Abstract

This year has been quite interesting through the perspective of my capstone. I ended up changing my capstone to something I could not be more proud to present. Both me and my partner Lala through the weeks of April 20th, 2015 to May 1, 2015 hosted spirit week in order to help with fundraising for an academic scholarship we created. We began our Capstone by first fundraising for a scholarship award we titled The B.A.S.I.S. The B.A.S.I.S is a non-profit organization capstone that helped to fund money for students pay to for the annual "$75 Laptop Insurance". So that majority of the SLA student next year could have the opportunity to win the chance to not pay the insurance from their own inconvenienced pockets. However, we were notified that the amount for laptop insurance changed from $75 to around $40. Thus, in our first fundraising session we raised enough for 2 students to win. Based, on these numbers we decided to place the winnings between the sophomores and juniors of next year. Also, the seniors will have their own chance to win, only in their grade pool. Lastly, we will be donating a fresh lab coat, that the teachers can award to an incoming freshman for next year. In order to make people aware of this amazing opportunity we hosted spirit week.The first time we did spirit week we made it "People's Choice", where students got to decide on what days we did for that week. The next week was committee chosen. Both week’s were successful. Overall, the capstone I will be presenting in more detail was a wonderful success. 

Besides why wouldn’t anyone want to be a Bold. And. Successful. Intelligent. Scholar.

Spirit Week Days

The following days within the slideshow are some of our most successful days within spirit week. They were determined by the number of people who participated.

Annotated Bibliography

I noticed that my project really related to self empowerment and knowing “who you are in his world”. You need to be confident with yourself, in order to dress up.  Spirit Week has a lot of days that are not very socially acceptable. Thus, the reasoning behind me focusing on subjects such as “self-confidence”. So, I decided to focus on these areas for my research.

Source (1): "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are." Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are. TEDGloba, June june 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.

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This source provided information about body language. Amy Cuddy the social psychologist speaks about her take on how “body language shapes who you are”. She says that “power posing” or standing with confidence, even though you may not have confidence will help with your succession. She makes her point on how it will affect a person’s “testosterone” and the “cortisol levels in the brain”. Basically, if you act like you have together, then you will have it together. Confidence is a huge factor within this capstone. It takes a lo tout of people to come in wearing pj’s or a superhero costume. 

Source (2): Chamberlin, Judi. "National Empowerment Center - Articles." A Working Definition of Empowerment. National Empowerment Center, 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

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This source provided to be useful for its explanations on empowerment. It begins with explaining the definition, but shifts into what actually can be used to define the term. It speaks about “the elements” or empowerment. Consisting of “ Having decision-making power”, “Assertiveness”, and even “Understanding that people have rights”. It breaks it down very well using other element of empowerment as well.  It finishes up with “empowerment and rehabilitation”, where discusses that forming an empowerment has both rises and falls. Empowerment starts within and it takes a lot to use.

Source (3): Gbla, Khadija. "My Mother's Strange Definition of Empowerment." Watch Later Favorite Download Rate Khadija Gbla:. TEDxCanberra, Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

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This source provides information about two different definitions of empowerment. Speaker Khadija Gbla grew up in a world with two different definitions of the word empowerment. Gbla’ s mother thought circumcising her daughter, to eliminate any and all sexual urges was empowerment. However, the culture of Australia taught her that it was okay to want pleasure and that what her mother did was “female genital mutilation”. She explains what it was like living in a “clitoris-centric society”, and her struggle to make sure women never find this out about her. You have to be content with your body, in order to accessorize it. 

Source (4):Bronson, Mary H., and Don Merki. Glencoe Health. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.

The source provided great information on body language, helping other with their emotions, and emotions. It hits on some of the most known body language between people, signs of a persons emotions, and how to deal with some issues. It provides both the problems and resolutions for people’s life struggles. For example, the signs of when a person needs help list “feeling trapped or worrying all the time”, and “becoming increasingly aggressive, violent, or reckless”. It also list the benefits of gaining help during a person’s troubling times. The source overall is one of the best I have chosen in my research for my project.

