Disaster Movie Review

In my elective term course Ollywood at GCE, we learned about the art of filmmaking. In our studies  we looked at the three major parts of making a movie. Pre-production, production, and post-production. While learning about each part, we watched various films to compare our findings to popular films and visited a variety of places that work in the field of film or have a great deal of experience. My favorite of these Field Experiences was to Morning Star. Even though Morning Star wasn't a film company, they had a large space and dedicated employees to making videos for advertisement. The reason why it was the favorite was because we got to see lots of all the cool and professional equipment they had in their studio. For the Action Project for this course, we were asked pick any movie and create an extensive review on it. In our review, my partner GA and I analyzed Disaster Movie. We specifically picked this movie knowing how bad it was because we thought it would be much more fun to review a movie that we both enjoyed making fun of.

The People We Always Forget

For the third unit of Rhetoric, we learned how the use of language and ideas can unite people. Although this was an extremely short unit, we briefly analyzed different historical periods that follow this main idea. For this Action Project, we had to make an artistic piece that represents something that we feel strongly about. My partner and I decided to make a voice over of the CTA train announcer to make people realize both who is actually on the train, and how the city changes around them. It’s called ‘The Voices Of The Lost”. I produced the audio clip and my partner (AL) did most of the writing.

         

"The Voices Of The Lost", (2016) LS. 

Our main rhetorical appeal in this piece is pathos. Throughout the audio clip, the main focus was getting people to feel like they were on a train and then make them reflect upon the questions being asked. While not as obvious as pathos, ethos plays a large part in the piece as well. If some random person were to come up to people on the train an repeat what the piece is saying, it would not have the same effect. The fact that it comes from the intercom, a place they've always gotten factual information from, makes a larger impact.

When hearing this recording we want the listener to think about all the different people that struggle through life around the city. In the making of this piece, we are trying to unite those that are separated by race. If you look at any demographic map of the city, it is obvious that there is a strong divide between where the majority of the racial groups live in Chicago. Many of these segregated people may even feel that they live in a completely different city as those that have higher incomes. In most cases, people that live up north aren't even aware that segregation still happens in their city at such a high frequency. This is why that instead of attacking the people that simply are unaware, we aim to make them question themselves and not feel attacked. When I first recorded the speaking part, I thought it was too short. However, after recording more, I realized it just turned into what sounded like an infomercial. This is what prompted the shorter and more question filled version.

While this was made primarily with the idea of race in mind, it can also been interpreted as people ignoring the presence of homelessness on the CTA. Often, we don’t care to think that there are homeless people that live on these trains. When we do see them, we complain behind the safety of our computer screens about them sleeping on the seats of the train. One well known homeless person is Freddie the homeless man ("Forgotten"). He sleeps on the Redline all day until the beds at a shelter open up at night. There are 2,055 people that live on the street or public transportation and parks in 2015 (Rianne). 

While not necessarily inciting action, our hope is that after listening to our piece, people reflect upon their own thoughts and actions. We want people to want to get involved on their own accord, not because they got ideas shoved into their head.


Citations:

Coale, Rianne. "As Homeless Numbers Rise in Chicago, CTA Is a Place of Refuge | Transit Diaries." Redeyechicago.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

"The Forgotten Passengers." A Red Line Project Special Report. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2016.

Travis' Bike

For the second unit of Design and Engineering at GCE, we learned all about bikes. Throughout our internal investigation, we talked mostly about the math that goes behind different parts of the bike such as the gears and wheels. For our external investigation, we visited a design firm to learn about the design process, had a representative from Divvy come in to talk to us about bikes, and did a workshop with a representative from Dyson. Finally, for our Action Project, my partner and I were given a persona and asked to design a bike based off of their specified needs.

Bike Anatomy. (2016) LS.

Our assigned persona is a student that lives in Uptown and wants to ride the lake path to school. He lives on the third floor of his apartment so he wants a bike that is easier to carry and store in his home. He needs a bike that is light, fast, and can move effectively in the weather throughout the year.

To fulfill these needs, we designed a bike with a variety of features. For the weight and storage issue, we made the decision to use a light yet strong material, use a fixed gear mechanism, and make the bike completely collapsible. This means that the bike can be folded in half down the center to make it easier to carry up stairs and store in a small apartment. In order to make the bike fast, we made the seat higher than the handlebars to force a suicide position and used thinner tires meant for a city street. The suicide position helps him go faster because it makes him more aerodynamic. Finally, for the weather issue we made the tires heavily treaded. This would allow the bike to travel more easily across the lake shore path when it is wet. Most bikes now have either thin slick tires or thick and heavily treaded tires. We wanted to make a hybrid of both for the best of both worlds.

