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Inquiry: This project made us think about different ways to carve our block of linoleum. We all had to choose what we wanted are drawing to be on our block of linoleum.  

Research: For this project we had to research the element that we were given and find information that could be turned into a drawing. Furthermore we had to find the atomic number and the symbol for our element. 

Collaboration: Throughout this project we all talked about what we thought would be cool for our drawing for our print. We also talked about the different ways to print our drawings on the final piece of paper.     

Presentation: For this project we had to print our drawings on a final piece of paper. We also had to take a picture of our final print and had to make sure that the photo had the proper lighting.   

Reflection: At the end of the project I thought about what I could have done differently for this project. Furthermore I looked at my final product and made sure that it was the product that I wanted.       ​

Alex, Alisha, Klarissa and Melanie tell a story about Paine's Park.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45296293/Ecology%20Presentation.key

​Inquiry: I wondered about what my element does in the world and how I can interpret that to make it into a print.

Research: I did online research to find answers to my inquiry.

 
Collaboration: My friends helped me by offering their opinions and I also worked with Ms. Hull to finalize this project.

Presentation: After printing the linoleum block I created 2 frames in order to decorate the school with them.

 
Reflection: I have created a blog post recalling what I did and how it relates to the core values.

Below is one framed print and one unframed. 

​Here is the dropbox link to my capstone presentation!
Here is the google doc download link for my presentation, also!

For my capstone I wanted to do something that would have a lasting effect on the school.  I was thinking about giving something to the school as part of my project.  I started to think about my interests.  One of my biggest interests is botany.  I then decided I wanted to donate plants to enhance the decor of the school.  I began my research at the Horticultural Society Library where I learned about which plants grow best indoors.  I also learned about the effects plants have on work places - that they increase productivity and attendance.  As well, there is the benefit of the oxygen that plants provide.  My project then took me through the steps of purchasing, transporting and repotting the plants I chose for the area on the second floor outside the elevators (near the nurse's office).  One of the greatest experiences I had while repotting the plants was with all the people who were walking by at the time. Everyone was saying that it was really nice, and it looked great.  Other people stopped to asked me questions about my knowledge of plants and how to take care of their own plants.  And some people had advice for helping me.  My project will continue on after I leave SLA.  I have passed on the torch to the students in the lower grades who have volunteered to take on the responsibility of watering and caring for the plants.  I really enjoyed my project and I hope others will too for a long time to come.  Below are some pictures of the area where the plants have found a new home. 

Inquiry: We had to find out what our element was in order to make a print out of it.

Research: We had to research our element, then create a print that had something to do with our element. Upon finding that vacuum tubes contained lanthanum, I decided to have my print be of a vacuum tube.

Collaboration: We collaborated with our classmates when printing. We shared ink and tools.

Presentation: The prints will be hung up in the halls. We are also posting a picture of them here on the blog.

Reflection: We are reflecting on the prints here on SLATE.

​inquiry 
I researched a little bit about my element (vanadium) and its properties. The most interesting thing I found was an image of a small bit of vanadium in a strange circular interlacing pattern, which was the inspiration for my print. 
research
I did some minor research on the topic, learning about the purpose and uses of vanadium. I eventually just settled with the image I had found before, since vanadium's practical uses were not that interesting. 
collaboration
I helped my friends decide on their final designs, learning about their element, while they gave me input on my design. 
presentation
I tried to make my design look as nice as possible while keeping it simple. I lost a large part of the aesthetic in the printing process, underestimating how difficult it would be to convey shading on the linoleum.
Reflection
I am fairly happy with the end result I obtained, however in the future (since I now have a better understanding of the medium) I will try to take a more reasonable approach. 

