Popcorn By LF

I sat excitedly in the dark quiet of the Webster movie theatre, feeling the anticipation pulsing through my veins. I was excited about the movie, sure. Who isn’t excited about seeing great movies play on a huge screen? However, I had another thing on my mind: A secret taste test. Next to me on my arm rest sat a full bag of buttery, yellow, inciting popcorn. The bag was still warm, because it had been freshly popped at the over priced theatre concession stand. But inside the inner pocket of my unnecessary jacket, sat my real secret: Homemade popcorn. The inside of my jacket kept this popcorn warm as well, and it salty, buttery aroma made me question my luck that I’d been able to sneak it into the theatre with me.

I thought back to making my popcorn at home on the hot stove top in my kitchen. I heated up some oil in a big pot and poured the un-popped corn on top of the heated oil, placing a lid on top for good measure. I had only to wait two minutes before the magic began to happen. The organic, Whole Foods band kernels began to pop. The scent was overpowering more than the whole kitchen, and I even heard a shout from upstairs, “Lil! Aren’t you going to a movie right now? Why are you making popcorn?” I emptied the pot of freshly popped popcorn into a bowl and put some butter on top, but not before checking the label. It read “Grade AA certified Organic butter”. After doing some research, I found that if a label says it has been certified organic, it means it really is, and it is reliable.

As the lights of the theatre dimmed slowly until they were off, my excitement rose. I pulled the brown, oily paper bag out of my jacket and plunged my hand in, opening my mouth for my first bite. The popcorn was awesome! It was the perfect combination of crunchy and oily and the salt wasn’t at all overpowering, just the right amount of salty flavor. I took a break to finish chewing and chanced a quick glance up at the big screen to witness Leonardo DiCaprio raising his glass to a lovely blond girl. I wanted to give my mouth a break, so as not to mix tastes. Once I was mentally prepared, I dug my hand into the movie theatre popcorn, which I noticed while purchasing it was dark yellow in color, much darker than my homemade treat. As my hand neared my face, I noticed its strong, buttery, salty smell. When I tasted it, it crunched a lot, and then the flavor hit it. It was incredibly flavorful, and not in the best way, either. It was so salty that it was almost astringent, and even though the popcorn crunched, in each bite I took, there was a tremendous amount of oil being released into my mouth. I do not think this this popcorn was organic in the slightest. When I had eaten a fair amount of the movie theatre popcorn, I began to notice a strange aftertaste that was stinging the sides of my mouth and making my throat hurt. These were definitely not organic food side effects.

It didn’t take much for me to come to the conclusion that my homemade popcorn was better in, not only taste, but health as well. This fact made me extremely happy and full of pride.

City By LF

The purpose of this action project was to understand the concept of tempo and beat matching. We dove deep into this assignment by creating our very own mash ups. I am proud that I was able to complete this process using new computer software that I had never used before. I discovered that beat matching is a very difficult thing to do, and sounds a lot easier than it is. I learned about how different beats of songs have a different effect on what mood and message the song is trying to get across. Read my artist statement below!

For my unit 3 Project as Action, our assignment was to create our very own mash up! The purpose of the action was to listen to the beat of both the songs and see how they affected the song when they were mixed. I am proud of the fact that I learned a bunch of new programs and was able to complete this project happily and on time. Our action project for Unit 3 was awesome. It was to make a mash up! We were to use two different songs, the vocals of one and the instrumentals of the other, to create our mix. The purpose of this project was to focus on beat and the impact it has on the way a mashup is made. In the process of completing this project, we had to learn how to use Audacity, a program that helps to mix songs together. We discovered that The first song I decided to mix was Midnight City by M83, and then I chose Bad Girls by M.I.A. as my second song because I thought they would go would together in a cool utopic way. When picking which song I should have as the background and which I should use the vocals for, I thought about which beat I wanted to be prominent and lead the mashup. In the end, I chose to use the vocals for Midnight CIty and Bag Girl’s beat. I feel like my final product is utopic for me because I like the way it sounds! The beats match up, making a utopic sound. Feel free to listen to my mashup below:

For this Project as Action we were given the task of creating a slide show on a particular math concept. I chose calculating circumference and area of a circle, because, although they are relatively simple concepts, they are very easy to forget or mix up!

Enjoy my presentation below!

Erase Me Everlong – JM

     For our music course at school we were learning about beats and how they affect people. So, the purpose of this project was to learn how beats and the mashing of different beats and music invokes utopic or dystopic feelings inside of people. I then mashed the song Everlong by Foo Fighters and the song Erase me by Kid Cudi in order to create a song with an utopic beat and that turned the lyrics utopic by doing so. I will explain now how I came to creating this mash up in the following paragraphs.

     What we did in class was we learned about beats in music and how they make people feel through experiencing new and already known tempos and seeing how they made us feel. We then found songs with beats that either made us feel good or bad and decided to try and mash them up. We failed. We then had a DJ come in and teach us how to mash songs together. We then made our mashups and succeeded.

     When building the mashup, I struggled immensely. I spent almost all of my time looking for songs that would sound good together. I went through around 20 songs and finally chose the song Erase Me by Kid Cudi because it had a very appealing beat and it was also very constant. I then looked rigorously for a vocal track that would sound good with the background beat and track. I finally found the perfect vocals for it which was the vocals to the song Everlong by Foo Fighters. I then mashed the lyrics accordingly with the beats of the instrumental.