While some people may be hesitant to buy a new product, the reason our user should buy our model is the variety of features. In other words, let the product speak for itself. Since the bike is tailored directly to the needs of city goers, there are few other bikes that can provide what ours can. Since we have no background as bike designers, the only reason to believe that our bike is going to benefit users the most is the multitude of useful features. Also, if we look at the user that we designed this bike for specifically, he has every reason to believe in our design because the bike was built directly around his needs.

Collapsed Bike View. (2016) LS.

To make the model, we measured an existing bike and used a scale of 9 to 1. For my wheel size we used a diameter of 622 mm or about 24.5 in. This puts the circumference of the wheel at about 1954.07 mm or 76.93 in. After calculating the distance from the user's home in Uptown to GCE to be about 6.1 miles, we calculated that the amount of rotations the bike would make in one ride would be about 5023.87 rotations. You can calculate this by dividing the total distance by the circumference of the wheel. Also, the average time it takes the user to get to school is 33 mins if he is traveling at an an average of 10.91 miles per hour or 4.88 meters per second for the duration of the trip. Since the user wants to go very fast and is only going to be riding on a mostly flat surface, the best gear ratio to use would be about 44:16. This means that there is a larger gear in front and a smaller gear in back. This allows the back gear to rotate more with less peddling and lets the user go faster. Also, since the user is presumably light (being around 130-145 as a 16 year old) and has the need to go fast, the gear ratio will be beneficial.

Bike Model. (2016) TH.

During our external investigation, we interviewed people that we knew to be bikers. During my biker interview, my interviewee said something interesting that ended up helping during the design process. He said:“Although I love my fixed gear, thin tire bike, it would be more beneficial to have a bike that can work on a variety of surfaces." This quote was part of the decision to add the thin yet treaded tires to our design.

During a part of our internal investigation, we discussed kinetic and potential energy. Since there aren't many elevated portions of the lake bike path, my user wouldn't often have potential energy. However, whenever he is at the top of a hill he would have the most potential energy. When he is moving the fastest, he would have the most kinetic energy.

Donald Trump: The Rhetorical Challenger

For the second unit of Rhetoric, we investigated what it means for an idea or person to challenge the status quo. Throughout our internal and external investigations, we looked at many examples of current and historical figures and how they stood up to certain ideas or oppressive figures. For our Action Project, we were asked to choose a person that we thought was a rhetorical challenger. For my project, I chose Donald J Trump. While I do not support him in his candidacy for the President, I thought it would be beneficial to put on a new lens to see him in a way I hadn't before.

GCE Summer Hours

Over the summer I took multiple opportunities to gain service hours. First, I spent lot's of time right at GCE. I started a few weeks before the first day of school and came almost everyday from 10 am until 3 pm. Most of the things I did included cleaning or helping teachers/staff whenever I was needed. One of my favorite things I did there was use the Carvy and make a wooden sign. It was the first time I has used a wood carving machine and it was really fun. The second thing I did was at a Chicago Public Library branch. That program was all throughout the summer and I went 2-3 times a week. I was tasked with helping children and their parents enroll in the Summer Learning Challenge. The SLC guides elementary kids through the challenge of reading 500 mins, creating something, and visiting an interesting place like a museum. The biggest thing I took away from this was a better ability to talk to younger kids. I never really had any need to talk to them but it's always a nice skill to have.

CPL Merlo. (2016) Merlo

College Level Nutrition Course

Over the summer of 2016 I took a class at Truman college for extra credits. The course was a 107 Biology course focusing on Nutrition/Consumer education. The course lasted 8 weeks starting in June and was held Tuesday and Thursday from 9 am to 12 am until August. It covered a wide variety of material related to the digestive process, common eating habits, and more. Although I had taken nutrition in the past, this one was very different because of the setting and difficulty. Sitting in a class that was full of people much older than me and taking college level and quizzes was very different. While I did feel like I learned a lot about how the body works with food, I felt that the main thing I took away from the class was the experience of being a real college classroom.

City Colleges of Chicago. (2016) Truman College Building

Rahtio - The Reimagined Sledgehammer

LS & JI, Rahtio Sketch. 2016

In the first unit of Design and Engineering, we learned all about tools and their physics. We also studied simple machines such as the wedge. the inclined plane, and the lever. To further our knowledge on these subjects, we went on a field experience to Home Depot to talk to the expert gardeners. For this Action Project, we were asked to pick a tool and with a partner, redesign it for the elderly. What was especially important in doing this was having empathy. Using empathy while making our designs allowed us to step in the shoes of those who would use our product to better the final product. For my project, I decided to improve the sledgehammer for easier and more comfortable use.

