(Egg Baby) Parent For a Day

Egg babies

Most recently in Health, we have been studying the responsibilities of parenting and the nine month process of creating a child.  In order to learn about this, we have completed the "egg baby challenge" in which we had to, for 24 hours, look over one (or more) babies.  In order to complete the task, we had to bring a container as well as toys for our babies, decorate them, and, most importantly, look after them by carrying them around on our daily routine.  Our grade would lower with
One of my favourite parts of being an egg baby parent was the general aspect of having an additional responsibility.  The eggs strangely made me feel like I had to act more responsible and yet that much more delicate.  Furthermore, the authority of having two fragile objects to look over was exciting as well.  On top of this, I enjoyed having the ability of customizing the eggs and the carrier to my liking.
As a seventh grader, walking through the over-crowded middle school hallways has become a simple part of day-to-day life.  Squeezing through throngs of people to snatch a spot in the lunch line has become intuitive, albeit with such delicate items, my day-to-day routine was largely modified.  I had to cautiously walk slower whilst cradling my "children."  Additionally, I had to alter my routine in the sense that I was unable to shake off a mere nudge.  Instead, whenever something as slight as a brush grazed my arm, I found myself covering the container holding my egg babies.
On the other hand, in my opinion, a teen expecting or with a child's life would have to greatly adapt in order to conform to the authority of being a parent.  According to the National Dropout Prevention Organization, 27.8% of females leave school due to a pregnancy.  Moreover, only 6.2% of males dropout of education to become a father while, to contrast, a shocking 25% of females stop their edification in order to put their life and full attention to becoming a mother.  This greatly impacts a still-growing adolescent's life, putting unnecessary barriers in front of them.  Children all over the world have dreams about attending an Ivy League University or about pursuing the career options which range from lawyer to doctor, astrologist to banker, although having the reputation of "teen parent" can heavily clout one's decision, rather it be a representative of a school or of a company.  In many cases, a large fraction of students do not return to school after giving birth.  To relate to my life, being a teen parent would change my childhood in many ways.  Firstly, I would go from being a child to an adult at, per se age 16 or 18 or even as young as 14.  To add to this, I would loose opportunities as big as pursuing careers to getting allowed into a college.  Even small opportunities, for instance, joining sports teams, going to friend's parties, and vacations would seem like a grand leap from the state I would be in.

Throughout this project, I have learned how important it is to be a responsible learner.  Albeit this may seem obvious, I felt as though as a "parent," we had to be much more responsible, as opposed to the everyday chore of taking my materials to class.  Being in charge of such a fragile, delicate object gave me the feeling that I had to be constantly aware of my surroundings and alert.  Instead of looking at the abstract idea of the project, which was essentially to keep the baby from cracking, we had to zoom in on multiple parts of the project.  For example, instead of just making the baby carrier pretty, it had to be suitable and safe for the eggs as well.  This summarises the project in a different light;  In life, with a child, parents are not stuck with the child for 24 hours, but a lifetime, which requires constant care.  A parent cannot just dress the child up and paint a face on it as we did with the eggs.  Parents can only pave part of the path for children, but cannot guide them the entire way.  In relation to the core value, parents must be responsible in the sense that they have to create a home and childhood for a child, but cannot be responsible down the life-long road.  

To generalise, a core value that I believe that I must improve on would be curious.  I always try to push myself to ask questions that will provide a more in-depth understanding about the topic, but it tends to feel more unnatural as opposed to modelling the other core values.  I basically would like to make being a curious learner more of a habit then something that I must think about more.

After a painstaking 24 hours of meticulous caution, I have survived the egg baby challenge without slipping through the cracks.  Without a doubt, the Challenge is definitely less difficult then being a real-life teen parent, but truly does simulate reality, which is the fact that the life of a teen can dramatically change when the weight of a child adds on to a not-yet-developed family.

