The Key to an Energy Efficient Home

For this unit of our STEAM course, Urban Planning, we took a deeper look into circuits, circuit boards, energy efficient products, Nikola Tesla, and more. We started off by learning about Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison with their participation in the War of the Currents.  We then continued on and learned about direct and alternating currents, created by these two, and understood how the devices we use today are powered by currents like these. We looked into circuit boards and diagrams. The symbols that electricians use make diagrams simple and easy to understand. We learned about these because we would need them in a bit for our action projects. We looked into what electricity is exactly and how it is created. We had a Zoom call with an FE guest, Jaclyn Marcus, an architectural designer. We were able to ask questions from how lighting can affect a person's mood to what inspired them to become a designer, etc. These answers would help us when it came to our AP. For this AP, we had to create a circuit board that would power energy efficient appliances throughout a home that we created. Look through my presentation to learn more!



To conclude, I think this project allowed me to test out how far I could go in regards to creativity and design. I saw myself trying to think of new ways to get my circuit to power more bulbs, and I finally got a hang of it. I think even during these times, using new materials around the house allowed me to explore and test things out. I am glad that this AP allowed me to do that, and I would like to do the same for the next one as well! 

Imagine the feeling of being watched?

In this first unit of our humanities course, Policy, we took a deeper look into what role legislators serve in the U.S. government. Understanding different roles played in the U.S. government gives us students a better understanding of who is representing us. Who is representing our views, values, and morals when it comes to the U.S. coalition coming together and creating policy. We were able to speak with public defender Connie Jordan, who joined us last term, to learn about how policy works in our city, state, and nation as a whole. We looked into different ordinances which helped us when it came to thinking about the issues we were passionate about seeing change on within our state, and seeing the progression these ordinances are making. For this AP, we were asked to choose a topic and ordinance that goes along with it that has yet to be passed. Our goal was to construct a letter to someone in legislation who we think represents us the best in order to get this ordinance passed. We as citizens of the U.S. have the right to our opinion and getting it out in the world because that is what democracy is. Without the opinion of the people, there would be no democracy. I chose to speak on behalf of online surveillance and cyberstalking within marginalized communities. I chose this topic after looking into Assia Boundaoui´s film, The Feeling of Being Watched, which takes a closer look into the FBI stalking the largest Islamic community in Illinois, Bridgeview. During the 1990s, Operation Vulgar Betrayal was launched by the U.S. to take a closer look into this certain community in Illinois with the perception that Islamic organizations and mosques were funding terrorist groups like Hamas. Take a closer look into my AP in order to get a better understanding of the person I am and how I want to see this state improve when it comes to online surveillance.