Solar Time...

In the third and final Action Project for my Winter Term, my STEAM teacher asked me to create or innovate a time-telling device. Throughout this unit, we explored the secrets and different perceptions of time. While we studied the different techniques and devices for telling time, we also started to think about how we could create something that could potentially tell time using the units days, hours, minutes, and seconds. We also started to think about how we could improve ideas or devices that already tell time. The most important thing we tried to focus on was the video that you will see below. The creation of this video was very stressful and new to me. In this project, I tried to open my mind to new things. Designing your own clock may sound a bit crazy or impossible, but this project was extremely fun and even though the video may have been challenging, isn't that what makes projects fun?

Math Concepts: 

The circumference of the face of the watch is represented as 2piRadius. The diameter of the watch is about 1.5 inches, and since diameter is just radius times two, this means that all we now have to do is multiply 1.5 by pi. The circumference is about 4.71 inches. 

Works Cited:

Seiko "SEIKO Solar and the Environment," N.D. Web. 19 March. 2016.

Solar cooking "horace de saussure and his hot boxes of the 1700's," N.D. Web. 19 March. 2016.

Stand Up Video Game Activists!

In the third and final Action Project for my Winter Term, my Humanities teacher asked me to create a fairly balanced argument of our choice. The point of choosing the argument was to look at it from the opposing point of view and not just focus on the logic in our own. Looking at the argument from an opposing point of view allows you to be at peace with both sides, while filling in the flaws and loop-holes of your own argument. The main thing we tried to achieve throughout this project was to synthesize and create a new agreement for the better; this was about as difficult as it was fun. Throughout my last two Humanities projects, I have been able to speak my mind and I am being taught different ways to do so. I find it awesome that our school is allowing us to change our community for the better, extremely cool!

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Thesis: Video Games are quite amazing in my eyes. There’s an onslaught of negative judgment against them, but I would like to propose that we give video games a chance. Video games have been quite a positive outlet in my life. Games allow time away from stress and everything else in the world that might alter your attitude negatively.

Support 1:

"In most video games people grab a controller and watch the screen, and act as fast as they possibly can according to what is happening on the screen. This helps people improve coordination, it improves dexterity, and in some cases, it even improves reflexes." - OCCUPYTHEORY. 17 January, 2015

Support 2:
"A lot of video games require the player to go through a determined puzzle to advance in the storyline or to get to the next phase of the game. This helps the development of problem solving abilities and logical thinking, which can be used in real life." - OCCUPYTHEORY. 17 January, 2015

Support 3:
"Multiplayer video games improve teamwork, cooperation, and in some cases are a great way for social interaction. While players need to work cooperatively and act as a team to win the game, they need to communicate with each other in order to achieve success. This type of teamwork can be used in real life to improve team activities and possibly facilitate employment." - OCCUPYTHEORY. 17 January, 2015

Antithesis: Video games are addictive and promote violence, poor health, and less physical activity. Video games corrupt the summer breaks, winter breaks, and spring breaks. Games have become a poison to the academic world. which leads to less performance in class and in overall mental ability. Jack Thompson is an American activist against video games. He stated once: "Many parents think that stores won’t sell an M-rated game to someone under 17. We know that's not true, and, in fact, kids roughly 50 percent of that time, all the studies show, are able to walk into any store and get any game regardless of the rating, no questions asked." This is a problem because although there can be an acceptance of violent games, that acceptance is if there's a limitation on the ages that are playing those games. If video game distributors aren't following this rule, then under-aged children will be exposed to violent content.

With every argument, there are questions. When there are questions in an argument, generally they come from both sides. Here is a simulation of a Q&A that I created between the opposing view points:

Questions for my side: Would you want your children playing games, endorsing killing and theft?
Answer: In all honesty, my children will be allowed to play any game they want by the age of 14. Obviously I'm not a father, but children are raised how you raise them. If your children will be influenced by video games and aren't mature enough for mature content, who's fault is that? The parent/guardian in that household.

Questions for opposing side: Would you rather our children be out on the streets with our free time?
Answer: Children are influenced by their household guardian as well in this situation and if your child is in the streets, maybe that's what he sees around him.

There's one golden question though. What can both sides agree on? Well this is how I synthesized the argument between both sides:

• Games are a worldwide phenomenon and our youth can be encouraged through other ways, not to resort to violence or profane behavior. Youth are motivated by the people in their household more than anyone or anything else. It’s almost unrealistic to take away all video games from children and teenagers across the world. We can continue to do what we can to motivate our youth to bring positive effects to our world.
• Knowledge is power and video games are expressive of expanding your mind. Whenever a video game is played, you learn something you didn’t know before, whether it’s the name of a defensive formation in basketball or a strategic plan to take down the Prime Minister. We can agree that video games can be quite informative.

