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Inquiry - For this project the first thing that we had to think about is what our element means to our culture or history. We had to think about its various uses and which we wanted to display in our final project.
Research – The point of this project was to discover more about the element given to us and display our new knowledge in a creative and unique way. To ensure that we had done research on our element there was one guideline, we had to have three different original and distinctive pieces. My element was Iodine which is currently used mainly in medicine as a sterilizer, but since this project required me to look outside the box I had to find its other uses and since it was not used in as many different things today I had to do more research on its history and its uses in the past. My final Ideas were an old fashioned camera because they used to be used in prints and kelp, which is the main source of iodine.
Collaboration – Besides just sharing working utensils and space collaboration was a pretty big aspect of this project. A good example of this for me is how I was having difficulty getting my prints to turn out the way I thought they should so I found someone who had finished with three perfect, neat copies and asked them to help me and give me tips so that I could do others. I think that there is much to be learned from our peers even in an individual art project or any project in that matter. Whether this be simply sharing space and materials or asking for someone’s opinion which helps see your work through a different lens and have a more complete final product. I think that not using the input of your peers is just throwing aside one of the most useful tools to creating a project to the best of your ability.
Presentation – The way that we displayed our knowledge and research on our element was through the final print of the stamp that we created. This is what we have been designing and preparing for the past month as well as our last assignment for the ninth grade art elective.
Reflection- This reflection has gotten me to think about all that I have learned during the process of completing this progress both about my element, art, and in general. I have taken a lot from this project and have put a lot of effort into my final piece and am glad to have made the choices I made with design and how I displayed the element.

There comes a point in everyone’s life where they are forced to remember things. Whether they be for good or for bad. This is that time for me. It is time for me to think back on everything we have done and evaluate upon that. Its time for me to focus on work that may have been good, or the ones that I completely rocked. 

This year for me has been one full of ups and downs. Some of those worse than others. I’ve struggled with staying focused as well as completing tasks on time. But when I did hand in those assignments, they were magic. “Growing up there has been (and still is) something that clearly divides our family. It is not the color of our hair or whether or we share the same eye color. A speech barrier has affected more than half of my family.” Read more of my Language Autobiography here. 

There have been times this year when I did not believe that I could go on any longer and there was no way that I would be able to finish out the year strong but I had to do it. Mr. Block began to assign more work that I could relate to and that made it a little less difficult to fail at. “There will always be things that one does that someone else hates, but that is the give and take with life. You never know what you are going to get, so you deal with it, no matter whatever hand you are dealt. Its a game of give and take, and there is more giving than taking, but hey! That’s what life is.. A bunch of uncertainty.” I look back on these words and realize you cannot change what you have done, however you have the power to adjust the course for the future. In the past year, I have learned that in these two subjects and just about the world in general. You can only change yourself... You can’t change the world. Read more from my Letter Assignment here. 

I was inspired to keep writing and to keep sharing my writing with the world. I wanted the world to know how proud I was to be apart of a class where I had the freedom to write whatever I pleased. When I pleased. One of the journal entries this year was titled “Never shall I forget.” in which you could write about anything. I at the time had been thinking about my relationship since the topic on hand that week was relationships within countries and relationships between people and objects. I remember writing this great poem about my relationship and it went a little something like this. “Never shall I forget the day he held me in his arms, For I did not want to let go. Never shall I forget the late night phone calls, The ones that were had so that he would be the last voice I heard before bed. Never shall I forget how much I love him. Never shall I forget the person I gave my heart to. For all these things worth remembering, I never shall forget. ​Never shall I forget the day I saw him. I fell in love instantly and I knew we were meant to be. Never shall I forget the day I got the courage to talk to him. He liked me too. Never shall I forget the day he asked me to be his. Never shall I forget our first kiss by the backstairs. Never shall I forget the butterflies I get everytime I hear his name. Never shall I forget the day he said I love you... because I love him too.”

At that point, my knack for writing became something that could no longer be tamed. We were learning more about different writing styles and we were getting prompts to write about and the benchmarks challenged my every being. My favorite project from the year had to be my monologues about the Keystone Pipeline build. I wrote the monologues and was more than ecstatic to show everyone. Here is a little excerpt “What brings you here today? My land? You want my land? Why? No! You can’t have it! I won’t let you! (Angrily Speaking)  I can’t believe you thought you could come in my house and take my land! This is mine! I bought it and I refuse to sign it over to you. TransCanada? Who are they? Why do they feel the need to take what isn’t theirs? (Pause) A pipeline? From Canada all the way to Texas? Why the hell do they need all that oil anyway! Go dig somewhere else! I dont care how beneficial it is to the company, the other states, or anyone else for that matter. I worked my whole life for this land and I’m not going to throw it away for a project that will be gone in five years after all of the oil dries up! (Pause, looking to her left) Calm Down? Me calm down? At a time like this? I’m sorry Mr. Jameson, not to sound rude, but thats not going to happen. There is more to the land then just a place to be. My children were born and raised here, my grandchild born in this very house. There is an emotional connection involved in this house and there is no amount of money that can change the way I feel about this.” Read the full monologues here. 

There are so many more pieces of work that I am proud of from this year and that can demonstrate to the fullest but would not nearly have enough time to write about all my experiences with each one. So below I put a list together of a few of most pride worthy work for you to enjoy. Feel free to go through the links and read whatever you would like! I hope you enjoy my writing. 