     My final product was extremely utopic. I found it Utopic because it was filled with a never ending happy background beat (Erase Me – Kid Cudi) and tones that I mashed with some dystopic vocals (Everlong – Foo Fighters) which made the vocals in the mashup seem utopic. The beat contributes to the utopic feeling because it is in a moderate tempo and it is a very constant and song building beat.

In my elective class 162 we were asked to do a scouting report of five baseball players. We had to look at their statistics as well as their payroll and see who was the best value. We a choose a few variables to measure the five players by. I had all hitters. So I measured them by on base percentage, slug percentage, and hits among a few other things. I also looked in to their backgrounds at things such as weight, height, years played, etc. I had a great time doing this project. I’m really proud of how objectively I was able to judge the players. Below is my full scouting report for my players. Enjoy

Below is an my SCOUTING REPORT.

“U Kno We In Love”

GF

For this project as action, our task was to create a mashup using a utopic and dystopic beat. The two songs I chose were Uknohowwedu by Bahamadia and In Love by 9th Wonder. The song by Bahamadia has a dystopic beat, in my opinion, because it is plain and way too repetitive, while the beat by 9th Wonder beat is actually utopic for me for the exact same reason. I was inspired to use two songs that were classic hip hop style, but I also wanted to put an electronic spin on it, which is what moved me to take the song in that direction in the second half. I also decided that I wanted to throw some new audio in the middle to liven it up a little, so I took a scene from the movie “A Streetcar Named Desire”. The process of creating this song was difficult at times, but I really enjoyed myself.

Check out my song below!

My volunteer experience profoundly different from what I had expected. My task was working with other women from the organization doing community outreach, and spreading the word about House Bill 2675. This bill pushes for an updated, more comprehensive and informative sex education curriculum in Illinois. We went to the 17th Ward (around 75th and Ashland) to pass out flyers and spread information about this bill because the representative of the ward, Jackie Collins, was still undecided on the bill.

After doing this community outreach with CAF I can say that I will definitely be volunteering again in the future. The reception to our cause was so great, and people were so willing to ask for information like who to call and how they can help.

The purpose of this project was to create a mashup which is basically two or more songs put together to make a new song. The purpose was to think of two or more songs and mash them up to create our own song.

In order to complete this project we first had to learn what a mashup was and how to create one. we learned that by having a guest that was a DJ come in and teach us. also to make the mashup we had to pick two or more song that can be mashed up together.

The songs i picked were the instrumental from with you by Chris Brown and the acapella from irreplaceable by Beyonce. I picked these songs because they are both soft and I wanted to try soft songs since most mashups are heavy.

In my opinion the end product is very utopic because it is catchy and the songs match up perfectly.

The beat contributes to making the song utopic because the beat is very slow and it sounds romantic.

The process of making the mashup was very long and tedious to work on. The part that was the hardest to me was picking two song that could mash up perfectly and another part that was hard was actually mashing up the songs.

HM

JUICE

May 2013

133 seconds

The purpose of this project was to create a song that incorporated at least two different songs that were able to flow together and make the final product of a mashup.  In order to achieve this purpose, I had to learn a great deal about beat and how two beats can be combined to make one smooth, cohesive song.  We were also fortunate to meet with a DJ named Carlos who was able to create a live mashup and teach us about matching up the sound waves and speeding up and slowing down the tempo to better match up songs if they don’t quite go together as is.

The two songs I chose are Ghostwriter by RJD2 and Juice by Chance The Rapper.  The vocals of this mashup are from Juice and I only chose the key parts of the song so that it was more recognizable to people who would be listening.  Although I didn’t use the entire track of Ghostwriter I use it for the beat completely untouched and the entire way through until about two minutes in.  It’s hard for me to decide whether the final product is utopic or dystopic because I love the two songs separately but the process of mashing them up together was stressful and it still feels like they could flow just a little bit better, however I still do like it.  The beat is so fun and just easy to move to which for me makes it much more dystopic.

I created this mashup by beat matching and using Audacity, a file editing software.  I began choosing one song that I found to be either utopic or dystopic, which I chose to do utopic and from there tried to find a song that would be able to flow with it.  This process took me an incredibly long time and I had to start over and choose a new pair of songs that I could hopefully make work together.  Finally, I found the two that are in this one, Juice and Ghostwriter and I’m happy with my final product!

Here is my Artist Statement:

AH

5/2013

Rap Mash-Up

The purpose of this project was to Mash-Up 2 songs from either Garage band or Audacity to make the changes to see how both songs would turn out to be. We had to learn about the difference between Public Domain and Private Corporation and we had to watch a movie and to see if it is illegal to copy music or not. We had to listen to sample song, describe the beat of the song and whether either song sounds or feel utopic or dystopic. The things we learned from DJ-Carlos was that when you have one song on the top and cut out other parts of the other song  and put them together to see how they sound as a final Mash-Up. The songs that I chose to make my Mash- Up were I Need a Doctor Remix song Eminem (ft: Skylar Gray and Dr. Dre and Macklemore and Ray Lewis Can’t Hold Us party song. The final product of my Mash-Up is utopic because I used 2 very different songs and to see how they would work with each other or not. The beats of the Mash-Up are utopic because the remix is a base and the rap song is a mix.

