Capstone Blog Post #2

strelles28 # # # # #

For our Capstone project we have to do an interview that will help us with our research and to learn more about our topic. My topic is, Disney princesses, and my main inquiry question, the question that drives all my research is, “How have Disney princesses evolved, and how have they impacted girls and boys around the world?”

When my teacher told me that we had to do an interview, I was scared. I had no one to interview, and I was getting a bit worried. My mom then told me that my friend’s mom started to work at Disney! I got so excited because I knew that she would probably be a good interview for me, and would help me with a lot of my research. I interviewed Lisa Fragner, vice president of Disney television.

When I emailed her I got super nervous, I was worried that she was not going to be able to do the interview, and that I wouldn’t have somebody to interview. But once I emailed her, she replied right away! I got super excited to open the email because I think that she could really help me learn more about how they have impacted girls and boys around the world. I opened and she said yes to doing the interview. We started arranging a date. This part was hard since a lot of the dates that she was free I wasn’t and vice versa. We then settled the date as Monday, May 10th, at 4:00pm. 

Once I got the date I started brainstorming interview questions. We had to have 10-15 questions.Coming up with the questions wasn’t hard for the first 8 questions, but then I started to get worried, and I couldn’t think of any other questions. So that is where my teacher helped me. She helped brainstorm new questions, and helped me make the questions that I already had even better. Once I finished meeting with my teacher, I had 12 questions. But during my interview I noticed that some of the questions didn’t make any sense, and that for one of my questions it would sound better if it was combined with another question. So I ended up having 10 questions, instead of 12. 

 Here are all of the questions I used in my interview

 

  1. Please describe what you do at Disney.
  2. What do you enjoy the most about your job?
  3. What is the most challenging and/or least favorite part of your job?
  4. Who was your favorite Disney princess when you were growing up and why?
  5. Which Disney princesses do you admire now, as an adult?  Why?
  6. What are three main ways Disney princesses have evolved?
  7. Which Disney princess evolved the most compared to the first Disney princess Snow White and why?
  8. What impact have Disney princesses made on girls and boys around the world?
  9. What is your favorite movie that you have worked on and why?
  10. How has COVID affected the ability of children around the world to access Disney movies?

Once it was the day of my interview, I got super nervous because I was scared I was going to mess something up. But once Lisa called I calmed down, and my interview was super fun! She was so kind and very helpful. She also had an answer for all of the questions that I asked her! Some of my favorite facts that I learned were, 

A lot of people couldn’t go to the theaters to watch movies, so that’s when streaming platforms, like Netflix and Disney+ became very popular. You can watch pretty much anything, whenever you want. But a lot of kids don’t have access to streaming platforms, so they couldn’t watch whatever they wanted whenever they wanted.

The main thing that she does at her job is, finding stories for them to turn into an animated film. She could find the story from pretty anything! The radio, newspapers, magazines, books, and much much more!

Disney princesses before mainly focused on the princess needing a prince to save them, and that is one of the main ways that Disney princesses have evolved. Also for a long period of time they were all white. But they have changed because they started to be more diverse, there are Black Disney princesses, Native American, Asian, Arabian, and more!

Overall the process of doing the interview, and then actually doing the interview was a lot of fun. I learned a lot of cool new facts that are really going to help me with my research! I can’t wait to put everything together and see how my essay and my final project turns out once it is put together!

 

Categories: 5th Grade, Capstone, Social Studies4 Comments

Rube Goldberg Reflection

strelles28 # # # # #

We recently finished our Rube Goldberg project! This is probably my favorite project we have done so far! I really liked thinking about a way to make a whole machine just to do a simple task. Now let’s start from the beginning. When we got introduced to this project I was so excited! I saw my brothers do it and I couldn’t wait until it was my turn. First thing we had to do was research and start planning out our sketch for our contraption. This was a bit difficult. But the research was a lot of fun to do! We researched on simple machines, and learned about some everyday objects that are simple machines. Like a car for example, a car is a wheel and axle! That is actually one of the simple machines I used for my contraption. I used a toy car! I also used a ramp, which is an inclined plane. The last simple machine I used was a lever! This might surprise you, but dominoes are actually a lever! After  researching I really started to focus on the sketch, my sketch changed three times throughout the project. My first contraption had around 25 steps! And half of the steps seemed impossible! So I switched it up, but there were a few parts that still just didn’t make any sense to me! Then finally I got it! I made my sketch and it was time to start building! Originally I wanted my simple task to be knocking down a milk jug and letting it fall into a bowl of cereal. But then I noticed how hard that was going to be! So I changed it to just putting cereal into a bowl, which was much easier! Since the simple task is in the end, I only had to make a few modifications to my build, and then it was time to start testing. My whole machine took only 11 tries! I was extremely surprised, since I knew that for a lot of people it would take more than 20 tries! Plus most of my failures weren’t very annoying, and I usually didn’t have to put anything back up. I did have one or two where all of my dominoes knocked down, or only a few of them knocked down. Once it worked I had to make the video! Which surprisingly wasn’t hard at all! I finished it in two days, I expected it to take a lot longer! Overall I had a lot of fun with this project, I can’t wait for more to come!

