Cuban Revolution Common Craft Video

By

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.  For this humanities task, we were asked to create a common craft video with our partners to explain, in detail, what happened throughout the revolution that we picked to study about. The video is meant to be educational and engaging at the same time.

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.

Below is the video that I made with my partner Rachel:

lip balm#2

By

The second trial turned out much better than the first one. It’s more moisturizing and feels softer. I’m also glad that there’s no hole in the middle of the lip balm (I was more careful when I was pouring the liquid into the container).

#2:

1.9 g shea butter
1.9 g grape-seed oil
1.15 g beeswax
0.05 g of essential oils

#3:

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

Lip balm t1

By

The first trial didn’t turn out very well. First, because there wasn’t enough liquid in the container, a hole formed in the center of the lip balm. Second, the feedback that I got from my partner is that it felt a bit dry when tested on hand. I think I would add more oil and shea butter to make it more moisturizing. However, I do like the scent.

#2 recipe:

1.9 g shea butter
1.9 g grape-seed oil
1.15 g beeswax
0.05 g of essential oils

Lip balm recipe

By

Material list:

  1. shea butter
  2. grape-seed oil
  3. beeswax
  4. essential oils (vanilla)

Ingredients:

1.6 g shea butter
2.2 g grape-seed oil
1.15 g beeswax
0.05 g of essential oils

Steps:

1. Add shea butter, grapeseed oil, and beeswax to a glass bowl and heat until completely melted, using the double boiler method. (Double boiler method– place bowl on a pot of gently simmering water and stir frequently)

2. Remove from heat.

3. Add essential oils and mix until combined.

4. Transfer into containers of choice.

5. Place into the fridge or freezer to set.

Flesh & Blood So Cheap–Central Ideas & Theme

By

Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy written by Albert Marrin is a nonfiction book that is mainly about the causes (the events that led up to it) and effects of the Triangle Fire in 1911–one of the deadliest industrial disasters in U.S. history. Besides this event, it also accounts the story of South Italian and Jewish immigrants who traveled to America to find a better life–which builds up to the main event; covering topics such as labor rights, immigration, and mortality.  Furthermore, as the central ideas of the book develop, readers will eventually discover a larger story behind the tragedy. It is a story of the poor working conditions and unfair labor practices that industry workers suffered in, at that time period, as well as the sacrifices they made and the actions they took to cause a change in the society.

The two main central ideas I found in the book are that, immigrants faced a lot of hardships in the new country (America), and that workers suffered under poor working conditions & unfair labor practices. Furthermore, I think the theme that these two ideas built up to in the book is that, “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and safety”, as stated by the author at the end of the book.

Below are the notes that I took on the development of these ideas over the course of the story:


Organic Bluetooth Speaker–Product design

By

In this unit of product design, we were asked to design a bluetooth speaker box with a certain design aesthetics. I used the organic aesthetics because I was inspired by an image of a beehive on google.

Struggle & challenge:

I struggled with making the kerf bent box because it was difficult to create one with the right bend radius so that the bent panel won’t break. To get this final product, I did multiple trials with both cardboard and wood. It kept on breaking because the width of the cut line was too small.

A new skill:

Over the course of this project, I gained the skill of using affinity designer. I learned how to create shapes and assemble the shapes together to make a more complex pattern in Affinity Designer.

An aspect I’m proud of:

I’m proud of the holes I made for the buttons because it turned out that my measurements were perfect, therefore the sizes were also just right. It only shows the buttons and leaves no extra space that will show the inside of the box.

Book Talk–The Hate U Give

By

For the final task of the humanities book club lessons, we were’s asked to record a video of ourselves presenting a book talk to explain the theme of the books we were reading. The book that’s been reading for the past 10 days is “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas. The central theme in this novel is the importance of speaking out against racism in order to end the cyclical nature of this phenomena and the injustice that results from this.

Reduce Food Waste–1st Product Design Project Reflection

By

Client brainstorm paper pdf

Design sketches pdf

prototype photo pdf

Prototype Photo pdf

For our first Product design unit, we were asked to come up with design that will help reduce and prevent the happening of food waste. We were divided into pairs and small groups of three. I first chose two problems my “client” of this project—Mika—reported to have with her favorite types of food/drink that would possibly lead to the occurrence food waste: fizzy drink no longer fizzy & cold, and rice being too sticky or too hard. After further discussion and seeing my design sketches for each problem, my client chose the first one—the design for soda problem—to be made a prototype for.

Something I learned about myself during this project is that having have been through practices and having the experiences I got from last year’s design class, design skills such as brainstorming a design idea and drawing sketches (showing the different perspectives & including labels) for modeling have become things I am now comfortable with; in other words, they are gradually becoming my areas of strength. I was able to quickly notice this change because during the planning stage of this project, I was able to come up with various ideas with using both mind map and listing in a shorter time range. When searching for inspirations on the internet, I as well knew clearly what I should be looking for and how to “apply” those ideas into my design—with a similar, but new usage as their original function.

Overall, I think my prototype is a success because as you can probably see from the above pictures, my initial design sketch and the final prototype I created are mostly similar in their overall outer appearance; despite there are some changes I’ve made about the details of the original design sketch, such as the where the switch and control panel are placed. Additionally, the final prototype came out being very alike to my initial idea and all the different parts I decided to put onto this design “made sense”—looks reasonable.

Biggest obstacle: However, my biggest obstacle was also in the making part of the final prototype. As I was making the prototype, I realized it wasn’t as easy as my prediction to make out the shapes of the different parts of my design with a completely different material—foam–I designed them to be—mostly steel. Fortunately, I was still able to make out the basic shape of my design by attaching cardboard to it, to give it a stronger support for standing—as you can see in the photo above.

One piece of advice for a future student doing this project: My advice would be, before actually starting the “making” process of this project, brainstorm your idea fully and plan out what you are going to do thoroughly. These two procedures may include coming up with various ideas as alternatives for the one you favors; planning out your time efficiently to ensure that you have enough time to finish what you want to build; and making sure the final idea you choose is one that is “feasible”—possible to make a prototype for in the given time range. I learned this from my own experience in this project, and also from others’. I favored another idea—that isn’t the one I chose—at first, but due to time constrain I didn’t choose that one; at the end, it was proven to be the right decision.

Renaissance Humanist Infographic–Humanities

By

In our humanities unit “The Renaissance”, we are currently learning about Renaissance Humanism. We have been discussing and researching about the main elements that influenced the concept of Humanism and the beliefs of Renaissance humanists. The below PDF presents  my ideas and information about the above mentioned topics. You can also click on the two hyperlinks below for more information about Renaissance Humanism.
Renaissance humanism.

Infographic:

Renaissance humanism

Links:

https://www.theartstory.org/definition/renaissance-humanism/history-and-concepts/

More detailed information