Blog Feed

I’m Alina and this is my final blog post for You and the World project. In my first blog post I talked about why immigration is illegal and the pros and cons of immigration. Another thing is that I talked about what immigrants are struggling to do just to get in the United States. After that on my second blog post, I interviewed two of my friends who were immigrants. During my second blog post I asked them the same questions and both of them have two different answers as their experience of being an immigrant.If you want to take a look, here is Simon’s interview transcript and here is Sarah’s interview transcript. And now for my final blog post I did a Agent of Change at Science Leadership Academy.

What is an Agent of Change you might ask, well an Agent of Change is when you want to change that situation to a solution that will allow people to participate in. For my Agent of Change, I did a bake sale in school outside of the office. My bake sale was on June 6th during lunch. I did this fundraiser to help The National Immigration Service Directory so they can help immigrant have an affordable job to work at and to help immigrants come to America to have a better life style.

During my bake sale, my goal was to raise $50.00. But while selling doughnuts and cookies, I raised about $55.00. I exceeded my goal which was a good thing because the more the better. With this money, it could help immigrants live a better lifestyle in America then as they did back in their old country. Another thing is that with this money it could help immigrants not get deported back to their country.

Why did I do a bake sale you may ask? Well, a bake sale is easier than spending a lot of money doing a run or hosting an event. Doing a bake sale was really fun because you get to experience handling money and meeting new people.

My experience with the bake sale was very nervous because I was afraid that nobody will buy my baked goods but instead there was a lot of people who came and bought the baked goods. The best thing was that I get to donate the money to the National Immigration Service Directory.

Chandrea Lack

June 9, 2017

Success In the Graffiti Run

In my first blog post, I have talked about the problems that graffiti brought to our community and how it shouldn’t be considered vandalism by the age groups of 12 to 19. They do it to express how they feel in a manner where it is shown to themselves and it brings some of them names and fame, but the fame comes after being heard, you do that big change or that big thing then you get heard. For my second blog post I explained the detailed areas of why graffiti was not considered art from a law’s point of view and it showed that the police were to assume whoever carried a can of spray paint was vandalizing property which I thought was very immature of them to just start assuming. Graffiti is art like any other form of art. It shouldn’t be outlawed because it’s a release of feelings, the rebellious teen spirit. Graffiti has messages in them too they express you.

My experience doing this event drove me into learning so many things. I learned how to manage my time well and give people time to show up, when to order the food, how long each of the activity we were going to play for and when we were going to leave. I also learned how to create a decent poster people would look at to come to my event.

The poster was spread all through social media and was known to some students but some could not make it.

For my “Agent of Change” it consisted of hosting a “Graffiti Run”. The run was held at a park in South Philly called FDR park (Franklin Delano Roosevelt). The area that we went to was a field beside a skatepark with a ton of graffiti art which stood out while I hosted the activities.  Involved in this run were freshmen from SLA coming out to support my project. Around 20 others showed up to the graffiti run. This event wouldn’t be made possible if I didn’t have my helpers. They didn’t just help support the run but also helped set up a lot of the equipment. During the graffiti run, I gave out food, drinks, and colored powder. The food and drinks were to help the students if they needed a small boost or a little more energy after the running and activities and the colored powder was just to make the theme interesting. Those who came also brought some stuff of their own to support the idea of just having fun and expressing how they felt like how the walls of the skatepark felt with all of the drawings on the walls they were supportive as they brought a football, frisbee, volleyball, basketball, and skateboards. The day overall was very fun to host but also stressful but I was happy to hear back that everyone had a good time and that it was hosted very well.  

