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A. What is negative space (explain this concept to a fourth grader that has never heard of it)

Negative space is the space around and between an object in a image. It’s like the breathing room around the object that determines how alluring it looks. Negative space helps define itself and bring balance to composition(Composition is used to describe the arrangement of visual elements in an artwork.). Usually negative spacing will be object itself. Just as you see on the left side of this picture.

B. Explain how you found negative space in your cut out?

The first thing I did was cut out the pieces of the picture, since negative spacing is usually cut up in pieces. So in the artwork I did, I cut out the outer part of the tree(the tree bark and grass) and the inner parts of the tree(middle tree, middle tree holes, and bottom holes). After I cut out my pieces, I flipped the cut out pieces over and lined them up to make a whole tree. After that, I glued them to the paper. Finally, I was able to identify my negative spacing is the left half of the tree and my positive spacing is the right half of the tree.

C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?

One reason why it helps an artist to see in negative spacing is because it allows them to see if the image is too crowded or not. Also, it gives the artist a new perspective on the artwork. For example, Rubin’s Vase image. Without the negative spacing, it looks like a vase. With negative and positive spacing, you can see the vase and two faces facing each other.

D. Does seeing in negative space enhance drawings, why or why not

Negative space is the space in a piece of art that is not filled with objects. The easiest way to think think of it is blank space.

In my cut out, I found negative space through the things I was cutting out of the image. Since the things I was cutting out would appear as part of the background of my image, I knew that it would be negative space.

In art, negative space is just as important as positive space in making an image work for the viewer. The negative space around an object creates the silhouette of the object, and sometimes the negative space in a busy picture can be more interesting than the positive space.  

Negative space enhances drawings. If there is mostly positive space in a drawing, you can use negative space to break the pattern. If there is mostly negative space in a drawing, the positive space will become the focus. Negative space enhances drawings only if you use it wisely.

Negative space is a form of art where the background is in one color representing negative, and the rest of the drawing is in another color representing positive space. These colors can be flipped as well creating positive space in the background. In photos negative space can also be created by having the background of an image being blurry, while the point of focus is clear. The art style is somewhat simplistic, but have been used in many unique ways. The image I was cutting out and creating in positive/negative space was an owl. I decided the darker parts of the image would be the negative space, and the lighter parts the positive. After cutting these out into green paper, I layered the negative space cut outs on one side of the page and the positive on the opposite side.

Negative space helps artist draw focus to parts of an image, and can be used to create images without necessarily connecting the pieces. Artist use these techniques to enhance their drawing. Using colors that are opposites also helps enhance by creating contrast that draws reader to the image. Artist often use a technique of putting negative space within the center of the image to allow people to have a better understanding of what the artist is trying to show.

If an artist can see negative space, they are able to do two things that enhance their art. The first, like I previously mentioned, will give them the ability to choose what the main focus of their art is, and it’s impact on the viewer. If a piece has text and images, negative space can be utilized to change the focal point of the logo or advertisement. The second is that that artist can play with the relationship between positive and negative space. Two images can be hidden in a single piece, flipping back and forth as the viewer focuses on the positive or negative space. This adds an air of mystery to a piece, and a whole layer of excitement when one finds the picture the was previously hidden to them. (Try looking up “negative positive space logos” in google images and you will find a lot of fun logos to explore.) With their powers in hand, and artist can greatly enhance their piece to, not only please and focus, but excite the brain.

Printmaking is a form a visual art that involves creating prints of an image by forming the image on a surface or matrix. There are many different variations of printmaking such as relief printing, Intaglio, mono-printing, lithography, etc. The invention of printmaking supposedly originates from China, although the roots of printmaking remain up in the air. The invention of printmaking was revolutionary at the time because it allowed for multiple prints of the same image to be produced from just one matrix of a material such as wood or metal. Additionally, with the invention of printmaking came the first printed books.

