Capstone Reflection – Post #3

by cmou29

I suppose this project had to be completely perfect, and I tried to make it perfect, but it seems like something’s missing. This Capstone project is going well, it’s almost the end, and this “end” means presenting your project to the parents, or the so-called audience. I can’t believe this project went by so fast. It also felt so long since the start. I think the main reason why we did all the other projects is to prepare for this big one. There were challenges, manageable parts, annoying times, and uncertain parts. 

Let me start with some challenges this project gave me. One, this project gave me extreme work. The time they gave us was just a month or so. So, the project was to be done perfectly in a small amount of time. I think I made my video perfect, but sometimes I thought something was missing. Although when I showed my video to the class and they thought it was amazing, I still felt like it wasn’t perfect enough. This project is sure challenging. Another challenge I faced was the video. The video in general wasn’t that hard, I was already really good at making videos. But all the small detail I made perfect was not that easy. For example, my voice keeps on glitching in the recording, pictures that didn’t make sense, and moving all the clips so that I could make sure something was long enough. It wasn’t hard, but it was easy either. 

I really enjoy making videos. It’s just something I like, especially seeing my final results. I feel proud of myself. I chose to make a video because I like making movies. But that’s not all. At first, I wanted to do a TedTalk. But after hearing about all the memorizing, I didn’t feel so good about doing it. I do have a brain with a great memory, but I didn’t want to. So I decided to make a movie. Easy and simple, so why not? 

There were some easy parts, too. Those were easy to finish, easy to manage, and more. For example, I think that the part about writing the script wasn’t that hard. It was mostly just writing the about same things in your essay, where all of your information is. There weren’t many easy parts though, most of the project was complex and hard. 

This project included a lot of things. Those are the research, the essay, the script, the movie, and the blog posts. The movie section, it includes smaller things. These include narration, pictures, neatness, and more. 

Overall, this Capstone project is very interesting. I found my final results just the way I wanted them to be. Maybe there were a few changes to what I expected, but it was still a very good movie in the end. I enjoyed this project. It was a very busy, challenging, big, and expressive project. I didn’t think it was very fun or super awesome, but it was sure something interesting enough for me to be able to enjoy.

Capstone – Extra Information(for video)

by cmou29

Big Bang – Wiki: The Big Bang is basically a big explosion, no one really knows what it looked like before the Big Bang, but we do know that the Big Bang was an explosion and happened about 13.8 billion years ago. After the explosion(which was very big), the universe started expanding uncontrollably. The universe was extremely hot and dense. The expansion of the universe was backward in time using general relativity yields, an infinite density, and temperature at finite times in the past. It was so hot that all the rocks(in space) clumped together and formed planets, moons, stars, and other types of space objects. The Big Bang was qualified as the “birth” of the universe since it was basically the start of the actual universe. It also represents the time in history(of the universe) when the universe officially entered the law of physics that we understand and know. After the Big Bang, the universe started forming more and more black holes, while the universe kept on growing bigger and bigger. The Big Bang was rapidly expanding its size, and it’s still growing larger today. According to the Big Bang theory, the universe at the beginning was very hot and compact. And since then, the universe continues to expand and cool down. Now, our universe is cold, much colder than the most frigid winters we have on Earth. This is why astronauts have to wear space suits when they go into space. That prevents the astronauts from freezing to death. But before the universe started cooling down, the universe was very hot. That’s how all the rocks from the Big Bang began clumping together and forming all the planets and stars in our universe today(although most of the stars and turned into black holes now).

