Experience Week

Beijing Trip Slideshow

Approaches to Learning ("For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them" -Aristotle)

On the first day, I learned that I have to be careful on the streets of Beijing. A wallet (not my own) had been stolen on the first day, when we were shopping during the evening. I'll definitely keep this in mind if I go to Beijing again. Another concept I have learned, was that there is a great quantity of structures in Beijing that have a lot of value towards various people. For example, at the Temple of Heaven, although there are most likely new, modern temples for people to pray or worship that are an advancement of the Temple of Heaven, when we were sight-seeing at the Temple of Heaven, it was evident that there were people who still worship there. Because of this, next time I go to Beijing or elsewhere, I would like to respect these temples or churches more, and be more quiet so it is more peaceful for people to pray.

Community and Service (How will my actions affect the individuals at the community center?)

Before the Beijing trip, I had raised $347 HK for the Hui Ling Community Center. I did this by singing "My Hat it Has Three Corners" to my teachers, classmates, family and friends. At the community center, I tried my best to keep enthusiastic and be risk-taking. For example, when some of the performers motioned us to come dance as well, I joined. It was a lot of fun! If I could go again to the community center, I would prepare more songs. The performers of the community center had numerous performances to share. We should put in as much effort as they have into their performances. It would also be more enjoyable, for us as well as for the people at the community center, if we be more creatives with our performances; such as adding dancing to our songs, include solos, etc.

Environments (How does one's environment shape the way in which one views the world?)

Throughout the trip, I have noticed that there has been numerous similarities between Hong Kong and Beijing. Such as the buildings; how the buildings light up and look spectacular at night, as well as small shops and big malls. There is many tourist attractions in both places as well. Such as, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, and the Tian Tan Buddha (Big Buddha) in Hong Kong. There is also traffic and big malls in both places. Another concept that is in both places is how there is non-profit organizations. For example, in Beijing, there is the Hui Ling Community Center, and in Hong Kong, there is Mother's Choice.

I find the differences between Beijing and Hong Kong few, however. One difference is that Beijing is much larger than Hong Kong, as well as more populated. An observation I made of Beijing was that the air in Beijing was more polluted. Perhaps this is because there are more people in Beijing.

Health and Social Education (What were some difficulties or personal challenges you faced on the trip?)

The most constant difficulty I had on the trip, was sleeping at a reasonable time. At home, I usually fall asleep by 8:30, however, in Beijing, I had been sleeping much later than that because I get excited (especially on the first night) or I lose track of time playing games. Because of this, my mood was probably affected during the morning. For the future - I'll try to keep an eye on the time! Another difficulty I had was being strict with bargaining. To get cheap prices, you have to stand your ground. However, I had trouble with this, especially in the Hongqiao Pearl Market. I get nervous when talking to strangers because I don't do so often. In the future, if I'm still get nervous, I'll go with someone who is confident to help me.

Human Ingenuity (What are the consequences of what we create?)

The purpose of many structures in Beijing has changed over time. For example, the Forbidden City used to be the home for the emperors. Now it is a tourist attraction! Another example, is The Great Wall. In the past, it was used to protect Beijing; it defended the city. Now, it is a challenging hike and a place for sight-seeing. There is the Summer Palace as well. Before, in Summer, the families that were rich would go to the Summer Palace because there, it was two degrees cooler; it was a more comfortable temperature. Nowadays, it is a tourist attraction!

Rating:

★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

I'd give this trip 4 stars! This is because of the numerous enjoyable moments throughout the trip. Such as tasting unusual foods, shopping in various environments, attempting activities that local people do in Beijing, watching the acrobatics show, experiencing the challenging hike of The Great Wall, and more! However, I don't think the trip was long enough! There must be more to see in Beijing that would be great to be experience with friends and for school purposes, as well.

