Muckraking Presentations Friday

One of the presentations of the day was about the California drought. The talked about how the drought causes agricultural hardships, economic challenges, and environmental decay. If people do not start addressing this problem, they will only become worse. Then the talked about things that one could do in order to conserve water and help the drought effort. People can spend less time in the shower, turn off the faucet when they aren't using it, and fixing leaks. Other solutions could also be not watering plants as much or becoming a vegetarian.
Another presentation was about the rent control issues in Mountain View. The rent rising makes living in Mountain View difficult for a lot of people. The group said that this is bad because it decreases the amount of diversity in the Bay Area and causes people to have to leave there homes where the have made many memories. They interviewed someone who had a position in Mountain View City Council. The council member said that they were working improve the rent control issue, however, no changes will be made until 2016.

Wednesday's Presentations

The first group on Wednesday gave a presentation on on children and their schools. The basis of their project was based on the unfairness and inequality of opportunity in the school system of The The net San Francisco and the Bay Area. A major issue in causing this problem is the differences of wealth in different areas. The areas in which some people are more wealthy tend to be areas were the schools are better. This could be due to donations from parents and the government rewarding schools with funds based on attendance rates. In wealthier areas, parents have more money that they are able to donate to school, making the schools education system better then others.The inability for certain schools to get funding causes the schools to continue to face problems and now get any better. On top of this the state of California recently cut government funding to California schools. Historically, there hasn't been an attempt to change the amounts of funding on the grand scale. Mark Zuckerberg, however, recently donated a grant of 120 million to help fun Bay Area Schools. While this donation is helpful, it will not help this problem long term. The group proposed a possible solution to this issue. By bringing this issue to light, calling for change, and changing the laws they believe that we can create a more fair public school system.
The next group talked about the environment and the effects of trash on the road to our community. Trans can cause unsanitary and messy environments, as well as hurt animals.  The group proposed participating in roadside or other clean ups, cleaning up after oneself, paying people to clean, and donating to organizations to work on cleaning the Bay Area.
The next group gave a presentation on preschools in the Bay Area. The preschools and childcare in the Bay Area are very expensive for parents. On top of this, the Bay Area is already an expensive place to live so most people have to put there money into other things. The group interviewed many preschools not all of the offered financial aid. Those who did offered it on a "case by case basis" and did not have a clear way of addressing the problem. Historically, groups such has Head Start have been worked to give free or discounted childcare. The group proposed either opening up more institutions such as Head Start or making preschool part of the public school system.
The last groups topic was stress in teens. the explored the causes of teen stress and thought that a good solution would be finding ways to help teens at school.

Muckraking Project

Today in class we continued with the Muckraking presentations in class.

We started with Edgar's group, which went over how water is being wasted in California and how the problem is slowly getting worse over time. Their solutions included punishing people over their wasting of water and trying to prevent the slow decay of our water supply.

Next Gladys's group followed up with the issue of the high rents in the Mountain View/ Los Altos area. Their idea to solving the problem was to either create more affordable living spaces or to rent out apartments to multiple families, splitting the costs.

After them, Gerardo's group went up to discuss police brutality. Their main solution was to try and focus on the issue and try to prevent these issues from coming up again

Reviewing for the Finals

Reviewing for the finals is a good balance between studying and making sure you're keeping your brain healthy and functioning.

Studying would be:
Doing practice tests, correcting them, and doing them again.
Read over blog posts to get good summaries about what happened on certain days.
Recognizing the important things that happened during each time.

Preparing yourself in the following ways:
Get lots of sleep. Studying is useless if you don't remember information due to sleep deprivation.
Eat food. Hungry stomach would made you focus less.
Stretch and Exercise. Physical movement helps reduce stress :)

Muckraking Projects

I think that so far we have seen great projects form every group, showing different issues in our area that aren't often talked about. For instance, I never realized preschools were so competitive, and roughly as much if not more than many of the prestigious private high schools in our area. It was very interesting to see that some of these preschools would be like paying double the taxes people normally pay just to send their child to a care center. Zach, Patrick, and Luca also had a great project about public schools, and why the system for these public schools in our area also seems very flawed. They also had some great images that showed how the wealth was distributed in the bay area, and just how different somewhere like East Palo Alto is compared to Los Altos, even though they are only a 15 minute drive apart. These projects make me feel very grateful that I was able to go to preschool, and that we have so many resources and experienced teachers at Los Altos.

Reflection on the Semester

Awesome class this first part of the year, really learned to take unique information out of the videos and the discussions we had in class. I think the projects we did really had something to do with what we were learning in class as well as connecting to things in the real world. I believe that in this class were given the basic necessities to succeed and find our own interests within History.

First Semester Reflection

As we approach to the end of the 1st semester, I wanted to discuss how we all feel about the class. I for one enjoy US History a lot more than many of my other classes. One of the main reasons is that we watch documentaries as opposed to boring and tedious lectures. I'm sure we have all been in a history class at some point where the teacher would just read powerpoint slides for 45 minutes a day, and we just had to basically rewrite the entire slide. I think documentaries help keep my attention, and Mr. Stewart showing us small funny details about them prevents me from dozing off. I also enjoy the policy that work can still be turned in for full credit near the end of the quarter. This makes it much easier on students who are absent for a day of class.

funding in high schools

In one of the presentation they talked about schools being funded and that some school that kids go to in the more poor parts of the bay area don't really have much. Kids that come here to Los Altos are very grateful that were at a good, nice and wealthy high school, that we don't have to worry about the problems that some kids have to worry about in like San Jose or SF. Like having good teachers that have been there for a while , not being young teachers. Also those schools barely have any students show up because of family struggles and they have to work because they work pay check to pay check to help there family.

reflection on the semester

The semester was good in this class, a lot of work in this class. Coming into this class I thought I wouldn't get as much work to do as I have done already, but the work is more of projects that are just semester long like the position papers were easy just needed to get the question. Overall the class wasn't hard and it wasn't boring as most history classes , feel like the semester is going great and was great.

Muckraking Project Thoughts

The dilemmas presented during the duration of the presentations all had their own important key elements. The group that presented on the school funding's issue had an important idea to realize, which was that some of us are more privileged than others in this country. This is important because it attacks the idea that some things never change in history. Earlier in American History, we also had these problems were the richer would have more privileges than those who were poor. The group that presented on the costs of child care raised a very important question. How is it possible that pre-school is being turned into a business without no one doing anything about it? It's very important to know that such an issue is happening right under our noses. Perhaps one day, the pre-school organizations will turn into a monopoly and become the next Rockefeller (the dude that owned Standard Oil and become extremely rich).

Connecting Back To The End Of The Year

In the beginning of the year, a long time ago, we learned about how in the early American colonies, religion played a major role. These reflected mostly on the likes of Ann Hutchinson and Thomas "tank engine" Jefferson. Both of these individuals played a major role in the developing religious pursuit in early American History. Thomas believed that the restrictions at the time, the ones that were set by the supposed leaders of the colonies, were unjust and counter intuitive as to the reasoning behind leaving Europe and coming to the Americans in the first place. Because of this, Thomas felt entitled to go on the pursuit of making sure everyone had individual rights that couldn't be taken.

