LE Reflection Blog

 In today's class, we did a creativity activity, where you try to build the highest stool for a marshmallow made from spaghetti. Our group came in 2nd with an hourglass-shaped tower. After doing the activity, we were shown research done by several people showing that younger kids were more successful in the challenge. Business people or people who major in business seemed to have the most trouble in building the tower. In addition, when there is a prize to be fought for, I learned that more people would fail. We also learned that from Mr. Paterson's experience, Japanese people had the most trouble making a standing tower.  One interesting thing about this activity is that it trains more than just creativity. I have done this experiment in elementary school but was done with the purpose of team building. The goal was to be able to communicate with fellow classmates and not, to think outside of the box. Therefore, it was interesting when we were told that we were allowed to ask ...

 Today we learned about Scotland and its historical dispute regarding its independence. Scotland is a part of the United Kindom, and has only 8% of the population, despite owning more than a third of the land and two-thirds of the area when including oceans. Notwithstanding, English politicians take advantage of Scotland`s small population to rob them of their natural resources. The islands on the northern and western side of Scotland allow them to have a larger water area to gather natural resources, but England and the other UK countries find ways to loot the resources from Scotland. Firstly, it is seen that territorial borders for the two countries are being moved bit by bit and are literally carving Scotlands area. In addition, English ships are unlawfully intruding Scottish territory and are taking the fish from Scottish water. These disputes lead to Scotland wanting independence from the UK and held a national referendum in 2014. But because the UK didn't want to lose a large...

 Today we took note in a different way than normal. Cornell note is a style of note writing made by Walter Paulk at Cornell University. The note is separated into 4 parts one for the title, keywords, notes, and finally summary and questions. Because of the spatial use of the document I thought that Cornell notes were better written on paper. But I thought that I was able to write pretty detailed notes today, so I will like to test it out again in another class. 

 Today, after being recommended videos that may help with the essay, we learned about how countries resolve disputes. This can be between countries and countries, or countries and corporations, and though this may look like an equal way to resolve problems, we learned that there are often bias decisions. We learned about the WTO and the connection with the DSU. In addition, we learned about chemical labels not being on products in most states in America.  Warnings are a way to allow consumers to understand that they take in, and even if many people don't even look at it, it serves as insurance if damages are done, but not noticing consumers about potential damages from products was something that I found disturbing. 

 Today, after the explanation of the essay assignment, we resumed the corporation documentary and discussed the tricks corporations use in commercials to get the viewers to unconsciously think things. In particular, we focused on different types of accents. I learned that even in the same accents, the origin of the accent can greatly alter the impression of the person. In the commercial feild, there are tons of these mental tricks that corporates used to make us belive in their ideas, or to buy their product.  Another example these marketing tricks I found was the decoy effect. The decoy effect if a trick created by setting a middle price just a little lower than the most expensive choice to make the top price seem lower than it is. For example, if there are 2 sizes of drinks, small being $2 and large being $5, many people would opt for the small because the large is more than 2 times more than small, but by adding a medium at $4, people would start to buy the large because it...

 Today, we continued watching the documentary and the section today talked about the damage caused by chemical advancements. There were mainly two problems that we touched on today, and the first was made to help sell more agriculture and the other was to be used to clear forest for war in Vietnam. Despite this faint difference in motive one similarity is that they were created for the benefit of humans with many unfixable damages to humans and nature. Firstly, the pesticide was a chemical to kill unwanted bugs eating farmers' crops. It helped farmers sell more food. The second is Agent Orange, a life-killing chemical used in the Vietnam war used by the US to balance their battle area with the Vietnamese. Both polluted the soil, connecting to the water source and contaminating thousands of families living near the usage site. Even though the initial contamination was done years before the problem, the damage still lingers within families around the world. But the problem with this ...