My Koala Head With Shining Blue Ears

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For my final project in Circuits class,  I chose to design and create a stuffed koala head with two LEDs, making its ears light up. I worked on this piece for several weeks and put a lot of effort into it.

My original plan was to create an entire koala from head to bottom, except the head which didn’t change, the body was designed to have a medal with a red LED on it. Pressing its claws should make the medal or ears light up. However, because I soon found out that creating a 3D stuffed toy is not easy work to do, I changed my plan to only creating the head. That made me abandon the body, claws, and legs of the koala, including the red medal on the right side of the koala body.

I learned a lot during this project, which obviously included many mistakes. I overlooked my skill and speed when I was planning the project, which made me had to give up the body part later on. Also, the best thing I learned was how to sew 3D stuffed toys. It was very challenging for me at first, because I have never created anything like it before. I had to search up tutorials about how to make two felt pieces into a sphere, Moreover, because of the special material, the feel of sewing it was very different than the normal felt pieces we used during previous projects.  I was a little bit frustrated at first because the material sheds fur off and sticks to the tables and my clothes everywhere. But I had to bear with it anyway since the material worked really well with the design of stuffed toys. Also, I had to be aware of where to put the CPX and LEDs so that the thread doesn’t cross onto each other and fail the process of lighting up.

Overall, I feel that this project is very worthy and I enjoyed the process of designing and creating. I put effort into it and I’m glad that I can finish it.

Bookmark/Pin Project

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Share My Product:

The project I made is a pin that shows a fox under the moonlight with its tail flickering red light(the LED). I created this design for myself because foxes are my favorite animal and I really love the moon. I didn’t discard the other two designs of mine because there was something wrong with it; it’s just that I think this design of my fox and the moon is really interesting to create and I believe it will turn out nicely(which really did). I am really proud of this pin because it is pretty and kind of shows some of my identity, the process was slightly challenging but I enjoyed it very much.

Share My Learning:

Throughout the process of creating this pin project, there are new things that I have learned. I wasn’t familiar with several kinds of stitches and didn’t even know that bulbs and electronics could work on felt peices. The sewing itself has been challenging at first and I often sewed stitches that were uneven and almost pricked my fingers. However, as I get more and more familiar with threads and needles, I feel more comfortable and tried on sewing different types of stitches. Planning then cutting out felt pieces that fit with my design happened to be easier than I thought it would be, which makes me cheerful! One tip to the students who will also experience this project next semester would be to be mindful of the sequence of sewing the battery bulb and felt pieces. If you’re unaware of them, the thread might show up on the front side and you’ll need to waste a lot of time to fix it! Another thing is to be aware of the threads, they get mixed up and tangled way easier than I thought, and I was quite frustrated with it since I had to spend a lot of time separating them. However, I do feel more confident in exploring more in-depth techniques of stitching,  and I would totally like to try more complicated designs of sewable electronics.

An Observation of the Strive for Independence

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The man found a yellowed old notebook lying by the deep corner in his drawer, its traces slightly blurred through the dim candlelight. On its pages records his sealed but unforgettable past. He gently wiped the dust off the shabby cover, he sat down and started to flip through the pages. He dives into his memories as if youth emerge once again.

The Revolution of America’s Independence has certainly brought a lot of changes to this piece of land. The government is made up of common men from common families, and the identities of being royals or nobles no longer exist in America. Washington, Adams, Franklin…All of them were ordinary men. This was a great change, for the US was the first country to get rid of the rule of just one family. Men had more rights in politics, and people were more equal than before. Moreover, since the US was a country that valued liberty very much, it did not require every citizen to have the same belief. People can believe in more than just Christianity and Catholicism, and no one would point fingers at them. The people who were discriminated against in Britain and came to Maryland to seek their place of survival now could worship their belief however they should.
However, there are still things that continued through and after the revolution. The rights of women, slaves, and Native Americans were not thought to be important, and they couldn’t be as equal as white men. They were recognized as people who wouldn’t be very wise, at least not as wise as the White men. Slaves were not even counted as rightful human beings, still recognized as the property of rich people. Women and Native Americans could hardly get jobs, and only very few were able to gain quality education.

America’s Independence: Tax, Tea & Arrogant People

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The American Revolution started all because of the war which Britain fought against the French and American Natives League. They won, but they paid the price for it. So they wanted their fellow American colonists to help and pay, and the colonists said no.

