Project Description (docs.google.com/document/d/1Ch7O9coZ7miNKYYrBz5C6O36I8nTcMpMR23NWaW2evs/edit)
The Dreamlight project was my favorite one from this year, for a lot of good reasons. First off, I got to have conversations, with different age groups. First, Aidan, Angela, and my self interviewed an Elementary schooler named Brandon. We discussed many things, such as his favorite cartoons and the people he loved, but what stood out to me most was the dreams he had. He wanted to become a soldier in the military. My group was very good in coming up with things to ask him to keep Brandon engaged. Next, we interviewed a community member. She spoke only Spanish, so it was sort of a challenge to have that conversation. Luckily, my project partner Angela also spoke Spanish, and was very good at translating the things she had to say. She told us her dreams for the community. She wanted her children to succeed and lead good lives. We had some interesting ideas to put as designs on our lanterns. As our third and final interview, we walked over to the senior center near our school with questions we had written up and talked to a kind elderly woman named Irene. We asked our questions, and we got very specific and emotional answers that revealed a lot about her. She was a very religious person who loved her husband very much, and he had only passed away months before. She now writes books about various things, such as Christmas, different modes of transportation, and other things she has interest in. Finally, we got to the building of our lanterns. We learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and make files to laser cut. For each lantern, there was four panels of four different things; math constructions, a quote from each interview, symbol, and a free choice panel. Lastly, we added our circuits that we made for physics class into our lanterns to complete them.
What I learned in humanities is how to get more from reading in Fahrenheit 451. From looking at the things the characters do, such as wear seashells (earbuds) all the time, and look at TV, and not read books, is an exaggeration of what people nowadays. The books message is pretty much how people are too connected to the internet, and must receive constant input. To avoid this, Ms. Carol told us a lot of tasks to talk to people and also simply meditate for just 5 and 10 minutes.
For the physics portion of this project, we made circuits to light up the inside of our lanterns. We used a battery, wire, resisters, switches, and our choice of LED lights and motors. It was a new learning experience and took hours and hours experimenting, asking for help, and redesigning and starting over. Finally, I finished my circuit but the motor didn't work. If I spent a little more time on that, I could have gotten it working. I used physics thinking by thinking of where the current was flowing in my circuit and making sure nothing got cut out.
Translating our artist statement in Spanish was pretty easy because all that we had to do was run our artist statement through Google Translate, then get it checked over by multiple Spanish speaking peers. Angela, our amazing group member, spoke Spanish so it was very convenient.
When it was finally exhibition day, not everything had been going accordingly. Our lantern kept falling apart and we tried around 4 times to wood glue it together. But the show must go on. I had to finish the map and circuit last second, and the quality wasnt the best, but at least it was hanging, with an artist statement, and the light worked! In all, I wish I started more conversations at the exhibition to tell more people about the project.
The Dreamlight project was my favorite one from this year, for a lot of good reasons. First off, I got to have conversations, with different age groups. First, Aidan, Angela, and my self interviewed an Elementary schooler named Brandon. We discussed many things, such as his favorite cartoons and the people he loved, but what stood out to me most was the dreams he had. He wanted to become a soldier in the military. My group was very good in coming up with things to ask him to keep Brandon engaged. Next, we interviewed a community member. She spoke only Spanish, so it was sort of a challenge to have that conversation. Luckily, my project partner Angela also spoke Spanish, and was very good at translating the things she had to say. She told us her dreams for the community. She wanted her children to succeed and lead good lives. We had some interesting ideas to put as designs on our lanterns. As our third and final interview, we walked over to the senior center near our school with questions we had written up and talked to a kind elderly woman named Irene. We asked our questions, and we got very specific and emotional answers that revealed a lot about her. She was a very religious person who loved her husband very much, and he had only passed away months before. She now writes books about various things, such as Christmas, different modes of transportation, and other things she has interest in. Finally, we got to the building of our lanterns. We learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and make files to laser cut. For each lantern, there was four panels of four different things; math constructions, a quote from each interview, symbol, and a free choice panel. Lastly, we added our circuits that we made for physics class into our lanterns to complete them.
What I learned in humanities is how to get more from reading in Fahrenheit 451. From looking at the things the characters do, such as wear seashells (earbuds) all the time, and look at TV, and not read books, is an exaggeration of what people nowadays. The books message is pretty much how people are too connected to the internet, and must receive constant input. To avoid this, Ms. Carol told us a lot of tasks to talk to people and also simply meditate for just 5 and 10 minutes.
For the physics portion of this project, we made circuits to light up the inside of our lanterns. We used a battery, wire, resisters, switches, and our choice of LED lights and motors. It was a new learning experience and took hours and hours experimenting, asking for help, and redesigning and starting over. Finally, I finished my circuit but the motor didn't work. If I spent a little more time on that, I could have gotten it working. I used physics thinking by thinking of where the current was flowing in my circuit and making sure nothing got cut out.
Translating our artist statement in Spanish was pretty easy because all that we had to do was run our artist statement through Google Translate, then get it checked over by multiple Spanish speaking peers. Angela, our amazing group member, spoke Spanish so it was very convenient.
When it was finally exhibition day, not everything had been going accordingly. Our lantern kept falling apart and we tried around 4 times to wood glue it together. But the show must go on. I had to finish the map and circuit last second, and the quality wasnt the best, but at least it was hanging, with an artist statement, and the light worked! In all, I wish I started more conversations at the exhibition to tell more people about the project.