Source (5): Rowlands, Jo. Questioning Empowerment: Working with Women in Honduras. Oxford: Oxfam, 1997. Print.

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I found this resource helpful for all of the information it provided about empowerment through the sexes. Jo Rowlands the author questions empowerment throughout the book. Rowlands explains  how “empowerment” is used so often, yet not fully defined. Through out the book empowerment is studied further about what it actually means. Giving examples of men and women and comparing the way they each approach situations. Rowlands explains how women were empowered in order to frame their experiences. The overall conclusion being that women can be empowered without major changes.

Source (6):   Bronson, Mary H., and Don Merki. Glencoe Health. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.

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This source was a little hard to connect to my project at first, but then I found it helpful. People go through life with either a “growth” or “fixed” mind set. A person with a “growth” mindset will reach higher levels. While, a “fixed” mindset wouldn’t amount to their full potential. Knowing about these terms will allow a person to understand their issues better enough to correct them using a more effective pathway. Marla Popova the author uses many quotes to describe the difference, and which one a person should flex more in their everyday life. In order to do spirit week you need to have a growth mindset.

Source (7): "The Effort Effect." Stanford Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

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In this source the author explains that a person can be more successful and push past their expectations for themselves, by just embracing their mistakes. This is something I really want our program to really make notice of to our kids. When you understand your mistakes, you learn from them. I feel like our program would thrive if it were to have a motto or “saying” behind it. Most programs with a quote or reference display a sense of unity, which I believe our project should have within it. 

Source (8): "Youth Psychology." Laura Thomas, Ph.D. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

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This source explains all of the common issues within young adolescent and young adults. They struggle with some of the same issues, however deal with them very differently. A teenager may deal with the loss of someone by crying or shutting out others around them. Opposed to a child who may not even recognize the person is missing. The source would allow me to understand how people process their emotions, through different experiences. 

Source (9): "7 Ways Stress Does Your Mind and Body Good." Ideastedcom. N.p., 16 July 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

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The source provided information about how a person stress can both heal and damage the body. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal changes the perspective of things that we originally believe about stress. She tells her patients that stress can lead to other major illnesses, but something came up and changed her perspective. It changes everything around about how people truly view stress. Spirit Week was also created to help with some of the stress happening a the time. here were a lot of standards and benchmarks and a lot of  people were freaking out. It was supposed to help relieve some stress. 

Source (10): "Want to Be Happier? Stay in the Moment." Matt Killingsworth:. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

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This source discussed about whether or not humans are happy. A researcher named Matt Killingsworth decided to find out using an app. He named it track your happiness, and it reports them back their emotions. His discovery was that we find ourselves the most happiest when we get lost in the moment. feel when people are more educated about how to interpret their emotions, they can succeed further in life. 

Abstract:

For my capstone, I wanted to do something out of my comfort zone, so I thought that it would be a good idea to teach the freshman of SLA about stars and how everything came to be in the universe. I worked alongside Alex Held, Richard Yoeun, and Brycen Itzko and together we taught the broad topic of astronomy over a four week period to the freshman. 

Much of this capstone consisted of planning out the hour and a half long lesson and making sure that the point got across through various activities and power point slides. I'd say that the most important thing that I have learned from this capstone was how to lead effectively, because when you are the teacher, you are the leader. You must guide the students in the direction that you want to teach them.

Presentation: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45339378/Capstone%20Presentation%20Michael%20Nicolella.pdf

Pictures: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45339378/Pictures%20of%20Capstone.pdf

Bibliography:

1) "Stars - NASA Science." Stars - NASA Science. NASA, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve/>.

This source is about the formation and destruction of stars. It basically talks about how stars are formed or born and how they get destroyed or die. It also goes into the many different ways stars end, like for example they make black holes or make a supernova and explode. I would consider this source very reliable, because it is from NASA. This source will mainly be used to inform me so that I actually know what I am talking about when I present It also is useful because at the bottom, it gives me links to pictures of all types of stars and things relating to this topic.

2) Greicius, Tony, and Brian Dunbar. The Dark Heart of the King. Digital image.NASA.gov. NASA, 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/gallery/pia13129.html>.

