One Can Band

In Light, Sound and Time, Unit 2, we learned about sound, how fast it goes and what role it plays in our everyday lives. We looked at different waves sound makes, the role frequency plays, how the ear processes sound, and the Doppler Effect. We observed how different instruments produce sound and the acoustics of a space. We then went on an FE to Threshold Acoustics where our guide told us the importance of acoustics in a space and how it affects us daily. This brought us to the action project, to build Diddley Bows, which are one string guitars with a can attached to wood. It had been difficult to get the tension just right, but luckily my peers assisted me. I am proud of how my Diddley Bow sounds and looks. Please enjoy my one stringed guitar below.

Making the Diddley Bow had been both fun and difficult. I created this guitar with a piece of wood, a tin can, screws, a guitar string, and a battery. To build the Diddley Bow I poked a hole in the middle of the can in order to get the string through it. Then you screw the screws into the wood and tie each end of the string to a screw. Once this is done place the battery under the string farthest from the can. I suggest putting a screw in front of the battery and behind the can in order to hold them in place.

TS "Marked Harmonics"(2016) GCE Lab School

TS "Diddley Bow"(2016) GCE Lab School

The Diddley Bow creates sound when the string vibrates and is then amplified by the tin can to make it more audible. When you place a slide on the string it shortens a part of the string causing the pitch to change. This one string guitar demonstrates pitch/frequency in both the tightness and thickness of the string used. Once we have the frequency we can see what the wavelength and amplitude of the sound waves would look like. It demonstrates sound waves when the string is plucked and the sound wave is resonated.

TS "Sketch"(2016) GCE Lab School

The Doppler Effect is the change in frequency due to motion relative to the listener. If I were to move the Diddley Bow towards a listener would seem like it has a higher frequency and louder sound as it moves towards a listener while it would seem like it would have a lower frequency and quieter sound as it moves away from the listener.

The string of my Diddley Bow had a length of 27 inches and a thickness of 0.049 inches, and the volume of the body is 31.8 inches cubed. The frequency is 55.00 Hertz (Hz) and the wavelength is 627.27 cm. Below are the harmonics involved with my one string guitar. To get the second harmonics you must multiply the previous frequency by two while dividing the previous wavelength by two.

TS "Harmonic Calculations"(2016) GCE Lab School

If I were to do this project over again I would want to add more strings and have more wood on the bottom to cover the screws that are poking through. Below is an audio of my Diddley Bow.

Autopsy of "Live, Protect, Serve"

In the first unit of A Nation’s Argument I learned the fundamental elements of an argument, deductive and inductive reasoning, and more about the U.S. Declaration of Independence. We looked at how and when countries became independent, and the structure of which documents claim this independence. This brought us to the first action project, which is to create a class to include in a course for GCE and to write a declaration as to why it should be offered. I was very pleased with the topic I chose for this assignment because I am very passionate about law and justice. It had been difficult coming up with a main guiding question for the course since it covered such a wide variety of information. Please enjoy my Declaration of Independent Study below.
                                                                                                                                                                   

GCE Lab School is designed to prepare students for life outside of school. It’s based upon the foundation of achievement using the pillars of gratitude, acceptance, purpose and autonomy. So I declare the right to the independent study of crime and forensic sciences, for what better way is there to show achievement than to help protect and defend the foundations of our country?

The purpose of school/learning is to be able to comfortably support yourself on your own and to further advance the knowledge you have, because the one thing no one can take from you is your mind and the knowledge you carry. By learning forensic sciences and the laws you can help keep people safe by putting criminals behind bars. My unalienable rights as a student are the pursuit of what I am passionate about and to learn whatever I want. This class is an expression of these rights since it would be exploring a topic that I and many others are passionate about and find intriguing.

