11th Grade: 2020-21

This artifact is a podcast that I created for my English class. I had to pick a topic to make a podcast about, research the topic, and then record and edit a podcast. I aimed to answer the question “What does it really mean to be a Christian?” in my podcast.

This artifact matches the “Communicate Ideas” ISSN Domain, because in order to make the podcast, I had to think about the different people that would listen to the podcast and use that knowledge to make it easy to understand. I wanted to be able to speak to atheists, people unsure about God, Christians, people of other faiths, and anyone else who might listen. I had to plan out my podcast in a way that was truthful but also simply explained so that anyone could understand the information that I presented whether or not they had any previous knowledge about the Christian faith.

To create my podcast, I started out by planning what information I wanted to include. I wanted to clear up misconceptions about being a Christian, and I wanted to share the Gospel- the good news of Jesus coming to save. Then, I researched my topic. I read articles (and made sure everything in them lined up with the Bible), got an interview from one of my Christian mentors, and most importantly, looked in the Bible. After compiling my information, I wrote out what I wanted to say, and I recorded my audio clips. Then, I put my clips in an editing platform, added music, and edited my podcast.

This artifact changed the way I think by expanding my knowledge on what it truly means to be a Christian. Additionally, it helped me see the value in choosing meaningful topics when given the choice. I could have easily chosen another topic to create the podcast about; however, I felt that it was important to choose a topic that could make a true impact. Through this project, I learned how to communicate ideas with others who may not have the same beliefs or background knowledge as me. I also learned how to edit a podcast so that it is relatively smooth from start to finish.

I’m incredibly grateful that I was able to do this project. It wasn’t always easy, but God taught me a lot through the process and was with me each step of the way. I’m glad that I was able to share the Gospel while also taking into consideration how to best present the information to different people. This will help me in the future, not only in communicating information, but also in sharing the Gospel.

This artifact is a photo from a video call I had with my International Friends group. The International Friends Conversation Partners Program is a program that I am a part of this year. I was assigned to a group that consists of three international students and two other members from my own school, and we are working to get to know each other and create a collaborative research project.

This project exemplifies the “Recognize Perspectives” ISSN domain because within the project I am learning about the different perspectives of people from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds. I have to take their different perspectives into consideration when working and interacting with them. This project has allowed me to work and communicate with people outside of my own country and who have different experiences then me. It is also teaching me more about how different perspectives cause other people to approach things differently or think differently than me.

For this program we are creating a research project. My group is creating a project on international and national adoptions and the human rights violations that can occur within them. Our goal is to look at adoption and bring to light issues that are present and that could be improved to help protect kids within the adoption system. We are collaborating with each other to research and write a paper, and we are possibly going to create some sort of visual component in the end.

So far this project has allowed me to connect with two new people and get to know them a little bit. I’ve gotten to know one girl who is in the United States for college now but is originally from Uganda, and another girl who is from Brazil. We have another group member from Rwanda, but it has been hard to get to know him so far. I will hopefully be able to talk with him more in the future, and I want to be able to understand his perspective and use that knowledge to help me to get to know him.

It has been interesting to try and schedule meetings with our group because of the different time zones that people are in, and it has helped me to recognize perspectives in that way. It’s also been beneficial to get to plan out our research project with my group members, because it has helped me listen to their ideas and be able to see the way they think about things. I’m thankful for the opportunity I’ve had so far, and I’m excited to get to learn more about them as this project goes on.

To view the final project, click this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13M9FWJfrISShuiHAtUbNNyPT2_K2tv_E/view?usp=sharing

This artifact is a picture of my students, my fellow leaders, and myself at the youth group at the church I go to, Rivertree Jackson. The youth group is called NRG and it is on Wednesday nights. During the youth group we play games, worship God through songs, listen to a teaching, and break off into discussion groups.

This artifact matches the “Take Action” ISSN Domain because people at my church and I take time to serve in order to build relationships with middle school students and help them learn about Jesus, in hope that one day they will begin a personal relationship with Him and follow Him. I see the brokenness in the world and in my own life, and I believe that Jesus is the only one who can heal it, so I want to point the students to Him by being involved in NRG. By being a part of NRG, I can be a part of my students' lives, help them when they need it, and be a friend to them. I have been a leader since my freshman year of high school, but this year I am a lot more involved in the behind the scenes work.

