Social Media Unit Reflective Assessment

One of the closing statements of my Ted Talk was, “We are incredibly fortunate to live in a world where our ideas are supported and where we have technology and tools to help bring them to life.” There are new ideas all around us, and there always have been. The position we are in is unique, however, because we actually can bring these ideas to life. Many people in the world would not have access to any materials, or even have their ideas encouraged by those around them. We have tools, technological, intellectual, and physical that can be used to make our inventions into realities. This was a unit of creating, exploring, and ultimately sharing our ideas with the world.

Our society provides us with a myriad of tools of which we can wield in our learning and inventing.In this unit I was able to construct a website centered around one of my projects, which is an ability unique to this generation.

Rain Turbine Website

Tools such as Wix, Weebly, and Blogger have aided immensely in organization and exhibition of our projects this unit. The capability of making a website is a definite learning experience in itself, and an opportunity to expand on the knowledge of the content.I experienced major learning curves in developing videos, displayed below, to be displayed on my website as well. I tested several technological tools including Moovly Studios, Nimbus, Youtube Pro Editor, and WeVideo and experienced much failure and success. 

Though several of these were difficult to use initially, I was able to employ a few of them to conceive successful creations. In prior decades these technological gadgets were not available, and we are fortunate to have them at our disposal. Technology can be used to create and explore, and it is responsible for a tremendous amount of scientific progression.

Finger pricking to get blood for testing.

With and without technology we have been able to understand many previously opaque topics and undergo scientific discovery.One personal discovery that I found, was my blood type, which happens to be A positive. The experiment involved testing for agglutination when anti-antigens did or did not react with antigens on the exterior of our red blood cells. Agglutination occurred for my blood with the anti-antigen A and anti-antigen Rh, indicating that my blood was A positive. Blood typing works based on the subject of immunology, which has subtopics of vaccines and viruses. We further explored these topics by making sketchnotes (shown below), playing “viral tag”, watching many videos, taking notes, and doing a few demonstrations.The natural aspect of it all is that our bodies have immune systems that are wired to remove pathogens such as bacteria and fungi. Vaccines activate our body’s defenses to prepare for a potential sickness or disease. Deviating away from the specific curriculum, I made my own scientific investigation related to an invention made in the environmental unit.The paper I wrote emulated a real scientific journal entry, and explained my experiments of the power that could be generated by my rain turbine. The results may have been flawed, but the realizations that came in the discussion piece could be valuable for future experimenters. This unit has been full of discoveries and new ideas, and social media can aid us in the next step of sharing. 

Sketch note on the immune system

Twitter Account @therainturbine

When an idea has the ability to make a positive difference, it is our responsibility to share it. Atticus Finch knew the first thing about sharing what he believed in, and he did this by appealing for equality in the court scene. Mr. Underwood, of whom was discussed in my narrative, shared his thoughts on the case afterward in a passionate news article. Sharing verbally and through social media allow us to get our ideas into the world, and to introduce new perspectives to others.  I took the verbal approach in my Ted Talk, which explained my rain turbine and encouraged new innovators to step forward. Hearing an individual speak can be very powerful and inspiring for listeners, and I hope that viewers felt that way about my speech. It was a great learning experience for me, as public speaking is something I want to master since it is so important. Exhibiting ideas through social media has always been easier for me, which is why I felt pretty successful with my Twitter account. This too shared my rain turbine and call to action with the world, but with a wider range of people. There was a lot more details involved than it might appear, as hashtags and media were carefully placed to increase the audience. With campaigns of different mediums, innovative and unique ideas can be expanded throughout the world.

In my personal learning experiences this unit, I began to appreciate the importance of using our technology to develop our ideas, and continuing to share them within the world. All our discoveries should be exhibited and used to support ideas worth sharing. These concepts go beyond this unit, but represent the overall meaning of NEW school. We can create, and we can share, and we can inspire. All the tools are at our fingertips, and we can make a difference in this world.

Rain Turbine Complete!

After several weeks of working with the welding class, the first ever rain turbine is complete! It is far from perfect, but it is a great base model that can be tweaked and improved upon over time. I am so thankful that the welding class was so willing to help make my plans work out.

Now that the model is complete I will be experimenting with it, tweeting about it, constructing a TED Talk on it, and helping teach basic physics concepts with it. Super excited to see where things go from here, and how much I can fit in before the school year ends.

Social Media Unit Final Project Commencement

The final unit of our year has begun, and thus we have commenced our unit project. My project is to be an extension of my environmental unit project, although we were given the option to use any topic studied this year. As you may remember, my environmental project was a rain/water turbine. The model took a lot of construction, as I have been working with various sources to assemble it. As it is, the model should be done today, and I will be writing an in-depth description on it very soon. Anyways, the rain turbine project has been much of a success for me and I would like to work further on it during this project.

