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14th amendment Q2 BenchMark

Posted by Samantha Boyd in AMGOV-004 on
I would like to start out by saying me and my partner Brittany have learned alot more about ourselves and our struggles with our past and our present by completing this project. Using the 14th amendment with both of us having ethic backgrounds and experiencing discrimination in some sort of way whether it be school, jobs, or anything that we as people can come into contact where you can possibly be judged for, we deal with on a daily basis. I know that not only is the 14th amendment important to me and Brittany, but that law being written im the past has given us ample opportunities for today and will give us even more our futures. We hope that you enjoy our video.

bibliography

"HIV/AIDS Discrimination - Recent Court Cases, Issues and Articles." American Civil Liberties Union. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. <http://www.aclu.org/hiv-aids/hivaids-discrimination>.

"HIV & Your Civil Rights: Know Your Rights in the Workplace." American Civil Liberties Union. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. <http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights_hiv-aids/hiv-civil-rightsbrknow-your-rights-workplace>.

"History of U.S. Since 1877 Important People, Terms, and Events." Colorado Public Record Search. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. <http://coloradopublicrecordsearch.org/95/history-of-u-s-since-1877-important-people-terms-and-events/>.

Somerville voices article. web 23 Jan. 2012<http://www.somervillevoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/somerville_ma_schools_graduation_and_drop_out_by_race_ethnicity-1.jpg>.


Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to be Far Lower Than Expected. web 23 Jan. 2012 <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/education/09gap.html>.


How Important is Cultural Diversity at school your school. web 23 Jan. 21012 <http://www.greatschools.org/find-a-school/defining-your-ideal/284-cultural-diversity-at-school.gs 


Racial Disparity in School Suspensions. web 23 Jan.2012 < http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/education/14suspend.html>

Milestones in African American Education. web 23 Jan. 2012 <http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0872844.html>


Minority Education Gaps http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/EducationGa/start/0/stop/269 Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000105 EndHTML:0000004461 StartFragment:0000002704 EndFragment:0000004425

Reflection

HIV discrimination first came to my eye when I seen that on c-span it had a whole section on HIV/Aids and my teacher though it would be cool to talk about one of those topics so I chose to talk about discrimination because it kind of reminds me of HIV stigma. The best part of this project was learning my rights in a work place. The most challenging part was really facing that this really has happen to people in the real world and that it is really sad. One of the good facts that I found out was, the national law protects anyone with AIDS or HIV, but only applies to businesses with more than 14 workers. Many state or local laws cover smaller businesses, but some only cover people who are sick. I really didn’t run into a problem with this project. Over time being at SLA I became comfortable with talking about HIV and that is really because of the staff and students there at SLA. Also doing projects like this helps me not only be better with my self but also learn so much more so me running into a problem was not there at all. I think that the entire project went well. I really like how our classmates willing volunteered their services to help Brittany and I with this. If I had to redo this project I would not do anything different. I think that it is all good where it is. I learned that no matter of race or sickness if ur not putting anyone at harm by being there in that workplace or where ever they can not fire you or kick you out it is really agents the law its a crime to do so.



OUR BENCHMARK IS HERE PLEASE CLICK THIS !!!!!
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Protecting Civil Liberties - Ian McClendon/ Kern Clark/ Blase Biello

Posted by Ian McClendon in AMGOV-004 on
http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Protecting_Civil_Liberties_in_the_Digital_Age_Documentary_-_Biello-McClendon-Clarke


With my group Blase, Kern, and I we chose Protecting Civil Liberties in Schools because in our school particularly surrounded by technology this is an important issue. So we set out to get the thoughts of our classmates to understand the views of their own privacy. I enjoyed creating this project because since the issue is about unrestricted searches through their phones, devices, and even computers. So forth these liberties put upon students growing up with new technology are unaware of how much privacy they actually have. The most challenging was how to separate our essential questions about the privacy in and out of school. Also since we weren't sure of how much power the school district had in conducting a case. Another aspect that we could improve was to get more information about actual cases of students privacy being violated and whom in command pursues the information in a case.   
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Protecting Civil Liberties in the Digital Age Documentary - Biello/McClendon/Clarke

