Project Blog - Charity Fair 2017

Summary

The charity my group choose to support and present about is called the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. AFSP works funds research, raises awareness, advocates to pass laws that will save lives as well as offers support. Every year over 1, 000,000 people in the U.S attempt suicide with over 44,000 succeeding. To support our charity, my group sold black milk tea and peach tea inside a glass mason jar. Each of the jars were covered in glitter, decorated with the blue and purple suicide awareness ribbon and included a tag with more information on our charity. In total, we made $211 dollars by selling out of our 50 jars.

Backwards - In what ways have you gotten better at this kind of work?

Compared to my prior year's charity fair, I definitely improved. For one, this year my group and I completed every aspect of the charity fair in a timely manner. Unlike last year, I wasn't staying up the night before finishing up my board with my group. I also think the product that I created turned out better. The milk tea sold out fast and we got many compliments on our board and presentation. I also made over $100 compared to last year.

Inwards - What was especially satisfying to you about either the process or the finished product?

One thing especially satisfying about the finished product was how our presentation during the charity fair went. I think our group did a really great job. We really took into account what feedback we got during our practice presentations in class and practiced a lot. After the presentation, I felt really proud of how we did. There was no stuttering, we had all our lines memorized, and many people in the audience were touched and emotional when watching us present. Our presentation to the parents was one of the best presentations that I have ever given during my 4 years at AdVenture.

Outwards

What the one thing you particularly want people to notice when they look at your work?
One thing I particularly want people to notice when they look at my work is the effort we put into decorating our jars. Each jar is brushed with multiple layers of gold glitter ,lined with a different colored ribbon based on the flavor of drink and wrapped around with a hand drawn tag. It took us an especially long time to make the tags because on each one we had to untie the already made know (which took awhile for all of them), put on a bell, and retie it an appropriate length for the jar.

Forwards
One thing I would like to improve upon is ...

One thing I would like to improve upon is thinking more ahead before we do things considering our product. Doing this would have saved us a lot of time. This is because when we put the glitter on the jars, we didn't anticipate how much time it would take. We spent many hours layers glitter on all of our 50 jars. In the future, if I wanted to do a half sparkle look for a jar, I could have just used spray paint. If we spray painted the jar, it would have saved us many hours of work giving us time to make other parts of our project and board better.

WAC - Should We Bring Back Extinct Species 12/14/17

     

     “When a species goes extinct, that’s the end. Those genes are gone. That job in the ecosystem is gone. That niche disappears so there is nothing left to serve that purpose.” 10:15, Reawakening Extinct Species. For hundreds of thousands of years, this was the reality we lived in. However, due to our recent explosion of knowledge, circumstances have changed. Scientists are currently exploring the possibilities of resurrecting extinct species with something called de-extinction. Even more, with the variety of de-extinction methods such as cloning, selective breeding, and genome editing, bringing back our long lost friends seems more a part of reality than fiction. But that poses the question, is it worth it to go through the trouble of bring back extinct species? The answer is yes, we should bring back extinct species. Why? Because the practice of de-extinction can actually help with conservation, has environmental benefits, and will expand of our scientific knowledge and understanding. The benefits of de-extinction vastly outweigh the consequences.

     Some people may argue that de-extinction is time and money wasted; time and money that should be going to the conservation of endangered species. However, most don't realize that the technology used to bring back extinct species can also be used to repopulate and help endangered species. By using de-extinction technology to repopulate endangered species, we can diversify gene pools with little variation. According to the SENCER article, Should We Bring Back Extinct Species?, diversifying the gene pools will leave populations "less susceptible to viruses, bacterial infections and disease"(para. 2). This is due to natural selection. When an organism with genetic variations that will increase it's chance of survival arises, natural selection will ensure that that trait is passed down as the species evolves. As the SENCER stated, these variations can be immensely beneficial to endangered species. In addition to this, de-extinction has even more conversational benefits. Ben Novak, a lead researcher from Revive & Restore, a non-profit working to save endangered and extinct species with engineering and science has some thoughts on this topic. He stated in Stephen Ying's article, We Might Soon Resurrect Extinct Species. Is It Worth the Cost?, “living species are endangered partly because of 'the lack of an ecological partner or some link in the food web.'"(para. 9). This means that de-extinction can be used as a means of conservation just as easily as it is used for resurrection.

