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Who represents me?

Michael Nutter

What do you and your representative have in common?

We like Larry’s cheesesteaks, and believe in public service to your community.

·       Learn their biographies

·       Micheal Nutter born in 1957 lived in west Philadelphia and attended Saint Joseph University. He moved on to The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania. In June 2002, as councilman, Nutter introduce a measure requiring college students under 23 years old in Philadelphia’s Fourth Council District (students at SJU). He has influenced much of the policies throughout Wynnfield.

·       

·       His main policy is direct to community affairs, to serve and help the community.

·       His interests are directed toward community service, and ethics.

·       We have worked together before and both believe in community service to better our environment.

        This project required me to take photos of five different people. These photos were taken in the same position and around the same place. By doing this, I ensured that there was no difference between the pictures that would drastically affect the difference in body structure. All of the pictures were in taken in a natural and relaxed position. After taking all those pictures, I went into Photoshop and cut the photos in fourths. The fourths consisted of head, shoulders to waist, waist to ankle, and ankle to end of shoe. My intentions were to put a persons head on top of another persons shoulders on top of another persons legs with someone else’s feet. However, I kept the heads next to each other at the top of the page, and spread the rest of the parts of the people throughout the rest of this page.

         Within this project, I focused on what I wanted to express through my art. I wanted to convey the different parts of people and how they can be looked at separately and more in depth. I wanted to show why certain parts of the body are a certain way on certain people. The final project conveys how people are meant to have certain features about themselves. If they are not on their own bodies than they should just be in space.  

https://sites.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/election-holiday/

https://sites.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/election-holiday/rebuttal-paper

Questions:
How did you group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?
We just told each other to work on each others part. And, who ever had problems we would help out. Also, when coming down to a decision on what to focus on we just agreed  

·       11th grade Essential ? - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change? 
We have to always change. Because, no one's perfect.  Everyone has there own prefrefence so they are responsible for there own learning

My understanding of the electoral process improved, since I talked with someone close with the process so, he told me a lot of the things that he knew and he told me some things that I already knew, but he was a lot of help.

I thought it being written down would be the best way because people can read the interview and really understand what the person is saying other then a video because sometimes a video can go too fast and not explain anything.

• I chose to do my benchmark on Defense Of Marriage Act, because i thought it was interesting and i wanted to know more about it. I chose Keynote because i think keynote is awesome but sometimes it crews you over because it can't be uploaded to some places such as Scienceleadership.org so i had to screen shot the slides on my keynote and add it to google docs and make it into a presentation on there so that my teacher can see it, so of course i had to share it with her. If i had to do my benchmark over i would probably put less words, (i do not know if its to much words) because i have lots of wording in it and i think it looks smashed together, and i do not like my presentations with to much of information. When i first started researching my bill/law i noticed that the Defenses Of Marriage did have lots of problems, people had trouble with there lover because they couldn't marry the same race. I thought it was pretty hard doing because i didn't know exactly what to put on my keynote.

Why I choose to the the Non Discrimination Act was because I feel that 
it is wrong that  judge people based on looks and their gender 
identity. equality is the most important thing to have. Not everyone 
understands how important equality is.
My method for choosing a flow map was because I thought It would be 
easier way to tell a story 
If I was to do this project again I would choose a different method 
then what I did and also staying more on top of things with the 
organization process.
The research of my bill taught me that it can be either passed or fail. 
In my case my bill kept getting re- introduced and brought into congress. 
As of today they are still fighting to pass the law officially. The 
process was harder then what I imagined.  

Ingredients:

- Fellow Sheets (Flour Sheets) One pack 20 sheets
- Canola oil half cup
- Almonds half pound
- Sugar 4 tbsp
- Vanilla
- Syrup (4 small cups of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of water and 1 tbsp of lemon juice)

Directions:
1. Bring the a rectangular tray and brush it over with the canola oil so it doesn't stick to the pan
2. Divide the 20 sheets into 2 groups: one group for the bottom and one group for the top.
3. Put 10 flour sheets on the tray for the bottom and every two sheets you put down, brush the whole surface with canola oil.
4. Put half a pound of almonds into a food processor and grind until it is in small pieces.
5. Take the almonds out of the food processor and place into another bowl. Then proceed to add the 4 tbsp of sugar into the almonds and add the vanilla in as well.
6. Put in a bit of water and mix.
7. Spread the almonds onto the sheets you prepared and then take the other group of 10 sheets and every two sheets you put down, brush the surface of the sheet with canola oil.
8. Then proceed to cut the whole thing into small square pieces. (you can make the pieces big or small). Then spread canola oil all over the top.
9. Then put the whole tray into the oven on 325˚ for 30 minutes. Then after the 30 minutes has passed, raise the temperature to 450˚ for 5 minutes exact.

