Carve Your Heart Out

For our 2nd unit in my STEAM class Rapid Prototyping, we learned about 2.5 dimensions. Building off our lass unit, we went from measuring distance in 2D to measuring distance in 3D. We also learned about density, volume, and mass. We learned how to calculate all of these, and about the units they measure. We learned about conversions to the metric system because that is important in measuring density. We also discussed the differences between accuracy and precision. We took different scenarios and decided if they were accurate or precise, both or neither. We took an FE to the Harold Washington Library. We visited YouMedia's teen space. YouMedia is an organization to educate teens and provide free services for teens to be creative. They have a space in the library with recording equipment, art space, and 3D printers and vinyl cutters. We also visited their maker lab with many 3D printers, vinyl cutters, Carveys, and laser cutters. For this action project, we were asked to create 2 mini plaques showing GCE's 5 core values: AAPGA. Accountability, Autonomy, Purpose, Gratitude, and Achievement. I chose autonomy because I like the aspect of self-awareness in a small community. We were e given a lightweight material called Foamular. We created a design on the Easel software and used the Carvey to carve the design. We then had to try to recreate the design by hand. We then had to take measurements and do calculations and compare and contrast the experiences.

Overall, I liked this project a lot. I enjoyed using the different tools that I haven't gotten to use very much. I had some challenges with the handmade sizing, but I just kept trying, and I got it to work using stencils and rulers. I am most proud of how the handmade plaque came out. I didn't expect for it to come out as cleanly as it did.

Make sure to click here for a heart being carved out. 

Cut it Out

In my class Rapid Prototyping, we learned all about machines and calculations. In the first unit, we learned about CNC machines. CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control. These are machines that use numbers to cut out intricate designs. We have a few of those in our classroom called Cameo Cutters. These are machines that cut out designs in different materials such as paper, fabric, and vinyl. We also did a lot of review math (review for me, I thought it was very easy). We learned some basic geometry and shapes of quadrilaterals and triangles. We also did some review of graphing and lines on the coordinate plane. We took an FE to mHub, which is a maker studio in Chicago. We got a tour of the facility and talked to various workers and companies that had offices in the facility. We learned about the many machines they had, including CNC machines. We also talked to the founder about his inspirations in the field of engineering. For this project, we were asked to choose an SDG and make 2 mini posters with a title, number, and design. We made one by hand, and one with the Cameo Cutters. We were then asked to graph the design and calculate distances. We also had to compare the 2 experiences together to figure out which method we preferred.

I thought that this project was decently challenging despite its simple sounding directions. I didn't really struggle with this project, and I enjoyed the challenge of working with computers, which I am not very comfortable with. I enjoyed seeing the finished project as always, and I somewhat look forward to the rest of what this class had to offer.

My Truth

For our 2nd unit of our Who Am I class we were asked to create a dreamcatcher and to analyze our bliss and our truth. Throughout the whole unit we learned about doubt and dreams and the meanings behind them. We also partnered up and interpreted each other's dreams. I really enjoyed having my dreams interpreted even if my partners argued more than actually got work done. I was really excited to be able to create a dream catcher as I love doing hands on projects and making art. I also am very creative and I love to express myself in different forms of art. I had made a dreamcatcher before in pre-school that actually hung in my room pretty much all of my childhood. I never really have nightmares. I wonder if that's why? I thought the most challenging part was just making the dreamcatcher, and I thought the most rewarding part was seeing how pretty it looked when I was finished.

CM, Dreamcatcher, (2017)

Here is my explanation:

What is a dreamcatcher? What does it symbolize? I asked myself this question when I made a dreamcatcher for my class Who Am I. A dreamcatcher is a piece derived from Native Americans, specifically the Ojibwe Chippewa and Lakota tribes. The Natives believed that you could filter out bad dreams using a piece called a dreamcatcher. In the dreamcatcher the hoop symbolizes the circle of life. The dreamcatcher catches bad dreams and keeps them there until the sun comes up when they are burned by the sunlight. The good dreams float gently down the tassels and through the feathers to the sleeper to bring them good dreams.

In the story of The Great Spider which comes from Native American Tales, the center of the dreamcatcher is the “Great Mystery” and the web around it is the universe. This is why I chose to put 3 holo covered beads in the center of my dreamcatcher. I wanted to symbolize my one true love: Holographic Glitter. Holo glitter is glitter that reflects rainbows. I usually use this on my nails, but I like it in pretty much any form. Holo to me symbolizes happiness and fascination. When I am looking at holo, I feel calm yet excited and I feel entranced. To me, this is my bliss. Holo is the great mystery,the creator, or simply my bliss in life.

