1) Positive statement
 - I'm most proud of the fact that I engaged my whole audience during my presentation. I've been to so many presentations that didn't engage their audience at all, but they were reacting and enjoying my presentation as much as I was enjoying giving it.

2) Questions to Consider
 - To be honest, I would either give myself a high P or an AE for my two-hour presentation. It seemed to be engaging and I got a lot of interesting heroes for the activity. While my timing might have been off a bit (I do tend to ramble a little and that's something I'm working on), overall it was a very good presentation with well-thought out information.

 - As for the overall grade for my senior project, I'd have to give myself a P. One of the reasons is because a lot of my work has been late and I'm not disputing that at all. However, the work that I do turn in (Research, interviews, etc.) no matter how late, have all been high quality. I had consistent AEs on my research as well as my interviews and I did my best with the other components as well. My only real issue was time.

3) What Worked?
 - Being able to chose my own topic was really the thing that worked best for me. The teachers worked with me to keep the topic that I wanted, even if it wasn't very academic. It was fun to actually do a project that I wanted to do.

4) What Didn't Work?
 - I feel like all of the deadlines were very sporatic. We would have a few weeks of not having any deadlines at all (or even just checks) and then everything would be due at once. Scheduling out these deadlines and projects is really what iPoly is about: each grade team works together to create a steady workload for the students. However, I don't think that was very well done this year, for whatever reason. That's the only thing that really didn't work for me.

5) Finding Values
 - This project has been helpful in two ways. One way is that I know how to criticize myself. In all of the work that I did, from the Interviews to my iSearch and all of the other components, I figured out how to make my work better by looking at the faults. It's been something that I've really had trouble with in the past. One example of this is my science project. I had to reassess just the basic idea over three times to get it to a project that was half-way understandable. I can take this focus and this persistence into my future career (whatever it may be).
The second way is that I really worked on basic skills,such as designing and writing. I know that my iSearch was really difficult for me because I'm not really sure how to write a research report. While the iSearch wasn't a pure research report, it still demanded a different style or writing than I was used to. It was a little more formal than I have ever written before and that was difficult for me. Another aspect that helped in my designing was creating the powerpoint itself. I had never really created a powerpoint by myself before. Sure, there were group powerpoints and everything, but I had never really done one on my own, so creating the powerpoint for my two hour was... an enlightening experience and I'd like to say that I did a whole lot better than a lot of people out there. I made my powerpoint personal (with comic book page backgrounds and customized fonts) and I made it engaging, which is hard to say for a powerpoint, not matter what the topic is. I can definitely take that on to whatever I'm doing next, because in almost every career, there's a chance to create something; whether that creation is a powerpoint, template, brochure, whatever, everyone has to design and present something at sometime in teir career and I believe that I'm on my way to mastering that ability.

Literal
· Log: I don't have it just yet, but I worked every Tuesday and Thursday from 3-6 or 7 from around Feb. 10th-March 29th.
· Dwain Kaiser (909) 472 - 2991
Interpretive
- The most important thing I gained from this experience is really, work experience. Even if I wasn't being paid, I understand how much work an employee would have to do and while some of the tasks are grueling, there are some which are rewarding as well.
Applied
- While it didn't really help my EQ mostly, there was something that I took away from it: What people like, what they enjoy in books or comics or whatever, isn't necessarily pre-determined. There were many people who came into the store that didn't look like book readers, or they went for a section I never anticipated. It was a motivator out of anything, to understand really what people were looking for in books and comics these days, which led to my first answer: Understanding the Modern Age.

EQ: What is the most important element in a successful, Modern-Age comic book series?

Answer: Determining what people what from comic books is an important element in creating a successful comic book series.

Evidence/Sources:
 - Evidence 1: Unlike the other two major ages (Gold and Silver), the Modern-Age needs something human. It needs flaws and mistakes and bad decisions because that's what humans do.
 - Source 1: "American Superheroes and the Politics of Good and Evil" article
 - Evidence 2: The best way to interact with people is to create a character that means something to tehm.
 - Source 2: Sean Jackson.
 - Evidence 3: Social issues are also a pretty good thing to bank off of in comic books, such as femininity, gay rights or family death.
 - Source 3: Brad Munson.

The link is on the sidebar to the right.

1.) My Room Creativity will be tackled by either creating a comic book store within the classroom (given that I can find comic book racks, or just a way to display my comics) and use some comics as examples through out my presentation. Or, if that becomes too complicated, I'll be hanging up print-outs of comic book covers and important panels on the walls behind me from basically floor to ceiling. This way, I can have examples of each of my answers while still having something creative.

