Rising CO2 Affecting our Planet

While the world continues to emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) earth’s temperature is rising. Many of the environmental issues are related to large amounts of CO2 released into our atmosphere. “In the last 100 years the Earth has warmed by 0.74°C, meaning that global sea levels have gone up, glaciers and sea ice has melted, floods and droughts are on the increase.” Climate change can be controlled but in the world we live in now it has become harder for us to adapt to change. If we continue to live on this path we are slowly killing future generations by not providing a stable & clean earth for them to live on. Weather patterns have not been normal, more storms and floods are occurring due to higher sea levels, and the reason sea levels are rising is because glaciers are melting. Certain species and habitats are finding it harder to survive. After Polar Bears swim for a long time they will usually rest on a piece of ice. But ice is melting faster and there is no more resting spots for these Polar Bears, so they drown. Deforestation has a major impact on carbon that is being stored in our atmosphere. The more trees that are being cut down the more carbon left in our atmosphere. Trees will go through a process, known as photosynthesis; this process is earth’s natural way of removing CO2. Trees also store tons of carbon so by cutting down trees we are keeping more CO2 in our air. Earths resources are slowly dissolving, we need change our future is on the line.

Pull Quote:"Due to rising sea levels,weather patterns have not been normal, more storms and floods have been occurring".

Abstract with visual

Abstract

While the world continues to emit huge amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) earth’s temperature is rising. Many of the environmental issues are related to large amounts of CO2 released into our atmosphere. “In the last 100 years the Earth has warmed by 0.74°C, meaning that global sea levels have gone up, glaciers and sea ice has melted, floods and droughts are on the increase.” Climate change can be controlled but in the world we live in now it has become harder for us to adapt to change. If we continue to live on this path we are slowly killing future generations by not providing a stable & clean earth for them to live on. Weather patterns have not been normal, more storms and floods are occurring due to higher sea levels, and the reason sea levels are rising is because glaciers are melting. Certain species and habitats are finding it harder to survive. After Polar Bears swim for a long amount of time they will usually rest on a piece of ice. But ice is melting faster and there is no more resting spots for these Polar Bears, so they drown. Deforestation has a major impact on carbon that is being stored in our atmosphere. The more trees that are being cut down the more carbon left in our atmosphere. Trees will go through a process, known as photosynthesis; this process is earth’s natural way of removing CO2. Trees also store tons of carbon so by cutting down trees we are keeping more CO2 in our air. Earths resources are slowly dissolving, we need change our future is on the line.

Pull Quote: “In the last 100 years the Earth has warmed by 0.74°C, meaning that global sea levels have gone up, and floods and droughts have increased.”

Smoothie Recipe

Tropical Fruit Smoothie

Print Recipe     Email Recipe

Tropical Fruit Smoothie  Dr. Susan Smith Jones - 7/30/2009 2 ripe bananas, peeled 1 mango, peeled, seeded and cubed 1 papaya, peeled, seeded, and cubed 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks Ice cubes to taste Place fruit into the blender jar first, then add the ice last. Secure lid and press Smoothie on the Total Blender touchpad or button #3 on older Blendtec blenders. If necessary, press the Pulse 'P' button until desired consistency is reached. Notes Serves 2 to 3

http://www.blendtec.com/recipecard.aspx?id=107

Food, ink.

Reflection

Food ink. definitely left me with curiosity as to how the meat I eat gets on my plate. While I was watching this I felt guilty and kept asking myself do I have to eat meat? Can I live without it? And if I choose to stop eating it, will I actually make a difference. It left me wondering what if everyone who consumes meat were to watch this and see how there food is prepared, would anything change.

What struck me the most is how the animals are slaughtered. Although watching it was disturbing, I am glad I did. I feel like now I can make smarter decisions on what I eat. Another thing that struck me was how much America consumes I had no idea. 32,000 hogs are slaughtered a day, that is one thing that stood out to me. This left me wondering about the Hog species and how that is going to look like in the future. Chickens that usually take 3 months to grow are now growing at a ridiculous rate. Now it only takes them 49 days to be grown. Not only have we changed the way we eat, but also what we eat. What is supposed to be natural/healthy chicken doesn’t seem to be so natural/healthy these days. The chicken’s body has even been changed the way it grows.

I’ve never heard of the company Smithfield but after learning about them I feel like they should change their company. Although they are providing jobs for immigrants I don’t think it is right, to me it seemed like they didn’t treat their employers right.

