Amending the Code

This is the last Action Project for the Winter term of our Humanities class, Argument. In the last unit, we focused on the Declaration of Independence and ultimately, made a declaration of our own. For this unit (unit 2), we learned about The U.S. Constitution, and 14 of its amendments. We focused on learning and distinguishing logical fallacies, along with, applying those fallacies to real situations. We had multiple FE guests that all did work for the city of Chicago, in some capacity. Those guests were: Alderman Andre Vasquez (40th ward), Alderman Walter Barnett (27th ward), and Public Defender Connie Jordan. We looked at crucial parts of history (primarily the 1850's), and we studied the amendments to the Constitution around that time. We also learned about important people of the time - The Dred Scott Case and the poems by Phillis Wheatley. For this AP, we looked at highlights from the Chicago Municipal Code and were tasked with finding our own ordinance that we thought was unjust or in need of amending. After some time of research, I finally found the topic that I wanted to amend, even though it wasn't much. I chose the topic of the Limitations of Purchasing Handguns in Chicago, and below, you will see my argument! 

 

 In conclusion, I really enjoyed amending my own ordinance and going through the process of finding a topic. The Municipal Code was very lengthy and already pretty sound, so it was difficult to find a topic, but I am proud of what I did with mine. I hope you enjoyed my project!

An Hour in Time

This is our last AP for our Winter term STEAM class: Light, Sound, and Time. For this unit, we focused on the 3rd topic, Time. First, we did an experiment to grasp our own concept of time, where we spent almost the entire class time (around 40 minutes), without looking at any clocks or forms of telling time. It was very interesting and kind of weird, because we were all so used to constantly checking the time, and we had to go without that. It definitely helped us to focus on what we were discussing and not have the distraction, and the time seemed to pass faster than usual. At the end of the lesson, we each guessed what time we thought it was and the correct answer was around 1:40pm, which was a little bit later than our usual class period. Throughout the unit, we also learned about how time is measured and the Cosmic Calendar, how time can be told using the sun/stars or Longitude/Latitude, the different tools to tell time (sundial, pendulum, sextant, etc), Time Zones, General relativity, and the Twin paradox. We also had an FE guest who talked to us about the Universe and what he studies. For this AP, we researched devices for telling time and we chose one that we wanted to modify and improve. We then made a 2-minute video explaining our product and how it works/its significance. I chose to improve an Hourglass, and below, you will see my video. Enjoy!

In conclusion, I really enjoyed brainstorming ideas to modify an Hourglass. It took some brainstorming because it was a little difficult for me to figure out what to change, but I think I did well on these basic modifications. If I could do anything differently, I would have taken more time to think of more complex ideas for modification. I hope you enjoyed my project!