Literacy Pieces

For this elective term "Book Bound" I worked on assignments that introduce the history of literacy and what literacy is really about. The assignments I chose were the literary journal which was worked on as a group, we all shared a story and a drawing about a topic we all liked. The storyboard is a website, where you create your own story. I created a story about reading in a school that means reading is important and it's as big as education. The literary poster that I made is to show what a high school report is and the grades of the classes here at GCE, which they're false. The slide show of the book we chose for the canon is explaining what the book is about and what are the great things about it. The most challenging thing was putting everything together. What I am most proud of is completing my assignments and using them for this Action Project.

The Literacy Journal

The literacy journal was created by a group of students which I was in. The purpose of this journal was to give out our opinions and old memories about old TV shows. What I did was choose a lot of my favorite old TV shows that were taken away and describe what I really missed about them and why I want them back. The most challenging thing was creating a poem of one of my old time favorite TV shows that stopped running.

The slideshow canon was to pick a favorite book and describe it. The point of this slideshow was to give the audience to say yes to your book to be put in the library in the new space. The book that I chose was The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian. The reason why I chose this book was because I read it multiple times and because it as a humorous background story to the book. I like that it's relevant to a lot of teenagers and give advice about school and culture. The book is based off of poverty, alcoholism, violence, despair and lightened with lots of humor.




The Literary Poster

The literary poster I made was to show the percentage of reading in each class. The classes represented are GCE classes but not the actual percentages. I chose to do this guiding question because I think that the world struggles with a lot of economical and education problems. "Does reading increase your salary?" It's a question that will be unanswered because there's plenty of different answers that don't add up to why or how. To me I think that it does because without having the ability to read and write will not get you no where, therefore it's harder for the person who is illiterate to do things than a person who s literate and does know how to do things.

JR. (2016). Reading Percentages

The Storyboard

The storyboard that I created was to show the different scenes that happen in real life in school. I think that reading does increase your salary if you put your mind and effort to it. I included the school scenes because it fits perfect with what my topic is about and what I am trying to explain. I chose this topic because it's something that should be brought up in middle school so students can keep in mind that reading is really important for you and your life goals. There's six story board pieces explaining how and what a student goes through and what really is said in class.


Made with Storyboard That

Soap Dispensers

For the last Action Project, Elective course "Rapid Prototyping" we were assigned to choose a idea and improve the idea for the better. The idea I chose was to make soap dispensers for the bathrooms in the new space. I chose this idea because I thought it would be convenient and also because it will be a good idea to have something different than a regular dollar store soap dispensers for the bathrooms in the new space. The most challenging thing is choosing from the instructables website ideas that will be worth the building for the space and that will be used. What I am proud of is choosing the idea that is simple but very useful and creative.

JR. (2016). Plain Bottle

JR. (2016). Plain Bottle

JR. (2016). GCE Lab School

What I did was take a old bottle and cleaned it up and used the aveeno bottle pumper to add the final touch. I'm glad it fit perfect on the bottle. It doesn't screw on but it does fit tightly onto the bottle. When I opened the bottle with a can opener I used leverage to pop the top off. When I emptied the liquid I also used leverage as I was pouring the liquid onto the sink. I also used torque force on the top pumper to make it tight and to make sure it was secure enough to hold liquid without spilling everywhere, if it did fall. Some safety caution rules I had in mind were to hold tight onto the bottle just in case the bottle fell on the floor and break. Also, look around my surroundings so they wouldn't get injured. What I could've used was goggles and gloves in case the top flew in my face or if i get cut. When I went to Rebuilding exchange the director of the organization said, " Not everything is a waste, everything has a value." I took that into consideration and thought that I can use something that can take super long to decompose and recycle it and make something better off of it. So I took this bottle that probably would've been in a land fill waiting years to decompose when it can be used for decoration or other cool things. I published my work onto the instructables website so others can do the same and branch off my idea. Here's the link

JR. (2016). GCE Lab School

I then used Armour Etch to make a design on the bottle. I wanted the design to look cool and to stand out. So, I used the GCE logo and also etched my nickname on the bottom of the bottle.  The Armour Etch is a chemical that edges designs that you would like to have on glass. I created my own GCE logo on the computer to make a stencil off the cameo machine made out of vinyl to stick onto the glass bottle so the Armour etch wouldn't get anywhere. One of the websites that most inspired me the most was 99 life hacks. I liked the ideas that they had on the websites, they seemed so easy and something that I would probably think of but I never did. I like that they have plenty of things that can be re-used in your own home or in your work place, which is great. I was really inspired by the idea of re-using old things and this is why I chose to do a soap dispenser. 

