CJH GCE Portfolio

 This is an Action Project for my class Podcasting 101. The purpose of this class is to learn about and create podcasts. For this class I teamed up with four other classmates to create a podcast that talks about how we as high school students experience life and reflect other past life experiences. We each come from different parts of the city so we enjoy comparing opinions and other fun stories. Typically we talk about random topics and have a great time laughing and just talking to each other. Below is the first episode of our podcast. So without further ado, welcome to the Unorthodox Podcast. Personally I am very proud about how this turned out in the end. It was a great experience and something we as a class all seemed to enjoy making. I was able to learn about editing and how to make a podcast sound good. This eventually helped me out a lot in my core class Journalism. I am happy with the podcast I was able to produce but also being able to record with friends. Overall, I had ...

       This is an Action Project for my core class Economics. In this unit, our main focus was on the book Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth. In this book, Raworth takes the ideas and past economist's theories and goes into why they aren't working in todays society or how they could be more effective. For this assignment, we were tasked with writing another chapter for Doughnut Economics. Our chapter is meant to create and idea for our economy and why something should change. For my chapter I decided to talk about how someone who has enough power can change the economy and how that is something that needs to change. We were also tasked with creating an image to go along with our chapter. This image is meant to show our economic idea clearly. My image is meant to show the impact someone can have on the economy. Now, please enjoy my Action Project.      This chapter is all about the downsides of the economy. The chapter tries to answer the question, “Wh...

 This is an Action Project for my core class Journalism. This unit we focused all on voices and how they can impact people. For this Action Project, we were tasked with finding an influential voice that has affected people in history. I paired up with a partner and together we decided to research and talk about a voice that has been very influential in our past. Together we chose Stevie Wonder. The blind male solo artist who raised millions of dollars for charities around the globe. Stevie Wonder has changed the music industry in such a positive way that it has affected many generations. It is a voice that has affected the world in the way that people will remember Stevie Wonders voice easily. Stevie's voice has targeted a lot of people in the African American community. His happy birthday cover alone influenced millions of homes across the world and it is being sung everywhere I go. His voice has not only influenced me and the way that I live, but also millions of people on the pl...

   This is an Action Project for my core class Journalism. During this unit, we had a few focuses. The first is cameras and how they work. We focused on the more core parts of photography, for example, rule of thirds, aperture, shutter speed, focus, etc. We were visited by a special guest Caleb Hamernick who showed us in better detail what it takes to do photography professionally. During the FE, he was able to show us some of his work and pieces he was proud of. I enjoyed being able to learn more about photography and how I can implement what I learned into how I take photos regularly. The second thing we touched on most were chapters from the book Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago. The sections we focused on most were the parts about a little boy getting thrown out of the window of a tall building. We talked about life and how death can affect people. We took these chapters and decided to interview someone and ask them what they believe the meaning of ...

  This project was a heavy one. There was a whole lot to think about and it made me think about the amount I would make and ow much the interest would be over time. There were a few points I would go back and try again. For example, I feel like I scrapped together this information very quickly. I would want to research further what each career makes. 

 This is an Action Project for my core class Journalism. In this class, we talked about the journalism as a whole. For the most part, we talked about articles and the impact they have on the world today. We started by taking articles from each decade and researching them. We also took a deeper dive into how journalists write their articles. For one, we watched the movie Spotlight, because of that I was able to understand why writing articles and telling the public is so important. After all of the research we did, I was able to pick an important topic from Chicago that I wanted to report on. For all of 2020, the world was in the midst of a pandemic. During that time, the number of carjackings increased. This is something I think is very important to tell the public about because it is something that affects anyone with a vehicle.  Carjacking Spikes 135% in 2020     For almost 30 years being a firefighter, Lt. Dwain Williams knew what dangers lie ahead in the world. ...

This is an Action Project for Orientation. This week has been all about the GCE community and how we can expand/create boundaries for the classroom and the people. In my last post we talked about how music can influence a classroom and also how it affects the learning stage of the classroom. Though I called that post the Action Project, it counts more as a reflection if anything. This current post is the actual "AP" that will include more information on the topic of classrooms, students, teachers, etc. Another part of this AP is that I was put into a group and our group together created a classroom layout that can help create a successful learning environment.  In order to really understand what makes a GCE classroom, we first have to understand the roles that are "teacher" and "student." During orientation, we as a school brainstormed what we all want in a teacher/student. We started off by naming good characteristics that a student must have when being a...

Hello! This is an action project for Orientation. During this first week back in person we were able to understand what this project is and immediately figure out designs and how we want this classroom to look in the future. In the reflection below, I explain what we did to prepare for this project and how we enjoyed the process we had when researching and experiencing the first week of orientation. This was a fun project to do because we were able to do things I hadn't done before, like laying in the grass listening to taiko drums or synthesizers or designing a classroom. Kioto Aoki/Kioto Banging Taiko Drums/2021 During the internal investigation we researched classrooms, and how they can change over the years or even not change at all. This project focused on designing a classroom for the school so looking at how the classrooms have changed over the years, helping us get a better understanding on the design portion of making our own classroom. During the external investigation, w...

 This is an action project for my core class Policy. This is the last action project for this class for the year. During this unit, we learned about different wars and how they have affected the world. We also took a look at if they are justified or not. We chose between wars fought in the past and decided to research that specific war. We also took a deeper dive into what makes a policy and who makes them. We looked at policies made by congress and some that are made by the president without the advise of congress. For this project I was tasked with researching a war in history and how it affected the US and if it is a justified war or not. The Vietnam War     The Vietnam War is justified by fighting against the spread of communism.  The Vietnam war took place during the midst of the Cold War from 1954 to 1975. The United States didn't join the war until eleven years after the start of the war in 1965. This war was fought in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and South East A...

