Final Presentation

http://prezi.com/y6lfjt1sejq6/google-20-project/

Swiss school

Notes on Videos
1. Sustainability Management School

• SUMAS is a business school for sustainability. It's in Gland, Switzerland.
• It is also related with the University of Conservation for Nature.
• SUMAS is divided between business manage education and scientific knowledge for sustainability. Their goal is integrate economic growth with sustainable development. The leaders of the future would have to provide sustainable solutions for the world.
• Students learn how to bring sustainability to life in all industrial and economical careers like marketing and finance, but also bring sustainability.
• Economic programs of SUMAS are qualified by standard by excellence, and content.
• Students understand life cycle analysis, and understand business strategies along with sustainable development.

2. Sustainable Consumption & Production: a greener world

• The ecological footprint calculates the surface area needed to produce the resources we consume in daily life and to absorb the waste generated by the use of these resources.
• By 2050, if we don't change our habit of consuming and wasting, we would need twice the Earth's surface to absorb the CO2.
• The main cause is industrial production. They should make products with minimal impact on teh environment.
• Usually, ecological production is more beneficial because they use fewer resources and produce less pollution and consume less energy.
• The rebound effect cancels out the ecological gain.
• Europe created an organization for an action plan. They propose solutions to improve products in the market for consumers. The robust European eco-label system is extremely important.
• The ecological logo assures the citizens that they are responsible consumers.

3. An Inconvenient Truth Film Trailer

• The hottest temperatures ever has occurred recently, and we are affected by global warming.
• In a decade, there will be no snows in  Kilimanjaro.
• This is a political and moral issues. Hurricanes, and storms are going around the world and if we don't prevent and protect our planet, we will face serious consequences.

4. Flight Moffett to Phoenix

• There is a cross-American plane mission. There is no fuel on board-the plane can fly forever, but the pilot has to be very precise.
• The airplane is supported by companies that want to find solutions for everyone and reduce energy consumption.
• Landing needs full concentration, especially for this plane. There was lots of preparation and time, and the first plane was a success.
• Arizona became the first solar capital of the world. 

5. Arizona State University Graduation Ceremony

• A pilot is hoping to inspire the future generation of inventors and show the world what technological innovation could make. They planned to fly the plane with only solar energy.
• Their first solar exploration is in Sky Harbor across New York, and by 2015, they are planning to fly across the world. 
• 10 years ago, when they started to make the airplane, they had to face many technical obstacles, failures, and crises. They started realizing that difficulties are opportunities. For example, when they did a test which was significant for the production, the plane exploded. It was a major problem, and a long delay, but it brought a opportunity to cross the airplane to the US. 
• Students have to go beyond knowledge and exploration, and innovation and pioneering spirit (when you can think and act out of the box and common assumptions) to become successful and useful. The world needs pioneers not only for fighting poverty, human rights, globalization but also for technological, ecological production. 
• We can build better technological solutions to invent another future. 

Assignment: How to Apply Sustainable Consumption in Bogota
        According to the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Program), "The key objective of the Marrakech Process is to promote the development of policies, programmes and projects, providing support for governments, the private sector and others who need strengthened capacity to implement national or regional Sustainable Consumption activities." The Colombian government should introduce the Marrakech program in Colombia, and develop policies and programs for research, design, and sustainable consumption activities. More education should also be provided for all consumers and students, and inform the public of the benefits of ecological products. The government should also encourage business corporations to use renewable resources such as solar energy, hydrogen energy, and wind energy for producing goods.
      Another solution proposed by the UNEP was the "Action at Home". The Action at Home is a social marketing campaign operated by the Global Action Plan. A monthly information pack provides step-by-step suggestions to make change of the environmental household impacts. In this pack, it provides information of how to dispose of waste, water, transport, shopping and energy in an eco-friendly way. This would be useful in Colombia, because a lot of people use maids. While we are doing chores in the house with minimal environmental impact, we can also educate the maids of what is the most sustainable way to take care of the house.

