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Maggie Clampet-Lundquist Capstone

Posted by Maggie Clampet-Lundquist in Capstone - Jonas - Wed on
After struggling to come up with an idea/topic for my capstone, I finally decided on creating a documentary about The Philadelphia Girls Choir. I have been singing with the girls choir for four years, so I decided to make a video about the choir, that I could give to the choir as a way of saying thank you. The documentary is located on Vimeo, where anyone can watch it. Creating this film allowed me to reflect on my experiences in the choir, I realized that the girls in the choir weren’t just people I sang with but they were like a second family. I filmed every Thursday and  Saturday which  are the two days  the choir practices, having to work with cameras helped me acquired many camera/video skills from putting this film together. I learned how to attach a microphone to a camera so it could record and capture the sound at the same time as well as how to take what I had recorded and transfer it onto the computer. I learned how to edit/put together a film in iMovie and camera skills in general. I plan on continuing to film the last couple month of choir experience and adding it onto my already existing video. I hope everyone enjoys the film as much as I enjoyed making it.

Annotated Bibliography:


  1. "Philadelphia Girls Choir." Philadelphia Girls Choir. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://www.phillygirlschoir.org/>.

I used this website because it describes the choir I’m focusing on: The Philadelphia Girls Choir. The website talks about how the choir was started and why, this will be useful in my project when explaining what the choir is about.

  1. "Pennsylvania Girls Choir." Pennsylvania Girls Choir. Web. 5 Feb. 2016. <http://www.pennsylvaniagirlchoir.org/>.

I used this website because not only am I going to talk about the choir that I’m apart of I’m going to talk about choirs in philadelphia in general as well. This is one of the best known choirs besides the philadelphia Boys Choir and it does similar things as my choir and so I thought I could compare the two. This is a reliable source because it’s the choir's website.

  1. "How to Create a Good Documentary Film." WikiHow. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.<http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Good-Documentary-Film>.

I’ve never made a documentary before and I'm great at working on Imovie this site walks me through the process of both of these things so it will be useful to look at when I’m editing my documentary and filming it. This is a reliable source.

  1. "Welcome!" Philadelphia Boys Choir. Web. 05 Feb. 2016.

The choir that I’m in is the sister choir to the Philadelphia Boys Choir. We practice in the same building, we sing together at events, and we do things together outside of rehearsal they are a big part of my choir even though they are boys. Since the boys choir was so successful they decided to make a girls choir and that's how the Philadelphia Girls Choir was made. This is a reliable source because its their website.

  1. "How to Use IMovie to Make History Documentaries Complete." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ku3mQr3vigw>.

I’m not familiar with Imovie this site is a step by step tutorial video, that walks you through the process of editing and doing voice overs. This will help me because I’m making a documentary. This is a reliable source because the person who created the video used Imovie and shows you exactly what to do.

  1. "Vocal Techniques Learn, Laugh & Interact at Www.vocalist.org.uk." Vocalist. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://www.vocalist.org.uk/vocal_techniques.html>.

Singing is all about the voice, there are many different techniques and forms of singing depending on where and how you sing for example an opera singer uses different techniques than a choral singer. I want to talk about some of the techniques we use because they will be shown in the video, I don’t know much about the techniques and this website will help expand my knowledge. This is a reliable source because after each technique they give a description and where you can find more information.

  1. "How the Voice Works." American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. 2014. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://www.entnet.org/content/how-voice-works>.

When you sing you use your voice. This is my extent of knowledge on the voice, being someone who sings in a choir it important to know about the voice, your voice. This website describes how sound is produced from your voice, it breaks it down so that I’ll be able to explain it. This is a reliable source because the person that created the site knows a lot about the voice.

  1. "How To Sing Properly." Become-A-Singing-Master.com. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://www.become-a-singing-master.com/how-to-sing-properly.html>.

Singing properly is something my choir director talks about but I never knew why, so this is one of the things I wanted to explore deeper in my project. This website talks about why singing properly is important and how to do that. This is a reliable source because this person has experience singing.

  1. "Winging It." : The History of the Choir. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://birdsoftheair.blogspot.com/2006/07/history-of-choir.html>.

Half of my project is a documentary and half of my project is talking about the history of church choirs because my choirs is a choir that sings a lot of spiritual songs. This website talks about why church choirs sing mainly spiritual songs when they could sing a wide range of genres. This is a reliable source because the person who wrote the website was in a church choir.

  1. "Determine Things That Can Damage Your Singing Voice." - VisiHow. Web. 05 Feb. 2016. <http://visihow.com/Determine_Things_That_Can_Damage_Your_Singing_Voice>.

This website is about different ways you can damage your voice. One of the ways that you can damage your voice described on the website and the most common is by singing incorrectly, by not getting enough breath or trying to sing lower or higher than you know you can.




Capstone from maggie on Vimeo.