For our external investigation, we conducted an interview with a gardener to help broaden our knowledge and gather opinions on tools. My interview was with my Italian grandmother, who is an avid gardener but doesn't speak very good English.  My interview mainly focused on what tools she used and what she liked and didn't like about them. What I learned was that she likes tools that are versatile and easy to use. One thing she said specifically was: “My favorite tools are the ones I can understand easiest.” This drove our design by pushing us to add the moving grip for more comfort. 

After our FE to Home Depot and before we created our initial idea, I did some research on some different kinds of sledgehammers and their uses. I decided to analyze 3 of the hammers we saw on our trip. A smaller/lighter one, one with an innovation such as the head having a + pattern, and a standard/basic one. After looking at all of these it’s pretty obvious that none really have any huge innovation that would allow a senior to use it easily. For the most part, they’re all just weights connected to bars. This research really helped in our decision as to how we were going to innovate the sledgehammer. Our biggest focuses were achieving comfort, balance, and power simultaneously. You will not find this combination of features on any other hammer because nobody else really has a reason to design a tool like the sledgehammer for the elderly.

LS & JI, Rahtio Forces. 2016

The photo above shows the way the force of the hammer would go. The force would only go one side a time; the top being a larger force because of the weight, and the bottom being smaller because your hands are only leading it. This hammer is most similar to a lever because you could add a fulcrum to the handle and gain and lose leverage as you lengthened the handle or moved your hand closer to the head.

To practice some of the math concepts we learned this unit, I calculated the approximate volume and surface area for the head of the sledgehammer:
height=15
diameter=8
V=753.98 cm^3
SA= 477.52 cm^2

Works Cited

Angela Pompeo. (9/18/16) Phone call interview.

Rhetorical Response to Gun Control

In the first Unit of Rhetoric, we learned how to use and classify different rhetorical devices and appeals. We looked at many modern day and past examples as well as imagined situations to find the context, speaker, and audience. On our field experience to the history museum, we gained further knowledge on how ethos, pathos, and logos can be seen and applied in unique objects. For this action project, we were asked to respond to a political question rhetorically. My question was: How should the issue of gun control be handled in the US?

Script:
One of the longest debates in US politics is the issue of gun control. The premise of gun ownership dates all the way back to when the 2nd amendment was ratified in 1791. Even though this amendment was agreed on over 200 years ago, it’s still often used today as an argument to oppose the idea of stronger gun control in the US. However, some people fail to accept that the amount of violence since then has only gone up. While the US does have laws in place to try to prevent gun violence, it seems they are doing almost nothing. “From 1998 to 2008, about 96 million background checks for gun purchases were processed through the federal background check system. Of these, approximately 681,000 or about 1% were denied.” Just last year, 244 people on a terrorist watch list attempted to purchase a firearm. 223 of these attempts were successful. By these numbers, you’d think that going to buy a gun is just as easy as going to buy some milk. Not only are we handing out guns to former criminals, but now also people that the FBI recognizes as potential terrorists.It seems like just in the past few years, we’ve seen another civil war. Countless killings such as Sandy Hook, where many small children were killed, and the Orlando Massacre. The shooter in the Orlando massacre had previously been on a terrorist watch list, but had no problem purchasing guns when he wanted to kill tens of people. In order to prevent the meaningless and horrid murder that happen daily, we need laws that prevent all criminals and and potential terrorists from buying guns.

A Raisin in the Sun Commentary

For the third unit in my Humanities course Drama, we read and analyzed A Raisin in the Sun. Along with reading the play, we further analyzed the social issues it presented such as gender roles, gentrification, and matriarchy. For our Action Project, we wrote a prologue, picked a scene form the play, and commented on our chosen piece as a member of the play's "Chorus". While doing this we also learned of the Chorus' role in the theater. On thing I struggled with was writing the prologue and one thing I really enjoyed doing was recording the commentary.

Patient Profiling

In the final unit of my STEAM class Cure at GCE, we investigated prevention. We learned all about how vaccines worked and how, people try to prevent both chronic and acute diseases and sicknesses. For our Action Project, we were asked to interview a member of a family, make a family tree for them, and develop a patient profile to help them prevent a disease they have a familial risk of developing. What I enjoyed most about this project was creating a family tree and looking at how it came together.