The print I chose is “ESSEBI” by loose-ends (Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8799416@N05/2480207499). This print is the profile of (seemingly) a woman with rather long hair flowing behind her. She doesn’t seem to be wearing clothes. Her eyes are open, staring straight ahead. The background of the print is yellow, along with the outline of the woman. This print has plenty of contrast considering the only two colors used are black and a bright shade of yellow. Most of the space in the print is taken up by the hair, which is the focal point of the print.  I notice that the artist uses both thick and thin lines to draw the hair. Personally, since the person in the print seems to be a woman, this print screams empowerment. I think her hair flowing behind her portrays her as heroic and/or almost god-like. Additionally, she is the only object in the photo which I interpret to be a symbol of independence. I wonder whether or not that was the artist’s intention. I like the photo a lot because of this. I also think the yellow and black contrast is lovely. The swirls and waves of the hair are very pleasing.

Printmaking is the act of carving an image onto slates,plates or blocks. Then you fill the crevices that you carved, and then places the ink onto to paper or other surfaces. Printmaking allows you to make multiple pictures or designs from one image, its very important because you can use it to make copies. Printmaking inspired the means of printing we have today in newspapers and artwork copies.

Printmaking first began in Egypt in the 15th century, where Egyptians made prints by painting on fabrics. It wasn't until, people in china used stone and wood to carve their prints. Although printmaking did originate in Egypt, china made it more widespread after the invention of paper, other countries followed the Chinese into the world of printmaking. It was believed that Daniel Hopfer officially invented printmaking in the art when he used the style to decorate his armor. Originally printmaking was invented, and used by Chinese scholars read old scripture. Now, there are many different types of printmaking. In relief printmaking you etch your design into a material and it creates a raised surface that the ink won't fill, it is the only printmaking style with a raised surface.  Lithographic printing doesn’t etch a design into its material, in this printing method you use water and oil to make your print. In Mono-printing you can only make lines and images once. Besides those three, there are many other forms of printmaking and art styles involving prints.

Printmaking is revolutionary because, as I said before, It changed the way we mass produce things,  relief printing allows us to copy a print exactly without having to remake the original. It is also is revolutionary because it reinvented the art world, allowing artists to decorate and recreate the work through reusable prints, it inspired modern day tagging and graffiti. Back in the middle ages printmaking was extremely important because it allowed people to make detailed and amazing textiles, for their clothes and other materials. Bringing more life to everyday objects.

The print I chose was Ishiyama Moon by Yoshitoshi. This image shows a woman sitting on a mat on a balcony, she is looking out onto a cool toned mountain landscape. The image is very candid, there is a wall covering part of the woman and the sky. I chose this image because it has a strong contrast, the background is very pale and pastel, while the subjects hair is dark and black. I notice that the artist was very smart with the space they used and the levels they created, the pole is in front of the woman, the woman is in front of the landscape and so forth. This space creates depth. I wonder why the artist chose to include a lantern in the center of the image, I enjoy the aesthetic it creates but it can also throw off the vibe of the image. What if the colors used were harsh and bold, I believe it change the tone of the piece, making it more sinister and less emotional. The pale palette allows the viewer to interpret their own sky and it leaves room for imagination.

Hi my name is Alina Seing and for my English project, I will be researching about immigration. Immigration has been a big problem in our society and I think that it’s important to me too because I know many family members and friends who are immigrants that come from a different country to the United States. There are a lot of consequences for being an immigrant and there are a lot of dangerous things that could happen to them. One of the consequences of being an undocumented immigrant is that you get sent back to your country, you could never be able to see your family members again, and also get convicted of crime.

The reason why I chose immigration was because it is a big thing in our society. The reason why people come to America is because that want a better lifestyle. Their lifestyle is having to pay lower income tax, better jobs, equal payment as others, and being with family. Immigration is so important to them because it helps them learn new things such as the language that they speak and the way the society is. To be able to come to America, immigrants must have legal documents. If immigrants do not have any legal documents saying that they are allowed to come to the United States, then they are going to get sent back to the country that they came from or get sent to jail. I think it is important for immigrants to legally come to the United States because they want to have a new experience with society and a better opportunities. It is also important for immigrants to come to the United States because they want to be independant and find jobs that are secure enough for them to work in.