I was also shocked to hear that the FDA didn’t want companies to label where the food came from. It left me wondering, why, are they hiding something? They just don’t want society to know about where, or how the food they buy is prepared. I disagree and think if people want to know they should have that right. I read on an article that they have even made laws making it illegal for view how companies slaughter their animals.

The food industry does need change, only for a better healthier America. But people will still continue to live their lives and not care about their food. I think a lot of people purposely avoid or block them selves from knowing how their food is processed. These choices that are made have to do with money, and people not being able to afford the healthier organic meal, and a lot of people tend to think that way. But what if we did eat healthier would it really be more expensive; I personally think yes for a while it will be expensive. But in the long run it’s a smarter decision because you won’t need to be paying for 3 types of medication.

Rough Draft

Climate Change

To have a stabilized greenhouse gas concentration in the earth’s atmosphere, there needs to be a reduction in the amount of CO2 usage. With the increasing amounts of CO2 being released into our air and a constantly decreasing number of trees so suck it up, earth’s atmosphere is starting to stay extra warm. This scenario, also known as climate change, is causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise.

Carbon Dioxide, a heavy odorless gas formed during respiration and by the decomposition of organic substances, is absorbed from the air by plants and trees during a process called photosynthesis. Having too much CO2 in our atmosphere is causing climate change. America currently emits 19% of the worlds CO2 gases. The more CO2 that’s emitted into the atmosphere the warmer earth gets.

Increased downpours are said to be an early sign of climate change. A recent study done by MIT and Caltech conclude that global climate change is affecting precipitation patterns. “Precipitation in extreme events will go up by about 6 percent for every one degree Celsius increase in temperature.” With these increased downpours it creates more flood warnings through out city’s and towns.

Another affect of climate change that we have seen is an increase in diseases. Warmer lands breed incredible amounts of insects, which then causes an increase in mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, and West Nile virus. Also an increase in summer’s temperature can cause more extreme heat waves.

Many animals are at danger now due to the affects of climate change. Polar Bears are finding it harder to survive, with ice melting fast and nowhere to rest, they are drowning. “A 2007 report from the U.S. Geological Service estimated that as a result of sea-ice decline, today’s population of about 22,000 polar bears would decrease by two-thirds by the year 2050.”

The keeling curve is a graph that measured the rise of CO2 levels in our atmosphere from the years1958-2000. Dr. Charles David Keeling, a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, completed this study. Once a year that graph would seem to fluctuate. This was because during summer trees and plants would bloom, so this allowed them to intake more CO2, causing the CO2 levels in the atmosphere to decrease. He kept track of the measures by ppmv, Part Per Million Volume, which is the concentration of CO2 molecules mixed with the air molecules. During 1958 the levels were at 315 ppmv when the study ended in 2000 it was 367ppmv, showing a 52 increase in just 50 years.

Although CO2 is a necessity on earth, action needs to be taken to help balance it out. If we keep increasing our amount of carbon emissions we release we will soon destroy our earth. Many scientist say that if the earths temperature keeps rising it will soon make it warm enough to melt glaciers, causing the sea levels to rise and parts of earths land to be submerged underwater.

Sources

• House, Jo, and Victor Brovkin. "Climate & Air Quality ." *Millennium
Assessment*. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. <
www.millenniumassessment.org/documents/document.282.aspx.pdf
• "Freedom Socialist Newspaper --- Too much carbon dioxide and too few trees." Freedom Socialist Party - socialism.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. http://www.socialism.com/fsarticles/vol26no6/carbondioxide.html
• "Keeling Curve." Earthguide: Educational Resources in Earth, Marine, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2010.
Footnotes
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090817190638.htm
http://www.neaq.org/conservation_and_research/climate_change/effects_on_ocean_animals.php

Outline

Outline

CO2 Increasing while Temperature rises.

Thesis/Intro: To have a stabilized greenhouse gas concentration in the earth’s atmosphere, there needs to be a reduction in the amount of CO2 usage. With the increasing amounts of CO2 being released into our air, earth’s atmosphere is starting to stay extra warm. This scenario, also known as climate change, is causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise.


Paragraph 1: About CO2. Where & who is it coming from?
Topic Sentence: While we continue to emit more amounts of CO2 into our atmosphere, we are slowly destroying earth.
Main Points:
• Carbon dioxide is a heavy odorless colorless gas formed during respiration and by the decomposition of organic substances; absorbed from the air by plants in photosynthesis
• The more Co2 in the air, the more heat we have.
• 3/4ths of the worlds CO2 emissions come from Industrial and automobile consumption of oil and coal.



