Big Idea follow up blog post

       Our group has already completed the Big Ideas Project, only the video remaining, and I don't think we have left anything out of the project. Even if we did, they were small things and they didn't affect the outcome of the project. I have already said this in the Big Ideas Project summary post, but I think that our group could have cleaned the school campus more. We are currently working on the video, and the we are planning on doing some interviews. I'm responsible for good sound production. 

Summary Blog Post for Big Ideas Project

                                                            Big Ideas Project

        Background: For the Big Ideas Project, our group decided to dedicate this project to recycling/campus clean-up. We made a plan of actions and talked to our mentor about it. She approved it and told us that it was a good idea to talk to the principal about it. Our initial plan was to do the project itself during Husky Periods, but Principal Moran said that the volunteers couldn’t get any service hours if we did during the school day. So we changed our plan to do it after school. We met after school and cleaned up the campus. We completed the project with success, there were 7 volunteers that came, we took pictures and videos of our process.

        My role: All the group members including me talked to Husky Period classes to get volunteers. Our group members didn’t have one specific role because we all participated in the project and tried our best to succeed. I walked around the campus and picked up trash with my fellow group members, we tried to get good pictures so that other people could get an idea about what we were doing.  The person taking pictures and videos was our classmate Taj. All the members agreed to bring some utility. I brought plastic gloves for picking up trash. I was also working on improving our project proposal before we showed it to our mentor, and I recorded the names and ID numbers of the volunteers who helped us to get them community service hours.

        Reflection: The project went very well. We didn’t have any difficulties with the clean-up process and we didn’t have any shortages of people that were going to help our group. First we were worried that we couldn’t get enough volunteers, but we did. We didn’t too many people, but it was enough. We met after school and stayed for about 2-3 hours while walking in different sections of our campus and picking up trash. Everything went right. One thing that I think we could’ve done better is doing the project itself i.e meeting up after school and cleaning the campus more. But every time we were coming across a problem like not enough people or not having utility. We are planning another possible meet up with our volunteers to get a better video,  but everything else we had to do for the project is done.

        Effects: I think our project had a good effect on other people like the teachers who saw us picking up trash around the campus and the volunteers because they realized how dirty some parts of our campus was. But tried to clean most of it. I think the students need to try their best to keep our campus clean because it makes our school look better physically and it also shows that our students care about their school. I hope this was a good lesson for people who litter our campus. Now that we have completed the project, I hope we have inspired others. But there are always going to people who litter, so I hope there are going to be more projects like this.

January Post

       This month we are planning to have progress in our project and put effort in it. Hopefully we are going to complete it before it's too late. My role in this project is the recorder who  writes down  the process that we do and the results. We are planning on having an another meeting with our mentor this week to discuss when's the best time we can start picking up trash on the campus.
       After talking to our mentor again, she informed us that doing the project outside of the campus wasn't a good a idea because there are not going to be any volunteers. Mrs. Freiden suggested to talk to the principal about our plan on the campus. She also said that the principle can't force students to pick up trash, so they have to volunteer. We are planning to ask him if he can give out community service hours to people that helps us, maybe that way we can get people to help us.

Big Ideas Project Proposal

Link to Google Docs.

https://docs.google.com/a/fusdk12.net/document/d/1C1axVGKy77knUBN--ZrZKr-kx7Y1AWUlvWwu3dk1-jM/edit?usp=sharing

Mentor Report

For our mentor report Mohammad Asadullah, Von Funa, Hazim Dibian, Melissa Reynante, and Ernesto pedraza interviewed Mrs. Frieden, who is the leader of the environmental club at Washington high school. She already has experience in the recycling scene. After school around 3 pm on December 9th we met with Mrs. Friedan at her classroom to talk about our big ideas project and get a little bit more information about her. We asked how their club works and what important things they do to help improve the environment. She told us,” This club is for students to come and organize their own projects, what I see them doing now is buying energy-saving light bulbs, and cleaning up certain places in the community”. We asked what would be a good idea for our recycling project. She gave us tips on how we can get started in our project and start recycling in the school campus. The most important thing as she said was making an outline for what we wanted to clean up and how often. We should rotate between different departments each week (like science or the art block) to maintain a good cleaning schedule. We were advised to write up a proposal for our project and we can have her edit and revise it to make it seem more professional.  After we complete our proposal we should take it to Mr. Moran so he can approve it if possible so that we can have an efficient trash pickup and recycling program on our campus.

Article and the rhetorical précis

Precis   

       Journalist, Kivi Leroux in his essay “Tips for winning the recycling race”, claims that recycling is important, but it has its own environmental costs, as well as economic costs. He supports his claim by first implying that the cost of making a new product is greenhouse gases emitted in its creation as well as a use, and pollutants that cause acid rain, smog, and fouled waterways, then he suggests that recycling not only conserves natural resources and reduces the amount of waste that must be burned or buried, it also reduces pollution and the demand for energy. Leroux’s purpose is to convince people to recycle more as he describes its benefits. He creates a thoughtful tone for the readers of the article.



Link to Google Docs

Research 4

To improve recycling in your community try wherever possible to prevent waste occurring. Avoid buying more than you need. Try only printing documents and emails that have to be legally stored in paper form, for example, contract documents and building designs. Try not to print emails or other documents unless absolutely necessary. If the information is essential, make use of removable electronic storage such as a memory stick or copy important information onto CD (you should always back up electronic storage). Wherever possible avoid the use of paper communications, if your group is organising a meeting, send out the invites by email along with attached agenda and minutes. Try wherever possible to reduce the amount of waste you create. Ensuring that when the production of waste is inevitable it is kept to a minimum. If something must be printed ensure that it is double sided. Avoid wasting food by only purchasing what is required.


http://www.brighterfuturestogether.co.uk/brighter-futures-together-toolkit/encourage-recycling-in-your-community/


This article tells me that i shouldn't waste materials if I don't have to. I should try to reduce the materials i waste. Because that's a very important step for increasing the recycling rate in my community, and also to encourage other people to recycle too.