There are many problems with being an immigrant. If your are an immigrant, depending where you are at for example, Cubans come to the United States by train. They go through more than just bumpy roads, there are more than just a couple of families that want to immigrate so people fight for the room and sometimes people fall off from the trains to go to the destination they want to go. There are also a lot of people who need to go to bathroom and so they carry illnesses with them along with new ones. To come into the United States, you must have a green card, visa card, and a legal document. Once you have entered the United States, the first couple months are very isolated and unbalanced. The reason why it is unbalanced is because you must become an American Citizen to stay in the United States. If you don’t past your American Citizen test, you must retake it in the next year or you must get sent back to the country you are from or get arrested.

If you want more detail on immigration and how undocumented people back in the day, was able to pass, you can learn more from my annotated bibliography.

Immigrants are protesting to make immigration legal

Hi, I’m Kai Payton a Freshman at Science Leadership Academy, and I’m doing my You And The World project on Premature Births. The You And The World project allows you to pick a topic you want to make a change about. I got this idea because my aunt had a premature baby about three years ago. It was a very hard time for her and I wouldn’t want anyone to have to experience hoping their child will survive. While doing this project, I hope to increase the awareness of premature births because it can be very stressful for mothers.

My aunt had her premature baby 3 years ago on February 4th. He was one pound and 11 ounces when he was born. He had to stay in the hospital for about 4 or 5 months. He had many surgeries during this time and it worried my aunt very badly and I didn’t like to see her like that so we just had to hope and pray that he would recover. I couldn’t even visit him when he was in the hospital because I wasn’t his sibling. When he first came home he had to be on oxygen for a couple months since he couldn’t breathe as well as other babies due to his premature birth. The medical attention needed for this was very expensive and we used to call him the million dollar baby. Thankfully my little cousin is now fine despite the many things he’s allergic to.

Since she had him we’ve been doing this walk that was started by the March of Dimes Foundation called the “March For Babies,” that raises money to help premature babies stay alive. A lot of family members come out to do the walk and it’s nice seeing everyone come out and support. The walk happens in many states over the U.S including Pennsylvania. The walk this year is on this Sunday, April 30th and I will be doing the walk again. I do the walk not only for my aunt and little cousin but because it’s fun seeing other people that also want to help the struggle mothers have after they’ve had a premature baby.

This picture is the logo of the March of Dimes Foundation

There are “about 380,000 premature births every year.” These premature births can be caused from smoking cigarettes or using other drugs. They could also be caused by multiple children, stress, not gaining enough weight during the pregnancy, and many other things. You can try to prevent premature births but they can happen to any female that’s having a baby. Once you have the baby and it’s premature it’s placed in an incubator to help it maintain its body temperature, but many problems can come up when the baby is growing. Premature babies tend to have weaker immune systems than other babies, and can be born with disabilities at a higher rate than babies that aren’t premature.

Overall, I want to bring awareness to Premature Births due to what can happen to the baby and the mother but also because I have a personal connection to watching my aunt go through it. It can happen to any mother having a child and it can be a scary experience.

Annotated Bibliography

           Masculinity and

Self-esteem

Blog Post #1:

Have you ever heard the phrases “Take it like a man” or “Real men don’t cry” or have you ever been told that for someone to like a man he has to be wealthy, physically fit , good looking or highly intelligent? Well if so, whoever told you was most likely misguided or even blinded by these deceptive morals.

My topic that I am studying Masculinity and Self-Esteem, in a way expose the truth behind these theorems. I would like to try and decrease the amount of low self-esteem in at least the freshman class at SLA. I want to do a poll for the current freshmen, that asks if they have any self-esteem complication, and if so what is the reason for it.

I am really interested in this topic because of personal experience that I have had with it. My personal connection is that when I was younger people always told me things that made me good...in their eyes. The false rumor that “Real men don’t cry”, I believe is extremely misleading. I think this because people always told me not to cry when I had to experience burdensome events. For an example, all of my grandparents passed away within a span of 3 months. Every time I thought of them I would always want to just cry. A lot of times people would tell me that I shouldn’t cry and that I should “take it like a man”. So, without knowing any better that’s what I did.

