Prove it or Lose it

I took a class called Prove it or Lose it. In this class, we are covering different things such as mirrors, reflections, translations, and such. We set out to prove things in math rather than actually solving the problem. This is important because while the process is important understanding it to a different degree is even more important. For this project, we needed to take a picture of something, reflect it across a line and then prove it was a reflection.

 

In conclusion, I think this was a very interesting project since I had to directly connect in-class work to real-world items. I learned a lot, to say the least, starting with GeoGebra and I know it a bit off topic but GeoGebra is a really helpful program that allowed me to show my work and lay it all out in one place. I also learned different ways to prove that a reflection is a reflection. I used many different methods to prove this such as circles. triangles, and slope. I think the biggest takeaway from this project is that the math we learn is all around us whether we realize it or not. 

The Gravediga

I took a class called Design and Engineering. In this class, we learned about a couple of different things including vectors, simple machines, and how to design something for a certain audience. As far as Field Experiences go we went to Home Depot to learn about gardening tools so that we can better understand the market. We also went to Beyond Design which is a design firm that designs things for a living. Going to these places helped us understand the topic even better. For this project, we had to recreate a gardening tool for elderly people. I chose to recreate the sledgehammer.

Before starting this job I had to do prior research to make sure I made the best design possible. The research I did prior included an interview, going to Home Depot and personal research. I interviewed my sister so that I could understand how tools caused stress to certain joints. I went to Home Depot to ask questions of the professionals working there, and finally, I did personal research such as understanding the competition so that I could properly differentiate from them and make my tool better.

I learned that sledgehammers are too heavy for most elderly people to use. Second I learned some elderly people can handle the weight but not the placement of the weight. And finally, I learned that sledgehammers are typically not ergonomic because they stress out the same parts of the body.

Empathy is when you put yourself in someone else's shoes to understand what they are feeling. This relates to the class because to design something for a certain audience you need to be able to make it specifically for them.

I learned a lot from doing this project because while yes I was already very knowledgeable on the topic before entering the unit I hadn't done a sledgehammer or garden tool before so this was something new. I also think this project was beneficial because I now have a better understanding of how empathy fits into the project.

Scoliosis Prevention!

This semester we took a class called Cure. Cure is the third STEAM class this year. In this class, we talked about how we can take preventative measures to stay healthy and avoid getting bad diseases. We also have learned about probability which I will be using to help us learn the chances of developing the In this class, we have taken a few FEs including a Yoga Nidra Meditation class which was a great example of a preventative measure which someone could take to prevent diseases. The reason this helps is that it calms the body and releases stress. We read about another preventative measure someone took where they had their breasts surgically removed to prevent breast cancer since she had a high probability of getting it. For this project, we needed to look at a patient and give them recommendations as to what they could do to prevent a disease. I decided to look into Scoliosis.

Example of Scoliosis

Name: Ólafur Andersson

Sex: Male

Gender: Male

Age: 36

Height: 6’11”

Weight: 370 lbs

Medical History: He has an extensive medical history including broken bones, concussions, surgeries and pulled muscles. The main problem we are seeing is that he has had back problems and even had surgery on his back. This is not a good sign considering what he is trying to avoid. The problems he has had in the past may weaken his body and cause other complications with him such as an increased chance of Scoliosis. For someone who is worried about Scoliosis it important that they have a strong back support.

Lifestyle Behaviors: Ólafur Andersson is a former NFL football player. Who eats relatively healthy but has recently been slacking off after leaving football. On top of not eating as healthy as he should he also has all but stopped exercising. Things he likes to do in his free time include, watching tv, playing with his kids and cooking pastries. The only exercise he gets is a walk around the park once a day, which is not a lot.

Medical Concerns/Family History:  His family has a record of Scoliosis which he is concerned about. He is personally concerned about his back which has been in pain for weeks and given his family's history he is concerned he has Scoliosis. Scoliosis is a disorder that affects the spine by making it bent sideways. Scoliosis can affect different people in different ways, some people may need surgery if its bad enough and others may never feel the effects of it.

