Independent Reading Reflection

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My favorite book so far, this year, is called “Salt to The Sea” by Ruta Sepetys. It is a historical fiction based on the true story of a shipwreck event during the late World War II. The ship, named as the “Wilhelm Gustloff”, was used to evacuate German wounded soldiers, citizens, and civilians of other European ethnicities from the area that was about to be taken over by the Allied forces in the war. In the novel, the main characters are also among these passengers.

The novel was really engaging and interesting because it allows the reader to look through the perspectives of the different characters, including Alfred, Emilia, Joana and Florian. Each character come from a different background and have a distinctive personality and a unique story to share–but their storylines all eventually intersects.

To begin with, Alfred is a young German soldier who thinks very highly of himself and is deeply influenced by the German war propaganda. He trusts that his talents will one day be seen and valued by the military officers of higher ranks. However, it is revealed, through his actions and thoughts, that he is simply a selfish and delusional boy who cannot prove his worth. His parts mostly take the form of letters he writes to a girl he had fell in love with, called Hannelore.

Emilia is a 15-yer-old Polish girl who seeks for protection and tries to hid from the inspections of the Russian and German soldiers during the war. She was unfortunately raped by Russian soldiers, which made her struggle with shame, but she still managed to stay strong, physically and emotionally.

Joana and Florian are my favorite characters in the book. Joana is a beautiful Lithuanian nurse who is smart and courageous. She values her friends and family, and is willing to reach out to help each individual in the group. Florian is a handsome and independent young Prussian who presents many acts of bravery in the novel, saving the lives of many. The two characters soon developed a romantic relationship after their storyline intersected during their journey to the port for evacuation.

Through their stories, we are able to see how the war greatly influenced the lives of different groups of people and how they advance towards their own salvation, despite of the many challenges to survive.

Blog Post 4: Reflect & Share

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Sharing the Product:

Our product is an elastic-band ornithopter that resembles a peacock. When being used, it converts elastic potential energy to kinetic energy. Specifically, when the user rotates the propeller on it, connected rubber band is twisted and therefore stores potential energy in it. This energy transforms into kinetic energy when the user lets go of the handle, as the rubber band will start to unwind and power the wings attached to it to flap.

Design process:

The process of creating this product was first set off with inspirations that I found on YouTube—rubber band powered flying butterfly and other DIY flying machines. I was fascinated by the mechanism that brought the paper butterfly to life—enabling it to fly. Hence, I was determined to create something similar. The research process eventually introduced me to the ornithopter flying machine invented by Leonardo da Vinci. Seeing how this could demonstrate a conversion of elastic potential energy to kinetic energy—also deeply attracted by the intelligence of the design—I settled down with the idea. Then, I began envisioning how it will look for our project; subsequently, identifying the purpose and the targeted audience. Me and partner agreed upon the overall outline that this device will be created to entertain children predominately in the age range of 6-12, and it should be able to flap its wings in imitation of birds.

Hoping to add our own creativity and originality into the design, I searched up different types of birds that I could shape the outer appearance of the product into and drew sketches on iPad. At last, we arrived at the concept of making the ornithopter resemble the appearance of a peacock—having considered that it is one of the world’s most exquisite bird, whose vibrant colors may help attract the young users.

Following, came the developing and planning stage, where we formulated the success criteria for the project and a plan for the arrangement of time. Then, with the help of the tutorial video online, we were quickly able to determine the procedures, building techniques, and materials we need for the construction process, listed in the previous blogs.

However, we did not entirely follow the video, making multiple changes to the materials used—to make it more environmentally friendly—and certain steps that we thought could be simplified or accommodated to the tools and skills we have. For example, instead of using thin wires, we used similarly thin strings, combined with the use of superglue, to fasten the piece together, which aligned with our sustainable goal and made it easier for us to do. In the following lessons, we constructed the product in the sequence of building the fundamental wooden structure; assembling the components that creates the mechanism; finally, decorating the product with the colorful wing and tail.

Learnings:

The most important lesson I learned is that, during an engineering process, patience could sometimes be the most influential factors that determines your success. When I reflected on the moments of failure and success, I was able to notice a pattern. Whenever we tried to rush through some steps or skip over some measurements, we were almost destined to fail, but when we slowed down and carefully worked through the formulated plan, things become a lot easier. For example, the first time when we were creating the propeller, we paid little attention to the key details, which led us to failure. In the second time, we followed each step and measurement precisely, and the product turned out much more successful. Another key learning would be effective time management and organization. At first, we both worked on the same parts together, which caused us to make extremely slow progresses. After realizing this problem, we divided the task into smaller parts among ourselves to work more individually. This increased our work efficiency significantly.

