The Aye-Aye

In this class, which is called "Population" a combine science and math course. We are studying the natural selection, the theory of Charles Darwin, and Taxonomy. Learning the scientific names of animals that we chose and their kingdoms. The purpose of this project was to create a collage of scrap paper or magazines to create your mammal or reptile and caption their kingdoms and know their scientific name. What was difficult was trying to get the right colors for the animal to make on the poster.

The animal that I chose for this AP1 for Population was an Aye-Aye.  I researched it and found out its kingdoms and scientific name. This animal lives in forests in large jungle areas. It's scientific name is Daubentania Madagascariensis.

J.R (2014). Venn Diagram

J.R (2014). Set Theory Math Language.

The Mysterious Temple

In this class, "Stories" two in-twined classes with literature and history. we have learned about creation myths and ways to dive deep into stories using icebergs. The purpose of this action project was to use my imagination to make a fable story with a imaginary place, creative creatures, an descriptive features. I am proud to use my imaginary and descriptive skills, to create a super great story for people that like fables.

J.R. (2014). The Mysterious Temple.

Once, there was a mysterious temple for the greatest goddesses of Africa. Over time, people abandoned the place, except for a girl named Flair, who moved into this temple in the mountains near a strange village which no one knew of. Flair was new to the place and her surroundings. As she was getting help from some men with her belongings, up and down the road Flair looked around her, cluelessly paying attention to the trees and bushes and the path home. This was a new experience for her. After the men settled her items in her new house, they left. She started unpacking and putting things away.

By the time Flair was done, it was sunset. While she stared out the window she saw lots of leaves blowing in the wind. There were plenty of creatures coming out of the trees and bushes. She went outside to get a closer look at these blue spiky squirrels and zombie armadillo witches that she had never seen before in her life. One of the zombie armadillo witches flew toward her and stared at her very creepily while touching her on her forehead. Flair was shocked and terrified. As it touched Flair on her forehead the zombie armadillo witch said, “you belong here!.. You ARE MINE!”

Flair ran inside upset and worried. She locked her doors, windows, and everything in the house. She put all the shades down and kept herself locked in her bedroom. Flair grabbed her journal and started descriptively writing about the things she had seen and done the little bit of time she had been in Africa. While Flair was writing she felt kind of dizzy and sleepy, but didn’t know why. So, she took a nap. The next morning, she got up feeling better, but was still thinking about what had happened last night. She thought to herself, maybe it was a dream, while walking to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

Flair screamed loudly, looking at herself in the mirror. She had turned purple through the night. She thought to herself again, “It wasn’t a dream if I’m turning purple. She went outside and yelled, “you ugly creature what are you turning me into?” Flair waited and waited to get a response back, but nothing happened. It was just a beautiful, silent morning with the sun rising and the chilly breeze of nature. But, she hadn't thought of what the zombie armadillo witch had said while touching her on her forehead, probably making her turn purple for being in their village. To clear her mind, she went for a walk and looked around to see if she could find what this creature had done to her so she could fix it.

She repeatedly yelled, leaving herself with no voice. Now, all Flair could do is whisper. She walked so much, she couldn't feel her own legs. Flair slowly noticed that her hands were turning purple. As she looked around, there were bushes near her shriveling and falling apart. Since she couldn’t talk, she ran towards the bushes, but as soon as she got closer they disappeared like dust. She was losing her mind because so many unusual and scary things were happening to her for no reason. She was very startled and started to cry. She just didn’t understand why!

A Chinese wizard appeared and explained to her what these creatures were and why they were torturing her. He reminded her of what the zombie armadillo witch had told her and let her know, “these creatures were created like this because of the war that happened in Africa 105 years ago. In 1774 the zombies had a conflict with armadillos and witches because they would put curses on anyone who would move in to this temple. Zombies were very friendly with the people who lived in the temple and got so mad because they were moving out because of the curses and bad things that were happening to them. The zombies were done with the armadillos and witches doing this to the people. So, they went to the armadillos’ and witches’ villages and destroyed their homes. To get revenge, the armadillos and witches cursed the squirrels to be blue, spiky and poisonous because they hated the zombies. This was very harmful to the zombies since squirrels were their favorite snack of the day. The blue spiky squirrels were turned into poisonous creatures, so the zombies would starve and had to eat humans as they still do now. Many zombies, armadillos and witches died in their war.