English 9

You and the world

                                                               You love marijuana

Hello, My name is Josiah Mast and I have been doing a you and the world project in my english class on the topic of Marijuana. In my last post (https://scienceleadership.org/people/jmast) I talked about how if marijuana is legalized our city could make a lot of money to fix up rough communities and other places that need to be worked on. I was very excited to get started on this project and went with my head down just thinking about how I could make marijuana legalized. I thought first I could start with a survey(https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/forms/d/1QiJSDplCavXZuHSKYoYpedm0p03r1TYhDciHMGe-nmg/edit) and than show the results to the principle and prove that he was not letting people express themselves through things that are not considered to be “promoting something that is not okay in today’s society”. People said things like “Josiah you can’t just walk into the principal's office and change his mind. That’s just not how it works”. In my mind I was saying that they were right and that I should slow the pace down but in my heart though I was just saying things don’t just become legal you have to fight for it. So I than went back to the survey idea and started having people fill it out. I received 81 responses on my survey(all anonymous) and I really felt that I was giving the people of SLA a chance to share their feelings on a topic that has kind of been shunned by the elders of the school.

                      This photo is from my survey and is answered by people from different grades and schools

I was very happy with the results I got but I knew that this little survey was not going to change the mind of our principle. I came in luck when Madison siegel approached me to tell me about her aunt who is fighting in the state of Pennsylvania to make marijuana legal. This was just the thing I needed. It was someone I could write letter to or talk to who had an actual say in talking to the state of Pennsylvania on making marijuana legal for medical and recreational uses. This was also happening when I was getting flooded with survey responses. I was saying to myself that I could possibly pull this off. I could possibly walk into SLA with marijuana socks and not be told to take them off. I could do this. I started to exchange letters with Madison’s aunt so that we could talk about what I could do in SLA to try and change what was happening. I than decided to go for help from the people that did my survey. I had done a few written response questions and wanted to see if there was anything helpful in their writings that I could try.

                                                            Some of the results from my survey

The Big Change

For the past month, I have been doing research on problematic family homes and as people say you learn more and more each day. In my first blog post, I talked about this problem and how much it meant to me and coming closer to how I can make a change about what’s going on. In my second blog post, I interviewed a friend of mine who goes to my school who had gone through a struggled group home.Knowing that people doesn’t know his background story it’s hard to tell people that this kind of stuff goes on, but I am proud of him for sharing his story with me and getting hard things off his shoulders. This topic has really been important to me because if I was in this position, I wouldn’t know what to do and seeing that children in these homes are sometimes scared and they don’t tell anyone what goes on. So this is where my agent of change come in. To see all my sources you can look at my annotated biography.

For my agent of change, I choose to raise and donate money to a local organization called “Turning Points for Children.”  I choose this organization because it connects to my topic of this project so well and I was very excited to see they had a donation option. Right away when I looked into the website, I immediately knew that I wanted to raise money for these children. Me personally I love children and seeing all types of children like those  in foster homes, makes me up set due to the fact that some of these children are really young and to see how  they don’t have what I had as a child.

On Thursday June 8, 2017, I sold water ice to students at my school for $1 to raise money to donate to the organization. I had a goal to make $100. I came out a little short but I was still excited to see how many people came out to but the water ice and for me to explain the cost of doing it. As I go home ready to make the donation it makes me so happy to do this. I would probably be shy to do it face to face but i would love to share how much I care about the children in foster homes to see what I don’t have. This wasn’t a big change but it’s a big and great start to it.

Hey I’m Ben as you know I’m doing a project for English class called you and the world and I have to find a problem in the world and get it supported, noticed, or solved. I chose to get Youth Violence noticed at Science Leadership Academy and show that even if we go to a school where we have a safe environment people go through a lot of violence that involves the youth community. When I go home on the train everyday there's always students fighting and it makes me unsafe or very discomforting. I would mind my business on the train walk out and the police would block exits because of students a fighting and it just makes public transportation a ugly mess.

I did two other posts and they involved some research explaining the violence students have caused in slate post 1 which involved which parts of Philly is safer than others. We found that North and West Philly have caused the most violence. In slate post 2 I discussed some of the results of youth violence which end tragically sometimes. Sometimes people are put in the hospital and the unlucky ones take something precious which hurt families and friends around their neighborhood.

I did some research for my agent of change and found that the youth crime rate has dropped and it is still dropping. Crimes such as assault, battery, rape, etc are caused by the youth community. Crimes in these categories have dropped 68% A lot is being done but not a lot of people notice this crisis that's going on in youth crime and violence. People aren’t gonna stop and people still don’t care. If they see something they like they will take it from you and won’t think twice. It’s crazy how cruel people can be to each other. But is there a way to stop violence; no but there’s ways to

get it noticed in our communities.