Paragraph 2: What happens if temperature increases? What are the affects on earth?
Topic Sentence: By increasing CO2 emissions and causing temperatures to rise…
Main Points:
• Oceans, land masses, and ice caps temperature rises
• Since the oceans are warmer it evaporates more water in to the air causing more powerful sever storms.
• Warmer lands breed mass amounts of insects, that leads to an increase in mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever, and West Nile virus.
• Warmer ice caps break apart, destroying and threatening the survival of polar life.






Paragraph 3: Keeling Curve
Topic Sentence: I don’t know?
Main Points:
• PPMV (Part Per Million Volume) Number of CO2 molecules per every one million molecules in the air.
• During 1800’s between 275 & 280
• During 2000 it rose to approximately 367 ppmv
• The squiggles on the graph. When it rises it mean it is probably winter time when barely any plants are blooming so therefore they cannot intake much CO2. It lowers during Summer time because a majority of flowers and trees bloom so they intake more CO2.



Paragraph 4: Our Future, if we take no action
Topic Sentence: Although CO2 is a necessity in our earth, action needs to be taken to help balance.
Main Points:
• If carbon emissions continue to raise so will earth’s temperature.
• Do I analyze data for this part?



Paragraph 5: Acid Rain? An affect.

Peer reviewed annotated sources

Biodiversity

"Climate change, species–area curves and the extinction crisis — Philosophical Transactions B ." The Royal Society. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

"By 2050, doom 15–37% of the earth's species to extinction".

That's scary, up to 37% of earth's species can be extinct by 2050. This peer reviewed source focuses on an article written in January 2004 that focuses on Earth species becoming extinct, Extinction crisis. It's said that habitat change and modification are what's causing extinction. This source includes information about the SAR (Species–Area Relationship) Method and how it relates to climate change, causes of extinction, and suggestions he has about ecologist. Mostly includes a lot of information about the SAR method and it's application, if it's reliable.

"University of California Press - Error." University of California Press - Error. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. .

"(1) models that consider species individually, (2) niche-theory models that group species by habitat (more specifically, by environmental conditions under which a species can persist or does persist), (3) general circulation models and coupled ocean–atmosphere–biosphere models, and (4) species–area curve models that consider all species or large aggregates of species."

These four forecasting methods are discussed in the article. In this article they mainly focus on the forecast and how it is affecting different kinds of species. Since the forecast is considered one of the effects of Global Warming. It is said that although we had an ice age very few species actually became extinct, so this article claims to clarify that and give more accurate and reliable forecasting.

A great map that describes where and what kinds of species are being affected.





















Source
"Animals Under Siege - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2010. ."

Some major environmental issues that are included in this map are, climate change, overpopulation, and deforestation.

"From 1990 to 2005, the world lost 172 million acres of forest"

By participating in deforestation and cutting down thousands of trees effects the species and habitats living around it. So by cutting down trees we are slowly killing species and many habitats.

"The warming of the planet could put as much as 70% of species at a greater risk of extincction-with Artic animals like the polar bear potentially among the first to go".

We wonder what will happen if the polar bear does go extinct? How bad can it possibly be?But all animals have a role in the ecosystem, all are important. I believe it would not have a sudden affect but it would eventually disrupt the food chain, which would eventually lead to greater issues.

Nate Lewis Presentation

After watching the first half hour or son of Nate Lewis' presentation, I felt like there was so much to gain from it. I believe he has a lot to say and prove. You can see that he truly supports his claims and wants what's best for our environment. He says that this problem will not be fixable without the help of new technology. There needs to be some sort of technology break through. Lewis also talks about how he believes climate change is affecting our earth. He says that an increase of rain pour, corals are being bleached, and glaciers are retracting.

What I think makes his presentation so strong is that he has evidence to support everything he says. The evidence is not only in pie charts or bar graphs but before/after photographs. He also includes evidence in each of these categories, past,present, & future. I thought his presentation was fairly easy to understand because he had some sort of visual to add to it.

Energy Consumption

What's the problem?
We are basically emitting way too much CO2 into our atmosphere and energy is one of the top CO2 producers. Energy used in our house is one of the major producers as well as transportation. The more we keep living our lives not taking action about our energy consumption, then we are going to destroy our earth.

Where our energy currently comes from
Energy contributes to global warming by the burning of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels come from remains of prehistoric plankton and algae that has taken very long to settle to the bottom of the ocean. These are then burned up and used to power multiple things through out the world.


