SON GCE Portfolio

We started from the bottom of the ocean, and now ended up high in the sky with the stars. Frontiers was different from my other STEAM classes. It was almost like a Humanities class, but for science. Most of our action projects were about the science-related grand challenges we meet today, and how they can be surpassed. It reminded me of my first STEAM class at GCE, Water, which is quite funny given this is my last STEAM class at GCE. I was given the choice of another grand challenge to cover in this action project. The grand challenge I chose was space way stations. They are like gas stations for spacecrafts. I had to present it all on one digital poster I made myself. The purpose of this poster is to talk about what we need to accomplish this big project, and the obstacles we will face along the way. Works Cited Chu, Jennifer. “Galactic Gas Stations.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 5 Mar. 2014, news.mit.edu/2014/galactic-gas-stations-0305. Smitherman, David, and Gor...

We all have things we want to do in life. We plan for the future so it can go our way. Even if we do that, things can still turn out totally different from what we were expecting for the better or worse. This is life's specialty after all. It constantly throws surprises at you, even if you don't realize it. It is actually one of my top reasons to why it is worth living. In the case that you were hit by a bad surprise, it is always good to have a backup plan. A guide of some sort can really help you get back on your feet in the most troubling times. My mission is to become a game designer and bring my stories to life. This survival manual I titled "Creative Tactics" is here to always drive me in the right direction no matter the roadblocks I come across on my way to complete my mission. The Purpose The purpose of this guide is to drive me in the right direction, even if I ever come across a worst case scenario. The contents of this guide will not work for anyone who is...

The research I have done for this literature review all had one thing in common, which are the things  we can do to save the planet. However, these are not like the more simple ideas you are normally suggested, like solar panels and planting more trees. These are unique and intuitive ideas we can use to start tackling these planet related issues from a new perspective. Delivering ecosystem services primarily means creating large scale methods or changes for the Earth’s benefit. This can be done in many ways in which people are currently working on. Simple examples of this action include planting more trees, or creating an eco-friendly version of a product that can be used instead of the original one. Though that does not even scratch the surface of what we can do to deliver ecosystem services. This literature review can show you more of the potential lying within. The Ocean The ocean is the largest ecosystem on the planet. It provides us with way more than just a massive amount of ...

Endurance is all about the time you have to adapt and overcome something. For some people that time lasted days, weeks, months, and years. The situation also varies over a very wide scale. One person had his arm caught under a rock for over five days. Elie Wiesel spent a year in a concentration camp during World War II. The situation I was put in lasted for one week. I was assigned to do something of my choosing for 12 hours. The amount of time I spent doing what I chose each day could have been split up in any way, as long as I eventually got those 12 hours. This project was made to prepare us for what we will encounter on the road ahead, like the previous action project. However, what makes this action project different from the previous one is our passion is the main focus this time. The activity I chose was drawing. Since I love drawing, and I already spend a lot of my time each day doing it, I was really excited for this project. My mission for this project was expanding my capabi...

We all have a point in our lives where everything is just tough. Whether you are waiting in line at the DMV outside in the cold for four hours, or are mourning the death of a loved one, there is always a point where you have to get through a not-so-good period of time. My Humanities class, "Endurance", is about preparing us for the absolute worse. As I soon go off to college, there will no doubt be challenges waiting for me when I get there. Before then, this is a story of what I already endured to get here, what I already accomplished, what I plan to accomplish, what made it hard for me to accomplish something, and how I grew over the years up until now. I was a big fan of anime and video games. I always asked myself, “how I can make one of those?” You have to have the right tools, knowledge, and sometimes enough money to do so. That is why I chose to pursue making it my career. It was like a blind passion. At first, all I wanted to do was create something epic. My ideas sti...

