The Scientific Medusa

Hello everyone, my name is J.N, and I take a STEAM class in GCE Lab School known as Population. What we do for this class is that we take both science and math and integrate it in order to gain a better learning experience. Right now, we are learning about how to follow the growth of population as well as the evolution/taxonomy of an animal in said population. In this class, we had gone to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to learn about taxidermy of certain animals that lived inside of the Chicago area before human intervention began. In there, we saw different taxidermy all around, showing us on which environments these species lived in, as well as what they were in their prime.

What we had to do for this assignment is we would have to write about a scientific preservation method in order to demonstrate the overall theme of the class. What “scientific preservation method” is that it’s kept information on a species. It could either phenotype or genotype trails, but is phenotype for the most part. There are multiple types of preservations, such as video or picture, but I choose taxidermy, which is stuffing the skin in order to keep the shape. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy.

Taxidermy is a type natural preservation in which an animal carcass(non-decayed) has been stuffed and covered with certain materials in order to keep secure its preserved glory(removing the inners, of course). When you think about taxidermy, your mind comes to the conclusion of heads being mounted on walls and left for display. For the most part, that mounted heads is a good definition on how normal taxidermy looks like. But in order to give you a better idea, I need to give you an example.

 Ashish Sehgal. File:Taxidermy cat family. June 19, 2016. Wikipedia. Commons.wikimedia.org. Web. Oct 26, 2017

Above is a photo on the taxidermy of the two lions. We could tell it’s taxidermy mainly because the animals are in one signal pose, and doesn't show any signs of life. Now, there are several questions you could ask about these animals. Such as what species were they, where were these animals before, and how did they die. These questions are what taxidermy solves.

For example, if it was a video, you wouldn't be able to see the full model of the lions. It would just take wasted time and effort to record, since most of the time these species is always moving. What makes taxidermy so special is that you could be able to walk around and see every angle of the species. This would allow the scientist to conduct research just by appearance. You could see what type of lion they were, or even make a discovery that it’s a brand new species. You can measure the size/height of the animal with, rather than just creating assumptions through photos and videos. The same could be said for where they’re native to by seeing all of the color scheme on fur for camouflage as well as looking over the body for wounds on how they died.

Not only that, but this is a much safer way of gain research rather going into the field. When going into the field, you could have a risk of dying do to the animal trying to attack you. The animal could also run away, thus wasting more of you time trying to find it. It just makes things a bit too unnecessary. But with a model, hunters/other events already took the animal’s life. It gives a long term goal to keep it as a model and useful. We could say that taxidermy is extremely useful for scientist who observe in a lab rather than in the field.

In conclusion, I believe that taxidermy is one of the most important preservation methods by far. You can be able to interact with a model in a delicate way, as well a check on every single angle of the body. This allows future generations to look at a model to compare their size and height without gaining risk. Thus, I believe that taxidermy will be used for generations.

Ashish Sehgal. File:Taxidermy cat family. June 19, 2016. Wikipedia. Commons.wikimedia.org. Web. Oct 26, 2017

"Immigrants, we get the job done."

Hello everyone, my name is J.N. and I take a humanities class called Stories at GCE Lab School. In this term, we learned about history, story structures, and how to portray different myths and morals in a certain way.

For this unit, we put an emphasis on the hero’s journey. The “hero's journey” is a plot structure that shows what the hero faces, and how he/she returns from it. It’s shown to be a cycle, and many times a person would go through a hero’s journey whenever facing a sort of conflict. This plot structure is shown both in fiction and in real life, which allows us to determine if a certain person could be considered a hero.

For this AP, I decided to look over a real hero and a fictional hero. My real hero is my mother, Dolly Z. She immigrated to America, went from poverty to a higher economic class, and now supports others. Meanwhile, my fictional hero is a boy named Carlitos. He is from the movie Under the Same Moon. He travels from Mexico to America to find his mother. Throughout the film, he is confronted by multiple challenges while gaining multiple allies.

In both stories, I found multiple comparisons in these heroes. But what I found the most intriguing is that they are round characters. They live their lives through the challenges they face and survive without fully winning or losing. Yet they change through those challenges. They gain experience which allows the potential for them to help others. Thus, you see them save the people they love at the end.

Either way, this is the story of two different yet similar heroes. There's a audio recording and a transcript on said recording. Still, I hope you all enjoy the powerpoint, listen to to audio, and read the transcript.

 

Cometa

Over in our Humanities class, we learned about stories and myths. We have gone to multiple FEs, one of them being at the Field Museum, where we learned the myths of central America and Egypt. So, for a project, or more better phrase, and Action Project.

First, I was want to stay is this story is in first person. The main reason being is so that the main character, being the brother of the creator, can be able to see her as all powerful, and reflect his feelings on to the audience. Second, I also want to say that this is the third version of the myth. The first and second version was too long, trying to establish character. Because of this, this project was extremely hard with not coming up with ideas, but rather simplifying it.

Third, I want to say that the creation of the two characters as well as the people stems from the idea of Genesis Adam and Eve, with them being created from a power in the sky, as well as the dirt from the ground. Even though it does have some major changes. Still, I hope you all enjoy.

I have never been the one to tell stories, nor the one to remember, but I suppose it’s for the best. My light will go out anyway, so you all might as well learn. But I can’t be able to tell you one part, one section, one place. I have to tell you the whole thing. I have to go back, back before I was even born.

My guess is we were a comet, and crashed on a planet, thus it’s name Cometa. Though, that’s only through speculation. For a long time, I could not feel anything. Then, as the days went by, I started to gain my sense, and I finally woke up in cool surfaced dirt. As I woke up, I saw a girl, crying in the middle of the ground. Even though I haven’t met her, I knew she and I were from the same place. I tried running towards her, but felt something when on the heated ground. It was like the flames of a sun was fiercely grabbing my hand and holding me tight. I quickly retreated back in the cool dirt, and watched her cry in agony. We looked at each other, both in pain.

