Q1 Artwork - Nadif Bracey

I drew this as a portrait to Jasmine. In the beginning it was suppose to be of Sam Boyd, but I kept having to start over. I drew Jasmine as I saw her and the best way I could. Her shoulders I drew broad to represent her inner and outer strength which she shows everyday. I drew her waist slim and her butt big wide because it is. 
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Story of a bill; Employment discrimination Laws

When choosing which bill I should do it was kind of difficult because there are so many bills and laws out there to choose from so I decided that I would choose the first one that sounded interesting to me and the one that I really know least about. After choosing this bill I decided that the best way to present it was in prezi, I like prezi for presenting things because it is not lecturing to people and it is not boring, I like prezi's because they give out the information but in a interesting way. Even though I like presenting in a prezi there were some issues that did occur. Some of which what order I wanted to tell the story, another problem that came up is how long should the presentation be so that is does not become boring and so that people can get a full understanding of the bill is saying. If I can do the project all over again I probably would would maybe try to present it in some kind of comical way. What the research and investigation process tells us about the creation process is basically what happens with other bills some one notices that something is not working for them so they propose a way to solve it and it goes from there, what I did notice is that it is not that hard in the beginning but towards the end it became much more easy.

Food Benchmark Quarter 1

Food Rules Slide: 
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Personal Reflection: The well-known quote goes as such; “There’s two side to every story”. And after looking back on this unit I believe I learned both sides of the food industry meaning the negatives as well as the positives. I’ve learned the importance of keeping things under wraps so that consumers won’t actually know what’s going with their food. I also learned that the food testing companies would rather spend less money and not thoroughly test food, which is their job. Than spend money and make sure the citizens that consume the food are safe and quality food. Although I’ve noticed that a lot of things are biased. And that the extreme measures we use to produce chicken are sometimes necessary. Because if we can produce chicken quickly he can’t get things out in such high quantities as we need them.

My role in the larger food system as of now is the consumer I would like to become an active consumer. And what I mean by active consumer I that to get more involved in knows in about what I’m eating as well as was it came from. I see the biggest problem in the food system to be the food testing companies. Because after watching Food Inc I noticed that if the food testing companies start testing food correctly less people would get sick and harmful food products wont even make it to the shelves of stores.

After watching Food Inc. and reading several items would like to change my diet but it would be extremely hard because I’m’ already used to process unhealthy foods. But if I were to change my diet I’d try eating thing that didn’t have a lot of corn or products in them as well as try to buy the mostly organic food. 

Recipe: 

Jazzy Jambalaya

 

Ingredients

 

2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

2 Tbsp Flour

1 Green Pepper (chopped)

1 Medium Onion (chopped)

1 Garlic Clove (miced)

1 ½ Cup of Vegetable Juice

1Pkg 14 oz Smoked Turkey Sausage (Thinly sliced)

1 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (one inch chunks)

¼ Tsp Ground Black Pepper

¼ Tsp Salt

1/8 Tsp Ground Red Pepper

Hot Cooked Rice

 

 

Directions

Cook and stir oil and flour in large skillet on medium-high heat for 2 minutes until golden brown. Add green pepper, onion, and garlic. Cook and stir for 2 minutes until vegetables start to soften. Stir in juice, turkey sausage, chicken and spices. Bring to boil; cover. Reduce heat; simmer for 10 minutes until chicken is cooker through, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice. (Makes 4 servings)

 

 

The ingredients I used in my dish were green peppers, onion, garlic, vegetable juice, turkey sausage, and chicken breast. The percentage of my ingredients was processed was 40% which was the chicken breast and the turkey sausage. The other 60% was whole foods. There was 12 grams total fain the chicken breast and 4 grams of fat in the turkey sausage. As fro the vegetable juice there was 0 grams of fat. There were also o grams of fat for the green pepper, onion as well as the garlic. The vegetables and vegetable juice would probably sit best with the stomach and are the healthiest of the six ingredients.

The meal itself is a great nutrious meal its something that everyone can eat. And doest has a lot of processed ingriendtss. But the cost of the ingriends to prepare the meal would scare some families away because it cost about 25 dollars for the indriens and it only makes 4 servings. As far was the food actually cam from I’m not sure. I pretty sure the vegetables came from a farm close by because I bought them from a produce junction. But as far as the meats are concerned I think they were raised in one of the farms we see in the Food Inc. movie.

