Photos: The Holy Grail of Preservation

The final unit of our Population class we discussed and learned about how populations grow and change. We took a trip to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to view the change of population among butterflies along with seeing the change of Chicago from a nature preserve. For our last unit we created a very short and small one day action project that focused on methods of preservation. I decided to write a short essay about photography and what it has done for us in terms of preservation. I hope you enjoy; thank you. 

Photography has been around for a long time without a doubt; with the oldest camera being made in the 1500s. This camera was called the Camera Obscura and was the first pinhole camera. This camera would let in a small amounts of light through a small hole in a very dark area. The image would be projected onto the wall and would be traced out with pencils or paint. Photographs and pictures are a simple way of preserving the look of something; they are a visual time stamp.

In the image below we are clearly able to see what it's attempting to show. Photography is great for preserving the specific look of a thing compared to a written description. If someone were to write about the look of the yellow flower it would probably take a long time to get all the specifics of the flower. Taking a photograph is a much simpler way obtaining the the look of something with detail and precision. A picture is worth one thousand words. Without photographs, many people wouldn’t know what a polar bear looked like.

IF 2017 "Yellow Fellow"

Photography is a very useful tool as a preservation method. Photography can help scientists get an accurate description of an organism's physical traits, the habitat it lives in, and the organism’s resources. Drawing works the same as photography but it’s less efficient and can’t gather specifics and dimensions like photos can. A still photo for the most pat can’t be wrong with the the dimensions of a thing, drawing can be inconsistent and the look could be changed due to human error. Sight is one of the most useful traits for some organisms; making photographs very helpful for seeing something that is potentially dangerous without actually going face to face with it. Photography has helped us preserve the look and the behavior of organisms for a very long time.

Luke Skywalker and Malcolm X: Their Journey

The last action project for our Stories class we focused on explaining the stories and journeys behind fictional and real heroes. I decided to pick some very important heroes with one being a knight that needs to save a princess and gets involved in intergalactic warfare and a civil rights activist and leader that has had conflict filled history. I chose Luke Skywalker and Malcolm X's journeys to show what each journey looks like as heroes.

Luke Skywalker and Malcolm X are without a doubt very different people with very different views and stories but in a way can be looked in the same light. Luke goes on a journey of self discovery and fights for people who are being oppressed by the Empire. In a way Malcolm X did the same; Malcolm X wanted people to fight against an oppressing force. This is the main thing that makes these two people some similar and makes them like many heroes. Heroes typically fight against something that is unjust and is for other people. I hope you can recognize the similarities between not just Malcolm and Luke but all heroes in general. I also hope you enjoy reading about Luke and Malcolm's journeys as heroes.   




Citations

Ford, Ed. “Malcolm_X_NYWTS_2a.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 7 Feb. 2008,

Hiller, Herman. “Malcolm X NYWTS 4.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 23 Oct. 2006,

Kloske, Tim. “Dueling lightsabers.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 3 Feb. 2010,

Lemos, Manoel. “R2-D2 & Luke Skywalker.” Flickr.com, 21 June 2007,
“Malcolm X.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Oct. 2017,

Shabazz, Malik. “Malcolmxm1carbine3gr.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 14 Oct. 2011,

Trikosko, Marion S. “Malcolm X March 26 1964 cropped retouched.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 12 Feb. 2016,

Wolfson, Stanley. “Elijah Muhammad NYWTS-2.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 4 Nov. 2014,

Chil Flamingo: A New Threat

In the second unit of our Population class, we learned, practiced, and discussed several math concepts from finding standard deviation to mean, median, and mode to combination/permutation. We also learned a lot about our animals and evolution. Evolution was another really big focus of this unit. We discussed how evolution happens, what and why specific traits stay, and how that effects a species. I really enjoyed this unit because it went deep into evolution and made sure I got a good grasp of the content in this unit. For this action project, I created a presentation and predicted and hypothesized what could happen if a predator was to move into the Chilean Flamingo's habitat. I hope you enjoy the learning about what traits would work well for flamingos with a different predator.

IF "Open" 2017

Math Concepts

I assumed the height of my different flamingos and put them into a list so I can measure how far our outlier are from the center. The average height of a Chilean flamingo 43.2 in -51.6 in

Mean- 47.27      Median- 48        Mode- 48      Range- 9.59     Maximum- 51.6

Minimum- 42      1Q- 44.4           3Q- 49.5 

1. John- 48 in 

2. Carla- 49.2 in

3. Hubert- 44.4 in  

4. Robert- 46.8 in 

5. Leah- 48 in 

6. Michael- 42 in 

7. Max- 43.2 in

8. Ethan- 50 in 

9. Joseph- 51.6 in 

Standard deviation 

The standard deviation of the data tells us what percentage of the flamingos are in a certain height range.
Mean = 47.27
S= 3.13 

IF "Standard Deviation" 2017

68% of the flamingos = 44.14 in - 50. 4 in
95% of the flamingos = 41.01 in- 53.53 in
99% of the flamingos = 37.88 in- 56.66 in

This picture shows that the 99% of the 9 flamingos we chose land in between the heights of 37.88 inches and 56.66 inches. 95% of the 9 flamingos are between the heights of 41.01 inches and 53.53 inches. 68% of the 9 flamingos land between 44.14 inches and 50.4 inches in height.

Combination and permutation

For finding the combination, I found that introducing the flamingos into a new environment doesn't matter; making the situation a combination. Shown in the photo below is the work that I did to find the permutation and combination of my set. Their are 9 animals in my set making the "n" = 9. I chose three flamingos to possibly survive making my "r" = 3.

