Kid-to-Kid: Great Blue Journal Issue 5 May 2000

Kid-to-Kid
Contents

The Culture of my Ancestors
Baja, Mexico
Special Clothing
A Cookie Survey
Durango, Mexico
Enchiladas
From Hula-Hoops to Pokemon
What are Some Traditional Foods in Mexico?
Who Made God?
My Famous Grandpa
Foods that Heal
Hmong & Mexican Dance Comparison
Irish People and Discrimination
Mexico City
Mexican Holidays
What Movies Do Kids Like Best?
Black Music from 1950 to 2000
A Norwegian Kid in the U.S.
Oaxaca, Mexico
Pants
Where Do People Grocery Shop and Why?
Who Were They?
Walking You Through Surgery
Tobasco, Mexico
Who Am I?
Favorite Winter Sports
Yucatan
A Trip to My Grandma's House
Can I Learn New Singing Techniques?
About My Grandma

Introduction

I got my question from my mom. She said, "You should know more about your ancestors." The reason the question is important to me is because I want to learn more about my ancestors' lives.

Procedure

I read two books, and I interviewed my mom and dad and my auntie. The books I read were Pa Tells It and Leon's Story by Leon Walter.

Interview with my Mom

My mom's mom and dad lived in Mississippi. They were married in July. Her mother had twelve children. Three of the children were her father's. Her father had nine boys before he married her mother. His other wife had died. Her mother's name is Ether Green and her father's name is Ollie Green. They lived on a farm where they raised cows, chickens, and hogs. Her parents learned how to take care of a big family by killing hogs for meat and raising chickens for laying eggs. They also grew their own garden. Her father drove a tractor for the farm they lived on.

Her parents did not talk much about their lives. Her parents are married now and they have money and their own land. Their father had one car when my mom was little. They used it until it stopped running. They depended on other people to go places. Her parents went to church every first Sunday for service and Sunday School.

Interview with my Dad

Q: Did you pick cotton?

A: Yes.

Q: Was your family poor?

A: A little.

Q: Did you finish high school?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you finish college?

A: No.

Q: Why?

A: I had to work in the field.

Q: When did you meet mom?

A: High school.

Q: How old were you?

A: Sixteen.

Q: How old was Mom?

A: Fifteen.

Interview with my Auntie

Q: Did you pick cotton?

A: Yes.

Q: Was your family poor?

A: A little.

Q: Did you finish high school?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you finish college?

A: Yes.

Q: How come dad did not finish college and you did?

A: Because the boys had to work in the fields and the girls worked in the house.

Q: How old were you when you finished college?

A: About 21 or 22.

New Directions

If I were to do this again I would start the project early in the year.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my teacher, Mr. Wagler, for his guidance, and April, the librarian, for helping me find Pa Tells It and Leon's Story.

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Introduction

We are studying Baja, Mexico. First we were doing Michoacan because one of our moms comes from Michoacan. We could not find out enough information about it so we changed to Baja. Our teacher told us to make a video about our state.

Procedure

At first we had a little trouble learning to pause the video camera.

We all had jobs to do. #1 had to make a map of the state on the computer. He made the map of the state in Kid Pix. Then he copied the picture and put it in ClarisWorks and he had to put lots of cities on it and put the names on the cities. #2 had to find research on the state in books and on the internet. #3 had to find out how far and how much it will cost from Baja to Madison. We had to call the airline and the bus. We found out it would cost $137 on a bus from Baja to Madison. # 4 has to be the director and help everybody.

We each had to write our script. At the end of the movie we did the disappear, reappear trick. The trick works like this. We each talked to say our name. Then we paused the camera. One person went away and another came. Then it looked like the next person reappeared in the picture. It went perfect. Then our video was complete.

Results

The beginning of the video was good and all our computer pictures were good. The camera shook too much when we were showing on the map the way from Baja to Madison. We could have paused the camera better. We had lots of good pictures. We even got a picture of a town called Rosarita where they did some of the movie, the Titanic.

New Directions.

For new directions, we would like to do our video a little better. We messed up in a few places. You can hear us whisper in the background. That is where we need to pause better. We need to learn to move the camera better so it doesn't shake.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Nancy, our teacher, and our group.

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Introduction

My project started by wondering what different cultures wore for clothing. I decided I should interview kids in the school. I put a checklist in my folder for knowing who I did and didn't interview.

Procedure and Results

I walked around my classroom to see if somebody was not busy. I would find someone and ask them questions. I wrote down my questions on a piece of paper. I asked the questions so many times I memorized some of the questions.

The first question was: "Do you have clothes for special times?" Everybody said, "Yes I do."

The second question was: "Do you keep the clothes in a closet or somewhere else?" Five people said no and fourteen people said yes.

The third question was: "For what occasions do you wear your special clothes?" Eleven kids said parties. Four kids said for special events. Ten said holidays. One said for Buddhism. Eight kids said for church. One said for the Hebrew religion. Three said for Indian parties. One said for cultural occasions. One said for weddings. Two said for festivals. Two said for Sunday school.

The fourth question was: "Does the piece of clothing have a name from the culture?" One said, "If it does, I don't know it." Six said just a plain dress. One said, "It's called a sarara." One said, "Half sari." One said, "Putu Pavada." Two said a suit.

My fifth question was: "Do you separate the clothes that are different than the other clothes?" Seven said no. Eight said yes. One kid said, "Kind of," and one said, "It depends."

My seventh question was: "Do you have cultural clothes?" Nine kids said no. Twelve said yes. One said, "Kind of," and one said, "Some."

The last question was: "Do you want to describe a little about the clothes?" Here are some of their comments:

I wear dresses because of our culture.

It's a skirt up to your toes.

The blouse has beads and little mirrors.

My dress is purple and has lots of flowers.

I have a black suit with an animal from Norway.

Mine has a white shirt and has a little braided lace around the neck and it goes to the chest.

I usually wear black pants.

My dress is a white one.

I have a black jumper with striped tights and a white T-shirt.

The dress has straps like overalls, but it is underneath the shirt.

It has a skirt up to the toes and a blouse.

It can be short or long sleeved.

My dress is blue with white flowers.

The half sari has a short blouse with short sleeves.

The skirt hangs down to your ankles and there's a piece of cloth like a scarf.

Interpreting Results

I have seen a difference between boys and girls because mostly the girls have a special type of clothing. I understood that some kids did not understand what cultural clothes are because some kids said no for the last question I asked. All the clothes are cultural because it's clothes that people invented and made how they wanted them to look. I think some teachers don't explain what cultural clothes are and what it means.

New Directions

I would want to start earlier because I would have more time to write and to do other things. I would also like to make the questions more clear.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the people I interviewed and Mr. Wiesner and the other teachers that allowed me to interview the kids.

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Introduction

My project is a survey about cookies. I was wondering what kind of cookies the students at John Muir liked. Also, I wanted to see any change in the cookies that the students liked at different ages.

Procedure

To do the survey I went to 1/2, 3/4 and 5th grade classes. The survey question was: "What kind of cookies do you like?" The choices were chocolate chip, peanut butter, mint, M&M, oatmeal and "other" cookies.

After I completed the survey, I tabulated the data. I arranged the data by grade and names of cookies.

Results

The results of the survey was sort of what I expected. I found out that most students liked chocolate chip cookies. Fifty-two students liked chocolate chip. The least liked were oatmeal cookies. Only 14 students I surveyed liked that kind.

Interpreting Results

There was a difference in what the kindergarten and 1/2 grade kids liked compared to 3/4 and 5th grade students. The students in kindergarten and 1/2 liked chocolate chip cookies more than other types of cookies. In grade 3 and 4, 14 students liked chocolate chip cookies; 16 students liked "other" cookies. In 5th grade, 7 students liked peanut butter cookies. Only 3 students liked chocolate chip cookies. The least liked was M&M cookies.

First, I thought that the kids changed their minds about what they liked when they got older, but you can't tell that from my answers. To find out I would ask them,"When you were younger, what kind of cookie did you like?"

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my teacher, my parents and all the students who participated in my survey.

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Introduction

Our school is part of the Barrio Project and our project was to make a video of a state in Mexico and tell about it. So we had to pick a state. We picked Durango because we thought it would be easy to find information. But it wasn't easy. It has about 20 cities in it so we had to work hard and there were hardly any pictures about it.