 

 

Story Of A Bill; No Child Left Behind

  • I chose 'No Child Left Behind' because it related to my lobbying topic that I've studied all quarter. In my lobbying process I chose to research educational reform because it was something I felt passionate about. In doing my research, I realized that many people mentioned No Child Left Behind as being an issue in public education, so I decided to go more in depth on the act.
    My presentation format seemed to be the most straight forward way to present my research while still using creative graphics. At first the process was difficult because I had to find who was involved in proposing the bill and what outside influences were involved. If I were to do this differently, I would try and use more sources for info to diversify my research. However, while researching the process, I was able to closely analyze what it took for the bill to be proposed. The fact that a business group who had been pushing for educational reform since the 80's were the main supporters in the cause. And even after being backed up by the president, it was not signed until a year after it's proposal. I believe that because it was a federal law, it was easier to research than that of the state or city level. Nonetheless, it was an interesting process in which I think I gained a lot of information from.
  • No Child Left Behind -Jason Davis

    Defense of Marriage Act

    ·       The beginning of this assignment started off fairly easily. We were tasked with explaining the history behind a bill of our choice. Any bill. But of course, Lauf suggested it would be easier on us to choose one linked to our lobbying topic. Knowing gay rights were a high profile topic and that they wouldn't hide any information I thought it was in my best interest to link my two topics. The first bill I found when I did research on gay rights was the Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA.

    The process wasn’t as hard as I seemed to make it in the bginning. Because of the other benchmarks I had been assigned I got a late start on the bill project but when we had to meet our first deadline (initial research) I found out quickly just how easy it was to find information about my bill. It was controversial, so there was no lack of info to be found.

    It was an interesting story to tell, from inception to creation, but there was more to it than just the history. Originally I wanted to do a documentary but as I gathered more and more information, I kept imagining things that I wanted my presentation to include that I simply couldn’t show in a documentary. I settled on a prezi because it’s a program I work well with and can make even the simplest statements engaging to the viewer.

    In the end I think my project turned out fairly well. Its far from boring and I put into the story than just the history. I would only change the outcome of it if I had more time. Given the right amount of time I would do something like a cross between prezi and documentary which is what I had planned in the beginning. 

    Story of Bill- Chinese Exclusion Act, IRCA

    For my bill I chose two bills that were about migration and did research on them 

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        My Project. 

    • Explain your decision making for choosing the bill.
      While choosing a bill for the project, I thought about doing something that actually affected me or my family in a way. Since my parents are immigrants, I chose to do this project on immigration. Not only it affects my family but it affects a good amount of U.S population. 
    • Why did you choose the particular presentation format?
      In my opinion I think choosing Keynote as a format is a reliable way to teach anyone about something you want to teach them. 
    • What challenges did you overcome in completing the project?
      At first I chose the Chinese Exclusion Act, since it's a old law I couldn't find the legislation process. Therefore I chose a recent law and did my project on both of them. 
    • How would you do the project differently if you had to do it over again?
      I would pick a different law that affects teenagers and also make a movie type of presentation. 
    • What did the research and investigation tell you about the creation process... from idea to bill to law?
      One thing I learned is that ideas can become law in a heart beat but at the same time some ideas can take a long time just to go through that process and not all makes it. 
    • Was the process easier or harder than you imagined based on your particular bill/law research?
      I think it's a hard process because it involves a lot of debate and movement at different places. 
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    Screen Shot 2011-11-14 at 2.18.43 PM

    History of DOMA - Ian McClendon



    • Explain your decision making for choosing the bill.
      -I chose the DOMA bill because I knew that there was always a lot of controversy involving this law. A mass population is effected by what they can and can't do to show love for their partner. I also wanted to see what major names put the bill into law and their perspectives on it then and now.   

    • Why did you choose the particular presentation format?
      -I picked a video format because Keynote Slide Shows and certain forms of presentation were already made. So I wanted to try a sort of News/ Documentary video. Instead of keeping it boring with 5 minutes of me talking in one video, I tried to change the frames for each sentence to keep the viewers attention while I move around the screen and keeping a verbal flow. 

       
    • What challenges did you overcome in completing the project?
      -Other than other people doing the same bill as me the only challenge was to make something different than the others. 

    • How would you do the project differently if you had to do it over again?
      -I would have a different set up for my scenes, different location, better camera/ audio, and to become more fluent with my speech. 

    • What did the research and investigation tell you about the creation process... from idea to bill to law?
      -As I researched I couldn't find legit websites for DOMA but I slightly referenced Wikipedia and their resources for finding my information. There was not much clarification about this act but I managed to complete the essential details for the history of the bill.  

