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Nadir Meeks Capstone

Posted by Nadir Meeks in Capstone - Block - Wed on

For my capstone i decided to originally host a talent show. In the beginning I had to round up talented individuals to serve as the talent for my show. I gathered singers, dancers and a little bit of everything else in between. This process showed two of SLA’s core values, research and collaboration. After I had everything in place so that the show wouldn’t suck, I needed actual permission to hold the show. I struggled with part, wanting to do everything myself I waited until the very last minute to ask teachers and Lehmann if it was ok to have the show. Sadly due to the short notice my wonderful idea of a talent show shattered once reality hit it. I had waited too long to ask for permission to host the show which made the show a liability to the school. This meant my beautiful show went bust, leaving me to do a 10 page research paper on the different way people learn to make up for it. While the talent show didn’t go a float I did learn a lot about planning and actually setting one up so that in the future I won’t make the same mistake twice.
Taent show
​Here's a small excerpt from my 10 page paper:

Almost always first on the three different types learners list, and who this research paper is going to be most effective for, visual learners are first on deck to talk about. Before we delve into the deep dark secrets of how a visual learner retains information best, we must know what exactly a visual learner is. A visual learner is someone who learns best by using visual stimuli, ence the name visual learner. Visual stimuli consist of books, pictures, flashcards, colors, etc. Any type of information that can be given solely through vision would considered visual stimuli. The thing that makes these learners special is, they can visualize anything and they’re pretty good at it. Visual learners learn effectively when they draw what they hear, go over flashcards, color code information, and write down and read over information and keywords over and over again. These are the type of people who you’ll usually find doodles invading the sides of their notebook. Surprisingly, according to the Social Science Research Network about 65% of the general population are considered visual learners. Which explains why over the course of our existence we’ve used pictures, drawings, symbols and any form of written literature to give information to one another. This is also something to be expected of today due to our technological advancements. Since we live in fast paced screen filled world where we are fed our favorite shows, news and advertisements through our phones, televisions and computers, there will be more visual learners in the upcoming younger generation. Thanks to this overload of information at the tips of our fingers attention spans of children have gotten shorter by at least. At a glance this might seem like a bad thing, but this tweaks the wiring in their brain so that the younger generation can pick up information faster through visual stimuli. With more and more children becoming fast paced visual learners eventually we will move away from reading long texts to a much more quicker, efficient way to teach.

​Bibliography

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jv-LaanbafTKezd3U6PcBjuN08yoU9zWH-lqys3QICk/edit?usp=sharing

Lloyd Williams Capstone

Posted by Lloyd Williams in Capstone - Block - Wed on

Abstract:For my capstone I created a tabletop rpg, named The People RPG. I chose to create this game, because throughout my time at SLA I saw many people who wanted to get into tabletop gaming, mostly though Dungeons and Dragons, but they were put off by the complexity of it.​ TPRPG embodies all of the core elements of tabletop gaming (storytelling, character creation, dice rolling), but cuts out many of the more tedious parts of the process.

The first incarnations of TPRPG was much more complex, as it was mostly a direct clone of Dungeons and Dragons, dumbed down for simplicities sake. This led to the game being patently unfun. After many playtest I found that the players had the most fun when they could tell the story they wanted to tell, with their own interesting and unique characters. This eventually led to rebuilding the system from the ground up, with a focus on being quick, easy to play, and entirely player driven. This version of the game led to a much more comfortable game, where players made it their own from the very beginning.

More than anything this project taught me the importance of having outside testers and peer review. Without frequent testing by people who are willing to give honest, critical feedback, I never would have progressed as far as I did. In a consumer based product such as a tabletop game, there is no real way to know what the people want, other than letting them tell you.
PlayersGuide

Pramas, Chris. Dragon Age RPG - Players Guide. N.p.: Green Ronin, 2012. Print.

The Dragon Age Tabletop RPG was the original inspiration for my capstone project. It is similar to many other tabletop rpgs, such as dungeons and dragons, but struck me as distinctly different due to its simple combat, low cost investment, and pre written stories. This book is the source of many of the mechanic that I plan to implement in my own game, including the verbal combat system, and the short, simple story arcs.


"Some Rules for Developing and Playtesting Tabletop RPGs."Danmaruschakcom. N.p., 05 July 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

This source details the necessity of playtesting, and how to have highly effective playtesting sessions. Some of the more important strategies mentioned include, recording your playtest, having natural play sessions, play the game it’s meant to be played, be willing to change mechanics, and make note of issues, but don’t dwell on them.  These tips assure that playtesting makes the game as a whole better, as opposed to being influenced by your own feelings, or those of individual players.


Pen and Paper Gaming in the 21st Century. Perf. Erik Mona. Paizo, 2009. Youtube.

In this talk Erik Mona speaks on the place of tabletop rpgs in the modern era. This source is important because it shows just how reluctant people are to participate in tabletop rpgs in this day and age. Tabletop rpgs have always been a niche topic, but in recent years they have fallen deeper and deeper into obscurity. It will take a truly encapsulating premise to assure that new people join.


Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1972. Print.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces details the common threads behind stories that have spanned the generations. He points out the importance of a hero that you can look up to and stand for, which I believe is doubly true in the case of an rpg. People want to see an epic story that has them as the lead, that saves the day, and when writing scenarios I must remember these points to create an engaging story.


Life With a Dice Bag. Dir. Mason Booker. Perf. Peter Adkinson. May Sun Productions, 2004. DVD.

Life WIth a Dice bag is a documentary about the people who play tabletop rpgs, as well as the evolution of tabletop gaming. This source is of great use to me because it talks in detail about the things that keep tabletop rpgers coming back, namely the unique stories, and endless customization options. This is extremely important to my project, which tries to encapsulate both long time tabletop fans, and those who have never experienced the genre.


"So You Want To: Write A Tabletop RPG." So You Want To/Write A Tabletop RPG. Tvtropes, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

Tvtropes has a long standing history of being the wiki for quirks and tropes and fiction, but has expanded to be so much more. This crowd written article details many of the oft overlooked steps of creating a tabletop RPG, including all of the things you have to consider regarding demographic, complexity, difficulty, and genre. It points out that you have to make sure you are filling a niche market so as to get people to come to your game in particular.


Pathfinder Role Playing Game Dungeon Masters Guide. N.p.: Paizo, n.d. Print.

For many Dungeons and Dragons is the first RPG they will ever experience, and the Pathfinder RPG is the most popular version of D&D. This guide in particular is an expansion on the core rules of the game, and details many experiences that are less common, and not crucial to play. This source taught me that I have to keep in mind that players may do something no explicitly covered in the rules, and give them a way to resolve this within the bounds of the rules.


Tabletop. Perf. Wil Wheaton. Geek and Sundry, n.d.

This web series shows Wil Wheaton, along with other famous nerd icons, playing a wide variety of tabletop games from all different styles, genres, and systems. This series was very important to my research because it shows the difference between different games, and emphasizes the point that tabletop rpg is not a narrow enough topic, and that there are many tough decisions that must be made in regards to the tone and the style of the game, before I get too far into production.