Assessing against the rubric & success criteria:

I did look through many precedents and used them to develop our own design. However, I think I only mainly focused on looking at the ones that are highly related/similar to my design idea (rubber band flying machine) but not including a diversity of ideas from different sources, to explore the different mechanisms and energy that I could’ve used besides elastic potential energy. Yet, the overall documenting and the developing of the concepts were detailed and specific. I also thoroughly reflected through the feedbacks to identify areas for improvement (written in previous blogs).

Lastly, looking at our success criteria, I think we achieved nearly two of the three. The prototype did not break during all the trials, and it is able to move successfully. However, the weaknesses are that sometimes only one of the wings flap and ever was the prototype actually able to fly due to the low frequency of the flapping movements and, possibly, overweighting.

Explain how and why your toy/device meets the design specifications.

It meets the design specifications because it successfully demonstrated the energy conversion that this project aimed to explore. The out appearance of our design was also commented by many of our peers as creative and interesting, meaning that it is highly likely for it to also appeals to the interests of the younger children, who are our targeted audience. Apart from that, the partially hand-powering part of this device also contributes to its entertaining purpose. Additionally, the product has minimal effects on the environment compared to the toys that are commonly made from plastic today, as most of the materials are all from biodegradable and renewable resources.

Other reflections: What are you most proud of? What was most challenging?

I was proud that me and my partner, who both have little independent engineering experiences, were able to complete the construction of the product within the given dates and resource, and actually make this relatively complicated mechanism/design work, despite the fact that it cannot fly. I was also proud of how we were both willing to challenge ourselves to create this difficult design and our perseverance against the setbacks. There were a few times during the construction stage when we felt hopeless in making our product work, but we never gave up on improving the prototype. Furthermore, the most challenging part was making the mechanism work because it needs multiple components of the design to be successful, ranging from the propeller to the attachment of the wings. These small details required close attention, as well as an abundant of time and patience. It was also challenging for us to work with the pliers, which is a tool that neither of us is familiar with. Fortunately, we were able to receive some helpful tips from the staffs at the design center.

 

Blog Post 3: Create & Improve

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Reflect on your prototype. What were some strengths? What needs refinement?

The overall appearance of our prototype came out fairly like the blueprints—how we envisioned it in the planning stage. The peacock wings and tail indeed added more color to the design, making it more appealing and interesting to the user. Another strength would be our success on the construction of the main wooden structure of the design. Our decision on choosing the 3mm thick plywood pieces instead of the other two options (1.5mm and 5mm) was correct and successful as they were strong enough to hold together without breaking—for the whole time—and still as light-weighted as we were hoping it to be. Additionally, the prototype was also able to successfully demonstrate conversion of elastic potential energy to kinetic energy through the flapping movements of the wings, following the twisting and unwinding of the rubber band. However, the propeller and the connecting of the wings still needs refinement as it is sometimes difficult rotate with the small handle and sometimes only one side of the wing flaps. We also had to rip a bit of the wing to enable it to move freely, which affected its appearance.

Feedback from Peers:

Positive Feedback–

  • “I like how your design looks like a peacock. I think it is really colorful and attracts young people.”
  • “I think the design is really creative.”
  • “The envision is great and the idea is pretty solid.”
  • “I like how you guys used duct tape to wrap around the pointy end of the stick.”

