Blog Feed
Immigration Success Stories
Amaris Romero & Natasha Ashby
Reflection:
Click Here for our project
Reflection:
The most challenging part about this benchmark was trying to figure out how to layout the entire process. It was difficult for us because we were unsure on how to provide a good design. In the end we designed it in a way where we felt it was the most creative yet simple.
The story was easy for us to get because there are many students within the school who of course have a story to tell. There were many students who had similar stories and throughout the process of us finding a topic to focus on it was simple because a friend was telling us her story and she started to mention the different people who are in similar positions as her. Her story inspired us to go outside of the box and interview multiple people in order to have a thorough general understanding of successful immigration stories.
I believe that this story hasn't received much attention because it hasn't been revealed. I feel like it is unknown but in a way it is known because we know about it. It's unknown because no one takes the time to acknowledge or notice an immigrants story.
Yes, if our article is shared to the public and no because if this article only stays within the walls of the school how will anyone else be able to hear out their stories.
I learned so much from this assignment I've learned about how strong people are and how monstrous others are. It all depends on the way you were raised I suppose because of everything that is being taught to them. I learned to be a leader like Bach and to keep moving forward never to let anyone bring you down.
Click Here for our project
Q4 - Globilization in Philadelphia
Slide Presentation
Reflection
The most challenging thing about this project was trying to find pictures of things that really related to the point of globalization I wanted it to. Finding things around the city to takes pictures of also seemed difficult at first. I had to really go out and see what i could take pictures of and just think of some ways that the world outside of my country effected me. Picking subjects for the pictures came to me after looking at and going through some of my classmates pictures. After doing that i was able to ask them why they took certain pictures. Then ask myself the same question and how would I go about representing this topic differently.
Out of all the Images, I must say that my favorite is the recycle bin. This may seem somewhat strange but I really like that picture because its so bright and it is perfectly clear what picture is about and what topic it is related to. In all of my pictures the subject is very clear. However the picture of the recycle bin amuses me, I just smile every time I look at it. After completing this project I feel like globalization in Philadelphia is not hard to see. It is easy to miss but once you think about it you can see it almost every where.
Most likely easier to see globalization in Philadelphia than some other cities. It really depends on how large the city is, the bigger the city the harder to exactly what is effecting what. Here we are a large city but small enough to not be overwhelmed. if we stop think and look around we can think about how something outside of our city has effected what we do in our city.
Option #1 Benchmark
What I found most challenging about this project was getting the quotes from the different sources. I am not in contact with these people everyday so retrieving the quotes was rather difficult.
This story was rather simple to find because I am a member of the Track & Field community so before the season started it was brought to my attention that cuts were being made to spring sports.
I do not think this story recieves more attention because out of the many American sports, Track & Field is not at the top of the list for popular sports.
I don't think this story will get more attention over the next few months because the season is coming to a close and as people stop running others will not pay much attention to how these budget problems still exist. It will be brought back into light next year if these problems still exist then.
Throughout this project I learned that although we all come from very diverse backgrounds, if we come together to reach one common goal, we may be successful in our endeavors.
This story was rather simple to find because I am a member of the Track & Field community so before the season started it was brought to my attention that cuts were being made to spring sports.
I do not think this story recieves more attention because out of the many American sports, Track & Field is not at the top of the list for popular sports.
I don't think this story will get more attention over the next few months because the season is coming to a close and as people stop running others will not pay much attention to how these budget problems still exist. It will be brought back into light next year if these problems still exist then.
Throughout this project I learned that although we all come from very diverse backgrounds, if we come together to reach one common goal, we may be successful in our endeavors.
Immigrant Success Stories - Global Benchmark 4
Here is the link to our project.
Reflection:
I found that trying to find high school immigrants was the most challenging. I realized that as we were finally finding people to write about, they all turned out to be Vietnamese. However, they all had very different background stories with one central theme which was to come to the U.S. and receive an education. They all did and they took advantage of the opportunities at hand. It was also pretty challenging trying to tell the stories without being boring.
The idea actually came from one of my friends. However, pursuing the idea was fairly interesting. We contacted one of our fiends who gave us ALL the information we needed in order to create this project. Turns out a lot of her friends are immigrants as she is and so we had our interviewees already found before hand. There were quite a few students within the schools with similar stories but we really wanted to venture outside of that and lucked out with finding to very amazing and accomplished students.
