Volunteering at Syrian Community Network

For my community service hours this year I felt that it was important that I do something that I wouldn't only use as community service hours, but also be able to put on my college applications to show that I am a global citizen. This year I decided to volunteer at the Syrian Community Network near Edgewater to help Syrian refugees with the work they receive from the educational systems that are pushing them back from education they deserve. Something that i've learned throughout helping these kids with their homework, social emotional learning skills, and more, has been that our education systems in the U.S. are not suited for everyone. These kids are still adapting to the U.S. after fleeing from their homes which is now a war zone back in 2011, which is when the Syrian civil war began. At SCN, we help these kids adapt and understand the education system in Illinois and help them with basic social and emotional learning skills to use in their everyday lives. This has been quite the experience, and i'm glad to have been able to experience it. These kids have taught me patience, exploration, and have shown me to give gratitude to the little things! I am glad that my school motivates my peers and I to go out and help our community because I would never have known about organizations like SCN if I hadn't gone out my way to look for an organization that catered to what I was interested in. I have not only gone out of my way to help these refugees, but i've also built friendships along the way with teens my age! I have taken some photos throughout the year as well. Take a look below! I was also included in a video made to promote the After School Programs SCN offers!

SCN End Of School Year event. NBE. 2019

SCN After School Program. NBE. 2019

SCN After School Program. NBE. 2019

SCN After School Program. NBE. 2019

SCN After School Program. NBE. 2019

SCN After School Program. NBE. 2019

Day 4: Butterfly Stage

For my writing workshop, we were given an AP. This AP is cut up into four stages, metaphorically the stages of a butterfly. This is the butterfly stage. In this post, we are taking the feedback that we got from the third day, and apply their feedback into the piece. That is what I am working on today. 

Something that stuck out to me from the feedback that I received was using imagery. Something that I don't usually do in a song, and that might be because I have not written a song. I usually keep the structure of a poem which is when I do apply imagery, but I didn't this time with the song. That's something that I applied to today. With the opening sentence, "the house without lights... the coldness in my feet" I decided to describe and get more of a feeling for the room and how I was feeling physically in the song. 

Revised:

The house without light
The only thing I could see was the dark shadow when I open my eyes.
The coldness in my feet... that feeling you get when the ones that have passed are with you.
I begin to think
I lay down backwards on the bed
I pass time
just remembering
like a soul with shame
I keep on waiting.
I am at a loss of love from the past years.
I started as a young girl loving,
and growing, I grew up hating
and I prefer to call myself the ignorant one
so that I don't look so lonely
I flow just like the river
and I just smile discretely.
The bad that has come my way
I try to hide it
and it comes out from the wounds that will soon heal
...  and I just live my life waiting
and I start to compose a list
a list of the cursed ones in my country.
In the country that adopts me.
There are other girls who are missing
And I have so much shame
so much fury in my throat.
This instant humanity
the one that's selfish, and the one that kills.
So that I can tell you this from the inside, it doesn't matter whose voice it is.
There is so much to say
that it doesn't even fit in a song.
I'm not really good at speaking... or writing
these are only delusional words

out of a crazy woman who pains for her country.

Are Humans Interfering the Population of Fennec Foxes?

Welcome to my third and last presentation of Population. Today we will take a further look into the population of these Fennec Foxes in comparison to the country, Algeria. Along with that, I will be listing a couple of fun facts about the Fennec Fox and their symbiotic relationship that they have with humans. We learned how to find the arithmetic or geometric sequences, and you will see how I ended up using that in my AP in order to find the population of the Fennec Fox. Overall, I thought this was a good term. I was able to learn things from a biological standpoint, and even think about future career options.
Geometric or Arithmetic?