My course would be called, “Live, Protect, Serve”, and would be a summer class for upperclassmen, juniors and seniors, only because it requires a sense of maturity and the students would be old enough to transport themselves to many FE sites across the city without need of adult supervision. The courses guiding question is: “How can forensics keep us safe?” Students have the right to be able to get ahead in the fierce competition for jobs with the FBI, CIA, or Department of Homeland Security if they want to protect our country on the home front. By taking this class, they are already way more advanced than another possible applicant who is the same age. It will teach the students skills of enhanced observation, how to “talk” with the dead, and how to investigate leads. This is also a great opportunity to connect with your peers and to have fun with these hands-on projects. People need to realize that crime exists and that these are real people who are in trouble and in need of help; if we are not there for them no one will be. The world has many crazy people who will do psychopathic things, and we need to help one another survive as best we can. To have partnerships with the FBI, police detectives, and schools with labs would be beneficial to this course. Some supplies we will need are the basic forensics kits and textbooks of the basic 101 of forensic science and criminal justice. An activity to include would be a mock trial every three weeks to teach how the accused are judged. Due to this class including both humanities and STEAM materials it would be best as a co-taught class. Jamie would be the humanities teacher of the course, while Aaron would be the STEAM teacher. Students of the class would be split into groups for the day. One focusing on autopsies and the analyzing of clues such as DNA or the means of a victim's death. This would include Forensic Anthropology, the study of the human skeleton and identity, Forensic Nursing, the collection of DNA and other evidence, Criminalistics, the scientific analysis of evidence, and Forensic Pathology, the performing of autopsies and determining means of death. The other would focus on the connection between the law/courtroom and the crime scene that involves Forensic Psychology, who assess the mental health of criminals and work side by side with the criminal justice system, Crime Scene Investigation, those who comb through a scene to find evidence and take photos of the scene, and Law, to understand what happens after a criminal is caught.

P1: The foundation of achievement carries on from GCE to our country.

P2: Students have greater knowledge and stand a better chance at getting a government job.

P3: Learning forensics will help solve crimes and protect the defenseless.

C: GCE should offer a forensic science and crime class.

TS.(2016) "Foundation"

I declare there be a class about forensics and crime. This will help them understand that the defenseless people need help from violent criminals and serial killers. It builds character, the skills to solve complex puzzles, and to be able to work under pressure. We must Live in order to Protect, so we can Serve those in need.

Black and White

In Light, Sound and Time we explore the interactions light, sound and time have on our everyday lives. Unit 1, Light, had been about light and how it interacts with objects and our brains. During the unit we learned about the electromagnetic spectrum, how light acts as a wave vs particle, the similarities between the eye and camera. This brought us to our first action project, building a pinhole camera.

TS "Pinhole Camera" (2016) GCE Lab School

Pinhole cameras capture light when light from an object shines into a pinhole sized hole where the image of the object is flipped until it is burned onto a special film paper. I had left the shutter open for three minutes to allow the image to develop. Once I closed the shutter I immediately went into the dark room where there are no lights, except for the special red lights on the ground. I then removed the film from my camera and processed it through four chemicals that allow the photo to become visible and safe to light.

TS "Inside Pinhole Camera" (2016) GCE Lab School

The camera does not illustrate refraction because refraction only occurs when light goes from one medium to another, such as air to glass or air to water, which then slows down light causing it to bend. Due to there only being a hole nothing will change the light speed. It is important that the inside of the camera to be completely black in order to prevent the light from reflecting thus causing the picture to be ruined or distorted. If the cameras inside had been white the light coming in would be reflected throughout the box since white is a reflectant of light whereas black is an absorbent of light.

This camera exhibits wave vs particle by when the light crosses through each other and does not collide, like a wave, and the light's energy is transferred onto the special film paper, like a particle, which then causes a chemical reaction to occur in the film paper, creating an image. It represents the visible section of the electromagnetic spectrum since the black inside absorbs all the colors of white light. Below are my calculations I did when figuring out the similar triangles that are involved when taking a picture of an object, in my case my favorite mug. The distance from the lens to paper had been 18.3 centimeters, the height of the mug was 12.3 centimeters, and the height of the pinhole had been 6.3 centimeters.

