Fair Hours and Fair Pay

In my first unit of "Policy", my class and I have had conversations about policy in history and how it affects the present. We visited newly elected alderman of the 4oth Ward, Andre Vasquez, to talk about his plans for his new role in office. I found it reassuring to hear that he wanted to become alderman because he wants to advocate for his neighbors and their needs to live happy. Since there is a newly elected mayor and many new alderman joining city council, I wonder what Chicago policies will be updated under their rule.

For this Action Project, I am writing to my alderman, Susan Sadlowski Garza, about supporting the Fair WorkWeek ordinance. The Fair WorkWeek ordinance is to give service workers flexible schedules so it works with their day to day life. I am very passionate about equal rights for workers, so I hope takes my letter into consideration. 

Popsicle Sticks and Glue May Break Ya Bones

We started off our first unit of "Urban Planning" with learning about different kinds of bridges and what their strengths and weaknesses are. I spent a lot of time researching bridges around the city. This class has made me more aware of the structures and bridges I pass by when I am on my way home from school. For the first Action Project, my partner, RP, and I had to create a truss bridge that can support a minimum of ten pounds. From my research, I learned that triangles are the strongest supporting shape in structure, so I wanted to incorporate many triangles into the design. RP and I decided to build a tall, skinny bridge because we wanted to have a challenge. At first we spent a lot of time researching examples of other truss bridges, but our teacher insisted for us to start building as soon as possible because of the tight timeframe we had.

Bridge Hunter, Untitled, (2019)

We were heavily inspired by the Chicago Skyway Bridge. The designers of that bridge used many triangles along the mile long structure, so we wanted to use their design in a miniature way.

It was easy to create the sides of our bridge, but we got frustrated on how to connect the two sides together.  We used books to keep the bridge glued in place without having to be held up by us. The two sides were connected with 10 popsicle sticks cut in half, to equal 20 mini sticks.

Our bridge supports the Sustainable Development Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Every stick used in the bridge has a purpose in order to make the bridge strong enough for safety. We planned for hours to make the bridge what we envisoned in our minds. The bridge held double the minimum amount of weight, so there is confidence it can hold the ten pounds it is supposed to hold.

Hiu To, Untitled, (2019)

We ended up with a symmetrical design with 18 tiny triangles on each side of the bridge.We had low confidence that our bridge would be able to hold the minimum weight of 10 pounds because the bottom had begun to start falling apart from tests. We am very excited to share that our truss bridge ended up to hold 20 pounds! It broke after 25 pounds. 

Hiu To, Untitled, (2019)

Hiu To, Untitled, (2019)