Cycle 24: Sustainablity Fair

On Friday our school held a sustainability fair. The purpose of this fair was to educate the students, as well as faculty, about our environment. Not only was this fair open to our school, but to the public as well. Taking a break from English, our class decided to explore this fair and discover what it was all about. In this fair there were many booths, presentations, and games which we could earn from. Some of the demonstrations that caught my eye were fuel cells, how worms help our environment, and how our school is trying to sustain a more environmentally friendly campus.

When living in such a demanding world, pollution and waste rates rise. When walking around the sustainability fair I learned of a partial solution for this problem, and that is the use of fuel cells. Fuel cells are an electrochemical energy conversion device. Fuel cells produce energy that does not cause pollution. Fuel cells are sometimes called batteries because they provide energy. But in fact fuel cells are not batteries because they are not discarded after use, rather fuel cells use external sources such as fuel to produce more energy. The positive impacts fuel cells have on our environment is that they do not pollute, they are much quieter, and a lot more durable. In California, so buses run off of fuel cells. These buses are much more environmentally friendly.

I think worms are dirty, slimy, and gross. But after yesterday, I learned they can be very useful to our planet. Worms are useful because they eat our garbage. With worms, water wasting disposals could be eliminated. At this demonstration I learned 25% - 40% of household waste is worm friendly. But, not every type of worm can dispose of our household trash, only Indian Blue worms get the job done. These worms are also photophobic, which means they are afraid of the light, so just because you do not see them does not mean they are not there.

Because our school is so big, it uses many resources each day. At the sustainability fair I discovered ways ours school tries to cut back and limit the uses of our planet’s resources. Water, energy, and electricity are the major resources our school uses daily. To limit the amount of resources we use we try to find more environmentally friendly solutions to get the same results. Instead of using fresh water to water our plants and grass, our school uses the water from our lily pond. Also, plants and grass are watered at night to prevent evaporation and waste of our water usage. On campus, our newer built buildings have the technology to turn off the lights and air conditioning automatically while no one is in the room. This saves much electricity and energy. To heat our water, in our locker rooms for example, our school depends on solar water heating, saving a lot of energy and cost. With solar water heating our bill goes from $7000 a month to $1500 a month.

Attending this sustainability fair has opened my eyes to how many resources humans use. Although it would be hard to just stop using these resources it was great to learn how save and preserve as much as we can.

Here are some links to find out more about sustainablity:
http://www.epa.vic.gov.au/ecologicalfootprint/calculators/default.asp
http://daversitycode.com/
http://rainforestsite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=4
http://climatecrisis.org/

Cycle 22: Character Analyst - A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe

A role I chose to be this cycle was the character analyst. The character analyst's job is to acknowledge what is figured out about the character's in this section. The section our class was assigned to read was A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe, the last section of The Woman Warrior.

After reading A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe I realized the character that is most mentioned is Maxine. During this section the reader learns about Maxine during the time that she goes to school. As a reader you learn Maxine was a shy girl, as were all the your Chinese girls, when she first started going to school. So shy in fact that her teachers thought she had a IQ of zero and they made Maxine repeat kindergarten. But as this section unfolds it shows how Maxine evolved into a talkative, over-powering, smart young adult. After reading the part of this section when Maxine is going through school, I picture Maxine to be a bully.

"If you're not stupid," I said to the quiet girl, "what's your name?" She shook her head, and some hair caught in the tears; wet black hair stuck to the side of the pink and white face. I reached up (she was taller than I) and took a strand of hair. I pulled it. "Well, then, let's honk your hair," I said. "Honk. Honk." Then I pulled the other side -"ho-o-n-nk"-a long pull; "ho-o-n-n-nk-a longer pull. I could see her little white ears, like white cutworms curled underneath her hair. "Talk!" I yelled into her cutworm. (177)

Although Maxine might have had the intentions of helping this girl, it did not come off that way. It suprised me that Maxine acted in such a manner. After reading this section I learned that Maxine can be tough, but still trying to be helpful at the same time.