    • Was the process easier or harder than you imagined based on your particular bill/law research?
      -It was a little challenging at first but I came up with the idea of how I was gonna present this. Then it flowed together into my final production of The History of DOMA.  

    Food Quality Protection Act-Alaya White

    • Explain your decision making for choosing the bill.
      I wanted to select something that had to do with food. 

    • Why did you choose the particular presentation format?
      I felt like it would be a great representation of the timeline format by using a Prezi.

    • What challenges did you overcome in completing the project?
      I had about a day & a half to change my topic for the project. I feel likt this was an obstacle, and had I had enough time with this one topic I would've went deeper into the project & detail with the topic. 

    • How would you do the project differently if you had to do it over again?
      I would start fresh with more time. Maybe use another general topic instead of laws & bills about food.

    • What did the research and investigation tell you about the creation process... from idea to bill to law?
      A lot of the time, bills go back and forth in order to change bits and pieces to make it pass a certain stage in the billing process.

    • Was the process easier or harder than you imagined based on your particular bill/law research?
      This was much harder than I imagine with shorter time to change the Law selected.

      Overall I think I could've done better.  I know I had a shorter time than most with the benchmark, with changing my topic and everything, and that had a big impact on the finished product.

    Lobbying for Curfew- Mustapha Idriss

    ​I plan am lobbying for there to be a strict curfew on teens under the age of 16. There has been an uprising of teen related in our lovely city. Though not teens who re out at night are engaging in such acts, majority are and it is becoming a nuisance to the citizen of the city. Everyone deserves to feel safe in the city when there out to dinner, enjoying a movie, or simply taking a stroll downtown. 

    The reason I decided to lobby for this topic is because I have been attacked recently from these "flash mobs" that have been popping up all over the city. Aslo I feel strongly about having that comfort to walk down the street and not feel like they should be watching out for ever little noise. Also it gives teens like me and other teens as well more credibility. Instead of seeing a group of teens and instantly wondering if they so go hide in a store, or if their going to have to run, we should just be accepted as equals in the community. 

    To help lobby this topic, I think the idea of more after school activities would benifit both the community and the teens in them. These could be run by schools, recreation centers, or neighborhoods. Teens who have a fun way to outlet all their extra energy, stress, anger are much less likely to run amuck in downtown philadelphia. With this in mind Philadelphia can once again become the great city it was ment to be.
     

    Story of a Bill: TSCA

    This is the story of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, as told by the bill's own diary!

    I chose to research the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 (TSCA) because it is so closely related to my lobbying project, which focuses on legislation that, if passed, would replace TSCA. I expected that a deep understanding of the history of TSCA would help me argue for the Clean Chemicals Act of 2011.
    TSCA started as an idea by the President's Council on Environmental Quality, and six years later it finally became a law. My research illuminated the many ways in which a bill can fail – because TSCA encountered or almost encountered plenty of failures. It was edited from its original version before it even went to Congress, died in conference committee several times, and was almost subject to a pocket veto. I imagined that TSCA's progression from idea to law would be difficult because of the chemical industries, but was impressed at the scope of the difficulties. Despite all these obstacles, the environmental groups and the concerns of citizens still got the bill through Congress eventually.
    The most difficult part of this project for me was how much general information I found. I didn't know what to do with all of it, or how to find more specific facts about moments in the process. I was able to fix this problem by coming up with a method of presentation that restricted what I the information I needed. I chose the format of diary partly because of the specific information it would require (like particular dates and that kind of thing). I also chose the format because it allowed me to highlight the particular failures and accomplishments of TSCA by making up emotions for the bill itself. I had a lot of fun personifying TSCA.
    If I had to do this project again, I think I would add in information about other bills, contemporaries of TSCA. There were many bills related to the Toxic Substances Control Act that were in Congress at the same time, and I'd love to explore what TSCA would have thought of those bills and their successes and failures.
    sfrankfischer TSCA Diary
    sfrankfischer TSCA Diary

    Story of a Bill - Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 - Blase Biello

    Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 on Dipity.



    Both pieces contain the same information, but the top is a timeline and the bottom is a flipbook. 

    Use whichever you'd like. The TimeLine is good to put all of the steps into perspective. Also, 
    you can adjust the scale by months/years using the slider to the left. 