This year at NRG I help plan worship, I play guitar during worship, and I help lead a small group of girls. Worshiping God through song is a powerful thing, and it can help connect people with Him, so it’s an important part of NRG that I am glad to be a part of. I help plan which songs we will sing, and then I play the guitar during worship. I also help lead a small group of girls along with other student and adult leaders. I’ve been leading the same group of girls since I first became a leader. In small groups, we allow the students to talk about what is going on in their lives and about their faith. We try to encourage them, help them with what they are going through, and most importantly, point them to Jesus in it all.

Being a leader at NRG has changed the way I think by helping me focus on God more than other things. It has allowed me to build relationships with others. It has helped me learn more about God, and it has made me want to look deeper into the Bible to learn more. It has helped me to be more generous and more willing to serve others. It has highlighted my own desperate need for Jesus, and it continuously reminds me that I can’t do anything without Him. It’s been such a blessing to be a leader, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to get to serve God in this way.

For this assignment, I had to research a Spanish speaking country using Spanish sources and create a travel brochure. The country I chose was Guatemala. Within the brochure, I had to convince the reader to travel to Guatemala by giving information about the country. Finally, I had to present it to my Spanish teacher in a five to seven minute formal presentation completely in Spanish.

My artifact matches the “Communicate Ideas” ISSN Domain because I had to plan how to best communicate with my audience through not only my verbal and nonverbal behaviors but also the language that I used. I had to take into consideration the resources I was using to communicate my ideas, and I had to cater the presentation to my specific audience in order to meet their needs.

To make my artifact, I compiled information about Guatemala that would be beneficial to tell my audience. The content in my artifact is about Guatemala, like the money they use, the languages they speak, interesting places to visit, etc. I then put together my brochure using a template from Lucidpress. I included written information as well as pictures. This artifact has changed the way I think by making me realize that sometimes going simple is best. I originally planned on making a handmade project, but I realized that it would take me too long and would not be as presentable as one online. I learned that it’s okay if a project is not as above and beyond as I would like it to be, and what matters is that I put my best effort into whatever I create.

In this project, I learned how to effectively present my ideas to an audience that speaks a different language. I had to use what I have learned through Spanish class in order to communicate with my teacher, and since this was a formal presentation, I had to present in a professional way. I also learned how to create a brochure that looks polished and is coherent throughout.

In my freshman and sophomore year, the idea of creating a brochure in Spanish and presenting for five minutes in Spanish would have terrified me. I know that I am becoming globally competent because I had the skills to do this project through what I have learned in the past years. This project has made me look at things in new ways, get a better understanding of communication between languages, and ultimately, become more ready for the globalized world.

To view the full artifact, click this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13aJdHIZQd7NpDlLOkTdVcNq-5uVS9IrT/view?usp=sharing

This artifact is a digital poster that I created on the square root function. In my pre-calculus class, we were learning about the different parent functions and their properties, so each person got one of the functions to research and explain. I was assigned the square root function.

This artifact matches the ISSN domain of “Investigate the World” because I had to investigate a type of function that is important in our world. I had to ask “what are the properties of the square root function?”, and I had to answer the question through graphing it and researching it. The square root function might not be something in our world that everyone uses often or even knows about, but it is used frequently to perform numerous tasks and to solve problems. This function is important to engineering, technology, architecture, and many other real world fields and professions. Through this project, I was able to learn about this concept that is useful in our world.

To make this project, I graphed the function in a graphing calculator and looked at its properties. I found out its domain, range, x- and y- intercepts, asymptotes, and minimum and maximum points. I also found out if it was an even or odd function and over what intervals it was increasing, decreasing, or remaining the same. After I found this out, I used Google Drawings to make my poster. I added the information, a picture of the graph, and color to make my poster look nice and present the needed information.

This project changed the way I think by helping me understand the parent functions better. Not only did I get to learn about my own, but I got to look at other projects and learn about the various functions. It made me think about all the different uses for these functions in real life and showed me that it isn’t useless information.

By completing this project, I got to learn about the square root function and teach others about it. I also got to learn more about how to use Google Drawings. I’m glad that I got to complete this project, and it was fun to get to do a project in math class and switch up the normal routine. My experience gained from this project will help me to be able to research more ideas in the future and investigate the world in many ways.