2.) In my presentation, I'm going to have a longer lecture by pushing all three of the answers together, and then one long activity. The activity is going to be that each partnership (I'll have split each junior and senior up into partners) will create their own character. Along with this character, they'll have to write out a basic outline (or even a script) of an event that happened in that character's life. They will also give an explanation as to why it applies to the Modern-Age.

EQ: What is the most important element in a successful Modern-Age comic book series?

Answer: An important element in creating a successful comic book series is to have a character that develops through the story.

Evidence/Source:
 - Evidence 1: Roy Harper is very well known within the comic book world and he's developed in his personal story in many ways. Staring off as a sidekick, he then became a junkie, then a father and when he lost his daughter, he went back into drugs. It's a natural progression of story that everyone who has read DC comics remembers.
 - Source 1: "Superhero Makeovers: Roy Harper" article.
 - Evidence 2: Even Superman has developed within the eighty years he's been around. The most obvious visual aspect of that change is his shield.
 - Source 2: "The Story of the Shield (aka Superman's Symbol 101)" by Brian G. Philbin.
 - Evidence 3: In the Modern-Age, people are looking for the humanity in comic books characters, and the best way to represent this humanity is to have them change through out a story or an event.
 - Source 3: Brad Munson, 3rd Interview.

What is your product and why?
- My product is that I've gained the knowledge to conceptualize and design a comic book. Through out this whole process, my main focus has been doing just that: how can one design a successful comic book? I never really looked into the physical creation of a comic book or the marketing of one, so "creating a comic book" could never be my product. My extensive research and helpful interviews have helped me achieve this knowledge and have started me to actually designing one, which I'm in the process of right now.

Comic Book 2 Hour Lesson Plan (CLICK HERE)

Literal
a. I, Alice Munson, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
b. I have completed the viewing and analyzing of 44 superhero movies dating from 1978 to present day.

Interpretive
30 hours of work alone goes into finding and viewing the movies themselves. While most the time, these movies would be watched for entertainment, with every movie I was asking myself these questions: how does it relate to the current age, was it popular (why or why not) (based on the money it made), and if I personally thought that the movie was good. So, it was more than just viewing movies, it was analyzing them to their core. Each movie has a concise review written out. This will be included in a Google Doc later this week.

Applied
One way that it helped answer my EQ, is that I had to really think about what was so appealing about some of these movies. It's no secret that the majority of these movies are horrible. There might be someone out there who liked them, but for the most part they were looked at with disdain. I had to figure out why. The major reasons are one: the writers of the movies didn't follow certain rules that the heroes had; or two: even if the writers did take the idea of the superhero to heart, there was nothing to connect the audience with the movie.

Questions:

1. Have you worked in comics before? If so, what did you do?
2. What are some of the titles you worked on?
3. What are some of the characters you created or re-created?
4. Why do you think some of the most enduring and popular characters have lasted so long (e.g., Spider-Man, Superman, Batman)
5. What did you like about working in the comic industry?
6. What didn’t you like about working in the comic industry?
7. Do you still do things for comics? If so, what? If not, why?
8. What comics, if any, do you read now?
9. What creators do you admire most, and why?
10. Do you approach female characters differently that male characters? If so, why?
11. What do you personally think makes a comic series successful or well-liked?
12. What do you think "successful" means, in terms of comics?
13. Who is your favorite character from comic books and why?
14. What do you think is more important in a comic book: story or art? Why?
15. What is our process in creating a new comics character for an ongong series?
16. What are the most important elements in making an effective character?
17. Do you think comics have changed drastically over the past years? In what ways?
18. Do you think that the incorporation of comic book-related animation (such as Justice League, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Under the Red Hood) has drawn in a bigger audience?
19. Do you think digital comics are going to or have already changed the industry? If so, how?
20. How do you think comics and comic characters will be different ten years from now?

NOTE: I have come down with a horrible stomach flu that has prevented me from fully completing this. I'm posting what I have and the log and pictures will be posted either later tonight or early tomorrow (when I can focus for more than a few minutes).

Log: Click Here
Evidence: Click Here, (pictures are going to be included later. there are technical difficulties)

LIA:


Literal:
a) I, Alice Munson, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
b) The significant points of my independent component were the block-long (1 hour, 30 minute) presentations to each of the freshmen classes. I did a total of three of those presentations, two sets in Estrada's classroom and one in Pellegrini's. These presentations were on three topics: an introduction, scripting, and paneling.