Subconci Productions. Doctor Office 3, 2007

Proyecto de Español

For my third period Spanish course at GCE, we learned lot's of basic phrases and how to conjugate common verbs. The way we went about learning these concepts was very fun and comprehensive. We  played lots of games and had experience with the culture of Spain through trying different foods. For our Action Project, we were asked to pick a topic from a provided list, write 20 sentences on the topic, and make a creative piece based off the topic. The most fun part of this project for me was making my photo because I love using photoshop. I struggled a bit with the sentences because towards the end I had trouble coming up with ideas.

History in the Park

For the second unit of Drama at GCE, we continued our journey into plays by reading A Doll's House. Reading this book in this unit was a bit different from the last because of the style of writing and the time period it was written in. It was also much easier to understand exactly what was going on. For this Action Project, we were asked to write and preform a play. The most difficult part of this was actually writing the play since I had never done it before.

Insomnia Pill Box

For the second unit of my STEAM class Cure at GCE, we learned what all the information on a medication box really means. Along with learning about drug information, we researched medications that have had large impacts in the past. One prime example of this is Penicillin and it's impact WWI. For our Action Project, we were allowed to chose any disease/inpalement that we wanted and model a medication box using 3 different treatment. We made the box using categories and classifications we learned throughout the unit such as side effects and dosage. Also, for the math portion of the unit, we explored quadratics and applying the quadratic equation to find the roots of a problem. The hardest part of this project was modeling the cover of my box by I am also very proud of how closely it resembles a real Ambien container.

Shakespearean Sonnet

For the first Unit of my Humanities course Drama at GCE, we read the play The Taming of the Shrew and studied sonnets. After reading the play, I felt my understanding of Shakespearean language had increased by a lot. For our Action Project, we created our own sonnets and recorded a video of us preforming it. The hardest part of this project was making sure the poem followed iambic pentameter for most of the poem. What I am most proud of is how I incorporated Shakespearean language.

LS Shakespearean Sonnet from LS on Vimeo.

How canst thou have such a quick change of heart

One man, some words, and soon thy mind was new

I used to think that you were rather smart

At least you are no longer seen as “Shrew”

How can you even think you want to stay

If all Petruch’io thinks is that you are

only e’er “bound to serve, love, and obey”

Oh how this new Kate is so rather mar

What grates me most are not your shrewish ways  

I understand his threats and how you’re forced

Snap out of your husband's controlling daze

Make him stop or quite simply get divorced

Let’s see this not as man’s despotic crime

Rather a lesson, meant for all life’s time

Appendectomy

For the first unit in my STEAM course Cure at GCE, we studied cells and how surgeries affect the body. A large portion of our research in the internal and external focused around cell theory and how hospitals and doctors preform surgeries. For this Action Project, we were asked to pick any kind of surgery we want and preform research on the body systems, organs, tissues and cells affected. I chose an Appendectomy (removal of the appendix) because I've known people who have had it preformed. My favorite part of this project was getting used to Prezi since I had never used it before. One thing I struggled with was finding in depth information about the appendix.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

In the last unit of my Humanities class Forbidden Books at GCE, we learned a lot about diversity. Our studies were mainly focused on a book we chose from a pre-selected variety. My choice of reading was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. For our Action Project, we we’re asked to compose an essay based on 1 of 4 provided prompts. I chose the prompt that involved interpreting dangerous/controversial text literally, ethically, and symbolically. My biggest struggle of this project was creating a thesis that connected my interpretations and overall idea of the book. I tried my best to overcome this by exploring multiple theses and choosing the one I thought fit best.

LS. Sherman Alexie. (2016)

Have you ever read a part of a novel that made you put it down in shock from explicit language and ideas? While reading Sherman Alexie’s book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, this happened to me more than just once. Set on an Indian reservation in Wellpinit, Washington, this book follows the life of 14 year old Arnold Spirit and his transition into a predominantly white school. Arnold never quite fit in at his reservation. However, once he changed schools, “not quite fitting in” seemed like a clear understatement. As we follow Arnold through his journey, we can clearly see the change in not only himself, but of the people and places around him. This may seem like a completely innocent retelling of a child's story. But, this book has in fact been banned in multiple parts of the country. My views  of some controversial parts will be in the form of sections divided into literal, ethical, and symbolic interpretations. While I don’t believe the banning was completely justified, in certain situations, Alexie’s portrayal of teens and their behavior can get too stereotypical and explicit.

The primary focus of this particular part of the novel is race and how teens create jokes around the subject. It also touches on how they use explicit language to make the joke more humorous and how when a teen gets offended, they use violence and rash actions.