Procedure

We had to pick numbers 1, 2, 3, or 4. The 1's job was to make a map on the computer of our state and put cities on it. He wanted to put color in the background but he had to keep changing the color so it would show up on the video good. The 2's job was to find pictures on the computer and tell about it. That was a hard job. There were not very many pictures or internet sites about Durango. The 3's job was to find out how far it was from Durango to Madison, WI. It was hard to remember all the different miles from one place to the next so we learned to pause the video tape in between each place. The 4's job was to direct and help out and one time he video taped the wrong picture.

We used library books, the computer, paper, pencils, video tape, the TV, the camera, Mexican music and a map of Mexico and the United States map.

Results

In the beginning of our video we cut people out a little. We didn't get all of the person in the picture and we didn't get all of the words. We started talking too soon and we went fast. We talked loud enough, but on the map from Durango to Madison we had the ruler in one place on the video and the camera person stopped the video. When it was turned back on, the ruler was in another place.

New Directions

If we did it over, we would probably wait 4 seconds to talk after we turned on the video instead of 3 seconds. And we would talk a little slower. Last, we would like to make sure that the ruler stays in the same place.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our teacher, Nancy Lanyon, and our librarian, Mr. Roberts, for letting us use the library and getting books and looking on the computers.

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Introduction

I'm in fourth grade. I live in Madison but was raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, from the age of two to six. I got interested in doing a project about enchiladas because they are part of our culture and are a historic food of Mexico. They are also my favorite food. My question is: Can I learn how to cook enchiladas for my class?

I interviewed my mom about how she learned to cook enchiladas. She said that her great-grandmother taught her when she was twelve years old. My mother told me that there are only seven ingredients in the enchiladas and that they are really popular in Mexico.

Procedure

I asked my mom for help and she showed me how to make enchiladas. Together we made some for my class at John Muir School. There are twenty-five kids in my class so we made many of them. I am going to give you the ingredients and directions for making them.

Ingredients

tortillas

chili guajillo

salt

garlic

cheese

onion

oil

water

First boil the chilies. Then liquefy the chilies with a piece of garlic and salt. Next strain the chilies. Put a pot on the stove and put a half-cup of oil in it. Let the oil get hot. Dip one tortilla into the pot until it gets soft. Take the tortilla out of the pot and dip it into the chili. Put cheese and onion in it and roll it up. You can put any filling in it that you like. Cut the onions into little pieces and the cheese can be mozzarella from a bag but Mexican cheese is the best. Warm them in a pan in the oven if you are not going to eat them right away. Enjoy!

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my mom for showing me how to make enchiladas. I would also like to thank my teacher, Mrs. Bostrom, for giving me courage to do this.

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Introduction

My project is all about fads: How have fads changed from the 50's to the 90's? According to the dictionary, a fad is "a popular practice, interest or fashion followed for a short period of time." I had one major problem: what is a fad? is a movie star a fad? is a singer a fad? You'll hear more about this in the procedure section of my article.

Procedure

I interviewed a lot of people about fads including my mom, dad, and a bunch of teachers. I sent out a letter out to all of the teachers at Randall saying that if it fit their schedule, I wanted to interview them about some fads they remembered from the 1950's to the 1990's, which was the time of most of their childhood.

I got pretty crisp fashions and fads from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's, but since all of the teachers were probably born in the late or early 50's I couldn't get many fads from the 1990's. Then one of our student teachers, Mr. Wong, said that he would give me an e-mail that his friend gave him about what they did when they were little. The next week was spring break for him so he never got it to me. So I had to ask parents, friends, myself, etc., but miraculously I got some 90's stuff!! I also looked on the internet and found a few fads but I didn't have much luck because the computer kept freezing.

Like I said earlier, one of my biggest problems was deciding what a fad is. Mr. Wagler and I decided that the only kind of movie star or singer that would be a fad would be one who started a certain fashion. Next I needed someone who could look through the list of fads I had and verify if some of the fads I had besides the movie stars and singers weren't fads, My mom and I did this. I also read a book called It's the Fashion, about fashion from way, way back to the present.

Fashion From the Book

I'll start with what the book (It's the Fashion) said about some of the main fashions: "In the 1950's pointed shoes called winkle-pickers imitated the poulaines, which had gone out of style 500 years earlier. Like the 19th-century women who dampened their empire dresses, men sprinkled water over their drain pipe trousers to make them skin tight."

"Men of the 1960's went for a similar look to the men of Mesopotamialong hair, beards and moustaches. Clothes were garishly decorated with swirling patterns, checks and stripes. Hippies or 'flower children' wore flowers to show their desire to have peace during the Vietnam war."

Some of the music of the late 70's was called punk rock. Fans of this music wore safety pins through their noses and ears. They also wore colorful mohawks and their clothes had holes and rips in them. Punk rock also continued through the early 80's.

Fashion in the 80's seemed to be the opposite of the late 70's' punk rock. Casual and comfortable, fashion in the 80's became versatile, and people wore clothes such as sweat suits and jeans.

"By the 1990's the attitude was one of freedom and fun."

Fashions From Interviews

So now that you've gotten a taste from the book I'll give you some of the fashions that I got from interviewing people:

50's: Spike heels (shoes with high soles like high heels), pedal pushers (tight pants for girls that go to knees), blue jeans (blue pants with a rough material), Clorox hair bleach (blonde hair bleach), Elvis's style (long sideburns, bell bottoms, white jacket).

60's: Mini skirts (very short skirts for girls), Beatles look (long side burns, long hair), Twiggy look (Twiggy is a model, very skinny, lots of makeup, very short hair), hippies / flower children (tie dye shirt, bell bottoms, beads, sandals, and sometimes a headband), maxi skirt (very, very long skirt for women), Afro (very puffy hairdo, mainly worn by African American men and women), Marilyn Monroe (famous white dress).

70's: Hot pants (very short, short pants), polyester clothes, thick clothes, white lipstick, blue eyeshade.

80's: White glove (white glove that Michael Jackson wore), Madonna style (leather and lace), punk rockers (safety pins through their noses and ears, they also wore colorful mohawks and their clothes had holes and rips in them).

90's: Baggy pants, long shorts (for boys mainly), short shorts (for girls mainly), team jerseys, Zubaz (clothes with all sorts of stripes and patterns), rolled up jeans (very popular in the early 1990's).

So that is most of the fashion part of my essay. Now for the most important part of my essay, the FAD part.

Fads

50's: Hula hoops, one of the biggest fads ever, and yo-yo's became very very popular again.

60's: Slinkies, jacks (a game played with a ball and some metal jacks!!), granny glasses.

70's: Jogging shoes, Dungeons and Dragons (a game that a lot of teenagers played).

80's: Video games (most popular games were Pac-man and Space Invaders), Trivial Pursuit (board game where you answer questions on subjects like sports).

90's: Magic cards (card game a lot like Pokemon), beanie babies (stuffed animals with I guess beans inside), Pokemon (card game, t.v. show), Gameboy (game and fad).

Conclusion

From Hula hoops to Pokemon. Well, I guess now I'm done. Wait, one more section!! In the next millennium, what do you think the fads will be, will green hair be normal, will people wear metal clothes? Who knows?

New Directions

If I where to do this project again I wouldn't focus so much on fashion, so I could be more detailed with fads.

Acknowledgements

First and foremost I would like to thank Mr. Wagler, for approving and helping me with my project. Secondly I would like to thank all of the teachers for their great interviews.

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Introduction

I wanted to do this project because I wanted to learn more about the food culture of my family.

I got interested in this because we have a lot of foods that we eat in my family, and in my culture there are so many things you can do with them, like use them for healing and decorate with them. I wanted to "see" what are some traditional foods in Mexico.

Procedure

The materials I needed in this project were being able to interview people and reading some books. I had to do interviewing the most because if I read, then it would turn out to be a reading project instead of a Kid-to-Kid project. So I interviewed five members of my family. They were my two parents and my two aunts, and also one of my uncles. I also read some books. The books I read were Quinceanera by Kathryn Lasky, Days of the Dead by Elizabeth King, and also Cooking the Mexican Way by Rosa Coronado.

Books I've Read and Information From Them

Quinceanera is a traditional thing for fifteen year olds and their families because when a young girl turns fifteen, they make a party and they make this special cake (a really big one), and on top they usually have this big doll that is supposed to represent the Quinceanera.