What Happened BN? (Before Natasha)

Before this unit in humanities, I had frequently found myself wondering what happened in the Victorian Age, in ancient Greece, and in Mesopotamia.  What was life like before the iPhone?  Before any phone at all?  l would find myself wondering what life would be like without "simple" pieces of technology, such as the refrigerator, or Google.  This unit in humanities has allowed me to learn about just that.  In the first part of this unit, we had to choose an invention that impacted society either in a more subtle way that is not thought of as an "invention," for example juries.  On the other hand, you could also choose an invention that impacted society in a louder, more obvious way, like the airplane.  The invention that I chose was democracy that gave a voice to most Athenians.  I chose this "invention," because it is not the obvious choice.  When most people think of the word "invention," what pops up in their minds first, generally lean to the idea of something physical, something tangible.  Democracy is neither of those things, but revolutionised lives all the same.  I thought that this was an interesting way of looking at the unit- to choose something that you have to dig deeper to think about.  The second part of this unit was creating a graphic novel.  Instead of making the graphic novel about democracy, I worked with a peer, Anna Clara, and chose the invention that she had written her paper about, which was the elevator.  I enjoyed this experience, because contrary to what I had predicted, creating a graphic novel was quite hard.  It had to be informative, yet funny.  The frames had to have a sufficient amount of detail, but could not go overboard.  In the end, my partner and I were able to portray what I believe was an interesting story.  

I believe that new technologies produce different outcomes in different societies because of the seed that planted them.  Famous inventors did not just think, "I'm going to invent the car and alter people's lives forever," no.  These people realised that there needed to be a change in the world.  Maybe they realised that horse and buggies were not enough to transport the growing world as they might have before.  If a society is still developing, and an invention as life-changing as the airplane comes, then the invention will thrive, due to the need of help for the society.  If an invention is made in the developed society that we live in today, it will probably not succeed, and if it does, maybe not as noticeably.

I think that technology can change the development of societies because of how big the invention is figuratively, meaning that the invention can be small to hold, but impacts a society greatly.  If a society is not very successful in terms of trade, or economics, and then they receive rifles, the civilisation can hunt animals, and then trade the meat and fur.  The society can then thrive, and invest their money in different, possibly more important things.

This unit has taught me so many different aspects about different inventions and has helped the side of me that has wondered what happened before me grow.

My Research Paper

A Drop of Water is an Ocean

In Lab 9 in science, we will be looking at the water from the waterfall Represa Guarapiranga and water from our class fish tank. I think that a drop of water is big and deep enough for things to live inside of.  I think that the following things will be there.

• Germs/Bacteria
• Algae
• Dirts

Some questions I have are:

• What kind of cell, (animal or plant) do water cells fit into?  
• Will the sanity be affected between the two water sources? 

I think that in the water from the waterfall, we will find more germs because there are more things, like fish, plants, garbage and maybe even contaminated rain going into it.  I think that in the fish tank water, we will see less bacteria, but more leaves and dirsts or sands.

Looking Back to The Three Gorges Dam Essay

1) What is your artifact?

This artifact is my Three Gorges Dam Essay.  

2)  What is The Three Gorges Dam?  Why is it controversial?

The Three Gorges Dam is a dam located in Southern China on the Yangtze river.  It was made because the Yangtze was growing extremely wild and would many times

flood, taking lives.  The dam now provides one-ninth of the nation’s energy and keeps the river from flooding.  The dam did not come alone.  Worldwide controversy rapidly spread after the building of the dam. There were many valid arguments, for or against the dam. The dam is controversial because there are so many pros and cons about the dam.  Some people for the dam argue that it generates a lot of energy, prevents flooding and transportation is safe.  Those against the dam may argue about the 1.13 million who were displaced, the money spent and the relocation programs that were inefficient to those who needed it.   

3)  What is an argumentative essay?

An argumentative essay is an essay that argues a claim with 3 fact-based arguments that support your claim.  Your goal in writing an argumentative essay is to argue against people who disagree with your claim.

4)  What is your essay’s claim?

My essay’s claim was that the Three Gorges Dam should not have been built.  

5)  What process did you go through to complete your essay?
Well, first of all, we looked at videos and read articles about the Three Gorges Dam.  Then, we chose what side we would take on the issue.  (For or against the dam)  Then, based on the information, you would choose your arguments and find evidence that would support that your argument.  Then, you would piece together the puzzle by writing the essay.  Finally, we would do our introduction and our conclusion and proof-read.

6)  What was one specific area where you demonstrated success?

I was particularly proud in getting a 4 in “Central claim is well-supported by textual evidence.  Use of relevant evidence is sustained throughout the entire analysis.