Purpose of Consultation: He has consistent back pains.

Risk Assessment: 3/100 people in the world have some form of Scoliosis. This means that the experimental probability of a person getting scoliosis is 3% and that is without the factor of your family history. If you include the genes in his family you will see his chances of getting Scoliosis will rise to 47% since 9/19 people in his family have it.

Medications: The only medications for Scoliosis are painkillers such as Advil. The Advil will help relieve the pain that comes from the spine. Some side effects of Advil can be stomach pain, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, and constipation.

Nutrition Plan: People with Scoliosis should not eat a lot of salt and sugar. Salt and sugar can slow communication transferring in the body which is a problem when the spine is not perfect. They should only eat moderate to little amounts of healthier versions like sea salt or Himalayan salt, stevia or raw honey. These are slightly healthier versions since they aren't processed. Eating healthier foods will be beneficial because when you are more healthy in general your body can work to the best of its ability. Things I would recommend are fish, smoothies, and lots of salads.

Lifestyle Recommendations: Stretching and daily exercise such as 20-30 minutes of aerobic exercise 5 days a week will help. Some examples of aerobic exercises are swimming, running, and biking. The reason you want to be doing aerobic exercise is so that you can be healthy and your body is strong. Also strengthening the muscles in your back will help support you.

Alternative Therapies: There are a couple good alternative therapies that you can try that will help you. Yoga is the first one because it is known to stretch your body and it will relax you. Yoga will also lower your stress levels which means you will be healthier and your body will be able to heal itself better. Another option is acupuncture which relaxes and heals you in a similar way to yoga.

Goals:

Month 1-2: You're going to want to bike for 1 hour a day for two months. The reason for two months is because I want to ease you into the routine before we add more exercise.

Month 2-4: After the two months you need to add a 25-minute run after or before the 1 hour of biking for another two months.

Month 4-6: After those initial four months, you should add an exercise of your choice for another 35 minutes which will add up to two hours of total exercise.

Month 6-onward: I want you to do these exercises unless they start to hurt. Doing these exercises should strengthen your body and make sure there isn't excessive pressure on the spine. Doing these exercises will also give you a way to channel stress which will also help you in the long run.

Sources:

AboutKidsHealth, www.aboutkidshealth.ca/Article?contentid=2008&language=English.

“Ideal Diet for Scoliosis.” Mercola.com, Mercola.com, articles.mercola.com/scoliosis/diet.aspx.

“The Connection Between Spine Health and Blood Sugar.” Why Tobacco Should Be Banned From Your Life, www.thejoint.com/arizona/glendale/arrowhead-ranch-48016/the-connection-between-spine-health-and-blood-sugar.

Scupham, Beth. “Scoliosis Priority Protocols.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 24 Sept. 2017, www.flickr.com/photos/bethscupham/37430093115.

“Scoliosis.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 29 Dec. 2017, www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/scoliosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20350716.

Davis, Charles Patrick. “Scoliosis Treatment, Causes, Symptoms & Surgery.” MedicineNet, www.medicinenet.com/scoliosis/article.htm.

Bolar Pear

I am taking a class called Population which is the first STEAM class for my sophomore year. In this class, we are currently discussing animal taxonomy which is how we classify animals. We also have discussed some concepts such as Venn diagrams and set theory which is a way to write out the way a thing interacts with a set. So far for this class, we have taken one FE to the Lincoln Park Zoo where we observed our animals. I tried to observe the polar bear but unfortunately, it wasn't outside for me to see so I went to the brown bear to see a similar animal. On top of the polar bear not being outside, the brown bear was asleep. This affected me because I was not able to make observations about how these animals interact with the environment. For this AP, we had to study a certain animal and also research its taxonomy. Then we had to make a piece of art representing our animal and label what makes it the animal it is (spine, aquatic, etc). Below is my research on the polar bear and what I have observed about it along with my comparison to other animals.

