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.