September 11, 2015

Yay! We made it...now do what you said you would do!

Just to keep you reasonable though, here's a brief update:

HOMEWORK (everything is mostly the same from the previous blog...)

• Ortega: from the words you chose as your 20-strong identity for Quick Write, have a person you trust (and who is kindly toward your existence) outside iPoly choose which (any quantity) best describe you (write notes as to why they think so)...you can get started on extra credit by logging into Goodreads (Facebook of the book world) and working from there in reviewing the books you read this semester and the next (about a detailed paragraph per literary piece); doing so will ensure you receive an AE grade for SSR, and may result in your piece of writing being posted at the back wall
• DUE: first rotation next week (extra credit: per your discretion)

• Piggott: finish the worksheet on seeking out violations in election preference schedules if you haven't done so already (work and results must be recorded in notebook)...might want to review your notes on the four methods of preferential voting and those criteria pointers
• DUE: first rotation of next week

• Rivas: work on social media accounts for James Maddison
• DUE: continuation of days...keep accounts updated and plan a grand finale (it is after all one our first - and last - group project of the year) for a final presentation still unscheduled!

• Holt: Google Andy Weir/Adam Savage Interview; read pages 499-511 (homework from last week (many moons ago)) in your physics textbooks...
• 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: welp, you know what you have to do

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 10 (not 20, sorry for the mistake in the last blog post) more - rank words from most prevalent to least prevalent regarding your personality!).  Afterwards, we talked with our partners about these trade words of ours, answering questions listed on the Smart board (one of them asking us what word would best benefit our ventures in college and beyond).  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 advice given directly by the author, and starring the ones we most enjoyed.

- 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 (one we use this week)
2. condorcet (one we use this week)
3. monotonicity (experimentation next week)
4. independence of irrelevant alternative (experimentation next week)

- 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 a funny video blurp on how the founding fathers made the Constitution and TED talks on the serious, life-changing matter of spaghetti sauce!

- Holt: 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: we shared our our blog 4 thingies in a harkness-style discussion, telling each other what we were hoping to get out of working on our projects and their vast wealth of, well, work, and, hopefully, enlightenment; we also hosted our weekly research checks

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!

Kind note: don't forget to keep in mind the horrible breach of humanity that occurred on this anniversary of a day that started out as any other...

- Lone Wolf