Bias and stereotypes are like disguised weapons, slowing and hugely affecting our perceptions towards certain objects, events, or people – but where do they exist? In this unit, we studied bias in media by annotating different types of public media. This unit affected me greatly not only in the knowledge I gained but also my perception towards everyday life. This post will present my annotations for news articles, advertisements, TV shows, songs, and finally a project I made that expresses my own views towards bias.
What were your contributions to the success of your group’s lesson presentation? Be specific. What parts did you research, what parts of the experiment did you have responsibility for, what were your responsibilities for the lesson preparation and presentation?Our presentation is divided into five sections, the background information, the lab investigation, the materials and procedures, the data results, and the conclusion. In this project, I contributed to the background information, the question, the hypothesis, and the data results and analysis.
Describe one part of this project that was a challenge? How did you respond to this challenge? One challenge of the project was calculating the distance the load has traveled when we are elevating it to 10 centimeters. Since it was a curved distance, it couldn’t be measured by the ruler. As a result, I figured out a method to solve the problem using trigonometry.
Describe what you most enjoyed about the project? What part are you most proud of–that you say “WE DID GREAT”? I think we did great in summarizing our knowledge about the lever into the presentation. We had good organizational structures and it helped a lot when we were working on the presentation.
Long after this project has ended, what parts of the experience will you remember? I will remember the time when I had trouble figuring out the distance when I suddenly thought of the equation to calculate the data to the most precise value. I felt it was a good thing to apply something I just learned to an experiment.
In this I&S unit, we explored different aspects of the Renaissance period and wrote a research paper about our topic. The topic of my research paper was how significant was the Golden Ratio during the sixteenth century. I chose this topic because the Golden Ratio fascinated me not just because of the beauty and balance it brought to nature and our world, but also because of the significant connection between mathematics and arts, the past and the present.
The process of this investigation has allowed me to use a variety of research methods to experience some of the challenges that face historians. I also learned many professional ways of organizing and formatting my research paper during class time.
Please leave a comment below for any thoughts, questions, or things you would like to share!
In this unit, we chose a topic to address from the book we are reading (The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter by John Gosselink) I chose ADHD as my topic since the main character Thaddeus has the disorder and had to experience all sorts of injustice throughout the book. From this topic, I made a PSA that advocated this issue to inspire change to our views towards those with ADHD. Through this video, I hope people can start to accept those around them with ADHD, and treat them not only with equality, but with equity.
Video:
In this unit, we also had a deeper understanding of how to write a good TIEA. Below is my TIEA on standing up for others and being brave to follow what they believe is right despite other people’s influences on their thoughts.
TIEA:
In the text “The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter”, John Gosselink demonstrated the idea of standing up for others to ensure everyone has equity and equality when Mr. Cooper stood up for Thaddeus to prevent Thaddeus from experiencing further injustice.In response to the document of inconsequential offenses Mrs. Dixon wrote to put Thaddeus back in ISS, Mr. Cooper replied“Let’s give him a chance. And Jane, with all due respect, maybe you should listen to some of his suggestions.” (228)Mr. Cooper’s change in character throughout the story resulted in learning to stand up for those who need additional support in life. As Mr. Cooper came to understand the intentions and thoughts of others, he began the realize the importance of treating others with equity and equality. He grew braver to stand on the side he thinks is right though he started off as a circumspect person who was afraid to be on Thaddeus’ side. People should not be afraid of saying what they believe is right no matter how unpopular it may be, especially when it comes to defending the rights of others. In fact, standing up for the rights of others is more powerful than standing up for one’s own rights in some ways. When people try to gain rights for those in need, those who remain quiet may as well become the victims of injustice. Even though standing up to injustice may also mean losing friends and gaining enemies, it is more important to know that as the people around in need are finally treated with equity and equality, the world would become a stronger and more comfortable place for everyone, even for those who need additional support, to live in.
MLA citation: Gosselink, John. Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter. Amulet Books, 2010.
Another part of this unit was discussions. Discussions allow us to think critically about the events that happened in the book, analyze the style of the text, and communicate our thoughts with each other. Below is a video of our group’s discussion on The Defense of Thaddeus A. Ledbetter.