Posted by Kern Clarke in AMGOV-004 on
Protecting Civil Liberties in the Digital Age Documentary


We choose this topic because we felt as thought it was the most relatable and the one that affects us the most. Also because it was a very modern problem. The thing that I liked about the project was using the different CSPAN footage. The thing that was most challenging was the placement of the CSPAN footage that we found. The most interesting fact that I investigated was that the school district has the authority to search through your phone. This project could be improved by us using more CSPAN footage. Also we could have had more interviews from adults.

We ran into trouble with this project when deciding which of the CSPAN footage we should use and where we should place them in the final video project. The thing that went well on this project were the interviews and the questions that we asked the interviewees. The lighting that we had was very good and the responses were good as well. If I had to do it over the thing that I would change about our decisions were the peoples age groups that we interviewed. I don't think that we got a broad enough spectrum of responses. I learned that the U.S. government could be potentially listening in on our phone conversations and our text communications.
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Protecting Civil Liberties in the Digital Age Documentary - Biello/McClendon/Clarke

Posted by Blase Biello in AMGOV-004 on

Blase Biello
Kern Clarke
Ian McClendon

*click thumbnail to start documentary*


I worked with Kern & Ian on my Q2 Benchmark which was the 2012 CSPAN Studentcam Documentary. We decided to chose the topic of civil liberties in the digital age because we thought this topic was the most related to us because of the amount of technology we use throughout the day. We use every piece of technology stated in the video; calls/texts/email/twitter/facebook/etc so it hits home for us the hardest. 
I liked the fact that we had the freedom to virtually create any kind of documentary we wanted and fill it with any information that we felt necessary/wanted. The most challenging part of the whole video was probably putting all of the clips together in an effective way that would keep the audience entertained whilst informing them at the same time. The most interesting fact that I learned was that the gov't has the ability to monitor our calls/texts without our consent. This project could be improved if we added in more narration, I think; but for the most part - the interviews of students helped sum up all of our opinions because most of their opinions were the same, 'we want our privacy'. We didn't really run into trouble anywhere with this project, I think with a three person group, everything went really smoothly. 
I think the use of multiple interviews as well as narration went well with this project. It added a bunch of layers for the audience to completely grasp the topic at hand. Also, I think the different B-Roll footage helped make it a solid documentary. If we had to do it all over again, I don't think we would really do anything differently, maybe add a couple more people to the interviews; but I think we had enough to be effective. Overall, I'm satisfied with our execution of our plan/process as well as with the final documentary. I learned many things about the privacy of our technology; as well as how many of my fellow students feel about their technology and privacy rights. Overall, this was a really nice project to tackle digital rights and privacy and inform everyone out there on our topic, effectively. 
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C-Span Competition 26th Amendment

Posted by Ali Ahmed in AMGOV-004 on
Will,  Ali and Tim

Link to Will's page

https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/The_26th_amendment_-_StudentCam_Benchmark

We chose this amendment because it heavily related to our current lives as we are around the age where voting has become a factor. The project allowed for creativity and I liked that but I mostly enjoyed finding relations that I never new existed. The biggest problem was finding c-span footage that fit the criteria of what I needed. It seemed like either the quality was to different from our video or the footage wasn't entirely related to us. The project could be improved by sorting c-span footage by amendment. This would allow for less cryptic research required. The product was had many different points but I would have liked to have had more interviews. It was hard finding people educated on our topic. I wish we had spent more time on the filming stage or at least chose a warmer day so we could have gone outside. I am glad I learned about this amendment and it taught me how the government makes changes actually based from the will of the people. I will be waiting for the next one and see if this is still true.
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C-Span, Q2 BM "The V-Word" Video

Posted by Alaya White in AMGOV-004 on
http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/BM:5