My official Agent of change was pretty creative and everyone at SLA has probably seen it once or twice. I made a poster that represents everything I’m against that said STOP THE VIOLENCE. What this poster represented was a small but noticeable voice for every person who doesn’t feel safe in their own community after school. Things are being done like populating all train stations with more police which reduces violence in the area. I decided to create a poster because when you walk by and see the poster it makes you think, does violence happen everywhere because we don’t see it in SLA. It’s good to expose our community to topics like this and get it noticed.

While doing my project I felt like the project was impossible and I couldn’t ever complete this with a good grade or at all. But as the project kept going I realized that I accomplished a ton of research and got my agent of agent thought out and finish very swiftly.  Reflecting on the project I felt like I did an awesome job fulfilling my goal in getting youth violence recognized. I feel proud of myself for all the hard work and courage to interview a police officer to get info that even police think youth violence is still a problem.

If I could of done this whole project again I would not procrastinate and get things done way earlier than I did. I got everything in on time but I think I should have gotten a peer review for each blog post. Well thanks for reading my last blog post if you want more information look at my annotated bibliography and do some more research.

In my previous two blog posts I have told you about Taney and Bainbridge streets’ problem with litter and my own outdoor observations of my streets. In this blogpost I will be telling you about me actually acting on this situation. In my blogpost, ¨Litter Search and Solutions¨, in the end, I mentioned signing up and joining Not In Philly to help make a positive change in myself and my community. Recently, I have created for  myself an account on http://notinphilly.org/ and registered to clean and Taney street. When you register to clean up your street it shows map of Philadelphia with roads for you to choose from and it shows you who else is currently cleaning that street and the streets near by and how many people there are for that street. When I registered for Taney Street it said I was the first person to register for cleaning that street.

The day after I registered, I went out on Taney street in the afternoon and picked up trash and recyclables off the street with a trash grabber and a plastic bag. I picked up the trash with the help of my father. My father helped me take the pictures of the trash with his camera. We also did a little extra cleaning on Bainbridge Street. When I was out on the street seeing all the trash on the street made me feel displeased with some of my neighbors and sad knowing that it was hurtful to the people, plants and animals that live in this  neighborhood. But when I cleaned up the trash and looked back when I was done, I was very satisfied with how clean the streets looked and was happy knowing I had done a good deed.

Let me tell you about my experience with the Not In Philly registration. There I made myself a new account. Signing up was easy: on their website they gave me a form where I just had to give my name, my phone number, my address, my email address, and make up a password. After that they gave me an email telling me to go to their website and choose a block/street to clean, I choose a block on Taney Street because it was next to my house. I trust this website because it is not a big faceless corporation or a money hungry business. It is a nonprofit organization that seeks to make a good difference and it is currently happening everywhere around the city unlike the Philadelphia Streets Litter Cabinet which I have never seen in action. I also trust this organization because it was created by a well known family friend who is kind and looks towards improving the city and solving its problems, like the litter on the streets.

A website that I found that focuses on reducing litter is called the Litter Less campaign. This campaign not only encourages people to pick up trash but it also aims for changing the minds of children about the problem of littering and what they can do to make a difference, ¨It aims to engage and educate children and young people on the issue of litter, and encourage them to make positive choices.¨(http://www.ecoschools.global/about-the-campaign). The organization is involved in 35 schools around the world and they educate children on cleaning up litter.  I like how this focuses on younger generations, teaching them not to litter.  If we can teach each generation not to litter, pretty soon young people and adults all over the world might stop littering and be more concerned about keeping the environment clean.

Overall, I feel that I have made a change with myself and my neighborhood. My change is that I have gone from just being against littering to standing up and physically acting on the problem. I have made a change in my neighborhood by being the newest person to having a habit of cleaning the streets and being a example to keeping the streets healthy and clean to the neighborhood. I feel really proud of myself for developing these new good habits. So far I plan on cleaning the streets one day every week, but I want to expand this by starting clean on two or three days a week. What is left to be done is to get more people in my neighborhood to clean the streets and join Not In Philly. I love making a good difference in my neighborhood and making clean and healthy decisions.