Ann Hutchinson's main struggle was fighting for the belief that we should all be able to practice our religion without the intrusion from the government and rather protect us in our pursuit. Obviously, this didn't flow well with the Puritans, which at the time were a dominant religion. The most important thing to remember from Ann is that she fought for the protective right of freedom of religion. 

Funding for Schools

Their should be no one with different levels of education in different schools. Not regarding privates or anything only public schools. If a student is having a lesser learning experience because of their school not receiving the money society is cheating themselves. Their could be this genius student that could have been the one to solve the cure for cancer or someone who make it possible for people to travel in space beyond the moon. This isn't the case since that student didn't have the teachers and learning given to him by his school. Other people could be the same at this very moment. They are not getting the education they need and deserve. The state or nation as a whole should do something in respect since like I said everyone needs to experience the same education as others no matter where they live.

Money and Preschools

Just thinking about how much parents have to pay for something were no one benefits from it is outraging. When a parent has to spend money for their child and pays a lot for it. The thing they pay for should live up to the price for it. In preschool I can understand that they don't listen to you since they are very curious, but the thing is the teachers you're paying should be able to teach them basic things like drawing and playing with their toys. If none of these things are done there is no point in paying for. Paying almost as much as a private high school is laughable at  since they are not even getting a proper education. Like the group said something should be done in respect to those parents who work and have to pay this amount even though they are not getting their money's worth.

Schools Funding

I completely understand why schools in higher income areas will receive more funding from the parents, but to those schools who have an excessive amount of money, they really should share some of it to the lower income schools, because children deserve to receive the same level of education. It's not fair that just because people live in a smaller area they don't get a good education. The government really needs to do something about it, because when children don't see a future in their education that's when they get into the bad things outside of school.

History is a Mystery

I will never understand the dynamics behind history. I understand why we have to learn it. I can comprehend that 100% but what I do not understand is who gets to choose the subject matter? Why do they choose that subject matter? Obviously they want to make themselves look good. And while this may seem simple, it really isn't when it comes to history because literally everyone, from every different culture, was an ass at one point in their assistance. So basically people try to extreme sugarcoat everything. And I just do not understand. If we are suppose to learn from our mistakes, why are we allowing things to be left out and altered? This just assures that history is doomed to repeat itself as we can not control our own ego long enough to truly educate those around us.

Questions I Ponder over about Women in Stem

Women, for a long time, were expected to simply sit at home, with no education, and take care of the children while attending to her husband's every desire. Now we live in such a prosperous place in which we have women astronauts, top scientists, engineers, and CEOs, and excelling at their jobs. Why would we want to compromise a movement of progress that has been developing for years, facing incredible hardship every step of the way? With women only occupying 24% of the overall jobs involving STEM, we are disabling and degrading a movement that worked so hard to achieve at least a 50 percentile. This number is an insult to all those women who put, not only their blood, sweat, and tears, to this effort but also the women who continually give their lives to this cause. 

Women are like men but Wo(ah) because they are discriminated against in stem

Throughout history women have always been considered inferior to their male counterparts. Many of the values that our country are founded on were created in the times when women were blatantly denied basic rights. As our country continues to develop all aspects of it's daily lives, trying to improve the quality of life for those who inhabit it. However, as we move further and further towards life-altering innovation, society always seems to exclude a huge majority of the country, women. While many leaders are always striving towards improvement and are determined to be relentless in their task, they become blind to the way that they are directly avoiding the protection of these liberties to women. Luckily with every challenge that is presented,  a strong-willed group of brave women are there to fight every step of the way.

Final Test Study Help

I am sure I am not the only one in this class with a very borderline grade that really wants to push it up to the next letter. I though I would make my final post for this semester something to help everyone out. As much as I would love to take my time to make you guys a study guide its just not happening. Very sorry, AP English calls. I will however give a little help on what I think will be the most significant parts of the test to prepare for.


1.  I think that the 1920's worksheet from the documentary we watched in class will be something to review heavily. We spent a long time on the topic and it covered a lot of info on the changes going on in America during the time period.

2. I also think that the Scopes trial will be a big deal since we spent like 3 days on it preparing and then simulating. I don't think we will have to know the insane details however I will be good to review it and its significance.

3. THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS CARTOON ACTIVITY!!! This one is huge because we all know how much Mr. Stewart loves his cartoons and how much he stresses about their importance. We even had a short response in class essay on these cartoons and their meaning so why wouldn't these be a big part of the test. I personally am going to spend some quality time reviewing these cartoons and the league of nations.

Also have a good understanding of the controversies around Article X of the League Covenant since it was a big source of disagreement and controversy. Know its significance and be able to compare it to modern day foreign policy.

God in America #4

In the later 1800's and early 1900's, the old ideas, beliefs, and practices of many religions were challenged by their followers. As consequence of new scientific discoveries, ideas set forth in the bible were found to be incorrect. Also, investigation into the biblical works found that there were errors in the bible itself. These notions set forth the idea that the old practices were wrong and that the faiths must be reformed to evolve with the changing world. This conflict of the religiously fundamentalist, who took the biblical scripts literally and believed god and the bible were completely correct, vs. the religiously liberal, who believed there were errors in the scriptures and the religion must be reformed to make sense, brought attention to the idea of whether or not laws should be made that are influenced by old religious principles, as seen in the Scopes vs. Tennessee case. This case was a major victory to the modernists and to democracy because although Scopes was found guilty, it showed the absurdity of following old practices and staying stubborn to the fundamentals of the bible which inhibited the ability of religious practices to interfere with American laws and interfere with democracy. This can be seen by the fact that, according to the documentary, by the late 1800's, 90% of synagogues had adopted the new reforms to their religion. This conflict also brought up the argument of whether or not someone could be religious and believe in science, since it appeared that the ideas in religion and scientific discoveries contradicted each other. This argument is still controversial to this day.

Reflection on the Semester

As I reflect on this semester I have come to realize that I appreciate U.S. history because it is interesting to see what historical events have caused some of the laws and methods of today's society. I did not think that I would be interested in U.S. history at the start of the year because European history was more my thing as I thoroughly enjoyed EHAP. However I was wrong and I have found that I enjoy the documentaries that we have watched about U.S. history. My favorite unit was the conspiracy theories unit because I though it was both a funny and educational way to start off the year. I also enjoyed the WWI unit and Civil War unit because I find war fascinating. I enjoy figuring out how the conflict was started to how it was ended and everything in between. I am looking forward to the second semester as I hope to learn more about the U.S.'s involvement in the Cold War and WWII. Since I learned all about the European nation's perspective of the two conflicts, I think it will be interesting to delve deeper into the perspective of the U.S.