(Image taken from, http://www.thehcf.org/emaila5.html)

As you can see in the graph above a majority of our C02 emissions are being emitted from cars and other types of transportation. I think if we find alternative fuel to power our transportation we can significantly reduce the amount of C02 thats being emitted into the air.


Finding Alternatives
Scientist have conducted many test and came up with a list of alternative fuel options. Bio-Diesel, Bio-Alcohol, Hydrogen, Liquid Nitrogen, and the most famous alternative Vegetable oil. Another alternative would be filtering out harmful emissions that come from major power plants.

-Bio-Diesel can also be known as Biofuel. This fuel and comes from 100% renewable source, and consist of vegetable oil and animal fat. The process that the oil goes through is called, transesterfication. During this process glycerin is removed from both the vegetable oil and animal fat. There are then many byproducts left behind like, methyl esters. What makes Bio-Diesel so environmental friendly is that it's free from sulfur and aromatics that can be found in the tradition gasoline.

-Bio-Alcohol. Ethanol, Butanol, Methanol and Propanol are all major alcohol alternatives that can be used as an alternative source. All these alcohols can be created from plant and biological resources. It's said that Butanol is very similar to our traditional gasoline due to the comparable energy density.

-Hydrogen. The hydrogen fuel cell can actually convert the chemical energy found in a hydrogen molecule to electrical energy. Hydrogen and gasoline are very similar like both masses are 2.8. Although this is a great alternative it has not been taken action of very much because the cost of all the technology.

-Liquid Nitrogen. There has been some cars produced to run on liquid nitrogen, those cars contain a nitrogen powered internal combustion engine. Also uses liquid nitrogen as the breaking fluid.

-Vegetable Oil is blended with normal diesel and used in a diesel engine.

Senior Project
After reading about possible alternative sources for replacing fossil fuels, it kind of inspired me to create a project where i can predict what the world would be like if we did take action and change our use of energy. Or i can talk about our current situation and predict how long before it's too late to switch to alternative sources. While doing research I see that a majority of the articles side with finding newer technologies to help solve our problems. I think the big idea with newer technology and producing energy would be finding something that would actually burn cleaner.I plan on doing more research on these newer technology ideas and seeing what I find maybe it can inspire me for a Senior Project.


Sources
"Renewable Energy Standards--Mitigating Global Warming | Union of Concerned Scientists." Homepage | Union of Concerned Scientists. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. .

( This website talks about the American energy consumption. It talks a lot about weather issues that would uprise due to our extremely large energy consumption. In this article they also include information about certain standards in different states, and how they are required standards through out the community)

SERVATIUS, TARA. "Global Warming: It's About Energy | Environment | AlterNet." Home | AlterNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. .

(This article claims that global warming is not a, "environmental" issue but a energy issue. It also includes some information about how some political people deny global warming saying that it doesn't exist. If we don't change our energy ways then the fight against global warming wouldn't be possible. One thing i disagree with in this article is buying excess carbon in hollowed-out coalmines and oil wells to store C02, it just doesn't make any sense to me)

"Report 5: How Do We Contribute to Global Warming?." Hinkle Charitable Foundation: Advocating for Environmental and Musical Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. .

(This is the coolest article it shows really cool detailed graphs on how we, individually, contribute to global warming. It talks a lot about gasoline, and electricity and how its emitted into our atmosphere. This article also talks about What the major sources of our individual emissions are and divides everything up into a pie chart. Household electricity is the first major one and so is transportation. It also talks about how the United States greenhouse emissions are compared to other nations)

Strawberries

Initial Plant Research

Decide which plant you want to grow and write a detailed description of that plant’s requirements.

a. I want to grow a fruit, strawberries. There are three kinds June Bearing, Everbearing, and Day Neutral.
b. They grow with a lot of sunshine, and should be planted in the spring because the soil is dry enough.
c. The Alpine Strawberry is the most common for growing from seed. The strawberry seeds need to be placed in the freezer for 2 weeks because it improves the percentage of seeds that will germinate.
d. This plant takes about 2 years, but requires maintenance through out the process.
e. They can be planted in seed trays but would need to be transferred to bigger pots through out the process. The soil has to be ½ inch thick.
f. The strawberries should be planted .07 to 1m apart.
g. It says that best soil for growing strawberries would be, rich medium loam with high humus content.
i. The soil shouldn’t be acidic for planting strawberries.
ii. 10-10-10
h. Water are the watering requirements?
i. It requires 22 gallons of water per season
ii. A sprinkler would probably work best it can water all of the strawberries.
i. I think strawberries can grow best alone.
j. There are different types of strawberries that grow in different times of the year.