TS "Similar Triangles" (2016) GCE Lab School

TS "Pinhole Camera Light" (2016) GCE Lab School

For the picture I used a shutter speed of three minutes, this way the film had enough time to absorb the light to create a better picture. I had attempted a second picture because, after the film was developed, I saw the camera was only able to see half the mug due to the height of the pinhole. If I were to do this again I would want to play with the shutter speed to try and get the best picture possible. I would also lower the height of my pinhole in order to capture the full image of the object I am photographing.

TS "Mug Pinhole Photo" (2016) Latin School

Chicago Sees the Light

In If These Walls Could Talk, Unit 3, our groups were tasked to design and create a large scale mural in the new GCE space. In unit 2 we created a sketch of what we wanted for our final mural and over the period of a couple weeks we had edited the mural and worked towards completing the prep work for the mural. We had faced many difficulties throughout the project, mainly the communication and the constant changing of the mural and its meaning over the course of the weeks we worked on it. However, despite these difficulties, our efforts payed off and the mural, although not our original message, turned out great. I'm very proud of all the hard work my group mates and I put into this mural because it turned out to be captivating and expressed our general message: that Chicago is more than it appears. Please enjoy the mural, the video of our progress, and my artist statement below.

   The purpose of our project was to show the many hidden gems of Chicago in order to reflect what we have learned in this course. The mural we created shows multiple different tourists of all shapes and sizes, that span across the length of the wall, walking by three different cracks in the wall that had collages that depict different images that represent the city: culture, art, and buildings. Most people who aren't from Chicago view the city as a corrupt and violent place that only has a few select beauties; such as the Bean, Willis Tower, and the Taste of Chicago. The media and techniques we used to create this mural were spray paint and stencils, used to create the people and cracks, and laser print images with wheat paste, used to put together our collages. The stencils had been created by tracing images onto a paper, via projector, and then adhesive glued onto the chipboard to be cut out. We used original photographs to create the collages, each with its own themes: art, culture and architecture, that were then laser printed to wheat paste into the cracks. We chose the background color of the wall to be grey so as to represent the skyline of Chicago without the skyline actually being there. All of the stencils had been spray painted black in order to stand out against the grey background. The bright eye catching colors come from the collages of the mural, which draws the attention of people to our main purpose: to show that Chicago is more than just violence and corruption. The mural is able to transform and impact the space by making it more visually appealing and by the fact it was created by students. This mural opens the eyes of the viewer to the real Chicago and what it has to offer.

Everyday each group member had a different role, which played a key part in completed the mural. Each member got the chance to partake in each role. There was the mule whose job was to collect all the materials group members needed to complete their tasks for the mural. The documentarian was in charge of taking pictures and videos in order for each member to create the reflection video. The artistic director had to make sure all the work that was done went along with the mural and made sure it was good quality. The last job was the director of operations who was responsible for keeping the other members on task and for cleaning up the messes made during the work time. My favorite role had been the mule because I was quick with the tasks I was assigned making me the perfect person to help assist others with their needs. My least favorite role had been the artistic director because I'm a very indecisive person especially when it comes to art and it is very hard for me to envision a piece that has not been completed or drawn on paper. However, I did understand the importance and need for the role because without it we would not have a a nice looking final mural. If I had the ability to change parts of the process and experience I would want better communication among group members so there would be less confusion and stress for everyone and more time within the new space to work on the mural. I also would want to have it so that we wouldn't have needed to constantly change the looks and message of the mural throughout the whole process and have made all the edits in the very beginning. The final piece did achieve our original goal of showing that Chicago is more than meets the eye while creating a beautiful artwork. However it had not turned out, visually, how we originally pictured it with the skyline idea being completely removed and the addition of people walking by the cracks. Due to our hard work we were able to create a gorgeous artwork that had impacted the space we worked in.