SCOUTING ASSIGNMENT

Henry Drane,

We are desperately seeking new players to turn this ballclub around, and we need your help.

Your assignment over the next two weeks is to track the following players:

1) Albert Pujols

2) Adam Jones

3) Carl Crawford

4) Miguel Cabrera

5) Brandon Phillips

rank your players in terms of:

Price

• Albert Pujols

2012: $12 million

2013: $16 million

2014: $23 million

2015: $24 million

• Adam Jones

2012: $6.15 million

2013: $8.5 million

2014: $13 million

2015: $13 million

• Carl Crawford

2012: $19.5 million

2013: $20 million

2014: $20.25 million

2015: $20.5 million

• Miguel Cabrera

2012: $21 million

2013: $21 million

2014: $22 million

2015: $22 million

• Brandon Phillips

2012: $12 million

2013: $10 million

2014: $11 million

2015: $12 million

Performance

• Albert Pujols

2013 Batting

2013 Fielding

• Adam Jones

2013 Batting

2013 Fielding

• Carl Crawford

2013 Batting

2013 Fielding

• Miguel Cabrera

2013 Batting

2013 Fielding

• Brandon Phillips

2013 Batting

2013 Fielding

Value:

In my analysis I believe that the best player would be without a doubt Miguel Cabrera. Rating the highest in almost every category in a statistical standpoint. But he is also the most expensive player for us to pick for our team. If I had to say the most bang for our buck it would be between Adam Jones and Brandon Phillips. Both the cheapest players to pick but still contending with the stats of Miguel and Carl. If I had to choose one though I would have to go with Adam jones. Not only is Adam Jones cheaper but his overall batting skills are better than that of Brandon Phillips.

Consistency:

I have decided to make tables on both the consistency of Brandon Phillips and Adam Jones’ batting averages throughout their career. This is to make my final educated guess on who would be able to CONSISTENTLY play for our team at a high level.

• Brandon Phillips

Overall season averages

• Adam Jones

Overall season averages

Conclusion:

In conclusion I believe that not only is Adam Jones a couple million dollars cheaper than Brandon Phillips and millions more cheaper than the rest. But he shows that he is only slightly lower than the top player at a fraction of the cost. You may also look at the consistency of my two picks, Adam Jones and Brandon Phillips and see that Brandon Phillips has done better. Even so you can also see that Adam jones is a miniscule amount apart from Brandon Phillips. My analysis of why this is true is because Adam Jones has not gotten as many opportunities at the plate. So in my own professional opinion and as head scout for our GCE team I believe Adam jones is by far, “the best bang for our buck.”

The purpose of this project was to use two songs, utopic and dystopic, and  mash them to create songs that speak to your character. I learned a lot in order to be able to make this mashup, but most importantly, beat matching. Beat matching is the art of matching two beats down to a science. We were visited by Carlos Torres, a professional DJ. While visiting, CT made a mashup with us and showed us how to beat match. This song helped me grasp how to understand how music is made, and how to make music. I picked the songs Problems  and Change is Gonna Come. I chose these songs because I wanted to pick a pop related song, and a classic song. Problems is by ASAP Rocky and was only released last year. I feel the contrast in music styles is what makes mashups so great. Essentially, it has never been heard before. The contrast between two clashing styles, when pulled off, can sound like one song.

In my opinion, my final product is utopic. I am a fan of hip hop, and I believe my mashup reflects that. I enjoy beats and mixes that are relaxed and make you dance a little. I feel I did a good job of completing this personal goal. The beat has everything to do with it’s utopic feel. The beat is the floor to every song. In my song, I feel that all of the samples follow the lead of the beat. The beat is very high pitched and moves at average pace, making it sound utopic. I enjoy the process of making a mashup, although it may be difficult. It begins with finding the songs, which for me was relatively easy. I am a fan of both ASAP Rocky and Sam Cooke, and I found they mash up quite well. The next part, and mostly the final part, is cutting and clipping songs to make them sound as if they are one song. This was the longest and hardest part of the project. After you’re finished with these two steps, your mashup is complete.

Basic Stats Analysis

Wins vs loss (example – 4wins and 3 losses is 4/3)
Innings pitched is IP
WHIP is Walks and hits divided by the amount of innings they have pitched
ERA is earned run average, how often they gave up runs

Player Biographies -

Cj Wilson : CJ is 32 years old and pitches for the Los Angeles Angels. He is a 2 time all star, so his salary is well deserved from the past, but he isn’t quite living up to his billing, at least so far this year. He is still a very good pitcher who at any point during the season could get hot and be a catalyst for the Angels playoff success. It’s hard to compare him to other pitchers I’m analyzing, because he’s a closer and not a starter.

Alex Cobb : Alex is a young 25 year old pitcher for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. At this point in his career, he is a bargain for his team making only a half million dollars this year. He clearly still has some kinks to work at as a young pitcher, but also has an extremely high ceiling. This was exemplified in his most recent outing, where he threw 13 strikeouts, but also gave up 3 runs in almost 5 innings. Once these flaws and inconsistencies are worked out of his games, he is primed to be an elite pitcher in the league.

