We made solar cookers in science class, here is the design of mine.

Design: Solar Box Cooker

Materials: Pizza Box, Cotton Balls, Tape, Stick, Black Paper, Tin Foil, Plastic Wrap

Sources: Davanni’s, My House, Staples

The solar cooker concentrates light by directing the beam from the lid of the pizza box through the plastic wrap and is then absorbed by the pot. The black paper lining the inside of the box then will absorb any extra light and will make the box hotter. The light won’t hit the pot in many places. This solar cooker will work best in summer when light is more direct and it is warmer. The lid should be at around a 45% angle with the base of the cooker. This will be more effective in the afternoon because of the angle of the sun.

 

The solar cooker will be lined with black paper on the inside and that will absorb heat and make the solar cooker hotter. The heat will be trapped inside of a pizza box that has a clear plastic wrap window that will let heat in and trap it inside. The plastic wrap lets heat in but not back out.
The solar cooker is insulated around the edges with cotton balls so that it won’t let heat out of the box. The cotton layers will fill in the little cracks in the box and provide another layer of protection from heat loss.

I plan to go into engineering or politics later in life for my career. Those two choices are very different but I probably will go into engineering because I love problem solving and designing and building things. I don’t know, however, what kind of engineering job I should go into because I have interest in many things. I am in the GISE (Guys In Science and Engineering) program at my school and it is awesome. I love working with robots and finding out a new way to do something as the research challenge. This program and trip should be able to help me get more of an idea of what jobs are in the field of engineering, as well as show what jobs do what in the engineering world. This could also show what kind of jobs need what type of school degree.

 

For education I will finish High school and go to a good college and grad school to get a very good degree. I will do this so that I can get a good job later after school. I have been saving money so that I will be prepared when the time comes. This program can also show me what college I should go to for the jobs that they do. The jobs there probably will also give me an idea of other options to pursue if I change my mind about a job.

 

Overall, I think that this program will be a good use of time in preparation for college and to find a job, or at least get an idea of one for my career. It also would be fun to see the marvels of our modern world.

So we had to read this book Code Talker for school and I wrote a review.

The Plot:

This book is about the progression of a young Navajo boy as he goes to elementary school and high school far from home. Then after his school years he joins the Marines and trains in Hawaii before going to Japan. Then once in Japan the book describes his accounts in the war.

The Character:

The main character in this story is Ned Begay. He is a Navajo man who went to a white school boarding school as a kid so that he could learn English and get a better career. After he graduated from school he then became a code translator and speaker in the Marines. He then trained in Hawaii before moving to Japan to fight in WWII. When he was in the war he was afraid but very courageous during the war. Soon after, he was awarded many medals as well.

What I Think:

I thought that the book was okay. It wasn’t anything really new or top of the line or anything else that blew me away. The book wasn’t bad though. The reason why it wasn’t really amazing was because there wasn’t much to the plot. I can sum it up for you right here. Introduces character, character goes to school, character hears about war, character joins Marines, character trains in Hawaii, character goes to Japan, character comes home, character tells story. There are events that happen in between all of that but that is the generic outline.

 

 

Quotes:

“Navajo is no good, if no use at all.” This quote was said by Ned’s primary school principal that shows how hard it must have been for them.

“Navajos, they want Navajos!” This quote was said by Ned because he was excited to hear that the Marines wanted Navajo people.

“The lives of many men depend on your messages, you must be right every time.” This shows that they are actually going to go to war and are showing their country.

I made it into the space camp program that my school participates in.  Here is the first essay that I wrote to get in.

This will be a good learning experience and I think I will be able to take away a lot from visiting all of these places. Also since this program does go to other states that have better science and space testing and research labs then Minnesota there will be a better experience than staying in Minnesota and going with the entire school because then there will be fewer people and then there will be more opportunities for everyone to try everything. This also will be a good experience because my friends will be there and we will be able to go and explore and learn things together. Learning things together is more fun than learning alone. I know from experience can be challenging because you really want to talk about other stuff, however, if you really focus on the task at hand then you can have a better learning experience.