This source is a picture of a cloud of dust and gas that is located in the constellation of Cepheus. The significance of this picture is that this is the stuff that stars are formed from. This would be a good example to show to the class because I want to have something visual in my presentation that will gain the interest of the students. This source would be considered very reliable because it was taken from one of NASA’s own telescopes and it is from their website. Although this source does not provide any knowledge to me, it is important to have pictures relating to the topic, especially since it is a presentation.

3) Pitts, Derrick, Sc.D. "Talking about Presentation." Personal interview. 28 Jan. 2015.

This was a conversation that me and Derrick Pitts had about presenting to a class. The main idea that I have gotten from talking to derrick is that I can't just talk to them and tell them what they should know, I need to let them find out themselves by asking questions to the class. One thing I thought stood out was when he said something like “You are not the teacher, you are the guide” I thought that piece of advice was something that I will benefit greatly from when I teach a class. It will make everyone more interested. I think that this source is very reliable because Derrick has been teaching kids at the Franklin for a long time and he has the experience.

4) "Chandra :: Multimedia :: Stellar Evolution Activity." Chandra :: Multimedia :: Stellar Evolution Activity. NASA, Harvard University, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/flash/stellar_evolution.html>.

This source is a good visual representation of the many cycles and forms of stars. They show stars from brown dwarfs to blue supergiants. It is a great source to show to people because it puts in perspective the size of these stars. Also there is sort of an interactive element to this source that lets you click on the different types of stars which gives you some information on it. The reliability of this source is solid because is is on a .edu website and it was done in partnership with Harvard University and NASA.

5) "Stellar Spectral Types." Http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/. Hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/starlog/staspe.html>.

This source talks about the ways that we classify stars that we observe. Usually, we classify them by color and temperature. This system is important because it is how we organize all of these stars that we find when we look through our telescopes and even our own naked eye. I would trust this source because it is a .edu source and they are almost always trustworthy. This source will mainly be used to further my knowledge of how stars are classified so that I know what I am presenting about.

6) Protostar. Digital image. Http://9-6sciencegroup4.wikispaces.com/. Wikispaces, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://9-6sciencegroup4.wikispaces.com/Protostar>.

This picture is mostly just for the presentation. It is a picture of a protostar which is an early version of a star. Protostars are important because they are a good glimpse of how all stars once looked, including our sun. While I would not trust the information located in this source, I know that this picture is a good representation of what we know a protostar looks like.

7) Blue Supergiant. Digital image. NASA.gov. NASA, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/741844main_BSG.jpg>.

This picture is for the presentation that I will be using to teach the class. It is a picture of one of the biggest stars in the galaxy called a Blue Supergiant. This picture is a good way to show how big stars can be and just to show the massive scale of things in our universe. I think that this source is reliable because it is from NASA.gov which is a very reliable source when it comes to space and things involving that topic.

8) Fuchs, Miriam. "Teaching Astronomy." Personal interview. 23 Jan. 2015.

In this interview Miriam was giving useful information on my presentation and telling us how we can incorporate the facts and things like that in our presentations. This is helpful because she graduated college with an astronomy degree, which means she is trusted as a source to tell us these facts. Also one thing that was helpful was that she told us about some activities we can add to the class like making a star and then classifying it.

9) Stovall, Idriss, Ph.D. "Teaching Astronomy." Personal interview. 23 Jan. 2015.

Idriss talked about many useful teaching tips that we can use to engage the audience that we are teaching. For example he talked about the comparison of college students and high school students and how differently you have to teach to engage them. He explained that college students are more self directed, while high school students need to be a little more guided because they might not be as interested as a college student.

10) "Spectral Classification of Stars." Spectral Classification. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://astro.unl.edu/naap/hr/hr_background1.html>.

This source is more about how we classify stars and where we came up with this system called spectral classification. Using things like finding the color and amount of light emitted from stars is very important when it comes to classifying stars.  I think that this will be a useful to expand upon my knowledge of how we classify stars. I know that this source is trustable because it is a .edu website. Also, this source is from a university, which means that the information on this website is reliable.