For this project, I studied the Ursus maritimus which is also known as a polar bear. This creature lives in many different places such as Alaska, Greenland, Canada, Russia, and Norway. Polar bears are always found in a cold climate which is where they thrive. They have adapted for the cold because they have a thick layer of fat and lots of fur. Polar bears are carnivores which means they eat meat. A polar bear's main food source is ringed seal and bearded seals, but they also eat things like beluga whales, walruses, narwhals and bowhead whales. A polar bear needs to consume 4.5 pounds of food per day to survive.

This is the different Taxonomic levels of a Polar Bear:

Here is a visual of what makes a polar bear a polar bear

This is what my drawing was based on

I'm going to be comparing the Polar Bear to a Fennec Fox and a White-Cheeked Gibbon. I created a Venn diagram to compare the three different animals. You can check out CMs blog for the White-Cheeked Gibbon or RPs blog for the Bald Eagle.

In this Venn Diagram, I am showing what the Polar Bear, Fennec Fox, and White Cheeked Gibbon all have in common, what differences they have and what two of the three have in common (such as a Polar Bear and Fennec Fox). I also show you what none of the animals have in common such as the ability to fly.

Below is the polar bear's relations put in math terms

During this project, I had a great time studying polar bears, going to the zoo and finally drawing out my animal and labeling what makes it a polar bear. My favorite part was making the drawing because it was probably the most personalized piece and I am very proud of it. I also like the set theory because it is a fun challenge to tackle and probably gave me the hardest time to complete. Overall this project was super fun and I learned a lot of things about polar bears and other animals.

Foresman, Scott. “Polar Bear.” Wikipedia, Wikipedia.

DS. Polar Bear. Chicago, 20 Sept. 2017.

DS. Venn Diagram. Chicago, 20 Sept. 2017.

DS. Math Sentences. Chicago, 20 Sept. 2017.

DS. Polar Bear Taxonomic levels. Chicago, 20 Sept. 2017.

Got Milk?

We took a class called Food For Thought. For the first quarter of the class, we studied everything from corn and all its ingredients to how it gets to our table. I have learned so much during this class. I was amazed at how much corn really goes into everything we eat or even that we don't eat. For this, action project, we had to show how a certain food or ingredient gets from our table from where it was first domesticated. For my family, I chose milk, mainly because a lot of times we sometimes make flan which is a milk-based cake. I tracked it all away from the Fertile Crescent to my table. I learned a lot from this Action project I was surprised at how milk how far milk has come. I hope you learned something new from this Action project. Thanks.

Bauer, Scott. DairyCattle. 2007. Maryland.

Carpio, Enrique Fotógrafo. Veracruz. 2012. Veracruz.

Delivery truck. 1946. N.p.

"Historical Timeline - Milk - ProCon.org." Is drinking milk healthy for humans? N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

Ltd, Bobek. "Great Britain National Flag Free Stock Photo - Public Domain Pictures." PublicDomainPictures.net. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

Moos, Anon. Texas Flag. 2011. N.p.

Pasteurized Milk Factory. 2013. Atatürk.

Rings, Five. Milk bottle. 2008. N.p.

Jinx! "Spent grain." Flickr. Yahoo!, 02 Mar. 2008. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

"Sugar Dessert Flan Caramel Sweet Delicious." Free photo Sugar Dessert Flan Caramel Sweet Delicious - Max Pixel. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2017.

Tigris River, Diyarbakır. 2007. Turkey.

Don't Put The Plants To Sleep On The Ground

In the first unit of food class, we talked about food, where it comes from, how it gets to our table, and different ways that people across the world grow it from people like Fukuoka to Darwin. One thing that we focused on at the end of this section was different Garden types, how people grow their food, and companion planting and companion plants. For the Action Project, we had to design our own garden in any form, whether it be a raised garden to buckets, and then we had to choose the right plants to go together in the garden. Along with this, we had to figure out the different minerals and materials in the soil where we plan on planting our garden and figure out what supplements we had to use.

