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​http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11455044/Mi%20Vida.m4v

This is the public dropbox link. 

Reflection:

My project is an imovie on how I was like when I was younger and now and then in the future. 
I like the pictures and music I included. I would make it longer than it is. 

My element is Selenium. My element is used to make red glass that can be used for candleholders. It can also convert AC electricity to DC electricity. I thought of this print because of the candleholders. It seamed like a cool idea. I had to draw the print on a piece of paper. Then I traced the picture backwards onto tracing paper. Then I traced it from the tracing paper onto a linoleum block backwards again. Next I carved the positive space out and made prints of it. I then had to glue the prints onto black paper and take pictures. I think this was a fun project and it was easy. I would do this project the same and doing nothing differently.

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 Throughout my sophomore year in Mr. Block’s history and English class I have gone about understanding many different parts of his class. There were times that I would struggle in his class or be able to be on top of everything we were doing. Then there were the times I did not enjoy one thing we were doing. Now that the year is over I have developed more knowledge to get general understandings from both English and History.

From English class I learned that your opinion could help make a difference. I realized this from writing our op-ed in History class and writing thesis papers in English class also in History. Something said in my op-ed was, “Just remember who was the savior for you at one point!” In my op-ed I wrote about how the shootings and weapons that kill police officers are wrong.

            I took a lot from the year I also took more understanding from in English class with our poetry unit. We wrote about whatever we wanted, but we had a certain form of poem we had to write. I wrote a poem about my dad it said, "Ever since that day I wished you were the father I thought you would be." ­From writing this poem I learned that peoples expressions or words can really tell who they are.

Another understanding from this year was something I learned from the letter we had to write somebody in english class. In this project I wrote a letter to my best friend Patrick. He made me realize that words from others can make you think twice about life. He just was apart of a bad situation and his action reminded me of something we read during class. This letter made me really think and it actually made him realize his wrong.

            The last and final thing I took from this year was the ability to be able to write and express how I felt. This all came from the journals we wrote and creative pieces and descriptive pieces we worked on throughout the year. The understanding is that the expression of writings actually brings out the best in you. I took this understanding from a descriptive writing piece I wrote about several scenes put into one to create a story. "He popped the question,” will you marry me?" This was the night when my stepdad proposed to my mom, this part in time of my life brought out the best of me and by writing about it made it show whom I was and how I reacted to the fact of everything going on.

            Now that you have seen some of the work I have done throughout the year I hope you got an understanding of the things I did during the year. This year went by so fast and we did so many things in both English and History. From all the work I have done I got the biggest understanding of all. From the beginning of year to the end you receive more then you think you can handle, and you become a brand new person in the end of it all.

 

            

My project is a story that is about my past, my future, and my present. 
I like that its about me and im unique. I like that its short but you can learn about what I like to do. 
I would make it longer, and write more next time.  I would add more detail to it. 

Hola me llamo Alexander .

Cuando era más joven era tímido.
Cuando era más joven me gustaba jugar deportes.
Cuando era más joven mi familia y mis amigos eran los más importantes para mí.
Yo, quería ser un atleta profrossional.

 

Ahora me gusta divertirme.
Yo disfruto los deportes.
Mi familia y mis amigos son la gente más importante para mí.

Un día normal para mí:
Yo despierto
Yo asisto a la escuela
Yo vuelvo a casa.
Yo completo la tarea.

 

En 5 años, yo estaré en universidad.

En 10 años, yo  trabajar en deportes.
En 10 años, (yo, cambio el mundo por ser un voluntario en el mundo.

 

 

-My element was oxygen.

-Oxygen is used to keep up alive, and plants use it for photosynthesis. We use in for   oxygen tanks as well.

-I came up with my idea because when I went to the website example. I saw that the artist for my element drew a man with an oxygen tank in a jet. It gave me the idea to draw a scuba diver. I went on Google images and got inspired on how to draw him.

-The first thing I did was thought of my idea, and then I drew some sketches. After that I got approval from Ms. Hull and drew it on tracing paper. Then, I got a Linoleum square, and drew on my drawing backwards with pen. Next, I got tools to carve the positive space on the linoleum block. Lastly, I picked a few colors, and printed them.

-My thoughts on the project are that it was fun. I enjoyed printing them since I haven’t worked with paint in a while. I was lucky to get an element that I was familiar with, because I had already had several ideas in mind before we started.

-Next time, I would print a blue block because that’s the first color that I think of when I think of Oxygen. I would also draw the scuba diver differently, because it didn’t turn out as well as I thought it would.