(Meanwhile you already prepared the syrup just by mixing the 4 small cups of sugar, 1 1/2 cups of water,  together and then put them on the stove until it boils. Then lower the flame a bit and add the 1 tbsp of lemon juice in. Let it proceed to boil until the mix looks like a honey mixture. Let it cool completely.)
10. Proceed to take the tray out.
11. Right when you take it out, spread the cooled syrup on top of the whole baklava.

Analysis

a. I would say that its approximately 25% processed and 75% whole foods. Everything is whole except the Almonds. The almonds are the only processed.

b. The caloric count is about 250 calories, about 7 grams of sugar id assume, and about 10 g of fat I'd say. My body will store some of sugar that it obtained from the baklava I made and get rid of what it doesnt need to the liver.  Some health issues that would come up if I ate this meal every day would be diabetes because of the amount of sugar it has, possibly get sick because I am not taking in certain amounts of nutrition, just alot of protein, sugar.

c.  About everything came from the United States I'd say, but I would say that it was mostly grown in California, because it is a popular place to grow many ingredients, especially the almonds. The sheets and vanilla traveled far I know because they were bought from an Arabic Store, in which most of the products were made in Middle Eastern countries. It was not organically grown. The processing for the sheets may effect the environment, but on the package it said it was processed in a factory, so the factory probably uses gas and that gas goes to the atmosphere, etc.

d. The meal, not counting everything in all of the packaging (only the amount of ingredients used) approximately costed 10 dollars. It is so much better than fast food because 2 sandwichs from Mcdonalds would cost about 10 dollars while this 10 dollar pastry would last you a very long time because of the large quantity made from the partial amount of ingredients.

Companies:
Fellow flour sheets

Berkley and Jensen

Wesson

Domino

Badia

I would say that Berkley and Jensen and Wesson are big companies and the others are smaller espeicially because they are from middle eastern companies. I believe that there is always a bigger company that controls everything.

e. I'd say that they probably added some preservatives and also grew them in a certain way to make them either grow faster or grow a certain size/ have a certain taste etc. Just like we saw in the movie, how they use different fertilizers and feed differently makes the product different than if you were to grow normally. Many companies say certain things to attract customers. They will say anything to please the people; money over everything basically. Growing the ingredients myself might not give me the best quality that you get from using different fertizlizers and such, but it would still be fresh and "clean".

_________________________________________________________________________

Personal Reflection

If it weren't for this quarter, I definitely would not have known this much about food and the real story behind where your food comes from. I learned things that I really was surprised about, such as the point that 90% of all foods are either made with or from corn, food conditions (how they are slaughtered, treated, etc.), how the food industry has a hold on everyone, and how every single word you say can be used against you. I could keep naming so many more things I learned, but it would make this more of a list, not a reflection. Learning all this information in this unit, making presentations on the Food Inc. movie, presenting all that infromation; it made me think about what I can do to inform people about what is truly in their food and how their food is produced. Many people don't get the chance to be informed like we did, and its a problem. People need to become educated and find out more; do research, do interviews, go the extra step. The government doesn't want us to know about the truth, but if we knew the truth and we spread the word, it would impact the world in a big way, and possibly make change in the food industry. Another problem in our food system is the point that its basically all about the money. If the people don't know about it, then why tell them and possibly lose the money? People have to really fight to put all of this out in the open. After watching and learning so much this unit, it has actually change my eating habits in a big way. I started eating less outside, I encouraged my parents to buy many products from the amish stores around the block and they finally did so, and I even started reading the nutrition facts and trying to avoid the bad stuff like high fructose corn syrup, etc. These choices have really played a great impact. I stopped spending so much money, I'm becoming more informed, and I'm more content with what I'm putting into my mouth. I think that if everyone were to take the same step I took, it would really impact their lives for the good as well. In conclusion, this unit has really taught me alot, and though many people might not think the same way I did after this unit, I'm really glad I learned what I did. From Food Inc. to organic/non-organic foods, this unit was a great learning experience.

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Food Rules Slide

In the Food unit we watched “Food Inc,” a documentary about the food industry. We also read several articles by columnist Michel Pollen and discussed the problems and practices about the food we eat.

            I noticed we were rather biased as group against the food industry and no one tried to defend them. I also noted everyone acted with emotion but failed to come up with a reasonable solution. Also folks tend to blame big corporations on all the world evils that are every ones fault and no ones fault.

