Project #7

I finally finished my passion project! Last Wednesday, I started my final video, and since then I have been working about 2 hours on my video for 2 nights. Then on Sunday, I went all out and got the whole thing (almost) done in 8 hours. I had a lot of struggles during these 12 hours. One was that whenever I left Wevideo and then came back to it later, the page became “unresponsive”. This was really annoying because if I deleted the tab, I could be waiting for an hour for the website to become responsive again. Another thing was the edits. On Wednesday, I thought that I finished the video. Then I realized my video needed to be a lot more than what it was. By the time I was done editing, my video was transformed into something much stronger than what I had started with. Overall, I really enjoyed working on my passion project and am really proud of my final product!

 

 

Passion Project #6

Today I did my biggest experiment, does color affect taste? In the experiment, I poured apple juice into six cups. One third of the apple juice I dyed blue, one third I dyed green and one third I dyed red. I had two volunteers. They were each given three cups, one of each color. The cups were labeled A, B or C. A for blue, B for green and C for red. The volunteers were told to taste each cup with a sip of water in between each sip. They could taste each cup as many times as they liked in the time span of two minutes. Both volunteers liked A the best, and C the least. One of the volunteers said that she thought C was the strongest and B was the mildest. They both thought the the cups tasted very similar. Overall, this experiment was so fun for me and I learned so much from it!

Passion Project #5

I got all of my materials! I also did three of my experiments. I did gummy bear omosis, observing xylem in celery and observing homgenization. In gummy bear omosis, I left a gummy bear in saltwater, a gummy bear in freshwater, a gummy bear in no water, overnight. The saltwater gummy bear was bigger than the no water gummy bear, but smaller than the freshwater gummy bear. The gummy bears in the water are fizzy on top. The freshwater gummy bear is slimier than the saltwater gummy bear (saltwater gummy bear is stiffer that the freshwater gummy bear). I learned a lot from this experiment, and it was super fun! In my 2nd experiment, observing xylem in celery, I left celery in red water overnight to see the path the water took up into the celery stalk. I noticed that the bottom started to get red, but I did not see anything else until I opened the celery. When I opened the celery there was a thin red line running through it. I really enjoyed this experiment! In observing homogenization, I put a drop of food coloring in milk and touched dish soap adjacent to that. I noticed that the dish soap exploded when I touched the dish soap to it. Overall, I really enjoyed these experiments and learned a lot from them!

Passion Project #4

Since the last post I have done quite a bit. In my latest research session (earlier today), I made a vocabulary section in my notebook, instead of researching biology. In total, I have the biology definitions of 15 words. These include: omosis, solute, XYLEM, homogenization, solvent, permeable, membrane, emulsify, lipids, organelles, soluble, insoluble, globules, derivatives and steriods. These have helped me understand the experiments better. Meanwhile, I am almost ready to start the experiments. All I need to do is get the stuff I need and I can get started. Some of the experiments involve volunteers, so I have to recruit volunteers, but that shouldn’t be to hard. During the experiments, I will make charts and record my observations in my notebook for each experiment. I will include my observations in my final project. I am extremely excited to start the experiments and will update you continuously over the next week or so!

Passion Project #3

My Passion Project is still running smoothly. Yesterday I listed all the materials I needed and checked off the ones I already have. On the weekend I need to shop for these things… gummy bears, celery, full fat milk, corn syrup, red cinnamon candies, white sprinkles, apple juice and clear disposable cups. These ingredients are going to be used for different experiments. On the other hand, I have finished researching experiments. I am going to perform 7 experiments. Since I have finished this and am awaiting some ingredients, I am going to do some research on biology itself, and maybe include some facts I learned into my final project. I can’t wait to continue with my project and am excited keep on learning!

 

Passion Project #2

My Passion Project is going really well. So far, I have found five or six different experiments to perform, have found four helpful websites, and have sorted out which materials I have and which materials I don’t have. From that I have made a shopping list. I am planning to get the materials sometime this weekend. After that I am pretty much ready to start doing the experiments. One of the things I struggled with was finding the different websites. That halted my research for a bit, but I eventually found some really cool websites to browse. Another thing that was challenging was that the experiments had to be with available materials. Other than those challenges my Passion project has been going smoothly and I can’t wait to try out the experiments!

Passion Project #1

For my Passion Project I wanted to learn biology. I chose this topic because I want to be a doctor, and as a doctor you have to know biology. My final project will be and video of me doing cool biology experiments. In the process of writing down the different experiments, I am also writing down a sentence or two explaining the science behind the experiment. I am trying to do simple experiments that require household objects only. This was not my original plan. At first, I was going to do a tutorial on becoming a doctor, but then decided that that didn’t have enough “hands on” stuff. So, I picked biology. So far I have 3 different experiments written down, instructions and all. I am looking forward to gathering more information and doing the experiments!

Refugee

In Refugee, the author went back and forth in time to show how different countries were dangerous, but then became safe after a period of time. For example, Mahmoud wants to move to Germany, whereas Josef needs to get away from Germany and wants to move to Cuba, whereas Isabel needs to escape from Cuba and get to the USA. I think the author wants to switch between the stories because he wants to make it easier to link the stories together and it adds a bit suspense…

Refugee

In the book Refugee, by Alan Gratz, the reason the 3 characters had to flee their homes because of the violence in their countries. They wanted to leave their homes probably because they felt unsafe. All they want is a peaceful, happy and enjoyable life, and their country doesn’t give that to them, so, they want to leave. The character’s reasons for leaving the country are similar, because they are all people escaping violence in their country. The characters reasons for leaving the country are different, because one of them is leaving so their father doesn’t get sent to a concentration camp again. One of them is leaving so their father does not get arrested, and one hasn’t left yet, but I’m pretty sure will, just so he can be safe. Overall, these characters are leaving their countries because of the violence.