I do not know if this story will get more attention over the next few months just because it has yet to get attention already. I hope it does because a lot of these kids came from nothing, they left their whole families and managed to do great things out here. From this whole process, I learned that we are really fortunate to have been born in the US surrounded by all these opportunities. However, for students who immigrated here, they weren't. They had to work extremely hard to learn our language and get used to this culture in order to make it within this society. Even in 2012, immigrants are still fighting to make their mark here. These students came from nothing and are motivated more than ever to succeed.
Reflection:
I found that trying to find high school immigrants was the most challenging. I realized that as we were finally finding people to write about, they all turned out to be Vietnamese. However, they all had very different background stories with one central theme which was to come to the U.S. and receive an education. They all did and they took advantage of the opportunities at hand. It was also pretty challenging trying to tell the stories without being boring.
The idea actually came from one of my friends. However, pursuing the idea was fairly interesting. We contacted one of our fiends who gave us ALL the information we needed in order to create this project. Turns out a lot of her friends are immigrants as she is and so we had our interviewees already found before hand. There were quite a few students within the schools with similar stories but we really wanted to venture outside of that and lucked out with finding to very amazing and accomplished students.
I do not know if this story will get more attention over the next few months just because it has yet to get attention already. I hope it does because a lot of these kids came from nothing, they left their whole families and managed to do great things out here. From this whole process, I learned that we are really fortunate to have been born in the US surrounded by all these opportunities. However, for students who immigrated here, they weren't. They had to work extremely hard to learn our language and get used to this culture in order to make it within this society. Even in 2012, immigrants are still fighting to make their mark here. These students came from nothing and are motivated more than ever to succeed.
Abstract + Artifact of SLA Bike Week
Sam Sirochman
Rosalind Echols/Diane Laufenberg
Rosalind Echols/Diane Laufenberg
My capstone was hosting/organizing a ride your bike to school week.
What I did for my capstone, was decide that May 21st-25th was going to be bike week. The main goal of bike week was to increase the number of people who ride to school, in order to get a larger turnout I created a raffle with a grand prize of a $50 gift card to Modell’s and also created 4 different posters that I plastered around school everywhere to get the word out. Over time it became more clear that some people weren’t interested in riding alone. My next step was to group people up that are from the same neighborhood, so I started email chains within the communities of people, thus giving people a safer way to ride to school. My main objective was to get 50 more people to ride to school. Also with the influx of people riding to school, we were going to need a more efficient way of getting people to store bikes, so I also had to make the bike rack we had more useful by clearing all the stuff off of it and making it more accessible.
Unspoken Story: Students Pay Too Much For Senior Dues !
Option #1
Trying to figure out what i should write about. I wasn't thinking straight because i had other benchmarks and capstone work to do so i wasn't even thinking about something i should right. Well i'm pretty sure lots of people don't know how much everything came out to be there whole senior year. Then the juniors have no clue of what they have to pay and how much everything has to be, so me telling the story on it can have them a heads up for when they hit there senior year. It doesn't receive more attention because no one really talk about it because it's the end of the year already. Yes but at the same time no because there are seniors who haven't paid there dues but then i see it as in only a teacher would mention it out of the whole school because i personally think its already the end of the school year and who is going to keep bothering a student who hasn't paid there dues when before they had to do it but never did. So it's on them now not anyone else. I learned that my parents had to pay so much for my senior year because it wasn't only just me, but it was me and my sister Amaris Romero, then my parents had other stuff they had to pay so it was hard half of the time to actually give in money on time.
https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1KlcoCkxcFo2DMseW0DQassOogs47TLWmRV4ZI7fWBCE/edithttps://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1KlcoCkxcFo2DMseW0DQassOogs47TLWmRV4ZI7fWBCE/edit
This Philadelphia Life
Benchmark Reflection
•What did you find most challenging about this project?
I really enjoyed the freedom and flexibility of this project and
didn't have many difficulties except for lack of access to reliable
highspeed internet that would allow me to make the blog post and
submit my benchmark. Besides that, everything else went smoothly.
•How did you go about finding this story?
The idea for this story developed before I was given the benchmark
description, at a poetry event where a mentor of mine expressed his
outrage at the Philadelphia Newspaper having a frontpage newstory
about a trash-talking puppet, yet countless youth who are doing
positive things get little acknowledgement. I wanted to highlight
stories of youth who were defying the stereotypes and fill a void of
positive stories about youth.