Constructive feedback & possible changes–

  • One of the feedback items was that the combination of the glue and strings that were used to connect the bended wire with the wood piece, which created a big lump, did not look aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, in order to align with the purpose of our product—which partly is to bring entertainment to the user—and the interests of the targeted audience—the children—who are likely to be more attracted by beautiful things, we will change the strings to thinner threads and apply less glue, while making sure that the parts are still tightly fastened together. The thinner thread will not only look cleaner but could also be a better alternative for assembling the pieces together, as it is easier to wrap around stick tightly and be fixed in place with glue.
  • We were also encouraged to try to find ways to enable both wings to be able to move simultaneously. First, we were suggested to reconsider the materials that we use and think about whether some of the components of the product were too heavily, which could’ve put an excessive amount of burden on the wings, causing it to either not move at all or move at a low frequency. In response to this suggestion, I think we could use a thinner type of paper that we found in the supply office to replace the normal A4 paper that we used for the wings. This could make the wings lighter while abiding to the sustainable goal of our product by eliminating the plastic options. Apart from that, we were also given the recommendation to reshape the curves of the propeller so that both sticks attached to either side of the wing could move at the same time. We plan on bending one of the straight sections of the propeller, where the side of the wing that doesn’t move is attached to, sideways, to creating a V-shape from the front perspective. This could possibly ensure that the stick is not just turning in the same place with the wire, when the rubber band unwinds, but is actually rotating in a full circular path like the stick connected to other side of the wing. The rotating movement should allow that side of the wing to move up and down like the other one.

Photos of our current prototype:

Develop & Plan

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Explain how you used design thinking practices to arrive at this iteration of your toy/device.

I arrived at the final idea for my toy (ornithopter) by thoroughly considering about the different aspects of the design that will make it successful. First, I thought about the things that I must keep in the original design of the ornithopter, and things that I could make more creative. To ensure that a conversion of elastic potential energy to kinetic energy can be clearly shown from my product, I decided that I must not change the core mechanism that makes this possible: using rubber band to power the movements of the wings. However, I decided that I could change its appearance to make it look more unique, by painting and cutting its plain-colored wings and tail to have the features of a peacock. Then, I began considering about the requirements that will take for the product to function successfully and have little impact on the environment. This led me to shrinking the length of the peacock’s tail, so that this outer design would not be putting too much weight on the wings—minimizing its impact on the functioning of the toy. Apart from that, I carefully thought through the materials that will be used to construct the product, aiming to reduce environmental impacts and avoid over-weighting (so that the ornithopter could fly further and longer). With that in mind, I changed the iron wire used to fasten parts together to strings, which is lighter and more biodegradable. I substituted the plastic used for making the wings to paper and decided to use the 3mm thick plywood instead of the 5mm one, both for roughly the same reasons—environmentally friendly and lightweight.

Important Measurements of the Ornithopter:

Total wingspan: 30 cm

Total length: 20 cm

 

Materials list:

  • Thin paper (length: at least 30cm)
  • 3mm think plywood board cut into:

5 cm long wood stick x 2

10cm long wood stick x1

13 cm long wood stick x1

4cm long wood stick x2

  • 9mm small plastic pipe x2 (or use paper to make them)
  • Paper clip x5
  • Thin strings
  • Plastic straw x2
  • 1 cm small plastic pipe (could use paper as alternative)
  • Beads x2
  • Cotton swab stick x2
  • Rubber band x2

Tools:

  • Superglue
  • Hot glue gun (alternative for superglue)
  • Wood driller
  • Ruler
  • Pliers
  • Scissors

Building Techniques

  • Drilling–this technique will be needed when making holes on the wood pieces, with drillers, to assemble small parts of the product together during construction.
  • Gluing–this technique will be used throughout the entire construction process since most of the materials (plywood, plastic straw, paper, etc.) can be put together by applying hot glue/superglue on their surfaces.
  • Binding–this technique is used for fastening paper clips and wood pieces together with strings. (It is hard to glue these materials together)
  • Laser-cutting—we’ll design the shape of the wood pieces on Affinity Designer and then cut them out with the laser cutting machines, for later use. This technique is suitable for cutting the wood boards as it is both precise and efficient.

Develop a detailed plan for creating the preferred design, including success criteria.

  1. Check needed materials and aim to complete the construction of wood frames of the prototype in 3rd
  2. Complete the construction of the rest of the prototype in 4th
  3. In lesson 5, finish up the decoration of the prototype and test it against the success criteria written below (record the timing and measurements of the trials). Politely ask one teacher and one other student to try out the prototype and give feedbacks for improvement. Make revisions to the prototype based on the feedbacks and own observations—producing the final product.

