Plants TRANSFORM!

In the first unit of my Food class, we studied food as a science, and how plants make and take nutrients. We watched a video about a guerilla gardener named, Ron Finley, who plants gardens in food deserts for people in that area to eat. This action inspired me to start growing more plants in a raised bed in my backyard. This would be good because then the food is organic and doesn't have to travel by plane or truck which can make the plant unhealthy. For the action project we designed a raised bed and then picked 10 plants that are companion plants, with one nitrogen fixer. The purpose of this action project was to learn how plants truly work together, and to see how important elements are to plants. It’s important to understand how plants grow together so that you can understand if your fruit or vegetable will grow healthy.

I don’t live in a food desert or the city where it can be very difficult to grow plants. I live in the outskirts of the city, which means there is less interference with the natural ecosystem. I decided that a raised bed would be the best for my plants to grow in because it is easier to maintain and I have more control of what happens to it. My garden will be 96 inches in length (8ft), 60 inches in width (5ft), and 24 inches in height (2ft). The total volume is 80 cubic ft. This is a great size so companions plants can protect and give nutrients to each other. In class, I learned that plants need 16 different elements to survive. Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), are the primary elements. I tested my soil because, I needed to know if the soil I was testing was safe and if I needed to add any organic fertilizer. The soil is living because, its color is dark and there are worms and insects. In addition, I have used that soil to grow other plants before. I tested my soil for the nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, and the pH to make sure the plants have the right living conditions.

Once my test results came back, I learned that the nitrogen level was deficient. Therefore, I added 2.4 pounds of feather meal, which is 13% nitrogen. My phosphorus level is surplus meaning that it has a good amount. My potassium level is adequate meaning it’s enough. The pH level is 7.0 which is perfect for any plant. I only want to use organic fertilizer because human made fertilizer can hurt the ecosystem and hurt things that could help the plants. The reason my nitrogen isn’t sufficient is due to the winter we just had. The soil needs time replenish itself with proper elements.

The 10 plants that I have chosen are, carrots, corn, eggplant, pepper, tomato, potato, turnips, parsley, and cucumber. The nitrogen fixer I chose is peanuts. A nitrogen-fixer is a plant that makes nitrogen compounds that can be absorbed by other plants to use as protein. The image below is the design drawn out:

 

 

 

NVA, "Raised Bed" 4-17-14, Chicago: GCE

This is a winning garden because all the plants work together in some way. The potatoes give shelter to corn and prevent carrots from getting disease. Eggplants and tomatoes share nutrients and tomatoes help corn grow tall. The tomato leaves, if spread next to parsley, keeps parasites away. The pepper can help give protection from the sun. The cucumber can provide shelter for corn, but a cucumber plant can’t grow next to a potato plant. Turnips can steal nutrients from potatoes but it can help other plants. Then the peanuts can give nutrients to all the plants.

In conclusion, what I learned was that soil is very important to the survival of plants and should always be taken care of. In addition, people should not add human made fertilizer and only use organic fertilizer. This garden is ready to be built and grow food that will be nutritional nutritional and very safe to eat. Classmates get ready to build this garden!

References:

“Natural Fertilizer” North Country Organics, 2014

“Companion Planting” Golden Harvest Organics, 3-10-14

  

The Eggplant's Journal

For my Food For Thought class, we have studied old agriculture and how the food we eat has gotten from its origin to our plate. For the action we created a family tree with the person's favorite food, and then we had to take an ingredient that is in one of the foods and find its origin with a story behind it all. The ingredient I chose was eggplant, because it was a plant in a traditional Greek dish that tasted amazing. Also I have never tasted it without another food added. What I learned about this vegetable was that the origin is not specific and that it was thought to cause insanity. A challenge for this action project was finding an ingredient and then finding the origin. The fun thing about it was getting to make a fun story behind it all.