GARY GARY Captsone

Posted by August Polite in Capstone - Manuel - Wed on
​CHAPTER ONE
The letter 

The year 1∆6 was a fateful one for the children of Buge. Its early winter months saw my holy pilgrimage to the Buge zone, in the good company of my only two true friends. To provide a better painting of the trek as a whole, I feel obliged to begin my recitation a month before cast off. The first member of the expedition was my good friend Johan, thick-skinned yet manic, an artist relentlessly tormented by existence outside of composing. And, as an aspiring music-man, young Johan wished to test his mettle as a composer through confrontation with the Master Buge. I admired his youthful passion and, as is probably best described in our second round of correspondence, I adored his compositions. The two of us shared a stomping ground and had each witnessed the other in youth, if only in periphery here or there; for in the old boxing town of Lar Grotis, where nothing much happened, it seemed like no one much cared. Despite our hometown’s banality, Johan managed to cross paths and feed each other's cynicism beautifully. We bonded over such issues as passwords, naming conventions, and video. A month into our perverse interactions, he showed me his most beautiful song in the world. That day was wordless. I can only recall our rendezvous in aisle 10 of MarketLand. Golden glory spewed from his tattered ipod and across my delicate eardrums, they thirsted for more. We ceased communication for 20 years after that encounter, rekindled our friendship //

:: :: PLEASE INSERT COIN TO PROCED :: ::



Myrna Yousuf Capstone

Posted by Myrna Yousuf in Capstone - Manuel - Wed on

The purpose of this capstone was to represent the people of SLA. I wanted to show how our school has a diverse population and that everyone is different. I also wanted an image of what SLA looks like because we cannot be defined by one thing. Our school has so many people with different stories, ideas, and thoughts. I submitted my capstone proposal with my idea and got it approved and had my Mentor Ms. Giknis help me plan out what I should be doing. I collaborated with my partner Avery to get started on this project.

I decided to tell the stories of people through photos and words attached to them on a Facebook and Instagram page. Throughout the school year I worked with my partner Avery to create these posts on our social media page. Then I decided to represent each grade at SLA through an interview podcast series as my own individual product. Each interview is with a student in each grade and they share their views and experience at SLA.




Zack Hersh Capstone

Posted by Zack Hersh in Capstone - Pahomov - Wed on
I used my capstone to do something that I have always wanted to do: get a band together. After beginning drums at the start of high school, immensely enjoying the instrument and the experience of learning and getting better, and progressing as a musician and as a drummer, forming and playing in my own band was always the logical next step. My project consisted of getting a group of musicians together—who I could get along with, and who were passionate and talented—then with that group going through the process of writing, practicing, polishing, performing, recording, and ultimately producing original and cover songs. 

My capstone had a second part, which was organizing and running the music club to engage and contribute to the SLA music community in another way. This was a smaller element, and went very well until the club took a hit from spring sports starting and lost too many of its members to continue functioning.

My goals for what we would do as a band changed significantly as the project progressed. There was no lack of obstacles, especially assembling the right group, which was challenging and took a good deal of time. Midway through the year though, once we were together and meeting every week, it went very well, and we were able to make good progress and enjoy ourselves. In the end, we fully created an EP with two original songs—written, practiced, performed, and recorded as a group—and one cover song that reflects us as musicians. 

The digital evidence of this project, our band's Bandcamp, with online audio files and digital downloads for each song, can be found here (or at 302b.bandcamp.com). For my annotated bibliography, click here. 

Lauren Hummel Capstone

Posted by Lauren Hummel in Capstone - Jonas - Wed on

The process of choosing a capstone was not an easy one for me. I first chose to work with Habitat for Humanity for my capstone and to get a group of students involved in service project through the organization. After a few months of planning, scheduling, and organizing, I learned that my plan was not going to work. With a mere two months left to complete a capstone I was proud of, I talked to John Kamal and Alex Gilliam to come up with a capstone. The idea we came up with consisted of a series of building projects that would benefit the school in some way whether through the classroom environment or simple improvements. 

The results of this project were two table-top lecterns for Ms. Martin, and a shelf that Ms. Giknis can set speakers up on. It is all visible through a website I created to display the work I have done so anyone can see. I had to learn how to better use various tools. From doing this, I learned that I should always have a backup plan, and a backup-backup plan. I have learned that there is a lot of value in asking for help, which I have always struggled with. I also now know there is a lot of work that goes into a project like this and I highly respect the process. I have learned a lot through completing this capstone and although it was a difficult process, I am happy with the result.




​I have chosen to present my capstone in the format of a website that can be accessed through this link or the link below. 



My annotated bibliography is also presented below.
CapstoneAnnotatedBibliography_Hummel

Isabella Beato's Capstone

Posted by Isabella Beato in Capstone - Martin - Wed on
For my project I planed a Sports Banquet. This banquet was suppose to honor the SLA seniors because many people don't play sports after high school. For my process I started to locate places. My first place was the Waterfall room in south Philadelphia. We had everything planned for this place but a little gift fell into my lap. The SLA soph Hop was planned at poppies and fell through because of small ticket sales. I received the deposit from that event and moved my capstone there, making me have to due less fundraising. After much outreach we were unable to make enough ticket sales and canceled the event. Hopefully a rising senior will pick up my idea and really try to make this a thing. 

The bibliography can be found here. 
Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 6.00.46 PM
Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 6.00.46 PM

Bacteriophages

Posted by Raz Reed in Science And Society - Best - Y on
A bacteriophage is a virus. A virus is any pathogen that can only replicate in the living cells of other organisms. They are not considered "alive" by most scientists because of their relatively simple structure compared to even the simplest life forms. In fact, some viruses have as few as 1300 nucleotides -- whereas humans have 3 billion. They say that all the DNA in one human cell, when stretched out, would be roughly 6 feet long. For many viruses, that length could be measured in micrometers.
Viruses only do one thing: make more of themselves. Many viruses, such as bacteriophages, do this by consuming their host. The word "bacteriophage" is derived from "bacteria" and "phagein," which is Greek for "devour." The below image shows the anatomy of a bacteriophage.
bacteriophage-diagram
bacteriophage-diagram
​ In order for a bacteriophage to reproduce, it must first find a cell. It has no way of propelling itself so it must float around until it comes in contact with a receptor on the surface of the cell. Its tail fibers attach around the receptor and flex to bring its base plate closer to the surface until it is bound there. It is able to do this because of ATP in each tail. Then, the bacteriophage's genetic material in its head is pumped into the cell. Once this occurs, the bacteriophage is, for all intents and purposes, "dead."
But that's not the end of it -- the cell's ribosomes start translating the viral mRNA instead of cell mRNA. As a result, instead of doing normal cell things such as synthesizing proteins, the cell starts making copies of the bacteriophage using the mRNA as a blueprint. The cell ceases all normal function and only makes these copies until its membrane collapses and many new bacteriophages are released.
Here's a video of the process.

