Capstone reflection

Posted on June 20, 2024 by npizza31

Who did a Ted talk about space? You mean capstone. Yeah, but what is capstone? Capstone is a big project that requires a main subject and a broad question. My capstone is about the potential harm earthquakes can cause and the government’s reaction when having these disasters. But what steps did i take to complete this project and what were my weries and excitements while in process. All this relates to my capstone experience and how I organized myself to have an amazing presentation.This was the order I followed in list form to be ready for the Ted Talk starting off with research, writing essay, typescript and memorize then final present.

Starting with research was the right thing to do. Because research got me to understand and learn more about earthquakes. Research also happened to help me to know about what I would include in my essay. However, the research wasn’t too easy and led me to some problems. The first bad encounter was when information was not clear. This happened to me while I looked to find out the impact of earthquakes on taxes. This wasn’t the only error as I also stumbled upon an article that wasn’t trustworthy and had a lot of people publishing different information. After these encounters I started to take my time because I was wired of finding mistakes in my research. This was a terrific idea because it led me to focus on the amazing fact that would be important for the ted talk. Somehow the fact that interested me the most was learning about the levels of magnitudes and the potential harm earthquakes can cause.

The second most important thing to do is to write my essay but before that happened I had to write my research in full sentences and then choose what I would include.This took a while because I had a lot of similar facts and information to write about. However I believe that writing the essay wasn’t the hardest but knowing what to include in which order would take time and focus. However this was not the case because I was prepared and had already planned in what order I would write. But what I most enjoyed while preparing my essay was choosing what I would include. This was fun and exciting because I finally got time to look and pick what I thought most interesting and sad because earthquakes are a disgraceful experience. Here is my essay.

Finally, the script was the step that felt the easiest to complete. Because we really just had to trim the essay and then adjust it to the way we wanted it to sound. Trimming the text also made me think at the time if I wanted ted talk or wevideo. But I decided I wanted to improve on my public speaking skills. This was the only reason I really wanted to do a ted talk. Even though I picked Ted talk I had to focus on trimming the text because the due date wasn’t too far away. Trimming the essay was not simple because you had to time each body paragraph and it had to be less than 6 minutes. After trimming My ted talk was planned to last 4 minutes and 53 seconds long but this was just an estimate. My real ted talk took 5 minutes.This is my script.

After all the research, essay writing, and script writing it’s time for really presenting the ted talk. Before presenting I had to memorize my script and work on public speaking. Memorizing my script was not hard but being from a different country meant my accent was different and some words were a bit hard to pronounce. Public speaking was an important skill to learn as it took confidence and dedication. What bothered me the most with speaking was knowing when to talk loud and use hand motions. When the time came to present I was ready I felt confident but a bit weird but knowing what to say made me chill and excited. All this work and dedication led me to have an excellent presentation and an amazing time.

Earthquakes

Posted on June 4, 2024 by npizza31

What is happening? Why is my pencil jar shaking? Well it might be a earthquake. Earthquakes are caused by tectonic plate movement that may lead to a fault. A fault is when some part of the world starts to move or shake leading to destruction. The destruction can be severe leading to buildings and bridges collapsing. Where do earthquakes occur most frequently and what do the governments from these countries do to prevent them from causing more destruction? Well in order to answer this question I had to research what causes earthquakes, the worst earthquakes in history,the government’s role when earthquakes happen, safety rules regarding earthquakes, and how to create structures that withstand earthquakes.

Sub#1

Have you ever thought about what an earthquake is and how they are caused? Well earthquakes are a rumble or shift that tectonic plates cause leading to destruction or deaths. However, earthquakes have an epicenter. The epicenter is the center of the earthquake where the magnitude will be the highest. What is magnitude? Magnitude is a calculation used to determine the force or strength of the earthquake. Earthquakes can cause other problems such as landslides, avalanches, soil liquefaction, and tsunamis. The most common cause of earthquakes are when tectonic plates move in several ways. Tectonic plates can cause three types of faults that are normal fault, reverse fault, and strike slip fault. A Normal fault is when the block above the fault has moved downward relative to the block below. A reverse fault is one in which one side of the fault moves up and over the other layer. Finally the strike slip fault; consists of blocks moving horizontally .Tectonic plates are pieces of land that divide earth’s crust. There are 7 major tectonic plates that are called Antarctica Eurasian, Indo-Australian, North American, African, south American, North American, and Pacific. Tectonic plates are differentiated by type and they are called divergent plates, convergent plates, and transform plates. “The Movement of tectonic plates shifts apart 1.5 centimeters a year,” resulting in tectonic plates to be the main reason why we have earthquakes.

