Amy Chen Capstone

Abstract:


As a child growing up, I thought losing friends to guns was the norm because it happens very often. However, after attending my first Gun Violence Prevention summit in Washington, D.C, I realize that there are people who have faced similar situation as me and it motivated me to used my skills in advocacy into bringing awareness on gun violence in Philadelphia and pushing for better laws across the country.


The goal of this capstone is to give people the feeling that I had when I attend #Fight4AFuture summit in Washington D.C. I want to motivate youth and leaders to make a change by organizing and bring awareness through education. During the time this event was plan, the primary election was ongoing and I thought it was a great idea to educate voters on where all the mayoral candidates stands on violence in Philadelphia.


Capstone
Bibliography: 

Canada, G. (1995). Fist, stick, knife, gun: A personal history of violence in America. Boston: Beacon Press

This book is a very useful book for my capstone because it gives me a insight peek on a person named Canada, where violence is used. They promote violence because it is part of the culture that they are raised in. He spoke about how parents encourage their child to solve issue through violence and threats, often time through fight. Canada spoke about how the younger generation are affected by violence. The younger generation started carrying weapon to school, which started a trend where small crimes become big crime. With this book, I have an idea on violence in other place. But also the reason behind it. 

Webster, D. (2013). Reducing gun violence in America: Informing policy with evidence and analysis. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Reducing gun violence in America is a great book that also give me knowledge and statistics on gun violence. The main focus of the book is learning ways to reduce gun violence in America which is establishing better laws such as; the universal background check. The universal background check help make sure that whom ever is purchasing a gun have no criminal record or mental illness. The book included an analysis of the constitutionality of many recommended policies and date form the national public opinion poll that reflects support among the majority of Americans-including gun owners- for stronger gun policies. 

Giffords, G., & Kelly, M. (n.d.). Enough: Our fight to keep America safe from gun violence.

This is a story of a heartbreaking couple who wife was shot in the head and magically survived. The book is very inspiring on how dedicated Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, share their impassioned argument for responsible gun ownership. With the shooting, congresswoman Gabrielle is more eager to bring better laws into the country. The journey and the obstacle that she face to try to bring laws to protect the Americans from guns. At the end of the book. I am more knowledgable on what to bring to the summit and the obstacle that we will face one day. 

Gilbert, E. (2014). Thunder in the Mountains: A Personal Journey Through America's Gun Culture

Author Craig K. Collins wrote a book about his personal life on the role of guns in American Culture. He explores the meaning of a history – of his family’s and his country’s – that is infused with the culture of the gun. The story begins on a hunting trip Collins took with his father and brothers in the early ‘70s, when he was accidentally shot with a high-powered deer rifle at the age of 13 near the top of an isolated peak in Northeastern Nevada. He tells a personal story of a childhood in Idaho and Nevada, where hunting is a way of life and guns are revered – often with fatal and unintended results. He recalls friends – past and present – whose lives have been forever shattered or altered by the explosive force of a bullet. This book is a great use to my summit because it talk about the danger of guns. 

Gun Violence. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from http://articles.philly.com/keyword/gun-violence

This website provided me the recent update on the actions that organization in Philadelphia are taking to address gun issues. Not only does it provided me these information, but also incident that happened in Philadelphia. This article will help me to keep these young people in the summit updated on the crime rate that is happening in Philadelphia. This is a great source for me to look at daily for any update compared to books. 

#Fight4The33. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from http://www.fight4the33.org/

An average of 33 American get murdered by guns everyday and fight4the33 is a campaign that is run through generation progress. #Fight4the33 is a campaign that bring awareness to people to start taking action to address this issue. I am going to promote this campaign at the summit and I hope that people will be more educated with #fight4the33 campaign. Since my other mentor work with me through Generation Progress, I think it will be very useful in the long term run. Which mean recruiting people to organization and as a regional organizer, I can create a bridge of connection. 

Join the Effort to #ProtectAllWomen. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from http://protectallwomen.org/

#Protectallwomen is a campaign that protect women from their partner on domestic violence. I am going to promote this campaign at the summit and I hope that people will be more educated with #ProtectallWomen campaign. I also hope to get women involved with this campaign in Philadelphia because a lot of women are being violated by their partner. Since my other mentor work with me through Generation Progress, I think it will be very useful in the long term run. Which mean recruiting people to organization and as a regional organizer, I can create a bridge of connection. 

The Gun Violence Prevention Report. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from http://www.the-gvp-report.org/2014/03/15-states-have-strengthened-gun-laws.html

This will be use in my summit by letting people know how successful we have come and to encourage other that this is possible. This source provided wonderful information and fact on what states have establish a stronger law to protect guns. It also keep people updated on the NRA action which is beneficially to the people who are planning actions. This can help strengthen my summit by actually having information and facts. 

Five Policies Millennials Want President Obama To Discuss During The State Of The Union. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from http://genprogress.org/ideas/

As a regional organizer through generation progress, I have the source to help other on recent update through generation progress network. This will benefit my project because it is very important that when young people enter the summit they have the source and the need to make the action happened in the future. That’s why the source through generation progress is very useful in future need. Due to the large role that generation progress play in the society and in the white house, Generation Progress can help me make my summit more successful. This is a source about president Obama state of union statement on putting stronger laws to protect people form guns. 

USA Gun Violence Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2015, from http://heedinggodscall.org/content/pfctoolkit-10

This is a good source because it provided all the information and statistic on gun violence in the United States of America. This organization have chapter all over the State, such like Philadelphia, PA. In the summit, I want to introduced people to this organization because it is a wonder organization that people can connect with and create a bridge of communication and working relationship. Overall, it is always great to have a source on just statistic in the United States of America. 

Nikki Adeli, Capstone

When I gave my TEDxTalk in March of my Junior year, I wanted to provide my perspective, as a student, of the problem with education in Philadelphia today. However, when writing my talk I wanted it to be different than other TED talks I had previously seen. I wanted it to have a call to action. My call to action was to have Philadelphia invest more in youth internships and work opportunities so that students were able to expand their interests outside the classroom that wasn’t providing much support for them. 
Therefore, for my Capstone, I began to create the foundation of a project I was longing to do for quite sometime. The creation of what I call “Skillships”. I wanted students, who didn’t have access to internships and shadowing positions, like I did at SLA, to actually have the opportunity to do so because I saw the positive effect it had on my peers and me. However, I called these opportunities Skillships because prior to a student beginning their Skillship, they are to take a diagnostic survey I created. The survey would then show me what their strengths, weaknesses, and interests were. From there, the student would be able to see and help me understand a specific skill they wanted to perfect. Whether it was social media management or mechanics, I wanted to be able to set these students up with the opportunities to grow a skill of their choosing while giving back to Philadelphia by working with small businesses.

 I received a lot of No’s when it came to building the foundation of Skillships. Whether it was regarding a student’s “expertise” or the “lack of incentive I could provide the business”. However, if there is anything I have learned during my 4 years at SLA is that expanding a project or growing as a student takes lots of patience and time.

 This is why I will continue working on Skillships through the summer of 2015 with Mayor’s Office of Education and the Jobs & Economics Committee with the Philadelphia Youth Commission to provide every interested student, within the district, with a Skillship of their interest. 

Diagnostic Quiz taken by participants: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13NSAUShV5T9lbnHKNtNtoUibGfOcav5-TwG7QeiNnQ/viewform
​Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pVocyfblE3ZtxUGOtsdLggtypLTeMfBeteEcWE0LiuE/edit

Leah Petty Capstone

For my capstone I went back to the middle school I attend, Middle Years Alternative (MYA), and taught their three seventh grade classes about the high school process. I wanted to do this project because I saw a real struggle in the school, I started to notice less kids from MYA getting into SLA. Then I learned that after the district started closing schools MYA was forced to take in those students, soon after this their principal retired along with many teachers. Also my younger sister is a current seventh grader at the school, and when I asked her what high school is thought she would like to attend when she graduates, she replied "I don't know" and said they really haven't talked about it much. After this I went to the school and talked to the new principal and asked if I could do my senior capstone project at the school, and it would be informing the students about the high school process. This would include getting them to know the different schools in Philadelphia, and letting them know the requirements, talking about college and how important it is to go to a school that best fits them for the future. I started out in March before they took their PSSA's, this would give them time to know how high they should be scoring in order to get into the schools they would like to go to. After the testing was done we started to talk about grade requirements and what their GPA's need to look like, and behavior grading too. I went into talking about clubs and sports teams also, what school are at the top. In the end I asked them how much they benefitted from this, all of them said that it was very helpful and learned something new that would help them choose a high school, and be more prepared.

Here are some pictures of my students and there top high school choices:



Bibliography:


"GreatPhillySchools - Home." GreatPhillySchools. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

<http://greatphillyschools.org/>


Great Philly schools is website devoted to rating and reviewing schools in Philadelphia. These schools range from pre-k to High School. When using this website in my capstone I will be focusing on high schools. I would like to have the students I’m teaching research the schools they are thinking about applying to and see if it is a good fit for them. This could be based on the size of the school, location, average test scores,    sport teams, ect. The point of this is to let the students see if this is really is the school they want to. Let them do their own research on the schools they want to go to, and not just hearing about it. 


"The School District of Philadelphia." US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

<http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/pennsylvania/districts/the-school-district-of-philadelphia>


This source comes from US News, under Education. This specific page is on the Philadelphia School District and has all the Philadelphia high schools and ranking, now many of the schools are not ranked. But one of the main reasons I’m using this page because it says rather or not the schools are nationally recognized. This is something you should take into account when picking a high school, because when it comes down to applying to college you want the college to know your school. I want to get across to the students that the decision of your high school falls right under college, the next big thing after this is start researching colleges to apply to.


"Inside Strawberry Mansion High School, Philadelphia, Pa Most Dangerous H S in America." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLiDFFvwkbQ>


This is a video titled “Inside Strawberry Mansion High School”, in this video World News goes inside Strawberry Mansion High School. The school has been labeled the most dangerous school in America. Diane Sawyer goes into the school and reports on the violence. I want to show the students that is not what you want to go though when you're in school, you don’t want to have to fight just to make it through the day. You want to know that you are in a safe learning environment. A school that is going to provide you things to better you for your future, the main thing they focus on in Strawberry Mansion is safety.   



"Philadelphia's District and Charter High Schools: How Are They Doing?"Public School Notebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

<http://thenotebook.org/fall-guide-2014/147620/philadelphias-district-and-charter-high-schools-how-are-they-doing>


The notebook is Philadelphia news paper that is dedicated to Philadelphia schools. This page talks about the top special admit schools and things you need to know before applying. Things like SAT scores, graduation rate, suspensions, total enrollment, ect. And since I the goal is to the students in the top schools in Philadelphia we want them to know these things before applying, and their parents to know. Especially because it goes into the percentage of low income students they have, because we don’t want a student feeling out of place because of the amount of money their parent have. 


"Counselors Offer Advice on Applying." Public School Notebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

<http://thenotebook.org/fall-guide-2010/102824/counselors-offer-advice-applying>


This page is also from the notebook, and this is advice from counselors around the city. Mostly from Elementary and Middle Schools, they talk about what is the best things to do when applying to schools. Also making sure you inform students about a schools before letting them apply, which is mainly my entire project. And it helps parents when you have more than one person saying the same thing. Because I’m still a kid in their eyes so I want to have some professionals to back me up. 


"High School Profiles." School Profiles. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

<http://thenotebook.org/schoolprofiles>


Once again this is from the Philadelphia Notebook. This is just a browser of all the high schools in the city, public and charter. Which I want to focus on, I don’t what parents or students to think in order to get a good education you have to pay, thats one thing I knew I didn’t want to talk about, private and catholic schools. So I want them the see the schools they have already heard about schools they have never heard of, and everything in between. I really want the parents to go though this too. 


"Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School." Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015

<http://thenotebook.org/content/julia-r-masterman-laboratory-and-demonstration-school>


This agin is from the Philadelphia Notebook. This is just about Julia R. Masterman which at this moment in time is the top school in the state. I want them to see this because I want them to know you don’t have to go to this school to be the best. Also talk about how much stress the kids there go though and how hard it is. And touch on how they kick there kids out if they can’t maintain good grades, and how you don’t want that.


"School Selection Timeline." Public School Notebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

<http://thenotebook.org/fall-guide-2014/147614/high-school-application-process-step-step>


This is a time line of how the application process goes when applying to high schools. This is for this year instead of next so will be modifying it. This is mainly for parents to know that to do when next yea comes. This will also be in whatever I choose to do rather it be a booklet or website. But this is very important thing to touch on for the parents so they have a head start next year. 


"Getting a Jump on High School." Public School Notebook. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

<http://thenotebook.org/fall-guide-2014/147616/getting-jump-high-school>


This again from the Notebook, this talks about preparing your student for the transition form middle school to high school. Which can be a big jump for most kids and you don’t want to just throw them into that. So this will help most parents with their child, and what small steps they can take before taking the big leap. So this is mainly for parents. 


"Selecting a High School: Frequently Asked Questions." The Notebook, n.d. Web.

<http://thenotebook.org/fall-guide-2014/147613/selecting-high-school-frequently-asked-questions>


This is just Frequently Asked Questions. These are for questions I might not know, or for parents or students that need more info. I think again that this will be more helpful for parents that don’t fully trust me. I think this will be good to for something to go back to when for next fall.  