One of the other books I read was Days of the Dead and there was this bread called "Pan de Muertos," which means Bread of the Dead. On top of the bread it's decorated with bones. And the last book I read was Cooking the Mexican Way. That book didn't help that much because it only showed how to make Mexican food. But I found out that Aztecs and Indians gave the world chocolate.

Interviewing My Family

The first person I interviewed was my mom. She was the one that told about tortillas. Tortillas are flat and are like pancakes but they are really flat and made with masa. Masa is made with flour, water, salt, baking soda and shortening.

My mom also told me about the stores called tortillerias. Tortillerias are stores that sell tortillas, which people line up to get and sometimes it takes forever just to get tortillas.

When I interviewed my dad we talked about chile. How it is good and spicy. We talked about what kinds of colors they can be, like bright green, dark green, yellow and red. He said, "When I eat them I sweat." Well, some chile makes you sweat, some makes your eyes water when you smell them, and some are sweet and some taste good.

There is this kind of chile that you can put candies on which all of my family loves. Even my small young cousins like them. They are called chile pirulis, which means lollipop chile. Then me and my dad were talking about different names for chile like jalapenos, poblano and serrano. When we make birthday parties, or reunions, or some kind of celebrations, we make food, even chile. We add chile so we can add a special flavor to it.

Now when I interviewed my aunt, we talked about meat, lots of kinds, like pork and beef, hen, chicken, horse and cow. She even told me that Indians eat fat little small dogs. I was like "Man!" And we talked about what meals have that kind of meat, like mola has chicken in it. Menudo has cow in them. Barbacoa is like barbecue.

Food for Holidays and Traditional Celebrations

Now I was getting deeper into my project and ready to get some traditional information.

Easter

On Easter on Passover Day we cannot eat meat on Friday, but it's kind of hard because I like meat a lot. We can't eat meat until 40 days because Jesus ate his last supper and 40 days later he rose from the dead, and that's what the Bible and people said a long time ago.

Cinco de Mayo

In Cinco de Mayo we celebrate because Mexico won their independence, their freedom. Cinco de Mayo means the fifth of May.

Birthday

On birthday parties, we have candy bags filled with chocolate, lollipops and a lot of other candy.

Baptism

At church, when you get baptized, the priest dips his finger in this bowl of oil and makes a cross in front of your forehead with oil.

First Communion

When my brother and I did our first communion, we saw the priest take one of these small circular dry breads that represents Jesus's body. Then he dipped the white bread into a cup that had wine in it and that represented Jesus's blood. Then he dipped it in and placed it in his mouth and didn't speak at all until it was gone. And he did the same thing to my brother and me. My brother and I didn't do our First Communion together. I tasted the wine and it tasted nasty, probably because I'm not used to drinking wine.

Christmas

When we were in Mexico last year to visit my family, it was around Christmas and we went to my mom's aunt's house. In front of her house there were these green leaves like when Jesus's parents were riding the donkey and when Jesus was born.

When I was there, there were all these little girls holding little figures that looked like baby Jesus. My mom's aunt's friends were there holding other figures, too. Boys were, too. Then they took Jesus's clothes off and they prayed while they were doing that. Then the grown-ups handed plates around to each person and they placed baby Jesus on the plates. Grown-ups also placed candy on the plates and we walked around and let people kiss baby Jesus on the forehead and they get candy. But before they kiss baby Jesus and get their candy, they say "El Padre, El hijo, El Espirito Santo, Amen," which means "Our Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, Amen," or they say "la senal de la Santa Cruz," which is the long way to say the cross.

Interpreting Results

When I was interviewing my family, I saw more and more that we're different from most families because we love to cook and learn from each other, teach others about our culture and foodways. We are different not just because we are different and speak another language, it's because we do things and spend a lot of time with each other.

What I feel most about my family foodways is I love the way my family cooks and I love the kinds of foods I eat.

New Directions

If I would start this project over again, I would start earlier. And not make up other questions and waste my time.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the people who had time to let me interview them, and my teacher Mark Wagler, and me for the hard work!

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Introduction

I wanted to find out how God was born.

Procedure

I asked people my survey questions. I surveyed 41 people in all. Then I made a pie graph on the computer to show the results. My survey questions were: 1. Who made God? 2. How did you get your idea?

I also read some creation stories from Iceland and Tahiti.

Results

One of the stories I read was Imir the Creator. He is a Frost Giant. God grew from his body. I'm not sure if this story is true. The other story was Ta-aroa the Creator. Ta-aroa broke out of an egg and then he made the God Tu. Together they made all of creation.

My mom and dad believe that God has been alive forever. One person said God's mother and father made him. After reading a Norse myth about a cow that made God, another person also said there are many Gods. Another said God is a spirit. We made God, three people said. Three people

said God made Himself. Four people said love, the heavens and the earth made God. Seven people said God was always there. Eight people said it is a mystery. Eight more people said that no one made God. One more person said that God came from another galaxy.

From my graph you can see that the biggest slices of my pie are people that think it's a mystery or that no one made God.

Next I sorted all of the surveys according to how people got their ideas. Nine people got their ideas from religion or studying other cultures and beliefs. Six people knew God was always there. Five people got their ideas from their parents. Four people said, "I don't know." Two people said "the Bible, books, or friends." Only one person said each of the following: "I dreamed it," "Astronomy and physics," "I just guessed," "From memory," "It doesn't say anywhere," and "From nature."

Conclusion

I believe that Imir the Creator made God. I got my idea by thinking about it and reading it in a book.

New Directions

If I could keep working on this project I would ask more people how long dinosaurs were alive.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Melanie, the people I surveyed, Beth and my mom and dad.

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Introduction

My question is: "What my Great Grandpa was like, football wise?" I got interested in my Great Grandpa, Gus Dorais, because he isn't around anymore for me to watch him on TV or something, so I started to write people, interview people, and go on the internet to find information.

Procedure

To get most of my information, I interviewed my Grandpa, Tom Dorais, who lives in Madison. Also, a lot of this information is from Ralph Hickok, a man who wrote a web page on the internet about Gus. (hickoksports.com) I wrote to my Uncle Bobby; he knows a lot about him. I also wrote a letter to the Detroit Lions, because Gus played for the Lions.

Results

Gus Dorais was born July 2, 1891. He went to College at Notre Dame and got a degree in Architecture. He was a great and smart student. He played College football for 4 years. He played defense and defensive halfback. Gus was a great football player.

In 1913, he and his friend and his teammate, Knute Rockne, worked on the forward pass on the beach by where they worked. They both worked at Cedar Point Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. "If the Army doesn't believe in the pass, we'll work on it until we get it down pat. Then we'll show them something they'll never forget!" Knute said, while he and Gus were practicing.

And finally, in 1909, Gus and Knute made the forward pass during their game against Wabash, Indiana. It was an exciting game.

Gus played for two professional football teams: the Massillon Tigers and the Canton Bulldogs. During one of his games, when he played for the Bulldogs, Jim Thorpe, (ranked 4th best athlete ever) tried to tackle Gus and injured Gus by jumping on his back. Gus was hurt so badly that he decided to retire. He missed playing.

Not too long after, Gus started to coach 3 college football teams: Columbus (now Loras) College in Iowa from 1914 through 1917, at Gonzaga University from 1920 through 1924, and at Detroit University from 1925 through 1942. He was a great coach and a super teacher.

And some time in 1942, Gus retired. He missed coaching and playing football.

Then on January 3, 1954, the famous Gus Dorais died, but he is still remembered by many friends and family.

Conclusion

I think the hardest part of this project was writing and typing, but I made it and I like my article. The easiest part of this was writing the letters and sending them. I am glad I chose this project and I'm glad that I learned more about my Great Grandpa.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mrs. Swenson, for helping me go on the internet, Mr. Wiesner for also helping me on the internet. Uncle Bobby and the Lions, for answering my letters. My Grandpa, for letting me interview him. And my Great Grandpa, for being famous.

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Introduction

My question is, "What are some foods that heal people?" My article includes how food helps people feel better. I chose this question because it is a part of my background and culture. My project is meaningful because I learned more about my culture. I'm going to tell you about many foods that help heal people.

Procedure

I answered my question by asking my Dad and my Mom. And talked to my grandma on the phone. I collected data by using the computer and books. My mom and dad also gave me a lot of data. One problem I had is getting in touch with my grandma. Successes was finding a good story from my mom. I also found a lot of information from the books I read.

