I just had my interview with Kristin Louise, my mom and I got to explore the Crayola Experience! There where four floors so we decided to do each floor one at a time. Here are the top four activities at the Crayola experience.

#1 Wrap It Up. Wrap It Up is a machine where you could make your own label for a crayon for example you could choose your color that you wanted, write anything you wanted on it and then put a design next to it. I did this a bunch of times.

#2 Spin Art. Spin Art is a machine where you melt whatever crayons you want and when they melt it is being poured onto a piece of paper that is spinning and than it turns out as a melted crayon piece of artwork!

#3 Crayola Factory. The Crayola Factory is a room where there are machines that resemble of how Crayola crayons are made. For example, there are five machines that are used to make Crayola crayons #1 The melter pot. When Crayola gets its crayons it is just a big block of wax so they put it in a melter pot and it turns into liquid. #2 The shaper tray. Than they pour the liquid into this big tray with a bunch of molds of crayons and wait for it to harden and scrape off all the assess.#4 The table. Than they take the crayons and put them on a table. #5 The wrapper machine. Than people take the crayons off the table and put it into the wrapping machine which than wraps all the crayons.(Fun Fact, There are more than 400 colors but only 13 wrappers that Crayola uses)#6 The packaging machine. Last The crayons go to a wrapping machine that puts all the different colors into different packages.

#4 Melt and Mold. Melt and Mold is a machine that melts a crayon and that crayon melts into a different mold which turns into something like a crayon ring e.t.c.

Than we leave Crayola and decided to visit the actuall factory which is about 20 minutes away. When we get there the entrance it is all blocked off with a train track going into the factory we are not allowed to go into the factory but we take a picture of it. It was SO cool. Than the main headquarters are right next to it. The day was so fun and I learned a lot. I thought it was so fun and was the best part of Capstone so far and I learned a lot.

Today I interviewed Kristin Louise who works in sales and marketing at the Crayola Experience. For the interview I audio recorded it because I wasn’t going to take all those notes and every single detail of the answers. I asked her ten questions about herself and Crayola. The questions are,

#1 What do you like most about working at Crayola?

#2 What time period was Crayola most successful and why? What time was Crayola least successful and why?

#3 How has technology affected the type of products Crayola makes?

#4 What are the top ways Crayola promotes its products?

#5 What is involved from the idea to the end product with creating and selling a new Crayola product?

#6 What are the most important or key products in Crayola’s history?

#7 Who are Crayolas biggest competitors and how do they compare to Crayola?

#8 How does Crayola come up with the idea of all these different colors and how do they name them with names like “middle yellow red” e.t.c.

#9 Where are Crayola’s products mostly made why was those/that places selected for making the products?

#10 How are children’s opinions used when new products are made?

When Kristin answered  the questions she gave very detailed answers which were very helpful/useful. For example, part of her answer for question two was “It’s not a specific time that Crayola did the best but it’s when Crayola remembered what they where about. The number one thing Crayola is about is teaching kids how to be creative. Crayola does this because they think kids will be the leaders of the world one day. So Crayola wants to give kids the tools they need to be creative.” I thought this answer was interesting because it was not what I was expecting.

I thought the interview was really fun and because I learned all this information that you can’t find on some websites and it will definitely help e out with answering my sub questions. I can’t wait to see around the Crayola experience for my site visit!!!

Here is a picture of me and Kristin Louise.

I think On Point is very inspirational. One example why it’s inspirational is, Misty Copeland is  an only black out of 80 dancers is showing it doesn’t matter that everybody else is thin and white skinned and she is black; if you have a passion pursue it. In the text it states,”For so many generations ballerinas have been seen as these frail white women Misty Copeland is proud to set an example that you don’t to fit a mold to succeed.” This shows that it is good to be different, the world would be a boring place if everyone was the same. Even though Misty Copeland started dancing at age 13 she tried hard and succeeded. Misty Copeland became the first African American women to be a principal dance in ABT’s 75 year history on June 30th 2015. Another example why Misty Copeland is inspirational is, she helps kids in the Project Pile which will help kids find there inner talent for dancing. In the text it states, “Misty Copeland hopes that Project Pile will help pave the for other young dancers.” This shows that the kids she is helping she hopes that they will become dancers one day and follow there dreams. Overall I think this TFK On Point is very inspirational.