NVA, "Family (Food) Tree" 4-21-14, Chicago:GCE

   Hi, my name is Solanum Melongena the eggplant. Many eggplants are very happy but when eaten before being put in a dish we get mad, because being in a dish is an eggplant's biggest goal. When eaten without being put in a dish we try to make it miserable to eat us, but once we are put in a dish we dance on your tongue to make you and other people happy. My grandparents once told me that their grandparents came from Southeast Asia and that they came mainly from India like most eggplants. It is really fuzzy on how we got here some say we were brought to Spain and then Sicily and France about 4,000 years ago. Another story that they told me was, that Spaniards brought us to America as "love apples". But the biggest story is that we were brought here by Thomas Jefferson when he was growing plants. For some very odd reason we were thought to cause insanity and people called us “mad apples”. I find it mean to say that we are like that and that we are deformed apples when everything about us is so different about an apple.

   You might be thinking why I am called an eggplant when obviously I'm purple and long. Well when eggplants first started we were white and oval shaped like an egg. My great great great grandparents looked like that. But besides my history, a week ago I actually was picked from a garden from Florida, where I loved the warm weather, where my family and I grew very well. Sadly I was separated and just wanting see where I would end up. The next day I ended up on a truck and I traveled for 3 days. In those three days I was meeting new vegetables and fruits. I met a tomato that I made a friendship with. I also met other eggplants that were from Southeast Asia, and they knew my cousins from there. Then I was put in a Dominic’s and I didn't like it there because of the cold weather to keep me “fresh”. Well now I’m in a car driving to a person’s house, who seemed Greek because they said that, “Yia Yia (grandmother) needs us to get ingredients for her.” My cousins have been cooked for that dish and they loved it, because it made the people happy. I can't wait to be cooked and see how much I will change to make people happy.

   Finally I’m in the house and waiting for the day I will be put in a dish. I hate being in the fridge, because it is so cold. It’s the next day and Easter is today, so grandma is going to be busy today making food. So many vegetables, and my friend the tomato is also with me but is in another dish. She is making me in moussaka liked I heard and cut me up and spread me on top of the dish. Now I’m being put in the oven. It was nice to give me my life’s story and family history. Bye!

REFERENCES:
 

"Eggplant Profile." Diane Huntrods, Iowa State University. n.d - Retrieved: 4-15-14

"Eggplant (Solanum Melonggena)." Kris Hirst. About.com. n.d - Retrieved: 4-15-14

"Eggplant History." Peggy Filippone, About.com, n.d - Retrieved: 4-16-14

"The Prettiest Vegetable." n.p., Organic Gardening, n.d - Retrieved: 4-16-14

"EGGPLANT." University of Arizona, n.d - Retrieved: 4-17-14

Unifying Two Cultures

In the Experiential term I had to work with a group and make a micro-mentary, which is a small documentary. We had to create a guiding question and then go off that, telling historical events, current events, and what we want to see. The purpose of this was to see what question we could raise about the deaf community and telling different things to answer it. The challenge of this was, the communication within are group. The one fun thing was finding out more about the deaf challenges.

 

 

Introduction

Our group of freshman and sophomores students studied ASL and Deaf culture this term. We were most interested in exploring one question: How might we reform education to promote maximum unity between the DHH & hearing communities? To do this, we looked at three domains of Deaf culture which impact a student’s life: Community, Language, & Education. In each domain, we will highlight some history within Deaf culture, articles which discuss current debates, and Field Experiences with partners who practice transformative solutions. By collecting, profiling and sharing examples of people unifying young people in the DHH and hearing communities, our group becomes one.

1. Community

In the past Alexander Graham Bell wanted to ban intermarriage of Deaf men and women to stop the procreation of deaf children and close residential schools to prevent a stronger community and culture from forming. When the deaf had no sign language they turned to art work as a way to express their feelings. (De’VIA ). The community now is very isolated from the mainstream world, which is a big issue. Sports, Churches, and Meetings have made their community larger. Cochlear implants are threatening the existence of Deaf culture. We want to see the DHH and Hearing community interact with each other more. We had a chance to visit a local Starbucks and interact in a deaf conversation. It was a shock to see how they were the ones helping us more than the other way around. 

2. Language
In schools, and in the world, there is a communication barrier between hearing and DHH students : DHH students cannot speak and hearing students cannot sign. This barrier is significant because language is the central means of communication, interaction, and education.