When I look back at it now, I realize that the longer I held it in the more independent, lonely, and even self-conscious I became. These emotions affected me big time because they were starting to show in my grades. I began to think that I wasn’t good enough for school or even life.

I think that it is important to know my story and how this relates to me because it shows how things that are natural in life can really affect you emotionally. And those emotional effects can be displayed physically.

This dilemma is significant because this is an issue that is widely spread across the world but, not many people are doing anything to solve it. This is also an important issue because if an individual lets the emotions that they get from this issue get the better of them a lot of the times it leads to suicide or suicidal thoughts. It’s not only good for people who struggle with this to know about it but it’s good for everyone to know about it. It is important for others to know about it because often times the thoughts of not being good enough randomly cross through everyone’s minds and it’s better to recognize it now than to have the thoughts and not know what to do about it.

This topic has really affected me because I always thought about self-esteem being an issue but I never thought about where it might have came from or why it was such an alerting issue. I just would like to know why boys and men always judge someone and or themselves based on their outward appearance and why they start doing it at such a young age.

You probably already know or at least heard about how important exercise is for you and your body. But what you don’t know are the facts behind that importance. Like, did you know that exercise can help prevent heart diseases like, diabetes, low and high blood pressure? My project is about exercise, how we don’t get enough and why it is important. There’s more for you to know so if you’re interested please read the rest of this blog to learn more.

First we will talk about the benefits of exercise. As mentioned before, exercise can prevent heart and other diseases  like diabetes, low and high blood pressure and even some forms of cancer. Exercise is really important, especially when you’re younger. If you start an exercising routine when younger it will be easier for you to keep up with it as you get older. Children nowadays don’t get enough exercise. Now I know what you’re thinking,”kids don’t get the exercise they need because of the TV and new technology of today”. Although that plays a factor, that's not the entire reason. Some of issue simply they may not know what to do or have anybody to do it with. If you’re a parent/guardian it is part of your job to help them stay active. If you are asking yourself why is this so important please visit this site to learn more about the importance of child exercise. Exercise isn’t just for kids, it’s just as important for adults to get exercise. To learn more about click here.

adults working together https://www.consumerhealthdigest.com/workouts/exercise-according-to-age-group.html

training, and flexibility training. Aerobic exercise is any type of exercise that gets the heart pumping and quickens your breathing. Strength Training is when you basic things that you’d do in a gym that builds your muscles. Flexibility training includes stretching exercises for the purpose of increasing one's range of motion. For more information on the benefits and how these forms of exercise help your body click this link to learn more.

This shows the difference a person who exercises regularly and a person who doesn’t http://reclaimyourlongevity.com/articles/reduce-disease-risk/muscle-downgrade-is-a-blow-to-your-body/

Now you can just go outside and go for a run but there are also cool routines and specific exercises that can help your body in whatever way you need. This site suggest a few of those.

I choose the issue of the importance of exercise because not a lot of people know how important it actually is. As an athlete I take my body seriously and like to keep it healthy and in shape. I want to spread the word about exercise so that those who want to become lean and healthy now have the knowledge to do so. Now you have no excuse.

Hi I'm Angelyque Oquendo, I am a Teenage Depression Surviver. This is my You & The World Project. My project is about Teenage Depression and What are the symptoms?, How it occurrs and things that can help it make it less lonely. Teenage Depression is serious concern for most of half of America ( the world also). Teens that suffer from self-harm thoughts and low-self esteem become more in danger to self being , being able to getting better. Especially when things at home and school are stressful in a person(s) life, especially when it concerns the people who become more and worried about loved ones.

