September 30-October 6

Organizational Skills

            I organized my time this week by bookmarking website tutorials on how to make calendars in Adobe Photoshop. I also found a website from WWF (World Wildlife Fund) that helps one calculate their own personal carbon footprint; I filed it carefully into my Personal Project folder in my list of bookmarks in my Internet browser. The URL is http://ecoguru.panda.org/#/intro. In addition, I joined the Photography Club at school so I could learn more about taking good photos for my calendar.

Communication

            I talked to my supervisor for some tips on how to make calendars in Photoshop because she was my Digital Art teacher last year (my classmates and I made art pieces using Photoshop). She did not give me any tips about it, but instead she told me to use Adobe InDesign, a program that I had never heard of, instead.

Information Literacy

            Initially I did not want to take my supervisor’s advice into account because of how much extra work it would be to go to the store and install Adobe InDesign, not to mention the amount of time it would take to learn how to use it. But then my laptop got a virus on it, so all of my files and programs had to be deleted because they got contaminated. This meant that I would have to bring my program disks to the store and have them re-installed. When I got to the store, I realized that I could just buy and install InDesign while my other programs were being installed. When I got home with my new programs, I opened InDesign and found that the tools were quite similar to Photoshop. This was a blessing because now I do not have to learn how to use all the features in the program; I already know about most of them. In addition, I tried out the website that calculates one’s carbon footprint. I am sad to say that I am currently using the energy and resources of 2.3 planets.

I learned to be more energy conscious and to watch what I eat, how much I recycle, what kind of transportation I use, the distance of the places I go on holiday, and how much energy I consume. What is good about the website is that it does not only tell one how much they are consuming, but also what they can do to consume less energy. This could be a good website to tell people about in my calendar because it helps them be aware of just how much of the earth’s resources they are consuming and how to consume less. As I mentioned before, I signed up for the Photography club at school, which meets on Mondays at lunchtime. So far there have been two meetings; I did not learn much at the first meeting because it was more of an introductory session and I skipped the second because I needed to take pictures of the Battle of the Bands (a band competition at school) for the school newspaper.

September 23-29

This week I am merely fulfilling the requirements of the next Personal Project meeting, so I only have the "Information Literacy" heading instead of the other two headings ("Organizational Skills" and "Communication").

Information Literacy

-          Development of Personal Thought

o   Research

Based on the research I have done in previous stages such as the Plan stage last month, I have realized that the damage to the environment and the earth itself done by humans is a lot more serious than I initially thought. However, I have also realized that there is still a small spark of hope to stop (but not entirely) the damage being done. This requires just about everyone on earth to be environmentally conscious, not just a few people here and there. This fueled my desire to raise environmental awareness even more because everyone should know about the earth’s problems that they themselves are contributing to without even knowing it.

o   Process of Creation

Since most people do not care about or do not know about the damage they are doing to the environment, I feel that I should take the initiative to inform them. One of my personal thoughts based on the creation process would be that making use of Adobe InDesign for the calendar pages is much easier than I thought it would be. Also, I realized that my first design for the picture pages of the calendar were quite unattractive because the picture should be the main focus of the page (hence the name “picture page”), but instead the space is divided equally with the background information. I made a 2^nd draft in which the allotted space for the picture was a lot bigger than the space for the background information because many people will probably look at the picture instead of the background information anyway.

-          Development of Understanding of AOI

o   Research

I thought I knew a lot about and cared about the environment before I started this project, but I was wrong. Now that I have done some research about my AOI, Environments, I feel that I now know a lot more about the various environmental issues than I did before. Also, since I read through the guiding questions of my AOI in the Personal Project Guide, I realized that these questions will be quite valuable throughout my creation process, so I should keep them in mind.

o   Process of Creation

I learned quite a lot from experimenting with the unfamiliar tools in Adobe InDesign. I now know how to make a calendar from a simple table (with the help of an online tutorial) and create the layout of the picture pages. The tip will be in a small rounded rectangle up at the top of the picture, and the background information will be underneath the picture. By looking at the pictures I have taken for each calendar month, I have realized the natural beauty of the environment and how important it is to save it from the damage being caused by humans. This, I believe, is the essence of my AOI.

September 16-22

What I Did This Week

            As the Personal Project Exhibition is in a few weeks, I worked on my presentation in order to get ready for it. I have been told by multiple people that the Exhibition is quite important, and that I need to put a lot of effort into my 10-minute Powerpoint presentation in order to get a good grade for the Personal Project section on my report card for the semester. So I am currently putting forth a lot of effort into my presentation.