“Hey, Chief” Roger said. “You want to hear a joke?” “Sure,” I said. “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?” I felt like Roger had kicked me in the face. That was the most racist thing I’d ever heard in my life. Roger and his friends were laughing like crazy. I hated them. And I knew I had to do something big. I couldn’t let them get away with that shit. I wasn’t just defending myself. I was defending Indians, black people, and buffalo. So I punched Roger in the face (64-65).

In this passage, Roger tells Arnold a racist joke that offends him so he responds with a violent action. On an ethical level, Arnold sees the joke as not only an attack on himself, but as one on multiple cultural backgrounds and species. He feels the need to act to defend those being attacked and responds with the only way he sees fit: violence. Finally, symbolically the text means that this is a very good way to represent Arnold’s struggle throughout the book. There are multiple instances where he is feeling attacked and I felt this did one of the best jobs at providing a blunt and quick response that reflected on his feelings. While I understand Alexie’s message it seems his wording here is unrealistic from my experience as a teen.

The next quote from the book is about is teen relationships. Since this specific relationship was verbally mended by humor, I believe this is a good example of how Alexie wanted to portray teen communication. “‘I love that tree,’ I said. ‘That’s because you’re a tree fag,’ Rowdy said. ‘I’m not a tree fag,’ I said. ‘Then how come you like to stick your dick inside knotholes?’ ‘I stick my dick in the girl trees,’ I said. Rowdy laughed his ha-ha, hee-hee avalanche laugh” (Alexie 255). In the text, the two boys are joking about how Arnold is “in love” with a tree and because of that he places himself inside the tree. Arnold then says he only does that to girl trees to counter the fact that Rowdy called him a “fag”. In an ethical way, this could be seen as just teenage boys being normal and joking around about sexual things. In another, it could be interpreted as Rowdy and Arnold having a negative view on homosexuals because of their word choice and how Arnold doesn't want to be associated with that word. I feel this moment is symbolic for the relationship of Rowdy and Arnold towards the end of the book. Even though they we’re against each other, they can still come back together and joke around. Lastly, this explicit part of the book addresses a adult lesson in a way “changed for teens”. I feel this is one one the best ways to represent how Alexie feels that teens react to certain situations.

“Okay, so it’s like each of these books is a mystery. Every book is a mystery. And if you read all the books ever written, it’s like you’ve read one giant mystery. And no matter how much you learn, you just keep on learning there is so much more you need to learn.” “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” Gordy said. “Now doesn’t that give you a boner?” “I am rock hard,” I said. Gordy blushed. “Well, I don’t mean boner in the sexual sense,” Gordy said. “I don’t think you should run through life with a real erect penis. But you should approach each book— you should approach life— with the real possibility that you might get a metaphorical boner at any point.” “A metaphorical boner” I shouted.”What the heck is a metaphorical boner?” Gordy laughed. “When I say boner, I really mean joy,” he said. “Then why didn’t you say joy? You didn’t have to say boner. Whenever I think about boners, I get confused.” “Boner is funnier. And more joyful” (97-98).

Gordy and Arnold are talking about books and an important idea while then transitioning into an explicit comparison that turns into a conversation about how a sexual term and the word joy are related. In an ethical way, the boys are having a meaningful conversation about books and mysteries. To make this comedic and relatable, Gordy uses a sexual term for the reason of giving Arnold a better understanding of what he is talking about. I believe that this moment is symbolic for how the author believed the character and teens in the modern day deal with situations that don’t make sense to them or are hard to describe. It seems to he like he is inferring that teens use sexual language to both make light and sense of certain things.

The effect of many of these explicit passages through the book was many calls from around the country for the book to be banned. Parents in multiple states gathered and expressed their desires for the book to be removed from their community schools curriculum. In one particular case in Idaho, a local said that the book exposed students to words that they "we do not speak in our home". A student responded with a petition with over 350 signatures saying “our education is being censored”.

While it is usually easy to see Alexie’s purpose in expressing certain ideas, in my experience of being a person in the described age group, I don’t think the wording is realistic enough and seems stereotypical. I do not believe that this warrants the book to be banned. There is plenty of very positive things that can be taken away from this story. However, I feel Alexie would have had a much easier time getting this idea across to the people that want his book banned if he hadn’t hidden it behind a maze of explicit wording.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown,

2007. Print.

Flood, Alison. "Sherman Alexie Young-adult Book Banned in Idaho Schools." The Guardian.

Guardian News and Media, 08 Apr. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2016.

