Before senior year, when I was assigned a paper I would kind of just throw words onto a paper and try to arrange them into a somewhat comprehensible paper. But after being in this class and working through MANY papers, I would say that I have come a long way as a writer. Now, when I write I actually think about what I want to say and I put the story together in my head so then I am able to then transfer that onto the paper. Then after I write it down I go back and make corrections and add in little bits and pieces that may need to be added. I am really glad that I took this class because it has not only made me a better writer but it has also prepared me for college writing.
Genius Hour Presentation
1 minute presentation
Research Paper Reflection
This was by far the longest paper that I have ever written. By the time that I was done I ended up writing just over 3100 words and it took me about three weeks to write and edit it to where I felt that it was done. I feel like this paper could be a paper that is worthy of an A, but then again I’ve had the same feeling in the past and I ended up getting a B. Which is not bad at all but it would still be nice to get an A on the paper considering how much time I put into it. When I first picked my topic I had an idea about what some of the things were but after researching I learned way more. I was able to figure out the main motive Edward Snowden had when he released the top secret documents. I also learned that being a whistleblower takes a lot of guts and you really have to be willing to sacrifice your career and even your home life if you want to bring justice to your community.
The most difficult part about writing the paper was figuring out how I wanted to connect all of the different pieces to where it makes sense and flows. The easiest part was probably talking about my results that I got from my survey. In the end though I feel as though I was able to fit all of the different topics together to get a good flow going and I was able to meet all of the requirements. However, if I were to be given another week I would have some people read through it and really have them pick at it and fix it to be the best possible paper it can be. Overall I am happy with my paper and the topic that I chose.
Research Paper Proposal
The questions of whether or not the government should be able to keep information from it’s citizens and whether or not whistle-blowers should be punished for their actions has been brought to my attention after reading an article about Edward Snowden. Snowden released more than 1 million pages of documents to the public about the governments mass collection of data. After reading this information in an article, it caught my attention so I decided to read more about what he did specifically. I have found that this topic has interested and intrigued me and I am able to find a plethora of articles about both Edward Snowden and whistle-blowers.
I first heard about this topic in the news as I presume most Americans did, but it wasn’t until I recently read an article about Edward Snowden that it really caught my attention. I am interested in this topic because it deals with the privacy of every single person living in the United States that has a phone or access to the internet. The government is collecting all of the data and it claims that it is to prevent terrorism. But for example, is it necessary to collect information from this blog; about a high school senior who is worried about graduating and going to college and not about committing an act of terrorism on my country, in order to make sure that there is no threat? Also, for the people that do expose other individuals or actions by their company, is it wrong for them to try and bring justice to that situation? Because it seems that that is the case for most whistle-blowers. These are just some of the reasons why I chose to write about this topic.
In this paper I will argue that the government is violating every single American’s fourth amendment right by spying and collecting data on everyone and also I will argue that whistle-blowers aren’t wrong for what they do. I am going to focus on these topics even though there are other views on this topic. I won’t focus on the possible security risk some whistle-blowers pose and I will also not focus on the fact that what the government is doing is actually helping to keep us safe from terrorism.
This issue doesn’t only affect me or my family or even just my community, it effects the entire country. The government is able to access everyone’s phone information which ,if you ask most people, is a huge invasion of privacy. Some may argue that if you aren’t doing anything wrong then you should have nothing to hide, which I agree with to an extent. The government should only collect data on people who pose a serious threat to national security. The government argues that by collecting all of this data they are able to stop a terrorist attack before it happens. I think that they should only collect things that raise red flags or might potentially pose a threat, but they shouldn’t collect things that are irrelevant because they are invading peoples privacy.
The types of articles that will be used in my paper are articles on the topic of whistle-blowing and Edward Snowden. Also interviews between President Obama and someone else who is asking him questions about the topic. I personally will be conducting a survey that will ask questions about peoples opinions on certain topics. I will most likely use Google forms for this so I can send it to more people than just in this school. I am hoping to collect data from all age groups that way I get a broad range of opinions. I am hoping that I will be able to use some peoples individual opinions to strengthen my argument and also get some opinions on the opposition and maybe use them as well to show what people think about the other side of this topic. I have found articles from a database that correspond with Edward Snowden, whistle-blowing, court cases that deal with whistle-blowing, and programs that help whistle-blowers turn over their information that they have collected. They are able to do this without being punished by the cmopany that they work for and they just give all the information they can to this group of officals, I’m not entirely sure who it’s made up of… I’ll have to do some research on that, who then does some of their own investigating into the matter and if they are able to build a case then the person who reported it will get up to 30% of whatever fines the company has to pay. This is good for the people who report it because they get rewarded for doing the right thing without having to worry about being punished. I will also try to find a couple articles that go against what I am arguing that way I can have some knowledge about the opinion of the other side and be able to pull from that as needed. All in all I’m looking forward to continuing my research because this is a topic that is still being talked about by the media so I will be provided with new information as I go along.
Genius Hour update for January
This month we have so far been working on learning songs and playing together with each other. We have only been able to play in class on Friday’s because of our schedules we aren’t able to meet outside of school like we were planing on in the beginning of this project. Another setback is that Lalo isn’t able to bring his guitar in because he doesn’t have a case for his guitar so it’s only been Luis and I playing together. We are still unsure on what song we want to play for our presentation. We were talking about playing something by The Weeknd or something by Miguel. We’re also talking about just making a video of us playing instead of playing in class just because it would make the presentation less nerve racking. Hopefully we can make some decisions soon so we can start practicing our song together and then record us playing it together while Luis sings.
