Activity+Log

This is where I keep track of what I've done and what I need to do, both in my SYP and my life as a student/person. The first half is the my action plan for the fourth term, which has my week-long goals and deadlines; the second half is a running log of everything that I did third term. Scroll down to the bottom for the To-Do list.

5/21-/25 -formal presentations/gala -Monday: Sr. MYWE concert -Pippin week (shows Thursday-Saturday) Monday: MYWE concert, 5-10 Tuesday: Pippin rehearsal, 7:-11 Wednesday: 7-11 Thursday: Pippin, 6:-15-11 Friday: 6:15-11 Saturday: 6:15-11

5/14-5/18 -informal/formal presentations -Thursday: game with Andover Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Informal presentation ! babysitting 3-6 Thursday: Friday:

5/7-5/11 -final draft due -back in SYP class all week to prepare for presentations -photo teacher candidates come teach this week Monday: psych AP Tuesday: Wednesday: AB calc AP, babysitting 3-6 Thursday: English AP, Lincoln-Sudbury game Friday:

4/30-5/4 -paper abstract due Monday: distilled lily of the valley, crab apple. Somerville game, 3:00-6:00 (including transit) Tuesday: started distillation of pepper and Early Grey, Harvard Noteables concert at 8, frisbee practice 2:30-4:30 Wednesday: focused work on paper, esp. on theories of smell, frisbee practice 3:-4:30 Thursday: Pippin rehearsal, 6-9, frisbee practice 3-5 -got accepted to an SCA program ! I'll be going to Desolation Wilderness in El Dorado County in CA for four weeks this summer, working on trails and campsites. Friday: MYWE rehearsal, 4:30-7 Sunday: Art Morning 7-9, Pippin rehearsal, 6-9,

4/23-4/27 Monday: work on paper, fly back from Portland Tuesday: harvest crab apple flowers, frisbee practice 3:20-5 Wednesday: game at Lincoln-Sudbury, Jazz Night 7-9 (played in the faculty/student band), interviewed new photo teachers all day Thursday: frisbee practice, 3:20-5 Friday: MYWE rehearsal, 4:30-7 Saturday: volunteer at NCF Sunday: Pippin rehearsal, 7-9

4/16-4/20 (vacation week) -draft #2 due Monday: work on paper Tuesday: work on paper Wednesday: bus to NYC Thursday: fly to Portland Friday: overnight at Reed

4/9-4/13 -continue draft #2, fix it up -move plants out of the greenhouse -weed the garden at house Monday: come home from college visit Tuesday: move plants back to house and plant, frisbee practice 3-5 Wednesday: babysit 3-6 Thursday: game at Needham Friday: MYWE rehearsal, 4:30-7

4/2-4/6 -figure out NCF volunteering schedule -pick up plants to dry -flesh out draft -type up the notes from the rest of the labs -write waitlist letters -draft video Monday: drop off Sophie's MassArt summer program application (at MassArt), frisbee practice 3:20-5, jazz band rehearsal 7:30-9 Tuesday: type up labs, frisbee practice Wednesday: type up labs, write waitlist letters, turn in frisbee forms, babysit from 3-6 Thursday: get forms signed, distill thyme, frisbee practice 3:20-5 Friday: MYWE rehearsal, 4:30-7

3/26-3/30 -finish up all of my to-do lists (minus building the still) -hear back from the rest of my colleges -draft #1 -fix up action plan -distill thyme -work on physics

3/19-3/23 -finish reading artifacts -write a rougly draft -move plants to the greenhouse (buy soil)

-fill out papers -presented SYP (and my SYP) to mayors !
 * Wednesday, March 28**

-research, drafting -the thyme is dry, the white flowers are dryer but still need time
 * Tuesday, March 27**

-research, drafting -emailed Megan
 * Monday, March 26**

-started an Americorps application -looked at WWOOFing in America, start dreaming about taking a gap year and biking cross country to different WWOOF sites
 * Sunday, March 25**