Nations Simulation

In the nations simulation, the class was divided into 5 different groups. We weren't told it, but Group 1 was the UK, Group 2 was Germany, Group 3 was France, Group 4 was Russia, and Group 5 was Austria-Hungary. The goal of the simulation was to try to get security for our nation. I was in group 4. For us, the timeline of the simulation was that we started off realizing our only prospect was soldier generation, so we quickly sought to make a secret alliance with group 2 to try to have a strong ally. Having an alliance with just group 2 turned out to not be enough, as group 1 began to have a strong lead. Group 1 was getting too powerful and thus we made a treaty with every other group to try to make a coalition more powerful than them. We didn't have any real terms, just that we would oppose group 1 and not treaty with them. We then desired that we should all attack group 1 together and eliminate the problem, but group 5 didn't want to help us because they had made a secret agreement with group 1. We then decided we would all attack group 5 and eliminate them, and then all attack group 1 and have security. However declaring war ended the peace, so the simulation ended. The real purpose of the simulation was to learn hands-on what the struggles of maintaining peace were for the European nations before World War 1. Reasons included distrust of other nations, a need to increase arms to make sure your nation was caught up with the global arms race, and secret alliances. From my experience doing the colation, I also learned that it is difficult to make an organisation of nations. This is because the nations don't want to be told what to do, and there is no higher power/consequence for not following the rules of the organisation. This was shown by Group 5 not listening to the rule of not forming a treaty with group 1. Although it didn't apply in our simulation another motive for nations to not work together is economic competition. Overall all of these factors played roles in the growing tensions between the belligerent nations of world war 1, and they also proved themselves to be obstacles in the formation of the league of nations at the Versailles treaty. I also noticed that at the end of the simulation I found myself wishing we hadn't declared war because it ended the simulation, and I guess the leaders of the allies and central powers felt something like that when they learned the war was going to be longer and bloodier than they had anticipated.

School Money Inequality

         The presentation done by Zack, Patrick and Luca was very interesting to see. I knew that the money discrepancy was there, but I didn't know how much of an impact certain living areas had compared to others. The way that they presented their website and how they did their website made it very simply to access the information you were looking for and better yet made it clearer by saying it simply.

      They went in with their information, having great visuals and statistics that made it pleasing to look at and super informational. The interviews they did also strongly supported their cause and their viewpoints. Lastly, they also didn't simply give one solution towards their problem, they gave many ways to solve it and explains why it would be more effective than just simply throwing money at it.

 

How to study for the history final

In order to get a good grade on the final I will make sure to
- look over all the worksheets we have done so far
-make flahscards with the important vocab words
- look over the cartoon activity
- re read the chapters in the book
-Do the practice tests multiple times

I will also make sure not to stress myself out!

Muckraking Project Presentation

Today in class, we started presenting our Muckraking Projects. We had a total of four groups come up and all four groups did an amazing job in presenting their topic. One group did it about stress and they were able to interview doctors about it, they said that some were more helpful than others. Another group did it about pollution and they interview many association who are in charge of cleaning highways or are a part of a city's board. The last group besides us did it about Education, it was very similar to our project but the group focused on high school education and how the system is corrupted because some high schools can afford more things therefore the level of education is higher. I hope the projects will all be as good as the ones we saw today because they were all very interesting and fun to listen to!

Child Care In The Bay Area (Reflection)

This presentation really was interesting and informative. Since I never paid for my preschool out of pocket I never really noticed how much it actually was. They can go even higher than  High Schools. Yes i understand that Preschool is a shorter period of time than a High School is, but still it's ridiculous that those schools would charge so much just for small children around the ages of 2-3. I agreed with their claim that children should have a chance a good education without having to pay so much money. So I am for what they proposed and that it shouldn't be a battle of who has more money will get a better education, the system should be, everyone gets the same chance, and then what they chose to do with that chance is on them.

God In America Part 4

During this era of American history, religion served as an engine for democratic reform as it became the fuel for a radical fire. As conflict between science and religion became more significant people began furthering their critical questioning of religion and more specifically the bible. After the scopes trial people began to see that the bible was not a flawless document or a perfect written reference to the word of god. After this trial people began to question the word of the bible and they started looking for logical and proof backed justifications of what happened in the world around them. These same people began to turn to science for some of their answers as it contradicted the bible and gave logical and data proved justifications. People like Briggs helped begin to start questioning if it were necessary to believe everything said in the bible. He challenged the bible and questioned its ideals and statements. As people questioned religion they also began to challenge the legal system and the government. People began to challenge the judiciary system after the scopes religious related trail.

School Funding Presentation and others!

Yesterday, we commenced our dreaded muckraking project presentations. All in all, everyone was very confident talking in front of the class. Everyone seemed like that at least had an idea of what they were talking about, nobody came without something to share. My group started off and we talked about school funding in the bay area and how it was very different throughout the bay area. Our school uses Basic Aid to get extra money from property tax and large donators to stay afloat. Other schools however do not have these privileges. After we finished our presentation Mr. Stewart asked some good clarifying questions that really opened up a lot of questions and a good discussion started. He then proceeded to call the next group, and then rinse and repeat with every other group. Overall every group did a good job in getting their point across which was the overall goal of the assignment,

School Stress Muckraking Project

I just believe it's difficult to balance everything in life. In times like right now, the question is whether you want to get enough sleep or you want to get an A on the test. During Christmas, it probably won't be much of a break for us juniors as we have to diligently study for either the SAT or ACT. Yes I'm sure we'd love to go on these extensive vacations but our lives are ahead of us, and grades really matter now, they're going to essentially shape our future. It's sad that the difference between a 3.8 and a 4.0 GPA is so big and it makes so much of a difference to have the latter. Everyone's talking about what colleges they're planning to apply to and how they always need to be doing more in order to enhance their resume. It's difficult because this is our future, and we can't slack off even for a moment because that might be the difference from getting into a top college and a mediocre one.

1st semeter

Even though I didn't participate as much throughout this semester, I've learned a lot about the US History. One of the things I enjoyed the most was in the beginning of the year, the 9/11 conspiracy theories. Many things were believable and made a lot of sense but some were just hilarious and funny to think about. Another thing I really enjoyed was the simulations, it gave me a sense of how it things would be. The first simulation, I was an entrepreneur and had to deal with many people trying scam me so they can get a big profit. The second simulation, I was a witness and had to be an expert on Irreducible complexity. It was interesting and I learned many things because of other people being experts on other things.

Reflection of 1st Semester

Throughout the semester, we have learned a lot about US History and the interactions that the USA has had with other nations over the course of history. Some of the things that I enojoyed learning about the most were the conspiracy theories and World War I. The conspiracy theories were fun to learn about because some of them were just so ridiculous it was funny. I have always enjoyed learning about World War I because I like to understand the issues that caused the war and to see how the world has changed, or not changed, since the end of the war.

Muckraking Projects seen in Class

Yesterday, after watching my classmates speak about their muckraking projects and the issues they chose, I learned a lot. Specifically, the presentation I found very interesting was the presentation about teen stress and suicide. I really liked this presentation because I liked the interviews they had because they were from people who have very firsthand and traumatic experiences with suicide, whether it be from a child or a relative or a friend. I also liked many of the quotes they had on their website, specifically "Suicide doesn't relieve your pain, it gives it to someone else". That quote really stuck with me after class.