Science Criteria F Reflection

I think that I've been careful throughout all the labs that we have done in this semester. In the alternative cleaners lab, I made sure that my computer was not on the same table as the experiment. This was because, if something was spilled (mistakes always happen), all of my hard work on my computer would be gone. In the thermos lab part 1, a presentation, I tried to be creative and involve the audience! I asked the audience questions, and if they answered, I gave them a cupcake!

I work safely and use materials and equipment competently without teacher guidance. I'd give myself a 6/6.

Examples:

-During the thermos, I was sure not to leave our experiment - the thermoses could tip over and the hot water could burn someone.

-During the lab where we heated up boiling water and turned it into gas and into a liquid again, I made sure that my hair was tied and my lab coat sleeves were rolled up.

Examples:

-In the alternative cleaners lab, I made sure that the beakers were all cleaned and that they could be used in an experiment shortly without the data being affected.

-I made sure that all our equipment is not at the edge of the table in the thermos lab.

When working as part of a group, I always cooperate with others. I'd give myself a 4/6.

-I try to get everyone in the group to do work in the thermos lab part 1

-However, I think I sometimes can't keep a straight face about my group mates - like in the thermos lab.

Overall mark - 5/6. I think I deserve this mark, because I try to be enthusiastic in class. I try to be careful as well. I know how to be careful and I always keep in mind the worksheet about the rules for lab safety.

Thermos Lab

In this lab, we made a thermos out of materials brought from home, which will keep heat while holding 250 ml for 2o minutes.

HYPOTHESIS: If we put boiling water in our thermos, then, after 20 min., it would have cooled down 5 degrees because the materials would have kept the majority of the heat from escaping.

VARIABLES:

Independent: Materials

Dependent: Temperature of water inside the can

Controlled: Amount of water, size of the can, size of material, temperature of environment, time recorded

Control: A real thermos

MATERIALS:

-2 sheets of Metallic paper

-4 sheets of Aluminum foil

-7 pieces of wood

-2 sheets of paper

-2 sheets of plastic paper

-1 Can (thermos)

-150ml of boiling water

-Glue guns (to glue on the wood)

-Tape (to stick materials on the can)

METHOD:

1. Cut the wood into 7 pieces of 3cm.

2. Surround the can with the materials tightly in the following order (the first material listed should be placed directly on the can): wood (must be glued onto can), paper, plastic paper, metallic paper, tin foil

3. Pour the boiling water into the can.

4. Fill in row in the data table reading “0:00”

1. Every 2 minutes, write the temperature down on the data table and record observations. Stop when the time has reached 20 minutes.

OBSERVATIONS (Results):

OUR THERMOS:

Time (min.)	Temperature (centigram)	Observations
0:00	73
2:00	71	The outside of the thermos is relatively warm
4:00	69	Outside of the thermos is steadily getting hotter
6:00	67.5
8:00	66
10:00	65	Outside of the thermos is noticeably hotter than before
12:00	63.5	Table which thermos is placed is hot - conduction
14:00	63
16:00	62
18:00	62
20:00	61

CONTROL:

Time (min.)	Temperature (centigram)	Observations
0:00	73	Steaming, outside is cool
2:00	72
4:00	70	Outside of the thermos is staying the same temperature
6:00	68
8:00	67
10:00	66
12:00	65.5	Table which thermos is placed is cool
14:00	64.5
16:00	64
18:00	63
20:00	63

GRAPH:

DATA ANALYSIS:

From the graph, it is evident that the control, a real thermos, works better than the thermos that we had made. Both of the thermoses started at 73〫C, however, the control was 63〫C after 20 min., while our thermos was at 61〫C. This means, our thermos was 2〫C colder than the control - although, that is not a big difference.