The ultimate fate of the Universe – Wiki: There are many kinds of ways for the universe to end: Big Freeze/Heat Death, Big Rip, Big Crunch, and Big Bounce(Big Slurp could be a grave threat to the universe, but cannot end the universe). Scientists have studied the universe and come up with these kinds of ways the universe might end. The theory for the ultimate fate of the universe was created by Albert Einstein. The end of the universe became possible to Einsteins’ 1915 theory of general relativity. General relativity is something to describe the universe at its largest scale. General relativity also helps cosmologists come up with other possible fates of the universe. In 1922, Alexander Friedmann came up with some possible ends, the same with Georges Lemaitre in 1927. In some of these solutions, the universe had been expanding from an initial singularity which is basically the Big Bang. In 1929, Edwin Hubble published his conclusion, which said that he observed distant galaxies and stars and concluded that the universe is still expanding. That said, it shows that the beginning of the universe and the end of the universe is a serious scientific investigations. The Big Freeze/Heat Death works like this; The universe continues its expansion, and as time passes by, the expansion results in zero temperature. The Big Freeze scenario works like a combination of itself and the Big Rip scenario. Like in the name, the universe will just freeze. The Heat Death works opposite of the Big Freeze, but that requires the right amount of temperature. The Big Rip work like this; The universe is expanding- expanding too much. The Big Rip will just work like a rip. The universe will get ripped apart due to its expansion. The Big Crunch will work like this; It will basically be a Big Bang but reversed.

Note: This is extra information for my Capstone video.

Capstone Reflection – Post #2

by cmou29

This time, we have to do interviews. In the Capstone project, there is a requirement that you have to conduct an interview. This interview has to be with an expert on your topic. I kind of felt a little nervous, this is because I’ll be reaching out to someone I totally don’t know. I know that the immigration interview is supposed to be getting you ready for the Capstone interview. But for my immigration interview, I conducted an interview with my mom, whom I know really well. This made it a little tricky because the immigration interview didn’t get all pumped up and ready for this Capstone interview. Although I was a little nervous, and in “what if” mode, I still sent my email to reach out to the person I was interviewing. She was a professor at Columbia. The interview went just fine, I got the answers I wanted and it went smoothly. As for the research, I didn’t have much problem with it, it was just a little hard sometimes to get the correct information for my topic. There weren’t many struggles with the research, I found it kind of easy, actually. There was a lot of space to fill out the slides, but I still managed to do it. I even got some slides that got another slide because there were just too many notes. Whenever I found a website or article that had a lot of good information, I’d get really excited and note everything down.

I originally wanted to interview this famous cosmologist that teaches at Stanford University. But unfortunately, he was too busy and didn’t have time to have an interview with me. But the good news was that he left me two articles that he wrote. As soon as I scanned it, I knew it would be great information. My mother helped me solve problems in finding an interviewee, and I successfully got all the information I needed. Nothing was too hard or challenging, everything was a mild difficulty. Of all of my questions, it wasn’t that hard but was difficult because there wasn’t much to ask. After the questions, you had to email(contact) an expert on your topic. I didn’t find it that hard, I still got my interview done.

The interview went pretty well. It went just as expected. Every answer to one of my interview questions was perfect and great. I learned some new things as well. Some were not exactly the same as the answers that I researched, but I know this is a professional astronomer that knows things really well, so it may be a misunderstanding on the website.

I think this was a very cool unit, it is going great so far. It is very busy though, I always seem to be working and working, especially the research. Still, everything is going great and I find it kind of fun. I look forward to making the movie. I’m also looking forward to presenting all my hard work.

Capstone Reflection – Post #1

by cmou29

I’m currently in this unit called Capstone. This Capstone project is a project every 5th grader does every year. Capstone is a project where you have to make some sort of movie or presentation about your topic. You have to research a lot and come up with answers for your question. I feel okay about it, the only thing I’m really excited about is my topic. I really feel like this is something I can express all my years of wondering. I started wondering about overcomplicated things in the universe since I knew space was a thing.

I came up with my topic right away. I knew astronomy was something I loved since I was a little girl. I have a telescope, space dreams, and all those thoughts about space since I knew it was a thing. I knew this was the thing I was gonna do right away. I had many dreams of becoming a cosmologist and physicist, and this is the perfect opportunity to learn more and more about something I love so much. I feel so good about my topic, with no regret at all! I had no trouble at all in finding the perfect topic. 

The main inquiry question was a little hard, but I still did it anyway. There were a few challenges because my question hasn’t been exactly answered by any human being that ever existed. And my teacher wasn’t really sure that I’ll be able to do any research. But I still got as much information as I needed for the project. Everything worked as planned. My answer is mostly a prediction instead of a statement, but it still works well as an answer for my never-been-answered-question. My main inquiry question is: How has the universe changed since the Big Bang and what do scientists predict the future of the universe will be like? I felt like I can still express a lot of myself with that question.

