Blog Feed

¡Hola! Are you at least partially ready to embark on the psychedelic journey that is my You and the World Blog Post #3? I know that I am at least partially ready to embark on the psychedelic journey that is my You and the World Blog Post #3! You’ve heard me here, researching online and discussing green energy and the necessity for it; you’ve heard me here, introducing original data revealing portion of the population’s view regarding green energy. This blog post will regard my “Agent of Change/Action Piece,” and will involve me jumping on a solar-roadway powered bandwagon. Welcome to the final blog. Welcome to the  Post of Change!

The Action Piece was a simple assignment: do something to support your issue. In my case, the Piece found itself being a presentation to my advisory. If you wouldn’t like to click that link because you’re lazy and because you have very little motivation, that’s ok, as I can easily describe it: it references this infographic with information relating to the economic aspect of installing solar panels from 2011 and it mentions that panels have gone down in price by 60% since then. I had a great time in advisory, and I’m hopeful that I successfully brainwashed them into supporting my agenda!

A picture of me presenting to my advisory. They are clearly enthralled.

In researching for that presentation, solar roadways were easily the most important thing I found. They are hexagonal plates with photovoltaic cells, pressure sensors, heating systems, and light emitting diodes in them to replace roadways. They take the pressure off of the individual for installation of panels, and instead relate to the community as a whole. They not only capture light energy, they also remove and filter snow and ice, warn about when vehicles/pedestrians/animals are are coming. 

Electric cars could be charged with them, therefore eliminating the need for gas-burning cars. Houses could be charged with them, therefore eliminating the need for natural gas/coal burning energy plants. The future is now, and only you can prevent wildfires.

Hello readers and welcome back to my blog! Back in my blog post #1, I spoke about what sex trafficking was and how it was affected the Southern Asia region. Organizations were listed that support victims of sex trafficking. In blog post #2 original research was conducted via email with the help of Free the Slaves organization. In addition a news story on CNN connected sex trafficking to the U.S. Today  the project will be finalize by explaining my “Agent of Change” and reflecting on information gained through this process.

In my prior research I have been in contact with various organizations that support victims of sex trafficking in providing them homes and shelters along with counseling. It is noticeable that when money is donated to these organizations they use it to enhance their campaign in order to educate others about sex trafficking. The actions that have been taking place are exactly what needs to be done to inform the inhabitants of this earth of the misfortunes that exist in this world. For my “Agent of Change” I created a slideshow presentation to present my advisory about sex trafficking in India.

To make change happen I took part in enlightening the minds of my peers on the horrors of sex trafficking, especially in the country of India. After completing this project I feel satisfied as an adolescent that has not only informed herself but others on a topic that not many are addressed about.

Although I am proud of the work that that has been produced It was possible I could have added to my “Agent of Change” or even done better . For my Agent of Change awareness could have brought  to a larger audience through a fundraiser. The money would have gone to an organization that I have been in contact with in order to thank them for information that they have provided for me for my previous blogs. However this can still be fulfilled because change still needs to occur in the world and I can personally promote change on the issue of sex trafficking.

I would like to begin with acknowledging and thanking Ms. Dunn for presenting us with the You and the World project allowing us to get involved with real world issues that we are interested in. I would also like to give thanks to Free the Slaves organization for providing me with key information in order to speak on this issue with more insight. As well as Ross Kemp for creating an insightful documentary entitled “Extreme World Series 3 1 of 6 India”  that granted me a new perspective on the struggles of the women in India.  In addition I would like to thank my advisor Mr.Reddy for allowing me to present to my advisory and my own advisory for being attentive while I was presenting and participating when I asked questions. This project has made me realize that change needs to happen and I hope that one day it will take place.

