Capstone Extra Information

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What is the role of a spy? Why are they significant to the countries they work for?

 A spy is someone who is used to steal secrets for an intelligence organization, such as the CIA, KGB, or M16. Information on what the enemy is planning to do, strategizing, or preparing could help determine who wins and what to do against the enemy’s attack. “Espionage is a very serious matter for some… It violates international law… and yet it is virtually universal everywhere because it is considered a matter of vital… importance to states. Espionage generates its own rules.” Soviet Affairs expert and former U.S. State Department official Raymond L. Garthoff describes in A Journey Through the Cold War. Espionage is the gathering of information about others, be they enemy, possible enemy, other spies, or suspicious neutrals. Spying goes back to biblical times, when individuals spied on nearby enemies and informed their leaders. For the United States, the American Revolution was the first time spies appeared. Robert Gates, former Director of Central Intelligence, says that during the Cold War, no side was sure of the mentality of the other, which is why espionage became handy. However, we should never doubt the quality of intelligence only people can provide. Because of the intelligence people can provide, the superpowers could gather intelligence on their enemies’ worldview, why they reacted in specific ways, and their preoccupations. During the Cold War, the role or purpose of a spy was to gather enemy information on military and technical abilities. Spies are brave people that venture into enemy territory and try to gather intelligence while still staying under the radar. Spies decode encrypted information, using technology to gain an advantage over their opponents. Spies are meant to help protect their country by different means. Some spies go after businesses, which is called economic espionage. Others gain trust in the military or government to be able to send back information. Finally, some just observe everyday life,  like Rudolf Abel. He was left alone in America when Lona Cohen, another spy, left on orders from Yuri Sokolov. He established a typical life in America, strolling through New York while noting possible dead-drop locations. He also made gadgets such as pencils with hidden compartments or a hollow nickel with a small hole to open it up.

Who were some well-known spies of the Cold War? What was their impact?

Julius Rosenberg, 1918-1953, and Ethel Rosenberg, 1915-1953, were an American couple that got executed for spying for the Soviet Union. They were convicted of providing confidential intel about radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. They were executed at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York. They became the first American citizens to be executed for espionage and the first to receive that penalty during peacetime. They were executed by an electric chair. Julius was a courier and recruiter and Ethel helped recruit her brother, David Greenglass and typed up documents that Julius passed to the Soviets. Many people thought that Julius and Ethel were innocent, and disagreed with the government’s decision. Not until the Cold War came to a close did they know just how many crimes they committed. David Greenglass, 1922-2014, worked at Los Alamos for the Manhattan Project. Because he and his wife supported communism, he had to disguise or omit any sign of his connection with communism. He was arrested in 1950 and exposed Julius but denied his sister’s involvement. Later, he exposed Ethel as well. Igor Gouzenko, 1922-1985, who was a Russian GRU(Glavnoye razvedyvatel’noye upravleniye/Main Intelligence Directorate) cipher clerk, defected to Canada. He had over 100 confidential documents and gave intelligence on Soviet cipher codes, and other spies in Canada, Britain, and the US. Elizabeth Terrill Bentley, 1908-1963, an ex-American Communist, defected to the FBI. She exposed more than 100 people as Soviet spies, most of whom were working in the US government. In 1946, using the intel provided by Gouzenko and Bentley, Meredith Gardner, 1913-2002, began to crack a few Soviet messages that mentioned the atomic bomb. Gardner began working with Robert Lamphere, 1918-2002, to uncover Soviet cases. Many KGB spies were exposed. Klaus Fuchs, 1911-1988, was a communist supporter. He worked in the Tube Alloys program, the British atomic bomb research project. He was soon transferred to work in the Manhattan Project, the American atomic bomb research project. He was secretly passing notes to Harry Gold, 1911-1972, a Soviet courier. One of the Cambridge Five, Kim Philby, 1912-1988, was head of Section IX in 1944. Section IX is part of the British anti-communism section, and Philby, a communist, was now ahead of it. This was extremely important to the Soviets. Julius Rosenberg, a US Army engineer, was arrested in 1950 for passing information to a Soviet courier. Ethel Rosenberg was also targeted. Finally, they were sentenced to death by electric chair in 1952. Francis Gary Powers was recruited by the CIA for his pilot skills. He was a U-2 pilot that was supposed to fly across Soviet territory and take photos. The U-2 plane was said to be too high in altitude to be caught by missiles, but Powers was shot down. He was trapped until exchanged with Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy caught by the FBI.