My sub-questions weren’t as hard as my main inquiry question. Since I already had my main question, all I really had to do is makeup 5 questions surrounding the main inquiry question. Though some of them repeated a lot, my teacher helped correct all of them so that they’ll be better and more efficient.

Overall, I think this unit is pretty exciting because this is the perfect opportunity to express something I really wanted to express since I was a child. This is also something I feel really passionate about. Though this unit is very busy, I still feel like this unit will be a great success in the end.

Immigration Reflection – Post #2

by cmou29

This project is okay, I have enjoyed it more the time since the last blog post. I thought what was the best part was making the video, and seeing it over and over again. I like the story I made from the interview, knowing people will know her story, too. I feel like the pictures of my mom when she was a kid really did work throughout the video. The video had to be two to four minutes long. I found it not that hard to make it in that time, but I think making it to four minutes would be hard. Each slide has to be more than 2 seconds but less than 9 seconds. And, the video is to tell the story, not the interview. I think this unit is pretty fun so far.

Making the video; I think the video was not that hard to make, only making me go crazy, “occasionally”. It was much, much easier than WeVideo, though. It’s just, that tweaking the video was much harder. At the end of the video, I had to add two pictures that must be taken(or scanned) with the phone, so I tried that, but there kept on having errors and I got very(I mean very) frustrated. I did not like every single picture-upload-thing time when making the video. IT. WAS. SO. FRUSTRATING! I got very crazy, so I decided to take a break from that. After all, I found I way to make it look good(with a scanner app).

Everything else in making the video was not that hard. The voiceover, picking pictures, and writing the script was not had. The voiceover, that was easy. I just had to press the voiceover button and read from the script, although it was a little hard because I recorded it at different times on different slides so the tone was different. Eventually, I realized I can’t keep it like that and had to record every single slide again. The pictures weren’t hard either, my grandmother had lots of pictures so getting the pictures weren’t hard. Neither was picking them. I already had plans for where all the pictures were going to go. Writing the script wasn’t hard because it was just like the narrative(with limitations).

I learned much about my mother’s life, I found out about what my mother’s life was like back then, and I learned a little bit about struggles, and architecture back then in the late 1900s(in China). About making the video, I learned some very important information about making the pictures fit in Adobe Creative Cloud Express. I figured that you can’t take it directly with the Camera app, you have to use a software scanning app. I screamed when it finally worked.

In conclusion, this unit was okay. I didn’t like the beginning, where you had to research a lot. After lots of researching, we got to do the good parts, like doing the interview and making the video. After all, I found it very frustrating as well, but it was better than the first part. I like this unit, I think it wasn’t as fun as Rube Goldberg, but it was still interesting to do. I found this unit much easier than the other units. I like this unit, I think it’s good and a little boring in some ways.

Immigration Reflection – Post #1

by cmou29

This project, immigration, is not bad. At least no research and writing work. Mostly, your research comes from the interview you conduct with an immigrant. After conducting the interview, you have to make an adobe spark video. I find this fun, but probably not as fun as Rube Goldberg. I think that this project is still interesting, just not the first part, where you have to research. I learned some cool things about how life was back then for my mom. I especially liked the pictures of my mother when she was a kid.

We just had to list 10-15 questions on a document. It wasn’t that hard, I felt like I had everything planned out in my head already. Almost like I already knew everything I was going to ask. Every. Single. Question. I still had to get some inspiration, so I looked at the “Sample Interview Questions and Interview” PDF. There were some good questions I found there. I finished 20 questions pretty quickly, from what I call. I mostly wrote questions like “How did moving feel” and “Explain your thoughts” and things like that(not exact questions). I tried my best to not write closed questions. It actually wasn’t that hard, you just had to add words like explain, describe, tell me, why or why not, those kinds of words. I tried to consider making my questions interesting or at least making them have interesting answers. I did sort of succeed. I did get some answers I expected, and some I didn’t. 

