Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Brazil Website

Copy and paste this link to your url to learn about the 5 themes of geography of Brazil on my Weebly:

http://5themesofbrazil.weebly.com/

There are lots of cool pictures so please check it out and leave comments here!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Safe and Sound

Author's note: This was inspired by E.E. Cummings' r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r  poem (which I saw on Mai's blog), but I am using the words from the song "Safe and Sound" by Taylor Swift off the Hunger Games soundtrack. I did use Cummings' style a little more modestly though, this just being a fun piece. These aren't my original words, so I can't really call this my own, but I had fun using this style, so tell me what you think!




~


I
Remember
Tears
Streaming
Down
Your
Face
{When I said I'll never let you go}

When  all those shadows almost killed your light


I remember you said

Don't leave me here 


¦Alone¦



      But all that's

dead and gone  and past>>>>>>>>tonight.




Just close your eyes.

The sun is going down.


You'll be alright.

    O         N          C     N            U     T         O          N     W
N         O     E           A           H      R         Y     U          O

Come morning light,

     yOU and i'LL
         be


|safe and sound|

             ~

Don't you dare look out your  win        dow,

         Darlin', everything's on *fire*

Th-e  w-ar  outsi-de  ou-r  d-oor  ke-eps  ragin-g  o-n


Hold      on

To       this

 Lullaby


            
                          >music's<
                        ^            ^
                      ^                 ^
               Even when the^                      ^gone.


Gone.



Just close your eyes.

The      sun                      
          is     going            
                                                D
                                                  O
                                                    W
                                                       N
                  You'll be alright.

           No 0ne can h√r+ you noш.


       Come morning light,

          «You and I'll» be

         Safe• and •Sound


    ~
    ~
    ~


Just [close] your eyes.




жYou'll ^be ^alright.ж



COMorlightningME

       You and I'll be


   Safe…and…Sound
     

~

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Egg Drop

Problem- What kind of device do we need to make in order to drop an egg without breaking it?

Hypothesis- We believe that our contraption will prevent the egg from breaking because it has air resistance, elements that absorb some of the energy from the impact, and a slower falling rate because of our "leash".


Experiment-
Materials
1 big plastic cup
1 small cup
1 little plastic doohickey
3 rubber bands
1 string
10 paper clips
4 note cards
1 string
Variables
N/A
Constant: eggs, materials,judges
Independent: construction of device
Dependant: fate of the egg

Procedure-

 Our contraption is cushioned by ten tissues which will absorb some of the impact. The tissues are inside a plastic capsule, which will also absorb some impact energy. We added flaps in order to create some air resistance, creating a slower fall. Also, using the paper clips and length of string provided, we created a "leash" that we will hold onto when we first drop it, then when it has reached the end of the string we will release it. This will give the contraption less time to gain momentum, creating a lesser impact with the ground.
We will drop the contraption off the balcony of the stairwell, after securing the egg.

Observations-
Drop 1- Egg inside of device is dropped by Ashton from 12th step. Egg does not break.
Drop 2- Egg inside of device is dropped by unknown person. Egg Breaks.

Conclusion-Most of our success came from the lessened drop of the "leash" and the padding we added to absorb some of the impact. The air resisting wings did not help much. Because I did not witness the second drop in which the egg broke, I can not say much about why it did not work the second time. All in all our contraption worked to an extent, depending on how it was dropped and the height.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Ballet Reflection

 Author's note: I am responding to our David's Heartbeat field trip with a poem because it was a really creative performance that inspired me.My poem is closed form, and each stanza responds to different elements of the production, from the dancing to the music to the story.

Leaping,
Twirling,
Dancing.
Moving without a care

Artsy,
Thrilling,
Beautiful.
Colors everywhere

Pleasing,
Emotions,
Elegant.
Music filling through the air

Life-changing,
Intriguing,
Poetic.
A story for all that ballet can share

Monday, February 13, 2012

House Project Write-up

 Author's note: This is a write up about doing my house project with Abbie. My first piece for this project was more explaining what I learned, while this is about what the process was like, and what emotions came up. My word choice isn't too great here. I am just focusing on fluency.

The whole idea behind Academy 21 is for kids to learn their own way, to do new projects that not only teach academics, but real-world skills, too. You are encouraged to do things that aren't conventionally done in traditional classes, so what better way to learn about the real world than simulating the purchase of a house?

When I first got the suggestion from my mom, I thought she was kidding. It seemed like buying a home would be to advanced to learn in middle school. But beneath the doubt, I was actually curious about the process. I talked my close friend in the class, Abbie, the next day, because I wanted to share this experience with someone -- both for support and a different point of view.  She seemed really exited about this too, so we made it official that this would be a project.

To be honest, we didn't know where in the world to start. We had a talk with Mr. Johnson who clarified it a little, and at least gave us a starting point. There are mainly two people that play a role in your home buying: a banker and realtor. With that in mind, we first set up a meeting with a banker. I was  unsure about this meeting at first, because I was afraid he would treat us like kids, bankers being so stereotypically professional, but Mr. Boldt treated us like he would have probably treated any normal citizen, and was very patient with all of our questions.

We came out of the meeting feeling really accomplished, with a number that we would be able to purchase a house at. Next we would have to talk to a realtor, Jan Farber, for the next steps. It took us a while to schedule the meeting, which frustrated us a little, but eventually happened. When it did happen, it did not go as smoothly as the first. She was nice, but had an extremely difficult time with our laptops and made what probably would have been a half hour meeting into an hour. Also, seemed to treat us like kids in some respects, such as saying we weren't allowed to go to open houses. This dampened our mood towards the project very much because going to open houses was admittedly what we were looking forward to in the project the most, but with that meeting over, our project was close to done.

As I'm sure it is in real life, there was a major sigh of relief when we picked the house and simulated filling out the forms. Abbie and I posted our final piece on our blogs and I think I speak for both of us when I say we were proud to have finished a project like this. We learned a lot about many different things, and dealing with problems that come up in the real world. After our tiring, long term process of home buying was over, we were ready to kick back and relax in our new "home".
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