When we look into a geometric sequence, this means that the sequence can be multiplied or divided by one specific number in order for the flow of the sequence to stay consistent. While arithmetic sequences can be added or subtracted by one number to make the sequence flow. In this case, since I was not able to find the population for the Fennec Fox. I had to create a geometric sequence in order to get my data for the following nine years. The equation that I used each year was 100(1.3)^n. The 100 is there because of the overall percentage of the foxes. When I was looking into the population of the Fennec Fox I wasn't able to find anything for the overall population, but I was able to find how many are in one liter when born. There are usually three Fennec Foxes in one liter when born according to eol.org. If there are three in one liter, and there are two parents; we divide that number and get 1.5. I decided to lower that number to 1.3 in order to get that separation in Algeria's population to the Fennec Fox population. This is a geometric sequence because I am multiplying by 1.3 each year and the exponent of the equation is changing each time.
Here was my process:

NB % Age process (2018)

Here is a presentation I made about the Fennec Fox along with their symbiotic relationship, or biological interaction they have with humans, my graph explaining my geometric sequence and more!

              

In conclusion, this term allowed me to dive deeper into biology, and the things around me. I was able to become more aware of the relationships humans have with different species that we are surrounded by day to day. I was able to think about what is in store for my future, and future career options that I have. Biomedical Engineering is something that I have been looking into these past 7 weeks, almost the whole term.

Citations:
Drew, Avery, File:Fennec Fox Vulpes zerda.jpg, 28 January 2010, 13:07:16
Kitty Terwolbeck, File:Artis Fennec fox (11114753056).jpg, 26 November 2013, 15:28
User:Jrockley, File:Distribution of the Fennec Fox.png, 23 January 2007

Marjane & My Grandfather

Welcome to the final unit of Stories. Throughout this term, we looked into the hero's journey and what that means exactly. We dove into Joseph Campbell's meaning of hero's journey and the stages that makes a hero. The stages that a hero in the movie has to go through in order to make a hero, a hero. In class, we were asked to find a fictional character to follow their journey, and point out why. Then, we were asked to find someone in our life that we consider a hero, and interview them. We interviewed and asked them their story, and labeled their journey with an explanation. Here is my last AP for Stories.

We had to choose a fictional character in a movie, so I chose Marjane from the movie Persepolis. I chose her because the Irani revolution is something that has affected the lives of Persians, especially young women. I wanted to get the perspective from a younger girl living her life during a revolution. What started this revolution was the growing economy in Iran which caused there to be more people graduating, and less jobs being given. In Mexico, there is a similar issue going on. There are not enough jobs, with not enough wage being given either. This made Ocotlan, Jalisco a poor city. My grandfather had been married, he was 19. He had his wife and four year old daughter. He knew they couldn't be living like this for the rest of their lives, and wanted a better future for his daughter. Both Marjane and my grandfather went through a transformation in their lives by one issue, economy. Now this doesn't really cross anyones minds, but money was behind all of this. Economy in both countries was what made these two heroes. You will see how this caused them to leave their country through the two slideshow presentations, and interview with my grandfather.
Interview With My Grandfather

Transcript of interview: Translated from Spanish to English
Q: How old were you?
A: I was nineteen, your grandmother was sixteen, and your mother was barely four years old.

Q: What was the purpose of you coming here?
A: I wanted a new life. I wanted to provide for my daughter and your my wife, as any man would do in Mexico. Look, in Ocotlan, everyone in the back of their minds knows there isn’t much hope for them in the city. There’s industries which I guess is a similar job to what I have now, but you have more potential in America, and we were aware of that. Plus, we already had some family waiting for us in California, and some family in Chicago.

Q: Did you make a plan on how you would leave without getting caught?
A: I had planned everything. We would leave at night time because it was less likely to get caught by border control. We would take breaks and sleep in the desert and keep walking. We would get there in the morning. We were young. We didn’t think about the most essential items, besides the ones for your mother. Looking back, I would have done things differently.

Q: Did anything not go according to plan?
A: A lot of things. It’s not good to plan for the future. You may think you have everything in check, but anything could happen. Many things did not go to plan. Getting caught was one, which was our major issue. I got caught by border control late at night which was something I had planned not to happen. I was sent back, but headed back the next morning and started the journey over so I could be back with your mother and grandmother. Then, your grandma was caught with your mom. They sent your grandma back, but your mom got to go in a van with other children that were separated from their parents. She was picked up by our family in California which she nothing about, until your grandmother and I got back to the U.S.