Reasonably, nobody likes tax, so nor does the American colonists! Especially when Britain taxes on their beloved tea, colonists were frustrated. These people had kind of an argument against their motherland, thinking that the British King and Parliament shouldn’t interfere too much of their business. Why? Because America has declared itself INDEPENDENT.

So what, in more specific manners, happened? Click the video below to see more about the American Revolution, created by Alina Y. and me!

MURDER: Lizzie Borden & the No.1 Interesting Trail of Century!

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The book that I have been reading throughout this unit is “The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century”, by Sarah Miller. The theme that I discovered is “suspicion often results alienate between people”, which is showed throughout the book and especially in the last chapters (Aftermath). I’d recommend this book because it really is interesting, it tells the case rather similar to a story, and gives a lot of description. Also, the book contains maps, pictures and extra info about or related to the case, which makes me understand more. After all, I learned from this unit that nonfiction books aren’t just facts and facts loaded together, instead, they can be very descriptive. Other than that, I’ve also known a historical event on murder, which is indeed worth my interest!

Boxers: Violence Leads to Bad Reputation

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Up to this point of our learning on Imperialism, the Boxers deserved a bad rep. This is because the Boxers planned to burn down chapels and committed deliberate murder of westerners. Common people of China during that period had no idea of what science is, and so they believed that they could create potions which drinking it would give the taker superpowers like controlling fire and protection from bullets and weapons. They harmed a lot of people, Christians, foreigners, and also Chinese common people. These actions showed that the Boxers are a chaotic group with thoughts that lag behind the average level of skill and understanding of the world at that time. Therefore, the Boxers deserve a bad rep.

Covering Hermia

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Hermia’s Personal Magazine Cover by Akina Tse

This magazine cover I created using Canva is a character analysis about Hermia from the play Mid-Summer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. I chose this girl’s picture for the background of my cover because I think it really fits Hermia as a character, and as an elegant girl. I am proud of my design on the cover and I think that it looks fairly nice.

The Power of Love

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The American actor Michael Bergin once said: “My parents loved me, and I want to be worthy of their love.” “The Aged Mother” tells a story about a poor peasant and his mother, who lived in an area that had a policy in which all old people are to be abandoned and to die on their own. The peasant has no choice but to obey the policy, but his mother’s action of love makes the peasant change his mind, and so he hides away his mother and begs the government to delete this rule. From the plot above shown, the big idea of this passage is about love for blood relatives and the filial piety from children to parents. Here’s why…

In the story “The Aged Mother” by Matsuo Basho, the author believes that love for relatives usually invigorates people to face and overcome big difficulties. When the mother tells her son to follow the path which she lay with twigs to go home, the son cried, “I will not leave you. Together we will follow the path and twigs, and together we will die” (Basho 2). During this moment the son is touched by his mother’s love. He feels very guilty of trying to abandon his old and weak mother, but more than that, he also turns determined of protecting his mother from staying alone to die, for maybe he would lose his life from too. Later in the story, the farmer satisfies the government’s demand, and when the governor asks for his wisdom, he says, “‘The truth must be told!’ … [the farmer] relates his story” (Basho 3). From the previous text showed, the farmer stands out to the governor with his mother’s help and appeals for his mother’s difficult and stressed experience. He does even though he may be captured and punished by the governor since his saying is conflicted with the country’s policy. This shows that the son really loves his mother and is determined to fight against the cruel rule in spite of any cost he may have to disburse.

Overall, the theme and main idea of “The Aged Mother” is about love and filial duty. The author indicates that the power of love can stimulate people to face hardships no matter their level of difficulty. This surely is a warm story but also reveals a meaningful statement, which inspires us to think about our family: Would you obey the situation if you were demanded to abandon your parent?

Conflict Before Bedtime

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This found poem that I have created was taken from the short passage “The Last Kiss” by Ralph Fletcher. It shows an external conflict of man versus man, which the protagonist struggles with his dad. In the rising action of the story, “I” illustrates his everyday life with his mother and father, he goes to his mother and father for good night kisses. In this passage, “I” comes across as an eight-year-old boy who struggles and tries to get a goodnight kiss from his dad, because one day, he was unmanaged to get the kiss from his dad before he goes to bed.  At last, he realizes that he is already too old to be kissed by his father. By the same time, he also wonders if he will one day lose his mother’s kisses as well. Hopefully, this slightly awkward situation will be solved.