The Queen Piece

For this Elective term I took a class called Rapid Prototyping and I was assigned to make a chess piece with a classmate and design our piece in three types of ways. The three types of ways were building the chess piece of clay, then cardboard and finally on a online digital 3D website to be then printed. What I am most proud of is my three models that my partner and I made for this Action Project. The most challenging thing about this project was creating the digital piece on the website called Tinkercad. It was so frustrating because some of my pieces were floating and weren't in their place. I think the most easiest thing about this project was building the clay model piece, it was fun and easy at the same time.
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The Creative Letters

For this Elective term, I am taking a class called Rapid Prototyping. Rapid Prototyping is to learn and create things with the idea of math and connecting lines and different types of shapes to your creation. For this first Action Project, I was assigned to choose two letters and make a design with the letter chosen and also the material that was given. The two letters I chose was "J' and "r" the materials that were given to me were vinyl and tin foil. I am most proud of making my letter out of tin foil because it was so difficult to cut by machine than by hand. The most challenging thing while creating the letters were figuring out the shapes to cut from the machines. Also, cutting the tin foil by hand was a struggle, everything with the tin foil was hard. These are my designs.

                               
                                                       JR (2015). "The creative letters"

The Homeless In AMERICA

For the third unit of this course "Rhetoric" the assigned project was to choose a important social issue to you and design a art piece, poem or audio/video to present your social issue. The purpose of this action project was to show your artwork and change people's minds of how important the issue you chose is to you. The topic I chose was the homeless in America, because homeless are the most stereotyped human beings in the America's. I want to be able to change the way people think about the homeless, because if I was in their shoes I would want some support or someone to help me, notice me. I am proud of the topic I chose and being able to express the way I feel and helping out the homeless to get the real meaning of what homeless people are and what they go through every single day, where we tend to ignore because our minds are too caught in the fact that each homeless person in America is a drug addict, has domestic violence records, financial issues and are too lazy to get a job. Here is my art piece that I hope will change the way you think about the homeless here in America.

JR (2015). "The Homeless In America Board"

 I am JR and the topic I chose was "The Homeless In America" The reason for choosing this topic is for the way the homeless were stereotyped on websites like Huffington Post and the main stream media. As I read on a website, a statement came up and triggered me to think about the homeless differently. The statement was " Admit it: when you think of a homeless person, a certain stereotype comes to mind. A middle-aged to older man who's addicted to drugs and too lazy to get a job. You think it's their own fault that they're living on the streets." I totally agree with this statement because I have thought like that about homeless people whenever i'm outside. This is the reason why I chose this topic. Homeless people go through so much and I just want to put their mindsets out there so people know that they are not homeless because of what we immediately think when the word homeless comes to our mind. I want to be able to present my artwork and make a change in America.

 The art piece that I created was a cardboard poster with a quote, question, a mirror and facts and take one cards and a suggestion box for the homeless people. The reason why I chose to present my art piece on a cardboard poster was because the majority of homeless people write on card board to speak to people around them instead of going to each person asking for help or money. Some people are not always interested in speaking with homeless people. Some people find it very awkward and weird. The quote is to inspire people who read the quote and to give them a inspiration to change and think of homeless people differently. The mirror is to look at yourself and picture yourself in their shoes. Looking at yourself is to imagine yourself in their same situation and not judge no matter how bad their situation can be at the moment. The about me cards are to take with you and know more about the person and the homeless.

 The question is to make you think deeply, change your mind about the homeless being stereotyped and helping them how they should be helped no matter their situation. The colors that I used are Black, Red and Green. Each one of these colors represent a topic Black is the most written color on a cardboard poster when I see homeless people with their posters. The quote is written in black to make it stand out. The Red is the question of how deep it can be to a person and painful, showing a little bit of pathos. The green is support/ help / important. I have done research on just homeless and the rate of how many people become and actually move on with their lives. It just frightens me to know that young teenagers are also becoming homeless. Like, I definitely don’t want to end up in a situation like that at all. This makes me want to help out more.

Young people often become homeless due to family conflict, including divorce, neglect, or abuse. A large majority of young people experience short-term homelessness, returning back home or to family/friends. The medium that I chose to grab the audience's attention for the social issue. I picked a cardboard poster which resembles everything about what homeless feels like and what we should do to help change that. What inspired me the most was Marvin Gaye and his song “Inner City Blues” which he depict on the ghettos, economic, about the America.