Then, like mercy from the sky, the mist of her tears began to cry for her. It healed her wounds quickly, and swiftly cooled the ground, becoming clouds. As it end, she stood up slowly and walked towards me.

After that day, we decided to explore the terrain. But there was nothing but rocks and mountains as grey as her hair. One day, when we were walking by, we saw a comet blazing quick through the sky. Quickly, without hesitation, my sister ran towards our crater and came back some cool dirt. She then dropped it in a near by puddle, and waited for something to happen. Within seconds, a unknown material rose from the puddle, and scrapped the heavens. Using the material as a lasso, she grabbed a hold of the comet. The comet struggled and screamed, but with one mighty tug, he fell down to the ground. Before we ran to the crash site, I saw the used material, broken and torn. I knew it wouldn’t live, so I dug a ditch deeper than the seas and buried the material. 

When I caught up with my sister, the comet that fell was dead. While I saw the comet crack into two pieces, I realized my origin, and I felt like there should be more. I vigorously cut the remains into tiny pieces, and let it sink into the ground.

As time passed, we both saw that the material grew. I saw that it growing in different directs, colors, and uses. Soon, a whole diversity of wonderful plants came to be. The forest was born. As for the people, my sister and I both saw them create things. They would always build, break, or fight and were quite entertaining.

We weren’t the only ones though . Stars and comets began to spy along the heavens. Overtime, I began to know the stars better. They said their lives were boring, doing nothing but float. When they heard about “mortals” on Cometa, they immediately came. For a short time, everything was good.

The only problem was my sister. She didn’t care for the stars, only the mortals. Whenever, she went to see them, they would worship her immensely. She thought the more mortals there were, the better. She would capture a star, kill them, and cut them all to pieces for mortals to grow.

J.N, "Cometa" Own work  Oct 1, 2017 

When all celestial bodies heard, they immediately went back up in the sky. All except one star, whom I knew. He pleaded me to help him stay hidden from my sister. After seconds of thought, I decide the best way to hide would be beneath the planet. We worked on weeks on helping creating tunnels and caverns until they were finally done. As we traveled through the tunnels, I saw that everywhere he went, pieces of him would be left behind.The were a bit small. I ignored it. One day, I couldn’t find him. I searched all around the tunnels and saw his broken essence turn to gem. When I finally found him, he was dying .Too much of him was left behind. Like a flame blown out, his light was gone. His body, glimmering through the dark caves. His body turned to diamond.

I grieved for my friend, became weak. If went back to my sister, she would just be angry at me for keeping a star hidden. She tried look for me, but gave up along time ago. In some ways, I wished that she and I were still alone. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so sad.

Fennec Fox, and how Taxonomy rules them all.

In STEAM class, we learned and studied the behavior of animals such as Chimpanzees and other primates. We also about set theory, taxonomy, and much more. On a field experience we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We studies animals such as primates, birds, and much more. This is why for our first Action Project, we had to research and make an art piece about an animal we choose. The one I choose was the Fennec fox, mainly because it was related to canidae(dog,wolf, etc). I also believe it was more unique that a wolf or a dog since it lives in hot climates.

As for the project, what I did was I made a video with still images rather than a single image. The reason I did this was to give my project more of an identity, as well as help with my portfolio. Even if it doesn’t look ideal for portfolio, it still looks unique. What I’m most proud of is the video, and what I’m least proud of is shooting for the film. I didn’t have any tripods, so I had to shot each frame by hand. Still, I hope you enjoy the video, thank you.



After working after this project, I have to admit it was hard. I mean it was already difficult to do what I was supposed to do, and I want to take it three steps up. First, I would like to say that what took me the least amount of time would be the actual research. It was also the most critical part, as well as the only necessary part. All the other work from the video to the audio to every image was all because I wanted to do this. The hardest part was drawing every single image and every single frame. After I did the project, I was so relieve that was able to finish it on time and that I was able to create everything I could. I am extremely proud of this project, and I hoped you all liked it.

If you didn't see the chart, here it is. The bottom is snowy owl.

J.N Chart 9/26/17

Heres an image that inspired a part of my video.

Charles Barilleaux Fennec Fox Cub flickr.com “Flickr” 9/23/12

Chocolate, and the story, you never knew.

On my spring term in GCE Lab school, I started at studying the history of how food travels throughout the world, and how much manpower it takes for a 99 cent burger to get to your home. We have gone though multiple projects and assignments, as well as multiple field experience. For this class , my class and I had to create a presentation that needed to talk about the history of a specific substance or food. Our course, I had decided to go a bit further, and animate my project in order to relate to myself more.

I had multiple challenges with this project, mainly with the time. When trying to do animation, it would take a large amount of time in order to do so. Sadly, I didn't gain high animation quality. I did however tried to animate the project, and that is what is my succession. While most of my classmates tried to do their project on a slideshow or prezi, I decide to go a step beyond, which I am proud of.

I just a talk about my family, and how they relate to this project. In order to create this project, I had to interview my family in order to gan a better understanding of the food. My family was a bit more related to my food, chocolate, do to their hispanic origins of Colombia, as well as my father being digesting more natural substance of chocolate, the cocoa bean. I just want to say that I am happy about my family's origins, since they had such an interesting history, and is great to explore.

AP Food for Thought 2 from JN on Vimeo. 

 Pucciarelli, Deanna "The History of Chocolate"  ed.ted.com , TED,  March .16. 2017. Web., April 26, 2017

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-history-of-chocolate-deanna-pucciarelli

Klein, Christopher "The Sweet History of Chocolate."