PAA Genius Hour

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For our PAA Genius Hour project, we were told to pick from a list of practical applied arts (PAA) topics, and make a presentation about the topic. My topic was different types of seat belt systems. I knew little to nothing about seat belts going into the project, and now I feel like I know just a little to much to be considered normal. If I were a teacher I’d give myself an M for Meeting Expectations. I’d do this because I successfully taught everyone about my topic, I listed my sources at the end of the project, and because my grammar and spelling was correct. I also included pictures on every slide, to make it just a little less boring. If I could do it over again, I’d probably change my topic because not everyone seemed as interested in learning about seat belts as I was. I’d also re-present it, as there was a lot of pauses, “Uh” and “Ums”, and I read right off the board instead of actually telling.

Genius Hour #1

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In school we are doing something called Genius Hour. We pick a topic that we really actually care about, and ask a question about it. Then we have to find some way to share what we learned.

My first topic was airbrushing in the media. My question was, “How does it affect both genders,” because most of the presentations I’ve seen only show the female side.I made a Power Point for most of my information and then made a poster to put in a bathroom stall to spread more information.

This is my Power Point; Airbrushing in the Media

Home Food Safety Quiz

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Sometimes, the things that we don’t know are scarier than we do know. This includes facts about food safety. When I took the Home Food Safety Quiz, I got eight out of nine questions right. I always thought that it didn’t matter what temperature you reheated your leftovers to. I thought, “Hey, whatever suits your fancy.” I was wrong. You must reheat leftovers to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. (Or 73 degrees Celsius)

What’s your score?

http://homefoodsafety.org/quiz

 

Bartering: Not Just a Way of the Past

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Bartering is a simple concept of trading objects for other objects, without and money involved. Both people must agree on the items to be traded. For example, if someone has work hours on a certain day that they don’t want to work on for some reason, then they can try to work out a different day for working the same or more amount of hours. Also, in Greece they have a new currency called TEM. They trade skills they have (Cooking, sewing, ETC.) for skills other people have. To put it shortly, they do odd jobs for each other in place of money. I think bartering is a good thing, especially in today’s economy, where places like Greece are struggling with money. No harm really comes from bartering as long as you’re smart about what you trade. I already barter sometimes, like in the lunch room when I see someone has a pack of Oreo Cakesters. What was a simple lunch hour becomes a frantic search of my own lunch kit to see if I had anything worthy of the icing filled cake goodness. In real life, I could barter a few of my THOUSANDS of stuffed animals for something, thought some stuffed animals I’d have to hold on to for sentimental value.

Today, I got a real taste of bartering in my own classroom. Everyone brought some things, there was a minimum of five items. Our teacher made us wait for quite a while before we finally got to trade, not that I didn’t enjoy reading and watching YouTube videos. We took a minute and a half walk around until we were finally allowed to begin bartering. I was armed with three books, six Popsicles , and an Aero bar. I feel quite content with my trades. My biggest trade was a mad scramble to get a coffee crisp bar. I had just traded away my Aero bar for a mint one, but the owner of the Coffee Crisp didn’t like the mint kind. I traded my mint Aero bar for a mustache  lollipop, and then I found that my original Aero bar had been traded to the girl across from me. She got the mustache lollipop, I got my Aero bar back, and then traded that Aero bar for the Coffee Crisp.

Comparing Sweden and Canada

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Canada has a nice balance of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries. We have grain, livestock, coal, and potash for our primary, some manufactures and we can sell our coal and potash to other people in the world. In other words, we’re pretty well off. In Sweden, it’s a bit of a different story.  Primary industries dominate the country. Lumber, metallic ores, and water power galore. Since people in the secondary industries usually make more money than those in the primary, so usually not having a mixture of industries could mean trouble. Sweden’s GDP is 539.7 billion US dollars. Canada’s is 1.736 trillion. So, Canada is a bit more well off in terms of gross domestic production. Sweden’s GDP isn’t low, in fact it’s a good place to be. Sweden’s GDP higher than Guatemala’s 46.9 billion to say the least. A country’s GDP may have something to do with the well being of the people, since the money made can be distributed throughout the country. I think Sweden’s GDP isn’t too low, and Canada’s is definitely high enough.

The Good, the Bad, and the GCP

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For the last few weeks the  grade six, sevens, and eights in my school have gotten the chance to get out of our chairs and make a difference. We’d be doing so by doing a projected called the Global Citizen Project, or GCP for short. We were all split into groups. There was the Habitat for Humanity group, who were building a dog house, the webcast group, who were making a short news show and posting it on YouTube, the art group, who were all making art pieces related to children’s rights and then making t-shirts to sell, the robot group, who were making a robot to collect and purify water, the independent group, who organized a water challenge day for the grade fours and fives, the newspaper group, who were creating a newspaper to drop off at local businesses and then there’s the group I’m in, the writing group. All of the groups had to answer the same question; How can you and your group take steps to create a positive change on a global plat form? Now, don’t get me wrong, I love writing. I was psyched to be able to take and hour and fifteen minutes out of my school day to write, but I wondered how writing could change anything on a global front.

The writing group was the smallest group, we had six members and up until yesterday we didn’t even have a cool name or anything. On our first day we were acquainted with Maureen Ulrich, the author who would be helping us. She introduced us to the concept of RAFTS. R is for role, a is for audience, f is for format (Mine was a story with poems), t is for topic, and s is for strong verb. After she told us about what our schedule  would be like we had to decide on the topic we were going to do. After a little bit of thinking I settled on underage prostitution and drug abuse in Saskatoon.

