4th Amendment Confusion

TJ Nicolella, Amber Altomare

Click HERE to view our documentary or watch below

Our documentary outlines some of the confusion and different interpretations of the 4th amendment and how that causes more problems than it solves.
          ​Amber and I chose this topic because it was something that has been coming up a lot in news these days. There have been stories of search and seizure incidents around Philadelphia and in places like airports and train stations. This topic even relates to me in some ways. Every weekend, if me or other people are outside past ten o'clock, cops will stop us and ask to search the bags we are carrying without giving us an explanation why. This project was great because it allowed us to be creative and make a video that explores different parts of the amendment that we wanted a provision for. Each person that looked into the same amendment had a very different outlook on the outlines of that amendment and talked about different things within it. The most challenging part was the editing of the video and finding actual C-Span clips that made sense for my video. The most interesting fact that I found when researching the fourth amendment was that I had the right to refuse searches if they breach my fourth amendment rights. There really needs to be no improvement to the project, but maybe add some checkpoints throughout the duration of the benchmark.
          We ran into trouble when attempting to find C-Span footage that would work well with our video because a lot of the downloadable footage was composed of two people debating with a moderator talking between them. Some things that went well include our ability to outline a valid problem within the amendment and how it could be interpreted in many different ways by different people. If I had to do this project again I would start much earlier than I did. I would also film some interviews about the topic of interest. Throughout this process, I learned that much of the language in the constitution is left to be determined differently by courts and in some cases is very outdated by today's standards.

PSA) (Yasmeen Maddie&Bethany)

 

La Introducción:

Hicimos un PSA sobre el litro en Filadelfia. Es un asusnto importante a nosotros porque la gente necesitan sabemos. Esperamos que el público de Filadelfia yo dudo que reciclar y tiren la basuran

Q2 Benchmark

De'Lesha Jackson and Jasmine Gladden "freedom of speech"

Personally I chose this topic because it was honestly the first thing that came to mind. Normally it would take me awhile to figure out what exactly I wanted to use as my topic but it was the first article of the constitution so it was sort of right there. The thing I enjoyed about this project was the fact that I didn't have to be in the video and it was fun to hear what people had to say about why freedom of speech was important to them. Although it was difficult incorporating the C-SPAN video because they didn't really connect with what we were saying but we made it work. The quotes that we used were really interesting to because not only were they true but they sort of gave me a different perspective to look at. I think if we had more views and interviewed more people the video would have been better because there would have been a better range.

Me and my partner didn't really run into problems once we got passed how to convert our video to post it and how to download the C-SPAN video it was smooth sailing. Overall, the project went pretty well I haven o complaints but like I said if I had to do it over I would have interviewed more people and maybe make the final more interesting to look at with music maybe. I learned that not everyone values their freedom of speech and not everyone knows why it's important to them it just kind of is.


Relfexión

Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre tirar basura en Filadelfia. Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendí fue 75% de la basura estadounidenses por lo menos una vez al día. Me gusta el PSA de mi group porque hemos explicado por qué la basura es mala y los efectos. Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo cambiaría el video y lo hacen lo más interesante.

Mi Reflexión

Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre reciclen en la cuidad de Filadelfia. 

Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendí fue el reciclaje es fácil para todos los gentes hacer. 

Me gusta el PSA de mi grupo porque nosotros tenemos mucho diversión con grabación. 

Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo cambiaría escenario de PSA grabación. 

Reciclar PSA

Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre reciclar. Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendí fue programa de reciclar es muy posible en la escuela. Me gusta el PSA de mi group porque muy información en el PSA y mucho trabajo para el group. Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo cambiaría nana, me gusta el proyecto! (: 

Reflection

What grade would you assign yourself for each category?

Exceeds Expectations

20-19


Meets Expectations

18-16


Approaches Expectations

15-13


Does Not Meet Expectations

12-1

Design

18

Knowledge


17

Application

18

Presentation

20

Process

20


TOTAL: 93

Strengths of your process or product

Weaknesses of your process or product


-We all broke up the parts of who was doing what. 