Adam Wainwright : Adam is a 31 year old pitcher for the St Louis Cardinals. In the past he has won 2 World Series with clutch pitching, and has been a gold glover and an all star. In 2011 he had major elbow surgery in 2011, so he is a slight risk injury wise. He has posted 2 near complete games this season and has been lights out, definitely playing up to his contract.

Carlos Villanueva : Carlos is a 29 year old pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. In his most recent outing against the Colorado Rockies he performed awfully giving up 5 runs in just the first 3 innings. It’s early in the season, so its hard to judge his season so far. However, he is pitching very poorly, hardly even earning his low-mid level contract. He will probably return to the Cubs next season, but if he doesn’t start improving, he is either doomed to the bullpen or pitching outside of the MLB.

Felix Hernandez : King Felix is a 27 year old pitcher for the Seattle Mariners. Widely regarded as one of the top 5 pitchers in baseball, he got one of the biggest contract extensions in the history of the MLB last summer. He even threw a perfect game in 2012. This season, he is an extremely pricey pitcher, but so far is still performing at an elite level. He is still a relatively young arm, and consistently throws very long efficient games for the Mariners.

Top 5 in order of salary.

1. Alex Cobb, 502,000$ each of next 2 years
2. Carlos Villanueva, 5,000,000$ each of next 2 years
3. CJ WIlson, 11,000,000$ this year, then 16,000,000, 18,000,000, and 20,000,000 next 3 years after that
4. Adam Wainwright, 12,000,000$ this year, then 19,500,000$ for the next 5 years
5. Felix Hernandez, 19,860,000$ this year, then over the next 6 years to 27,000,000$

Top 5 in order of Statistics/performance (2013)

1. Adam Wainwright, 5-2 2.30 era 58.2ip .989 whip
2. Felix Hernandez, 5-2 1.53 era 64.2 ip .928 whip
3. Alex Cobb, 4-2 3.09 era 46.2 ip 1.221 whip
4. CJ Wilson, 3-2 3.88 era 48.2 ip 1.541 whip
5. Carlos Villanueva, 1-3 3.93 era 52.2 ip 1.139 whip

Top 5 in order of who the Falcons should buy in the opinion of HP…

1. Alex Cobb

2. Felix Hernandez
3. Adam Wainwright
4. CJ Wilson
5. Carlos Villanueva

Final Analysis :

I would recommend getting Alex Cobb by a landslide as the first option due to his obvious talent as a pitcher. He has the ERA and WHIP of a good pitcher (as displayed in my graph), and while obviously he still has some flaws that young players have, he has a lot of potential. His price is also extraordinarily appealing, he is not even close to his full potential. He is only worth 500,000 dollars next year. This is the cheapest player on the list who has the potential to be one of the best pitchers in the league and is worth taking a risk on. I would definitely advise the Falcons to act quickly before other teams offer him enormous contracts.

Next I would hope to get Felix Hernandez, as he is obviously one of the top 5 pitchers in baseball. However, he’s extraordinarily expensive so we’d have to be very lucky in order to lure him out of Seattle, and be able to sustain his enormous contract.

Adam Wainwright would be my next choice. He is a top pitcher in the game, similar to Felix, however he has a history of injuries and is also 31 years old. Like the Mariners with Hernandez, it would be hard to convince the Cardinals to let him go.

CJ Wilson is my fourth option, he is a great closer for the Angels. Like everyone except Cobb, he is very pricey and is not a contract we should offer him just to close games for us.

Lastly, Villanueva might be the second cheapest, but I believe his career is plummeting into irrelevancy. His pitching numbers are very average and he is throwing very poorly for the Cubs this year.

Insert Graph

ScoutingAssignmentMMLversion <———————

For our math and baseball course 162 we had to create a scouting report showing our investigation of five players. The purpose of this project was to use statistics to understand the overall value of baseball players. During this project I learned a lot about baseball  and how most of the time it is not fair with players and their salaries. One thing I am proud of from my assignment is the organization of the graphs and the explanation I have for each of them. I really enjoyed doing this project and if I had the choice I would do it again.  Overall I think this project turned out well. Please click on the PDF attachment below:

ScoutingAssignmentMY (1)

1) Justin Masterson
Is paid $5 million a year as of 2013 and play for the Cleveland Indians. He will be a free agent in 2015.

2) Justin Verlander (Tigers)
His salary is $20 million a year and is a free agent in 2019 but his salary will increase yearly because they say he is a stud.

3) Jeff Samardzija
as of 2013 jeff is paid around $2 million from the cubs and his salary in from the cubs is shockingly going down. he will be a free agent in 2015.

4) Clayton Kershaw Los Angeles Dodgers
His salary has increase from 2012 where he was paid 7 and as for 2013 he is paid about $11 million. He will be a free agent in 2015.

5) Yu Darvish
He plays for Texas Rangers and his salaries has gone up high it doubled up from $5 million (2012) to $9 million. He will be a free agent in 2018.

Argument:

I believe that Yu Darvish is the best and valuable player in 2013 for the pitchers I was given. I chose him because of his great statistics and low salary. Beyond that he is only 26 years old and performs unbelievably well. I believe that Clayton Kershaw might be the best of all my pitchers but I don’t think that I can afford to pay him $ 11 million whereas I can have an extraordinary player like Yu Darvish with a lot of love from fans. He is also gaining popularity which may be good for my team.