Highway Pollution

In my neighborhood, it is pretty clean and I appreciate the people who take the second out of their time to pick something up in the sidewalk, bushes and streets. I try my best to pick up trash if I see it where it isn't supposed to be. I believe that there are many people that don't care at all if they see trash in the street, sidewalk, or bushes. They would only care if there is trash on their property. Quoting Mr. Stewart, "If there is a couch in the middle of the street, people would be like, 'Oh who cares, that isn't my street.'" Things like this can prevent the plants from growing and can potentially kill animals, as the presenters said. A person can think that they're just throwing a little piece of trash, but if more and more people think like this, the trash can build up.

Garbage and dumbing involving highways.

My partners Jack, Lucas and I chose our muckraking project to be centered around the problem of dumbing on highways.  We chose to create a website as we saw a website being the most beneficial and effective way to get information to our projected audience.

We focused around effects including how dumping can effect plants, animals, as well as us humans.
We included a bunch of ways that individuals can contribute to helping diminish the problem.
Interviews my group conducted included highly educated individuals with the subject.  Members of Acterra, a group that organizes trash cleanups and other events, as well as a local, highly involved individual with the community.

We felt our presentation went smoothly and we can't wait to hear what other groups did their projects on.

A link to our website can be found HERE.

Scopes Simulaton

On this simulation, I was a witness and had to be and expert on Irreducible complexity. This basically means that human life, nature cannot be explained by evolution because of how complex it is and that there has to be someone with a higher power that created it, such as God. William Paley famously argued that complexity in nature implies a God for the same reason that the existence of a watch implies the existences of a watchmaker. So it is impossible for evolution to explain nature.

School stress Muckraking Project

I thought that this project was well done, and really struck home with me, and I think a lot of students in the class. This past week especially, school has been really stressful with a ton of projects coming to a deadline, and trying to make up all the missing work. People often say its only a grade, but these days school grades are impacting our lives more and more each year. Schools area being more competitive as the years go by, the difference between an A and a B is becoming more and more important. I would never go as far as to kill myself over it, and I hope none of the kids in this class would, so I don't really think the solutions applied to me. I'm not sure exactly what a solution could be to this, and if you wanted to just comment on this what your solution to stress is, that could be interesting and good comment points. I normally just end up stressing through my projects till their over, which is not an effective way to deal with the stress, but ya. I think this project was very relevant to my life, and I thought they did a good job. :)

Women in stem jobs

I feel like this topic is very interesting. This has been going on for many years, women getting treated unequally. One way is that they do not get paid as much as men do just because of their gender. Just for an example, in sports, men athletes get paid way more than women athletes. Like in soccer, both genders have the same profession and doing the same thing, but women get paid less. There is a variety of professions that do the same thing, not just in sports. This is really unfair and I think that not enough people are paying attention to this.

School Stress (reflection on presentation)

I do think that for some students, mental health issues are what drive them to hurt themselves (in small and large ways), but I don't think it's fair to say that all the kids who have committed suicide were driven to do so because of their mental illness. Academics and all the high expectations that come with it are part of the problem; they may not be the sole stressor in a student's life, but I think it's fair to say that for a lot of students, school is the biggest stressor. Part of this is not the administration's fault- naturally, we spend most of the hours of our day at school dealing with school-related things, so of course it is usually the major stressor. But more than that, it's the actual problems and pressure that students receive from teachers, parents, counselors, all relating to academics- that's the crux of the whole issue.

Muckraking Projects

For our Muckraking Project, we learned more about the affordability of preschools in the Bay Area. We emailed about 15 different preschools and got responses from 10 of them. It's obvious that private preschools are incredibly overpriced, especially when considering that annual tuition for some private high schools in the area is lower. It's ridiculous to think about, but it really is an issue that is impacting local families. Head Start programs and city preschools (i.e. Mountain View) are great solutions but should be implemented on a larger scale so that all families who can't afford private preschool are able to enroll their kids in pre-K classes. Chiara also suggested the solution of having public school districts provide preschool classes as well, like the City of Mountain View. This would be a good solution because they would be adding a preschool program to a preexisting school district, instead of creating a whole new system to solve the problem. The downside to this solution is that taxes and bills would have to be passed in order to create the funds for a preschool expansion in a school district.

Documentary Segments

We created a document that was titled 19th Century Short Documentary Segments. We watched 3 segments about things that occurred during the 19th century.

I took notes on all 3 of them but I will only show one of them just to give a sense of how the 19th century was. Here is only one part of my notes:

BIG BUSINESS:

• TRUST → MONOPOLY
• 1% of the companies in American controlled ⅓ of production - 1990
• 11 million had an average income of 400 to 600 dollars - 1890
• The richest enjoyed 1% off the rest of the 99%
• A middle class was emerging - doctors, lawyers, etc.
• Achieved a new sense of themselves as a GROUP
• Gained support from language, history, etc.
• Rich people SHOWED OFF
• Rockefeller and Carnegie held themselves up (RICH)
• Work hard and you will become SUCCESSFUL but not all the time
• Advanced economically (LOTS of people)
• You have to sacrifice little things too achieve BIG things (little things have to get squashed)
• “God has intended the great to be great and the little to be little”
• You’re poor → because you SUCK
• Reason to believe if you worked hard you would get a better education

Muckraking Presentations

Today in class, we presented the Muckraking project that we had been working on since we had returned from Thanksgiving break.

We started off with my group, and presented on the inequality between the richer school districts and the poorer school districts. our solution to this problem was to try and get the government to do something rather than sitting idly by while this problem continues to this day.

We were followed by Will's group, who presented on the issue that trash presents on the edges of roads and told us that we could help fix the problem by signing up for cleaning organizations or just picking up trash when you see it.

Next, Sana's presented on the issues that come with preschools and the amount of money needed to go to preschools. The solution included opening public preschools that didn't require parents to pay tuition.

Finally, we saw Chris's group present on how stress affects students and teenagers and some opinions from teachers and doctors over the topic. Their solution to this problem was to identify the issue of over-stressing before it made the teen exhibit suicidal tendencies.

Presentations on the Muckraking Project

Today in class, a couple of groups presented their topics and I thought that they all did a fantastic job. I say this because every group knew what they were talking about (no one had any note cards) and they were passionate about what they had researched. Each group averaged about 15-20 minutes which was pretty lengthy in time but throughout their presentations I learned lots of new things that I would have never known because of the simple fact that I would have never taken the time to do any outside research about the topics.

Unfortunately, we did not get threw all the groups but the rest of the groups will go either Friday or Monday. So far we as a class have done an OUTSTANDING JOB!!

