Students from various grades have enjoyed some of the fun games the hub has to offer with their English classes. The games ranged from the iconic Monopoly, to the new smash-hit board game Settlers of Catan, to “Salad Bowl”–a fast-paced combination of Catchphrase and Charades. These games provide a great chance for practicing vocabulary and speaking skills, and are also a ton of fun!
10th graders in Mr. Garfield’s class spend some time reflecting on the way advertising affects people in society, especially women. They also watched some interesting videos from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty (here and here).
Here are some of the students’ insightful reflections:
How many times have you done something that might make you thinner? Have you ever stopped eating despite you’re starving?
Nowadays there are pictures of female bodies in the TV, magazines, internet, social networks, almost everywhere, which sell different products. The actresses are becoming younger, taller, and thinner. Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women? Because the majority of women magazines have at least one article promoting weight loss, diet, excercise or cosmetic surgery in it’s cover, and this is all based in the economy. This articles just promote more insecurities about your bodies and encourage girls like you to loose weight, even if you don’t need to. This in linked to unhealthy eating habits, depression and loss of self-esteem. Stop comparing yourself with the rest of women!! You will never look like the girl in the magazine. The girl in the magazine doesn’t even look like the girl in the magazine.
-Bárbara Allué, Camila Fuchs, Francisca Marcos, and Magdalena Peñaloza
Continue reading Media, Marketing, and Advertising in Society
by Diego Ross (9th grade)
A dragonfly has 30,000 lenses in its eyes, assisting them with motion detection and making them very difficult for predators to kill.
Owls are the only bird which can see the color blue.
The human eye can see 500 shades of grey.
Our eyes are made up of over 200 million working parts.
If you want to SEE more information, please go here: http://www.lenstore.co.uk/blog/101-amazing-eye-facts
by Augusto Llull (9th grade)
A 28 year old Japanese man was send to prison with a term of two years, for making two pistols at home with a three-dimensional printer.
After his arrest Yoshitomo Imura admitted the facts, and said he knew his actions were illegal.
Shortly before his arrest, Imura posted online a video showing the weapons he created with his 3D printer, which quickly alerted the police.
3D printers create objects made of plastic or other materials with data provided by a computer.
In Japan, models for the general public are sold from about $ 575.
by Valentina Ibañez (9th grade)
Lots of companies around the world have been making various tries to get the shot that would save the world from the epidemic that has been spreading worldwide recently and has every country worried; Ebola. By 2015, if all tests turn out right, the companies promised to have thousands of shots against the epidemic.
Meanwhile, the European Union said they would contribute up to 1.200 million dollars to fight Ebola.
Cases have been growing all over the world, with thousands of deaths, so the fact that a shot is coming makes people everywhere slightly relieved.
These penguins seem just like impatient humans in this hilarious video… enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFAK8Vj62WM
A young man in London named James Heptonstall recorded his attempt to race the subway, which Londoners call the “Tube.” How do you race a subway? He started inside the train, and ran out the moment the doors opened to begin running up the stairs, out of the station, and to the next subway station 380 meters away. The goal was to reach the next station in time to board the same train.
In order to record his attempt, he had a go-pro camera on his head, and left a friend with a video camera on the train to prove he made it onto the same train. In addition to feeling very fast, he can also be proud that his video also went viral, and has over 5 million views!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH_Z8Ghuq6E
Read more about his attempt here. The BBC has a cool report about how the video went viral, and copycats tried the same stunt in over 20 cities. What do you think? Would you try this?
Mr. VanderZee took Ms. Pilar’s 5th grade boys to the athletic fields to teach them a very popular American sport: Ultimate Frisbee. Everyone had a ton of fun, and learned to use English words as they played the game, like “here!” “throw” “foul” etc. The boys did a great job understanding the rules (even though it was completely explained in English), playing the sport, and remembering to communicate with their teammates in English.
Check out the photos below!
Some high school and middle school students recently visited the hub to select some of their favorite American music and try and transcribe the lyrics. Their choices ranged from fairly easy (Avicii “Hey Brother”) to very difficult (“Monster” by Rihanna and Eminem). Few students did a perfect job, but they were excited to pick up the words they had missed after checking the lyrics online, and learned new vocabulary to understand the songs better. Maybe in the near future, some of the students can perform in a Karaoke competition!
That’s the question some musicians in New Orleans wanted to answer, and they built a synthesizer to turn weather data (temperature, wind, rainfall, sunrise and sunset, etc.) into sounds. They were inspired by the fact that many blind people are unable to establish sleep patterns because they do not perceive the changes of sunrise and sunset.
Would you listen to this background noise to find out what the weather is like? Or use it to wake up or go to bed if you were blind? In any case, it is a very interesting project that brings together art, music, and technology.
Listen to the live sounds of “Weather Warlock” at the website: http://weatherfortheblind.org/