I learned a lot from this story The Power of Quiet. I learned what introvert, extrovert and ambivert mean. For example, introvert means quiet, not that social, shy, and not that outgoing. On the other hand extrovert is the complete opposite there outgoing, loud, and they stand out of the crowd. Ambivert means that they are a little of both. Sometimes they can be outgoing and sometimes they are not as outgoing. That is what I think I am. The story explains how this kid Davis  is introvert but he trys tip #3 that Author Susan Cain offers which is,” EXPAND YOUR COMFORT ZONE. Try something new. Stretch you limits, within reason.” Davis is trying out for the class president; he is running against the most popular girl in the grade and he won. This taught me to try new things even if your not sure because you never know what could happen.

I think Grace Lin is very inspirational and strong. One reason why I think Grace Lin is very inspiration is because she shows that kids should be themselves they shouldn’t try to be someone that there not. She is also inspirational because she shows you that you should be proud of who you are, you shouldn’t be someone you’re not. She showed us in her visit that for her ugly vegetable book she was the only one growing Chinese vegetables and everyone else on the block was growing flowers. One reason Grace Lin is very strong is because she got bullied when she was a kid because she looked different from everyone just because she is Asian. When she grew older she wrote books(not everyone) that include Asian characters. She wrote these books so that kids that are Asian could have books where they are seeing themselves in it and not seeing someone they are not. Overall I think Grace Lin is very inspirational and strong.

Once I chose my topic, the next step was to write my inquiry questions and sub questions. I started working on our inquiry questions first. An inquiry question is the question that gathers all of your Capstone research together. When I changed my topic to Crayola, I changed it last minute. I had already made an inquiry question for Dylan’s Candy Bar. It was “Who are Dylan’s Candy Bar’s top competitors and how do they compare?” So when I was thinking of a inquiry question I didn’t want to do a compare question because Crayola is probably the most known. I felt like this topic was harder to come up with a inquiry question about because there is more information about Crayola than there is about Dylan’s Candy Bar. I knew I wanted to do something with how the crayons are made and what are the ingredients but more advanced. Mrs. Edwards said you can look that up online and there would just be a list of ingredients. She gave me a suggestion of doing something with the color alive app. Here is what it was: “How is Crayola using augmented reality to make coloring and interactive experience and how can it be used for educational purposes?” I didn’t really want to do my Capstone related to Crayola technology. So I tried to think of what I could do. I thought of doing it on how Crayola evolved since it started as a company. I asked Mrs. Edwards to see if it was fine. Mrs. Edwards said it was good – it just needed an extra part. I thought, and I came up with, it could be something about how what have been the things that have made it successful. So I wrote: “How has Crayola evolved since the company started and what have been the things that have made it successful?” I asked Mrs. Edwards if it could be my inquiry question. She said some words just needed to be fixed so we did that and I had my main inquiry question. This is what it is: “How has Crayola evolved over the years and what have been the key elements to the company’s success?” Next, we started our sub questions. They had to be questions that answered our inquiry question. We started by getting a worksheet organizer that had six spaces for each sub question. I wanted the first sub question to be something like: “What are the most popular products sold?”  I worded it: “What have been the most popular products that you have sold?” For my second question I wanted it to be something like how the products that they made how it has evolved. I thought this was a good way to explain it: “What are the different types of products that you make now?” The third question I wanted it to be like how they came up with all the ideas to make the coloring materials and how they thought to create them and that has to do with the success of the company. I wrote it like this: “How did the crayon, marker, and colored pencil come to be?” The fourth question I was wondering how has technology changed Crayola or something related to that because that shows how Crayola evolved. I thought I would do something that would involve a little more of an answer and I came up with this: “How does Crayola of the 20th century compare to Crayola of the 21st century?” Then, for my fifth question, I thought of something. does it take longer to make markers than crayons and why does that certain one take longer. I thought it would be a good way to word it like, “What is the daily production of each product?” You can have five or six sub questions. But I wanted to have one extra one just in case. I thought Crayola is really popular – why is that? So I thought to word it like: “How is Crayola above other competitors?” Now I had all my sub questions written. In class, we had partners and we checked over our sub questions with them and re worded them.  My partner suggested I change them to #1,”What have been the key products that Crayola has sold?” #2,”How have the products that Crayola makes now compare to the products used to make?” #3,”What information did Crayola use to make the color pencil,crayon,marker or twistable?”#4, my partner thought I should keep it the same as “How does Crayola of the 20th century compare to Crayola of the 21st century?” #5,”How has technology changed the way Crayola produces there products?” #6,”How has Crayola make there products more popular than other companies?” Those are all my revised sub questions by my partner. All I have to do is check them with Mrs. Edwards and find the answers to them. I can’t wait to do further research on Crayola for my Capstone!