•Why do you think this story does not receive more attention?
As the subject in my interview said, stories like these just don't
sell. It isn't 100% the media's fault because I do think we as a
people have been conditioned to only get excited over the most extreme
stories instead of ordinary people doing good things. I also think,
many people want to tell this story but they're afraid that if they do
maybe no one will listen because there isn't a high demand for these
kind of stories.
•Do you think this story will get more attention over the next few
months? Why? Why not?
Honestly, I don't think that this story will get much attention
because it's just the way the world works. Our attencion spans are so
short when it comes to stories in the media that I doub't something as
positive as this will last long.
•What did you learn?
Through interviewing people I learned that most people do care about
their neighborhoods, the declining state of communities, want to do
something about it and have been for a while. Yet these ordinary
common heroes usually get under reported in the midst of violence,
school closings and celebrity scandals.
Bibliography
1) Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Mr.Daisey goes to the Apple Factory.'April 16 2012 .Accessed
5/25/2012
- I used this podcast of the radio show This American Life as research
on how to structure my own podcast and an example of what good story
telling looks like. I found this resource to be very helpful and I
tried to incorporate some of the storytelling methods in my own
podcast and transitions.
2)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.What happened at Dos Eres' May 25 2012 Accessed 5/25/2012
- I used this podcast as further research on effective storytelling in
radio. I especially found this resource to be helpful and relevant
because I had previously learned about the conflict in Guatemala in my
Spanish class, so I was able to understand the information with my
background knowledge.
3)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Mortal Vs.Venial' April 27 2012 Accessed May 25 2012
I used this podcast of another edition of This American Life, the NPR
regular show, as an example of how to effectively do transitions.
Throughout my podcast there are many times in which I had to
transition from one story or statement to another with the use of
music and I did that with this podcast as one of my guides.
4)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'What I did for Love' February 10 2010 Accessed May 25 2012
-I used this podcast as yet another example of how to tell a story
with interviews. This podcast was a very good example of what I was
looking for because it featured many different perspectives, stories
and had good transitions yet they were all tied together with the same
theme. I also used this as a guide for how to keep the listener
actively entertained.
5)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Reap What you Sow'January 27 2012 Accessed May 25 2012
I decided to use this podcast to help me understand how to present new
ideas through storytelling in a way that others would be able to
easily grasp and understand them. I particularly enjoyed listening to
this podcast because I felt that the topic of immigration laws in
Alabama was very interesting and insightful yet the information wasn't
laid on too thick because the story helped balance it out. This was
also very helpful in deciding which portions of the interviews were
necessary for the story and what had to be edited.
•What did you find most challenging about this project?
I really enjoyed the freedom and flexibility of this project and
didn't have many difficulties except for lack of access to reliable
highspeed internet that would allow me to make the blog post and
submit my benchmark. Besides that, everything else went smoothly.
•How did you go about finding this story?
The idea for this story developed before I was given the benchmark
description, at a poetry event where a mentor of mine expressed his
outrage at the Philadelphia Newspaper having a frontpage newstory
about a trash-talking puppet, yet countless youth who are doing
positive things get little acknowledgement. I wanted to highlight
stories of youth who were defying the stereotypes and fill a void of
positive stories about youth.
•Why do you think this story does not receive more attention?
As the subject in my interview said, stories like these just don't
sell. It isn't 100% the media's fault because I do think we as a
people have been conditioned to only get excited over the most extreme
stories instead of ordinary people doing good things. I also think,
many people want to tell this story but they're afraid that if they do
maybe no one will listen because there isn't a high demand for these
kind of stories.
•Do you think this story will get more attention over the next few
months? Why? Why not?
Honestly, I don't think that this story will get much attention
because it's just the way the world works. Our attencion spans are so
short when it comes to stories in the media that I doub't something as
positive as this will last long.
•What did you learn?
Through interviewing people I learned that most people do care about
their neighborhoods, the declining state of communities, want to do
something about it and have been for a while. Yet these ordinary
common heroes usually get under reported in the midst of violence,
school closings and celebrity scandals.
Bibliography
1) Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Mr.Daisey goes to the Apple Factory.'April 16 2012 .Accessed
5/25/2012
- I used this podcast of the radio show This American Life as research
on how to structure my own podcast and an example of what good story
telling looks like. I found this resource to be very helpful and I
tried to incorporate some of the storytelling methods in my own
podcast and transitions.