Kenny Nguyen Capstone

Posted by Kenny Nguyen in Capstone - Block - Wed on

​For my capstone, I worked with Penelope Deoliveira to create a video game using Unity. The game is about people wondering around in a village once they enter the 4th floor of SLA. The 4th floor is known to be off limits. For fun, we created a story where a SLA student walks into the 4th floor and enters into a different world. The SLA student then roams around the village to collect the 5 core values of SLA, Inquiry, Research, Collaboration, Presentation, and Reflection. After collecting the diamonds, representing the 5 core values, the student then fights the “Benchmark,” which is a monster voiced by a math teacher. To make it even better, we both went around the school looking for students and teachers to record their voices and put that into the game.

      We were inspired by this project because we both had prior knowledge in codings from our internship at Temple University. Our outside mentor is Michael Korostelev from Temple and he has been helping us with our video game project throughout the school year. We constantly get in contact with Michael through emails for help with our codings and to debug our codes.

     My role as Penelope’s partner is to research what tools we should use and where/what models to use for NPC and wrote some of the codes for the game. Penelope’s role is work on the environments and coding missions and scenes. We brainstormed a lot of ideas together and we were able to make an awesome game with the involvement of the SLA community.



Unity
Unity
Menu
Menu
SLA backstair
SLA backstair
Gameplay
Gameplay
Bibliography

  • "Amplitude Studios Chose Unity." Unity. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://unity3d.com/>.

    • This is the website that we will be using to download a program called “Unity.” Unity is a coding engine to make 3D games by inserting in codes. This is the main program that we will be using for our capstone. Penelope and I found this coding engine because we heard it from a gaming website and it sounded interested to us because it has a lot of customizations for coding. Unity is also beneficial because it has a lot of support on coding. It has a coding support website for coders that needs help. Overall, this is what we are using to code. This program is new to us, so we are working with an outside mentor from Temple.


  • "C Games and Graphics Code Examples." C Games and Graphics Code Examples. Happy Codings. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://c.happycodings.com/games-and-graphics/>.

    • I find this website useful because it has different codings on different scenarios and events. The coding is already done but they need to be modified into our objects and integrated into our video gaming engine, Unity. Since our video game is a fantasy video game, a lot of things can happen from this website because of the already done codings. Some codings would be integrated into our game because it would actually make the game more enjoyable and pleaseable to the player. Some of these codes are extremely different and that’s why we got a mentor from Temple to help us with this project.


  • "Getting Started with Unity | Unity Cookie." Unity Cookie Getting Started with Unity Comments. Unity Cookie. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://cgcookie.com/unity/getting-started-with-unity/>.

    • This website is somewhat like a forum for coders in Unity. But it is primarily a resource where a user posts introductions to Unity from downloading and installing to scripting. It is a video tutorial done by this user that is highly proficient with Unity and has his own websites to help others. The website is also integrated with a community forum where coders posts problems or conflicts they may have and someone resolves it when they see it. So I find that very interesting and useful. The tutorials topics are organized pretty well. It’s almost all the things we would need to make the video game. It has tutorials on physics, which is needed for the video game of SLA.


  • Hart, Richard. "Create Your On Video Game | Unity 3D Turorial - Udemy." Udemy. Udemy. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <https://www.udemy.com/unity-tutorial/>.

    • I find this source to be the most helpful of all so far. The user, Richard Hart, demonstrates the different functionalities of what the gaming engine Unity can do. He goes in depth and step by step tutorials on coding 3D games. It is like an online course for learning Unity. Unity has a built in coding system, so some of the objects and actions’ codes don’t need to be looked up or created. That’s a neat thing about Unity. We can do more from what is already provided from Unity. Using this website, we would be able to get a stronger grasp on the different types of codes applicable for a 3D game.


  • "How to Learn Unity - Tuts Game Development Article." Game Development Tuts. Tuts, 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-learn-unity--gamedev-1333>.

    • I find this article useful because it gives advices and hacks for the Unity gaming engine. Learning how to code is one thing, but learning how to learn and use Unity is another structure. The article gives insights on what is relevant and what is irrelevant in learning Unity. The article is primarily for beginners who is new to Unity, which is myself and my partner. Since my partner and I are relatively new to Unity, we will need to learn from the beginning and how to approach. We don’t want to jump start anything and forgetting about the minor details.


  • "Learn to Code." Codecademy. Code Academy. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.      <http://www.codecademy.com/>.

    • During my summer internship at Temple, this is the website where we started off using for our summer project on coding. This website is all about coding from beginners to advance coders. It has many coding language from PHP, CSS, HTML, and Java. At my internship, everybody started off with coding on this website. This had benefited me a lot because it gives you practice lessons then after practice lessons, my mentor at Temple gave us a project to do based on what we learned on Code Academy. So I find that website very beneficial to me and probably to my partner as well in creating this video game for our capstone.


  • Rauschmayer, Axel. Speaking JavaScript. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, 2014. Print.

    • This is an online book on javascripting. And the primary language code that would will be using is Java scripting. The book has a lot of contents and topics on Javascripts so that would be very helpful. Javascripting is still kind of rough to me so I will definitely be getting help on this from the online book and our mentors. I have had some experiences with Javascripting during my summer internship, so it’s kind of rough to me right now. But reading the book and getting help will definitely help us in making this video game. Javascripting is the primary language that will be used.


  • "Unity Community." Unity Community. Unity. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://forum.unity3d.com/>.

    • This is a forum directly from Unity. Users posts their insights and their troubles with Unity for other people to help out. This is helpful for us because whenever we have conflicts we could talk to our mentors and post our conflict in the forum for other coders to look at and help us. In addition to the support, the forum has a lot of resources and add ons that can be imported into Unity to make gaming more enjoyable. The resources are open to everyone online. Another good thing is the forum is always up to date, users posts daily. It’s not like a forum that is just there and never been touched. Users are constantly active and helping each other out, so that is a plus for us.


  • "What Language Is Used To Develop Using Unity." Unity3d. Stack Exchange, 1 Jan. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4989689/what-language-is-used-to-develop-using-unity>.

    • Firstly, we have been running into issues on what language we need to use for gaming. We made several theories and thoughts and it worked out. This website just gives more insights from other professional coders on what language is necessary. The website has a single question posted by one user and other users join in and answer the question on what language is used in Unity. Their answers are very high quality because they based it on their experiences and seeing which language code is more convenient. Users gives insights on different types of codes, which is very helpful for us in differentiating which language to use.


  • "50 Tips for Working with Unity (Best Practices)." Devmagorgza. Dev Mag, 12 July 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://devmag.org.za/2012/07/12/50-tips-for-working-with-unity-best-practices/>.

    • Since coding is a messy process and very tedious, this article gives a lot of helpful advices and tips on coding such as organizations of codes and color coding. One of the key things in coding is organizations I find this useful because I feel like we would run into a lot of conflicts and confusion just because the codes aren’t labeled or isn’t very well organized. So having advices on how to organize codes would be extremely helpful. These tips and advices are specifically for Unity. There are many new things that I never knew of until reading the article. Additionally, it’s our first approach to Unity as well.

Marshall Woodruff Capstone

Posted by Marshall Woodruff in Capstone - Block - Wed on

​Abstract

EVAN is a short film that I directed. It was created, filmed and edited over the course of three months and required over a hundred hours on just my part to make it happen. During the course of the project, I collaborated with Sieanna Williams as my co-writer and co-cinematographer, Brian Birkmire and Jenny Cruz as the main actors, and about ten other actors and crew members and Douglas Herman to make it happen. Over the course of three months, I learned about what it is like to shoot on at least a semi-professional film set and learned new VFX processes like CGI face replacements. So far, the short film has gone on to place first in the narrative film category at the Regional TSA conference and we are in the process of submitting it to the New York Film Festival. 