IF "nPr" 2017

Citations

Arpingstone. "Slimbridge chilean flamingo". 2004. photograph  

Bjoertvedt. “Phoenicopterus Chilensis LoroParqueTenerife Chilean Flamingo IMG 5181.”Commons.wikimedia.org, 22 Feb. 2015,                                                                  

Bjoertvedt. “Phoenicopterus Chilensis LoroParqueTenerife Chilean Flamingo IMG 5187.”Commons.wikimedia.org, 22 Feb. 2015,     

Cole, Sandy. "Chilean Flamingo juvinile SMTC". 2012. photograph 

Dominic Sherony. “Western Grebe Swimming .” Commons.wikimedia.org, 30 Nov. 2008,
Grider, Angela. “ZAFlamingo.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 8 Sept. 2006,      

Ltshears. “Chilean Flamingo.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 15 Nov. 2013,     

Lydekker, Richard. "The royal natural history." IV, Warne, 1922. - Flamingos are related to smaller birds.

Shears, Trisha M. "Chilean Flamingo 4". 2006. photograph

Tragopan. “Chilenischer Flamingo Tiergarten Bernburg 2007.” Commons.wikimedia.org, 6 July 2007,
Zienowicz, Alina. "Phoenicpterus chilensis". 2010. photograph       

A Fox to a Cub

In this second unit of our Stories class we focused on what it takes to make Fable. I really enjoyed this unit because it was very interesting. We discussed the characters and traits of those characters in common and less-common fables out there. This unit and action project allowed us to explore a lot of creative options within our writing. In my action project I decided to write about the small dangerous adventure of a brown bear cub. The cub learns a very important lesson along the way but the cub's brothers learn a more important lesson. I hope you enjoy the Fable and maybe even learn a lesson along the way.


A Fox to a Cub

Once there was a small bear cub, his name was Pelo. Pelo was very small, very cute, and very curious. Pelo lived with his brothers and sisters. His two brothers didn’t like him very much because he got the most attention from his parents because he was so young and small. His two sisters loved to play with Pelo; they especially loved to play a game called Far. To play Far one person traveled into the forest to pick up items and bring them back to meeting place. The first bear to bring all the objects back would win. Mama and Papa bear didn’t like when the cubs played this game because they feared that the cubs would get lost in the dangerous forest.

One day the oldest cub suggested, “How about we try something new, maybe something more challenging.”
“Like what?” replied the other sister cub.

Pelo was waiting impatiently for his older sisters to decide what special object they would need to find. He really wanted to play, so he tried to pick something for the sisters to speed up the process. Pelo looked around impatiently to get an idea of what to find. Out of the corner of his dark brown eyes, he focused on the center of daisy and he immediately thought of the soft color of cheese.

“What about cheese?” Pelo softly asked.
“ I don’t know, doesn’t that seem too hard.” replied the older sister.
“Seems pretty simple to me.” said the younger sister .
“Okay, I guess” replied the older sister.
Pelo smiled with joy, and started hopping in excitement on his small paws.
“3, 2, 1, GO!” said the younger sister.

Immediately the cubs darted into the forest to find cheese, bring it back, and be crowned the winner of this special game of Far. Pelo eventually got tired of running and decided to walk. He walked for 9 minutes. Pelo eventually started to smell a familiar smell. It was CHEESE! Cheese was stuck in the cub’s mind, he ran deep into the forest to find the source of the scent. All of a sudden Pelo saw a small piece of cheese sitting on a rock.

“I found it! I win!” Pelo yelled out loud.

After Pelo yelled he noticed a large fox standing by the cheese that he didn’t see before. This terrified Pelo but he was too scared to move. The fox saw Pelo standing in fear and saw this as the perfect opportunity to upgrade his lunch from a single piece of cheese.

“Well hello there small bear”, the fox said. “ What is a small cub like you doing in the middle of the forest all by yourself?” Pelo couldn’t respond. He was frozen in shock.
“Well the darn thing must be broken, it won’t even talk nor will it move”, the fox said. “ Would be a shame for such a beautiful cub to go to waste. I guess I should use it myself, maybe as lunch.”

Pelo didn’t like the idea of being the fox’s lunch so he responded and backed up from the fox.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, I have a family who will do the same to you if you eat me.”
“Where are they now, I don’t see any hungry bears around,” replied the fox.
“They will come.” Pelo snapped back.
“ You are very brave for such a young cub.” replied the fox in a humble voice.
“ I must get it from my Papa, who you’ll be meeting very soon.” Pelo said in a stern voice.

Out of nowhere there was loud thumping coming towards the fox and the cub.
“That must be them now” said Pelo in a worried voice. He couldn’t be sure if it actually was his family there to rescue him from the fox.
Out of the leaves Pelo’s two older brothers popped out of the leaves to help Pelo.
"What is going on here?!”, yelled the oldest brother.
“We were just having a friendly conversation about my cheese” the fox worriedly replied.
“HE IS TRYING TO MAKE ME HIS LUNCH!” screamed Pelo as he cried and stumbled towards his brothers.
Pelo’s brothers grew angry at the fox and wanted to attack him.
“ Look, How about I take the cub, and you two can have all the cheese, berries, and fruit you would like.”

The brothers like the sound of having an unlimited amount of food. The two brothers talked and turned away from the fox to discuss the offer. Pelo was now
more frightened than comforted at the presence of his brothers.

Though the brothers were jealous and didn’t really like all the attention that Pelo got from his parents, they decided that their little brother was worth more than unlimited food. They rejected the fox’s offer and scared him away. The Brothers all walked and talked back home. Before they left, Pelo took a good look at the cheese that the fox left. He decided to leave it for the next cub to come by. They talked about how important family is and why it was so important to be safe in a dangerous world.

IF "Fox and cub" 2017

Family always comes first, and needs will be more helpful than wants. 