CONCLUSION:

Our hypothesis was incorrect. Although the majority of the heat the water contained was kept in the thermos as we had thought, our thermos had cooled down 13 degrees centigram in the space of 20 min. Before we had thought it would cool down 5 degrees centigram. Our thermos did somewhat work, however. The results were very alike to the control’s results. The reason for why the thermos worked was because the materials that were attached to the can acted as insulators. Insulators are objects that don’t let heat pass through them easily. These were needed for the thermos to work because, without these insulators, the heat of the water would escape to the outside of the can. This would happen because the heat of the water would travel to the insides of the can, and then to the outside - or in other words, conduction. However the insulators stop this from happening. Knowing that wood and paper were good insulators, we put these materials on the can first. I think one of the reasons the water lost 13 degrees was because we added tin foil to the thermos. This was because tin foil, made of metal, is known as a good conductor, which isn’t suitable for a thermos, as they let heat pass through them quickly. This happens because the free electrons cause all the other atoms to vibrate more rapidly because they often collide with each other. As they vibrate more and more they bump into their neighbors, then their neighbors vibrate more, and so on - like dominoes! However, when we were building the thermos, we decided to include the tin foil because we thought that the more layers we included, the better the thermos would be. However, I think the thermos would be more efficient if we had added styrofoam or other good insulators instead.

The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo

Here's Ta book review for The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo.

Sade and Femi's mother had been killed by the corrupt authorities of Nigeria! After receiving a threat from the authorities, their father, concerned for their safety, had Sade and Femi smuggled out of Nigeria and into London.

In this novel, I especially liked how Naidoo added Nigerian proverbs into the story. Also, I enjoyed the deeper meanings behind the names of characters. For example, "Sade" means "honor brings a crown", which definitely fits the main character, as understood as the story progresses. I personally thought that the names given to the characters were like snapshots of the character's heart.

Do you treasure the bonds between your family? Or the rights you need? If so, then this is a book for you!

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Ponyboy Curtis and his friends were greasers from the 1960's. Ponyboy had lived with his two brothers, Sodapop and Darry, ever since their parents had passed away. Throughout their lives, they had been struggling with the Socs. Ponyboy had thought that the line separating the Socs and greasers was money. Socs had always been more privileged than the greasers. However, the greasers argued that their friendship was stronger.

If you cherish friendship and desire an adventure, this is the book for you!

Design Cycle 4 - Evaluate

I've finished the last stage of the last design cycle for Grade 7! Here's my Evaluate stage...

Evaluation of Feedback

Include factual information (Informs audience)	✓	High resolution images / videos		Effective royalty-free background	✓
Visually attractive (engages audience)	✓	Pictures and videos are relevant	✓	Expression is used in speech (engages audience)	✓
Variety of media; pictures, video, music, etc. (engages audience)	✓	3-5 Minutes	✓	Exceptional sound quality	✓

Although the resolution of the images wasn’t satisfactory, the rest of the design specifications were met. In fact, all of the questions that were asked in the survey resulted in mostly positive perspective, especially in how the media was effective. However, even through redoing, and redoing voiceovers throughout the Create stage, slightly over one quarter of the survey participants still thought that the documentary had poor sound quality.

Our job was to make a documentary that informs the community of Christ the King Chapel, and will make people want to take action to preserve the chapel. We have met part of this need, because the majority of the survey participants were able to list 3 facts about Christ the King Chapel after watching our documentary. However, preserving Christ the King Chapel has not crossed the mind of our audience, as the importance of this was only briefly touched on in the beginning of the documentary.

If I could do this project again, I would want, at the end of the film, to express the great importance that preserving Christ the King Chapel has, as well as how to do this. In fact, as a side project (most likely after the Summer), I would like to learn on how to preserve Christ the King Chapel.

Overall Reflection

Throughout all the stages, I believe that researching a pacific topic was easiest. Like when I researched about using green screen, I used the advanced google search. The biggest difficulty through this whole process was managing my time. Such as leaving things to the last day or doing forgotten tasks in a rush. If I could do this design cycle again, I would redo the plan. I didn’t give a lot of thought to it, and it was sort of rushed as well. Maybe if I had given more care I would have had an even more successful product.