The core reasoning follows from evidence.”  It was one of my original struggles that I was able to overcome.

7)  What was one challenge of writing the argumentative essay?

I was challenged by making all of my paragraphs melt together, to become one.  Originally, all of my paragraphs were stacked together like bricks, but once I found the cement to put between them, the essay fit together.

8)  If you could rewrite this essay, what would you do differently?

I would try to make my conclusion more detailed.  During revisions and edits, I could not think of a particularly “good” ending, but then, after we looked at the essay again, the ending just clicked in my mind.

9)  Comparing your argumentative essay for the common writing assessment last quarter to this one, where are some areas where you see growth?

In fifth grade, to finish fourth quarter, we did our persuasive essays, and I implied everything I had basically learned from there into the first argumentative essay, not realizing that the two were different, but there are quite a few differences.  

10)  What core values does this relate to and why?

I think that the core values that this essay relates to would be:

• Critical Thinker because you had to think about the dam from two different perspectives before your could choose what side you would take.
• Curious because you needed to try and find information that had not been used in class so that your essay stood out.
• Communicator because you had to communicate your ideas into your essay in a way that made sense.
• Persevering because you had to find evidence that supported your claim, you had to proofread, edit when something was wrong.  It was a long process.
• Risk Taker because you had to think of new evidence that supported your claim, that made sense, even if nobody else was using it.  

My Essay 

Our debate in preparation for the essay.  

Looking at Our Lunch- Post Lab Questions and Answers

Post Lab-
Today in science we will be looking at lettuce cells. I think that we will see a brick wall type of structure.  I think that we might see the tear in the leaves.  I do not think we will see the nucleus because when we looked at the elodea, we did not see it.  We will see chloroplasts (because plants perform photosynthesis)  The possible functions the cells might be photosynthesis.
_________________________________________________________________________________  Answers-
In science, we looked at lettuce leaves.  I thought it was really interesting because I thought that we would see a brick wall type structure, but we actually saw other things.  These are some notes of what we saw-
Upper Layer 40X-  We saw many shapes that were not really any particualar shape, and they were all close together, overlapping.

Upper Layer 100X-  We saw the stoma and epedermis.  There were wavy lines around it.

Lower Layer 40X-  Jigsaw shaper peices with coffee bean shaped cells scattered around, in no particular order.

Lower Layer 100X-  An oval (the coffee bean up close) with long, stretched out spaghetti like lines connected to it.

They were all very interesting to look at, especially the lower layer at 40X.
If chloroplasts were placed in darkness for a long time, I think that they would stop functioning because they need sunlight to make the food for the rest of the plant.  The plant would therefore die, because the small "kitchens" would not work.  If they were placed in light 24 hours for a couple of days, I think that the cells would not be able to rest.  They would have to constantly keep going in the heat, and some plants are not made for the heat.  The stoma would not be able to open and get water to feed to the cells.  The guard cells and stoma would not have any water to open up to if they were placed under the sun on a summer day.  The plant would dry up and die.    

Exploring with Iodine

During science, we have been using the microscope to look elodea and onion clells.  It was really cool, because we got to see things like the nucleus or cytoplasm.  We first looked at Elodea with water, and then with idodine.
Before doing this experiment, I had expected for the elodea and onion cells to look rectangular, like any other plant cell.  If we were lucky, we might have been able to see nucleus.  I did not think we would see very detailed pictures of the cells.
When I actually saw the cells, I was in awe, because they were so interesting because there was so much to look at.  My favorite to see was elodea 4X because you could also see the outside of the actual leaf, not just a little part of it.
I also really liked to see the onion cells at 100X because you could see the nucleus up close.  It was really interesting because I realized that that was what funtions a cell to do something.  They are what controls the cells.
We also looked at cheek cells!  We took a toothpick and rubbed it in the inside of our mouths.  Then, we put iodine on a slide and stirred our toothpick around in it.  Then, we put another slide on top of that and out it under the microscope.  We saw little flakes, that looked like confetti that were a really dark green, almost brown.
I wonder what would happen if we were to look at an onion cell that was still alive.  Would we see cytoplasmic streaming?  Would things be more enhanced and detailed?  I cannot wait to do another lab like this!