The 2009 Swine Flu Pandemic

In the last unit of my STEAM class Disease at GCE, we learned about the trend of how certain diseases spread. A large part of this unit was learning about how the R-naught of a disease tells how contagious or dangerous a disease could be. For our Action Project, we made a newspaper article about a contagious disease of our choice. My choice of the swine flu was made largely because of a personal encounter I had with it in the past. One part of this project that challenged me was wrapping my head around the use of the Gapminder software. I was easily able to overcome this by better exploring the tools and information it has to offer.

Article. LS. 2016

New Flu Mutation Found in California, Sweeps the World

In April 2009, a new strand of the H1N1 virus was found in a young boy in California. Scientist’s concluded that the virus was had originally developed among animals but had mixed with human variations of the disease. Only two days later another case of the strange disease had been found over 100 miles away in southern California. Not too long later the sickness had spread to tens of countries and was affecting millions worldwide. The disease is estimated to have killed 284,000 in total since the pandemic's beginning in 2009. This disease is a pandemic because of it’s major affect in multiple parts of the world.

H1N1 by Confirmed Community Outbreaks. Menegaz, Felipe. 2009

Symptoms of the disease of very similar to seasonal flu strains. Coughing, nausea/vomiting, sore throat, and fever are very common symptoms. The disease can be spread via airborne droplets or germ covered surfaces. Coughing or sneezing onto another person or a surface which another person would then touch could spread the disease.

The R-naught (R-0) for a disease tells how fast a disease will spread/reproduce on average in a population. From my research I found that the R-0 of Swine flu is around 1.6. Since it's higher than 1, we can expect the disease to spread and thrive in a population. Without a vaccine, the disease will grow as long as there are new people to infect make it's way through a large amount of people.

One major factor for the spread of the disease is transportation. Since global transportation has drastically evolved, any person with any disease can be on the direct other part of the world in under 24 hours. Because of this, the swine flu virus was able to be transported to many different locations before people were even able to recognize the fact that it was a new and dangerous form of the flu.

Another large risk factor of swine flu is having young and elderly people that are more susceptible to catching it. We can use the Gapminder software to illustrate how this factor makes certain countries have a higher chance of having more people contract swine flu in modern day. According to the most recent data on the site, Uganda and the Congo Democratic Republic are the countries that are the most at risk. This is because they are the two countries with the highest amount of children and elderly per 100 adults. The disease could spread better through a population with more people at a higher risk.

LS. Children & Elderly vs Cars, Trucks, and Busses. 2016

The length of the pandemic was not too long as it only lasted until 2010. By April, it was determined that the swine flu was no longer a pandemic. The decline of the pandemic can be attributed to the development of a vaccine. With its development towards the end of the pandemic, the amount of cases started to slow to reasonable numbers. In current day, this particular strand of H1N1 is equivalent to the seasonal flu.

The best way to prevent any swine flu outbreak in the future is to get people protected. Getting the vaccine is the best possible way to protect yourself from contracting H1N1. Other day-to-day things you can do is actively washing your hands and avoiding touching your face as much as possible. Publicly advocating the importance of a flu shot in all countries across the world and making sure the price of one is as low as possible can keep another epidemic from occurring.

Works Cited

"The 2009 H1N1 Pandemic: Summary Highlights, April 2009-April 2010." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 June 2010. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

"The International Response to the Influenza Pandemic: WHO Responds to the Critics." World Health Organization. World Health Organization, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

"The Newspaper Clipping Generator." The Newspaper Clipping Generator - Create Your Own Fun Newspaper. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

Ross, Robert. "CDC Estimate of Global H1N1 Pandemic Deaths: 284,000." Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Regents of the University of Minnesota, 27 June 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

"Swine Flu (H1N1)." Healthline. Healthline Media, 14 Dec. 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.

World War II Censorship

For the second unit of my humanities class Forbidden books at GCE, we studied what it means for a society to have dogma. Another major part of this unit was creating different interpretations about different pieces of text.  For our Action Project, we were given the choice to select any time period that showed censorship and study it. After we gathered research, we made a slideshow that represented all our information. The hardest part of this project was perfecting the citations. How I overcame this was using online resources like easy-bib.

Anorexia Nervousa

For Unit 2 in the Winter term of my Disease class at GCE, we investigated mental illnesses. The main disease we studied was Autism. However we also looked very in depth at schizophrenia. For our Action Project, we had to choose a disease, create a lesson plan and a simulation to give people an experience a disease, and make a fact sheet. The best part of this AP in my opinion was the simulation. It was the most engaging and fun part of this project. The hardest part in my opinion was setting up the simulation. My disease, Anorexia Nervosa, was tricky to simulate without offending anyone. To overcome this, I just made sure I asked everyone if they wanted to participate and was careful bout what I said.