For senior project I want to focus mainly on energy. I would like to connect it to our energy resources and address problems we are currently facing. Some issues would be the collapsing world oil production, and how it’s going to become a problem in the near future. One example would be about an oil field in the Western Hemisphere that was producing approximately 2 million barrels per day, now only 700,000.

The major issue with creating energy from coal and oil is the environment. When coal & oil are burnt they emit massive amounts of co2, carbon dioxide. They also release dangerous toxins like sulfur dioxide. When sulfuric acid is released and mixed in with the moisture from the air it forms Sulfuric Acid. This then affects many crops because when rains the Sulfuric Acid kills them, this can also be known as Acid Rain. When there are major amounts of carbon dioxide in the air it causes the temperature to rise due to the Co2 trapping in the heat from the sunlight.

Finding alternative energy sources can be a fun topic to focus on for senior project. It is proven that within the next 40-50 years we will run out of fossil fuels, and would need to find alternative uses. Some solutions that have been said are taking energy from water. Taking the energy from water is known as hydro-electricity; some cons about this idea would be that many types of vegetation would have to be clear which would then affect the ecosystems. Another energy source would be Wind energy, which is kind of obvious because it is currently used in a lot of places. Some side effects would be that the generators give off a low frequency sound that then shakes objects, and also affects radio/television receptions.

I know what I want to focus on for senior project I just don’t know what I want to do. But I am pretty positive I want to focus on energy and how our energy sources are currently affecting our earth.










Alternative Energy Sources

Chang, PL. "The Energy Crisis: 2009 and Beyond." Energy Fanatics. N.p., 1 Mar. 2009. Web. 20 Jan. 2010. .
( This website gives a lot of info about oil corporations and how they aren't keeping the public community informed)


"The Global Energy Crisis." Planet for Life. N.p., 12 May 2004. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .
( This website has a lot of useful information about sustainable energy, specifically fossil fuels, and what we can do to help save our planet)


"The Coming Global Energy Crisis." The Coming Global Energy Crisis. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .

"Fossil Fuels/Energy Crisis." Nugget Tripod. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010. .
(This website talks about alternative energy sources that can be found from, wind, water, and the sun.)

Socratic Seminar

During the seminar I heard a lot of ideas, and got the chance to hear what my classmates thought about the topic. One idea that was talked a lot during the seminar was about how America should focus on the next generation, the kids. I agree and think that It would be a great idea to get kids more focused on eating healthy by, planting fruits & vegetables and having a community garden. Also changing school lunches would be a better choice because kids don't really have an option when it comes to eating at school, Making the lunches more nutritious and healthy for the students would be a great start to a healthy generation.

Environmental Blog #2

This weekend I talked to my parents to see if they had any type of history working in the environment like farming or planting, but neither of them had previous experience.

What are you curious about in Environmental Science class?

I'm curious about how we are able to live on this earth. What would happen if a certain species of animals or insects become extinct, how would that affect us. I am also curious about our earth and what major environmental issues we are facing. I would love to learn about what is effecting us and what's possibly destroying our earth. Then learn about different solutions to these problems.  I'm also curious about planting and the whole process of growing a vegetable or fruit. Learning specifically what makes some vegetables grow extra healthy while others are weak and brittle. I'm curious to see what kind of techniques there are to growing different kinds of plants.

My Last Honors Blog

How has your thinking changed regarding literature?

I think being a literature honors student, I've learned so much. My understanding for literature has improved a lot. Before I wasn't too sure about literature and what it concluded but after this past year I've learned a lot of different aspects of literature. Using the SAT literature book helped a lot because it had a list and definition for each literary term. So overall I do believe taking honors was a good choice and I learned how challenging it can become.

All aspects of magazine reflection

* Writing- The writing was the most important part of the magazine. I think my writing was okay, it would've been better. But I liked the process I went through to get my final written draft. I first started off with a photo essay and I was going to revise that then input that to the Ampersand magazine, But after a few critiques I started to dislike my own writing. I felt like it didn't fit in with our magazine and it wasn't a professional piece of writing.I then wrote a whole new article reflecting on my experience at internship & how it's a great experience for high school students. I brought this article in and got it critiqued a few times. I felt much more better about this article. I also learned so much during the process. There was a lot of methods our teacher taught, that I incorporated into my article.