Being a teen is hard it’s like being a little toddler trying to climb the stairs for the first time and is terrified to climb right back down. In this article this young girl, she is about almost 20 years old, her name was Faith-Annn Bishop, she gets up at 2 o’clock in the morning while her parents are asleep and had a blade and she then pierces her soft skin and starts bleed right out on the bathroom floor of her parents house. The pressure was way to much for her handle most of these things that had kept her from being in a better and healthier state of mind. http://time.com/magazine/us/4547305/november-7th-2016-vol-188-no-19-u-s/

Self-harm is a big concern with teens who choose to have thoughts and being where they become in a not strong state of mind. Teens in this stage don’t realize how these things affect themselves, others in such a far along stage. In 2015, about 3 million teens ages 12 to 17 had had at least one major depressive episode in the past year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. More than 2 million report experiencing depression that impairs their daily function. About 30% of girls and 20% of boys–totaling 6.3 million teens–have had an anxiety disorder, according to data from the National Institute of Mental Health. http://time.com/4572593/increase-depression-teens-teenage-mental-health/

Being in a self harming state of mind is really difficult for some people with depression to really understand that self-harm is a really serious condition, preventing that from happening is reading between the lines. Really-really look right through your teen and see what is it their going through something very hard  for he or she understand and to go through by themsleves.I had almost done some damage to myself as a young teen, self-harm was on my list of a last resort to being done, I’d had thought maybe if I were to just leave things and people would forget, it would be for the best; But yet again I was wrong.

Signs of symptoms with teens suffering from depression, Emotional symptoms are sadness, tiredness w/ Low self-esteem and Fixations on past failures or exaggerated of self-blame. “When I was 12 my mom had sent me to a therapist to see if I would talk to who at least someone because I had not want to talk to her or and anybody else”. “She was awfully worried about me and of my health, she did’nt stop she would pressure me to get out of the house go to the kitchen and eat , socialize with others.” “And my mind was completely blank during these request, she’d ask me what was wrong bascially questions regarding me and if I were still inside.” “Maybe even calling for some type of help deep down maybe or somehow even getting back to my type of silly normal.”

Behavioral symptoms fluctuate frequenely, isolation occurrs when your teen becomes more detached from others. https://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/teen-depression-signs-help.htm

Helping your teen to becoming more activite is good start especially socializing with others. Asking for mental help froma doctor to prescribe things to she or he.

My project is about the access of healthy food for everybody in Philadelphia, even for poor communities. I want to make a change because the city has the capacity to act way better on this and food issues are at the source of mortal diseases on a long term, like diabetes or overweight. The question isn’t only the fact that healthy food is very expensive, the issue is also going through education actually plays a big role, and that’s what I want to improve!

All these restaurants are very unhealthy but common on highroads! (source)

This topic really matters to me because this is really one of the first aspect of the city that I noticed when I came in the US: most of the cheap food quality is deplorable, and healthy food is crazily expensive- to give you an idea, the fruits price are twice bigger here than in the center of Paris! As a person that is new to the U.S  I’ve a different viewpoint on this issue and more stepback on what’s different compared to Europe, and what could be the origins of it.

I believe that knowing these benefits of healthy food is very important for many reasons. First, a lot of people don’t even know why it is bad for your health and body to eat junk food and what are the multiple consequences. I also think that the whole Philadelphia public school food system is to reconsider: in public establishments, the services have free (or cheap) services with a mediocre quality. Imagine all the repercussions on your health if you eat lunch there every school days. A solution could be every students pay a cotisation depending on their wealth, to dramatically improve the service quality. Then, it would still be possible for everybody to have more access to equilibrated food. While talking about school, another important point to do would be to give an education about health to childrens via school- it maybe already exists but I don’t know.

This map shows the relation between obesity and poverty. (source)

This issue is significant because it touches all the social classes (even if mainly disfavored communities are victim of this issue) and it is a global problem for people health. We know as well that the most penalized are children because habits are taken at this life period, also children's health is more fragile, then could reduces it on a longer term. Sadly, this issue is also social and discriminates poor communities. Besides all these reasons, I think it is important for you to know what’s wrong with this issue, because, even if I think that you know a bit about it, the origins of this problem are mainly going through education. Also, it’s good to know that some associations are doing an excellent job in Philadelphia for improving the situation. Another example the Eat Right is an excellent association that helps people of all the ages (children, seniors…) to adapt their diet.

I think that the thing that I’ve discovered through my researches that could educate the readers is every time you buy food, no matter what, you’re shaping the future and the world in what you live: the food quality is traced on what population buys.