GM. Lucas Presenting. (2016)

For my project, I did Anorexia Nervosa. I will provide both a personal and dictionary definition for the disease as a basis for what is is. Here is my personal definition: An eating disorder which causes the person to have an unusually large fear of weight gain. Because of this, the person feels the need to abscess about calories/exercise and intentionally lose an unhealthy amount of weight.

In the DSM-V, this is the criteria for Anorexia Nervosa:

“A. Restriction of energy intake relative to requirements, leading to a significantly low body weight in the context of age, sex, developmental trajectory, and physical health. Significantly low weight is defined as a weight that is less than minimally normal or, for children and adolescents, less than that minimally expected."

This symptom would show as a person intentionally not eating because of their body image.

"B. Intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat,or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, even though at a significantly low weight."

A person who was this symptom would almost always be thinking about their weight and relate many things to it.

"C. Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced, undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation, or persistent lack of recognition of the seriousness of the current low body weight.”

This symptom could be shown as a person who doesn't recognize their low body weight but instead still believes themselves to be overweight.

This is a formal definition of the disease provided by the Mayo Clinic:

“Anorexia (an-o-REK-see-uh) nervosa — often simply called anorexia — is an eating disorder characterized by an abnormally low body weight, intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of body weight.”

An important mindset to have about mental illnesses is displayed by a person named Shelly in our external investigation. Shelly has a son with Autism and this was one her responses to a question "I had to accept a long time ago that even though circumstances can not be changed or controlled; my reactions to the them can be controlled."

Sources:

Mayo Clinic Staff. "Anorexia Nervosa." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 28 Jan. 2016. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anorexia/home/ovc-20179508


American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Association, 2013.
Shelli. "Responses from Shelli." Message to GCE Sophomore Class. 25 Feb. 2016. E-mail.

Alexander, Achilles, and the Billboard Girl

In my Winter term for my Sophomore class at GCE, my humanities course is called Forbidden Books. For our first Action Project, we were asked to create our own Socratic dialogue. Before we started, we closely canalized both the Apology Socrates' comparison to living in a cave. One thing I struggled with in this project was timing and filming. One thing I think I was proficient at was the video editing. The Socratic method can be considered dangerous because it is a way to turn a persons belief without turning them against you.

Alexander, Achilles, and The Billboard Girl from LS on Vimeo.

Stacy and Strep

In my Winter term of my sophomore class at GCE, my STEAM course was Disease. For this course, we examined how diseases affect the body. For the Action Project, we interviewed a person we know that has a certain disease. We then created a patient profile and researched the disease to find out more information. I really enjoyed this project because of my connection to the disease I chose. I researched strep throat and I've had this disease multiple times. However, I've never really known the cause and how exactly it affects the body. I had a hard time finding multiple body systems thus drawing my illustration at first was hard, but after doing more research it was easy to make the connections to the other systems. 

Stacy

Stacy is a 15 year old student living in Chicago. She often contracts strep throat (or a streptococcal infection) and has to go see a doctor. Usually, her first symptom is a sore throat. She would often wake up and feel and intense pain in the back of her mouth. Also, she would feel very nauseous and sometimes vomit. Lastly, she would feel very tired and weak.

It is possible to have these symptoms and not have strep. However, because of her history of the disease, whenever she has these symptoms, she will go straight to the doctor to get tested. The most common way to test a patient for strep is to do a throat culture. To do this, a doctor swabs the back of the patient's throat to get a sample of the bacteria and then sends this to a lab. Many people, including Stacy, find this uncomfortable because it often will cause you to gag. The doctor test this swab for for the streptococcal bacteria and if it's positive, Stacy is provided with antibiotics to take over a certain period of time. The amount of time varies but she is commonly instructed to take the medication until she runs out. Usually, Stacy is told that after taking the medication for 24 hours, she won't be contagious and will then be allowed to attend school. However, there is a rare occasion where if the swab comes back negative, the doctor sends it to a lab for a "double check" and the lab will rarely come back and say it is positive. Thankfully this rare occurrence has never actually happened to Stacy.

Other than taking antibiotics for the disease, Stacy does a few things to help suppress the symptoms until she feels better. For her throat, Stacy usually takes pain relievers and drinks hot tea. She says that tea with honey and lemon works the best. For the nausea, Stacy says that "lying down and trying to very slowly sip hot broth can help you not want to vomit as much. But, if you move around too much or eat something too fast it can easily upset your stomach." Lastly, for her tired/weak feelings, just sleeping works the best. Sleep can be the best way to help your body fight off a disease or illness.