Here is my video and my sketch!

 

Categories: 5th Grade, Science, Technology3 Comments

Capstone Blog Post #1

strelles28 # # # # # #

So far for the Capstone project we have gone through a lot of things. We have our topic, our main inquiry question, and most people have their sub questions. Thinking of my topic wasn’t very hard for me. I have wanted to do this topic since I knew what Capstone was! The topic that I chose was Disney, specifically Disney Princesses. This is kind of where the roller coaster started. I knew that I wanted to do Disney, but that is a very big topic. So I had to narrow it down. First, I thought I could do Disney Theme Parks, then I noticed that I didn’t really want to do that. So I decided to change it to Disney Characters! But then I thought that I would have to pick a few Disney Characters to talk about, and there are hundreds! I wanted to stick to the Disney Characters theme, so I decided to make my topic Disney Princesses. Next, the main inquiry question! This wasn’t very difficult since I knew I wanted to do something that had to do with the evolution of Disney Princesses! But now I had to add to it. This is the part I had trouble with! But this is where my teacher comes in, she really helped me with this part, and then I knew what my main inquiry question would be! My main inquiry question is, How have Disney princesses evolved and how have they influenced girls and boys around the world? Finally the sub questions! In my opinion this was hard but also easy at the same time. I had a bit of trouble understanding why we needed sub questions, but then I figured it out. I figured out my sub questions by just thinking about things that I want to learn, that have to do with Disney princesses! This really helped me, and that is how I thought of my sub questions. Two of my sub questions are, How has the design of the Disney princesses evolved? And, How have the messages that the Disney princesses send impact girls and boys? Overall this project has been so much fun so far, and I can’t wait to keep going with this project!

Categories: 5th Grade, Capstone, Social Studies4 Comments

Rube Goldberg Process

strelles28 # # # # #

The Rube Goldberg project so far has been so much fun! First lets start off with how the whole idea started. First I had to think of the simple task, and then I would go backwards. I had some trouble figuring this out, but then I started thinking of things that I do everyday! One of those things is having cereal for breakfast! I thought that my simple task would be pouring milk into a bowl of cereal! Next I had to start thinking, so I made a very messy sketch, but then I noticed that a lot of things I had in this sketch would probably not work. So I decided to make another sketch! Once I made that sketch I went to go get the supplies that I needed for it, and then I started building! About a quarter way through the process I noticed that this wasn’t going to work. All of the steps were so complicated and it would maybe have taken 100 plus tries! I made one final sketch and that is the one that I am building right now! I think this one is going to work, and i’m not going to have that much trouble with this one! So far the building process has been hard, and has needed lots of tape. I am excited to see what the final results are going to be like, and how many tries it is going to take to complete the whole thing! I hope that there will be more fun coming with this project, and I am very excited to see how it turns out!

Here is my sketch!

 