Success criteria

-The ornithopter should be able to fly for at least 7 seconds

-The ornithopter should be able to flap its wings successfully

-The quality of the ornithopter should be able to hold up to 10 trials without breaking down

 

Science Engineering Project–Define & Inquire

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What is the purpose of your device/toy, how does it function, and who is your user?
The toy that we are going to make is an elastic band ornithopter. It is designed to have the function of mimicking the flying motion of a bird by flapping its wings. The mechanism behind this is that it has a rotating propeller attached to the wings and to an elastic band that is connected its body. By rotating the handle on the propeller, the user will be able to twist the elastic band to store elastic potential energy. Then, when the user releases the handle and send the ornithopter into the air, the stored potential energy will instantly convert to kinetic energy, powering the twisted elastic band to unwind. This rotating movement will cause the attached wings to flap up and down, thus, allowing the ornithopter to fly in the air.
This toy will be targeting children predominantly in the age range of 6-12. Children in this age range are more likely to be interested in this kind of more advanced flying toy, meanwhile being mature enough to avoid getting hurt or easily breaking it.

What is the environmental impact of your product and is it durable and safe?
Our product is mostly environmentally friendly because it does not produce any pollutants or emissions harmful to the air. Additionally, apart from the wires, the main materials (rubber band, paper and wood) that will be used to build the product are all made from biodegradable and renewable resources, such as trees and saps of rubber tree. Additionally, since it’ll be a very light-weighted flying toy that does not have a sharp propeller like that of a helicopter, it is considerably safe and is unlikely to be capable of causing harms to its users. However, because the materials are mostly soft and fragile, and the components of the ornithopter will also be cut into thin pieces to reduce the mass, the product can be less durable.

What precedents inspired you? What did you take away from them & how did it inform your choices?
I was inspired by DIY flying butterflies and bird-shaped ornithopters that I found on YouTube. Both of these products share a similar mechanism—twisting rubber bands to store elastic potential energy that can later convert kinetic energy to power the flying motion. This became the central idea that I am applying to my product. Furthermore, by looking at the materials that they use to make the flying motion successful, which is to use thin pieces, I also made the choice to use light-weighted materials, such as papers, instead of cardboards.

How are you making your product original and/ or using creativity?
We’ll be changing the shape of the ornithopter into that of a peacock (mainly using the colors blue and green), so that it could have a cuter and more colorful look. We believe that this creative appearance is likely to appeal to the preferences of young children.

Drama Adventure Project

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• Describe your project.
For this Drama unit we were asked to choose one of the seven options for the “Drama Adventure Project”. After watching Mrs. Northcott’s introduction video and looking at the samples from other students, I found option 2 the most compelling to me. Option 2 is to make a 2-3min vlog of the day of a student in Beijing during Covid. I kept track of our progress on the project planner by setting goals for each lesson and providing corresponding pieces of evidence (mine are screenshots of my work) of what we have completed.

• What was your process in creating this project?
I first completed a project planner to plan out my time so that I know the steps I need to take to make the Vlog and how I am going to spend each lesson on them. So, the process of making this vlog is first, brainstorming the scenes I want to film; second, start filming the short video clips I need (waking up, online classes, going outside, doing homework, covid testing, other interesting parts of my life…); third, editing the videos (trimming the clips & putting them together, adding BGM & transitions+effects, adding narration+captions); and lastly, posting the vlog on Blogs. I followed these steps based on the project planner every lessons.

• What did you learn from this process?
learned how to create a project independently and effectively organize my time to complete the works I need to finish each lesson, by using a project planner. I also learned the steps of making a Vlog during the process of this project (I have never tried to make a vlog before this).

• What can you still improve in the final product?
I believe I can still improve on the editing part of my vlog. I could search up online to learn how to make a vlog more interesting through editing (creating the transitions between each scene, adjusting of the time length of each video clip, or even just learning how to choose a BGM that fits the mood).

• What are your proud about?
I am proud of myself for choosing this option (making a vlog) instead of learning a dance, which is something that I’m more familiar with. As I have mentioned already, I have never made a vlog before this project. It is my first time trying it out and I feel it turned out better than what I expected (I imagined that it would be quite hard to do the filming and editing), because process of making it could be considered as an enjoyable experience. I also proud about the fact that I worked on & planned out this project independently.

Capstone Project Article

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Quality Education for Children Across the Globe

Sustainable Development Goal 4 is to provide quality education for all. (via: https://www.bbva.com/en/bbva-champions-quality-education-for-all/)

Education is often seen as being literate, but quality education is entirely different. What is then considered quality education? A quality education is one that ensures there is emphasis on developing the social, emotional, mental, physical, and cognitive development of the child, irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or geographic location (Slade). Most importantly, the purpose of providing quality education is not to evaluate their test scores, but to prepare them for a fulfilled life. The first president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela once encapsulated this when he said, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

Unfortunately, according to UNESCO, “over 600 million children and adolescents worldwide are unable to attain minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics, even though two thirds of them are in school”. Out of the world’s 787 million children of primary school age, 58.4 million children do not go to school (UNESCO). These are all results of the barriers to education and the challenges to the provision of quality education for children.