Q: Did you feel a guidance by anyone through the difficult times?
A: God. I was raised believing in God. I was raised in knowing to seek God through difficult times. I knew he was watching over my family and I, and that made me feel safe. Knowing that my daughter was going to be okay.

Q: How did you eventually get here?
A: I finally made it. It took me about 1-2 months to get here. I kept taking long breaks, trying to figure out new plans to eventually make my way. When we all got here, we stayed with the family I had in California. Eventually we got a car, and moved to Chicago. We lived with your uncle, my brother, for a while, and then we bought a house.

Presentation of Hero's Journey: Persepolis




Presentation of Hero's Journey: Grandfather



Overall, this action project allowed me to open my eyes on both people. For one, I was able to look deeper into the Islamic Revolution even outside of class. I was able to see how this revolution changed the structure of Iran, and how much of an impact economy can have on a whole country. Realizing that this is not only a situation in the country of Iran, but also in Mexico. I didn’t know that I could correlate the two, a nineteen year old guy and a young girl living in Iran. They were both going through two different issues, but both had to leave their country. This caused them to start a new life and without even realizing it, they became heroes.

Day 3: Peer Editing

For my writing workshop, we were given an AP. This AP is cut up into four stages, metaphorically the stages of a butterfly. This is the peer editing stage. In this post, we were looking at the students pieces and making revisions for them, and seeing what looked good and what didn't. 

The response that I was able to get from my partner was adding more imagery to my piece, which is something that I think I have trouble with sometimes. I'm usually a person who is to the point, rather than because more descriptive about it. She also said to check my grammar. Because this song/poem is in a different form, I punctuated differently. I didn't really think about punctuation in this case. It was more writing what I felt down, and not thinking about grammar. Now that I have dealt with this piece for a while, i'm able to look deeper into my mistakes, and make revisions. She liked specific lines like, "... I prefer to call myself the ignorant one, so that I don't look so lonely." Which is a line that I love because I think we all go through that in our life. We don't talk about something we truly think because we are afraid of the backlash we may get back. 

Day 2: Catepillar Stage

For my writing workshop, we were given an AP. This AP is cut up into four stages, metaphorically the stages of a butterfly. This is the caterpillar stage. We're making revisions on this part, adding more or less to the piece of writing.  In this post, I made more revisions to get a clearer understanding of the poem, and also adding an explanation to what this poem/song is really about.


Original Piece:

The house without light

The coldness in my feet

I begin to think

A lay down backwards

In the bed, I pass time

Just over thinking

Like a soul with shame

I keep on waiting.

I am with a loss of love for many years now

I began as a child loving,

And growing up hating

And i’d rather call myself the ignorant one

So that I don’t look so lonely

I begin to make a list of all the bad things in my countries

In the country that adopts me, there are many people missing.

And I have so much pain

So much fury in my throat

Of this instant humanity

The one that is selfish and kills

To sing this inside, it doesn’t matter whose voice it is

There is so much to say in this world, that it doesn’t even cost me a song

I’m not really good at speaking

… or writing

These are just some crazy thoughts

Of a crazy woman who has just died in her country.

Revised piece:

The house without light
The coldness in my feet
I begin to think
I lay down backwards on the bed
I pass time
just remembering
like a soul with shame
I keep on waiting.
I am at a loss of love from the past years.
I started as a young girl loving,
and growing, I grew up hating
and I prefer to call myself the ignorant one
so that I don't look so lonely
I flow just like the river
and I just smile discretely.
The bad that has come my way
I try to hide it
and it comes out from the wounds that will soon heal
...  and I just live my life waiting
and I start to compose a list
a list of the cursed ones in my country.
In the country that adopts me.
There are other girls who are missing
And I have so much shame
so much fury in my throat.
This instant humanity
the one that's selfish, and the one that kills.
So that I can tell you this from the inside, it doesn't matter whose voice it is.
There is so much to say
that it doesn't even fit in a song.
I'm not really good at speaking... or writing
these are only delusional words
out of a crazy woman who pains for her country.