What are the dangers of being a spy? What could happen to you if you are caught?

Penalties vary depending on the seriousness of the crime. Gathering or losing defense information could put you in prison for 10 years while giving defense information to a foreign government could put you in prison for life or you could get a death sentence. Economic espionage (foreign coordinated intel-gathering aimed at U.S. businesses, establishments, or persons) could lead to 15 years or more and fines up to five million dollars. You could get deported, imprisoned, charged with treason, or executed. You can get executed by an electric chair, like the Rosenbergs. You might also get captured, imprisoned, interrogated, tortured, and kept for a spy trade, like Francis Gary Powers. He was traded for Rudolf Abel. You will first get interrogated if you are a mole. Some spies confess everything they know, while others explain true but useless information. Also, like Allen Nunn May, some people get a 10 or more years sentence. Rudolf Abel was on trial for espionage, having his spy gadgets, hollow coin story, and Reino Hayhanen’s testimony used as evidence against him. There were two possible punishments for him: a long prison sentence or an electric chair. He was given the prison sentence in case any spy trade needed to be made.

Whose job is it to coordinate spy missions? Whose job is it to stop them?

Spymasters are people that lead spy rings or intelligence agencies. Some famous spy organizations are the Russian Federal Security Service, Foreign Intelligence Agencies, and Main Intelligence Directorate. The KGB used to be a Soviet Union spy agency and so was GRU, but the KGB disbanded in 1991 and GRU in 1992. American spy organizations include the CIA and DIA. Agent spotting involves investigating the targeted person’s personal life for possible weaknesses. Agent training includes learning codes, constructing concealment devices, and dead drop scouting. Advanced training could include resistance to interrogation. “Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency’s intelligence program from an opposition’s intelligence service”. This could be achieved by spying, sabotaging, or assassination. FBI and M15 are both involved in counterintelligence, however, M15 is an agency established specifically for counterintelligence. Agent handling is the handling of spies. The ones who agent-handle are called case officers. Case officers manage human agents and human intelligence networks. They recruit and train agents. Agents are usually working under case officers. Agents that work alone are called “singletons”.

How was the end of the Cold War affected by the success of spy missions?

Dmitri Polyakov (TOP HAT), a Soviet Union mole, provided intel to the US for nearly 25 years. He informed the U.S. about China and how to deal with the Soviet missiles. Some people think he was a triple agent that gave false intel to the US. He photographed many documents and gave them in a secret compartment in his fishing rod or fake stones. Polyakov was said to have kept the Cold War from boiling over. John Cairncross worked for Sir Maurice Hankey so he was working in the Tube Alloys program. He may have leaked a report on building a uranium bomb. He was caught in the 1960s and was identified as the fifth man in the Cambridge Five spy ring. Melita Norwood, the longest Soviet Union spy serving in the UK, was caught in the 1990s. Klaus Fuchs became a British citizen during the rise of Nazism. He was transferred to Los Alamos and passed key intel to the Soviets. He was discovered in the 1950s and exposed Harry Gold, a Soviet courier. David Greenglass was recruited to spy by his brother-in-law and sister Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. He passed notes and sketches to the Soviets and when found, exposed the Rosenbergs in exchange for immunity for his wife, Ruth. Russell McNutt had a job at Kellex, a plant-builder company. He gave the Soviets the design of the plant. Clarence Hiskey worked at Met Lab and gave intel to GRU. He was seen meeting with Arthur Adams, a Soviet agent. VENONA revealed that Theodore Hall (Mlad) was a Soviet spy. Oscar Seborer (Godsend) worked at Los Alamos and no one knew how much information he gave the Soviets. VENONA was a program meant to collect and break coded messages. Meredith Gardner, with help from Igor Gouzenko, uncovered many spies. They unmasked the Cambridge Five and Atomic Spies and started gaining suspicion about Alger Hiss. It changed the Cold War substantially, keeping the US, Britain, and other allies alert of Soviet spies within their borders. The CIA was authorized to carry out operations “against hostile foreign states or groups or in support of friendly foreign states or groups”. The CIA carried out many Cold War coups. Once, the CIA trained 1,500 Cuban exiles, trying to overthrow Fidel Castro, the Cuban dictator. This attempt was called the Bay of Pigs Invasion and ended up failing. Many other attempts to kill Castro were made, including one to kill his beard rather than himself. CIA pilots collected data using U-2 planes. The CIA also recovered many codebooks and nuclear research documents from a sunken Soviet submarine. Oleg Penkovsky gave much information to the CIA and MI6, a high-ranking Soviet Colonel. He helped change the course of the Cold War by giving military strategies and plans to the other side.