Synthesis: Seeing as we can all agree on something, we should plan to move forward from this. By putting more limitations and restrictions on age, we can allow the playing of mature games. Maybe instead of ridding teenagers of video games that they love and video games that keep them from getting into trouble, we can teach them how to limit themselves and be good role models in their households. 

Below is a visual representation of my project:

Works Cited:

YouTube. SourceFed "7 Health Benefits Of Video Games," 11 March. 2013. Web. 14 March. 2016.

YouTube. AllTime 10s "10 Surprising Health Benefits Of Playing Video Games," 14 November. 2012. Web. 14 March. 2016.

OCCUPYTHEORY "Video Games Pros And Cons List," 17 January. 2015. Web. 14 March. 2016.

ProCon "Do Violent Video Games Contribute To Youth Violence," 23 September. 2015. Web. 14 March. 2016.

Penn State University. Qian Chen “Video Games: Cause or Cure For ADHD,” 23 October. 2015. Web. 14 March. 2016.

ZME SCIENCE. TIBI PUIU “Do Violent Video Games Really Make Children More Aggressive,” 19 August. 2015. Web. 14 March. 2016.

Wikipedia “Jack Thompson (activist),” N.D. Web. 14 March. 2016.

My Amendment

For the second action project of my Winter Term course, Argument we very thoroughly discussed how our history used valid argument to get their point across more effectively. More specifically, we dove deeper into the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. We also discussed different forms and techniques of argument or fallacies, such as: Ad Hominem (addressing your dislike for the presenter of an argument, opposed to the argument itself), etc. Along with our studies regarding the U.S. Constitution, we also reviewed the amendments created in that document. You guessed it, our assignment was to review our school's Code of Conduct and choose a section in which we wanted to justify or "amend." Now this project was a problem for me at the beginning, as I found close to nothing wrong with the Code of Conduct. Fortunately, a couple hours past and I remembered that a younger student from my school suffered from a bad illness which then restricted him from being at school for a very long month and a half or so. This struck my mind when he told me that he had to drop one of his courses because the workload was petrifying. Below I will explain why I believe there should be some justification in these situations.

Her Campus. "The Busy Work Assigner," Web. 03/08/16

The Code of Conduct addresses truancy in at least 2 key places. First, it is defined as:

...tardiness or absence (s) without a valid excuse. A student out of school without a valid excuse is considered truant. Truant students must arrange with their teachers to make up missed work. Parents will be notified of unexcused tardiness or absence.

Later in the Attendance Procedures section of the CoC, the details about truancy are expressed in this way:

A parent or guardian is expected to communicate an absence with GCE Lab School as soon as possible when a student is going to be absent. Students are expected to contact their teachers as soon as they are able to address next steps for makeup work.

If a student is absent for more than 20% of classes during a term, the student and family will meet with the Disciplinary Council to address appropriate school placement and support systems.

Tardies

If a student acquires 4 tardies in a two week period, they will be expected to meet with the Disciplinary Council to create an action plan for improving their timeliness. The Co-Curricular Coordinator will communicate with students and families every two weeks regarding tardies.

A student will be considered absent from a class if they miss more than 25% of a class on a given day.

In either case of a tardy or an absence, it is the responsibility of the student to reach out to each of the instructors to figure out a way to complete/make up missing work.
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I chose to amend this section of the CoC simply because there’s not always a clear understanding on the part of the school of why students are absent. I argue that the school uses the term “unexcused absence” too loosely. There’s no say in who decides if an absence is unexcused. This rule is a bit corrupt, as it promotes students working in a non-working state. In other words, if the student is unable to complete work for whatever reason, there should be a compromise.

Simply put, the attendance rules section of the CoC has a clear argument, which is formally recorded below:

P1: Students are subject to illness at pretty much anytime.

P2: Students are expected to attend school whenever it is in session.

P3: Students are expected to complete each day's assignments and homework.

C: Students who are absent are 100% responsible for making up the work they missed.

My interpretation of the CoC’s argument on this topic is that natural and unnatural illness has a mind of its own, so according to the duration of time a student is not in school, I think we should be assigned work, justice. There should be a feasible workload for the students who suffer from illness!

I propose to amend this section of the CoC through a different syllogism:

P1: Students might get sick, temporarily physically impaired, etc…

P2: Students are not to blame for their illness.

P3: Students are responsible for their daily schoolwork, including homework assignments.