            We read a little too much of Michel Pollen I would have liked to read some one else. I am sure others have written on the topic and would want some different viewpoints.

            What I liked was the style of presentation how we learned one little thing at a time and head to answer questions that would help us retain that information.

            And of course I liked the feast. It was tasty. 

            I’m rather disappointed that no one listened to my solution, which I thought was brilliant. What we could do is everyone (in America) puts in five to twenty dollars and we collectively sue the big food corporations. That we even the playing ground and make sure they can’t say, “this is what are costumers asked for.”

            I think we would do much better if we didn’t have other things to think about then the food industry because we were all to busy to do any thing about it.

            All in all a good unit but it could have been better.

Food Recipe

Salad

Lettuce

Baby Tomatoes

Cucumber

Carrot

Wash Vegetables break the lettuce pieces in half and put in a large bowl. Though baby tomatoes in bowl and toss well. Skin Cucumber, cut it into little pieces, and dump in bowl. Skin carrot, cut it into little pieces, and dump in bowl. Toss well.

Salad Dressing

One part vinegar

Three parts olive oil

A pinch of parsley

A pinch of basil

Get out a small bowl. Put in vinegar and oil; add a pinch of parsley and a pinch of basil. Shake well before stirring.  

Salad is a traditional healthy choice when overloaded with salad dressing, bread, and meat. My dad always puts salad out with every dinner. Usually comprising of lettuce and some other vegetables. I bought the ingredients to this salad at whole and they cost too much. I would have bought them at the ninth street market it closed at the time and ninth street market food doesn’t last long.

Well we all answered the journal question and as a group we each shared our ideas. Then talked about each idea and then all came to an agreement on which one would our benchmark. Collectively we chose Combining National Popular Vote and Instant Runoff as our focus topic. 

If we all as humans come together, positive change will happen. All age groups can benefit from one an other. In order to create and support change we need to get rid of all the negative energy and replace it with positivity. 

I realized with the electoral college it does not benefit the people from small states which means every voters' voice is not being heard and that is not a democracy. That is exactly why we chose slogan "got democracy? … Be YOUr government" We want voters from all ages to feel as though their vote is valuable. 

Our marketing scheme was to mimic the successful "got milk?" campaign. As a group we all decided a print ad's slogan needs to be one thing and that was universal. A universal slogan is appealing to all age groups. The best thing about using a universal slogan is that it will always be remembered by your audience. Because we wanted to target an older and younger audience we chose to have a slogan that could be used as an entire phrase or broken into two separate ones with the same amount of impact. 

Our Slogans:

"got democracy?"

"got democracy?… Be YOUr government!"

• How did you group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?
  -Our group began with a ton of ideas that covered multiple ways of addressing the voter turn out problem in the United States. We debated for almost two day about the direction that we wanted to move forward in and ultimately it was out slogan that helped us finally decide what we wanted to do. Our slogan, "got democracy?...Be YOUr Government" lead us to the decision of combining National Popular Vote with Instant Run-off Vote to provide more of an incentive for voting and create a more educated or aware voter. 
  
  
• 11th grade Essential Question - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change? 
  - I believe that the role of an individual in creating and sustaining change is fully understand the change that is occurring and be active in its continued existence. In order change to be instituted, it must have support from the individuals that it will be effecting. If not then the change will be challenged and sustainability decreases. Change also requires supporting individuals to be active because if/when the change is challenged or active support decreases, the effectiveness of the change falls.
  
  
• How has your understanding of the electoral process and whether or not the US is a democracy evolved during this unit?
  -Prior to this unit, it was my understanding that the because it is the international symbol of democracy, we must be pretty well off as a democratic nation. After the unit i have come to understand that although we are the international symbol of democracy, we do not live up to that international standard. I have also learned and formed my own opinons about the electoral system based on the research done during this project. Through research I learned the original reasons behind created the electoral system and that the US was created to be a republic not a democracy. I found this to be quite interesting because democracy is something that most if not all Americans value most.
  
  
• How did you decide to best relay a message to a national audience with your marketing campaign?
  - Our group chose to target three specific groups at the national level. We chose to target youth, older Americans, and minorities. To do this we created a slogan that could be used three different ways. Each element of the slogan would appear in different forms of communication. For example the "got democracy?" portion of the slogan stood for the print add so that it would be mor accessible to an older audience and because older voters were more likely to correlate this ad with the successful "got milk" campaign. The "Be YOUr Government!" portion of the slogan targeted youth an minorities in the audio ad because it put the individuals at the center of attention and used music from an artist popular amongst youth and minorities. The combined elements of the slogan were used in the video ad. They were intended to be create a universal and unifying campaign.
  