-All helped out making things flow good. 


- Not being on schedule with the good doc. 

What did you learn from doing this project? (skills, life lessons, words etc)
I made something that actually helps people that is written completely in spanish. It was awesome to make it. The topics were things that I just did a project on in English and now I did something similar but in a different language. 

If you had more time to tweak your project, what would you change about it?
I would get more and better pictures. I would have them more specific and more interesting pictures. I would also add a song in at some parts in the PSA. 

What did you enjoy (or not) about this project?
I liked the topic and the project idea. It is something I have done in English and doing it in spanish made it really cool to compare and contrast. 

Should I do this project again with next year’s Spanish 3 classes?  Why or why not?
Yes, I think it was a good project for the class and the time of the year. Its a fun BM and very helpful to learning how to use the spanish we have just learned. 

Protecting Civil Liberties - Ian McClendon/ Kern Clark/ Blase Biello

http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Protecting_Civil_Liberties_in_the_Digital_Age_Documentary_-_Biello-McClendon-Clarke


With my group Blase, Kern, and I we chose Protecting Civil Liberties in Schools because in our school particularly surrounded by technology this is an important issue. So we set out to get the thoughts of our classmates to understand the views of their own privacy. I enjoyed creating this project because since the issue is about unrestricted searches through their phones, devices, and even computers. So forth these liberties put upon students growing up with new technology are unaware of how much privacy they actually have. The most challenging was how to separate our essential questions about the privacy in and out of school. Also since we weren't sure of how much power the school district had in conducting a case. Another aspect that we could improve was to get more information about actual cases of students privacy being violated and whom in command pursues the information in a case.   

Protecting Civil Liberties in the Digital Age Documentary - Biello/McClendon/Clarke

Protecting Civil Liberties in the Digital Age Documentary


We choose this topic because we felt as thought it was the most relatable and the one that affects us the most. Also because it was a very modern problem. The thing that I liked about the project was using the different CSPAN footage. The thing that was most challenging was the placement of the CSPAN footage that we found. The most interesting fact that I investigated was that the school district has the authority to search through your phone. This project could be improved by us using more CSPAN footage. Also we could have had more interviews from adults.

We ran into trouble with this project when deciding which of the CSPAN footage we should use and where we should place them in the final video project. The thing that went well on this project were the interviews and the questions that we asked the interviewees. The lighting that we had was very good and the responses were good as well. If I had to do it over the thing that I would change about our decisions were the peoples age groups that we interviewed. I don't think that we got a broad enough spectrum of responses. I learned that the U.S. government could be potentially listening in on our phone conversations and our text communications.

Protecting Civil Liberties in the Digital Age Documentary - Biello/McClendon/Clarke


Blase Biello
Kern Clarke
Ian McClendon

*click thumbnail to start documentary*


I worked with Kern & Ian on my Q2 Benchmark which was the 2012 CSPAN Studentcam Documentary. We decided to chose the topic of civil liberties in the digital age because we thought this topic was the most related to us because of the amount of technology we use throughout the day. We use every piece of technology stated in the video; calls/texts/email/twitter/facebook/etc so it hits home for us the hardest. 
I liked the fact that we had the freedom to virtually create any kind of documentary we wanted and fill it with any information that we felt necessary/wanted. The most challenging part of the whole video was probably putting all of the clips together in an effective way that would keep the audience entertained whilst informing them at the same time. The most interesting fact that I learned was that the gov't has the ability to monitor our calls/texts without our consent. This project could be improved if we added in more narration, I think; but for the most part - the interviews of students helped sum up all of our opinions because most of their opinions were the same, 'we want our privacy'. We didn't really run into trouble anywhere with this project, I think with a three person group, everything went really smoothly. 
I think the use of multiple interviews as well as narration went well with this project. It added a bunch of layers for the audience to completely grasp the topic at hand. Also, I think the different B-Roll footage helped make it a solid documentary. If we had to do it all over again, I don't think we would really do anything differently, maybe add a couple more people to the interviews; but I think we had enough to be effective. Overall, I'm satisfied with our execution of our plan/process as well as with the final documentary. I learned many things about the privacy of our technology; as well as how many of my fellow students feel about their technology and privacy rights. Overall, this was a really nice project to tackle digital rights and privacy and inform everyone out there on our topic, effectively. 