Sub#2

Have you ever wondered about the worst earthquakes and where they occur most frequently? Well earthquakes can be very severe and kill thousands of people. However others can be light. “An example of a strong earthquake is in Chile where they experienced the strongest earthquake in history recording a magnitude of 9.5 and destruction that would cost about half a billion dollars to repair!” “but there was an earthquake in china 1556 that killed about 830,000 people!” There have been hundreds of bad earthquakes but they all happen near the ring of fire. “The ring of fire is a nickname people use for the place where 80% of earthquakes occur.”Magnitude was invented by a famous American physicist called Charles Richter. Charles lived for 85 years but discovered the scale when he was 35. But his scale wasn’t such a good idea so other scientists changed some theories. On the Richter scale, anything below 2, humans cannot feel. Anything higher than 2, we can feel although it might not be very intense. Finally, above 7, the earthquake is even more intense causing destruction and possible death. After starting the light earthquakes may take only seconds to finish but if strong it might be around for 45 seconds or 1 minute. But have you heard of an earthquake that took 32 years to stop in Indonesia? As you can see earthquakes happen near the ring of fire and they are very destructive.

Sub#3

Are earthquakes a big problem for the governments? Yes they are. Governments pay millions of dollars per year to restore all damages earthquakes cause. This isn’t the only problem Because climate change can impact smaller earthquakes however this is impossible to know.” meaning that if the population keeps growing and polluting, small earthquakes will increase.” This is not the only reason why earthquakes affect governments.such as in turkey and California the government had to increase the taxes to pay all the bills that earthquakes caused! However these taxes did not help in the friendliest way because people started leaving the state and country because they were not satisfied with the idea of paying more.However some people decided to stay because they have no where to go or couldn’t afford to leave.“ this is true because depending on your house it can take a whopping 50 to 800 thousand dollars to repair your home!” although there are other structures and monuments that can be affected. Earthquakes can destroy many things within a community that can cost a lot of money to repair including roads, bridges, monuments and homes.“An example is a wine company, every company that sells an object has a factory but some factories create fragile objects like a bottle of wine that if destroyed can cause a decrease in product.” As can be seen, earthquakes cause a lot of money to repair but with the help of the government paying everything is possible..”

Sub#4

What procedures do people need to follow if there is an earthquake? First of all, if in an apartment, be ready to hold onto something. However if not possible never use the elevator because it might jam and stay in place. So instead go directly to the staircase where there will be many people going down. Follow them because when getting to ground stay away from tall structures like buildings and light posts. If not in a building but a house, stay away from the windows and find yourself somewhere you can hold on to. Even though the first thing is to look for somewhere to hold on, never forget to cover your neck with your arms because if something falls over you it won’t hit your neck decreasing the percentages of death. There are other things that can help prepare yourself for an earthquake and a part of it is to know if the country or state you live in are alerted to earthquakes.

Sub#5

What can make a building withstand earthquakes? As I’ve made clear, earthquakes are clearly very strong. But there are some ways to make buildings withstandable to earthquakes using materials like metal and wood. “After some years of using wood and metal some citizens didn’t think it was enough so they needed other ways to think instead of only using construction materials. so instead people began to create methods to see if they could help withstand earthquakes.” What are these methods called and what is their effect? Well the first method is to create a flexible foundation. Because if there is a flexible foundation the earthquake wont reach the building making it harder to collapse. The second method is to counter forces using vibration devices like using pendulum power and pistons. Pendulum power requires big and stretchy metal poles that are located on the four corners of the building and they all hold on to a big circle in the middle that will connect all the stretchy poles.”These pendulums must be very good because they cost approximately 51 million dollars to place!” Although pendulum power costs a lot of money, pistons are cheaper, rounding from 10 to 730 dollars. Pistons are used to calibrate the earthquake’s energy consuming it and and pressuring oil on the force. For the last method they reinforce the building using more metal poles as the building’s structure. The people that create methods and design the building are engineers and architects. Engineers are special mixed to choose materials and design as well as the architect. However the architect has a special job that is to decide which methods suit the best. Even though earthquakes are powerful there are some ways to protect people and structure.