  My individual work can be viewed here.
  Our group's final product can be viewed here.

• How did you group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?
  It was not very difficult because we just chose what we collectively felt the strongest about which was the effectiveness of the Electoral College. There was also some discussion about concentrating on how voting is always on Tuesday, but in the end we decided the Electoral College is a more pressing issue. 
  
  
• 11th grade Essential ? - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change? 
  An individual must be committed to a change to sustain it. Say one person decided not to support a change, they could influence others do the same, then no one would be trying to change anything. An individual can quickly expand into a majority, thats how changes begin. People must stay committed to an idea to make it a reality. 
  
  
• How has your understanding of the electoral process and whether or not the US is a democracy evolved during this unit?
  Before this unit I had almost no idea of how elections worked in the US. All I knew was that people went to polling places, stood in a booth, pressed some buttons and then they were done. I did not know about any of the regulations or processes of voting. Since then though, my knowledge on the subject has grown exponentially. Learning about the processes, like the Electoral College, and other things, has truly sparked an interest in me. All the laws surrounding voting in the US are interesting and some of them are still useful, but certainly not all of them. It makes me wonder why people havent tried to change them yet but then I remember that many people are as clueless about these things as I was before this unit. If everyone is to have a fair say, they must first be educated on the subject and this isn't happening. Things like that make this nation seem less free then it did before I knew these things. 
  
  
• How did you decide to best relay a message to a national audience with your marketing campaign?
  In our marketing campaign we tried to emphasize that not many people even know what the Electoral College is. Showing that the people it is apparently trying to serve don't even know about it. By doing this we not only educated people on it but showed how dated it is. If more people knew about it, it may not as much of a problem because when voting, people would know what they're getting into and where their vote is going. I believe this was a very effective way to relay our group's message. 

Vegetarian Lima Bean Soup !

Ingredients:

·      2 One pound bags of large dried lima beans

·      1 very larger or 2 medium Vidalia Onions

·      1 large green pepper

·      1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

·      2 heaping tablespoons minced garlic

·      ½ pot water

(For Taste)

·      Onion Powder

·      Ground Black Pepper

·      Mrs. Dash (Onion & herb)

·      Essence of Emeril Seasoning

·      Crushed red pepper flakes

·      1 tablespoon Agave Nectar

Procedure

1.     Soak 2 bags of Lima Beans in a full pot of cold water

2.     Sit aside for 8-16 hours

3.     Once soaking is complete Rinse lima beans in cool water in a large colander or strainer ( remove any discolored beans or empty shells)

4.     Chop onion and green pepper in small cubes (diced about ¼” )

5.     Heat large vegetable stock pot over med/high heat

6.     Add ½ cup of olive oil when pan is hot (heat until olive oil is hot )

7.     Add diced onion and green pepper

8.     Add seasonings and minced garlic

9.     Sauté onion, green pepper , garlic , and seasonings until vegetables glisten and start to become translucent

10.  Turn heat up to high

11.  Add very hot water until pot is half full

12.  Cover w/ lid and bring stock to a boil

13.  When liquid / vegetable mixture begins to boil Add 2 lbs of lima beans

14.  Allow to come to a second boil

15.  Reduce heat to low or simmer. Add agave nectar

16.  Simmer beans for 2 hours or until tender and liquid starts to thicken.

17.  Stir every 15-30 minutes with wooden spoon. If beans start to stick add water and reduce heat. 

18.  Taste beans in last ½ hour of cooking Add seasonings or Agave Nectar to taste

Recipe Analysis

When thinking of a “healthy meal” to share with the class I thought Lima Bean Soup was the perfect dish simply because it is a meat less, non-processed meal. Everything from the beans to the seasonings and vegetables to make the meal is whole and tasty! The lima beans used to make this meal were very cost effective and for families on a budget the brand of beans can be purchased with WIC and food stamps. This reminded me of a discussion we had in class when the issue of healthy food being too expensive came up and how it affects families’ decisions w/ purchasing food and cooking meals. Well there is no excuse for this healthy meal, if you can but things like pop tarts, different meats, and chips, you can without a doubt pick up a bag of beans and some peppers! Although this meal is time consuming, the way it is prepared allows time to get homework, housework, and daily tasks done while waiting. When meal is complete Lima bean soup becomes a quick throw and go meal. Great for packing a lunch or a quick dinner heat up ! Also, the packaging and preparation of the meal does not involve a lot of material. The material they do involve can be recycled. With all of this being said this delicious meal is great for a meal to last a few days and feed the whole house! You can put your own spin on it by adding hot sauce, throwing it on rice, and even vegetables. No matter how you like it, if you love beans it is a great healthy choice your body will be happy with!

