Violence Against Women Act- Renewal Issue

 

An important renewal happened on Thursday, February 28, 2013. This renewal had to do

Fighting for the VAWA

Fighting for the VAWA

with the VAWA (Violence Against Women Act). The already existing law protects women from violence that might occur. If violence was to ever occur, this law would provide support. Such as, medical/health support, economical support, legal support, and housing support.This renewal took a lot of arguing and debating between the House and the Senate.

The Senate wrote another bill that expanded the already existing one. This expansion included Native American women and immigrant women. At the exact same time the

The House of Representatives in session

The House of Representatives in session

House wrote another bill that also renewed the already existing law, but did not have the other expansions that the Senate added to theirs.

Each group wanted each other to adopt there bill. The House didn’t like the Senate’s bill and the Senate didn’t like the House’s bill. This created much tension between the two groups. What also added to the tension is the House is controlled by the Republicans and the Senate is controlled by the Democrats. At this time in politics the Republicans are looked down upon as the “meanies” of the two parties. They are said to have no compassion for the American people, and they want to change that. To show that they “care” about the American people,  they gave up and signed off on the Senate’s renewal.

Republican and Democrat Logos

Republican and Democrat Logos

The bill has been passed on to President Obama with bipartisan approval. But does this really change American’s view on the Republican Party? Comment down below on what you think.

 

 

Other websites/PDFs:

Women in Combat: Yes or No?

On Thursday, January 24, 2013, military leaders (including Leon Panetta, Defense Secretary) lifted the ban on women in combat in the Army. This lift has caused a lot of discussion whether this was a good idea or not. There are many people who say this is a step in the right direction, and that this is what is right for America. But on the other hand, others say that this can cause a lot of other problems.

U.S women preparing for duty

U.S women are preparing for duty.

The people who say, “Yes, women should be allowed to be in combat in the U.S army,” have a lot of reasons why. First of all it says in the 14th Amendment that women have the same rights as men do, so they should be allowed the same opportunities as the men. If we have laws or bans against women rights, that’s going against the Constitution, which is NOT allowed. Women everywhere want to be treated equally. If we exclude them, we’re getting rid of millions of people who could help in our army. We need those volunteers to support us. Women are just as amazing, talented, smart, quick thinking, and strong as men, and they have a right to go into combat.

Women ready for anything coming their way

Women are ready for anything coming their way.

But there is another side to this argument: this ban lift causes a lot of problems. Examples are prejudice, romantic possibilities, and sexual harassment, which cause unnecessary tension between the two different genders. When our troops are defending our country, do you want sexual harassment going on or relationships getting in the way of their missions? I think that most Americans want everybody to be prepared and focused when defending our country. There is also the question that comes up, “Should there be lesser standards for women when being recruited for the army?”

I leave that question for you to answer. Please comment below.

Ready, Set , Go!

Ready,  Set , Go!

For more information click on these links:

Greg Myre: “Women in Combat–5 Key Questions” (NPR The Two-Way)

Justin Fishel, “Military Leaders Lift Ban on Women in Combat Roles” (FoxNews.com)

Jerry Boykin, “Women in Combat a Dangerous Experiment”, (CNN)

U.N Recognizes Palestine as a Non-Member State

A map of the West Bank


Just a few days ago, the United Nations (U.N.) voted to recognize Palestine as a non-member state. A non-member state in this case is a governmental organization whose statehood or sovereignty is not precisely defined, and which is an observer at the General Assembly, allowing it to participate and speak, but not vote, in General Assembly meetings. The U.N. has been fighting on whether they should make Palestine a state for a very long time. But on November 29, 2012, the majority of nations decided that Palestine (Israeli-occupied West Bank) would be a state. There were 138 votes towards the idea and 9 against, and 41 abstentions. The U.N. has 193 members.

The U.S (Untied States) and Israel were both on the opposed side. The reason they believed Palestine should not be its own state is because this causes many different obstacles. There have been many different disagreements between Palestine and Israel, there many different paths these two nations could go through. Palestine could put Israel in front of the international court for the crimes they have committed against Palestine. And Israel could do the exact same thing against Palestine. This wouldn’t have been a problem if Palestine never became a state. None of this fighting and nonsense would have been possible.

Also all the people that are in the territory now called Palestine are all known as Palestinians. The Jewish settlers do not like being known as Palestinians. They have been apart of Israel from the longest time, and this is a huge change for the people that are involved. This could cause people to move back into the territory of Israel. This could also cause rebellion against the U.N.

A map of Jerusalem

The rest of the many nations that actually voted for the idea also have a strong point. The people of Palestine have been asking for this for a very long time. And they are willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want. So my guess is that the nations decided that they should make the people happy, and give them what they want. So they voted for the idea, and created Palestine.