Foods & Uses

Oil helps you to not throw up that much. Egg helps you not to think about bad things. Also eggs protect you from magic, in my tradition. Water helps your stomach aches. Tomatoes keeps you from getting cancer. Salt and water helps your body not get headaches, and if you have a sore throat, it

helps you not to have any bad thoughts in your head and it gets junk out of your neck. Chicken helps your feet, it helps by making your feet and your flesh stronger. Juice helps your brain, this is a Mexican belief.

Rice helps you with your heart and to think the right things. Oranges and tomatoes help you by helping your head and taking bad thoughts away and helping your stomach feel good. Chicken soup makes you stronger, so does fruit. Carrots help you to see better. Apples help you to become healthier. Cider helps you if you have a bad cut or a bruise and gets rid of pimples. Salt and water also helps you to not get any heart attacks.

Here is a story that my mom told me. I made up the name and my mom made up the story. Once there was a man named Sergio. He worked cleaning the fields. One day he was cleaning and he hit a rock. He was trying to get it out but without thinking he scraped his knee with a garden tool. The other people who worked there put an apple on his knee so it wouldn't get infected.

Lemon helps your eyeswhen you have one or both eyes red, your eye will be as good as new. Water helps you by making you get more muscles in your arms. Oil also helps you with cancer, like tomatoes, but oil first helps on your bones and head.

The way this all helps is by upgrading your body. You need to go to a doctor and see if your body needs these remedies. If you don't take them when your body is weak, you will get sick. If you just waste foods, then we won't have enough foods left to have foods from all the parts of the world and that will be bad.

Interpreting results

The purpose of my essay is to help people see how they should take care of themselves with healing foods. When I was looking for the information I thought that it was going to be boring and I wouldn't get any data about healing foods, but I was surprised to find that there are a lot of healing foods that I can find in my house.

New directions

If I could do this all over I'd learn who invented the foods that heal people and where did he or she find the foods.

Acknowledgments

My mom and dad helped me when I was worrying about this project. Good day and thank you for reading my essay.

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Introduction

My question is how is Hmong dance different from Mexican dance? I became interested in my project because I asked one student in my class and I asked her what does Mexican dance look like? She didn't show me Mexican dance, but she told me about Mexican dances. That's why I became interested in my question.

Procedure

I got this project from my friend. She didn't want to do her project. Then she asked me if I wanted to do her project. I said 'OK'. I went to the library to find out if they had any books about Mexican dances, but they didn't have any books about Mexican dance.

Ms. Sainsbury, our librarian, went to look on the internet and found some information about Mexican dance.

The next day I needed more information about Mexican dance, so I asked Dulce (a kid in our class) to tell me more about Mexican dance. When she said about Mexican dance, I wrote down.

The next day Mr. Her told me to look at the Hmong and Mexican picture to compare what they wear differently. I did what Mr. Her said. When I was done comparing I wrote some things about Hmong dance.

Results

Mexican Dance

1) Mexican people don't take off their shoes when they performed.

2) Mexican people wear a long skirt to cover their shoes.

3) They put their hair up high so it won't get in their way.

4) The man has to wear a black or brown suit.

5) Some Mexican women dance with a boy.

6) Mexican people wear a shawl when they dance.

7) Some Mexican women put a red flower on their ear.

8) Sometimes they put lip smacker to shine their lips.

9) The women don't wear a hat, but the men wear hats.

10) Some Mexican people wear a white shirt that has flowers on it.

11) Some women wear long earrings when they dance.

12) Different music

13) Different clothes

14) Different movements.

Here is the list that I wrote about Hmong Dance.

1) Hmong people have to wear some clothes.

2) They don't wear shoes when they dance.

3) The dance has to go with the beat.

4) They have to move their body.

5) They got tournaments after the new year.

6) They have long skirts to their knees.

7) Make up a name for their group.

8) Hmong people don't wear shawls.

9) Some Hmong people wear high heels.

10) they wear a white skirt that has pink flowers on it.

Interpreting Results

I think the information I collected about Mexican and Hmong dance is partially different. I think I found a lot about Mexican dance and Hmong dance.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dulce for helping me and telling me about Mexican dance. I want to thank Ms. Sainsbury for helping me finding information on the internet.

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Introduction

Irish people have been discriminated against for many years. All the way back to the mid 1800's when Irish people began migrating to the United States, the Irish people were discriminated against. The Irish people had a different kind of religion that other people didn't believe in. My Dad and I were looking at an old photo album with pictures and articles about a story of my Grandpa when he was 6 years old. When my Grandpa was 6, he was shot in the leg by somebody who didn't like Irish people. I was curious about why he was shot and what happened.

Story

One day in 1937, my Grandpa, his brother, and their Dad were milking cows on their farm in Arena, Wisconsin when a car came speeding past the barn. The car stopped and a guy my Grandpa didn't know got out of the car. The person from the car had a gun and shot my Grandpa and Great Grandpa. They couldn't see him when he was shooting. He shot 4 times but 2 of them missed. One of the bullets hit my Great Grandpa in the knee and the other bullet hit my Grandpa in the leg. My Grandpa's brother ran into the house to tell my Great Grandma that somebody was shooting at them and to call a doctor. My Great Grandma called the doctor and a neighbor to come over to help. The neighbor took them to the hospital where they stayed for 2 months. There is a picture from the newspaper of my Grandpa when he was in the hospital lying on the bed with my Great Grandpa.

The police looked for 2 days to find the guy that shot my Grandpa. When the police found the person who shot my Grandpa and Great Grandpa, he had shot himself in the head. It turned out the guy who shot my Grandpa and Great Grandpa was a person who didn't like Irish people.

We were lucky that my Grandpa and Great Grandpa were only shot in the leg and recovered from the bullet wounds. My Uncle Bob, who lives in Arena, told me that there are still bullet holes in the barn where my Grandpa was shot. I hope to go out and see the bullet holes in the barn during Spring Break.

I learned that discriminating against any kind of people is wrong. It is wrong for people to hurt other people because they have different cultures, or religions, or different races. They might go to jail or feel so bad that they might kill themselves like in the story. And they might hurt or kill some really nice people like my Grandpa and his Dad.

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Introduction

At first we were just starting our Barrio School project and we had to choose a state in Mexico to study. We chose Mexico City because it was the capital city and because we couldn't find any information on the other states we were looking at. Mexico City is like Washington D. C. In Mexico City they have the letters D.F. which stands for Distrito Federales which means federal district, so it is like a state even though it is only a city.

Procedure

We had to choose a job. Yllnore was making a map of Mexico City on the computer. Cody was finding information on the city. Chaka was finding how far it was from Mexico City to Madison. Derek was director and helper.

We had to watch a video on Mexico City to get information and find pictures for what we were going to do and what we were going to say. Cody and Derek lost our scripts five times. When we started video taping we had to start over once. We tried a trick but it didn't work at all.

Results

We need to work on our camera trick. We shouldn't mumble when we talk. We need to make our camera shots longer and we need to say a lot more than we did. We didn't focus the camera when we were on the map from Mexico City to Madison. We should have timed it better to say our lines when the scene starts. Our group had trouble working together and the video was hard to do.

New Directions

We will try our trick and try not to forget our scripts. We would work more on our the script to have more and better things to say.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Nancy for the help. Thank you Mr. Roberts for the information. Thank you Ms. Dyer for helping us plan. Thank you all.

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Introduction

I was born on April 19, 1990. I am from San Bernardino Chalchigoapan, Puebla Mexico. I have three brothers. When I was little my brother and I lived with my grandmother because my dad and mom came to the United States. My brother and I missed our parents for 5 years. When my dad called us, he told us that somebody would pick us up and bring us to Madison but I said I didn't want to go. I said that I wanted to stay with my grandmother. Then we came to Madison on October 20, 1998. After two weeks my brother and I went to school but we didn't speak English. In ESL, Esther helped my brother, Santiago, and me. Now, I speak English and I made my project about holidays we celebrate in Mexico.

Celebration of the Virgin Of Guadalupe

One day a long time ago, the Virgin appeared to Juan Diego and she told him she wanted a church on a hill called Tepeyac, and she appeared to him three times. Every year a lot of artists go to the cathedral to sing Las Mananitas and a lot of other people sing too. Outside the cathedral are people called dancers and these dancers make their instruments with shells and horns from bulls. They also have drums and guitars. The guitars are made with the shell of the armadillo. For people who follow this Virgin there is a name: Guadalupanos. The celebration is on December 12.

