The above picture is of our set model, for the Humanities' hypothetical production.
This was the big one, folks! Every year, our school does an “exhibition,” in which every class in every grade conceives of the biggest, most complicated project they can, performs that project over the course of around six weeks, then puts it on display for family, friends, and the entire community to come and look at. We were divided into groups of four for the Humanities side, in which we designed a stage production that would take Romeo and Juliet’s story about two star-crossed lovers caught in the middle of a conflict, and create that same drama in a real-world conflict, such as the Civil War, the Paraguayan War, and more creatively, the Cro Magnon/Neanderthal War. My group was assigned the Rwandan Genocide, which is not an easy conflict to put Romeo and Juliet into, because the Hutus were set on the destruction of all Tutsis, and any Hutu who decided to side with - or fall in love with - a Tutsi. Each group was also assigned two scenes to recreate; ours were Act 2, Scene 3, and Act 2, Scene 4. For the Physics portion of the project, our group of four was divided again into two groups of two. Each individual person researched a weapon from our conflict, the Rwandan Genocide, and drew a blueprint for a model of that weapon. Each group then chose one out of their two blueprints to construct. For the transformation, we had to find some technology created for that weapon, and find an application of that technology that was used for a good purpose, as opposed to war.
For this huge project, I was in a group with only four people: Jacob Fikes, Daniela Canseco, Scot Wade, and of course myself. This group of four was divided again into two subgroups: group A, and group B. Group A consisted of Jacob and myself, and group B consisted of Daniela and Scot. Everything ran rather like clockwork between the four of us, and we were one of the more caught-up groups in the class, as we could see by a tracker that Ms. Cabrera put on her DP. Unfortunately, Scot was traveling to Australia in the two weeks leading up to Exhibition. This caused some difficulties with group B’s Physics project, but we worked together to sort everything out. Fortunately, we had gotten the Humanities side more-or-less completed with Scot’s help before he left, so we were able to complete everything on time for Exhibition.
For the Humanities side, we found a way to insert Romeo and Juliet into the Rwandan Genocide, assigning the Hutus the role of Capulet and the Tutsis the role of Montague. Then, there were many deliverables, including sketches of seven potential costumes for the production, constructions of two of those costumes using Barbie dolls as mannequins, two collages showing lighting for our scenes, a musical score consisting of 12 songs put on a CD, our assigned scenes completely rewritten to reflect the setting of our conflict, a model of our production’s set, and an overall budget for our production. It’s a long list. We sketched costumes for Romeo, Benvolio, Lady Montague, Mercutio, Juliet, Tybalt, and Lord Capulet, and we build costumes for Benvolio and Juliet. A link to read our re-written scenes can be found here: http://reinventionexhibition.weebly.com/act-2-scene-3--4.html. Finally, the set model had two sides: stage right was dominated by a generic building for use in many scenes, and stage left was monopolized by a field. This last could also be transformed into a graveyard with crosses that pop up from underneath the stage.
For the Physics side, we had to chose our weapons. Daniela chose the machete, Scot chose the club, Jacob chose the AK-47, and I chose the Soviet Strela-2 surface-to-air missile, called the SA-7 Grail by Nato - which was used to begin the genocide with the assassination of Rwandan president Juvènal Habyarimana. Unfortunately for us, this meant that group A - Jacob and I - had the choice of an AK-47 or a surface-to-air missile to construct. We decided to go with the SA-7 because we thought it would be easier to figure out. This was probably fortunate, because we barely finished in time to get our transformation done. The only technology that we could find on the SA-7 that hadn’t already been invented was a few barriers on the infrared sensor to block interference from the sun, ground, and decoying flares. Using this idea, we decided to build a model of an observatory for our transformation. Group B chose the machete for their weapon, and built a model of a scythe for their transformation. In this project, I learned how to draw a human figure! That’s something, because art has never been my strong suit. I also learned how to model many things using very ordinary materials. More importantly, I learned a lot about Rwanda and its culture, and I have become an expert on the Rwandan Genocide. In physics, I applied what I had been learning throughout the year to learn how a rocket works - not easy! - and I became an expert on the electromagnetic spectrum. That’s two things that I had not heard of before the project that I became an expert on in just six weeks!
In this project, I learned how to draw a human figure! That’s something, because art has never been my strong suit. I also learned how to model many things using very ordinary materials. More importantly, I learned a lot about Rwanda and its culture, and I have become an expert on the Rwandan Genocide. In physics, I applied what I had been learning throughout the year to learn how a rocket works - not easy! - and I became an expert on the electromagnetic spectrum. That’s two things that I had not heard of before the project that I became an expert on in just six weeks!