Barriers to Quality Education

The lack of quality education most often occurs in developing countries and rural areas where the economy is unstable, and the level of poverty is high (The Human Journey). Children in such areas faces burdensome education costs barriers that prevents them from accessing quality education (Global Citizen). Hence, they are often being taught under harsh learning environments such as overcrowded classrooms, where it is challenging for them to pay attention to the lessons and instructions that the teachers give out(NSBA). In impoverished countries such as, Malawi, where schools have first grade students in classrooms that have on average 130 children, student are less likely to receive high quality education (Global Citizen).

Another cause that is responsible for this is the shortages in educational resources, which includes the lack of teaching materials and qualified teachers. An example of that would be outdated textbook which are shared by several students. In Cameroon, for example, 11 primary school students share one reading textbook, and 13 students a mathematics textbook in second grade. Additionally, whether schools have qualified teachers as well have a direct and substantial impact on the quality of education that the pupils receive. In a lot of the cases, schools are settling for quantity over quality, as stated in a broadcast from Weekend Edition Saturday, “schools…are scrambling to try to find qualified special education teachers for their classrooms…they are often forced to settle for people who are willing but under-qualified”. Hiring under-qualified teachers could result in children failing in mastering the basic literacy and numeracy skills(Global Citizen). This then prevents them from being prepared for employment and thus the ability to shape their own future.

Solutions to Remove the Barriers

Now that the problems are clear, how can we then resolve them and ensure that children across the globe are receiving quality education? To ensure that the problems are urgently addressed especially for those who have been left on the sidelines in terms of education, the following measures could be enacted.

Qualified Teachers

Increasing the number of teachers would be an effective and efficient way to increase the quality of education that students receive, because it would help lower the student-teacher ratio (The Hun School of Princeton). The the fewer students a teacher has, the more likely they are to tailor their education to each student’s unique, individual learning style. They may also create strong one-on-one mentoring connections with pupils, providing guidance and support in ways that are less likely to be achieved inside of a larger classroom.

So how can we increase the number of qualified teachers in needed areas? To attract good, qualified teachers to areas where they are lacked the most, it is important to either pay them a market related salary or raise their wages. Examples that can be analyzed on are how, in the face of a teacher shortage, 11 states in the U.S. have passed legislation to raise teacher salaries and offer various monetary incentives to entice more teachers to their ranks and encourage the ones they already have to remain in their positions (Prince). However, few incentives are specifically targeted to recruit and retain teachers in places where teacher shortage hits the hardest—low in-come areas and underserved schools. Thus, what the governments and school officials around the world can began to do is to increase the number of teachers in such places—through similar ways—to improve the quality of the education that children in those areas receive. A Stanford study examining the link between teacher wages and student outcomes found that the high school dropout rates could be reduced by 3% to 4% if the wage of teachers is adjusted with an increase of 10% (Loeb and Page). This is because increased salaries would likely result in the probability of hiring teachers who are more qualified and experienced in teaching; therefore, addressing the problem of qualified teachers in low-income areas.

Abolition of School Fees

Abolishing school fees in low-income areas and providing free material have also become popular methods adopted by governments across the world. By abolishing school fees, more children in poverty will be able to access schools which provide a higher quality of education. Usually, these high quality schools charge a higher fee, and this problem of fees will be addressed if it is abolished. So how should this measure be  enacted? In order to eliminate school fees, the governments need to make education a priority and increase funding to cater for the provision of basic education services, allocation of more student places, trained teachers, and learning materials. The specific measures must also be put in place within a good policy framework. Hence, the governments and development partners need to be gathering data and cost/enrollment estimates, examining education plans and budgets, finding inefficiencies, and considering new reform options (INEE). Greater accountability from local levels is needed as well. There has been evidence of this in low- income countries, such as in Sub- Saharan, where school enrollment increased after such measures were put in place.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, one-fifth of children who are between average ages of 6 and 11, followed by one-third of 12- to 14-year-old youth, are out of school—the highest rates of education exclusion (UNESCO). However, over the past several years, countries in the region were able to make tangible progress in terms of improving the education for children by eliminating school fees.
An example is how schools in Kenya have demonstrated a dramatic fall in students’ dropout rate and sudden surges in school enrollment, after the Kenyan government announced that it would stop charging fees for primary school education. Between 2002 to 2004, there was a 1.22 million increase in the primary school enrollments in Kenya. This huge increase proved to the Kenyan educators and their international partners that abolishing fees and affordable fees are feasible and effective ways to progress towards providing access to quality education for the poor. Huge growth in primary school enrollment has also been experienced in several other countries where school fees was eliminated. An estimation on the overall primary school enrollment in sub-Saharan Africa was made by the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), stating that it rose by 42 percent between 2000 and 2007 (Fleshman).