Capstone Extra Movie Blog Post

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Making a movie might have been the most fun part of our Capstone project. We got to pick pictures, choose music, and share our research. The worst part about it was the recording because you needed to have the same type of recording in the same setting with the same tone. It was annoying especially when I was in a different place or had to speak louder because of background noise. But making a movie was still very fun and we got to share them with our classmates for advice and tips. In Cindy’s movie, she explained that when scientists wanted to share ideas, they could present them at a conference. Our movies and presentations were like that because we could present them in front of the class, with all our classmates and teachers watching.

Before the movie, we had to make a script. It wasn’t very exciting because we had to put all our research into simpler phrases to say. Also, I got my script corrected a lot. While the script was boring, it wasn’t hard or complicated. Before the script, we wrote an essay explaining the answer to our main question. What we were supposed to do was copy sentences or paragraphs from the essay onto the script and adapt it to make it match. So it wasn’t very difficult.

The movie was kind of the opposite – it was fun but hard. I think the most fun part was picking out a song because you could listen to music and think about the movie. In the end, I picked a song called Espionage, which was fitting because my topic was Cold War Espionage. It was too short so I had to start it up again on a slide talking about Aldrich Ames. It didn’t sound too weird and I was happy with it. But the most difficult part about the movie(other than recording) was picking photos. When Google searching, I had to use the “Tools” function under Images to set a Creative Commons license filter. That eliminated a lot of photos I wanted to use, but I found a trick. On Google Drive, when you use “Search the Web”, it automatically gives you free photos. There, I just clicked into the picture I wanted and double-tapped to get the file. Then I’d have a free photo. But when I didn’t have the photo I wanted, I had to search for something else or switch the topic. Sometimes, I happened upon a photo that was perfect for my movie but wasn’t free. When this happened, it was very annoying.

In conclusion, the final presentation/movie was sometimes fun and sometimes boring. It was sometimes hard and sometimes easy. In the end, though, I managed to complete it and make the best version of my video that I could. I hope that my whole Capstone project will be as successful as the movie. Because my Capstone is really a crowning achievement.

Capstone Blog Post #3

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Researching for my Capstone project was very boring. Also, it was challenging. That was because sometimes, I couldn’t understand the article I was reading or it didn’t have answers to my questions. I had a very difficult resource to understand and interpret, which ended up having only two sentences in my notes for it. Something exciting, though, was finding just the right paragraph with the answers I needed and extra information I didn’t think I’d need. While this nearly never happened, that just made it all the more exciting. Something I learned is you usually have to read a sentence or paragraph a few times before you find a connection between it and the question or topic. This applies to everything, even if you think you know what it’s about.

For my presentation, I decided to do a movie. This was because I didn’t want to memorize a script or talk to a live audience, which was what you had to do in a TED talk or Ignite. I already knew that I wouldn’t be good at it because I did it before. But movies had more features and options, so it was very clear which style of presentation I should choose. Some challenges I faced were recording and picking pictures(you can read more about my movie in my “Capstone Extra Movie Blog Post” post).

I learned that you need to always perfect and look for mistakes in your presentation(whether it’s a TED talk, Ignite, or movie) to make it the best you can. If you always think that your presentation is the best you can make, then you won’t be able to have a good enough presentation. This is important to know because then, you’ll always have a good presentation.