Azaria Burton's Capstone

​Capstone Abstract

My Senior Capstone Project was to learn how to use Processing by attending my computer science engineering class everyday, creating a blog showing what I learned in class and to create a game that was completely separate from my class in order to show what skills I had learned throughout the year. I wanted to learn how to use Processing for my capstone because I realized how important coding is and I wanted to learn a completely new skill this year instead of doing my capstone on a topic that I was already knowledgeable about. I created the blog so that others would have a chance to see what Mr. Miles taught my class, but also so that I could track what I had learned and be able to see how my coding skills progressed over the school year. Lastly, I created a game separate from my class because I wanted to show that I am able to create a code using Processing without having Mr. Miles walk me through it. I also believe that  the combination of my blog and my game will get people more interested in CSE while also being able to see how I’ve evolved over the year.  Although I’ve enjoyed creating my senior Capstone I have had some rough patches. The biggest one being creating my asteroids game because I only have computer science twice a week and there were skills that I hadn’t learned in class that I had to learn by myself in order to complete my game. In all, I enjoyed completing my capstone.


Link to my blog: http://aburtoncse.blogspot.com/ 

My blog post shows all of the work I've done this year

Link to video showing my Asteroid game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Bdx7HK5XE&feature=youtu.be

I also have a picture of my Ping Pong game below and my annotated bibliography is attached. I created the ping pong game as a homework assignment but will also be showing at my Capstone presentation. 

Capstone Annotated Bibliography, Azaria Burton
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Audrey Pham's Senior Capstone: SLA Dear Me Project

Abstract: 

The Dear Me Project at Science Leadership Academy is a letter that graduating seniors or teachers, would write to themselves. This letter consists advices, anything they'd say to their younger selves, positive reminders or encouragement. This project is about self-reflecting and being able to let the younger/future students of SLA feel more understood about their life at the moment. At some point in every teenager's years of high school, they will going through internal/external conflicts. This blog publishes letters from the seniors who will be graduating. I was inspired by doing this when 2-3 months ago, I was on Youtube and I saw #DearMe videos by famous Youtube celebrities. This was similar to my capstone but instead their letters to their younger selves were said in video form instead of actual written letter forms. I completely dropped my original plan of my capstone and started this project instead. This connects in our community because I believe that when I graduate, another student of SLA can be in charge of this blog and continue to keep it going. I made a very simple google form and shared links on my social media and I also sent/emailed it to seniors of my grade and a few teachers. May these letters bring you motivation, positive energy, good advice and self-reflection. 

LINK TO CAPSTONE:

http://sladearmeproject.blogspot.com/

Bibliography: 

"#DearMe Opening up + Advice to My Younger Self." YouTube. AprilAthena7, n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because this is the first thing that inspired me to do this capstone. I have watched AprilAthena7 because I like her beauty advices and I love watching her vlogs. I stumbled upon this as one of her new videos and I was instantly inspired by the concept of the hashtag Dear Me.


"#DearMe: Don't Be Afraid Of Being Different." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because this is another one very popular videos when you search up #DearMe on Youtube’s search bar. Her video is also very inspiring and I think people leave with something when they finish listening to her advices.


"#DearMe: YouTube's New Campaign Empowers Young Women." NY Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because it is an article that sums up what the #DearMe campaign on Youtube is all about. It just generalizes why it is important and the popular Dear Me Videos that people can view to get the feel of this campaign and maybe become inspired by it.


"Naikan: The Importance of Self-reflection." -- The ToDo Institute. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because I was researching why self reflection is important for everyone and I just found this article very interesting and it was one of the top articles that popped up when I searched on Google.


"Advice to My Younger Self." Huffingtonpost.com. N.p., n.d. Web.

This source helps me because it leads me to other sources about any article on Huffington that relates/tags to advice to my younger self. This helped me a lot because it lead me onto reading many other articles that I can use as resources.


"Famous Women Give Advice to Their Younger Selves, and It's Beautiful."RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because it is another article that sums up about the Dear Me campaign.


"#DearMe - What Advice Would You Give Your Younger Self?" YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because it’s a Youtube Spotlight video and it has a bunch of clips from popular #DearMe Videos on youtube.


"YouTube Dear Me Campaign Empowering Girls." YouTube Dear Me Campaign Empowering Girls. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because it’s an article about how the Youtube #DearMe campaign’s main audience is young women.


"Seattle Seniors Take Part in 'Dear Me' Campaign - Seattle." Seattle. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because it is about how a group of seniors in Seattle recreated this campaign in their community just like how I am doing this at SLA.


"YouTube #DearMe Campaign Reaches Out To Young Women For International Women's Day." Tech Times RSS. N.p., 07 Mar. 2015. Web. 22 May 2015.

This source helps me because it informed me about how Dear Me campaign started off for International Women’s Day.


Teion Ensley-Ellerbe Capstone

I knew that I wanted it to be reflective since that was one of the main core values from SLA that I thought gets under valued. After speaking with multiple people about I thought that there wouldn’t be a better way to do this then to have those are the pillars of the school reflect on what they have learned about the school and what SLA truly means to them.


This gave me the Idea for two videos to me made. The first video the I wanted to make would be for incoming teachers to SLA since they are the pillars of the community and need to adjust just like everyone else does. In order to do this I needed to see what it was like to be a part of that learning process is which is why I choose to take a full year of classes with Amal Giknis one of the new teachers coming to SLA this year. Through being her student I saw what big changes needed to be made from the traditional teaching style and how they needed to be adapted to the SLA way to thinking and learning.


My second video would be not just freshmen, but people from multiple classes reflecting on their freshman year. Since SLA is such a vastly different experience from going to school anywhere else I thought that having multiple people give a subtle recap of their freshman year with the challenges and struggles they faced and giving advice to the next incoming class would be a wonderful thing for future freshmen. Another way I wanted to do this was by experiencing it with them which is why I insisted on becoming an SAT to a freshman class to watch them struggle and grow into the wonderful student that SLA produces.


While experiencing these things with these different groups Interviewed SLA faces both old and new to get their opinions on their respective topics I learned not only how SLA thinks but about how you need to be able to be open minded to become a part of something much bigger than yourself and the SLA Community as a whole. 

Below I have the Youtube Link of the video intended for teachers.

Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h_qYw6kJSoKmDj07GgD9aFVB2YML4gzO5y6-blaJ4EE/edit

It's Not Rocket Science Teachers!- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwZVbD3kx5c&feature=youtu.be

Freshman Interview 1: https://vimeo.com/128652678

KaBoni Bailey Capstone

The world would go crazy without music, and would become a centerfold of straightjackets. My love for music is unkempt, being as though it's gotten me through a majority of harsh times and has never failed to leave my side. For my Capstone, I decided to give back to music by making it (Also showing the early process's of my production career). Through this process, since November of 2014, I've had a flirtatious relationship with music production, giving it attention on-and-off depending on what it looked like to me that day; resulting in many unfinished (Drafted) projects, and time well spent. Throughout this Generic EP, I wanted to regurgitate what i've been fed in my life, on no set scale. Any artistry passes on the aura of it's owner, and I wish to portray myself as best as possible given the time being. 

Image one: Cover art for EP. Picture taken in CAPA Center City, Main Hall. 
Image two: "Dietary", the third instrumental that KaBoni 'finished' and uploaded to Social Media websites. 
Image three: The first song uploaded to Soundcloud (On March 2nd, 2015) from KaBoni's rapping clique, "The Hollow Martians" 
It Had a Beginning
It Had a Beginning
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Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 10.16.09 PM
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Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 10.42.32 PM
Audio recording: 
Audio Recording, Soul, Mentor. 12:27PM/12.22.14 file:///Users/studentaccount13-14/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/Unknown%20Artist/Unknown%20Album/Audio%20Recording%20(Soul).m4a


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgvHVxFwQz0

Mixing and mastering is an essential when It comes to music production. The fine tuning and quality of music is based off of the engeneers (for the most part), mixing and mastering skills. This tool usually takes a good deal of time to spring about proficiently, and knowing that I've taken it upon myself to learn, and at the least, comprehend the main circuits of Mixing and Mastering. 

http://themindunleashed.org/2013/12/166-documentaries-expand-consciousness.html
"You only go as far as you know" Taking knowledge and all possible options of realization into consideration, this site was epic in the formation of my perception as time elapsed. We are what we eat, as they say, and that goes for brain food as well, and everything transfixed on altering my timeline, will affect my musics timeline, as it has with every artist before me. 

http://www.complex.com/music/the-best-rapper-alive-every-year-since-1979/1984?utm_campaign=complexmag%2Bsocialflow%2B01%2B2015&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
I grew myself up on hip hop. Boom bap to be specific, and knowing/understanding the roots to the music that shaped me and my generation (and the one before us) has a large deal to do with wanting to know myself as a whole. I do not know the whole picture of myself, and that viewpoint is not mine to get, so I accept that, but nothing plays too far from it's roots, no matter the differences. 

http://www.loopmasters.com/articles/2031-10-Ways-To-Improve-Your-Production
One of the future (sooner than later) goals is to create a studio in the basement I room in. An in-house studio, a but good quality in-house studio. This musical feed is an escape... a route.... a way out of the past tense and into a better future for my unborn. This website aided me in converting my thoughts to more concreted beliefs, and a better realization of what steps I wanted to take first. 


Lala Doumbia Capstone

The goal of this project of this project to help the SLA student with laptop insurices. We  all have to pay $75 every year. We wanted to give it to someone so they won’t have to think about how they will get the money to pay it. We made it into a scholarship call scholarship  B . A . S . I . S (Bold and Successful Intelligent Scholars).  To make it funny for the student at SLA we fundraise and made a 2 part spirit week. I had up one week well my partner the 2nd week. This was to help people get into school spirit. This was to also help people be open and no judge anyone.


"Spirit Week Ideas |NoBullying|." NoBullyingBullying Cyber Bullying Resources Advice. N.p., 11 Nov. 2014. Web. 22 May 2015.

"Leadership Empowerment Group, LLC." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.leadershipempowermentgroup.com/>.

We are working them feel empowerment in group. Most people don’t know how an empowerment look like when it come to real life. This is one of the group that I found. They talk about how they teach the people how to become a leader more. In Science  leadership they teach everyone how they come become a leadership. So I would like to help the people in our group.


"Personal Empowerment." Developing. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/personal-empowerment.html>.

In this source they talk about how people should language and what they should do to have self-empowerment. It show you hints on how you can start with develop trust, understand our strengths, weaknesses and limits, and last develop confidence and self-esteem. This goes with more program because they will help themself feel they can do anything. I would like that for everyone who will be a part of the program.



"The Science." : The Growth Mindset. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.mindsetworks.com/webnav/whatismindset.aspx>.

In this source they talk about a growth mindset on how does the teacher, parent, and student. They talk about how the students are enthusiastic, hard-working, persistent learners. They take charge over their own success. This goes with more program because they will help themself feel they can do anything. I would like that for everyone who will be a part of the program.



"Start Something for a Child Today - Big Brothers Big Sisters." Start Something for a Child Today - Big Brothers Big Sisters. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.bbbs.org/site/c.9iILI3NGKhK6F/b.5962335/k.BE16/Home.htm>.

In this source they talk provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.  This goes with more program because they will help themself feel they can do anything. I would like that for everyone who will be a part of the program.



"Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are." Amy Cuddy:. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?language=en#t-134675>

In this source they talk about Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing”  standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident  can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.  This show that we will need to work on body language on the program.


"My Mother's Strange Definition of Empowerment." Khadija Gbla:. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.ted.com/talks/khadija_gbla_my_mother_s_strange_definition_of_empowerment>.

Khadija Gbla grew up caught between two definitions of what it means to be an “empowered woman.” While her Sierra Leonean mother thought that circumcising her — and thus stifling her sexual urges — was the ultimate form of empowerment, her culture as a teenager in Australia told her that she deserved pleasure and that what happened to her was called “female genital mutilation.”  This goes with more program because they will help themself feel they can do anything. I would like that for everyone who will be a part of the program.


Bronson, Mary H., and Don Merki. Glencoe Health. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.

In this source they talk about how people can keep their health good. They show who people can keep their mindset good. They wanted everyone to talk care of them self. Most people in our program we are trying to get them to understand that they need to take care of them self to become a better person .


"Depression Center: Symptoms, Causes, Medications, and Therapies."WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.webmd.com/depression/default.htm>.

In this source they talk about the symptoms of depression . Most people don’t know the depression is a sickness. Know this I know people in high school that are depress and they don’t know what to do if they have it this will show you how to stop it and work to fix it.


"Teen Depression." Definition. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/teen-depression/basics/definition/con-20035222>.

In this source they talk about teen depression. It show the percentage of student that become depress. This show that people do get depress but school work, or not being able to do the things that other people can do. It also talk about bullying.

"School Bullying." - Bullying Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/school-bullying.html>.

In this source they talk about how people get bullied at school. How people don’t do anything when it happen. in our program we will try to get the mto talk to us. Which we can help them by tell someone who can help them.

Sieanna Williams' Capstone

Abstract




Over the course of Senior Year I have completed a collection of 5 short stories and am half-way completed the accompanying adaptive film. The writing process took a series of several months while production took just over a week. As expected, the production was the most challenging part given the limited time. My final product is compiled onto a website: pirouettingchimeras.weebly.com (which will be published as soon as the editing of the film is complete) which include all capstone required documentation, the writing and filming process and my final products (story, film, poem).

I’ve learned several important things over the course of this project: the complications with text-to-screen adaptations, and the frustrations of the production process. Even though it didn’t even compare to what the film industry is truly like, I endured stressful days of editing, conceptualizing and especially dealing with my actors’ scheduling conflicts and trying to direct them in a way that would result in getting the acting out of them that I desired. I learned how to coach my actors, take them out of the context of being who they were. I told my star actor, Marcus, not to react the way Marcus Burrell would but how Lou Garrison would. How would this paranoid, convicted schizophrenic who lost his family react to this and that? These were the pep talks I gave my actors to make them forget about their real lives and become their characters. It was a painful, but worthy and amazing experience.

Above is a collage of all of the work I have done so far. As you can see, all of the written portions (shown in the bottom two pictures) are complete. The stories and poem are shown in the first picture, while the screenplays are shown in the second picture. The third is a screenshot of the weebly site which contains all of my compiled work. The website will be published as soon as post-production on the film is complete. The film, which I am currently still editing, is shown mid-post-production in the final picture with my lead actor being the natural star he is.

