Interviewing Tips For Newbies

Here are some tips on how newer reporters should interview people with respect. Make sure these tips pertain to who you are interviewing.

1. Ask serious questions that don't upset people.
2. Look at the person you're interviewing so they do not feel uncomfortable.
3. Don't ask insulting questions that could hurt some one's feelings.
4. Don't say anything mean or cruel because some one's opinion is different.
5. Ask interesting questions that people would like to learn about.
6. Don't ask yes or no questions.
7. Have fun while your interviewing.
8. Ask questions you are interested in because other people will be interested too.

When you are videotaping: you should take different videos at different angles, look at the camera, make sure you know what ou are going to say before you start taping, and smile. Also, use the tips I listed above.

Hear About Hillwood's Annual Snack and Bake Sale

Listen to Anya interview Asiana about her story explaining Hillwood's annual snack and bake sale. Learn what organization will receive all the money raised this year. 

Click here for Asiana's full story.

Art is Math?

Have you ever thought I wish I was in art instead of being in math. Well, today Angela and I found out you can do art in math or vice versa. You can just draw spirals or shapes that are connected and color the spaces in as long as the colored in spaces don't touch. When you draw a squiggle, a line in which both lines connect, and weave the lines you draw, you create a snake.

Angela and I drew our own spirals/snakes.The creator of the video said that whatever you draw, the games will work out, but a few times Angela and I messed up and it didn't work.

Recycled Village

Angela and I, Anya, are going to create a "village" out of recycled materials: soda bottles, little water bottles, cardboard, yogurt cartons, paper, and tape. Our village will have people made out of cardboard and paper, trees made out of cardboard and green paper, houses made out of yogurt cartons, picnic tables will be made out of the tables found in pizza box, and a wind mill whose base is made out of a a soda bottle and the blades are made out little water bottles.

Give a Planet a Makeover

Today, Angela and I made our own planet! We can control the age, the temperature, the size and the star type (F, G, or M). We also made many different ones and the results we got were:

• Gas Giant
• Earth-like planet
• Super-Earth
• Hot Rock
• Iceball
• Hot Jupitor (or Neptune)

You can start with a default planet (Earth, G1 581, and Mars), and simply design and engineer your planet from there.

Our planet is very close to the sun: very large and hot. Additionally, our star is class G, and it is 7 billion years old. It is called the Hot Jupitor (or Neptune).

The link to this website is Extreme Planet Makeover.

Making a Motor Car!

 Today, we (Anya and Rubina) are making a motor car. So far we are still stripping the wires, and while most students write their blog posts for The Herald when they are done building their challenge, we are posting as we go. This may help readers make their own DESIGN SQUAD motorized car.

As It Happens
We just finished stripping the wires, and Anya is starting to attach a faucet washer to the motor. Using putty, Anya is sticking the faucet washer to the motor. No! It's not working -- the poster putty is not working! Woohoo! The putty worked! Anya is about to start the motor... It is working! Yay!

Now we are going  to attach the motor to the cardboard. Anya and I have to clear the platform of our work. We hope that the putty will not disconnect. Time for the attaching the wheels to the cardboard... It is working! Eureka! Anya has to restart because she put the poster putty around the motor so the motor could not move. We are restarting the project.

Anya is putting the putty on faucet washer again. It works, again! The motor is already attached to the cardboard. Anya has an idea! We shall put a skewer at the front of the vehicle to knock out all of the other cars racing. JK! JK! JK! No, we need the skewer to turn the motor on. The motor is working when the skewer pokes the wire into the battery. We need to tape the skewer to the cardboard. Actually, we already did! Eureka once again! Now we need to attach the last three wheels. We are beginning to attach the back wheels. Let's see if they work.

Duck Tapes Saves the Day
Anya decided to use sparkling wires to attach the other three wheels to the cardboard. Never mind, no sparkling wires -- just plain old duck tape. This is hard. We need two more CDs for wheels. We have just negotiated to get two more CDs from the other group, which is trying to build their motorized car faster and better than ours.  We are using duck tape to tape the two extra CDs on... uh oh! The CDs are not properly attached! One CD is spinning but the other one fell off.