Rankings by:

Price-

1. Jeff Samardzija
2. Justin Masterson
3. Yu Darvish
4. Clayton Kershaw
5. Justin Verlander

Performance-
1. Yu Darvish (age:26)
2. Justin Verlander (age:30)
3. Clayton Kershaw (age: 25)
4. Jeff Samardzija (age: 28)
5. Justin Masterson (age:28 )

Value-
1. Yu Darvish (age:26)
2. Clayton Kershaw (age: 25)
3. Justin Verlander (age:30)
4. Jeff Samardzija (age: 28)
5. Justin Masterson (age:28)

Prince Fielder: Prince Fielder was born May 9,1984 in Ontario, California. He played for the Milwoukee Brewers from 2005-2011. Prince now plays for the Detroit Tigers. His position is first baseman. Prince is married and has two children.

Robinson Cano: Robinson was born October 22,1982 in Son Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. He started to play for the New York Yankees in 2005 and still plays for them. His position is second baseman.

Jacoby Ellsbury: Jacoby was born September 11,1983 in Madras, Oregon. He made his baseball debut on june 30,2007 for the Boston Red Sox( still his current team). He has received the Silver Sluggger Award, Gold Glove Award, in 2007 he become a World Series Champion, and many other awards.

Starlin Castro: Starlin was born March 24,1990 in Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic. He debuted for the Chicago Cubs on May 7,2010. His position is a shortshop. He has received two All Star Awards.

Wilin Rosario: Wilin was born February 23,1989 in Bonao, Dominican Republic. He made his debut for the Colorado Rockies on September 6, 2011. His position is a catcher.

Prince Fielder makes 23 million dollars this year. He deserves that money. He is not over paid. Prince has great stats all around; RBI, HR, BA, and SO.

Robinson Cano gets his bang for his buck. He receives 15 million and he is worth it. He is an awesome player. He has great stats all around, especially his BA and HR.

Jacoby Ellsbury receives 9 million dollars. He is overpaid. He does not have the best HR, RBI, and his BA is ok.

Starlin Castro is worth his 5 million dollars. Overall he has good stats and is a good player.

Wilin Rosario gets paid only $491,000. He is worth way more. He should be paid in the millions. He has good HR, SO, and a decent BA.

Best Value(Stats and Money Value)
1.Starlin Castro
2.Robinson Cano
3.Wilin Rosario
4.Prince Fielder
5.Jacoby Ellsbury

I based my best value on the 2013 and 2012 stats, as well how much the player gets paid. To be the best value you have to have good stats and a good money value. I ranked my players from best to worst value.

Best Player
1.Prince Fielder
2. Robinson Cano
3.Starlin Castro
4.Wilin Rosario
5. Jacoby Ellsbury

I based my rattings for best player based on the 2013 season stats so far and the 2012 season stats. It is ranked from best player to worst. You can see the comparisons of their stats on the graph I made above.

PDF Attachment:

ZPScoutingReport 

For my third action project in my policy class, I had to identify a human right and volunteer at an organization that supported that human right. The right that I chose was housing. The organization I volunteered for was H.O.M.E. Home stands for housing opportunties and maintenance for the elderly. I volunteered for three hours there. Below is my experience working at Home and my reflections on it.

A burger. I look at burgers differently now. Why? You may wonder. Well it is all because of an experience I had volunteering at Home(Housing Opportunties and Maintenance for the Elderly). When I was at Home I offered my gardening skills and worked on a beatification volunteer project with other DMSF volunters( this service day was arranged by my scholarship Daniel Murphey) for three hours. We worked our hardest. We pulled weeds, weeds, and more weeds. Then we layed down mulch and flowers. Working on this project I meet a few new people I didn’t know. There were about 20 volunteers and we were divided into groups. I enjoyed working with my group. The volunteers there( even though most were younger then me) were very delightful, energetic, and hard workers. Even though we did not get to meet many people who lived there that day, I know they were happy with the work we did. I know this for a fact because one of the women who lived there was watching us work the whole time. After we were finished she thanked us so much for all our hard worked. She really loved what we had done. Now burgers. You may be wondering what does all this have to do with burgers as I mentioned at the beginning. Well a women named Natille worked there. She was so sweet( and I just loved her Jamaican accent). To show her appreciation for all the hard work we did she grilled us burgers. Now we were not suppose to be feed anything. We had only brought snacks to eat. However Natille was just so grateful for the work we did she gave us burgers anyway. Now when I look at a burger or eat one I always think of the experience I had at Home. And it is a reminder to me that when we help people(even though it might be a small action) people appreciate the help you give them. After finishing this service day I related it to my class and discussed it with them. They could relate to the human right I was addressing: Housing for the elderly. They talked about how their grandparents have care takers and those care takers do a lot for their grandparents. Some of them have to travel with the family and be away from their own family to take care of them. The question posed was: is doing this kind of work a burden or something they enjoy doing? What do you think?

