Mentor Interview

Why do you think community service is important?

Community service is important because it can connect everyone together and at the same time it can help everyone. Also, it helps everyone.

What have you learned from your involvement in community service?

I have learned about other people's cultures and what they do not get involved in. While learning about that, it makes the solution to the problem very easy to get to.

Why is this cause or issue important to you and how did you become involved with it?

This cause is important to me because it helps others to be safe and have an idea to do something nice to others.

What expertise/assistance are you able to offer to help make my capstone successful?

I will be able to take you to buy hardware supplies to build. I can teach you how to work with tools to spread among others as well.

How will my involvement with this cause or issue help in my journey of becoming a lifelong learner?

Your involvement with this cause will help you understand others and be able to teach them about your way of entertainment. You will be able to build a safe and united community. You will be able to come up with many great ideas in the future to help others.

Experience (2nd Week)

Experience (2nd Week)

   My partner and I are making some great progress on the table. We cut out all the pieces already and now we just need to even out the surfaces. We are both having fun while doing this project. After we even out the surfaces we will then oil the wood to give it a good dark tone. I was planning on nailing in the pieces together, but I decided to drill in some screws. We did not do it yet, but that is the plan. The problem we are having is really minor which is just smoothing down the wood. It is extremely tedious. All of our materials are ready to go and we just need to organize them. In the next blog, we will have an interview with a mentor.

   Partner's Blog: http://capstonee.blogspot.com/
   Main Blog: http://productivitytogether.blogspot.com/

Pictures from Video

Experience (1st Week)

Experience (1st Week)

      My name is Alex and I will tell you about my experience about this project. I am working with my friend named Travis and he also has his own blog that he shared his experience in. Here it is: http://capstonee.blogspot.com/

   Let me update you on things. I am a student at William Sheppard Middle School and my Language Arts teacher assigned a capstone project for the class. I chose my partner, Travis, because he is into craftsmanship too. The project my friend and I will be doing is making a coffee table. At the same time, we will do a video and upload it online. In the video we will explain the steps to building the table and how to safely use tools. We will update the blog every week. Once we are done with the project, we will move on to something new to build. The reason we are doing this project is to introduce people into craftsmanship. Also, we think that people today need to go out and do more things than stay inside.

   It was a hard process in order to make the video because I was not used to being on camera. It is very obvious that I stuttered in the video and I tried my best to ignore it. The video only went to only about 4 minutes and I explained how to cut with a saw. The editing process of the video was not hard because I just trimmed down the videos to the length that I needed and put them together. In conclusion, this was not my best work, but I will try to improve.

  Here is the main blog for this project that I am talking about: http://productivitytogether.blogspot.com/2017/03/working-with-tools-and-making-table.html

Pictures:

     

Medieval Games

Medieval Games

In medieval times people needed a way to entertain themselves. Here is a list:

• Archery- Requires a bow and an arrow to shoot at targets.
• Bowls: Another way of lawn bowling. Competitors need to throw a grape sized ball at a ball smaller than a tennis ball without hitting the target ball. The score will be judged on how close the competitors get to the ball.
• Colf- The ancient way of golf. Hitting a target in the least amounts of strokes is the way of winning. Wooden clubs and wooden balls are needed to play.
• Hammer throwing: A bou;der attached to the end of a wooden handle is needed to play. Throwing for distance is the goal. Competitors are needed to stay in a circle when throwing.
• Hurling or Shinty- similar to hockey. In order to play you must need a stick and a ball . You will need to have agoal to scroe goals. The winner will be decided on the team that scored the most goals.
• Gameball- football. In ancient times, people from different towns would come togetehr to run around with a pig's bladder. The teams will have an unlimited amount of players. The goal is to run the pig's bladder to the other side of town.
• Horseshoes- Throwing horse shoes at targets. You will need a couple of horseshoes to play. It consists of 2 or 4 players. For two players both people stay on one side and throw it to the other side. If there are 4 people playing then two people stay on each side. The games usually go up to 50 points.
• Quarterstaff contests: Uses 8 foot long poles to fight their opponents. It is used for stick fighting. It is like dueling.
• Skittles- An ancient way of ten pin bowling. Players take turn to throw wooden balls down a lane to knock over the skittles at the end. 
• Stoolball- An ancient way of cricket. The pitcher throws a ball to hit the home stool and the batter needs to not let that happen and at the same time the batter needs to run around the base stool for points. Once the batter hits the ball then he needs to run around the base stool.
• Wrestling- no equipment and no rules.