 I want my dreamcatcher to filter out stress dreams. I never really have nightmares, but since I am a performer I get stress dreams a lot and I really get upset when they happen. The dream that I analyzed in our External Investigation was a particularly stressful dream in which I was late to the show and I had forgotten to put on my costumes and my skates as well as remembering I hadn’t shown up for any practices so I didn’t know any of my numbers. I want my dream catcher to bring me better sleep and rejuvenation. This is because I am always a tired person and it seems like I can never get enough sleep and I always feel tired.

Part of my dreamcatcher design is rainbows. Holo is rainbows and I wanted to symbolize color, as I love color. I covered my hoop in grey suede and then painted it with craft glue and covered it in holo. In order to achieve the rainbow, I decided to make my web rainbow as well. To achieve this look I started weaving with pink, and then when I got all they way around, I cut the pink and tied orange to it and kept going. The obstacle I encountered was that in some tribes, they believe their should be no knots in the weave because it can trap evil spirits and can give you nightmares. However in some tribes they purposely put knots in their weave because they believe that it will keep evil spirits from being entangled. This is what I believe my dream catcher does for me. I also chose grey suede as I like the darker cloudy colors. Grey is associated with emotionless, and dingy feelings. In my opinion the holo represents my id which is the part of my mind that has the most instinctive impulses, and if it were up to me I would cover everything in holo. I believe the grey represents my ego meditating between my conscious and subconscious telling me that I can settle for a less intense version of what I want which is holo, but I also like grey for more subtle things.

Works Cited:

Shabi, K. "Dreamcatcher Meaning: History, Legend & Origins of Dream Catchers."LEGOMENON: What Is the Meaning: Online Literary Journal & Magazine. N.p., 14 July 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.

CM, Knots, (2017)

CM, Center of Dreamcatcher, (2017)

CM, Beads, (2017)

Pollution is not an Illusion.

It's finally our final action project for our Fuel class. I wasn't really a fan of this course so I am rather relieved. For our final action project we were asked to write an essay on how we can reduce our carbon footprint. In unit 3 we studied pollution and how we can reduce it and how we produce it. In the Fuel class itself we learned all about energy, pollution and how we use it. I thought this AP was rather boring as this is a STEAM class and we are writing an essay which seems like more of a humanities thing. I thought the subject was interesting though because it was something that was specific to each person and how they could reduce their individual footprints. I thought the most challenging part was just connecting the whole thing together. It was difficult to answer some of the things in the rubric. The most rewarding part was seeing the essay all laid out and pretty. (That's always my favorite part.)

KVDP, Deaths form air pollution, 2012, Wikemedia

Math Problem Solving: My Experience

As the winter term is wrapping up I am reflecting on how chaotic it was. This term was much more stressful than Fall Term and I am extremely happy to be done in 2 weeks. I still have 2 action projects for my core classes but I am so excited to be done.

For the Winter Term we decided to switch it up as far as Advisory goes. Advisory was the 45 minutes between lunch and 3rd period. In the Fall and 1st elective term we had Advisory which was different classes for each grade. For the Freshman it was Digital Media, GCE 101, Community Circle, and Student Teacher Conferences. I personally liked everything about advisory and didn't have any problem with it. Other people hated it, so for our Winter Term we went with something called Workshops. These were mixed grade classes in which 2 of them we got to pick, and 2 of them we were assigned based on our grades. The only thing I like about these is mixed grades.

For one of my workshops I got put into math problem solving. This was a class that met on Mondays and was for more advanced math students. I don't really like math, but I am pretty good at it. For Math Problem solving I chose to focus on something that I like, but wouldn't overwhelm me so I chose quadratic functions and graphing parabolas. I had done a lot of this stuff back in 6th or 7th grade so it had been a while, and I would do more challenging problems. I read up on the topic and did some Kahn Academy and practiced my skills and soon found out that I was doing things that were too easy for me. I realized this issue way to late though. My and my teachers idea was to build a catapult and launch things form it and then graph them. Now we only had 5 meetings ever. I never got to the catapult because of the limited time. If I had to do this again I would pick something more challenging and I might want to use my time more wisely.

In the end I wasn't super happy with this course. I found it kind of pointless since we had to teach ourselves and I didn't really get a lot out of it.