The Creation of Aleph

In this this first unit of our new class Stories we discussed what made a story interesting and engaging. We talked about how it was necessary to include a lot of detail/ descriptive words to show off the world you are creating. We had two field experiences in this unit, one was inviting a storyteller over and tell us stories while explaining the important elements of one. This really helped me create my story because it gave so many examples. My job in this unit as to create a story that would demonstrate the creation of a world. I decided to name my world Aleph. Aleph isn't like a lot of other religions and creation stories out there, this story starts with an element and how this element created a world like our today. I hope you enjoy. 

The Creation of Aleph

Before there was anything existed, there was water. Water was the basis of everything that was ever created. Water was infinite and had a state of consciousness; Water floated in the universe she didn’t know what she was part of. Water didn’t like living alone, there was nothing for her to do, and nobody for her to talk to. Water solved this problem by creating air and gases. She talked with air for long periods of time, the everlasting conversation created waves across the water. The air and the water got into a discussion about creating land, so they did. They wanted to see the world bloom and prosper, so they created people using themselves. The people of the world were birthed underneath the sands of the beaches by water herself. The people of the land built homes and planted farms. Water and air wanted to name their amazing creation, after all the people of the world want to know what to call their land.

The air and the water got into an argument about what they wanted to call this world. The Water wanted to call their world Aleph, while the air wanted to call the world Dependence. Naming the world Dependence made Air feel powerful. The Water wanted to name the world Aleph because she believed that the world would be ever expanding in the universe she created, and the sentient beings would create their own infinite pathways. Aleph comes from the math term of the same name that shows sets of infinite. The Air wanted to name the world dependence after the their relationship with the beings on the world. The beings depended on the Water and the Air to support them. The Air and the Water turned to a hostile relationship.This tension and frustration between the Air and the Water caused rows of mountains to pop up and stab through the land like spearheads. The mountains were giant rocks that towered over the trees and plants. The mountains had massive hills that gave off the appearance of the giants kneeling down. These great mountains were new to the humans; they fearlessly and without caution explored the mountains.

One day, Shamun visited the mountains, he wanted to know why they were shaped as giants. Little did Shamun know that these mountains had come from conflict between his creators. The mountains were the home for air and water’s anger. Shamun came to the mountains while Air and Water were arguing. This arguing caused a windstorm in the mountains that caused Shamun to fall to his death. This was the first time that a human had died because of the two creators. The people eventually found out about the death of their friend. The town fell into a deep depression; people walked slowly with their heads down in mourning. The town ha an eerie sense of quiet and emptiness. People sadly did their duties to keep the town running in a town of sadness. Plenty of people have died since the creation of humans, but the death of Shamun was special because the people usually get words from Water and Air about their life and the individuals afterlife while Shamun didn’t receive any words from Water and Air. They felt like Water and Air had forgotten about the world and the people they created.

This depression caught the eyes of Air and Water. Air and Water discussed for 3 days about how they wanted to repay the village for their terrible mistake. They were so concerned that about the morale of the village they stopped bickering. Water told the people of the village of their terrible mistake and told the people about Shamun’s afterlife. Air came to realize that the world they created wasn’t about dominance and that it was instead about love for each-other. Water an Air discussed about adding a temple for Shamun into the world, this temple would represent the similarities between man and their creators. We argue and make mistakes, none of us are greater than the other. They built the temple on the mountain where Shamun had fell. The temple was positioned right on the mountain's backbone; this clearly showed that Water and Air were the support for the people and that the people were their creators support. The temple smelled like roses and baked goods that Water and Air delivered everyday. The temple was a haven for people to connect with one-another and their creators. Air told Water that the world should be named Aleph instead of Dependence, Water agreed. This world would be named after the countless mistakes, corrections, questions and possibilities that the world would endure throughout time. This world would be named Aleph.  

Trail for travelling

I took this photo to show where the village's trail which would allow the people to reach the temple. 

"Trail leading to temple" IF 2017

Artist's statement

This action project wasn't very difficult; I found out to be pretty simple to write a creation story with a lot of creative involvement. The most difficult part was trying to implement my creative input into the story without getting in the way of the necessary elements like the last feature. I really enjoyed writing this story, I couldn't begin to describe how happy I was when I had put everything together like a puzzle. I enjoyed learning about these new concepts and genre of literature. 

A Chil Flamingo

In this first unit of our new class Population, we focused on creating an art piece of an organism of choice. Our class visited Lincoln Park Zoo to view our organisms. I really enjoyed seeing multiple Chilean flamingos together; I was able to see how they communicated and expressed themselves as well as their physical traits. I gathered photos of the flamingos to examine and view their morphological characteristics that put them in their taxonomic levels. I also created an art piece of the Chilean flamingo to show of where these taxonomic traits are on the flamingos. I really enjoyed this first unit, especially when we learned about set theory and how that correlates to the organisms being placed in categories. I hope you enjoy learning about his interesting first unit.

Taxonomy
First, I created a table to specify the taxonomy of a Phoenicopteriformes chilensis (Chilean flamingo). You will notice that the Genus and species have the same taxonomic description because a Chilean flamingo is the only animal within its genus.

Taxonomic classifications	Taxonomic level	Taxonomic description
Kingdom	Animalia	Sexual reproduction, eukaryotic, multi-cellular.
Phylum	Chordata	Has a spinal cord.
Class	Aves	Toothless beaked birds, hard laid eggs, feathers
Order	Phoenicopteriformes	Long legged, stout bills
Family	Phoenicopteridae	Dipped bill, water wading capabilities
Genus	Phoenicopterus	A specific dipped shape to their bill
Species	Phoenicopteriformes chilinsis	Originating from Chile, can reproduce offspring that is also capable of having offspring

Taxonomy Art Piece
The next step was to create an art piece that would show where the  specific taxonomy traits were being shown off. I decided to draw a Chilean flamingo. The taxonomy traits and where they are located are shown off in the image below.