Growing up online

15 tings that did not surprise me:

1. This generation and socialization of technology would continue throughout life.
2. Teenagers needed to have the Internet to talk to their friends: without the Internet they would become a loss.
3. Teachers teach cyber citizenship and how to use technology responsibly.
4. Students can't focus, because they are overexposed to the quickness and the media responses.
5. The computer has amplified and exhilarated the suffer the victims of bullying had in the real world. The Internet has become a new weapon for adolescents.
6. Our generation take it much less seriously about public privacy.
7.  Some boyfriends/ girlfriends, and relations are all online
8. Social networking sites are digital representations of teenagers, and Internet allowed them to show their identity in a distinct way. 
9. In the Internet, someone can always find anything: the online predators (sex and stalkers can find any information about you online).
10. Cyberbullying is a form of bullying done online, which can equally hurt the child as much as face-to-face bullying.
11. Small, friendly, safe, protective town can become dangerous because the Internet has punctured the sense of security.
12. Parents need to take control of their children's internet security and have passwords.
13. A lot of teenagers don't want their parents to care about their personal information online and would rather use the Internet while their parents aren't looking.
14. There are lots of teenagers/kids who committed suicided and thought about death due to cyber bullying, such as Ryan.
15. Parents are worried that her good kids would make bad decision through the Internet and that behavior would pay permanently.
16. Most social interaction is done through the Internet nowadays, and if you don't have it you would become excluded or socially isolated.

15 things that surprised me and why:

1. For teenagers, the Internet is used for self expression to insult their parents: This surprised me because usually I never post  public videos online, unless it's a project or a homework. Even if I would, I would never insult my parents, and I would rather talk to them, instead of complaining it to strangers I've never met.
2. Huge shift of the technology resulted in technology being a property of adults to teenagers. This is rather a disagreement than a surprise, because I believe that the Internet is everybody's property: old and young, rich and poor, Asian or American. 
3. A lot of parties are done through technology (games and Youtube videos). That surprised me because I would never want to do parties with games and technology, and I would rather talk to my friends.
4. It's an intrusion for parents to interrupt their child while they're with their friends through technology: When my parents look at me talking with a friend through the Internet, I don't feel intruded, but sometimes I want to keep it private.
5. Parents are the one who ask their child of how to use technology: In our house, the case is quite the opposite. I ask my dad for advice about technology.
6. Some parents monitor the child's Internet, so the kids slide in fake information so that parents would think they're actually studying and researching: My mom has never monitored my Internet- (don't know if it's laziness or if they believe in me) and I don't slide in fake information in my own computer to deceive my parents.
7. There's a competition of who can have the most online friends. Most of the kids only have 200 friends who really know each other, and they don't know the rest of them. If you have 2000 friends online, everybody would see you as big or popular. I don't quite agree to that, because sometimes popular kids have few Facebook friends. It was also interesting to find out that you only know 10% of your Facebook friends really well.
8. Teachers let the students take over the class through technology. It's not the case for the classes in Colegio Nueva Granada, and we don't go up and use the smartboards.
9. Most of the Internet users believe that we need to teach ourselves and our kids that the Internet is a part of our life today. Some people are glad it's there. One girl, called Jessica was posting inappropriate photos of herself, and she was pretty famous with lots of online friends. She had a big disagreement with her parents when they found out, but now that she had recovered, her parents are glad she is using technology all over again,
10. Internet has created the biggest generation gap, and parents wonder where they'll go next. I agree with this statement, and I didn't know it was the technology that caused all the disagreements between teenagers and parents these days, and I found it interesting that some parents can't understand you because they didn't have technology in their days, and they haven't used Internet during their teenage days.
11. There are so many devices to connect hot spots besides the house where parents can't control their kids. This is actually quite a surprise, because in Colombia, it is very hard to find free Internet in public.
12. Students never read books and they are too busy, so they read Spark Notes and read everything online in five minutes. This was rather a disagreement than a surprise, because in CNG, a lot of people actually read the books instead of reading online Spark Notes.
13. In classes, teachers use technology such as smart boards and become entertainers. Using technology is the only way for teachers to capture the student's attention. That is not true, because a lot of students pay attention to their teacher even if they don't use high-tech cool technology. 
14. Some students are going to college where they withdraw from the Internet and they don't have access to technology for two months. This was interesting, because usually colleges leave you a bunch of research projects, and without Internet, this work would be extremely hard. But still it would be a great experience to withdraw from technology and use BOOKS and ENCYCLOPAEDIAS in the library for research, instead of Google and Wikipedia.
15. Teenagers don't want to talk to their parents, because the Internet is very seductive, and the whole world is there to listen. I have never thought that way, and I usually don't express myself a lot through the Internet worldwide, because I'm afraid of showing my face public.
16. There is one department that keeps an eye in sex crime: 1 in 7 kids have been sexually solicited online. Kids think it's not big of a deal and don't consider it as a serious problem. The statistics show that it is extremely serious and the probability of being sexually solicited is pretty high. I hope the department would keep more eyes and research about this more severely.