In this unit, we were supposed to create a perspective drawing of a city with cultures. I chose to draw Kaohsiung. To present Kaohsiung, I represented the culture by drawing buildings in Kaohsiung. My artwork was drawn in a two-point perspective because most people used one point perspective to draw their artworks. Since I didn’t want to draw streets, but a bigger picture of the city, I decided to have two vanishing points in my artwork. These two vanishing points were not drawn on the actual paper. I taped two additional pieces of paper at the sides so that the buildings do not totally vanish at the side and the artwork would seem more realistic. In two-point perspective drawings, the rule is that horizontal lines should be going to one of the vanishing points, and vertical lines should be perpendicular to the eye level, or the horizon line. This also means that all vertical lines are parallel to each other. I started off by drawing the 85 building. The structure was challenging to draw into a two-point perspective since it is the main key to create balance in the drawing. After drawing the buildings beside the 85 building, I found out that there was too much space in the sky and made the artwork unbalanced. So, I extended some of the buildings so that there are different sized cubes floating in the sky. This was the favorite part of my artwork because it not only created balance and a sense of unity and harmony to the artwork but also created a movement that the cubes are floating in the sky. For one of the buildings, it had a unique shape. I drew it so it was similar to the tallest hotel next to the 85 building. I actually planned on drawing love river at the left side of the artwork, but I eventually found out that in the map, love river doesn’t exist next to 85 building, so I filled in a color that could best create balance in the drawing. I think I did a good job in value for the cubes and the 85 building, but not for the smaller buildings. I think I used too less water to make value seem natural to others. It was also hard to control where the watercolor was going, so my craftsmanship was not good for this piece of artwork.
There were many things I could improve on in my artwork. For example, I have room for improvement for craftsmanship and value. I could’ve controlled where the watercolor was going so the colors won’t mix together. This also affects the value of my drawing. I will try not to keep redrawing the same places and ruin the value. Also, I had too less signs to show my understanding to perspective drawing. Even though it is a huge picture of Kaohsiung, I still should have included some big signs.
When I first started to design my carpet patterns, I had a picture of a symmetrical pattern in my head. So, I started first with the geometric shape designs in the center. The diamond-like shape was originally a square, with its corners at the borders of the four pieces of paper. However, I then had an idea to divide the corners of the square to three identical segments. I connected the corners to the borders of the papers, and a geometric shape I never thought of appeared. At first, I left this shape alone to work on the four star-like shapes on each piece of paper and the designs at each corner. However, I found out that the design now lacks creativity between values. The geometric shapes I created were blank, so I decided to add values to them. It turned out that my design looked a look better after that. The great contrasts at the four sides of my pattern design got the idea from zentangle. In zentangle’s example, they used circles like one of my patterns. However, I turned the shape at the opposite side of the circle into oval while the other two sides square and rectangle so that it creates a pattern and movement of the shapes. I also used hatching to fill out the background at each corner. Originally, I was planning on leaving it blank, but then I noticed that the corners are nobalanced in colors, so I used the things I learned before to fill in the blanks. This also created emphasis in the spheres. The spheres at the corner were also inspired by the works I did earlier. I used value to shade the spheres so the light seems to come from the middle. The eight needlelike shapes at the corner were actually created by mistake. At first, I only wanted to connect thin lines, but I traced one of the lines from the wrong place, so I decided to color them in, and it became my favorite part of this artwork. The four starlike shapes were inspired by the shop by the street I live in. They had something similar to this design and I had this idea of creating it. To create it, I had to use rulers and pencils to make the most accurate assisting lines so the four of them can create harmony and a sense of unity. The organic shapes were added at the end of my design. They were used to fill in the spaces after the geometric shapes are drawn in. The four twisted clocks were inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I also let the time of the clocks change, which createsa rhythm to the design. For the organic shapes, I drew music, plants, lighting, and mud to create a variety to the organic shapes.
Improvements I can make to this artwork is to create more variety of patterns. I should also fill in the blank spaces between the star-shaped squares. I also regret putting stripes on the lines outside the diamond. I can also have better craftsmanship in coloring in the values for shapes.