Self Reflection

            This section has opened my eyes too so many different aspects of my health and also the health of my family members. It was definitely disturbing to see the truth behind different meat companies and how they deal with the animals. It made me feel somewhat helpless as a person who is not a vegetarian. To keep a steady diet it seems impossible to make the best choice in meets to create a balanced meal. Though I don’t see myself or my family members becoming vegetarian any time soon, we have taken extra steps to pay attention to where we buy our meat and checking the different labels so we can get the best meat possible. The other sections of the unit like Fracking for instance allowed me to educate my friends and family on what exactly it was. I have shared this information with my family to the point where it became annoying. After a while lunch and dinner time became very uncomfortable and I was just a nag when it came to shopping trips according to my family . I do not regret it because after all of the nagging something stuck with each one of them!

• How did you group go about making a decision for what to focus on for the project?
  
  Each person basically pitched the idea they had. Then discussed the pros and cons of each idea. We originally decided to focus on voting online. But after talking to Ms. Laufenburg we had to come up with another idea. Our theme of convenience stayed the same but our new idea was voting on the weekends.
  
  
• 11th grade Essential ? - What is the role of the individual in creating and sustaining change? 
  
  The role of the individual is to take action, expressing their concerns and what they think can be done to solve them. Giving up on getting things done is not an option.
  
  
• How has your understanding of the electoral process and whether or not the US is a democracy evolved during this unit?
  
  Learning the ends and outs of how a voters ballot counts help me to understand why some people think that in essence they still get no say. There are a lot of factors that go into the final decision. Not to mention a lot of different representatives and things. Before I didn't have view a view of the  electoral process. Now I see how complicated it really is.
  
  
• How did you decide to best relay a message to a national audience with your marketing campaign?
  We had a central theme of convenience. With our campaigning we tried to keep things simple and to the point.

I have learned that the whole food thing is a large business. Things are being made differently than before, but because it is more convenient for the people growing it, if it takes a short period for a crop, to be grown for money, of course these companies will do it. Things are being done for money, and people are not being cared about.  Whether it’s the life of a cow, to the growing of a see. Farming is slowly turning more into a process, than an actual experience. For examples instead of caring for cows in a grass environment, certain places mainly feed them corn, in pens to quickly fatten them. Then they are killed in a factory with other animals, by machinery. These places do not tend to be the cleanest so the chances of disease or sickness are high. The country has becoming blinded by money, to actually see what it is doing to itself.

Since I eat kosher the majority of the food I buy comes from cleaned slaughterhouses that treat their animals correctly. The place is highly religious so the workers there would not do anything that was break the work halal. 

  A big problem with the system is how different people are being feed. How is it that a poor person can’t afford to buy veggies, but has enough to buy a burger? It is just that the system isn't pushing anyone into any better directions. This meaning that, this poor man, or family, isn't really being helped if they are being feed burgers for dinner because it is cheaper. They only thing it is solving is the hunger state for the time being, but aside from that it brings a lot of cons. Along with that, I have learned how big companies make farmers their workers, and enable them to live, or go against them. For example, the company Monsanto makes genetic seeds, that are expensive, and forces the farmer to buy more and more, when they run out, which causes him to be trapped in debt.

I can start eating thinking about my environment; I know that there are many animals, and environments that are being affected by the food that we eat. For example, the Humboldt penguin is going extinct because a lack of fish. This is due to people over fishing, or taking more than what is needed, or for example the refraining from eating things that contain palm oil. The reason why is because this palm oil is from a rainforest in Borneo which is being destroyed and turned into a plantation of more oil. When you think about the food that could change the future, you find it a bit easier to change.

I may not be able to enjoy most of my snacks that I tend to buy. Sadly palm oil is found in a majority of foods. But if I refrain from eating palm oil, I would be helping the forest/ animals of Borneo from extinction.

Yes I currently am, it is a challenge, fighting your desires, but if it for a greater good, then why not? And I see know point of going into zoology, if I am currently destroying a place where 1000 of animals still haven’t been discovered. 

Halal Meat Lasagna:






Recipe:

Nutrition Facts: Serving Size 297 g Calories 377 Calories from Fat 126 Total Fat 14g 22% Saturated Fat 7g 33% Trans Fat Cholesterol 45mg 15% Sodium 832mg 35% Total Carbohydrate 38g 13% Dietary Fiber 4g 14% Sugars 6g 14% Protein 25g