The Day of the Dead

The Day of the Dead is a special day in Mexico. The Day of the Dead is on November second every year. We celebrate and when it is November second my grandmother buys bread. She buys three small loaves of sweet bread. My grandmother puts two tables in the living room, and then she puts the bread on the table with oranges, apples, mangoes and papayas. She serves food like tamales and we put flower petals on the bread. We put out candles, too, and my grandmother puts flower petals on the patio and at the end of the patio she makes a cross with the petals. When the celebration is over we exchange the bread with our relatives.

Independence Day of Mexico

The independence of Mexico was in the year 1810. The celebration starts the sixteenth of September at midnight with fireworks and rockets of light and then the president says in a loud voice, "Viva Mexico!" On the sixteenth of September we don't have classes and people don't work and in the morning soldiers and policemen have a parade. In my house, my family makes special food and sometimes we have a party. The man who made independence for Mexico was Miguel Hidalgo y Costill.

Kids Day

Every year on April 30 all Mexican kids have a special day. They don't have school that day because parents and teachers make a party for the kids. Some kids have a present at home and sometimes relatives give a present too. In my town, the teachers make a special trip for all the boys in my school. The girls don't go. They go up to the hill called Cristorey and there is a little lake on the top of the hill. It is very strange because the water is up on the hill. The boys start the party and break pinatas and eat candy, canas (a fruit) and peanuts.

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Introduction

I am a fourth grader at Muir School. When I was trying to come up with a question my teacher asked me what I was interested in and one of the things I said was movies. I thought it would be interesting to find out if first and second graders like the same movies as third and fourth graders.

Hypothesis

I thought most of the younger kids would like movies that have a G rating and were animated or based on popular things like Pokemon.

Procedure

I did a survey by asking all the 1/2 classrooms and the 3, 3/4, and 4th grade classrooms about their favorite movie. I set up appointments with all the teachers and went to the classes to survey the kids. After I collected the data I grouped the classrooms together by age level to see if there were differences. The movies I asked them about were: Pokemon, Toy Story 2, Inspector Gadget, Rush Hour and Antz.

Results

All the kids like the same movies. Pokemon was the top vote-getter for all the grades. Toy Story 2 was in second place for all the grades. Inspector Gadget was in third place for first and second grade. In third and fourth grade, Inspector Gadget and Rush Hour tied for third place.

Interpreting Results

I was surprised because I thought people would like different movies as they got older. I thought not as many younger kids would have been able to watch certain movies, like Rush Hour because of the ratings. I was surprised that no one voted for Antz.

After looking at the survey, I looked at my chart. My next question was, "Do you think people think for themselves during surveys?" I made little slips that said, "Do you think for yourselves? Yes/No." I asked the first and second graders my second question. They all answered yes. I don't believe that all of them were telling the truth in the slip. I think it is impossible to get a kid to tell the truth in a survey because they don't want to feel embarrassed about their answer in front of the class. That was not a surprise to me because when someone comes to survey our class everyone looks around to see what other people are saying.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my teachers, Mrs. Bostrom and Katy Conley, for helping me with this project. I would also like to thank the teachers for letting me come into their classes to do my survey and finally, thank the kids who were part of this project.

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Introduction

I wanted to know how Black music changed from 1950's to today. I wanted to learn about soul, gospel, R & B, funk, spirituals, jazz, and rap. I wanted to learn how these kinds of music got started and where they got started. I wanted to know how these people came up with the lyrics and beats of the songs that they made. It's important to me because I've listened to Black music a lot and it's my culture. The music makes me feel different types of emotions like sad, happy, and mad. I have a good time listening to it.

Procedure

To answer my question I used the following books: I See the Rhythm, Rap, and Great Music of African-Americans. I interviewed my mom, cousins, and aunts and uncles. I asked our practicum student, Mr. Riley, for information. I also listened to bits of music after school and during school at the library. I thought about the notes that I took and how I could use the information that I got from the books and interviews and put it all together in one whole essay. I had problems with the question I originally had: how American music changed from the 50's to today. I had trouble getting enough information. So I changed the question to how African American music changed.

I had fun interviewing my mom. "The main music I listen to is Black music because I was born with Black music pride all around me," said my Mom. She also said that when I was younger I went to church with her and she said after a couple times I started mumbling some of the songs that they were singing. She told me how much fun it would be to become a singer myself.

The Blues

I learned that the blues was just a new version of songs that were sung during late slavery times and expressed everyday life and personal emotions of the singer. The blues were mostly performed in nightclubs in the North and any kind of place down South with a roof that could fit about 40-60 people. In one of the books I read, "In 1912 the first blues song was published, 'Memphis Blues' by African-American composer W. C. Handy." The blues has a sound of a nice medium speed melody that's usually not for dancing but for listening. The most famous blues singer is B. B. King. His hit songs include "Why Do I Sing the Blues?" and "The Thrill is Gone."

Jazz

Jazz is a nice type of music to listen to when you get off a hard day's work or while reading a book. Jazz originated in New Orleans along with ragtime in nightclubs. It uses instruments like saxophones, drums, country guitar, piano, and trombones. Jazz sounds like drums the first time you hear it. Then, if you hear it again, you'll hear all the other instruments. Some jazz has lyrics, and some doesn't. It could have a sad beat or a happy beat. "'Bebop' is a jazz style created in the 1940's. It was played by small groups and had a fast tempo, complex harmonies, and creative improvisations."

Gospel

Gospel is an African American kind of church music that is sung in almost every Black church in the country. Gospel sounds just like the songs that women slaves sang before the Civil War. They would sing it when they were picking cotton or corn. Gospel has a big instrument called an organ. A famous gospel singer and a choir director is Kirk Franklin. He has a big choir with about a hundred people and they sing gospel songs with a rap beat, or sometimes a jazz beat.

Black Rock

Most of the time rock is considered more of a white style of music, but not always is that true. There are Black rock singers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard. The 60's is when Black rock became really popular. Jimi Hendrix opened up the stage for other Black musicians who wanted to become real singers, because he showed that you can dress any way you want to, and he showed that Blacks can sing rock music.

Conclusion

Everyone has a little or a lot of Black music in them, but they may not know it. But the only way they would know is if they try to sing any kind of music from blues to rap and everything else in between. People from America all around the world to the Pacific islands can sing Black music. To sing Black music you need to have an adjustable voice with high and low tones. And you need to sing with real feeling and the most important thing to sing with is pride.

New Directions

If I was to continue I would do musicians instead of kinds of music.

Acknowledgements

I want to say thank you to Dustin Riley (our practicum student), Mr.Wagler (my teacher), my family, April (the librarian), and the authors of the books I read.

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A Norwegian Kid in the U.S.
by Jens
Randall School

Introduction

I started with the question: ''How is a kid in the U.S.'s culture different from a kid in Norway's culture?" But after I had started I found out that what I was really writing about was: ''How is it different being a kid in Norway rather than being a kid in the U.S.?" I chose my question because I came to the U.S. last summer and asked myself this question before we left. Now that I know about it, I can write about it. I'll be telling you about the differences that I think are the most important ones.

Procedure

What I did was write down all the differences I could remember. Then I interviewed Andreas, an American kid who was in Norway from when he was four until he was seven. I also interviewed my two younger brothers, Sveinung and Torgeir, for what they had seen. I asked them questions about school, free time, the biggest differences and if they liked it. I ended up writing more than I thought I could.

School

The place where I can find all the biggest differences is at school. The same is true for my brother, Sveinung. I think the biggest difference is that here you eat in a lunchroom and that you have hot lunch. In Norway we have only cold lunch and we eat in our classrooms. The biggest difference for Sveinung is to be at school longer each day. Even though school ends earlier in Norway, we don't have much more free time. That is because we have a lot more homework there.

Something I like about school here is that you have computer and strings at school. In Norway we don't get to learn any other instrument than the recorder. In Norway we have a lot more art, but we don't really have an art room. I like that we have more art better, but I don't really like that we don't have an art room.

A good thing about school here is that it has a lot more discipline. In Norway it's way too noisy. My father once went into a classroom and asked the teacher how he could survive all that noise. The teacher said he didn't know how he could survive it either.