-hear back from colleges -worked on rougly
 * Friday, March 23**

-made my prezi for junior presentations. It's a little boring right now, so I want to find some ways to spice it up a little. -harvested thyme and white flowers from the unidentified bush in our front yard (I'll keep harvesting thyme as the plant grows back... It's small stlll.) -identified the possibly-chives as definitely-chives. So, once those grow more, I'll harvest them, too.
 * Thursday, March 22**

-babysitting 3-4, 5-6 -frisbee practice, 4-5 -worked on my rougly draft. It's coming along nicely. -thought more about my junior presentation. I want to do a prezi because I saw one that really impressed me - it involves conceptualizing your project and breaking it down into major parts that are super interesting. I think that doing that will really help me when I start thinking about presenting in May. But for right now, I'm not really sure what structure it'll take. Also I'm just really bad at using the technology but I'll figure that out.
 * Wednesday, March 21**

-moved nasturtiums, basil, cosmos into greenhouse -realized I can use those white flowers in my front yard
 * Tuesday, March 20**

-figured out my field work, worked on my rough draft -my (SYP) To-Do list for today: 1) get //The Nose Knows// by Avery Gilbery from the library 2) return the Aftel/Plummer/other book 3) read those 2 articles that are still unannotated 4) read //The Secret of Scent// 5) start writing background -registration for frisbee
 * Monday, March 19**

-Legally Blonde show #4, 1:15-5 -worked on physics test corrections/lab -realized I need to get soil for planting in the greenhouse, I'll get some on Tuesday -also realized that I hear back from colleges on Friday, so I am going to make this a super productive week! I want to be in a good - or a better-than-good - place with my SYP when I hear back.
 * Sunday, March 18**

-Legally Blonde show #3, 6:40-10:30 -noticed more basil sprouts today
 * Saturday, March 17**

-more outline work... -met with Ms. Dannenburg about getting room in the greenhouse - I now have space in the greenhouse! So, on Monday I'm going to move my nasturtium, basil, and cosmos sprouts in, and I'll also plant lavender and more basil. I'll also head to NCF and get some seeds. I'm jazzed about this! I carried around my Christmas tree scent today and made everyone smell it -Legally Blonde show #2, 7-10:30
 * Friday, March 15**

-worked on my outline -set up the still in my kitchen, experimented with just boiling water in it (I nixed the stand because the flask wasn't close enough to the flame, and I would have just put the flask on the stove-top but that seems a little dicey, for some reason. I looked up the material of the flask - borosilicate glass - which is "resistant to thermal shock," but nonetheless I'm going to try a double boiler type setup before I try putting it on the stovetop. I also had to figure out a way to pump water through the condenser, and I'm now using a water bottle instead of a water hose. It's a little messy, but it seems to work.) I'm still going to build a still out of milk jugs and copper wire, but it's good to know that this will definitely work. (I'm also going to try the fat/oil methods, too.) I wonder what I can use instead of water that will make the scent last longer. -Legally Blonde opening night, 6:15-10:30
 * Thursday, March 14**

-continued working on my outline -12 nasturtium sprouts today -babysat, 3:-6 -Legally Blonde open dress, 6-10:30
 * Wednesday, March 13**

-fixed my "I want to know..." statement, it's now focused on a question that I could actually write a lab about (and seems more plausible) -planted basil and cosmos -Legally Blonde rehearsal, 6-10 -second frisbee practice 2:34 - 4:45
 * Tuesday, March 12**

-wrote my "I want to know..." statement in class -started my outline (due on friday) -Legally Blonde rehearsal, 6-10 -first frisbee practice! 3:20 - 4:45
 * Monday, March 11**

-still thinking about my field work... I need to brainstorm -emailed Ms Purdy, Ms Dannenburg, and Dr. Gibson about the greenhouse again -noticed 5 nasturtium sprouts today! -rehearsal for Legally Blonde, 6-10
 * Sunday, March 10**