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9VyIraTtq8scjVORUhSMlhIb3M/view?usp=sharing


Bibliography

"Who Goes There?" True Detective HBO, Feb 9 2014

This was the episode that contained the six minute long take that was used as part of the inspiration for the cinematography of EVAN. This video provided information on the things that you can achieve in modern cinema. I couldn't find out how exactly they pulled off the shot because there was no behind the scenes footage that divulged into what they did. But coming from a film background, it was easy to figure that they used a steady cam and a lot of hours to coordinate it. the actual time it took to film that one shot was 18 hours.

"Simple Tricks and Nonsense Episode 16: Face Replacement." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BM7dv3pEjc>.

This video didn't provide any help with me in After Effects. I just used it as a source to confirm what I had already figured out as what to do for the face replacement scene.

"Adobe After Effects - Introduction and Basics." YouTube. YouTube, 21 Feb. 2010. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5t0C_1kgFQ>.

This is a video provided me with an introduction to After Effects. it taught me the basics so I could build a foundation for the special effects for all my projects.

"Intro to After Effects." YouTube. YouTube, 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 16 Mar. 2013. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pih0oGJik5Q>.

This is another video that I accessed in order to learn After Effects.


I don't really have any other sources for this short film because I didn't really need outside sources for help on this. Also, films don't really come with bibliographies. It's not like I googled "how to make a short film" because I didn't. I used the one take for inspiration, but all the majorly helpful youtube videos I saw on shot composition and one takes were seen after principle photography and editing took place. And for the stunts, I just used common sense. I saw that a jump had to take place so I put cushions in the landing zone. And when it came time to literally replace my face with Brian's, I had no other achievable example to work off of, so I used my knowledge on after effects o figure out that we needed to shoot Brian's face on a green screen at the right angle to superimpose over the original footage.

And as for all the "science" in the video. Nothing was researched because the technology doesn't exist. So I made up how the dream machine was supposed to look.





Jordyn Randall Capstone

Posted by Jordyn Randall in Capstone - Block - Wed on

For my Capstone, I performed skits from the sitcom “In Living Color” for entertainment purposes. One of the purposes of this project was to practice performing more than one character in a small allotted amount of time. This is important for me because I plan to go to college majoring in Theater, then later graduate with my BFA (Bachelors in Fine Arts) and spend my life performing in plays, musicals, and films as a career. I had to show complete distinction between each of the character that I played. Even though I did take the scripts from “In Living Color”, I did add my little twist on some things and give all credits to “In Living Color” writers of course. After I searched for skits that I felt were perfect for me, I had to think of the people that I thought would be perfect for certain roles. When I found the actors that I wanted to use, it was a little hard to work with everyone’s different schedules, which is why I wasn’t able to do as many skits as I would’ve liked. However, it still worked out because this project helped me to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, which I will have to do frequently in the acting realm. I wanted to help my community by entertaining them. The emotional state of the members of my community is just as important as their physical state.

Bibliography:



"SNL Highlight: Girls Promo." YouTube. YouTube, 29 Sept. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=female+skits+on+snl

This is a comedic skit on SNL. It’s about a group of girlfriends who are all very unique and going through very different problems in their life. Later they meet another girl from Albernia who becomes their friend and helps them with their problems, which makes all of their lives even more interesting. This source was helpful because it gave me another option for a skit to use. One limitation of this skit is that it’s so much going on in the film it may be harder for me to do it. I found YouTube helpful most importantly because they never let me down when it comes to finding scenes or skits from shows or movies.


"How to Improve Video Quality." WikiHow. Mediawiki, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Video-Quality

This website gives good tips on different ways to edit your videos. This was very helpful because I’m my final product is going to be a film and I’m going to need a lot of help editing. I like how this website goes step by step on what to do and had many other techniques to use on making movies. This website provides information on different editing applications I could use. I selected this source because I need to learn how to edit nicely to have my finished product looking swell. One limitation of this source is that it’s “wiki” so whether it’s as reliable as it says it is.


"In Living Colour - Go On Girl." YouTube. YouTube, 27 Mar. 2009. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vogAflT4h18

This is a skit about a woman who has show called “Go On Girl”. This is a show that’s suppose to empower women to remind them that they can do anything without a man,. She has two guest women on the show who talk about how the recently broke it off with their boyfriends. The skit later shows that these two women are actually with the same guy, which makes the skit more interesting. This source was helpful because it gave me another skit to use for my film. One limitation about this source is whether I’m going to be able to use the people that I want to use for this skit.


"In Living Color - Oprah Winfrey Show-[legendado Portugues]." YouTube. YouTube, 6 June 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxrKA_MQxO0

This is a skit that’s based off of Oprah Winfrey and her show. Oprah has three couples on her show who are all having problems. The couples would explain their situation and Oprah would always take the women’s side explaining how the man is no good for the woman. Which makes it interesting is that Oprah is eating a bunch of food during the show, and comparing her relationship life to their situation. I selected this source because, I could possibly use this skit for my film. One limitation about this source is whether I’m going to be able to use the people I want to use for this skit.


"In Living Color: Andrea Dice Clay on Love Connection." YouTube. YouTube, 13 June 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbIRiDaCxLo

This skit is based off the old show Love Connection. There’s a rock and roll type of lady and a sweet man who went on a date. The lady talks about how bad the date was and how much of a punk the man is and the man talks about how scary the lady is. What makes it interesting is that the host of the show is really trying hard to get the couple to go on another date despite how bad the first one was. The two decided to give the date another try. I chose this source because This could be one of the skits I could use. One limitation about this source is whether I’m going to be able to use the people I want to use for this skit.


"In Living Color Milli Vanilli HD]." YouTube. YouTube, 4 Oct. 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVpItnFES_4

This skit is called Milli Vanilli. It’s about two brothers who have a show and they are promoting a Milli Vanilli kit which has some of their different products that can help the public be just like Milli Vanilli. What makes the skit interesting is that items that they are promoting are mop wigs, contact lenses cases, and dvd’s that can help you to have horrible accents just like Milli Vanilli. I picked this source because I could possibly use this skit. One limitation about this source is whether I’m going to be able to use the person I want to for this skit.


"How to Improve the Quality of Video." Improve the Quality of Your Video. Movavi, 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

http://www.movavi.com/support/how-to/enhance.html

This source shows different tools you can use to enhance your film quality by downloading different apps. What I really like about this source is that it shows the before and after of the quality and how well it really changes. It also gives you different downloads and what to use those downloads for. I picked this source because I’m going to be making a film at the end of my project and I’m going to need different tricks and tips on how to enhance my film quality. One limitation about this source is that it doesn’t really go step by step on what to do and how to do it.


Becker, Christine. "Acting for the Cameras: Performance in the Multi-Camera Sitcom." Mediascape. UCLA's Journal and Media Studies, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

http://www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/Spring08_ActingForTheCameras.html

This source talked about how sitcoms and usually set up their cameras and how they transfer over from one camera to the next. What i like about this source is that it’s very credible because they compare the different sitcoms and how they did their products. I would use this source because I’m going to be filming my skits and I’m going to be changing the camera to different angles. One limitation about this source is that I’m not going to be changing the camera angles the way the professionals do in sitcoms.


