Wealth imbalance, racial inequality and poor working conditions are all problems that existed in the 1950s, and in modern times. The road to solving these societal issues is long and arduous, but it is one that we have to walk down. With different origins and upbringings comes different ideologies. Communism being one of them. The Cuban Revolution is the second implementation of this government system, and today, we hope to explain it to you in the simplest way possible.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is about WWII veteran and Japanese Prisoner of War camp survivor Louie Zamperini, and his detailed journey from crashing the Green Hornet to surviving one of the harshest war camps in history. The main theme of this story is dignity, and how we as humans will find ways to push on when everything is crumbling.
I think that you should read this book, as this lesson about perseverance, along with other important lessons sprinkled throughout the plot, are very accurate, both in WWII and today. It’s very motivating seeing Louie survive despite the struggles he’s been through.
One of the things that I learned from this unit is that perseverance comes in many ways. Besides Louie fighting to survive in the raft, he also shows a lot of perseverance and dignity throughout, not just in holding on. He defies the Bird, even when there is no future for him. He holds on when the camp guards beat him up. There’s no future for him yet he continues to perservere.
In design, we were tasked to create a hand-held prototype that can detect and hold smells. For my project, I decided to build a parachute that could follow smells by adjusting the string length. For the parachute shape, I stuck 4 equilateral triangles onto a square piece of paper. This would allow it to create more wind resistance whilst also adding stability. In theory, this would have a computer chip that would adjust the length of the strings so that it would fly towards the smell chosen. The bottom box is 40cm x 40 cm, so you can hold it in your hands.
At the turn of the 20th century, the Boxers clashed with foreigners in what is later known to be the Boxer Rebellion. Based off of the limited amount of evidence I have, I believe that the Boxers do deserve the bad reputation they have received. Firstly, the Boxers often spoke for other people, tending to take away their voices to assert their beliefs. For example, when the Boxers trapped the French in their own legation, they did not abide by the instructions the Chinese government provided. Throughout the Boxer rebellion, they insisted on reacting to the cruelty of the west with even more violence, which some of the population did not condone. Furthermore, the Boxers often responded to imperialism with violence, that of which was deemed irrational by parts of the Chinese government and population.
For our first design unit, we made a lightbox representing a real-life venue that we could not visit because of COVID. For my lightbox, I decided to model the mountains in the north pole, which is a landscape that I like for its calmness and peacefulness.
One of the skills that I learned throughout this project is the skill to be able to adapt and improvise to new situations. Because we did not get a specific guideline to follow, we mostly improvised and used our creative thinking to plan the lightbox. This also required us to overcome obstacles and problem solve.
Looking back, there are several things I would change about my lightbox. Firstly, my planning was not that thorough, meaning I had to constantly revise it as the project continued. This led me to waste a lot of time which I could’ve spent on something more
productive. Another thing I would change is the number of layers the box has. Because I only used 3 layers, the final product ended up looking really shallow, which was not what I intended for. If I got the chance to redo this project, I would separate the cliff and the sky to make the cliff seem closer and more in detail.
Characterized by Hayden Chan
This cover is from the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. For this cover, I chose Hermia, because I think that she is a very interesting character. She’s really passionate about her relationship and I think it creates an interesting dynamic to the story. I picked this image because she’s wearing really vibrant clothes, which is representative of her as a character. She also has colorful eyes, which is a description of Hermia provided by Helena.
Humanities: I believe that humanities is important, but we should also balance other subjects like math, science and world languages.
Individuality: I believe that personal qualities and achievements are much more important, but I also believe that family plays a big role in the character of the person.
Balance: I do believe that critical thinking is important, however, I do not partake in any religion, so I cannot relate to that aspect of humanism that much.
Church: In my opinion, church should not have that much of an influence in politics, since I believe that that role should fall down to the general audience.
History: Personally, the Greeks and the Romans is not one of my main attentions, however, I still believe that we should study history so that we can learn from their endeavors.
King Midas is a Greek myth about greed and hunger. One day, Midas was granted one wish by the Gods. Hungry for money and gold, Midas wished for everything he touched to be turned into gold. His wish was granted, and he surrounded himself with gold. From his kitchen table to his couch. After a few hours, he began to get hungry and ordered some food. However, when the menu was served to him, he immediately turned the food into gold. Midas quickly understood the consequence to his greed. In this story, the White family is presented with 3 wishes. These three wishes all have a certain consequence, but the family did not consider them at the time of the wishes, since all they were focused about was their own ambitions. As a result of their greed, they lost their son and drove Mr. White insane.
In the story “The Monkey’s Paw“, by William W. Jacobs, the author believes that greed can be very powerful for achieving one’s goals, but can be disastrous if misused. Firstly, when represented with a choice to regain his 3 wishes, the soldier is uncertain whether or not he will use it again, he said, “I don’t know, I don’t know,” (William W. Jacobs, 2). Since the soldier has
Photo Credits: here already used the paw once, he has experienced the consequences for his wishes. Because he is very hesitant, it leads me to believe that the consequences were very severe or traumatizing. Further along in the story, the White family got to experience it first-hand. Their first wish was driven by greed, that being the 200 pounds they want to finish paying for the house. As a consequence to the first wish, their son, Herbert died. As a second wish, they wished for their son back. The consequence for that wish is that Mr. White has gone crazy, riddled with anxiety and panic. Because of this anxiety and panic, Mr. White wished for the second wish to be reversed, leaving his son dead. Because of Mr. White’s greed, he has lost 2 wishes and killed his son.
In conclusion, the advantages and disadvantages to greed are both very drastic and should be treated with care and caution.
The found poem above was taken from Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan, and it shows the conflict between the protagonist and her parents. The protagonist, Amy, is annoyed of her family because they’re tradition and practices are different than Robert’s, the boy that she liked at the time. Because of this, she feels ashamed and embarrassed. Fortunately, many years after the incident, Amy Tan has learned to appreciate her family and the peculiarities that come with it.
One thing that I am proud of this project is the physical model, as I think that it is pretty similar to the one I planned out, and it works with the servos and leds. It came out better than I expected, since the dimensions and the ratio both look good and works well with the motors and the lights.
If I could do this again, I would focus more on the planning part of this project. Even though I already had a blueprint envisioned, when it was time to code and build the model, I had to improvise a lot. For example, I had to redesign the waving arm mechanism, as the one in the model was too complex. I also had to improvise on the dimensions, as I did not think of that in the modeling phase.
One thing that I learned about myself in this project is that I work well only when I know what I have to do. For example, for the first few days, I was stuck in limbo, not knowing what to do. This led to procrastination, disorganization, and I wasn’t efficient at all. However, after I started forming my blueprint, everything started to click. It also motivated me to work more, since I can stay on task for longer periods of time.