WH GCE Portfolio

This third unit of our Humanities class this term, Rhetoric, was all about investigating the ways rhetoric can work to motivate people to be engaged. The same appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos from our last unit can be used to analyze many forms of art, not just written texts. We went on a Field Experience to Marquette Park to visit the Living Memorial to Martin Luther King and the Chicago Freedom Movement, a piece of public art erected in recognition of the anti-segregation march held there in 1966. While we were there, we met Sadia Nawab, the Director of Arts and Culture at non-profit community organization Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN). She was one of the primary drivers behind the creation and installation of the project. We also explored how artists use their work as a platform to send political messages, and how Cuban art fed Africa's liberation struggles. For this Action Project, we had to look at an important social topic in today's society and make an art...

For this second unit of Design and Engineering, we learned about how engineers design bikes. We went on several Field Experiences to different bike shops and had designers come in to talk to us about the design of bikes and how that whole process works. At Earth Rider and Working Bikes, we learned about how bikes are made and repaired, and also went out and rode a brand-new type of bike called e-bikes that use electricity to help you pedal. For this Action Project, Better Bikes, as part of a team we brainstormed and developed a custom bike design to best meet the needs of a specific user. The persona that my team was assigned for this project was Vanessa. She has a younger sibling that she needs to take to daycare every morning, and they need to also deal with potholes and loud cars and trains around them. She also has to work around there not being any space inside her home, so she have to lock her bike up outside instead of bringing it inside. Our new bike design is needed becaus...

This second term of our Humanities class, Rhetoric, we learned more about how to compare modern problems to things that have happened in our past, and how to improve our rhetoric based on that. We also learned about op-eds, and how they're written. For this Action Project, we were tasked with writing our own version of an op-ed, and giving the reader a new perspective on a timely topic. Below is my own op-ed, along with an analysis of the op-ed. My op-ed uses my own experience as an addicted gamer to prove that I am a credible source, along with the various sources that I cite in the paper. It also uses rhetorical devices such as similies (like moths to a flame) and anaphora (repeating "that ___" in paragraph 3). I also gave a logical appeal at the end when I talk about how doctors would likely be flooded by over-concerned parents. My emotional appeal lies in how I mention how children especially should not be labeled as addicts at such a young age. https:/...

This new STEAM unit is about learning to Design and Engineer products. This Action Project asked us to redesign an existing tool so that it could be used by anyone using empathy. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and relate to how they feel. It relates to this project because of how we need to be able to empathize with people to make a product that will work for everyone. The new tool that we created is a variation of a Mattock axe. The more flat part of the mattock head (the adze) is used for tilling the soil after you break it up with the pickaxe/axe part. The mattock does not have any real kind of grip to help you get leverage on it easier. It comes in varying weights; 2.5 lb  and 5 lb versions were the ones we saw when we went to go research our tools at a nearby Home Depot. The pick mattock uses a 3rd class lever. This is because of how the fulcrum is at one end of the tool, the input is in the middle, and the output is at the other end of the...

This Humanities class is called Rhetoric, and during our first unit of this class, we learned about all the different rhetorical devices that go into making a message, including the three main appeals; the ethos (appeal to ethics), logos (appeal to logic), and pathos (appeal to emotion). We also watched the Democratic Primary Debate, and follow along with our certain candidate. I was given Kamala Harris as my candidate. For our Action Project for this unit, we were asked to make a little video speech from the perspective of our candidate from the debates, and answer a question that might be asked to them from their perspective. Below is my video speech. WH, Our House Is On Fire Speech , 2019 In conclusion, I thought that this Action Project was enjoyable to make, and an interesting experience to do overall. It was difficult, though, and hard to properly speak from the perspective of the candidate that we were given.