C: Students should, according to the amount of time they miss, communicate with Eric (the Director) and their teachers to obtain the necessary information to complete a REALISTIC amount of work to keep up with their peers and course content. This entails that the amount of work assigned to that student be realistic for him to complete in a feasible time period.

To spice it up for you guys, I would like to represent my argument with an interesting analogy. Imagine you lay down your laptop on a glass table, then go to the restroom. Upon going to the restroom, that glass collapses, along with your laptop. You pray to whoever that your laptop is still in top-notch shape, but frankly, it’s not. Now, it wasn’t your fault, but you still have to deal with the situation because it happened. It’s just reality, a reality that should, however, be adjusted for those too young to remedy the crisis 100%.

This revised version of the section I chose will change things at our school for the better. If it be extremely necessary, students should be excused from work and “truancy.” Not everything is excusable, but excuses are necessary sometimes. know a student who was out for approximately 2 months and he legitimately dropped a whole course! This student is a freshman and he already has to make up an entire course. That is definitely cruel and unusual! I propose a medicine for this.

In a larger legislative context, my new amendment is connected to the 8th amendment 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which focuses on citizens rights to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment. Is it not extreme for a freshman to have to drop a course because he was sick for an amount of time that was not in his power to change? Sure, my proposal isn’t as serious as the Constitutional amendment itself, but who’s to say it’s not unjust or unusual punishment? As it is a school rule affecting all students that is still far from fair.

The impact of this revision will be nothing but positive for the community. I would say that based upon the motive behind my amendment proposal, my argument will benefit all of the “citizens” of my school and help protect them from excessive punishment in situations beyond their control.

An actual student, MO, inspired me to address the attendance section of the CoC, in the first place. He supports my argument and stated “The workload they tried to give me was ridiculous. I had to drop the class. A little stressful, but I’ll be alright.” That quote represents the core of my argument. This student is subject to unfair punishment because he was sick, which doesn’t make much sense at all.

In conclusion, MO at my school suffers from this corrupt system that my school has put in place where the student is almost “too accountable” for his absence. In doing so, the school has expressed beliefs of carelessness for their students by assigning an overload of work which is situationally unrealistic depending on the state of the student. I fight for fair conditions concerning the sick students at my school. I hope you believe in my amendment as much as I do!

An Expert Musician

For the second unit of my STEAM course, "Light, Sound, and Time," we were assigned to create our own guitars, or "diddley-bows." This unit deeply revolved around how sound travels and the speed it can reach. We explored many math concepts that helped us along our road of understanding the background of sound. We studied key concepts that play a big part in the traveling and manipulation of sound as well. For example: studying how as the frequency of sound increases, the wavelength decreases and theories related to that. I loved the versatility and flexibility of this project. The creative control of the guitar allowed us to tamper around with materials. Getting the string very straight and firm was the hardest part. This consisted of a lot of screw driving!

DR "My Diddley-bow," Photo. 03/02/16

DR "My Diddley-bow," Online Drawing. 03/02/16

Above is a diagram labeling each part of my guitar. Relating my diddley-bow to a real guitar, the tin can represents the resonator, the wood represents the neck, and the battery represents the nut.

The golden question is, how does this mediocre looking guitar actually produce sound? The string vibrates as you pluck it, creating a longitudinal wave which allows molecules to travel as sound, to your pinna. There is also the tin can, which allows you to hear the sound better because it amplifies it for you. Connecting the science of the "diddley-bow" back to what we learned throughout this unit, this homemade guitar is sending sound waves out; not only that, but the versatility of the string allows you to change pitch and frequency. Can’t forget that as the frequency changes, so does the wavelength. You can use a slide to change the frequency as you pluck the string. The amplitude of the string increases and decreases when playing the guitar.

The Doppler Effect is when an object has a higher frequency and lower wavelength when approaching another object, but as it moves farther away from this other object, there is a lower frequency and higher wavelength. For ex: while moving towards a person or object, the frequency of your guitar is increasing because you are getting closer.

In order to assemble my diddley-bow, I used a string with a thickness of 0.035 inches and a length of 9 inches. To get the volume, I first had to find the radius of my resonator. Since the diameter was 3.5, the radius was 1.75, and to find the the volume of the amplifier, I had to do pi x Radius(squared) x Height. My volume came out to be 38.48 inches (cubed).

DR "The Harmonics," Online Drawing. 03/02/16

Above is the listed harmonics in order of highest wavelength to lowest. These harmonics originate from the actual sound of my guitar, where I used an online program to record the frequency of it.



If I could do it all over, I would definitely explore ways to customize my project a bit more and I would have also explored options of making my wire a lot more firm.