Final Project

For my final project I interviewed my grandmother on my father's side (transcript 1) and my mother (transcript 2). I also sent my aunt an email and she gave me some valuable information over the phone in response. I learned a lot about family names through my family echo and other research sites to help me understand things of historical significance within my family. My infographic talks about our origins along with my prezi. In my prezi the focus was primarily on my mother's side where as in my infographic it focuses more heavily on my father's side. I learned a lot about myself and now hopefully you will too!


Transcript #1


Transcript #2


Email 


Family Echo

November 23, 2014

What are you doing for Thanksgiving? Do you have any traditions? Go in to detail about your plans for the 5 day weekend.

This thanksgiving will probably be like every other thanksgiving I have ever had in my life! Each year I go to my grandma's on my mom's side where we enjoy a meal consisting of ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, deserts, casseroles, and more! I get to see my cousins and all of their adorable pets! This Saturday I also have plans to go to a thanksgiving hosted by Derek's family. We will also be celebrating his birthday and just hanging out with his family which is always really exciting. There is a chance I may go black Friday shopping with my sister once she gets off work at target. My grandma on my dad's side recently sent me money and I would really like to get some of my Christmas shopping out of the way! I think I will start with gifts for my family and then my friends. I also plan to get lots of rest and catch up on all of my studying! I wish that thanksgiving break was a full week, but five days still gives me a lot of time to get back on top of my game. I will be preparing for my upcoming debate tournament on December 5th and 6th this Sunday as well. However, more than anything I am just excited to be surrounded by the people that I love and care about.

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November 19, 2014

Reflecting on the comments and grade of your stop-motion animation... what you would do differently if you had to do it all over again? Would you manage your time better? Find better lighting for your photos? Come up with a better idea? Explain what you would change about your video.

There are several things I wish I had done differently with my stop-motion animation, but I am satisfied with my grade nonetheless. If I had to do it all over again I would make sure that I had a podcast and a quality digital camera. I would make sure that I was completely out of the frame so that my shadow would not play a major role or disrupt/throw off the lighting. Furthermore, I would try to find a steadier surface so that the thing I was using to prop up my picture taking device would not be at all visible. I think I would also try something with food that told a story by creating pictures like some of my classmates did! For example, many used skittles and m&m's o create stories; I think that would be cool.

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November 17, 2014

Tell me about your weekend.

This weekend was alright. I had debate at Shawnee Mission East and took fourth place overall. It wasn't my best, but I'm happy to at least have received and got another DCI bid. I officially have four of them, so that's kind of exciting.At any rate, I also had a lot of fun after debate. I hung out with my friends Emily, Ricky, Chiranth, and Luke. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and eating some taco bell! Then on Saturday I got a chance to see Derek, which is always pretty fun. I'm really looking forward to this next weekend though because I get to see my grandma from Illinois who I hardly ever see.

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November 14, 2014

Tell me about your experience with taking your stop-motion photos. What problems did you run in to? What did you find difficult about the process? What would you go back and change about HOW you took the photos? Explain yourself.

My experience with stop-motion photos was an interesting one to say the least. I had a few problems, but overall this experience has been pretty rewarding so far. The problems I ran into include bad lighting, accidentally moving my objects, and a few other things of that nature. I found it really difficult to find a way to steady the camera that I was using on my iPad, but eventually I figured it out by stacking it on top of several shoe boxes. I would definitely change this by borrowing a tripod for a longer period of time if I ever do this again in the future. I would also try to do something with small toys or figures to make them seem like they are moving, rather than just using a sandwich. However, I felt overall that this project was a success. 

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November 11, 2014

What is your idea for your stop motion animation? How is your idea innovative and creative? How are you going to execute your idea?

I have not officially decided on what I will be doing for my stop motion animation, but I do have a few ideas. I think it would be interesting to create something with clay like you see very often on TV. Perhaps I could also make a sandwich and have each motion/ingredient be a different frame within the animation. One last idea that I have is involving my dog, like maybe walking him or playing with him. All of these ideas are innovative and creative because they have clear story lines and involve very interesting subjects. I think that these will be different from my classmates and hopefully unique from anything that they have seen before. I plan to execute this project at my house with the help of my dog!

November 10, 2014

What is stop motion animation? If you don't know, look it up! Explain

Stop motion animation is a series of frames of an object that make it appear as though it is moving. Typically the person does not have the image in their hands or appear within their own stop motion animation. Several subjects that are frequently used are clay, utensils, and food items. It is different from animation because it involves real physical objects rather than drawings that are sketched and manipulated through animation on the computer. It is often seen as a more difficult and lengthy process, but the results are very cool.

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