I chose this topic because I felt like it was something that was often discussed in debates and it effects me because people are so sensitive to the topic. I liked that it effects me and other females my age. As far as most interesting, the C-Span footage we extracted for the video was interesting to watch and analyze. People's different responses to questions about sexual education were interesting to listen to. One fact that was ridiculously interesting was that within 14 year old females and males, many admitted to having more than one sexual partners. We had to use these graphs, facts and data to prove our point that Sex Education should be taught. Period. To improve this project, we could've used random peoples opinions in our video. But we ran into problems with timing, so that ruled out that idea.
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Quarter 2 BM. 14th Amendment

Posted by Johnathan Neris in AMGOV-004 on
Reflection
 

For my second American Government benchmark, I inquired on a topic that I knew of but also wanted to learn more about. I tied together the 14th amendment and how it relates to the LGBT community. I really liked that this project was very open to anything and let me be creative. I also liked how we got to be free with which way we wanted to on about this project. One of the more challenging parts of the project was how to start out and how would I get my message across to the audience. I also found it hard to get good footage that went all together and messing with iMoive to make it all come out looking good and not like a bunch of videos smashed together.

The most interesting fact was that stood out to me was that ninety percent of the gay and lesbian youth reported being bullied from middle school through out high school. My C-Span video also had some interesting facts as well and how they could end the bulling though out the world. Sherrod Brown was the spokes person and brought up some good points in the C-Span, which I also put into my video. I think that I could improve my project by using more people, such as adults since I only used pre-teens and teenagers. Another way this project can be improved would be by using less C-Span footage and more different videos that connect to my topic.

During this project I ran into a couple of problems one being trying to make all of the videos I chopped up sound the same with the volume adjustments. It was hard trying to take all of these different clips and making them have the same volume with out having to cut the videos into tiny pieces. A second problem that I had with the project was uploading it, I uploaded the video to three different places, SchoolTube, Youtube, and I tried TeacherTube. I didn’t know that I had to wait for my video to be accepted by the administrator first. I think me working by myself went well. I got to mange my own time and I didn’t have to rely on anyone else to get their work done. If I had to do this project over I would try and get my video done faster so when the deadline was coming up I could just get it reviewed all the time and not worry on the last day about uploading it. I learned that this was the fastest movement in the nation and is still growing till this day.



For my work cited click here.




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Quarter 2 StudentCam :D

Posted by Ayanna Robinson in AMGOV-004 on
We chose this topic because it was the easiest to apply to us as individuals and especially as students of SLA. With such diversity in our school, obviously the most important sections of the Constitution would be the ones defending that diversity. Although I didn't learn anything new, I had a lot of fun interpreting things I already knew and remembering things I had forgotten. 

This project was fun because we had free reign to create a video that only had to explain why something was important to us. Though it was hard to figure out just how to do that, (we struggled for a while with a plot), the process was fun and worth the challenge. Another challenging part was adhering to the rules of the contest while also trying to make a project for school because the teachers here are sometimes more negotiable about parts of the project than the contest people. That can't really be improved however, because it's not our contest. Besides that I don't think the project can be improved or be much more challenging. If I was to do this again I'd get a better set because the production value went down because of the slightly inconsistent backdrop we had. This could have been avoided by filming that section earlier but it wasn't ready at the moment so we had to make do. 

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Quarter 2 BM. 4th Amendment

Posted by Uyen Nguyen in AMGOV-004 on
Uyen Nguyen, Natasha Ashby and Amaris Romero

Link to Natasha Ashby 
Link to Amaris Romero 
Link to our wonderful sources! 

Link to the wonderful VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!

Reflection

Uyen Nguyen 

D band

 

As a group, Natasha, Amaris and I decided to touch on the 4th Amendment to privacy rights and especially the student's privacy rights in school because this is something that's affecting others students compare to what we're dealing with as a special program at Science Leadership Academy. Although it's a really big issue for us because we are starting to getting into the zone of dealing with privacy rights that others are dealing with at their school. Since we're the only school without metal detectors and we have our own system of privacy rights, it was really important for us to know about other's rights as well as what will happen to us if we are being enforce to the rules that the District is giving to us. Therefore, we decided to go out to different school for an investigation as well as get to know about the similarity and differences between our community and the Districts community. 