 

I have visited a space center before but it was with school. I still did learn a lot but there still were quite a few people per class. The space center was the Air Force Reserve, I attended their STARBASE camp. Also I have gone to the science museum in Minnesota and Chicago with my family, but, my family probably isn’t going to go to another state to visit one unless we are doing something else in that area. This would be a very cool and interesting personal experience. I am very interested in engineering and I probably will get a job designing something or working with computers.

 

I think that seeing how rockets and space technology and computers are made and how they work will be a great field trip. I hope to go on this field trip to find out more and explore how these things work.

I am putting the poem that I had to write and perform for the poetry unit at school.  Here it is.

If my pen were a magic wand

I wouldn’t be here right now

I could live wherever I wanted

And have whatever I wanted

But

My pen is not

A magic wand

I am still stuck here

On this earth

In this school

Doing the exact opposite of what I want to be doing right now

Right now

If my pen were a magic wand

I could be at home

With my friends and family

Enjoying myself

But my pen

Is not a magic wand

It is only made out of metal and plastic

Some of the basic elements on this earth

And not the miracles that could do anything

The miracles that could take you for miles

The miracles that could cure disease, fix anything, and make

Anything.

But my pen is not a magic wand

And thus here we are

With the problems of today

And the troubles of the day

But these are the troubles and problems that have brought us together

And without each other we are nothing

So it is a good thing that my pen

Is not a magic wand

I have decided to upload a creative writing story that I wrote so that I can get some more posts.

This story is about a guy named Billy Cole Wagner. Now Billy isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, or the brightest bulb on the tree because all he did was buy video game money. But before we get into all of that, let’s give you the details of him. He is a 58 year old man who likes to wear size 21 high heeled red shoes. Everyone but his mom is dead so he lives in her basement. He is a single, 5ft 7 man with long gray hair, blue eyes, and ragged clothes. The only nice things that he owns are an iPhone 6+, and beats headphones. The reason everything is so beat up is because he only spends his money on video game money. His job is panhandling on the street, and his mom is too busy working to kick him out of the house. Also he is a lazy, boring, and clumsy. He doesn’t take any better care of himself than he does of his possessions. He doesn’t have a favorite food, he likes anything that he can find that’s edible, also he has never read a book on his own, and all his habits are bad ones. People think of him as a lazy bum, but he has one secret. He did the laundry, took out the trash, and bought food…….once. So as you can see, not too bright.

 

Finally one day Billy’s mom had had enough. She said that she had calculated how much rent he owed her after living there for 33 years after she said he needed to leave. The grand total of his rent was $336,600. She said that he needed to leave in 2 weeks and pay the money otherwise she would take away his phone. So Billy needed a job. He got help on a resume, printed it, and went to jobs he was interested in.

 

This was his resume:

Hi! I am Billy Cole Wagner.

I am 58 years old and looking for a job.

I like to play on my phone and do stuff.

I am a sort of experienced pan handler and other than that I don’t have experience.

HIRE ME!!!

 

The interviewer looked at the resume, and then asked “so can you give me an idea of what you think about working in I.T.?” And Billy said “what’s I.T.?” The interviewer then asked “what do you think is appropriate for hours and wages?”

“$336,600 an hour for one hour.”

“Get out.”

So after that failure he then decided that he would become a piolet and he would take a flying lesson.

 

After the plane exploded and he floated down to the ground, on the only parachute that the piolet would have used to save them both, he left and decided to sell his parachute. He then used the money, which was $100,000, half on his phone and half on lottery tickets. The then got a billion dollar winner, paid back his mom, and then bought a house and life essentials. With the money that was left he decided to split it 50/50. 50% went to the bank in a savings account, and the rest to his in game money.

The End

I have decided to post the notes from when we did the to kill a mocking bird thing for extra pages

Race, Gender, and Discrimination Class Discussion:

My Quote and Info: “He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham” -Scout

This quote is very cruel against class because he is very poor but nice. He works hard but he can’t pay his bills like a regular person but he is able to be happy. My quote is very bad against class because even though he is poor he is their company and company should be treated with respect. Also because he is poor everyone looks down on him and don’t want to be like him.