Impact

The documentary has informed the community. It’s been seen by my classmates and visitors to my blog. I think the biggest impact, though, was on myself. After learning the great importance the chapel has, I want to try to help preserve Christ the King Chapel, although it could take awhile.

Design Cycle 4 - Create

I've finally finished my documentary!
Click HERE to watch...

Along with my documentary, I've made a process journal...

Emma’s Process Journal

Humanities Design Cycle ~ CHRIST THE KING CHAPEL

Saturday, April 21 – Changes to Design AND Plan

Throughout the Create stage, my group has made numerous changes to our shot list. Due to not finding the music “Hallelujah”, another music replaced it “Deo Gratias-Ismeretlen szerző Mint szarvas a hűs forr” (used in shot 1 and 2). We also couldn’t find a picture of the construction of the chapel (was to be used in shot 8). On the day of our field trip, it was raining, so we had to change the places we were to film, which was in shot 6 and 13. At the chapel, Sister Joseffina was present, and would be a tragedy to miss such a reliable primary source. Because of this, Sister Joseffina was our interviewee instead of a visitor to the chapel. And lastly, the total duration of the documentary was around 1 min. longer than estimated. This is because there was a few extra seconds left in each shot, in the documentary. I did this because, when I cut off those few seconds, the documentary sounds too rushed.
Changes to the plan wasn’t, oddly enough, because of the changes of the shot list. It was more because of time management. Zehra and I had to do 2 extra days of recording voice overs. Also, we had to use the green screen the room on the 18th of April. Cropping the film was needed, as well. However, the estimated durations of each task, was moderately accurate.

Saturday, April 14 ~ Tuesday, April 17 – Gathering Media

Recording Voice Overs

Finding Pictures
Zehra and I worked together to find the media that will be in our documentary. We had to record voiceovers, find pictures and music (Zehra found the music). When recording voiceovers we had to use a microphone brought from home, because we weren’t provided with one, as we thought we would be. It was much better quality than the built-in microphone, however, it could’ve been improved with a higher quality microphone. When recording, we used Garageband, as you can see in the picture on the left. When searching for pictures, I had to keep in mind the Design Specifications. The pictures have to be relevant, attractive and high resolution. These guidelines helped me when I had to choose which picture to include, because, as you can see in the picture on the right, there was countless photos.

Sunday, March 4 – Film Quality (Technical Director Role)

Lighting
Besides collecting the music, pictures and voiceovers, we needed film as well. Skills that I had learned in the Investigate stage about the Technical Director, was not only applied on the days of visiting the chapel (skills such as placing the interviewee in a place with good lighting, and quiet areas, and using a microphone to get the best out of the sound). For example, I suggested that we use voiceovers so people can clearly understand what is being said. When we were filming, we tried to position ourselves to be in the light. As you can see, on the right, the light was exceptionally well done, however, it was studio light (we were in the green screen room), and this kind of wasn’t available at the chapel.

Sunday, March 4 – Putting it all together (Editor Role)

Adding Music

Adding Transitions

Adding Pictures
The most challenging part was adding the voiceovers, aligning the visual and audio took a bunch of my time, just as I expected in my plan (I estimated for 1 hour). However, we did have to redo voiceovers numerous times. Adding transitions, pictures and music was simple and quick, however. If I could do all these tasks again (as these set of tasks did take up a lot of time), I would focus on one section at a time, not scattered all over the place, with adding this music and cropping that shot... I think I could’ve been finished 30 min. earlier than what I expected to do in my plan if I had kept focused. One of the tools we used in iMovie was the Green Screen option. In order to use this tool, I had to enable advanced options. This tool was very useful.