Well, hello again. It’s me, Quinn Grzywinski, back for my English project YATW: a journey that began over 5 months ago, when we chose a subject of importance to us, and were to write three blog posts about it to raise awareness. For those not in the know and who haven’t read my previous blog posts, I recommend for you to check those now. My first blog: “Arbitrary Future” detailed the current situation of overpopulation and what it could mean for the possible future, along with statistics and predictions of the coming decades. My second blog: “Why I’m Wrong” focused around survey I sent to get data on how aware people were of overpopulation, and how much they considered it a problem. In spirit of the name, that blog mostly told of how unexpected my results from that blog were, and that people do know of overpopulation, so I consider that survey a failure seeing that it really didn’t pick up how much people knew about it. But it’s time to put those two behind us now, as I turn my weary opinion on overpopulation to here: my third and final blog. I’ll be talking about my Agent of Change project, a little about how the world seems to be taking notice, and making a final statement about, for humanity, what lies ahead.

Let’s begin talking about how overpopulation is being taken from various people and places around the world. And with any study of various options, it depends on who you talk to and who you listen to. If you listen to to Alexandra Paul: an environmental activist, the solution is simple.  

According to her TED talk, she’s been interested in overpopulation since a young age, and for her, all you need is to educate woman, something that appears to be running trend for when I try to answer for myself how this issue can be dealt with. Something so simple, so simple perhaps it’s overlooked; that’s a mindset that needs to change. 

You needn't even listen to Reuters: a global photography website, for they show you 14 haunting pictures of the overcrowded world, perhaps hoping that the seeing the issue face to face will have a greater effect. Personally, I urge to check out these pictures, they’re truly eye-opening and may really make you realize what overpopulation looks like. I don’t pretend to be an expert on overpopulation, it’s just something I became interested in, but I’d like to make a presumption on how overpopulation is taken by the public. If I may draw a slight parallel to global warming(though I think overpopulation is less widely considered); the problem isn’t that some people aren’t talking about it, it’s that we the media don’t listen to it. Why? Maybe because it’s scary. Scary to think that less than a century from now we could be caught up in a resource war, run out of wheat and bread, and have a planet of shouldering over 10 billion people. I don’t mean to be prophet of doom, but as I said in my first blog, it won’t be a gradual thing, it’ll be more like falling off a cliff. We need to just turn and face this issue, even though it might be frightening to talk or even think about, because no matter how much we deny it, it’s not going away. It’s getting nearer, and alarmingly fast too.

For my Agent of Change project, I wanted something a little more personal something that would get people actually interested in the issue. I couldn't have fundraised even if I wanted to, since I wasn't exactly sure which organization I would benefit, and even if the money I raised would actually be spent helping stop overpopulation. I didn't have anywhere in particular I could volunteer either, so the answer was to grab people’s attention and leave it to them how much they wanted to find out about this issue. I just needed to make sure the message was compelling enough.

The images you see above and below that I've posted onto this blog are snapshots of the posters I made for my Agent of Change project. The posters are hand-drawn, using images taken from the internet, with my own tagline to go with each of them, along with a list of links to check out. I made sure that the images I chose were either uncomforting or surreal enough to grab passer by's attention, and it took a lot more work than you would first think. Why posters? I just like the idea of instead of someone donating to a nameless charity and forgetting about it the next day, they would see these attention-grabbing posters, day after day, until they finally considered the message they were trying to convey.

I like to think that through both my survey that  was done for blog #2 and these posters that I have created, a small faction of people are more aware of overpopulation. I explained thoroughly in blog #2 how my survey was a failure; which also leads back to the presumption I stated above. I may have made people be reminded that overpopulation was, you know, a “thing”, but that was it, and it would soon leave their minds without the grim facts to keep them focused on it. So all in all, even as I made these posters, I felt like whatever I did, it simply wouldn't make an impact, and be in the end, purposeless. Maybe I shouldn't be over-thinking this, but even these blogs I doubt will make an impact on anything. I guess I really can’t get out of this somewhat depressing mindset, fortifying my final opinion on this project.

So what would have kept people wary of overpopulation for my Agent of Change? I don’t know. I wanted posters, something personal and attentive, but if I were to do this project over, I would want something with a bit more impact. Yes, seeing the posters day after day may have attracted a few curious peers, but seeing the short amount of time they were actually up on the wall, I doubt it. A redo would put the “Rueter theory” into effect, remember those photo guys which I mentioned? They showed without telling, letting the reality of overpopulation sink in through just a few photos. Surrealism is good, but I feel like using real life photos of the problem may have been better, and also, a longer duration of how long the posters were on the wall would have helped too.