Q2 BM- EL Medio Ambiente Proyecto

Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre los responsibilidades de los gentes en Filadelfia por su medio ambiente. Escribimos los asuntos con the el medio ambiente y solucciones por esos que necesitan hacer.

Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendí fue los etapas pequeñas de gentes pueden ayudar mas. Tambien, tomando la publicá consciente de los asuntos pasando que un PSA es divertido y agradable. 

Me gusta el PSA de mi group porque trabajamos duro en este! Nuestra video tiene ejemplos comicos pero bien por los gentes hacer por el medio ambiente. Y mas que nada, tenemos mucho divertido.

Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo cambiaría los asuntos porque tendriamos mas solucciones y un video differente. Quiero que explorar unos ideas differentes y veo donde yo iria con es. 

http://scienceleadership.org/blog/Espanol_3_BMQ2-Ssapp_y_Awallace


El Reflexion de PSA

​Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre los vecindades malos. Mas specifica, el vandalismo y grafiti. Las cosas importantes yo aprendí son uso el subjuntivo y la importancia de analizamos cómo nosotros, cuando estudiantes, pudieron mejorar nuestros ciudad. Me gusta nuestros PSA porque es sencillo todavía efectivo.Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo pudiera añadir más estadísticas.


 

Mi reflexion

Mi groupo y yo hicimis un PSA sobre es reciclar en la Filadelfia. Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendi fue es importante de reciclar. Me gusta el PSA de mi groupo porque mi groupo es trabajando colaborar. Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez,yo combiaria mas video. 


Genuinely Gorgeous

Bach Tong and Natalie Sanchez

The Product that Bach and I are selling is not tangible. We are “selling” the idea of raw and genuine beauty. Through our print ads we are trying to retrain our audience’s eye to look at beauty differently than the way it is portrayed in today’s ads. With our ads, we want to redefine what beauty means, essentially. We want to stop people from thinking that you have to be a certain shape, age, and color to be considered beautiful. 

We do not have a specific intended audience. We are making these ads for every American’s attention. Every American, in some way or another, has been affected by this plague that is media. It has infiltrated the way they think about beauty and, consequently, acceptance. It is the “perfect figure” that is so often sold through print ads in magazines that drive young women to physically harm their bodies, young men to committing reckless behavior in order to gain acceptance from their male peers, and so many American citizens to develop low self esteem. Americans spend tons of money daily buying products for hair growth, wrinkles, weight loss, and hair removal just to reach this physically impossible state of aesthetic “beauty.” This is why we are targeting all Americans; we are all guilty of wishing to modify our bodies in some way or another. 

Our ads reach the audience through its relatable characters, by taking daily raw activities and ordinary faces to challenge the norm of beauty, which is marginalized within framing definitions by mass media. Such vehicle also carries our message of rethinking beauty.
There are many things we could have changed about our BM. A French poet and critic Paul Valerie once said: “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.” We, as always, abandon our BM because of deadlines and timelines, and we feel that if we could have more reflective periods to re-think and modify our products, we could develop a more in-depth message. It is hard to know when it's the right time to abandon our project, since the BM is a one-time deal. We tend to rush toward it at the end of the quarter.  In terms of our message and direction, our BM would have a much sharper analysis if we would have focused on one specific aspect of beauty, such as body type, spirit, hair, outfit (consumerism), etc. Such messages would be easier to understand, as well as ignite a deeper level of thinking from there to challenge the norm of beauty. On the other hand, we spent a large amount of time strategizing, which is pivotal. However, hands-on time of taking pictures plays an equal role in shaping the final product, as it gives the experience to our theoretical intention, and therefore it assists the delivery of our message. In term of logistic, this BM was assigned during a relatively busy time, along with other deadlines (College Applications, Scholarships, Other BMs, Capstone proposals, etc.) Therefore it did not get as much attention as it deserved. Therefore, as always, there should have been a smarter balance of effort into the process, and a smarter plan for it to match our work capacity. 
Final Gina Ad
Final Gina Ad
Final Xavier Pic
Final Xavier Pic
Final Lehman
Final Lehman
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 8.24.42 AM
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 8.24.42 AM
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 8.25.11 AM
Screen Shot 2012-01-20 at 8.25.11 AM

