Planet Balance.

The purpose for this first Action project for my Humanities class, Stories, a history and culture class that focused on past, present, and future stories. During the first unit, “Creations”, I learned about stories and myths that come from a variety of cultures. For this AP, I had to come up with my own creation myth using descriptive language that helps explain the features of my world as I imagine it to be. I wanted my myth to be a fairy tale, because as a kid I loved reading stories like that. What I found helpful was using similes and metaphors in my story because those are devices I need to work on. What I found most challenging was writing out my ideas using sensory imagery because I am not use to writing out ideas. I enjoyed creating my own myth; I thought that was very different, and it helped me open up my imagination. 

Created by JV "Balance" 2014*

The Planet Balance gets its name from the balance of witches, fairies, and vampires that live on the planet. All three creatures are responsible for the existence of Balance. The witches were created with Balance; they are like the heart and soul of the planet. Balance is right next to that boring Planet Earth, but Balance is so small that no one can “actually” see it. Balance is the ideal world to live in because it has anything and everything you can think of, like being happy the fairies can hypnotize other creatures and make them very sleepy dreaming of magical things. The shape of the plant is oval, because that represents the Black Jewels symbol of magic.

The witches are called Black Jewels because sometimes they can be insidious with their black magic. At other times they shine like diamonds and can be so peaceful and harmless. The witches love their hocus pocus. The closest relatives that the Black Jewels have are the Human Fairies, which are the rulers of the west side of Balance. An enchanted fairyland that has nothing but peace and happiness. There is nothing evil in the west no sadness, either. The fairies are as sweet as honey - they bring balance to what life is with their happiness and enjoyment of life and what it means, The witches love nature, and the west side of Balance is clean and undamaged. The fairies love and care for everyone no matter how others treat them. Human fairyland is like a dream but way better, anything and everything can happen there. The fairies fly around spreading love and happiness, they make the whole planet light up like a bright highlighter. Their house are made out of leaves and twigs, so big that a thousand can live in one. The planets smell like sweet candy.

The Vampires are the evil ones, but they also provide balance in the planet because they create drama and suspense. They like to feed on any animal that is a part of Balance, but don’t like to feed on fairies because their blood is too sweet. The Vampires were created by the Black Jewels because they needed something evil, carefree and dark to take over the eastern region part of Balance. Cold-blooded creatures were needed because of the temperatures in that area.

The weather in Balance is always autumn-like, because none of the creatures can live in warm weather the sky is always dull with black clouds, and there is always an eclipse. None of the creatures can live with much sunlight, yet the plants bloom in different colors like dark purple, burnt orange, mist yellow, and bold red, looking very whimsical and vibrant. The land itself is covered with very dark green grass, and the animals of Balance look crazy and creepy, made of different dark colors, like they came out of a Halloween movie. It is always raining on Balance and is a time when the witches’ spirits come out to clean any darkness the vampires have created, which is constant.

There's one holiday that all the creatures celebrate and that is Devina. The name of this special day comes from the oldest Black Jewel, who was the most powerful of all the witches, but died while creating the Vampires. When Devina created the vampires she gave them everything she had which was her happiness, darkness, and sadness. All her magic went to the Black jewels and fairies giving each one their own unique power. Till this day no Black Jewel or Fairy knows who will be the next Supreme Witch. The holiday happens at the end of every three months when all of the creatures get together in the deep and wicked woods, where the branches have eyes and the leaves bite, they gather to see what creature can be created next through the Black Jewels’ magic.

Mexican Mole Lizard.

The purpose for this first Action project for my STEAM class called "Population", which is a Global Health series that talks about why our population had changed throughout history and what this means for our future. During this unit, I learned both Mathematical and Scientific systems of classification; I also learned about Taxonomy, which is the branch of science that classifies animals, which helped me a lot with my project. I picked the Mexican Mole Lizard (Bipes biporus) because it looked so interesting to me, and how it's one of a kind because it doesn't have a relative. The MML is cold blooded, its Bipes because it is a Carnivore and Squamata because it has scales. Using Taxonomy helped me a lot because I got to see what class my animal was in as well as other information. What I found really helpful with doing this AP was really understanding what Taxonomy is. What I found challenging was doing the Mathematical language because I'm not that great at it, but I would love to improve. What I enjoyed about this project was learning about all different kinds of animals.

Here is the Taxonomy classification of the Mexican Mole Lizard.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Bipedidae
Genus: Bipes
Species: B. biporus

Created by JV, "MML" 2014*

Here are the set theory statements explaining in mathematical language what my animal is categorized in and what it's not.

Created by JV "MML" 2014*

Here is a three circled Venn Diagram, I compared my animal with my classmate RD who had a Blue Tailed Skink, and my other classmate AMK had a Fennec Fox. To see what we have in common or what we don't have in common.

Created by JV, RD, AMK 2014*