This project is a movie based on my past, present, and future. It shows aspects of my past, how I am now, and how I envision myself in the future. I like this because in about two minutes a person who doesn't know me very well, can get of taste of my personality and how I portray myself. I would have like to added more pictures from my past because it'd be easier to see where I came from. 

For my Q4 bencamark, I used a sort of comic-style design to explain what I was like in the past, present, and what i think I'll be like in the future. I didn't think I'd like the idea of drawing, but I did get some enjoyment from the whole thing. I would like to learn how to draw better next time though, especially with shading, because some of those pictures were not good. I would also like to make them all a little bit longer, because they were all 4-panel comics, and I think some were a bit more vague than others.

My element is sulfur.

It is used for gun powder, sulfur acid, and it is the color of one of Jupiter's moons. 

I got the idea for my print because once I read that one of Jupiter's moons is the same color as sulfur I thought that it would be neat to make my print the shape of a moon.

I went from researching what sulfur is used for to making 3 sketchs, shading in the neditive space in each. Then I chose the sketch that I beilived was the best and put it onto tracing paper. Afterwards cut out the shape from the and then just put the ink on and printed it(:

I think that the project was fun to do and I learned a lot about both art and science.

If I did the project again I would have cut out my shape more evenly so that when I printed it there wouldn't be random marks.

For this project we had to show the past, present, and future. I decided to do it as a song. I feel that the written part was good but I do not think that the pronunciation of words and quality of the recording is the best that I could do because it felt rushed with the end of school being so near.  

For my project I drew tiny comics of myself in various situations answering the questions and scanned them into Comic Life. ​I enjoyed this project because of its flexibility. It left me a lot to do creatively. I genuinely like drawing the comics and coming up with the concept for each one. That is exactly what made me want to do the project. I looked forward to *trying* to be funny. Using Comic Life was so fun. It's so easy to use and I would definitely recommend it to anyone for a project. If I were to do it differently I would have drawn even more comics. The one where I say "Hola!" three times, I drew that one first. As you can see, I made that one idea into three separate drawings. If I had more time I would have drawn a lot more for each concept. This would have been about 12 pages long! 

My project is a imovie including pictures of my childhood and me now.
I like the format of this project. It was really fun to do.
I would have asked for more peer reviewers just to double check my work.

During this process we needed to use our knowledge of past present and future tense verbs to create full sentences. It was difficult to convert and translate what I had in my mind to what it should be in spanish. Over all I enjoyed this project and had fun creating the pictures for the powerpoint. If I could change it I would add more info and slides so I could have more pictures.


Be careful because the video is fast!

Congratulations to Bernecia Guercio, Marina Pyfrom, and April Woodburn who were awarded full scholarships to attend the Science U Leadership camp at Penn State this summer. These lady scholars will attend the Elements of Innovation institute from July 31-August 5th in State College, PA. These students completed application packets and were chosen based on their dedication to experimental design and influence when helping others.

​1. How is sound produced by this instrument (now that you know more about sound, please try to refer specifically to the energy transfer and vibrations)?
For a flute, the referring to energy transfer and vibrations, sound is produced by having a standing wave of air in the column of the instrument. At the end of a flute, air moves freely. A flute is an example of a standing wave.

I'm changing the pitch by blowing into the different holes I will make. Each hole will be of a different frequency. 

I will be using PVC pipe for my instrument. I will play it as I said before by blowing into the different holes.

My design of the flute is different from the traditional design and I wonder will it still work as good.

Throughout Lord of the Flies the kids become more savage. The boys start out as somewhat civilized, but as they realize that they might not get saved, they get more savage. In several instances in our world, there have been people or groups who are against technology. The example about groups not having or wanting technology relates to the boys because they go back to their animal instincts.. The real life example hurt people for a not very good reason, and they either didn’t have or want technology. The diminishing amount of technology affects people in ways so that they revert back to their instinct of savagery.

During the book Piggy’s glasses go from good condition to being broken. While the glasses are diminishing, the savage instinct of the boys becomes more prevalent. A quote from the book from where the glasses are half broken is “You didn't ought to have let that fire out... one side's broken." page 71. During this section the kids are in the middle of being animals humans. This quote shows that they are starting to abandon one form of technology that they have, fire. They left the technology to go hunting; and because of this the ship that passes by didn’t see them. If they had kept their technology, then they would not be fighting about not getting rescued from the ship. The fire would have also kept them from killing the pig, so that they would be less savage. Only savages would leave something as important as the fire, to go kill a pig for food that they wouldn’t need if they were rescued.

