Capstone Blog Post #3

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Capstone was really fun. There were lots of challenges on the way but it feels good to be done after working on it for so long. The research I found was really interesting. I realized that there is a lot more to topics than you think. I found it really fun looking through all the information about the black death. Another thing I found very fun was writing the script because I just really liked it.

I chose The Black death because I find it very interesting and I have always wanted to work in medicine like being a surgeon so I thought it was the right choice. My other option was the ISS but since iI do space a lot for my projects. I wanted to try something new for a change and I think I made the right choice because I really loved learning about the black death. One thing I found quite challenging was if two websites said opposite things and then having to decide which one was telling the truth or not. Usually, if that happened I would just look at other websites to see if all of them agree with one or the other. I think that was the only big challenge apart from finding the right photos. 

Before we made are video we had to do some research. We had to come up with 5 different resources to get your information from and you had to say why it is a good website and things like when it was published. Then we put that research into the slide show to then later on put into our narrative and then into a video. The research, I found was quite fun, and it was exciting to learn about your topic.

Capstone was a really fun experience to do like learning about your topic and even seeing other people’s slideshows and learning about theirs. I think sharing will be a very fun experience to share what I have been working on for months.

Capstone Blog Post #2

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The 5th grade each year does a capstone, part of the capstone requires conducting an interview. I personally think I did well and it was very interesting to talk to an expert.

For my interview, at first, I was thinking about interviewing someone from the plague museum in England but I couldn’t find anyone. Then, my dad said he could contact his old medieval history professor. When we scheduled the date, he didn’t show up, but then he came back on Saturday. 

Conducting the interview was very fun. He was very nice and happy to do the whole thing. It went as expected, I got all the answers and he said I had very good questions. I learned a lot of things in just 20 minutes. I think the whole interview helped me a lot and it will help me with my capstone.

All in all, I really enjoyed doing the interview and meeting new people, I hope we can do this in middle school too and maybe go somewhere new.

Capstone Blog Post #1

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Capstone is a project that you do at the end of the 5th grade where you pick a topic to do a project about. You can do a movie, We Video, Ignite, and a Ted Talk. I think most people will be used to this type of project because in 4th grade called a passion project. Personally, I feel very good about this project because I have a good amount of research and I really like the freedom that you can choose what you do and how you present it. Also, I find my topic very interesting and I would love to keep learning about it for a couple more weeks.

To pick out a topic, we filled out a google docs sheet that gave us questions like what did you like as a kid ect… Then in class, we picked two topics that we would later narrow down to one. I chose the Black death because I really like the topic and want to keep going

After we came up with our topic, we had to develop a main inquiry question. It wasn’t too hard but at the same time, it was not very easy. With your main inquiry question, you had to make sure it was not too broad but also not too zoomed in on a topic. A big challenge was using all these criteria and finding a question that you actually liked

Coming up with sub-questions in my opinion was the hardest part so far. We filled out another google doc to try and help. A challenge was picking just 5 because it was hard to choose, also deciding which ones are good and which ones aren’t. One of my subtopics was What is the Black Death, Why was it so impactful when it hit Europe.

Immigration Blog post #2

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I think this project was really fun to do. I think this because firstly you got a lot of freedom of what you want to do, also I got to learn a lot’s about my mother in the process. The first thing I had to do was pick a person to interview. I really wanted to interview myself but I couldn’t. Eventually, I chose my mother because of a couple reasons like I wanted to learn about her more. The second thing I had to do was think of 20 questions and then narrow it down to ten to fifteen to ask my mother. I really wanted to ask questions that would give me a good overview of her life in order. I also wanted to ask very interesting questions so I could tell a good story with the basic view of her life while also telling interesting facts. the next thing was the interview. I had to do an interview with her. I found that very fun. Next, I had to write the script. this was the part where I had to plan out what I was going to say in my video. Lastly, I had to create my video. This part in my opinion I found the funniest. I say that because this is the part where you can really be creative and make the video yours. I really think this was very fun for me and my mother. I think this because I got to be very creative which I felt really suited me. I also felt this was very fun for my mother. I felt this because she was very enthusiastic about the whole interview and was very happy to do the interview.