" C- Flamingo taxonomy traits" IF 2017

Venn diagram Comparisons 
Next I created a Venn-diagram to show off the likeness and differences between the animal that I chose versus animals that my classmates chose. One of my classmates chose to do research on a Fennec Fox, while another did research on polar bears. Feel free to view their blogs afterwards. While creating this Venn-diagram I found that its pretty difficult to find similarities between Chilean Flamingos and Polar bears and Fennec Foxes, mainly because two are mammals while the other is a type of bird. This is good information, we want to truly show off how unique these animals are.

"Flamingo comparison Venn diagram" IF 2017

Set Theory 
Then, I created a set of set theory statements that describe the relations between Chilean flamingos and the bird's taxonomic traits.

F(traits of flamingos)= {can fly, bill, two legs, lives in flocks, pink}      
B(traits of birds)= {wings, teeth-less, hard eggs, endothermic, feathers}

1. F∩B = {feathers, hard eggs, wings, endothermic, teeth-less}
2. {feathers, hard eggs, teeth-less} ∈ F
3. {beak, herbivore, lives singular, green, mammal} ⊂' F
4. F⊂B
5. F∪B = {feathers, wings, teeth-less, endothermic, hard eggs, two legs, pink, lives in flocks, bill, can fly}

Photography

I also managed to snap a photo of a Chilean Flamingo at Lincoln Park Zoo. I used this photo a reference for my art piece. I gathered some interesting information about how Chilean flamingos live and interact. I found that Chilean flamingos are pink because of a natural pink dye called canthaxantin is in their diet of shrimp and blue-green algae. Wild Chilean flamingos also live in massive groups where they feast on shrimp. Flamingos are essentially defenseless against other larger creatures, so they live in very larger groups:400 flamingos are way more intimidating than 20.

"Chilean Flamingo" IF 2017

AP conclusive
Overall this unit was very enjoyable, I thought going to Lincoln park zoo was a pretty necessary FE for me and the class. There wasn't anything in this unit that I didn't like, The workload felt perfect an the unit went at the perfect pace for me. We got a lot of time to work on this action project, and a lot of time to complete our work and get a good grasp of the content in the class. I'm happy with how my action project turned out. I was able to take some great picture of Chilean flamingos and learn some new information about them. I didn't really struggle with this action project too much because I was able to understand the topic and concepts pretty efficiently. Thanks for viewing this blog and feel free to check out my classmates research on animals.

Citations:

BirdLife International. 2016. Phoenicopterus chilensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22697365A93610811. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22697365A93610811.en. Downloaded on 24 September 2017.

“Phoenicopterus chilensis .” Phoenicopterus chilensis (Chilean Flamingo), www.iucnredlist.org/details/22697365/0. Accessed 24 Sept.2017.

WARNING GMOs INCLUDED

In our final unit of our Food class we focused on percent changes and GMOs. In this action project I present my opinion on GMOs and why they should be banned. I present some facts on how they negatively affect communities, farmers, and the environment. I really enjoyed this unit because we gt to see some great field experiences, like one to the Green City Market. I hope you enjoy.

Food: GMO Debate- IF from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.

95% of the United States’ grown sugar beets are genetically modified along with 94% of soybeans also being genetically modified. Soybeans are a large part of the American diet, so having this alarming amount of genetically modified soybeans brings up risks that can still be solved. GMOs should no longer be put into the diets of the global population. GMOs are expensive to both the farmer and the people buying it. GMOs make food desserts more common while also creating monocultures.

Genetically modified foods can be very expensive for farmers and various buyers of the foods. Farmers are sinking into debt with their equity decreasing and their debt levels rising 5.2% in 2017. Growers first sign a contract with a company that will sell their food but the equity rates keep getting lower and lower so the farmers fall into debt and they can’t leave the contract otherwise they won’t get paid. Genetically modified food is also affecting consumers of the products. Most foods that are genetically modified tend to be unhealthy, which is difficult for families to deal with. When you are a low income family your number one choice would be to buy food that is both filling and cheap instead of the expensive and small. The filling and cheap foods are so mass produced that the small healthy foods need to compete against the mass produced unhealthy foods. Still being a low income family you eventually need to cope with the unhealthy diet and obtain expensive medication. None of this would be necessary if GMOs were banned in food products.

GMOs can also cause food deserts where it can be difficult to obtain healthy foods. Food deserts typically exist in low income areas where people don’t have the money to buy locally grown food that isn’t just genetically modified foods that have been stuffed with preservatives. The low income areas usually obtain their food from cheap places that is filling and cheap, like I mentioned in the last argument the filling and cheap meals aren’t local and aren’t healthy causing these families to be unhealthy or overweight. GMOs lead to food deserts because genetically modified foods get put into low income communities so they have lower prices than organic food. Organic healthy food doesn’t sell at high prices when you can still get inorganic GMO food at low prices in low income communities, therefore making unhealthy food deserts.

Genetically modified foods are also creating monocultures. Monocultures are when one type of plant is being grown way too much and if a disease were to happen then it could possibly destroy that entire species for a short time period. GMOs cause monocultures by creating a high demand for one type of food like corn. This high demand of corn is making farmers grow more corn; the more corn grown the higher the risk of a disease wiping out the large amount of GMOs. Potatoes in Ireland fell due to a monoculture in the 1840s and the Irish starved because of it; this will most likely not happen as drastically as it happened to the Irish but it will impact us if corn gets wiped out. Corn is in everything from pop tarts, batteries, magazines, and cereal. Monocultures definitely will not be helping out our global food system.