-the still has left Eagan, MN and is scheduled to reach my house by the end of next wednesday -prepping for Monday, the start of frisbee -bit of a freak-out moment when the point of my paper finally came in to focus; for some reason, before now I'd never understood that I actually needed to do field work and incorporate it into my paper. I thought it could be just research based. So, now I'm trying to figure out what sort of field work I can do that will elucidate - or be explained well by - the research that I've done. This is a major shift in my thinking. -MYWE rehearsal, 4:30-7
 * Friday, March 9**

-Garden Day did not happen. For 2 reasons: 1) I don't have any plants to actually plant, so it seems a little silly to get the garden ready without having anything to put in it. 2) I went on a 10K run in preparation for frisbee (which starts next week) and got home later than I expected -planted some nasturtium seeds in a takeout food container in my room while waiting on greenhouse space.. hmm it'll be interesting to see if they sprout even in my room.
 * Thursday, March 8**

-Posted my purpose/scope/audience on the discussion board. This made me reconsider my question; the question that I'm asking, "how is the human sense of smell connected to memory?" has an answer .. -Legally Blonde rehearsal, 6:30-10 -babysitting, 3-6
 * Wednesday, March 7**

-the still was dispatched from Colorado! It should arrive in three to eight days (from yesterday, so, at the latest, next Wednesday.) -started planning for Thursday, when I'm going to have a Garden Day. I noticed some small green shoots in my garden, which I think might be garlic chives, which is heartening. Reasons that Thursday is Garden Day: it's going to be 63 degrees and sunny enough, so I'm going to put in a new layer of topsoil and put in a few lavender, basil, and calendula seeds. -Ms. Winston responded to my email, saying that my project sounds fascinating and that she'll refer me to Dr. G, to whom she forwarded my email (along with Ms. Dannenburg and Ms. Purdy.) -I ordered seeds and plants: cosmos, a honeysuckle plant, a lilac, some basil aristotle seeds, and a scarlet bee balm plant.
 * Tuesday, March 6**

- I bought a still! from a different website than the one I posted earlier, http://www.artistsupplysource.com/. Who knows why they sell stills, but it was the cheapest one I could find from a reputable source. I also found a website where I can buy dried flowers from at a reasonable price, http://www.flowerdepotstore.com/flowers.html, so that I can start distilling sooner.
 * Monday, March 5**

- Wrote my Big Three and purpose/audience/scope.
 * Sunday, March 4**

-emailed Ms. Winston asking if I can use space in the greenhouse -decided to buy a still from this website [|http://secure.sciencecompany.com] because they ship quickly and it has all the parts that I will need
 * Saturday, March 3**

-Finished my Lit Review. It really wasn't that bad.. It made me think about my Big Three. Can I really have a thesis on this research-based question? It seems to me a little like my question can only be answered by further research. But maybe, it's alright just to look at existing research and draw a conclusion from that? I would feel okay doing that, except there's a difference between needing research to find details and needing research to figure out how things work, and I think that research being done on olfaction is really more in the first part; scientists have a pretty solid basic idea of how it works. Then again, maybe those two aren't so different. - Met with Ms. G, she told me that her friend advises me to buy pre-dried plant matter. This is a good idea, especially because it means that I won't have to worry as much if the garden doesn't work out. Also, I can start experimenting way sooner that I could've in any case. - Decided to buy the still. It will help me produce better results, and I can test its results against the results made using a totally DIY still and the fat and oil techniques. - Realized that a lot of the books I read on perfumery will be helpful when I'm doing my presentation. I also realized that my paper and my project cover a wide, wide scope; this is really exciting because I think it's all interesting, but might end up being a little overwhelming. That's okay; I'd rather try to do everything and do only of it than limit myself. (As long as I get a good product at the end. not an incomplete presentation/paper. But that won't happen because I'm dedicated to this project and I don't want to turn out a result that I'm not proud of.) -MYWE rehearsal, 4-7
 * Friday, March 2**