I mostly just sat there, on my parent’s bed(that isn’t the most convenient place, I know) with my mom, listening to what my mom had to say. Sometimes, my mom misheard me(I didn’t notice), and then she would go on talking about things that didn’t match the questions. I got confused easily but didn’t interrupt until I found the chance. I wanted this interview to be a proper one, even though there were some not-so-proper parts. I stayed there, listening to mom’s story, and nodding in agreement when necessary. I expected it to be shorter, just about 15 minutes would be enough, but it turned out I needed about 20 minutes instead. My mom had a lot more to say about each question than what I expected, I expected to hear a straight answer and explanation. I personally had never conducted an interview. I found out if you wanted a proper interview, you have to be quiet, nod in agreement(only when necessary), sit tall, don’t slump, keep a smile(to make the person you’re interviewing feel warm), and don’t be forcing. Somehow, I learned these things without consequence, it just happened that I knew what to do and what not to do. I had a prediction of what will happen if I did these things. What answer surprised me most was what thing, in particular, made moving extra hard. I expected to hear something like Oh, leaving all my friends and family was so, so hard. or Oh yes, the feeling of leaving permanently was so hard to conquer. et cetra, et cetera. But in fact, something I didn’t expect, my mom said, “Oh, extra hard… Hm… I think, the food. The food of the culture is so different from the food I’m used to. I still didn’t know how to cook back then, it was very hard.”  That sure was a surprise, I didn’t know the food was hard for her.

In conclusion, I like this unit so far. It’s not that bad, but not super-duper fun. I consider it “okay”. I like some things about the unit, for example, interviewing, Adobe Spark video, and some more. But something I don’t like is the research at the beginning. I understand that it may be strange that I really do hate research, but it’s just something I don’t enjoy. I just can’t handle boring, computer, note-taking research. I don’t think this unit is bad or good so far, but I bet the Adobe Spark video will make this unit even more fun. I’m okay with this unit, no particular feeling. At least this is better than some of the other units we did.

 

Rube Goldberg – Post #2

by cmou29

RUBE GOLDBERG – POST #2

 

I built my Rube Goldberg machine in no time, surely, that was pretty easy. Now, the hard part was filming(my god, it was so, so, so frustrating). I filmed with my mom’s phone, no problem. But, my mom would sometimes complain about me filming for too long. I had to film every single try, each try seemed to have some problems that I thought would work. When building from your sketch, you wouldn’t realize that some parts actually won’t work. To think of it, you have to know reality. When I was building, I kept on telling myself: reality, Cindy, think of reality. I finished filming in 2 days(that was 2 frustrating days), and I took a little break from that hard work.

Designing: no problem at all! Designing was easy, just think of it, drawing a probably-not-going-to-work sketch is super duper easy. I had millions and millions of ideas already swirling in my mind, now I need support on which one to pick. I watched some past student videos(Heathcote Tech). But when I watched a video on a cat feeder, from Joseph’s Machines, there we go, cat feeder it is. 

I learned something super important from this project: you cannot assume that your sketch will work. First of all, the sketch will not be the same unless you make it short and simple, and reality-like. My machine turned out completely different, I even had to change the simple task that it does at the end. I also realized that some parts needed to be changed and that some parts really couldn’t work, like, the end. I tried it out, just the last step, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work. The pulley I made didn’t work either. Lots of things didn’t work the way I expected it to be. 

My experience with making the video was much more fun than filming, especially because it lets me do whatever I want! Although I didn’t like the downloading part(It absolutely made me bust into frustration). Making videos was something I always enjoyed(not very), but what I most liked is how the whole video came out. I love watching it over and over again, such a nice experience. 

There were a lot of frustrating parts, especially when building this machine. So many things needed to be changed and it was really hard to build the whole thing with utterly nothing(but cardboard, tape, dominos, and balls). When filming the machine, the most frustrating part was setting up the dominos over and over again. It kept on knocking over each other and setting the machine off when it was not supposed to. Every time I had to keep on setting it up multiple times. Although it was frustrating, I loved the surprise I gained when I saw the cage was open.

I really enjoyed this unit, not the part where we had to film, but it was amazing. It was much better than the other units we did in the past. It really made my creativity spark in the way I made my machine. I’m quite proud that I produced and filmed and made everything(as you can see, on the credits, everything is made by me). I thought this unit was very fun and I wish we will be able to do something like this more often.