"About the Campaign." Eco Schools. Eco Schools, 2014. Web. 08 June 2017.

http://notinphilly.org/

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1a1IMIcIqSX8D1xx5avGy6a4UGhaZAydxWbygZ_MH0RQ/edit?usp=sharing

My trash grabber with a piece of plastic.

Some trash around a neighbor’s flower pot.

My collected trash in a plastic bag.

It’s Briannie Matos again with another post about anxiety. As you know anxiety is a very serious topic. Throughout the beginning of my research I found a bunch of facts and statistics about anxiety. You can find all of this information in my first blog post, which you should really go check out! As my original research I decided to interview my Aunt who suffers from anxiety. I learned so much about her and she gave great advice to those who also suffer from anxiety. If you would like to listen to the interview and read more about my topic you should go check out my second blog post as well.

Anxiety is really such a big part of my life and I wanted to show people that there are ways to cope with it. For my agent of change I decided to create a care package for my aunt who was also apart of my original research. In the basket there will be a 2 books, some chocolate, and some puzzles, such as crossword and wordsearch. I know this will help her because she has a hard time everyday dealing with her anxiety. She does live in New York so I will be mailing it over to her house so she wouldn’t have to wait until I go to visit her.

Thinking of how I wanted to do my agent of change was very difficult. At first I wanted to give care packages to those who have anxiety but I realized it wouldn’t have worked out because of the costs. After that, I wanted to raffle off some care packages but it was too late and I did not have enough time. That’s when my English teacher, Ms. Giknis, gave me the idea of making homemade stress balls and even gave me a way to make them. The stress balls did not work out either so that’s when I just decided to make a care package for my aunt.

Here are images of me putting together the care package for my aunt.

Going more into anxiety has made me understand it so much more. I knew anxiety was bad but getting to know more about my aunt’s anxiety and reading articles about other people has really opened up my eyes more. I will say it was a great experience actually getting to become an agent of change instead of just having to write a paper about everything I learned about. This project was very different but a good different. I’m glad I got to learn so much more about anxiety because now I know how to help my friends and family who suffer from anxiety, including myself.

Having to deal with anxiety is a real big struggle, especially when you need medication to control it. It’s a disorder that just can’t go away but it’s something that people can learn to cope with. I’ve learned many great ways to cope with anxiety and now for the future I plan to keep on helping those who suffer from anxiety.

This is an image of my aunt, my grandmother, and my mother. Even though she suffers from anxiety she will always have that big smile on her face.

Please visit my annotated bibliography for more information.

I’m back again, for the last time. Yeah, the kid who’s doing the Black Lives Matter project for you and the world. Since you love me so much, read my previous blog posts again. And if you haven’t already checked them out, stop reading and go check them out RIGHT NOW- Part 1 and Part 2. In these, I talk about the importance of my topic, why I chose it, and how/what I researched. Now let’s get to the good stuff.

At first it took me a long time to figure out how I wanted to make a slight difference in the community. I reached out to those apart of BLM Philly. This is the only organization like this in Philadelphia, and they set up events to raise awareness. We spoke about creating some sort of program for children like me who want to make a difference, but the process was difficult so I decided to make a smaller, yet more significant impact. I spoke to all of the Freshmen of SLA, and attempted to get everyone to wear Black/Dark hoodies or sweaters in remembrance for Trayvon Martin, the man that sparked this movement and ultimately led to creating a better place for me and my people. Surprisingly, I got over 50 people to wear black, which touched my heart that I could raise that much aware for something so important to me and others. Many people suggested that I should do something like this in the future. For the future, I’m going to strive to create a Trayvon Martin Day, AKA #TrayDay. I am aware that this poses a lot of obstacles and challenges, but I’m prepared to gather other people who same the same passion for ‘Blackness’.