The goddess of the temple was so fed up that she cursed all of them to get along and look a little more like each other. She gave the zombies the magical power to only change someone's skin color, which is what happened to Flair, who stood there listening to the wizard quietly and confused. She asked him, “what do I do now?” The wizard said the only way you can get the purple off of your skin is if you fight the polar dragon bear and kill it. If you do, you will break the curse and take away all power of the zombie armadillo witches and blue spiky squirrels, and cure all the people whose skin color was changed. Flair stood there shocked. She asked him, “when can I do this,? What time do I have to go and fight this dragon?”

The wizard answered, “You have to go after dawn and defeat the polar dragon bear. With that, Flair left to her temple high up in the mountain, where she waited for dawn to come. When it arrived, Flair was all ready to defeat this beast. She was bundled in pillows and blankets. She walked and walked up and down mountains to get to the polar dragon bear. Flair was so shaky, she didn’t have any idea what to do but follow what the Chinese wizard had said. She climbed into the lair and saw the huge polar dragon bear sleeping. But, the only thing she had brought to defend herself with was a fork. Flair screamed at the top of her lungs, “AHHHH!” while running towards the big beast with her fork. The polar bear dragon awoke and roared at Flair. She got so frightened that she aimed the fork as hard as she could at him. While he was roaring, the fork landed in his throat and the polar bear dragon took his last breaths before dying.

Flair defeated the huge creature and saved the village, becoming their queen. Her skin color changed back to normal, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Beloved Polar Bear Dragon R.I.P <3

Born Date: 1856

Death Date: 1879 

The Resilience

For this unit P'arts Of History I created a lino-cut drawing and made clay walls around my lino-cut and poured cement over my lino-cut drawing. The reason for creating a drawing and making this was because we wanted to see what in Chicago shows resilience. I found a symbol that meant change, life's dynamics for what I think shows resilience to Chicago. I drew this symbol because of the gun violence and shootings happening in every neighborhood in the City. I think that we can all stop the violence and keep


The main purpose of making this drawing was to create, a symbol that shows resilience to Chicago.
The guiding question is "How may you visualize Chicago's resilience today?"

How I identified this guiding question was by drawing a unique symbol to show others how I visualize my Chicago, which means change, Life's dynamics. The causes and effects would be that Chicago does have a lot of bad and good things about it. There is a lot of things that shows resilience to us about Chicago and that's a cause and effect about Chicago. A way that Chicago shows resilience is the new artwork that is being placed in many neighborhoods to show their artwork. Something that can make things better than what they were like when the Chicago fire happened in 1871 by building better buildings for people to use. What Chicago can do to show resilience is help violence, teenagers get good education expand the learning for many people and keep them from joining gangs and using drugs and just violence.

The Skyline View

In this course "P'art Of History" my class and I are learning about the history of Chicago and who claims Chicago. Today Chicago tells us about the discoveries that happened back in the early years in "Chigagou". Chigagou the "wild garlic place" where there was lots of Native Americans. This image shows how I see Chicago today from my perspective.

Jamilet Rodriguez

From My Perspective

Lino cut and linoleum cutter

6"x6"

July, 3rd 2014

The main purpose of my art piece is to tell my story about who claims Chicago from my visual that I drew. My guiding question was who lays claim in your Chicago?

My guiding question was who lays claim to your Chicago and I answered by saying that everyone claims Chicago, we all have something part of Chicago that lays claim. Chicago is very huge and many people live here and one and each person takes a stand to make something happen in there city of Chicago. Its whether try to stop the violence in neighborhoods, keep children safe and busy away from problems, teach children in their early ages  what’s right from wrong, and just everything that isn't going to get you anywhere in life.

A experience that I have had with Chicago, would be walking with my class to Lincoln Park to see the different statues that were settled there back in the early years. In 1673 Marquette and Juliet were the first Europeans that saw Chicago. In 1779 Du Sable was the first settler that settled in Chigagou with the Native Americans, he was known as a traveler and a trader, pretty wealthy, and who drank freely.