So to answer the question what the people want, the nations that voted against the idea have a very strong point that this is going to create a lot of stress and heart ache on something that could have been avoided. But the people that voted for the idea, also wanted to make the people of Palestine happier. There were many people that have wanted this for a very long time and they have finally got what they wanted.  

Citations:

Map of the West Bank:
West Bank Atlas: Maps and Online Resources — Infoplease.com

Map of Jerusalem:
Israel Maps Israel Hotels Travel Guide – Maps of Israel

Sites with more information:
UN General Assembly votes in favor of Palestinian statehood | Fox News

 

Music Podcast Reflection

PodcastPaytonLizzie2

Music Podcast Reflection “The Electric Violin”

Payton & Lizzie

Period 2

3/14/12


We did our podcast on the Electric Violin. We researched the Electric Violin, then wrote a script. We then created our Podcast.

We both have played a normal Violin, but we never have played the Electric Violin. We knew only a little about the Electric Violin so we learned a lot during this project. We learned about the other instruments that were in the same family, how the instrument is played, and famous artists that professionally play it. We learned new things about Garageband too. We learned how to set our pictures for the podcast. We never knew that before now. We learned other things that Mrs. Von trebra taught us.

We could improve on our reading skills from the script and our reading. We got points taken off because we were reading too fast. It was not consistent when we were reading the script out loud while we recording it. It made it feel very choppy and we points taken off. But besides those things we did pretty well in our opinion.

The things we are most proud of are the detailed information we had in our notes and in our script and in our podcast. The things that we did the best was the gathering the information in our opinion. We used the books and my orchestra teacher’s information to help us get that detailed information. She gave us a couple links to help us and it gave us some important information about our instrument. We took all the information and made a terrific podcast, in our opinion.

Outdoor Education Experience

Introduction

This spring we went to Outdoor Education at Snake River Adventure Center. It was a 2-hour bus ride and we had to pack the buses and truck with all of our clothes and other things. It was a blast on the bus ride we played on our iPods and talked a lot. When we got there the “girls” unload their stuff and the girls helped with the boys stuff too. After we put our stuff in our rooms/cabins, we headed to the big field and played group games. Then we had lunch and so on. In each of my paragraphs I explain each big class or activity, in order of my schedule.

Team Course

In teams course we used are imagination and worked as a team. In my team/group there was Arch, Michael, JB, Danielle, Maya, Yesol, Carissa, Jagr, Chase, Noah, Jonathan, Joe, and moi. We were group 2. As a team we went to the Jungle. There obstacles in our way like, a giant spider web we had to get through without getting eaten, bomb stick we had to carry, Jump rope obstacle, low ropes were we had to walk on a tightrope without falling, slow hula-hoop game were we had set the hula-hoop without letting it fall, blindfold walk were one person (Chase) led us around while everyone else was blindfolded, lava platform were we had to get everyone one platform using wood planks and two other platforms, and other activities  too. We got through all of these by communicating and helping each other. We tried many times at each course. My favorite course was the low ropes because it took a lot of work and I like challenges.

Orienteering

In orienteering we learned to use a compass. A compass works by magnets in the compass and around the earth like a force field. The magnetic forces pull the magnetic to tell were is north and south, and the west and east are figured out after we determine north and south. We used the compass to find letters in the forest and to find are pennies on the ground.  It was hard because I could never find my penny by myself. When we were  finding the letters in a specific place Danielle and I could never find it. So it was hard.

Survival

In survival we built shelters and learned how long you could live without necessities. If you didn’t have food you could only live for 3 weeks. If you didn’t have water you could live only 3 days. If you didn’t have shelter you can only live 3 hours. We talked about this around a campfire. My little group’s shelter was shaped like a tipi. Our shelter/house could fit 5 people in it. We used flat planks so everything would stay straight against are tree stump. Most interesting thing I learned was that without a shelter we could only live 3 hours.

New Games

During this class, we played fun games that we do in PE. The games we played were Ultimate Nerf, Keep-away Frisbee, and Elbow tag. The rules for Ultimate Nerf were that we had to pass the ball around and pass to a person through the goal. We went by point system. So who ever had the most points at the end was the winner. In keep-away Frisbee you have teammates and you pass to each other to earn points if you are defense and not throwing the Frisbee then you can intercept the Frisbee and earn points for your team. The last game we played was elbow tag and the rules to this game was that you had a partner and there was a person it and catcher. If you are it you run and try no to get caught if you tired then you link up with other pair and the person on the other side of the middle person is it. It was a really fun class and it was one of my favorites.