"In Living Color - Racism Skit." YouTube. YouTube, 9 Apr. 2011. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La4DNXzdLhU

This is a skit about a guy who’s uncle dies in the cave where they lived. So he leaves the cave and comes in contact with the real world and he still thinks he is in slavery times. What makes it interesting is that he’s in the 90’s and the people he comes in contact with thinks he’s just crazy. I chose this source because I could possibly use this skit for my final product. One limitation I may have is not having the people that I want to play the roles that I want them to play, and that I may have to shorten the skit.


"In Living Color - Snackin' Shack - Season 1 Episode 6." YouTube. YouTube, 27 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m__CbXiUIo

This skit is about a couple who goes to this restaurant for the first time called the “Shackin’ Shack”. What makes the skit interesting is that everyone in the restaurant has their own perks about them, which makes the couples experience at the restaurant very interesting. I chose this source because I could use this skit for my final product. I found this source useful because there are so many characters in the play there are so many different characters I can play. One limitation about this is whether I’m going to be able to use all the people that I want to use for the skit.


Donesha Lee Capstone

Posted by Donesha Lee in Capstone - Block - Wed on

Abstract

This year has been quite interesting through the perspective of my capstone. I ended up changing my capstone to something I could not be more proud to present. Both me and my partner Lala through the weeks of April 20th, 2015 to May 1, 2015 hosted spirit week in order to help with fundraising for an academic scholarship we created. We began our Capstone by first fundraising for a scholarship award we titled The B.A.S.I.S. The B.A.S.I.S is a non-profit organization capstone that helped to fund money for students pay to for the annual "$75 Laptop Insurance". So that majority of the SLA student next year could have the opportunity to win the chance to not pay the insurance from their own inconvenienced pockets. However, we were notified that the amount for laptop insurance changed from $75 to around $40. Thus, in our first fundraising session we raised enough for 2 students to win. Based, on these numbers we decided to place the winnings between the sophomores and juniors of next year. Also, the seniors will have their own chance to win, only in their grade pool. Lastly, we will be donating a fresh lab coat, that the teachers can award to an incoming freshman for next year. In order to make people aware of this amazing opportunity we hosted spirit week.The first time we did spirit week we made it "People's Choice", where students got to decide on what days we did for that week. The next week was committee chosen. Both week’s were successful. Overall, the capstone I will be presenting in more detail was a wonderful success. 



Besides why wouldn’t anyone want to be a Bold. And. Successful. Intelligent. Scholar.


Spirit Week Days


The following days within the slideshow are some of our most successful days within spirit week. They were determined by the number of people who participated.

Annotated Bibliography

I noticed that my project really related to self empowerment and knowing “who you are in his world”. You need to be confident with yourself, in order to dress up.  Spirit Week has a lot of days that are not very socially acceptable. Thus, the reasoning behind me focusing on subjects such as “self-confidence”. So, I decided to focus on these areas for my research.

Source (1): "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are." Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are. TEDGloba, June june 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2015.

Link

This source provided information about body language. Amy Cuddy the social psychologist speaks about her take on how “body language shapes who you are”. She says that “power posing” or standing with confidence, even though you may not have confidence will help with your succession. She makes her point on how it will affect a person’s “testosterone” and the “cortisol levels in the brain”. Basically, if you act like you have together, then you will have it together. Confidence is a huge factor within this capstone. It takes a lo tout of people to come in wearing pj’s or a superhero costume. 

Source (2): Chamberlin, Judi. "National Empowerment Center - Articles." A Working Definition of Empowerment. National Empowerment Center, 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

Link

This source provided to be useful for its explanations on empowerment. It begins with explaining the definition, but shifts into what actually can be used to define the term. It speaks about “the elements” or empowerment. Consisting of “ Having decision-making power”, “Assertiveness”, and even “Understanding that people have rights”. It breaks it down very well using other element of empowerment as well.  It finishes up with “empowerment and rehabilitation”, where discusses that forming an empowerment has both rises and falls. Empowerment starts within and it takes a lot to use.

Source (3): Gbla, Khadija. "My Mother's Strange Definition of Empowerment." Watch Later Favorite Download Rate Khadija Gbla:. TEDxCanberra, Oct. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.

Link

This source provides information about two different definitions of empowerment. Speaker Khadija Gbla grew up in a world with two different definitions of the word empowerment. Gbla’ s mother thought circumcising her daughter, to eliminate any and all sexual urges was empowerment. However, the culture of Australia taught her that it was okay to want pleasure and that what her mother did was “female genital mutilation”. She explains what it was like living in a “clitoris-centric society”, and her struggle to make sure women never find this out about her. You have to be content with your body, in order to accessorize it. 

Source (4):Bronson, Mary H., and Don Merki. Glencoe Health. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.

The source provided great information on body language, helping other with their emotions, and emotions. It hits on some of the most known body language between people, signs of a persons emotions, and how to deal with some issues. It provides both the problems and resolutions for people’s life struggles. For example, the signs of when a person needs help list “feeling trapped or worrying all the time”, and “becoming increasingly aggressive, violent, or reckless”. It also list the benefits of gaining help during a person’s troubling times. The source overall is one of the best I have chosen in my research for my project.

Source (5): Rowlands, Jo. Questioning Empowerment: Working with Women in Honduras. Oxford: Oxfam, 1997. Print.

Link

I found this resource helpful for all of the information it provided about empowerment through the sexes. Jo Rowlands the author questions empowerment throughout the book. Rowlands explains  how “empowerment” is used so often, yet not fully defined. Through out the book empowerment is studied further about what it actually means. Giving examples of men and women and comparing the way they each approach situations. Rowlands explains how women were empowered in order to frame their experiences. The overall conclusion being that women can be empowered without major changes.


Source (6):   Bronson, Mary H., and Don Merki. Glencoe Health. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.

Link

This source was a little hard to connect to my project at first, but then I found it helpful. People go through life with either a “growth” or “fixed” mind set. A person with a “growth” mindset will reach higher levels. While, a “fixed” mindset wouldn’t amount to their full potential. Knowing about these terms will allow a person to understand their issues better enough to correct them using a more effective pathway. Marla Popova the author uses many quotes to describe the difference, and which one a person should flex more in their everyday life. In order to do spirit week you need to have a growth mindset.


Source (7): "The Effort Effect." Stanford Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

Link

In this source the author explains that a person can be more successful and push past their expectations for themselves, by just embracing their mistakes. This is something I really want our program to really make notice of to our kids. When you understand your mistakes, you learn from them. I feel like our program would thrive if it were to have a motto or “saying” behind it. Most programs with a quote or reference display a sense of unity, which I believe our project should have within it. 


Source (8): "Youth Psychology." Laura Thomas, Ph.D. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.

Link

This source explains all of the common issues within young adolescent and young adults. They struggle with some of the same issues, however deal with them very differently. A teenager may deal with the loss of someone by crying or shutting out others around them. Opposed to a child who may not even recognize the person is missing. The source would allow me to understand how people process their emotions, through different experiences. 


Source (9): "7 Ways Stress Does Your Mind and Body Good." Ideastedcom. N.p., 16 July 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2015.