The League of Nations Cartoon Activity

For this activity, we had to create our own document and #1.) Describe the actual historical context that the cartoon is attempting to express and #2.) Analyze the bias of the cartoon. Is it Pro-? Anti-? We had about 9 different cartoons that would help us prepare for the Chapter 1-7 Test. Overall, I thought that this activity was very helpful because we got a sense of how the rest of the test would be. Here is a couple of the sentences that I wrote for some cartoons (did not want to include everything because it was too long):

1st CARTOON - Interrupting the Ceremony:

#1.) The U.S. Senate is attempting to interrupt Uncle Sam and his soon to be wife from marrying to the League of Nations because that would mean that America would go to war and suffer lots of consequences. They've already gotten rid of Peace Proceedings but the U.S. Senate wants to bring in Constitutional Rights.

#2.) It is PRO- WILSON because weddings are viewed as peaceful proceedings all the time but in this case the Senate does not want Uncle Sam to get into something that he will later regret. 
2nd CARTOON - UNKNOWN:

#1.) The League of Nations is almost forcing America to join the League of Nations but Uncle Sam does NOT want America to join because of the consequences that might occur as an after result. Uncle Sam seems to be tied up which gives England, Empire of Japan, Foreign Nations, and European Nations power and it also gives them the opportunity to manipulate him.

#2.) ANTI- WILSON because they are opposed to the League of Nations. 
3rd CARTOON - UNKNOWN:

#1.) War is inevitable because the League of Nations cannot contain it in its cage. The lady’s arm looks like just bone but nothing else and “the beast” will eventually escape.

#2.) ANTI- WILSON because the League of Nations is really weak and cannot find a permanent solution to prevent WAR. 
4th CARTOON - UNKNOWN:

#1.) The League of Nations has a metal restrainment that does not allow the dog to bark or bite at anyone or anything. Maybe the dog needs a leash which perhaps can be America to make it STRONGER.

#2.) PRO- WILSON because the League of Nations is better then nothing but at the same time, it’s still a PROBLEM. 

Teen stressed out gang

In one of the website presentation they talked about teens being to stress in high school. I totally agree me as a teen in high school I'm extremely stressed out during,...... all the time in school. I feel like teens are stressed out because of everything they have to balance out at once. Some kids have sports and school plus the training they have to do aside from practice. Some kids have others thing that they have to do that takes time out there day from always studying and do homework. Even more stressed out when you have to balance out finals coming soon and keeping all your grades good and checking in with every class/teacher.

Teen stressed by school presentation

I can relate to a lot of what the presenters were talking about. I sometimes do get really stressed with school and i'm sure many other students do to. But I don't think school is the main cause of stress. There is countless of things that us humans get really stressed about. For example, family problems/relationships, expectations from your parents, sports, etc. These examples are common, but they can impact your life either in a really good way or bad way, in the case since I am talking about stress, in a bad way. These things can build up and if teens don't get the help they need, they will unfortunately, take their lives. So the point I am trying to reach, is that stress isn't mainly because of school, but it is part of it. Other outside-school problems can be the reason to and all of it can build up.

The Doughboys

The name "Doughboys" was created because the soldiers buttons were really big, they looked like donuts. At this time, men were asked to join the army. Others signed up to protect and serve their country, but some were drafted. Many veterans believed that war wasn't the answer, that all the violence wasn't going to solve anything. People thought that when war happened, it was hell on earth, in other words, soldiers were dying, people were starving, etc. The soldiers were taught how to march and make trenches to use it as shelter and protect themselves during war.

women in stem jobs makin moves (muckraking project)

We started off wanting to do a video with are recorded interviews but soon we changed it to a website we felt that a video wouldn't show the purpose of are project and the true message of the project. We want to show that women should be treated equally fair as men in stem jobs. We want this problem to be more aware from others and that it is unfair for women who put so much work to work at stem jobs and there journals through college that some might or might not have support for those women who want to major in stem.Very serious case. 

The 1920's

In the 1920's, many things changed and were invented. Some things that were huge in the 1920's that were invented or brought to use was the electricity, the automobiles, and the radio. Another big thing that was brought up and made it big that even nowadays, people still use for advertising, is the billboard. They used the billboards in busy areas, so that way, more people can see it. People still use that technique today in the freeways or busy cities. Also, one of the biggest things I think, that happened in 1920, was that the women got the right to vote.

Ms.Dunlap shows me what's good

For my muckraking project we decided to do it on women in STEM jobs or women that want to learn and study to maybe in the future work at a stem job. I knew the big picture of women in stem jobs, its still hard for women to get equal anything we've came a long way with women having equal rights or anything and it is a process, things aren't as bad as it was in the past. I had to interview Ms.Dunlap she was very nice to do more than just answer my questions she gave me more of a view of how women see it. She explained how in the past women were ran out of there jobs , also weren't shown that they can be doing stem jobs. There was barely any support in colleges for women that wanted to major in stem majors.

Muckraking research

My group and I were researching about police brutality around the Bay Area. During the research, I've learned more and had deeper thoughts about it. I have always went with my definition of police brutality, which is physically hurting innocent people who aren't really a threat to human life. There is a variety of ways police can abuse other people. For example, one way is verbally abuse someone. Police can call them names, insult them, and that could affect the person's mental state.

Muckraking Project Research

During the research for the muckraking project was when I learned the most about the inequalities many women in STEM, and women in other fields, face.  Men that work in jobs in the Silicon Valley made up to 73% more than women in 2012, based on their major.  This is very unfair, because people with the same qualifications are not being paid the same amount, most likely because of their gender.  This is what we are exploring in our Muckraking project.

Muckraking Project

Our group has decided to switch from a video to a website for our project about the inequalities women in STEM face.  We were having trouble recording some of the interviews, so we decided that it would be easier to put everything on a website.  The website is also more easily accessible, so more people can learn about this topic.  It also allows us to put more information out there, because more can be said in writing than can be said in a video.

JP cashed out Morgan

John Pierpont Morgan was born into a distinguished New England family on April 17, 1837, in Hartford, Connecticut. JP Morgan followed his wealthy father into the banking business in the late 1850s and also teamed up with Philadelphia banker Anthony Drexel their firm was called J.P. & company. Morgan was heavily involved in reorganizing and consolidating a number of financially troubled railroads.He gained control of significant portions of these railroads’ stock and eventually controlled an estimated one-sixth of America’s rail lines. Since being one of the big names in the movement of transportation, he had penalty of money for himself and others , he had so much money he helped the U.S get out of two funks they were in.

Interviews for the Muckraking Project

During the Muckraking project, groups we required to conduct interviews with informed individuals to further their research on the topic, and I think that conducting the interview itself actually taught a lot to me. It was a much different way to acquire information compared to just online research. It forced me to actually think of exactly what I wanted to know, but at the same time asking one question could lead to another that you hadn't even thought of before the interview. I actually really enjoyed the experience and found everyone I talked to to be super useful and friendly and open about what I was asking, and this made the process a lot more entertaining and actually just interesting.