This graph represents the rising amounts of corn being grown in Iowa compared to other foods. Orange represents the total  amount of cropping land corn is taking up. This data is only taking place in the years of 1956 - 1962. The percentage of total cropping land being occupied by corn is at 60% in 1956 an it had gone up to 64% in only 6 years; this is a percent increase of 4%. Both percentages show that we already have over half of all the pants being grown into a monoculture.

"Graph" IF 2017

A common argument use among GMO supports is that using GMOs are cheaper than growing organic food. It may at first seem this way but there are actually a lot of underlying cost to farmers. Farmers are buying GMOs, pesticides, and herbicides to grow the best plants. The more we implement GMOs into our food the more costly it gets for farmers. 

Genetically modified food should no longer be dispensed to the public because even if it is labeled it will inevitably be the number one choice for a lot of lower income people. These low income people suffer from both an unhealthy diet and can’t travel to get a better one when living in a food desert. Above all genetically modified foods are still being used today, but the underlying truth of the damage it has caused has greatly affected everyone. GMOs need to be removed from the shelves of stores and in the hands of fast food companies and replaced with local organic foods that are safe for everyone. GMOs need to be removed from food for the betterment of our low income communities and to lower the risk of a food wipe out.

Food, Inc. By Robert Kenner, Robert Kenner, Robert Kenner, Richard Pearce, Eric Schlosser, Eric Schlosser, Melissa Robledo, William Pohlad, Jeff Skoll, Robin Schorr, Diane Weyermann, Elise Pearlstein, Elise Pearlstein, Kim Roberts, Kim Roberts, Michael Pollan, Michael Pollan, Gary Hirshberg, Joel Salatin, and Mark Adler. Dir. Richard Pearce. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2017.

Weise, Elizabeth. "Genetically engineered foods Q & A." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 28 Oct. 2012. Web. 29 May 2017.

"Assets, Debt, and Wealth." USDA ERS - Assets, Debt, and Wealth. N.p., 17 Mar. 2017. Web. 29 May 2017.

To Review Some Steaks

In this final unit of our third humanities course Food For Thought we discovered and some of he creation an destruction of what it takes to get food to us. So we created a food review to explore some home-cooked food and restaurant made food. I decided to compare steak, review steak, eat steak, and determine steak. I hope you enjoy.

Steak is a common food that is sometimes considered a high delicacy food and can other times be considered a pretty commonly eaten food for the general community. Steak is usually served as a whole slab that includes fat and can be also be ordered to the buyers preference whether its medium rare, super rare, well done, or charred. Though I don't eat steak much at all I prefer eating it a over well-done.

Home-cooked steak:

"Home-cooked steak" IF 2017

I first decided to cook and analyze the home-cooked meal of this review. I got these ingredients from a food service that sells the ingredients and provides instructions on how to cook them. I absolutely loved both the experience of cooking the food and of-course eating the food. The stake was only gently peppered and salted to the perfect amount which brought out the most and best flavors or the large steak. When I first platted the steak it was still searing, which was a already a good sign. The aroma of the steak was amazing, you could smell the dripping fried crispy outside of the steak and the peppercorn sauce that I had made to compliment the thick and firm inside. When I cut into the steak it was still very hot but it was bursting with a pungent smell of seared meat. first tasting was the best experience; I put the steak in my mouth and it felt pretty tough but juicy. The sliver of steak that I ate was well complimented by the sauce that made it taste sweet but still a bitter juicy steak. The feeling that the steak had in my mouth was also pretty fantastic because it felt chewy and smooth. The meat was well done with a crispy outside and a smooth melting away inside.

Restaurant cooked steak:
The restaurant cooked steak was also pretty amazing in many ways. I got this steak from Mariano's, which sells cooked meals that are typically pretty great. This steak was served in a piece about the same size as the home-cooked meal which was the perfect size for everyone. This steak was also sauteed the same way as the home-cooked, I had asked for well done and it was a little less done than the home-cooked meal also which I was actually quite excited for. The steak smelled crispy and an almost sweet smell to it. The smell of the sweetness was making me really hungry because it had blended so well with the fresh aroma of the potatoes that had been served along with the steak. When I first cut into the steak, my serrated knife cut through the steak with little effort. First tasting it stake was quite nice when I first tasted the juice and charred meat. I found this steak to be less juicy and filling than the home-cooked steak. The steak felt smooth and coarse as it falls apart in my mouth. Overall I was a pretty great steak that was complimented well with the potatoes it had been served with. It was an absolute adventure from the sweet smell to the dry almost tangy aftertaste; I had never had steak quite like this one.

Concluding:
After tasting both the home-cooked and restaurant steaks I picked a favorite between the both of them. My favorite steak was the home-cooked steak because it presented a lot more interesting flavors and was cooked to my perfect preference; home-cooking steak is definitely recommended. One of the most defining differences between the two steaks was the difference in texture and taste. I really enjoyed the taste of both steaks, with the home-cooked steak tasting more charred and bitter and the restaurant steak tasting more sweet.

When I analyzed the home-cooked steak from the ingredient service they included steak, potatoes, and green beans that are all organic. So the ingredients are coming from certified farmers to give us healthy not-modified ingredients. I also wanted to see if I could use the home-cooked meal in one of Michael Pollan’s five food transformations so we could recognize the quality of the food. I found that the home-cooked steak connected really well to the quality of over quantity transformation because you can get your specific quality while cooking your steaks. If you prefer well done over charred and you cook it that way that would be your high quality food. You don’t need a lot of this one steak to be satisfied, you just need your preferred high quality steak.