Now I feel kind of bad. I’ve let this final blog post turn into some sort of grim rant on how nobody takes this issue seriously, the reality that the world will be extremely different in the next 60-80 years, and my own uncertainty on the impact of this YATW as a whole. Sort of a downer of a finale.

But maybe that’s for the best. I don’t want to act like this whole thing is no big deal. I don’t want to sugarcoat the facts, to leave readers with a “yeah, everything’s fine” attitude. Because it isn’t fine. These are the facts. I’m not going to hold back as I say this. Overpopulation is currently one of the greatest threats to mankind, and needs to be dealt with immediately. Not leave it to the next generation. Not wait 50 years. Now. This isn't going away. This isn't some distant horizon to look upon. The future, our future, is in our hands, and if we all act like it doesn't exist, it will tear our society and our planet apart.

So please, tell your friends. Tell your friend’s friends. Tell your grandparents. Tell your crazy uncle, your 7-yr old niece, your gym instructor. I can’t promise anything. I can’t say everything will be OK. I can’t decide for you what you will do about it. All I can do is leave you with some words of warning and a choice about how you’ll take them.

This next decision is yours.

Erase una vez un niño llamado Pete. Él eran uno de los primeros estudiantes de SLA. Pete amo salir a fuero y ser en la naturaleza. Pero no tenía tiempo de ir afuera en escuela secundaria. Extrañaba ir afuera en el aire fresco.

Un dia decidido ir al oficina y hablar con Principal Lehmann. Pero Pete nunca fui al oficina antes. Era muy asustado, pero sabía que necesitaba hablar con Lehmann. Finalmente se levanta su nervio y entró el officina de su principal. Cuando entró la oficina, vio que no era tan malo, como él pensó. Pete explicó a Senior Lehmann que el quería tener tiempo afuera cada dia. Lehmann dijo que quería dar Pete lo que quería, pero no era posible.

Pete era muy triste y enojado. Necesitaba ser solo. Corrí a un armario vacío en el fondo de la escuela. Era tan enojado que empezó pegar el pared del armario. Pego tan fuerte que el pared empezó a derrumbar. En el otro lado del parede no era nada, solo aire fresco. Pete empezó a formar un plan para tener tiempo afuera durante su día en escuela. Decidió derrumbar una pared de abajo en los armarios en todos los pisos. Después iba a construir escaleras que son afuera del escuela y cuando caminada a sus clases pudia ser en el aire fresco.

Cada día durante su almuerzo Pete fue al armario y derrumbó parte del pared. Tomó Pete casi todo el año, pero finalmente todos los armarios no tenían un pared de atrás, solo un hoyo que miraba afuero. Pete realizo que no iba a tener tiempo para construir los escalones si quería terminar su proyecto antes del final del año. Decidido que necesitaba visitar el oficina de principal Lehmann otra vez.

El proximo dia Pete fue al oficina y explicó su plan y su dilema. Lehmann ear enojado, pero admitió que era impresionado en todo el trabajo duro que Pete hizo. Lehmann permito que durante el verano el iba contratar trabajadores de la construcción para hacer escaleras afueras.

Hello, everyone! It is Fodie Camara. I’m in the 9th grade and a student of Science Leadership Academy. In English class we were asked to write three blogs about something that we care about. I picked the issue of hunger. To me this a very important topic. If you don’t remember, my first blog post, talked about hunger-related facts and how it affects kids and the local community. My second blog post talked about my interview with my Advisor and the Food Can Drive that I’m organizing.

So for my third and final blog post, I’d like to talk about what people are actually doing to stop hunger. There are a lot of things that are currently happening to stop hunger. People and organizations are trying to raise awareness so more people can know about my topic of hunger in our society. This is definitely taking advantage of social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. They’re also setting up Food Can Drives in more and more schools to then donate and distribute to the needy. And more and more groups like Stop Hunger Now, Coalition Against Hunger and Philabundance, continue to form.

Food Can Drives are helpful because it immediately provides support for the hungry people in our city. The previous school I went to- Penn Alexander- maintained a Food Can Drive throughout the eight years I was there, and it was a success every single year. We had about 1,500 cans collected last year alone, and that was in only a couple of months. It’s common for us to see campaigns that raise awareness on Facebook and even Twitter account, and this motivated me to do the same.