In 1896, Ernest Hankin collected a sample of water from the Ganges River that cholera bacteria. He noticed that something was killing the cholerae but could not figure out what. It remained a mystery until 1915, when Twort discovered the extremely tiny little entities responsible, bacteriophages. His findings were later confirmed by a scientist known as Félix d'Hérelle who took part in this discovery.
D'Hérelle conceptualized a practical application for bacteriophages, a process called phage therapy. Phage therapy is the use of bacteriophages (and/or other bacteria-killing viruses) to fight bacterial infection. Phage therapy gained support from medical professionals in the US and Soviet Georgia, but in the US its practice was short-lived as antibiotics, considered a better method than phage therapy, was discovered only several years after. However, phage therapy is currently being revisited in research as a counter to anthrax and botulism. Here is a culture of bacillus anthracis (anthrax) awhile after bacteriophages were added.
anthraxxx
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​Bibliography:

Kadija`s 5-minutes of Science

Posted by Kadija Koita in Science And Society - Best - E on


Science

An orgasm is an intense height in pleasure during sexual activities, often called climaxing. During an orgasm, the brain receives a lot of nerves that flow through to the pleasure part of the brain, the same part that lights up when we eat something that we really like. This part also lights up during drug use, so when people say they are ‘addicted’ to love, they are telling the truth.  During an orgasm, muscle contractions in the pelvic and genital region take place. They are controlled by the autonomic nervous system, which also causes involuntary muscle spasms, and frequent body movements. After an orgasm, the body usually experiences the refractory period, which is the recovery for both parties. Men experience an increase of hormone oxytocin, which can be the determining factor that they can not orgasm right after the first one.


Society

A study at Rutgers University observed six fully ejaculatory orgasms were experienced in one male, although very rare. 18-year old man's refractory period is about 15 minutes, and 70-year old men are about 20 hours, but the average man is about 36 minutes. There are a lot of physiological changes as well, such as a relaxed mind caused by prolactin. Also it helps with breast cancer cells., because the oxytocin can help prevent the development of breast cancer cells


Self

I had no idea that an orgasm was connecting to all these things. I think that society makes it look a certain way that makes it not have all these beneficial attributes that can actually help your body. I mean, I don't have anything to say about it, but that abstinence is always key.

Work Cited:

  • "What Is an Orgasm?" - Health Questions. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.

"Anatomy of a Climax." EverydayHealth.com. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.


Jiwon Choi Capstone

Posted by Jiwon Choi in Capstone - Kamal - Wed on
​ “What do you want to become later on in life?” At the age of 18, students have to figure out what they want to major in college and even potentially know what career they want to have in the future. However, many high school students do not necessarily know what type of field they want to go in. Even if they do know, they might believe that their dream career is too unsustainable in financial terms to actually have the confidence of continuing on that route. With all the pressure, many individuals can feel very anxious and afraid about not knowing or being clueless about the future.
Therefore, Brandon and I did a capstone on “Job Exploration”. The purpose of this capstone is to inform students what certain jobs are truly like. We wanted to be able to give a clearer view of what a particular job entails. In order to accomplish this goal, we interviewed people with different professions and heard their life stories involving the work they do and how they got there in the first place. Throughout the course of senior year, Brandon and I were able to interview psychology professor, musician, artist, and a lab technician together. I was also able to interview a small business owner and nail technician, and a seamstress by myself. As a final product showcasing what we have done, I made interview videos. For individuals that I could not film, I made a transcript of the interviews.
Here are the links to the people interviewed:
Small business owner and nail technician: https://youtu.be/NL4myKlT9Qc
Psychology Professor: https://youtu.be/cvXoqUWJbXg
Free Lance Musician: https://youtu.be/cvXoqUWJbXg

Here is the google doc to the transcript of people I interviewed and couldn't get on video: 

Here is the link to my bibliography: 

Sleep Paralysis.

Posted by Adowa Mohamed in Science And Society - Best - Y on
​Science:
- When entering REM sleep, the brain shuts down the release of certain neurotransmitters and causes paralysis. 
- sleep paralysis is one common symptom of narcolepsy, most sufferers are not narcoleptic.
- Occurs during REM sleep when awoken from it. It is the transitions between sleep and being awake.


Society:
- nearly a third of americans are sleep deprived and irregular sleep partners are the leading causes of sleep paralysis. Being sleep deprived can lead to many different sleep disorder. 


Self:

- I have been having sleep paralysis for almost 3 years now and it has been something that very much interested me. So I decided to present about it. 

Tauqee Friend Capstone

Posted by Tauqee Friend in Capstone - Martin - Wed on

For my capstone I got in contact with the faculty of stenton family manor a non-profit organization that shelters homeless families and scheduled a feeding for the different families and employee’s. This is one of the many things I’ve been exposed to growing up. Since my parents are advocates for the homeless because of the involvement it has with my Masjid a lot have my weekends have went to feedings, gathering old clothes or things of that nature for different shelters. After I got in contact with some of the faculty about when I could come and do a feeding and what kind of food I would bring me and my mom took a trip to BJ’s and brought a few things for the feeding. The only available time slot was after dinner so I didn’t want to give them another full course meal so I just bought a few cases of different snacks along with some water. I fed the kids first to see if I had enough food for everyone but by the end there was a lot of extra but I let the shelter keep it for when they feed them tomorrow. The purpose of this was to make my own difference with my own leadership. Even though I have helped a lot in the past this project was about me taking control and organizing something that I am passionate about.