C-Span Competition 26th Amendment

Will,  Ali and Tim

Link to Will's page

https://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/The_26th_amendment_-_StudentCam_Benchmark

We chose this amendment because it heavily related to our current lives as we are around the age where voting has become a factor. The project allowed for creativity and I liked that but I mostly enjoyed finding relations that I never new existed. The biggest problem was finding c-span footage that fit the criteria of what I needed. It seemed like either the quality was to different from our video or the footage wasn't entirely related to us. The project could be improved by sorting c-span footage by amendment. This would allow for less cryptic research required. The product was had many different points but I would have liked to have had more interviews. It was hard finding people educated on our topic. I wish we had spent more time on the filming stage or at least chose a warmer day so we could have gone outside. I am glad I learned about this amendment and it taught me how the government makes changes actually based from the will of the people. I will be waiting for the next one and see if this is still true.

Reflexción para PSA video de nuestro groupo (Cuba)

Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre contaminación del Aire en Filadelfia. 
Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendí fue yo tengo muchas diferente método para detener la air pollucion. 
Me gusta el PSA de mi group porque nuestro video incluido a todos en nosotros grupo y la musica en la fundo de la video es maravilloso.
Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo incluiría los efectos que tiene la contaminación del aire tiene en Filadelfia y los peligros.

http://www.scienceleadership.org/media/open/12477

Groupo Cuba: 

Tenzin Ngawang, Jessica Hinton, Mecca Sharrieff, Christian Gelbolingo

C-Span, Q2 BM "The V-Word" Video

http://www.scienceleadership.org/blog/BM:5


I chose this topic because I felt like it was something that was often discussed in debates and it effects me because people are so sensitive to the topic. I liked that it effects me and other females my age. As far as most interesting, the C-Span footage we extracted for the video was interesting to watch and analyze. People's different responses to questions about sexual education were interesting to listen to. One fact that was ridiculously interesting was that within 14 year old females and males, many admitted to having more than one sexual partners. We had to use these graphs, facts and data to prove our point that Sex Education should be taught. Period. To improve this project, we could've used random peoples opinions in our video. But we ran into problems with timing, so that ruled out that idea.

Contaminación del Aire

Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre 'Contaminación del Aire'.

Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendí fue es importante que penso sobre el nuestro efectos en contaminación.

Me gusta el PSA de mi group porque nuestro video es divertida y cómico de hacer fabrican (to make). 

Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo cambiaría... I think that maybe I would discuss how these solutions are better for the environment. 

Christian, Mecca, Tenzin, Jessica - Grupo Cuba 

Me Reflexión

Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre el importanté para reciclar en Filádelfia.

Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendí fue la importancia a reciclar, y el negativo efecto lo bote tena en el environmenté.

Me gusta el PSA de mi group porque Goldie es muy comica.

Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo cambiaría individualmente.

Quarter 2 BM. 14th Amendment

Reflection
 

For my second American Government benchmark, I inquired on a topic that I knew of but also wanted to learn more about. I tied together the 14th amendment and how it relates to the LGBT community. I really liked that this project was very open to anything and let me be creative. I also liked how we got to be free with which way we wanted to on about this project. One of the more challenging parts of the project was how to start out and how would I get my message across to the audience. I also found it hard to get good footage that went all together and messing with iMoive to make it all come out looking good and not like a bunch of videos smashed together.

The most interesting fact was that stood out to me was that ninety percent of the gay and lesbian youth reported being bullied from middle school through out high school. My C-Span video also had some interesting facts as well and how they could end the bulling though out the world. Sherrod Brown was the spokes person and brought up some good points in the C-Span, which I also put into my video. I think that I could improve my project by using more people, such as adults since I only used pre-teens and teenagers. Another way this project can be improved would be by using less C-Span footage and more different videos that connect to my topic.