Book 101

In Book Bound we studied the relations between a reader and a book, on the tool used to read it, and the layout and systems of libraries. My class was assigned to read The Great Gatsby, a famous novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald that is in the literary canon. I have mixed feelings about the book since the writing is superb and really captures the readers attention, but I strongly dislike the characters. I believed that this book belonged in the canon, despite the annoyance the characters brought me, because of Fitzgerald's unique writing style. We went on many FEs to different libraries in order to get a sense of how a library is designed and organized. Each library had its own layouts and book log processes that added to the unique atmospheres, which shocked me. Originally this class was designed to create our new school library and the books that would be included inside it, but our contribution to the construction of the space is not as great as planned, however our ideas are still considered. I imagined it with bean bags, computer and work spot, and plenty of book shelves with a large variety of books. For our, only, action project we were to choose four of our best works, that we did throughout the term, to put into a portfolio. I enjoyed the portfolio because we are able to showcase more than one piece of work we did in the course, which gives a greater insight into how hard we worked. My favorite assignment by far, which is included, is the Literary Journal.

Literacy Poster

In this assignment we had to design a poster based off of a guiding question we chose about or related to literacy and/or reading. We needed to then do research from valid sources in order to include factual information. This assignment was created in hopes to inspire people to read, mainly the people in our new library space. I wanted this project to be part of the portfolio because it shows the facts of people who are literate and illiterate. Those who are illiterate have a tougher time in everyday life and it is a problem that plagues the majority of the world. I wanted to inspire people to read by showing the consequences of those who don't, won't or can't. I had designed this poster on a site called canva.com in order to make it look neat. It was difficult to properly size the images and texts in a way that could be read but at the same time visually appealing. Despite these difficulties I am happy with how it turned out. Originally I had a bunch of quotes about reading surrounding the book, but decided that instead of attracting people it would turn them off. To fix this I got rid of the quotes and added a pile of books, a panda chibi, a world, and a clock to be more visually appealing. I am proud of how the final product turned out because of its eye-catching designs, with an adorable panda, and the information I included in it.

Slideshow

In this assignment we each chose a book that we believed should be added to the literary canon and defend our reasoning behind it. This project is related to and about the literary canon, an important concept in all literature world wide. I chose to add this to the portfolio because of how ecstatic I was about this assignment and how I want others to read, and recognize, this great book. The book Unwind by Neal Shusterman is the first of an entire series and brings up topics that are prominent to discuss. I created the slideshow that includes all parts necessary to teach others about it. It was extremely difficult finding a video about or relating to the book since Shusterman hasn't had an interview about it and there is no good quality trailers, which are all fan made. In order to post this in the portfolio I fixed any grammar mistakes and edited my works cited slide. I'm very proud of this project because I'm spreading the word of one of my favorite books of all time. The class was really enthusiastic about Unwind constantly asking me questions which prolonged my presentation from five minutes to about forty minutes. Many of my peers agreed with me that this book should be added to the canon.

Literary Journal

In this assignment we were put into groups of three to create a literary journal with a theme of our choice. For this project we needed to include original images and writings along with some external submissions. Due to the wide range of literature from poems to short stories it relates to our course. I selected this project for my portfolio because it is by far my favorite since we created it. We had split up the requirements among the three of us and set up a timeline for the deadlines. It was difficult to communicate with my other group mates and publishing the journal also proved difficult. Since this was a group project I was unable to make any revisions without the two other members. I'm extremely proud of this assignment since it turned out nicely and the contents are enjoyable.

