GS Portfolio

This is the second and final Action Project in the units of the Who Am I class in the Humanities Course. This unit was called Doubt and Dream. For a decent amount of this unit we talked a lot about our dreams and what they mean. We talked more about philosophy and psychology like Continental Rationalists or British Empiricists and the Freudian analysis. There were a few Field Experiences that we embarked on such as the Continuum Center, The Art Institute, and also Cheetah Gym where we learned about the philosophy of jujitsu. This final action project was about making a dreamcatcher and explaining what it symbolizes and what it means to us. Everyone's dreamcatcher was different because it is made to represent you and everyone is different. The materials we used for the dreamcatchers were lace, string, wires, and beads. My dreamcatcher and everything about it is below. GHS, 2020 The center of my dream catcher symbolizes remembrance and acceptance of death. We all know that we...

This is the last Action Project of the Fuel class for STEAM. This unit focused on chemical reactions, carbon emissions, and inequalities. This unit was very short compared to the other two but still enough time to learn everything we needed to get to. When working on the chemical reactions we talked about how certain molecules reacted to from something else. The main molecules we worked with were oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and water (H2O). Since the unit was only a couple weeks long there was not much time for Field Experiences so the only one that we had was going to a water cooling facility in downtown Chicago. Here we learned about how this plant cools down water for nearby buildings by using ice. I thought this FE was really cool and it was interesting to hear about the projects that they did and how they got them done. A lot of their work when connecting their water to the buildings involves large pipes underground which can be a difficulty when in a busy city. One of thei...

This is the second Action Project of the Fuel unit in my STEAM class. This course is all about different types of fuels. There are many fuels that we know such as non-renewables and renewables. This unit was mainly talking about renewable energy sources. I learned a lot during this unit about renewable energy. We talked a lot about solar, wind, and hydro but we also included geothermal and biomass. We did a lot of math involving costs and savings or running costs and how to turn those into equations and create graphs. This project was about creating an infomercial which talked about a renewable energy of our choice. The energy I chose was solar. For this project I created a slideshow and included a voice over. In my "video" I explain the costs of solar panels and what solar energy is all about. To learn about solar energy you can listen to the audio recording while playing the slideshow. Both are below. I really enjoyed this unit because I think some renewable energy so...

The first unit of the winter term was very exciting in the Who Am I class for the Humanities course. This unit was all about truth and memory. We talked a lot about philosophers like Parmenides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. Through this unit we were also reading the book Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. This book is about the protagonist learning about some history with philosophy as a teenager. This unit was primarily about philosophy but it also included some psychology and truths. There were not any Field Experiences in this unit besides one at the very end which was at St. Paul's Church in Lincoln Park, Chicago. We talked with Pastor Matt Fitzgerald about truth and belief. I thought the start of this discussion was very interesting because Matt started by asking the class, "Do we live in an enchanted world?" I thought this was a good question because we normally have beliefs that can define whether we live in an enchanted world or not. I personally think tha...

The first unit of this winter term was very interesting in the Fuel class for STEAM. We did a lot of talking about energy and different types of fuel. Some of these include the known fossil fuels, natural gas, oil, coal, and also renewable sources of energy like solar and wind. We also watched the documentary Pump which is about people having a choice at the gas pump and being able to decide what fuel they should use for their car. In this unit we talked to someone from Nicor Gas where we found some extra opinion on the use of natural gases and the other fuels we use today. This unit largely talked about fossil fuels and how we use them in our daily lives without even realizing it. We might be getting our power in our home from a coal plant and our car uses gas. Even though we may fill up our cars about once every couple weeks we may not actually think about what is happening somewhere that is allowing us to have this gas. In this unit we also did a lot of graphing and predictions for ...