Link

The source provided information about how a person stress can both heal and damage the body. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal changes the perspective of things that we originally believe about stress. She tells her patients that stress can lead to other major illnesses, but something came up and changed her perspective. It changes everything around about how people truly view stress. Spirit Week was also created to help with some of the stress happening a the time. here were a lot of standards and benchmarks and a lot of  people were freaking out. It was supposed to help relieve some stress. 


Source (10): "Want to Be Happier? Stay in the Moment." Matt Killingsworth:. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


Link

This source discussed about whether or not humans are happy. A researcher named Matt Killingsworth decided to find out using an app. He named it track your happiness, and it reports them back their emotions. His discovery was that we find ourselves the most happiest when we get lost in the moment. feel when people are more educated about how to interpret their emotions, they can succeed further in life. 



Michael Nicolella Capstone

Posted by Michael Nicolella in Capstone - Block - Wed on

Abstract:

For my capstone, I wanted to do something out of my comfort zone, so I thought that it would be a good idea to teach the freshman of SLA about stars and how everything came to be in the universe. I worked alongside Alex Held, Richard Yoeun, and Brycen Itzko and together we taught the broad topic of astronomy over a four week period to the freshman. 

Much of this capstone consisted of planning out the hour and a half long lesson and making sure that the point got across through various activities and power point slides. I'd say that the most important thing that I have learned from this capstone was how to lead effectively, because when you are the teacher, you are the leader. You must guide the students in the direction that you want to teach them.

Presentation: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45339378/Capstone%20Presentation%20Michael%20Nicolella.pdf

Pictures: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/45339378/Pictures%20of%20Capstone.pdf


Bibliography:


1) "Stars - NASA Science." Stars - NASA Science. NASA, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. <http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve/>.

This source is about the formation and destruction of stars. It basically talks about how stars are formed or born and how they get destroyed or die. It also goes into the many different ways stars end, like for example they make black holes or make a supernova and explode. I would consider this source very reliable, because it is from NASA. This source will mainly be used to inform me so that I actually know what I am talking about when I present It also is useful because at the bottom, it gives me links to pictures of all types of stars and things relating to this topic.


2) Greicius, Tony, and Brian Dunbar. The Dark Heart of the King. Digital image.NASA.gov. NASA, 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/gallery/pia13129.html>.

This source is a picture of a cloud of dust and gas that is located in the constellation of Cepheus. The significance of this picture is that this is the stuff that stars are formed from. This would be a good example to show to the class because I want to have something visual in my presentation that will gain the interest of the students. This source would be considered very reliable because it was taken from one of NASA’s own telescopes and it is from their website. Although this source does not provide any knowledge to me, it is important to have pictures relating to the topic, especially since it is a presentation.


3) Pitts, Derrick, Sc.D. "Talking about Presentation." Personal interview. 28 Jan. 2015.

This was a conversation that me and Derrick Pitts had about presenting to a class. The main idea that I have gotten from talking to derrick is that I can't just talk to them and tell them what they should know, I need to let them find out themselves by asking questions to the class. One thing I thought stood out was when he said something like “You are not the teacher, you are the guide” I thought that piece of advice was something that I will benefit greatly from when I teach a class. It will make everyone more interested. I think that this source is very reliable because Derrick has been teaching kids at the Franklin for a long time and he has the experience.


4) "Chandra :: Multimedia :: Stellar Evolution Activity." Chandra :: Multimedia :: Stellar Evolution Activity. NASA, Harvard University, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/flash/stellar_evolution.html>.

This source is a good visual representation of the many cycles and forms of stars. They show stars from brown dwarfs to blue supergiants. It is a great source to show to people because it puts in perspective the size of these stars. Also there is sort of an interactive element to this source that lets you click on the different types of stars which gives you some information on it. The reliability of this source is solid because is is on a .edu website and it was done in partnership with Harvard University and NASA.


5) "Stellar Spectral Types." Http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/. Hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/starlog/staspe.html>.

This source talks about the ways that we classify stars that we observe. Usually, we classify them by color and temperature. This system is important because it is how we organize all of these stars that we find when we look through our telescopes and even our own naked eye. I would trust this source because it is a .edu source and they are almost always trustworthy. This source will mainly be used to further my knowledge of how stars are classified so that I know what I am presenting about.


6) Protostar. Digital image. Http://9-6sciencegroup4.wikispaces.com/. Wikispaces, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://9-6sciencegroup4.wikispaces.com/Protostar>.

This picture is mostly just for the presentation. It is a picture of a protostar which is an early version of a star. Protostars are important because they are a good glimpse of how all stars once looked, including our sun. While I would not trust the information located in this source, I know that this picture is a good representation of what we know a protostar looks like.


7) Blue Supergiant. Digital image. NASA.gov. NASA, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/741844main_BSG.jpg>.

This picture is for the presentation that I will be using to teach the class. It is a picture of one of the biggest stars in the galaxy called a Blue Supergiant. This picture is a good way to show how big stars can be and just to show the massive scale of things in our universe. I think that this source is reliable because it is from NASA.gov which is a very reliable source when it comes to space and things involving that topic.


8) Fuchs, Miriam. "Teaching Astronomy." Personal interview. 23 Jan. 2015.

In this interview Miriam was giving useful information on my presentation and telling us how we can incorporate the facts and things like that in our presentations. This is helpful because she graduated college with an astronomy degree, which means she is trusted as a source to tell us these facts. Also one thing that was helpful was that she told us about some activities we can add to the class like making a star and then classifying it.



9) Stovall, Idriss, Ph.D. "Teaching Astronomy." Personal interview. 23 Jan. 2015.

Idriss talked about many useful teaching tips that we can use to engage the audience that we are teaching. For example he talked about the comparison of college students and high school students and how differently you have to teach to engage them. He explained that college students are more self directed, while high school students need to be a little more guided because they might not be as interested as a college student.



10) "Spectral Classification of Stars." Spectral Classification. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://astro.unl.edu/naap/hr/hr_background1.html>.

This source is more about how we classify stars and where we came up with this system called spectral classification. Using things like finding the color and amount of light emitted from stars is very important when it comes to classifying stars.  I think that this will be a useful to expand upon my knowledge of how we classify stars. I know that this source is trustable because it is a .edu website. Also, this source is from a university, which means that the information on this website is reliable.



Jennifer Perez Capstone

Posted by Jennifer Perez in Capstone - Block - Wed on

Abstract:

A year ago, my family had lost a friend due to a battle against breast cancer. Ella Reynov was a brave women who lived happily married and once became a mother of two young children. After her death in April 2014, she inspired me to make a change by helping others that are diagnosed with the sickness because it really hits you, when someone you truly love is hurt by strong medications and painful procedures. Now that senior year was approaching, I decided to dedicate my capstone in the memory of my dearest friend Ella. My overall ideal of having a breast cancer project, I wanted to be supportive and to make a difference for the victims that are fight against cancer. When I was introduced to the Susan G. Komen organization, I always participated to walk the 5K but this year I decided to fundraise and form a team for SLA called “Pink Rockets”, after finding out that in the Philadelphia area about 3.8 million women and 15 counties, 75% were funding for the awareness. To raise money, I sold Pink Rocket t-shirts and created a bake sale along with my partner, Chaveliz Nieves. Overall we made $139 dollars to donate. Anything counts towards breast cancer, either if we were short on money or have big bills. Throughout the year, I also wanted to connect and reach out to other breast cancer patients so I created a mini diary blog on tumblr by sharing stories and reblogging.

