For my 10% time project I did research on the male and female reproductive system. Since I found th majority of the information through a text book, I figured I'de make my final project on pages and turn it into a pdf. 

For this project, the most challenging part was coming up with a topic. Living in a large city there are many topics one could choose when working on a project like this. I knew that I wanted to focus on education, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to exactly talk about. At first, I was going to talk about positive stories about individuals who were apart of the Philadelphia School District, however, with lack of time and resources, I decided to talk about extracurriculars in the school district after seeing my little brother's play at his school. In the past few years, there have been many budget cuts and after-school programs and activities have been the first to go, especially those dealing with the arts. 

To be honest, I believe that stories like these go unnoticed because there are so many bad things going on in the city, the media finds it necessary to inform people about those stories before the positive ones. Many people enjoy hearing positive stories about the city, especially those dealing with the youth so I think that more stories like these should be told. However, I don't think that within the next few months this story or any similar one will be told because first off, school will be closing for the summer, and also because this has been going on for awhile now, and it's still not getting noticed by the media or the rest of the city. 

Doing this project made me learn that there are many good things about our school district. A lot of stories you hear about the Philadelphia School District are bad so hearing something good was refreshing. Also, I learned that if there are obstacles thrown at people who are determined to do something, they will find a way to get around it and do what they're passionate about. 

Shelby Harcher

Markia Johnson 

Steven Birkmire 

Ryan Francis 

• For this project, I researched the Democratic Republic of Congo and Palestine. Palestine is located in the Middle-East and the DRC is located in South Africa. I was surprised to see how these countries had so much in common when applying them to the 5 point framework. These countries had a lot of problems with climate change which affected the amount of fresh water they had access to. Not only that, but these countries have participated in multiple wars that ruin their lands and resources. 
  
  At first it was hard finding the right information for these countries. When applying the 5 pint framework, you have to look for specific events and statistics. The 5 point framework is pretty straightforward itself but finding the correct information for each country was the hardest part for me. 
  
  After putting all my information and links in a google doc that I found, I was able to start creating my presentation on Pages. Before I scored each country, I wrote how each one fit into each category then went back and decided how stable they were on each topic. 
  
  If I were to change anything about the project, I would make it more interactive and probably add hyperlinks. The reason I didn't do that was because I struggled with finding information so the websites I used weren't that reliable and I didn't want to send other people there and it not give the correct info. 
  
  
  
  

Shelby Harcher

Film Review 

Drive 

Drive isn't your typical "cops and robbers" film. The film bases its story around a guy and his car. Ryan Gosling is the driver for a getaway car which is evident in the opening scene. The opening sequence (the first 10 mins of the movie) gives you a first hand view on what it's like to be in "The Driver's" world. Showing close inside shots from the vehicle and no dialogue, you are on the edge of your seat while Gosling goes through obstacles to get away from the police. 

The opening sequence is a very important part of the film. Little to no dialogue shows exactly what kind of person The Driver is. It's clear that he has done this before based on the silence and calmness he creates. This scene gives us a view of Gosling's character without directly telling us who and what he does. Throughout the movie, Gosling's character is referred to "The Driver" showing his separation from the real world. 

Even though the opening scene portrays The Driver as a badass, of course the film creates some sort of love interest for this character. The Driver is asked to be the getaway driver for his neighbor who needs to pay back someone money, which he steals. In this important scene, the neighbor, Oscar Issac, conveniently gets killed during the robbery and conveniently leaves behind a wife. Of course this gives Gosling's character a chance to build a relationship with this woman. What kind of movie would it be if there wasn't a love story involved, especially one where she's in danger? 

The lighting in this movie was always dark and colors were bland and solid, giving you the felling of lack of liveliness and of course, danger. The Driver lives a dangerous life, which gets even more dangerous when he becomes on the bad side of the mob. Gosling's character spends the second half of the movie defending himself from the mob and of course protecting Irene's life, even if it means ruining their relationship from stomping a man's head off in an elevator. 

As the film's main storyline got more dramatic through the second half, so did the music. One particular scene where the musical score fit well was when Gosling goes to meet with the mob but ends up killing one of the members. As Gosling approaches the restaurant, which the gangsters own, a soft kind of creepy musical number plays while a woman softly sings. It gives you the vibe that something bad is going to happen, but without giving away how intense the next scene is. 

The overall story of Drive was a good one; a man, his car and danger. However, the love story was typical and unoriginal if I may say. Gosling's character made no character development and the "love story" seemed to just be there to catch the attention of a more diverse audience. 

