The Infinity Candle

For our final action project in our unit of time we were able to invent our own time telling device. I created something called the infinity candle, an eco-friendly reusable candle that you may be able to find in your local Urban Outfitters soon. We went on a very inspiring FE during this unit to The Chicago Lighthouse for the blind. Here we learned about how blind people can make clocks tell time and functioning in society just like we do. This also had an effect on the device I made. I added grooves in where the numbers are so a blind person would be able to feel what time it is. I made this choice because at the Lighthouse one of the instructors told us that blind people use their sense of feeling a lot when functioning in society. In this unit we also covered some important equations that went in to the creation of my candle such as volume. Below is a quick video presentation of how it all works.

   

Work Cited:

http://www.smooth-on.com/Candlemaking/c1237/index.html

Martha Stewart

Candel Making

http://www.candlesandsupplies.net/Candle-Making/Molds

Cindy Novack

Candle History 

School Reform Chicago Style

Thesis:

The Chicago public school system in Chicago is leaving a lot of its students behind, students are no longer the main priority of the school system. Students have no longer become the main focus of the Chicago Public School system. This is due to the fact that there is so much corruption in the system already. In order to make any impact on the students the Chicago Public School system believes they need to clean up their management which has made some impact in the past months. The teachers have been able to make some headway on contract decisions, but still have more to do.

Evidence:

I have a lot of personal experience with CPS but things really started going downhill after 7th grade. During 7th grade, I worked really hard to get As and Bs; I also worked to get a high score on the academic high school placement test. I met all the requirements for my top schools but I didn't get any of them. This really made me upset because there are only a select amount of schools in Chicago that really provide their students with a great education. This then forces other students to go to schools that are underfunded and not equipped to help all learners. I also know that I am not the only one with this experience and many of my fellow Senn students have said they feel their future has been compromised by the Chicago Public School system. A lot of the times the issue is not that teachers are constantly failing a student, but they are just letting them pass the class before they actually understand the content and are ready to move on to the next level.

The communication between CPS’ Central office and the teachers is so poor that they are unable to come up with a contract that teachers and Central office can’t agree on a contract that works for teachers and CPS. Within these contracts the students are not brought up at all. Students are no longer the main priority for CPS and yet there are kids in schools who are not getting adequate lunches, something that is a necessity to make sure kids can focus on their learning be healthy and stay awake in class.  

“The show of force by the union's rank and file comes three days after a 40-person bargaining team unanimously voted down a four-year contract offer from Chicago Public Schools.”

By CTU Communications

“Why Officers Propose an April 1 Day of Action”

http://www.ctunet.com/blog

MARCH 17, 2016

“May 15, 2015, was an important day in the world of Chicago’s city finances. On that day the city reached a deal with Barclays to take over a $100 million soured bet on an interest rate swap. Inked mostly in the early 2000s, these specialty financial products backfired after the 2008 financial crisis, saddling Chicago taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.”

Juan Perez Jr. and Matt McCallContact Reporters

Thousands Rally Downtown for Chicago Teachers Union

Chicago Tribune

February 5th, 2016

“This after the announcement Thursday from CPS that teachers must take three unpaid furlough days by the end of the school year, a move to help balance the budget.”

SANDERSONTRIBUNECOM, NANCY LOO AND DANA REBIK,

Chicago Teachers Union Consider Strike in Response To Furlough Days.

WGN News

MARCH 4, 2016

Antithesis:

CPS may argue that the reason why they are unable to settle on a contract with the Chicago Teacher's Union is because Illinois does not have a budget and this has really messed with the Chicago Public School system’s ability to balance a budget that can equally support students and teachers. On top of all of these financial contracts the former CEO of CPS, Barbara Byrd-Bennett was making deals and getting kickbacks from district contracts. She was literally stealing money needed for schools and right out of the hands of students. CPS is at such a low point because they can't even trust the leaders not to steal money from an organization responsible for the first 18 years of this city’s children's education and growth.

Synthesis:
Both CPS and the CTU need to be making more of a compromise and balancing the power in CPS better. CPS teachers are some of the highest paid teachers in the country. A lot of them get paid more than most private school teachers throughout the city. And at the end of the day the ones who are suffering the most are the students. It's not the job of students to fix the problems, it is up to adults to come together and resolve the issues facing the city's school system. We need to recenter our thinking around the students and not how much money people are making over each other.

For more on my topic: http://prezi.com/cbo7fursyhpv/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Food and Drinks at GCE

For this action project we got to pick an amendment in the gce code of conduct that we wanted to revise in the interest of making our school more comfortable for its students. This project allowed us to become involved in the development of our school. I chose to work to reform the food and drink policy because it is something that I am very passionate about. I am a true believer in breakfast being one of the most important meals of the day. When I come to school in the morning I love being able to eat my muffin and do are check in in class it allows me to feel at home and comfortable in the classroom. Also when you don’t eat a good breakfast it can really mess up your morning this happens to cause a lot of students to end up falling asleep in class. Which is disrespectful to the class and can be even more distracting than students that are noisy, because when one student is sleeping it starts to set a tone in the classroom that can course the level of engagement to go down in the class room.  