In Conclusion earthquakes are a big disaster that will never stop occurring. But the best people can do is prepare themselves. By learning more about earthquakes, following safety procedures, and by making your home whitstable to earthquakes. So what can we do to build awareness of earthquakes and the potential harm they can cause?

Toss a Stone

Posted on February 9, 2024 by npizza31

Have you ever thought of a game on ice that is not hockey or ice skating ? Well there is one it’s called curling. It originated in Scotland. Scotland is a country that experiences very cold weather. But before curling was a sport they thought it was a silly sport that no one would like. But over time people started to enjoy curling so much it started to evolve. What is needed in curling are stones, brooms and a flat shoe. But what really matters was my experience playing curling. So I will advise what was easy and what was hard. I will also talk about the roles and rules of curling.

So let’s begin talking about what was easy and what was hard. Let’s start with the hard things to do. First, I thought it was very easy to sweep. However through the process it became harder and harder till the point I couldn’t do it any more. The other things that were difficult are. Getting a bullseye. A bullseye is when you get a stone in the little circle in the middle. This gives you two points. now that you know what I thought was difficult. I will tell you what I thought was easy. There are many things. Like releasing the stone was easy because the formation was simple.However if you messed up your whole game could go wrong.

Now I will tell you about the rules and roles of curling. The first rule and the most important rule is that the sweeper can not touch the stone. There is also this other rule that says that no one can sweep the stone behind the tee line. The tee line is a line that spreads through the middle of the target. Now that the rules are clear, what about the roles? The most important role of curling is the lead. The lead is the person that slides the stone on the target. There is one more role that is called the sweeper. Sweepers are persons that sweep ahead of the stone to give it more distance.

After all, curling is a fascinating game, you should all try. Know that we know how good curling is, and we also know all the rules. Don’t hesitate any more, cause the game is on. Go find a friend or a neighbor to play with and have an excellent time.

Feature Article Reflection

Posted on January 11, 2024 by npizza31

Feature article? Oh yes a feature article is a piece of paper that explains about a subject. Like math or animals. Feature articles can also be larger but they are mostly small , about 3 to 7 pages long. Feature articles also need to be consistent because if not it might confuse the reader. Now that you know what a feature article is, I’ll tell you about the main subject. I will explain about my problems while making my feature article.

My feature article is about soccer.However, my subtitles are about how to play, equipment needed, and players behind the story. This will all make sense when I start explaining. We firstly started writing about our knowledge of the theme. They told us to have at least 3 substitutes. Some people decided to write three big paragraphs about their theme while others wrote five paragraphs. While we were in the process of writing I found myself in a big problem! I forgot to talk about positions , so I had to go back and rewrite that paragraph. However, After that big problem we had.The next part was to find the best title and subtitles for our project. I got stressed because I didn’t know what to put. So I came up with an idea of adding a basic title but with good subheadings because then my writing would make better sense.

Designing was a humongous part of my feature article because if not it would look terrible. That’s why most of the time we spent was designing it might look easy. However it takes a lot of time because you have to choose a color, add pictures, decide layout , vocabulary, fun facts, and reread your writing . I chose a light green color because it matches the turf people play soccer on. For my pictures I chose to show a soccer field that explained all about positioning . I added 3 vocabulary showing hard words that are used to describe soccer. Coming up with a fun fact might be hard. However I remembered that the hardest kick ever went 215 kilometers per hour so that was super mega fast .

Writing, designing and rereading was fantastic because this project showed me that anything you practise or want to do needs to be made with courage and passion . because if not it will turn out to be the worst piece of writing ever And no one wants that. So never judge something by its cover .

Rocky Ropes

Posted on November 15, 2023 by npizza31

Thousands of people don’t like heights, but this is bedford ropes. Many go high and many stay low but at bedford ropes there is every type of course you can think of ! Like rope courses,wire courses and rock climbing. Today I will reflect about what activities I performed, however there were many so I picked my favorite two.

Here are my favorite 2 exercises,lava island , wire walk. Now comes why. Firstly, I really enjoyed the wire walk. It was fantastic because challenging things are for me.The game was , you had to walk across a wire and if you touched a tree it would count as a checkpoint. However if you fall you would go back to the last tree.So you had to have technique cause if not you would fall every single time! At first everyone was falling, tumbling and collapsing ! Until someone rescued the day by touching the first tree . So now we had to make up a new technique . The idea was to make a human wall until we got there and it worked; however, it was still a disaster. secondly lava island this was my favorite of all of them.The game was that there were 3 platforms and you had to cross them however you also had a log . But the plank could not touch the floor but if it did 3 times your whole team had to go back to the first platform. You could not jump or touch the floor! It was easy to discover the technique although the platforms were too little. We barely got it but time ran out. These were the challenges I most enjoyed.