Essentially I am going to be testing my rain turbine on its development of power. The goal is to apply a force using water, and to alter the time of interaction between the force and the blades. Using rotational kinematic equations I will find the power under different values of time, and analyze my findings. The original guidelines of the assignment was to develop a lab for others to follow, although I am instead going to write a formal scientific paper, which will be a new challenge for me. These papers involve pieces such as an abstract, discussion, theory, equipment, analysis, etc.. A further summary can be found here, which I actually wrote in my AP Physics class, but I find it applicable here. Along with these writing and testings, I will create a website complete with videos, resources, and my findings.

Hopefully this project will be a great learning experience and also successful for my water turbine. I am very excited to see what I find and what this means for my invention.

Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action

http://bit.ly/2pEEK8g

Simon Sinek's TedTalk, "How Great Leaders Inspire Action", is ranked within the three most popular TedTalks of all time.

The talk begins with a questions that is thought provoking and draws viewers in. He asked why certain companies, such as Apple, appear so much more innovative and successful. This is a very curious idea, as he explained that there employees are no better than those of another company, and their opportunities are the same as well. I, presumably like many others, was captivated by this question and anxious for an answer. This is what a hook should be like, whether or not it is a question or an abstract idea.

He then continued with his solution: "people don't buy what you do, but why you do it". As the talk went on he repeatedly said that single phrase, effectively related everything back to it. He drew in examples of real-world applications and broke down the meaning and how it related. Along with a catch phrase Sinek had a symbol: "The Golden Circle" shown at the top. These two things were drilled into viewers' heads over the course of the video so that they might take something away with them. This lets viewers remember the point of the talk after it has finished.

At the conclusion of the talk, Sinek wrapped up with a few thoughtful statements tying the juice of his message to the point he wanted to make. In this case he brought back the idea of what a leader should be: someone who does what they do for a purpose, and inspires others to follow them by following themself.

On a more technical side of things, Sink was a very effective communicator. He paused for effect after presenting big ideas, and even expressed shock at his own words. Throughout the talk he made little side jokes, but nothing too distracting. The eye contact also made an impact, as it seemed to make everything more sincere. He also acted fairly relaxed, which allowed the talk to appear a little less tense and more full of passion. I think this may have been the most important thing because it made the message the point, not himself, and his care and passion was obvious.

Understanding the Death Penalty

The primary novel of our new Social Media unit is To Kill a Mockingbird, and a key plot line involves a man sentenced to the death penalty. Thus, it seemed fit to understand the death penalty a little bit more as we read the novel.

We took our information from the Death Penalty Information Center: "Facts about the Death Penalty".

Interesting Information:

• Since 1973 there have been 158 people released from death row after being proved innocent.
• This means that there are clearly accidents that occur in the placing of people on death row; they should have been absolutely certain about their guilt before making that decision.
• The number of people sentenced to death per year has dropped dramatically over the past decade.
• Is crime growing fewer or are we becoming more reluctant to sentence people to death?
• Less than 2% of those sentenced to the death penalty are women.
• Women generally are not responsible for serious crimes.

Conclusions:

Fig. 1

There are far more executions that have occurred in the southern United States in comparison to any other region, as shown in Fig. 1. This could mean that there is far more crime in the area, or it could be an effect of their attitude towards the death penalty. These states likely are in support of the death penalty, in contrast to the NorthEast, which commits very few executions.

Fig. 2 shows the racial breakdown of executions that have occurred since 1976. It is evident that white people have suffered a significantly larger amount of executions. This could be related to the fact that America is made up of more whites than any other race. 98.4% of executions were made up of three large cultural groups in America, whereas minorities see less death rows.

Fig. 2

Unanswered Questions:

• What exactly are crimes worthy of the death penalty?
• Are regions that do not perform the death penalty as regularly less full of crime? Or is it just their reluctance that keeps the death penalty down?

Environmental Unit Assesment

Paul Ehrlich states in Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, “In pushing other species to extinction, humanity is busy sawing off the limb on which it perches” (Kolbert 164). Ehrlich is referencing the evident impact humans have had on the lives of species other than their own, particularly on the harmful side. Quite often we forget that humans are only a single species next to millions of others. In this environmental unit we have had the opportunity to investigate the world around us and to alter our perspectives on our position in nature. Throughout this unit we have come to understand our environment as a whole, the impact of humans, and solutions to our current, environmental issues.

Our world is completely reliant on the environment, and it is therefore essential that we are aware of what is around us. The atmosphere in Fahrenheit 451 represents a society without environmental awareness, and this is illustrated in our RSA Animation below.

The dystopian novel depicts a future that is quite possible if our appreciation and perception of the world continues to diminish. Through our unique animation we were able to portray how this change occurred, ultimately to teach us what not to do. As we continued in our explorations of our Earth, we were able to grow in our understandings and cognizance of what is around us. There are so many complex fundamentals that define our environment, that we do not always consider. Early into our unit we learned about one: the food web, through an activity of creating our own. We constructed a food web based on the abiotic factors and biotic factors given to us, and were able to gain a further understanding of various ecosystems and how they survive. From there it became quite evident that even the smallest organism can be crucial to life on our planet. This activity allowed me to appreciate the worth of each and every organisms more than I had previously, and to have a greater sense of humanity’s part in the food web. In an effort to learn more about organisms completely beyond our ecosystem, we took a trip to the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory. At this beautiful research center we were able to come into contact with organisms unseen to us on a daily basis. The picture to the top right shows a purple sea urchin, one of the many aquatic creatures we got to meet during the trip. Although we may not see organisms from other ecosystems on a regular basis, it is important that we respect and recognize them as life. Through this unit we were able to assimilate ourselves with diversified organisms, and to understand the necessary parts each plays in the environment.