The meaning behind this poem/song:

As I said in my first blogpost for Writer's toolbox, this is about two girls in their countries. Although these countries may seem completely different in society, these girls are facing the same problems. These girls have started young, loving their country. As they grow older, they begin to realize the destruction and inhumane society that they are living in. They are the ones to speak on about the issue in their countries, which is usually not spoken about in their country because people don't think it's something to be speaking about. But these girls, these girls feel like the only way to get these emotions out would be speaking about it through a song. So I wrote this poem/song to talk about a girl like myself living in the U.S. in comparison to a girl in Chile.

Day 1: Egg Stage

For my writing workshop, we were given an AP. This AP is cut up into four stages, metaphorically the stages of a butterfly. This is the egg stage. We're taking any piece of writing that we did in class, but furthering the context in which it was made. In this post, I am explaining what my song is particularly about, and why I wrote the song. 

Pain in her country

       

When I wrote this song I was in my room, particularly on my desk. The main thing on my mind was being in the U.S. and comparing that to a girl in a third world country. Comparing these two girls but at the same time showing the similarities in the two by their actions.  There were a lot of independent clauses. I don't know if that was because the way that I was writing was in the form of a song, or because I wanted it an action and subject for each. Something I notice in my writing is I say " I begin" or "I began" which is interesting because I start a new idea each time. I might want to change that up a bit only because I don't like the context that i'm putting it in. My intentions for this piece was to get the comparison of a girl in the United States and a girl from Chile for example. Those two countries are pretty close to one another, two totally different continents, but facing the same problem in different ways. A girl in Chile may be facing poverty, sexual harassment, etc. While a girl in the U.S. might be facing the same problems. The environments are different, the situations are the same. We both have developed a certain hate for our countries, where we live, the people we are surrounded by. We've both grown up in a dangerous nation, and although some people may not see it that way, it is; calling people crazy for thinking this way. 

La Vida Argentina

Bienvenidos a la clase de español dos.  En este clase, hablamos sobre la historia española y figuras importantes que influencian la cultura suramericano y española. En este proyecto, teníamos que hablar sobre una tema que hemos hablado en esta clase. Alguno de nosotros hablamos sobre Francisco Goya, Fernando Pessoa, Pablo Picasso, etc. Yo escoge hablar sobre La Argentina porque la cultura y la gente me fascina.            

Citations:

HC, Diego, Hybrid Flag Italy Argentina, 26 June 2016, 21 October 2018.

Yako, Dani, Maradona vs. England, 29 August 2015, 21 October 2018.

Fladone, Roberto, Gardel, 4 December 2010, 21 October 2018.

Pair Argentina Rhythm Dance Style Tango Dance, 21 October 2018.

Will the Fennec Fox Freeze or Thrive?

During this second unit in my Population class for STEAM, we dove into some math that would be useful to figure out the differences in species, subspecies, adaptations, and more. We looked into box and whisker plots, bell curve graphs, standard deviation, permutations and combinations in order to look into the meaning and the evolution of the animals on this Earth. For this AP, we had been asked to either choose a new organism or continue with our same organism that you may have seen in Unit 1 AP, I chose the Fennec Fox.  We were asked to develop a scenario which meant that we would have to change the habitat in which our organism usually lives in. By changing the habitat, this meant our animal would also have to adapt to this new climate. We were told to chose up to 20 representations of our animals, and take a sample of 3 that would end up surviving. We found our data for these samples,  so take a further look into my AP to see what I found.
           
            

Presentations of the three surviving Fennec Foxes:

                   

To conclude, this AP was by far one of my favorites. Being able to dive into the future and think about how an animal can change within five hundred years. Because I now have a connection to the Fennec Fox from my previous project, I can now deep into the hypothetic part of this animal and think about where and how this species could end up.