I want to thank my wonderful teacher for helping me and my classmates make a change and raise awareness. I want to thank my readers for coming along for the ride and I hope I inspired some young souls to conquer what they love. Lastly I want to honors those who lost their lives in the history of the Movement by saying, #BLACKLIVESMATTER!

See my annotated bibliography here! If you have any questions or concerns, email me: rpowell@scienceleadership.org

My element is oxygen, with the atomic number of 8. Oxygen is a chemical element with symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group on the periodic table and is a highly reactive non metal and oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides. I got the idea by seeing that oxygen involves water, so the circle things are bubbles. I also drew things dealing with oxygen such as its atomic number. The process that i went through was very easy, the first thing i did was do some brainstorming. After i did brainstorming, i put it on that paper you told us not to lose. After that, i copied onto that paper you gave us, but i did it backwards like you said. After that, i got a white piece of paper, and slowly put it on the other paper. I let that dry also, and cut it out, and put it on the paper. If i could do the whole thing again, i would try and make my color darker. That's because i think the darker it is, the more eye catching it becomes. The thing that i enjoyed the most was drawing, thats because it was my own idea.  

i tried cropping it but it wont allow me to .

As you can see little amount of money counts and different amount of money can help these animals in the shelter. It can provide a lot for little amount of money. I want this to become a trend, everyone donating to shelters. This will help animals and the shelter, too. I am going to take the time and effort to fundraise for PAWS and hopefully more shelters.

Madison S. taking a picture of me and the bake sale

Madison S. taking a photo of me making an announcement about my bake sale

I emailed PAWS about the donation

So as you can see by the picture above I have emailed Director of Development. I asked her about the donation and what I did to produce the donation for PAWS. I am so glad that I got to support PAWS and for everyone who supported the bake sale.

This project was an experience, is was enjoyable. I got to learn so much about industries harming animals and its horrible ways. Also, doing an original research, making a survey on what people know about my topic. Then, me having a bake sale to raise money for PAWS shelter. If I got to do this again I would be a bit more organized, so everything is smooth, also credits to my mom for helping me for my bake sale. Even though this project is coming to an end, I still want to raise awareness and try to solve this problem and I believe we can do this together to stop this problem.

(*・∀・*)人(*・∀・*) Please see my Bibliography for more information!

My element was Xenon and it’s atomic number is 54. The name Xenon comes from a greek word “xenon” which means stranger. It is a noble gas and it was discovered through the study of liquified air just like krypton and neon. You can find Xenon in flash cameras, movie projectors, car headlights, nuclear reactors, and oxidizing agents. Since Xenon is in flash cameras I decided to draw a camera because it seemed more different to do. Finding the right camera to draw was a little difficult until I found the perfect one. It’s kind of an old camera that you wouldn’t see as much today but, personally it went well with my element. Next time instead of drawing a camera I would draw a movie projector because that’s something I can get really creative with. The part I enjoyed the most was creating my print because it very different than most art. I love to draw and I just love art overall. This was something that I took serious and had fun with.

My element is Titanium. The atomic number of Titanium is 22. Titanium is one of the strongest metals. It is known as the metal of the Gods in ancient greek history. Originally named Gregorite, after the British chemist, Reverend William Gregor who discovered it in 1791. Titanium is usually used in Aircraft and Spacecraft. For my print, since Titanium is known as the “Metal of the Gods,” I wanted to portray that. My print is someone obtaining the power of the gods.

To start out, I had to come up with a sketch. So I drew steps that were to represent a temple, and the man obtaining the power, with Titanium in the background. I had to trace that to another piece of thin paper. With that trace out, I would trace the drawing into a styrofoam plate. That plate would act as the stamp. Once the stamp is completed, paint must be applied and stamp the drawing on a piece of paper.

For this project, I would change my drawing. I found that my drawing wasn’t as amazing as I thought. Although, I enjoyed pasting my drawing onto paper. I always loved working with paint, so it was a fun experience.

The context of the last post discussed what The Affordable Act and Obamacare was. The battle for affordable health care is being fought through Obamacare. Obamacare is threatened of being annulled by President Donald Trump. Even despite the fact that Obamacare opens opportunities to underprivileged families and middle-class families, Trump still wants to take it away. The Affordable Healthcare Act is equivalent to Obamacare. The Affordable Healthcare Act is called an act because it was an effort to strengthen the Healthcare market and making insurance available to more people (First Blog Post).

