Jazmine Edwards

Bell 0
10/15/14

9
th
Grade Culmination of Learning

I think that my freshman year in the Academy of Global Studies was very different. It was hard
to adjust to at first, but I eventually got the hang of it. We had a lot of different experiences from the
rest of the school. A lot of this is because most of our projects were hands on. For example, in Physical
Science we had a rollercoaster project to complete. This project involved us doing the math for each hill
on our coaster, and calculating the speeds at different points on the coaster. Later in the year we made
boxes that were used as star guides for younger kids. We explained different stages of stars, what was in
our galaxy, and definitions of star vocabulary words.
We also read a lot of books our freshman year. We read Night by Elie Wiesel, which was a book
about the concentration camps during the Holocaust. We also read Feed by M.T. Anderson and
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. These books gave us an understanding into the world of dystopian
societies with governments that completely controlled everything that its people did. Grammar and
vocabulary were also a big part of our learning in English class. We had vocab words to learn every week
and we had weekly grammar lessons.
Our seminar class connected global aspects into our learning. There were movies that we
watched in different languages in order to expand our knowledge of different problems happening in
the world. We created recipes from different countries and we had the chance to make that dish and
bring it in. We also had a cultural fair in seminar class. We were assigned a country, and we had to
present facts and information about it.
I think that my freshman year in AGS was a different experience that the classes below me. My
class was the first to be in the Academy of Global Studies. Back then our seminar class was a 9
th
Bell
instead of the now very much earlier 0 Bell. Something that strengthened this bond was our trip to the
Heifer Village in Arkansas. We had to work together in order to survive the 24 hour without food. We
had to use our skills in order to solve problems like not being to communicate with others or not having
what someone else wanted to trade in exchange for your goods. I think that most of this preparation
came out of our freshman year in AGS. We have experienced differing opinions about AGS, and we have
grown up together. We are very close with each other, and we are very family oriented. We are very
willing to adapt to the newness of each year and kind of go with the flow. I believe that all of things have
prepared us to move on to do great things after school.