Food and Climate Change

In this second unit for our Food For Thought class we learned and discussed about death, greed, and how those topics relate to food. My writing was about how our global food system is being threaten by political instability. I discuss how this can effect the world, look at past examples and see how this went wrong, and analyze solutions to this problem.

Climate change is a global threat that has the world hanging by a string when it comes to environmental changes, political arguments, and most importantly global food. The global food system is the system put in place by all countries that has us all constantly trading food for money and all our efforts are put in to keep the world sustained. I believe that climate change is one of the threatening subjects to our global food systems and I plan to explain why this is, analyze historical consequences, and possible solutions to climate change.

Climate change is a very large issue in our global food system because it can mess up food transportation, food growth, and wipe out species. Climate change is one of the largest threats to our global food system because it can cause storms that can wipe out cities and food transportation methods. Climate change is the changing weather and climate patterns across the world. These climate patterns can be drastic storms like tornadoes and hurricanes. Tornadoes and hurricanes can also both wipe out growing fields and ruin transportation methods for food. This is especially a threat in the 21st century with the incline on CO2 output. Climate change also directly affect the growing process of food with more extreme changing climate such as droughts. Droughts are dry periods of time that don’t have any rain/moisture that usually results in water shortages. Droughts are clearly not wanted for growing food, that’s why we need to do something about this now. Lastly climate change is one of the largest threats to fisheries says Duncan Clark from the guardian, because some fish are already adapting to the climate change by migrating to higher altitudes but arctic fish have nowhere to go. This could be detrimental to our global food system because fish are half the world’s population source for protein.

Climate change is not new, it has taken down many civilizations before, let's not have it take down us. One civilization that had suffered the dangerous effects of climate change is the Indus civilization. The Indus civilization existed from 2600 B.C.E - 1800 B.C.E and was in what is now modern day Pakistan and Iran. The civilization was doing great until some sudden environmental changes occurred like floods, salinization, and changing rivers courses. These environmental changes had left the Indus in a really weakened place which was perfect for Central Asian raiders to come finish the civilization off. The Indus weren’t able to adapt to these drastic environmental changes. The climate change had ruined their agriculture, which had made it a struggle for existence for the Indus. Another quote that supports my research is from Empires of Food by Evan Fraser and Andrew Rimas; " Climate change, too, is a catastrophe  we hold in common with our forebears, instead of blaming sunspots and volcanoes, we have to blame our fossil fuel habit."

The Indus civilization ended due to climate change, but that doesn’t mean we need to. Unfortunately the Indus had fallen and were not able to address the situation that led to their demise. Some of the reason the Indus had fallen had been because of their own farming mistakes and methods like moving large amounts of soil. The best way for all the 21st century countries to learn from the Indus is to recognize and analyze that some methods we are doing will result to our downfall.

The best was to help climate change is to put out less greenhouse gases, which is causing climate change. The best way reduce the output of CO2 into the atmosphere is to plant more trees, create laws that can significantly reduce the CO2 output, and spreading awareness about climate change. Plants are the largest consumers of CO2, so planting more would only help us take in more CO2 to balance out our outputs. Creating laws helps us enforce and limit our carbon output, this could just be enforced to large companies that dispense a lot of CO2. spreading awareness is one of the most helpful ways to solving the climate change problem. When spreading awareness it also helps to make the consequences of climate change aware so there is more of a motivation.

Overall it’s really important that we focus on having a working global food system that won’t need the threatened by climate change. Climate change changes global climate and weather patterns and can cause storms that could ruin our food transportation system. Climate change affects fish which supply 50% of the world’s population protein intake. Climate change can also cause droughts that leave areas completely terrible for farming. My recommendations include planting more trees, enforcing CO2 reduction laws, and spreading awareness. These three solutions could also help solve two sustainable development goals, life below water and zero hunger. There will no longer be trouble with fisheries because fish will no longer need to migrate and fish near the arctic will be able to stay put. Solving climate change helping keep our global food system alive so everyone who has been eating won’t need to go hungry. Now, will we solve climate change to keep our global food system alive?

Sources:

Clark, Duncan. "How will climate change affect food production?" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 19 Sept. 2012. Web. 23 May 2017.

Fraser, E. D., & Rimas, A. (2011). Empires of food: feast, famine and the rise and fall of civilizations. London: Arrow Books.

"Primary History - Indus Valley - The end of the Indus." BBC. BBC, 2014. Web. 23 May 2017.

Secret Agent Leavening

In Our second action project of out Food class we studied and experimented with cooking to learn about how leavening agents react with bread along with learning and experiencing new math concepts. I really enjoyed how we got to make and cook the bread ourselves, which made it completely reliant on ourselves.(made it a learning experience) I hope you enjoy.

Leavening Agents
IF

Partners: JN DS
May 11, 2017

Our job in this action project was to make bread using different leavening agents and compare how much they rise. One loaf is using yeast (control) as a leavening agent, another is using the sourdough starter (experimental 1), and the last one is using baking soda (experimental 2). These leavening agents would help us answer the research question: Which leavening agent is the most effective when it comes to making the dough rise? I hypothesized that the baking soda loaf would rise the highest because it is a chemical leavening agent that wouldn’t take much time to rise and I’ve had experience with seeing the difference in rising between baking soda and yeast. Baking soda is a chemical leavening agent while yeast is a biological leavening agent. Chemical agents are live and release CO2 as a chemical reaction, while yeast is alive and eats glucose to put out CO2 as a waste.

Calculations

These are the calculations we made for transferring the original recipes for making each loaf of bread. The change factor for converting the sourdough to our one loaf was x ¼. For baking soda, it was all the same. Yeast change factor was x .25.

