1. What is a raised garden bed? A raised garden bed is just a box that you can plant seeds in. Those boxes can be altered and changed so as to change the aesthetic but they all remain the same concept.
2. Why should we build a raised garden bed at our school? One of the main reasons to build a raised garden bed is because they’re very efficient with planting and keep out most critters.
3. What should we not build a raised garden bed at our school? Simply because I like the idea of aquaponics more. If there was no aquaponics, I would be all in on the raised garden beds.

Copy and paste a photo of the prototypical (best one in your mind) design of a raised garden bed.

4. Explain why you like this raised garden bed and what makes it best.

I like this raised garden bed because it gives a nice rustic aesthetic feel to the garden. It also places the garden high up making it tough for ground insects to get it.

My avatar is just a bunch of sports balls. It has a basketball, football, baseball, and a soccer ball. I chose this avatar because I love sports. If my avatar had a superpower it would be like plastic man and be super bouncy.

Poverty impacts our community because if you are in poverty you don’t always have access to the four factors of poverty: Geography, Health, Education, and Household and Family Structure. Those are also the factors that produce long-term poverty meaning if you don’t have those things initially you will continue to be in long-term poverty. A lot of times if people in poverty can’t afford food then the government has to set a price ceiling for foods so that people in poverty can afford them. However, that means the farmers earn less money. If the farmers think they don’t earn enough money then the government can set a price floor so food can’t be sold for less than a certain amount. That means that more people won’t be able to afford that food.

1. Explain what the four factors of poverty are and how they impact one’s life.

The four factors of poverty are geography, education, health, and household + family structure. If you don’t live in a good area or your area doesn’t provide the supplements you need (geography) you are already at a disadvantage. If you don’t have good education then you can’t go to a good college and get a good job. If you have bad health then you have to pay even more money for medication. If you don’t have any family then you have no one to help you out and you’re on your own.

2. Explain how the cycle of poverty works.

To move out of poverty, you need to have good things in the four factors of poverty. The problem is, you can’t afford those things if you’re in poverty and you can’t as a child if your parents don’t have any money.

3. How do we help people get healthy food cheaply (make sure your answer is realistic)?

There are usually 2 options. Either cut prices and put farmers in poverty or give more supplements and put the government in even more debt. Both options are obviously flawed and there really isn’t a good option. What we could do, is grow our own food and sell it for a lower price to get poorer people more cheap food. 

What government policy suggestions do you have?

I think the government could offer a LITTLE more supplement but there’s really not much they can do.

What changes can you/we make to help?

We can grow our own food and sell it for a lower price. We can also donate to SNAPS to provide more supplements.

1. What is SNAPS? Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. SNAPS provides food supplements to poorer people that need extra help obtaining food.

2. What is the average monthly benefit for someone on SNAPS? $154

3. On average, I spend 1209.60 on food per month.

4. My life would be different if I were on SNAPS because… I wouldn’t be able to spend nearly as much on food as I do now. I would be much more poor meaning I would not have good health, education, or house. This would make life a lot more challenging.

1. What factors can lead to poverty? There are a bunch of factors that can lead to poverty. A lot of them fit under the 4 categories of Geography, Health, House and Family, and Education. Just because none of those categories are directly related to income, doesn’t mean they don’t lead to poverty. Usually, all other factors can somehow be put into one of those categories.
2. What circumstances can fuel long-term poverty? There are a bunch of them. It’s usually in the same categories that I listed in the previous question. I’d say it’s most common that if you have poor parents then usually you won’t get what you need to get a decent job. It’s hard to get a college degree without having the money for a sufficient education. It’s also tough if you live in a tough area where maybe it’s not particularly safe. Maybe you have to pay for expensive medications a lot.

1. As someone in this experience, tell your story.  Describe your experience. Tell us about the highs and the lows.  What were your major takeaways? What did you learn? How did you like it?  Be sure to explain your answers.

At the beginning of this Classroom Economy, we randomly chose our jobs. I was given the Seat Engineer role. All of the jobs had the potential to pay from 150 dollars to 4000 dollars. I was paid 170 dollars a week. Not a great situation. Then we picked our seating arrangements. I got stuck with the toilet (no literally). Throughout the first few weeks, I successfully avoided all fines, paid the minimum amount for rent, and completed my job perfectly. For me, this continued until basically the end of the classroom economy. My income stayed consistent while I saw others around me get evicted, get fired, and even get hyper-tension. I got none of it. Right before our classroom economy ended I passed the GED test and got 2000 dollars from finding the mistakes in my classmate’s blog posts for money. None of that went into effect before our classroom economy ended but I still ended in a pretty good spot. The Classroom Economy was fun while it lasted.

2. How did your character’s role/situation in the game affect your ability to take care of yourself?  Think about your income, job, rent, the amount of money you had, any loans you took out, and your health situation.

Because I was not making a large amount of money, I had to pay around 60% of my weekly paycheck on rent and such, not leaving me with much money left. I also sat on a toilet (which was not so bad) and had to argue super hard against every single fine against me. 

3. What aspects of your character’s life encouraged success?  What aspects of your character’s life brought about failure?  Explain how that process worked.

My character’s life definitely encouraged failure but because I am a super determined dude I persevered and fought through it. Also, literally in my job description, it said I was easily replaceable so there was that. My job itself may have encouraged success purely because it wasn’t particularly hard. All I had to do was stack chairs, after all.

4. What attempts did you make to improve your character’s life?  How successful were these attempts? How difficult were those attempts and why?

I tried numerous things. They ranged all the way from fraud to starting my own Ponzi scheme (otherwise known as a pyramid scheme). Suffice to say, none of it was successful. Eventually, I just gave up and started begging Kaufman to give me more money. And it worked!

5. In bullet points, write a list of what you learned about poverty from this activity.  Be sure to include a brief description next to each item about what you learned, explaining your learning/thinking.

• How much rent costs
• How evictions work
• What the poverty line is
• All about utilities (gas and electrical)
• How to sign a paycheck
• Interviewing for a job
• Ceo vs. Regular income
• How to file taxes