Capstone Blog Post #2

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The purpose of the interview was just to gain some more information and maybe get more perspectives. The information should be something you couldn’t get by searching for it and it’s good to get some opinions as well. I was worried about not being able to get an interview or the interviewee giving me bad information, and also nervous about what he would think of me. It was still really exciting to interview an expert, though.

I decided to search for experts on Cold War espionage, but all I found was experts on the History of the Cold War or other things. I wanted to interview an expert called Ian Johnson, but when I looked through his website I found that he was more focused on China than the Cold War. I also thought of another possible interviewee, but found that she was mostly talking about film. Because no one was an expert on Cold War espionage, the thought of interviewing an expert on the Cold War and then an expert on espionage crossed my mind. However, I looked through the expert website again and found someone who was an expert on the Cold War and espionage – they’d probably know at least a bit about Cold War espionage, right? Writing the questions was a little hard because I couldn’t think of anything that may be good to ask, but eventually I figured out 12 questions.

First, I emailed my interviewee, Arne Kislenko. He responded quickly, and then we arranged the date. We were going to go for 12:00 p.m. on Sunday, but he was busy at the time and we instead arranged for 5:00 p.m. on Monday. After that, he said he was too busy for 5:00 p.m. so we decided on 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. I wanted to make a phone call but after some research, found out that calls from the US to Canada cost a dollar a minute. We decided to do a Zoom meeting instead. At first, when he didn’t come on (I think this was because I sent the Zoom link at 6:07), I thought that maybe we’d need to schedule another date. But luckily, it didn’t turn out that way and he came on at around 6:10. It went even better than expected, and lasted over 40 minutes. He was able to give me a lot of information and I started to understand some spy cases better. For instance, I’d only heard the name “Robert Hanssen” before, but Mr. Kislenko told me a lot more about how much information he gave to the Soviets.

While interviewing a complete stranger was really nerve-wracking, I got through it after some challenges and mishaps. I guess that in life, you just have to get through it as best as you can and then, maybe that’ll help. I did enjoy talking with Mr. Kislenko and it was pretty exciting. Maybe this Capstone unit won’t turn out too bad after all!

Capstone Blog Post #1

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Capstone is an inquiry-based research project. A capstone, in the dictionary, is a sort of milestone/crowning achievement, and for us it is the biggest milestone of our six elementary school years. We have to come up with a research topic and a main inquiry question. We will be researching the main inquiry question, which is why it’s important that the question is not too broad, too closed, or too complicated/opinionated. My question is “What were the most important Soviet Union spy missions during the Cold War and how did they impact the outcome?” My topic is Cold War espionage. Other than our main inquiry questions, we also have 5-6 sub-questions, which are more closed than our main ones. I don’t exactly enjoy having to research and take notes, but it is very exciting to have a new unit that is the “crowning achievement” of our time here at Heathcote Elementary.

I had gone to Washington D.C. over Spring Break, and we went to the Spy Museum. There, I had learned a lot about espionage and different spy devices, missions, and Cold War spies. So, when we had to fill out the organizer, under Events that Interest You I put Cold War espionage. My interest was also sparked from a book my dad had in the car called Cold War and wanting to learn more about atomic bombs and such. I chose this topic because I didn’t think it would be very interesting to do something on cats or anything else. I did consider Sculpting, as I could research important sculptors like Michelangelo, but Cold War espionage proved to be more interesting.

My main inquiry question, as stated in the introduction, is “What were the most important Soviet Union spy missions during the Cold War and how did they impact the outcome?” I wasn’t sure, at first, what to write for my question. I had three at first, one about comparing and contrasting important spies, one about stealing secrets about bombs, and the base for my current main inquiry question, something about spy missions. Mrs. Roberts changed my question into the one I have now. Something challenging was trying to come up with a question that fitted into the 4 star question category – I wanted to create one that convinced someone to do something or create something. Unfortunately, my main inquiry question doesn’t do that.

