California 2K18

I have known for a few years now that my passions lie in the outdoor side of things. At first I wanted to do marine biology then it changed to zoology. Now it has settled (for now) on environmental sciences as a whole. I either want to do conservation work with the government or with other organizations, I definitely would love to travel the world for it. I would also be fine working with zoos or other organizations doing endangered species work as well. Going to California only really confirmed that that is what I want to do. I learned one really core thing that I think will stick with me throughout my life, Follow your passions, do what you love doing. Down at the Safari Park when we did the conservation session I fell in love. I really enjoyed that session and I got really excited to do what we did but on a more serious scale. I actually want to be apart of it in real life not just in that game we did during the session. I found California helped me figure out that this is where I want to go with my career path. I had already looked at some university requirements in England and Canada. I will probably end up in Canada but I thought it might be a unique experience going to university in the UK. Let’s see where this path takes me.

At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park they have multiple breeding and conservation programs. They have Tiger, Elephant, Rhino, and Californian Condor programs as well multiple native plant species conservation. San Diego Zoo International works to make sure species like the Californian Condor don’t become permanently extinct they want to preserve the specifies in the world, even plants.

An aircraft carrier has many purposes ranging from air support to intimidation. It has become a symbol of a powerful navy, strong political power, and strong overall military force. It doesn’t nessecarily do very much by way of damage but it’s airplanes do a good job of defending the massive fortress. In my mind I think it’s mostly used for intimidation and an to show a country’s interest in a certain area. The evolution of aircraft carriers have also shaped naval military tactics and programs without aircraft carriers I’m sure naval warfare would be quite different

Stanford is a very unique university. Typical universities look at grades and academic records and only a little bit about your passions and extracurriculars. Stanford on the other hand. Does look at your grades but it doesn’t affect you as much as it would elsewhere. Stanford focuses on your passions. That’s something that has been brought up a lot on the trip. If you do a ton of extracurricular activities based on your passions and contributed to the community and done various things. It makes you look good. Not because they like unique students with various backgrounds, they do like that though, it’s because that’s how the modern world works. If you enjoy what your doing you do it ten times better if you are passionate about what your doing it will make it a more enjoyable job or career. Everyone in the technology industry is there because they enjoy doing it. Not for the money. People outside the tech industry are now starting to see that that is how the world works and is going to work in the future. Enjoy what your doing.

High Tech High is a school built on the idea of preparing its students for the real world. They achieve this through PBL. It’s quite like PLP that way. We connect every project to the world and how it can apply to real life and real experiences. Very much like High Tech High how it links all of its projects to the real world and more specifically the work force. High Tech High might seem a lot like PLP but there are some things that I liked about High Tech High that PLP and Seycove in general don’t have. I really like the idea of a unique workspace developed by the students that use it. I would love to do a project like even if it’s not for marks. I love been able to control where I am and feel that I was apart of creating it. The design of as well interests me as I have always had an architectural influence and it is one of the many possibly outlets for it. I think it would also be a lot of fun for the class to do. As a bonding experience as well as a way for all of us to be represented in a collective project.

In Apple they are always innovating and giving sneak peeks that not everyone has access to. If any information about new products gets out before Apple releases it or gives out public information. It ruins their business and ruins the surprise.

Google is best known for the search engine. This was disruptive because it brought everything online. Through it people can find close to anything and that hadn’t been done before.

This was the photoshop owned by Harvey Milk. Harvey Milk was thought of as the leader in LGBTQ+ rights during the early days of the Castro. Harvey put together parades and giant celebrations in the area and fought for gay rights in the city and America. He as the first openly gay man elected into office but was later assassinated by other person on the city council.

The Haight-Ashbury Free medical clinic was made near the end of the hippy days of San Francisco. It was when young kids came to the city and started taking a ton of drugs. They would be left on the street with illness and various other things that made them in need for help. This clinic was the first free clinic in America. It gave people a place to go if they needed help.

This is Mission High School. The Mission area was commonly known for a large Latino population and most of the kids there lived below or around the poverty line. The school thus didn’t have a very good academic record. In recent years has become a little less hispanic and the school has worked really hard in active a high academic standard. It now has risen because of the principal. He bribed the kids to get their test scores up. Now the school promotes high grades. Even the ice cream shop down the street is helping out. If you come in and show an improvement on your report card you get a free scoop. 

Talking with Brendan and Scott was really cool. Brendan is a software engineer who has worked with various start ups over the years. Scott has worked with Apple since 1999. He was on the IPhone team when it was first made. Scott and his buddies built a 360 camera when he was in high school. Apple found out and invited him and his friends down to a conference to showcase what they made. Apple then later offered Scott a job. He worked on the IPhone team and created the bounce when you reach the bottom of a page. Brendan on the other hand moved to Silicon Valley because there wasn’t much by way of software engineering jobs. Brendan then started to work with start ups doing software design. Scott and Brendan ended up in the same city and working with similar goals because that’s what they were interested in. It’s just like Stanford if you do what you love than you will be successful. That’s my biggest takeaway from talking with Brendan and Scott but it’s also my biggest takeaway from this trip. Follow your passions to be successful

They welcome visitors so they can show what the school is doing towards the advancement of learning. They give people tours and run downs of what’s going on and some of the structures they use to better the learning enviroment.