2)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.What happened at Dos Eres' May 25 2012 Accessed 5/25/2012
- I used this podcast as further research on effective storytelling in
radio. I especially found this resource to be helpful and relevant
because I had previously learned about the conflict in Guatemala in my
Spanish class, so I was able to understand the information with my
background knowledge.
3)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Mortal Vs.Venial' April 27 2012 Accessed May 25 2012
I used this podcast of another edition of This American Life, the NPR
regular show, as an example of how to effectively do transitions.
Throughout my podcast there are many times in which I had to
transition from one story or statement to another with the use of
music and I did that with this podcast as one of my guides.
4)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'What I did for Love' February 10 2010 Accessed May 25 2012
-I used this podcast as yet another example of how to tell a story
with interviews. This podcast was a very good example of what I was
looking for because it featured many different perspectives, stories
and had good transitions yet they were all tied together with the same
theme. I also used this as a guide for how to keep the listener
actively entertained.
5)Chicago Public Media and Ira Glass.1995-2012. This American
Life.'Reap What you Sow'January 27 2012 Accessed May 25 2012
I decided to use this podcast to help me understand how to present new
ideas through storytelling in a way that others would be able to
easily grasp and understand them. I particularly enjoyed listening to
this podcast because I felt that the topic of immigration laws in
Alabama was very interesting and insightful yet the information wasn't
laid on too thick because the story helped balance it out. This was
also very helpful in deciding which portions of the interviews were
necessary for the story and what had to be edited.
Globalization - Photos - Yadi Angeles
Here is my benchmark:
Reflection
What I found most challenging in this project is surprisingly writing down the connections. I had a clear connection in my mind when I took the pictures, but it became very difficult to explain while I was actually typing it. I was actually expecting the finding pictures part more challenging, but I found myself quite easily finding connections through taking the pictures.
I took pictures by walking around my neighborhood and thinking about the main themes. If I made a connection between a theme and something I saw, I'd take a picture. I selected the images that I saw the connections more strongly in.
My favorite image is of the foreign Yu-Gi-Oh cards because I have recently become more open minded about a different card game. So when I learned a bit about these cards, it fascinated me how the exact same card in a different language could be worth more. In Germany, an english card is more valuable. That put something in perspective to me. How something not valuable at all to me, could be worth much more somewhere else.
I think globalization is pretty much the same everywhere. People just have to pause and actually look for it.
I learned how important it is to keep an eye out for things in my day to day life. Sometimes it all just becomes a blur, and it's difficult to distinguish small things. I also learned how globalization is everywhere, especially now in this age where communicating with someone across the world isn't as difficult.
Reflection
What I found most challenging in this project is surprisingly writing down the connections. I had a clear connection in my mind when I took the pictures, but it became very difficult to explain while I was actually typing it. I was actually expecting the finding pictures part more challenging, but I found myself quite easily finding connections through taking the pictures.
I took pictures by walking around my neighborhood and thinking about the main themes. If I made a connection between a theme and something I saw, I'd take a picture. I selected the images that I saw the connections more strongly in.
My favorite image is of the foreign Yu-Gi-Oh cards because I have recently become more open minded about a different card game. So when I learned a bit about these cards, it fascinated me how the exact same card in a different language could be worth more. In Germany, an english card is more valuable. That put something in perspective to me. How something not valuable at all to me, could be worth much more somewhere else.
I think globalization is pretty much the same everywhere. People just have to pause and actually look for it.
I learned how important it is to keep an eye out for things in my day to day life. Sometimes it all just becomes a blur, and it's difficult to distinguish small things. I also learned how globalization is everywhere, especially now in this age where communicating with someone across the world isn't as difficult.
Globalization in Philadelphia
The most challenging part about this project was how open it was. What my final product would become was totally up to what pictures I took. Basically no matter how many examples I tried to look up my project would take on the form of whatever work I did personally. That made it very hard for me to move forward quickly.
I collected the images by first looking through my iPhoto for ideas on how simple an image could be for me to find the globalization in it. This ended up being a good idea because it actually told me most of the pictures I wanted to collect for the project.
