By: Maansi, Dhru, and Himanshu
As our school year comes to an end, we are finishing up our last assignments in Quest. This week, we started off with a follow up on the Global Challenge Project. We learned about how we should not make assumptions about other cultures. Then, we read an article that had an example of cultural “othering.” The article was about the conflict between a missionary and an isolated tribe of Indians known as the Sentinelese. After reading and annotating this article, we went back to one of our previous projects, and did one last Socratic seminar. We tried to answer the question, “How can respect and assumptions affect how we approach the Sentinelese people?” To end our week, we were given our final assignment in Quest. We have to write a letter about the progress we made and the new things we learned in Quest. After we finish this, we will read the letter again when we start eighth grade. We have to answer certain questions, such as, “When have you experienced academic discomfort or academic adventure?” Academic discomfort is a time when something was particularly stressful or challenging for you. Academic adventure is a time when you stepped out of your comfort zone and tried something new, like taking on a very challenging topic for a research assignment. We were given an outline to organize our thoughts for the questions. Overall, this week was very productive and interesting.
- Maansi
Picture of organizer
Bruvik (Himanshu):
In Quest Science, we did several activities that were in relation to Newton’s Laws. One of these activities was the construction of balloon rockets. We created these by pushing a string “track” through a straw and taping a balloon to that straw. We then let go of that balloon and watched it propel forward. We used this as a way to demonstrate Newton’s Three Laws in action. Additionally, we learned about friction, as well as kinetic and positive energy. We applied this with the rockets by demonstrating how they had potential energy, stored while at rest. Then, once they were in motion, that energy would become kinetic energy, propelling the balloon forward. Also, the friction caused by the balloon moving against the air worked to slow these makeshift rockets down. Once we had wrapped up this experiment, we watched a program from the Discovery channel called The Future. We watched an episode about futuristic technologies being developed. These included things like sky offices, personal jetpacks, and planes that operated as cars. We also learned about how people can transmit their presence to places they are not in via cameras and software. Many of these projects are finished or currently in development. So, to sum it up, this week in Science was a slower, more casual week than ones previous.
Watching “The Future”
Balloon Rocket Lab
- Himanshu
Gornto (Dhru):
This week in Mr. Gorton’s class we spent a lot of time analyzing two short stories. The first one was called “Dead Men’s Path”. This short story is about a man who is the new head administrator for a school. While he had been an administrator for the school, he found out a secret that was happening with the villagers. He wanted to change the way the school had been run. Since the villagers were taking dead bodies in to the path behind the school. We had a great discussion about this story and other small details of the head administrator wife not liking her husband’s job. After we had finished discussing “Dead Men’s Path” we had started the second short story. The story was called “Fish Cheeks” by Amy Tan. The story is about a Chinese girl who loved an American boy who is the son of the minister. One day her family called them over for dinner and she started crying. This was because of how the boy would not like her family or her after seeing the food they cook or her family in general. We had a good analysis and discussion of cultures and food. We also shared times that happened to us. For example, if you don’t want someone to come to your house just because of your culture. The end of the year is almost upon us and we spent time analyzing short stories through the whole year. We have gotten so much better at it.
- Dhru
Proofread by : Hannah and Jewell