Link to Google Slides:

https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/presentation/d/1tcuzaGv07hqOUkGCVoDyfUWWJGxQ-lD3K4tzcmPJXZQ/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Tumblr Page:

http://teampinkrockets.tumblr.com/


Bibliography:


"Breast Cancer Awareness Month | A Little Bit Better With Keri Glassman."YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tD9HVREnnYs>.


This source provides information about Breast Cancer Awareness Month throughout October. The video is presented by Keri Glassman, who is the founder and president of Nutritious Life in New York City. Glassman, has been leading many females to health and wellness plus encouraging other viewers to learn more information about early detection and ways that people can support the fight towards breast cancer. We know that the disease can be aggressive but the video includes tips and advice, that we should be aware for the ones we love. In the channel ‘Living Strong Women’ organization, the source gives plenty of recommendations and definitely helpful to my capstone.


"Pink Ribbons, Inc. Official Trailer #1 (2012) Breast Cancer Documentary HD." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2xY2cxto1M>.


This source is not only an ordinary video, It’s a Breast Cancer documentary. The documentary provides information about marketing campaigns throughout fundraising the awareness. We know that many brands are involved such as New Balance, Fuze, and even the NFL who supports the awareness. Each year, there is an estimation about millions of dollars is raised but the documentary questions, where does the money really go? Is it really donated to the awareness? Are campaigns unfair to Breast Cancer patients? or Does it even achieve? One of the woman in the trailer explains that the disease is able to help raise but also believes that it is being used so that people can profit. It gives good background and helps improve my progress for capstone presentation.


"Breast Cancer - Symptoms and Treatment." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsviAPGfPUo>.


I found this source useful because the video includes information about Breast Cancer. The video is basically in a animation and breaks down of how is cancer transfer to a woman body, also it is scanned as a 2D- 3D video. Describing the facts of what females such as the three different types of Breast Cancer, most women should be aware of the life threatening alert and how to prevent the disease is very important. The Health channel gives support throughout the video and believe it is helpful towards the viewers. I personally think, that this video is very useful because when capstone presentations will begin, I would want to give a short summary of what breast cancer is and how many women are affected each year.



"Are We Fighting Breast Cancer All Wrong?" BuzzFeed. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.buzzfeed.com/annanorth/are-we-fighting-breast-cancer-all-wrong>.


I found this source useful because it is different from other research that I found and it is an infographic about breast cancer. The infographic questions, are we fight breast cancer all wrong? and how much breast cancer research money is spent on prevention? There is enough statistics to look at and discover how is the money is being used. Such as, $87 million is made by Department of defense of 2011 and only 1.1% has been given towards the prevention and the rest is wasted on treatment and survivor outcomes, etc. Another interesting fact that I am able to use for my capstone is that in 1975, there were 105 reports for each 100,000 women with Breast Cancer and 32 years later in 2007, there were 125 reports per 100,000 women.


"8 Things You Didn’t Know Cause Cancer." BuzzFeed. Mark Celestino, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. 

<http://www.buzzfeed.com/celestinomark/8-everyday-things-that-may-give-you-cancer#.kxXKDNYXQv>.


I selected this source because I thought it will be helpful that there are secret ways to get cancer, therefore people should be aware of. These are the type of things that people can get cancer easily such as the processed meat of what we eat, popcorn bags since its filled with perfluorooctanoic acid that is basically a toxic, and farmed salmon that is a high risk of cancer, etc. This can be part of my research for my capstone presentation. I would include how much research I have done and possibly show this video if I am able too but will definitely share the information to the viewers.


"Home | Susan G. Komen®." Home | Susan G. Komen®. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://ww5.komen.org/>.


I found this source very helpful because the Susan G. Komen is the main cite that I will follow up everyday for my capstone. I had set up a group account so I can fundraise and join the 5k walk on mothers day. Almost every other two days, I receive updates and reminders about the charity within how I am able to help out the community with survivors but it even sends me short personal stories. Since, I decided to create a gathering call Pink Rockets, this source will honestly be my best friend throughout the year. It will follow me up of how much I will fundraise and how much effort have I gave.


"Breast Cancer." Breast Cancer. American Cancer Society, n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/>.


This source provides information about breast cancer awareness. It is able to help you find support and treatment, exploring research, learning about cancer of what it is exactly, and how to get involved. We may know what cancer is but people must know that this disease is not easy to recover. We love our mothers and other important females in our life, so therefore we should take care of women. The way this source will help me present my capstone is by explaining the audience of why is it important and how it can impact everyone is a certain type of why. Or even, go around to the students and let them share their experiences with this disease because it is always nice to hear short stories. But mostly, this sources will provide many information and lead me to a good path.


"Fight for Ella Fund." N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <https://mobile.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_express-checkout-mobile&useraction=commit&token=EC-6SG9750153990851B>.


I selected this source because the link will direct to paypal where students, teachers, and friends will be able to donate to ‘Fight for Ella Fund’. You can donate at any amount as you please towards the fund that will help me for the capstone and the organization. This link will be used in my Capstone presentation and website. I will also post statuses on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to see if people will participate and have a good heart to donate. At the final product of my capstone, I will announce how much did we raised and what were the goals.


"Breast Cancer For Dummies." Barnes & Noble. Ronit Elk, Monica Morrow M.D., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/breast-cancer-for-dummies-ronit-elk/1100578787?ean=9780764524820>.


Not only that I would want to look into online sources, It is always good to find information in text books. This book is called, ‘Breast Cancer for Dummies’. It’s a common book that people always use for any situation or guideline. Since, this is about breast cancer,  it will help me understand a lot better of what is the disease. Some of the truths of breast cancer that I recently found out was that, when a woman has breast cancer it does not mean it will lead to death because there are some cure and depending of what type of cancer it is. There are millions of survivors and it really inspires me to talk about the facts towards my capstone. I just think it is interesting and it will be helpful throughout my process.


"Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor's Soul: Stories to Inspire, Support and Heal." Barnes & Noble. Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Mary Olsen Kelly, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. <http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chicken-soup-for-the-breast-cancer-survivors-soul-jack-canfield/1100307581?ean=9781623610494>.


Other than online sources, there was another book that I found that was clever about Breast Cancer. Not only, does it give facts or any other warnings that readers should be aware of. The book explains the positive side of breast cancer and give stories about survivors. Even, if we lost the ones we love and became afraid, at the end families shared their experience in the book and gladly supports the awareness that people fundraise. I believe that the book is very heart-warming and touching. It is a nice book to enjoy and other readers would like to find more information about the fight.


