I made the decision to begin my concept with Why We Learn History because everything comes from who we are and our identity. You can get an idea of your identity from your ancestors and the events that happen before you. I then built off of it by using connecting words to show how everything is related.

The concept map helped me as a Jew because it showed me how I can find my identity. It taught me how different things play into our Jewish identity. Like single stories, making groups, stereotypes and universe of obligation. These are only a few aspects that play into my Jewish identity.

The first thing me and MK did was watch the video many times to see exactly what we needed to do. Then we decided not to start cutting and testing right away, we first made a T tart of ideas and what the outcomes were. After that we started making our boats and testing. Below is what we found out each day of our project:

Day 1: We made our T tart and generated ideas. We found that the best option was Styrofoam plates which is what they used in the video. We also wrote down different factors which would come into play when we started. Some examples were; the shape and size of the boat, the size of the key hole, the amount of soap and the type of soap.

Day 2: We started to build and test boats. This day was mostly just trying to figure out the shape. We found that the medium sized house shaped boats with a medium key hole worked the best. We also realized that on our first poster we had no where to document the distance the boats went. So we made a new poster with our new boats and how far they went.

Day 3: At the beginning of class everyone said what worked and didn’t work. And everyone came to the conclusion that the boats would not go if there was soap in the water. So we built new boats and we made the key hole with a hole puncher so the hole would be perfect and always the same with every boat which I think was one of our problems the day before. We decided on two different boats, one is a medium house shaped boat with a small key hole and the other a small triangle with a small key hole. They both went 30cm at about the same speed.

Day 4: We decided on our final boats and tested a few more times.

Day 5: We did the competition against all the other teams. We used or triangle shape book. It went 105cm. I think we could’ve done better if we could do some more test and research.

1. One choice I made on my project was I decided to focus on the characters. I made this choice because it shows I understood the different prospective of the characters and there transition they made through the book. Another choice I made was have five medium sized sections instead of doing a lot a small paragraphs. I made this choice because it shows I understood the structure of the book and how I could summarize the book in the best way. The final choice I made on my project was to use quotes that connected to my personal connection. This shows that I learned what the book was focused on and how it connected to me and my everyday life.
2. I used color to show the transitions the characters had through out the book. Because one of the focuses of the book is the kids excepting what they have and living. This is shown in the lungs blossoming in the middle, that they can flourish and succeed no matter what.
3. I choose the quote “How long will I live my life afraid of what-ifs” because I fell it connects to me in my everyday life. Sometimes I am afraid of what could happen and I hold back, but this quote tells me that I have to just do it and enjoy every moment. The other quote I choose was “I’m tired of living without really living.” I chose this quote because it shows that we hold back and don’t live to our fullest potential.
4. One learning goal I worked the best on was managing my time. The first thing I did was write out everything I wanted to have on my one pager which I know I have a hard time with. This gave me the time to do the art portion which I like to do more. One learning goal I struggled with was summarizing the text. I wrote a lot more that was extra that wasn’t adding to my piece.