Summary: Happy Organizer is a sole proprietorship website-based business. Its mission is to provide those who run businesses with an effective, easy-to-use piece of software that allows them to create organization charts for their employees to streamline work and the chain of command. An org chart is a map that shows the roles and hierarchy of all the employees in a business. The org charts can be shared digitally and physically among those within the business. Happy Organizer consists of the owner, accountants, software developers, and customer service representatives. In every business, employees have various job titles and descriptions. Happy Organizer solves the confusing issue of not knowing exactly who an employee is meant to turn to for specific questions and tasks. It streamlines a company’s chain of command, increasing efficiency and productivity. Ultimately, over time, a reliable org chart can save countless work hours and valuable company resources. There are three things Ha...

Our Humanity class, Equality, took us through each part that goes into equality. These parts include race, sex, and class. As we were doing so, we talked about many things that hold us back from ending inequality. For this final action project, we had to choose one of those things and how it would be resolved 100 years into the future. The whole premise is we make a news paper or article that talks about this issue being resolved, print it out, and put it into a time capsule to be discovered in 2119. Each of these news papers and articles consist of a captivating headliner that gets straight to the point, an issue we face today that has been resolved, an amendment/law/policy that solved the issue, a toy idea related to the topic, and an op-ed spoken in first person by someone from a group of people that were heavily affected by the issue. The issue I chose was voter suppression, and will show you what the law I made does to stop it.

We live in a very unequal word right now, among race, sex, ethnicity, religion, and cultural origin. This inequality comes from varying practices, some of which one can be punished for getting caught doing so, like discrimination. The definition of inequality is to treat others differently based on parts of who they are. It is not something that is just there. It was made by people, some of which who still fight for it to this day. The attack on the capitol on January 6, 2021, is a perfect example of those people who fight for a lifestyle that we all should oppose. I was given the assignment to chose a historical event people who are still alive were around for. Some examples would be 911, the approval of gay marriage, and Obama winning the presidential election. So, I chose the recent attack on the capitol and worked to summarize it, share information surrounding it, and more in the form of a textbook. Enjoy!  

Introduction: Entrepreneurship is to work towards improving something, often in business. For this action project, I will be addressing a chosen aspect of the school and how to improve upon it. In this unit, I have learned much about entrepreneurship, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, SWOT, SMART goals, and improvement plans. In addition, I spoke to some cool people, like Maren from Escape Artistry, about starting and running a business. Throughout this first unit of Social Entrepreneurship, I slowly formed an interest in the subject and how it works. Now, I guess you could say I am doing a bit of entrepreneuring in this action project, myself. My chosen aspect of the school I would like to improve upon is creativity. Introducing Creativity: Creativity can be split up into multiple subjects. It can be artistic ability, strategic planning, clever problem solving, in depth writing, idea making, etc. It is found within each of us in different forms. No matter what, it always comes down to the ...

My goal for this story is to teach the audience the importance of not abusing your power. Puppet shows are great for teaching young children life lessons, so making the backgrounds all colorful, setting the story in a fantasy setting, and giving the main character a very specific voice is what makes this show reminiscent of the ones shown to preschoolers. The purpose this serves is to make this show mean it is for teaching something. My inspiration for the methods I used to bring the Foolish Knight to life mainly came from the puppet breathing and expression techniques I learned in class from a puppeteer from Rough House Theatre. Making my hand puppet move at all times, even if it is with very small movements such as breathing, makes a big difference compared to just putting it on my hand and keeping it still until it needs to do something, like walk. I chose the story to take place in a medieval kingdom because it was not uncommon at the time to see knights abusing their power over th...

Economics is the production, distribution, and consumption of resources between multiple groups of people. It studies how people interact with goods and services. Not only does it study people, but it focuses on the behavior of businesses, governments, and even nations. The book  Doughnut Economics , by Kate Raworth, was at the center of our Econ: Risking Value course. In the book, Kate Raworth shares her views on the world of economics and how it can be improved. She maps her ideas in a diagram shaped like a donut. These ideas relate to how economics can be used to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. The main cause of our financial problems derive from choosing economic growth over everything else. For this action project, I share my economic principle that would help solve current and important issues impacting our world today, such as climate change.  I hope you enjoy! ____ My economic principle is modeled after William Nordhaus' "spaceship ...

