When I was preparing for the presentation, I was already behind on the work.  Now that I was done with my my presentation, I was behind on the rehearsing.

Just like I did before, I finished rehearsing on the day before the presentation for the parents (the one for the school was a fail). There was still one problem though; would I be able to present in front of a crowd of parents and not freak out? I would get that answer tomorrow.

Before people started to present, I was pretty confident that I would be able to present without making a stupid mistake. When the person before me was presenting, I was definitely worried. There were so many things that could go wrong! I could stumble on my words, I could forget what to say, and much more.

When it was finally my turn to present, I was sweating like crazy. It was like my heart was going to explode! When I introduced myself and stated my topic (vi

deo games), the parents actually laughed. They laughed! That put me at ease a bit. The rest of the presentation went smoothly, me doing the talking and the parents occasionally laughing. When my turn was finally over, I felt like a hundred weights had been removed from my shoulders. I had done it!

After everybody presented, we all filed out of the room and went to do our own things. In my case, it was eating! Since that day was my graduation day, they had bagels, brownies, cupcakes, etc. in the gym. I ate as much as I could fit in my belly!

Overall, I had many failures and challenges along the way but at the end I succeeded. I felt like it was a great project!

By the way, if you want to see my presentation, go to my 6th blog. I hope you enjoy it (if you watch it)!

After I finished my main inquiry question, I had to make a final “product”, which basically means a slide presentation/a green screen. I chose to do an ignite slide presentation (a presentation where a grim reaper changes the slides every 15 seconds)

When you do an ignite, you have to make each slide quick, no more than a few sentences. I sort of used this to my advantage since my topic was about video games. First of all, I decided that I would make a pros/cons slide, Since about every presentation has a pros and cons slide.

While doing this, I realized that this would be a lot harder than it looked.  I still had to make 9 more slides, make a script, rehearse, memorize it, and present in front of a bunch of parents. I hadn’t really thought this through yet.  Continue reading →

This is my 5th blog post, only 2 posts to go. Time passes sooooo fast! Soon, we will have our presentation, graduation, and summer camp (yay!). But first, I must finish writing this blog post. 🙁

When I found out I had to write a whole essay on my main inquire question, I was going to faint. I was already left behind on research, and I still had to do a mind-blowing essay???

Another bad thing about my question was that it was hard to get an interview on it. Not many people are experts on the field of video games, and those who were never had the time for a kid interview, so I end up interviewing a shop manager. What a bummer.

Anyway, I have a knack to do last-minute preparations for major projects until like, 11 o’clock at night, so on that day I had to double my capstone work and double my capstone project time. Continue reading →

If you haven’t read my 3rd blog yet, please do now or else you will be sucked into a confusing vortex of events that don’t make sense, so please do now. (Go here)

After you’ve read my 3rd awesome blog (just saying), I’ll tell you about my cool site visit. Fast forward to the day of my site visit, the same day as my interview (if you haven’t read my interview yet, then you should read it right now).  I’ve decided that my site visit would be at a video game store (I know, right?), so on the day I went to interview Jessica I also did my site visit.

After My interview, I looked around the shop. There where all the kinds of games imaginable (a gamer’s heaven), from Wii to Xbox, from controllers to consoles, from super Mario to Pac-man. There were even demo consoles to advertise games!

Sadly, since it was at a video game shop, there were not that many notes to take, though I can imagine the store going through a few phases. At one point, it would be going on a holiday sale, all prices lowering. At another point, like on a very busy day, the prices would rise to the horizon, above all others. Then there would be the normal day, with normal prices, normal customers, normal decorations, normal music, normal holiday gift ideas-wait, there would be no gift ideas. Pardon me.

I took a look around the store. I really wanted to plop down, take a controller, and start playing, but I was on a site visit. In my previous research I found that violent gaming can make a child violent or so addicted that they would forget to eat, sleep, and drink. Now I know why a person would like to do that. Here’s part of what it looks like,

and if you ever want to visit, here’s where it is:

In what felt like 3 minutes (it was a lot longer than that), my mom said she needed to go, and I only had a few minutes left. Time passes so fast when you’re having fun! (or going on a site visit) I looked around one last time, imagining that I would come her again, bought a phone stand for a couple of bucks and left.

I hope I can go there again! (and buy some video games)

When we started our capstone, I didn’t know who to interview. There were video game scientists, but they usually were busy. There were video game journalists, but they usually were also busy. Then there were the shops. Thousands, maybe millions of GameStop shops were all over the world.

Unfortunately nobody in the family had any job related to video games. My dad worked at a really boring insurance company, while my mom took care of my sister and me. Eventually, after some thought and a talk with my mom (moms rule!), we decided we would go interview a shop on central avenue, Yonkers.

