ZS' GCE Portfolio

System and Models chart

Z S — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:59:22 +0000

This is a chart that shows what systems and models are. These charts are to help differentiate the two. This will help us in moving forward and having a much clearer understanding of the material.

What is culture?

Z S — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:29:53 +0000

This is a paragraph summarizing my views on culture. In our class we are working on understanding what culture is and how they interact with each other.

Culture is the mixture of beliefs to create unified traditions. When people group together, they look for commonalities with each other and these commonalities become culture. However as people change, their cultures will change. Culture is not permanent but is a forever changing pillar of society. The culture of a society is a great way to have insight on their daily lives and interests.

Survey Field Experience

Z S — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:16:02 +0000

This friday our class went to the north/clybourn red line stop to interview people on their opinions on housing. We wanted to see what people feel should be done to help repair the public housing system in Chicago. After we finished our interviews, we reviewed our data to help guide and improve our study.

1) A public good is a resource/need that can effect communities and cities as a whole. Public goods can be many different things such as, housing, food, health care and education. These are goods that are offered to everyone and it is non-excludable.

2) Housing is a public good due to its effect on communities all over Chicago. A town with a lot of people who are homeless and/or really poor quality homes will decrease its value dramatically. Also public goods are not mutually exclusive and each can improve or be detrimental to one another. Thus, if housing is improved than this will improve the city in various different way. For example, if there is affordable housing for everyone then can have a house and it will keep people of the streets which will lower the crime rate in the city.

3) Housing should be treated as a public good because one of the most important necessities for humans is shelter. Many people in Chicago are homeless and do not have a roof over there head. If we treat housing as a public good than everyone can help fix the problem.

4) The survey we created was a five question survey that we used to find out people’s opinions on housing. The way we distributed our survey was by asking people near the north/clybourn to take our survey. Some people said yes and some said no. The reason why we did this is because we wanted to find out people’s opinion on our focus area in order to get a better grasp of the topic. We realized that before we start to learn and talk about public goods, we must first find out how the public feels about their goods.

5) After I reviewed the results I realized that there was only one thing that most people agreed on which was: Money. Many people want to help with housing but most people either can’t or are not willing to have higher taxes in order to help fund public housing. This shows us that when studying housing that we need to think of a practical and fiscally plausible solutions to improve public housing.

Econ Milestone 4

Z S — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:11:46 +0000

In Econ/Fundamentals we are designing a board game that will encompass all the topics that we are cover in our class. We decided to create a board game that allows the players to go through their lives from the time that they are a young adults until retirment. We used progression points to determine what career each player would get and how far they would go in each respective career. Each player has to manage their investments and money. The player with the most money for their retirement wins.
Progression and Recession on PhotoPeach

Global Citizens Of Chicago

Z S — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:12:42 +0000

10/21/11

Field Experience

Today for Field experience we visited Global Chicago to see what services they offer. We learned that they hold public forums in which they bring in experts on today’s global issues and host an open and bipartisan discussion in order to educate Chicagoans. We learned about the many resources they offer to the people of Chicago such as: English Classes, Non-for-profit database for reference and forums specifically directed towards teens. This is a reflection of what we learned from Global Chicago and how it will inform our classes for the rest of the year.

I think this field experience will not only help us further our studies in our classes but encompasses GCE as a whole. GCE’s main purpose is to educate so we can advocate. Global Chicago is a bipartisan organization but the main goal is to educate Chicagoans, like discussions from experts, so they can make informed decisions on global problems. This is also very similar to our course Spanish (Pueblos) course because in that class we are researching about immigration in Latin America. This issue is extremely prevalent in today’s society and, as teens, we need to understand all the things that are affecting our world. Furthermore, in our Econ/Fundamentals course we are learning about the economy and how to correctly manage our money. Although Global Chicago didn’t talk about how to manage our money, they do hold lectures on the struggling global economy as well as other aspects of it. Lastly, in our Crimes Against humanities course we are all writing crime fiction stories about different cities throughout the world. A lot of the forums that Global Chicago holds can help us make better, more detailed and plausible stories when we are writing. This field experience has provided us with a great resource that will enrich our classes throughout the year.

To Deregulate, Or Not To Deregulate, That Is The Question

Z S — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:31:13 +0000

This paper is for my Econ/Fundamentals course where we thought of a guiding question

based on the movie “Inside Job” and researched our topic. We have been studying the

mortgage crisis and other aspects of the US and global economy. I researched Iceland and the factors that contributed to its economic downfall.