Literary Canon Essay

In this assignment we had to write about whether The Great Gatsby should remain in the literary canon. This is well known book that schools read nationwide and it deals with the literary canon, which determines a lot of what middle and high schoolers read for class. I chose to add this assignment to the portfolio because I enjoy writing argumentative essays and I want people to understand the great writing style in The Great Gatsby. I created an outline of the essay with a completed intro paragraph. It had been difficult finding good supporting evidence from the book for my claims. I had fixed the grammar and spelling errors before adding it to the portfolio. I am proud of how well I wrote this essay, especially the introduction paragraph.
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'Real' Chicago

In If These Walls Could Talk, Unit 2, we learned about revolt murals, different types of mediums and techniques. Artists who were inspiring that we studied are JR, who uses different media - mostly wheat pasting - in each country he visits, and Banksy, who uses spray paint and the trompe l'oeil technique. We practiced the mediums and techniques of watercolor, block-printing, wheat pasting, gels, acrylic paint, and more which helped in deciding what to use in the action project. For the action project we were put into a group of five to sketch a mural idea, and then each member chose a media to use to recreate two parts of the mural on swatches. My medium, watercolor wash, was fun to use but became difficult when it came down to small details. Another problem I faced was with my group when we had to come up with a finalized sketch. Eventually we were successful and with the help of our teacher we were able to create a mural conveying the message we wanted. It was a lot of fun experimenting with different mediums and techniques and to create a mural of our own. I'm definitely looking forward to creating this mural full-scale. Please enjoy our sketch, my swatches, and my artist statement below.

TS
'Real' Chicago
12/15
11" x 3.5" and 11" x 3.5"
Watercolor Wash

AJ, JM, MS, TS, TC. Sketch. 12/15

In our groups sketch you see the skyline of Chicago and five tears with something different inside, burning money, the CTA train map, gang signs, the bean, and signs/flags. This is meant to be what people see as the 'real' Chicago and what actually is the real Chicago. Each tear has a different meaning, three good and two bad. The two negatives are the one with burning money, which is supposed to be a representation of the corrupt politics and brutality, and the one with gang signs, which represents the gangs and violence that is present in the city. The three positives are the one with the CTA train map, showing the great public transportation system we have, the one with the bean, proving we have more beautiful architect and culture then what is popular, and the one with many signs/flags, representing the acceptance our city has regardless of race, religion, or sexuality. We were strongly inspired by Banksy and his use of trompe l'oeil and our unit 1 action projects. The aspects that had been taken from our previous action project had been the skyline, trompe l'oeil, and CTA train lines. It took a long time to finalize our sketch since there had been so many aspects we wanted to cram in. The only idea that we originally wanted that ended up not incorporating had been the use of chains AJ used in her previous action project. It was a really great concept, holding Chicago down to what outsiders want it to look like, but was unable to fit in the piece in a fluid way. We did love the skyline and the trompe l'oeil like tears. Since there had been five tears we gave one to each individual to come up with something to represent the tear. It gave us the freedom to include something each of us wanted adding a unique touch to it. This mural is both a revolt mural against the steriotypical view of Chicago from an outsiders perspective, and tribute mural of the true essence of Chicago and who we are as a city.

TS. Swatch One. 12/15

TS. Swatch Two. 12/15

The material I chose was watercolor wash because I have past experience with it and I've seen beautiful watercolor paintings. It gives bright vibrant colors and adds depth, very important to our piece, to the image. In class we learned how water colors are best for giving a painting or drawing depth and texture, also its ease to mix is a great asset. It helps convey the message through its depth which shows we are more than what is on the surface and the colors that blend show we are one. The swatches ended up looking messy and with smudges in places that had lots of detail. It was very difficult to control my medium because of how easy it is to blend and I did not have a small enough brush for the small details. In the end the swatches did not turn out how I hoped because the colors weren't as bright as I hoped and the details were far to difficult to paint. I believe if I had a smaller finer brush I think it would have worked. We will not be using this in our final mural because of the lack of bright colors and difficulties with the detail, which is a major part of our mural. It also didn't present the realistic look we were going for with the skyline.