I'm not sure what other people thought about this concept, but I think it was really different to actually get first hand accounts from others, and I liked it a lot.

young rockefeller

John Rockefeller born in July 8,1839 in Richforh, NY to a traveling salesmen. At a young age the future millionaire would find ways to make money by selling turkeys, selling candy and doing jobs for neighbors. In 1855, after moving to Cleveland he found a job as a clerk at a Cleveland commission that bought and sold ship grain.In 1859, Rockefeller and a partner established their own commission firm, Rockefeller also married Laura a Ohio native women. Rockefeller borrowed money to buy out some of his partners, the reason for that is so he can become in full control of the refinery.John Rockefeller made billions off standard oil , he retired around the mid-80s and donated more half a billion to various educational, religious and scientific causes. He also funded the establishment of the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research now as Rockefeller University.

Women in STEM Muckraking Project

Instead of a video, we decided to do a website for our Muckraking Project. We think that it will be a lot more effective to use a website to convey our message that women should be treated equally in STEM. The majority of our questions that we will ask our interviewees are about their thoughts about the inequality that women face in this line of work. One of our questions is about what solutions could be presented to solve the issue. We are hoping to gain many different perspectives on the issue that could help challenge the inequality.

Background on Muckrakers

Over the past week we have been working on our muckraking project. I figured it would be fitting to post some information on who the muckrakers were and what they did. The muckrakers were a group of US journalists who made it their duty to expose corruption and politics in the early 20th century. The name muckrakers came from Theodore Roosevelt in a speech in 1906 where he compared these journalists to a man so focused a raking muck that he couldn't even look up to see the bigger picture. Roosevelt argued that these journalists spent so much time finding the evils in society that they never the vision of America's potential. The muckrakers published a plethora of articles that exposed corruption in a series of political aspects in America. These journalists are most commonly associated with the Progressive Era of America, however they held influence until World War One. Their works tried to raise awareness about things such as chronic urban poverty, unsafe working conditions, and social issues such as child labor. Muckrakers helped bring issues like these to light so that the people could act and be informed on what is going on in their society.

Sacco and Vanzetti

Sacco and Vanzetti were Italian immigrants. When they came to America, they disliked the oppression capitalism and the wealthy put on the working class, so they joined a group of anarchists. However at the time there was the "Red Scare", which was the fear of anarchists and revolution, and "Red Raids",  which were where the government was deporting people who were accused of being anarchists. In Bridgewater Massachusetts in 1919 there was a failed robbery attempt, and in Braintree Massachusetts in 1920 there was a double homicide and robbery at the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company. Sacco and Vanzetti were accused of committing the crimes, and lost the court battle and were sentenced to death by electrocution. Even today, there is a lot of controversy over whether or not Sacco and Vanzetti were really guilty. The local police believed they were guilty because the found the two with weapons, they lied about being anarchists, and at the time they were arrested they had “consciousness of guilt”. Also, despite the fact that Vanzetti had an alibi, Sacco did not have an alibi and the witnesses supporting Vanzetti's alibi were all close to Vanzetti. The two also seemed guilty because they were identified by eye-witnesses as looking similar to the culprits. The State police believed that they were innocent because the style of the crimes didn't match the style of anarchist violence. Also, the judge and prosecutor were both known to be biased anti-anarchist and they used law tactics to make sure Sacco and Vanzetti unfairly got harsher punishments. This is seen by the fact that the prosecution corruptly tried to tie the guns found on the two to the murders by making a false accusation that the gun on Vanzetti was the guard's gun even though they knew that the calibers were different. Also, the prosecutor selected people to made a jury that was ok with the two being sentenced to the death penalty, showing how the prosecution was bent on having the two men killed. It is also argued that the two were innocent because they found a Portuguese American that was a part of the crime and looked like Sacco, so maybe the eye witnesses mistook Sacco for being the Portuguese man. Also it is argued that Sacco and Vanzetti only lied about being anarchists to avoid deportation because of the red scare. Personally I believe that Sacco and Vanzetti were both innocent because Vanzetti had a strong alibi and Sacco seemed like although he didn’t have an alibi he had a family and thus would have felt like he had more to lose from committing a crime like this. I also agree that the robbery didn't align with the usual crimes of anarchists because anarchists commit crimes to try to ignite revolution and political change, not to just steal money. Also the prosecution was corrupt and bend on having them killed simply because of their involvement in anarchism and used fake evidence to prosecute them, so I believe that the whole time the case was set up against them.

1920s Inventions

As you know the Great Depression started around this time period, but what you might not know is that there were some inventions that you as a person should be great full for this time. If you have ever fallen then you should thank Earle Dickson who invented the Band Aid.
To those who can go without a day watching their favorite television show John Logie  Baird invented the television! Even though the 1920s weren't the best you should be glad for these two inventions which make life today enjoyable.

1920s

In the 1920s Woodrow Wilson was noe more. The people didn't want him anymore as it seemed. In the end of the 1920s election a new president by the name of Warren G. was elected. Warren believed in a totally new type of government that revolved around business and that was anti-tax as well as anti-regulation. As you might think this is bad in a way which would lead to the government revolving around the stock market. As you well know the stock market crashed and everything went wrong since the government revolved around it. If it had not been for Warren's ideals the US would have not been in the Great Depression.

1920's

The time period of the roaring twenties was a very prosperous time for America both economically and socially. The creation of the skyscraper represented Americas new ascendancy and aspirations. America was now becoming more innovative with architecture by getting both bigger and better. The rich contributed to the atmosphere of the 1920s by showing how a lavish lifestyle made people think opportunity was limitless and the streets were paved with gold. People were living very lavish lifestyles. A lot of people had yachts, cars, lavish homes, maids, and threw expensive parties which only added to the hopes and dreams of those striving to achieve this lifestyle. Harlem became the capital of Jazz where Louie Armstrong and Duke Ellington started the frontier of jazz music. It became something of a hub for jazz and fantasies. The Harlem Renaissance was full of art and entertainment. African Americans had a lot of pride during this time and this area was less oppressive and had less segregation. Three new technologies that affected the majority of Americans were the light bulb and electricity, more affordable cars and highways/bridges/tunnels, and advertisement. Affordable electricity allowed for work at night and night activities. Now there is night life in the 20’s. More affordable cars allowed for more efficient traveling. You can go further in less time. With advertising now there is credit and a crazy consumer market. Now everything could be bought on time and payed for later. Now by 1927, 75 percent of all household things were bough with credit. The radio became a nationwide phenomenon and now everyone could hear news faster. Women now could get more careers and income. Women got more freedom and could now vote from the 19th amendment. Women lived for themselves not just men as they went out to parties. Women become more edgy as they wore short dresses called flappers that showed a lot of skin. Vamps were the women who wore these dresses and were very daring. People wanted the benefits of the future but the familiar comforts of the past and this soon became a social conflict. They knew they could not have both and this created physiological tension. The KKK saw a huge rise as they claimed to stand for true Americanism. They represent themselves as defending American Ideals, anyone who is not part of the WASP acronym is terrorized. They even seized political control in certain states. Four million people soon became affiliated with the KKK organization. A new American hero by the name of Lindbergh broke boundaries and frontiers. He was daring and people aspired to his bravery. He was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic. Many had failed and died but Lindbergh succeeded. This showed old fashion values of bravery which Americans adored. "Blue Skies" was a significant song because it represented the bubbling wealth and the stock market as it played at the presidential inauguration. It represents the good times of the 20's.