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Nicholas LePera Capstone

Posted by Nicholas Lepera in Capstone - Manuel - Wed on

Stress factors into everything that happens in your day. It can provide the motivation you need to complete an important task, or it can be debilitating and block your goals. Stress is a huge issue in society and the largest issue is the lack of knowledge people have on it, and how it is sociologically stamped out as an unimportant topic. My capstone goal was study stress through a survey response system, and from various medical journals, and other credible sources.  

My initial goal was to drive an exchange of dialogue between myself and takers of my survey, however few were willing to respond. I received a total of 23 responses out of roughly 500. This was disheartening, but I quickly shifted my eyes toward existing studies and built the foundation knowledge to create an infographic. I began by detailing stress and methods to overcome it that people can use to their advantage.

Overall, I found that this setback worked for me in the end. I found that I learned far more with peer-reviewed medical journals and other materials that furthered my existing knowledge of the issue. The product I am left with are a survey, a paper, and an infographic. My capstone gave me an opportunity to dabble in fields of study I will likely encounter in college as a biochemistry major on a pre-professional track towards Physical Therapy.

Capstone Product:

Sattera Mark Capstone

Posted by Sattera Mark in Capstone - Pahomov - Wed on

Since the beginning of the year I knew that I wanted to work and get involved with children. I’ve volunteered with kids before but that organization that I was with had closed down. Therefore, I thought that my senior project would be a perfect way to interact with kids again.  At the start of the project I started volunteering with a daycare but I felt like I needed to do more. In order to add to my project starting looking at other groups and organizations that I could volunteer with. After not having any luck with that I realized that I could make a difference in the organization that I was already involved with. That organization is my church, Faith Tabernacle. I noticed that the kids around weren’t really into service and didn’t really have anything to do there. Especially since children’s church had stopped. My church is also in the heart of North Philadelphia and it’s not in the best area. So now I had two goals; I wanted to get the kids back interested in church and get the community involved in a positive way.


The way I achieved this was by setting up an Easter Party outside of my church on March 26, 2016. I started planning this in early February. In preparation for the event I first had to get permission from my Pastor and Youth Pastor. Then I became the church assistant secretary. It became my job to type and put together the bulletins every Saturday. These bulletins had a list of the church’s schedule and events. I made sure I put in a memo about the easter program in there every week. The next thing I had to do was get sponsors and buy supplies for the event and ask my church to donate some money for the youth. Mrs. Carter was a big help and donated a big box of easter eggs and prizes for the kids and Ms. Darcel and Mrs. Diane prepared lunch for the kids. I also had many helpers who set up and watched the kids with me. We also had to make flyers to pass out around the neighbor and surprisingly many of the neighborhood kids came and enjoyed themselves at the party. At the party the kids played games, won, prizes, and enjoyed good food and candy. The event overall was very successful.


Bibliography


Citation #1

http://teaching.monster.com/benefits/articles/1930-tips-for-teachers-working-with-children-who-are-shy#comment_form


Barbara Markway, and Gregory Markway. "Tips for Teachers: Working with Children Who Are Shy." Teaching. Ed. Jill Hare. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2016. This article was written to help teachers who are experiencing some issues with shy children in their class. The article gives some tips on how to get a shy child out of their shell. The article recommends placing shy children with children they know so they socialize more and making their strengths an opportunity for them to help others in an area where they're lacking. Along with this tip there are many others which are good for pin pointing different ways to help a child open up. This article was useful to me because for my capstone I will be working with all types of children and I may face a couple who are timid and shy. When I do I will look back at this article and use this to help this child. This article is different from others because it only focuses on one type of child. Other websites focus on all types of children and how to be a better teacher in general.



Ciation #2 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/05/17/how-to-become-a-great-mentor/#2715e4857a0b173bf055449e


Jacquelyn Smith. "How to Be a Great Mentor." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 17 May 2013. Web. 02 Feb. 2016. This article focused on what is means to be a mentor and the great responsibility one has when they take the roll to be an example in another person’s life. The article expounded on being there for a mentee making sure a mentor creates an atmosphere that's warm and open and that there's trust in the relationship. For example, the article said to make sure that the mentee feels comfortable enough to ask the “stupid questions that everybody wants to ask”. I like this article because it lets the readers know how influential a mentor can be on someone’s life.  This article, unlike others explains mentorship in a unprogrammed way. Sometimes there is to set way to be a mentor when every relationship is unique in its own way. The article emphasizes the importance of getting to know the person relationship development.


Citation #3


"Brain Architecture." Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Harvard University, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. This article focused on how early childhood experience affect the child’s brain. When a Child is born they already have brain cells that will carry them out into adulthood. The article also focused on the the scientific aspect of brain development. The article had interesting facts. An interesting fact I found was that simple neural connections and skills form first and that in the first few years of life there are 700 to 1,000 new neural connections every second. This article was produced by Harvard University. The specific author isn’t named but it’s clear that the author had a clear understanding on the topic. The is also  article was directed towards anyone who is trying to get a better understanding of how a child’s brain works. Maybe towards middle school children on up. This article complements my capstone project because it gives me a better understanding of children's behavior is this is important because I will be working with them.