 Introduction/Purpose

The purpose of this project is to find an alternitive leavening agent in a cupcake recipe by having a basic and an acidic ingredient. In order to replace baking powder I looked at the pH scale and picked one basic and one acidic ingredient. I picked olive oil as my basic substituted ingredient and it has a pH of 8. for I picked applesauce for my acidic ingredient it has a pH of 3.5

Objective/Research Question

My guiding question is What happens when you replace baking powder to olive oil and applesauce in a recipe?

 Hypothesis

If I mix apple sauce with oil then they will react and make a leavening agent.

Materials Materials/ Ingredients for one cupcake:

• 1/12 Cup sugar

• 1/24 Cup butter

• 1 Egg

• 1/6 tsp Vanilla extract

• 3/24 Cup all-purpose flour

• 1 3/4 tsp Baking powder

• 1/24 Cup milk

Replacement:

• 1/4 Olive oil

• 1/2 Applesauce

Materials:

• Oven

• Cupcake Pan

• Measuring Spoons

• Mixing Bowl

• Measuring Cup

• Whisk

• Spatula

Procedure

1. In medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter

2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla

3. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well

4. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth

5. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan

6. Add the leavening agent into each cupcake spot(for experimental group only)

 Data

 Graph

Calculations/Recipe in Metric

Conclusion

My cupcake experiment with the leavening agents I predicted was wrong, but it had a great taste. My cupcakes had sunken down from the center instead of rising. I would not make the cupcakes again. If I were to do this over I would change the leavening agents I picked.

This project was about understanding the water cycle, and seeing it in action. I wrote a lab report explaining my experiment and everything I did in order to make it work. This whole process was important because when performing an experiment, you need to be able to take it apart piece by piece and explain why you did what you did. The experiment itself was important because it can help people better understand weather patterns the relationship between those weather patterns and water. I am proud of everything I did this unit. I performed an experiment in my own home and then was able to explain why I did each thing that I did. I am also proud of my understanding of the material in this unit. I learned that water can change from gas to solid without going through the liquid phase. I still do not understand how this is possible, but I learned that it happens through deposition.
This unit inspired me to learn more about water. I find it interesting how water gets to us, and then circulates throughout the world. Water is something I am definitely interested in learning more about in the future.

Click here to read my lab report:

KG_WaterCycleLab Report

M,G (2013).

In Decay, the second unit of the Food for Thought course, the assignment was to write a review of two different dishes — one that is homemade and one that is eaten at a restaurant. The purpose of the assignment was to determine whether there is a difference in taste between organically and conventionally grown food, and between fresh and processed food.

I chose to review a meal of chicken and spinach prepared at Francesca’s, an Italian restaurant and the homemade version of it. I selected this meal to review, because I love eating chicken. Prior to reviewing the dish, I had always thought that organic foods tasted better than non-organic foods. Reviewing the two meals confirmed this notion of mine. The chicken and spinach that I ate at Francesca’s had that distinct taste associated with conventional food. The spinach was not to my liking, because it was a little on the bitter side. I prepared the same dish using only organic ingredients. My spinach was absolutely delicious.

You can read my food review below.

Food Review: Chicken and Spinach at Francesca’s vs. Homemade Chicken and Spinach

M,G (2013).

On a cool April evening, I dine at Francesca’s on Taylor, an Italian restaurant. I order their Pollo al Limone, a sautéed chicken breast, in a lemon white wine sauce with capers and spinach. I wait eagerly for this dish to come out. Finally, the food arrives. I am given a generous portion of food, arranged beautifully on the plate.

The two chicken breasts topped with capers, salt and pepper, frame the spinach. The aromas of the chicken are heavenly. I cannot resist. I dig into the tender chicken. It is scrumptious, bursting with flavor. The flavors of the seasonings and white wine sauce define the chicken. I can faintly taste the salt sprinkled on top. I eat a forkful of spinach. It is not cooked to my liking. It is astringent and slightly on the crispy side. The chicken and the spinach taste like conventional food.

M,G (2013).

I make dinner the following evening. Using organic ingredients, I prepare a meal of chicken breast and mexican style spinach. After I lift the top of the pan, the heavenly aromas of the spinach are released. The chicken too, smells good. I plate the food. I arrange the two chicken breasts so that they frame the spinach. The thinly chopped onion and red bell peppers are mixed into it. I take a bite of the chicken. It is delicious — tender and fresh as can be. It is savory. I put a forkful of spinach to my mouth. It is out of this world. They are cooked to perfection — tender and very soft. The bell peppers and onions are carmelized, which bring out their natural sweetness. I can taste the juice from the tomatoes and a hint of jalopeño pepper, giving it a spicy kick.

After eating the two versions of chicken and spinach, I compare them. When I ate the meal at Francesca’s, the presentation of the food on the plate looked nicer than mine. The aromas of the chicken were stronger than mine, because it was topped with more seasonings. Conventional ingredients were used. With my dish, I used very fresh ingredients — organic chicken and vegetables. I used baby spinach, which are very tender and have a sweetness to them when they are cooked. Homemade meals are often tastier than those outside the home. This was the case with my homemade version.