15 things that have changed about technology since this video was made (2008)

1. In 2008, MySpace was the new "in, and Club penguin was extremely popular as an online game for kids.
2. When class is over, students would go to social networking sites, such as Zanga, Bebo, Myspace, and  LifeJournal. I've never heard of those websites except for MySpace.
3.  In Facebook and Myspace, there were 160 million members combined in 2008.
4. Everyone had Myspace, including the geeks and nerds: it showed all your profile and your personality
5. The cellphones in 2008 were not smartphones or blackberries, and I only saw one Iphone1. Everybody had flip phones.
6. Youtube had worse quality, than now.
7. Iphones has dominated the mobile industry, and Apple and Samsung are dominating the electronic business.
8. iPads are a major sensation nowadays, and it became famous since 2010. In 2008, people would never have thought that electronic pads existed.
9. Microsoft Windows was bigger in 2008, and there were comparatively few Mac users.
10. WhatsApp has been created, and teenagers text each other with WhatsApp these days, not with messages.
11. Nearly everyone have ipods or iPads or smartphones these days. Through these devices, you can buy apps from the App store. The App store has been very popular and useful since then. 
12. I bet more people use the Internet than they did in 2008, but I think they are more informed than they were 5 years ago because schools constantly give education and there has been more awareness of Internet security since then.
13. There are many users of Instagram, too. The hashtag sensation is going on around the world, and teenagers use it to share photos and gain followers. Snapchat is also very popular, for private photo conversations.
14. Now, not so many people read books paper back, and they don't use Spark Notes either. They read with their Kindle, which gives us much more easier access to electronic books.
15. The Internet probably became much more faster than 5 years ago.

Answer the questions with A MINIMUM OF 5 SENTENCES EACH.

1. What advice do you have to parents about kids being online (should they have your password, be your friend on Facebook, monitor your texts... what should or shouldn't they do? why?)?
    Parents should install filters and special programs on their child's phone or computers. These filters and other internet safety tools can block inappropriate websites teenagers can see, such as violent, illegal, and sexually inappropriate sites. Parents should also help their children when their children are editing privacy account settings in their Facebook pages. They should monitor the text contact information, like who they've been texting, but if they also look at each text and its content, the child would feel like the parent is invading privacy. The method which Evan from the movie used was a clever solution, the mom kept an enveloped sealed with the password, and check it only if the mom is doubtful of the child's actions at the Internet.

2. What are the biggest benefits of being online, for you, personally?

For me, the biggest benefits of being online is getting help for homework. Everytime I do a project or if I have to research something, it is so easy to search for it in Google, and cite it. Also, I can socially interact with my friends, and that is a major benefit because I can ask them of homework, and ask them how to solve a math problem. Since I have lots of friends in Korea, the United States, and Mexico, it is hard to meet them face-to-face when I am living in Colombia. Being in Facebook, talking to them through Skype and texting them through WhatsApp makes it much more easier to communicate with them. I miss them a lot, and if it wasn't for technology it would have been hard to talk to them.

3. What topic in the video was the most UNLIKE your own experiences online and why?
The topic that was the most unlike my own experience online was cyberbullying or online-sex crimes. I've never been a victim of either of those, and I was very informed about these serious issues in my old schools, my parents, and in CNG. When I talk to my friends through the Internet, I feel comfortable and I'm happy that I actually have somebody to ask when I need help urgently. I've never been sexually solicited, so I've never experience either of those problems. I've never seen a kid who was cyber bullied, or sexually solicited- I've only read about them in the Internet and the media. Everytime I hear about them, I am extra careful on what I do online and check if my privacy settings are secure.

GAFE

Google Apps Marketplace Education is a product of Google, which is an online store designed to help students' education through web applications. Some are free, and some are paid. Through this online app store, schools can easily access apps specifically to enhance their classrooms and help their students learn more effectively. 