- filled out the "The Project" page with a lot of book notes, realized how much more actual stuff I need to flesh it out. - I should start building the still, take pictures of it, photograph the garden as it is now, draw up an actual garden plan. - That requires figuring out where is sunniest, shadiest, wettest, driest, etc. As well as what we have growing perennially (which is not much..)
 * Monday, February 27**

-watched Luca Turin's Ted Talk: this really elucidated what he's talking about in his book (//The Science of Scent//), which had started to get very technical and difficult to follow. This is really exciting; now I know about two different theories of scent, and I can explain fairly well, albeit at a very basic level, how they work, and what the research behind them is. -found the website of Chandler Burr, a NYT perfume critic (he organizes these things called scent dinners -- I'll put those on my "Neat Stuff" page) -got some basil/lavender seeds at SoWa, found some nasturtium seeds in my desk -I started thinking about my presentation. I read about a presentation in which Yves de Chiris - a French perfumer - arranged people at tables and had one designated dipper at each table, who would dip lots of strips for people to pass around and smell every time he mentioned a perfume. Could I do something like that? If I actually make a scent that works, would I even have enough? Would I just have people pass around a small bottle of it? I wish that I could do something like in Turin's Ted Talk, where he just has the scent waft over the crowd. How do you do that? With a fan and a scent? It must use a lot of it. I would love to do something like that -- it seems a little far-fetched, but that's alright. -perused //Perfume: The art and science of scent// by Cathy Newman -found a distilling set-up online that will probably yield better results than the milk-jug/copper wire idea; I think that the plastic in the milk jugs would interfere with the smell because plastic melts so easily. -changed the name of this page to "Activity Log" and created another page called "The Project". This way, I should have somewhere to post the actual meat of what I'm doing; I don't know if I will post notes, because I have so many and it seems like it would take an unnecessary amount of space on my wiki and time to type up, but I want to put up pictures of my garden as it is now and the still that I might buy. I'll sketch what the still I could build, as well as the lard/oil set-ups, would look like. I think that having somewhere to actually compile my work will prompt me to figure out a more concrete timeframe for doing it. -Ate lunch at the Newton Community Farm, and realized that I can use some of their produce for my project. As a volunteer, I get to take some produce; there's usually a lot of basil, which I definitely want to try distilling,and sometimes some vegetables which wouldn't be that helpful. Also, the farm managers just inherited a large seed catalogue from a woman they knew, most of which they aren't planning on using, so they're letting me and the other volunteers take any of it that we want. Some of it is really old - from the late eighties or early nineties - so it might not be viable, but if I seed it thickly then I might get a decent crop. They also have some friends who are studying herbology, and it might be helpful to talk to them.
 * February Break**

-thought about my IRT. Did I really get my own question in that presentation? I don't think so. The fact that I titled the slides with the taglines from movies was cute, but it didn't really add much -- if I had tacked on a conclusion about the media of snakehead fish, like the decreasing media coverage but growing populations, I think I would've hit much closer to the meat of the project. -dyed my hair blonde !
 * Saturday, February 17**

-presented my IRT ! -wrote a To-Do List for February break (see bottom) -MYWE rehearsal, 4-7
 * Friday, February 16**

-started more scholarship applications... woo -IRT presentations in class! -should I link this to my wiki -babysitting, 3-6
 * Wednesday, February 15**

-in //How the Mind Works//, I learned about the computational theory of the mind -finished my IRT presentation
 * Tuesday, February 14**

-started researching my IRT (snakehead fish, also known as frankenfish) -retook the psych test that I missed -I have to decide if I'm going to tour with MYWE (go to poland for a week, in April, I think)
 * Monday, February 13**

-read //The Secret of Scent//, marked some pages on the chemistry of scent that I will go back and read once I have a better idea of how it works in general
 * Saturday, February 11**