Citation #4  https://www.extension.purdue.edu/providerparent/child%20growth-development/braindev.htm


Jeppson, Jandy. "Brain DevelopmentAuthors: Jandy Jeppson with Judith A. Myers-Walls and Dee Love." PPP: Child Growth & Development || Brain Development || Brain Cells Connect. Purdue University, 2013. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. This article focuses on the brain growth of children. The article talks about how children are always exploring different things as their brain develop. They may throw a chair just to see that it’s able to move in that way. Kids may also ask a lot of questions because they want to understand what’s going on around them. A total of three people wrote this article. The format of the article was neat and well planned out. All three of the authors collaborated great together to create this article. This article could be geared towards kids that are in middle school on up. However I think the article would be best for parents or teachers. This article is similar to the one in citation three. They both explain the scientific part of a child’s brain and how that affects their behavior and development. This article would help me with my capstone by giving me a better understanding of a child’s behavior.



Citation #5 http://www.pgbovine.net/ta-tips.htm


Guo, Philip. "First -Time Teaching Assistants." Philip Guo -. N.p., Nov. 2006. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. This article was good for many helping hints for people who are assistant teachers. Being an assistant teacher may be scary for those who are taking on this role for the first time. If a person feels this way this article will do a great job of releasing some of the stress. I would recommend this article article to first time teachers or someone who has to speak out in a large group of people. The author of the article wrote and used his personal experiences to try to relate to his readers. The author also spoke fluently and eleven different points that explained his reasons for why he gave the tip. This article is different from others because the writer expresses his personal experiences and talks about how he learned from them. This article will help me with my capstone because it will gives me some tips on how to be a successful assistant teacher.



Citation #6  https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/100-day-kit/ten-things-every-child-autism-wishes-you-knew


Notbohm, Ellen. "Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew." Autism Speaks. Future Horizons, Inc, 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. This article focuses exclusively on how to treat children with autism. It highlights how children with autism should be treated just like every other child and then learning how those children are different from other children. It also explains how to interpret different things they’re trying to express. For example, the article explained the difference between (I choose not to) and can’t (I am not able to). I think this website would be very helpful for people who work with children with autism and to parents of an autistic child. This article is from a book. The author of this book sounds educated and has a clear understanding of children with autism. This website was helpful to me because I may begin working with a child with autism and now I feel like I can understand them better. I think the website is a great source and that everyone who had to face autism should read this.



Citation #6 https://www.asaecenter.org/Resources/ANowDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=49760


"ASAE ® The Center for Association Leadership." Mentoring Relationships 101: How to Be a Great Mentor - Associations Now Magazine. N.p., May 2010. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. This article talked about the importance of being a good mentor. Mentor always are the ones who seem to be doing most of the talking and the one who should be giving all the guidance. However, this article makes it clear that it’s okay to let your mentee talk and share the conversation. The article gave its readers 14 excellent tips on how to be the mentor ever. I would recommend this article to anyone who’s seeking advice on how to be a leader. The author is obviously educated and was great at organizing their thoughts and the outline of the website.  


Citation #7  http://franchisegrowthpartners.com/mentoring


"Top 10 Qualities of a Good Mentor." Top 10 Qualities of a Good Mentor. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. This website expounded great on how to be an effective mentor and youth leader. With today’s youth good mentors are greatly needed. The article talked about how teen pregnancy rates and drug use rates among teens are decreasing. The article expressed that in order to keep this progress going steady we mentors must continue this good work and be patient with our mentors. The article gave its readers ten important tips on how to be an effective leader. I would recommend this article to anyone who’s seeking advice on how to be a great mentor and make a difference in people’s lives. The author shows that they’re educated and great at organizing their thoughts by the way they chose to convey this message.   


Citation #8 http://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2012/10/15/8-important-tips-for-working-with-a-special-needs-child/


"8 Important Tips For Working With A Special Needs Child." Friendship Circle Special Needs Blog. N.p., 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. In this article a mother expresses her concerns for her 11 year old special needs son. Her son had reached an age where he was able to participate in community activities. The mother uses this article to share some of the tips she uses with her own son and what works for her. This article was very insightful because with me working with children I might come across a child that might need a little more attention than the others. I would recommend this article to all teachers and to parents with a special needs child.


Citation #9 http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/five-persistent-behavior-problems-and-how-handle-them-grades-6-8


Shalaway, Linda. "Five Persistent Behavior Problems and How to Handle Them (Grades 6-8) | Scholastic.com." Scholastic Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

By working in a classroom of kids, teachers are bound to encounter students that have behavior problems or students that need a little more attention. In this article by Linda Shalaway she gives tips to teachers who are facing these types of issues. The kids she’s describing are kids that are usually in grades six through eight. I would recommend this article to all teachers who are dealing with behavior problems within their classroom. The author of this article seems to have a great deal of experience with children or may be a psychologist. She writes fluently and efficient.


Citation #10


"Golden Rules for Engaging Students in Learning Activities." Edutopia. N.p., 08 Dec. 2014. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. This article gives teachers examples of way to keep students engaged and active in class. To most students school is portrayed as boring but this article gives teachers tips that can help move students away from that type of mindset. I would recommend this article to all teachers. the authors of this article is very short and straight to the point.


Heaven Mendez- Capstone

Posted by Heaven Mendez in Capstone - Pahomov - Wed on
​After a long, grueling four years, you tend to have a lot to say, and no platform to share those thoughts with, and while blogs are totally socially acceptable, having created maybe eight or nine of them, it loses it's effectiveness. The product of nearly a year and a half of work, comes This Book Got Me 302'd, my own take at trying to process the last few years of my life. Part memoir, part completely drawn out, teary rant, this book is an extension of myself, in the written world. I tried to create something that best utilizes my skills, while still having the ability to mean something more than a couple hundred pages thrown together. It's not everyday you get the chance to actually sit down and write for a purpose. This is probably one of my greatest pieces coming out of SLA, something I'm extremely proud of, and something that hopefully leaves something meaningful behind to anyone who happens to read it.