Annotated Bibliography

by Sieanna Williams




  1. Frank Miller's Sin City. Dir. Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez. Prod. Bill Scott, Elizabeth Avellán, Robert Rodriguez, Bob Weinstein, and Harvey Weinstein. By Frank Miller. Perf. Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Brittany Murphy, and Clive Owen. Miramax Films, 2005. Film.

Frank Miller’s Sin City is the film that inspired my capstone project. This film includes a plethora of diverse shots, angles, lighting decisions, and a unique storyline that drew me in instantly. This film provides me with insight on how to transition between storylines, establish mise-en-scene according to the nature of the settings and time periods as well as upping my editing decisions. Another aspect of Sin City that caught my attention was the way each storyline connected to their themes. Just by watching this film I am educated and reeducated about the unlimited types of styles, design, colors, etc. that I can line up in my film. There are so many ways to bring creativity to a film and I believe this film demonstrates that in ways most films do not.

  1. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. Dir. Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez. By Frank Miller. Prod. Elizabeth Avellan. Perf. Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario Dawson, Bruce Willis and Eva Green. Miramax Films, 2014. Film.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is Sin City’s sequel. Even though Tarantino was not apart of this film, his Sin City touch still remained. In ways, I enjoyed part two better than part one. Nearly a decade after the prequel, the performances of Sin City 2 have gotten relatively stronger, which has impacted how I will direct my own actors. Even though I enjoyed this film more than it’s predecessor and it’s lurid cinematography, it often felt redundant, something I am struggling with when writing my own stories. I don’t want any of the stories to be the same, and so watching this repetition play over in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, it’s become a great resource of what to watch out for and how to avoid this.

  1. Slacker. Dir. Richard Linklater. By Richard Linklater. Prod. Richard Linklater. Perf. =Richard Linklater, Rudy Basquez, and Jean Caffeine. Orion Classics, 1991. Film.

The 90’s film. Slacker, is a perfect example of what I am trying to produce. I wouldn’t have known about this film had it not been for a friend. Slacker is set over a period of one day, my film is set over a course of one month. Slacker’s main concept, as my own, is to show snippets of unconnected lives throughout Austin, Texas to show their strong connections and relations despite the fact that they are internally and externally complete strangers to one another. The way Slacker approaches this is by showing each of these characters as slackers yet amazing artists. The point of my project is to show a global connection of people through struggles, morality, etc. So when I watch this film, I hope to take away an idea of how to connect my characters other than their blood relation (which is what I currently have).

  1. "5 Techniques That Create Depth & Make Your Cinematography More Dynamic." No Film School. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

Lately, I usually have not had any issues getting a great image on the camera before it hits color correction. But then, I never needed to get a great image in areas other than cold outdoors or warm indoors. I realized that by the time I start filming for this project it is going to be hot out, which means I’m going to need to adjust to all different sorts of lightings and temperatures. Not only just for my film but as a cinematographer in general, I’ve needed this. With this source I have learned how to add depth to my shots, enhance depth of field (rack focus is my favorite technique), and even contrast lighting.

  1. 5 Scriptwriting Tips That Will Make Any Story Better." Goins Writer RSS. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This source was a huge help for me getting down some of my scripts. It’s more difficult than it sounds to write a script out of a short story. This source told me to not only establish a clear voice, but to have my characters speak in vernacular. This was interesting and immediately inspiring. Since all of my short stories besides the first and last one will have first person narration based on the character driving the current storyline, I was struggling at first with how to keep the audience engaged with each character and keeping each character distinct. Another point that really stood out to me was to show and not tell. I don’t have much experience with scriptwriting, and, often, when I do I spoonfeed the story through lots of narration because of my own bad habit of including so much detail and explanation. But this source explained the importance of letting the audience find out things through dialogue and action. This source has completed the few scripts I have finished already.

  1. "The Compelling Story Technique." , CollegeGrad.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

As I mentioned in my proposal, I’m worried that my stories aren’t compelling enough. This article, however, appoints me to my weak points and issues with story telling while noting the definite dos that will drive one’s story to life. This article speaks briefly about using details and nuances to enhance the quality of my stories. One quote from this article that stuck with me is that one could achieve compulsion by simply “continuously striving to stay personally connected with the interviewer.” Yes, this article is mainly for people getting tips on how to interview, but it has been a great resource for my stories as well. It makes perfect sense to connect with the audience. It is the quickest and most important part of storytelling. If you don’t give your audience anything to relate to, then they’re only observers and they take nothing away from your story.  

  1. "How to Tell Your Story without Boring Your Audience to Tears." Goins Writer RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

When I read this article, I noticed that the author talked a lot about reflection and not just how my audience and readers would reflect after hearing the stories but how I would reflect on everything. If I can answer every posed or self-posed question about either my text or film or both then I should be okay. Suddenly, this topic translates to not how to tell my story but why I’m telling it. This article really made me think about why any of these stories are important and what exactly do I want my readers to take away from them. I know I want the struggle of deciding between moral and immoral is supposed to be the crux of the stories to show that humans connect through struggle, but why exactly would this be important? Thanks to this article, I’ve figured it out.

  1. "Can You Have Multiple Storylines in Your Novel? | Advanced Fiction Writing." Advanced Fiction Writing. N.p., 21 Feb. 2011. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

Of course I knew that one could indeed have multiple storylines within their novels, but I knew this article would have more to offer me than just answering the question in the title. The article, at one point, states that it’s important to remember that every one of the multiple characters are the lead character in the novel of their lives. This means that every character’s voice is unique, they should all be active characters (because no one wants to follow someone who is statically moving through live; that’s boring), and each of their storylines’ relationships to the main storyline must be established either totally clearly or totally vaguely, depending on whether I’m doing a mystery, psychological story where I want readers to figure out certain things for themselves. And that is another crucial tactic to writing with multiple storylines, according to the article: leaving the audience hanging. Not only are cliffhangers great (sometimes), butsimply not explaining or giving every skeptical moment in the story a chance to be explained. This is where most of the ability or even desire to analyze stories go to die. I’ve learned it’s important to let readers figure out things for themselves, keeping them in the dark often makes them more interested.

  1. "The Godfather: Part Two." The Godfather: Part Two. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

I was told the Godfather Part 2 was claimed to be the most amazing screenplay ever written in the world, and as many film screenplays as I’ve read, I could not agree more. Because I still needed guidance when screenplay writing, I often turn to example screenplays written for films I love. I love the films for a reason and I wanted to see just how the writers combated making it sound so great, how the actors took what was given to them and turned it into what they did on screen. This screenplay truly is genius. Even as a simple guide I’ve learned so much. Include camerawork, place it on the left; the structure of the narration referring to characters, sound and action; I’ve also learned that extension on narration is okay, so long as I do not spoonfeed the actors but instead use it as JUST an extension on stage directions. After reading this script, not only am I no longer intimidated by screenplay writing, but I’ve written several screenplays for my short stories and am fairly confident in all of them.

  1. Fitzgerald, F. Scott, and James L. W. West. "Hot and Cold Blood." All the Sad Young Men. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2007. N. pag. Print.

F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of my favorite authors. He is a romanticized writer, something I greatly enjoy and have taken to my own story writing. His collection of short stories, All the Sad Young Men is what inspired the short story portion of my capstone. Although F. Scott did not have intertwining storylines, he did have a theme that connects the characters in a more general sense. F. Scott uses grief, sadness and loneliness to connect his characters and I know enough about this book to understand just how to bring out those emotions and more within my own characters.  





Tytianna Broadwater's Capstone

The Capstone Project was made to give me the opportunity to express myself in a creative way while also showing my knowledge on the topic. My capstone was to design and create dance costumes, gymnastics leotards and accessories for the two sports. In order to do so I had to find a mentor, present a proposal, a timeline and then complete all task. My timeline had specific goals to help get my capstone done in an orderly fashion. At times, I fell behind on my timeline because there's was a lot to do at once. When that happened it was important of me to reevaluate my goal, talk to my mentor and find a way to get all necessary task complete. 

The finished products for my capstone included 3 leotards, 3 dance costumes, 2 bags, 10 hair accessories and something to work out in. I am proud of my final product because my original goal was not that much. However, I wanted to present the work in a magazine and just 6 things would not have been enough for a magazine. 

I plan on becoming a fashion designer after college and completing this capstone I learned a lot about what I would be doing in my future career. I did the process of making sketches come to life. I had to learn to make things on a deadline. I learned how to pose models, how to talk to a photographer and how to make a magazine in a way that would compliment the clothing while being appealing to the eye. 


Liukin, Nastia. "NEW Nastia Liukin Collection." Issuu. GK Elite, June 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

I found this source useful because its a gymnastics magazine and all designs were designed by a former gymnast. It also gave me an idea as what I wanted my magazine to look like. After looking through the magazine I was aware of what kind of paper they used. I also looked at the order. I really liked the layout. The first page had a picture of Nastia, a picture of her with a model and a short explanation of her work and her partnership with GK. She had one picture on each page of the model, and then the clothes on mannequins with the price. At the end of the magazine she had a quote from a famous designer and her in the work room. The magazine opened my eyes to different ways I could lay out my magazine. 

Colgrove, Debbie. "Basic Sewing Techniques for Sewing a Halloween Costume or School Play Costumes." About Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

This source was useful because it gave me new ideas and a different way to do certain techniques. Some of the the techniques I never heard of before, which helped a lot because it gave me more options in ways I could go with my designs. Some of the techniques on the page I already knew about, however they executed differently than what I would have done. It really helped with one costume in particular. I was having a hard time finding a specific type of material and the website had a step-by-step tutorial on how to make the fabric myself. 

"Kellé Company - Dance Costumes, Dancewear, Dance Clothes, Dance Apparel,." Kellé Company - Dance Costumes, Dancewear, Dance Clothes, Dance Apparel, Jazz Costumes, Lyrical Costumes, Kids Costumes, Competition Costumes, Recital Costumes. Kellé Company, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

This website was my biggest inspiration. Kellé Company is one of the biggest dance costume distribution around. When I was a dancer this is where all of my costumes were ordered from. They are cute and they are different. Their costume designs are not like other costumes but they don't go too far. Due to the difference in their costumes they helped me design my costumes. I noticed their techniques and what they did to keep their company number 1. I still have some of my old costumes and I looked at the fabrics and how the costume was sewn.

"GK Elite Gymnastics - Special Order Women's Long Sleeve Leotards." GK Elite Gymnastics - Special Order Women's Long Sleeve Leotards. GK Elite, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

This source was useful because of their popularity in the gymnastics world. At every competition if not all, almost all teams are wearing GK leotards. The good thing about GK is they have a feature on their website where you can design a leotard based off of templates. That feature helped when designing my leotards because I was able to see what looked good and what didn't before I put it n paper. Another good thing about the website is they do more than just one kind of leotard. They also have a partnership with Under Amour and Adidas. That was helpful because I got to see the difference is what the two companies thought and how they came together to make something.

Vogue, and Butterick. The Vogue/Butterick Step-by-step Guide to Sewing Techniques. New York: Prentice Hall, 1989. Print.

This book was helpful because of the year it was made. Over time the teaching and techniques of sewing has changed. The book was written when techniques were different and its better to have more than on way of doing something. I was taught how to sew at an actual sewing shop by younger people. Im not sure who they were taught by but the techniques in the book were different than the techniques I was taught. Not all were different and some were a little different. Everyone has a different way of doing things, sometimes one way is better than another way. With me having more than one technique is better because If I don't like how to do a certain thing it may not come out as well as it could have. 

Kensington. "How to Make: See-through Sheer Leotard." YouTube. YouTube, 16 June 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

This video was useful because I have never sewn with sheer before and I was a little hesitant and nervous to do so. Leotards are extremely hard to make and they take time and you have to keep a close eye on everything you do. Sheer is also extremely hard to work with because of how thin it is and the texture of the fabric. Sheer rips very easily and If I didn't know what I was doing I could have ripped it and wasted money. In the video she goes step by step. She starts by drafting a pattern and goes all the way to the end. 

"Six Secrets to Create a Budget You Can Stick With." Six Secrets to Create a Budget You Can Stick With. HSBC, 1 Aug. 2008. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

This source was useful because fabric and rhinestones and all other accessories a person needs to sew an article of clothing can be very expensive. Due to the fact that I have not figured out how I'm going to pay for these materials I had to create a budget. Creating the budget will make sure I don't spend excessively and end up broke. My goal is to use nice fabrics and accessories but not spend too much money. The website was about sticking to a budget for everyday living. However, it still helped because it talked about savings and how to keep your plan. 

"50 Incredible Photography Techniques and Tutorials - Smashing Magazine."Smashing Magazine. N.p., 21 Apr. 2009. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


This article was useful because I will be displaying my work by making a magazine. The  most important thing in my magazine will be the pictures. I have not decided who will be taking the pictures. However if its me or a friend I need to make sure the pictures come out the best quality they possibly could be. The website was so helpful because they gave 50 tutorials and techniques on how to take good pictures.

"Baum's Dancewear: Dance Apparel & Shoes, Costumes & Costume Accessories." Baum's Dancewear: Dance Apparel & Shoes, Costumes & Costume Accessories. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


This source has a website but also a store in Philadelphia After school one day I went to the store and I looked around the store to see what the costumes and leotards looked like and i looked at the stitch lines and the accessories. I was also able to talk to the people who work at the store and talk about the process of ordering and selling. That was really useful because it gave me a look at what I was in for and what it would be like if I owned my own store one day. I also purchased a costume and took it apart to get a closer look at the detail. 


"How to Sew Lycra Without Puckered Seams : Clothing Accessories Crafts."YouTube. YouTube, 2 Nov. 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

This video was useful because I have made leotards before but she sews her leotards differently than how I do. Her technique and tutorial was immensely helpful. Puckered seams make an outfit look really cheap and unprofessional.