English B Piece 

Poetry Wiki 

Descriptive Essay 

The project really reflected five of Science Leadership’s core values. Inquiry was used, because we needed to ask questions. Without asking, we wouldn’t know any information about our element, and therefore, we wouldn’t know what to put on our print. The information and images we used were condensed into a single or few things that represented the element. The next core value that was used is research. We needed to research a lot about our element before creating a print. You can’t do a project on something if you know nothing about it. Collaboration was used when we talked to eachother about what we can use to represent our element. I found myself asking people what they were doing, and how they were going to pull it off. I also found other people asking me about my project. Presentation will be used through this blog post, along with showing Ms. Hull our creations. The prints we created will be displayed, and people can scroll through the abundance of blog posts to see how everyone decided to represent their element. After working hard for weeks doing sketches, cutting the linoleum, and finally printing, we’re going to be using reflection on the Science Leadership Academy blog for art class. Through this blog post, everyone can see our beautiful work! It’s also a chance to talk about the experience that we had. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the project, and I think it was so much fun. In the beginning, I was sort of bored because all we were doing was sketches, but after we started actually cutting the linoleum, it was really entertaining. It was also a whole lot of fun playing with colors on the prints. I learned a lot about how to put the colors in stripes, and to make good multicolor prints with three colors.

The project really reflected five of Science Leadership’s core values. Inquiry was used, because we needed to ask questions. Without asking, we wouldn’t know any information about our element, and therefore, we wouldn’t know what to put on our print. The information and images we used were condensed into a single or few things that represented the element. The next core value that was used is research. We needed to research a lot about our element before creating a print. You can’t do a project on something if you know nothing about it. Collaboration was used when we talked to eachother about what we can use to represent our element. I found myself asking people what they were doing, and how they were going to pull it off. I also found other people asking me about my project. Presentation will be used through this blog post, along with showing Ms. Hull our creations. The prints we created will be displayed, and people can scroll through the abundance of blog posts to see how everyone decided to represent their element. After working hard for weeks doing sketches, cutting the linoleum, and finally printing, we’re going to be using reflection on the Science Leadership Academy blog for art class. Through this blog post, everyone can see our beautiful work! It’s also a chance to talk about the experience that we had. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the project, and I think it was so much fun. In the beginning, I was sort of bored because all we were doing was sketches, but after we started actually cutting the linoleum, it was really entertaining. It was also a whole lot of fun playing with colors on the prints. I learned a lot about how to put the colors in stripes, and to make good multicolor prints with three colors.

While attending Mr Blocks History and English class it opened my eyes to many issues in the world such as “How does society affect the world?” we did many assignments that challenged me and made me look at different topics in other ways that i would have ever thought of without the help of Mr Block. If you think about it for a little you will immediately start thinking about human actions but i'm also talking about how media and people we see as famous and athletic affect us.

“In my opinion sports are such a big deal in this country because the american people don't have anything else to do and it is a way to control the american population for example they make the american society think that if they don't have a muscular body that they are not appealing to females.”

Many americans nowadays go crazy when missed calls are made during a game when its not even that big of a deal and i've heard of stories of people not eating or losing thousands of dollars due to their team losing. Americans become too addictive it's like gambling people just keep going back and spending money on useless stuff.

“I believe that industrialization has brought more than good because it made a lot of of small businesses go out of business and the factories would pollute the rivers so the environment was affected and also the product quality went down for example before a shoe makes would make only like one pair of shoes a day specifically made for one person but now factories made hundreds a day due to a higher population and demand.”

Society influenced clothing in huge way, before you would walk into a shop and order a pair of shoes personalized to you. Now a days you walk into a store and you find hundreds of the same shoe at a cheaper price than a pair of personalized ones to worse quality fabrics and they are not made the want you want them they can sometimes take short cuts due to demand.

“Many americans are are against illegal aliens coming over and taking american jobs. But the americans don't want to do those jobs, they just use the illegal aliens and once they are not needed anymore they deport them and say that they are destroying the country and all they bring is violence and use the country. But they actually have built this country up they pick the fruits and vegetables for the food producer and they do many low paying jobs that the american people would never do without them this country would fall apart and will not be able to grow. (Op-Ed)

Society sees illegal aliens as the enemy and when the economy had a downfall one of the first ones to be blamed for not there being enough jobs where the illegal aliens but if the americans would think straight and not just assume stuff they would see that the jobs illegal aliens do are the worse and toughest jobs that also pay the lowest wage. So if an american were to work the job an illegal alien does they would have to complain and call the police because they would see how unjust the jobs are.

“When she met Teacake in the story she was a woman that was not that strong and she had some power because she owned land and had a store but her ex husband prohibited her from doing many things such as she was not able to play checkers but when teacake came into her life he swept her off her feet and made her feel equal. He let her play checkers and they went on a romantic picnic like she did when she was with her first boyfriend. Teacake filled in what was missing in her life and when she killed him because she had to, she cherished those moments and it seemed like she did not regret being with him (Final thoughts on their eyes were watching god)”

While reading “Their Eyes Were Watching God” I noticed the inequality, society influenced in how women are not seen is that women are not equal. A huge example of how women are not seen as equal is like when a female Basketball player from Oregon named Brittney Griner wanted to play in the NBA but a lot of people said no because she would get pushed around and would only get hurt. She was not even given a chance all she was told was that she was a female so that made her “ineligible to play”. Another example of how women are seen as less than men and only as like a sex object is the lingerie football league, they are dressed in lingerie and usually the spectators are men and all they do is harass them.

Inquiry - Wr had to inquire about our elements in order to do this project. We had to think about what the element is, what it does, and why it is important and valuable. We also had to inquire when we did not know how to do something, and where left to figure it out. These where healthy challenges to take, and I am so happy that I attend a school where I am not just told things, but have to experience them, and learn from what I experience wether it is good or bad.

Research - In order to make these block prints, we had to do research on our element so that we could come up with our own design.

Collaboration - We had to collaborate with others on this project in order to print our designs. We had to work with others and share the space, ink and brayers that where used to print out the designs on our linoleum block.