Shelby Harcher


When looking through the data that the class came up with, the actual averages and my own, I was pretty shocked. When doing this survey, I tried to keep in mind that not all countries are like America but also not all are the complete opposite either. When it came to the question "Those who do not have access to clean drinking water." and "Those who have access to drinking water." it took me awhile to come up with percentages. At first, I wanted to give a high percentage to those who do have access to clean water, but then I remembered that come countries/places do not, so I lowered my percentage.


After comparing my percentages to the classes, I thought "okay, well we're pretty much on the same page." Once i saw how low the percentage was for those who do not have access to drinking water, I was shocked. I expected it to be higher, but then I was glad because the percentage I had was high. Not only were my percentages high for this graph, but I placed a high percentage for males who would have a secondary education.

From my understanding, most people complete high school. I didn't have knowledge for those who were in other countries, but I assumed that more people would attend school than not. When I looked at the class average, mine was higher. Once I looked at the actual averages I was confused. The real average is much higher than the class' average and as well as my own. About 65% of males do not attend secondary education, which is shocking. However, once I went on to look at my next graph (poverty) it made sense as to why the numbers come out the way they do .

I said that more people lived on more than $2 a day than those who lived on less than $2 a day. 2 dollars isn't much and yearly, it comes out to about $730. In the United States this is beyond poor.



When looking at the class average, it was split close to the middle as usual. But when looking at the real averages, it was almost split down the middle between the two as well. I didn't expect for that to happen, but when I realized how much poverty there is, it made more sense as to why the secondary education averages came out to how they did .

For my graphs, I wasn't really accurate for any of them but the closest one was for poverty. Most of my knowledge is off of what I experience in my country besides things I've seen in movies or hear about. As mention ed, the graph for secondary education shocked me the most because I just assumed that most people went to high school, but once seeing the poverty it made sense. Not knowing about other places and countries threw me off and I was just going by what I experience myself and things I've heard.

Hey guys! Sorry for the wait but Episode 2 is finally up! Check out our new segment "Friend of the day" and how our interviews went. Also a Good Friend's original MUSIC VIDEO!! Hope you guys like it. Don't forget to check us out on twitter (@TheGoodFriends) and our youtube (TheGoodFriends1). Give us feedback! We love it. Seriously. Do it.

Check out the first episode of The Good Friends! Get the latest news on movies, benchmarks, college and the do's and don'ts for Thanksgiving. Also find out who was picked to be the Thanksgiving Turkey!

Sorry it took so long to get to SLA's homepage. But for those of you who did not see the link on twitter and facebook, check it out here now! =)

The Good Friends have created their second promo video. Watch to find out what the show is going to be about and when the first episode will air. Don't forget to check out our Twitter at @TheGoodFriends and to e-mail us for more information. 

Anna Roman, Shelby Harcher, Markia Johnson, and Elisa Hyder are coming together this year to form The Good Friends. The Good Friends is a TV show pointed at SLA events and world events for our Capstone Project. The show will air once a week at the most. At least 3 of us will be on screen talking with possibly a guest at all times. The topics will vary week by week depending on the season and anything interesting going on at the time. Our first episode will be out in the upcoming weeks and will be posted on SLA's homepage (SLATE).

For the Xylophone, sound is made when the bars or pipes vibrate. When the pipes are hit, the energy is transferred to the pipes which makes them vibrates which then vibrates air particles around it. The pitch of the sound depends on the size of the pipes and also the type of material the pipe is made out of. In order to make a xylophone, I'm going to get copper pipes and use calculations to determine how long they have to be to make the notes that I want them to make. After I cut the pipes to the correct lengths, I will have them sit on a piece of wood, but make sure that the ends aren't fixed, so the pipes can vibrate.

Briana Stroman
Shelby Harcher

http://prezi.com/460o7_xauz38/the-history-of-odd-future-wolf-gang-kill-them-all/

For this project, I am planning on making a xylophone to play in our band.

How is it played? Well it's not a string, or wind instrument which means that you don't have to use your mouth or pluck your fingers. It's actually quite easy to play, all you need to do is hit the metal slates with some kind of mallet.

How do you change a note? Well there's different metal slates for each note. Some are bigger, some or smaller, depending on which note it's making.

How is it shaped? The xylophone is usually set up so that the pieces of metal are lying next to each other in a row from tallest to shortest.

How can I change sound? The different sizes of the metal make different noises, so the pitch depends on the size.

Shelby Harcher, Simone Greene, Anthony Byrd and Rick Kinard