Houston, We Have a Pomeranian

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve loved dogs. I tried to convince my parents for years to get a dog. We wound up getting two: a miniature dachshund and a doberman hound cross.  But neither of these dogs were MY dogs, so the convincing continued. It went on for years until finally, my dad caved. I was supposed to wait until my 18th birthday to get a dog, but looking on Craigslist one day, I found this little Pomeranian puppy who was being re-homed. I fell in love with him, and two weeks later I made the drive to Spokane and picked him up. That’s where my love for Poms began, through my little boy, Keenai.

Keenai behaved as one would expect of a regular dog who enjoyed a good belly rub and chewing up a nice pair of slippers. However, it soon became obvious that Keenai is really intelligent. He picks up on my queues, whether they be verbal or through body language. I decided to build on his skills, and so begun my crazy ELI experience.

Before I could begin to train my new-found friend, I had to get to know him. It began with lazy afternoons at the dog park, slobbery tennis balls, and long strolls along the Chipman trail. After all the bonding, it came time for reading. It was time to read all about Pomeranians, from their temperament (stubborn, cocky little things they are) to their sled pulling and sheep herding genes. The Pomeranian breed is a complex breed, a breed that I learned all about from journals, books, Netflix episodes (thank you, Cesar Millan), websites, Youtube, and many other things.

Reading about Pomeranians and becoming familiar with my dog was only part of the process. Next I had to decide which method I would use to train my baby boy. There are so many different options; alpha dog theory, learning theory, clicker training, lure/reward training, compliance with coercion, and the old fashioned reward and punishment system. I researched these through the interwebs, journals, and a lot of videos. I also attended a clicker training session, taught by Rachel Aiello. After researching all of these different methods, I had to decide. My choice was: learning theory accompanied with clicker training. Learning theory is all about consequences, and how every action is just a consequence. Accompanying this theory is the clicker. The clicker links the consequence/action to a positive reward.

Using the learning theory and a clicker, it was time to train Keenai. First I made a list of tricks that I wanted him to learn, and then I researched how to teach them. I taught the fundamentals first: sit, lie down, and drop it. Then came the more complex actions: wait, shake, hop hop, and spin. The tricks I have left to teach are: bang, sit at corners, roll over, and don’t eat the treat until I say so. The learning theory and clicker training has been very effective in training Keenai.

Pomeranians are a very complex breed, and it has been quite the journey training Keenai. Eventually I hope to have him so well trained that he can be a service dog. For now, he will be the most well-trained, little, poofy companion dog that you’ll ever meet.

~Rachael G.

The Scrumptious Life of Benjamin Ting

I do not know about the rest of you young fellows in this day and age, but I enjoy eating good food. However, this often puts people at my age in quite the predicament because great tasting food is not always available for every meal. Access to scrumptious sustenance is often limited to large family meals and the occasional venture to restaurants, so I thought that a solution to this problem was to learn to cook delectable meals for myself.

To do this I decided to focus on baking, because that is an aspect of cooking I have never practiced, and work on the five French mother sauces. These sauces are the bechamel, veloute, espagnole, tomato sauce, and hollandaise. Of these I have made the hollandaise, and attempted to create the stocks for the veloute and espagnole. The baking I have done this semester consists of making apple pies --- during which time  Ms. Wissner helped me develop my taste for which shortening I enjoy in pie crust --- and fruit brulee with my mom. Both have been very beneficial in my project thus far. I believe my work with the five French mother sauces, along with baking, will lay a good foundation as I work toward my self-image of a good home chef.

While I am at the elementary stage of my goal, I do believe that this truly is an “ELI” for me, meaning that it will extend for my entire life and will always be applicable (especially on into the future, because my parents cooking will be less accessible). I am excited to continue learning about the conventions of cooking while honing my skills, as this cooking adventure will be a lifelong one.

~Ben Ting

The Future Needs Food Too!