During this project I ran into a couple of problems one being trying to make all of the videos I chopped up sound the same with the volume adjustments. It was hard trying to take all of these different clips and making them have the same volume with out having to cut the videos into tiny pieces. A second problem that I had with the project was uploading it, I uploaded the video to three different places, SchoolTube, Youtube, and I tried TeacherTube. I didn’t know that I had to wait for my video to be accepted by the administrator first. I think me working by myself went well. I got to mange my own time and I didn’t have to rely on anyone else to get their work done. If I had to do this project over I would try and get my video done faster so when the deadline was coming up I could just get it reviewed all the time and not worry on the last day about uploading it. I learned that this was the fastest movement in the nation and is still growing till this day.



For my work cited click here.




Quarter 2 Benchmark

This is Lauren second quarter benchmark. To look at it  for now on youtube : click here

will post vimeo video shortly

But my project is basically on the First Amendment and the freedom of speech in schools.
​Benchmark Reflection:

  • Why did you choose this topic?
    - I pick this topic because my freedom of speech is important to me. I think everyone should have the right to free speech, no matter where they are. Some people take this to far and say things that shouldn't be said out of moral law.
  • What did you like about this project? What was most challenging?
    -  I enjoyed the part of the project when I asked people question because, it was funny to see what everyone's initial response was, or them trying to figure out how to answer the questions.
  • Describe the most interesting fact or event that you investigated.
    - That's school had the right to say what a student can wear and do, most important with religion. I don't understand how a school can take it upon themselves to restrict a religion.
  • How could this project be improved?
    - The project could have been improved with a little more editing and I realized after publishing that there was no music or anything
  • Where did you run into trouble with the project?
    - A problem for me was that IMovie keep crashing and deleting my videos.
  • What went well with this project?
    - The interviews of people went quite well even, and the timing of Anwar playing the piano in the background on some interviews was perfectly timed
  • If you had it to do over, what would you change about your decisions or your process?
    - I really wouldn't change anything, the project went pretty well,  maybe a little bit more editing, and some way to stop IMovie from crashing every five mins
  • What did you learn?
    - More about my freedom of speech as a student and the rights that a school has, which sometimes are ridiculously outrageous.
​Bibliographies:

American Liberties Union. "Free Speech." American Civil Liberties Union. American Liberties Union. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.aclu.org/free-speech>.


C-Span. "Bullying, Sexual Orientation, and Gender." C-Span Video Library. C-Span, 13 May 2011. Web. 2012. <http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/BullyingS/start/1714/stop/2140>. 

Quarter 2 StudentCam :D

We chose this topic because it was the easiest to apply to us as individuals and especially as students of SLA. With such diversity in our school, obviously the most important sections of the Constitution would be the ones defending that diversity. Although I didn't learn anything new, I had a lot of fun interpreting things I already knew and remembering things I had forgotten. 

This project was fun because we had free reign to create a video that only had to explain why something was important to us. Though it was hard to figure out just how to do that, (we struggled for a while with a plot), the process was fun and worth the challenge. Another challenging part was adhering to the rules of the contest while also trying to make a project for school because the teachers here are sometimes more negotiable about parts of the project than the contest people. That can't really be improved however, because it's not our contest. Besides that I don't think the project can be improved or be much more challenging. If I was to do this again I'd get a better set because the production value went down because of the slightly inconsistent backdrop we had. This could have been avoided by filming that section earlier but it wasn't ready at the moment so we had to make do. 

Reflexión

  • Mi grupo y yo hicimos un PSA sobre la basura y la contaminación. 
  • Por crear el PSA, la cosa más importante que aprendí fue para de que mi basura entra en la papelera. 
  • Me gusta el PSA de mi group porque es creativo y divertise. tuvimos un bien mensaje.
  • Si pudiera hacer el proyecto otra vez, yo coambiaría añada al vídeo para hacerlo mejor.