Sean McEntee, Maths, 2011, Flickr

Solar Panels: The Bright Future

For our 2nd unit in our Fuel class, we learned all about physics and energy. We did some experiments on potential energy and also played around with systems of equations and other math concepts. Fuel class itself is all about well, fuel and pollution, resources, and energy. I learned a lot of math concepts in this unit. Most of them weren't new, but I was glad I got a chance to review them again and feel more confident. For our 2nd Action Project, we were asked to pick a renewable resource and research it to try to sell it to a company looking to switch. We were to make a 2-3 minute infomercial about the resource, its advantages and disadvantages, its history, and most importantly; try to figure out how much it would cost by using functions and graphing. I am most proud of how the video came out. I have never used any video-recording software before, but I used Screencastify which was super easy to use. My video is about solar energy, and specifically why the superstore Wal-Mart switched to solar energy. In the end I think the most challenging part was calculating the functions because they were pretty rough estimates.

Solar Panels: The Bright Future! from CM on Vimeo.

This I Believe...

For our first unit in our Who Am I class, we were asked to make a podcast based off of the NPR series This I Believe... We studied famous philosophers and the definition of truth, plus memories and famous allegories. We listened to a few of the NPR podcasts to get some inspiration. We also had some Field Experiences to get us motivated for our projects. The FE  I got the most out of was our trip to St. Paul's House, which is a retirement home and rehabilitation center. We were split up and half of us went to speak with the elders, and the other half did a dance and movement class. I was in the dance and movement class. It was very interesting to see how different songs triggered different emotions in these elders who were very dependent on other people. We were asked to go deep back into our memories to find a specific thing we believe in and what experiences made us believe in this. I liked this project. It was very rewarding to go back in my memories to support what I believe. I didn't really learn a lot about myself because I have always known these things that are in my head. I think the hardest part was coming up with a substantial script to fit the time requirement. The most rewarding part as always, is just having it done and having one more action project on my blog.

This is my script:

My name is Claire and I am a freshman at GCE Lab School. In my limited years on this earth, I have been led to believe in many things, some for better and some for worse.

I distinctly remember the winter of 2008, my great grandmother died at the age of 97. I was 7 years old. This was the first time I had been up to Bayfield in the winter since we had moved. Bayfield is a tiny town on the most northern tip of Wisconsin where generations of my family including me, are from. I remember rolling into town late at night coming around the S-turn coming into town, and seeing some of the biggest icicles I had ever seen. I didn’t really understand the funeral, but we went out to explore a property for sale outside of town. I remember the snow being so deep it was up to my little waist. I thought it was magical and something I wanted to last forever. I have always had a fascination with snow, this is when I really realized it was right for me.

I believe that nature has the power to make me happy. Whenever I am in nature, I feel calm. I feel happy. I get inspired for the future. I think about my future home in the woods on a ranch, on an inland lake, running a veterinary clinic, having many animals and a loving husband. It is my idyllic life. This is what motivates me. I don’t like life right now, because of the stress and where I live. But thinking about my future is what motivates me. Knowing if I can just last a few more years, I can move out and study what I want and pursue what I want to. I also feel jealous, I wanted to have a childhood frolicing in the woods, playing in the streams, and swimming the biggest lake in the world. I sometimes resent to my parents for taking me away from that life. But I know I will go back soon.

I think I have always known that I am not a city person. The city provokes anxiety, stress, and dysfunction to me. I hate the sound of cars, the dirty streets, and the smells. When I’m in nature, I’m my best self. It represents opportunity, beauty, and bravery. Like I said, I have always felt this way for as long as I can remember, and I don’t think that will ever change.

This makes me question why I thought that the Northwoods was the right place for me. Truth may change as I or another person changes. Plato and Socrates were known for believing in universal truth, I could vouch for that. Plato said that many different factors influenced a person’s truth, yet truth is universal and are determined right or wrong for different people. He said that no matter where a person is from or what or what ever else is different we will all come to the same truth.

In the end, I will eventually reunite with the woods, maybe not if the Bayfield area,but one thing is for sure, I will spend the rest of my life in the woods. I encourage all of you to think about what kind of environment makes you happy, It can really make a difference in your life.

Natural Gas: A Comparison Around the World

For our first unit of Fuel, we learned all about graphing, calculating slope, Point slope formula, the periodic table, chemistry, and much more. For our first action project we were asked to pick a nonrenewable resource (which we had studied) and make a slideshow comparing the U.S.'s usage to another country's usage. I chose Natural Gas. We had to make a graph showing consumption of our resource and calculate lines and where they intersect. We also had to research the molecular structure and the risks and dangers of using our resource. I really liked this project, I thought it was really nice how it covered all of the topics we learned about in class and tied everything together into one slideshow. I learned a lot about natural gas, of course, but I learned a lot about math. The thing I am most proud of is just finishing it on time, as I have been really overwhelmed lately. The thing I thought was the most challenging was not getting all the math confused with negative signs and just generally getting confused or messed up.