Sign language is the 3rd most used language in the US . There are now schools for just deaf people because using interpreters became an issue. We would like to see the mainstream world become more supportive and informed about these deaf programs and school. We talked to Jill Sahakian, a Chicago Hearing Society staff member, who talked about interpreters and how they have truly bridged the gap between the deaf community. We also talked to Erenie who talked about project Aspire, which helps deaf kids with cochlear implant.

3. Education
Education is one of the biggest barriers that many Deaf people face. Everyone has the right to be successful, but why is it so hard for deaf students? That all started when Bell worked to eradicate Deaf culture in education by seeking the removal of deaf teachers and closing residential schools. Well, the problem isn’t the way that people are educated but rather the standards that are set for hearing students are different from the standards of Deaf people. Through education we can change the way that the Hearing and DHH communities come and work together


We can do this by having more schools offering ASL as a foreign language in High School. This will show the world the truth about Deaf culture.

 

 

 

Interacting With The DHH

In the Experiential term, I was interacting with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community. Throughout this term, I learned American Sign Language (ASL) and learned more about the community. The purpose of this was to see a community that had many different views and how they are actually a normal culture. What I learned was that the Deaf community is just like any other language. I think learning ASL was the most important part to truly understanding DHH culture.

NVA "DHH Coffee Meet" 3-23-14 Chicago

World View

ASL has changed everything I thought I knew about the Deaf community, I thought that they had a sign for every word. I also thought that deaf people never did any regular events, and that they weren't "normal" people. Then I learned they don't have a sign for every word and that they break down sentences to make it easier. I also learned that the deaf community does anything that the hearing community does. This changed how I thought deaf people actually communicated with each other, and how they lived and interacted.

 

Field Experiences

The one FE partner that inspired me the most this term was Jill Sahakian because she talked about the importance of becoming an interpreter. She also talked about how an interpreter has to be very skilled and focused. She also answered many questions I had about, why the hearing schools didn't have interpreters anymore. Interpreters bridge that gap between the DHH and the Hearing communities. To Jill, I say, "thank you so much for teaching me the importance of an interpreter and you have inspired me to learn how to become one or study that field at least." In the picture above I went to a Starbucks with a couple of schoolmates and we had a normal conversation with a group of people deaf or hard of hearing. I really liked this FE because there were no teachers, and I could have regular conversations and not having be about school. At Starbucks, we talked to different people, giving them our names and just having  a conversation about GCE. One person I talked to was Greg, who became deaf when he was in his 40s. I learned some new signs such as, high school and how to say different grades for high school.  

 

Group Project

Throughout the term, I have also been working with a group and we had to create a micromentary about the DHH community. In this, I was the videographer and script-writer. As a videographer, I had to take video and pictures of the FEs my class went to. As a script-writer, I had to write the script that my group would go off of to make the video. I learned a lot of new things from this group project, I learned about how cochlear implants is one of the biggest issue in the DHH community and whether a child should decide or the parent to get one for the child. Another thing I learned was that art was a big thing in the DHH community and that when deaf people had no sign language they used art to communicate their emotions. I learned that it is difficult to get everything done in a group because most of the time is spent discussing what we should do and how.

 

Walking in Another Person's Shoes

I think the way we lived the life of a DHH person and stepped in their shoes was by truly getting to know the community, by interacting and doing research, and seeing the different views on the different issues with the DHH community.Then we may be able to get where they are coming from and why they act the way they do. I did this by interacting with people in the community. I went a Starbucks that was holding a deaf chat. I learned more about cochlear implants, and now I know what a big issue it is.

 

ASL in Action 

 

 

HI, My name is NVA.

I got to GCE High School

Thank You, Eugene for teaching me sign Language

You are the best teacher!

Bye!

Carbon Dioxide Footprint?

For my fuel class, we had to find out how many tons of carbon we put in the air and put all the info in a plan. We found this out by using a carbon dioxide footprint calculator, after that we had to then find out what actions we could take and how many tons of carbon they offset. The purpose of this was to see how much carbon dioxide we put in the air annually and to see how different actions could help. The challenge was finding out how many metrics tons it would be, compared to how many tons. One fun thing was to actually see how many tons of carbon dioxide I put in the atmosphere.