The Road of Affordable Healthcare

The world is a broad topic, from the people on it to the nature to everything. The You and the World project is a project that challenges students to approach a specific problem that is relevant in the world. Something that one is passionate about, which is why I chose Affordable Health Care as my topic. Why am I so passionate about this topic? This is because my mother is a nurse, I’ve seen her patients that rely on affordable health care, such as Obamacare. Also, I want to know more about healthcare because I seek to become a physician in the future.

You may have not heard of the Affordable Healthcare Act but you may have know what Obamacare is. It is dubbed that because it was a law passed on US president Barack Obama’s authority. In the end they are both the same thing. The Affordable Healthcare Act’s objective is to provide more Americans to health insurance and care. It offers Americans benefits when they have a life changing moment,like getting married or having a child. If the participant is below the poverty line then Obamacare offers a lower cost ( Obamacare Facts).

Affordable Healthcare Act’s logo.

Affordable Healthcare is important because without it, families would have to pay more on hospital bills (Benefits of Healthcare). They would also get less care than others which is why Healthcare is a necessity. Healthcare provides health insurance. Health insurance is definitely not the same as car insurance. Poor families have benefited from the Affordable Healthcare act. About 11 million people have signed up for Obamacare and depend on it, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Even though those facts are true, president Donald Trump wants to take away the Affordable Healthcare Act (Donaldś statement). He believes that taking away this healthcare will help others. Why take it away if so many Americans rely on it to survive? These people have families that they have to take care of too.

Donald Trump making speech.

Affordable Health care is one important step to helping poor families. Taking care of yourself and family is a priority that most people adhere. During hectic times like this, anything can happen. Being insured is a splendid feeling to have that many don’t acknowledge. By all means, the Affordable Healthcare Act isn’t perfect but it’s better to help others rather than not at all. I care about Obamacare because I’ve seen how it has helped countless people in my mother’s health clinic.

America is a wealth country but there are still many people who are struggling with money. These people work hard to purchase necessary expenses. Health care is so important that it could determine between life or death. That is why I wonder why Donald trump was so eager to take away the Affordable Healthcare Act without having something else to replace it? How has Obamacare change the participant's lives? Following up to this I plan on interviewing a nurse who teaches patients about Obamacare and an Obamacare user. As I get deeper into this project, I hope to learn more of the benefits of Obamacare.

Annotated Bibliography

My project is about internet addiction. My goal in doing this is to personally learn to myself about it as how I’m going to change the world is still unknown to me yet. I chose to do internet addiction as I sort of think I also have one but I use it for entertainment when i'm not doing homework or projects. Reason I say that is I spend most of my time upstairs in my room. I also wanted to do this so I can take from this as well and be in my room less.  Internet addiction is a huge issue as it affects you mentally and physically. Internet addiction can make you lazy and not want you to do your work. Internet addiction also ruins your love life and those who you cared about will one day just leave you (unless your loved ones are also online like you). People who become internet addicts are people who are also alcoholics and people who use it to get away from real world problems like people suffering from depression. A sort of positive reason people get addicted to the internet by the opinion of John M. Grohol is the socialization as you could talk to anyone from around the world or relatives you can barely see often. Other times it’s people who like playing videogames and just want to keep playing it. It's important to know about this so we don’t end up with a terrible life and living on the streets alone. Internet addiction didn’t even start serious and never intended to be a real disorder. Internet addiction could also be compared to alcohol addiction. link to image

One place that never has dealt with an internet addiction even to this day is Cuba as with the trade embargo they never had access to the internet. As time progress more people published their own publications of internet addiction but the publication of the DSM-5 from the APA, they stated further research for internet addiction before they added it as a disorder. A few of the mental effects of being an internet addict is depression, anxiety, and no track of time. A few physical effects of being an internet addict is back and headaches, blurry vision, and also carpal tunnel syndrome which is numbness or weakness in your hand from playing too much. Link to image

Recent research estimated nearly 40 million people spending more than 20 hours a week which was doubled from the estimate for 2008. About 50 percent of people between ages 13-17 in the US use the internet for a long amount of time. Research also stated that teen boys spent more time on the internet than teen girls. In 2016 researchers surveyed adults between ages 20-30 and found out 14 percent of them were at risk of internet addiction and most of them had full-time jobs. Through my research so far the impact of it has impacted me greatly as it could also affect my own life as I spend much of my time at home on the internet.