"Sewing Barefoot: Flower Headband." Sewing Barefoot: Flower Headband. All Things Crafty, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

This website was helpful because I wanted to make a flower headband however I didn't know how to. The website told me what materials I needed and how to make it. 

"Pretty Pansy Fabric Flowers." Martha Stewart. N.p., 08 Apr. 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

This source had an online pattern as well as a tutorial on how to make the flowers I wanted to. 

"Wonderful DIY Flower Hairpin." WonderfulDIY. N.p., 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

I was able to use this source because it had a tutorial to more than one way to make certain flowers. 

Sadie Sprague-Lott, Capstone

My name is Sadie Sprague-Lott and I am a senior at Science Leadership Academy. Every year we need to do a senior project, this is a time for us to reflect on our four years and have time to do things with what we are most passionate about. Through most of my high school career I have been analyzing and taking action against institutionalized violence even when I was not aware of it.


For my final project I decided to take a deeper look into violence in Philadelphia and how it was affecting people in my community. This took shape in a couple of different forms. For the first half of the year I joined a student organization called Philadelphia Student Union where we organized a city wide protest against the budget cuts which we saw as a form of institutionalized violence. During this process I was also helping to organize a die in at my school to honor Mike Brown. During these events that were going on nationwide I was also able to participate on a panel with other teachers, students, and police officers where we discussed these issues.


After these events I also helped organize a youth portion of the annual Philadelphia Coalition for Victim Advocacy Candle Lighting. I was on the board of the event and also organized several meetings with youth and a survey where they got to voice their opinions on violence in their communities. We then presented at the event. Through this capstone I have grown my ideas on violence in my communities.
Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 9.53.17 PM
Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 9.53.17 PM
Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 9.53.44 PM
Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 9.53.44 PM
(Protest at the School District Building)
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B4GLGA1IUAIvp0E
(SLA Die In)
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Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 9.50.58 PM
Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 9.50.42 PM
Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 9.50.42 PM
(PCVA Candle Lighting)



Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/17PfNPWRgCy4g5tM80t_zElslFc-xVedc3PU6A29AeC8/edit?usp=sharing


Keeping It Real

In my First Blog Post, I gave you a basic summary of what Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) are.  I also talked about why they are used, the risk you take when you use them, what i think about the topic, and a few side effects if you take some certain PEDs.

I have recently come across a story on CNN News that talks about Performance Enhancing Drugs in sports dating back to 1976.  It also has timeline about the evolution of PEDs in sports history.  This website has been very helpful to me giving a lot more information about my topic that I needed to know.

The interview that I wanted to do didn't work out the way I wanted it to.  I couldn't find anyone to talk to that specifically specializes in my topic.  That made it difficult because to make up for not having an interview, I did a lot more research and found graphs of College player who used PEDs.

I have struggled with some things along the way with this project such as time, not getting an interview as planned, and trying to figure out an agent of change.  Time has not been on my side at all with this project.  My schedule has been full and it has been hard to find time to work on this.  I put myself in a hole where I didn't get to work on this as much as I wanted to but, it still took up a lot of time.  And not getting an interview and thinking of an agent of change just added more unwanted time.  I didn't think I was going to have to put as much work into this as I did.  But, it's all working out and I'm happy about that.  

For my agent of change I am ordering wristbands and I am going to have members of my baseball team and other teams wear them.  Hopefully the word will get out and I will have a lot of supporters wearing these wristbands.  

Annotated Bibliography

Edgar Pacio Capstone

My capstone evolved over the course of the year but it was always centered around art. freshman year I have always been a fan of the artwork the decorated the halls of SLA and I asked myself “What can I add to SLA’s creative and artistic environment?”. At the beginning of the year my plan was to paint on a large canvas that could be taken with the school if it ever found a new building. I contacted Al Gury, the Chair of the Painting Department at PAFA, but unfortunately my attempt to stay in contact with this him failed. Since I was unable to obtain a large canvas I decided to paint the walls on the third floor. I had previous experience with photoshop but I was not pro. I spent a lot of time tinkering with the many tools the program has to offer. When it came time to decide what it was I was going to paint I decided on a black and white theme. I used photoshop to created girds and rough drafts of my future artwork. My final products were a painting of a zebra and a silhouette-like body slice. This project taught me new skills but most importantly I learned that art takes patience, resources, and collaboration.


​Bibliography



Special thanks to Peter Ricker, Jenny Cruz, Kennedy Coverdale, and Nia Hammond for helping me through the Capstone process. 

Wendy Tepoz Capstone

My name is Wendy Tepoz, my capstone is Stress Reliever. I had to think about our school four core values inquiry, research, collaboration, and presentation. . Since the beginning of the year I knew what I was going to be doing. My main question is 'Do animals reliever human stress?’, the reason I pick this question because I thought of both, people and animals. Half of the world is suffering from stress that turns into depression, also half of the world's animals are being killed because there isn't enough space to keep a lot of animals at the shelters. I decided to make a survey to see what people's answers would be about relieving stress with animals. I seen a lot of different methods that are not healthy to reliever stress, which made me think instead of unhealthy methods, people could be relieving stress with an animal that will love you as much as you will. I decided to put my question to the test. I had two volunteers that had no clue on what was going to happen. I didn't feel satisfied with only my study and my survey. I felt as if I had to do much more and give back to the animals in this world. I decided through out the year to have bake sales to raise money to donate. I bought cat and dog supplies and took it to PAWS as part of a donation and a thank you to the animals that help people smile. 
​Stress Reliever Survey 
Stress Relievers - Google Forms
Bibliography


  1. http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/family-kids-news/national-pet-show-survey-finds-7760233

Bently, David. "National Pet Show Survey Finds Keeping Animals Reduces Stress and Gives Owners Healthier Lifestyles." National Pet Show Survey Finds Keeping Animals Reduces Stress and Gives Owners Healthier Lifestyles. Birminghammail, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

The source has provided useful information. I did not realize many people have notice having an animal has changed the way people live their lives. The article was very interesting to read. Reading this article has shown the many studies that has people noticing that animals have change the stress level in people homes and lives. I have learned in the UK the number of having an animal in a home has changed to 15 percent because of the way animals have improved people to have a healthy lifestyle. This source helps me know the knowledge that in other places in the world that animals are being viewed differently and not only has a pet wise but a pet that can is helpful for stress levels.

  1. http://www.psychologistworld.com/stress/stresstest.php

"Stress Test." - Stress Management. Psychologist World, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This article may not have as much detail but it has many questions to test stress levels which help me realize that my survey needs to provide many more questions other that a “yes” or “no” questions. Many questions should be about disagreeing and their everyday life, and things that can help with stress that is differently to many people. This article has made me open my mind. I have to think about other people and different situation people can be in. My audience is students, I should think of what the students are going through with school. This source has helped me because it is as an example that would help me with my own survey and I will be doing two survey which this will help me provide interesting questions.  

  1. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/265503.php

Nordqvist, Christian. "What Is a Stress Test?" Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, 17 Sept. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This source has many interesting facts, more about the mental side of stress. Stress can provide many symptoms to many people. Stress should be worked on and less stress is better for the own body. There are many stress tests which can be mentally or physically. This source helps me because even though its not about animals helping the human body reduce stress, I have learned about many different types of stress and the symptoms that it can be medically serious. There can also be a stress while sleeping, there are many ways to test stress but I am mentally testing stress. This source has helped me learn more about stress.

  1. http://www.livescience.com/2967-animals-stressed.html

Moskowitz, By Clara. "Animals Stressed Out, Too." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 17 Oct. 2008. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This article I have read things that I have already learned. I have learned many things about the shelter and that animals have a lot of stress because of being in cage all day and the animals listen to each other barking everyday. The shelter employees have protections for their ears and animals do not which build up their stress levels. This article provides informations for me but its not exactly what I am researching because I am doing stress on humans and animals reduce the stress. This article has showed me that animals are having stress because of the shelter and because of being locked inside and can’t come out, learning that animals and humans reduce each other stress because having contact with each other.

  1. http://animalsmart.org/species/dogs/dogs-help-reduce-stress

"Dogs Help Humans Reduce Stress." Dogs Help Reduce Stress. AnimalSmart.org, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This article is a study that has been tested on kids that have special needs and different other children. The animals have shown that kids with special needs get real nervous around different objects and humans but having an animals warm and friendly has shown that the kids are calm around animals than other things. It has shown that many kids are happier in their household to come home to a pet to play with and walk, which improves the kids exercising because kids and animals(dogs) need a walk in the park and children need a playground to play. This article helps me because it shows the difference with the kids and the animals.

  1. http://stress.about.com/od/lowstresslifestyle/a/petsandstress.htm

Scott, M.S. Elizabeth. "How Owning a Dog or Cat Can Reduce Stress." How Owning a Dog or Cat Can Reduce Stress. About Health, 15 Dec. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This source has a lot of great information, animals can provide so much without people knowing because when people get too stressed it is a good feeling coming home to a friend(animal), its a good way to look at your pet and feel happy because they greet being  friendly. Animals have different ways of showing how much they love you, because you are the only person they love and know, and giving back to you, taking away the stress that comes from work and gives exercise when your pet needs a walk. This article has also made a study that men with AIDs have shown less depression when have a pet. This source is excellent because it has great detail of animals reducing human stress and how the animals are doing that.


  1. http://stress.about.com/od/frequentlyaskedquestions/f/daily_stress.htm

Scott, M.S. Elizabeth. "The Most Effective Habits to Relieve Daily Stress."What's the One Thing I Can Do Every Day to Manage Stress? About Health, 01 June 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This source explains the way many people can relieve the stress people are going through, how many people turn to technology, yoga and many other ways to turn away from stress but most people don't know about the animals that can reduce stress and the benefit of having an animal. This source has provided me with a lot of information that people can turn stress into something they turn into a habit. This article has helped me because it is a way to show me things people turn and not just turn to animals and it has helped me with my survey because I can see which questions I can ask and how many people turn to this kinds of different things other than reducing their stress with animals.

  1. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-05-13/dogs-stress-relief-on-campus/54921444/1

Goldman, David. "For Stressed College Students, a Doggone Good Way to Relax." For Stressed College Students, a Doggone Good Way to Relax. USATODAY.COM, 13 May 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This source was unbelieveable, its is interesting that colleges are now turning to therapy dogs to provide to the college students and help them through stress while having major test in college. College students are now having more smiles and less stress because of having a therapy dog and spending time with an animal and forgetting their stress because they have a pet to spend time with. This resource has help me learn that real students with school stress are having positive effects when having an animal with them and having less stress levels and I can work off this source because its actual students have less stress in college which I believe is difficult than high school.

  1. http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/19/health/students-therapy-dogs/

Christensen, Jen. "Therapy Dogs: 'Perfect Medicine' to Help Students Survive Finals - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 19 Dec. 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

This article has a lot of great information because of the college students have finals, and have to stress and crying because studying is hard and getting nervous, but a study shows that most college students spend time with a therapy dog has shown the students are calm and focus on their own work because they have spend time reducing their stress and relaxing and sometimes students have to stop everything and take a break and spend time with an animals. Students have said animals are a better way to spend time, and communicate because the animal does not talk and it keeps secrets, as of other humans can talk and can't keep secrets. This source is very helpful because many students have shown great decrease on their stress levels and the students have spoken out how it is better to spend time with an animal.

  1. Allison Lamond PAWS Animal Shelter.

"Donating To PAWS." E-mail interview. Dec.-Jan. 2014.

Allison Lamond is the manager of donating to PAWS on 100 N. 2nd Street(at Arch) Philadelphia, PA 19106. Allison and I have talked about donating to PAWS and the material that will be needed at the shelter. My plan was to volunteer at the shelter, unfortunately I am not 18 years old, so that would not be happening. I decided I would give back to the animals and have bake sales to gain money to donate to the animals at PAWS and have better home to the animals.   


Lloyd Williams Capstone

Abstract:For my capstone I created a tabletop rpg, named The People RPG. I chose to create this game, because throughout my time at SLA I saw many people who wanted to get into tabletop gaming, mostly though Dungeons and Dragons, but they were put off by the complexity of it.​ TPRPG embodies all of the core elements of tabletop gaming (storytelling, character creation, dice rolling), but cuts out many of the more tedious parts of the process.

The first incarnations of TPRPG was much more complex, as it was mostly a direct clone of Dungeons and Dragons, dumbed down for simplicities sake. This led to the game being patently unfun. After many playtest I found that the players had the most fun when they could tell the story they wanted to tell, with their own interesting and unique characters. This eventually led to rebuilding the system from the ground up, with a focus on being quick, easy to play, and entirely player driven. This version of the game led to a much more comfortable game, where players made it their own from the very beginning.

More than anything this project taught me the importance of having outside testers and peer review. Without frequent testing by people who are willing to give honest, critical feedback, I never would have progressed as far as I did. In a consumer based product such as a tabletop game, there is no real way to know what the people want, other than letting them tell you.
PlayersGuide

Pramas, Chris. Dragon Age RPG - Players Guide. N.p.: Green Ronin, 2012. Print.

The Dragon Age Tabletop RPG was the original inspiration for my capstone project. It is similar to many other tabletop rpgs, such as dungeons and dragons, but struck me as distinctly different due to its simple combat, low cost investment, and pre written stories. This book is the source of many of the mechanic that I plan to implement in my own game, including the verbal combat system, and the short, simple story arcs.


"Some Rules for Developing and Playtesting Tabletop RPGs."Danmaruschakcom. N.p., 05 July 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

This source details the necessity of playtesting, and how to have highly effective playtesting sessions. Some of the more important strategies mentioned include, recording your playtest, having natural play sessions, play the game it’s meant to be played, be willing to change mechanics, and make note of issues, but don’t dwell on them.  These tips assure that playtesting makes the game as a whole better, as opposed to being influenced by your own feelings, or those of individual players.