Sketchnote on The Sixth Extinct

Concept map exploring the sub problems related to
the loss of coral reefs

Humans have certainly left their footprint on the Earth, although the consequences of these acts may destroy our planet before future generations can ever see it. Throughout reading The Sixth Extinction, we have constructed sketchnotes to illustrate the key ideas. One example is shown to the left (top). In the particular section that the sketchnote describes, Kolbert went into depth about Earth’s future given the damage left by humans. We have caused ocean acidification, air pollution, and ultimately the extinction of many species. The sketchnote describes how our closest relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, were some of the first species to be killed of by us humans. Our now closest relatives, apes, are also endangered. Humanity continues to be a menace to nature, and because we rely on nature ourselves, whether or not our own species can last is questionable. Our supplies certainly will not last long. We learned in student teach backs that fossil fuels are decreasing in supply at alarming rates, and they will be unable to sustain us long term. In addition, our emitting of fossil fuels pollutes nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere. Humans are clearly the only animals purposely releasing dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere, and we are killing ourselves in the process. The dilemmas our species have created surmount those of any other in all of history. To attempt to tackle some of these problems, we organized concept maps; one example is shown to the left (bottom). The purpose behind these was to branch each major environmental project into more approachable problems. Unfortunately this led us to find even more issues with our world, but it did stir some hope for reformations. While stopping the loss of coral reefs, for example, can sound like a daunting task, minimizing overfishing is a bit more feasible and would aid in fighting the initial problem. Humans have definitely had negative effects on the environment, although with our intuitive minds there is hope for amendments.

The majority of our unit was focusing on the positive: the things that we can do to fix environmental problems. We each tackled an issue individually, and mine focused on renewable forms of energy. The idea is essentially a Savonius axis wind turbine, like the one on the right, but rotated horizontally, with four blades, and with converted dimensions. Wind turbines are machines you may be familiar with, but my project is a manipulated form. The idea is to use falling rain to produce torque which would rotate a turbine and produce electricity. This developing idea is one potential solution to the issue of finite fossil fuels and a necessity for renewable forms of energy. Another, more developed environmental issue solver was created by Jonathan Rossiter, which we saw in a Ted Talk. This bot essentially can consume oil and chemicals that have polluted bodies of water. Not only that, it can also convert those chemicals in the electricity it needs to continue to function. Ideas like this are what we need at this point to address all the problems we have created. For while there are several demanding obstacles humanity is facing, we have the capabilities to fix them if we can only generate the ideas.

This unit was definitely one where the material goes beyond the classroom. The whole intent of us learning these things was so that we might care for the world around us a little bit more. Now we can more fully appreciate the environment around us, understand the threat we pose, and hopefully make the effort to leave the world a little better than where we found it. Humans are certainly not the best residents of the planet, because as of now our home is a mess. Yet if we can realize this and take charge, there is no reason why we cannot clean up enough return the Earth to its beautiful state.

"Wind GIF." GIPHY. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2017.

Deeper Learning Dive: The Brain

A "Deeper Learning Dive" is a student led activity, where each individual chooses a topic that they would like to research more (from what they have already learned), and they do this by watching videos and researching online. For my topic I selected the brain, as I felt that we did not spend too much time on that and it is an interesting subject. The video I watched is below:

The video describes the two different types of neural cells: neurons and glias. Neurons are basically nerve cells, whereas glias are the glue that holds neurons together. Both glia cells and neuron cells have a cell body called the "soma", which contains the nucleus and other organelles. Most of these cells have "processes" that branch out from the soma and vary in thickness, length, and terminal structure. The nervous system as a whole is made up of the central nervous system (brain and spine), and the peripheral nervous system (nerves that come out of the spine and brain and go all over the body).

I consider the information from the video to be reliable because it comes from a traditionally credible and renowned, non-profit organization: Khan Academy. Additionally, the video author: Matthew Barry Jensen, is a professor of neurology at the University of Wisconsin; thus, the video most likely contains real, reliable information.

This video gave me more of an overview on the given topic and was helpful to understand the nervous system a little bit more. Our class explorations had really centered around the brain, so I had not realized that there was both a central nervous system and a peripheral nervous system. It also helped me to understand that there are different types of cells in the nervous system, aside from just neurons.

Environmental Project Self-Devised Rubric

We are taking self-evaluating up a notch, by now devising our own rubrics to grade outselves off of. In groups we generated the below rubric for our entire environmental project. As mentioned in previous posts, this project consists of a research paper, model, social media campaign, presentation, and TED Talk. We are still in the process of creating each of these, but before continuing we wanted to settle the expectations we have for ourselves. This is the first rubric we have generated outselves, so there are still some kinks, but I think it is a great start in the right direction.