     De extinction also has environmental benefits. One scientists named Sergey Zimov is working to bring back the woolly mammoth by splicing the DNA of similar species with something called crisper to create a hybrid species similar to the woolly mammoths. By repopulating the tundra with the woolly mammoth, we can "encourage the revival of ancient grasslands, which could slow the rate of melting permafrost and, therefore, reduce carbon emissions.”(para. 3), as stated in the Should We Bring Back Extinct Species? article. Sergey Zimov believes we can reduce the temperature by at least 20 degrees. In other words, he is saying that bringing back the woolly mammoth will reduce the rate of global warming through the reduction of carbon emissions. But the woolly mammoth isn't the only extinct animal that carries environmental benefits. In the New York times article, We Might Soon Resurrect Extinct Species. Is It Worth the Cost?, Ying also mentions how passenger pigeons will counteract the negative affects of deforestation. When the Eastern deciduous forests were filled with thousands of passenger pigeons, the large flocks would land on the tree and break the branches "excreting layers of rich fertilizer that allowed new trees to grow" (para. 19). This job belonged exclusively to the passenger pigeons. Without them, the once rich forest soil has become poor. These are only two of the many ways that extinct species can better our environment.

     Because of humans, so many amazing and unique species died out to extinction. De-extinction can undo the damage we caused in the past in a positive way and bring back more diversity of life. In addition to this, if we bring back species with amazing abilities that went extinct, scientists can further our knowledge of the world and make breakthroughs that will benefit humanity. For example, Michael Archer, an australian researcher is working to bring back the gastric brooding frog. The sighting of this unique species was the first time anyone had ever seen an organism that could change one organ into another. The medical world was excited about the frogs discovery, but before they could learn anything new the species soon went extinct. In the article, Reawakening Extinct Species, Gabriela Quiros stated that scientists" wondered, could they use this in human health, not to have babies in our stomachs but to manage gastric secretions in the gut?”(para. 9). Imagine how much we could learn from extinct species. By being able to examine living organisms from the past, we can also learn about their ecosystems and the reason behind their extinction "filling in some gaps in evolutionary theory"(para. 2, SENCER article). With de-extinction we have a chance to learn about things we couldn't learn before.

      As I have shown, we should bring back extinct species. De-extinction can help us conserve our endangered species while bringing back extinct ones, benefit and improve our environment, and teach us things about the world they we never could have learned before. Our world has so much to gain from bringing back extinct species. And though we may not have our own Jurassic park anytime soon, thanks to the science of de-extinction you can bet on seeing some old friends in the near future.

De Extinction - Weekly Blog 12/10/17

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/NHM_Dodos.jpg

Summary

Weekly Blog 12/3/17 - Carbon Footprint

Summary

Air pollution is caused mostly by the transportation of goods. Almost all of the items we own are manufactured in other countries. To get from retailers to us products have to shipped around the world creating an insane amount of pollution. Out of trains, trucks, boats, and cars, airplanes release the most grams of CO2 per kilogram per mile. In order to keep our planet fresh and prevent things like global warming, we need to be aware of how much pollution products create and act of that knowledge. Buying your favourite products locally can make a huge difference over time. You can start by visiting local farmers markets to purchase your everyday groceries. In addition to reducing the amount of CO2 produced in the air, you will also be treating yourself to fresh and higher quality ingredients.

SP2 Developing and Using Models

I developed models when I created a map of my charity fair products journey with google maps. My map kept track of all the CO2 released into the air to make my product by showing how each component was shipped from its manufacturer, to retailer, to me. I used this model to see approximately how many total grams of CO2 per kilogram per mile was emitted into the air during the creation of my product. By knowing this information, I was able to see just how much air pollution one jar of milk tea could release. My model explained to and showed me that when creating future products and buying items, I need to keep in mind how much air pollution is being created. 

XCC: Scale Proportion and Quantity

 When calculating the quantity of grams of CO2 per kilogram per mile the total amount of CO2 emitted depends on the amount of miles traveled and the type of vehicle. For airplanes, 1 mile of travel would be equivalent to 0.17 grams of CO2, 2 miles would be 0.34, and 5 miles would be 0.85. The relationship between miles and CO2 is a scale proportion. In order to calculate the quantity of CO2, you have to first determine what kind of vehicle the items was shipped by. If it was in the same country, it was shipped by a truck, if it was in the same continent, train. If it was in a different continent, airplane or boat. After that, multiply the amount of miles traveled by the amount of grams of CO2 produced per mile.