The largest hiccup in our project came from Scot’s two-week absence, when he travelled to Australia with plans to return only one week prior to Exhibition. This put pressure on everyone else, especially Daniela, who was forced to construct their machete - and scythe on her own. Luckily, Jacob and I were caught up with our Physics project and were able to help her, because that’s a lot for one person to do alone. Group A also found a roadblock when we tried to come up with a transformation: we had a hard time finding anything on our missile that wasn’t already being used widely. The only thing designed specifically for the missile were the few barriers on the infrared system, and it was only with the help of Mr. Schwartz that we built our transformation.
Although we did not meet many of the benchmarks, our group was able to systematically work through the multitude of drafts and final products. We focused on one or two things at a time, and finished those things before moving on; that way, we never got behind to the point where we had to begin panicking. The order that we worked in was not necessarily the order in which the benchmarks were arranged, but it worked best for us, because every completely finished part of the project motivated us further. We worked right up until the last minute, naturally, but so does everyone on Exhibition projects. We actually managed to finish most of the project in class, which was good, although we probably would have benefited from taking more of the work home. I couldn’t speak for others in my group, of course, so I’m thinking of myself in particular; I kept hearing complaints about the oversized homework load and disagreeing with them, and in retrospect I wonder if I should have given myself more homework.
My learning from the Humanities side of the project was very heavy on history; I felt like the only major learning that I did was about the Rwandan Genocide, and a bit about some other conflicts. I don’t think that I am ever going to forget what I learned about the Rwandan Genocide in this project, because of the sheer humanity of it. It’s incredible that people can actually conceive of doing the things the Hutus did to the Tutsis, much less actually do them to a fellow human being. It’s astounding that such a huge rift could come between people who actually share a common ancestry, and it’s almost more astounding how the rest of the world turned away; the United Nations Security Council actually voted to abandon Rwanda. I wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t all over the internet on several credible sources, and if so many people who visited our booth during Exhibition hadn’t reacted with the sadness and horror that they did. My writing improved a little, also, but not significantly. While I did enjoy learning all about the Rwandan Genocide, and I am glad that I did so, I would have liked to have learned a bit more from the “production” side of the project. Making the costumes, and the musical score, and the lighting collages, and designing the set, was all fairly self-explanatory, and I think that to really learn about making a production we should have acted more like a production team, and focused on the production and logistics more. Better yet, we would have actually put on a production.
In Physics, I had already learned all of the physics concepts that I used - with the exception of the electromagnetic spectrum - but attempting to apply them to a rocket to explain why a rocket does what it does was very fun nonetheless. I have now had the experience of doing rocket science, minus the calculus. I am also nearly an expert in the electromagnetic spectrum now, and that is probably something that I will not have the chance to forget; I will be using that from now until I get out of college, or longer if I score a career in physics. My only regret from this project is that I did not get to learn about the rocket through the eyes of calculus. If I had known calculus, my job would have been made much easier and probably more interesting. I plan to learn some calculus-based physics soon, but it will come too late.
Our Exhibition project had a few driving questions that we all kept in the back of our minds as we went through the project. They were all centered around the concepts of good and evil. They asked us to attempt, via our learning about the various conflicts, to define “good” and “evil.” They also asked us to look into the future and try to see if good can ever conquer evil, and if man can ever learn from his mistakes. I developed the opinion that “good” and “evil” are not black and white, so to speak. There are several gray areas. I think that pure evil only happens when an evil act is committed with an evil intention. If an evil act is committed with good intentions, I don’t think that that should reflect too poorly on the person; that is only slightly evil, since it should be easy in that case for the “evildoer” to learn from his/her mistakes. A good act with evil intentions is rare but possible, and it is rather hard to classify; I would say that it is mostly neutral. Finally, pure good is only possible when a good act is committed with good intentions. Since the evildoer usually has a motive that he/she thinks is good or beneficial to humankind in some way, acts of pure evil are not extremely common. A couple of examples of evil acts are the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide.
My four categories also imply that it is easier for humans to do evil than good. However, good is possible with a little effort. Furthermore, I do not think that evil will ever go away, since the driving force behind many evil acts is simply human nature. Humans like to experiment; that’s why we went from living in caves to where we are today. However, remember my second category; some of these “experiments” hurt people, and no matter what the intentions of these “experimenters,” that’s still evil. However, people can definitely learn from their mistakes, especially if most of the evil in the world is good intentions gone wrong. I think that it is possible to get to that point, and if humankind does, while evil will still be present, we will be able to learn.
In Retrospect . . .