Many of the older boys were hunters, or wanted to be with jack to kill a pig. Luddites were people in the early 1800’s who were against some new technology. The new technology would do their job faster, but they claimed that it wasn’t as authentic, or good. The luddites destroyed many of the machines, and killed some people in the riots. The luddites are similar to the boys in Lord of the Flies, because they ignore or demolish technology, and in the process they hurt things. This new technology made them destroy technology, which showed how they went back to their animal instincts, and didn’t think about anything else. The luddites were against new technology, while the hunters were against watching the fire. Both of them had their priorities wrong, the luddites could have found new jobs, or solved the problem without violence. The boys had their priorities wrong because they chose hunting, and fun over being saved.

There is a lot of symbolism in Lord of the Flies. One big part is Piggy’s glasses. They symbolize technology, which also shows civilization and how put together they boys are. In the beginning of the book, when the boys are civilized the glasses are fine. When the glasses are half broken the boys are splitting apart, and most of them are going back to their animal like instincts. Close to the end of the book the glasses become fully broken because of the Savagery. A quote close to when the glasses are broken is “”How can we make a fire?” Jack squatted back and frowned at the pig. “We’ll raid them and take fire.”” Page 136. This shows that Jack has turned savage; he wants to steal from other kids on the island without asking first. His animal instincts have taken over, where he thinks that violence is necessary and doesn’t even consider talking to them. Another type of technology that they have on the island is fire. At the beginning they use the fire because they realize that it is an important part of them getting saved. The first time that they let the fire go out was when they first started to become savage. They decided to kill a pig instead of get saved by a ship. The technology was not present, so the boys reverted back to their animal instincts. After the boys split into two groups the fire is almost not present, which shows that they are barley separated from animals. At the end of the book there are two significant fires. The first one is the cooking fire, which would not serve their purposes, this shows that they are using a different type of technology and have disregarded the signal fire. The other fire is when they light the forest on fire to try to kill Ralph, this fire shows how much of savages they are; that they would destroy the jungle in order to find and hurt one person that wouldn’t join them.

There is much symbolism around the technology in Lord of the Flies, along with much emphasis on how anyone can become savage.. Technology is one thing that separates us from animals, so when it goes away we go back to our animal instincts. The boys lost almost all of their technology throughout the book, which made their savage instincts easier to see. This happens in our world, where people loose their technology, or the technology changes and they revert back to being animal like.

Op-Ed on video game violence

 

The shootings at Columbine high school were blamed on many things. Among drugs, alcohol and mental disorders was the first person shooter video game called Doom. Many people blamed the video game because there was not a lot of drugs or alcohol that showed up on the tests. Bill Manville on NY daily news said “"Doesn’t that sound like they were trying to rack up a record score in some video arcade?" This isn’t a very realistic idea, there is no way that a violent video game can make you think that on your own.

 

Many studies say that when testing violent video games on kids, they test whether the games made kids more violent. Almost all of the studies concluded that the kids who played violent video games became more aggressive after playing them. Many people who play violent video games become more aggressive, but they don’t make you act on these emotions.

 

The reality is that millions of people play violent video games, and there are not millions of school shootings or violent crimes every year, so it cannot be affecting people so much that they want to act on their emotions. Recently, video games have become more popular.  As an article on PBS says, “According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low." This combined with the fact that many of the other studies only said that the people playing violent video games only became more aggressive supports the idea that it makes people more aggressive, but they don’t act.

 

Violent video games do make people more aggressive, but they don’t act on these emotions. If the violent video games were having such an impact so that they made the kids to things like the columbine shootings, then there would be a lot more juvenile violent crimes. The study was only for the United States, but these statistics could be different for other parts of the world. A lot of these studies are not 100% accurate because they don’t account for everything in the game players life. This is almost impossible to do, so the data will never be completely correct for these kinds of studies.

 

The shootings at Columbine or any other school shootings are not majorly caused by the kids playing video games. Many people try to blame video games because they are something that many people can easily put the blame on, even though according to PBS 83% of video games that kids shouldn’t be playing are bought by their parents. Less of the blame should be put on video games, and more on other factors like illegal substances, or mental problems.

 

Overall many people find that violent video games are something easy to blame problems on. In fact the video games do make the players more aggressive, but not as violent. Although violent video games do hold some blame in violence today, there are many other factors such as drugs, alcohol, or mental problems that contribute to this violence more than violent video games.

 Are your hands clean?

  When looking at my hands they do appear to look clean, but when you dig deep down and think about everything they have touched and everything they have been through, I can no longer say my hands are clean.  The song talks about how this lady buys a shirt at Sears and gets it on sale even though so much work and blood has been put into it. There are people over seas forced to work to make these shirts, barley getting paid and then their final products go to the store and they have the nerve to sell it cheap. It is degrading to the workers and everyone has a part in it, which makes out hands unclean.