  

Inquiry - For this project the first thing that we had to think about is what our element means to our culture or history. We had to think about its various uses and which we wanted to display in our final project.
Research – The point of this project was to discover more about the element given to us and display our new knowledge in a creative and unique way. To ensure that we had done research on our element there was one guideline, we had to have three different original and distinctive pieces. My element was Iodine which is currently used mainly in medicine as a sterilizer, but since this project required me to look outside the box I had to find its other uses and since it was not used in as many different things today I had to do more research on its history and its uses in the past. My final Ideas were an old fashioned camera because they used to be used in prints and kelp, which is the main source of iodine.
Collaboration – Besides just sharing working utensils and space collaboration was a pretty big aspect of this project. A good example of this for me is how I was having difficulty getting my prints to turn out the way I thought they should so I found someone who had finished with three perfect, neat copies and asked them to help me and give me tips so that I could do others. I think that there is much to be learned from our peers even in an individual art project or any project in that matter. Whether this be simply sharing space and materials or asking for someone’s opinion which helps see your work through a different lens and have a more complete final product. I think that not using the input of your peers is just throwing aside one of the most useful tools to creating a project to the best of your ability.
Presentation – The way that we displayed our knowledge and research on our element was through the final print of the stamp that we created. This is what we have been designing and preparing for the past month as well as our last assignment for the ninth grade art elective.
Reflection- This reflection has gotten me to think about all that I have learned during the process of completing this progress both about my element, art, and in general. I have taken a lot from this project and have put a lot of effort into my final piece and am glad to have made the choices I made with design and how I displayed the element.

"Clever landscaping is all about 'efficieny." Check out the video from Team 5: Pierce, Rabbi, Amy & Rahed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFhRwelQe0s

There comes a point in everyone’s life where they are forced to remember things. Whether they be for good or for bad. This is that time for me. It is time for me to think back on everything we have done and evaluate upon that. Its time for me to focus on work that may have been good, or the ones that I completely rocked. 

This year for me has been one full of ups and downs. Some of those worse than others. I’ve struggled with staying focused as well as completing tasks on time. But when I did hand in those assignments, they were magic. “Growing up there has been (and still is) something that clearly divides our family. It is not the color of our hair or whether or we share the same eye color. A speech barrier has affected more than half of my family.” Read more of my Language Autobiography here. 

There have been times this year when I did not believe that I could go on any longer and there was no way that I would be able to finish out the year strong but I had to do it. Mr. Block began to assign more work that I could relate to and that made it a little less difficult to fail at. “There will always be things that one does that someone else hates, but that is the give and take with life. You never know what you are going to get, so you deal with it, no matter whatever hand you are dealt. Its a game of give and take, and there is more giving than taking, but hey! That’s what life is.. A bunch of uncertainty.” I look back on these words and realize you cannot change what you have done, however you have the power to adjust the course for the future. In the past year, I have learned that in these two subjects and just about the world in general. You can only change yourself... You can’t change the world. Read more from my Letter Assignment here. 

I was inspired to keep writing and to keep sharing my writing with the world. I wanted the world to know how proud I was to be apart of a class where I had the freedom to write whatever I pleased. When I pleased. One of the journal entries this year was titled “Never shall I forget.” in which you could write about anything. I at the time had been thinking about my relationship since the topic on hand that week was relationships within countries and relationships between people and objects. I remember writing this great poem about my relationship and it went a little something like this. “Never shall I forget the day he held me in his arms, For I did not want to let go. Never shall I forget the late night phone calls, The ones that were had so that he would be the last voice I heard before bed. Never shall I forget how much I love him. Never shall I forget the person I gave my heart to. For all these things worth remembering, I never shall forget. ​Never shall I forget the day I saw him. I fell in love instantly and I knew we were meant to be. Never shall I forget the day I got the courage to talk to him. He liked me too. Never shall I forget the day he asked me to be his. Never shall I forget our first kiss by the backstairs. Never shall I forget the butterflies I get everytime I hear his name. Never shall I forget the day he said I love you... because I love him too.”