My favorite images are the last two, the picture of the Indian spice and the one of the blackberry. Those are the only pictures I took for reasons other than this project. They're my favorites because they were the first and best that I took. I think the paragraphs I wrote for them are also some of the best which is another plus.
I do think there is less (positive) globalization in Philadelphia. I think because our city focuses less on the international cultural parts of our identity 365 days of the day, we lack in the knowledge and benefit of its influence. There are many places, such as 30th street station and penns landing that provide us with a lot of international culture but I feel that most of the culture lies in places like those that many people never go into.
This project taught me what globalization really was. I think it's funny that this time around I had more than enough experience with it but it was the knowledge I had trouble tapping into when usually in a project I have enough knowledge but need help applying it. The question of "What is globalization" came up a lot in this project and through completing it I finally figured out a little of what it is.
The most challenging part about this project was how open it was. What my final product would become was totally up to what pictures I took. Basically no matter how many examples I tried to look up my project would take on the form of whatever work I did personally. That made it very hard for me to move forward quickly.
I collected the images by first looking through my iPhoto for ideas on how simple an image could be for me to find the globalization in it. This ended up being a good idea because it actually told me most of the pictures I wanted to collect for the project.
My favorite images are the last two, the picture of the Indian spice and the one of the blackberry. Those are the only pictures I took for reasons other than this project. They're my favorites because they were the first and best that I took. I think the paragraphs I wrote for them are also some of the best which is another plus.
I do think there is less (positive) globalization in Philadelphia. I think because our city focuses less on the international cultural parts of our identity 365 days of the day, we lack in the knowledge and benefit of its influence. There are many places, such as 30th street station and penns landing that provide us with a lot of international culture but I feel that most of the culture lies in places like those that many people never go into.
This project taught me what globalization really was. I think it's funny that this time around I had more than enough experience with it but it was the knowledge I had trouble tapping into when usually in a project I have enough knowledge but need help applying it. The question of "What is globalization" came up a lot in this project and through completing it I finally figured out a little of what it is.
Public Institutions and Social Media
My benchmark can be viewed here!
I was lucky to hear about Joe Murray's Twitter from a friend of mine, and it struck me as a great topic for this benchmark. I'd never heard of it before, but it interested me and it was quite positive. The hardest part was then finding other examples of public institutions and social media, but I'm happy with the ones I did find because in most respects they are pretty unrelated. They cover a wide range of topics. I do think this topic will receive more attention as it becomes clear how important social media is to communicating in this day and age. Overall, I learned that more institutions use social media than I'd realized, and I shouldn't assume one doesn't just because I don't already know about it. Often they simply aren't advertised much.
Bibliography:
I was lucky to hear about Joe Murray's Twitter from a friend of mine, and it struck me as a great topic for this benchmark. I'd never heard of it before, but it interested me and it was quite positive. The hardest part was then finding other examples of public institutions and social media, but I'm happy with the ones I did find because in most respects they are pretty unrelated. They cover a wide range of topics. I do think this topic will receive more attention as it becomes clear how important social media is to communicating in this day and age. Overall, I learned that more institutions use social media than I'd realized, and I shouldn't assume one doesn't just because I don't already know about it. Often they simply aren't advertised much.
Bibliography:
Fieldler, Elizabeth, auth. "Philly Cops Bust Crime In 140 Characters Or Fewer." National Public Radio. N.p., n.d. web. 17 May 2012. <http://www.npr.org/2012/04/10/150355105/philly-cops-bust-crime-in-140-characters-or-less>.
Mulholland, Jessica. "Philadelphia Police Officers to Start Tweeting at Work." Government Technology. 17 April 2012: n. page. Web. 25 May. 2012. <http://www.govtech.com/public-safety/Philadelphia-Police-to-Start-Tweeting-at-Work.html>.
10 Photo Essay of Globalization in Philly
Click here for benchmark
Reflection:
What I found most challenging was writing about the connections between the image and a theme. I tried to branch out and have a varied collection to talk about so that it is not all the same things as everybody else. Plus writing in general is not something I'm best at so it was really hard to get started on the two paragraph explanations and have them be deep, meaningful, and insightful. When I first thought about this project I tried to get images that I knew I would go past on my everyday routine and try to find a deep connection to globalization with it. So for the first week I woud look very carefully at my surroundings and try to pick out stuff that nobody would really think twice at in regards to globalization then I went around having a regular camera, my phone camera and some pictures that I got from friends because I enlisted their help with gathering all the photos I needed. Personally my favorite image is the one of my dog. I love her so much that it scares my parents when I hug her because I may just squeeze to tight and pop her head off. Anybody that has seen me with my dog can guarantee that I love her the most and that she is my favorite being in the whole world. I learned a lot about the background of a lot of things and how there is a heck of a lot more globalizing going around then what I previously thought there was.
