Blog 8-Independent Component 1 Proposal

What is it?
Independent Component 1 is an opportunity for you to add a dimension of creativity and/or an additional outlet for research. The goal of the component is for you to explore your topic in depth more with this component. On February 6, 2015 you will be turning in the following to your blog to prove completion of this component:

-Section documenting hours for Independent Component 1 in Senior Project Hours link (this should be documented regularly and can be spot checked throughout the year.)

-Evidence of the 30 hours of work (e.g. transcript, essays, tests, art work, photographs) as digital artifacts.
-Blog reflecting on work completed


 To get your idea approved now, please answer the following questions:
1.)Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.
-I plan to take a human anatomy class or a nutrition class to complete my 30 hours for the Independent Component.

2.)Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.
-I will have my teacher sign a paper that lists my hours as evidence.

3.)Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic more in depth.
-By taking a human anatomy class I will better understand what part of the body a certain exercise is working out.

4.)Update your Senior Project Hours log.

To be approved, your proposal should be supported with details and examples for the senior team to understand what you plan to do.

Next Steps: Once we review your blog post, your house teacher will discuss with you the approval of your plan either face-to-face or as a comment on this post. If your idea is approved, please start working on it. If it is not approved, your house teacher will explain why. It is your job to follow up with your teacher.

Blog 7-Second Interview Preparation

The purpose of the second interview is to justify your mentor as an expert in the field. You will be asking them at least 5 questions about their background and/or the background of the organization or company where they work.

1.)Who is your mentor and where do they work? If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?
-My mentor's name is Justin Arceo, his work place does not reflect his expertise. However, his Senior project dealt with fitness, he's been working out and learning about nutrition since then. My mentor has also helped several people reach their fitness goals, whether it's to lose weight, gain muscle, or tone up.

2.)What five questions will you ask them about their background?

-How do you spend your time?

-Do/did you have a mentor if yes, how did they influence you? If no, have you been a mentor to other people, how did that go?

-I know your familiar with Senior project, looking back now would you change anything? Such as your approach, possibly your topic, EQ, etc

-If you were me how would you approach this project?

-How do you think I could enrich my project, whether its through the EQ, Independent Components, Lesson Plans, etc.

The interview is due 10/31 by 8 am in numbered Q&A format to turnitin.com. Additionally, a reflection of the experience as well as a 5 minute audio/video clip should be posted on the blog by that time.

Blog 6-Advisory House Prep

We'll have a house discussion in place of research check this Friday to check in on how things are going.Please copy these questions and answer them in your own blog. Don't forget an image to promote interest.

1.)What worked well for you concerning senior project this year? What has made it a positive experience for you?
-What's worked well so far is being able to keep track of what I'm eating and actually committing to the exercise plan we worked out before starting the P90X. Whats made it a positive experience is genuinely feeling more energetic because of the exercises I do and the food I eat. I'm super excited to see the more notable difference from myself now and later when the projects all done.

2.)What are you finding concerning senior project? How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you? How might the senior team help?
-I'm finding that need to get stricter with my diet and amp up the exercises if I really want to see results. As of right now I'm keeping a food and exercise log, which are helping me, but I need to have a specific meal plan and exercise plan if I want solid results.

Blog 5-Interview 1 Reflection

Please copy these questions and answer them in your blog. Attach a link to your video or sound file. As usual you'll want an appropriate image to lead this.

Audio:
Interview 1
Interview 1 Extra Stuff

1.)What is the most important thing I learned from the interview? Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?
-I learned several things from this interview, one of them was that I should  try to find the workout/diet that best works for me. This was helpful because I was extremely nervous about having to lift crazy amounts of weight but my mentor told me that I would do workouts that best suited my person so as to not overwhelm myself.  Justin also explained to me about supplements that are taken to help an individual reach their fitness goal. He said that I wouldn't need any right now because I'm just doing exercises to prepare my body for the P90x and gym. But nonetheless he explained about the different types of supplements and the best time to take them.
-I realized later on that running through a practice interview would have been better so that he could  relax and prep a bit. He provided amazing information but he seemed more comfortable after we talked about the project without audio recording anything, the conversation had a more natural flow. Talking about the project without audio recording also allowed us to get more familiarized with each other which also made things run a bit smoother.