My art piece is a visual of how I see Chicago myself, its a view from right from wrong of the skyline. Neoclassical Art is different types of ways to create/draw a drawing or building a sculpture and these types of ways are emotionless, clean lines, symmetrical, heroic figures, and simple. How I created my art piece was drawing a visual for my story/poem and putting the image on a lino cut tile used with carving tools ( Linoleum cutter ). What I will do with my carving is when I am fully finish put cement over the lino cut tile that I put my drawing and will come out on the cement.

Drawing

In our final unit, Birth, the freshman class was assigned to create a poster symbolizing the food system and how it affected, affects, and will affect us, and the environment. My group decided to create an art piece symbolizing the third unit Decay, which explained how technology has affected the way people eat. With that we also chose 3 keywords that explained this time of history well. The most challenging part for my group was drawing it out, but we overcame that when  we realized that we don’t necessarily have to have a lot of drawing talent in order to show our hard work and understanding. We all are proud of how our art piece came out. We all helped each other when one needed help. When the class is finished we will put all posters together, to represent the four units, Life, Death, Decay, and Birth. When we put them together, it will represent the new understanding we have about the food system.

GS(2014).Food for thought.

Artist statement

Our poster represents the third unit, Decay. In this unit our class learned about the industrialization of food, the American diet, and the food industry. The unit is called Decay because we studied how technology has influenced the way people are eating. We illustrated the American diet, the food industry, and the Green Revolution. We represented the American Diet by drawing a globe and a conveyer belt. The globe symbolizes how most of the world relies on fast food, or more specifically McDonald’s. The conveyor belt represents our food system, and the distribution process that animals and our food have to go through. We then drew a factory where our food is processed. The man outside the factory is not actually planting flowers, but painting them out. He represents how the nation puts a “band aid” to cover the truth on how our food gets to our table. The truck shows how the final step in the food industry is to finally ship out all the food. From the factory the truck is pulling out with boxes in the back, which is the food. Each box represents a fast food chain, to show how that food gets to a restaurant. We then drew a tractor connecting with the food system by having the conveyor belt as a wheel. The tractor is on road that connects all four units together. We drew an average American fast food meal, walking its way to the globe, or to its home McDonalds. We represented the Green Revolution by drawing the “Father of the Green Revolution”, Norman Borlaug, injecting fertilizer and chemicals into wheat. To represent the harm these fertilizers and chemicals do to crops, we drew an empty bottle of poison on the ground. We wanted to capture all the elements of this unit so when people look at it they get a sense of what is going on.

AMK(2014). Food for thought.

anti-GMO

For this “Food Class,” a combined math and science course, we have been learning about Genetically Modified Organisms and Plant Genetics, and about how GMOs are used in fruits, vegetables, and also in humans. We have learned the reason that GMOs are being inserted into products. But this speech will tell you about why you shouldn't eat products with GMOs.

 GMO stands for genetic modified organisms means is an organism whose genes have been changed by scientist by a purpose.

I am anti-GMO. I want my community to be healthy. I want nature to take control of itself, because we are experimenting on ourselves when we eat these foods. Other products that we use, like cars and prescription drugs, must be tested, sometimes for years, before they can be sold. But GMOs don’t have to be tested, or even disclosed. I believe that GMOs shouldn't be allowed to be sold until they are proven safe for our health. This is the least we can do. 

I am anti-GMO because GMOs are not proven safe. They’re not that nutritional compared to organic fresh products being grown in a garden. GMO products into which genes have been inserted to prevent bugs from eating them that then we eat may cause health problems. These GMO products are not good for us because they are less nutritious. Yes, GMO products in the stores are less expensive but dangerous for our bodies, therefore organic foods are Non- GMOs which is way better for us because (One) it’s naturally grown and fresh (Two) Reduces health risk (Three) They taste great (Four) Conserves water resources and (Five) Farmers build healthy soil. This is why you should switch to eating organic products because of these top five reasons.