 

Chapter 16 Notes

3/16/15	TKAM Gist of Chapter 16
Who are the Characters	Primary: Jem, Scout, and Dill Secondary: Amish, Maycomb Citizen’s, People from down South,
Where/When	Watching on main street all of the towns people during summer.
What Happened?	All of the towns’ people and many others are walking or driving to the trial of Tom Robinson.
How do we Know	Mennonites, the “Foot Washington” Baptists, African Americans, Stephanie, Dolphus Raymond, are all there.

 

2 Significant Quotes from Chapters 22

Chapter 22

Quote 1: “This is their home, sister. We’ve made it this way for them, they might as well learn to cope with it.” – Atticus

This quote is right after the trial when they just got home after Tom Robinson was convicted. I think that this was an important quote because Atticus is saying that the south has been made this way by the white people. I think that he is saying that this is all their fault, (maybe not directly theirs but the white human race,) and an innocent man died because of it.

Quote 2: “Tell them I’m very grateful. Tell them – tell them they must never do this again. Times are too hard.” – Atticus

It shows that he cares and he cares so much that he doesn’t want them to do it again.

 

Significant Moments from Chapter 28

Significant Moments and Quotes	Why it’s Significant
1)Bob Ewell Dies   Mr. Tate found his neck and rubbed it. “Bob Ewell’s lyin‘ on the ground under that tree down yonder with a kitchen knife stuck up under his ribs. He’s dead, Mr. Finch.”	Because he was trying to hurt the kids and ended up getting killed. It also is the second recognized death in the book.
2) Bob Ewell Tries to Kill the Kids   We were nearly to the road when I felt Jem’s hand leave me, felt him jerk backwards to the ground. More scuffling, and there came a dull crunching sound and Jem screamed. “Call Dr. Reynolds!”	He is trying to show Atticus that he isn’t scared to hurt his family and he will seek revenge.
3)Jem Saves Scout   Shuffle-foot had not stopped with us this time. His trousers swished softly and steadily. Then they stopped. He was running, running toward us with no child’s steps. “Run, Scout! Run! Run!” Jem screamed	He is showing his manliness by trying to save Scout.

 

We’re doing MORE OF THIS SAME STUPID STORY!!!!!!  Either way it counts for more blog posts so I’ll take it . . . again.

• Why did Pete act like “a devil was in him” whenever Maybelle was around?
• There are times in the book when Pete says he just had to talk to someone.  Does anyone in the group here think this sometimes?
• Do you think Maybelle is attractive?
• What is cod liver oil?
• Why did Pete not apologize to Sucker?
• When Pete makes a fool of himself and feels ashamed around Maybelle why does he run after her more?

We read another weird story called “Sucker” in Language Arts yesterday.  We then did a summary of it and it could have been used as journal pages.  So I said heck yeah I’ll do that!  So here it is:

The Gist of “Sucker”

Who:

• Pete – Narrator, 16 years old
• Maybelle – Strings to Pete, long blond hair, red fingernails, she smokes
• Richard – Sucker, 12 years old, he is his first cousin, his parents died in a car crash

Where:

• High School
• Shared Bedroom/Bed
• Drugstore
• Movie Theater

What:

• Pete likes Maybelle
• Pete buys her cigarettes
• Maybelle copies his homework and uses Pete
• Pete talks to Sucker about Maybelle
• Maybelle rejects Pete
• Pete starts moping around
• Pete starts to be really rude to Sucker
• Sucker begins to “bully” Pete

Great, there’s ANOTHER POETRY UNIT!!  WHY!?!?!?!?  WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!  ENOUGH WITH THE POETRY ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I don’t want another poetry unit!  We’ve had a poetry unit EVERY YEAR!!!!!  ENOUGH WITH THE POETRY, POETRY IS NOT THE FUTURE!!!  PLEASE STOP WITH THE POETRY!!!  I think that and know that technology will be the future because it already it.  Every plane car and other vehicle is technology because it is an invention, and if that doesn’t persuade you there is a computer that is in every modern car and truck and plane and other vehicles out there today.  And without vehicles nothing would be the same, we wouldn’t be able to cross the world and ship things around.  It pretty much would be the same thing as the middle ages!  And that is only one example, there are other examples too.  Computers, the things that control so much and gives us so much information.  In the 1960’s and 70’s  when computers weren’t even that advanced they were still able to fly people to the moon.  So now listen, why do we still have poetry if technology is more important and will be, and currently is, the present and future.