Two of my sub-questions are “How was the end of the Cold War affected by the success of spy missions?” and “Whose job is it to coordinate spy missions? Whose job is it to stop them?” I wasn’t sure, at first, what to write for my questions. I had eight at first, but three of them didn’t completely work. Mrs. Roberts changed my questions into the ones I have now. Something challenging was trying to come up with the questions that would be easy to research. It’s still difficult to take notes.

I like my topic and questions, and am excited to share this crowning achievement. Still, it requires lots of hard work and perseverance, which are sometimes hard to come by. While that’s true, I’m sure that we’ll ultimately figure this out and be proud about this when we look back at our past.

Immigrant Interview Blog Post #2

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For our video assignment, we had to have a two to four minute video with photos or videos that were two to six seconds, but they could be longer if you were narrating and needed to wait one second at the end and the beginning. Also, we had to have two seconds of black at the beginning and end. Because Adobe didn’t allow for that, we had to find a picture. I chose a zoomed in picture of a girl staring out of a window with lots of shadow. Also, we had to make it clear in the video about:

  • Where they’re from
  • Why they left
  • How they got here
  • Their Life today
  • Thoughts, feelings and sentiments about it all

Absolutely no “welcome to my video” or  “thank you for watching”

Finally, no videos allowed. Of course, my mom didn’t have any videos anyway.

Making the video was actually really fun, because I got to change themes, try out music, and search through photos. My mom had a lot of photo albums, but I didn’t use any of them. All my photos were from her iPad and iPhone. For my script, I copied some of the narrative into the script and then made it sound coordinated with the rest of the script. I took a long time choosing photos. Some I had to get from the internet, because the Stock images didn’t always work. There is one picture I’m still not pleased about, and that’s one with some people eating. I wish I had a photo of the family I was talking about, but my mom didn’t know where it was. I tried doing the voice-over in school, but there was way too much background noise. I ended up doing it all in my house. Something challenging was choosing which photo to use and finding them. For instance, I wanted a baby photo of my brother, Zongbo/Bob, but my mom only had a three year old photo.

I learned all about my mom, including her childhood, immigration journey, and reasons for her actions. I also learned how to conduct an interview, get more and better answers, and also come up with followup questions. Finally, I learned about making Adobe videos. I learned more about the features of Adobe, changing themes, searching through music and finding the best photos I could use.

I think this unit was actually really fun! I would want to do this again but with different people, subjects, and more! I got to learn a lot about my mom and was able to connect more with her. I was able to see my mother as a teenager, with friends and her husband, my father. She had the biggest, blackest eyes I’ve ever seen. While she looked a lot different as a younger person, my father looked like himself right now except with less wrinkles and completely black hair. Anyway, I really enjoyed this unit and would want to do it again. It really is fun.

 

Immigrant Interview Blog Post #1

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This Immigrant Interview starts with writing questions. Originally, my questions were open, but didn’t allow for much information. Then, I used starters like “give details” and “tell me” or “describe”. That provoked more answers from my mom during the interview, which was the next step. For my interview, I recorded the whole thing using my mom’s phone. She didn’t give as much information as I expected, but coming up with follow up questions was a lot easier than I originally thought. After the interview, I transcribed the recording into the interview questions document. At first, I actually tried the “Voice Typing” feature but my mom’s voice in the recording was too soft for the feature to catch.

I considered my mom’s life, from birth to now. Also, I asked some reflective questions that would give me some insight on what my mom thought. I focused a lot on the journey and the immigration process, as well. I think that “Sample Immigrant Interview Questions” and “What Kids Can Do, ‘How to Conduct a Strong Interview’ Fact Sheet”. They really helped me think of new questions and inspired me to revise some questions as well.

Me and my mom sat in the living room during the interview. She sat on the couch and I pulled a chair over. Like I said, the responses were shorter than expected, even with the extra “give details” and “tell me”. However, I did get enough answers. Also, I was able to really easily make follow-up questions as my mom’s answers raised more confusion about her experience. I think I learned that during an interview, you should keep eye contact and also pay close attention. I learned that my grandmother (mom’s mom) was a librarian and so my mom was able to read a lot. She told me that she loved reading and also loved spending time at the library.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed interviewing my mom and just talking about her life. My grandfather recently died and my mom was really sad about it. I think that talking about her childhood and life spent with her dad made her feel better and more alive. My mom also taught me a lesson. She came to America to study in a program, and even though she had a baby (my brother) and family at home, she still went. She studied hard and worked hard, and now she’s happier and has accomplished her goal.