Final Sketch

WeVideo

Argument and Advocacy – Reflection Post

by cmou29

Let’s say, this unit was pretty short. And also a little not-my-kind. Not as fun as Rube Goldberg, but better than the constitution work. I personally thought this project was pretty easy, it wasn’t that hard. It was mostly writing the debate, doing some research, then more research about your side(pros and cons). After that? More debate practice and editing.

To me, this wasn’t that interesting. I was kind of annoyed when I heard my side, I didn’t quite like the topic I was doing, I didn’t like the side I was doing(pros: plastic bags), and I just can’t stand me doing all the editing and writing. Look, I was editing the whole thing for my group so that it’ll sound more like a debate and not like plain information out of nowhere. My group members were Emme, Alex, and Winston, and they did their work and I helped edit their work a bit.

First of everything, note-taking and research. The research came from the articles in our “research” folders. It was mostly articles about how plastic bags are bad(cons), not many pros, which made the pro side kind of hard. For me, I had to search it up on the computer to make sure if a piece of information was correct and accurate. Comparing the con information with the pro information, the two sometimes would clang together with the opposite meaning and information. Note-taking was with research, the same step, the same thing. Note-taking at first was just writing the pros and cons down in our reading notebook. After our sides were announced, we just started writing our information in the “without counterarguments” organizer.

After that, I didn’t quite talk to my partner very much. I just did my thing, and he did his thing. Winston sometimes would ask me some random things that I didn’t understand why, but usually, I just stayed quiet(sometimes) while everyone else talked about some other stuff. Everything turned out pretty good, though we didn’t discuss very much. After “without counterarguments”, we did with counterarguments. We copied and pasted our work into the organizer, my group didn’t quite say anything about changing it more like a debate, so I asked them for permission to edit their work. They didn’t mind, so I edited their work the best I can, also adding some status and better structure and wording whenever I can. If I can right now, I’d give myself a pat on the back and say, “Good job, Cindy, good job.”. I like the work I helped my group do, we could’ve been better, but this is all we’ve got.

I had a very hard time overcoming the fact that I was made to say plastic bags are “good”. I didn’t support plastic bags, completely, that’s what I thought first. But once I started researching, I realized, this is really hard to judge whether it is good or bad. Plastic bags are good in some ways, like that it’s sanitary and convenient. But it’s also bad in ways that it harm the environment and animals. I had to do my side, of course, and I just couldn’t stand it. I kind of understood my side once I did enough research, and I realized some things I didn’t realize before. These topics are quite complex if you dig deeper into them.

I had not liked this writing-and-reading project, let’s say, this is not something I’m interested in. I’m more into freewriting, which means I usually like to write everything from my imagination. I usually “get into” it more than writing things like persuasive essays, or debate essays. Though this unit was short, I think I already learned lots.

 

Rube Goldberg – Post #1

by cmou29

Rube Goldberg

I think this project is very interesting, mostly because it wasn’t stuff like research, writing, and lots and lots of work about history or things that I don’t find very interesting. This project is building a Rube Goldberg machine, a machine, built by our bare hands, that goes through complex steps to do a simple task. First, we had to sketch our machine, it had to be carefully labeled, neat, and not rushed. Then, we started gathering materials for our machine and start building it and testing it out. 

What was challenging? I’d say thinking of how things will work out, or if things will work and the machine will run smoothly. Something else I also found challenging was building the machine itself. I had to test a sort-of model of some steps to see if it will work, but I’m pretty sure those models won’t show what it will turn out to be. I didn’t research much, I mostly just looked at videos of machines other people did for inspiration and for things I can add to my machine. I also looked at some articles. Once I looked at this video called “The Cat Feeder”, I knew what I was going to do. I thought it was very interesting, so I decided to call mine the “Cat Feeder” and feed the cat.

 I had a hard time testing my machine, but the first step went pretty well. It was kind of cool testing a machine you made(I didn’t build the whole thing yet), and then start squealing because it worked. Looking at the whole machine breaking up wasn’t nice, since you just finished setting it up, and knowing that you have to set it up again. 