Bedford ropes taught me lot’s of skill but I also learned how to work as a team.Before I thought the leader was the most important of all and that only the leader would decide but I discovered that the team matters too. I also push myself to help but sometimes it seems that I forget about others and just focus on me . like when we were at lava island I got mad cause we were so close to finishing I just wanted to go on until we finished. Sometimes I also think I’m determined . But now I comprehend that I can’t do it by myself, that’s why I have to respect others’ helping me and I have to stop once it is time to.

And these were my favorite activities . I also talked about what I learned however

Now that you know how Bedford ropes is, go there and have fun because maybe one day I’ll find you. I’ll tell you all about it again and again until you know every single bit.

Best Halloween ever

Posted on November 15, 2023 by npizza31

Have you ever wanted a lot of candy, I guess you have cause if not you’re in a different world. But today I will only talk about Halloween and about all the amazing experiences I’ve had. Halloween is one of the biggest traditions in the world ! However, in other countries they don’t celebrate Halloween. But today I will reflect on my Halloween experience in school and with my family .

Now I will talk about my Halloween experience at school . Firstly the party was spectacular; they had divided it into two sections one was for playing and the second one was for dancing although the playing area was 1000 times better. I divided my time for both.At the play area they had gaga , foosball and american- football . However we would play other games like soccer. The dancing area was full of girls so the boys spent more time at the playing area although they didn’t stop us from getting inside. There was this time when I was at the dancing area everyone had light so me and a friend picked some from the floor but we wanted more and more. The lights were just so cool . They also had a lot of candy and a guessing game that I put 71 but it was 70 so sad.Second of all the parade . At the parade we would put on a costume and adults would stand outside and take some pictures . I went dressed like a pizza although it makes sense cause my last name is pizza . My favorite food is also pizza.

Trick or treating comes next . At first I was putting the candy outside until someone showed up at the door. I thought it was a trick or treat but it was just the amazon guy . After that I went to a friend’s house to start trick or treating because their road was closed . We also played a game that if you got the most candy you would win 10 treats of your choice from a friend . There was this time when this guy told us to grab as much candy as we wanted but I didn’t want to be mean so I grabbed a handful of candy . But I put some back . I also saw other friends along the way and met new people too .It was an excellent experience and the school party was spectacular .

This Halloween was amazing. I met new people, saw friends along the way and I also enjoyed the party we had at school. How was your Halloween and did you make new friends? I hope you did and next time come along and join me. We will have a lot of fun . However, don’t forget to bring the best costume ever .

First Week of School

Posted on October 2, 2023 by npizza31

Hi, I am Nicola and my first week of school has ended, and today I am going to explain all about it . Additionally the school has been an amazing place and I hope it gets better and better . And talking about school I have made lots of friends and I’d like to meet other people too. But now lets get right to the point .

All about PE, because PE is a perfect way to exercise, play cool sports and games . Sports are the best because their popular games played all around the world ! And fun games are amazing too, and to be able to play wherever you are . Secondly I really enjoyed the four four challenge .It was very exciting and challenging for me.The hardest one was number 31. It was so hard that I couldn’t even get it, I stared at it for minutes but I still couldn’t figure it out. Finally Government was so fun and learning about amazing details about countries was cool . Also I didn’t know that the government was divided into many parts .Did you know that?

Now I will talk about what I am looking forward to this year . But now drum roll please ! Firstly ,volleyball game , when I was little I really liked volleyball. I used to play it on the beach with my Mom, Dad and my brother . But we left the ball at my grandma’s house so we only play in Brazil now but I still like watching and playing volleyball. and I’d love to play here too. Secondly, on Halloween in Mexico we used to go to a party instead of asking for candy. the bigger kid could go but now every kid could go and that’s exciting . And Finally the Bedford trip, I have never heard about Bedford trip but my class told me about it and it seems very fun and exciting .

In addition, I really hope to meet new people and having fun is a great experience and adventure. so I hope all these thing make this school year the best

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