I have observed that Michael Pollan’s food transformation of “Quality to Quantity” is at play with the meal eaten at Francesca’s. The chicken that I ate tasted like it was conventionally raised. Since the american demand for chicken is so high, their quality is sacrificed for an increase in their production. The spinach tasted like it was conventionally grown. Increasing crop yields is the primary focus of farmers that follow conventional growing practices. These farmers use industrial fertilizers on their crops that are often nutrionally inferior to those that are grown by organic farmers. So, they are sacrificing the quality of their crops for an increase in their production.

If you want to indulge in a delicious meal of chicken and spinach, made with only the highest quality of ingredients, then making it from scratch is the way to go. There is nothing like eating a good homemade meal in the comforts of your home.

After going to TedEx myself and my Policy class were tasked with doing three hours of service, and it couldn’t have worked any better. Durring TedEx we watched a speaker who advocated for public gardens with his slogan Grow Some Shit (see the Ted Talk here!).  Meanwhile at GCE there was word of us starting a public garden outside the school so we could have access to fresh produce, and flowers.  If this garden continues as planned I would hope we would be able to feed those who wouldn’t otherwise have access to healthy food, a human right that I think everyone should have.

To make this whole experience possible we were tasked with tilling the hard, trash-covered soil outside of our school in order to make it usable for summer when planting would begin.  I’m happy that I was able to be outside with my friends working on a project that will impact many people in the future.  I think I’ve got a new-found gratitude for where my food comes from and what people do to prepare and farm it.  I also have a new sense of awareness that not everyone has access to fruits and vegetables, and that many low income residents in Chicago are located in a Food Desert. I would hope with more awareness on public gardens the amount of food deserts around Chicago (and all of the US) could continue to decrease until everyone has access to healthy produce.

I’ve noticed that there were a ton of different options of community service to pick from in Chicago: from tilling a soon-to-be garden, to serving at a soup kitchen.  I’m hoping that what I did can have as big of an impact if not a larger one.  This project has inspired me to want to do more help and I will definitely continue working on the garden at school.  I’ve noticed that most kids tend to run away from the idea of community service (myself included) and I think that could change as I had fun with friends while helping!

I believe that being able to eat healthy food cheap (or even free!) is such a simple idea that could be solved for simply.  Everyone should have access to such basic rights like water, shelter, and food!  It makes me happy that what I am working on will one day help out many others, or even make other people want to do the same somewhere else.

At the beginning of this project I was skeptical I would find a place where I could put a positive impact on my community. After some brainstorming it hit me: Welles Park was perfect because of the positive impact it had on me as a child. As a child, I went to summer camp there and played baseball and football. Welles park taught me social skills and athleticism; now I could be doing the same for young kids in my neighborhood.

Pertaining to the human, inalienable right, of giving a child a safe place to play and socialize with kids their age. Since I believe that this is such an important thing for the growth of young children.

I Showed up in person, ready to work but was told I was not needed to work that day. A few days later, while on the train home from school, I received the call I was so eagerly waiting for. Immediately I took the train over there and for the first time I got to meet the park supervisor, Becky. As I entered the main building, it immediately brought back memories; the front desk where I would wait for my mom to pick me up, the peach colored walls darkened by years of dirt and decay, the stagnant smell of chlorine from the pool where I first learned to swim.

Becky introduced me to Mario Ortiz, one of the attendants who works at Welles Park. He put me to work relatively quickly, bringing me to the basement where he instructed me to sweep and mop the hallway floor and art room. The basement had an eerie feeling to it. It was one long, white, bleak hallway with rooms scattered about. Muddy footprints covered the floor. The basement reminded me of Welles Park football, where I picked out my equipment. As I worked, the screams of T-ball player’s parents outside and the flickering, buzzing lights distracted me. 

My mopping completed I was instructed to dust the gym floor, repeatedly being tempted by the basketballs in front of me. I couldn’t stop thinking of how much fun it would be to have a quick pick up game with the GCE basketball team, or maybe some of my neighborhood friends. But I resisted the temptations of even sneaking in a quick shot here and there. Once I finished up my two hours for the day I approached the front desk, asked them to sign off on my hours and left. 

The next day it was relatively the same process. I met with Mario and he told me to bring all of the new art boxes into the art room. I was expecting this to be a quick, easy job to accomplish. But due to my recent surgery on my wrist it became a daunting task to bring some of the heavier boxes from one room to the other. Through the awkward carrying positions and occasional cringes from pain I persevered. With a better looking stack of art supplies than what I started with if I don’t say so myself.  After working up a sweat my single hour of work flew by rather quickly.

While I was thanking everyone for letting me help out there I coincidentally ran into my old gym coach and football referee from when I was little. Yelling, “hey!”, at a relatively loud level. I ran over and with a big smile and firm handshake I got to catch up for a little. Reminiscing about when I was little, but he soon had to get back to work.

Being at Welles as a kid really helped me grow as a child and now again they have helped me mature as a young adult. Being able to interview Mario about his experiences with the park district as well as what he has experienced with other teens participating in service work was elating. Through this service I feel Welles Park and GCE have again brought up my level of autonomy and gratitude. Oh and I learned that there is open gym every sunday at Welles for me and my friends to play basketball of course.

Mario Ortiz- Welles Park attendant

What’s your favorite park about working for the park districts?

The activities the offer the kids here. They have basketball, football, baseball softball and so many other activities. It really gives kids the exercise they need in a safe and friendly environment.