-I was sick today... Didn't do any work.
 * Friday, February 10**

-annotate artifacts for tomorrow night ! -read all the psych stuff on memory and vision -see Sophie off for the French Exchange..
 * Thursday, February 9**

-in class, we talked about looking for artifacts outside of the internet-- Jstor, Questia -I should find more artifacts about the connection between memory and smell. There's a lot about both separately, but it is harder to find them in conjunction. I want to read more about the Proust Effect! (I don't know if that's a real term or if that's just what Joel calls it.) -maybe I should interview Joel. At least, I should talk to him about helpful texts or studies to look at. -babysitting, 3-6
 * Wednesday, February 8**

-continued reading -found more artifacts (past wiki, another book, globe articles, and a this american life radio show that I heard a while ago.)
 * Tuesday, February 7**

-read //The Secret of Scent//, //How the Mind Works// //-//Turin refutes some of the opinions of //Essence and Alchemy,// like that perfume is in large part erotic (He claims it's about intelligence and beauty... He seems a little pompous.)
 * Monday, February 6**

-finished //Essence and Alchemy// -started reading //The Secret of Scent//, in which author Luca Turin explains that he has found the true connection between molecules and their smells
 * Saturday, February 4**

-continued reading //Essence and Alchemy//, learned more about old uses for perfume -met with Ms. Ghitelman, she thought my wiki looked good. She also has a friend with a big garden who she's going to contact about what she's going to grow and if I can use some of it in my project. This is awesome because I'm a little anxious that I won't have enough materials to actually extract a decent amount of essential oils from -MYWE rehearsal, 4-7
 * Friday, February 3**

-started reading //Essence and Alchemy// (Mandy Aftel) and //Fragrance// (Beverly Plummer). -learned that you can distill scents using lard/oil -found a list of fragrant flowers/plants whose scents can be easily extracted -nixed the "Notes" page. They'll be either in my paper or interesting (related?) things page.
 * Thursday, February 2**

I went to the library today to find some actual "artifacts". (Books.) I came away with these gems, all of which look like they'll be helpful to either my project or my research as well as just looking interesting: //-The Art and Science of Scent: Perfume// by Cathy Newman (from the national geographic society) //-The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell// by Lucia Turin //-The Mystery and Lure of Perfume// by C. J. S. Thompson //-Essence and Alchemy: A Book of Perfume// by Mandy Aftel //-Fragrance: How to Make Natural Soaps, Scents, and Sundries// by Beverly Plummer
 * Tuesday, January 31st**

This first batch of books seems to cover my topic pretty thoroughly. There are books that deal with the practical side and others that talk about the history of perfume and a few that talk about how scent works in the brain. There was one thaI was on hold called //Remembering Scent//, about a woman who lost her sense of smell that sounded interesting, if vaguely unrelated. Maybe I'll look for it during library round two, when I have a more definite sense of what kind of information I'm looking for. Also, I got the book //The Feeling of What Happens// by Antonio Damasio. I actually got this just because I think it sounds interesting, but I wouldn't be surprised if I find some relevant and interesting information in it. (It's about "body and emotion in the making of consciousness".)

To follow up on that, I should make a new page on this wiki for notes from my books.

(Vaguely around this time): I got really jazzed about SYP. Obviously, I've always been enthused and passionate about doing it - otherwise, I wouldn't have submitted a proposal - but the combination of this new idea, meeting with my reader, and starting to meet in class has made it much more tangible. That gets to me, so I can't wait to head to the library and start digging into my topic. (Literally digging, too! But I have to wait for that.)