Immigration Blog Post #1

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I think this interview project was really fun. I really loved choosing the questions and asking them. Another thing I loved was the freedom you got like how you could choose the questions and the person you were interviewing

Preparing for the interview was an interesting process. The first thing I had to do was find the person I was going to interview, I chose my mother. The second thing I had to do was get the questions, I chose 10 questions to ask the person I was interviewing. When creating my questions I really wanted to get questions that would really help like when did you immigrate. I also thought about questions that would tell my audience who the person is.

The experience of conducting the interview was very fun. We did the interview in person in my kitchen. It went really well. All the questions were answered. One thing I learned about conducting an interview is you have to take your time and be very clear. One very interesting I learned is that she prefers her homeland to America.

I think this interview was a fun process and I would definitely do it again.

 

 

Blog post 2

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My overall experience designing this machine was I thought it was really fun to make. I think what I really liked about Rube Golberg was you got to express your creativity in this project not just get assigned a build. One thing I felt was really challenging was building the lego parts to my build. They were very complicated to make.

One thing I learned from the Rube Goldberg experience is you have to keep trying and you can’t give up when things go wrong. Also, you may have to change your designs to complete your idea. I think these lessons can apply to many things in life like when building, your job, or even everyday things in life

My experience making the Rube Goldberg video as I thought it was really fun to make. I think this because I like to make videos and edit things so I thought this was really cool. Also, you like your build could experiment and be creative and add your own personal toches

Recourses: Google, lego contraptions book, and my dad

Rube Goldberg Reflection #1 The Balloon Pop

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So far I think this project is very fun. I really like how you get to design your own project and have a lot of freedom. I also like the idea of such a big contraption for such a simple task.

I took a lot of inspiration from other rube Goldberg contraptions. Also, I walked around my house looking for things to use in my contraption. I really liked the process of the sketch, One thing that really helped me was that I already knew I wanted to pop a balloon so that really helped me. I am really excited to design this contraption because I love building things and creating things. I think a big challenge in this project is that I had not too many things to build out in my house so that was a big factor in the project. I could always go to a hardware store for building materials but I really want to use the recourses in my house because it is a bit more fun and more of a challenge. A big moment was when I realized that I could make the contraption go down by using a lever, This really helped me in my design process.

 

 

 

 

Freedom of Speech

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The reason I chose my question is I thought it would be a good question instead of what is freedom of speech. I also picked it because I really like the question. When I was on my summer break I came across an article on freedom of speech and I found it very interesting and thought it was a fascinating topic.

I think the most challenging part of my project was finding good websites to use. The reason for this is my question on the surface is really simple and easy. The problem is I had to look deeper into the question to really was the answer.  What really motivated me was that I really wanted to do well on the project that I had been working on since November. I also wanted to finish the project because I thought it would be really cool to finish something I had been working so hard on for such a long period of time.

I think I did really well on the project in the end and shared my information with everyone. I also think I successfully answered my research question How has freedom of speech helped social movements flourish at the end of my project.

Book review of Big Nate

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Big Nate On A Roll  is a book about a kid called Nate. You follow his adventures as a middle schooler. Nate goes to P.S. 38. He has a reputation of being a troublemaker. He has an arch nemesis but to find out about her and what she does you’ll just have to read the book. He has two best friends called Francis and Teddy.

I think the author was trying to relate Nate and his life to other people because the book is about an ordinary kid with ordinary problems. I find the Big Nate On A Roll really funny.

My favorite character is Francis because I like how he is smart and good. I also like Nate because he gets into trouble and is funny. I think I am a little like Nate because I like to goof around and to do fun things.

I would highly recommend this book because it is funny and relatable and really anyone can read it.

Welcome to 5th Grade

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I’m in 5th grade. It feels kinda weird knowing I’m going to have a whole year full time this year. Something that stood out to me last year is that the way the school has played out with only doing half of 3rd grade and cohort in fourth grade. I think I’m looking forward to Capstone because I like doing a big project about anything you want. I’m also looking forward to doing the rockets because I love doing experiments with science. All ready I have made new friends like Daniel T and Hayden S. I love to do math puzzles because it grows my mind. I’m really sad about not being able to go on a field trip this year because I heard we would have gone to Philadelphia. I hope I have a great last year at Heathcote School.