While going along in the project, we've learned more about our 4th Amendment better and get to know about the affects from it. Not only that but we get to experience what other teenagers have to face at their own school since we do not run on the same system as theirs. It was really surprising for us because we are one of the most luckiest community that does not have to face the privacy protection and searches as of to other schools. 

Although we did get to stick with out plans on visiting other school and community to seek out for opinions as well as experiences. We did run into a lot of trouble because people were having issues with answering our questions, many did not have time to give us a summary of what we need to know. Also it was harder to schedule with other schools since they have a harder rule system than what we have here at SLA. We were also having problem with putting the whole documentary together due to the lack of Cspans footage we were able to find that will touch on our topic. We also have trouble with cutting out many opinions in the interview and picked out the right one for the documentary. 

Over all the project went really well because we were able to work together as a team all the way till the end and as well as getting everything we needed for the video. However, if we were going to do this project again I would suggest that as a group we could have spend a little more time on this video, if we get to visit more schools and get more opinions on this topic than it would have been one informative documentary. It was wonderful feeling to work on this project and learn new things.   

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Q2 AmGov 4th Amendment Cspan PROJECT

Posted by Natasha Ashby in AMGOV-004 on
Link to Uyen's Page
Link to Amaris Page
Link to Sources

Our video! :D 


​Reflection

I chose this topic because when I was looking for topics, this one stuck out to me. It interests me because it actually affected me personally. From the beginning, I wanted my topic to have something to do with high schools students, considering that is what I am. When I saw this topic and looked at the amendments, I knew that this was going to be it!


I liked that fact that this project was a documentary. I am currently in a documentary class, where I learn a lot about how to create documentaries, edit and film. I was able to use the skills I have attained to my advantage. Since, this wasn't so much of a creative project because Cspan told us what we needed to do and what it needed to be about, I was ready to go at it, in the proper way.

I think the most challenging thing was getting the answers we wanted from people's interviews. We expected people to say certain things that they did not say and some were not as useful as we hoped. Therefore, it was becoming challenging for us to try and convey the message that we were intending for the audience to get from the video. It was also challenging to get interviews, in general. At Ben Franklin, we weren't allowed to film some interviews because the principal would need parental consent. THEN we couldn't even find enough Cspan footage! I honestly don't know how they don't have more useful footage about the 4th amendment and high schools because it is an important issue that all students should be aware of.

The most interesting event that I investigated had to be the metal detectors. SLA does not have any and are the only public high school in philadelphia to not have any. I went to Central High School and had to go through metal detectors as a freshman. I was confused and scared because I honestly didn't think that one of the best schools in Philadelphia would have their students going through metal detectors, as if we're at an airport, in which TSA has tightened their security checks due to a terrorist attack. When I went to Ben Franklin and interviewed students about their thoughts of it, it was interesting to hear different opinions. Some students didn't think much of the metal detectors while others felt violated. SLA is so different from other high schools. I thought it was just based on the way we learn but it really isn't.

We could improve this project by definitely getting an interview with Mr. Lehmann and by using outside videos. There was not much CSPAN footage of our amendment at all pertaining to our topic so if we could use other educational videos in our project, it would be better. Besides that, I really enjoyed the project and my partners. We all brainstormed a lot of ideas and really put together a list of good interview questions, so that we could find what we were looking for. I learned a lot about the 4th amendment and how metal detectors could violate that right, but it all depends on the person. If SLA were to get metal detectors and have random searches, it would change the whole vibe of the school. While as, in Ben Franklin, Principal Johnson would rather have them, in order to keep his students safe so that he does not have to make "that" phone call. That is not saying that SLA is not safe, because it is the only school I actually feel safe in. 
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