10th Grade: 2023-2024

English

Edward Bentler,
Documentary Project (Summit Night),
Quarter 4; 2024,
Mrs. Muckley,
Investigate the World; Communicate Ideas; Recognize Perspectives,

The most important project for JAGS students their sophomore years is the documentary project. The requirements for the project was to create a 15 minute or more documentary about a topic that interests our group. For the topic we chose, we had to provide insight into at least three different perspectives on the topic within our documentary and how our topic impacts people's lives globally.

I believe this project developed my skills in the JAGS pillars of investigating the world, communicating ideas, and recognizing perspectives. Creating this documentary required an immense amount of research about national and international perspectives, and without question, conveying the ideas we found through our research in an understandable and meaningful way allowed me to better communicate ideas. This project allowed me to better understand certain global issues and how I can attempt to educate myself about them.

For this project, my group members and I choose to focus on the topic of misinformation. The four of us decided to split the work for the project relatively evenly, and we decided to convey the potential harm of misinformation by having an overarching story throughout the documentary of two friends who are polarized due to misinformation. In between these segments of story, we presented our facts and statistics, as well as clips of professional interviews. While two of my group members were the actors for our story, I was in charge of narration for the project. Similarly, I was in charge of editing the international perspectives and conclusion of the project.

Overall, I believe that this project made me more globally competent because of the immense amount of research and understanding the is necessary to perform well for this project. The technical knowledge and study required to learn about and present this topic really has made me more globally competent.

History

Edward Bentler,
GO Night Project,
Quarter 2; 2023,
Mr. Walsh,
Take Action; Communicate Ideas,

Sophomore JAGS students' GO Night project is focused on the idea of taking action and making change in our community. The requirements for the project were to choose a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal and identify an issue in our community related to the goal. Then, we would research how this issue could be resolved and take action to do so. We then had to present our research and the results of our project at GO Night.

I believe this project developed my skills in the JAGS pillars of taking action and communicating ideas. My group's project involved organizing an event, raising awareness, and making real efforts to have an impact on those within our community. Similarly, presenting on the effectiveness of our actions strongly reinforced our skills in communicating ideas.

For this project, my group chose to focus on UN Sustainable Development Goal #16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. Specifically, the issue we chose to take action in regards to was the issue of division and hatred. In order to address this issue, we organized a Peace Hike at a local nature preserve called Beech Creek. The purpose of the event was to educate people on the issues of hate in communities and to bring people closer through the event. The event included signs posted around the hiking trails with information we had found during our research, as well as informational packets for those who had attended and treats for children.

Overall, I believe that this project made me more globally competent because of how it promoted my ability to not only cooperate with a group, but with an entire community around me. It allowed me to hone my skills to organize events, reach out to those outside of my school and outside of people I normally interact with, and if I can reach out to those within my community, the principle remains for reaching out to those across the country and even internationally.

Extra Curricular

Edward Bentler,
JAGS Costa Rica Trip,
Quarter 3; 2024,
JAGS,
Investigate the World; Recognize Perspectives,

During my sophomore year of JAGS, I had the opportunity to take an educational school trip to Costa Rica. The trip took place over five days and allowed us to travel to multiple very notable locations across Costa Rica.

I believe this trip developed my skills in the JAGS pillars of investigating the world and recognizing perspectives. This trip allowed me and every other student that chose to partake to better understand life in a different culture, different technological advancements, different government systems, and more. This trip was my first time leaving the country, and really allowed me to better understand global perspectives.

Our trip started in the mountains of Costa Rica, and we, over the course of a few days, travelled to the coastline. Along the way, we learned about Costa Rica's history, their people, and experienced many of their amazing nature preserves and cultural activities. We ate authentic meals, experienced the amazing biodiversity of Costa Rica, and got to meet so many unique people.

Overall, I believe that this trip made me more globally competent because of how eye-opening it was and how much it taught me about another country's culture and way of life. This trip taught me to better understand all of the various perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds of those around me.

World Language

Edward Bentler,
Environmental Protection (环境保护) Presentation,
Quarter 2; 2023,
Mrs. Beltowski (冯老师),
Investigate the World; Take Action; Communicate Ideas,

At the end of each of our units in my Chinese class, we would work on a related project. One of our units was titled 环境保护, or Environmental Protection. The project for that unit was to do research with a partner about a certain type of pollution in the US and China, do something around our school and make a poster to demonstrate how small choices can help resolve the issues of pollution, and present our research and what we did to the class.

I believe this project developed my skills in the JAGS pillars of investigating the world, taking action, and communicating ideas. The project required us to research specific data and events in China and the US, extensively requiring investigation of the world. It also required us to take action around our school in order to help resolve environmental issues. Lastly, presenting our findings in another language requires a lot of skill in communicating ideas to convey our message properly.

For our project, my partner and I decided to focus on air pollution. Thanks to air pollution being prominent in both China and the US, our research was extensive, and we were able to identify many possible solutions. Once we had done our research, we identified possible issues at our school related to air pollution, and after identifying two large sources, we made our poster and took action to help resolve these issues.

Overall, I believe that this project made me more globally competent because of how research and action-oriented this project was. It allowed me to learn a lot about issues in the US and other countries, as well as how these issues are being dealt with. Additionally, I gained experienced taking action and spreading awareness in regards to specific topics such as environmental protection.

CH4EnviroProtection.pdf

Science

Edward Bentler,
Animas in Stark County Project,
Quarter 3; 2024,
Mrs. Arter,
Take Action; Communicate Ideas,

Another project that all JAGS sophomores take part in each year is the Animals in Stark County Project, where groups of four students are assigned to different animal-related institutions around Stark County Ohio, and must take action to help support the institution. Once the project was completed, it was also required for each group to present the action that they took to help.

I believe this project developed my skills in the JAGS pillars of taking action and communicating ideas. This project required my group and I to identify issues that our institution was facing and come up with ways to rally the support of our community to benefit the institution. Not only did we have many interactions with various groups outside of our school, but we were also required to present our project, requiring a great deal of communicating ideas.

My group was assigned to the Stark County Humane Society. The issues we identified regarded the lack of supplied and donations that the Stark County Humane Society received, so we decided to set up two separate donation events to help resolve the issues. The first donation event was within our school, where we would collect cardboard rolls and tissue boxes, which could be recycled into cardboard cat toys, seeing as toys were on the Humane Society's donation wishlist and research showed that toys benefitted animals' overall moods, thus increasing their chances of being adopted. Our second donation event was at our local Pet Supplies Plus, where we set up a donation booth for their busiest 2 hours during a Sunday. We were able to raise nearly $100 dollars for the Humane Society.

Overall, I believe that this project made me more globally competent because it required me to interact with others and my community in an extensive way that I don't usually have the opportunity or reason to. I gained a great deal of experience from this project, and I believe that it has many applications.

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