Sunday, March 4 – Last touches (Editor Role)

Evaluating against Against the Design Specs

The picture above, it what my screen looked like when I was evaluating Zehra and I’s documentary against my design specifications that we made in the Investigation. After completing it, all the design specifications, were checked as “yes, the documentary has this”. All, that is, except for 2. This design specification was “visually attractive”, I couldn’t check this, as it is really an opinion, and was not a good design spec to begin with. The other design specification was “high resolution pictures / videos”. After watching it, full screen on my computer, it was a tad pixelated. However when I saw it on the internet, around half of my screen, it looked fine! I can recall, unfortunately, there wasn’t any better quality of photos on the internet, that fit my shot list.

Finished Evaluation against the Design Specs

Tuesday, April 24 – Reflection on Learning and Progress

Through the create stage, I’ve learned how to use the green screen option. In iMovie, you have to go to Preferences, under the iMovie tab at the top of the screen. And then click the box saying Show Advanced Tools. Then, when you drag the green screen footage onto a picture or video, you will appear in the photo / video. From the peer review, one of the comments was that my entries were detailed. Also, the people who peer reviewed me said that they would probably give me 5!
I think I did well with being creative. Such as, at the beginning of the documentary, there is a shot where the globe zooms into Christ the King Chapel. However, I don’t think I did so well, with managing my time, as I said before, we needed 3 EXTRA DAYS of voiceovers. Which meant that for those three days, I had double the work, and because of that, I worked for unfortunately longer than what was planned.
If I could do this again I would like to be more focused. So then, I wouldn’t have to rush through my homework from my other subjects, because I’ve been too busy working on design cycle.

Tuesday, April 24 – Citations (This is the citation that taught me to use the green screen)

"iMovie Greenscreen Tutorial."

5min - Life Videopedia. AoI TV, 2011. Web. 21
Apr. 2012. <http://www.5min.com/Video/iMovie-Greenscreen-Tutorial-196894097>.

Tuesday, April 24 – Citations (These are the citations that we had mentioned in the documentary)

"The past and present of Christ the King Chapel."

Heritage Detective. Ushahidi,
26 Apr. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <https://hongkongheritage.crowdmap.com/
index.php/reports/view/39>.
Different angles of Christ the King Chapel. Heritage Detectives. Ushahidi,
26 Apr. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. <https://hongkongheritage.crowdmap.com/index.php/reports/view/39>.
Foundation Stone. Heritage Detectives. Ushahidi,
26 Apr. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. <https://hongkongheritage.crowdmap.com/index.php/reports/view/39>.
An activity inside the church. Heritage Detectives. Ushahidi,
26 Apr. 2011. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. <https://hongkongheritage.crowdmap.com/index.php/reports/view/39>.

Sister Joseffina. Personal interview. 17 Apr. 2012.

Tuesday, April 24 – Citations (And these are all the citations that had to do with my roles)

Moura, Gabriel. "Shot Sizes Basics of Cinematography."

Elements of Cinema. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2012. <http://www.elementsofcinema.com/cinematography/
shot-sizes.html>.
Dawkins, Steve, and Ian Wynd. "Palgrave Macmillan - Video Production." Video
Production. Macmillan Publishers Ltd. Web. 23 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.palgrave.com/culturalmedia/dawkins/roles/documentary.html>.
"Documentary l Define Documentary at Dictionary.com." Dictionary.com.
2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/
documentary>
"Film Editor Job Responsibilities." Job Responsibilites. 2010. Web. 23
Mar. 2012. <http://www.jobresponsibilities.org/film-editor.html>.
"How to Light a Documentary Interview." Lights Online Film School Blog. wyzoom,
2012. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <http://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/
light-documentary-interview/134/>.
"The past and present of Christ the King Chapel." Heritage Detective. Ushahidi,
26 Apr. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. <https://hongkongheritage.crowdmap.com/
index.php/reports/view/39>.
"Churches in Hong Kong." Weekday Masses. N.p., 28 Aug. 2005. Web. 14 Apr. 2012.

<http://weekdaymasses.org.uk/en/area/hong-kong/churches>.