Sports and Recreation

There is a difference in how you play football, but I know Norway does it wrong. In Norway we think we know football, but we don't know at all. The way we play is that we have two teams, we place the ball in the middle, and then we start fighting to get the ball. No one knows why you have the ball there, we just have it there to get something to fight about.

We play a lot of tag in Norway. At least I do. It's kind of popular. In Norway we know how to go bowling, but we just don't do it. Kids in Norway are really interested in the U.S. and for us the U.S. is the big country we look up to.

There aren't too many differences. The difference Torgeir saw was there are a lot more activities to do here in our free time. Since he doesn't go to school yet, he doesn't see any more differences.

The biggest difference for Andreas Hager was that you are outside a lot more in Norway. I've also seen that difference some places, but he probably saw it more than I did.

When you are outside here you go a lot more to the parks. There are more parks here than in Norway. When you want to play outside in Norway, you just go out your door and get some friends. In Norway most neighborhoods has a small forest or something like that and a small playground really close. In Norway most people lives a little out of town.

I like both Norway and the U.S., but Sveinung likes just Norway. Andreas likes both too, but Torgeir doesn't really know which one he likes.

Language

A difference in the language is that in Norway teachers say "Everybody" when they want attention at school, while here they say "Children." I happened to have an English teacher from England in Norway. Each time she wanted our attention she said "Children" and it was so hard for us not to start laughing.

The hardest English sound for Norwegians to say is "th." The hardest Norwegian sound for English speaking people is "kj." Some people say "skj" instead. Norwegians do too. The "skj" sound would be "ch" in English. The "kj" sound is not around in English. It's hard to say for Americans because it's not a sound in the English language.

Food

Another difference is that, compared to Norway, you go to restaurants more often here. You couldn't afford going to restaurants as much in Norway as here. In Norway a meal in a restaurant would cost from about one and a half to two times as much as here. Norway is kind of an expensive country. Another difference is that here you eat a lot more fast food. In Norway it takes a little longer to make the dish you want.

New Directions

If I could use some more time, I would like to interview some more people so that I could write more and longer sections. An interesting thing to find out about would be what books are popular here, which ones are in Norway, and how they differ.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my teacher Mr. Wagler for helping me find a good question and giving ideas of whom to interview. I would also like to thank Andreas Hager, who used to be in Mr. Wagler's class, and my two brothers, Sveinung and Torgeir, for allowing me to interview them.

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Introduction

First our school was in a Barrio School project and then our teacher, Nancy, said that we should make a video tape. We were going to make a tape about the Mexican state, Jalisco, but we decided not to do that state. We got the state, Oaxaca. Sergio said we should pick it because it was very beautiful and they made a lot of stuff there. It is a very big place.

Procedure

The jobs to do were Director,Computer Map, Real Map, and Picture Finder. Maikar counted how many miles it is from Oaxaca to Madison. Sergio was the one who drew the map on the computer. Rogelio and Katia drew lots to be Director. Katia was the director and the camera person.

Rogelio was to show and talk about the pictures on the video. It took 6 weeks to plan the movie of Oaxaca.

Results

Making the video was fun and we all had a turn to talk and see ourselves in the video. Then when we looked at the video it was embarrassing and fun. In some of the shots with Rogelio's pictures, we could see the yellow paper on the book stand so our camera was not focused right. When we showed the big map and the way from Oaxaca to Madison, the camera was just far enough back and the picture looked great. We could even read the words on the map. When we said our names at the end, we got to look, in the video, like we appeared and disappeared.

New Directions

If we do another movie maybe we won't have to tape it 5 times before we really tape it. We should practice more. We also found that if we show things on a computer we need to make the words a lot bigger so we can read them on the movie. We should also have found more information and pictures to show.

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Nancy, for the help on the computer.Thank you, Mr. Roberts, for help in the library.Thank you, Violeta, for help with the English and the Spanish. Thank you, Ms. Dyer, for help on our problems and reading with us. Thank you, Lisa, for help with the English.

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Introduction

I wanted to know what people thought about pants.

Procedures

I started by writing a survey. I wanted to make sure I asked lots of different people so I made a table where I wrote down adults and kids with girls and boys underneath each of these groups. I asked people if they liked pockets on their pants, and what they put in them. I also asked them if they liked belts on their pants. My last question was about why they liked their favorite pair of pants.

Results

I made graphs of the information. I learned from my surveys. All 24 people I surveyed like having pockets on their pants. I found out that money is what most people have in their pockets. Take a look at the bar graph I made that shows what people have in their pockets.

Most people do like belts on their pants. Seventeen people like them, and seven people don't like them. Some reasons people do like belts are: they help keep my pants up so I don't show my underwear, they make good decorations, they're pretty, and they make me look neat. Some of the reasons people don't like belts are: they are uncomfortable, they make my pants fall down, they hurt my waist, and they feel funny.

When I asked people about their favorite pair of pants, eleven people said they like blue jeans best. Four people said they like black bell bottoms. Three people said they like corduroy pants. Two people picked sweatpants and brown pants as their favorites. The remaining five people described their favorite pants as being soft, nikes, overalls, bumpy and purple.

New Directions

I would like to make more computer graphs of more Great Blue questions.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Beth, Mr. Swift, and all the people that answered my survey questions.

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Introduction

Where do people grocery shop and why? That's my question. My project is about a survey on grocery shops and people. I wanted to know what the difference is between them. I chose this project because when I was little I used to wonder, "Why is it so crowded in this shop and why isn't it so crowded in another shop."

Procedure

I had a hard time knowing how many surverys I would need for all the teachers, and also with getting all the surveys together. I asked five different grocery shops, "Why do you think people come to your store?" I also gave the teachers the survey that said, "Where do you grocery shop, and why do you grocery shop there?" I had thirty-seven surveys in total. I also asked the stores about the sales number they have per day.

Results

I found out that most people like Woodsman's, because they have lots of variety and low prices. In second came Cub Foods and Copps. They were both tied, but people who shopped there had different reasons. For Cub Foods, they said they mostly like low prices and location. For Copps they like fresh products and variety. Third was Kohl's. People who shop Kohl's like the location and variety. Fourth was Sentry Foods and people shopped Sentry liked the service, location and variety. Pick 'n Save was the fifth, because of location and low prices. Other grocery shops came last, because of location, low prices and variety.

For the stores, I asked them, "Why do you think people come to your store?" Woodman's said that they have wide selection (variety) and low prices. Cub Foods said that people come there because of their low prices. Copps said they have friendly people work there. Kohl's said they have the service and the bargains. Sentry said they have the best service in Madison.

Woodman's said they have sales of 200,000 per day. Cub Foods said their sales are 2,200 per day. Copps said they have 60-1000 sales per day. Kohl's said they cannot give this information. Sentry also said that they cannot give this information.

Interpreting Results

What Cub Foods said was actually right! The store said people come to their store because of prices and the people I gave surveys said prices too. Copps was totally wrong. The people at the store said that they think people shop there because the store people are friendly, but really people shop there because of their fresh products and variety. I wasn't surprised at all that Woodman's was right. The people at the store and the teachers were both right. They both picked variety and low prices. I was very surprised that Kohl's was wrong. The people at the store said people come to their stores because of the service and bargains and the teachers said they shop there because of the location. Sentry Foods said people come to their store because they have the best service in Madison, but actually teachers said it is because of the location, variety and service. From the survey among the grocery shoppers and the stores, it is obvious that Woodman's is the most popular grocery store in Madison.

New Directions

If I were to do this project again, I would choose another source like a pharmacy or a book store and I would ask more questions.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Mr. Wiesner, all the teachers who let me give the surveys to them, the grocery shops for letting me ask them questions and my parents.

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Introduction

Who were the people in World War II? Well, there were soldiers, engineers, pilots, and many more people. I wanted to go deeper into the picture. Where did individuals serve? What were their jobs? Did they volunteer or were they drafted? These were the questions I wanted answers to.

I came up with my question because I was interested in the war leaders Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin. I went from there to an interest in the people in the army and the navy. I also became interested in the part of World War II that was fought in Asia and the Pacific. So as my project started, my question was: What was it like for a member of the American armed forces in Asia and the Pacific? I was expecting to find soldiers and people who were often in danger. Boy was I wrong.