Categories: 5th Grade, Science, Technology1 Comment

Reflection on Immigration Video

strelles28 # #

This project in general was so much fun, but it was hard. Everything that I had to do in this project was fun but came with lots of challenges. But I really enjoyed it because I got to learn so much more about my dad, he was my interview. He told me stories and I also got to see a lot of cool new pictures of him! He told me about the challenges he had to face, he also told me about some of his favorite memories, how his life is now and so much more! Something that I found very challenging was making the video. I had a lot of trouble finding the perfect pictures to use. I also had so much information and I wasn’t sure how to fit it all in. Looking for the pictures was very hard because I had to find the perfect picture that fits what I am saying. Making the script was also hard. I had a lot of trouble making it all make sense and be able to tell the story in a detailed way. When I was making my script, I made a narrative first. When I was making the narrative I thought that I had to keep writing more and more because I thought I didn’t have enough. But I actually wrote so much that I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to fit it all into the script. Something that I always find challenging in making We Videos is the transitions. This is challenging for me since you can’t have all of the same transitions for each picture, but then you also can’t have different transitions for every picture. So what I did to help me with this is, I picked three transitions that I would use throughout the whole video, and I think that really helped me. Something else that I found hard was putting the text on the photos. You couldn’t have text on every photo since it would be to much. But then you also can’t have it on no photos since it would look plain. You have to be able to find the perfect balance, which is sometimes very hard to find. The voice over was really hard. The voice over for this project was probably the hardest thing for me. It was hard to fit all of the words I was trying to say and make sure that it matches up with the picture. Something that happened to me on the day that it was due was when I was editing it and checking it over, something happened and my whole presentation diapered. I couldn’t find it and I thought I had to do it all over again, but I knew I didn’t have time for that. I did get it all back, but this made me very nervous. This was very scary, but I now know to be more careful with what I am doing. Overall this project was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed making it, and learning so much more about my dad. I would like to thank Mrs.Edwards and Mr. Casal for helping me with this project, and my dad for letting me interview him.

Here is my video

Categories: 5th Grade, Social StudiesLeave a comment

Reflection on Immigrant Interview

strelles28 # # #

For my interview I interviewed my dad. I learned a lot about him and his background. I also learned a lot about his life when he first came here to America. He told me a lot of stories about his life and how there were a lot of challenges that he had to face when he first got here. I interviewed him in person so it was much easier and I could understand everything he was saying. I recorded it so I could always listen back. Recording really helped me in the long run because there were a few things that I missed but then could just listen back too. After I interviewed my dad I got a lot of pictures of him that could help me understand some of the stories that he told me. Thinking of the questions was a bit difficult though since you had to get questions that you would get long and detailed answers too. For a good amount of my questions I would just get a yes or no question and that wouldn’t help me, so I had to modify these questions into questions that I could get a long and detailed answer too. I had a lot of fun interviewing my dad and I now just want to learn more!

Categories: 5th Grade, Social StudiesLeave a comment

Argument and Advocacy Debates

strelles28 # # #

Hello! We did a debate. My group was, Should plastic bags get banned or Should plastic bags not get banned? For the first practice debate I did, plastic bags should not be banned. Researching this wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. I found a lot of good information the first time around. When I did the first debate it was very scary. I had no clue what it would be like, but in the end it was a lot of fun. For the second practice debate I did, plastic bags should be banned. Finding information wasn’t very hard this time either. It was less scary presenting it this time than the first time, but it was still scary. For the final debate I did, plastic bags should not be banned. Finding information was a piece of cake, since I had already researched both sides. I made flash cards and those helped me a lot. Once it was time to debate it was very scary, but it all ended up well and I had a lot of fun debating. My thoughts changed by the end of the debate, I thought 100% plastic bags should be banned, but now that I got to research both sides, I am now thinking that we shouldn’t ban plastic bags!

Categories: 5th Grade, Reading3 Comments

My Final Constitution Project

strelles28 # # # #

I did a We Video for my final Constitution Project and it was a lot of fun to do! But three were a lot of things that I found challenging. The pictures were very hard to find, whenever I found a picture that wasn’t on We Video I had to make sure I knew where it came from because I would need to use it in the end to list my resources. Something else that was difficult was making sure I put good information into my We Video, this was hard because there was a lot of good information that I found, but I couldn’t use all of it because it wouldn’t match very well with my We Video. We also had to make sure every picture lasted fro 5 seconds or less, and that each video was 10 seconds or less. But I really enjoyed making it and it was a lot of fun!

Categories: 5th Grade, Social StudiesLeave a comment

Constitution Project Research

strelles28 # # # #

My research question is, What was Rosa Parks’s role in the Civil Rights Movement? I researched this question and it came with a lot of good information. But sometimes it was hard to find it. When I was looking at the articles they all said very similar things. It was a bit hard to find new information, but once I did it started to get easier. I tried to make sure not to write the same information down, doing this was a big challenge because you sometimes forget what you write. Even though there were a lot of things that were tough, I really enjoyed researching. Learning new facts about Rosa Parks’s and seeing more into her life. Overall researching came with a lot of challenges, but was still a lot of fun.

Categories: 5th Grade, Social Studies1 Comment