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #2

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Rube Goldberg Blog Post #2

As I designed this Rube Goldberg machine, I had not foreseen as many problems as there happened to be. I knew some parts would probably cause problems, sure, but it simply didn’t occur to me I’d have to take out as many parts as I did. At least you could still see the similarities between my sketch and the actual thing.

Designing the Rube Goldberg contraption was never the problem – I probably had a thousand ideas of what to add in, at least half of them impossible. No, designing was easy. It was the building and collecting that were hard. Like I said, I hadn’t accounted for so many problems. So when those problems surfaced, I was unprepared for the sudden tidal wave. Because of this, I had no backups and simply didn’t know what to do. I was, although I’m ashamed to say it, ready to give up.

But just when I started to hang up my cap, a superhero called “Mom” (a strange name for a superhero, don’t you think?) came to the rescue, which is, of course, what superheroes are meant to do. Mom helped me see the problems from a different perspective, allowing me to fix most of my problems. Although, of course, that meant sacrificing my pulleys, seesaw, Jenga blocks… etc. Still, it worked, and my paper ball was in the trash (along with some balls, pieces of cardboard and other unwelcome items). 

There were certainly many lessons I learned, such as Don’t mope around and work on your projects or Don’t try and figure out fancy fonts for your We-Video and JUST GET IT DONE! You can see that the main point of focus was “don’t” rather than “do”. I’m afraid I must add yet another “don’t”, though, and that is Don’t give up. I was prepared to give up and Mom was as well (especially when I accidentally didn’t video it on the 6th try, which was our actual first attempt). Dad wasn’t really helping when he started telling us to video it, either. He only succeeded in making us more annoyed. Still, me and my mom supported each other, and we finally got through. So, just don’t give up. 

I probably spent about 2 hours on the video. Some of which was tinkering around with fonts and special effects. It had already gotten late by the time I finished, so I left the narration to the morning. I don’t know if I was supposed to do this or not, but I fitted all my narration for one image or video into 6 seconds. I wasn’t able to add any effects other than slow-mo and there were no transitions. If I’d gotten more time, then I’d probably fix up a few things, such as add a walk-through into my video or some type of effect. I know it said 3 to 5 minutes, but I had no way to stretch it, and I ended up just having it almost 2 minutes. Really, I was just grateful to have completed everything before the deadline.

I have said this for probably every unit I’ve done a reflection post on, but I have to admit, there’s not much else to say. So I’ll say it again: I’ve enjoyed it, really, but sometimes the deadlines get you stressed and I really wouldn’t want to do this again (maybe without deadlines, of my own accord and not having to worry about any specific rules). I think you’re probably getting bored of me saying that all the time. Maybe the next unit will be more exciting, or even worse than before. I just hope I will not have to type that one sentence once more.

Rube Goldberg Sketch

Rube Goldberg WeVideo

Argument Advocacy Reflection

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When we gathered as a group, all of us thought that zoos were the worst and the pro side was the easiest to research. Almost all the articles in our folders were supporting zoos, and they had good evidence as well. Besides, all the good reasons were on the Pro-zoos side. So, when me and Alexa were partnered up to be Pro, the only thing we were grateful for was the fact that it would be easier to find counters for Rylan and Jack’s reasons.

The first thing we did when we were paired up was collect more reasons and evidence from our unread articles. We made two pages in our notebooks for counters and reasons. Then, we began to find evidence. We soon realized that the articles couldn’t help us anymore, however, so we ended up just searching on the web for what we hoped to be statistics and graphs. We stumbled upon a gold mine when we found a website called In Defense of Animals, which not only had great reasons but also provided us with solid evidence. I found a type of mental illness called zoochosis which soon became my second reason. Alexa settled for health problems.

