My Impact

In our class we have been focusing on try to make the earth a better place to live. We've taken a few steps. We have created a "green team" and a "collaborative consumption" team. The "green team" is as simple as it sounds. We are trying to make more people recycle and become more "green". We've talked about how being "green" also saves you some "green". Usually in neighborhoods recycling is picked up for free, so it saves the earth and your money. The collaborative consumption team is trying to get people to reduce and reuse, more importantly reuse. We have been concerned about our earth and we are trying to learn more about it.

In class a few weeks ago we had a challenge. The challenge was to see if we could compile a list that was allowed a max of 100 things to keep in our lives. The point was to try and see how small our numbers could be. My list of what I thought I could live with was 67 things. I thought this sounded reasonable when I listed everything out. Then our homework was to go home and count how many things you had in your room. Everyone was shocked by their answers. I estimated about 250-300 things. I never realized how many things I have in my room that I don't use or didn't even know I had. For example, I had 15 cami’s that I don't wear. I really don't need a lot of these things. It inspired to me to go through all of my clothes and donate the things that I didn't use anymore. This task that I was going to would actually help the earth. I never thought of it before but after we watched a video in class things started hitting me harder. If people could reuse my clothes that I never really worn other than a few times then I'd be saving the earth. Well for one it would save money, two it saved resources, and it didn't have to be transported here. Now when I think I need new clothes I wonder if i actually need it or not.

Then in class we did the "Mapping the Impact" project reflection. In this little project we chose an item and researched what was in it. Then we mapped where those smaller items came from and how it was assembled. My group chose something as easy as pizza. We didn't realize how much was actually put into each pizza. All the different vegetables and spices came from many different places. Then they had to be extracted from the earth, and shipped to the US. This probably wasn't the best item to choose. It didn't really hit me as hard as the other groups items did. One group did a ballpoint pen, and one did an Iphone 3GS. It was amazing to see all the things put into these products and to see where all the items came from. To make one item it requires materials from all over the world. We're extracting all these things from our earth, then putting them in factories to put them together which puts toxins in the air, then we transport it to stores, which puts more bad things in the air, and then people come and buy them. When you look at a pen what do you see? You don't realize that the "pigments and dyes probably came from India; the plastic to hold the ink was made from petroleum which is drilled in Saudi Arabia; the tungsten caride balls are made in India and China; the brass for the outer layer of the pen is made from zinc which comes from Australia and copper which is mined in Chile; and it was probably all assembled and manufactured in a factory in China and shipped to the U.S. for sale". This was Damini's group’s project. This was crazy to me. I realized how many people use pens every day. That is a lot of harm to our earth. We ONLY have ONE.

We had an assignment to take an online test that showed us our ecological footprint. It was crazy to me when the words popped up saying “If everyone lived like you do, we would need 5.79 earths". That was pretty harsh. It made me think of how everyone is ruining our earth even though we think we are helping. We might be helping a little but not as much as we think we are. I wonder if anyone would get the answer of 1 earth. I feel like my answer was really high for a few reasons. One reason being that I live on base so electricity, gas, and water are all free. If we lived off base and had to pay for that stuff my family would be more conscience to save us money. Also, we drive a lot of places because my sister and I each do three sports. We are always driving somewhere. This test left an impact on me. Now at home I'm better at turning off lights and not wasting water. The big thing that I do now is unplug appliances that aren't being used. Take the test and see what you get!

Green Team

We split our class up into two groups, the Green Team and the Collaborative Consumption group. I am part of the green team. We are trying to make our school “greener”, but it's not so simple. Since we've embarked on our mission I've actually changed a lot. I did talk my family into recycling more. My family is rather lazy and throws all of their cans and plastic bottles in the trash. So we've actually started recycling. Also, in the lunchroom I tell people to make sure they recycle their cans. I did go out and buy a reusable water bottle so I don't buy as many water bottles as before. I've learned that the littlest bit can go a long way. If we all reduce, reuse, and recycle we can help so much. I have the picture of all the water bottles lying in a lake of some sort burned in my brain. I don't want to contribute to that. I've also learned that some companies are going eco-friendly with their water bottles like Dasani.

In our group we decided to try to get the school together on the same page. We're going to host a "flick tournament". We will collect aluminum cans for two weeks (with the tabs still on them). Then we will have the kids in the tournament flick the can tabs off and whoever flicks it off wins (it's a game the high school kids actually do in their free time). We're basically doing this to see how many cans we collect. We will be putting up posters with information on them about where to recycle the cans. We will also recycle other materials as well to see how much we can get. So as my part in my group I wrote the letter to our vice principal, Mr. Newman asking for permission.
I honestly see myself recycling a lot more in the future. I will continue to do it as I get older. I'll also use the two others R's, reduce and reuse. I'll try to be less lazy and not buy more "convenient" things because they hurt the earth. I feel like that is the main reason a lot of people buy water bottles, because they are too lazy to buy one reusable one and fill it up all the time. Everyone needs to just be a little less lazy and help the earth!

Collaborative Consumption

In my class  we watched Rachel Botsman's TED talk,  "The case for collaborative consumption" . "Rachel Botsman is a social innovator who writes, consults, and speaks on the power of collaboration and sharing through current and emerging network technologies, and on how it will transform business, consumerism and the way we live. She is the co-author of the influential book What's Mine is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption Is Changing The Way We Live."