This graph shows the maize supply between France, a non-GMO country and U.S.A, pro GMO country.
France: 2007 - 2008 and 275 grams and 293 grams = 6.5%  Increased maized production.

Be Anti- GMOs to help the community build a healthy place. Gm foods are not proven safe, which will not cause immediate health problems. This is important for us to know and be aware of all the things we are eating that are GMOs.

Any GMO products should contain a label to let people know what are they eating and putting in their bodies. GMO products are bad because they’re less nutritious, purposely made cheaper, and GM crops kill genetic diversity and promotes monoculture.

Arguments

Argument 1: For this argument, GM foods might have health risks for people. It is unnatural to put fish genes in a tomato plant. When you do that it creates potential allergies that might not be there if you ate an organic tomato. The effects of these foods are not known to us. Eating these food might upset our stomachs

Argument 2: For this argument, GM crops kill genetic diversity and promotes monoculture. Genetic diversity is a variety of genes within an organism's species. Monoculture means one crop being grown over and over. Monoculture is bad for the environment because the crops become vulnerable to diseases and pests.

Argument 3: For this argument, GM farmers become slaves to big corporations. Monsanto is suing farmers for using their patented GMO seeds without paying as result these small farmers are in debt and can’t afford to keep their farms.

These are some reasons why GM foods are not beneficial to humans. GM products are being inserted with genes that are capable of hurting plants and humans. These are fake chemicals that are in these fruits and vegetables that we eat nowadays.

Vote For anti-GMO!

Order # 12

For this unit of humanities I have learned about industrial foods and how technology is used to create our foods today. For this action project I compared a restaurant meal and a homemade meal with a food review explaining which meal was better, healthier, and which one filled you up faster than the other meal. For the restaurant meal I went with my dad to Mcdonald’s and ordered a chicken sandwich. For the homemade meal I went to the grocery store and bought the items to make my sandwich. I bought white bread, turkey bacon, and chicken patties. I cooked my homemade meal by myself, but I had a hard time cooking the bacon because my oil was too hot. This course “Food for Thought” has impacted me to eat more healthy because the process in which meat was processed made me change my way of eating meat.

Food #1 Restaurant

At the Mcdonald’s on 4338 W. North Ave I ordered a #12 Chicken Ranch BLT Crispy. It was a pure salty meal with a side of salty fries and a cold drink. After awhile, I got used to the taste. While eating, it tasted very delicious had a wonderful smell and nice great texture while grabbing the burger. I could taste the salty and sweet sauce of ranch burst into my mouth, with bits of bacon so crunchy. I could hear myself crunching very loudly inside my head. I loved It. I was full after I ate everything I had ordered. All I smelled was ranch, the sauce that gave it the most flavor.

Photography. JR (2014).

Food #2 Homemade

For homemade food, specifically sandwiches, my favorite sandwich flavors are turkey and smoked ham. However for this homemade sandwich, I used white bread, chicken, bacon, pickles, ranch and  honey mustard. My sandwich turned out to be more greasy, salty and less crunchy than the McDonald's BLT version. The amount of ranch and mustard made the bread softer and less appealing to the eye. In addition, the chicken patty was really greasy and not as crunchy. My meal wasn't as tasteful as the McDonald's famous BLT. I personally did not feel full because I did not like the turnout, therefore I did not eat it all.

Photography. J.R. 2014.

The ranch had a lot of ingredients that I have never heard of before and one of them was disodium guanylate. This ingredient is safe to eat and enhances the flavor that ranch dressing has.

Michael Pollan’s 5 transformations described major ways that our diet has changed since the industrial revolution. One of the transformation is from whole foods to refined foods. I chose this transformation to relate to my meals because my Mcdonald’s sandwich was made with white bread which is a refined food. The ingredients that I put in my homemade sandwich were also refined. For example, the dressings were processed because I read the ingredient label on the back and didn’t know what any of the ingredients were.

I recommend the Mcdonald’s chicken sandwich because the bread was less soggy and way tastier. The homemade sandwich that I made was very soggy and just didn't taste the same as the Mcdonald’s chicken sandwich. They were both greasy and also salty. I will definitely have the Mcdonald’s chicken sandwich again.