Useful apps in the marketstore include:

• Brainpop (provides educational movies, and interactive quizes)
• Aviary (App with free design tools and templates to create, modify and share images, presentations, audio tracks, podcasts & more)
• Lucidchart (An easy-to-use application for drawing flowcharts, Venn diagrams, mind maps, and other diagrams)
• ExamGeneral for Google AppsTM (service to create tests & exams and have them taken by students)
• Learn That Word (Personalized Adaptive Vocabulary and Spelling Tutoring Online)
• Grockit (social learning platform that uses interactive games and personal study plans for students to master English, math, and college entrance exams)
• Edubrite (Teachers can create online courses, quizes, or an online library for students to use)
• Leveled Library (An online library where you can find your textbooks and other classtime resources)

For CNG students, the apps Brainpop, Lucidchart, Learn that Word, Grockit, and Leveled Library look useful. When I researched about Brainpop, there were various clips from any subject that explained a specific topic. Their explanations were very clear, and the clips were fun to watch. Brainpop would be a good application for students who are unsure of the topic they have covered in class.

Lucidchart is a good app for organizing. Students can create mindmaps or different diagrams for any subject.

Learn That Word is a good application for all students, especially for students who speak English as a second language. If they explore this app for 10 minutes per day, their vocabulary skills would boost. High schoolers can use this app for studying SAT words, too.

Grockit is very effective for students from middle school and elementary school. Students can compete with each other through educational games. They can also create their own study plans, and it provides practice tests for college entrance exams.

Leveled Library is a good application for students from high school and middle school. They often carry extremely heavy textbooks around to school and their houses, but using Leveled Library and having easier access to textbooks online would help these students a lot.

Useful apps for teachers would be Lucidchart, ExamGeneral, Grockit, and Edubrite. Teachers can use Lucidchart to creat mindmaps and organize the information he or she taught in class. Using Exam General, it would be easier to create exams and quizes. Grockit would help teachers see which student is making progress and effort to improve their skills. Using Edubrite, they can create online courses for students who did not understand the course.

Apps that do not look useful include:

•  Engrade (provides online gradebook, attendance tracking, lesson plan builder, and much more): CNG already uses Skyward, and Skyward is just as efficient for students to look at their grades and their attendance record.
• And other apps that provide gradebook systems.

A suggestion for the Google Marketplace would be to include more apps like Prezi, Quizlet, storybird, Dropbox, Popplet, Pixton, Jellycam, slideshare, or sliderocket, and erase unpopular apps that are useless and unefficient. So far, I haven't found apps that are not useful, but apps with 0 stars should be eliminated. Also, the market should add popular apps like Prezi, slideshare, or sliderocket. Having an app like Prezi would make the market very popular, because Prezi is one of the most popular online tools used to create presentations. Quizlet is an online quiz, flashcard and game maker for studying. Storybird is used to create an online illustrated story. Dropbox is used to load your documents and access them from any computer. Having access to these popular apps with Google would be even more efficient and useful for students who use Google.

For more information....

http://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/search?categoryId=25&orderBy=RATING&referrer=Paging

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9TFnWrL8jw

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-apps-just-got-smarter.html

College/ Career Research

http://prezi.com/y6lfjt1sejq6/present/?auth_key=2gi3joc&follow=qcemjzhtygm-

Google day 2

My three goals for today is to compare the universities related to my career and finish my college road map.
I will also write 3 successful diplomats, and what made them successful.

	Columbia University	University of Oxford	Brown University	GeorgeTown University
Undergraduate programs related to international affairs	International Relations, Economic Policy, Economical and Political Development, Human Rights	Normally, The Diplomatic Studies of Oxford University is suggested for graduate students. Oxford University doesn't require lots of good courses for undergraduates.	Anthropology and Global Social Problems, Principles of Economics, Introduction to International Politics,  Comparative Politics, and Globalization and Social Conflict.	International Security, International Political Economy, International Law and Organizations, Methodology
Postgraduate programs related to international affairs
Suggested majors
International Relations			a solid grounding in the methods of analysis used in the social sciences and humanities to help students think critically about international phenomena,the exploration of the empirical and the normative domains of the subject, and flexibility to allow students to customize their IR concentration.
Campus
Tuition/ Scholarship

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/03/top_ten_international_relations_undergraduate_programs?page=0,1
I couldn't finish this chart because it was very hard to find useful information in the college websites without login access.There was also limited time, and I finished some of the Google Day 1 work.