Pen and Paper Gaming in the 21st Century. Perf. Erik Mona. Paizo, 2009. Youtube.

In this talk Erik Mona speaks on the place of tabletop rpgs in the modern era. This source is important because it shows just how reluctant people are to participate in tabletop rpgs in this day and age. Tabletop rpgs have always been a niche topic, but in recent years they have fallen deeper and deeper into obscurity. It will take a truly encapsulating premise to assure that new people join.


Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1972. Print.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces details the common threads behind stories that have spanned the generations. He points out the importance of a hero that you can look up to and stand for, which I believe is doubly true in the case of an rpg. People want to see an epic story that has them as the lead, that saves the day, and when writing scenarios I must remember these points to create an engaging story.


Life With a Dice Bag. Dir. Mason Booker. Perf. Peter Adkinson. May Sun Productions, 2004. DVD.

Life WIth a Dice bag is a documentary about the people who play tabletop rpgs, as well as the evolution of tabletop gaming. This source is of great use to me because it talks in detail about the things that keep tabletop rpgers coming back, namely the unique stories, and endless customization options. This is extremely important to my project, which tries to encapsulate both long time tabletop fans, and those who have never experienced the genre.


"So You Want To: Write A Tabletop RPG." So You Want To/Write A Tabletop RPG. Tvtropes, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

Tvtropes has a long standing history of being the wiki for quirks and tropes and fiction, but has expanded to be so much more. This crowd written article details many of the oft overlooked steps of creating a tabletop RPG, including all of the things you have to consider regarding demographic, complexity, difficulty, and genre. It points out that you have to make sure you are filling a niche market so as to get people to come to your game in particular.


Pathfinder Role Playing Game Dungeon Masters Guide. N.p.: Paizo, n.d. Print.

For many Dungeons and Dragons is the first RPG they will ever experience, and the Pathfinder RPG is the most popular version of D&D. This guide in particular is an expansion on the core rules of the game, and details many experiences that are less common, and not crucial to play. This source taught me that I have to keep in mind that players may do something no explicitly covered in the rules, and give them a way to resolve this within the bounds of the rules.


Tabletop. Perf. Wil Wheaton. Geek and Sundry, n.d.

This web series shows Wil Wheaton, along with other famous nerd icons, playing a wide variety of tabletop games from all different styles, genres, and systems. This series was very important to my research because it shows the difference between different games, and emphasizes the point that tabletop rpg is not a narrow enough topic, and that there are many tough decisions that must be made in regards to the tone and the style of the game, before I get too far into production.


Kenny Nguyen Capstone

For my capstone, I worked with Penelope Deoliveira to create a video game using Unity. The game is about people wondering around in a village once they enter the 4th floor of SLA. The 4th floor is known to be off limits. For fun, we created a story where a SLA student walks into the 4th floor and enters into a different world. The SLA student then roams around the village to collect the 5 core values of SLA, Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation, and Reflection. After collecting the diamonds, representing the 5 core values, the student then fights the “Benchmark,” which is a monster voiced by a math teacher. To make it even better, we both went around the school looking for students and teachers to record their voices and put that into the game.

      We were inspired by this project because we both had prior knowledge in codings from our internship at Temple University. Our outside mentor is Michael Korostelev from Temple and he has been helping us with our video game project throughout the school year. We constantly get in contact with Michael through emails for help with our codings and to debug our codes.

     My role as Penelope’s partner is to research what tools we should use and where/what models to use for NPC and wrote some of the codes for the game. Penelope’s role is work on the environments and coding missions and scenes. We brainstormed a lot of ideas together and we were able to make an awesome game with the involvement of the SLA community.



Unity
Unity
Menu
Menu
SLA backstair
SLA backstair
Gameplay
Gameplay
Bibliography
  • "Amplitude Studios Chose Unity." Unity. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://unity3d.com/>.

    • This is the website that we will be using to download a program called “Unity.” Unity is a coding engine to make 3D games by inserting in codes. This is the main program that we will be using for our capstone. Penelope and I found this coding engine because we heard it from a gaming website and it sounded interested to us because it has a lot of customizations for coding. Unity is also beneficial because it has a lot of support on coding. It has a coding support website for coders that needs help. Overall, this is what we are using to code. This program is new to us, so we are working with an outside mentor from Temple.


  • "C Games and Graphics Code Examples." C Games and Graphics Code Examples. Happy Codings. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://c.happycodings.com/games-and-graphics/>.

    • I find this website useful because it has different codings on different scenarios and events. The coding is already done but they need to be modified into our objects and integrated into our video gaming engine, Unity. Since our video game is a fantasy video game, a lot of things can happen from this website because of the already done codings. Some codings would be integrated into our game because it would actually make the game more enjoyable and pleaseable to the player. Some of these codes are extremely different and that’s why we got a mentor from Temple to help us with this project.


  • "Getting Started with Unity | Unity Cookie." Unity Cookie Getting Started with Unity Comments. Unity Cookie. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://cgcookie.com/unity/getting-started-with-unity/>.

    • This website is somewhat like a forum for coders in Unity. But it is primarily a resource where a user posts introductions to Unity from downloading and installing to scripting. It is a video tutorial done by this user that is highly proficient with Unity and has his own websites to help others. The website is also integrated with a community forum where coders posts problems or conflicts they may have and someone resolves it when they see it. So I find that very interesting and useful. The tutorials topics are organized pretty well. It’s almost all the things we would need to make the video game. It has tutorials on physics, which is needed for the video game of SLA.


  • Hart, Richard. "Create Your On Video Game | Unity 3D Turorial - Udemy." Udemy. Udemy. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <https://www.udemy.com/unity-tutorial/>.

    • I find this source to be the most helpful of all so far. The user, Richard Hart, demonstrates the different functionalities of what the gaming engine Unity can do. He goes in depth and step by step tutorials on coding 3D games. It is like an online course for learning Unity. Unity has a built in coding system, so some of the objects and actions’ codes don’t need to be looked up or created. That’s a neat thing about Unity. We can do more from what is already provided from Unity. Using this website, we would be able to get a stronger grasp on the different types of codes applicable for a 3D game.


  • "How to Learn Unity - Tuts Game Development Article." Game Development Tuts. Tuts, 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-learn-unity--gamedev-1333>.

    • I find this article useful because it gives advices and hacks for the Unity gaming engine. Learning how to code is one thing, but learning how to learn and use Unity is another structure. The article gives insights on what is relevant and what is irrelevant in learning Unity. The article is primarily for beginners who is new to Unity, which is myself and my partner. Since my partner and I are relatively new to Unity, we will need to learn from the beginning and how to approach. We don’t want to jump start anything and forgetting about the minor details.


  • "Learn to Code." Codecademy. Code Academy. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.      <http://www.codecademy.com/>.

    • During my summer internship at Temple, this is the website where we started off using for our summer project on coding. This website is all about coding from beginners to advance coders. It has many coding language from PHP, CSS, HTML, and Java. At my internship, everybody started off with coding on this website. This had benefited me a lot because it gives you practice lessons then after practice lessons, my mentor at Temple gave us a project to do based on what we learned on Code Academy. So I find that website very beneficial to me and probably to my partner as well in creating this video game for our capstone.


  • Rauschmayer, Axel. Speaking JavaScript. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, 2014. Print.

    • This is an online book on javascripting. And the primary language code that would will be using is Java scripting. The book has a lot of contents and topics on Javascripts so that would be very helpful. Javascripting is still kind of rough to me so I will definitely be getting help on this from the online book and our mentors. I have had some experiences with Javascripting during my summer internship, so it’s kind of rough to me right now. But reading the book and getting help will definitely help us in making this video game. Javascripting is the primary language that will be used.


  • "Unity Community." Unity Community. Unity. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://forum.unity3d.com/>.

    • This is a forum directly from Unity. Users posts their insights and their troubles with Unity for other people to help out. This is helpful for us because whenever we have conflicts we could talk to our mentors and post our conflict in the forum for other coders to look at and help us. In addition to the support, the forum has a lot of resources and add ons that can be imported into Unity to make gaming more enjoyable. The resources are open to everyone online. Another good thing is the forum is always up to date, users posts daily. It’s not like a forum that is just there and never been touched. Users are constantly active and helping each other out, so that is a plus for us.


  • "What Language Is Used To Develop Using Unity." Unity3d. Stack Exchange, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4989689/what-language-is-used-to-develop-using-unity>.

    • Firstly, we have been running into issues on what language we need to use for gaming. We made several theories and thoughts and it worked out. This website just gives more insights from other professional coders on what language is necessary. The website has a single question posted by one user and other users join in and answer the question on what language is used in Unity. Their answers are very high quality because they based it on their experiences and seeing which language code is more convenient. Users gives insights on different types of codes, which is very helpful for us in differentiating which language to use.


  • "50 Tips for Working with Unity (Best Practices)." Devmagorgza. Dev Mag, 12 July 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://devmag.org.za/2012/07/12/50-tips-for-working-with-unity-best-practices/>.

    • Since coding is a messy process and very tedious, this article gives a lot of helpful advices and tips on coding such as organizations of codes and color coding. One of the key things in coding is organizations I find this useful because I feel like we would run into a lot of conflicts and confusion just because the codes aren’t labeled or isn’t very well organized. So having advices on how to organize codes would be extremely helpful. These tips and advices are specifically for Unity. There are many new things that I never knew of until reading the article. Additionally, it’s our first approach to Unity as well.

Gabriel Musselman's Capstone - "Gabe and the Babes - EP"

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Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 7.32.51 PM

Here is a link to my public SoundCloud profile, on which you can find my Capstone project:


https://soundcloud.com/gabriel-musselman/sets/gabe-and-the-babes          


   The Capstone project is a continuation of the learning that a student has been experiencing throughout their high school career. Because of this simple truth, I decided to base my project an endeavor I have spent countless hours both in and out of school trying to perfect: music. My Capstone is a collection of four recorded songs that showcase a yearlong struggle to write, record, and produce professional, bona fide music. The result is an EP entitled “Gabe and the Babes”, featuring talents from both SLA and my own family. All tracks are recorded on solitary condenser microphones directly into Garageband, an entry-level software available for free on SLA’s school laptops. The recording sessions took place in basements and dorm rooms, and the final product represents countless hours of frustration, sweat, and musical tears.

Two of the songs on the EP (Extended Production) are covers of tunes by artists that I admire, whose work I chose to record both for its artistic value and the challenges that recording on a nonexistent budget and cheap, available gear imposed. The first of these, “Blues Run the Game” by Jackson C. Frank, is a prime example of American Folk music. Because folk has been instrumental in the development of my own musical tastes and style, I decided to include this piece as a tribute to musicians that have influenced me. The second of the two covers, “Monster Ballads” by Josh Ritter, is a song that my brother and I love. It is only fitting then that we would collaborate to produce a cover: he plays rhythm guitar and sings, while I play a short solo midway through the song.

The second two songs included in my project are original pieces. They represent a large majority of the struggle that went into my project’s genesis. The problem was that, at first, I was unable to channel any type of musical inspiration for long enough to complete a piece. When I finally had the material ready for recording, I found myself tasked with recreating what I believed the song should sound like using only one microphone or direct – input instrument at a time. The first song in this set, “This Breeze”, chronicles a feeling of peace that I experienced while sitting on the roof of my home with my guitar one morning. The piano that appears in "This Breeze" happened entirely on accident, and is played in earnest and inexperience by myself. Ben Diamond, SLA’s music teacher, features as the percussionist on this and the other original tune. The second song, “Here by Eight”, is a Bossa Nova – inspired look into modern jazz and blues. Felix D’Hermillion features as the first solo guitarist here, while I round off the trio (Gabe and the Babes), playing rhythm and solo guitar as well as bass.

             


Sources and References


Diamond, Ben. "Recording and Producing Music." Personal interview. 28 Jan. 2015. ]


In this interview, I consulted Mr. Diamond on several methods with which to record and produce music. Our conversation spanned the technology used to record different instruments as well as the methods that were available to produce and mix tracks using computer software. We talked about instrumentation and microphones as well as computer programs and rhythms. The conversation really went wherever we wanted, drawing from different tangents we drew. We also talked about songwriting and the shapes that songs take on. I used this to influence my decisions in both choosing which instruments to use in my songs and which software to utilize.


Simon, Paul. Graceland. Paul Simon. Warner Bros. Records, 1986. CD.


This album by Paul Simon is famous for its lyrics and recording. He recorded it in a South African studio while touring Southern Africa. The rhythms in the music have been used in countless projects by other artists, and are classified as some of the most complex available. I used the iconic tracks as a research material, studying the structure of the piece as well as the lyrics and the recording methods used. I looked at the different interplays between the rhythm section and the melody of the song and used that information to make my songs more complex. It was my hope that, by studying this album, I could spice up my songs and make the rhythms more complex.


Pattison, Pat. "IMRO Songwriting Seminar with Pat Pattison." Lecture.


This lecture given by Pat Pattison at the Irish Music Rights Org headquarters teaches tools that can be used to tie emotion together with lyrics in a song. Pattison is a professor at Berklee College of Music, and has done extensive research into the nature of rhyme and verse and their application in songwriting. He uses teaching methods that are common more to an English teacher than to a music teacher, which serves to make music theory more accessible to the common man. I found it informative and easy to listen to. I used these tools in writing the lyrics to my songs, specifically when he mentions the way that the absence of lyrics can create a sense of instability.


Pattison, Pat. Writing Better Lyrics: The Essential Guide to Powerful Songwriting. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest, 2009. Print.


Pat Pattison, professor at Berklee College of Music, takes on the topic of lyrics portraying emotion and gives useful tools with which to write better song lyrics. He talks about the structure of popular songs and famous examples. He also talks extensively about using the absence or presence of lyrics to emphasize emotions that the author may be using in their piece. I used this book as a guide and to refine the lyrics I had already written, changing them to fit the templates that he provided. It proved helpful in shaping the structure of my songs and their overall direction.