At that point, my knack for writing became something that could no longer be tamed. We were learning more about different writing styles and we were getting prompts to write about and the benchmarks challenged my every being. My favorite project from the year had to be my monologues about the Keystone Pipeline build. I wrote the monologues and was more than ecstatic to show everyone. Here is a little excerpt “What brings you here today? My land? You want my land? Why? No! You can’t have it! I won’t let you! (Angrily Speaking)  I can’t believe you thought you could come in my house and take my land! This is mine! I bought it and I refuse to sign it over to you. TransCanada? Who are they? Why do they feel the need to take what isn’t theirs? (Pause) A pipeline? From Canada all the way to Texas? Why the hell do they need all that oil anyway! Go dig somewhere else! I dont care how beneficial it is to the company, the other states, or anyone else for that matter. I worked my whole life for this land and I’m not going to throw it away for a project that will be gone in five years after all of the oil dries up! (Pause, looking to her left) Calm Down? Me calm down? At a time like this? I’m sorry Mr. Jameson, not to sound rude, but thats not going to happen. There is more to the land then just a place to be. My children were born and raised here, my grandchild born in this very house. There is an emotional connection involved in this house and there is no amount of money that can change the way I feel about this.” Read the full monologues here. 

There are so many more pieces of work that I am proud of from this year and that can demonstrate to the fullest but would not nearly have enough time to write about all my experiences with each one. So below I put a list together of a few of most pride worthy work for you to enjoy. Feel free to go through the links and read whatever you would like! I hope you enjoy my writing. 

English B Piece 

Poetry Wiki 

Descriptive Essay 

​ For our last art project of the year, we had to research an assigned element from the periodic table. Next, we had to create a print that represented the element, including the atomic number and abbreviation. My element was technetium, and was number 43. After creating the 6x6 print, we were required to make a matte of a one inch border.

The project really reflected five of Science Leadership’s core values. Inquiry was used, because we needed to ask questions. Without asking, we wouldn’t know any information about our element, and therefore, we wouldn’t know what to put on our print. The information and images we used were condensed into a single or few things that represented the element. The next core value that was used is research. We needed to research a lot about our element before creating a print. You can’t do a project on something if you know nothing about it. Collaboration was used when we talked to eachother about what we can use to represent our element. I found myself asking people what they were doing, and how they were going to pull it off. I also found other people asking me about my project. Presentation will be used through this blog post, along with showing Ms. Hull our creations. The prints we created will be displayed, and people can scroll through the abundance of blog posts to see how everyone decided to represent their element. After working hard for weeks doing sketches, cutting the linoleum, and finally printing, we’re going to be using reflection on the Science Leadership Academy blog for art class. Through this blog post, everyone can see our beautiful work! It’s also a chance to talk about the experience that we had. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the project, and I think it was so much fun. In the beginning, I was sort of bored because all we were doing was sketches, but after we started actually cutting the linoleum, it was really entertaining. It was also a whole lot of fun playing with colors on the prints. I learned a lot about how to put the colors in stripes, and to make good multicolor prints with three colors.

Below is a photograph of one of the prints I did. It's temporary, and I may replace it with another print's photo, because they were on the drying rack. I used purple and red together on the one print. Unfortunately, the "43" didn't print all the way on the top left. 

For our last art project of the year, we had to research an assigned element from the periodic table. Next, we had to create a print that represented the element, including the atomic number and abbreviation. My element was technetium, and was number 43. After creating the 6x6 print, we were required to make a matte of a one inch border. 

The project really reflected five of Science Leadership’s core values. Inquiry was used, because we needed to ask questions. Without asking, we wouldn’t know any information about our element, and therefore, we wouldn’t know what to put on our print. The information and images we used were condensed into a single or few things that represented the element. The next core value that was used is research. We needed to research a lot about our element before creating a print. You can’t do a project on something if you know nothing about it. Collaboration was used when we talked to eachother about what we can use to represent our element. I found myself asking people what they were doing, and how they were going to pull it off. I also found other people asking me about my project. Presentation will be used through this blog post, along with showing Ms. Hull our creations. The prints we created will be displayed, and people can scroll through the abundance of blog posts to see how everyone decided to represent their element. After working hard for weeks doing sketches, cutting the linoleum, and finally printing, we’re going to be using reflection on the Science Leadership Academy blog for art class. Through this blog post, everyone can see our beautiful work! It’s also a chance to talk about the experience that we had. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the project, and I think it was so much fun. In the beginning, I was sort of bored because all we were doing was sketches, but after we started actually cutting the linoleum, it was really entertaining. It was also a whole lot of fun playing with colors on the prints. I learned a lot about how to put the colors in stripes, and to make good multicolor prints with three colors.