The reason why I chose this fire project topic was because when I was working on my history fair project, I came across the topic of redlining. I did not know what it was. I did not know how it was connected to me and my community. I had no idea until I began to research. When I read that maps were used to associate communities with amount of investments received, I was shocked. Low income communities were delineated with red lines to indicate they could not receive investments, in other words money for improvement. I found this to be very interesting. This is why it became captivating for me because I figured that maybe this was one of the root causes of why my community along with others is under developed. I spent about anywhere from 10-15 hours in total working on my fire project. While conducting research and writing my paper, I had trouble keeping up with all my citations and organizing my information. In order to manage my time well, I made sure I used up any class time I had to work on my project. I also took the opportunity to work on my project on the days that I had AP testing which was a big help. Even then, I was not able to fully meet my original goals for my project which was an extension to my original action.
The "stretch for me" for this project was actually the topic itself. Although I became so intrigued in this topic, I wanted to somehow connect redlining to environmental racism today. However it was too much to focus on because there was not much research done between how redlining encouraged environmental racism and I did not have enough time to make these connections which is why I only described how redlining encouraged segregation. I just want my audience to feel like they have learned something new. I never heard about redlining and I was even surprised when one teacher asked me what was redlining before starting my project. If I could give myself a grade, I would give myself maybe a B- or a C+. I would have liked to have my information a bit more organized and more visuals in my website. However, one thing about this topic was that it was hard to find pictures other than maps. I could not find pictures of the Citizens Action Group or of people protesting against redlining. I feel I have mastered incorporating facts, but one thing I know I need to work on is analyzing every fact that I use. I am most proud of the paper I wrote. I was able to get at least the minimum of 8 pages. This was very hard to do because I never wrote a paper this long, but I was proud because I was able to do it. If I could have took a different approach on my project it would have been how redlining was a root cause of environmental racism. The advice I would give to next year students is manage your time wisely and chose something that you are truly passionate about.
The "stretch for me" for this project was actually the topic itself. Although I became so intrigued in this topic, I wanted to somehow connect redlining to environmental racism today. However it was too much to focus on because there was not much research done between how redlining encouraged environmental racism and I did not have enough time to make these connections which is why I only described how redlining encouraged segregation. I just want my audience to feel like they have learned something new. I never heard about redlining and I was even surprised when one teacher asked me what was redlining before starting my project. If I could give myself a grade, I would give myself maybe a B- or a C+. I would have liked to have my information a bit more organized and more visuals in my website. However, one thing about this topic was that it was hard to find pictures other than maps. I could not find pictures of the Citizens Action Group or of people protesting against redlining. I feel I have mastered incorporating facts, but one thing I know I need to work on is analyzing every fact that I use. I am most proud of the paper I wrote. I was able to get at least the minimum of 8 pages. This was very hard to do because I never wrote a paper this long, but I was proud because I was able to do it. If I could have took a different approach on my project it would have been how redlining was a root cause of environmental racism. The advice I would give to next year students is manage your time wisely and chose something that you are truly passionate about.