My garden will be in front of GCE Lab School on the sidewalk where people aren't walking. This is a great place to put a garden because it's long, wide, it has good dirt and it has lots of people that can take care of it. I chose this spot because I don't have anywhere else near my house to put a garden even on the sidewalk because there are so many things in the way. Also, the sidewalks aren't very wide at my house so this was an ideal location to put a garden.

The materials I used for this raised-bed are two by fours from the store, two by fours that are recycled and reused from anywhere and stone blocks from the store. I chose these materials because they're ideal for building a raised bed: wood is a cheap and reliable way to make it strong and sturdy, also stones are fairly cheap and make a very good and good-looking raised bed.

My soil quality was actually very good. The nitrogen level was 34, the potassium level was 245, and the phosphorus level was 11. Despite how good the quality of this dirt was I still had to add supplements. I added 11.25 pounds of blood meal to the dirt for Nitrogen. The way I figured out I needed 11.25 pounds of blood meal was by looking at a chart that showed that my nitrogen levels were high. This means that I would have to add 3 pounds per 100 square feet, so I did 3x3.75=11.25 pounds. For Potassium I do not have to add any supplements because I have the exact amount. I have 11 Phosphorus which is a decent amount but won't cut it. For the amount of phosphorus that I have, I will need to supplement it with 3 pounds of Soft Rock Phosphate per 100 square feet. I had to do the exact same equation as the nitrogen which is 3x3.75=11.25 pounds. I added these because without them the plants would not survive.

I will not be using any natural farming techniques because to be a natural farmer you need plants that aren't accustomed to being overwhelmed with pesticides and fertilizer. Unfortunately, you really cannot just buy these plants from the store. They have to become accustomed to nature and to not be supported by humans. I do not have the time or money to spend on plants that can't live by themselves. What I'm looking for is a garden that is more simple to take care of and is more average.

From this project, I have learned how to make a garden functional, how different plants can work with each other, and that Chicago does not have good soil quality. I do not plan to implement my garden only because I have 3 raised beds which are 25 feet long by 5 feet wide. All these gardens would be cool but they are not ideal things to have in Chicago since they are so large.

My raised beds are 25 feet by 5 feet by 1 & a half feet tall, each raised garden has 187.5 square feet of space. In total, I will need 562.5 square feet of dirt to fill all three gardens properly. The total surface area is 375 square feet because each garden is 25 feet by 5 feet which equal 125 which I have to multiply by three.

In conclusion, I have learned a lot about gardening, nutrients that plants need, and how they really thrive and live. Before this project, I didn't really know that plants needed so much care and work. Also after we visited the different gardens it taught me a ton about how much effort really goes into having a garden in the city. The people worked very hard on all the gardens and had everything from drainage pipes to nets over the plants. I don't think I would have enough time or drive to keep a garden running for long enough.

Can You Compete With Danny MacAskill

I took a class called MAGIC. This stands for Mentoring Achievement of Goals and Inspiring Champions. This is a stream class that incorporated math and people who we chose that inspired us. This was a very interesting class because we got to choose people that inspire us instead of the teacher choosing for us. This made the class many times more interesting than it would have been because we were completely interested since this person was someone that really interested us. We learned not only about the person we looked up but also how to make scale drawings. This was nice because we got to design our own venue. I built a dirtbike track on the lake front. Another reason I loved this class was because he had many FE's. We had five people come in and we also went to the lighthouse. I gathered so much information from these FE's because they were people that others look up to and I ended up understanding why and even drawing inspiration from them. For the action project, I had to talk about what goals I have, challenges I will face, the person I look up to and my mentor. I hope you enjoy it and learn something new.