The 2016 Summer Olympics are taking place in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil. The Olympics will take place August 5th to the 21st and the Paralympics will take place September 7th to the 18th. More than 11,000 of the athletes will attend the games. The total cost of the games is 11,000,000,000! How do they make that much money? Rio has been prepering for this event since 2009!

We found out that we were starting Capstone. First, we had to choose a topic to study for our Capstone project. I thought that I wanted to do Hershey because I knew a lot about it and I was going there for two days over break. I discussed with Mrs. Edwards if I should do Hershey and she said ,”Capstone is supposed to be something that you don’t know a lot about.” I realized that if I do Hershey, I already know a lot about it so, I won’t have the full Capstone experience. I decided to pick a topic that I don’t know a lot about. At first, I did not know what to do. Then, I thought about it and I thought that it would be fun to do Dylan’s Candy Bar, Crayola or American Girl.  I thought hard on what I wanted to research a lot about. I also thought I wanted to do something that interests me that I would have fun doing.  I thought Dylan’s Candy Bar would be fun because all the candy and how it’s one of the most popular candy bars in the world. So, I did Dylan’s Candy Bar as my main topic. We also needed a back-up idea and I was deciding between Crayola and American Girl. I thought American Girl wouldn’t have a lot of websites on it or information. I knew that Crayola has a lot about history, how they make the crayons and A LOT more. Now since I figured it out Dylan’s Candy Bar will be my Capstone idea and Crayola will be my back-up idea. As i’m writing this I realized I might want to do Crayola because if you think about it Dylan’s Candy Bar is just a store that sells other peoples candy. Now I am doing Crayola as my main Capstone idea and Dylan’s Candy Bar as my back-up idea and I feel like I made the right choice. Even though I did my switch so last minute and I already have information on Dylan’s Candy Bar; I am glad that I switched over.I can’t wait to learn more about Crayola for my Capstone!

Today I read the November 16, 2015 Tween Tribune article, “Police Pull Over A Self-Driving Car.”  In the article it explains how a police officer pulled over a car because, “The officer noticed the car going a road clogging 24mph in a 34mph zone.” Yet, when the officer tried to pull over the car to give the person a ticket, there was no one in the car to give the ticket to! In the text it states,”He stopped the car and contacted it’s operators to let them know it was slowing traffic, but no ticket was given.”

It’s good that he contacted Google but despite that the officer gave a warning, it could happen again. In fact, if Google keeps putting more self-driving cars on the roads, then this will cause a major problem.

I think that they should not put self-driving cars on the roads because they are way to dangerous. For example, if there is a kid crossing at the last few seconds or a school bus has a stop sign up, how will the car know what to do in those situations?  If a car makes a turn and goes out of control, there is no one is there to control it. That could put a lot of peoples life at risk. Even with a person in the driver’s seat; what is the point of being in the front seat when you could just drive?  Technology isn’t alert as people are and that could put a lot of people in danger. That’s why I think that people should not put self-driving cars on the road.