In GCE classrooms eating is not allowed, the code of conduct states. “Food & Drink: Food & drink consumption during class is allowed only during breaks or specified by teacher. During class, students are allowed to have their water bottle/closed container with them”. This rule should be changed because being able to have a snack and eat somthing is a basic human need. It also is unnecessary for teachers to stop the whole class just address the fact that a student is having a snack. Also some students have to travel far to get to school and may not have time to eat breakfast at home so they bring it to class, this also happens to be the most important meal of the day. When people are hungry they are more likely to be distracting others by not participating and asking others for food or trying to sneak it in during class.

P1: The code of conduct states eating in class is not allowed.

P2: The student is caught eating in class.

Conclusion: The student gets punished for eating in class.

Creative Commons 

Having nutrients is crucial for us to function fully during the day. It's like being a gymnast on bars and they don’t let you use chalk because it might make a mess on the floor. It doesn't matter; it is a necessity. This is because the pros of using chalk definitely outweigh the cons of not having chalk at all. This revision to this policy will be really helpful On the days when I don't have time to eat at home I can just know my school is a place where I can take care of myself and do what I need to to be prepared for my day. This will allow other people to feel more comfortable because they had time to make sure there awake and ready for the day.

Students should be able to eat in class if they don’t make a mess or clean up after themselves. Also if you have to come from far away you should be able to eat your breakfast in class. But if teachers still don’t want eating a good compromise would be that once it’s 11:00 students have to wait till lunch or there next break to eat. If I have to wake up at 6:00am to get to school in the morning and I also have to do homework in the morning because I have practice at night. I don’t have time to get ready and make myself breakfast. so on my way to school I can pick some up and eat it in class till 11:00. This makes it so I can focus on what I am doing in class and not when's the next time I can get food.

P1: students may not have time to eat before class due to long commutes.

P2:If you're tired and hungry you’re going to be more distracted then you are when you eat.

P3: Students should be comfortable throughout the day so they can focus.

Conclusion: Students should be able to eat in class.

In conclusion it is a basic right for students to be able to eat. And it is one of the things that allows students to perform well in school. It’s also is a lot easier to teach a class full of students that is eating breakfast and awake and engaged. Rather than teaching a class of students half asleep and wondering when the bell will ring so they can go get some food.

Diddley Bow Buildin'

In our second unit we studied the way sound traveled and related to our everyday lives. So much of our communication depends on sound. When you are watching the news you are receiving sound waves that are traveling through the air around you. This project is about making our own one string guitars to represent the elements of sound we have been studying like, sound waves, wavelength, pitch, frequency and amplitude. In this unit I also learned about how speaker and microphones work we also got to study how sound waves can affect water and sound and other elements. In order to gain some more expert knowledge on our study of sound we went on an FE to a sound lab, where one of their team leaders talked to us about the kind of work they do and the importance of acoustics when architects are creating new buildings.

My guitar produces sound when the string vibrates against the body of the guitar, and the tin can amplifies the sound. When using a slide you change the frequency by shorting the vibrations of the string. The Doppler effect happens when a sound is coming towards you as it seems to be higher pitched and when it is traveling away it sounds lower pitched. My guitar could show this when used in a marching band, because you are changing formations and moving closer and farther from the listener. In order to successfully make this guitar we had to make and understand a lot of measurements of the elements of sound like pitch and amplitude. Sound waves are the waves created by sound traveling through air. Wavelength is the measurement of waves peak to peak. Pitch is the quality of sound based on the frequency of the sound waves. Frequency is the rate of the waves. Amplitude is the maximum level of sound waves. This is important because it affects how loud you want it to be.

JB GCE sketch 

Can: body
Battery: nut
Back: bridge
Wood: neck

The measurements on my specific guitar were:
Vibrating string: 9in
Note: F#
String thickness:
0.057in

JB Harmonics 2016

Harmonics:
Pitch: (first harmonic)
185.52Hz
Frequency of 2nd Harmonic:
371.04Hz
Frequency of 3rd Harmonic:
556.56Hz
Frequency of 4th Harmonic:
742.08Hz
Wavelength:
186.49cm
Wavelength 2:
93.2cm
Wavelength 3:
62.1cm
Wavelength 4:
46.6cm
Volume of can:
56.54in^3
I got this by using pi x r^2 x height

JB AP2 Diddley Bow 2016

If I were to do this project over again I would make sure to get a thicker peace of wood so the screws won't poke out of the bottom. I would also make the guitar on a larger scale so it could be louder and have more notes and strings. In conclusion the concepts we learned in making the guitars can help us when we will need to manipulate and calculate sound in other experience and projects in the future.