Welcome to my final AP for Computer Science. For this action project, I had to make a chatbot. A chatbot is a bot that has responses that it says based on what you say. To build this chatbot, I had to use the power of "if" statements, which we were taught in class. "If" statements are a type of code that can have things run under certain conditions. The chatbot I made is called Henry. The story is that his only purpose is to make people feel less lonely when they talk to him. However, Henry is actually more intelligent than you think he is and has an evil plan up his sleeve. I hope you enjoy! I had a lot of fun making this chatbot. As you might have seen though, at the end of the script where it takes all of your answers to determine the ending you get, only the first two work. I tried many things to fix it, but it the rest still won't work for some reason. I was running out of time, so I painfully decided to leave it there. However, it did fulfil a lot of the r...

We all think about it. We all hope we get the answer right. Searching for the meaning of life isn’t easy. Answers vary from person to person. Whether they be simple or complicated, each of these meanings are unique and valid. In this unit of Journalism, we delved into the world of photojournalism. Photojournalism is a form of storytelling using photography. Photojournalists use their cameras to capture the essence of a story. Photojournalism allows you to see, rather than imagine, what is being reported. It brings you into the center of the action, space, or emotion. You might not have noticed, but pictures are a big deal. You see them in articles, newspapers, and television programs. Cherished memories pop up on our home screens. Instagram revolves around visual images that draw us into people’s worlds. Pictures are everywhere and each one tells a story. Normally, at least for me, I click on articles with engaging cover photos. They make me want to know more. Now, imagine a news artic...

I am a high school senior applying to college. Initially, it was overwhelming and stressful. I assumed every college required ACT or SAT test scores. I assumed I would need a big resume of summer jobs and internships. I assumed it would be impossible to get into a school that I love, and have to settle for any place that would take me. Eric Davis helped me through the process of college research and application over the summer. He made me realize that all of my assumptions were wrong. He told me not to worry and said, “There is a school for everyone, Simas.” My dream is to attend a school with a nationally ranked Game Design or Animation program. At first, my parents were encouraging me to look into Product Design or Industrial Design schools. Their rationale was that it would incorporate my love of creating/drawing with my love of science/problem-solving. Seemed like a good idea... but I never really got excited about it. During the pandemic, I have spent a lot of time playing video g...

Welcome to my first Computer Science action project. So far, this class has been really fun. I already learned a bit of coding languages for Python, got to make some cool code-based stuff, and know what I am doing most of all. I always tried getting into coding and never really understood what I had to do, but this class helped me with that. I only know the basics so far, like printing, variables, calculations, and more. However, with my knowledge of these things, I can still make some pretty cool stuff. My teacher for this class provided me and my classmates with some tools to try out our skills in making something the user can interact with. These tools are called codeskulptor and trinket.io. Basically, what you do with them is type in some Python code, and they will have an interactable screen which displays what you made with your code. Using trinket.io, I made a few things you can try out  for yourself down below. I hope you enjoy! First off, we have the compounding interest c...

For the first Action Project in this term's Humanities class, Journalism, I was assigned to report on a presently occurring event. Using what we have already learned in class, we were to apply those techniques to a more in-depth report. Some of the techniques include how to properly get information from a story, the interview process, and knowing the 5 core values of journalism. For this AP, I chose to write about the overnight popularity of online services that have helped us navigate the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. From food delivery to streaming services to video conferencing, online services have kept us safe, as well as sane. Where would we be without these technological advancements during a time like this? I hope you enjoy! -- For many people, if not most, the year 2020 has been the worst year on record. In March, COVID-19 forced all of us inside and unable to attend concerts, restaurants, museums, or the movies. The live entertainment, restaurant, and hospitality industries ...