 The introduction was just that, an introduction to who I was, what graphic novels and comic books are and what the difference is between them two. I showed examples (comics from both my own collection and from graphic novels/trade paper backs that I borrowed from the library) and explained what made each book how they were. Some examples of this are: comic books are like a chapter in a book, sometimes not even that; trade paper backs are comic book "arcs" or all the chapters compiled into one story, beginning middle and end; graphic novels are books that are comic books, just never intended to be sold in those 'chapter' floppies.

The scripting presentation was a little more intensive. I looked around online for examples of a comic book script and it was difficult. It took me an hour or so until I went to the DC home page and found a script (and the whole process, too!) of Animal Man, a comic that was apart of their "New 52". It outlined the script and all of the steps to get the final page.

The paneling presentation is where I used both the script (and the paneling steps afterwards) and I also made my own paper as well. It was more of an outline for my presentation rather than a worksheet to be handed out, but it helped and the link to it is above.

There are more things than the presentation that I did. I helped most groups on their actual presentation (going outside of the class and helping them as they practices and giving them pointers) which I could only (unfortunately) do for three classes, although I did do it for almost the whole block. I also did extra research for the outline and I also helped the freshmen teachers create the rubric that graded the comic books themselves. Finally, some freshmen did come up during lunch and asked me to help them with their cocmi books and I helped them there as well. All of these things mixed together adds up to around 30 hours, perhaps a little under it due to the fact that we had planned for 4 presentations and I was unable to do it due to scheduling.

Interpretive:
My work represents 30 hours of work, because before every presentation (which is about a 2-hour presentation in itself) I had to research what I was talking about and create a basic outline. Of course I didn't create a long outline like I did on the final presentation, but I still had to work on each of them in depth. I also "practiced" for my 2-hour because I talked for over 45 minutes and used the comics and graphic novels and the script to engage the audience. I worked closely with the freshmen teachers and created aides and scripts of my own. While I might not have hit 30 hours exactly, I worked very hard on this and it has helped me for the final presentation.

Applied:
This whole experience helped me answer my EQ because it helped me gauge how interested these kids (who are the main demographic of comics) were in comics. When I would hand out the comics, I could see how interested they were in the comics that I handed out. There were many times when I heard and saw people getting excited over seeing Batman or The Flash. It was kind of funny, because there was this one boy who was so excited over having The Flash comic. It was kind of awesome. I also gauged how interested they were in creating the comic book by the questions they asked afterwards. Most of the time, they would as in-depth questions that I never thought they'd ask. Questions like, "What makes a good comic book?" While I'm sure that they were talking about their project, they still asked the questions that I had been asking myself, kind of forcing me to think about it. I would talk about certain aspects of a comic book, such as the characters, and they'd ask me things like, "Who is your favorite character?", showing me that they were interested in when they talked about comic books. Characters, some events that happened (big events, like Batman's death or Superman's death), and the relationships of characters. It helped me get one of my answers, "Familiarity." To be interested and into a comic book series, you have to be familiar with what you're looking at and this whole experience taught me that.

1.) There is a relationship between the amount of tension applied to a nylon rope and where along its length it will snap.

2.) Dependent: Where/when the rope breaks (meters)
Independent: Amount of tension (Newtons) due to mass on the end of the rope.
Control: Rope material, length of rope, and the height the mass attached to the rope falls from.

3.) One of the main aspects that makes a comic successful is realism. To be able to be interested in a comic book, it has to be believable to the reader, even if the action itself is impossible. Batman and Spiderman's ability to swing on ropes is one of the ideas that is widely accepted as fact, when really the actual action is pretty much impossible. I am doing this experiment to examine if it is actually possible for a 200-ish pound man to swing on a rope without the rope snapping, all in the name of realism!

4.) First, the materials: I would have to obtain objects of varying weight (which will be weights themselves) ranging from 10lbs to 50lbs (and I will add more weight if needed). I would also have to obtain nylon rope and cut it into pieces, each about 2 meters long, which I will measure with a meter stick. I will also have the meter stick for measuring where the rope snaps and exactly how tall my roof is. Speaking of my roof, it will be the structure that will be holding my weights. We have found a beam that will support the amount of weight that already had a sizable hole through it, so we can attach the rope and thus drop the weight from the roof itself down off the side. From there, I will drop each weight attached to the same amount of rope and calculate the force exerted. If the rope snaps, I will measure where the rope napped on it and figure out where the center of the tension was caused, making it snap.