Procedure

I started my project by getting names of organizations to call. I contacted the American Legion and the Dane County Museum of Foreign Wars. Someone at the American Legion told me to contact Lisa Black at the museum. I called her, told her who I was and what I wanted. She got me in touch with Sterling Showert whom you will hear more about later. For a while it was hard to find people to interview. I decided to expand my project to include people who served in different parts of the world other than just the Pacific and Asia.

My teacher suggested I could ask my classmates if they had grandparents in the war. One of the kids had a grandparent I could interview and another kid had a grandparent that I could not interview, however I could still interview the kid's dad. This is how I got interviews with Clarence Esch and William Kelly's son. Near the end of my project I thought I would be forced to use some parts of books I read. The books were not as useful as interviews. My mom had been telling me about someone she worked with who knew veterans of the war. This is how I managed to interview Dale Binder and Dvane Meyers. These interviews were very good.

Dvane Meyers

Dvane Meyers volunteered in 1940 at the rather young age of eighteen. He trained at the Great Lakes naval station and later was on the Maryland, which was a battleship. He was on the Maryland stationed at Pearl Harbor. The battleship Oklahoma had pulled up along side the Maryland, and that was very lucky! A few days later, on December 7, 1941 a few Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor. At first Dvane was surprised. He thought, "Why would anyone attack the U.S. navy?" which he believed was the most powerful in the world. The Oklahoma took six torpedoes, and that gave the Maryland some protection. When I asked about what he thought about the attack he said, "It was exciting."

He went through the Panama Canal and to the Solomon Islands. He was an electrician mate and his cruiser did a very nice job.

Dale Binder

Dale Binder was in the Pacific and went around islands on an LST. LST stands for "large slow target." Now doesn't that sound like a nice ship to be on? He was an engineering officer. His job was to fix engines and other gadgets. He once even had to clean a washing machine. Dale Binder volunteered for the navy at the age of 21. He thought that he would be more useful in the navy. He was in training for almost a year before going out to sea. The ship was carrying gas, oil, and once even beer.

He was pretty safe. The LST had antiaircraft guns. There were also other ships protecting him against subs. He said the scariest thing that happened was one time when kamikaze pilots bombed them. His ship was not heavily damaged.

I asked him to tell me a story, and this is it. When he was in the service, Cokes were sold in glass bottles. Each person had about a glass a day. When he came back home, he took the bottles the ship had used and sold them back to Coca Cola. They had used 10,000 of them!

William Kelly

William Kelly volunteered and was in the service from 1943 to 1945. He was in India and Burma as an engineer. I know two stories about him. The first one is that it rained so much that after a while no one noticed it because they were already so wet. The second story was that tigers wandered through camp at night, and one time while going to the bathroom, a person bumped into one of them. He never went out at night after that.

Sterling Showert

Sterling Showert was in the navy as a supply officer on an LST carrying tanks. A supply officer gave people food and clothing. The LST had twenty guns including a big gun that was about a foot and a half long. Sterling landed in New Guinea and the Philippines. On the missions he was usually safe, because the beaches he landed on were already bombed. He was still very lucky because enemy submarines hit ships close to his ship. His ship was bombed once, but the ship was not hit. One other dangerous time his ship was seventh in a row of ships. A cannon on the hill hit the first four ships.

Clarence Esch

Clarence Esch sailed over to Europe on the sister ship to the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary. He started at Camp Grant in Rockford in 1941. He went to Fort Sill Oklahoma. He traveled around and ended up on a boat called the Louisiana with 2000 soldiers. The trip to Europe lasted 14 days, because they had to zig-zag in an effort to avoid enemy radar.

They landed in England. You got paid in the type of money of the country you were in. He got paid in Phennis, Marks, Franc, and Gildands. He was pretty lucky because he was housed in the defeated enemy houses.

New Directions

If I could do this project again, I would try to get more time to work.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my teacher Mr. Wagler, Lisa Black, and all the people I interviewed.

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Walking You Through Surgery
By Sasha
Van Hise Elementary

When I was seven, I had to have surgery. I was scared but I stayed calm. My surgery was going to be an Adenoidectomy. Adenoids are soft tissue that is behind the nose, above the throat. They got enlarged and that affected my talking. I couldn't say my N's. They came out like D's. I had to go to a hospital. I had to get my adenoids out. I knew that I would have to miss school, and the Pajama Party! My mom and dad forgot about that. When the day arrived, I asked if I could wear my pajamas there. My dad said yes. (Not all doctors let you, ya know.) When we got to the hospital my heart was beating fast. I was very scared. I sat and picked up a magazine but then the lady behind the desk called my name. I really wanted my mom to come in the room where my surgery was going to take place but she could not. They had me take sleeping gas out of a balloon. The noises in the surgery room scared me. I fell asleep. When my surgery was over, I woke up in a little recovery room. I had some popsicles and my mom and dad took turns reading to me. Then I took some medicine for my throat because it hurt. Then in one hour, I went home. But I got a lot of stickers from the nurse. They also had to take me out of the building in a wheelchair. It made a difference in the way I spoke. And that's the end of my surgery.

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Introduction

Our group is doing a project on Tobasco. We are learning about Tobasco because we thought that was where some of the hot sauce comes from. We also liked the name and wanted to learn more about it. But first we had to choose numbers 1, 2, 3 or 4. Everyone wanted to be number 2 so we drew from a hat and got our jobs.

Procedure

At first we had to go down to the library to find pictures and facts about Tobasco. Then we came back upstairs to do our jobs which were : #1. to make a map on the computer so we can tape it. #2. to find pictures of Tobasco. #3 was to find how long it would take to fly from Tobasco to Madison and how much it would cost. The last job, #4, was the director. She just made sure to help people out and filled in for people who were absent. When we got a lot of information on Tobasco we had to make a video on Tobasco. The director of our table wrote most of the scripts and asked people if it was ok with their scripts.

Results

When we were making the video it didn't come out as we planned. The top of Catherine's head got out of the video and the camera was too close to her. When David was talking about the map on the computer there was a lot of noise around him. When we video taped on the big map how long it would take to get from Tobasco to Madison, the camera was very crooked. And the computer pictures could be seen for a large amount of time before we could hear the voice of the speaker. But the thing that was great was that everybody talked with a loud voice and everybody had fun learning new things about Tobasco and Mexico.

New Directions

Our group would like to do the video again so we could fix the mistakes. We should talk and look at the camera and not at someone else. If we did a different video, we would change the way we tried to do the trick when we disappeared and appeared. We will look to see if any of our groups feet are sticking out in the picture.

Acknowledgments

Our group would like to thank our school librarian, Mr. Roberts, for helping us to find pictures on the computer and Nancy, our teacher, for helping us with our research.

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Who Am I?
by Mark
Randall School

Introduction

I'm a European-American from Mr. Wagler's class. I come from places in Europe like the British Isles, Switzerland, and Germany. My question is, What are the important stories of my ancestors? I changed that a little bit by putting in family trees, small unimportant facts, small biographies, and unimportant stories.

Procedure

My family has kept many detailed records of our ancestry. We have three family trees. I interviewed my Grandmother, my Dad, looked at the family trees and looked up Oliver Cromwell in the encyclopedia.

Family Trees

My Grandfather Glenn represents the Sawyer part of the Family. His father was James Henry Sawyer (born in 1881), whose sister was a missionary in Africa. James Henry's father was James Linear Sawyer (1851); he was blind from a childhood sickness, and eventually died because he walked off a bridge. His wife Mary Elizabeth Sawyer was also blind. Linear's father was Micajah, the oldest known Sawyer, born in 1813.

Glenn's wife Betsy represents the Ivey/Crowell Branch. Betsy's parent's were Myrna Crowell (1897), and William P. Ivey (1895). Myrna's parents were Mamie Estelle Lowrance (1872), and Rufus Alexander Crowell. Rufus's parents were Mary "Bett" Bethune Miller (1833), and Andrew Jackson Crowell (1830). Andrew's parents were George Washington Crowell (1797), and Patsy Kimball (1809). We only know one of George's parents: John Crowell (1771). John's parents were Jerima Sherrin, and George Washington Crowell (1747) who lived for 107 years, and fought in the Revolutionary War for seven of them. George (who was illiterate) had only one parent recorded: Michael Crowell who had come from Pennsylvania to Mecklenburg County. Michael's grandparents were Oliver Cromwell's brother's who had escaped England after Cromwell died, and took the "m" out of their name.