Source: http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-life/medieval-entertainment.htm
http://www.medieval.net/quarterstaff.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowls#History
http://www.medieval.net/bowls.htm
http://medieval.net/wrestling.htm
http://www.ancientgolf.dse.nl/colfuk.htm
http://www.britannica.com/sports/hammer-throw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinty#Stick
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_football
http://medieval.net/outdoorgames.htm
http://www.britannica.com/sports/horseshoe-pitching
https://prezi.com/kvw8fk2e0bkb/medieval-games/

Rules for Melee

Rules for Melee

There are two types of melee events. There is the Melee a pied Tournament and the Melee a cheval tournament.

Melee a pied Tournament

In Melee a pied Tournament, there are two teams of knights that fight on foot. The knights can choose what weapons they want to have as long as the weapon is blunted. The goal of melee a pied is to beat the other team. One team can also capture a noble and hold them there for ransom. This is when the other team will need to give up equipment or currency. Other nobles could pay the ransom but this is only when the two nobles are related.

Melee a Cheval Tournament

In Melee a pied Tournament, there is a fight between two teams on horseback. The knights can be equipped with what they want to have as long as the weapons are blunted. The goal of this tournament is to beat the other team. One of the teams could capture a noble and demand a ransom. The other team could pay in equipment or currency. Another noble could pay for the ransom but that only happens when the two nobles are related. It is just like Melee a pied but on horseback.

Medieval Melee

In modern melee, The tournaments usually would take place in fairs. The weapons are usually dull so that people would not get hurt. Armor is always worn for protection. The rules are changed from medieval times for safety reasons. Injuries may occur. When attacking and a person has fallen then the attacker would not attack the defender anymore. Deaths are very unlikely in modern melee.

Sources: http://s3.invisionfree.com/Aquitaine/ar/t230.htm

http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-knights/medieval-tournaments.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tournament_(medieval)

Rules for Dueling

Rules for Dueling

Dueling with a Sword

 In dueling with a sword the swords are measured in the same length. The oponents must throw off their coats in order to duel. A handkerchief can be wrapped around the hand but the end can not be loose because the opponent's sword can get trapped in it. The dueler can not grab the opponent's sword with the free hand. Sometimes the dueler's hand is tied behind their back. The duelers can move around while dueling. When one is wounded the duel is stopped. When the dueler raises his sword and cries "stop" then that is the signal to stop the duel.

Dueling with a Sabre

In dueling with a sabre, The opponents are standing one foot away from the sabre-points. These duels are fought with gloves, otherwise a handkerchief can be worn with no hanging ends. These duels are ended when on the first blood loss.

Dueling with a Shield and Buckler

In dueling with a shield and a buckler, the duelers would us the buckler which was like a shield to force their enemy's blow away. A shield is blocking the enemy's blow. A buckler is a small shield that is used to block enemy attack in a special way. It is not used to only block but force the enemy's hit away. It is also used to strike the enemy and even trap them. This is not good way to deflect large projectiles.

Sources: http://www.classicalfencing.com/articles/DuelswiththeSword.php
http://www.thortrains.com/getright/drillbuckler.htm

Rules for Jousting

Different types of Jousting

There are three different types of jousting which are: Joust a plaisance, Pas d'armes or passage of arms Jousting, and modern jousting. 

1.  Jousting rules: Knights should only run 4 courses and that is it. If a knight breaks three of his lances then he is declared the winner. 
2. If the other knight who only broke one of his lances but managed to hit his opponents helmet off in the same round then there would be a tie. 
3. If a knight breaks two of his lances by hitting his opponent and the opponent manages to hit the knight that broke his two lances off his horse then a tie will be declared.
4. If one knight hits the other knight off his horse and the horse falls but he still manages to knock over the attacking knight then the knight with the fallen horse shall be declared the winner because the faults would be on the riders and not the horse.
5. If the lances are broken crosswise then the judging will not be proper. 
6. In the four courses, if both knights break two staves, or a single stave, or they hit in the same place , a tie will be declared. If they did not hit each other at all then the judging will be that they jousted poorly.
7. If a knight drops his lance while charging the other knight must lift his lance without striking the knight with the dropped lance.
8.  There will be four judges. Two for each knight to be judged fairly.

 In Joust a plaisance people would go into elimination rounds over a couple of days. There then will be a final round which will determine the winner.

 In Pas d'armes or passage of arms Jousting, a knight will send a message to any challenger to joust at a certain place or time.
Modern jousting usually happen at fairs. In order to win, knights are supposed to shatter their lances's tip or broken off as a single piece. If the knight's lance makes contact to the opponent but does not break then the knight will be declared the winner.

Sources: http://www.medievalists.net/2015/01/07/medieval-rules-jousting/
http://www.lordsandladies.org/jousting.htm
http://hubpages.com/sports/Medieval-Jousting-Rules
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jousting