5.) This experiment will go under Physics.

Link to 20 Minute Presentation Lesson Plan

1.) The first answer to my Essential Question is to have a "connection". To be able to connect with a character might seem like an obvious answer to any successful story, not many people consider this when thinking about comic books. The flighty, exaggerated, sometimes insane characters cause most people to deny the fact that they connect to these characters. However, to make a story good and to make it memorable, you need to connect with someone in the story.

2.) One of the best examples that I can give to support this character is an article about a woman confined to a wheelchair. She thought of herself as someone who wasn't necessarily lesser than anyone, but wasn't exactly better. When Barbara Gordon (who was Batgirl at the time) was shot in the spine by the Joker and became wheelchair bound, this woman held a strong connection for her. Oracle was one of the most popular females in the DC universe. She was mentioned in nearly every comic at least once; she was the only "behind the scenes" person who could relay information to anyone at any given time; and she was in a wheelchair. Many people can relate to this story, while not in a strong way as the woman in the wheelchair could, at least in a small way. Barbara understood what it meant to lose her family; she understood what it meant to go through something so hard in life that at times, she didn't think she'd make it out in one piece; she understands what it means to love someone so dearly (Dick Grayson, the first robin) and then have that guy walk away from her because she was too head-strong. While she might not relate to everyone, that's the reason why there's more than one character in this huge universe.

3.) The article that story is from is actually from a anti-reboot article and one of the first that I looked up. Here's the link or you can look up number 5 on my Working Bibliography.

1. Hypothesis: If an average human was blindfolded and a sound was made (such as a bell), then even 'blind', they could identify where that sound was within ten feet.

2. The dependent would be the number of times they can identify a sound, the independent would be the distance away from the test subject, and the control would bee the actual sound.

3. One of the most important aspects of a successful comic book series today is whether it is realistic (or at least, believable) for these superheroes to do what they do. Daredevil, a popular Marvel character, is completely blind. However, he can "see" the world around him with his senses. I am making an experiment to determine if this is at least some-what realistic in the most efficient way possible: using human senses to locate a sound while a person is blindfolded. Thus, this experiment connects to my EQ by proving if this idea of Daredevil's power is realistic or not.

4. The way I will perform this experiment is as follows: I will have a group of about eight people at a time. One of those eight will be in the middle of the "circle" and be blindfolded, with the rest of the seven (and me) standing around that person, being "the circle". I point to different people in the circle and they make a sound, most likely a clap. I will record at which times the person in the middle gets confused or wrongly identifies where that sound is coming from, as well as the times that they identify where the sound is. The only "equipment" I will need are people and a blindfold.

5. Behavioral/Social Science (although I'm not sure)

1. Where are you working for your service learning?
   - I am working at a bookstore in Pomona called The Magic Door.
2. Who is your contact?
   - Dwain and JoAnn Kaiser
3. Summarize the services you have performed to complete the 10 hour requirement
   - The services I do are that I sort, do inventory, work the front desk and work out the freebie table outside.
4. How many hours have you worked?
   - I have worked sixteen hours. 

1. What do you think is the most important aspect a comic book series should have and why?

2. What do you look for when you read a comic book?

3. Do you think that realism plays a part in how popular a comic book series is? Why or why not?

4. Do you think that the movies have gotten more people into comics in general? Why or why not?

5. Which is more important to you, personally, in a comic book: Art, story/writing, or characters? Why?

6. What would you say to a person who wants to start reading comic books?

7. Are comic books becoming more mature these days? How or how not?

8. How do you think comic books being more mature affects new readers' perspectives?

9. Is gender a large aspect when you look at a comic book? Such as, do you want to read more about a male or a female? Or does it matter? Why or why not?

10. Is there anything in comics that you see as something that would turn new readers away?

1. I think I'm doing okay. Either a high AP or P. The only reason, I think, that I'm not doing alright with getting stuff on time, but I think the ideas and the things that I turn in (whether it's on time or not) is higher quality and well thought out.

2. I think my quality of work is very good. The research and the ideas I come up with for blogs and components are very well thought out and done.

3. The thing I would like to improve on is getting things done on time. It's completely my fault and my attention span's and I totally regret that. I need to have more motivation about everything, projects and components and due dates.

1. If an average human were to emit sounds, could he or she interpret the echos of that sound to determine shapes or bodies within twelve feet.