Pollution Is Not The Solution

I took a class called Fuel. In this class, we talked about different types of fuel, how it's used, who uses it, and most importantly how it impacts us. We learned about renewable and non-renewable resources. An example of a non-renewable resource is coal because it doesn't can't be gathered again to use. An example of a renewable resource is solar power because you can continue to gather solar power and it doesn't just disappear into thin air. We also went to different websites to find out how many tons of CO2 we use per year. I use about 18.1 tons of carbon per year. In this presentation, I will go over how much pollution I create, how I can slow or stop this, and ideas of what you can do to slow down your pollution. I also explain how we can bring down our CO2 ppm level from 400 to 350. I hope you find this interesting and learn something new.

Super Solar

I took a class called Fuel. This class was about fuel, what it's made of and how it works. We learned about renewable and non-renewable resources. My first AP was a non-renewable resource and this one is a renewable resource that I choose. I chose to talk about solar energy. In this AP I had to make a slide show and create a video that goes along with the slide show. I will talk about how they work, where they work best, what types of jobs are created, why you should switch, why a business should switch, and about how Walmart has switched and saved millions of dollars.

 

Oil will Spoil

I took a class called Fuel. So far in this class, I have learned about different types of fuel, the periodic table, atoms, molecules, renewable resources and non-renewable resources. I learned about how these things affect the environment and how they impact us. For example, I learned about which types of fuel create carbon monoxide when there burned and which don't. Also, I learned how the U.S uses way more fuel than most other places on earth by a lot. We also learned about the history, the elements, and what everything on the periodic table means. That part was hard but after a while, I started to figure it out. We also learned a few math concepts that were challenging but started to get easier by the end. In my slide show, I go over one particular non-renewable resource called oil. I go over the molecular structure, the harms of oil, and I compare the United States oil usage to that of Canadas. So I hope you enjoy the slide show and learn something.

I am Malala

I took a class called MDGs. We learned about the 8 MDGs and the 17 SDGs. We also read the book I am Malala over the summer and we now are doing a project combining the book and the SDGs & MDGs. This project is about how Malala lived, fought and survived. I asked people for their thoughts on Malala and explained if I agreed or disagreed. I also said what six SDGs went along with the book and wrote why they corresponded with the book. I choose Gender equality, Quality education, Peace Justice, No Poverty, Good Health, Clean Water and Sanitation.

How is Hong Kong being affected by pollution?

The class I took was called Water. We learned about how important and scarce water really is. In this unit we learned about glaciers and how they provide a massive amount of fresh water for people around them. Unfortunately glaciers are melting at a fast rate due to global warming and they won't be around much longer. For this project we had to focus on a certain city and write about the future climate. I studied Hong Kong and learned about how there could be a catastrophe caused by global warming. We also learned about cloud types and where certain clouds form in the atmosphere. All of this content is in the project.

  

Why Waste your Water

The class I took was called water. We learned about water filters, how they work and why people need them. Filters are similar to the earth because the earth has different layers and that's similar to the way my filter was made. My favorite part of this course was when we went to the water filtration plant and saw where Chicago gets its water. It was amazing to see the massive plant that manages to produce 1 million clean gallons of water per minute.

D.S (2016) Filter Poster

Materials

• Cup
• Gatorade bottle
• Sand
• Gravel
• Foam
• Stick

I got my materials from friends and from my teacher.

Step 1- Put a piece of foam into the cup

Step 2- Put sand on top of the foam

Step 3- Put gravel on top of the sand

Step 4- Put another piece of foam on top of the gravel

Step 5- Then out bigger pieces of gravel on top of the foam 

Step 6- Then add sand and another layer of foam

Step 7- Then put the Gatorade bottle under the Starbucks bottle 

I used this filter design because it is similar to other filter designs because it has the different layers and the water catching device at the bottom.

My filter works because the water goes through the different layers of water and the different layers take out the contaminants.

My filter is similar to underground filtration because they both have different layers of materials that filter out contaminants.

The source of my water is river water but I added many contaminants such as mushrooms, screws and other things. The original ph was 3.6 and after it was 4.1 which means there was a difference of .5 this is in the acidic side of the scale.

