The ecosystem games were really meaningful and helpful. It really helped me understand the ecosystem better. It showed the consequences of any organism eating too much. Adding different mods to the game was really cool. Adding new species made it much more realistic, and made ecology a little easier to understand.
1) “Cities will need to incorporate the natural world in new and innovative ways. Parks and green spaces will be multiplied from ground level upwards, attracting birds and wildlife to sky-gardens, tens of floors up. In Singapore, for example, the Marina Bay Sands hotel features a skypark on the 56th floor, with trees, leisure facilities including a pool, and far-reaching views.”
This is saying we need to plant more plants and be greener. We need to think about other species besides ourselves and bring more biodiversity into the city.
2) “Creative growers are already converting industrial spaces, street corners and rooftops to micro-wildernesses or manicured into formal gardens. A disused raised railway in New York City has become a popular park, self-styled “guerilla gardeners” are planting flowers and trees in plots among the tarmac and traffic of London’s highways, and once-polluted industrial wastelands now chirp with birdsong, rivers swim with fish and populations of animals that have become rare in the countryside are thriving in urban niches.”
This shows that we need to be more resourceful and make more things like the High Line and have more street islands with plants.
3) “There is already a new field of urban ecology for scientists who study the city and biophysical interactions within it, in a similar way to traditional ecosystem research.”
This means that we are starting to take care or other species that aren’t just ourselves.
4) “In other places, the mix of human-introduced plant and animal species, and those opportunists that migrate to the urban environment, are interacting to produce unique ecosystems that exist nowhere else.”
The city is its own unique ecosystem that some animals can survive in.
Imagine if you were told everything you knew was wrong. This is the Giver, by Lois Lowry. In the Giver, a boy named Jonas as he discovers he has lived a lie.. Jonas must keep the huge secret from his family and friends. The fact that the world is imperfect. Through the story Jonas’s world becomes turned upside down, and never again will he look at the world the same. This society is a dystopia because Elders keep people in the dark, and don’t allow uniqueness and difference, which is true imperfection.
To keep the community a utopia, the Elders choose everything that everyone does. The Elders keep everything perfect through daily rituals, releasing those who do bad, and only they know what the world is truly like, giving them the power to do anything they want. The utopia hides everyone from pain and imperfection. When Jonas sees the truth, what the world is truly like, he then comes home and sees his family laughing and he thinks: “They have never known pain,” (Pg.94) This is important because he’s finally realizing that Elders are only trying to keep the community perfect, while they are only blinding the citizens from the real world. The Elders keep everyone in the dark, keeping them ignorant and keeping things in check. Jonas is now realizing that the place he lives in may not just be not a utopia, but maybe even a dystopia.
Jonas’s community is a dystopia because of the terrible things those in power do to those in the community. Jonas’s community is a dystopia hidden in a “perfect” place. The Elders actually have these poor people living in a dystopia. While the Elders mean well and keep everyone out of harm, if there is the rare case that someone gets hurt, it would scar them. “He fell with his leg twisted under him, and could hear the crack of bone.” (Pg.93)
This is one of Jonas’s memories of pain. The Giver shows this to him, partially to remind him that the world isn’t perfect, but also to prepare him for the pain of the truth. The fact that there is no such things as perfect, and that the world is not a pretty place. Jonas can see things clearly and realizes that perfect doesn’t exist. He understands the world better and has as much power as the Elders. All he needed was the truth.
Jonas’s society is simply an illusion. Not perfect, but imperfect. A dystopia. The Elders attempt to keep citizens safe, by hiding them from the truth that would destroy them to see. The community has dug itself in a hole that they can never dig themselves out of. Is being perfect worth hiding people from the truth? The community ruins people’s lives without the people even knowing. The people are like puppets, and the Elders are the puppeteers. In the end, after you see all the terrible things the Elders do, can you really call it a utopia, or can you see the truth?
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Our group worked pretty well. There where a couple times were we where we didn’t agree on things. Overall I think that we were a good group. Our skit was okay. There were a couple of moments with weird pauses, but it was pretty quick. Our skit was pretty bad. We were looking down at our scripts a lot.
A couple ways we could improve are learning our scripts better, communicating more with our group, and working more on the script.
I felt that the hardest part was stippling. It was a really long and annoying process. Even though it looked really good in the end, it was a long and hard process. I’m glad it was worth it.
Ben C. 9/10/16
Group A Math Profile
When I switched to LREI in the fifth grade the environment was really different and math was the most different class compared to my old school. Math became a real struggle for me and was my worst class in fifth grade. Over the Summer, Ana gave me an eighty something page worksheet and said to do one page a day. I did that and came back the next year feeling prepared. I got good grades and made it into seminar. In the sixth grade I started to enjoy math instead of dreading it. I especially loved geometry. From always getting 1’s and 2’s in the fifth grade, I think I’m pretty good at math considering where I am at now. When I do my homework, I like to take 10 to 15 minute intervals so that it’s not so much at one. I take about a five minute break and then do more of the homework. When I get stuck, i put down my pencil, and just think. Nothing else. I just think until i have even a seed of the answer. That is all I have to say about me and math.
Book 1: “The Little Prince”
Book 2: “The Martian Chronicles”
Notes: I’m noticing that the Martians are speaking English. Is this a translation or do they actually speak English. Pg.6
On Mars, the wife is doing all the housework, and is basically a servant to the man. The man clearly has more power, which in 1945, (when this book was written) was probably something like that. Pg.13
If an alien came to Earth, knocked on your door, wouldn’t you be scared? I know that I would, but the Martian don’t seem to be. Pg.22
Mars seems like a reflection of Earth, the Martians are similar to humans, the houses are similar to human houses to. The names of places are even the same. Pg. 42
I find it kind of evil that the Martians name places after people they killed. Thats pretty diabolical. Pg.136
Book 3: “The Hobbit”
The fabric collage was my favorite project. This shows what instruments I play. (Besides the bladder pipe) I had to make three different models for this, but I’m happy with how it turned out.
I really enjoyed this map project this year. This repersents what New York means to me. I only cut out important buildings. This shows that how I wish I could look down at NYC, instead staring up at it instead. This is what NYC means to me.