According to the United Nations, by the year 2050, a minimum of 9 billion people will live on planet earth. Population will increase; it is a simple fact with little, if anything, we can do to change it. What we can change is how we address the problems that will accompany this population growth. One of the inherent questions that comes with a rise in population is how we as people supply food to the entire population. This is not a new issue - the challenge has existed to feed the world for thousands of years, from nomadic societies becoming settled and domesticating plants, to the green revolution, to modern day. Nearly every time we have met the challenge head on.

However, over the next 35 years the earth will see a more rapid increase in population than ever before. Another 2 billion mouths will require feeding, with fewer and fewer resources to produce the needed food. Our current management techniques have drained natural resources. Earth’s climate is rapidly changing, and genetic advancements in crops have been slowed to a crawl by political turmoil. These problems can be solved as long as science is funded, implemented, and cost effective for farmers and the rest of us. My ELI is dedicated to researching the history of agriculture, explaining the difficulties in feeding nearly 10 billion people, and exploring the solutions that will create a happy and well-fed future.

~Isaac S.

The Legendari(um) Game

J.R.R. Tolkien, born on January 3, 1892, was a literary genius of the 20th century. The reason for his fame all lies within his works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have seen The Lord of the Rings movies, or how many hours I sat in anticipation, waiting for the new Hobbit movie to come out each December.

My interests in these films and books since a young age continued to build, until I finally started to do some research on Tolkien and his works a couple of years ago. The day I read Tolkien’s Wikipedia page all the way through, my life changed. That was the day I realized that there was more to the The Lord of the Rings. There was much, much, much more. Similar to coming home past curfew and carefully opening the door as to not wake your parents, I began to slowly open the door to other parts of Tolkien’s world. My findings would excite me every time I read new information, and one day I finally decided enough was enough. I told myself I was going to take an ELI and learn everything there is to know about Tolkien’s work. Now that I have begun, I realize that is impossible, because the world that Tolkien created is so expansive and so detailed that it would take years of research merely to know the details and names.

Now that the reason behind my ELI has been covered, I suppose I should talk about what exactly I am going to be doing this semester. In the simplest terms, I am going to research Tolkien’s Legendarium and through that research, create some type of board game based off my findings. Now for details. For my first goal, I am going to read The Silmarillion as well as other articles on the history of Arda. The Silmarillion, a book full of names, places, and events, is a summary of everything that happened before The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Reading almost more like a textbook than a novel, it is very detailed, and at times, hard to follow. Once I have finished reading this, I am going to start on my second goal, creating the game. At this point in time, I have no real visions for my completed game, but I am excited to begin my work soon. My third and final goal is going to be one that will take place most likely in the future. For my third goal, I hope to document a marketing plan for my game (if I feel like it has any potential to sell at all). So far I have thoroughly enjoyed my project, and I am looking forward to finishing my research and starting my game soon.  

~Chad R.

All the World's a Stage

“Fifteen years ago I killed my sister.” Those are the opening words to the play Nocturne, a play about a guy who had a tragic accident and kills his sister in a car accident, and then throughout the play has to learn to live with that and cope with his grief, which never disappears but only changes. I chose to do my ELI on how to put a play on and my goal is to start rehearsal process for the play I plan to perform, Nocturne. I chose this ELI because of my love for theatre, the love of changing who I am and playing a character, the sensation of lights on my face while I’m performing, and the ability to change how somebody is feeling or even change how they live their lives.

Yes some have said that movies have made theatre boring or irrelevant. However, in reality theatre is the single most powerful and complete art piece, because it includes all types of art, painting, sculpture, music, voice, visual performance, and most of all a connection with the audience. The theatre is best described by this quote by Thorton Wilder, “I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” The theatre is an emotional exercise; it is a place where people can escape all their problems and just vent their emotions. This is why theatre is important and why people need to go to the theatre more often.