    Reflection:

    I chose my bill because I wanted to go into a non-concrete bill. The bill was based around Reagan's "War on Drugs" so I thought it'd be interesting. Also, drugs in the U.S. is a huge problem and I wanted to investigate the U.S.'s first step in stopping the drug problem. I chose the presentation format of a timeline because I wanted the audience to be able to see the time perspective and how long each step took to become completed. The only challenge I had was finding good information on my topic because of how long ago it occurred. But, I had a good website that told me a lot of information, which was the point at which I overcame my challenge. If I had to do the project over again I wouldn't do anything differently because I am completely satisfied with the final project. The research and investigation aspects showed me a lot about the creation process. I used a site that literally told me every step behind the bill and how the name of the act even changed once it was signed by the President. But, it is very interesting to see how many amendments go into the bill when its still going through the House and Senate. The process was not harder than I imagined, the only difficulty came in finding the information and doing the research, but I used a great site that showed me everything I needed in order to put together a solid project. 

    Story of a Bill: Endangered Species Act

    The story I have chosen to tell is of the Endangered Species Act. It's presented as a magazine interview with the reporter and the bill herself. It also has links to other interesting sites. 

    Reflection:
    This benchmark was very educational for me. I learned a lot about the legislative process by focusing on the Endangered Species Act. This act was very interesting to me because I feel very strongly about how we handle this issue. After doing initial research, I had to consider different ways to present my story. I thought it would be great to have a video of the Act telling her story. I would be the act, and I had some clips and photographs from that time period that would add to the viewers understanding. However, I was not prepared for the fact that my iMovie wasn't functioning. I sat down to record myself as the Act and the camera was picking up different sounds, was delayed and distorting my image. I had to think of something different to do; I made a magazine article interview. I chose this because it didn't require excessive work and I could still use my material from the movie. While I am very proud of my final product, I wish that I could have done my original idea. However, I think that I learned a lot from this project. I see now what has to be done to pass a bill, even though my bill passed fairly easily, and I see how acts cause big changes in the way we live our lives. For example, my act caused a big legal battle over a dam, and to this day, our government is still finding their paths blocked by my Act. It is very interesting to think about how we interact with the law everyday and I understand that more clearly now that I've done this project.  

    Story of a Bill – Passenger Rail

    Learn how a bill becomes a law! Follow the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007/2008 on it's path to becoming an act of legislation! Does it get passed? Who supported it? Find out all of this and more with "Story of a Bill – Passenger Rail"!



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    As a railfan, I wanted to focus on a bill that affected Amtrak or rail transportation. As such, I decided to research the failed Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007/2008. Since the information would revolve around the bill's movement, I decided to make a Prezi such that it would be easy to visualize how a bill goes through the process of becoming a law. The most challenging portion of this project was researching the factors that influenced the bills movement throughout congress. However, once it was completed, it was easy to present and design the Prezi.

    If I were to re-create the project, I would probably want to incorporate multiple bills such that it would be easy to understand how bills can take different paths throughout congress. This would better allow me to present the information regarding the bill creation process. The process itself, while very intricate and with multiple steps, is rather simple in that one idea gets presented, researched, debated, drafted, budgeted, sent to the other portion of congress, at which point the system repeats itself. This long process makes it easy for congresspeople and the president to prevent a bill from becoming a law. However, the measures in place to override nay votes and vetoes allows for the government to go forth and pass legislation when a large majority of the persons agree.

    The Story of a Bill: Electronics Communications Privacy Act of 1986

    Reflection:
    For my benchmark, I chose to investigate the story of the Electronics Communications Privacy Act of 1986. I chose this bill because the internet and our access to it has a huge influence on current events. In the past year we've seen huge stories develop because of videos posted to the internet from peoples phones. This really solidified how important technology is in the world today. I chose to present this act through a prezi because it's a very interesting medium and quite dynamic in my opinion. I really enjoy working with prezi, but I had some real issues trying to fill in the prezi in the first place. When I was researching my act I found that there was relatively little history to it. From being introduced to the House to being signed into law, it only took four months, and a large amount of that time was waiting for the act to be voted on by the Senate. If I had to do this project again, I would research more about the voting history regarding the bill, such as who voted for or against, and what they're reasoning was for their decision. That said, the entire process was not all that difficult. I can't say it's what I expected because I found so little. I expected it to be about as difficult as it was, but for different reasons. I anticipated spending a lot of time researching a specific branch of it, only to find more branches; but that was not the case. My research was a very 'open-closed' sort of thing. 

    Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956

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    • Explain your decision making for choosing the bill.
    When I choose to do my benchmark based around this bill it wasn't my first choice. I wanted to do the something based on the drinking age act. But I learned that they came from the federal high way act so then I decide to do the federal high way act of 1956.
    • Why did you choose the particular presentation format?
    I choose to do a comic book/ story bored because I feel as though everything looks better with pictures added to it. And people can normally learn better with pictures.
    • What challenges did you overcome in completing the project?
    Understanding certain terms and vocabulary when doing researching my project was a challenge. As well as trying to compress the story of the bill.
    • How would you do the project differently if you had to do it over again
    If I were to do it over again I would choose a different bill and do more in depth research so that i would understand it more.
    • What did the research and investigation tell you about the creation process... from idea to bill to law?
    My research and investigation told me that bills take forever to become laws. And that congress cant really agree on anything.
    • Was the process easier or harder than you imagined based on your particular bill/law research?
    It was harder because I was expecting the research part of the project to be easy.

    Got Democracy audio Advertisement

    This audio document is expressing that Electoral college does not help Electoral Voting. And its advertising that we should replace it with National popular & Instant Run-Off voting.
    The reason i made the audio this way is because its catchy to the people that listen to the radio. I got the idea from listening to a radio and heard some commercials and then if you listen they usually play something catchy like a new song. But they usually play something that goes with the mean of the commercial, so thats when my group members told me to use "Run the World" by Beyonce. We chose Beyonce's song because she is a role model and her songs are a huge hit. And we chose to use that song because it had some part of Democracy in it. So i edited the song to just have it say who runs the world.

    i would like to thank my group members for helping me out with everything. Manna, Keaisha, Marina, and Allison

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    Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias

    I selected a character from Venezuela. In the beginning I was worry in how I could present this project because through my experience living in the country I have my own judgments so I want to be fair, but at the same time show the thing exactly like happens being faithful with the true.

    Thinking in the audience who will be seeing my project, I believed that the best way would be a presentation. But then, when I was looking the resources I thought that I should let the articles speaking by themselves.

    All this led me to think in make a newspaper library, but that is to boring for teen years. Finally I considered in mixing these two ideas and made an interactive newspaper library, in this presentation the people could see videos with short explanations and can made your own conclusions.

    Chavez

    Quarter One Work

    Title: ​The Gabe

    So in art class I was told to look at a model and draw him. Simple. And Simple it was. I drew the model out and he looked pretty plain but nice. When I thought I was done though, fellow classmates encouraged me to do more with it. They inspired me to blend my creativity with the picture so that it looked more. More what, I'm not sure, but I definitely did give it more. Experimenting with shading and lines and different colored charcoals, I ended up with this colorful creation called "The Gabe". 
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    Title: Clear Glass

    With this picture, we were told to use charcoal to draw a clear object. So, I took my charcoal and 20 minutes in, I had a decent looking see through glass cup. The only problem was that it was a plain, simple, see through glass cup at the center of a very large piece of paper. It just seemed, like the previous picture, that it needed more. So I gave it more. First I drew the random flames in the back of the vase and then the smoke that goes from inside of the glass out. Spacing out for a moment, I noticed that I could see one of my friends through the glass. Inspired by seeing him, I decided to draw him in the glass. Feeling silly, I drew him to look like a face from a famous painting called "Scream". Out of boredom I added all the extra jazz around the outside of the glass and ended up with this abstract and morbid picture. 
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    DSC_0149

    No Child Left Behind Act

    This is the No Child Left behind Act


    Reflection:
    I chose this bill because I felt like it was really relevant to our every day life and has been for a while. I know that because of this bill our school exists to prove it wrong. To prove that we don't need these test to improve academic achievement among students. I chose this particular presentation format because I wanted to do something engaging, thought provoking, as well as intriguing visually. The challenges I overcame in this project was figuring out how exactly I could get my point across about the bill without seeming boring or over the top. Another challenge I had was getting the footage that I needed and getting the timing for each clip. If I had to do this project all over again I'd very well try to add more to it but I would have also made two or three videos showing information on the bill, how one side feels about it, and how the opposing side feels about the bill instead of kind of lumping everything together. It was a very quick video that was straight and to the point but I think it could have been better.The research and investigation told me that if you an idea and you feel strongly about it, especially something that can impact people's every day life, all it needs is support and possibly money as well so that it can move forward. Teachers don't agree with standardized testing and though to their protests and because of bureaucrats with money and politicians taking bribes, the Senate voted to pass this bill anyway. My process was pretty easy because you could find information almost anywhere on it. I could find both perspectives from their standpoints and I could easily understand it. Overall this bill was really cool to learn about and I had fun making this media and I hope to continue making projects like these.