The 1920's

Essentially, we learned about the lifestyle in the 1920's and how things were rapidly starting to change. We learned that the skyscrapers in New York represented the aspirations and ascendancy of Americans. Harlem starting becoming popular because of the music that they produced, very soulful and live, Americans were amazed with it all. Electricity started becoming big, so no more candle, no more fires to heat up food, everything started to become electric. The car made transportation MUCH easier. With all of these new advances people wanted all the new things, but wanted to stay with the same life they had before. Which couldn't be possible due to all the advances that were happening. They wanted the benefits of the future but the comfort of the past. The KKK became popular around this time, because it was a way for the American people to vent their anger on others, so of course they chose new immigrants coming in. Charles Lindbergh became an American Hero in the 1920's because he flew across the Atlantic Ocean solo, and it showed how much courage America had at the time so it was an amazing achievement.

Muckraking Project- Overview

For the past week, we have been working on the final project for this semester. We had to find a local issue, interview experts about it and come up with a solution. My group and I decided do talk about the education system for toddlers (preschools). This issue affects thousands of parents in the bay area because they are not able to afford child care therefore they are not able to work, or have any independence. We decided to do a website with different categories explaining what parents could do, the solutions, and comparing preschools and their prices. We were all very chocked to learn that a toddler's education is more expensive than some private high schools such as St Francis or Mitty High School. We hope our project will turn out great especially because getting interviews was a little hard!

The 1920s

The early 1920's saw a lot of technological, social, and economic change.  The lavish lifestyle of the wealthy fueled the fantasy and aspirations of Americans to live like them, and Wall street and the stock market represented new economic opportunity. In the 1920's Harlem became a hotbed of political and social issues. Harlem was popular because it was the jazz capital of the world. Its popularity lead to the Harlem Renaissance, which was the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, and it symbolized a new era of support, awareness, and pride for African Americans. Although they had been invented earlier, light bulbs and electricity were largely implemented into American life in the 1920's. Also, Henry Ford and the Model T changed American life through the expansion of travel. Billions of dollars were spent on the creation of roads. The use of the radio changed what it meant to be an American. For the first time Americans were listening to same things and laughing at the same things. Americans all over the USA are sharing the same experience. Advertising brought the new concept of credit and the idea of “Buy now, pay later.” In the 1920's 75% of household goods purchased with credit. In the 1920's the 19th amendment was made law, giving women the right to vote. Women now lived for themselves instead of their families. They went to late night parties and had shorter skirts and hair. There were new types of women known as "flappers" and "vamps". A flapper was the type of woman to see for far they could push societal norms. Vamps saw no limits. However some people thought the changes were for the worse. People wanted the benefits of the future but the comfort of the past. They became frustrated that the ways life used to be was no longer the way that life became. This frustration was redirected at immigrants and other non-American things, which allowed a resurgence in KKK membership because they claimed to stand for what America stood for. The number of KKK members became so large, that one day they were able to march 50,000 strong through DC. However the optimism and positivism in the 1920's came to an end with the 1928 stock market crash and the Great Depression. Peoples' savings were wiped out, and many were left with little or nothing.

Roaring 20's

The 1920's was a decade of huge prosperity and wealth in the United States. The optimistic song "Blue Skies" reflected the overwhelming aspirations and seemingly limitless possibilities. Americans reached a whole new level of wealth, urged on by the new idea of credit and borrowing money in order to "keep up with Jones."  By 1927, 75% of all household goods were paid for on credit. Women had shorter hair, wore makeup, danced, and went to clubs and bars. Some people felt that these changes were for the worse; they felt like the women were being too daring and immodest. Cities were “breeding ground for alien ideas." The Ku Klux Klan gained popularity dramatically because it claimed to stand for true American ideals. It gained political power in seven states. Americans who were attracted to the group wanted the new freedoms for women and other marginalized groups to go away. 

Sacco and Vanzetti and the Justice System!

A few weeks ago, we learned about the Sacco and Vanzetti case in class. Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, two known anarchists, were accused of the paymaster and a guard of a shoe factory and stealing $15,000. In the years that followed the trial and conviction of the two men, there has been much controversy about whether the two men were really the murderers, or if they had been falsely convicted. Many people think that Sacco and Vanzetti were, in fact, innocent and that whoever had shot the paymaster had gotten away with their crime. They point to the fact that the incident seemed like an amateur robbery. It was done in broad daylight, in the open, and they killed two people to get the $15,000. This didn’t match the style of anarchis violence at that time. Additionally, the ballistics evidence was very weak. The cartridges found at the site of South Braintree did not match those found in possession of Sacco and Vanzetti. Sacco’s “bullet 3” was shot sometime between May and December, and was not the one actually linked to Sacco. Furthermore, the serial number of the guard’s gun did not match that of the gun found in Vanzetti’s possession. Judge Webster Thayer was also known to be opposed to anarchists. He made a very biased statement about the case to a professor at his alma mater university, and the professor made this remark public.

After Sacco and Vanzetti had been convicted, another anarchist committed to the crime. Medeiros provided new information about the trial about the cars, etc., but his partner, Morelli, refused to confess. Judge Thayer denied the request for retrial.

Those who believe that Sacco and Vanzetti were indeed guilty point to their background as “militant revolutionists.” They were known to have participated in anarchists bombings. At their first interrogation, both men lie about being anarchists and deny knowing Boba. The prosecution used the behavior of the men the night of their arrest as evidence. Using the term, “consciousness of guilt,” the prosecution said that a person who is innocent will speak openly and truthfully about where they were when the crime was committed. Following this line of reasoning, Sacco and Vanzetti’s lies were designed to hide the truth about what they were doing. The prosecution also exposed the fact that the pair fled to Mexico to avoid the draft; this made them seem “unpatriotic” and obviously did not win them the support of the jurors.

The justice system is supposed to be about exposing the truth and punishing the guilty for what they’ve done, but it almost feels like it’s about Sacco and Vanzetti’s beliefs (anarchism) and the fact that they are immigrants.

Muckraking Project

My partner and I have decided to work on the Economic Impacts that large corporations have on the bay area. Formally we believe that Apple, the tech company is doing a large disservice to the bay area because of the amount of money they are putting into the company and how that's affecting the people's inflation. As a result of Apple's products being extremely expensive, other companies have to bring up their prices to try to compete with the likes of Apple and Microsoft.

1920s

The skyscrapers represents a driving scale of economics as well as their political statuses. The growth of the rich contributed to the atmosphere because it inspired people to work harder because they too believed that they could "strike it rich". Harlem was so popular in the 1920s because of the upbringing of jazz. Music brought people together and jazz just was another example in how performing arts could bring a nation together. In the 1920s women won the right to vote and others took the advantages of finally being able to show parts of their skin to the highest to earn more money. The Klu Klux Klan opposed anybody who wasn't a white Anglo Saxon Protestant and they seized 7 political states.

