September 9, 2015

Good afternoon all once again!

Today had the usual onslaught of heat, combined with the perfect mixture of pre-mature senior-itis and looming work...but it is Hump-day, and that means we are on the back of a camel being brought to an oasis in the desert (if you want your thoughts to be poetic/hopeful)!

Hang in there guys as this short week comes to a close.

Allow me to review:

HOMEWORK

• Ortega: none; you can get started on extra credit by logging into Goodreads and working from there (ask her for more details)
• DUE: per your discretion

• Piggott: none (for now)...might want to review your notes on the four methods of preferential voting and those criteria pointers; finish in-class worksheets
• DUE: third rotation 

• Rivas: work on this social media accounts for shames Maddison
• DUE: second rotation (you will have limited time in class to work on these, then, presentation time!)

• Holt: Google Andy Weir/Adam Savage Interview
• link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SemyzKgaUU
• about 55 minutes long...
• DUE: ASAP (plan for third rotation)
• finish "The Martian" if you haven't done so already (due: sometime soon, don't be reading still when the movie comes out!)

• Senior Project: Blog #4 (a laissez-faire advisory description acting as a philosophical guide to what you want your thesis to be and what not) will be shared out (correction from 'our' in the last blog) Friday (9/11/15)

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (second rotation)

- Ortega: We spent around 25 minutes for SSR and writing for Quickwrite (prompt: choose 10 words that describe you from the list on the screen; then come up with 20 more - rank words from most prevalent to least prevalent regarding your personality!).  Afterwards, we turned in those paragraphs regarding the article (or bit of the article) she read to us two classes ago on Clinton's New College Compact idea to make college more affordable (for those who had not done so already - nice leeway for our first assignment).  Mrs. Ortega then had us read an article titled "Want to Get Into College? Learn to Fail", by Angle B. Perez, on the topic of 'failure', underlining portions of the writing we thought were pieces of good advice (especially in regards to senior project (you might not want to epically fail on this assignment though)).

- Piggott: We were given a sheet of preference schedules on which we basically practiced our newly learnt fairness criteria by finding the winners through utilizing those four voting methods learn last week (i.e. borda count), and then determining whether these cases violated the condorcet (yes, tis French) and majority criterions.  For a refresher, the criteria (ones that 'should' be able to determine fairness in an election) are as follows:

1. majority
2. condorcet
3. monotonicity
4. independence of irrelevant alternative

- Rivas: We presented our social media databases we set up for the late, the honorable James Madison, and discussed how these helped in spreading the word and thus ratifying (through public support) the U.S. Constitution.  This simulation reflected how he and other federalists published 83 Federalist Papers in order to establish a strong, centralized Federal Government at the the U.S. as a country.  As a last hurrah for the class, we watched TED talks on the serious, life-changing matter of spaghetti sauce!

- Holt: We finished presenting our experiments on the topic of human reaction rate, and then we talked about how electricity and magnetism are related and manipulated by each other (try not to hold a magnet to your phone or it will move its electrons around and mess up its data!)...this theory was actually founded on research conducted by scientist Faraday (look up the "Cosmos" episode listed by physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson that discusses him and this discovery if you need brushing up on this abstract concept)...after, we experimented around and found the voltage (unit of electricity) of several 9 volt and AA batteries, as well as the tesla (unit for magnetism) charge of multiple kinds of magnets (using those handy, hand-held capable science calculator monstrosities).

- Senior Project: onward, rode the 120!

Some ASB Announcements...
--> If you want to start a club, or are looking to renew your club, club application (re-application) forms are due by September 18, 2015 (these forms can be found in the joint-use room; they must be turned in here, as it is where ASB meets every Tuesday and Friday)
--> Tickets for the Blackout dance are being sold at lunch (our after school minutes now)
               ASB = $10
               w/o ASB = $12
               at the door = $15
--> Keep checking your emails for updates!

- Lone Wolf