This is an action project for my core class Urban Planning. This is the final action project of the year, and it was all about redesigning a certain area of your choice. We learned about areas and how they affect the neighborhoods they are in. I learned about architects and how they work/what they do. We had FE guest visits from Charles Hickox and Maya from Chicago Mobile Makers. Charles Hickox is an architect that shared his knowledge of certain topics we have been studying like what makes an area interesting or boring. Maya and Chicago Mobile Makers are a group that designs and reforms certain areas through making models. They were able to come meet us and help us redesign our own areas and turn our designs into models. We also learned about calculating area and how to measure distance on a gridded area. For this action project I have been tasked with finding and redesigning an area of my choice. I chose an abandoned gas station that I am going to turn into a dog park. Below shows th...

 This is an Action Project for my core class Policy. During this term, we have been looking at policy and how and what it is. We looked at it in the constitution and also in the government today. We took a look at different policies in Chicago and how they would change the world in a good or bad way. We were also visited by a few FE guests who should us a deeper meaning behind policy and how it can help us in the end for this project. We were visited by Arne Duncan, Akio Katano, the CCHR, and Nick Anderson. Keeping in mind the things they taught us about, we were tasked with finding a policy in Chicago (preferably a new one), and then creating a letter addressed to someone who represents me and my city asking them to advocate for this policy. The policy I chose was about the Anjanette Young Ordinance. This led me to research more into this policy and why what the police did was so wrong. Not just because they broke into an innocent civilian's home, but because they did so against t...

 This is an Action Project for my volunteer work during the summer. During the start of the pandemic, hundreds of people in my neighborhood were affected. They couldn't get they supplies they needed. So, I teamed up with Sunshine Gospel Ministries and almost every weekday I helped give out food and care packages. These packages usually contained cleaning supplies, food, toiletries, and other items people needed. This eventually got so popular we ran out of things to give away. I was joined by my brother and sister and a few friends to help me pass out these items. Eventually it came to an end but I will always enjoy the service I was able to provide to people in need. Below are images of me and my friends working hard during the summer.

     This is an Action Project for my core class Urban Planning. This unit was all about electricity and how it works in circuits, housing, and other appliances. We learned that there were two main circuit types, AC (alternating current) and DC (direct current). We each got our own circuit kits where we made different circuits. Parallel and series circuits are some of the main circuits we focused on this unit. We were able to find the amount of voltage in one circuit using Ohm’s law. For this Action Project, we were tasked with creating a circuit that goes in a sustainable house and also how we can use the resistors of the circuit and transform them into some sort of power saving appliance. Below is an image of the circuit as a diagram and a picture before the circuit was placed into a cardboard housing frame. CJH/Circuit/2021          Below I have provided an image of my circuit with the frame. I am using the resistors (lights) as a windmill...

 This is an Action Project for my core class Urban Planning. This unit has been all about bridges, equations, gravity, and Newton's Laws. This action project requires us to make a bridge out of popsicle sticks and glue. We are going to take the bridge and put 1 gallon of water on top of it to see if it will not break. This is an excellent idea because it shows gravity and its effect on objects. Newtons three laws are 1. An object will not change its motion unless acted on by an outside force. 2. F = M x A. 3. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. With these bridges, we also need to calculate the Potential/Kinetic energies, angles, and lengths of each triangle in the bridge. Below is an image demonstrating the parts of my bridge that experience compression/tension, and all of the important pieces of the bridge.  CJH/Bridge Visualisation/2021 Calculations: How many sticks did you use? A t least 60 sticks. How high will you bridge be when you put a gallon of water on i...

 This is an action project or my core class A Nation's Argument. This unit was all about the constitution and its amendments. This led to some interesting conversations about which amendments are important and which aren't as important. For example, the third amendment has been ruled as not important because when would a soldier actually come and sleep in your own house. Another argument was how are these amendments related to the problems in the world today? which problems work against the amendments? In unit 1 we visited 1770 and talked about the thesis that "all men are created equal." In unit 2, we visited 1850 and talked about the antithesis of "all men are created equal." For this action project, I was tasked with finding a rule in the city municipal code that I believe is unjust. I chose the rule of needing a permit to renovate the inside of the building you own.  "A building permit is required for now building construction, renovations, the inst...

 This is an action project for my core class Light, Sound, and Time. This unit was all about time and how it affects us and our livelihood. We learned about many different concepts of time like the twin paradox, which is basically the theory that if one twin is sent into space and one twin stays on earth, the one on earth will appear older than the twin in space. This is because time slows down when you reach the speed of light. We also had a guest come and teach us about time and space. A very important thing we learned that ties into this action project is learning how to calculate your longitude and latitude. For this action project, I have been tasked with designing a time telling device. This was a difficult thing to create but in a video linked below, I explain how my device works, who it's made for, and why it is unique along with 5 visuals to show my design.  Below are four visuals: one, shows the volume of my device, one is a hand drawn visual of my device, one is a 3...

This is an Action Project for my core class Light, Sound, and Time. For this unit, we learned all about sound and how it works in the world around us. We mainly focused on instruments in this unit and how sound waves work inside of the instrument. We have also learned about how to calculate sound waves in different objects, in different temperatures, and in different distances. We also learned about the pitch and frequency of sound. If you press on a part of the string, it shortens it which makes it have a higher pitch. There is also something called harmonics. These are marks on the instrument to mark points like the half way, the quarter mark, and so on. For this action project, I have been tasked with creating an instrument from scratch. My classmates and I went in-person to create our instruments. I created something called a diddely bow.   Below are photos of my homemade Diddley Bow. I created this out of wood, nails, a can, a battery, and a guitar string. As you can see in th...