REALLY rich Homie JP Morgan

Honestly I find it so bizarre the amount of power that this man had stemming from his ridiculous amount of wealth. And yes while today we do have some billionaire tycoons who could equal the sheer amount of money, none of them have even close to the amount of power that Morgan controlled. He was one man who bailed out the American government. One man had the power to support a nation financially, not once but twice. And while it is kind of amusing and very impressive, I find this concept to be extremely terrifying. Having one man, who is all about business and money, being able to have a huge influence on the government of my country. The president should have that power, but only because he was chosen to have it. Yet this man can obtain this amount of power simply through his wealth due to his ruthlessness as a business man.

Tbt to the subject of Religion

Religion definitely served as an engine of democratic reforms because of many of the major leaders of the religious reforms. The reason that democracy started to gain popularity was because people started to question why they had to give over complete control of their life to their government. Some people, such as Henry Pierce and Patrick Henry, thought that without state support religion would wither and die, and thus they would all be condemned to hell. However some who question are able to stem a revolution. These people include Thomas Jefferson, who passed a bill to support the freedom to practice religion. He, along with many thought that government should not support nor deny religion. I personally agree because I do not think that people should be able to use the subject of religion in order to further discriminate against others. We already find always to ostracize people and distance ourselves from them, so it would not be a smart idea to add yet another category that can serve as a way for others to discriminate.

The 1920s

The 1920's was an era full of innovation and money.  Wall street grew a lot during the 1920's, and the stock market became larger and larger.  This contributed to the rich atmosphere of the 1920's.  This wealth also helped promote urban culture, with more and more people moving into large cities.  There were many innovation during the 1920's that affected peoples lives, but three really stood out.  This included the light bulb, which extended the day, the car, this allowed people to live in a larger area and get around faster, and credit, which allowed people to buy stuff even when they didn't have the money to buy it.  Not everything was good in the 1920's, during this time there were 4 million members of the Ku Klux Klan.  This was because many people thought that anyone who was not a wasp was going against American ideals.  The KKK even seized political control in 7 states and over 200 people were lynched at their hands.

Muckraking Project

For our Muckraking project, we are focusing on women in STEM jobs.  We are going to talk about how women have less opportunities in STEM jobs than men do.  We are interviewing people we know who work in STEM, a student, and a teacher who teaches engineering to get their viewpoint on this.  One of our solutions to this problem is completely blind applications, so when you apply for a job, your employer would not know anything about you other than your age and qualifications.  This would help get around the unconscious bias that some employers may have.

12/4

Yesterday in class, we continued working on our muckraking projects for the next week.

My group decided to look at the differences in money spent on school in the Bay Area and how that affects the students and the curriculum of the school. Our solution to this problem is to try and spread the money out evenly rather than having schools that have plenty of donations continue to receive the same amount of money as they did before parents donated to the school. Doing this would try to equalize the quality of the schools and make equal opportunities for all of the students.

John Rockefeller

Rockefeller started working at the age of 16 as an assistant bookkeeper. Oil production became very popular and he sensed opportunities, so he established an oil refinery. His refinery was known as the Standard Oil Company. The company bought out its rivals and became the most powerful refinery. The various companies became known as the Standard Oil Trust, which controlled refineries and pipelines. Standard Oil built its own barrels and figured out new uses for petroleum. The Anti-Sherman Act was later created by US Congress and forced the Standard Oil to be broken into many individual companies. Like Carnegie, Rockefeller donated money to the University of Chicago and the Rockefeller University. Rockefeller changed the lives of ordinary people because of his emphasis on size and efficiency.

John Pierpont Morgan

John Pierpont Morgan was born to a banker. He started his own private banking company after working for his father. His company, JP Morgan & Co become one of the most powerful financial firms that the government looked to the firm for help during the depression and financial crisis. Morgan dominated Carnegie’s business. He strengthened the railroad industry and created the US Steel Corporation. Morgan is considered one of the country’s leading businessmen because he helped shaped the nation.

Friday Workday

Today, Mr. Stewart was very generous and gave us another work day to work on our Muckraking Projects.   A lot of work was accomplished in the short amount of time that a normal Friday schedule offers.  Jack, Lucas, and I found all of our possible experts that we would like to include in our website.  We emailed a few of them and are currently waiting for a response.  I, myself, am a little bit skeptical to whether the people we emailed will actually take their time to get back to us.  I plan to send emails to an excessive number of possible expects to ensure that we have enough, solid experts. We will continue to work this weekend in preparation for the start of presentations on Tuesday.

Block Day

Today on the block day, we were supplied with an entire period to work on our Muckraking Project.  This included researching our project topic to gain more information and knowledge, as well as discussing the plan with my group. Our specific group is focusing our project around highway dumping and the problems associated with it.  We created a google survey that we sent our to the majority of the junior class to receive input and opinions from fellow classmates.  Much was achieved in this class period and we look forward to Friday for more work time.  

Muckraking Project

My group decided to do our Muckraking project on the issue of Women in STEM. Especially in this tech-centric area, there are considerably less women involved in the STEM workforce than men. We believe that this issue needs to be resolved because women can bring just as much value to this line of work as men, but they are not given equal opportunities. We will gather a variety of interviews from our relatives, teachers, and people directly involved the in the line of work as a woman in STEM.

12/2

Today in class we finalized what we will be working on for the Muckraking Project.

The goal of this project is to bring up an issue we see in society and try to find some solution for the problem we see. We have to gain evidence from sources, which can be either articles or interviews with people about our topic, and needs to be some sort of documentary-like style of writing.

The project, according to Mr Stewart, will most likely be presented next Tuesday or Wednesday, and says that every day he gives us in class will be essential to making a good project.

Muckraking Project

Today we were given the whole block period to be able to work and improve our Muckraking Project. You could do everything from research to planning out what you were going to do as a whole assignment. In my group I worked on interview questions for a video we are going to make. Luca worked on the research and Zach worked on the format of the video, like what comes first, middle, and last, what we are going to do in specific. Overall we got a lot of work and research done and had a productive class period.

Muckraking Project

For the Muckraking project, me and my partner CJ have chosen the topic in Economic impacts being caused by Apple in the Bay Area. We thought it was a good topic to talk about because its one of the bigger things that's happening in the Bay Area and it would seem like there would be a lot of information provided on the internet. Also, me and my partner could have added other big corporate companies like Google or Facebook, but it the information provided for each company would be overlapping. I have found all the necessary sources needed for this project and CJ will help in getting the interviews part done by emailing people aware of our situation, from our topic. Me and CJ have learned to develop a website on Weebly and how to organize it in a way that could bring interest to the people about the Bay Area's economy changes. We are still developing our website that will have six tabs: Intro, Apple's History, Impact #1, Impact#2, Interviews, and finally the About section (where there will be information a little on me and CJ, but it will have a bibliography for sources used, and other stuff we are still considering.)