Annotated bibliography

Growing up I have always been “different”, I was the only mixed girl with locks at a afro centric school. Being the only mixed girl made me feel like I was too light and people always made comments about how I was too white for them. Along with my complexion I had locks, which wasn't quite a common hairstyle to see. People would say it looked like I had a dirty mop on my head or that I looked like Medusa. The comments that people made about my skin and hair me feel bad about myself, which drove me to comb out my locs. This is similar to how body image is affecting people everyday. Body image seems like a common thing because we don't really make it a big deal, however it can play a major role in someone's life, that is the cause of many issues. For my “You and the World” project i'm am going to be focusing on body image and how the media affects girls in high school. For this project I would like to see how body image really effects the girls in my high school, and based off of the information that I receive I hope to spread the reality of how body image is affecting people in my community.

Body image is mentioned often, but I don't think that people really think about what body image really is. The Merriam Webster Dictionary definition of Body image is “a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others.” As mentioned in a BBC News article, social media is one of our main ways of communicating, however we don’t always put our true self forward. We tend to use filters or alter our pictures before we let the world see them. We want to be “perfect” so we don’t let people see our flaws.

Did you know that Americans spend altogether about 250 billion hours of watching television? And about 30% of that is comercials? “The Media And Body Image” by Mirror Mirror Eating Disorder says that “ads seldom portray people that look like us.” the average model wears a 2 or a 4 while the average american wears a 12 or 14 (in women's sizes.) so people are striving to look like these models when on top of being way smaller than the average size, the images we see are altered to make the model look even skinner.

Body image is becoming an issue that young girls are dealing with as well. The article “The Issues” by NYC girls project says that “80% of ten year old are afraid of being fat.” As well as “By middle school, 40-70 percent of girls are dissatisfied with two or more parts of their body.” knowing that people may not be the happiest with their bodies why does it matter? Not having the body image that you want can cause low self esteem and decrease your confidence. “The Issues” Article says that body image can cause eating disorders from low self esteem, alcohol abuse, smoking, obesity and bullying. These are some of the consequences that affect the people who suffer from not having the body image they want.

After reading “Male vs. Female Body Image”, I was able to see that men are affected by body image just not as severely as women. However that doesn't mean that it isn't and issue, men tend to be more discreet about it.

Body image is a simple issue that can become a very large issue in someone's life. The images we see on social media make an impact of how we see ourselves. That view of ourselves can cause bigger issues like an eating disorder or low self esteem and a lack of confidence. Taking what I have learned from research, I now want to see how real of an issue body image is in my high school.

If you would like more information on my research, check out my Annotated Bibliography

​Hi I'm Sam Gualtieri, I'm a freshman at Science Leadership academy and my topic for our You and The World Project is Technological advancement and the singularity. Technology is an incredibly powerful tool. It has become part of our lives, and yet most people don't know what's behind their screens.

The graph shown here represents the rate of advancement in computer technology since 1900 in comparison to human brain power. The rate consistently increases as time goes on. This consistency has lead many to expect that at some point in time not long from now, the line on the graph will be vertical. This point is most commonly known as the technological singularity. Many theories have arisen about the singularity on the graph, but the most popular and likely theory is that this is the point when computers will start building more computers, which will most likely not have an optimal outcome for humans. Scientists and engineers like Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk are among these theorists and have all expressed concern about this point in time

Computer technology is already faster and much better at retrieving information than humans are. The only thing preventing that from being a threat is that we command them what to search. But as the way computers process information becomes more and more like that of a human brain, it’s only a matter of time until a chip could be able to become aware of itself. And if that is to happen, it’s motives will be entirely up to it’s choosing. As a human would probably do if they physically could, these computers would likely start improving upon themselves. Faster processing times, faster computers, faster improvement, until robots build even more, even smarter robots in milliseconds. This sounds like pure science fiction, but humankind is alarmingly close to hitting this point. Elon Musk Said in a recent CNN report “AI is much more advanced than people realize, and the pace of progress is much greater that people realize.” He mentioned the dangers of Artificial intelligence “What’s not obvious [to detect] is a huge server bank in a dark vault somewhere with intelligence that’s potentially vastly greater that what a human mind can do.”