Rotary Club
Since the begging I
knew that this brenchmark will be specially challenging because our teacher
give us options to select from, which was nice but at the same time scary
because each option was hard in a way, wasn’t a safe choice. I chose the
uncover story to find a good news in the city and show it because sometimes I
feel like the people in Philadelphia underestimate the city and think that
everything is bad.
For the reason that is
a news article I couldn’t stay set in front of my computer and write a paper, I
had to research and find people who will support my story in order to show that
is real. Rotary Club is the organization that is sponsoring my exchange program
and besides that they do a lot of good community service so was a pleasure for
me talk about that fantastic people.
Capstone 2012-The High School Anthology
A Study of Thematic Evolution
By Michael Dea
Capstone Mentor: Ms. Larissa Pahomov
Topic:
The goal of this capstone was to examine poetry and short stories over the course of four years to see how, if at all, the themes of the writing change over time.
During the proposal stages of the capstone process, I looked at what I found interesting and what I enjoyed doing. As a result, I chose a capstone with a creative writing basis, given that I wrote as a hobby previously. Once the plans for what the end goal of the capstone were determined, the process of selecting what works would go into the end product was begun, supplementing some areas with works that were begun within the year. After this step’s completion, the selected works were analyzed for possible connections, the details of which can be seen in the process paper. Throughout this process, given that the works were written, they were reviewed by others for input on things such as themes, revisions (for newer works) etc.
Capstone Section 1: Poetry Notebook 1
Capstone Section 2: Poetry Notebook 2
Capstone Section 3: Poetry Notebook 3
Capstone Section 4: Zombie Apocalypse Novella
Shelby Harcher's Globalization 4th Quarter BM
For this project, the most challenging part was coming up with a topic. Living in a large city there are many topics one could choose when working on a project like this. I knew that I wanted to focus on education, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to exactly talk about. At first, I was going to talk about positive stories about individuals who were apart of the Philadelphia School District, however, with lack of time and resources, I decided to talk about extracurriculars in the school district after seeing my little brother's play at his school. In the past few years, there have been many budget cuts and after-school programs and activities have been the first to go, especially those dealing with the arts.
To be honest, I believe that stories like these go unnoticed because there are so many bad things going on in the city, the media finds it necessary to inform people about those stories before the positive ones. Many people enjoy hearing positive stories about the city, especially those dealing with the youth so I think that more stories like these should be told. However, I don't think that within the next few months this story or any similar one will be told because first off, school will be closing for the summer, and also because this has been going on for awhile now, and it's still not getting noticed by the media or the rest of the city.
Doing this project made me learn that there are many good things about our school district. A lot of stories you hear about the Philadelphia School District are bad so hearing something good was refreshing. Also, I learned that if there are obstacles thrown at people who are determined to do something, they will find a way to get around it and do what they're passionate about.
Unconventional Teacher Fund Raising in Philadelphia
By Marina Stuart and Jason Davis
For this project we worked to tell the untold story of unconventional teacher fund rasing in Philadelphia. From microgrant dinners to parent initiated car washes, people invested in education in Philly and doing a lot to continue financing the school district. One of the most challenging things about the project was choosing which stories to tell because there are so many people doing great things to fund their schools. This kind of story doesn't receive a lot of attention because most people only want to hear about how much the school district is losing and simply the hard numbers. I hope this story and those involved get more attention soon because it is important for the citizens of Philadelphia to know that individuals are doing whatever they can to continue education here. I learned about how much people care about students in the city and has given me some hope for the future.
To read to the full story click here!
For this project we worked to tell the untold story of unconventional teacher fund rasing in Philadelphia. From microgrant dinners to parent initiated car washes, people invested in education in Philly and doing a lot to continue financing the school district. One of the most challenging things about the project was choosing which stories to tell because there are so many people doing great things to fund their schools. This kind of story doesn't receive a lot of attention because most people only want to hear about how much the school district is losing and simply the hard numbers. I hope this story and those involved get more attention soon because it is important for the citizens of Philadelphia to know that individuals are doing whatever they can to continue education here. I learned about how much people care about students in the city and has given me some hope for the future.