Citations:
User:Jrockley, File:Distribution of the Fennec Fox.png, 23 January 2007

Kitty Terwolbeck, File:Artis Fennec fox (11114753056).jpg, 26 November 2013, 15:28

Ramirez, Daniel, File:Fennec Fox sleeping (9163012515).jpg, 1 June 2013, 13:17

ERRIHANI,Anass, File:Fennec Fox, 23 December 2012, 16:36:57

(NB, Photo of Fennec Fox, 2018)

NB Hand Drawn Picture of Fennec Fox(2018)

Drew, Avery, File:Fennec Fox Vulpes zerda.jpg, 28 January 2010, 13:07:16

Parkison, Tim, File:Fennec Fox @ Africa Alive, Lowestoft 3 V2.jpg, 23 January 2011, 21:10

Massone, Mario, Vulpes_vulpes_arabica_001.jpg, 3 December 2008, 6 October 2018,

08:28Lonewolf6738, Fennec Fox Zoo Vulpes Zerda Animal Nocturnal, Aug. 14, 2013,

The Tale of Zara the Bunny & Neema the Naughty Fox

In our second unit, Fables, we learned about the cultural morals and background of stories told around the world. This term started off with looking for our own moral stories that have been passed down by our family. Finding out the morals and how they differentiate in between cultures made it interesting to understand what different cultures value and hold. For this AP, we had to create our own fable. A fable uses animals and gives them human characteristics in order to portray a certain moral at the end of the story. I created my own fable with some background to my life. Coming from an Islamic background in the U.S. could be a little difficult at times. My value in life is self control. The moral in my story is not to be influenced by others actions. I used the bunny as the protagonist in my story, Zara. She is kind, gentle, and adventurous; while the antagonist, Neema, is a Naughty Fox. His behavior is risky, devious, and sneaky. Read my fable to find out the Tale of Zara the Bunny & Neema the Naughty Fox.
     

To conclude, I hope you understood the moral of my story. Although it did take a dark turn, these are real life situations. Sometimes, you may get a little ahead of yourself and miss out on something important which may not turn out so well at the end.

How Arabeeya Came To Be

I am a sophomore at GCE. This is my first action project for my humanities course called Stories.  In this class we learned about new writing techniques and how to use adverbs, adjectives, similes, metaphors, etc. For our Action project, we had to come up with an origin story. We were introduced to the word etymology, which is the study of the origin of words. We read a few stories about the beginnings of time come from religious texts and morals. Our goal was to create our own story of something. It could be from how the world began to how Kleenex was created.  I wrote my story based on the beginnings of the Arabic language specifically Moroccan Arabic, Darija, which is a mix of French, Spanish, and modern day Arabic.

         Marruecous NB (2018)

                                            

In the far north continent of Afra-rabiya was a country by the name of Marruecous. Marruecous was a bustling, busy, colorful country. During the day, the country belonged to the hardworking men. Men who built mosques or castles. At night, the women were able to go out. Usually, the women would go to the Souk, marketplace, which was always livelier at night. Marruecous was known for their souks. Listening to the gnawa (native) instruments put listeners into a trance all throughout the marketplace.

Marruecous was a kingdom with the smallest royal family. The king, Amir Yousef III, and the princess, Amira Nouhaila. They both were the only family in the world who did not know how to speak any words. This made the connection with Nouhaila and her father very difficult.The people of Marruecous were called the Moorsi people. The people of Frahnce all came from high education. Their native language of Franceya. There was a great amount of Frahnc’s living in Marruecous. This caused a good majority of Moorsi people didn’t know how to speak coming from such indigent towns, people began to develop of language Franceya.

Throughout this time, Amira Nouhaila had been continuously talking to Prince Alexandre, prince of Frahnce. She would sneak out with him on busy nights at the souk because of how crowded and boisterous it was at the center. Although she finally knew how to speak, she was not allowed to speak Franceya in front of her father. Her father and Alexandre’s father, Roi Alexandre III, were not allowed to know the two had been meeting so often or else a war would break out. mind you There had already been a conflict between these two countries that created tension between the two fathers.