Whew. Finally, everything is working.

Judy's Fashionable Dog Models
Below is a video from Judy, one of the engineers from DESIGN SQUAD. In the video is her dog, a pug -- like my dog. Adam, her engineering partner, had his mom make the pug a lot of different outfits to go along with their show on engineering fashion.

Written By: Rubina and Anya

Dance Pad for Mice

Today Jennifer and I, Anya, built a dance pad for mice. We built it on top of a box. Inside the box, is a restaurant for mice.

We started the dance pad by taping aluminum foil to the top of a box. Next we taped a battery onto the foil. Then we attached a buzzer to the battery. As soon as we attached the buzzer to the battery, it started buzzing. Next we tried to attach a lightbulb, it didn't work. Then we tried adding another battery, it still didn't. While Jennifer worked on the lightbulb, I puttied a disk to the inside of the box. The disk reflected light into the box lighting up the restaurant.

When we finally got the lightbulb to work we were super happy. If you want to make a dance pad go to Design Squad Nation.

We Have to Race to the Top -- Join the Effort

Race To The Top people! We can reform our education program. Last night Obama made a speech about the Race To The Top, a program formed by Republicans and Democrats not by Washington. This program replaces the No Child Left Behind Law. The No Child Left Behind Law is a law designed to ensure that K-12 children receive a proper education but it has had mixed results and been very controversial.

Did you know that less than 1 percent of what we spend on education has led to higher standards of learning and teaching? This is important because as a country we have put less value on education, and Obama says that it is time we shape up -- we should put more value on learning, teachers, and students to get our children a better education! And a better education leads to a better future for each and all of us.

Bruce Randolph, a school in Denver, was one of the worst schools in Colorado; one of the reasons is that there were two rival gangs near the school. Last May, though it was rated a bad school, 97 percent of the seniors graduated and got their diploma.

Obama said, "In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child -- become a teacher. Your country needs you." 

Obama noted that teachers and parents effect a child's success.

Written by Clara and Anya

Review of Kindle

As soon as I, Anya, turned on the Kindle, I saw it had Scrabble, so I started playing. The Kindle is black and white. The Kindle is light and small. The Kindle can be bought on Amazon. You can read books and listen to audiobooks on the Kindle.

The Hillwood Herald will be using a Kindle in the new year, and we will continue to report on our views of the device.

Review by Anya J.

A 100-Year-Old Guitar

Two men, Kornel Mariusz Radwanski and James Kline, are musicians who play 100-year-old guitar-like instruments. The music James and Kornel play is called "nyckelharpa."  Nyckelharpa is ancient Celtic, or Irish, music.

Though the guitars are 100 years old, they sound beautiful. James and Kornel play a song, "Greensleeves," that was referenced in William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, a play with a main character called Lady Greensleeves.

The Congress Is Back

This week the Congress came back from their summer vacation. But, some might ask, "What is Congress?"
The Congress is part of the legislative branch. The legislative branch is the part of the government that controls the money, makes the laws, and declares war.
The executive branch includes the President and Vice President. The executive branch is the part of the government that enforces laws, spends money if allowed by Congress, declares problems, appoints judges to the Supreme Court, and gives pardons for crimes.
The judicial branch is the branch that includes the Supreme Court. The judicial branch changes view on laws, judges when a law is unconstitutional, and makes plans for prisoners. If you want to learn more about the branches click here.

Cool Sheepherding

Have you ever heard of sheep herding? If you haven't I'll tell you what it is and the coolest things you can do with it. Sheep herding is where a shepherd uses dogs to move sheep from pasture to pasture. In early times, sheep were used for milk and cheese.

There is a video in which the sheepherders put LED lights (like holiday lights) on the animals so that they glow and can make designs that can be seen from the air.

In the video you'll see a fun and cool way to make images out of sheep. If you to see the video click here.