To read to the full story click here!
Above The Class – America's Gifted Youth
In this project, I reported on the necessity of Gifted Education in the classroom. This topic has been of much interest to me due to my familiarity with the system and its challenges. To get information about this story, I talked to many friends and family members who are familiar with the successes and challenges of Gifted Education. I think that this issue does not receive very much attention due to the overshadowing counterpart of Special Education. If anything, due to the rising rates of Autism, this topic will become even more overshadowed and will receive even less attention. From this project, I learned about local crisis reporting, understood how current Gifted students view gifted programs, and even had the opportunity to investigate some of my mother's various awards for Gifted Education efforts.
To download the full story, click here.
To download the full story, click here.
Inside/Out
My capstone was working to create a mural with a youth group in Pennsauken, NJ called BPSOS Delaware Valley Basement Breakers (B3) on a project called Inside/Out.
The Inside/Out project was started by a French street artist who goes by J.R. He won the TED global prize last year for his idea of using photography to turn the world Inside Out. People from all around the world participate in the project, as they take photos of facial expressions, submit to the website, and receive large black and white copies to paste in a public space. SLA had done similar project under the JFK bridge. Through this project, participants journal extensively with questions about their identity and hopes. Through exploring questions such as “where is your home? Where do you come from? Have you ever felt like you are the problem?” participants would be able to have a space to start thinking deeply about themselves and the world around them.
Digital Artifacts come soon!!!
Globalization in Philadelphia - Photo Essay
As I walked through Philadelphia doing my very best to find examples of Globalization, I found myself overwhelmed. Examples of globalization were practically everywhere. Every street corner had a different flavor to it. It's almost as if you can sense a shift in culture as you walk. And for every shift, there were plenty of pictures to be taken. That said, sometimes it was hard to take pictures that had a different feel to them. It almost always felt like the real photo you were taking was an odd juxtaposition, not a true mix of cultures. That said, I particularly liked the photo inside of the Perelman building's chapel, because that was a more true mix of cultures. Islam, Judaism and Christianity all coming together in the same room to remember that we are all humans, and while medicine can do many things it's important to hold onto faith.
There is no doubt in my mind that globalization is prevalent in Philadelphia. How prevalent, well that is up for debate. Philadelphia certainly has it's fair share of evidence showing globalization, but how true might this be in Pittsburgh which breathes (or used to) American steel and sheer production, leaving very little to be imported. Chances are Philadelphia takes in a bit more foreign culture, but when you compare it to a place like New Orleans, there's no question that New Orleans has more evidence of globalization.
With all that said and done, I learned that globalization can be where you least expect it. Just because your house was made with American materials doesn't necessarily mean it's an American house. Architecture borrows a huge amount across the world. Just because you bought a GM car doesn't mean that the raw materials weren't harvested else where or even assembled else where. Examples of society trying to hide globalization are almost as prevalent as society trying to showcase globalization.
You can read more about my explorations and analysis of globalization in Philadelphia here.
There is no doubt in my mind that globalization is prevalent in Philadelphia. How prevalent, well that is up for debate. Philadelphia certainly has it's fair share of evidence showing globalization, but how true might this be in Pittsburgh which breathes (or used to) American steel and sheer production, leaving very little to be imported. Chances are Philadelphia takes in a bit more foreign culture, but when you compare it to a place like New Orleans, there's no question that New Orleans has more evidence of globalization.
With all that said and done, I learned that globalization can be where you least expect it. Just because your house was made with American materials doesn't necessarily mean it's an American house. Architecture borrows a huge amount across the world. Just because you bought a GM car doesn't mean that the raw materials weren't harvested else where or even assembled else where. Examples of society trying to hide globalization are almost as prevalent as society trying to showcase globalization.
You can read more about my explorations and analysis of globalization in Philadelphia here.
Uyen Nguyen: High school Blood Drive
Summery
For my senior capstone, I am putting myself on a task to host a school blood drive. I will be working with the American Red Cross crew to set up and host a blood drive here at Science Leadership Academy.