The content of the second blog post consisted of new information found by the interview I had done with nurse Jelysa. I picked up new facts on Obamacare and the goals of the Affordable Healthcare act. Some facts like the act’s three primary goals are to make affordable health insurance available to more people. The law/act provides consumers with subsidies (“tax credits”) that reduces costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. Expand the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level. Support medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of health care generally (Second blog post).

(Me, working in the labs of the clinic)

I enjoyed my experience with my Agent of Change. For my Agent of Change I did volunteer work at my mother’s clinic, the Abbotsford Family Practice (Abbotsford Falls Clinic). My mom works there as a nurse and she got me connected with another nurse. Nurse Jelysa took me under her wing. She was the one I interviewed about Obamacare and affordable healthcare. She gave me facts about the healthcare topic. After that, we scheduled a work appointment for me where I would be able to shadow her. Not only did I shadow, I also assisted Jelysa with interviewing patients. Jelysa’s main role at the clinic was to interview patients to see if they were eligible for Obamacare. I assisted her by interviewing patients myself which was my Agent of Change.

(Talking to Doctor Knowles)

Knowing that I actually did nurse work feels great. The job I wish to obtain in the future is to become a doctor, so helping out at a clinic was a cool experience. It felt like I was actually making a change in people’s lives. Being able to prescribe patients Obamacare felt good because I was giving them and their family a chance to make their lives easier. Knowing this makes me angry at the fact that president Trump wants to terminate Obamacare. This whole project made me feel important because of the changes I was making. I learned that life isn’t easy when your basic needs to survive in a modern society, is stripped away. Healthcare should be free for all because everyone should have the right to achieve a higher state of well being.

If I could change one thing, it would be my interview. I like my interview but I wish I could have interviewed more people. However, I really had fun with this project and this was one of the best projects I’ve ever done.

Annotated Bibliography

Doing this was very fun. I didn’t expect so many people to participate in my Agent of Change. So many people got involved and I was so happy. Even one of my friends from California got involved and got her friends to participate as well. I was effective in making a change because I got my word out there. I put a daily reminder on Snapchat (a popular social media spot) and put a memo in the advisory memo. I walked around the classroom and asked students personally to be apart of my change and teachers were involved as well. I feel very proud of the amount of people that got involved in my Agent of Change. I did doubt myself in the beginning of the day on my Agent of Change. But then when all of these students started walking in with red on and I got back-to-back notifications about hashtags that were being put up I stopped doubting myself and I felt really confident.

Hi my name is Orlando Aguayo and I'm a upcoming sophomore. So this project has taken place in my Biochem class and Ar class for a final mini project. We all got different elements of the periodic table, my element was Cu which is copper. So in art we had to create a stamp for our element with its atomic number, name, and what's it's used for. For my element which is Copper the atomic number is 29. For my stamp I drew a wire and a outlet because the two tails that hang out is made out of copper.

My element was found in Egypt by the egyptians and was used for Ankh. But later on was found in iraq because the egyptian tribes. Over the years people used it in mechanical engineering, they make electric heaters, Air conditioners, and car engine parts.

I chose to make a wire and outlet  because I used chargers all the time and it's amazing how things work so fast thanks to copper because it connects to energy faster than any other metal. It also is different from others because they usually make things that is very common to draw but I actually researched cool things that are mad out of copper and that was the best piece.

The procedure I followed to make my work the best it can be is by making sure I have great back ground knowledge on it and what things it made with. Than I started to make a couple drawings to see which one was best than made it 4X8. Last but not least I traced it on a piece of cooking paper, than traced on to a foam paper. Finally I chose a color and painted my foam stamp and put it on a paper 6 times and chose the best 3.

Finally if I can do this project again I would make different objects instead of just one object because I could have made my element more look more interesting that's the only thing. But my favorite part of this project is the painting because we chose a color, painted the foam stamp, and added pressure to get the stamp to make the but stamp!