This video was about how to After watching this each person in my class was given a company/website/game/ organization to research. This research was based around the idea of collaborative consumption. We then had to do a small presentation on what we found. Unlimited TV episodes and movies can be purchased for $7.99 a month, where you can watch unlimited TV episodes and movies over the internet to your Xbox 360, PS3, Wii or many other devices. You can also get DVD's by mail for 2 more dollars a month. There are no due dates or late fees. Netflix was founded in 1997 in Scotts Valley, California. Marc Randolph, Reed Hastings and Mitch Lowe partnered together to create a rental service that did not impose due dates or have any late fees.  Netflix gains their profit from the monthly fee's they charge their customers. With more than 20 million members in the United States and Canada, Netflix, Inc. is the world’s leading Internet subscription service.



http://www.rachelbotsman.com/
http://www.netflix.com/HowItWorks
http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_case_for_collaborative_consumption.html

Holocaust Memorial Museum

On Friday my Gifted and Talented class went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. I had heard of how fantastic it was, and how much knowledge you gain from going. I was hoping that it was going to meet my high standards and teach me something new. When you first arrive, you receive a card of a person who lived in the time period of the Holocaust. You are then pushed into a small elevator and take up to the fourth floor. We saw many things. There was information everywhere you looked, and pictures and videos as well. The picture that stood out most to me was a picture of shaved off hair. It was a mass amount of hair from the concentration camp Auschwitz. There was just so much of it. It said it was hundreds of pounds of hair. My classmate and I were just astounded, thinking about how hair doesn't weigh that much.  It was much more than shown in this picture. There was also a section with shoes. It killed me to see all the different shoes; the baby shoes broke my heart. The museum was a terrific experience, but it also depressed me to see how inhumane people can be. I think going one time was a good experience but I probably would not go back because it was hard to walk through and actually see some of these things. I have seen how people can be, and it really shocks me. I understand why we learn about the Holocaust in many different grades. We will not let history repeat itself, we can't.

Conclusion of project

For our project we made a video. During our project we asked these questions: 

1. What does hope mean to you?
2. What does it mean to be human?
3. Is there an experience you can share with us when you gained or lost hope?
4. Can you experience hope without going through a hardship?
5. Do you have hope for humanity?

For our video we got many different answers but they were all very similar. Everyone’s definition of hope helped us form our own definition of hope as a group.  Everyone’s definition consisted of never giving up and moving forward and finding something or someone that will help bring you hope. When we asked what it meant to be human we got many responses about emotions, love, hope, interaction between each other, and being social beings.  Being human is not just having characteristic of, or having the nature of people, as the dictionary says. Its's so much more than that.  I have learned that you really learn the defintions of these words throughout your lifetime. You lose and gain hope, and go through harships throughout your life. I really want to ask older people these questions and see what there answers are. I think older people are more wise because they really have gone through everything. I hope to continue my research on these topics in the future.

Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is a traditional African philosophy.  Ubuntu literally means humanness or humanity to others.It helps give us an understanding of ourselves in relation with the world around us. It states how theres a special bond between everyone, and our interaction between other human beings helps us to discover our own human qualities. "We affirm our humanity when we acknowledge that of others." To me this means that you don't fully understand certain human qualities unless you yourself go through them and then you also see someone with the same experience. I can see others qualites and compare them to mine and see how they are the same and how they differ. It shows me how we all can share the same qualities. People may be completely different but we are all linked together because we all feel and go through some of the same things. This video relates to Jeremy Rifkins video on "the empathic civilization".  Rifkin's video is about how we are all different in many ways but we all come from one man and one woman. We are all linked together, this is just like Ubuntu because Ubuntu says theres a special bond between everyone. Both Ubuntu and Rifkins video are about how we all need to work together to bring out the good in society. These things fit in with what were doing in this unit as a class. These things make me wonder, what will happen if we actually abide by what they are saying? Will the world will be a better place? Will humans learn to be kind and caring or will we still carry on with being selfish and not caring about anything other than yourself?


-How does it fit in with what you want to learn about in this unit?

Your Not Alone

The articles that we read in class, All the Lonely People, and A Meeting of Solitudes by Roger Ebert, and the article about Being"fully" human online by Ezra Klein really got me thinking. What is it that makes people feel lonely? Does it start from a young age? Like if your parents had some affect on you? Or not having many friends to talk to? Or could it be that you have too many material things and not enough love coming from one person? Or is it just inside your brain? I honestly think loneliness starts inside you. I know many people who always say that they are lonely. But is it really that they are truly lonely or is that they don't know how to come out of there shell and be social or try and break that "loneliness bubble" that they put themselves in.

 "So many of you were abused, physically beaten, bullied, called worthless, ostracized because you were gay, or the wrong color, or too tall or short or fat or thin or -- does it matter? The reasons for your mistreatment were not in yourself, but in the minds of those cruel ones hoping to hurt you. As a response, some of you have cut off, shut down, or isolated. From your lives you have learned the lesson to seek shelter."

This paragraph in all the lonely people tied in what I wanted to learn in this unit. I believe that this is like the question we were asking about what separates people from making decisions to push through hard things or just do nothing about them and worry for the rest of your life.  Some people that have gone through all these terrible things sit at home lonely and do nothing with their lives, but some push through it and become stronger. They don't let these things hurt them. One of my family's friends had a terrible childhood that no one should ever go through. But that person is the strongest, most kind-hearted person I have ever met. Yes, she told me that she did feel lonely when she was younger but she pushed through it and now she never feels lonely.

One of the first things I thought about when reading the Ezra Klein article was the movie Avatar. The main character is in a wheelchair, but when he goes into this other world he can do anything he wants. He's not in his wheelchair anymore, and can run, walk, jump and use his legs again. Jason Rowe, one of the people Klein writes about talks about how he can have most of his abilities back in his online games. He says how it’s his window to the world.