Physics project reflection 1

                  First week always the toughest
During our Physics unit, it's TAISM tradition the eighth graders build a Roller coaster or a rube Goldberg or the two combined. First we filled out a survey which determined who our partners would be. I ended up getting in a group with Aya and Tarim, our initial idea was to to make a combination of both a roller coaster and a Rube Goldberg but then we decided on building Roller coaster instead, our theme for the project is 1950's diners and barber shops. So far we've accomplished the beginning of the roller coaster, we worked on a blueprint of how we want our roller coaster to look like when it is done. One thing we have struggled with was getting ideas for the structure of our building and keeping it balanced so the marble would go through without falling off the track, but so far we have a good start to our project and a good goal to it.

as for the blueprint, I will take a picture of it tomorrow in class and update my blogpost since I don't have a picture of it at this moment.

Final Draft - The Letter - Child Soldiers

Dear UNICEF,

My name is Shamma Al-Balushi and I'm 14 years old, I go to The American International School Of Muscat, I am writing to you because I have recently been learning and discussing in my Language arts class about child soldiers and what should be done to them after the war. In my class I learnt that there is an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers. I searched up your website and read through it and found that you have a transit in Colombo, Sri Lanka for child soldiers. This organization could keep innocent lives safe and I think you should aim on making more organizations like this in other places to help the children.

By definition, a child soldier is any person below 18 years of age who are recruited or used by an armed force of in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies, or for sexual purposes. These children, some even as young as 8 years old fight in front lines and participate in suicide missions.

 

Perhaps you are not aware but in the past ten years  , more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, and ten million psychologically traumatized. These children have witnessed things like physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, and forced displacement.

These innocent children have either been forced to join the army, young kids by the age of 8-15/16 with no say to what's happening. Even if they have hurt, or even worse killed people, they are still very young and don’t think about what they are doing. Children who actually volunteer to be soldiers themselves is because they feel pressure and they are under the concept that volunteering will provide a form of income, food or keeping them safe, and willingly join the group.

Military organization that recruit children find them easier than adults to attract or force into service, in general children are easily manipulated into joining the army this is because they are not mature enough into making their own decisions and depend on their commander.

In places like the Democratic Republic of Congo lived Michel Chikwanine, he was just five years old when rebel militiamen kidnapped him from a soccer field near his school, “i was forced to literally kill my best friend as an initiation process into the army.” this is just one of the many stories of the 300,000 children who were forced to go through these atrocities     

In conclusion, i think the person that should face the consequences for the actions are the people who forced, manipulated and drugged these kids into doing these horrible things. The things you do to help these children are incredible, what you are doing is making a huge difference in their lives. Your rehabilitation program saves lives and i reckon you should aim on making the programs international.

Sincerely,

Shamma Al-Balushi

draft one the letter - child soldiers

Dear UNICEF,

My name is Shamma Al-Balushi and I'm 14 years old, I go to The American International School Of Muscat, I am writing to you because I have recently been learning and discussing about child soldiers and what should be done to them after the war in my Language Arts class. In my class I learnt that there is an estimated 300,000 children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers. I searched up your website and read through it and found that you have a transit in Colombo, Sri Lanka for child soldiers. This organization could keep innocent lives safe and I think you should aim on making more organizations like this in other places to help the children.

By definition, a child soldier is any person below 18 years of age who are recruited or used by an armed force of in any capacity, including but not limited to children, boys and girls, used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies, or for sexual purposes. These children, some even as young as 8 years old fight in front lines and participate in suicide missions.

 

In the past ten years, more than two million children have been killed, five million disabled, twelve million left homeless, and ten million psychologically traumatized. These children have witnessed things like physical violence, including executions, death squad killings, disappearances, torture, arrest, sexual abuse, bombings, and forced displacement.