 

 

                                                  NVA "CO2 Solutions." 2-19-14. Chicago: GCE

 

Pollution is chemicals or toxins that are released into the air that can cause many different outputs to the environment. These toxins can be released into the air in many different ways, from breathing to burning fossil fuels, and from volcanoes erupting to livestock giving off methane gas.. These ways are mainly due to man, and the only way to lower these outcomes is to change the way we live today.

One of the biggest pollutants is carbon dioxide, which can be transferred to the atmosphere through any of the ways I listed above. People release many tons of carbon into the atmosphere annually. I release about 33.3 tons or 30.2 metric tons of carbon each year;11% from goods, 33% from services, 21% from food, 25% from shelter, and 10% from mobility. It would take 6.1 Planets Earths exactly to provide enough resources, if everyone produced that much carbon dioxide. To offset these carbon emissions, I would have to plant 775 trees to sequester the carbon dioxide I produce. This information is called a “carbon footprint”. It is how much carbon we create and put in the atmosphere.

Annually, my lifestyle produces the same amount of greenhouse gases as 6.3 passenger vehicles, while my carbon dioxide emissions are equivalent to 3,387 gallons of gasoline consumed. This is a lot for just one person, especially because I don’t drive myself.

There are three actions I could take that would help reduce my carbon footprint and could be helpful for others to do. Below are the actions and how they can help reduce carbon emissions:

Reduce the amount of animal products you currently eat by half:

- I eat mainly beef and chicken, and both are big animals that release methane into the air. By taking this action, and eating half of what I eat now, I can go from 6.1 Planets Earths to 6 planets taking away 0.1 planets. Following this action, will reduce my carbon dioxide emissions from 33.3 to 32.6 tons, 0.7 tons less than before.

Use solar panels to provide most of the electricity in your house:

-If I took this action, it would help the offset the carbon dioxide emissions, because it would reduce the amount of coal or natural gases that get into the air when burned to create the electricity. The number of Planets Earths required to support lifestyle would be reduced by 0.9, which is 6.1 to 5.2. From this action, my carbon dioxide emissions would be reduce by 6.8 tons, the difference between 33.3 and 26.5 tons of carbon dioxide.

Make all your appliances more energy efficient:

-My household appliances are energy efficient, but by making them more efficient it would help reduce the amount of energy needed to make the appliance work. The number of planets would be reduced by 0.3 planets, which would be 6.1 to 5.9. By switching to energy efficient appliances, I will reduce my carbon dioxide emissions by 2 tons, the difference between  33.3 and 31.3 tons of carbon dioxide.

These actions would help get rid of some of my carbon dioxide emissions, but they won’t get rid of all it. More people should invest money/time for an emissions reduction project, because these projects can help keep the greenhouse gases contained and remove them from them the atmosphere. One way that people could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is by planting trees. As I said before, I would need to plant 775 trees to sequester my emissions.  Scientists have found that 1 urban tree will sequester (or remove) 0.039 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere. I can use the formula 1 tree/0.039 metric tons. The formula means that with every 1 tree planted, 0.039 metric tons of carbon are removed from the air due to photosynthesis. 30.2 metric tons (1 tree/0.039 metric tons) = 30.2/0.039 = 774.35, which would round up to 775 trees.

 

Even without investing, I could just follow the actions. All of these actions put together would reduce the number of planets needed by 1.1, which is 6.1 to 5 planets. This would reduce my carbon dioxide emissions from 33.3 to 25.7 tons or 30.2 to 23.3 metric tons. In other words, I would have reduced my carbon output by 7.6 tons. Then, to offset these emissions, I would only have to plant 598 trees, which is 177 LESS TREES needed to take care of the carbon I’m giving off. We need to be at 350 ppm of carbon in the air, and because we put so much carbon in the air we are at 400 ppm and rising. We need to start taking actions now and get that number down!