There about 650,000 hungry people in the central part of Philadelphia alone! Image how many more people are hungry in our country? I pursue being an Agent of Change by actually staying to my word and organizing a Food Can Drive at my current school- Science Leadership Academy- because I wanted to continue what I worked on previously.  While I know this won’t make a huge difference with  hunger in Philadelphia, maybe other people will start their own because they see how successful mine was.

At the start of this Agent of Change project I didn’t really know how I was going to do this Can Drive. I had a sense of what I was going to do, but I started out with nothing and then went step by step like getting a box and putting it in the Advisory Memo to inform people that they could donate cans. I felt that I did a pretty good job on this project, especially starting the Can Drive as I was getting more and more cans everyday. I learned about myself as well in this project. I now know that I can really get something done by putting in effort and focus. I learned that other people felt the same way that I did because they brought in cans too and did their part in trying to make a difference.

I think I could have done better by presenting my project because I didn’t get a huge amount of cans at first, and I should have presented my topic in every Advisory in advance of the Drive so  I could get more cans and more people to know about my topic. I could have also done better by putting two boxes on each floor and putting signs in the hallways. I’m still proud of what I accomplished, but it could have been better.

I’d like to thank everyone who donated and helped me to make this Food Can Drive a success. Shoutout to Ms.Dunn for helping me with every step throughout this long process, and also a shoutout to Mr.Herman for being the best Advisor for helping me get the box and everything!

This blog post is the third part in a 3 part series on our English class' You And The World project, where we each tackle a problem in our society that we want to spread awareness about. Blog #1 is about our initial research on our topic. Blog #2 is about our field research, where we gathered data ourselves based on survey results or observation. I took a survey of everyone in our class on their opinion of littering.

A signed SOSNA trash bag

In my research between now and my Blog #2, I looked into organizations like the South of South Neighborhood Association who hold neighborhood cleanups periodically, where they supply grabbers and garbage bags (pictures below) to small groups of people who help clean up the street. For my Agent of Change assignment, I participated in the first SOSNA spring cleanup of 2014. I put an ad in the school memo for it, but nobody could make it there. Neighborhood clean ups are a great way to get involved in improving the environment and beautifying your city, and other than that, it's great exercise for your back and arms. A few more interesting things were that we filled up around 10-20 trash bags over about 9 blocks and a couple parks, there was a 4 block stretch where there were no trash cans (except for one belonging to a business), and that the quality of the sidewalks and surrounding buildings appeared to be a big factor in the amount of trash in those places.

Various supplies provided by SOSNA

This was a fun project, and I’m looking forward to participating in litter cleanups in the future. The project has also taught me alot. Mainly that people don’t litter just because they don’t care. It’s also because they just don’t want to touch those gross garbage can handles when it’s so easy to just toss your stuff on the ground, but I digress.

Even though our city is bad in terms of cleanliness, it's only considered the sixth dirtiest city in America. Others include Atlanta at #5, Los Angeles at #4, Baltimore at #3, New Orleans at #2, and the Big Apple itself, New York, at #1. The cleanest was Cheyenne, Washington. Cheyenne even received the EPA’s Clean Drinking Water award in 2009. According to the website, they use special precautions and techniques to prevent large plants from leaking toxic fluids into the water supply. This may help with problems involving larger structures, but it wouldn’t be as effective here. If we as a whole really want to do better, we can encourage more cleanups and stricter laws in those places.

To conclude this post, thanks to Andy from SOSNA for agreeing to let a group of SLA students join their neighborhood cleanup of this spring. Also, big thanks to the 22 people who took my survey on littering (except for that one guy, you know who you are). And thanks to Ms. Dunn and Ms. Lucy for their continuing influence and support.

Annotated bibliography (Sources for #2 and #1. See hyperlinks for #3.)

Take this survey about littering!