This disease usually affects Stacy in a very negative way. It causes her to have to be isolated until it isn't contagious any more which means she has to miss school. This sounds not so bad at first but when  it happens very often it can be no so fun to be behind on school work. Also, it makes Stacy have to stay inside and in bed with a very bad pain in her throat and the constant feeling of wanting to vomit. Because of all these things, Stacy has a very negative connotation with this disease and hopes to avoid it as much as possible.


Strep Throat

Strep throat is a bacterial infection in the tonsils and throat that causes inflammation and pain in the surrounding area. Strep is highly contagious. It can spread through airborne droplets when someone coughs or sneezes or through shared foods or drinks. You can also pick up the bacteria from a doorknob or other surface and transfer them to your nose, mouth, or eyes. Some risk factors are young age because this occurs most often in children and time of year. Strep is most commonly contracted in the spring and fall because the temperature allows bacteria to thrive and easily transfer between people. The types of people that are most susceptible are going to be social people. Since the major way to get this disease is from other people, communal locations such as public transit, offices, schools, etc. are going to be the most likely places to catch strep. Since Stacy is almost always in these public places, this is why she contracts this disease do often.

LS (2016), Full Body Sketch 

The most obvious place the infection affects is the throat, which is a part of the respiratory system and digestive system. The infection causes large amounts of inflation and pain in the back of the throat.

The tonsils also get infected and swell. The tonsils are a part of the lymphatic system. 

If untreated, a streptococcal infection can lead to many complication like inflammation of the kidneys and Rheumatic fever. The kidneys are a part of the urinary system and Rheumatic fever mainly affects the heart which is a part of the circulatory system.

References:
Mayo Clinic Staff. "Strep Throat." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education 
        and Research, 16 Dec. 2015. Web. 07 Feb. 2016. link

A Comfy Solution

At GCE, during the third unit of Rapid Prototyping, we learned all about a variety of tools and safety precautions when using them. For this Action Project, we were asked to come up with a completely original idea for an object that we could use in our new school space. After coming up with this idea, we had to follow through with it and build it. For my project, my partner and I improved a char by attempting to make it more conformable. The biggest challenge I ran into was time constraints. We only had 2 hours of in-class time to construct this when it actually took around 5 to do. I am very proud of this project because after I took the extra time to do it, it turned out very successful and comfortable!

LS & MI (2015) Finished Chair

Here is a link to our Instructables page where I list all of our materials and explain step by step how to make this chair.

We improved an office chair by adding large amounts of extra padding to both the seat area and the back part of the chair.

The time lapse video we took was taken on an iPhone. Since there was no way to accurately figure out the setting behind the speed, I looked it up online. On 9to5mac.com, I found that when the video is under 10 min, the video is taken at 2 frames per second and is 15x faster than normal speed.  This means that for every 1 second of time lapse video

One thing we were inspired by to make this was an IKEA hack called the cobalt office chair. For this specific chair, the makers completely redesigned the look of the chair to make it more visually appealing. This is similar to what we did but instead of visuals we went for comfort.

To loosen one part of the chair, I had to unscrew something at the bottom which used torque. If the handle attached to the back of the chair had been larger, I would have had more torque and the job would have been much easier. 

There were multiple safety hazards to be aware of when completing this project. First, wear goggles when using a staple gun and sharp blades because a staple can fly off and hit you in the eye or a blade can shatter and do the same thing. Also, watch your fingers when using anything sharp or a stapler. You can slip and cut/staple your hand and/or finger. Using thick gloves can help prevent that from happening. 

One quote from one of the Field Experiences was "...we try to provide artistic materials at a low price..." I really appreciate how available the Wasteshed makes materials and this relates to my project because their materials are so cheap, I was able to purchase a few that greatly helped in the construction of the chair.

Completing this project was both fun and extremely stressful. Using tools I had never used before was fun and so was creating an idea and following through with it. However, the deadline that was placed over us felt unfair which led to a few stressful late nights. After finishing this project, here are 5 lessons I learned: 

1. Safety first. Always make sure you are following the proper safety precautions.
2. Have a plan. Nothing is worse than starting to build and remembering you missed a step when it's too late. 
3. Asking for help from friends whether it be for materials or a helping hand can be very beneficial. Just remember to say thank you.
4. If you've never stapled fabric before, ask for help. If you just go ahead and try to staple it, it can look very bad.
5. Try to gather as many materials as possible as quickly as possible so there isn't any time where you have nothing to do.