This was my interview sheet before:

I made one mistake, though. And that was a very bad mistake.

A day before my interview I told Ms. Edwards who I was interviewing. I was in for a surprise. It ends up that all the questions that I was making was not meant for a storekeeper. I reviewed my questions, and found out she was right. What in the world was I thinking??? Ms. Gleaves and I immediately started making new questions. Thankfully, by the end of the day we were prepared and ready to go.

This is my interview sheet after:

The next day was the day of my interview. I was so nervous! What if I did something stupid? What if we showed up late? What if we went to the wrong place? All of these questions filled my head as I got ready to go.

Then something happened. That same morning we had went to a barbecue and my parents were tired, so tired, in fact, that they refused to send me there, never will send me there, and told me to make them dinner! Just kidding. My parent wouldn’t ever do something like that(unless I find out they have a serious alcohol addiction, of course). Not Exaggerating!

Anyway, My mom told me to reschedule the interview with Jessica to tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. When I called, my stomach began filling up with butterflies again. I don’t know why, but it just does. We talked for a bit, then she told me it could be the day after tomorrow. I hung up, and all of the butterflies disappeared.

The next day was the real day of my interview (hopefully we won’t get in a car crash and have to revise again), and the butterflies returned.

When we got there, I saw that we went to the right place (Phew!). When I entered the store, I saw that we got there at the right time (Phew again!). The clerk at the front desk told us to go into the back storage room, where Jessica was waiting. I was about to introduce myself when she said, “hi Max!”. So much for my introduction.

We immediately jumped into the interview, me asking the questions while she telling me the answers. At the last question, I got so nervous I almost jumped out of my seat and shouted: “hooray!” when she answered. Our interview had gone successful (phew 3 times!)! I can’t wait till we do my presentation!

(P.S. For my site visit go here)

I think that it was really brave of Misty to go all the way to ABT and perform/practice, especially since she had a different skin color. That must of took a lot of effort and hard work! Plus, when she hurt her back it must of hurt a lot, but she still continued. That must of been brave too! I felt good for her that she made it and got promoted, and she is still helping other children dance. I really liked that story!

When Grace Lin first came in the library, I thought: “I have read her books, and they are really good!”, so when she did the act with the six suns and the powerful hunter, I knew it was a story that Madame Chang told Rendi while he stayed at that hotel. I also know that when she later said that the tiger is good and bad, I knew from in one story that Madame Chang told that the powerful hunter that shot down the five suns once was a tiger that the village gave a baby rabbit to take care of and that tiger turned back into that powerful hunter. It was good to know what she really was talking about, and I really like her books! Also, when she started speaking Chinese to the class I was really excited because I knew all those words that she said! It was the best visit ever, and I hope she can visit again!!!

When we started this project, I was very excited and nervous. What would I do? Will it be cool? What if I mess up? I million questions flooded my mind as I my topic: video games. At first My question was gonna be how video games evolved over the decades but after Ms. Edwards gave us a lesson I decided that my main inquiry question would be How have video games affected human lives and what can be improved. After that was done, I was relieved, but that relief didn’t last long. Soon, our five sub questions were due. I came up with three right away: How does it affect the brain, how does it affect the eyes, and does it improve hand-eye coordination. Then I added the questions: How do video games affect a child’s learning? and How do video games affect a child’s sleep? Then I went over all the questions and thought, those questions are too identical, so I changed them to: 1. How many minutes of video games does an average child play a day? 2. How do video games affect the eyes? 3. Do video games improve your hand-eye coordination? 4. How do video games affect a child’s learning? 5. Do video games affect a child’s sleep? after I got this done, saved, and double-checked, that was when I really felt like I was done with the questions. I wonder what I’ll do for my answers……

Today we were supposed to choose a topic to write about. There were SO many possibilities! I could do aero dynamics, roller coasters, video games, and so much more! I was like, which one should I choose? I’ll do candy. No, that doesn’t sound right. I’ll about aero dynamics. No, that doesn’t sound right either. At the end I wound up choosing video games because it is interesting, I know a lot about it, I play it a lot, and when I present it to the other grades they’re probably going to crowd around my stand because everyone likes video games! I can’t wait to write about it!!

For My festival poem I chose my mystery poem because it creates tension while you read it and at the end it releases all the tension by telling you something funny (sort of). It really creates a festive mood!

For My video poem I chose my Meaningless poem. I like my meaningless poem because It just talks about random stuff, not really telling you anything.

For My photo poem I chose my poem called “Something Perfect is missing”. I especially made this poem the poem I put the photo in because people had to read it to understand the question, which they had to answer. I also gave them a hint, though even without the hint it is pretty obvious.

I can’t wait till the festival!