10^-4.1=.000079

10^-3.6=.00025

3.16 diffrence in PH

Education Needs to be a Human Right

I took a class called MDG's and you. I learned about the 8 MDG's and the 17 SDGs which the UN wants to fix in the next thousand years. My favorite part of this class was the field experience that took us to the Chicago council on global affairs. We got to eat salmon and other good foods and the speech was very interesting they talked about women's rights and they had women in from Africa, South America, and the U.S. In this class we also learned about countries and where they were in the world. I also learned where all the countries in the middle east were.

Hermann. Books. Web: Pixabay 

“A child miseducated is a child lost” said John F. Kennedy, and he's right. 757 million adults are less educated than you and that's just in Africa (Africa Library Project-Africa Facts). How can we let people suffer from things as simple as having speaking, reading, and writing skills? The reason I think that all children need to complete school is because under education is the main reason of poverty. People without an education will only grow up and not be able to do anything. If you aren't able to speak properly and be able to write simple things then how are you going to get a job and make a living? We need to make sure that all children complete school.

Places like Africa will never get out of poverty if the people there are not educated. It is a massive cycle and when the children are not educated then what happens when they grow up? They do the same thing their parents did which was nothing. There's a chart called Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs that is a chart that shows and categorizes the needs of humans. Education falls under the safety category of Maslow's hierarchy because if a person cannot get a job then they can't afford a home, and they are exposed to the elements and to other people who are stealing. More than 1 in 3 adults in Africa cannot read and 48 million youths (ages 15-24) are illiterate in Africa. That's 20 times more people than who live in Chicago (Africa Library Project-Africa Facts).

Imagine if every year, this earth had millions of more people who can contribute the society and come up with ideas. A higher percentage of young adults (31%) without a high school diploma live in poverty compared to the 24% of people who did finish high school. If these kids were to even finish high school, then we would have a smaller number of people in poverty.

Getting everyone an education should be easy. I say this because Americans could literally stop buying soda for a year, and we would have enough to educate everyone. Every year Americans spend an average of 65 billion dollars (Africa Library Project-Africa Facts). We are just very greedy people.

Basic education needs to be a right because it will propel the world further. How many Einsteins do you think are just waiting to be uncovered? Educating everyone will mostly demolish poverty.


Work Cited

“Africa Library Project-Africa Facts”. The African library Project N.p.,n.d.web.02 oct.2016.

“Facts about children education and poverty in America.” Dosomething.org.N.p.,n.p.web.02.oct.2016.

H20 For Change

The class I took this unit is called water I learned about how much water I use and how much water the world uses. I really like going to get water at the river and I finally understood how bad people have it in other places. For my action project, I showed my water usage compared to America and the rest of the world.

How much water do you use? To give you an idea the average American uses about 151.8 gallons of water per day. That's a lot of water. The entirety of America uses about 48,272,400,136.6 gallons of water a day. Lake Michigan has about 6 quadrillion gallons which mean if every American drank from only lake Michigan the lake would run out of water in about 360 years which is not a lot when compared to the 200000 years humans have been alive. This shows how little water we really have. That's not considering the people who will be born in the future.

I divided my water usage into 4 categories which are cleaning, hygiene, drinking, and other. I used the most for Hygiene which was 38.3% or 23 Gallons. Second was cleaning at 33.3% which is 20 gallons of water. The third was other it was 26.7% or 9 gallons. And the fourth was drinking because I drank about a gallon a day.

The average person in the UK uses about 150 Liters per day. I use an average of 194.11 liters per day which is 40.11 Liters more than the average UK resident. This goes to show that Americans use much more water than they need to because I use a third of the water of a normal American and still use more than the average UK resident and they use a lot compared to many countries such as Nigeria that use about 45 liters a day. And even they don't use the least amount of water.

Less than one percent of all the world water is drinkable. And even out of that much of the water is hard to access. That's the reason water is so rare in places like Africa.

DS(2016) Water AP