This project was based around the idea of survival. Our teachers put us in theoretical situation where we had found ourselves one day in a dystopian world, and we had only our knowledge to save us. Eventually we were to move from a survival situation, into a civilization, so we spent eight weeks with our "Tribes"(groups of four), collecting knowledge, forming alliances, and creating all of the necessary tools that we would need for our "Survival Night" where we would be tested on the work that we had completed over the course of this project.
Overall Reflection
This project took up a good piece of the second semester, and deserves a full explanation of what we did. I learned so much in this project, and I will remember it for a long time. Not only did I learn how to survive with limited materials, and learn how to create things to help me survive, but I also learned how to make a constitution, why we need constitutions, I learned about all of the different types of government, how to debate, how to form a strong debate, I read Lord of the Flies, I started to think about human nature, I learned about Jamestown and Roanoke, and so much more. I can use all of this information not only in future jobs I may have, but in everyday life as an 8th grader. I will be able to win arguments (which is pretty great if you ask me), write stronger and more professional sounding documents, understand politics a lot better, get into great discussions about philosophy, prioritize, I can articulate myself much better, and much more. In the science aspect of this project, I learned about the properties of water, how to use the sun to my best abilities, how heat works and the different types of heat gain and loss, and how to build an adequate shelter our of 10 five foot pieces of PVC pipes. I had a lot of trouble with the solar cooking because I personally hate learning things off of websites, and getting the information to stick was hard, but in the end I got through it and our solar cooker worked, so that was okay. In the end I learned a lot in this project, and I had fun doing it, I can't wait until the Model UN debate where I get to learn even more.
We held several debates throughout the course of this project, but the main decisions were made in our final four at exhibition. Each one helped to decide something for our colony as a whole, vs just our tribe. Each tribe member was a representative for each of the four problems. I was to discuss the government system we wanted to use for our utopia. My debating was based off of these main points:
Democracy is the only way to have a truly equal country/colony/civilization
Democracy will by definition make the majority of our people happy
In a colony as small as ours (56 citizens total) we can have each tribe of four discuss problems together, and then send a representative to join a small debate between the 14 total tribes.
This will prevent corruption because there is no one leader, and representatives can be switched regularly.
I was prepared for all the questions thrown at me, and had counter arguments for all other types of government system. In the end, my tribe's solution was chosen.
In addition to our debates, we also had to create a constitution of our own for our tribe of four. We studied the proper way to write a constitution, and I spent a total of 3 days creating the document. Here it is:
Lord of the Flies
During this project, the entire class was reading William Golding's Lord of the Flies,and keeping a journal on what we read, and using it as a list of "dos and don'ts" for our project. I personally recommend this book. I loved it! However it does start slowly and, in my opinion, is best to read over a long period of time. I am a person who likes to understand all of the symbolism in books, such as this one, where the author describes everything like poetry. Due dates for chapters were not in my favor because of this, but in the end, it was a great book and I appreciate the writing in an artistic sense, rather than a novel.
Ralph and Jack
The plot line of this book is based around a group of boys from ages 6 to 12 survive a plane crash on a deserted island. They are all forced to try and make a suitable life for themselves, and find comfort and order in a single conch shell. When this shell is introduced in the story, it brings the boys together and they vote for a leader. The boy they chose was named Ralph. Throughout the book, there is a constant power struggle between Ralph and another boy named Jack. Although Ralph was elected as leader, they boys slowly begin to value Jack as more of a King. Eventually these groups split up, and Ralph is left with only small children, and four other boys, two of which are later killed by Jack's tribe.
Simon
One of these boys was named Simon, and he was killed after crawling out of the woods one night while the boys were all cheering about killing a beast that they have claimed to exist on the island since the beginning of the book. Simon had been lost in the woods for a while, and had gone a bit insane after eating a rotting pig head that had been sacrificed to the beast by Jack's tribe. After eating this, the pig head spoke to Simon. It told him that the beast was the boys, and after reading up to this point, it is quite obvious that the "Lord of the Flies" (which is what the head claims to be named) is telling the truth. Simon then finds a dead man on the top of the island who two of the other boys thought was the beast, and rushes down to tell the boys. He is killed when they mistake him for the beast itself.
Piggy
The other character that is killed is named Piggy. He was the second character to be introduced, and is by far the most vulnerable considering his various health problems and Jack's hatred toward him. In this book, there is a lot of focus on killing pigs up until the point that Piggy is killed. He was intelligent, and by far the most rational of all of the characters, but none of the others recognized this. They chose instead to bully him by doing things like break his glasses, hit him, and eventually kill him with a rock, causing him to fall off of a cliff and die. Every time his glasses broke, the boys got more and more bloodthirsty, and when they finally stole them completely, causing their only voice of reason to become blind, the killings began. When he himself was killed, the conch broke with him, destroying their last sense of order.
William Golding
In the 1950s human nature was a big topic for many writers. The war had ended, and people finally understood the horrors and cruelty that went on during such a crucial time in human history, World War II. William Golding was obviously trying to communicate that he believed that human nature was to be evil, and if you put a group of young boys, who have yet to be fully influenced by society, on a desert island, they would instinctively begin to have a major interest in killing animals, and eventually one another. He believe that humans were greedy and power hungry. He believed that we were dangerous, and only society's laws kept us in order.
Me
I however, believe otherwise. I believe that humans cannot be classified as either good, nor evil. I believe that we are too big of a population to classify ourselves in one word. We are all born with a clean slate, and as we grow older we each show different amounts of both of these ideas. But in all reality, how can we classify humans as good or bad, if we created the meaning ourselves. What is good, and what is bad? Do they even really exist?
You
Think about it.
Shelter
Each shelter was made out of only PVC pipes, a tarp, and duct tape. We went with a cube design like the photo below. Our measurements were 5' by 5' by 5', and we all managed to fit quite well on our overnight.
Solar Cooker
Our next step was to get working on our tools, so we began learning about solar cooking, and eventually created a solar cooker of our own!