Google Day 1

For this Google Project, I want to compare the different careers of which I am interested in. Then, I'm going to make a video based on the careers and the related universities of that career. This class, I will focus on my research, and on my next class I will start making my video.

The three goals I have for today is:

What are the two or three careers I am interested in?

What are the related universities of that career? Compare the universities.

What would be the adequate career plan for 10 years? (high school to graduate school)

The three careers I am interested in are diplomat, translator/interpreter, international diplomat (United Nations, UNESCO)

The related universities of that career are very competitive, because the careers I am interested requires lots of studying and more education that a lot of other careers. Usually, the suggested universities are Ivy Leagues , which means I have to work extra harder to meet my goals. The examples I found was Yale University Office of International relations, University of Oxford- Diplomatic studies, and Brown University-Department of International relations, and United Nations University. All these universities are very competitive and extremely difficult to enter, but most diplomats are from those universities, and in order to be a successful diplomat, you need to get a college degree from a good university. 

http://world.yale.edu/oia

http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/postgraduate_courses/course_guide/diplomatic_studies.html

http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Registrar/Concentrations-50.htm

The following websites are related to diplomacy departments in the mentioned universities.

The requirements for a US diplomat would be the following. I am interested in being a Korean diplomat, so the requirements would be different, but the characteristics are usually similar. 

http://education-portal.com/articles/How_to_Become_a_Diplomat_Education_and_Career_Roadmap.html

For high school, my career road path would be:

1. Take classes related to politics, economy, and international issues. Now, as a freshman, I am taking French, Social Studies (World history & Sustainability), Biology and Sociales. During my sophomore year, I am planning to take US government, French, Spanish, Environmental Sciences (Currently, environmental harms is a global issue). During my junior year, I am planning to take  English language and composition,  French, Chinese,  Human Geography, and hopefully comparative government and politics (If CNG offers the subject). During my senior year, I am planning to take Chinese, Macroeconomics(general economy), and English Literature, 

2. learn more languages: Currently, I am learning 4 languages, and I am planning to learn Mandarin, also. I should study more English, Spanish, and French, and hopefully I would speak Chinese fluently in the next two and a half years. I am learning Chinese in an online course little by little. 

3. Join different organizations: There are different organizations that CNG offers. Leadership, NHS, MUN, Challenge 2020, and Newspaper are the organizations related to my career. A diplomat requires leadership skills and a desire to volunteer, and critical debate skills (MUN). In order to be a diplomat, I would also  have to care for the environment and solve global issues in a sustainable way (Challenge 2020). Being a member of the School Newspaper would help me boost my writing/ English skills.

Also, during the summer, I am going to several MUN conferences. I have already been to 6 conferences, and I am planning to go as many as I can during my high school life.

4. Read more about international news, and debate more. I should read more about what is going on in the world, and think of different opinions and perspectives.

5. Work on going to the colleges related to being a diplomat. Going to Yale, Brown, or Oxford is extremely difficult. I would need a very high GPA, get a good SAT score, and prepare writing good essays. I would have to work on the SATs and concentrate on school work.

For next class, my goal is to compare the related universities to the career I want, and decide what university would be better in terms of majors, tuition etc. I will also finish my college road map (college and graduate school), and start making the movie. 

Green Computing

 I don't know a lot about Green computing, but I have heard of it before and I guess green computing is related to energy saving and saving the environment digitally, because of the word "Green."

The questions I have for Green computing is:

What are the major organizations or industries or people who are related to green computing?

What are the advantages of green computing?

The links I found the most useful are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=350Rb2sOc3U

http://www.techopedia.com/definition/14753/green-computing

• Green computing is a sustainable study of designing and using computing devices in a sustainable way, in order to reduce their environmental impact.
• Many governmental agencies are encouraging green computing and putting regulations to citizens to start following the rules of green computing (turn off your computers during night)
• Green computing helps reduce energy demands, waste, and money.It also changes government policy to encourage recycling and lowering energy use by individuals and businesses around the world.  
• "A computer left on for 24 hours will cost you between $115-160 in annual electric costs and also produce 1,500 pounds of CO2 in the atmosphere. By simply turning off your computer during the nights, you ultimately can save up to" 67 percent annually in your electric bill, along with reducing greenhouse gases." (Schneider, 2008)
• There are four approaches of green computing: Green use (minimize electricity consumption), Green disposal (Recycling unwanted electronic equipment), Green Design (Design energy efficient digital devices), Green manufacturing (Minimize waste during the manufacturing of computers)

Green computing relates to my life because I am very interested in saving the environment and recycling. Normally, I recycle materials such as paper, plastic, cardboard, and more. I also try to save the energy by turning off the computer when I'm not using it, or trying to save my laptop battery. After I learned about green computing, and after I read about the interesting statistic from Schneider, I decided to be informed about the topic and look for more solutions for me to follow. I believe research of Green computing should be encouraged, because it is a very important area of study, and a lot of people are unaware about the enormous environmental impacts they bring to the world by using computers.