Sourdough (experimental 1)

Flour:10 divided by 4 = 2 ½ cups of water
Water: 4 cups divided by 4 = 1 cup of water
Salt: 3 ½ teaspoons divided by 4 =  ⅞  teaspoons
Starter: ¾ cups divided by 4 = 19/100  cups (3 tablespoons)

Baking Soda (experimental 2)

Flour - 3 ½ cups x 1 = 3 ½ cups
Salt - 1 teaspoon x 1 = 1 teaspoon
Baking soda - 1 teaspoon x 1 = 1 teaspoon
Buttermilk - 2 cups x 1 = 2 cups
Sugar - 1 teaspoon x 1 = 1 teaspoon

Yeast (control)
Yeast - 1.5 tablespoons x .25 = ⅜ tablespoons
Water - 3 cups x .25 = ¾ cups
Flour - 7 cups x .25 = 1.75 cups
Salt - 1 tablespoon x .25 = .25 tablespoons

A few different variables came into play while making the breads. I constructed a table show the different variables that needed to occur to fit the needs of the recipe.

Variable	Control Group (yeast)	Experimental Group 1(Sour Dough)	Experimental Group 2(Baking Soda Bread)
Flour type	All purpose flour	All purpose flour	All purpose flour
Dough rise time	4 hours	15-60 minutes	5 min
Oven temperature	450 degrees Fahrenheit	500 degrees Fahrenheit	450 degrees Fahrenheit
Bake time	25 - 30 min	2 hours or 120 minutes	40 min
Dough amount	7 by 5 by 2.5	6 ½ by 4 by 2= 52 inches 3	8 by 8 by 2.5
Other			BUTTERMILK

Procedure

Sourdough:
1. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Mix all the ingredients together except for the salt
3. Knead dough for 10 minutes
4. Let dough rise for 15 - 60 minutes
5. Bake dough for 35 minutes

Baking soda:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Mix all ingredients together
3. Let the dough rise for 5 minutes
4. Bake for 40 minutes

Yeast:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Mix ingredients together
3. Let dough rise for 4 hours
4. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes

Results

Sourdough: After baking the sourdough, the bread crust ended up being really hard and had to be cracked open. The inside of the bread was also very tough but felt moist like play dough. Despite both the outside and inside of the bread feeling like a play dough filled rock, it didn't look burnt at all. The inside was the same color as whole wheat bread and the outside looked like it could've been white bread. (photos below) It was 3 inches tall and tasted really salty because we had accidentally put in 3 extra tablespoons of salt into it.

 "Bread" IF 2017

"More Bread" If 2017

Yeast: The yeast leavened bread ended up looking somewhat burnt, and was pretty under cooked on the inside. The bread tasted pretty normal, but of course still gave off a crispy burnt taste. The final height of the bread ended up being 3 inches tall also.

Baking soda: The baking soda bread overall tasted really good. The texture wasn't super soft nor super tough. The outside of the bread was really crispy and almost crunchy like a baguette. It tasted as plain as bread could get, this seems like the type of bread that needs to be served along with something else. The final product of the baking soda bread ended up being only 2.5 inches tall.

"Baking Powder Bread" IF 2017

I created a graph to see the difference between the original volume and the final volume after baking the breads.

"Graph" IF 2017

Nutrition     

These are the calculations for how much daily nutrition you get from sourdough bread along with the total percentage of how much nutrients the bread provides.The average adult should have the following amounts in each of the following categories. The second list shows the percentage of calories, carbohydrates, fat, and protein are in the bread in percentage form according to the daily average adult nutrient intake.

calories- 2000
carbohydrates- 100 grams
fat- 78 grams
protein- 56 grams                  

calories - 1123/ 2000 = .56 x 100 = 56.15%
carbohydrates - 24/ 100 = .24 x 100 = 24%
fat - .75/ 78 = .0096 x 100 = 0.96%
protein -  30/ 56 = .53 x 100 = 53%

Conclusion/ Analysis

Overall we created some bread that was pretty good and was also not super amazing. The sourdough bread that our group had baked turned out really under cooked on the first attempt and really salty and hard on our second attempt. The bread on the first attempt tasted like sourdough but the inside of the loaf was not cooked completely. We only had time to have two attempts so we analyzed the outcome from the second batch because the first attempt was because of an effect on the leavening agents, while the second mistake didn’t affect the leavening agents. I hope to never make the same mistakes again when baking bread, I'm just glad that the data that came out of the experiment is still valid and wasn't effected by the two attempts. Next time I plan to pay more attention to what I'm doing and what my group is doing to make sure it is going right.

My hypothesis was correct, the baking soda did turn out to have the most growth of 1.5 inches. It had the most growth from it's original height compared to the yeast which had grown 1 inch from it's original height, and the sourdough which had grown only .5 inches from it's original. This makes sense because baking soda is commonly used to make lighter/ more fluffy foods, like chewy cookies or lemon margarine pie while yeast and sourdough is not. 

The Journey of Wheat

In our first unit of our new humanities class Food For Thought we learned about the ingredients of food and the journey it takes to get to us. Throughout this unit we focused on the energy, the work, the history of food, how food has shaped our society, and how we've changed food throughout it's journey. I learned that this very important ingredient impacted myself, my family, and my ancestors. For my action project I worked on researching about wheat and where it originates from. I hope you enjoy.While working on this unit I discovered that corn is in almost everything.

I started out as a vegetable that was sometimes picked and eaten by hunters and gatherers. Soon these hunters and gatherers realized my potential to help them thrive along with me. I am wheat. I first started to get farmed in 8000 B.C.E in Ancient Mesopotamia , back then I grew in smaller stalks than I do now. I don’t remember exactly where I had started to be grown but I’m sure it was around the Karacadag mountain range in what is now modern day Turkey. Starting in Mesopotamia in the Fertile crescent which is now countries like Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Jordan I started as both emmer and einkorn which were both younger versions of me that I later decided to change/ evolve into what is now called wheat.

