Hello and welcome back to my blog. This is a particularly exciting post, as part of it is about my first PLP field school. I’ll also be discussing our Cold War project, and what I’ve been working on non-stop for a while.
Back in the fall, I completed our Manhattan Project Project. Our learning on the Manhattan Project set up our project on the Cold War perfectly. Over Spring Break, I started the first chunk of this project, which was reading the book Hiroshima by John Hersey. This book was about the aftermath of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima from 6 perspectives. I thought this was an excellent book, and I can see how controversial and eye-opening it must’ve been at the time. Even reading it today, I didn’t have a full understanding of the horrors that unfolded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reading this book helped me to understand the realities of the situation.
From this book, we learned about the concept of a Zettlekasten. A Zettlekasten is a word for a collection of your own knowledge that has been recorded and linked in some way. Essentially- building a second brain. The Zettlekasten consists of three types of notes:
1. Fleeting notes- these are initial bullet point observations about a media or text that are taken in the moment
2. Literature notes – a collection of important thoughts from a piece of literature, media, or text. Not necessarily a summary, but the most important ideas to you.
3. Permanent notes – a permanent note is your own thinking. It is a takeaway, usually from a literature note that you came up with, and can be linked to other things.
I initially struggled with the concept of a Zettlekasten. I was pretty stuck in my ways of making notes and thought it worked just fine. After adapting to a more Zettlekasten-ish system, I can truly see the benefits and know that the continued use of it will benefit me greatly in the future. What has helped me a lot is the creation of my literature and permanent notes:
After just a couple months of using a Zettlekasten system, I already have access to a solid database of my own knowledge that is highly linked throughout. I think my biggest problem with the system is when I get behind on processing my fleeting notes and they get super backed up. I have and will continue to make an effort to make time to process fleeting notes to add to my literature and permanent note collection.
We used our note system in our next text we read, which was Fallout by Todd Strasser. Because this was a lower level book, I was able to read it pretty quickly and create some notes. Overall, I enjoyed the book, and it allowed the class to consider what life what like in the 50’s and the hypotheticals of the era.
In our government project, we read Lord of the Flies and were introduced to the Socratic seminar, and we continued working on our Socratic seminar skills in this project. I don’t think I contributed much substance to the first one because it was very difficult to find a time to speak. We weren’t warned beforehand which had some benefits and drawbacks to it. I think I did a lot better in the second trial. I was able to speak thoughtfully on the topic and introduce some new ideas. Although the Socratic seminar was a somewhat stressful experience, it’s definitely an area that I’d be interested in growing in.
After reading the two books, we began the content for our actual product in this project. We had to create a personal inquiry question that relates back to our driving question and big idea:
DQ: how has fear been used as a political, defensive, and cultural tool to shape our society?
Big idea: conflict has been a powerful force in shaping our world
Keeping these in mind, I used AI to generate some possible topics that I could base my inquiry question off of. One area that interested me was 1960’s counterculture and protest. I was curious how the Cold War influenced events such as the hippie movement, and what did they actually accomplish.
From my research, I was able to land on the inquiry question of:
How did the influence of fear shape the 1960’s counterculture movement, and how are those effects seen today?
Our class then worked together to create a field school Sourcebook for the locations on the trip. Our Cold War field school was getting closer and closer and we had to prepare. My group researched the Mohave Museum, on Route 66. I was able to learn lots about the trip destinations and find ways to use them in my project. I definitely had a more specific angle than most people in my class, but it was a fun challenge to find links and connections that would help me with my final product, which I decided would be a video essay.
Then came the most exciting part of the project: the trip. As I explained in my post on the Barry Sullivan Law Cup, I was joining the field school a day and a half late. Unfortunately this meant I had to miss the Titan Missile Museum, which was disappointing. After the tournament, I flew (by myself for the first time!) to Tucson and met my classmates.
From the Pima Air and Space Museum, I was able to interview one of the volunteers there. He gave me an account of the 1968 Chicago National Democratic Convention riots, which I was able to incorporate into my video.
Throughout the trip, I was able to get lots of footage and information to use in my video. The Route 66 museum, the national atomic testing museum, and clips from Seligman were particularly helpful. Even the locations where I didn’t get footage from were still helpful in contributing to my holistic understanding of the events of the Cold War.
Something that I understood more and more throughout the trip was how almost all our destinations were interconnected in some form. I thought the history of the Southwest area was so fascinating and I’d love to go back.
Some personal highlights were our hikes in Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and the Valley of Fire. The red rock desert climate was unbelievable and I cannot wait to come back someday to do a hiking trip.
I also loved getting to experience the architecture of the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, and the Biosphere. Visiting the Sphere was incredible!
My passion project over the trip was harnessing the power of my sister’s 2009 canon digital camera. Here are a few of my favourite shots 📸
Overall, the trip was amazing, 10/10, so fun. I was so excited for this field study after missing out on last year’s and I’m so grateful that I was able to participate. This was my first time visiting Arizona and Nevada and it was such a blast. I learned so much and grew closer with my classmates. There were so many unforgettable experiences, and I had such an amazing time.
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Once we got back, it was time to get to work. Over the trip I had been thinking a lot about my video’s style and content. I had all the b roll and interviews filmed, and I concluded that I needed to write the script, record all my talking bits, and then edit. I created this timeline to get it done at home:
I’ll admit that it was an absolute grind to get this done in a week. I was still dealing with the effects of sleep deprivation and taking lengthy naps after school every day while also dealing with the extreme stress of the deadline. Fun fact I learned on the trip- you can be considered legally drunk from sleep deprivation (I am pretty sure we all experienced this for the last four nights). Having a plan for each day was helpful and I’m proud to say that I stuck to it mostly.
After the scripting and filming was done, I began editing. Truth is, I am not super into or excited by video editing. I struggled with getting all my clips in order, picking music, and overlaying them at some points. It was a frustrating and far from professional process, but I managed to get it done. You can imagine my exasperation when Youtube decided to be difficult and not upload my video properly, despite trying 3 times. In the end I decided that I was just going to upload it elsewhere, and Vimeo worked out for me.
Here is the final result. I’m glad that I stretched beyond my comfort zone of essays and keynotes and created a unique product, that I’m confident displays my question and answer. The process of creating this video, from developing an inquiry question, to filming b roll, to recording and editing, has been exhausting and many hours of work, but I’m glad I did it.
During this project, it’s safe to say that I embraced the thinking competency. There was a ton of thought put into my Zettlekasten, my inquiry question, and the answer to the question. I concluded that the Cold War had a massive influence on the counterculture movement, and that is seen in various ways today. For a full explanation, I highly recommend taking 9 minutes to check out my video essay (it’s not super boring I promise!)
For the driving question, I mostly focused on the political and cultural side of the fear influence. I discovered the cultural influence that the counterculture movement has had, including fashion, art, and protest. The protest and demonstration has had massive political sway, leading to anti-nuclear testing legislation and a change in political representation.
Well, that’s it for this post! It was a bit of a yap session so kudos to anyone who’s still reading right now. This project had some high highs and some low lows, but overall I learned so much, bonded with my classmates, and had some unforgettable experiences. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment down below.
Sincerely,
Me
bonus pics!
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