The question I still have is Why is green computing controversial? Even though Green computing is very useful and important, because it reduces negative environmental impacts, I read that this topic is also very controversial, but I don't know why. 

Design Project day 5

   Our goals for the arcade game was building up tension, challenge, competition and rivalry with a catchy design and put a lot of different holes. Our first goal was achieved because our game was very challenging and it created tension for the students. However, we failed to achieve the other two goals because we were short of time. We weren't able to decorate the arcade with an eyecatching design. We weren't able to put a lot of holes because if we did it, we had to make 5 or more layers and we were short of time. It would have been more fun if we had more holes, but at the end, we just made one hole.
The biggest problem we encountered was finding duct tape to make a sturdier structure. In order to build a strong structure, we had to find strong tape because in our prototype model arcade, we failed building a strong arcade because the weak tape did not support the structure. We first went to the middle school arts room and the high school arts room, but they didn't have the tape. We finally found tape in an art supplies managing room.
Our biggest "AH HA" idea was building a strong ramp that would make the ball roll smoothly. We managed to solve a good slope for the ramp and find good tape to make the ramp. The ball didn't move too fast or too slow, it was just right.
 Rachel resisted our new ideas the most, especially when we were building the hole. Callie and I agreed on making the hole with the radius of 6cms(?) but Rachel insisted on making it bigger. Eventually Rachel agreed with our idea after a vote, but when we actually played the game we regretted the fact that our hole had to be bigger. In conclusion, even though Rachel did not agree with some ideas, her thoughts were right and we would like to apologize (LOL).
The doubts we had during the project was how to make sturdier legs to support the weight of the arcade. After we made the prototype, we decided to use Pringle cans for the legs, which were thick and strong. However, we forgot to bring the materials for the build-the-arcade-day (Callie, eh-hem) so we could not use Pringle cans for the legs. We had to use books from the primary school classroom because we were not able to build the legs. Even though our legs were not expectantly awesome, the books in the classroom made pretty good legs. The stack of books supported the weight, and it didn't make the arcade fall off, and it supported the ramp, too.
The person who played "devil's advocate" was (and we ALL agreed) me, because I kept having doubts whether this idea would work out or not, and even though I believed in my team mates, I suggested on other ideas, like making prizes or making a catchy design and making more holes even though we were short of time. It helped the process because we were thinking while we were building: what would be a better solution? If we put this tape, would there be a stronger structure? Will it attract more kids if we had a better design? Even though they didn't agree with my ideas (we were short of time) we thought more on how to make a better arcade.
I learned that teamwork is extremely important because it is very hard to build this arcade individually. Rachel and Callie had to leave me for 5 minutes to get some materials, and I was left alone. I tried to build some legs and cut some cardboard, but it turned out very hard to think if it would work out. I needed other people's opinions and advice when I was actually building the arcade, but without their help, it turned out worse than building it altogether. Also, building it with all three people would save up more time on building the arcade. If I built it on my own, it would have take more that 3 hours. Also, since everybody has their strong advantage, for example, Callie is good at making and building the structure, and making the arcade stronger, and Rachel is good at decorating and making the arcade prettier, and she was also good at thinking in other people's perspectives. Rachel stood in the perspective of primary school children and thought of the difficulty and the size. I was good at making ideas on how to build the structure. I kept suggesting ideas on how to make the game more fun, and I hoped my contribution helped to make a better product. While I was making the product, I could discover my advantage and what I am strong at. I really liked my group because all three people did the same amount of work, without any major conflicts. No one rested and was lazy while the others were working-we all contributed and helped each other to make a good arcade. I learned that every product, even though it is very popular, has disadvantages that could be fixed. Even though you have a perfect, popular product you should stand on other people's perspectives and put yourself on their shoes. You have to think about the children, the elderly, the businessmen, the students and more to make a successful product. You should always make improvements and come up with new ideas that would make the product better.