REFERENCES:

"Clean Energy: Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

"Footprint Calculator." Global Footprint Network. Sept. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

"How Emissions Reduction Projects Work." TerraPass. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

"Carbon Dioxide." World of Earth Science. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. Web 21 Feb. 2014    

"What is a Carbon Footprint." Time For Change. Web 21 Feb. 2014           

The Dream Catcher's Purpose

In my Who Am I class, everyone had to make a dream catcher that would symbolize the positive and negative elements that are filtered out by a dream catcher. The purpose of this is to see what messages the unconscious sends us and to see how we can symbolize our bliss. The challenge was picking the the items that would symbolize the different elements. The fun thing about this was getting to chose how I wanted the dream catcher to be made and I didn't have to follow instructions.

                                                       NVA, "Dream Catcher" 2-20-14. Chicago

The dream I based my dream catcher  off of was a dream that I had when I was younger. I was in my house and this man with a mask banged on my window and I ran to my room, while he was breaking the door open. Then he opened up the closet where I was hiding in my room and I pushed him, then ran. It went dark and I showed up at a friend's house and the man had them all tied up. Then I woke up. From that dreamed I learned that I need to face my fear of men that are stronger than me and stand up for myself more. If I would have stood up for myself before the dream, then I would not have had those dreams. The middle of a dream catcher symbolizes someone's bliss or what means the most to them. My bliss is that I want to have adventures and travel the world. To symbolize this I used yellow beads to symbolize this bliss and I made it my "creator" for this dream catcher, I made the beads in a circle so that they can pass by easily. I want my good dreams to head for the white string so that it knows where to go. The beads that are hanging are used to filter out the bad dreams, I used green string to attract them and turn them in good dreams. The green string will symbolize good and wash away the evil. The three blue lines on the outside symbolize the people that were tied up in the dream. The skulls on the catcher means "death" to the bad dreams. Under the skulls are the feathers, which are peacock feathers. I used them because it looks like they have eyes. I want those eyes to look over me while I'm sleeping. I want my real bliss to come to me and not let the ego get through. I know that every dream has a message from the unconscious, I want my unconscious to help me reach my bliss. If I use this dream catcher, then I may be able to reach my bliss and do something meaningful in my life.

How Is It Going To End?

For this Who Am I action project, everyone had to come up with a guiding question that related to different parts of the unit. What I came up with was How is it going to end? The purpose of this action project was to see how a guiding question could relate to a persons doubt. What I learned was that when it comes to this questions, different religions say something different. While all scientists mainly agree on that the sun will be are end. The challenge of this action project was finding different religious views.

                                                      Celestia. "Red Giant" 2013. Internet: Wikipedia

My guiding questions is, How is it going to end? I arrived at this question because in The Truman Show he didn’t know what was going to happen to him when he found that he was being watched. Just like Descartes he wanted to know how it was going to end for him. Truman doubted that everyone around him were actually people he could trust, because he knew that it was all an act. Also that he couldn't control his life without being watched. In the end he does regain his control of his life and leaves to start a new life. Descartes wondered how man came to be and how our lives would end. 

I was compelled by the importance of this question because, this question is something that everyone wonders. No one can really tell you or someone what their life is going to turn out to be or how life would actually end. There is always something that can happen to change everything that is planned. I want to pursue this question because, I always want to know how it will actually end because people from different backgrounds have different answers. Philosophers can answer this questions because they think about how we began and how it will end. Then the philosophy would go into two categories, religion and science. Scientists would answer this question by studying space and how everything works outside of earth. Scientists answer this by stating that the sun will expand and kill off everything. While, religion would answer the question by focusing the question on the second coming.

My question is universal and is relevant to all humanity because, everyone wonders at one point in their life, how their lives is going to end up or how their life might end? Also that everyone has different answers, whether it would be religious or scientific. Many religions think it will be when God or evil, comes to the real world. In Christianity they believe that everyone will exist until the second coming, which is when Jesus Christ would come back to the real world. Or in Buddhism, we will be the cause of our own end. Scientists believe that the world will end by the sun becoming a Red Giant and kill everyone and everything.

In the end, there is no real answer to how the world will end. It could be the sun turning into a red giant of it could be the second coming. Anything could happen to the world and we might not have full control of it, but maybe like Truman we can regain our control.

“The Science of the Real End of the World.” Ethan Siegel. Science Blogs. 12-20-12. Retrieved 2-7-14


“Eschatology.” n.p. Wikipedia. 2014. Retrieved 2-7-14