Onion Cells

Elodea Cells 

Answered Questions- Science Fair Reflection

After all the hard work of bringing in materials and making our poster board, we finally presented it on the day of the science fair!  I would like to reflect and share how my group's project went.  Our project was the reaction between coke and mentos.  Our independent variable was the coke.  Our dependant were the different flavors of mentos.  Our constants were the meter sticks, the coke and the mentos.
The only thing that I knew about my topic before we started researching was what actually happened in the experiment.  These are the things that I wanted to find out-

• What caused the reaction?
• What ingredients are in mentos that cause the explosion?
• How high can the explosions really go?

Throughout the resarch process, I learned so many cool things about our project.  For example, suprisingly enough, the reaction is actually a physical reaction, not a chemical.  Also, to answer one of my earlier questions, it is not an ingredient in mentos, it is actually the tiny pores in the mentos that make the carbon dioxide go in them and make the coke flow more easily out of the bottle.  So, during my research all of my questions were answered.  A new question I have the I did not research is if the type of soda/fizzy drink affects the explosion.  My plan for my future science expirement is to work alone.  I think that I will work alone because I might be less distracted and more focused on only my project.  One of my favorite parts of this expiriment, not counting the fair, was probably preparing the board and doing the actual expirement.  I feel like one of my core value strengths are being innovative and being innovatine while making this posterboard was really important.  Doing the actual experiment was actually really cool too, because we where able to see that coke and mentos could really go up 3 meters!  One of the more frusturating things in my group was disagreeing about certain things.  We had problems sometimes with having an odd number of people because it sometimes felt like there was an odd one out.  If I could change anything, I might have changed the script lines, because sometimes in certain presentations, there was someone who had less lines than others.  During the science fair, I tried to project my voice as much as possible, because I know that that is one of the things I struggle with. I know that our collaboration was as big a challenge as anything else because there was an odd number of us, and we had to evenly divide and conquer.  We also ran into quite a few disagreements as a group, but were aable to overcome them by calmly talking them out.  In the end, I was kind of half satisfied, half not satisfire with my topic.  I liked it because it was intersting and there was a lot to learn about, but I disliked it because there were a lot of different groups doing it, so it was not really origional.  When we were about to present, I felt kind of nervous, but then I realized that I knew all the information.   I liked the QR code system because it was really organized and it was not handwritten, although there were some irrevivent comments, not really focusing on the project as much.
Overall, this was a great experience and I am so excited for next year!

My Science Fair group- Claudia (Right) Rosanne (Middle) Me (Left)

Digging Deep With Doon

       Doon Harrow is caring and selfless.  Right after everyone chose their jobs on Assignment day, Doon felt did not want to be messenger, and he explains the reasoning behind it and he taps Lina on the shoulder and says; 
"Will you trade with me? he asked.  
"Trade?"
"Trade jobs.  I don't want to waste my time being a messenger.  I want to help save the city, not run around carrying gossip."  (Page 15)  This shows that Doon is selfless because he wants to help save the city.  He knows about what could be coming, and wants to help protect people from it.  Further into the book Doon makes a selfless act that shows he is a good person.  It says;  Now he could see only two courses of action: he could give up and do nothing, or he could start to work on a different movable light. Doon didn't want to give up, so on his day off one Thursday, he went to the Ember Library to look up fire.  (Page 117)  This idnicates that Doon wants to help the city so that nothing bad happens.  It also proves that he is selfless because on his day off, he did not spend it relaxing at home.  He spent it looking for a solution for the city.  Lastly, on page 82, we learn how other people really think of him. it says:  "Lucky for you Doon Harrow was around," said Nammy Proggs, who'd been watching them with her sideways glare.  "He's a good-hearted boy.  Anything breaks at my house, he fixes it."  This lets me realize that Doon is always there and happy to help.  Nammy Proggs is elderly and she probably can't do as much now, but Doon helps her fix things.
Source

Economy

In humanities, we have been studying econemy and were given an assignment to create a product, a good.  We had to pay for our own recourses (using Hum Bucks) and make something helpful to students.  Our group made a bag with pockets and a makeshift speaker.  This was to model Free Market Econemy.  Free market econemy is good because supporters believe that the governmanet should not tell people how much to make.  It is bad because it is based on supply and demand, therefore there is scarcity with certain recourses.  We modeled scarcity, and a real life situation is, when there is a popular invention and many companies want to purchase it, it becomes rarer and more people want it.  If I could do one thing to change this system, it would be to try and reduece the importance of supply and demand because it causes scarcity and prevents lesser companies from growing.  I am really enjoying this unit because we get to see and understand things that are happening in the real world.