Alexa and I wrote our reasons with the sole purpose of outsmarting the other side. When ever they wrote something, we tried to find something to prove them wrong, but that would just end up with us groaning in frustration as we searched up the same phrase(with slight tweaks) again for possibly the 100th time. Yes, I think you can understand why I was so dissatified with my side.

Although I was glad with the fact I was on the “good” side, I had noticed a change in my group’s demeanor. We had originally been awkward and regularly talking about “Why can’t we have plastic bags? Or water? Maybe even cellphones!”, but now we became friendlier, seeking humor in every sentence spoken. However, as the deadline neared, the air became thick with competition. It was obvious – we were stressed out. Stressed that we’d be pulled aside for the rap that didn’t work, stressed that we’d get shunned about our reasons, et cetera. Also, if I’d asked my group what their opinion was a few weeks ago, at the start of this all, they’d have immediately replied, “Con zoos, of course!” Now, I was on an island of my own, with my teammates growling “Pro zoos” like hungry sharks beneath the waves. Sure, I was pulled by Rylan and Jack’s argument, and had thought of stepping in and becoming a shark myself, but the research I’d done had made me think twice.

Practicing was getting easier – we had grown familiar with the script, and now Rylan had mesmorized his introduction. Sometimes we’d boo at the other pair, all in good humor, of course. Though, a few times the teasing did go too far, ending in “Shut up!” or “You are so annoying!” Anyway, when the time for the “dreaded” recording came, we were ready. Nervous, with my heart pounding, but still prepared. Still able to talk. It honestly passed by rather quickly – I can barely even remember anything other than standing up and sitting down. All I heard was my own fear, keeping me from speaking too loud. But I still managed and I ended up finishing this unit successfully. And what else can I say, other than that my thoughts were exactly like all the other units? Fun while it lasted, but I still wish to never do this again.

Rube Goldberg Blog Post #1

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Rube Goldberg Blog Post 1

I’d created a sketch, but now I had to test it. Who knew if it would work or not? Even before I built it, though, I had to find materials and maybe revise some parts of the machine. So I wrote down a list of materials I’d need to find:

  1. Toy car
  2. Blocks
  3. Marbles
  4. Toy Seesaw
  5. Long and Short Cardboard Tube
  6. Cardboard Strips
  7. String
  8. Marker caps

We began the search around the house. I had no toy cars, so I decided to ask Cindy for one. She agreed. Blocks were slightly more difficult. However, we remembered that Legos were a good weight and could make different shapes. So that’s what we used. Then, we had to find marbles or some sort of small ball. Somehow, I’d forgotten about an old Chinese board game that had a lot of marbles. Next on the list was a toy seesaw, but to this day, we still don’t have it. I’ll probably make it out of some cardboard I had left. Speaking of cardboard, my mom had warned my dad about keeping cardboard tubes beforehand, so I used those. Then we needed cardboard strips, and we cut up some boxes. I was using string and some pulleys Mrs. Roberts gave me. Now it was time to assemble(without the seesaw). 

I decided the Rube Goldberg would be built in the dining room. It was relatively empty and not completely in the way of everyone else. A confusing part of building the contraption was that I couldn’t figure out how my sketch worked. It was designed vertically, so I’d have to use some sort of wall. Also because of that, I’d have to attach my parts to the wall, thus adding more materials to my list of to-finds. So, all-in-all, it was fun but challenging on some fronts.

Testing the machine was another story. It was annoying to have to set everything up again, to tilt the seesaw the right way and put up the Jenga blocks. And the marbles went everywhere! But it was still pretty fun, and while it was slightly exasperating, I could still find joy in it.

I haven’t needed to make revisions in anything, but I think that the Jenga blocks are a little too heavy. I may need to change it to something that can topple easier. One really frustrating thing was when something went wrong but it was hard to pinpoint what part went wrong, especially because I have a lot of materials. A challenging thing was knowing how to fix it (e.g. should it be bigger or smaller?). But in the end, I still managed to work most of the kinks out. I didn’t really have any “aha” moments. While I’ve done a lot, there are definitely some things to fix and smooth out, so I’m looking forward to when my Rube Goldberg will actually be done.