Theme- City of Ember

Curiosity is a great thing to have, but it could also be a costly thing.  It can be worth the risk. 
For example, in the chapter ''Something Lost, Nothing Found,'' Sadge had gone to the unknown regions out of curiosity.  He did not find anything and his nerves got the better of him.  He can only remember this from his curiosity.  He should not have used his curiosity here, but in a place where it could be more useful.  He was unable to find something and could have used it in a way where he can look even deeper into the situation.  Later into the book, Doon and Lina tell the guards about their discovery about the mayor, but they do not believe them.  Although this was an amazing discovery founded by their curiosity, they shared it with the wrong people.  Finally when Lina is caught by the guards, she tried to convince them that it was not a lie, but they did not believe her.   This shows that there are consequences in curiosity.  Curiousity helped Lina and Doon all throughout City of Ember and did risk themselves, but it was the net that caught them in the end.

I used to think that "The City of Ember'' was about two children that wanted to explore and discover new things.  I read that Lina liked to run and wanted to be a messenger.  She also knew her way around Ember by heart.  I also read that Doon wanted a job in the pipeworks because he wanted to fix the generator.  My initial thoughts when I read these were that the theme could be freedom and adventure.

Now, I realize that the City of Ember is really about how curiousity is something that will help you.  I see that you should not be afraid to take the risk.  I noticed this later in the book, when Doon and Lina are wanted for spreading untrue rumors.  They risked telling someone where their curiousity had lead them, and they soon had to pay for it.  I realized that theme is not something that can just be seen by taking the first idea that comes to mind, it is something that you have to dig deep to find.  

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)

City of Ember- Deep Question of Choice

Why do you think more people in Ember did not act like Lina and Doon did?

I think that people did not act like Lina and Doon because they were still asleep, unable to see the true mayor, unable to wake up and see the real scarcity in Ember.  For example on Assignment Day, nobody thought twice about the mayors reaction towards Doon's outburst.  Suddenly Doon spoke up.  "But Ember is not prospering!" he cried.  "Everything is getting worse and worse!"  "Silence!"  cried the mayor. (13)  Nobody really suspected there could be something more to it.  Little trails the mayor leaves behind are not picked up by the citizens of Ember.  They are just left there, but Lina and Doon look more closely at them and go deeper.  Secondly,  on page 85, the citizens of Ember are invited to a town meeting.  He then, on page 87 says; "Slooshns!" he bellowed "Arbingfoun!"  "Solutions,'' the people in the front called to the people in the back.  "Solutions are being found?"  Later, he does not answer what king of solutions.  He just wants to cover up his tracks.  These are things that Lina and Doon would pick up, but other citizens are unable to see.  Finally, on page 156, Doon's curioustiy puts him in a position where the truth comes out.  He is in the pipeworks when he notices a key in the door he and Lina were looking at.  He then opens it.  "On the table were dishes smeared with the remains of food, and in an armchair facing Doon was a great blob of a person whose head was flopped backbard, so that all Doon could see of it was an upthrust chin.  The blob stirred and muttered, and Doon, in the second before he stepped back and pulled the door closed, caught a glimpse of a fleshy ear, a slab of gray cheek, and a loose, purplish mouth."  This, we later find out is the mayor.  Only somebody with curiousity like Doon or Lina would really get to the bottom of this.  Also, you realize that nobody really second guessed the fact that the Mayor was bigger than the rest of the citezens.        

Theatre 6 Quarter Reflecion

Throughout this past quarter, I have learned so many different things in Theatre.  During the Greek drama, I learned how to encorperate research into an interesting play.  At first, it was hard to include all of this important information, but I overcame this obstacle through dialouge.  When we did tableaux, I learned how important body language is.  My group at first struggled with conveying facial expressions to show part of a story, but we were able to resolve this by using critique in a positve way.  When we did pantomimes, we could not talk, and we really stuggled with making our characters have certain characteristics, without talking, but we then chose personalities that could be shown through body language.   During "Theif!," I learned how to work with a large group of people and how important other peoples' say is.  That was something we struggled with, because it was hard to organize how to say things when everyone was talking at once.  When we organized, however, the outcome was really good.  Our group stuggled with the pair scenes.  We were in a rush to get it done,  so we went with whatever idea came up.  Once we finally came up with something we could add a story to, we got feedback from Ms. Moraes to make it richer and it turned out nicely.
My goals for the rest of this quarter are to be able to speak up during perfomances and try to be more focused.  For this final assesment, I will try to be more prepared and memorize my lines, not rely on improv.

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

Command Econamy

In humanities, we have been studying economy and multiple different types of it.  In the past few days, we have been learning about command economy.  Today, we really went deep into this topic and discussed how it works,  what countries used it and how it came to be.

Think about your participation in the bake sale. 
(Our bake sale did not work out)

Think about what happened to your money after it was earned.
How did you feel when the money was distributed equally to the class?
I thought it was unfair because our group did not bring in food, but still got money.
Why did you feel that way?
Like I said, our group did not do anything, and still got money.  I feel like it was unfair to the groups who did bring in food.
What might be the benefits to this system?
I think that the benefits might be that there is no fighting over fairness, because everyone gets an equal amount of money.
What might be the disadvantages?
Since everybody gets the same amount of money, it is unfair to those who do not work a lot to those who work every hour.

Think about the reading.  Why have many countries moved away from communism?
I think many societies moved away from communism because they have realized that it is unfair to those who work hard and are still paid the same as those who work only a little bit.

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.