Me doing icebreakers with the HTH students

Activities like the Ballon Safari is important to guest entertainment. It’s keeps them occupied with things other than animals and gives an overall better experience. 

Taco Tuesday is a marketing tool. Yes it’s fun to say and partake in but it was probably first developed to get people interested in eating at a taco restaurant. Due to things like this business have been able to grow and possibly take out their competition.

Alex Hutchison - a Grade 10 PLP student usually classified as that kid that likes Frisbees way too much. I enjoy camping, hiking, Ultimate Frisbee and baseball among other things. I’ve only been to California twice before this trip both to go to Disneyland one for 2 days and the other for 6. My favourite part would definitely be all of the trip. I really enjoyed going to various places each with its own awesome ideas and presentations. My top places in San Diego were the Safari Park and the USS Midway. In San Jose I really enjoyed Apple, Stanford and Bass Pro Shops. In San Francisco I loved going to Twitter and Alcatraz and going on the Wild SF tour. This trip was my favourite of the PLP trips and I’m really happy I went. I learned a lot about myself but also about the ever changing and growing world. 

The sound of people having regular, free lives was almost rubbing it in to the inmates and said that they would never be able to have that. If I was an immate I would go crazy if I heard that sound. It was the sound of everything the immates were missing.

Disruption is the word of chaos and revolution. When someone or something causes disruption the world or the area change drastically.

Disruption can be found almost everywhere in the world but in Silicon Valley disruption is  a way of living. The people working there work to cause disruption. That is something you don’t see everywhere.

Disruption is something that people can chase after or stumble upon by accident. Nowadays it is something tons of people have sought after. It lead them to Silicon Valley. In the tech sector the want to disrupt can be found in every start up. Those start ups want to make it easier for people or want to change the way people think or revolutionize a piece of technology. They want to change ordinary life. Outside of the technology industry people have a lust for disruption but don’t necessarily call it that. The think of it as created a better place to live, work and play. If you look at human rights activists they want to make it easier for people, who are discriminated, to live their life, work and do what they want and do anything they want. Scientists want to make people change their ways to be more environmentally friendly and are working on facing climate change. Without disruption people wouldn’t want to do anything. Disruption gives people something to do with their lives.

La Jolla Cove was once a swimming area but then seals and sea lions came in to use it then it turned into a fully dedicated area for them. While we were there we spent most of our time playing around with the frisbee but then we went and saw the seals and sea lions sleeping.

I think I would like to work on an aircraft carrier only because I think it would be exciting. (At least during combat) It would be squishy and the conditions wouldn’t be the best but it’s really just like camping. Your in a confined sleeping quarters and spend most of your time doing something that keeps you preoccupied. 

Cabrillo a spainish explorer and was the captain of the first ship to have its crew step foot on the shores of the western coast of North America on September 28 1542

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is a Natural Reserve dedicated to conserving a rare tree species the Torrey Pine. The natural reserve is one of the biggest collection of these endangered pines. The reserve mostly consists of walking trails with great viewpoints but also has a ranger lodge with various facts and displays about the tree and the reserve

The Computer History Museum recounts the creation of the very first computer up until ten years ago. Starting with enigma and various large computers up to the macintosh and some of the very first computers from some of the biggest companies today. There is also a pretty cool exhibit on the self driving car. I learned that there were plans for them even as early as the 50’s. The museum has one main exhibit that follows the growth of the computer but also what it has done by way of growing the world. There are exhibits all about gaming, all about the PC and all about the birth of computers. There aren’t many museums like that. They showcase all of the causes and effects that computers have had on our history.

The enigma machine was the most sophisticated code machine during the 1940’s it cost millions of lives but when it was cracked saved millions more. Thanks to Alan Turing the enigma code was cracked using one of the very first computers. Although that was top secret until a couple decades ago it definetly got the ball rolling for the idea of computers.

Old Town San Diego was one of the first west coast settlements and was the founding roots of the state of California. Nowadays it is filled with shops and restaurants. When we went there there was a band playing with a bunch of people dancing. 

 I learned about some of the American pastimes and ore about high tech high. I learned that most of the kids are a bit like us. They go home after school and chill out or meet up with friends. At High Tech High they just do PBL and have an area for their grade called the commons. It was a really unique experience I learned about different learning styles that I liked just as much as the learning styles I use at school.

Intel is best known for micro-processing chips. This was disruptive because it allowed computers and laptops to work. It allowed computers to process the language used and run programs and store data. It was also micro which made it easier for there to be smaller computers and also helping with the development of the laptop.

Mural at the Women’s Center in the Mission

Twitter was one of my favourite places to go in San Jose/San Francisco. I loved how they morphed a regular old office building into a creative work space that gave people a place to go to work that seemed almost homie. I loved the atmosphere there and really, really liked the rooftop workspace 

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