Capstone Reflection

Have you ever done a project where you pick a topic do a lot of research,write an essay, make slides, and memorize? Well I have and it was not easy. I think the research was the hardest because it took the longest then the essay then the script and the easiest was the slideshow.

The first step was the research. This was one of the hardest to do.The part that was most challenging was getting the websites because most were restricted or had words that I didn’t understand or didn’t have what I wanted. The part that was easiest or went well was getting the information from the website once I found the right one. Once I found the right website it most likely had an answer to two or more of my sub-questions. The most interesting thing I learned from pollution is probably how it affects animals because I would never think animals can be harmed by that many things in our air.

My main inquiry question was How Does Air Pollution Effect People And Animals And How Can We Reduce It? Air pollution can harm many things but there are many ways to reduce it. It can do many harmful things for people and animals and can be caused by many things. To see the essay click here. The most enjoyable part about completing the essay was that I didn’t have to do any more research and I could start my script. The most challenging part was timing it and trimming it. We had to time it because the limit was 6 minutes. Mine was ten minutes so I had to cut it down a lot and it took a while. I didn’t know what to cut down and what to keep but once I did it was easier.

First we had to pick between movie or ted talk. It was hard to choose because for the movie we had to find more pictures and once we recorded if the recording had noise or you could hear well we had to re-record. For a ted talk In conclusion, I’m happy Capstone work is over! I had to do a lot of hard work and I’m happy its over. It was also very fun in my opinion but some people might not agree.we would have to memorize which I knew would take a while knowing I would have to memorize six minutes. For the ted talk we also had to make a slideshow which I knew would be easier. I asked Ms. Furgatch and she said she would rather hear a ted talk so I decided I was going to do a ted talk. To see the script template click here. For the script template which you can see here we had to copy and paste parts of our essay into the orginizer. After that we had to time the parts but that was just for us to see because we switch the slides and we don’t time it. Once we did that I had to choose what images I wanted and what I wanted the audience to read. After that we had to memorize and it was easier then I expected but it was really boring. The challenging parts were figuring out the images because for example if I was talking about sicknesses I didn’t know what to pick. The most enjoyable part was probably when I finished because I finished before the due date so I had extra time if I had to fix things and find images.

The final product was really good. Once I memorized I practiced with friends to make sure I was able to do the whole this without messing up. The most enjoyable part was that I didn’t have to memorize anymore and I could keep practicig so I was ready on the real day. The most challenging part was doing the whole thing and talking slow enough. I kept messing up at least once but when I did it I still had to keep practicing so I could do it again. When I talked fast its because I was still scared it would go overtime and I just wanted to get it over with. Once it was the week of presenting we had to do it in the lab and record to post it on youtube.

In conclusion, I’m happy Capstone work is over! I had to do a lot of hard work and I’m happy its over. It was also very fun in my opinion but some people might not agree. The final product is here

Feature Article Reflection

Imagine your writing a whole article like the scholastic ones, you may think it’s easy and everything well it’s not. I just did and I got to add pictures and other fun stuff. I’m going to talk about how I came up with the topic, what aspects were most enjoyable, what techniques I used, what I’m most proud of and how it compares with a narrative.

I really liked writing the feature article but the most enjoyable parts were the conclusion, intro, and the formatting. The conclusion and intro was fun because I felt really good about them and I got to be creative to come up with them. I liked the formatting because it was easy but also really fun. I got to experience with changing the format and adding pictures. That is what I really enjoyed about the feature article.

When we were writing before we started we needed a topic. One way I came up with my topic is we had an orginizer to put different topics in, put the message, and the sections. This helped because I saw which one I could talk more about and which message I felt was better. Another way is I picked something I loved which was camp. I love a bunch of things but Camp is something I know a lot about and went there so I could have more specific things in it. That’s how I figured out what my topic should be.

There were a lot of techniques but I used a few most effectively in this piece. I used examples and interesting conclusion and introduction. For example the intro and conclusion I used an anecdote which is something like a scenario that you put in the article. I also used examples which were helpful when I listed things. I needed to list things for the activities and the food. Those are the main topics that I used.

I am proud of a lot of things but I was most proud of the formatting and the section called “Field Trips and Visiting Day”. I am proud of the formatting because it took a long time to do and was really hard but looks really good. Also there were a few rules on the formatting. When I was formatting I had to change almost all the formatting because all the blocks of writing had to be the same width. I’m proud of the field trips and visiting day section because I have a lot of text and it was really hard to correct the whole thing. I was also able to make it a really good size because I could fit in with a picture and fun fact. That is what I am mainly proud of.     

The feature article compares to writing a narrative in many different ways. For instance, there was a lot more information. Instead of writing around paragraphs (including intro and conclusion) I wrote 6. We also had to do a lot of formatting. When we do the narratives we just copy and paste everything below the orginizer but with the feature article we copied and pasted everything into shapes and formatted it. I also had to write about a subject for the article but with narratives I write about my own experience. That’s how I think they compare.

Now that I’ve told you all about my experience with the feature article overall I think it was really fun. At first it was hard getting the topic and message but once I was getting the hang of it was easier. Have you ever written a feature article? If you have was it hard, was it fun?