 “The United States government acknowledges four categories of people who qualify as legally homeless:
(1) those who are currently homeless
(2) those who will become homeless in the future
(3) certain youths and families with children who suffer from home instability caused by a hardship.
(4) those who suffer from home instability caused by domestic violence.”

 These are facts that I would like you to know about the homeless in America.

•  "On a single night in January 2014, 578,424 people were experiencing homelessness — meaning they were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program.
•  "Of that number, 216,197 are people in families, and 362,163 are individuals." 
•  “About 15 percent of the homeless population – 84,291 - are considered "chronically homeless” individuals, and about 9 percent of homeless people- 49,933 - are veterans.”

Citations:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/uloop/what-homelessness-is-real_b_8094190.html

http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/the-state-of-homelessness-in-america-2015

http://kylyssa.hubpages.com/hub/homelessness-myths-misconceptions

The Simple Bike

In the second unit of Design & Engineering I learned about different types of bikes and how they are used differently by everyone. I also learned about the different ways they work and how they are designed. What I am most proud of is learning how bikes are properly used and how they should be used to be as safe as possible. I learned that bikes are also good for our health, that it’s good to ride your bike at least 20 minutes a day to prevent you from getting diseases and all these types of health issues. The purpose of this assignment is to redesign a bike for someone specifically chosen for my partner and I to create a better bike for her lifestyle. The most challenging thing was building the bike the way we sketched it and thought it should be.

The bike that my partner and I created for our given person was simple. We got a young 15 year old girl named Malia that lives in the Logan Square area. She rides her bike to school and back on the 606 trail. Her commute there is 5 miles and on her way home from school she stops at the grocery store. My partner and I decided to build her bike simple and not so heavy. Since she will be carrying groceries on her handles, we thought we could add a basket that is attachable and removable. The handles are removable and can be used as a lock so that way she doesn’t have to worry about digging in her bag for her lock and locking her bike. We created a comfortable heating seat that will support her back and also in the winter keep her warm.

What I learned from existing bikes is that they all have their ways of functioning whether it’s a more comfortable seat, better grippable handles, nice smooth wheels, low or high frames and how fast or slow the bike rides. The person whom I interviewed, Pedro Illas said “Bikes are better for the environment, and are easier to commute around the city.” This made me want to create a more simpler bike to keep Malia from struggling when she has lots of weight on her bike while riding and also when locking her bike while she shops. The reason to believe is that, the bike is perfectly made just for Malia and her commute to school and back. We added some small things to her bike which were the basket for the groceries, comfortable seat and supporter in the back, the chain guard and fender above the wheel, and the handle lock so she can lock the bike at school and won’t have to carry anything extra. We tried to keep the bike simple and with not so much stuff that will take up her time to ride her bike.

These are the added parts to Malia’s Bike:

-The seat is comfortable and also supports your back, you can also insert heat pads during the winter time while she rides to school. This will make her back less cold and will support her as well.

-The fender will block everything from coming up and ruining her clothes. The fender also has pockets that you can add a bottle or books for school. I added a chain guard also by the pedals just in case grease gets on her pants.

-The basket in the front of the bike which is removable, foldable and stretchy.

-The handle bars are removable also and can be used to lock your bike.


JR & VG (2015). "The Convenience Bike"

The kinetic energy is when Malia is riding her bike to school on the 606 trail. The potential energy is when Malia will be going down the ramp of the 606 trail she will have lots of force. The diameter of the bikes wheel is 28 inches, The circumference is 87.92 inches, how I found this was that I plugged in 3.14 which is pi and times it by the diameter which is 28 inches, my answer is 87.92 inches. The average speed to school is 5 miles = 26,400. On her way to school her bike wheel rotate 3,603.27. The scale that was used for the bike is in inches and the wheel is 2 inches diameter wheels. The driver gears 12, 16 teeth. Driver gears 24,36, 48 teeth. All ratios 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 3:2, 9:4.


JR & VG (2015). "Malia riding her bike"

Knives In Self Defense

For my third period class "Self Defense" I learned different martial arts techniques of fighting which were boxing, muythai, knife, sticks and hammer grip. I chose to do knives, because it was the most one I think I was good at and made me feel cool. The knife technique is very easy is block, attack and run. If that doesn't work you disarm and twist the arm in and do an x with your arms and eject the knife with your wrist bone. The most challenging thing was learning each one of these types of ways of fighting. It was always a struggle for me because I am very short and couldn't reach my partner as much but I always did it. The most thing I am proud of is knowing all these different ways of fighting and that now I can walk outside my neighborhood confident that I can defend myself and not get harm in any type of way. This helped me learned a lot and helped me realize a lot of things.