How Important do you believe teens participating in service work outside of school is?

It is extremely important I believe. It teaches teens the qualities of responsibility and a will to pursue something for the greater good. It also puts them around kids younger than them while working for the park districts, helping them improve their communication skills with young children.

What value have you experienced from having people come here to help out do service for the park?

Just being able to see kids interact with one another. I love when I see teens value their time to goof around and have fun but still have the self control and maturity to know when it’s time to go back to work and work productively.

My signed service sheet.

QUESTIONS
What makes me want to do it? I really like the saying, “If you see you see something wrong, you own it” I saw the neglected park way that needed ownership and felt that we (GCE) being responsible stewards have an obligation to care for it.
What do I want to come out of it? To assist the teachers with successfully incorporating the garden into the school’s curriculum: such as composting and how to build fertile soil, chemistry (soil testing), growing herbs, small fruits, and creating components of a wild life habitat etc.
Who will utilize this space? Everyone who walks, bikes or drives pass the park way will be able to visually appreciate the garden aesthetically or enjoy the scents that may emanate from the raised herbal garden. Therefore, in answer to who will utilize this space, the community will use the space. The immediate positive impact that the park way will be beautification and nutrients to the existing trees is who will immediately benefit . As well as, on the June 5, 2013, the seniors whose graduation’s the photos will incorporate the park way transformation.

REFLECTION

For my Action Project, I shoveled and tilled the rock patch in order to grow a garden. Some skills I used and will continue to use is my ability and knowledge of plant and farm life. I also used strength and knowledge of tree life and how to avoid roots. The human right I am addressing is the right to eat, and be able to make your own food easily and naturally. The ability to farm gives you the option to eat, work, and sell. Farming is the oldest profession in the history of mankind. My experience tilling and shoveling the space outside of the Global Citizenship High school was a plentiful one. Doing 3.5 hours of manual labor was enlightening as to how food has been produced for millions of years before my existence. Farming is the oldest profession in the history of mankind, and it’s simplicity is what makes it such a durable profession. I found it interesting how connected to the Earth you feel when farming, tilling, or planting. We, however, were only tilling, but felt a strong connection to the land. The amount of physical effort the project took, made us all more invested in our work, and the land that is soon to be. Tilling land is a process that takes extreme amounts of work, so much so that you need as many volunteers as you can get. In our experience, we received a wealth of volunteers who had similar care and interest into the school garden. They were a huge help morally and physically. I am extremely invested in the garden and farm due to the work I had to do make it possible. I think with the amount of people working, helped the amount of investment into the farm/garden.While the work itself was quite difficult, we never actually faced serious tribulations.

         What I find to be most interesting, is how people react to witnessing others doing community service. Many people were outgoing, asking questions, and relating to us, as if they understand the struggles of manual labor. It is easy to tell that many people have used manual labor as a way to increase income or get community service hours. Although, many people were, interestingly enough, sorry for us. People had automatically assumed that we were doing this as a punishment. I find that to be extremely interesting that when people see kids doing manual labor, they assume that they are serving a punishment. I think this is a representation of how youth is looked at and treated in America. Kids have a certain power that they did not have before, where as they are in control of their future careers, schools, and work options. Whereas previously, all future options were unavailable. I also believe that most working adults in 2013 grew up in an era in which they were not given the selection of their future.
Overall, tilling the land was an outstanding experience. I learned a lot about how to farm and what it means to farm in an urban area. Working while studying the mannerisms of those walk by was fascinating. Working for GCE is always an enlightening experience, the way it’s students attract and gravitate to otherwise tough, or petty, work is unmatchable.

I have taught Sunday School at my church for the past 4 years. I started off with a class of 1st graders, then 3rd, 5th, and finally 7th graders. My last class was two weekends ago and to think that that chapter of my life, at least at that church, was closing was something I didn’t know how to deal with. When my teacher asked me to do some service and think about rights, I decided to use this as an opportunity to take the director of Religious Education at my parish and help her rework some of the curriculum and the teaching methods they suggest.

A catechist is typically an older woman with a child in the class, so being a teenager having to control, educate and relate to a group of fifteen to twenty kids can be pretty difficult. I spent the last four years taking it upon myself to teach individuality and the importance of consciousness of choice in what we believe and how we do it. I offer a fresh perspective as someone who recently went through Sunday School and knows what’s engaging and what is not. As a freshman, I didn’t come in as the most qualified candidate to have my own class, but I was given a chance and now have a lot to offer.

We spent hours pouring over binders of crossword puzzles, fill-in-the-blank worksheets, art projects, game ideas and so much more thinking about what was most effective. Outside of religious beliefs, Sunday School was always a place I could just have some fun. We did our best to remember that and to try to bring that in to the curriculum and lesson plans. Teachers and students should be able to connect and talk about things that have happened to them and function as a small community that’s also learning about God and whatever else is in store for the day. The object I have chosen to represent my four years and the final service I did especially for this class is one of the stacks of cards from a game of Jeopardy I made for one review class. I made tons of decks over my four years because I always found them connecting best to the content and paying the most attention when there was competition and rewards (doughnuts) involved.

The work was really rewarding and provided me with a strong sense of closure, even though I know I will still miss waking up early to see the energetic, uncontrollable smiles of my students.