Independent Component 2

"Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world." 

- Nelson Mandela.

LITERAL
(a) “I, Adrian Gallegos, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
(b) My source that I have used the most that can be referenced is the following: Means Barbara. "Technology and Education Change: Focus on Student Learning." SRI International, 2010. Web. 2010. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ882507.pdf
(c) I have completed the log.
(d) I have completed a mock grant iniative, in which I have chosen International Polytechnic High School as a hypothetical school, and I have established a grant in which a specific amount of money goes to specific causes. I have chosen to use the hypothetical grant for a more rigorous math and science program, and I defend my reasoning.  
INTERPRETIVE 
The mock grant proposal definitely took 30 hours of work to research, write, and assemble in its entirety. It is similar to a large research paper, and required lots of research, editing, writing potential educational plans, looking at other schools as models, and finally assembling all of my materials.
APPLIED
This component helped me answer my essential question because writing a grant proposal is one of the primary aspects of a nonprofit, and understanding what a nonprofit organization has the power to do is an integral aspect to my Senior Project.

My full independent component can be found at this link.

*I suggest downloading it to avoid formatting errors found in Google Drive. 

Independent Component 2 Approval

Content:

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

For the next 30 hours, I will role-play completing a mock-grant proposal for a socioeconomically disadvantaged school, justifying funding for equipment.


2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

I will submit the mock grant proposal, and the evidence of 30 hours will be found in my Independent Component 2 Log.

3.  And explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

The main objective of a nonprofit would be to write grant proposals. Since my EQ has to do with nonprofits, it would allow me to explore the nonprofit aspect of my project more, and would allow a more in-depth view on these organizations.

Independent Component 1

LITERAL
 
(a) I, Adrian Gallegos, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

My two sources most important to this component was Source ID#16 - "The Fluency Development Lesson Gets Graphic." by Belinda Zimmerman, and Source ID #19 - "The Case for Graphic Novels" by The Communications in Information Literacy Organization.

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
Done.


(d) Explanation of what you completed. 
For my Independent Component, I have completed the beginning phases of a professional comic book production.  
 
INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.

I have completed about 32 hours of my Independent Component. My original plans were to produce a full, professional comic book structured around Personal Finance, but I have undermined the amount of work that goes into producing the average graphic comic. Planning phases, and various elements going into pre-production alone account for nearly 8 hours of work. I have timed myself doing pages, and average a little less than 1 page every 2 hours. I have worked with others on this project, but to maintain consistency, a majority of the content was unused. Every page was created from scratch on Adobe Illustrator, including the text. I am remorseful that I have not completed the entire comic book within 30 hours, but shall continue working on it throughout the year in order to finish something that may enlighten students how to effectively manage their money - a skill essential to surviving the real world - without a lot of unnecessary technical jargon.

A delightful screenshot of the beginning pages.

 

APPLIED
How did the component help you understand the foundation of your topic better?  Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 

This component helped me understand the foundation of my topic in a lot of ways. It has enlightened to the amount of resources out there which are already dedicated to teaching people - especially students that fall under the category of my essential question. However, there aren't enough good resources - That is; A lot of educational resources exist, but little to none of them are engaging or easy to understand, especially when the target audience usually aims for a general understanding rather than a scholarly pursuit.

Independent Component 1 Approval

Content:

1.  Describe in detail what you plan to do for your 30 hours.

 

My topic is currently the promotion of education to the socioeconomically disadvantaged. My goal was to provide something affordable, rewarding, and interesting to my target audience. What better way to promote education than through a comic book? For my 30 hours, I have planned to go through the complete production of a medium-sized comic book - from beginning to end. The comic book, the first of its kind, will feature multiple lessons on a select topic, and present them in a humorous, engaging way. Printing itself is expensive, but the goal of this component would be the production part of it. A single comic book production is itself quite large, and will involve storyline production, thorough research of the topics in question, management of a small to medium-sized team, and potentially, an excellent opportunity for students to learn from one another.

 

2.  Discuss how or what you will do to meet the expectation of showing 30 hours of evidence.

 

I'm a big fan of photos and video production, and will use these to support my Independent Component Work Log.

 

3.  Explain how what you will be doing will help you explore your topic in more depth.

 

 In order to ensure the success of this project, I am also going to be gathering the opinions of the target audience for maximum effectiveness. In this, I will get to learn and address the audience of my project better, and also complete a project that could potentially help thousands if completed effectively.