However, Artificial intelligence is the ultimate point at the end of a path with multiple dangerous lanes. Much technological improvement is in the name of what’s cool or marketable. Every day a new advancement is made to bring our smartphones closer and closer to us not only in lifestyle, but in physicalness. Places like Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology are working on modifications to access a mini computer through your eye contacts. Let’s cover one thing. That is super neat. And that seems to be the mass consensus amongst smartphone users around the globe. But while microscopic, less silly looking google glass does sound appealing, internet connection that’s attached to your face comes with multiple foreseeable problems. In the age of the internet, most of us know that what we do online is not private. Our search history is tracked by Google. Lot’s of our photos are stored on the cloud or an online drive. Search engines and websites track when and what we do on them. We have a severe lack of privacy online. All this information is being stored online, where a computer could easily reach it. One of the many paths on our journey towards the singularity. In the future of this project, I’m going to be going over future technological advancements, current problematic technologies, and all of their places on the path to the technological singularity. This is something I’ve discussed with my 7th grade English teacher time and time again. I’m fascinated by technological advancement and have been for a long time. Topics that will be covered include lack of privacy, the potential dangers of cellular data radiation, online storage, human workers being replaced with machines, and at the end of the road, Artificial intelligence. If you’re a frequent internet user, all these things affect you or will affect you soon. It's important that you are aware of your place in the world of technology, and how such an integral part of your life could be quite a bit more dangerous than you may have thought.

Annotated Bibliography

Hi my name is Niya Petty and I am a freshmen at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia Pennsylvania and my topic is problematic foster homes. In today’s society, there are many children in foster homes. You would think children are put into foster homes for a better living conditions, but we really don’t know what happens behind closed doors. No child should be mistreated in a place which is suppose to change their life for the better.But how can we overcome this problem when we have no prove that this happens. This problem can get bigger and bigger and can make the ones placed in these harmful foster homes worry about their safety in a stranger's home.

    I came over the news one day and it was talking about how a foster child had ran away from her foster home. Mind you this girl was around my age. You would think why would a child want to run away from people who care for you? Then you get to the point that maybe something is happening that us outsiders don’t know about. She claimed to run away because she said she wasn’t treated right in her foster home. 13% of foster children run away at least once and go live with friends. There was a testing between foster children that run away and foster children who don’t run away. They found out that the foster children who do runaway are older children and majority of them are female.

If you think about it, there are many children in foster homes till this day.Children who are mistreated by their parents are taken away and put into foster homes by the state because of mostly abuse towards the child. When put in these foster homes, children believe they are somewhere safe and wanted but in some foster homes this abuse still goes on and there is no one around to help or stop by to see if everything is going well.

A child can suffer from lots of things being a foster kid. Bad things can happen or good. Going through what a foster kid goes through can be stressful and lots can change for them such as fitting in or behavior changes. This mainly happens in group homes.Group homes are another name for foster homes and children are placed in because they have been physically or sexual abused by their guarden. But in these group homes, this abuse is still going on just like it does in foster homes. Some children can decline the foster parent from caring for them because they don’t feel as they will we safe. It can be hard for children have  a good foster home to stay in. As more and more foster parents are declined the children don’t have a place to stay and thi can cause a big problem.

To fix this problem, I believe that people who work with foster home organizations should stop by the foster home to see if everything is going well. If the foster children were to have a one on one conversation with someone they can trust. Sometimes, problematic foster children tend to not tell the truth when it come to talking about the care that goes on in the foster homes, so if the children would corroborate in telling someone the truth about the foster home care, we wouldn’t have so many abused or harmed children and the problem can be solved much easily.