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How to Lie with Statistics Podcast #1

Posted by Amelia Stuart in Statistics - Miles - C on
The members present for this podcast were Javier, Gina, Amelia, and Naomi. The discussion was dominated by two salient points: that the cases used to explain statistics were relatively simple and that it is fairly easy to manipulate information. These two driving objectives turned out to be intimidating realizations for the four of us due to the mass media consumption that takes place in this day and age. An example of what was discussed that was easily manipulable and yet simple was data graphs. If one were to zoom in on a graph it can change how the information looks. The whole group thought that was weird. The group also spent a lot of time on what an average was and how there are different types of averages. Lastly, the group was on agreement with everything that was discussed including the over length of the novel.

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Joie Nearn- SLA School Spirit

Posted by Joie Nearn in Capstone - Manuel - Wed on
Abstract: 
During the past four years, I have noticed a lack of school spirit in our close knit school environment. In order to enhance this, I decided to create the Spirit Committee, this involved creating the major school events such as pep rallies, school dances and the house competitions. 

To start this process I worked closely with the teachers, to help set up a house system. This included, breaking the school into six groups. Each group had a senior, junior, sophomore, and freshman. The names of the houses were, Pegasus, Perseus, Hercules, Phoenix and Aquilla. I worked really hard to direct all five-hundred SLA students. 

The first event was our the meeting and introduction of the houses. This was very stressful because of the lack of space that we have in our school. The only way for this to happen was to put each house in a different area of the school. I felt that would be a start to a great school year. 

The next event was a pep rally, introducing all of the fall sports, and all of the major announcements that were going on at the time. We ended off with a great dance contest. After this experience I knew we were off to a great start! 

At this point I got the idea to start a Spirit Committee. These were a group of students that helped me with the school dances; selling tickets, finding a location, and helped making it a great time. 

This idea that I had was great! I hope in the future SLA continues to have this house system. 

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Peer Tutoring Capstone

Posted by Daniel Ross on
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How has my Capstone impacted the community? Statistics show that one on one learning is more effective than learning in big groups. It’s also beneficial for peers to open up and not be afraid to ask each other for help and it would help save time because the teacher would not have to spend time reteaching those who don’t pick up concepts as fast as others. For my capstone, I ran a peer tutoring program across two freshman Algebra 1 classes. The pairs/groups meet twice a week to work on homework, benchmarks, and study for quizzes and re-quizzes.They meet after school on Tuesday with the supervision of me and/or my capstone partners and once more some time later in the week, unsupervised. I worked with three other people but we all had different responsibilities. I was in charge of making sure everything went smoothly and everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing. However, we were not the only four seniors that came and helped out. Some of the other seniors liked my program and decided to stop by and help some freshmen who were still struggling with concepts.


Across the two Algebra classes, there was a total of fourteen students who attended. The students had incentives for coming every Tuesday. For every two meetings they came to, they earned a homework pass but it wasn’t the incentives that kept them coming. They really enjoyed helping each other. My capstone has impacted the SLA community because it has taught them that they shouldn’t be afraid to ask each other for help. They even stopped asking the teacher for help every time they ran across a problem, instead they started asking each other.
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Kristina's Captsone

Posted by Kristina Scalia-Jackson in Capstone - Bey - Wed on

How does it feel to be hungry on the streets of Philadelphia? I went into this 80 hour journey with a plan to just feed the homeless; expecting to see the superficial effects of street life through appearances. I expected everyone in need walking by to accept the offered water, take an extra napkin, welcome a warm meal. I never imagined pride becoming such a motivating factor behind who accepted the meal and who didn’t.

My capstone centered around homelessness; even those too prideful to admit they need a hand. I originally planned to open the SLA doors and host the “soup kitchen” in our cafe on a lonely Saturday morning. With some help, I budgeted how much money I would need in order to feed an estimated shelter. It wasn’t cheap; so I fundraised through the SLA community as much as I could before the big event.

That big event was unfortunately pushed back a while, leaving me room to explore more shelters and central ideas behind my capstone. I started to develop an outside mentor, one who has a heavy foot in the recovering addict community. He helped me acknowledge why some people end up on the streets, and why some people are hesitate in lending a hand.

We reached out to shelters in Kensington area, local to his rooming home for men and women suffering with substance abuse issues. We spread the word that there would be warm lunches available on Saturday. Spreading the word became easy; people in the rooming home started telling friends and the turnout was great.

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"Www.phillyvetshouse.org." Philadelphia Veterans House. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016


This source represents more than just a webpage. The philadelphia veteran house was one of the original shelters i reached out too; completely lost on how to bring my capstone to life. I originally thought I would have to scrap them as they have a volunteer application process and deadline, but they were still able to provide me plenty of information about veterans in our area.

Through their website and telephone communications, I was able to get an understanding of how volunteers begin their process. This source allowed me to keep in contact with them for questions, concerns and help spreading the word.



"Wish List." Philadelphia Veterans House. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.


This section of the Philadelphia Veteran House was extremely helpful throughout this whole process. As simple as it sounds, by listing all the supplies they use and need donations of on a daily basis, I was able to gauge what supplies was really necessary for me to ask for. Having such a successful guide also helped me compile a “wish-list” of my own to pass along to the Community Involvement Club. There were many times google searches for supply lists needed for a soup kitchen stretched 4 pages long, while this one listed necessary and realistic supplies I should aim to buy.