* Editing/* Drafting & Revision- During the editing/critiquing process I learned so much about writing a paper. I used most of the methods our teacher taught us. In between critiques I noticed something I do a lot in my writing and that's writing my sentences extra long with unnecessary words. Some times I will use words in a sentence that do not need to be there. I noticed this after my first critique, when I got my paper back I felt kind of dumb. Because there would be like 5 words crossed out and substituted with 1 or 2 words, which I think made my article way better.So I went through my article trying to find more possible way to make my sentences shorter.

* Layout & Design- I didn't focus much on my layout/design.

* Photography-

* Creativity & Originality

* The printing & publishing process & industry

* Your own thoughts about your path beyond 11th grade (and beyond HTHMA... that's what internship is about, right?)

What did you learn?

How did you learn in?

Why is this important?

Magazine Reflection Part 2

Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what improved? How did it get better? Why?

• I think that my structure has improved the most. I see my paper as more organized now. Before when i used to write papers it was so unorganized and when i wrote my ideas would be all over the page. Another thing that has improved for me was my sentence structure. I learned a lot of different techniques used in writing like not using a lot of ing's , start off strong and end off strong. Another technique I learned was avoiding sledge hammer words. When I would get my paper critiqued I noticed that there were a lot of unnecessary wording.
  

Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what still needs work? What do you think will help you improve? Why?

• I think the overall message of my paper could have improved, I should have worked on that more. Maybe having a more detailed brain storm would have helped.
  

Specifically, show us something that improved and describe the path it took to get better. You can quote your article, your drafts, link to evidence, etc.

• Something that improved on my article was my intro. When I first wrote my intro it was so long, but after getting it critiqued by one of my fellow class mates it became much more shorter but still had the same meaning.The very first sentence of my article got much more shorter but still conveyed the message I was trying to say. Which was,
  

Before; "Being a Junior at High Tech High Media Arts requires that you complete an internship.
After;"Juniors at High Tech High Media Arts must complete and internship.

& minor word changes like the one shown above is what makes an article better.

• Another sentenced that I saw change drastically;
  

Before; "In January we had our interviews that would help the school place us in our internships.
After; "In January, we had our interviews for internship placement.

4. Describe something specific (or a few things!) that you learned about writing.

• I learned the,concert not pancakes method, writing style. This method of starting off strong and ending strong helped a lot during revisions of my article. Another method learned that I liked a lot was,using few -ing's. In my intro i have only one ing, which is not that bad I think. Sentence structure was one I focused on the most. When I write my sentences I will sometimes use words that don't need to be there. So sentence structure has helped a lot it made my sentences short & detailed.
  

Magazine Reflection

1. What went well for you during the process of creating this magazine?

Getting helpful feedback. I definitely think that all the critiques were the most important during the process of this magazine. All the feedback I recieved from my fellow classmates was great it made my article much more better. Another thing that went well was working with my editor,Ana, She was very helpful during this project.

2. What challenges did you face as you moved from an early draft or idea to a final product?

During the first week that we started critiquing I had a copy of my revised photo essay, The more critiques we did the more I started to dislike my photo essay. So during the weekend I wrote out an article about my internship. I first started off by brain storming then I wrote it out and got it critiqued by some of my classmates & teacher.

3. What other examples of work—student and professional—stood out as exemplary and served as a good model for your own work?

There was a lot of other pieces of work that I thought were really good & stood out. But one that stood out the most was Vanessa's because her article was informative but simple. It got straight to the point. I got feedback from her on my paper and it helped a lot. She helped me get rid of unnecessary wording and it helped make my article much more understandable.

literature group

In class we have Literature Groups. In these groups we choose to read, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I liked having lit.groups because we got to share our thoughts and predictions about the book with the rest of our group. In the groups we had set up specific dates that would tell us when we would meet and how many pages needed to be read.

I think that hearing other peoples thoughts and predictions keeps our minds open about the book. It also gives us many outlooks about the book rather than just having our own opinions and predictions. I thought that the book was interesting and at first I didn't really get much but after talking with some of my peers in my group, I understood it much more.

Google the phrase "Obama Socialism". What do you get? Try google news... what did you find?

I found many articles and blogs that talked about Obama being a socialist. Many of them gave examples in which he acts like a socialist and many others you can tell were opinionated. Also many headlines were similar like, "Is Obama really a Socialist"

Do you feel that the label "socialism" is applied appropriately or correctly to Obama, his proposals or his policies?

Do Obama's proposals or policies have historic precedents in America? If so, what happened in the past?