-finally figured out my wiki and added it to the nnhssyp wiki. Added some basic pages that I think I will need, including an Artifact List page, a Proposal page, a Page of Progress, an Interesting (Related?) Finds page. I don't think I'll need anything else for a little while (like a paper/annotated bib page), but I'll add as I go. -perused past SYP scholars' pages. -started compiling a list of plants to grow in my garden, ones whose produce is distinctly fragrant (This is definitely due to change, depending on if I can get room in the school greenhouse to start plants rather than direct seed them.)
 * Monday, January 30:**

-perused the web for information on how to build a still. (For distilling plant matter, not alcohol.) There are a lot of websites, but not many that actually seem reputable. A lot of them have foofy titles like "DIY Fragrance: Quick, Easy, Beauty." I'm going to head to the library next week and find something that I trust. I'll also look at the history of distillation.
 * Saturday, January 28:**

-met with my reader, Ms Ghitelman. We decided to meet after school on Fridays, but this might change. Anyway, I learned that this is her second year being a reader and that last year her SYP student did a project on fashion. This should be a cool change of pace, I hope. -Sr. Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble rehearsal, 4-7
 * Friday, January 27:**

Sometime before the week of 1/23: changed my project idea. No longer am I doing a collection of stories from eavesdropping; I want to learn how to distill scents of natural fragrances, mostly from my own garden at home (which I will rejuvenate from its state of longtime neglect) and research the olfactory process in the brain.


 * To-Do:**

as of 5/02 -get reader comments on draft -distill chives -dry and distill basil, rosemary

as of 3/26 -apply to Americorps (get references, write motivational statement) -email farms about WWOOFing -check up with Ms. Blythe on au pair-igng

as of 3/19 -figure out junior presentation -figure out what my schedule is -- volunteering, frisbee, SYP, AP classes (email Megan) - rougly draft ! -get the checklist signed -get EVERYTHING signed and turned in (blue form, withdrawal form, field trip form, AP form.) -figure out my physics schedule

as of 3/15 -move seedlings to greenhouse after meeting with Ms. D on Friday -plant lavender and more seedlings in greenhouse (find seeds...?) -finish the rest of my to-do lists.. -finish annotating my artifacts (read the rest of them, type up my notes) -look for a summer job

as of 3/09 -ask a question without a definite answer -write a thesis -start an outline (can solidly do the background) -figure out what my field work is (this will help with the rest. or vice versa.) -build the still

as of 3/02 -order a still -start construction of water jug still, lard/oil set-ups -find a place to buy pre-dried plant material

as of 2/27: -talk to biology teachers in charge of greenhouse, see if I can use some space to start seedlings to transplant

as of 2/17 (February Break To-Do List) -get materials to build a water still / fat and oil still -finish //The Secret of Scent//, get at least 1/2 way through //How the Mind Works// -read the articles I've found -watch //Perfume: The Story of a Murderer// -write a plan for the garden -finish my application to volunteer for the Student Conservation Association over the summer (get 2 more recommendations) -look over the rotational motion unit in physics/redo the worksheets -research more about how memory works (look through //Synaptic Self// again, the psych textbook too) -find more artifacts on memory (smell is pretty well covered, as is how to build a still / garden)

as of 2/08 - look in more places for artifacts (Jstor, etc)

as of 2/06: -find more artifacts! -look for scholarly articles, movies (?), some short clips for the wiki, maybe a contact person. -and then annotate them (look at past wikis for what makes a good annotation) -give Mr. Morris/other recommender forms for SCA recs -find scholarships

as of 1/31 - read library books (starting with most basic) and take notes. -find an easy/comprehensive way to put notes online/to show to Ms. Ghitelman

as of 1/30: - embellish this wiki -compile more artifacts! -go to the library, find a reputable source on building a still/techniques for distilling scents. Also, find basic research on how smells are processed in the brain. (DONE.) -find materials to build still -where can I put it? how do I use it? how long does it take? (Hopefully this will all be answered by my reputable source.) - prepare a solid plan for the garden, decide if it will be a viable source of plant matter for the distillation by the time I need it to be. Otherwise, make a list of what scents I want to distill. Herbs? Spices? Maybe a variety of things is best, to see what works well.