Emmanuel Kouadio Capstone

Posted by Emmanuel Kouadio in Capstone - Block - Wed on

Abstract 


  Have you ever walked down the street and see someone homeless? Maybe you haven't, but if you did it's not a pretty sight. Homeless people in Philadelphia tend to roam the streets, sleep anywhere, pan handle at multiple septa locations, and much more. People who are homeless have to deal with a lot of issues like where their next meal is coming from, where will they sleep, how will they get money, and more. Food, protection, and shelter is a big factor of living and the fact that people are homeless that makes it harder on themselves to provide and also survive. Even some homeless people have too much pride to goto shelters. I thought to myself that its not the fact that the person is faking their homelessness or not, but either way that person is ill and attention is needed. My capstone was helping the homeless and that is exactly what I did. I thought about the different needs and things a homeless person would want like food, clothing, money, and other personal needs to take care of themselves so I did the best I could do. With the help of an SLA alumni parent my capstone mentor (Mr. Joe Willard) and I thought about the ways I could pitch in and leave and impact on the environment. He is the vice president of Philadelphia's People's Emergency Center and a well known individual. With my ideas and goals Mr. Willard helped and guided me into the right path. 




Presentation-
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/176CsnUfVTweYXf2UHLOihF0gCLVulwYqIj5zofAbHNg/edit#slide=id.gb07975e91_0_0

Image-
http://www.filedropper.com/img0296-1


​


Annotated Bibliography


Source 1-
M., Morris. "10 Shocking Realities Of Modern Poverty." Listverse Ltd., 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Jan. 2015. <http://listverse.com/2013/09/26/10-shocking-realities-of-modern-poverty/>.


In this source it basically talks about how poverty doesn’t define people or situations. It is possible to have a good life even if you’re labeled as poor. There are many good views about poverty. Many people think negatively when they hear the word “poverty”. When hearing poverty even myself used to think, “dirty, trashy, poor, lower class”, and reasons for that is because growing up in a city rated #3 for poverty and homelessness in the U.S. they are things I see when roaming the street. Prior to my knowledge there were many more insights about the reality of poverty. In the article, “10 Shocking Realities Of Modern Poverty.” Morris talks about 10 shocking and revealing things about the poverty happening today. His list of things relating to poverty consisted of the following: chronic illness, relocation, early death, homelessness, low social mobility, lifelong debt, working poverty, loss of human rights, hungry kids, child mortality. It basically gives me an overall on poverty and homelessness.



Source 2-

Ambrose, Jeffrey. "The Reality of Global Poverty." ECONOMY & PERSONAL FINANCE. The Real Truth. Inc,, 30 Nov. 2014. Web. 25 Jan. 2015. <http://realtruth.org/articles/080325-001-economy.html>.


In this source the article provides a lot of feedback on the topic of reality and poverty. When first reading this article I saw a quote that amazed me. The quote said, “While pockets of genuinely severe deprivation do exist even in the Western world’s lands of plenty, most notably in inner cities and rural areas such as Appalachia, the overall picture of the poor in the United States is starkly different from the rest of the globe. On other continents—in slums, rural villages and jungles far from any kind of government-funded social programs—what is it like to be among the “have not’s”? After reading that quote I thought to myself, “What does this actually mean?”, so I redefined it. That quote meant that many populated cities in the United States today are basically portrayed as wealthy and a fine environment to live in, but most of those environments are struggling and need help. Many of the attention directed towards poverty aren’t really making clearer images for people to actually see.



Source 3-

Battistoni, Alyssa. "Poverty in America Is a Moral Issue." The Reality of Poverty. The Nation Inc,, 27 Oct. 2007. Web. 26 Jan. 2015. <http://www.thenation.com/article/reality-poverty>.


In this source I read about an article called,  “The Reality of Poverty” and it also included new obtainable data and information. By now in my chapter you should’ve basically learned much about poverty, the relationship between the economy and the people, and how people enter into the stage of poverty. Now I am going to surely bring my essential question into play and relate it to my deeper questionings and thoughts. What is the reality of poverty according to this article? Well, this article is focused on the aftermath of poverty that happens in the United States and what actions could be taken place.



Source 4-

Rank, Mark. "Poverty in America Is Mainstream." The New York Times Company, 2 Nov. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2015. <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/02/poverty-in-america-is-mainstream/?src=me&_r=0>.


In this article it provides a lot of helpful information to use and obtain for knowledge prior to the reality of poverty happening in current day America. First lets start off by stating some statistics that I have found and hear some explanations that I have for each of them. it shows that the articles name actually has proof to back up its theory. America’s system of poverty actually is mainstream. Think of it this way, poverty in America is mainstream because people fail to realize that there are pros and cons of living in poverty. Most people assume that people who live in poverty are poor, have no home, or lives near an abandoned subway or church.



Source 5-

Ryssdal, Kai. "Tell Us What the Economy Feels like to You." Marketplace Productions, 9 Dec. 2014. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/kai-ryssdal/tell-us-what-economy-feels-you>.


In this source it talks about how starting at the age of 25, you have a lot of things to take care of and responsibilities. Whether you have a child, going to school still, out of school and paying off debts, or just working… all citizens have something that they have to take care of and that’s just apart of growing up in life. Times in today’s economy are rough and surely even if you have money and “middle class” or not, you must have to learn the economy is rapidly changing and people have to fully adjust to it in order to be financially stable.


Source 6-

Elliott, Andrea, and Ruth Fremson. "Invisible Child." Girl in the Shadows: Dasani’s Homeless Life. The New York Times Company, 9 Dec. 2013. Web. 28 Jan. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/invisible-child/#/?chapt=1>.



In this source I think the main idea was to show how when you take a stand and help someone who is going through homelessness overcome their situation you are both apart of something good and the person is too. In this source a girl is interviewed, followed to school, and is looked at from a different perspective since people knows that she is poor and doesn’t have the best house around as possible. She lives in a house of trash and dangerous living conditions, but as time passes overtime peoples then get involved such as organizations and big time names in helping her. This was the motivation for my capstone.



Source 7-

McArdle, Megan. "What Prevents the Poor from Reaching the Middle Class?" American Enterprise Institute, 10 July 2014. Web. 28 Jan 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AchISJUKfH4>.


What stood out to me in this source that made me use it is that it talked about numbers and facts a lot. I have learned that statistics say that at least over 54% of Americans in their lifespan will spend at least one year going through poverty or near the state of living in poverty. At least 40% of Americans ranging from ages 25 through age 60 will most likely experience a year below the poverty level. I found this source very useful because it helped me know about the things that people involved in homelessness ever go through and what the numbers look like on paper. Things like this would be good for my presentation.



Source 8-

Rosling, Hans. "Hans Rosling: New Insights on Poverty." Ted Talk Inc,, 26 June 2007. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpKbO6O3O3M>.


In this source  it talks about how their are multiple insights of poverty which leads to the topic of homelessness. Becoming homeless and just the state of being homeless has been misjudged by people and in this video Hans Rolling does just that by talking to the public in his Ted Talk on what he believes is the way to guiding people to the right path of seeing why homeless people feel uncomfortable going into shelters, asking for help, rather beg for many, and many many more issues. Hans Rolling discusses a lot of things that I never thought about and should ever be discussed with the public.



Source 9-

"Opening Doors: Preventing Homelessness." Preventing Homelessness. United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Inc. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://usich.gov/usich_resources/fact_sheets/opening_doors_preventing_homelessness>.

In this source it talks about more information just like the others. Homelessness, how to prevent it, how it starts. The main argument of this source is that it eventually likes to bring into play that poverty in the U.S. is an occurring event because of less job opportunities for people that are low class citizens, which forces many of those lower class citizens to live off of welfare, social security, and over government provided programs for people in need of financial help. This will come to show that homelessness in America and poverty itself is being overlooked by people who don’t know enough about this topic or people who are not educated. Poverty shouldn’t exist in extreme ways, the government should step up more.  