When Iceland decided to deregulate their financial system they ended up with a huge amount of debt and an increased unemployment rate. Initially many people were optimistic. Unfortunately, they forgot to account for ethics and trust. This economic deterioration can only teach us that we need a stronger system in place that holds countries and banks accountable. This study will display Iceland’s initial hope for deregulation and its eventual failure and what can be done to prevent it.

Please refer to my full paper: Econ

ZS Blog 2

Z S — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 20:44:08 +0000

Zach Silver
Mr. Rocco
In our Crimes Against Humanity course we are learning about Chicago’s notorious side. The course has consisted of revealing Chicago’s violent and cultural crimes against humanity. To be exposed to this history we are reading Chicago Blues (a compilation of stories about crime set in Chicago), and looking at Maxwell Street–a perfect example of a Chicago’s culture of crime. The dis-assembly of the Maxwell Street market was a clear crime against culture because Maxwell Street was a part of Chicago, where the blues found a home and many cultures mixed and flourished. There were performers all over the Maxwell street market who created and played beautiful music. However, The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) needed more space for their campus and used their resources to get it; they tore down Maxwell Street and replaced it with a Jamba Juice and other large stores. The idea that an institution such as UIC, which is meant for educating and broadening students’ horizons, removed such a culturally rich part of Chicago is truly appalling.
While studying Maxwell Street, we read the story “Guarding Lacey” from Chicago Blues. This tale is about a thirteen years old girl named Lacey who is very troubled and turns to a life of prostitution. Her “family” tries to protect her. Her family consists of many “cousins” and a man named Smoke. This is not her biological family but is a family that looks out for one another. Lacey does not heed anyone’s advice and continues her life of prostitution. Her issues were perfectly summed up by Smoke when he said, “She’s thirteen going on trouble” (pg. 144). Although this is a fictional story it still holds truth because many youth in Chicago don’t have support systems and they look to the streets for guidance. This kind of upbringing facilitates a cycle, which leads to this society–a crime against humanity.

Mi Vida

Z S — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:14:45 +0000

The purpose of this piece is to display my Spanish skills and to simultaneously talk about my favorite thing in the world: my family.

Hola mi llamo ZS. Yo asisto a la escuela GCE. Yo tengo dieciocho años. Yo soy un mayor. Yo soy un chico bajo y tengo pelo moreno y ojos moreno. Mi padre se llama RS. Mi madre se llama CS. Yo tengo una hermana y dos hermanos. Mi hermana se llama AS. Mis hermanos se llaman DS y DS.

Mi familia es la cosa mas importante en mi vida. Yo amo todas mi familia. Yo y mis hermanos somos muy cercanos. Mis hermanos son mis modelos de seguir. Mi hermana es la mayor de los niños y yo el menor de los niños. Mi hermana esta en el universidad UCLA por escuela de ley. Mi hermano mayor, DS, esta en el universidad de Maryland por escuela de ingeniería. Mi otro hermano, DS o David, esta en universidad de Kendall por el escuela de hospitalidad. Mi padre es un medico por rodillas. Mi mama era una enfermera pero ahora es una madre muy buena.

Yo tomo muchas clases en mi escuela. Yo tomo español, crímenes contra humanidad, producción en masa de imágenes y económicos. Mi clase de español es muy interesante y divertida. Mi clase de crimén contra humanidad es muy extraño pero es una clase muy bien. La clase producción en masa de imágenes es una clase muy difícil porque no me gusta arte. La clase economía es un clase muy diferente pero yo aprendido muchas cosas.

En resumen, mi vida esta una vida muy buena. Yo tengo una escuela fenomenal que yo amo. Yo tengo una familia asombroso. Mi familia es muy grande y muy loco. Estas cosas que crean mi vida.

Pilsen PowerPoint

Z S — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:43:06 +0000

Pilsen

View more presentations from Zach Silver.

The purpose of this piece is to show the attempt to unify and beautify the community of Pilsen. I’m proud of this piece because it conveys the effort to create a safe community in Pilsen. I learned that there are many organizations that are working very hard to make Pilsen a great place to live.

Maxwell Street Haiku Powerpoint

Z S — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:38:38 +0000

This is a powerpoint based on my experiences touring university village and maxwell street.

Haiku

View more presentations from Zach Silver.