Cookie Dough or Cookie Don’t
I have always had a passion for chewy chocolate chip cookies. I am not one to bake cookies, but on the occasion that my mom whips up a batch, she has to hide them from me or I will eat them all. I could eat fresh baked chocolate chip cookies until I can’t stand anymore. What’s the point of all of this you ask? We were assigned to review something of our choice and my partner Sara and I, decided on chocolate chip cookies, obviously.
We chose three different brands of cookies to use for this review. We wanted to do two well known cookie brands and then a generic brand so we chose Nestle, Pillsbury, and Great Value. We wanted to imitate the review that we found on the website Brown eyed baker.
Our criteria comes from ideas from a rubric on how to judge cookies that we also found online. The criteria we decided to go with was the appearance of the cookie, the amount of chocolate chips that were visible, the size of the cookie, and finally the overall taste of the cookie. We rated them from best to worst based on all of the criteria.
Nestle’s Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:
These cookies came in a pack that made 24 cookies, each sliced to be the same size as the other. I expected that these would be the best out of he three simply because the name brand was popular so I figured they had some quality cookies. However, I had to try them for myself to be sure. So after being baked for 11 minutes at 350 degrees, these cookies came out looking gritty and crunchy. So already they were off to a bad start for my preferences. It didn’t get much better for them when it appeared that they had the least amount of chocolate chips. They were also the smallest of the three when they were finished. Now finally for the taste, drum roll please… They were awful. They were crisp, dry, bland, and you couldn’t even tell that they were supposed to be chocolate chip cookies. This was a major let down because I had expected them to be good, but I guess the old saying stands true, you can’t judge a book by its cover.
Pillsbury Simply… Chocolate Chip:
These cookies came in a pack that made 12 cookies, this made me concerned that we weren’t going to get our money’s worth out of these. The size of these cookies though when they came out of the package gave me a little hope, because they were two times the size of the other two. Again, after being baked for 11 minutes at 350 degrees, this time these cookies came out and they looked wonderful. They were nice and big; the biggest out of the three in fact, and they clearly had the most chocolate chips out of the three. The one thing that concerned me though was that they looked very thin. But now for the moment of truth, the taste test. Oh my god, these cookies made my knees weak, they were so soft and melted in your mouth. You could taste every single chocolate chip that was stuffed into the cookie. The best part was that they weren’t too sweet to where you could only have one every few hours, you could eat more than one and be satisfied. After eating these the bar was set pretty high for the last brand to beat.
Great Value Chocolate Chip Cookies:
These cookies were packed similarly to Nestle in that they came with 24 cookies and they were all sliced into equal sizes. Once again we baked them for 11 minutes at 350 degrees. When they came out they were bigger than the Nestle cookies but not nearly as big as Pillsbury. They looked soft and they had visibly more chocolate chips than Nestle had. They were also much thicker than Nestle and Pillsbury. I was worried that they would turn out to be just like Nestle because they were thicker and not quite as big. Once we tasted them it was clear that they were much better than I had expected. Although they weren’t as good as the Pillsbury cookies, you could taste the Chocolate chips in them. They were a little crunchy on the outside but the inside was nice and soft just like the Pillsbury cookie. The one thing that set these cookies back was that they were too sweet, they are the type of cookies where you can only eat one every few hours. Overall they weren’t as bad as I thought they might be.
The Final Result:
By far the best cookie out of the three is hands down Pillsbury, followed by Great Value and then Nestle.
If you love soft, melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies like I do, then I highly recommend Pillsbury Simply… Chocolate Chip cookies over Nestle and Great Value. They are cheap and worth every penny, perfect for a nice little snack when your sweet tooth gets anxious. The best part is, is that you only have to wait 11 minutes and you can devour all of the cookies.
Criteria for evaluating Cardale Jones
If you were to tell any Ohio State fan at the beginning of the season that their third string quarterback would win the national championship they would have probably laughed in your face. Braxton Miller was supposed to be the all-star, Heisman trophy candidate, quarterback until he re-injured his shoulder 12 days before the season. The next man up was J.T. Barrett, a second string quarterback that nobody ever heard of, which in turn, nobody had any expectations from Ohio State. It turns out that he had a phenomenal season, until the season finale when he broke his ankle. Then it was Cardale Jones’ turn, he came in and finished that game along with beating Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship and then number one ranked Alabama before leading them to the national Championship.
After his major accomplishments and success, people have evaluated his growth as a person and a player. William C. Rhoden wrote an article on the New York Times website about Jones’ growth. He evaluated him based off of his growth as both a player and a student. During his red-shirt freshman year he tweeted “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.” This shows how young and naive he was as a freshman, which is the basis for his criticism. But Rhoden goes to say that “One of the greatest measures of Jones’s growth might be how he sees the position he plays, and what he thinks it will take for him to continue to improve.” It just goes to show that wisdom does come with age, Jones realizes that he needs to get things done in the classroom in order to be successful on the field.
Remix video
My favorite part of making this remix video was the fact that we got to choose what we could make into a video. The fact that we had the choice of what we wanted to make a video on was good because we weren’t restricted about any topics.
In order to make this video I used the site called WeVideo. As far as the process for making this video, I had to find a song that would go along with the tone of my paper. Then I had to go through my paper and think of what pictures i could use that would go along with my paper and find those on Flickr. Then I had to record myself reading my paper and combine it into a video.
The part of this video that still needs more work is the amount of pictures between each paragraph. There isn’t enough pictures to properly display what I wanted to because of the lack of pictures I could find on Flickr.
Next time I make a multimedia text I want to make an actual video where you can see people acting things out instead of just pictures. I feel like for my first time doing an assignment like this it was a decent video but next time I would definitely change the fact that it is all pictures.
Multiple Source Synthesis
This paper was successful because I was able to write about something I am passionate about; and that is sports. In order to write this paper I had to pick a topic to write about and then read the viewpoints of several other people on that topic and use them for and against what my argument was.
Mitch Dolak 