Is It Just Old Faithful?

In chapter 34, Sal, Gram and Gramps are embarking on the 6th  day of their journey.  Sal is overjoyed because today she will see the geyser Old Faithful.  Even though Sal is so excited, she is able to contain her joy.  Gram, on the other hand could not.  Gram is so excited for when Old Faithful would erupt. She is counting down and asking Sal and Gramps "It it time yet?  Is it time yet?"  When Old Faithful erupts, she has a huge grin on her face, and when it is over, she seems so sad.

My Question:  Why is Gram so excited to see Old Faithful?  Is there something that happened when she was younger that excites her about the landmark?  Does it have something to do with Sal's mom?

A Hole in Her Heart?

In ''Walk Two Moons," Ben puts Salamanca on the spot about her mom who went missing.  Sal does not seem to care much about her mother's absence because she has Gram, Gramps, her father and Phoebe.  But when Ben starts to talk about her mother she gets very fidgety and refuses to talk about her.

Why is Sal so hesitant to talk about her mother's absence?  Does it matter more to her than she lets on? 

Science: Quarter Reflection

I think that my lab safety video reflected on my learning in science because it showed that we our group were reflective learners because we were constantly looking back on our previous work. It also demonstrated the core value innovative because we went into deep thinking and then made an original and creative video. We did not just show random elements when we were putting our video together, but we showed step by step the tools and explained their uses.
A success this quarter was our lab safety video.  It was a success because we were able to demonstrate the core values innovative, reflective and inclusive.  Our group worked together to make the timing work and make the audio stay at one tone.  Our video was good quality and not choppy.
In second quarter I would like to improve on being a risk taker.  I want to because I sometimes do not want to take many chances because I am scared to be wrong. I also want to improve on being a critical thinker because sometimes I leave out important details because I am not very strong in this core value.  I will work on being a risk taker by thinking outside the box. I will also work on being a risk taker by raising my hand more often and also using evidence to support my thinking.  

Relating With a Book Character

A big writing project this quarter after reading the book "Bringing the Boy Home" was to write a two voice poem.  Throughout this project I have realized that I am a strong writer in terms of voice, ideas, organization, and word choice.  I still need to work on sentence fluency, conventions and presentation.  I think that I did good job at comparing my life with the character's.  I was able to show not tell, as did I use figurative language.  Revising helped me recognize spelling errors, add figurative language, take away un-needed information and add in information.  I think maybe I could take away extra information.    

Blog Post Artifact

In humanities, we were assigned to do a blog post about our Literature Circle book "Bringing the Boy Home."   I think that my blog post was clear, easy to read and did not have frequent errors in terms of grammar.  I think my response to the claim was were clear and supported my claim with evidence and then explained why I chose that evidence.  My blog post was completed one time, as did I use the rubric.  One thing I could do to improve my blog post is use more textual evidence and also write in more for my explanation.

Documenters for a Week

My group was given the topic about the flood rescuers. I think this topic was very interesting because we got to learn about how people had to be risk takers and maintain the quality of perseverance. We learned about what they had to do and how they were constantly doing things that they struggled with. We also were able to learn about how they had to swim underwater a lot in order to get into buildings. They rescued cats and dogs that were scratching them with sharp nails, but they never let go of them because they knew that the animals could drown.  I think our group demonstrated the core value innovative when we showed various pictures that were high quality and were strong. We were also curious when we looked at different ways to show our video. I think we needed to work on showing, not telling. We also needed to work on pacing our audio. Otherwise, our video was high quality and a lot of thought was put into it.  We were being risk takers when we asked people that we did not know about their experiences during the flood.  We were challenged by  misunderstanding what people said.  I think that next time, in order to improve, we will split up the time that we have.  For example, we will find all our pictures one day, make a script, storyboard and then record the next day.