Michelle Friedman

Senorita Manuel

Reflection 6

Quarter 4

Piden Reforma Tras Caso de Policia Indocumentada

Ahora, las personas en los estados unidos tienen una problema con inmigración. La

problema esta muy grande, pero no todos las personas entienden que necesitamos hacer algo. Pero, ahora, algunas de las personas que no entienden que necesitamos hacer algo, van a entender que nosotros necesitamos hacer algo porque algo muy importante sucedido. Hoy en los Estados Unidos, estan once míles personas sin documentadas para vivir aqui.  Estos personas vivian en peligroso porque el gobernio puede deportase ellos.

Carmen Figueroa fue una persona importante en los políticas en los estados unidos. Carmen Figueroa fue una detective de policía, pero los oficiales descubrieron que ella esta un inmigrante ilegal. Este situación presente una problema muy grande porque mucho de tiempo cuando tenemos inmigrantes ilegales, ellos trabajan en trabajos muy fáciles y trabajos que no estan muy importante por el gobierno de los estados unidos. Pero, este situación es significa porque Carmen Figueroa es una mujer que trabaja en la industria de policía.

Despues de yo leí este articulo, yo aprendí algunos de palabras nuevas. Cuantos palabras nuevas en este articulo estan  advirtieron  y descubrir. En inglés, advirtieron  es “warning”. Y descubrir  es “be discovered” en inglés.

Word Count: 202

http://www.pontealdia.com/estados-unidos/piden-reforma-tras-caso-de-policia-indocumentada.html

Michelle Friedman              Quarter 4

Señorita Manuel

Reflection 5

Descubren más de 400 especies en el Amazonas

Ante todo, yo quiero enseñarles algunos palabras nuevos que yo aprendí. La palabra primera está “descubrir”. Este palabra está muy importante para este articulo; en Ingles, descubrir significa “discover”. El artículo está sobre la increíble selva amazónica. La selva amazónica está el “Amazon Rainforest” en inglés. Estos son todos de los palabras nuevas que yo aprendí después de leyendo el artículo “Descubren más de 400 especies en el Amazonas”.

De los cuatro cientos cuarenta y uno especias que cientificos descubren, todos los animales están muy interesantes. Están doscientos cincuenta y ocho verduras, ochenta y cuatro peces, cincuenta y ocho anfibios, veinte y dos reptiles, diez y ocho aves, y un mamífero. Los científicos descubren las especias durante cuatro años- 2010, 2011, 2012, y 2013. Muchos de los especies nueves viven solo en la selva amazónica. Hoy, el el Fondo Mundial para la Naturaleza (WWF) dice que las especies que viven solo en la selva amazónica necesitan va a protedidar.

Yo pienso que animales en la selva amazónica estan muy importantes para personas y para el mundo. Los verduras y peces estan importantes también. Hay muchas animals estan moriendos. Animales como el oso polar. El oso polar vives en el polo norte. 

Palabras: 209

Inconstitucional prohibición de matrimonio gay en Pensilvania

Recientemente una persona escribió articulo por el periódico, Metro Noticias Las Vegas con el título: “Inconstitucional prohibición de matrimonio gay en Pensilvania”. Yo vivo en Pensilvania y yo se que el prohibición de matrimonio gay en Pensilvania es problema muy importante. Es problema muy importante porque cuada nosotros vivimos con el prohibición de matrimonio gay en Pensilvania, es como nosotros dijimos que nosotros no tenemos cuidado por los hombres y las mujeres gay que quieren vivir sus vidas como todas de las otras personas.

Cuando yo leiste el articulo, yo aprendi cuandos palabras nuevos que yo no se antes de leer el artículo. El hombre que instigó el cambio es un juez. Un juez es el persona que trabaja en un tribunal y práctica leyes. En ingles, “juez” es “judge”.

En Pensilvania, el juez federal hable que el prohibición de matrimonio gay en Pensilvania en inconstitucional. “Algunos de nuestros ciudadanos se sienten profundamente incómodos por el concepto de matrimonio del mismo sexo. De todos modos, el hecho de que el matrimonio del mismo sexo provoque incomodidad en algunas no vuelve constitucional su prohibición”, escribió el juez al justificar su decisión.

Palabras:

https://news.google.es/news/section?pz=1&cf=all&ned=es&geo=detect_metro_area&siidp=de7ab18635c13abf3f7e310e02c16c7016c8&ict=ln