Volz, Cat. "What Does It Feel like to Be Homeless and Poor in America?"What Does It Feel like to Be Homeless and Poor in America? Quora, n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.


I stumbled upon this source miraculous, simply looking for more accurate supplies list. Not knowing what food is appropriate to serve and what is not, I searched for actual experiences. This source gave a tremendous first hand encounter on how it was to be on the streets- for the exact minute she was able to get off. This opened up a whole other door to my capstone leaving me to ask much bigger questions about who I was truly appealing too. Having this inside knowledge I was able to brainstorm ways to incorporate her feelings into how I both presented my capstone and spoke about it.




"Facts on Homelessness." Project HOME. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.


This source was different than what I was used too, which helped me put some things into perspective. Majorly a statistics page, it offered insight into homelessness nationwide, even narrowing into veterans. By going in depth about the homelessness rates fluctuation, I was able to examine any outside factors effecting that change. The source also offered useful information about what population of our nation is homelessness, ie. their age and sex. It even discuss possible causes of homelessness, which in itself suggests ways to fix the system. This simple source also offers statistics specific to Philadelphia, and whether they are sheltered or unsheltered.




Leal, Daniel, Marc Galanter, Helen Dermatis, and Laurence Westreich. "Correlates of Protracted Homelessness in a Sample of Dually Diagnosed Psychiatric Inpatients." Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 16.2 (1999): 143-47. National Coalition for the Homeless. Web. 17 May 2016.


As my capstone shifted away from veterans, I developed a new focus area for homelessness. The addiction community is heavily scrutinized while also being heavily judged. My outside mentor is certified in the addiction field, but he dealt with recovering addicts. This source gives information about the substance abuse effects on homelessness and how it differs from the average homeless person. This source was very useful because it also paired with other coexisting issues besides substance abuse. Besides explaining how the addiction cycle could lead to homelessness very easily, the source gives background to how the state is involved in limiting addict homelessness.




"Overdose Deaths Among Homeless Persons." National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). N.p., 18 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 May 2016.


This source discusses the effects of substance abuse in homelessness. This source specifically overviews the different substances that may be abused so much to the point of overdosage. This source made me do a double take because at first it seemed unreliable. Despite being a .gov and seemingly trusting website, I was hesitate to trust the information on this particular page; I had nothing to verify this data was accurate. But after researching more on the National Institute on Drug Abuse website I feel more confident that is is a trustworthy source. This source is helpful with understanding the effects of homelessness; even if that person is an addict.



Zalot, Morgan, and Vince Lattanzio. "Homeless Youth: A Silent Epidemic."NBC 10 Philadelphia. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.


This source is extremely different from the previous ones my research has been based off of. This article was published by NBC 10 News, regarding the dangerous epidemic on homelessness in youth. After reading this article a few time I was not going to reference it because of the person nature the author wrote the article in to try and engage your sympathy and concern. It seemed forced, or like it was fitting into an image. But as I read the comments and reread the person accounts, I realized the author succeeds in using these youths to make a point.


Hughes, Ryan. "Kensington Sees Largest Increase of Homeless Individuals during 2015 Count." Philadelphia City Paper. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.


This source gets very specific about homelessness in the Kensington Philadelphia area. This source discussing the dramatic rate increase that Kensington experienced for its homeless citizens and suggests people may not want to even go into a city shelter. Since this article is so short, I was not originally going to cite it. But the discussion on the homeless not wanting to go into city shelters sparked my interest for further research and became a very useful source. The personal accounts, and empathize on their polite attitude, became extremely useful in mentor conversations. It provoked conversations about living conditions for homeless; there is a major difference between shelters and housing.



Mago, Vijay K., Hilary K. Morden, Charles Fritz, Tiankuang Wu, Sara Namazi, Parastoo Geranmayeh, Rakhi Chattopadhyay, and Vahid Dabbaghian. "BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making." Analyzing the Impact of Social Factors on Homelessness: A Fuzzy Cognitive Map Approach. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.


On first glance, this source seemed great. It had every analysis of societal impact on homelessness, and vice versa. As I read through this source, I realized a lot of the information was fluffed up. This source went in depth with the government's impacts on homelessness, whist including graphs to backup all data referenced. This gave me confidence in the source as each important statistic had another reference point to back it up. The source was also useful because of the explanatory graphs that connected to the text. At times there were some extremely statistic things, strictly formulas, but otherwise it the source was beneficial.



Sands, Jim, and Jill Atkey. "Homelessness." SpringerReference (n.d.): n. pag. Nov. 2009. Web. 17 May 2016.

This source is beneficial on almost every page. Instead of deeply analysing the societal effects of homelessness, this source depicts how homelessness affects everyone, not just the homeless. This has to do with mental illness, troubled/misunderstood youth, substance issues and many more important factors.  The source becomes extremely useful as they examine different forms of homelessness. This is the most relatable source I have found as it does not try and sugar coat the impacts of homelessness, rather simply explains how certain factors impact each other. This source also uses many visuals to back up their cited facts, giving me confidence in their reliability.