Journal of 27th of February

Monday, 25th of February
Today was the first day to go and do community service for mentally disabled kids. The name of the service was called "Best Buddies," and first we were assigned to go to an office and help administrative work.The 10 of us were assigned into 4 groups. 1group had to organize files and binders by date, the other group had to organize a closet, the other had to edit data and information by computers, and the other group planned the activities which we would be doing for the next four days. I thought I had to take care of the kids and teach them English and do fun activities with them, but it turned out we had to do office work and organize documents. Honestly, the job was very boring and it was inappropriate to organize confidential and private documents that only the people working at the office could see. I wanted to do something that would help the community and take care of the people who really needed our help. After we got back from the office, we began preparing activities for the disabled kids tomorrow. We wanted to go and take care of the kids tomorrow instead of going to the office.

Tuesday, 26th of February
Today we were expecting to go Fundacion Cepytin and go visit the mentally disabled kids, but we couldn't. As soon as I arrived the school, Ms Shawn told us the office didn't approve our trip to the foundation so we had to divide ourselves into two groups, and one group had to go to the office and do the office work, while the other groups had to prepare the activities, such as making the lacing cards, cutting the vocabulary flash cards with cardboard, and coloring the flash cards and figuring a way how to explain the vocabulary to the kids more easier. The other group went to do the office work and file the data or organize the closet. It turned out to be a disappointing day, because I was looking very forward to meeting the children. I hope we could go to the foundation tomorrow.

Wednesday, 27th of February
Today we visited Fundacion Cepytin and met people who had mental problems.
There were 50 kids, who wore uniforms and got trained at the building.
First, the director of the foundation gave us a tour around the building and met the kids, then we all sat in a circle and introduced ourselves to others.Then, we divided in three sections: the singing group, the food group, and the body group. Maria and I were in charge of teaching the body parts in English, which turned out to be pretty difficult for them. It was very hard for them to learn a second language because it was hard for some of them to even speak their maternal language.
Honestly, I was nervous and worried during the bus ride because I haven't spoken to lots of mentally disabled people before, and I thought it would be hard for me to talk to them and explain the words because I am not a native Spanish speaker, and interacting with them requires a lot of patience. But after talking with them for a while, I began to understand them and feel close to them. They were very nice to me and they were interested in my school, my country, and my friends. I answered their questions one by one and told them more about Korea. We ate our snacks together and I felt very good and proud of myself because I could help people who has a hard time normally and they appreciated my help and attention. Although they are different and needs extra help from others, they all have special dreams and they wish they could be normal more than anything else. I was very touched when they told us "Thank you for accepting us the way we were born and thank you for making us laugh again."

Thursday, 28th of February
  Today, we went to the foundation again and said hi to the kids who we met yesterday. They were very happy to see us and welcomed us with a warm smile. The 8 volunteers divided ourselves into three groups again. One group brought flashcards of the alphabet in English. The other group brought flashcards and helped kids learn the colors in English. The other group brought flashcards of words describing food. I taught the kids how to say the colors in English with Natalia and Valentina. Each group rotated after 20 minutes to a different station. We showed them each card and explained the words to them, then we told them a color and they gave us an object with the color we said. For example, if we said blue, they would say sky, and if we said red, they would say apple. It was very hard for them to say the world purple. After that, we went outside to eat our snacks in the grass in a circle. We brought chips and juice for them, and they enjoyed their snack very much. After that, we played a game (pasa la pelota), where we passed the ball and if somebody says stop, the person with the ball had to say a word which they learned in English. After that, we would sing songs. I felt more closer to these kids and the more time I spent with them, I felt more devoted towards them.