JM. Swatch One. 12/15

JM. Swatch Two. 12/15

AJ. Swatch One. 12/15

AJ. Swatch Two. 12/15

My group decided on using wheat pasting with a laser print image and stencils with sharpie oil based markers as the final medium because those seemed to of worked best out of all the mediums chosen. We are still doing the trompe l'oeil technique because we believe it is the best way to get our message out. The wheat paste will give the realistic feel we were going for and would be used for the entire skyline and water. Since the image would be laser print the colors would already be there bright though slightly matte. Stencils would then be used for the small details that were too difficult to do with watercolor, pumice gel, or acrylic paint. It would create a clean cut images for our representations and tears with eye catching hues. We highlight the city for what it is with the skyline and positive traits in bright and vibrant colors while the negative traits will be in darker more matte like colors.

Ή τάν ή επι τάς (Either We Win or We Die)

In If These Walls Could Talk, Unit 1, we learned about murals from Prehistory to the Renaissance. We observed the changing styles throughout time and identified the reason each culture had for creating murals. For our FE we went on a tour of the Pilsen murals to both tie together what we learned and to see how murals still affect people today. This lead us to our first action project, pick a neighborhood in Chicago and create a sketch for a mural addressing an issue of that neighborhood. I choose Greektown which has, like many other neighborhoods, been a victim of gentrification. Originally I planned on doing a neighborhood in the south side, but wasn't inspired causing me to bounce from neighborhood to neighborhood forcing me to rush to complete the action project. I am very satisfied with the neighborhood I chose and my mural portraying their problems. Please enjoy my mural and artist statement below.

TS
Ή τάν ή επι τάς, 11/20/15
11" x 14"
Digital Image

 
The first Greeks in Chicago arrived during the 1840s becoming food peddlers, and naturally became restaurant owners. Around the turn of the century many Greeks were found in, what was originally named, Deltaîbut which was defined by Harrison, Blue Island and Halsted areas. It was later renamed to Greektown and during the 1960s was moved north a few blocks in order for University of Illinois and the Eisenhower Expressway to be built, shrinking the size of the neighborhood. In 1968 gyros and saganaki were introduced instantly becoming a big hit; starting a chain of success for the neighborhood. Most businesses and restaurants opened from 1970 to 1990, and the summer festival, Taste of Greece, became a tradition. The city of Chicago finally recognized Greektown's contributions to the city in 1996 and, with the Democratic National Convention being hosted in Chicago, poured millions of dollars into renovations for the streets and to create a traditional Greek temples and pavilions.

Today, Greektown sustains many old world traditions, prevalent in the establishments throughout the neighborhood. The language is still heard, and the people of the community have strong pride for their heritage, coming out full force during the annual Greek Independence Day parade, the Taste of Greece and the days around Greek Easter. Chicago's Greektown has grown into a renowned attraction, being the place to go for authentic food and culture outside of Greece. Though I don't want to focus on positive of Greektown's outstanding success, but rather the gentrification of the residents of the neighborhood it has caused. Due to the rising popularity it became extremely expensive to live in and many residents left and have spread out across Chicago and the suburbs. This issue is apparent and seen not only in Greektown, but across the city.

People should not be forced to move from their neighborhoods just because they can not afford the growing rate to live there. I wanted the mural as a revolt against gentrification. In the sketch I drew an outline of the city of Chicago with a Greek soldier holding a spear fighting a businessman holding a one hundred dollar bill. The businessman represents the success places has that cause the higher cost for living in an area. They hold the one hundred dollar bill as a weapon showing that in order to still live in the neighborhood they must pay. You then see a traditional Greek soldier who represents Greektown and the want to lower the house fees so they can remain in the neighborhood. Underneath these two people a silhouette of the city can be seen to show that this is a problem around Chicago. The main color theme of blues and golds was inspired by ancient Greek murals; the colors are meant to bring in a reference to water since it is such an important part of their culture.

This mural would be located in the heart of Greektown's businesses, the place with the highest influx of people guaranteeing that a large amount of people, both Greek and non-Greek, would see it. For this mural I want people to realize that we can fix this gentrification, whether it be by talking to the mayor to lower living costs in these business dominate areas or by extending neighborhoods by a few blocks to get back that missing residential factor. People will be able to live comfortably in a community that supports them, that is my hope.