On my Dad's side of the family his mother represented the Nuell's. Her father was Ross Wade Nuell and his father was Edward Henry Nuell. Then my grandmother skipped to Robert Dunbar who came from Scotland in the 1770's; they eventually moved to East Florida, or Louisiana.

Her husband William represents the Kelly family, his parents were Margaret "Maggie" Plummer (whose father was in the Gold Rush and the Civil War), and William Arthur Kelly.

Stories

Nuellton (as taken from my Dad)

"The Mississippi River twists and turns back on itself a lot. So sometimes it cuts itself off and leaves a lake.

"One of these lakes is Lake Bruin. "Bruin" means bear so there must of been a lot of bears in the area. Lake Bruin was 100 feet deep in the center, it was on the Louisiana side of the river. Louisiana had parishes instead of counties. Lake Bruin was in the Tensas parish (pronounced Ten saw).

"A man named Nuell moved into the area in the 1830's. Right then there was an economy boom because all the other countries wanted cotton.

"Mr. Nuell bought land and made money so he bought more land. Americans slowly moved into the area. About 75% percent of the people were slaves. In ten years there were enough people to start a townthey called it Nuellton after Mr. Nuell.

"Today Nuellton still only has few thousand people, about two thirds of whom are African-American."

California+Allen=Money

Allen Plummer lived in Louisiana. He had a saw mill, so when the gold rush started, he figured the miners would need a lot of wood so he loaded his saw mill onto a boat and sailed around South America and landed in California. He made a lot of money and bought a plantation.

Childhood and College Stories of my Dad

My grandparents William and Noami kept on having flat tires; and they would be different tires. William and the people at the local service station couldn't find anything wrong with it. One day when William was in the backyard my Dad's younger brother Wade yelled, "Hey, Daddy, look at this." He unscrewed the cap on the tire and put a straw in the hole. It went pssss. "See, Daddy, if you do that it goes psssss."

An Ordinary College Day

Some of my dad's college friends learned in physics that gas compresses when it's cold. So they took this very serious guy named Ed's spray deodorant and put it in the freezer. It made the spray part turn into a vacuum so they put it in some ink. They put it back in its regular spot, and got a group of friends to come over in the morning.

They heard him pick up the deodorant, and then a loud "AHHHHHHH!" "Surprise," they said as they walked in.

Short Biographies

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)

He led the forces of the English Parliament to victory in the English Civil War. He was a military genius! He was born in Huntington, and studied at Sidney Sussex College where he became a dedicated Puritan. King Charles dismissed the Parliament saying that it was God's will that kings became kings. In 1642 the Civil War started. Cromwell became a cavalry leader and even though he had no military experience he won every battle he was in.

They hung the king after the war ended in 1646. The Parliament split into two parts: the Independents and the Presbyterians. There were more Presbyterians and there was about to be a war when Cromwell sided with the Independents, the fighting stopped and the English became a Republic. Cromwell in the years 1648-50 defeated uprisings by the Irish and Scottish, and defeated armies loyal to King Charles's son Charles Stuart.

He became king and when he died his son took over. His son was an ineffective ruler and was soon replaced by Charles Stuart.

Micajah Sawyer

The first known Sawyer.

Other Stuff

Four Crowells died in wars, one committed suicide, and another drowned in High Rock Lake.

New Directions

If I were to do this project again I would interview more people, and look at more family trees closer.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mr. Wagler, my Grandparents, my parents, my sisters, and the people who wrote the family trees.

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Favorite Winter Sports
by David
John Muir School

Introduction

For my project I did favorite winter sports. First, I went to Dunham's to see sports equipment and clothes. Then I chose four winter sports: hockey, sledding, ice skating and skiing. My favorite winter sport is skiing.

Procedure

I made a chart and with my friends help I went to the classrooms and asked the kids about their favorite winter sports. I gave them the choices and my friend helped me mark them on the chart. I picked these sports because I like hockey. I like to watch the zamboni. My brother, Paul, and my sister, Laura, play hockey. I watch their games at the Madison Ice Arena. Sledding is fun because I like to go fast down the big hills on my stomach. I like ice skating because I go fast. Skiing is fun because I like to go on the rope tow and when I go down the hill I like to feel the wind on my face.

Results

Most of the kids liked ice skating the best by one vote. Sledding was second, hockey third and skiing was fourth. There was only one vote separating first and second and one vote separating third and fourth.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Terri for helping me set up my chart and typing my report and my friends in my class for helping me with the survey.

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Yucatan
by Brandon, Jennifer,
Franklin, Daniela, Dung
Hawthorne Elementary

Introduction

The reason we picked Yucatan is because we were making a 5 minute video. There are a lot of things about Yucatan that are interesting, like ruins and foods and spices and beautiful water. The most interesting thing we found was the chirping pyramid. Whenever you clap your hands in front of the chirping pyramid you could hear a sound that sounds like a quetzal bird.

Procedure

First we had to pick a state. We picked Yucatan, Mexico. Then we picked jobs for our group. Number one had to draw a map on the computer. Number two had to find photos and other stuff. Number three had to find the way from Merida,Yucatan to Madison,Wisconsin. Four had to be the director and help others. Then we had to write a script in the order we wanted the movie to go and then shoot the video.

Results

Some of us didn't know when to start talking when the camera was on. We should not have had the camera on the computer screen for so long. It was too wavy. Some of the shots were sort of crooked. We can see the background in some of the shots where we wanted to have close ups.

New Directions

If we did it over, we would practice our lines more. We could have pointed to more cities on the map when we were showing the way from Merida to Madison. We would have more pictures of the chirping pyramid so the camera would not stay on one picture so long.

Acknowledgments

We thank our teacher, Nancy Lanyon. We thank Ms. Dyer for helping us and Mr. Roberts our librarian.

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My grandma lives in Montello, WI with her dog Zieke and my Uncle Steve. Usually once a month, I spend a night at my grandma's house. My trip all begins when Zeike hears the noise of our car pulling up in my grandma's driveway. By the time I get in the house, Zeike is usually in the computer room which has a small gate put over the doorway because he's too noisy. When I see him in the room with the gate blocking the doorway, I let him out and he follows me to the guestroom. When I get on the bed, Zeike jumps on my feet and I turn on the TV. After a while, Zieke jumps off. I think it's because he's bored. As the time goes by, I get bored too and turn off the TV. Next I go to the computer room to play computer games for a couple of hours. Then I have dinner, watch more TV, and go to bed. The next day, when I wake up, I get dressed and read a book until my grandma calls my name and says its time for breakfast. I come down the hallway where Zeike is and go into the kitchen and eat. After I'm done, I go into the computer room and play games. Then I go to the guestroom and watch some more TV until my mom comes to pick me up and take me home. I enjoy the time that I spend at my grandma's house.

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Introduction

My question is can I learn singing techniques. I came up with this question because I like singing.

Procedure

To answer my question I read about people that have singing techniques on the internet. I recorded my voice first soft then loud. Then I tried sucking air in and pushing air out. I read about posture, breathing and relaxation.

Posture means you have to have your spine and neck straight, not stiff. Breathing means that your chest is already elevated and there is little or no movement in the upper chest and shoulders.

I tried a new voice. It was a high voice. I recorded my voice on tape again. My voice sounded different because on each song I sang I tried different voices. I sang six different voices. I recorded my voice one more time and I tried to figure out what techniques singers use to make their voice sound like it's echoing. I tried to make my voice sound like other singers.

Results

Songs I sang:

You Drive Me Crazy - I used a medium, low, and soft voice.

Bye, Bye, Bye - I used a high, and soft voice

Lift Every Voice and Sing - I used a soft, high voice

Baby One More Time - I used an echo voice

From the Bottom of My Broken Heart - I used a soft voice

Genie in a Bottle - I used a soft, and high voice.

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Ms. Schultz, our librarian, for helping me find information about singing. I want to thank my teacher, Mr. Dave, for helping me think up this question.

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When my grandma is in bed, she likes to drink hot coffee. She likes to take a nap. When I com home after school, she wakes up. Grandma and I go to play. On Sundays, we go to the store. On Monday, I go to school. I come home from school. Grandma fixes me dinner. Grandma likes to cook. She likes macaroni and cheese. Grandma likes to watch the news. When it's my birthday, she always makes me a cake! She likes to read a lot. I love my grandma.