What was frustrating – It’s very hard to explain. First, my house isn’t the place where everything is, so I usually can’t find good material to use. But what helped was that I wrote down a list of everything I needed for this machine, that way, I know exactly what I need. Not just wandering around the house, looking for something to use. For example, I was trying to find something to use as a wheel, I tried a hair tie, a smaller hair tie, a stuck-up tape(in the shape of a wheel), and even a marshmallow, but they all didn’t work! I was so frustrated, I just couldn’t find what I needed. Secondly, building the machine. It took about 1-2 hours just to set up the first few steps. I had to use a lot of tapes to tape the pieces of cut-out cardboard onto the wall or the window sill. I had to look at the height, placing, angle, everything. That was so, so, so frustrating.

 I had to make many revisions, whether it was so that the rest would be easier, or it was in the wrong place. These revisions were hard to make, especially if you taped it hard onto the wall already. When I was building the first step, I realized that it was way too high, but I already stacked things up and taped the cardboard piece on the window. It was quite hard, but not everything about this project is the worst. I also had some big “aha” moments, big insights about my success. When I tried out the first few steps, it worked! I was thrilled, the way it worked was awesome. I screamed when it worked. Well, it was after a lot of work, so it deserved a big yes, and some screaming. It’s awesome when something finally works after many tries and work. Even though this is frustrating and challenging, I still find it much more interesting to do than other things.

Constitution Project – Reflection Post

by cmou29

This whole constitution project, the one we started at the start of the school year, had been pretty long and hard. Well, not that hard, actually. The whole thing had a tiny connection to the work we did in 4th grade. In 4th grade, we did a project on the American Revolution. The whole Constitution stuff happened after the Revolution, so technically, it has a bit of connection(just not very much). I had lots to learn before, even though I knew some stuff about the constitution. The whole unit actually wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be. I thought I had to learn so many new things and it’ll really make me go crazy. But, I guess it didn’t after all, though it was a kind of busy unit. I think that it wasn’t that fun, but not that bad either, and, it wasn’t very hard. We first learned about the 3 branches of government. Then, the constitution, and then the amendments. After that, we started to explore topics(from the constitution, e.g Amendments, activists from the Civil Rights Movement, Voting Age…) for our presentation that we recorded with Screencastify. And then, the blog post. I chose to do voting age for my presentation. I guess it’s because I thought giving 16- and 17-year olds votes’ was correct. This may not be a lot as you read, but it actually had taken months to finish this unit. I don’t think that the constitution was something I really enjoyed, but I sure learned plenty. There was stuff that I never knew before that I learned during this unit. We sometimes worked as partners, mostly just by ourselves. We used partners as an extra pair of eyes. You know, sometimes you won’t find the mistakes that others, somehow, do. I think that I did pretty well on this unit. I pretty much understood everything.

Something really that I noticed about my Screencastify was that I somehow ended with 2 minutes and 18 seconds. The teachers told us that your recording can’t be longer than 2:30. Something weird about me is that I write so much that it’s hard to fit all of it in the time. That always happens. I honestly don’t know if a miracle happened or not, but every time I recorded, the time kept on getting shorter. I was overjoyed. I just couldn’t believe it. I don’t know, maybe because I changed my script a little or I just started talking faster, but it just so happened. And that formed the perfect recording of my presentation.

I feel like the template/slides were the easiest to finish. I thought there wasn’t much to do. I guess before, I thought something like: “seems pretty hard” or “No! So much work” or “what, seriously” or just had no idea. It’s really not that hard, though. You just had to do some research, type all your notes down, and, THERE, you’re done. That’s really just it. But, what’s the hardest? Well, for me, I personally think that the recording was the hardest. I’m pretty sure that many people(I’m not completely sure) have struggled with it, too. And sure, it was hard to make sure there was no noise in the background, you didn’t mix up words or stumble, and to get a good final time.

In conclusion, this unit was very long(I mean it). It took up half of the school year. I didn’t think it was really good or bad. I don’t have any really strong feelings about this project but I sure had learned new stuff(all in detail, hehe). This was sure a big project.