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Making a Future

 In this unit we learned about interest. For me looking into the future always felt unrealistic but this AP crunched it down to the numbers. This made it a lot easier for me to understand and to feel more comfortable with what I want and don't want. We talked to a bank and learned a lot about personal finance. We learned about what is realistic and different life goals. I am very grateful for this AP making me feel confident about my future. 

Does Riot Fest belong in Douglass Park?

     This AP is for journalism. In this first term we learned about written reporting. We dissected what it means to be new literate and how we can discern what is real and what is fake. We talked with a journalist from the Chicago Tribune and learned a lot about responsible reporting. I enjoyed being able to think critically about what language is used and the meaning behind words. I found this term very interesting and I feel it has taught me how to be a better informed citizen. ------- Does Riot Fest belong in Douglass Park?      Riot fest took place from September 16th to 19th at North Lawndale's Douglass park. This was four days for music and festivities. Bands such as Morrissey, The Smashing Pumpkins, Slipknot, Rancid, And Machine Gun Kelly were playing. Surrounding Douglass Park are residential blocks. While Riot Fest is being set up the park is closed to residents. Residents are not able to walk their dogs in the park or play sports. Riot fest sections off the park for seve

Making a Space

Making a Space For this AP we focused on making our space usable for school and a place we would want to learn in. We discussed what defines a classroom. We took a field experience to Millenium Park to investigate what defines a classroom. As a school, we asked what it means to be a successful student and teacher at GCE. We discussed what we expect from ourselves and our teachers. The student body brainstormed the traits of a successful student and came up with a social contract for both the students and the teachers.   Social contract for students: We will work in a timely fashion. We will be curious. We will pay attention to the work, fellow students, and teachers. We will be encouraging. We will participate. We won't distract.   Social contract for teachers: We will accept feedback. We will be accommodating and flexible. We will be patient. We will have one on one time. We will be excited to teach! We will be understanding.   Both the student body and the teachers agreed to thes

Listening in the park

Field experience reflection We went to Millennium park as a school to listen to the Sonic Pavilion Festival. These were soundscapes in the Pritzker Pavilion. We ate lunch and then walked over to listen. It was our first field experience of this school year. I was very interested in what we heard. We were thinking about what makes a classroom and how we use the space and senses around us. I was very inspired by this field experience. I listened to two different soundscapes. The first one was Fulcrum by Kitundu. Before reading the program, I thought the soundscape he produced sounded like birds flapping their wings. This was really interesting to me because I have two pet birds. It also sounded like cars going by on a busy street and going over potholes. After I read the program I learned that Kitundu was inspired by birds. It was nice to know that I perceived what he intended. His execution reflected his inspiration. We were instructed to draw what the sounds made us feel. Since the so

Economical space travel: Billionaires in space

In this term we looked at space and space exploration. We started by looking back at the antient astronomers that paved the way for what we know today. We learned about Aristotle, Pytholmy, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, and Kepler. We discussed how the ideas around our universe changed and how religion shaped science. We also learned about Kepler's laws and the math of ellipses. For our action project we looked forward. We asked ourselves what challenges are facing the future of space exploration. We read articles from NASA and frontiers to get an understanding of the grand challenges and each of us picked one. I picked economical space travel. The economy of space has always been very interesting to me so this was a wonderful opportunity to learn more. I learned about how capitalism impacts space travel and those who are trying to make space travel accessible for those who can afford it.  Citations:  Image from: Wattles, Jackie. “Jeff Bezos Is Going to Space for 11 Minutes. Here's

Lou's School: An Education Situation

This is our last trimester of senior year and the last humanities action project. We learned about different types of endurance and discussed what types of endurance we think we are most capable of handling. We learned the difference between endurance by choice and endurance by force. Endurance by choice is when you decide to do something. An example would be deciding to work out every day and enduring the pain of it no matter what. Endurance by force is something you don't have a choice in. This could be dealing with an unexpected medical issue and how you keep yourself moving forward.  This term we talked a lot about the future. We created a survival guide for what we want in life. We were made to self reflect very deeply. This AP was really hard for me. I always struggled thinking about what I wanted from my future but this project made me feel like maybe I do know what I want and actually create a plan for moving forward.

The accessibility of marine assessment tools

In this unit we learned about the ocean. We learned about different parts of the ocean and about the chemicals that make up the ocean. We learned about  the shapes in the ocean and how we can measure them. We discussed the struggles that affect the ocean and how we can improve the future of the ocean. We each did a literature review about a grand challenge. Mine was assessing marine ecosystems health in an integrative way. Throughout this project I really latched onto the accessibility of assessing marine health. The tools used can be incredibly expensive and unrealistic to get. In order to know what to change we have to understand what is going on with the marine environment.   The future of the ocean is unstable, we are at a point where we need to pick how to move forward. What we decide to do will have consequences, either good or bad. Something important is our ability to measure how dire the situation is. This is where assessing the marine ecosystem's health comes into play. W