My goal for this performance is to make a difference in people’s life and how they think about life. Maybe if I’m lucky I might even be able to change somebody’s life, but chances are that won’t happen. Realistically, I hope that I am able to truly live as the character so as to make the audience forget who I am and what I am like and just believe that I am my character. If I could just change one person and put on a believable performance, then I would be happy.

William Shakespeare said it best: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are just players. They have their entrances and their exits, and one man in his time plays many parts.” Theatre is helpful for people to live happy lives free from stress and negative emotions, because it lets people vent and experience emotions out of their lives.

~Tom W.

Modeling the Ship

For this Extended Learning Internship (ELI), I am building a model sardine fishing boat carrier called the William Underwood. The original was built built and launched in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1941. She has an overall length of 70 feet, has a double ender type hull, and is framed with oak and planked with yellow pine. I am planning on building the boat at 1/2” scale where one foot is equal to half an inch.

My mentor is Ed Chavez, who has built more that 100 model ships. The ones I have seen are amazing and very intricate. I think that he will be a great resource. To build the boat I am using the lay up method, in which I take pieces of wood and cut them in the shape of the hull, or body of the boat, at that section of the hull. Then I glue the sections together to make the hull. I then carve away the extra material to make the hull smooth. This is an easier method that building the frame of the boat and laying on the planks like a real boat is made.

My goals for this ELI are to build the hull of the boat using the method described above and determine what type of engine I want to install in the boat. I have the option of using an electric or a gas engine. I also am going to install the engine and remote control equipment in the boat, and in the end finish the boat to make it look realistic. I can’t wait to watch it motor up and down the swells in the open ocean.

~Patrick R.

Breathing Life into a Pair of Fancy Shoes

You know that feeling you get, when your stomach churns inside and it’s almost like it’s trying to escape? That is dance. That is the combination of steps and rhythms, created to make a perfect harmony. This is especially true with tap dance, which is more than just fancy steps. Tap dancing is multiple cultures coming together, sharing ideas, challenging one another, and continually progressing. It has united people all around the world to come together to develop an art form. For this reason I’m spending a semester learning about the history, the dancers, and even creating my own choreography.

My first goal is to learn about the history of tap dance and its influence. Coming into this project, I was believing that tap had a pretty short history, but I was seriously wrong. In Tap Roots, Mark Knowles states that one of the earliest influences was from 1500 B.C. India. Further on, the Irish would contribute immensely by bringing forth clogging and jigging (The Book of Tap). In more recent history, tap has been on the rise and has been popularized through movies such as The Cotton Club and Tap (Black Dance in America). What’s so important about tap dancing is that, throughout tap’s history, this dance style would overcome boundaries of segregation and would be pushed until it became a respected dance form. And while the history is important, the people who make up the history breathe life into the dance form.

My second goal would be looking into the lives of four or five famous dancers who have helped push tap to becoming something greater. For instance, the first tap dancer would be “Juba,”William Henry Lane, and is known as the “World’s Greatest Tap Dancer” (The Book of Tap). Another dancer would be Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, who has been featured in many Broadway shows (Dance Magazine). After reading about many other dancers, I then narrowed my research down to “Juba,” Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards. These dancers have been pushing the limits of tap.

My final goal is creating a well choreographed piece to poetry written by myself. This goal is the one that will take the most time and most effort because in order for it to be nearly flawless, I have to work and rework over and over again. I am pushing myself to create something out of the ordinary. I am both very nervous and very excited for what this dance will bring. When this dance is completed, however, it will be unique and beautiful.

This project has become everything I’ve wanted. It has been helping me push myself to the limit and past it. Even if tap doesn’t suit your fancy, tap is a history and a culture, that stretches  far beyond the United States. A good example would be African Slaves being brought to America because slaves brought with them their own forms of traditional dance which was then cross bred with European styles and culture. This cross breeding helped shape a dance form, but even more then that, helped refine different aspects of many cultures. The real reason I’m doing this, just like everyone else taking ELI, is because it makes me happy.

~Tim M.