Poyser, Debbie. "20 Tips on Songwriting." Sound on Sound Jan. 1999: n. pag.Sound on Sound. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.


This article by songwriter Debbie Poyser, published in 1999 in the magazine Sound on Sound gives twenty helpful hints and tips in order to help struggling songwriters. It outlines exactly what it is that makes artists struggle in writing pieces and gives helpful tips to overcome those boundaries. It covers all aspects of the process, from the conception of an idea to the finishing of a lyrical idea. I used these tips numerous times throughout the songwriting process, and the lesson in this article were extremely helpful in determining if my process was going to be fruitful or not. I cross-checked these tips with every one of my song lyrics.


Roseman, Ed, and Peter Reynolds. Edly's Music Theory for Practical People. Kennebunkport, Me.: Musical EdVentures, 2009. Print.


This is a book all about what makes music music and how that can be applied to the music that we hear or write. I have been studying from this book for a while, and almost everything I have learned about the theory side of music has been from this volume. It is easy to understand, hence the “for practical people”, and I have found it enjoyable. It has been immensely useful in showing me how the lick or chord progression I had written worked or didn't work musically. With its help, I refined the music I had written and wrote new things.


Wilder, Alec. The Great American Songbook. N.p.: Blendingwell Music, 1973. Print.


The Great American Songbook by music critic Alec Wilder is considered by many the greatest collection of American music in history. It chronicles hundreds of songs that are considered lyrically or structurally excellent. They are the creme de la creme, the best songs of their era. The book focuses mostly on Broadway and musical film pieces, but includes jazz and orchestral pieces as well. I used the volume to examine the structure of songs from that period and compared them to more contemporary songs. I noticed some similarities between the music that I liked and had written to some of the pieces that were in the book.


Plant, Robert, John Bonham, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Willie Dixon.Led Zeppelin II. Led Zeppelin. Atlantic, 1994. CD.


This album, the second from musical icons Led Zeppelin, won critical acclaim for its sound and style. It launched them from the minor fame they had received for their first record to the worldwide fame that they achieved later in life. I wanted to make some of my songs resemble some of theirs, and used this as inspiration. I particularly liked the imagery used in some of their songs, specifically "When the Levee Breaks". It was crucial that I identify lyrics and chord progressions that I liked from the album, and I used these to inspire some of the things that I would write in my project.


"Circle of Fifths." Circle of Fifths. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


This informative online tool teaches about the circle of fifths, an important facet of music theory. It is something that ties all of music together, and is helpful in seeing connections between chord progressions and relationships. This theory was crucial in understanding the chord progressions I had written and how I could apply them to songs that I was currently writing. I used it throughout the writing process in order to find a place in where I could spice up a section or write a new lick or harmony. I think that this information is crucial for anyone that wants to write a song that isn’t the basic three chords of pop music.


Rush, Toby W. "Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People." Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


This online database catalogues hundreds of lessons on music theory in convenient charts, graphs, and diagrams. It is made by Toby Rush, a data analyst and musician, who has dedicated his time to providing these free tools to aspiring musicians. I used this resource to teach myself more about music theory and what made my music work or fail. It proved extremely helpful in showing me new paths that I could take my songs and in showing me what I had already done with the songs I had written. I used the tools found on the website to create templates for the songs I wrote.


Frederick, Robin. "Learn How to Write a Song." Robinfrederick.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


This online resource details the steps in which songwriters create their works. It also addresses some of the challenges that face them throughout their journey. It includes lessons and tools as well as links to other outside resources on YouTube and other sites. I used this as a jumping off point by which to find other resources and look at examples of good song lyrics and chord progressions. I also used the steps to help influence my process when writing a song, changing what I had made to fit the criteria and tips outlined in this resource. I found it extremely helpful.



Lisa Kang Capstone

I decided to write a novella for my capstone, which is like a novel but not as long. As someone who is interested in math and science, I wanted to try something that was completely new, in fact I've been wanting to write a novel for a while now, but I never had the time or motivation to complete it. Before I actually started writing, I did a lot of planning for the characters and plot, but while writing I barely used any of it. The novella is completely different than I imagined it in the beginning of the year. I learned that you won't ever know the direction that a story will go in because ideas are developing all the time. Towards the end of my novella I thought I knew exactly how I wanted to end it, but I came up with an awesome plot twist that changed many things in the story so I had to go back and edit everything. In an instant, my novella went from supernatural/horror story to mystery one. Writing something this long is not as easy as it seems because it takes a lot of time, patience and effort. Through this novella, I have gained skills that will last a lifetime. In college, I will have to write papers and essays all the time and so all the techniques that I learn while doing the project will help me sharpen and enhance my writing skills.

Bell, James Scott. Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest, 2004. Print.

This source provides information about the plot and structure of a novel. The book first introduces the LOCK system which stands for Lead, Objective, Confrontation and Knockout. The author states that every story and novel will need these components. The authors says that the function of the plot is to connect to the readers and I found this interesting because I have never thought of it like that. I selected this book because there are explanations/tips and excercises that will help me shape the outline of my novella. This source will be extremely useful because I can follow the diagrams and outlines used in the book.


Donovan, Melissa. "12 Character Writing Tips for Fiction Writers."Writingforward.com. Melissa Donovan, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.writingforward.com/writing-tips/12-character-writing-tips-for-fiction-writers>.

This source provides great information on how to get readers interested in the characters of your stories. It states that people like characters that are realistic because they will feel more of a connection. The characters in a story should not be completely perfect; they should have flaws and baggage. I know that the characters is one of the most important aspects of a story and the tips in here will help guide me into create realistic characters. Depending on the length of a story, there is a certain amount of character development that needs to happen and although this source does not tell me how to incorporate that into a story, it does provide me with a general idea of what I should add in.


Ingermanson, Randy. "The Snowflake Method For Designing A Novel. "Advancedfictionwriting.com. Advanced Fiction Writing, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/>.

This source provides information of how to design your whole story before actually writing it. The author has written many novels and shares the method that he uses called the Snowflake method. This method is to have writers start off with a small idea and then expand on that. The idea is to continue expanding until you have a complete overview on the plot and characters in a story so that when you actually start writing, it will be easier and quicker. I think that the general ideas in this source will be helpful when I am outlining my story. There were parts of the method that I did not like but there were parts that I will definitely use. It was helpful to see how someone else approaches their story writing.




Kempton, Gloria. Write Great Fiction: Dialogue. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest, 2004. Print.

This book provides information on how to incorporate dialogue into a story. The author points out common mistakes writers make when they try to write fiction. The most important thing to avoid is to think too much about how to write dialogue because dialogue should be natural. People do not always speak properly or correctly and so if writers put themselves into their characters shoes then the dialogue would appeal to people more. There are not a lot of limitations in the book because there are a lot of details throughout. There are examples, tips and excercises that I can reference and use. The book will help me write natural sounding dialogues because I plan on having lot of them in my novella.


Rozelle, Ron. Write Great Fiction: Description & Setting. Cincinnati, OH: Writer's Digest, 2005. Print.

This book provides very detailed and important information on how to write well and also how to establish a setting. Just like with characters, conflicts and dialogues, the setting is something that should be realistic. The author goes into details on how to use the setting to add depth to a story. I selected this book because there are things in there that I personally have problems with and so I can use this to guide me. I tend to have simple sentences and this book helps explain sentence structures and uses of punctuations. I think that the book will become really handle in improving my sentences.


Scheller, Rachel. "Write Fiction That Grabs Readers from Page One."Writersdigest.com. F+W, 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/write-fiction-that-grabs-readers-from-page-one>.

This source provides information from a book that teaches writers how to grab readers’ attention from the very beginning of your story. This particular source focusses on how to add conflict and problems into the story. There is a particular structure that the author talks about that he thinks is the most effective way to add conflicts. I selected this source because aside from characters, the conflict is another huge aspect of a great story. I learned that in order to incorporate conflicts well, you can not just have one major conflict but there must be little ones in there as well. This source will be useful in my story outline.


Springer, Mike. "Seven Tips from Earnest Hemingway on How to Write Fiction." Openculture.com. Open Culture, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.openculture.com/2013/02/seven_tips_from_ernest_hemingway_on_how_to_write_fiction.html>.

This source provides tips from Earnest Hemingway on how to write fiction. These are the techniques that he finds useful when he is writing his own books. The tips are not directed towards the actually writing, but the mindset that a writer should have. I selected this source because I know that Earnest Hemingway is a great author and so I feel like his tips would be reliable. There was one tip that I found the most interesting and that I want to try. This tip is for writers to stop writing for the day while they still know what will happen next in the story. This is something that I would never think about but it makes a lot of sense because when the next day comes, you will not be stuck trying to come up with the next part. This source will be very helpful throughout the whole writing process.


Stewart, Jennifer. "Tips For Writing A Short Story." Write101.com. Write101, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.write101.com/shortstory.htm>.

This source provides the basic elements that make up a short story or novel. It includes tips for the structure, theme, setting, characters, dialogue and plot. Most of the tips imply that writers should make every aspect realistic and simple. I selected this source because I thought that it would be nice to have one source that has everything that I need to know in order to write an effective story. One limitation of the source is that the tips are not really detailed and there is not a lot of justification for why writers should do the things she mentioned. I did learn a little from the source but it is not as helpful as the other ones.


"Usage- Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement." Towson.edu. Towson University, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.towson.edu/ows/pro_antagree.htm>.

This source provides information on one of the grammar rules that people forget often. The rule is the pronoun antecedent rule that states that a pronoun has an antecedent to go with it. Sometimes people will have one pronoun but they will have no clear distinction between which antecedent it belongs with. The source provides examples of how this rule is used in different scenarios, such as singular form, plural form, and indefinite form. I selected this source because I noticed that this is a grammatical rule that I forget and have trouble with in my writing. I think that this source will be helpful in making sure that my sentences make sense.


Weiner, Jennifer. "I Like Likable Characters." Slate.com. The Slate Group, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/05/likable_and_unlikable_characters_in_fiction_claire_messud_and_meg_wolitzer.html>.

This source provides two different opinions on likable characters in a novel. There is one author who believes that if a writer creates a protagonist that is likeable and is like a friend to the readers then that writer is doing something wrong. The author of the article completely disagrees with the previous one because she likes likable characters. I selected this source because I wanted to know what kind of characters people like to read about. This source was helpful because I got two different perspectives on it and I will ultimately decide which argument I agree with more.


Bundy, Kenyatta; Senior Capstone

For Senior year, we are required to complete a “Capstone”; a large project that is completely decided by you, and is the medium of your choice. For my Capstone, my partner Alhaji Koita and I, decided to go with an art piece that would live on SLA walls for as long as SLA remains in it’s current building. With that said though, we wanted it to have purpose, and represent the school and our entire community in some way. So after a lot of road blocks, speed bumps and detours, we finally decided to paint a “Periodic Table of SLA”. The concept was simple; paint a large periodic table, but instead of having it contain the elements, we would replace the letters with different students/teacher’s initials, and replace the element name with 1 word that describes SLA from those corresponding people. Because the project is so large, and we did not use our time in a way that is ideal, we’re not actually completely finished our project yet. With that said though, it will be completely finished within the next week, and it will be completely amazing. This entire process taught me a lot, from time management, to color schemes and making sure that we chose colors that matched and went well together, to even the simple act of painting and learning different painting techniques. With the piece 75% complete, we have already received nothing but positive feedback and we couldn’t be happier with how it’s turning out. I’d personally like to thank my capstone mentor, Ms. Giknis for supporting us every step of the way, as well as every single person who either gave me permission to put them on the wall, or aided in the process of us completing this piece. And most importantly, I’d like to thank Mr. Lehmann for founding a school that couldn’t even be summed up with 90 different adjectives. 





Bibliography


"10 Sure-Fire School Fundraisers." Scholastic.com. Scholastic, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/volunteering-fundraising/10-sure-fire-school-fundraisers>.


From the start, I knew that this would be a very good source for me when it came to it’s reliability and overall content. This is due to the fact that this was a Scholastic article directed towards teachers and administrators all over the nation. This source specifically focuses on fundraising within schools and provides 10 solid ideas for fundraisers that are both inexpensive and interesting. This source will help me by giving me a few fresh new ideas for fundraising that has not been done in SLA already. The only problem with this source is the fact that it’s really directed towards high school’s and is more appropriate for Elementary and Middle School. 




"100 Fundraising Ideas." 100 Fundraising Ideas. Juniata College, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://services.juniata.edu/osa/100FundraisingIdeas.html>.


This source was another one that focuses on fundraising, but it’s a better one than the previous one due to the fact that it shows me 100 sources and not only that, it is specifically directed towards the college environment. Although SLA isn’t a college, this does give me fundraising ideas that are geared much more to my age group rather than students who are younger. This source also is highly reliable due to the fact that it was put out by Juniata, for their specific campus and students. This means that I will be able to trust that these are ideas that have worked in the past and could potentially work for me. With that said though, not all of the ideas relate directly towards me due to the simple fact that it is Juniata specific and refers to things that have nothing to do with the high school environment. 




Dart, D. C. "How To Build A Custom Sized Stretched Canvas." Instructables.com. Autodesk, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Build-A-Custom-Sized-Stretched-Canvas/>.


At first glance I did not think that this would be a very reliable source due to the fact that it was basically a blog post, which meant that anyone could have created this post without any real knowledge of what they were doing. But after I really sat down and read the instructions and the description of the author, I knew that this would be a good place for me to get the basic background knowledge that I needed in order to figure out how to build a frame for a canvas like the one I will be using for my art piece. I will still need to look at other sources that discuss how to build a frame for a canvas but this will definitely be a good place to start. 






