presentations + exposition night
The fourth day of presentations!Lola explained how her project shifted in many directions after she was inspired by a video of Capuchin monkeys wanting equality in their food. She talked about how primates have a sense of fairness and justice, and then described how she learned about the mining of coltan in gorilla habitats, leading to her electronic waste drive that helps dispose of and recycle products that contain this metal so she can help protect primate habitats.
Zada described her process of becoming a dedicated volunteer for the San Francisco Food Bank and the Homeless Prenatal Program after volunteering at the needle exchange during the Exploration phase of the Fairness arc. Her research on homelessness made her more passionate about doing what she can for the various organizations in San Francisco to help change disadvantage peoples' lives. She is still running a donation drive for the Homeless Prenatal Program and raised over $600 in the evening.
Isaac showed us the dozens of stencil art pieces he has created throughout the arc. He talked about the controversy of street art and what he does or does not consider to be acceptable street art, and described the process of creating the stencils: what was easy, what was difficult, his thought process in creating the more controversial pieces.
Connor talked about his discoveries during the Expression phase in learning various computer programs like Unity and Google Sketch-up to help him build his video game. He told us about the major hiccups he came across in learning and debugging code. His game is based on the Saharan desert trade game that the school attempted to create at the beginning of the Fairness arc and includes a series of moral dilemmas that the player has to solve as they move through the world he has created.
William presented his short four-act play about warring tribes and the discovery of metal to triumph in battle with actors from the Sand Leopards and Phantoms. After the warlord's troops were defeated in battle, he sent them into the mines, where they found a wonderful hard substance that they then used to defeat their enemies. William's conclusion? People with weapons made of metal was not fair.
Quinn presented an infographic-packed study of the fairness of education. He talked about the advantages and disadvantages of people of various races and genders, told us the story of desegregating schools, rapped about the court case Plessy v. Ferguson, and compared rising rates of graduates from high school and college. Based on all the evidence he collected, he decided that education is becoming more and more fair, despite setbacks along the way.
Audrey re-presented her game at the very end of the day and told us all about the difficulties she faced in making her games fair (initially, the person who went first always won) and making it more complex (instead of winning in 2 or 6 moves). She had a glittery, completed board game based on one of her favorite shows to show off at the end of Expression!
In the evening, Brightworks became a show-and-tell event for parents and community members. The kids created displays of their work and stood by to answer questions and talk about their process and the end result. The kids did so much work this arc! They knew how to answer every question posed to them and handled themselves with the professionalism that their work deserved!