Abstract
My capstone was to participate, get certified by Red Cross to host a Blood Drive and also to recuit donors. My task was to plan out a Blood Drive event and to use my ability to organize everything and getting it into SLA. My partner(Gisela Giolafina) and myself organized multiple meetings and short announcement to grabs students and teacher's attention to drawn themselves into participating and becoming a blood donor. We also got certified to train volunteers to make sure we have enough helpers and keeping our environment safe for all. We also reserved the drama studio specially for the event and maintain the amount of kiodic to minium level. With the help of students and teachers, we were able to do a run though and complete our project smoothly.
Co-captain of the Pep Squad Club Creates a show
Step team performance &
The “Show your colors” show
Ashley Etheredge
Mr. Bey
Manuel Advisory
Summary
I helped create a club (SLA’s fist
pep-squad), I put on a show as well as choreographed a step routine that was
performed in the show.
Abstract
My project was a performance that was
based around SLA’s new pep-squad; I put on the show; including getting
acts, setting up the performance space and setting the date and time but I also
choreographed a step routine that was performed in the show. My step team
performed in my show the “Show your colors” show, which was originally going to
be a Black History Month show however; due to complications (of which I will
explain in depth later in this paper) I was unable to meet my deadlines and
missed Black History Month. I wanted to create a club that would continue on at the
school after I was gone, that girls and boys could continue into college if
they wanted to. I felt that this club could bring people together from all
grades like other clubs such as SLA capella, Ping pong and the Poetry club but
in a different way that people might not have seen before. I wanted to give
insecure teenage girls and boys more self-confidence while having a ton of fun
and meeting new people.
If you were unable to attend the show, don't worry you can view it here!
BM4: Mysterious Second Option, Collapse Project
A fantastic choose-your-own-adventure game, where you play as a small society trying not to die out completely. Have fun!
(Lauf, if you want a reflection, just e-mail me some questions later.)
(Lauf, if you want a reflection, just e-mail me some questions later.)
The Transit Navigator – Jeff Kessler's 2012 Capstone Project
The Transit Navigator uses a website and other web tools to improve the usability of Public Transportation ("make public transit navigation simple").
Capstone Summary:
This capstone project developed and founded the innovative resource known as The Transit Navigator. The service takes two approaches to solving the problem of simplifying transit systems. First, the website provides detailed but simple information about public transit in a variety of cities. This makes it easy to understand the transit options available, how to navigate them, and where to learn more. The other aspect of TransitNav is the use of foursquare tips to facilitate on-the-go information. Users can simply follow transitnav on foursquare for access. When they check-in at a location, the system automatically populates one of The Transit Navigator's numerous tips and displays it on their screen. Foursquare's "Lists" feature allows users to browse these TransitNav suggestions by region and service. There are also a few TransitNav sightseeing guides that make it easy to quickly explore a region. Personal experience (over six years of gathering transit knowledge and working as an Amtrak intern!), mapping tools (such as Google Maps), photographs (from photo-sharing tools) and individual transportation sites acted as references. Plus, thanks to the "live" nature of the Transit Navigator Web Terminal, these resources will continually be updated as new information is required. Check it out online at http://transitnav.com!
A Checkers Game written in Java
For my capstone project, I created a Checkers game using the Java language. Creating a checkers game in the Java language requires translating the rules of the board game into something the computer can actually understand. Most of the time was spent on just acquiring a basic knowledge of computer science from my mentor, Mr. Miles. The rest was spent actually developing the game with the assistance of Jobe Naff.
Below are some screenshots of the checkers game and code:
Below are some screenshots of the checkers game and code:
Emma Hersh Quarter 4 Benchmark Reflection
For the forth quarter I decided to do an option that was not actually on the list, I added a point to Jared Diamond's five point framework (to make it a six point framework). My point was the impact of the government on collapse was never mentioned in any of the chapters and it should have been. So I went in and researched all of the chapters that I thought an explanation of the government at the time would be helpful to completely understanding the collapse of that society. I chose Rwanda, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and China. The most challenging aspect of this project was fully understanding the economic state of the country as well as what type of government was in place and understanding the dynamics. I was also interested in the history of the government and what they are currently doing in their own country and in the global community. Another difficult part for me was analyzing what I had found and making it relevant to the book and the work that Jared Diamond was doing. If I were to do this again I would also analyze one of my countries from the benchmark last quarter like Mali, because as soon as I turned in the benchmark a coup took over the country.
Here is the link to my final website product.
Here is the link to my final website product.
