CDH GCE Portfolio

 For the final action project of my humanities class "Endurance" I am asked to guide myself in the future. Kind of like a time capsule of my plans for the future I am to create a guide for the future. I'm not the type of person to plan ahead, more of the spur of the moment type so my plans are a bit vague. To be honest its a bit too open as I have no idea what's in store for me in college or in life but here it goes. My guide for myself going forward:  I'm not the best at goodbyes but this will probably be my last post on here as soon I will be graduating and heading to college. I appreciate the time spent reading and hope you have a good day, night, or whenever you are reading this. -CDH

 In the last week of my senior year, we looked into what makes a good presentation. Specifically the revolutionization of presentation style. Most of the best information will be held by panel presentations at different conferences. For the longest time most of them consisted of walls of informational text. This style leaves little to interest the mind and even less engagement between presenter and presented. With this in mind we observe a new style that involves a open and simple to understand format. In it we have three main parts. The "ammo bar": a place for the presenter to put in detail charts and visuals that they should keep in mind. The main idea: The main conclusion in simplified language and a QR code to the full paper. And the "silent presenter": a list of bullet points that explain your main points and conclusion in the paper; the abridged version.  For my final post about Frontiers, I am condensing one of my previous papers into this newer format. As yo...

In the last few weeks of Frontiers we have shifted from learning about the deep seas to outer space. We started with the history of our understanding of space. Understanding started when the first human being looked up at the stars but in terms of recorded understanding we viewed the stars as gods; beings to rule over us and dictate our lives. In some ways they were right as celestial bodies do affect the earth in real ways. At this time we had Ptolemy who suggested that the planets and stars had us at the center of the universe under the name “Geocentric Theory”. Far later we have Copernicus who had a hard time suggesting anything else as by that time the church had a firm grasp on sciences in what was claimed legitimate being if anything did not agree with what they taught was fake. Eventually he was able to publish his heliocentric theory which was able to go out as it left room for a heaven and hell. And finally we came to Kepler and Newton and Einstein who figured out the movement...

 Endurance: The first humanities class in my last term. Endurance has been, as the name suggests, about finding how to endure; learning to build resilience in ourselves. We looked at many examples of endurance in the forms of physical, mental, emotional, and political endurance. The first story we looked at was Ernest Shackleton. He led an expedition to go through the Arctic. When they got close to land the ice in the water froze their ship in place so eventually they had to abandon the ship with supplies to look for a way to get help. The plan was to cross the most deadly sea in the world to reach an island confirmed to have people to help. Keep in mind, they went through a sea that had potential for 50-80ft waves while they crossed successfully in their extra life boats. Side note: The ship was recently discovered in great condition. Going forward, we read the book "Night" a personally told story by Elie Wiesel. It was his retelling of his experience in the Holocaust. Thoug...

 Through out the first class in my final term at GCE we have spoken largely about the oceans. The class "Frontiers" is all about the exploration of the unknown which in our "modern" society is limited to our Earths bodies of water, and the vast space above. Going forward in this class we have referenced several ideas like how tectonic plates work, the famous diver Cousteau, and mapping of the land underwater. In this AP we were asked to come up with a research question about how the future of our oceans will look.  I have chosen to once again look into oil, and how we have destroyed much of the ocean due to our own negligence. Oil spills have been a problem since the industrialization and modernization has grow in scale as it has become an extremely valuable resource. I said "once again" because I decided to look into the effects of oil spills in the 6th grade and wish to look back and see my lack of understanding.  My research question is "What are t...

 In my last class of the term we studied relations in the US. We started with race relations, diving into what systemic racism is, microaggressions, and general inequities. After race was gender where we describe feminism as a concept and who it benefits, sexualization, and again general inequities. Finally and most recently we talked about class. Class defines who we can be and how hard it is to get there, but also demonstrates the real implications of having or not having wealth, power, or fame. Throughout this course we had to switch topics from race to class or gender to race and so on because they are all connected thus you cannot talk about one without discussing the others in their entirety. For this AP however, we were asked to imagine some large event that goes on in the future within these relations in the world. How far in the future you ask? One hundred years into the future, 2122, from anywhere in the world. I decided on an event to start the abolishment of the police,...

 This term one of my two lab classes was "digital fabrication". We used the entire term figuring out how these newer technological wonders work. 3D printers, laser cutters, vinyl cutters, CNC routers, and even some power tools, we learned them all.  We started the term still at home and worked with the software for the devices, starting with Tinker CAD for 3D printers. My first design was of a "master ball" from the game and anime series "Pokémon". After that we looked at a program called Cura that will "sliced" the digital design and sends the information to printer. We tried several times to get a 3D model from pictures and came out with a good one for a Lego but nothing else. Next was silhouette, the program for vinyl cutting. We could upload pictures online and have it identify the image to render; or you could create an image with the pre-saved images. All of the programs worked by rendering something online and then sending to the machine t...