Eckman, Megan. "How to Use a Grid to Enlarge an Image While Drawing - Tuts+ Design & Illustration Tutorial." Design & Illustration Tuts+. Envato, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-grid-to-enlarge-an-image-while-drawing--cms-20593>.


One big part of creating a large artistic piece is the process of going from a simple drawing on printer paper, to a full scale art piece. In order to do this accurately, I would need to use a grid method so that I know that all of the proportions are accurate and that it will look exactly like my original drawing. I also believe that this is a very good source to use when it comes to creating an art piece due to the fact that it has all the makings of a reliable piece and was done by an artist who knows what she’s talking about due to the fact that she teaches people how to be artists in her everyday life. 




"How To Finish Up Your Colored Pencil Project." Onlinepaintingstudiocom. N.p., 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://onlinepaintingstudio.com/colored-pencil-paintingtutorials/colored-pencil-tutorial-series-finishing-up-your-project/>.


This source was very important for me because I have never made a piece of art that was going to be hung up for the public. Due to the fact that I will be hanging this up for everyone in SLA to see, I will need to ensure that my piece looks professional. A big part of that is what exactly I am supposed to do with my project once I am done. That’s where this source comes into play. This article gives me a detailed explanation of what it is that I should do with my piece once I am ready to finish it. From the protection, to the framing, to the varnish, this source covers it all and does so in an easy to understand way. I also know that this is a reliable source since it is ran and written by a very accomplished artist who has been doing work since before I was even born. 



Kyer, Libby. "Colored Pencil Painting." No Really, That's How I Do It. American Society of Botanical Artists, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <https://www.asba-art.org/article/no-really-thats-how-i-do-it-colored-pencil-painting>.


I know that I mentioned that my last source was very important but this is probably the most important source of all my sources. This is due to the fact that I will be working solely with colored pencils for this piece and it is very important that I am very aware of all the techniques that I can utilize while I work on this in order to create the best painting that I can. Also I know that this is probably my most reliable source when it comes to the artistic techniques due to the fact that this is the American Society of Botanical Artists’ website which lets me know that all of these techniques will have been very much tried and tested. 




McArdle, Thaneeya. "Best Surface for Colored Pencil and Acrylic Mixed Media Art." Best Surface for Colored Pencil and Acrylic Mixed Media Art. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.art-is-fun.com/best-surface-for-colored-pencil-and-acrylic-mixed-media-art.html>.


I’m not really sure exactly how reliable this source is due to the fact that it is basically a blog, but I believe that the information on the site is accurate since it lines up with everything else that I have been reading. This source focuses on the best surfaces (papers) to work on when one is using colored pencils. This is important for me because of the fact that I am not very well versed with colored pencil painting, which means that I have no clue of what kind of paper I should really be using for my piece. After reading this though, I now have a basic knowledge of the papers that should be used when colored pencil is the chosen medium. 





McNee, Lori. "Using Colored Pencils to Create Fine Art." The Art of and Fine Art Tips of Lori McNee. N.p., 3 Feb. 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.finearttips.com/2010/02/using-colored-pencil-to-create-fine-art/>.


This source is very good for me when it comes to it’s artistic techniques due to the fact that it allows me to really get a deeper grasp on exactly what I should be doing when I use colored pencils to create a large, professional piece of art. Since this source is written and ran by the same person, and this person happens to be a very successful artist, I know that I can look at this source as a very reliable one. This will come in handy throughout the entire process due to the fact that it will allow for me to have a place to go back to when I want to do something with colored pencils that I don’t fully know how to do. 




Pemberton, Lo. "Mounting and Framing Your Pencil Portrait." Web log post. How to Draw... N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://howtodraw.pencilportraitsbyloupemberton.co.uk/step-by-step-drawing-6-to-10/mounting-framing-pencil-portrait/>.


This is the source that I needed in order to confirm what I learned in one of my previous sources when it came to framing a piece. This source does an amazing job of breaking down every little detail about the type of frame I should use, how I should frame it, the size the frame should be; everything. This source does reiterate what I learned from my other source when it comes to framing my piece but it also goes more in depth than my other one did. I also know that this source is reliable due to the fact that it was written by a well versed artist and is on a very popular art blog by the name of “how to draw”. 





Truman, Vicki. "Surfaces for Colored Pencil Painting." Onlinepaintingstudiocom. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://onlinepaintingstudio.com/colored-pencil-paintingtutorials/surfaces-for-colored-pencil-painting/>.


This final source gives me some basic knowledge about exactly what surfaces I should use while using colored pencils. I knew that I needed to find another source that covered this topic because I wasn’t exactly sure how reliable my other source that covered this topic was. This is also the same website that I used for one of my other sources, so I already know that this is a site that I would consider reliable. This will really help me out in the beginning stages of my creation due to the fact that I will know exactly what paper I should be using in order to show off the positive qualities of the colored pencils that I will be using.

Micah Getz Capstone

At the start of the year I decided to try and make a robot. However, while I was thinking about making a robot, most of the work that I did this year actually circled around a club I was making after school.

Since the capstone should be something that reflects 80 hours of work, I decided to present on my club. I also think that a liberal-arts driven capstone demonstrates my time here better than a STEM focused one. The Dungeons and Dragons club was a group of people that were largely gathered first quarter and then socialized in their groups. Three separate groups were made, and they changed evolved as the year progressed. I was interested in fostering a community and making an enjoyable environment that people could relax in. D&D gives a framework for interaction and gives people a bond that other relationships can more organically form around. I’m proud of the community I’ve fostered, and hope that it will continue next year.




Sorting

This document outlines the process by which the groups were made this year. This also outlines a way that interest can be organized next year.


Y-Band

This document shows some of the preliminary community building.


Plot

This shows some of the work that I put into making an enjoyable experience for the group I was in charge of (I was in charge of one of the three groups, contributed to another, and the the third flourished without me).


Rules (more rules)

These are the rules that my group followed, but more than three other systems were integrated as the year progressed.

(info available upon request)


Future consideration

These are resources which might help groups work more easily in the future.



Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. 2d ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1972. Print.  


D&D is a largely story driven game, and Joseph Campbell wrote guides to stories well. While D&D is a system that is largely driven by the players, the GM is the person who decides who they will run across and what they will encounter. Also, there are seminal events that happen in stories that can be adapted to the context of Dungeons and Dragons. It is interesting how characters sometimes stand out in games, by how the players value them and their importance to the story arc. Sometimes important characters are completely abandoned. The importance of using characters that instinctively stand out is just as much for the players to feel like they’re a part of the story as it is for the GM to help the characters build a story they’d enjoy.


Cook, Monte, and Sean K. Reynolds. Numenera. S. L.: Monte Cook Games, LLC, 2013. Print.  


The Numenera system has a couple of interesting benefits that differentiate it from many others. It is meant to be played like a pulp-science fiction novel (akin to Star Wars in many ways). While many of the themes are science based or science driven, the world itself has no science. There are no explanations for their miraculous devices, they simply function. Mechanically, this system gives a system driven on expenditure (not unlike the classic spell system of Dungeons and Dragons). Stylistically, this is meant to show how an adventure for a hero gets progressively harder through the story, regardless of the difficulties they face. Another interesting mechanic is that experience points (the way characters progress) are awarded when players discover things. This creates an environment where the players have to ask questions and explore the settings rather than solely focus on attacking.


Dungeons & Dragons,. '4'. Elemental Evil. N.p., 2015. Web. 22 May 2015.


This podcast shows a live stream of a D&D game that takes place during comic-con. It’s an intentionally entertaining game, something that is fun to watch and to (it looks like) be playing as well. The game is set up in a very theatrical way, with an open game board so that it’s easy to watch. The gameplay itself is comical, with large reactions and abstract encounters. Everything can be interacted with, and the GM does a good job of making sure that everything benefits you from having been interacted with. The players themselves are mostly writers and artists, so they have awesome backstories and the plot is well formulated.


"Horror Roleplaying Part 1. Setting the Mood." Dice of Doom. 21 July 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.


This source explains how to foster a different setting for D&D. More often than not, players don’t worry about their characters. They’re divorced from the game play and the experience is more to be enjoyed than to be thrilling. The post is written about what to do to set the mood. They recommend a room that is inhospitable; poorly lit or heated. They also recommend setting a more somber mood during game sessions. While this premise is fun it’s not likely to work at D&D at school. Most of the time, games are treated as games; not as anything serious. This is a fun circumstantial game play method.


Iron Kingdoms Core Rulebook. Privateer, 2013. Print.  


Iron Kingdoms is a tabletop RPG system that works off of 2d6 (two six sided dice). The idea behind the system is that rolling two dice gives a better probability (7 is the most likely number) rather than a d20 which has equal probability from 1-20. Iron Kingdoms is derived from wargames, so rather than using the grid setup which D&D uses the players measure directly from their miniatures in order to decide how far characters move. Another interesting part of this system is that spell casters aren’t limited in the spells they can cast a day but by the points of spells they can cast each round. This system works because spells do about as much damage as other types of attacks.


Mearls, Mike. D&D 5th Edition Players Handbook. N.p.: Wizards of the Coast, 2014. Print.


Fifth edition simplified many of the mechanics in D&D to try and make them more instinctive and less about hours of study. They got rid of many of the small modifiers (+2 attack from flanking, +2 to attack and -2 to armor on charge, separate armor class when surprised), and put everything into a new mechanic called advantage. Instead of adding small circumstantial bonuses to the attack rolls, the player rolls to dice and takes the higher one. Another simplification is the elimination of feats. In 3.5, a character gains a feat every two levels, which adds an amazing amount of diversity and complexity to the game. However, feats are troublesome to navigate and require specific paths to get to more beneficial abilities. 5th edition replaces that with greater diversity inside of each class.



"Pathfinder_OGC." Pathfinder_OGC. Web. 21 Feb. 2015. .


The Pathfinder system is built off of the open format game license. This allows for the Pathfinder core rules to closely mirror those of D&D while at the same time distancing themselves subtly. Some of these subtle differences are names of gods and some terms that each of the companies have copyrighted. PFSRD made more powerful characters than 3rd edition by letting species play a bigger role in development, and also by letting all of the classes have more abilities at first level. Also they have systems in place that allow for specialization into very specific areas. However, as the system expanded over the years, not all abilities were play tested and balanced in comparison to each other. This created a situation where extremely powerful characters could be built by stringing disparate material together.


Peterson, Jon. "History: Forty Years of Adventure." Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast, 19 May 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.  


Rather than explaining gameplay, this source focuses on the history of D&D. It outlines the war games that D&D came from, and how it was publicized through magazines prior to its release. However, this is a timeline for D&D, not tabletop role playing games overall. While it contains valuable information about how the setting developed and D&D propagated itself, it doesn’t show how other companies followed D&D to make similar games. Regardless, this source functions to show how long the game has been around and how many people and hours of work went into continually building the company, but it also shows through the number of items produced that there was a continuing market for theses games, and that each edition (while different) was purchasable in and of itself.


Quick, Jeff. "Front Page." Sakuru. Pbworks, 1 June 2014. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.  


This is a website explaining a specific world of D&D. Most of the rules are the same as other D&D systems, but the spells are slightly weaker and there are more miscellaneous benefits attributed to classes. Sakuru is heavily inspired by the work of Miyazaki, so the world is heavily based off of legends and slowly growing magical powers. Items that have been in use for generation begin to gain powers from the fact that they were used in those ways. Similarly, nature spirits come purely from the age and power that the elements have accumulated. By prioritizing found items, it encourages the players to explore rather than develop themselves. The website provides information about the world and system rather than a scenario itself in the hope that players will largely guide the way they interact with people. However, such an open scenario often causes a lack of drive that makes the game lack the long story arc Joseph Campbell would say we all instinctively look for.


Rhem, Scott. "The Angry GM." The Angry GM. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.  


The Angry GM is a blog that focuses on teaching GMs how to play their role more effectively. The role of GM is to lead the story; the person playing it is responsible for the setting and for the actions of all non-player characters. Since the job is so central, it’s the one that requires the most preparation and understanding. Angry GM talks about some of the ways stories can be made more engaging and for how GMs can prepare for what the group’s encounters will be. He does this comedically and through many curse words. However, this source also represents how a GM helping text can be written. They’re important, but it’s often hard to keep the attention of teenagers. Texts like this may help.


Wynn Geary Capstone

​Abstract:

In the three years since I’ve started keeping bees I’ve been asked, “So what’s up with the bees and colony collapse disorder?” I’ve been giving people the best answer I can: “The truth is we just don’t know right now.” Based on everything I know about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is not the result of any one thing, it’s the result of many occurrences. I suspect that these include herbicides like Roundup and other chemicals, along with climate change, loss of habitat and other unknown factors.


Currently, data about bee decline is very localized. In order to collect more meaningful data about CCD, we need to research the health of hives on a national and even a global basis through small scale beekeeping. I am endeavoring to do this with internet enabled beehives equipped with internal sensors.


After researching existing “smart” beehives, and winning the SLA capstone mini-grant, I was able to enlist the expertise of  Maximillian Lawrence, who is the artist in residence at The Hacktory, which is part of the Department of Making and Doing located at the University City Science Center. Max is a graduate of both RISD and Cornell, and is both a painter and electrical engineer. Max has been lending his considerable skills to build a sensor kit that will give us accurate data on honeybee colony health.


On Tuesday, May 19th, I installed the first half of the sensor kit inside the very first “Smart Hive” prototype, consisting of a tiny wireless camera and an infrared light enclosed in a custom fabricated case that will stream live high quality video of the honeybees inside the hive. On Thursday May 21st, Max joined me to install the first set of sensors, allowing us to track temperature, humidity, noise level and barometric pressure. I am very excited to begin the iterative process of monitoring conditions inside the hive and collecting data that will help us understand more about what is happening to honeybee colonies everywhere.
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Joy Morrow's Capstone

Since I could remember, I have always wanted to be a teacher. I would study the way my teachers moved, the way the deciplined, and most importantly the way they thought. Something about giving back to my community has always been something I had a passion to do and what better way could this be done then teaching. Because we had the luxury of deciding what we wanted to do for our senior project, I thought what better way to start looking into what I want to pursue in my adult life. With this I tutored kids at my middle school math mathematics. When I noticed that I was facing a lot of different problems, I then decided that I would create a website to help  future tutors prepare for what they had in store. On my website you will find tips on how to be a better tutor and also how to make tutoring something that the students hate coming to. 