2.)Did I get additional resources and contacts? What is the most useful? Why?
-Justin didn't provide contacts, but he did give me several websites to look into, such as bodybuilding.com, darebee.com, and he also provided a couple of apps such as Freeletics and Loseit.
-All of the sources  he provided have been extremely helpful in helping me find workouts, good eating habits, and helping calculate macros and such.

3.)What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?
-Justin has been a certified fitness instructor for about 2 years now and in that time has helped several people reach their fitness goals.

Blog 4-House Advisory Prep 1

Write a short explanation of what you are hoping to accomplish through your senior project topic. You will be sharing out on what you've written here with your house advisory and classmates on Friday, 9/11. Don't forget to start off with an interesting visual.

I'm still deciding between two topics so I'm going to write about both.

Criminal Investigation:I hope to gain a better understanding of criminal investigation, not only what they do, but what other people they work with, how they manage to get witness accounts of a crime, how they track people down, the precautions taken to preserve evidence, and so on. I also want to see if this is a possible career in the future.


Fitness: I want to find the best workouts and diet for my person to be able to reach my fitness goal. This project is obviously a big part in senior year, and I'll be able to dedicate all that time too improving my health and fitness.

Blog 3- First Interview Preparation

1.) Who do you plan to interview? Why?
-I plan to interview my mentor, Justin Arceo, because I believe that he has the proper experience to help me better understand how to properly start working out, what types of healthy foods to eat, when to rest, etc.

2.) Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask. What additional questions do you plan to ask?
Ask-open ended questions.

Assigned Questions
1.)I'm interested in studying Fitness. What can you tell me about it?
2.)From your perspective, what could I study that would be significant to other people?
3.)Who else would you recommend I talk to?
4.)What kinds of places or activities do you recommend for the mentorship component?
5.)What materials should I read in this field? Who else can I interview?

Additional Questions:
1.)How did you become interested in becoming a fitness instructor?
2.)Whats your favorite part of being an instructor?
3.)What was your biggest challenge starting out?
4.)How do you recommend I start my training? (Exercises, healthy eating habits, protein shakes?)

Blog 2-Summer Mentorship

1.)Contact Name:Justin Arceo
Phone Number:
Organization: 24 Hour Fitness

2.)What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?
-

3.)List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.
-What is the best way for a beginner to start working out?
-About how much time should one dedicate to the different forms of exercise, such as cardio

4.)What is the most important thing you gained from this experience?Why?
-I changed my topic from Criminal Investigation to Fitness this week, so I don't have summer hours for Fitness, however I do for Criminal Investigation.
-The most important thing I gained from the Criminal Investigation class was a truly brutal look into the field. Before taking the class I was really excited about learning about Criminal Investigation because of all the work they did to help a deceased person's loved ones rest knowing that the murderer had been brought to justice. However, this class made me realize that there was so much more to it, I somewhat overlooked the key elements in the job, and I wasn't really prepared for some of the things we watched and discussed in the class. However, I spent about 130 hours in total learning about criminal investigation and after a while I became used to the material we were exposed to. I would say another important thing I learned was to not get emotionally involved in the case because it makes it much harder to deal with.

5.)What is your senior project topic going to be? How did mentorship help you make your decision? Please explain.
-My senior project topic is going to be on Fitness and Dieting
-I did not do summer mentorship on Fitness, but last week when we started school I realized that Criminal Investigation wasn't the way for me to go, so I decided on Fitness. I've been wanting to work out for a while now, but because of my schedule I was unable to, but now I'll be able to dedicate alot of time to it through this project.=)