 In my last AP for this class I mentioned that there had been no commentary on what exactly social entrepreneurs do or what one is. Since then we have managed to define one and declare ourselves such in a hypothetical setting that could very well become realistic. A social entrepreneur is a person that is able to identify a pressing issue and provide a service or product to sate the matter. Most students have decided on non profit organizations as it is much easier to provide solutions as one. However, I wanted to take a slightly greedier approach in trying to turn a profit in my merrymaking. I want to solve the artists dilemma, the problem that holds back many artist from being a creator full time. There are plenty of artists out there with the talent, skill, and diligence to succeed. However these efforts are wasted with few opportunities to display them. I want to create a centralized platform, similar to "LinkedIn", to link with artists and/or clients for commissions, job...

When thinking of Equality the main things to first come to mind are race and gender, usually as separate matters. We quickly find that "class" is the third issue in there as well as all three being closely knit to create a bombardment of oppression. As one who seems to be at the peak of two of the three in terms of status (White, Male), I wanted to take this chance to listen as much as possible. We first discussed race, reading about different perspectives on slavery in that of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. From there we researched the reconstruction period and why it fell. And finally in race we visited an exhibition of Robert Colescott who would depict minorities in place of white people; usually famous ideas or works were his targets.  Moving to gender we started by listing the privileges we each do or don't have. This also related to race as many privileges are associated with your outward appearance. We all said thing like being payed more or less and being...

 Social Entrepreneurship: In this class my mind first  drifts to the thought of building a business. Maybe through building networks of people. Maybe through creating a product or item coveted by the masses. Or maybe some intersection of each. However none of this was mentioned in our studies thus far.  Social Entrepreneurship as a class has been based on reading people - reading ourselves in personality and habit while categorizing both, then finding out how to properly evaluate...anything I guess. We evaluate in "SWOT" fashion: It is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We observe this method to resolve any specific issue or singularity pertaining to a person, group, or situation.  My class was given the responsibility to evaluate our school and decide what needs to change. Most have identified communications to be the issue. I considered the same but chose to advocate for reform in our advisory system. According to former Lincoln Park ...

Though I have not posted about it, I had a class in podcasting. I should probably tell you it all that means, right? We started with listing and listening to podcasts that we all listen to regularly. We looked for commonalities and different takes on what a podcast is. Then we were asked to start the process of making our own. First we decided on who to work with (if anyone) and what the podcasts topic and format are. I chose a chill, conversational approach because that is the main style I listen too. I don't have any partners but I want to bring on as many people as I can. The first episode is with a friend of mine JH, and we get into a few things including space, unluckiness, and an old sword.  Itsaatraap · Oddly Censored Podcast EP1 Episode two is with two other people this time: CJH and MM. In this episode we talk about eternals, a bear eating someone's chicken and the Harry styles concert in Milwaukee.    Itsaatraap · Oddly Censored Podcast EP2 I hope to record mo...

When thinking of music, who first comes to mind? Modern musicians like Ariana Grande or Drake? What about the most famous musicians in history? Some of you probably think back to Beethoven or Michael Jackson but I'm sure someone reading this thought of Elvis Presley. I was asked to find someone I found to interesting that could be a very influential voice in history. I chose Elvis Presley as he is hailed as "The King" who revolutionized pop culture with rock music and his own way of singing and dancing. It may sound like I'm about to write a long article to read but I think you can be relived to hear, I made a podcast episode. I have already been recording podcasts for my series "The Oddly Censored Podcast" and I went to record for this AP. I obviously had a few requirements to hit including interviewing two people, I interviewed a teacher and a coworker. With both the audio was not perfect because both were "one the spot" where we went to the quie...

 Throughout my time in this coding class I found it quite amusing to code the most annoying things to encounter digitally. The first was math which personally I find annoying. Then there was a prompt to try and get your credit card information. Now I have created a chatbot that acts as one of those scam, car warranty calls. Creating this one really took a while and came down to the wire as I was still trying to finish the code the day it was due. To be fair though I am trying out some code I hadn't learned in class. I had to figure out how to use a loop from examples my teacher gave me because the idea I was explaining needed its use. Without further delay, answer the scam call:  Overall I had fun with the code writing as it was a challenge, but one I knew I could overcome. I got help from friends and my teacher in trying to put it together and hope to continue making more of them in the future. If you notice things that can be added or streamlined, send me a message.  -C...