Friday, 1st of March
Today I was very excited when we left for the foundation. I was also very disappointed when I realized today was the last day to see these kids because even though I have met them for a short time, I felt that I could understand them and I had a desire to get to know them more. Today was a creative day, so one group would fold paper airplanes and held a competition of who would throw the airplanes further, the other group would draw their favorite things with markers in colored paper, while the other group played with Plasticine. I taught kids how to fold airplanes with Maria and Juanita. Honestly, I had to learn how to fold airplanes from Maria with the kids because I forgot the steps of how to fold a paper airplane. While I was folding my airplane, I helped the kids fold their airplane. Then, after 15 minutes, we would held a competition of who would throw their airplanes the further. I was very bad at folding the airplane, so mine didn't go very far. Surprisingly, some kids' airplanes went very far, further than ours. We would congratulate them and they would smile and be proud of themselves. After that, we would eat a snack and Ms Zaidman read a very inspiring book. It was called "It's Okay to be different." The title itself was very inspiring because all the kids here were different and treated differently from other people. Usually they were very sad to be treated differently and be ignored by the majority. The book said that "it's okay to have different color, it's okay to need help, it's okay to be embarrassed, it's okay to be short or extra large because everybody is special, different, and unique in their own way." The kids liked the book a lot because it was describing their situations, and they were feeling confident and proud of themselves.

Design Project-Day 3

The descriptions for a successful game I listed are matching my game.
The storyline and the theme of the game are not clear. Our game needs a purpose and more decorations and have a strong theme. The skeeball arcade does build up tension and makes the players become concentrated and focused. It does not have a catchy design on the model, we will put decorations and make the model prettier for the future. We are planning to make interesting results like prizes for the primary students to keep them motivated. For example, if a player gets 10 points, which is the highest score, they can receive lollipop or a chocolate bar. The powerful ideas we have for our arcade is the simplicity of the game and we want to keep continuing the idea, so that primary students wouldn't get complicated. We also accurately measured the skeeball arcade so that it would be comfortable for students to play. 45 cms width, and 1 m length.
We have to make sturdier legs so that it would stand by itself for a long time. We also need  a catchier design so that it would catch the players' eyes.
Steps of design
1. Gather materials (cardboard, stronger scissors, glue gun, packaging tape, posters, markers, rubber ball)
2. Build four strong legs with four pringle cans wrapped out of cardboard.
3.Decorate the legs
4.Build the body of the skeeball machine with two layers of cardboard, 45 cms thick and 1 m long.
Add strips for the ball slot.
5. Stick the legs with the glue gun to the body.
6. Add a small hole to throw the ball.

Design Project-Day 1

Rachel Coombs, Callie Campbell, Sarah Kim
1. Primary girls and boys
2. Medium
What makes a game fun or successful?

• storyline and theme of game
• build up tension, competition and rivalry
• catchy design
• interesting results (prizes)
• Interesting Place (Adventurous place, Fantasy etc)

Research Phase

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd7x-F5irBY&list=UU1aMZ56rL_429UP02uoNsCg&index=3

I liked the game because people get concentrated and motivated to grab and jump the tickets. If kids got a few tickets, they would want to play the game again. What I didn't like the game is that the box is too small and high for little kids to jump and grab the tickets. If the box was bigger, kids would be able to run and jump around with more space. The game would be more fun if kids were able to move around more freely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cEWELoxEsY&list=UU1aMZ56rL_429UP02uoNsCg

The level of this game is pretty difficult so it would build up tension and motivation for kids. The design is pretty cool and it attracts kids to play with it. You can control the difficulty by changing the mazes.

What I didn't like about the game is that  it would be pretty heavy for little kids to move the handlers to make the ball move. It requires too much force in your hands, it would be hard for young boys to play this game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYRZcWa0zJI
The game's rules are very simple and it is easy to play the game. It is designed for younger kids and they would enjoy it in an easy level. But the design is not good, and the structure of the arcade isn't stable. If the game was more eyecatching, the arcade would have attracted more customers.

Brainstorming Ideas
2. Our group thought of skeeball and air hockey.We decided to make an arcade for skeeball because it is easier to construct and the rules are very simple. We decided to design the arcade with colorful, eyecatching colors so that it would attract more primary students. The size of the ball should be half the size of a small dodgeball. We have to experiment the arcade on different primary students to decide the difficulty of the arcade.
3. This game would be fun because the rules are simple, but at the same time it causes tension and makes the children concentrate on the game. It also involves action and movement with your arms, and primary kids usually like energetic games. The game's design would be catchy.
4. It would be hard to construct the ramp and make the ball easier to roll over. We would have to chose the right, sturdy materials to make it work. We would have to choose the right height and width to make the arcade work. We have to measure the most comfortable height and area for primary students.

Final Presentation

http://prezi.com/oz0cgprsv7bp/google-20-project-final-presentation/