In this project, I thought that there was a very widespread focus; there were a lot of products that needed to be produced, and no one could afford more than the bare minimum of time on each one. Of course, everyone spent a little bit of their time stressing out, but I have been through enough exhibitions to know that that is only to be expected. If I were to do this project again, I think that I would like to see a slight decrease in the number of products, and more time spent on going in-depth to make each one look professional-grade. I also did not think that our exhibition space seemed like a museum, which was what it was meant to be, and the cafe did not quite have the intended feel either. I think that in the future, a museum should have more open space for people to mile around in, and people should talk more quietly. Also, the cafe should have been sectioned off, and decorated more appropriately.
For this huge project, I was in a group with only four people: Jacob Fikes, Daniela Canseco, Scot Wade, and of course myself. This group of four was divided again into two subgroups: group A, and group B. Group A consisted of Jacob and myself, and group B consisted of Daniela and Scot. Everything ran rather like clockwork between the four of us, and we were one of the more caught-up groups in the class, as we could see by a tracker that Ms. Cabrera put on her DP. Unfortunately, Scot was traveling to Australia in the two weeks leading up to Exhibition. This caused some difficulties with group B’s Physics project, but we worked together to sort everything out. Fortunately, we had gotten the Humanities side more-or-less completed with Scot’s help before he left, so we were able to complete everything on time for Exhibition.
For the Humanities side, we found a way to insert Romeo and Juliet into the Rwandan Genocide, assigning the Hutus the role of Capulet and the Tutsis the role of Montague. Then, there were many deliverables, including sketches of seven potential costumes for the production, constructions of two of those costumes using Barbie dolls as mannequins, two collages showing lighting for our scenes, a musical score consisting of 12 songs put on a CD, our assigned scenes completely rewritten to reflect the setting of our conflict, a model of our production’s set, and an overall budget for our production. It’s a long list. We sketched costumes for Romeo, Benvolio, Lady Montague, Mercutio, Juliet, Tybalt, and Lord Capulet, and we build costumes for Benvolio and Juliet. A link to read our re-written scenes can be found here: http://reinventionexhibition.weebly.com/act-2-scene-3--4.html. Finally, the set model had two sides: stage right was dominated by a generic building for use in many scenes, and stage left was monopolized by a field. This last could also be transformed into a graveyard with crosses that pop up from underneath the stage.
For the Physics side, we had to chose our weapons. Daniela chose the machete, Scot chose the club, Jacob chose the AK-47, and I chose the Soviet Strela-2 surface-to-air missile, called the SA-7 Grail by Nato - which was used to begin the genocide with the assassination of Rwandan president Juvènal Habyarimana. Unfortunately for us, this meant that group A - Jacob and I - had the choice of an AK-47 or a surface-to-air missile to construct. We decided to go with the SA-7 because we thought it would be easier to figure out. This was probably fortunate, because we barely finished in time to get our transformation done. The only technology that we could find on the SA-7 that hadn’t already been invented was a few barriers on the infrared sensor to block interference from the sun, ground, and decoying flares. Using this idea, we decided to build a model of an observatory for our transformation. Group B chose the machete for their weapon, and built a model of a scythe for their transformation. In this project, I learned how to draw a human figure! That’s something, because art has never been my strong suit. I also learned how to model many things using very ordinary materials. More importantly, I learned a lot about Rwanda and its culture, and I have become an expert on the Rwandan Genocide. In physics, I applied what I had been learning throughout the year to learn how a rocket works - not easy! - and I became an expert on the electromagnetic spectrum. That’s two things that I had not heard of before the project that I became an expert on in just six weeks!
In this project, I learned how to draw a human figure! That’s something, because art has never been my strong suit. I also learned how to model many things using very ordinary materials. More importantly, I learned a lot about Rwanda and its culture, and I have become an expert on the Rwandan Genocide. In physics, I applied what I had been learning throughout the year to learn how a rocket works - not easy! - and I became an expert on the electromagnetic spectrum. That’s two things that I had not heard of before the project that I became an expert on in just six weeks!
The largest hiccup in our project came from Scot’s two-week absence, when he travelled to Australia with plans to return only one week prior to Exhibition. This put pressure on everyone else, especially Daniela, who was forced to construct their machete - and scythe on her own. Luckily, Jacob and I were caught up with our Physics project and were able to help her, because that’s a lot for one person to do alone. Group A also found a roadblock when we tried to come up with a transformation: we had a hard time finding anything on our missile that wasn’t already being used widely. The only thing designed specifically for the missile were the few barriers on the infrared system, and it was only with the help of Mr. Schwartz that we built our transformation.