            For the presentation, I have written a summary of my design specifications and what I plan to do with my goal. Also, I have gone over how my goal relates to my Area of Interaction. In addition, I went over each of my resources that I chose for my bibliography and made sure that they were varied and exceeded the minimum number (three). I have 13 right now, so I think I will get an “Exceeding Expectations” grade with that particular section, at least.

Difficulties I Faced

            According to the rubric that I will be assessed with, my PP binder should be organized. I have quite a lot of papers in my binder, and it sometimes can take a while to find a specific page. Also, I looked at the Exhibition guidelines posted on Managebac and it said that I would need detailed ways to test my design specifications. I had not done this because it was not required when the design specifications were created, quite a while back.

How I Solved the Challenges/What I Learned

In order to make my binder more organized so that I can get a better organization grade during the Personal Project Exhibition, I put tabs that mark important documents in the binder for easier navigation for the teachers that will assess me, including my supervisor. For the testing of the design specifications, I brainstormed and thought of ways to test each and every one of my design specifications. I typed up these methods of testing, printed them, and placed them into my binder. I will put a tab on it soon so teachers can see that I have done it. What I learned was not to procrastinate, and take initiative to do work ahead of schedule, because it saves a lot of stress and it feels good to be productive. Looking at the rubric for the Personal Project Exhibition, there is a lot more work to do than I thought there would be. I initially thought that all we (the 10^th grade students) had to do was tell the teachers about how much of the product was finished. It is actually much more than that: process journal entries, timelines, diagrams, sketches, reflections, bibliographies, design specifications, and more.

September 9-15

Organization

            This week I organized my Personal Project binder so that I 

could find things like the various newspaper articles I cut out, my 

Resources/Materials List, Product Design Specifications, and more. I was told about a few more newspaper articles that support my cause, so I cut them out and carefully stored them in my binder as well.

Communication

            My parents and I talked this week about my Personal Project, and I asked them to be on the lookout for newspaper articles and websites that I could maybe glean some information from. They did not fail me; they found three articles that I could use: one about rare fish in Indonesia, littering in Jakarta, and Biak (a small island in Indonesia). My dad also found an article on CNN about a building in Sweden called the Turning Torso, which is powered only by renewable energy. Mrs. Grace, my Personal Project supervisor, helped me as well by reminding me about the deadline on Monday, September 16^th, for which I had to have my Product Specifications and research information.

Information Literacy

            I learned a lot from the newspaper articles and the article 

about the Turning Torso. For the newspaper article about the rare 

fish species, I learned about a beautiful fish called the Sepat 

Mutiara (pearl gourami) that is about to go extinct. It says that 

“unless breeding is undertaken, the fish and some other species in 

the same environment will be extinct”, and talks about a laboratory 

specialized for breeding the pearl gourami so as to delay or even 

prevent extinction. In addition, while reading about litter, I 

came across a horrifying picture of so much litter on the road and 

sidewalks on one of the Car-Free days in Jakarta. I believe this is 

quite paradoxical because the main point of Car-Free days is to 

lessen pollution in the area, but if people are littering so much then 

it kind of defeats the purpose of the Car-Free day because litter 

everywhere could be counted as a form of pollution as well. The 

good thing about the article, however, was that the picture was 

quite effective in proving its point that litter is not a good thing and 

makes places look very messy and unorganized. Also, the actual 

text stated that there will be a new bylaw that litterers will be fined 

Rp. 500,000 (around US$45) by the police, and that houses will be 

required to start separating their organic and non-organic waste so 

that it is easier for the country to manage. The third article, 

called “Biak, the Hidden Paradise” declared that the coral reefs 

were beautiful, and had the pictures to show it. They were indeed 

beautiful, and I used them as examples of good picture composition 

and color scheme. There are quite a few dive spots on the island. 

The beauty of these coral reefs and the money they obtain from 

tourists is the reason that they should be saved and not destroyed. 

Lastly, the Turning Torso. As stated before, it is a very tall 

skyscraper in Sweden (the tallest in Scandinavia) that is powered 

by renewable energy alone. Its name is derived from its shape: as 

one’s eyes travel up the building, it actually looks like it is turning. 

The renewable energy is made by the town itself. It did not state 

what kind of renewable energy, but it is good that some people are 

taking the initiative to live in a more environmentally friendly way.