Source 10-

How YOU Can Help End Homelessness. National Coalition for the Homeless Inc.,, 1 June 2006. Web. 29 Jan. 2015. <http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/facts/you.pdf>.

In this source I thought it was helpful because it talks about different ways to contribute to homelessness, how to end poverty, and the different ways of how to avoid the improper way of approaching it. This source was amazing to me also because this pdf in the source provides a great amount of info on where to go if homeless and how to still feel special and not down. How to bring yourself up if you are going into a homeless position. Shelters and other programs for people who need to get special help and attention for themselves and their family.

Reginald Simmons Capstone

Posted by Reginald Simmons in Capstone - Block - Wed on

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My Abstract: I’ve loved writing since I was very young. It’s a passion I’ve explored further in my high school career in different writing classes. In my junior year, I held an internship at a newspaper named The Philadelphia Tribune. Writing is a theme that I stuck with for my Capstone project. At the Tribune, I was writing articles about education-related things, and I decided that for my Capstone, I’d like to give other students to have their own articles published for everyone to see. Science Leadership Academy has a focus on science, engineering and technology, so I thought it would be fitting for these Capstone articles to focus on the same subjects.


I worked with several different students to co-author small, supplemental articles that explained some interesting scientific stories that are relevant today. One might read about a new computer technology, and another some new information on the Hubble Space Telescope. I learned that people, even those who don’t normally like writing, are eager to share with others the things the passionate about. My hope is that by creating these short articles, they found that writing is one of the best methods to use if a story needs to be heard.


In addition to writing articles with other students, I also created a few of my own to be grouped with them. My writings span across a few different subjects that hopefully will create in the reader’s mind a fuller picture of the purposes of journalism.

Here, you can see an easy to read layout of all the student articles, labeled by author and subject: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ebuv2qiB6uuAFu-rguyu-T1PYe-Po2tHuTjVeNi2KTs/edit

And below is my annotated bibliography:

Annotated Bibliography


Source #1:


Gonchar, Michael, and Katherine Schulten. "Google." Google. The New York Times, 6 Feb. 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


I used this New York Times contest website to get another possibility for where the work that’s created in my project can be hosted or shared. I talked with my advisor about some other possibilities, such as SLA’s writing group or class, whichever it is(I’m not too familiar with this, but it sounds like a pretty good possibility). I’d originally planned on creating my own website for the articles, but my advisor, and this is something I agree with, my advisor suggested trying to get it out there on a site a lot of people know to get some more publicity.  

Source #2:


Fong, Jing. "Spring 2015 National Student Writing Competition: Learning That Matters." YES! Magazine. Yes Magazine, 13 Jan. 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


This is a source similar to the previously listed one in that it is also a kind of writing contest. This is another suggested possibility by my advisor. It’s just another alternative to having work published on my own personal site. The one issue that I see with this is that the writing for this contest has to focus on a story that originates from YES! magazine, which takes away a lot of the creative freedom that I want for this project. This source does have some information on how to organize things, which I find a bit useful, but I don’t see myself pursuing this any further in the future.

Source #3:


Hacker, Diana, Nancy I. Sommers, and Marcy Carbajal Van Horn. A Pocket Style Manual. 6th ed. Vol. 1st. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2013. Print.


This is a manual that details all the intricacies of writing a professional paper. I’ll use this book to refresh some of the writing skills that I’ve gotten a bit rusty on. Skills that will become very important as I’ll be helping other students write their articles. I’ll have to know exactly what I’m doing or none of this will work at all. It has sections on clarity, grammar, punctuation and mechanics, research and other extremely vital writing skills. I’ll continue to reference this book as I delve more deeply into writing articles with other students and the written portions / explanations for my project overall.

Source #4:


Cialdini, Robert B. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. New York: Collins, 2007. Print.


This book on the psychology of persuasion is one I started reading a while ago based on my interest in psychology and how it relates to everyday human interaction. I’m now seeing that the topics discussed and explained in this book are definitely applicable to writing news articles, specifically opinion editorial pieces, because they are written to try and persuade someone reading it to a certain point of view or idea. I can take ideas and methods from this book and explain them to the students that I help to write their own articles.

Source #5:


Irv Randolph, Managing Editor at the Philadelphia Tribune


Mr. Randolph is the man I originally worked with when I first went to the Philadelphia Tribune in the beginning of my junior year. He was an invaluable source to me and helped me a lot when I was in the process of getting my footing at the Tribune. I collaborated with Mr. Randolph on most of the articles I wrote during my time there to make sure that they were ready to be published. He also worked with me on coming up with important topics for me to write about in my articles, which helped a lot, because when you’re young sometimes you don’t have the same wisdom that people who write award-winning works have.

Source #6:


Meenoo Rami, Science Leadership Academy Teacher


Ms. Rami, other than being my mentor in this project, helped me last year to succeed in my internship at the Philadelphia Tribune, which helped in turn to inspire me this year to come up with my current idea for my Capstone project. Ms. Rami gave me guidance a few times when I struggled with where to go with my writing both inside and outside of class, recommended me certain texts to read to help me through the process, and put me in contact with someone who works as a professional writer to help me out with some ideas.

Source #7:


Shonda McClain, Philadelphia Tribune Magazine Editor


Shonda McClain is another invaluable employee at the Philadelphia Tribune. Last year, while I was completing my internship there, I ran all of my writing through her as well and received important guidance as to room for improvement and places to expand on. Dealing with the intricacies of writing a news article, I’ve found, is a pretty tough skill to master. Ms. McClain was very important to me in making sure that my writing was perfect and ready to be published (in addition to the help I received from Irv Randolph, the Tribune’s managing editor).

Source #8:


"Writing Your Article | Scholastic.com." Scholastic Teachers. Scholastic, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


This Scholastic site that explains how to teach to children how to write news articles is also very helpful to me in that it will assist me in implementing methods to do the same thing in my Capstone project. I’ve taught lessons in class to my peers before, but I’ve never had to teach writing to students below my grade level, and thus I’ll have to master how to present things to them in a way that doesn’t belittle them and at the same time encourages them to learn more; this project’s participants will need to be mostly self motivated to write these articles. I’m still working through this to come up with a solid lesson plan.

Source #9:


"All Issues." All Issues. Environment America, n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2015.


This source gives a comprehensive list of some of the current issues in America that can be written about in the news articles for my project. I sometimes get ‘writers’ block,’ where I struggle to come up with good and interesting material that I know people will be inclined to read about in a newspaper. Having this list will help me to give guidance to other students who may run into the same problem. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be so excited and motivated that they won’t need guidance in this area, but I want to have a plan to deal with them promptly should they run into this problem.

Source #10:


"How to Design a Website Easily - No Experience Required." 2 Create a Website. 2 Create a Website, Jan.-Feb. 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2015.


This is a site that explains to the user with little experience (criteria that I meet) in web design how to create a website that is clean, clear and concise, just like the articles that are created in this project should. I have created websites before, but they’re only been for classes. I’ve not had to create something that will be showcased in a public setting. I’m certain that there are skills I need to know in order to create the best website possible, and this website that contains a tutorial helps me in doing that. I’ll most likely look to a different source for this as well, since this website’s design is a little sketchy to me.



CAP-026

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2014-15

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