Despite these positive outcomes of the abolition of school fees, there are others who continues to express their worries in terms of the financing, regulation on the size of classes and teacher quality. These concerns are in fact reasonable because there have been issues occurring after the elimination of school fees, that are related to those aspects. For instance, Ethiopia’s average student teacher ratio grew from 33 to 1 to 66 to 1 after abolishing the fees (Olk). This means that the teachers will be less likely to be able to provide quality education for every and each of the students, which therefore decreases the quality of teaching. This also leads to the problem of overcrowding within classrooms, but fortunately, similar to the increase in teachers’ salaries—in terms of needing large financial support—, this kind of situation can be also resolved with the help of funding. Dina Craissati, a UNICEF primary education specialist also stated that, “the abolition of school fees should not be seen as a problem, but as an opportunity” (Africa Renewal). It can be concluded that she believes that, despite all difficulties, eliminating school fees still provides a great chance of improving education.

Funding for Quality Education 

From a financing perspective, to support the increase in school enrollment and the improvement in quality, it must be ensured that safe and quality learning environments are established. This is also to prevent the occurrence of problems such as overcrowded classroom. As a result, particularly when distributing funds, governments and donors should be adhering to the progressive universalism concept and ensuring that the most underprivileged are not left behind (Zubairi and Rose). Bursaries, for example, could be provided for to the neediest students who require assistance in meeting expenditures for uniforms, transportation, and boarding. It’s also necessary to make better use of formula financing to allocate resources to the areas and schools which are in urgent needs. Furthermore, to address the shortages in educational resources, the governments and other relevant NGOs that are based in high in-come countries, such as Save the Children International, could be allocating more funds into buying school materials, hiring qualified teachers, and building more classrooms.

What We Can Do to Help

Apart from the above solutions, there are also things that the public and/or communities can do to help solve the issues, regarding the education sector. For example, funding could be increased through ways such as charity donation to supply educational resources. We can start off small, allocating the funds for donations of school materials to the children in need, which may include textbooks, notebooks, and writing utensils. Similarly, charitable events, such as charity auctions, could be held in communities to raise funding for building and/or upgrading education facilities that cater for children with disabilities. This will help provide safe and inclusive learning environments for the students. Moreover, we could be raising awareness regarding this matter through online platforms and social media, to further promote charity donations and encourage parents to send their children to school at the appropriate age, so that the education being provided to them is suitable for their learning.

Looking at the Bigger Picture

As stated in The Global Goals, “[education] is the key to prosperity and opens a world of opportunities, making it possible for each of us to contribute to a progressive, healthy society.” It is the foundation of sustainable development and innovation. There may appear to be—as this is the reality—countless barriers to the provision of quality education for children, including but not limited to poverty, the lack of resources and qualified teachers, as well as funding shortages. In spite of these difficulties, we—referring to the public, governments, and relevant organizations—must joint as a collaborative and cooperative force to recognize and address these many issues. Together, we can build a better future for the children’s education sector of the world.

Works Cited

Cai, Jinghong. “Safe and Healthy Buildings.” NSBA, National School Boards Association, 1 Aug. 2021, www.nsba.org/ASBJ/2021/august/safe-and-healthy-buildings.

“Education in the Developing World.” The Human Journey, 17 Apr. 2019, humanjourney.us/health-and-education-in-the-modern-world/education-in-the-developing-world.

Fleshman, Michael. “Abolishing Fees Boosts African Schooling.” Africa Renewal, United Nations Africa Renewal, 12 Aug. 2016, www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/january-2010/abolishing-fees-boosts-african-schooling.