Although I wasn’t exactly thrilled about having to research for the first week, I did find out a few things I didn’t know. The most interesting thing I learned about was by far the breakhouses. Gang members will take girls off the streets to a house or building where they are tied or chained to a bed and injected with drugs for a week or longer. Then the girls are set free, but by then they are so dependent on the drug that they have to have it, no matter the cost. Then the gang comes back, convinces the girl to become a prostitute to pay for the drugs, and the gang leader becomes her pimp.

Most of the critiquing on my story came from my group members and Mrs. Ulrich, since I wasn’t really thrilled about talking about prostitution with my parents. I did tell my parents bits and pieces, mostly about my character and story title. Sasha Lauren Taylor, my main character, came into my head while Mrs. Ulrich was talking about our RAFTS. The story title, Sasha for Sale, came to me shortly after.

When we had to make our checkpoint #1 presentation I was forced to think more about how writing could possibly change anything. The answer my group and I found had bits and pieces from all of our group members.

We write to raise awareness about what is happening in the world. We all chose our topics based on things we care about. The more people know, the more chance there is that they will take action. And if some people take action then other people will probably take action. Writing can start a chain reaction.

Aboriginal Concepts

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Residential Schools

The aboriginal people known as the “Lost Generation” are the ones who were forced to attend residential schools. In residential schools the goal was to assimilate the children. The children there were forced to speak a language different then their own and learn different beliefs. If they were caught speaking their own language, trying to run away, or talking about their own culture in any way other than a negative way they were punished severely. Many children that attended the schools didn’t get to leave. There were fires that killed staff and students, some children drowned, and some even committed suicide due to the psychological, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. On June 11, 2008, a formal apology was issued from the Canadian Government for the damage that had been done.

Aboriginal Treaty Rights

The aboriginal treaty rights are the rights that were given to the aboriginal people by the treaties. Some of the rights were mobility rights, rights to claim their land, rights to fishing and hunting on their land, rights to deny others fishing and hunting rights on their own land, and rights to post secondary education. Everyone benefited from the treaties and these rights are one of the benefits for the aboriginal peoples.

Indian Act: Past and Present

in 1876 the Indian Act was introduced by the federal government. The very first Indian Act had residential schools (see above) as an option, but the second made residential schools a requirement for Aboriginal children. The problems with the Indian Act began to emerge in the 1920s. In the present day, it is those complications that are believed to exist now. The current Indian Act is being revised by the government and the Aboriginal people.Both sides agree that the Indian Act doesn’t work. To be recognized as an Aboriginal and to qualify for their rights you must meet certain standards. (Beliefs and proof of decent) 48% of Aboriginal people don’t actually talk about the Indian Act in public. In a recent and very long meeting with bureaucrats, cabinet ministers, and nearly 400 Aboriginal Chiefs promises were made to fix the Indian Act.

Land Rights and Economics

Land rights are the rights of a person to be able to claim their land. The problem is, people are using the land that was promised to the Aboriginal people is being used already and the land that they were given is second rate, and not what was promised to them. The Aboriginal people want the better land so that they will be able to hunt and fish.

Treaties Today

Today in treaties the paper that is signed is mostly just for confirmation. When treaties are made the people are gathered in a big room. The European people sit on one side and the Aboriginal people on the other. Land and other things were traded in the older treaties,but now they are mostly about resources. There are 11 treaties that were made in Canada, and even fewer were made in Saskatchewan. There is no calling off a treaty

Aboriginal Self Government and Treaties in the News

The Aboriginal and Inuit people actually governed themselves long before European settlers arrived. At the moment, Aboriginal people are the most disadvantaged group in Canada. This might be because of the fact that indigenous women are 5X more likely to die of violence, there’s 60-80% unemployment in indigenous Aboriginal communities  or because the Aboriginal people’s rights are being violated.The most recent treaty in the news has been Theresa Spence’s “Idle No More” movement. Some of her supporters blocked highway 123.

Constitution 1982 1st Nation Treaties

The Constitution 1982 1st Nations Treaties are an organization that protects the rights, claims, and treaties of the First Nations. In the 1980s Aboriginal Rights weren’t going to be included in the Constitution. Section 35 in the Constitution is specifically about Aboriginal people and their rights. It took two entire years to get Section 35 finished. In 1982, Aboriginal Rights weren’t really recognized, but in 1994 a man got Quebec to recognize the rights.

Self Image

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Self image is how someone thinks about themself.  Self image can be negative or positive. The media is a big part of self-image, as it can influence us in good or bad ways. It’s the same with what people say. If you say something mean to someone it might affect the person in a negative way. Sometimes what you say has a very big effect. Making a rude comment about someone’s weight could make them anorexic or make them have bulimia, which are two very dangerous diseases of the mind. People that have anorexia starve themselves, and even when they are skinnier than person should be, they still think of themselves as fat. It’s the same for people with bulimia except instead of starving themselves they eat and then throw up what they eat later. Sometimes people with bulimia or anorexia get so sick they have to go to the hospital, so think before you speak. It only takes a second to call someone fat, but they’ll starve themself for the rest of their lives.

Impact

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People can impact other people in many ways. It can be the words you say or what you do. For example, if you share your opinion with someone it can impact their opinion. Many different people can impact you. Your family, friends, and teachers can impact you. Those are just a few people that can impact you. Everyone around you impacts you in some way at some point or another.

Things that can be impacted are your opinions, what you think of others, the way you dress, and the way you act. Some people are impacted more easily than others. Sometimes you can be impacted in a bad way or you could impact others in a negative way, so be careful of the way you act and the way you speak in front of others.