There were a few things that came to me once I was finish with the tutoring sessions. One was that everything does not come easy and there will be challenges along any road you take. Two that I would prefer teaching high school kids instead of middle school because they give me a headache. I hope you enjoy the cite!


Joy's Tutoring Workshop! (click here



"How to Teach." WikiHow. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.

http://www.wikihow.com/Teach

What this source basically does is give an overview on the rules and the steps of becoming a good teacher. When reading the source, I wouldn’t label it unreliable or reliable just based on the simple fact that it is giving steps on how to get children involved, Its not really a fact sheet website that has to have everything in the article be correct. I think this tool will work best when I am becoming impatient with the children and don’t really know what else to do with them.

"Adding Integers." Teaching Channel. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/math­teaching­techniques

What this source talks about is the different techniques in making sure that a teacher/mentor are keeping the children involved. It goes on to talk about how people think that math is automatically hard so they just basically count it out so helping kids through math is a little bit harder. This source seems to be very reliable because it is first hand a math teacher talking and giving his input about how to be a good math teacher and how to make sure the children aren’t given up.

"Math / Overview." Math / Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. http://www.scarsdaleschools.k12.ny.us/domain/282

The source talks about basically what a middle schools math curriculum consists of and the order that it should be taught in. It also shows the different levels of math within each grade. This source seems to be reliable because there are a lot of math things that I remember learning that is on this list. This source also seems reliable because it is something that an actual school is teaching its children so therefore it must be effective. This source also seems reliable because it gives links to different math website pages that has good ideas on different ways that each topic should be taught.

"Study Guides and Strategies." Tutoring. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. http://www.studygs.net/tutoring.htm

This source gives an outline on how to be a good tutor, It also gives details on how to to improve your tutor skills. For example, one of the steps say go out and learn more about the subject that you are tutoring. This website also talks about how a good tutor has to maintain patient. This site seems reliable because it gives good steps and Ideas that I could see actually helping me when I am teaching/tutoring a group of kids. I also think that this source is reliable because it has links at the bottom of the webpage of where all the ideas came from.

"A Tutor's Guide." By Ben Rafoth. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. http://www.heinemann.com/products/0587.aspx

This source talks about how tutoring is not easy and the steps that it takes for a tutor to be a great tutor. This source also comes from a chapter in a book created by a man who was a professional tutor. I believe that this is a great aspect in making this source reliable. I say this because the person who is writing this has actually experienced the life of a tutor, he knows the ends and out of the tutoring life and the best way to get through and help the people that I am tutoring the best way possible

"Being an Effective Tutor." Being an Effective Tutor. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015 http://www.anokaramsey.edu/resources/Success/TutoringSrvcs/becometutor/TutorTra

ining/M2­EffectiveTutor.aspx

Just like the other sources, this source gives you steps on being a tutor . However, this source breaks the steps down of being a tutor. It says that an effective tutor assigns assignments that the tutee should get done. I think that this source is reliable because the information that it is giving seems to be ways that really help tutors be great tutors. When you take into account the different skill levels that tutors need to have it is crucial that they stay up on what they are tutoring and this site made that very clear

"Adolescent Psychology ­ The Most Difficult Transition Phase." Adolescent Psychology ­ The Most Difficult Transition Phase. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

http://www.psychologycampus.com/adolescent­psychology/

This source talks about the social state that the student will be in that I am mentoring. It gives me an idea of how this is the hardest transition period of their life and how it is hard for them to keep focus on something that they really don’t care about. What this source basically does is talk about how to handle the age group that I will be tutoring and what it takes to make sure that they are feeling as comfortable as possible. I think that this source is reliable because it came from a doctors office that studies the children.

"Strategy of the Week: Rewards." Education World:. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/strategy/strategy041.shtml

This source gives me good ideas on different rewards I can give the kids when they do good or when I find out that they have improved at the end of the tutor session. This source

also breaks down the rewards in the different grade groups and what is important about the rewards you give and the time that you they receive the reward. This source is very reliable because it "Strategy of the Week: Rewards." Education World:. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.This source talks about the social state that the student will be in that I am mentoring. It gives me an idea of how this is the hardest transition period of their life and how it is hard for them to keep focus on something that they really don’t care about.

"What are the jobs of A tutor." Being a great tutor Tutor. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/strategy/strategy041.shtml

This source talks about how tutoring is not easy and the steps that it takes for a tutor to be a great tutor. This source also comes from a chapter in a book created by a man who was a professional tutor. I believe that this is a great aspect in making this source reliable. I say this because the person who is writing this has actually experienced the life of a tutor, he knows the ends and out of the tutoring life and the best way to get through and help the people that I am tutoring the best way possible When you take into account the different skill levels that tutors need to have it is crucial that they stay up on what they are tutoring and this site made that very clear

"Great rewards" By Ben Rafoth. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. http://www.heinemann.com/products/0587.aspx

This source talks about how tutoring is not easy and the steps that it takes for a tutor to be a great tutor. This source also comes from a chapter in a book created by a man who was a professional tutor. I believe that this is a great aspect in making this source reliable. I say this because the person who is writing this has actually experienced the life of a tutor, he knows the ends and out of the tutoring life and the best way to get through and help the people that I am tutoring the best way possible I believe that this is a great aspect in making this source reliable. I say this because the person who is writing this has actually experienced the life of a tutor, 

"World's Largest Capstone"

For my capstone, I chose to use one of SLA's Core values and Collaborated with Jaazaniah Hayes, and Naihema Powell in order to put together a showcase that incorporated some of SLA's different capstones into one big show. Jaazaniah and I worked together to put together a rap cypher to be apart of the show. Before we did anything, we researched how exactly to put together a show, and what things we needed. After several hours of fundraising and planning, we had enough to start actually putting the show together. We had auditions for the modeling of Clothing lines, we got some of SLA’s strongest artists to perform in the cypher, and we got some people that were in the digital photography/video class to work the lighting and camera work. We held practices/rehearsals every tuesday and thursday at our school, and on the week of the show, we had practice every day leading up to the show’s date. At the end of it, we had a great show, and lots of people came out and supported our capstone. It wasn’t easy, we barely got any sleep at night but it was all worth it in the end.



Here is some footage from the Cypher.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-RgLTVsg-g6Rk9xVXpFVTdNQXc/view?usp=sharing




BIBLIOGRAPHY


"How to Raise Money for a Nonprofit." Entrepreneur. N.p., 28 Nov. 2006. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/171296>.


When i first looked at this source I saw I immediately grabbed it. For my capstone im going to need some get rich quick schemes in order to cover my expenses. I have to pay for the entertainment, and more importantly we are going to have to pay for the venue. I understand that we are going to get a lot money back from selling tickets but we need to raise money for coverage. Especially since we are going to be coming out of pocket for a lot of it.


http://npengage.com/nonprofit-fundraising/boost-donor-acquisition-online-fundraising/


This was similar to the one i did above. But it focused more on online fundraising. I thought that it would bring more money in if we fundraise online. I have seen tons of people fundraise online for anything. Mostly i have seen funerals. But it would make our job a lot easier if we did it online. That way its mobile and less messy.


http://www.musicbizacademy.com/articles/showcase.htm


This source was mainly opinionated. I didn’t know anything about running a showcase or even what it takes to do one. This source focused more on the creativity level that you have to have in order for it to be a success.  It talked about themes that you need to have, and also recruiting a certain attraction in order to get more audience. They also talked about ways to sell more tickets.



http://npengage.com/nonprofit-marketing/3-easy-ways-sell-more-tickets/


This source was really helpful. Me doing a showcase, we are going have to sell tickets in order to pay a portion of the venue’s expense. This source taught me new ways on selling tickets. They said we should give something else while we are selling tickets. Like telling the people we are selling to that we will give them something for free if we sell tickets. so basically give something or getting something.


Thomas


I had a long conversation with thomas. Last year he did a showcase to raise money for the DC trip. He told me all the ins and outs of holding and hosting your own show. One of te main problems that he had from last year was false advertisement. He had promised a specific person to be there. The person was very popular in philadelphia and the person flaked out and didn’t want to do the appearance. He overcame it with the backup plan. He had booked more than one popular artists to show up.


Kenisha Woods

My Sophomore year, Kenisha had did a fashion show/ rap show. I wanted to talk to her about how she incorporated the two together. Afterall they are totally different topics and i was there at her show and she did an excellent job making the transitions.  She told me that you don’t want to have to much of the same thing going on continuously. If you have 5 back to back showcases of clothing and then 1 rap performance, they are going to get tired out, especially if you have someone that they are waiting to see.


http://smallbusiness.chron.com/code-business-conduct-2732.html

In this article, the author wrote about conducting yourself in a business conduct. When you are trying to make a deal with someone it is very important that you conduct yourself in a very professional matter. Someone isn’t going to let you use their facility if they see that you are being goofy and you aren’t mature. Your age is already a minus, but if they see that you seem to be responsible, and mature you are sure to get what you want.


My dad


I talked to my dad. He currently works at the wells fargo center and he knows a lot about how they work their operations over there. Wells fargo center has a plethora of events going on. They have to move equipment almost everyday. They have to set up the floor for the sixers games, in the mixture of having concerts and wrestling matches there. He told me that im going to have to get together an event staff. Maybe ten trustworthy and hardworking people to help setup. And i need to know that i will have to either pay them or feed them .


Michael Jackson’s this is it


Everyone has either heard about or has seen the documentary of the michael jackson concert rehearsals. You can see how sometimes he would get frustrated because things weren’t going the way they were supposed to. It took a lot of rehearsing and time and effort in order to get things the way that he wanted them to be. He had a couple different performers and dancers. He had a lot of money also put into his show. This is just a little motivation to how much hard work and dedication im going to have to have in order to pull this off.



Symone McCollum's Capstone

Abstract 

This video delves into the history of Black women and how the past contributes to the psychosis that impedes on the value of black female life. With background knowledge from Zora Neale Hurston, Belle Hooks  and Ella Baker, this video is an analytic view of  problems that makes strides towards brainstorming solutions.

Why does Black Lives Matter not mean Black women and trans folk? Why are women at the forefront of freedom-fighting whereas their deaths rarely make national or local news? How can we change this cycle? We can address it, and promote active-agency for young women of their bodies and political personas.

Black women face many, many obstacles and challenges in career, family, and community life. Without a self affirmative attitude, we’d all be dead in the water… the odds are too firmly stacked against us. But, with a sense of self and a graduated sense of self as we progress in life as well as a community of like minded women and men we are unstoppable. Just by being apart of this video and speaking to these educators and students about what WE feel matter just further proves that we are unstoppable.

This video is to boost to the SLA community that we are unstoppable and to be unapologetic for anyone who feels uncomfortable with any ideas and arguments brought up in this video.




*Note* Screenshot below is to prove that Ive been recording videos vs posting all of the individual interviews on SLATE. The final video will be played on presentation day! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq9VppMbvXk

Marshall Woodruff Capstone

​Abstract

EVAN is a short film that I directed. It was created, filmed and edited over the course of three months and required over a hundred hours on just my part to make it happen. During the course of the project, I collaborated with Sieanna Williams as my co-writer and co-cinematographer, Brian Birkmire and Jenny Cruz as the main actors, and about ten other actors and crew members and Douglas Herman to make it happen. Over the course of three months, I learned about what it is like to shoot on at least a semi-professional film set and learned new VFX processes like CGI face replacements. So far, the short film has gone on to place first in the narrative film category at the Regional TSA conference and we are in the process of submitting it to the New York Film Festival. 


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9VyIraTtq8scjVORUhSMlhIb3M/view?usp=sharing


Bibliography

"Who Goes There?" True Detective HBO, Feb 9 2014

This was the episode that contained the six minute long take that was used as part of the inspiration for the cinematography of EVAN. This video provided information on the things that you can achieve in modern cinema. I couldn't find out how exactly they pulled off the shot because there was no behind the scenes footage that divulged into what they did. But coming from a film background, it was easy to figure that they used a steady cam and a lot of hours to coordinate it. the actual time it took to film that one shot was 18 hours.

"Simple Tricks and Nonsense Episode 16: Face Replacement." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BM7dv3pEjc>.

This video didn't provide any help with me in After Effects. I just used it as a source to confirm what I had already figured out as what to do for the face replacement scene.

"Adobe After Effects - Introduction and Basics." YouTube. YouTube, 21 Feb. 2010. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5t0C_1kgFQ>.

This is a video provided me with an introduction to After Effects. it taught me the basics so I could build a foundation for the special effects for all my projects.

"Intro to After Effects." YouTube. YouTube, 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pih0oGJik5Q>.

This is another video that I accessed in order to learn After Effects.


I don't really have any other sources for this short film because I didn't really need outside sources for help on this. Also, films don't really come with bibliographies. It's not like I googled "how to make a short film" because I didn't. I used the one take for inspiration, but all the majorly helpful youtube videos I saw on shot composition and one takes were seen after principle photography and editing took place. And for the stunts, I just used common sense. I saw that a jump had to take place so I put cushions in the landing zone. And when it came time to literally replace my face with Brian's, I had no other achievable example to work off of, so I used my knowledge on after effects o figure out that we needed to shoot Brian's face on a green screen at the right angle to superimpose over the original footage.

And as for all the "science" in the video. Nothing was researched because the technology doesn't exist. So I made up how the dream machine was supposed to look.