Global Citizen. “10 Barriers to Education around the World.” Global Citizen, 30 May 2014, www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/10-barriers-to-education-around-the-world/?gclid=CjwKCAjwj42UBhAAEiwACIhADgkwFVCAZi_w99uR1LLAILjpr44Y_isXlwE7dZib6kc-dkz4YBGixBoCR5AQAvD_BwE.

Loeb, Susanna, and Marianne E. Page. “Examining the Link between Teacher Wages and Student Outcomes: The Importance of Alternative Labor Market Opportunities and Non-Pecuniary Variation.” Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 82, no. 3, 2000, pp. 393–408. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1162/003465300558894.

Olk, Sara. “Abolishing School Fees in Africa: Effects on Impoverished Children.” BORGEN, 8 July 2018, www.borgenmagazine.com/school-fees-in-africa.

Prince, Cynthia. “Attracting Well-Qualified Teachers to Struggling Schools.” American Federation of Teachers, 3 Nov. 2014, www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/winter-2002/attracting-well-qualified-teachers-struggling.

Project Everyone. “Goal 4: Quality Education.” The Global Goals, 15 Mar. 2022, www.globalgoals.org/goals/4-quality-education.

“Six Steps to Abolishing Primary School Fees: Operational Guide.” INEE, The World Bank, 1 Jan. 2009, https://inee.org/resources/six-steps-abolishing-primary-school-fees-operational-guide.

Slade, Sean. “What Do We Mean by a Quality Education?” HuffPost, 22 Feb. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/what-do-we-mean-by-a-qual_b_9284130.

“Student-Teacher Ratios: Everything You Need to Know | The Hun School.” The Hun School of Princeton, Dec. 2019, www.hunschool.org/resources/student-teacher-ratios#:%7E:text=Additionally%2C%20a%20lower%20ratio%20will,and%20making%20their%20needs%20known.

UNESCO UIS. “Education in Africa | UNESCO UIS.” UNESCO Institute for Statistics, uis.unesco.org/en/topic/education-africa. Accessed 1 June 2022.

UNICEF. “Education.” UNICEF, www.unicef.org/education. Accessed 1 June 2022.

Weekend Edition Saturday. “Solving The Special Ed Teacher Shortage: Quality, Not Quantity – Document – Gale In Context: Middle School.” Gale’s Research In Context, National Public Radio, Inc. (NPR), 16 Jan. 2016, go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=MSIC&u=cnisbj&id=GALE|A441831321&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bookmark-MSIC&asid=91f8de07.

Zubairi, Asma, and Pauline Rose. “Equitable Financing of Secondary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa .” MasterCard Foundation, Feb. 2019, https://mastercardfdn.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SEA-Finance-Equity_REAL_Final-Version_Feb-2019.pdf.

Cuban Revolution Journal

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Over the course of this unit, we’ve learned about different aspects of the Cuban revolution, which ranges from the causes of the revolution to its consequences; from the important people involved to the important dates and events.

Below displays the eBook that I made about the Cuban Revolution. For this task, we were asked to write three journal entries that explains the causes and effects of the Revolution that we picked to study about (I picked the Cuban Revolution) with a balanced amount of narrative and historical details. It should also includes the relevant changes and continuities.

Context of the Cuban Revolution:

On December 10, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed by the United States and Spain to formally end the Spanish-American War. Even though Cuba was able to gain independence from Spain under this treaty, it was also then occupied by the U.S. for three years. However, being one of the world’s leading sugar supplier, Cuba had been able to establish a successful trade relationship with the United States. On the other hand, the U.S. had also been the most powerful supporter of the former president of Cuban, Fulgencio Batista.

Batista was a dictator, who took over the Cuban government by force, and a corrupted leader, who catered to the wealthy and caused inequality. He failed to advance the economic welfare of the Cuban people but, instead, brought more misery to their lives. During his regime, the wealthy were the only ones who were contend with his governance; since the poor wanted more support and jobs, while the middle class were upset with inflation. The bad governance and peasants’ dissatisfactions then slowly led to the Cuban Revolution with the rise of the rebel group M-26-7.

Lip balm #3

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This one is the best of the three trials. It feels soft and is more moisturizing than the first two lip balm. The color of the lip balm and the container also matches. I think I will just use this recipe.

2 g shea butter
1.95 g grape-seed oil
1 g beeswax
0.05 g of essential oils