Archery

In archery class we learned how to set up a bow, what are the parts of the bow and arrow, and how to fire. We also had safety guide lines that we had to follow. We never pointed the bow and arrow at someone or something that was not a target. The parts of the arrow are the tip was the tip, there was feathers are the guiders (on opposite side of tip), and other parts. Some challenging things I faced was aiming and stance. I had good form and I could get it to the target, but I could get it to an exact place. Even though I can’t aim I loved archery!

Nature

During this class our teacher was Ms. Wright and she was really nice and fun to work with. In this class we used are senses in each activity. The activities we did were having no thumbs and acting like squirrels, being blind and having a partner have you every other sense to figure out where they took you, figuring out what type of rock was in your hand, and the peppermint hunt. I learned that when you don’t use one of your senses then the other ones are better than before, I that was really cool. The most difficult thing on the peppermint hike was actually smelling the peppermint. We got hints from Ms. Wright and so it was easy and fun, but you really can’t smell the peppermint on the trail.

Entomology

In entomology we learned about insects. What makes an insect an insect is it has six legs, antennae, thorax, and abdomen. Something interesting about grasshopper is that they very threatening. Grasshoppers can cut down a field in less than 5 hours. It’s insane! I learned so many things about insects. My favorite activity was when created are own bugs and gave it characteristics. We built them out of candy it tasted delicious! It was a fun class.

Climbing Tower and High Ropes

We did this activity on our last day at Snake River Adventure Center. On the climbing tower I climbed on side of the rock wall. I didn’t want to zip-line down so I jump on the rock wall with a harness and slowly went down it was fun. I’m scared of heights so I didn’t want to stare at the ground from such a high height and I decided no to go on. While my group was at the high ropes course I didn’t want to risk me being scared so I didn’t go, but I saw people do and it looked fun and scary for me. In this activity I felt good and not scared because I didn’t give my self and hard-attack. It was fun watching and doing.

Conclusion

In conclusion I had a blast at Outdoor Ed. I had so many great memories. I loved all of the other things we did too. I played card games and in the big gym with the relay races and stuff.  We got giant rice crispy treats and they were awesome. I had so many amazing memories. I loved having Outdoor Ed. Thanks so much for reading.

Pictures

                                  This is the map of the Camp

This is the map of the Camp

                    This is a picture of the triplets the girls cabins

This is a picture of the triplets the girls cabins

                               This is a picture of my lunch group

This is a picture of my lunch group

               This is a picture of the giant spider web and my group

This is a picture of the giant spider web and my group

This was my group journaling at the big field

This was my group journaling at the big field

This is the scores after we finished the relay races

This is the scores after we finished the relay races

This was my friends and I playing cancan

This was my friends and I playing cancan

This is the fire we roasted marshmallows on

This is the fire we roasted marshmallows on

This was the climbing tower there is rock climbing and ropes and ladders

This was the climbing tower there is rock climbing and ropes and ladders

This is me on the climbing tower

This is me on the climbing tower

This is a group picture of all of our grade

This is a group picture of all of our grade

My Proportions Project

In math, we worked on a proportions project. One of the choices was to scale a cartoon character to be our height and see if their body parts are proportional to our body parts. For this particular part of the project I scaled Daisy Duck as my height (in inches). Some of her body parts were proportional and not proportional to me. I used 5 different body parts, her leg, eyeball, arm, foot, and head. It cool to see what Daisy Duck would look if she were my height! For example if Daisy Duck were my height what would the size of her eyeball be in inches. 1.5/9=x/63 is my equation. Then I found a easy-relationship , 9 goes into 63 7x. So 1.5 x 7 is 10.5 inches. Daisy Duck’s eyeball at my height is almost a foot long. Her eyeball is not proportional to my eyeball at all. In conclusion, Daisy Duck if my is not really proportional at all.

Hand Soap Bacteria Lab

As a concluding activity for our study of the Scientific Method, students worked through a variety of bacteria investigations. Students were provided a lab template which provided them with a six-step outline of the scientific method for problem solving. Using those steps and sterile nutrient agar plates, students collected bacteria in an attempt to answer their original question. Bacterial growth was documented through qualitative and quantitative observations as well as digital photographs. The following lab report is this student’s attempt at a bacterial investigation.   (Mr. Peter Ogden: Sixth Grade Science Teacher)

Please click the link below to view this student’s bacteria lab investigation.

Hand Soap Evaluation Lab

Fun Data Question

Screen shot 2010-10-28 at 10.09.34 PM

This graph is a Bell-shaped graph, because most people have only a few uncles and only 2 or 3 people have many uncles in their family. The most common number of uncles was 3-5. There was 7 people that had 3-5 uncles. There was a gap where people had 15-17 uncles in their family and only 1 person with 18-20 uncles. I have 5 uncles in my family. I am in the average group. There are no outliers in this histogram.