Although we did not meet many of the benchmarks, our group was able to systematically work through the multitude of drafts and final products. We focused on one or two things at a time, and finished those things before moving on; that way, we never got behind to the point where we had to begin panicking. The order that we worked in was not necessarily the order in which the benchmarks were arranged, but it worked best for us, because every completely finished part of the project motivated us further. We worked right up until the last minute, naturally, but so does everyone on Exhibition projects. We actually managed to finish most of the project in class, which was good, although we probably would have benefited from taking more of the work home. I couldn’t speak for others in my group, of course, so I’m thinking of myself in particular; I kept hearing complaints about the oversized homework load and disagreeing with them, and in retrospect I wonder if I should have given myself more homework.
My learning from the Humanities side of the project was very heavy on history; I felt like the only major learning that I did was about the Rwandan Genocide, and a bit about some other conflicts. I don’t think that I am ever going to forget what I learned about the Rwandan Genocide in this project, because of the sheer humanity of it. It’s incredible that people can actually conceive of doing the things the Hutus did to the Tutsis, much less actually do them to a fellow human being. It’s astounding that such a huge rift could come between people who actually share a common ancestry, and it’s almost more astounding how the rest of the world turned away; the United Nations Security Council actually voted to abandon Rwanda. I wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t all over the internet on several credible sources, and if so many people who visited our booth during Exhibition hadn’t reacted with the sadness and horror that they did. My writing improved a little, also, but not significantly. While I did enjoy learning all about the Rwandan Genocide, and I am glad that I did so, I would have liked to have learned a bit more from the “production” side of the project. Making the costumes, and the musical score, and the lighting collages, and designing the set, was all fairly self-explanatory, and I think that to really learn about making a production we should have acted more like a production team, and focused on the production and logistics more. Better yet, we would have actually put on a production.
In Physics, I had already learned all of the physics concepts that I used - with the exception of the electromagnetic spectrum - but attempting to apply them to a rocket to explain why a rocket does what it does was very fun nonetheless. I have now had the experience of doing rocket science, minus the calculus. I am also nearly an expert in the electromagnetic spectrum now, and that is probably something that I will not have the chance to forget; I will be using that from now until I get out of college, or longer if I score a career in physics. My only regret from this project is that I did not get to learn about the rocket through the eyes of calculus. If I had known calculus, my job would have been made much easier and probably more interesting. I plan to learn some calculus-based physics soon, but it will come too late.
Our Exhibition project had a few driving questions that we all kept in the back of our minds as we went through the project. They were all centered around the concepts of good and evil. They asked us to attempt, via our learning about the various conflicts, to define “good” and “evil.” They also asked us to look into the future and try to see if good can ever conquer evil, and if man can ever learn from his mistakes. I developed the opinion that “good” and “evil” are not black and white, so to speak. There are several gray areas. I think that pure evil only happens when an evil act is committed with an evil intention. If an evil act is committed with good intentions, I don’t think that that should reflect too poorly on the person; that is only slightly evil, since it should be easy in that case for the “evildoer” to learn from his/her mistakes. A good act with evil intentions is rare but possible, and it is rather hard to classify; I would say that it is mostly neutral. Finally, pure good is only possible when a good act is committed with good intentions. Since the evildoer usually has a motive that he/she thinks is good or beneficial to humankind in some way, acts of pure evil are not extremely common. A couple of examples of evil acts are the Holocaust and the Rwandan Genocide.
My four categories also imply that it is easier for humans to do evil than good. However, good is possible with a little effort. Furthermore, I do not think that evil will ever go away, since the driving force behind many evil acts is simply human nature. Humans like to experiment; that’s why we went from living in caves to where we are today. However, remember my second category; some of these “experiments” hurt people, and no matter what the intentions of these “experimenters,” that’s still evil. However, people can definitely learn from their mistakes, especially if most of the evil in the world is good intentions gone wrong. I think that it is possible to get to that point, and if humankind does, while evil will still be present, we will be able to learn.
In Retrospect . . .
In this project, I thought that there was a very widespread focus; there were a lot of products that needed to be produced, and no one could afford more than the bare minimum of time on each one. Of course, everyone spent a little bit of their time stressing out, but I have been through enough exhibitions to know that that is only to be expected. If I were to do this project again, I think that I would like to see a slight decrease in the number of products, and more time spent on going in-depth to make each one look professional-grade. I also did not think that our exhibition space seemed like a museum, which was what it was meant to be, and the cafe did not quite have the intended feel either. I think that in the future, a museum should have more open space for people to mile around in, and people should talk more quietly. Also, the cafe should have been sectioned off, and decorated more appropriately.
The same explanation of the project (with a different picture) can be seen on my Physics page.