Thinking In Color Capstone

Posted by Sydne Hopkins-Baker in Capstone - Martin - Wed on
​Thinking in Color is my last big project at SLA before I graduate and move on to college. For my capstone I originally wanted to paint a mural outside the school, so people can really get a feel for what SLA is really about, because we’re more than a science school. Due to codes and rules it would have been easier if I painted inside the school. So with talking to my partner in crime we are doing a mini course for freshman and we will be painting a mural on the ceiling of our cafeteria.  For my capstone I ran a mini course with Britt A. and we thought freshman about the art of science. During the course we explained how famous artist used science to paint and use techniques like optical illusion, making even lines, how to make paint and colors look the way they do and in the end they painted murals. We had two sets of mini courses each one running for, four weeks. The first one was painted on ceiling tiles in the middle of the caffettiera and we learned from that, that it’s harder to paint because you have the take the tiles down and put them back up and that process took longer than expected. The second mini course we decided to paint a wall because people would be able to see it better and there wouldn’t be holes in the ceiling where the tiles would be. Throughout the capstone I learned that painting take more time than the other kids before me made it seem, especially because we were still teaching the kids, and we had designated painting times. The best part about the capstone is we donated all the paint we didn't use and extra paint brushes back to the school and the art program.

Annotated Bibliography can be found here
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Caitlin Keough Capstone

Posted by Caitlin Keough in Capstone - Martin - Wed on
My Capstone was inspired by the internship I have had at my old elementary and middle school, Green Woods Charter School, for the past three years. Over the course of the past five years GWCS has changed a lot and collectively been in four very different school buildings. The school currently resides in it's permanent location that they built from the ground up. Not only is the school in a brand new building, but the GWCS community has more than doubled and there are a lot of families that aren't as familiar with what GWCS is all about. The adjusting process was difficult so for the first part of my Capstone I made a informational brochure for prospective families to use to get a glimpse at the school. 
The school's campus is unique and suits GWCS's mission to create a better and more eco-friendly world. They have a lot of new technology on the grounds of their school that a lot of people have never seen before. For the second part of my Capstone, I created signs that teach visitors about the technology and have code on them that links to a website with even more information on the environmental technology that GWCS uses. 

My website can be found here. 

My annotated bibliography can be found here. 

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Jesse Shuter Capstone

Posted by Jesse Shuter in Capstone - Martin - Wed on
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​The process of going about my capstone was a unique one. It started out as one thing, but turned into another. I wanted for my capstone to grow our journalism program from the small online based class that it was, to more than that. I wanted to do this my own way. For my capstone I traveled to different sporting events as a reporter, recording certain games, taking pictures and also writing articles for journalism. This year I also became the sports editor for what is now the journalism club/class and I was able to use some of the work from my capstone on the website. I was also able to help other sports writers improve their content and become better writers. I wanted to create a lasting role that someone else could build off of when I am gone. Throughout this I learned a lot about how much editing and preparing and learning goes into using this technology for reporting. Even the simple technology that I used required a lot of editing and learning about how they worked and additional items to make them work better. There were a lot of struggles that accompanied my capstone. I had to miss classes to go to the games, I lost a lot of data throughout the process including all the video from one of the games and one of the articles crashed and had to be re-written. I enjoyed this process a lot and recommend it to future students. 

Here you will find one of my articles about the SLA Boys Baseball team. 


Annotated bibliography can be found here.

How To Lie With Statistics Ep. 1

Posted by Stephanie Dyson in Statistics - Miles - B on
This is podcast 1 of a 3-podcast series that dissects the novel, "How To Lie With Statistics" by Darrell Huff. The book itself explores the various ways that statistics are altered and used outright incorrectly to project a certain image, convey a certain feeling, or produce a certain outcome within the masses. 
In this series, Stephanie Dyson, Dillon Hershey, Maggie Clampet-Lundquist and Sean Morris look into the various themes that comprise the book and dissect what this means, not only for their high school stats class, but for the world around them. 

In this first podcast:
The group explores the overarching themes, the author's writing style, the helpfulness of the illustrations and the specific ideas within the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2. We look at various questions that often take a more psychological turn. We questioned why people lie in statistical situations, looking at how stats turns people into numbers and tries to make sense of things on a macro-scale. We also did some personal reflection on how statistics makes us question nearly everything that we hear for the better(and had some fun towards the end trying to personify the subject itself).

Enjoy and stay tuned with the squad as we continue to go forth with our inquiry on the novel! 

Music is provided for free by Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment's debut album, "Surf", which dropped May 2015.

Morgan Caswell Capstone

Posted by Morgan Caswell in Capstone - Martin - Wed on
Astronomy is always something that has been important and interesting to me, and finding a way to do something with astronomy with only a high school education proved difficult initially. The thing about astronomy and astrophysics, is that to understand the details, you often have to be an academic. 

Science fiction has also been something that I have really enjoyed throughout high school. Naturally, combing science and science fiction seemed like a logical project. In my capstone, I created a text that explored astronomy and physics through popular works of TV sci-fi, namely Doctor Who and Star Trek: The Next Generation. The book is presented in an informal way that is meant to educate the reader both about science and the science fiction itself. 

The book can be found here. 

The process paper can be found here.

Desmond O'Donovan Capstone

Posted by Desmond O'Donovan in Capstone - Bey - Wed on
           For my Capstone I conducted a survey of birds in the two Wissahickon Valley Meadows (Houston and Andorra), during the fall and spring migrations. I posted the survey results on a blog so that people could see what birds were passing through the meadows. This served as scientific data, and a reference for bird enthusiasts. I went to the two meadows on a weekly basis to count individual birds. I recorded their specific locations in the meadow, as well age, sex and the size of their flocks. At the end of each migration, I created spreadsheets accounting for each species, and each individual bird seen. This data showed how common each species was, and when they were seen. I learned about what types of birds pass through the area, and how many. I also learned more about birding and surveying. I learned about diversifying my surveys, going in different types of weather and different times of day to get a broader range of data. I learned about the birds themselves, their habits and behaviors, as well as how to better identify them. I learned how to distinguish the sexes and ages of certain species. I hope that this data can benefit the Wissahickon, and the people that bird there.