These inoccent children have either been forced to join the army, young kids by the age of 8-15/16 with no say to what's happening. Even if they have hurt, or even worse killed people, they are still very young and don’t think about what they are doing. Children who actually volunteer to be soldiers themselves is because they feel pressure and they are under the concept that volunteering will provide a form of income, food or keeping them safe, and willingly join the group.

Military organization that recruit children find them easier than adults to attract or force into service, in general children are easily manipulated into joining the army this is because they are not mature enough into making their own decisions and depend on their commander. In places like Africa, children soldiers lives are being threatened if they do not kill or hurt people. Some children are targeted by militants to join the army, some even get kidnapped and forced into the military.

Language arts draft 1

Dear UNICEF,

My name is Shamma Al-Balushi and I'm 14 years old, I go to a school in Oman the American International School Of Muscat, I am writing to you because I have been recently been learning and discussing about child soldiers and what should be done to them after the war in Language Arts class. I searched up your website and read through it and found that you have a transit in Colombo, Sri Lanka for child soldiers. This is a really good organization to be keeping these innocent lives safe and I think you should aim on making more organizations like this to help the children.

I am completely against children soldiers because they are just young kids by the age of 9-15/16 with no say to what's happening. Even if they have hurt, or even worse killed people, they could have been brainwashed or manipulated into doing these things, in places like Africa, children soldiers lives are being threatened if they do not kill or hurt people. Some children are targeted by militants to join the army, some even get kidnapped and forced into the military.

Langauge Arts Outline - child soldiers

Most child soldiers don't choose to fight and kill innocent people, thousands of children under the age of 16 have fought in wars. In 1988 alone, they numbered as many as 200,000, they may have been forced to join the army, it could be the only way to survive.

1- keep in mind these soldiers are just children, they are "easily manipulated" and easily brainwashed, their life has basically been turned upside down, imagine being in their place, hearing gunshots every single day.

These children have already seen bad things in there lives and experienced so much horror.

2- innocent

3- they could've been drugged and brainwashed into killing those people, some child soldiers in Africa are threatened to kill people by the army so the army won't kill them in exchange.
Children are targeted by military groups and forced to join the army, they then brainwash and manipulate them into thinking things like killing would save their homes and families, they are tortured, threatened with their lives into killing and hurting people.

Victim 

• being forced to kill
• bring threatened for their lives
• being drugged
• not having anyone to look out for you
• losing parents and siblings and having no where else to go
• risk losing their lives       
•  They are kids!                                                                          

Guilty 

they could have chosen to fight

The kids are responsible for their own actions

language arts - child soldiers 1

  This little girl is clearly a victim, she did not choose to be in the middle of a war zone, the child thinks she is protecting her country by fighting, she might have killed and acted as somebody else but as you can see in the picture she is traumatized and she is scared literally for her life, she does not look proud for what she has done in the picture, she does not look victorious for killing and for pretending to be somebody else, she most likely was born to this war, war is all she is used to, there is nothing else to look up to, maybe even nobody to look up to. She could be forced to fight, what if she does not want to be a part of all this and there is not enough people fighting the war and she was forced to join even if she didn't want to, if the war or when the war finishes you cannot punish her from something either she was born into or forced to do, war is all she knows, she does not know what peace  is like.-

Armed and Underage article

this article is so disappointing and upsetting to know that torture like this still happens that its still going on . the children are being forced to kill, how they do NOT have a choice in this situation they either kill or get killed it shocks me. Girls are being sexually abused and getting raped, in countries with poverty and hunger,  parents sell their children in exchange for food. it shocks me how 200,000 children worldwide are being used as child soldiers by force, these children know nothing but war, they are born into war and maybe even never experienced peace before, the article shows how children are getting taken away from their parents by force to be working in the military in ages of 12, 9 even. The article points out how child soldiers is not a new problem and it has been going on since the 1980's, this little boy Awil's parents have abandoned him and left to Yemen leaving him in the Warzone, Awil is so used to war he is starting to enjoy the use of guns, some of the reasons child soldiers are being forced is because they are loyal and they dont expect to be paid and how kids can easily be brainwashed.