Before Nouhaila went out for the night, Nouhaila had seen her dad that still didn’t know how to speak. Nouhaila was secretly speaking to one of the gladiators of Marruecous who was able to understand and speak Franceya. The conversation consisted of the king and prince of Spahnce which was a neighboring country to the north of Marruecos was coming for a week visit. Nouhaila didn’t pay much attention to it and went her own way with Alexandre like she always did.

The day had finally came where Nouhaila had to meet with the king and prince of Spahnce. Her father had been preparing the meals and had a plan of what was happening the whole week. When the king, Rey Nicolás, had finally arrived with his son, Principe Idriss. Nouhaila knowing no Spahnce was finding it very difficult to be next to the prince of Spahnce, and maybe a bit more difficult because she had always had a love interest in this prince. Don’t get me wrong, she always loved Prince Alexandre but Principe Idriss was someone she always admired. Idriss was staring at Nouhaila from across the room. Suddenly, she fainted. When she woke up she started speaking gibberish, or at least she thought it was gibberish. Idriss had the power to convert anyone he had a love interest for to speak his language. Now that Nouhaila could speak Spahnce, they both got to know each other. Nouhaila still hadn’t spoken to her dad, until one day. Amir Yousef heard the two speaking for the first time. Yousef because furious, the sense of frustration managed to make his way to his hand. The feeling of a pulse-like motion came through his hand causing him to swing against Idriss’ face. The rule in this palace was if the prince of any other country ever interfered with the females living in the palace, a war would break loose.

Nouhaila was instantly sent to her room. She sobbed and sobbed the night away until the moon and stars turned into the sun and clouds. As hard as she tried avoiding her dad, she knew that she had to speak with him about last night. The day felt long. The whole day she tried figuring out how she was going to communicate with her father. She went to the fouyer and sat down next to him. A guy who seemed older than her sat right across from her. She tried figuring him out. He had olive-toned skin. His hair was faded from the sides leaving him with the top of his hair which he had off to the right side of his head. His hair was curlier than hers. The color was a light hazel to go with his eyes. Nouhaila’s father didn’t want her speaking to anyone unless it was her husband. This had been the man that her father had chosen to be her husband. The couple were expected to get married the next day. Her father couldn’t tolerate her being with these men who spoke other languages. For years, Amir Yousef III had tried to establish his own language. With the war breaking in Marruecous and more people from both Spahnce and Frahnce, this made Marruecous become divided. Nouhaila never told her father that she had been with these two guys in order to help create Marruecous very own language. She was truly just trying to be able to speak with her father for the very first time. She always knew she had to love her father but never knew why.

Being married, Nouhaila had more time which meant she could help her father develop a language. She started writing. This writing looked like art, like scripture. She started creating her own alphabet, which turned into words, which turned into sentences, which turned into a conversation. One day, she walked herself to the palace, there had been a microphone at the top of the castle that was used for prayer recitations. Instead of performing a prayer, she spoke these words which she named Arabeeya, and instantly she heard a ruckus from the moorsi. People began to cry. The Moorsi’s were finally able to speak to their loved ones. Amira Nouhaila had the power all along to convert her people, the Moorsi people, to officially speak the language of Arabeeya. While this meant that she could finally speak to her father,she was able to connected everyone. She finally realized how important language was to her and her people, and that is how Arabeeya came to be.

Conclusion:

What I learned from this AP was the skill of storytelling. it's quite the process and something to get used to. Using the right adverbs and adjectives may sound easy until you actually put them into a story. I enjoyed this unit, and will continue to use my skills that I use it in the real world.

Fennec Fox (Vulpes zerda)

I am a sophomore at GCE Lab School. This STEAM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Population, we discussed binomial nomenclature which is a two part name for every animal in the world, usually in Latin language. We studied taxonomy, which is the science of categorizing into levels given to every animal in order to tell them apart and to organize animals in their similarities and differences. We usually find these traits in morphology which is the organism's physical traits. We were able to go onto an FE (field experience) to the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago where we observed an animal. I chose a Fennec Fox and I have organized them into taxonomic levels.

