This semester, we explored the ethics of science and technology, globalization, and the American culture of waste. As a class, we examined the ways science rapidly changes with fetal genome sequencing and CRISPR systems (programmed to target specific stretches of genetic code and to edit DNA). We compared the technology of the past, present, and future, with science fiction and literature of the twentieth century.
Students selected the needs of: food, water, the environment, safety, language, and social needs. They individually wrote research papers on technology and these needs, then in groups of four created video projects screened at the Freshman Block Party on May 7th.
STUDENT PROJECTS
WATER
Miles Gage Olivia Edstrom Sinai Navarro Bueno Elmar Javadov Rafa Medina Jr.
WASHED AWAY
In our project, we hope to show that water in an important part of everyday life. We filmed water being used in everyday life to represent the impact it has on ourselves and the world. We also aim to show technology’s effect on water by teaching about the history of water. We included this history because we believe that in order to prepare and plan for the future, we need to know what happened in the past. We also wanted the importance of conserving water to be shown. After bringing to light the importance of conserving water, we provided information about different technologies that allow everyday people to be more water-wise.
SOCIAL NEEDS
Eli Miranda Samra Aldulaimi Karla Vacquez Angelo Romero
SOCIAL NEEDS: How technology has negatively affected the way teens communicate
We decided to focus our project on social needs, more specifically how technology has negatively affected how we communicate. We hope to show that teens today find it harder to talk to someone in person because most teens have been communicating with their phones for their entire lives. In this film, we have two actors: karla and angelo as a couple. We show that they were much more able to communicate via phone than when in real life. This illustrates that teens are too dependent on their phones and need to also look up from the screen.
SAFETY
Lily Tison Matthew Diego Reynoso Gloria Salinas Galvan Christopher Austin
SAFETY
In our project on safety, we hope to showcase the importance of being aware of your surroundings in a captivating way. We filmed a student getting stalked on her way home. This illustrates two themes: one being that women are not safe in public and the other, that technology can act as a dangerous distraction. With access to such powerful tech, one must still be able to protect themselves and take care of themselves.
language
Mikel Sanchez Neddah Nourbakhsh Elijah Ramirez
MODERN LANGUAGE
In our project on how technology has affected language, we wanted to show that the only true way to learn a language is to fully immerse yourself in the culture or place the language is spoken. To represent this, we filmed 9th graders who speak different languages and asked them questions to illustrate the ways technology helps/affects us in society today. We also tried to show how culture operates in the languages we speak.
FOOD
Natalia Armenta Jada Brown Kailee Nakhonthap Martin Rocamora
TECHNOLOGY’S IMPACT ON FOOD
In our project on food, we are hoping to show how food has changed throughout history due to technological changes. We want to show the background of food and how the first crops were harvested up to the present and future where technology makes our food. While we do show the tech behind food, we want to incorporate the daily impact in has on human life. We have been filming food products, store incorporations, and technology that impacts food, and we plan on also using cooked/cooking food and news pieces. As we also go through the making of this video we show how GMOs and food pesticides are affecting our health. The film will represent what we use to make and grow our food and how the products themselves are being affected by technology.
ENVIRONMENT
Mila Clougherty Jazmyn Brown Lorenzo Calderon Wyatt Olson
THE ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE
In our project about the effects technology has had an climate change, we attempt to show all the sides of climate change in documentary style. So far we have a minute of video that consists of news anchors yelling about climate change, this will act as a transition into the full video. We need to create a timeline of climate change as a whole and incorporate technologies effects on climate change through the ages. At the moment Lorenzo and Wyatt have been creating the video, and Jazmyn and Mila made an outline for the video.