As I wrap up in Econ for the term, my action project comes together. We talked a lot about the history of our current economy and how it works. First we discussed the role and effect of the government and politics in the economy, discussing terms like "laissez faire" and "dirigisme." Next it was talking about past individuals whose theories and ideas shaped the economy today; people like Hammurabi and the first recorded economy to Karl Marx and his idea of Marxism that lead to the creation of Communism. All of this was put around a book that we read, written by Kate Raworth: Doughnut Economics . She talked about the failures of past economists, their findings, history, and how we should use it to learn and shape our economy for a better future. There are seven chapters in the book and we were asked to bring up what we think should be included in the book as the eighth chapter. My submission? Social-Economic Divides:  "Get it together" CDH, 2021 Let me brea...

It's only been about two weeks and we are on to our second action project for Journalism. For this unit we took a look at photojournalism. We met with Caleb Hamernick, a photographer from Chicago now in New York, and he first gave a brief history on photography and the older ways people would take pictures as well as why the first photo taken had only one person in it. He explained what makes a picture what it is and what it can mean. Thinking of that he showed some of his own pieces from a set called 'Fears and phobias' where people posed with what they are afraid of. After the interview we went to take our own photos, taking pictures of motion, shadows, and stills. After that we moved to the action project. The idea is to interview anyone on what they believe the meaning of life to be. The reason it is anyone is because of the diverse views that can come from each person as no one has had the exact same life experience. I asked a friend of mine, JH, to be my interviewee a...

For senior year I wanted to try something I have always had an interest in but never knew where to start. I thought coding seemed cool and wanted to figure out how we write code as humans and understand how a computer could "understand" anything we write.  The first thing to note is that it doesn't understand everything  we write as computers only understand the most literal of text. We did a few experiments in class to think about how literal and thorough you need to be. We first spoke commands as a classmate tried to follow them to complete a goal. This showed we need to take things like body size, movement distance, and perception into account. Generally thinking about thoroughness of instructions. After that we individually explained how we might describe a basic game and its rules to a computer. I chose hangman so I explain what a "word" or "phrase" might be to write and how a player would interact with the computer. Again, thoroughness.  For this...

In my latest STEAM class, Econ, we have been covering a wide range of topics. From stocks to loans, we did the math and methodology together in class. For the math portion we mainly used the three interest rate formulas: I=Prt for simple interest, A=P(1+r/n)^n x t for compounding interest, and A=Pe^r x t for continuously compounding interest. Continuously compounding interest is the most commonly used today as it can be used to find interest on debt/ investment, inflation, and how fast you might pay back said loan/ investment.  We also had two Field Experiences, first with one of the founders/creators of the Rapunzl app and second a workshop on money management with Capital One.  Rapunzl is an app that simulates how you might invest in stocks using a fake portfolio with 10,000 dollars to start with and then lets the stock change based on real stock prices in the market each day. The workshop went well and gave a good overview of information that I think every high schooler nee...

 This is the first official action project of my senior year at GCE . For the first two weeks in "Journalism" we have to establish what fake news is and how to identify a good source of information. After deciding that the best way to tell what is solid information is by research, we had to ask how and what do we research? When looking at study results for example, you should look at who is conducting the study and how credible they may be by ethos but also who might be funding the study. We talked with a journalist from the Wall Street Journal named Julie Wernau . She talked primarily about what a journalist does and some personal experience which helped out one of my classmates, JH, that is a writer. For the AP I will be trying to work as a journalist by establishing an issue or event in my community by interview and research.  Vaccine hesitancy is leading us back to quarantine Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic (2019-2021) , the country has seen many people remain hesit...

 As I make my way into my senior year at GCE, orientation sets us up for our first action project of the year. While looking into "what a classroom is" we found much similarity with little change to traditional classrooms in the last 2000 years. To test what could work as a classroom, we went down town to the Pritzker Pavilion to listen to an installation made for "sound testing" proving even an open field can be a learning space.  As myself an others started to walk up to the pavilion after getting our ID photos taken, we immediately felt as if we were walking into the final stage of a battle tower or if we stood in the center of a colosseum to fight a big boss. The teiko drums of the piece "Sonorous Admitting's" written by Kioto Aoki, could be described as surprising. From the idea of fighting a boss to traditional vibrating tones, the thunderous drumming could be heard very well all over. That was only the beginning. When we finally sat down in the ...