 
Venn diagram of Grey Seal, Cinereous Vulture, and Fennec Fox:

In class, we were grouped up with two other students who had completely different animals than us in order to compare and contrast the taxonomy levels. I was paired up with WH who was observing the Grey Seal, and ALL who was working with the Cinereous Vulture. I learned that a Grey Seal is usually found on both shores of the North Atlantic Ocean. They usually live along rocky coasts and aren’t very sociable with each other, despite living together in large colonies and gathering together in large groups just like how Fennec Foxes gather in groups of about 10. On the other hand, the Cinereous Vulture can be found in European Countries such as France, Italy, and Spain while the Fennec Fox is found in the Sahara. Cinereous Vultures also live in habitats that can give the higher ground advantage, which is usually in forested areas with hills. I found it interesting to discover how closely related two animals could be connected to one another even though they come from two totally different habitats.

                                                           Picture of Vulpes zerda:

Drew, Avery, File:Fennec Fox Vulpes zerda.jpg, 28 January 2010, 13:07:16

NB Hand Drawn Picture of Fennec Fox(2018)

                               
Fennec Foxes are usually found in North Africa or in the Sahara desert. The scientific name for a Fennec Fox is Vulpes zerda which translates to small fox. Because they live in the Arabian Peninsula, they have adapted to warmer climates like the Sahara desert by using their unusually large ears to cool down from the heat. The Fennec Fox would typically hunt for rodents, reptiles, and insects. They are social animals that like to live in packs with one another, hunt together, and play. A Fennec Fox may live 16 years. They may tend to use their feet for digging to build underground tunnels.

Taxonomic Levels:

                                     
I have drawn and labeled the different parts in a Fennec Foxes body which identifies their levels on my taxonomic chart visually.

                     

Set theory was a way to organize these groups into mathematical terms and to find the similarities in these animals to other ones. We use different symbols to mean different things. For example, “U“ means universe which is everything that may be inside of the brackets. From there we can use, Є, to mean it is an element to a specific group. “⋃” which is used to mean a union, or addition to, while ⋂ means an intersection. When we use the apostrophe after we label a specific group that means everything in the brackets are opposite of what we are trying to get to. Here are my examples:


U= { Fennec Fox, Grey Seal, Cinereous Vulture}
Fennec Foxes, Grey Seals, and Cinereous vultures are all a part of my universe.

Herbivores’= {Cinereous Vulture, Fennec Fox, Grey Seal}
Vultures, Fennec Foxes, and Grey Seals are not herbivores.

Feathery ⋃ Furry: { Fennec Fox, Vulture}
The set of animals that are either feathery or furry are the fennec fox and vulture.

Feathery ⋂ Furry: {Ø}
There is no animal in my universe that is both furry and feathery.

fennec fox Є Mammalia
The fennec fox is an element of the Mammalia group.

fennec fox Є carnivora
The fennec fox is an element of the Carnivora group.


Conclusion:
To conclude, I found my first AP to be quite interesting. I was able to learn more about how and why organisms are listed into taxonomic levels and I was able to find out how closely connected we are to the animals around us, even though we all come from different habitats. It's interesting to know that although morphology may show us our differences in physical traits, when we break these levels down, we can see the comparisons between organisms.

Citations:
Artist unknown, https://moniqueschoutenblog.wordpress.com, May 19, 2018.
Lincoln Park zoo, https://www.lpzoo.org/animal/cinereous-vulture#, September 15, 2018
Lincoln Park Zoo

H2O: Long Walk to Water and A World Without Water Connection

This summer, we were assigned to read a book that was based on a world without water. Title of the movie was, A Long Walk to Water, where we were told the story of a young lost boy of Sudan and a young girl named Nya. We were told the daily struggle of dealing with life without water. The documentary was called, A World Without Water, where we were told different stories of famiies that were dealing with the issue of limited amount of water around the world, such as, South America, Africa, and even the U.S.


                                                      IMG_1274 from N.B. on Vimeo.