About 1500 years later in 6500 B.C.E I started to spread to more countries and regions close to ancient Mesopotamia like India, Cyprus, and Greece. This started because Mesopotamia was expanding and innovation was occurring with development of stamp seals and cylinder seals. These seals were created to put drawings, and forms of written communication on. Because of this large expansion to Cypress, India, and Greece I traveled and kept more civilizations alive for longer.

Between 6500 B.C.E and 6000 B.C.E I managed to also travel to Egypt where one of the biggest discoveries was made that had me in the spotlight. In Egypt in 6000 B.C.E I was used to make baked bread. Bread is one of the world’s biggest food milestones because of how much more foods it is mixed with, how many food were made from it, and how relevant it still is.

About 3000 years later in 3000 B.C.E I traveled to the British Isles and Scandinavia. This was still the result of local expansion from Greece. The British Isles were very enjoyable to be planted there because they used me in both the making of foods but I was also able to help build and sustain houses on the shingles of their roofs. 

In 2000 B.C.E I was still being grown and being produced more all across India, which allowed a lot of travelers to spread their civilizations along with me over large pieces of land. I was able to travel in 2000 B.C.E to China where I was also grown to help later civilizations like the Huang Ho.

From China I traveled to places all over the world; going to newly developed countries and continents that have been around for a long time in places like the Americas, Africa, and the rest of Europe.

Now in the 20th century I am used in all kinds of dishes that include the main ingredient flour in foods like, pies, crackers, and still bread. I am also being used a very important ingredient for a family in Chicago IL, they make beignets. A family member quoted saying “ Beignets help bring our family together in a way of joy and strength because it helps us all understand who we are.”I’m very glad I could be part of something so important to a family’s life, and I couldn’t have gotten there without the journey.

Growing a Guerrilla Garden

In our first unit of our new class Food we focused on what plants do to survive, the chemistry of plants, and calculations to focus on what would would be good plants for a garden. This unit really showed me how important some small plants are to this huge world of 7 billion people. I really enjoyed learning through this unit and going on a field experience to learn about how it is to supply food that is locally grown. More on the science side of this unit, we learned about how plants take in nutrients, how plants work together to "co-evolve", and what plants defend themselves along with hurt each other. I hope you enjoy.

"Raised bed" July 31 2007 Srl 

Plants might not seem to be the most exciting type of organism in the world, but they certainly do pack a punch when it comes to defending themselves, attacking others and overall fighting for survival. In order for plants to survive a healthy life in a garden they need the right amount of growing area, other plants in the area that work well with the plant, and the necessary nutrients they need to live.

This garden will be in the North side of Chicago in my front yard and will be outside with the elements to support it along with me caring for the plants. My garden will be in the front portion of my house, this portion is 6 ft x 4 ft so I have a total of 24 sq ft to use for my garden of ten plants. I decided to put these ten plants into my garden: beets, beans, carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, corn, celery, garlic, lettuce, and onions. The most important plant in this garden to help out all the other plants are the nitrogen fixer that is the beans. All types of legumes (beans are legumes) are nitrogen fixers which means that the nitrogen needed for the plants gets to those the easiest and quickest, allowing the other plants to take more nitrogen from microbes. Plants that stand tall like the corn are excellent for the beans to grow up, the relationship/symbiosis for the corn and the beans is mutual-ism because they are both helping each other survive.

Also while learning about plants’ survival and companionship we read the book One Straw Revolution and learned from the author (Masanobu Fukuoka) about his natural farming methods. Fukuoka's methods included not using any pesticides, herbicides, mechanical plowing, and chemical fertilizer. For my garden I should be able to bypass using the pesticides, herbicides, mechanical plowing, and chemical fertilizer; my garden wouldn't require any of these potentially harmful methods. My garden is only 24 square feet so plowing wouldn't be necessary and I wouldn't want to be eating the chemicals from the plant. I should be fine going all natural like Fukuoka.

Now to get more focused on the math and science part of creating a garden and growing plants for the garden. I plan on planting a garden in my front yard in the area that is 72 in x 48 in which is an area of 3,456 in squared, which is more than perfect for planting more than 10 plants. I also included three different containers (Bucket, box, and bottle) that I could grow plants in; with one of the containers having the total volume of 283.73 inches ( cubed, another one having a volume of 265.46 inches cubed, and the last one having a volume of 753.05 inches cubed.This means the total volume of them all is 1,302.04 inches cubed.

Calculations:
Pi x 4.25 squared x 5 = 283.73 in cubed Total = 1,302.24 in cubed
Pi x 3.5 squared x 8.25 = 265.46 in cubed
Pi x 5.75 squared x 7.25 = 753.05 in cubed

I also found that the total surface area of the three containers was 975.08 inches squared. Another important step to keeping a garden alive is making sure your plants are getting the right nutrients. I found I had a few unbalanced nutrients in my soil so I knew that I needed to change and monitor my planting soil. These calculations showed be how much of each nutrient I needed to add according to the size of my garden.

Nitrogen = 7 lbs /100 sq ft = 1.68 lbs for 24 sq ft
Phosphorus = 5 lbs/100 sq ft = 1.2 lbs/ 24 sq ft
Potassium = .5 lbs / 100 sq ft = .12 lbs/ 24 sq ft

I really enjoyed doing this project because it really showed me the power of plants and why they are so important to our society. If one plant species like corn gets wiped out we won’t have magazines, Twinkies, skateboards, or beef. I would really love to implement a garden into our home, and after doing this project I think I will, especially after getting so informed about plants and what they need to live. I might not be able to follow the exact garden plan I had shown earlier because I might not have the necessary resources to build my ideal garden.