Humanities Task 3 (Reflective Paper)

Announcing of the project

When I was assigned to do a project in the humanities session, I
was excited because I usually enjoy doing projects. Our topic was about
Pandemics of Our History and specifically, how can a pandemic be contained? The
project was divided into three tasks: a poster about a certain pandemic, an
outcome which could be displayed as a film, song, animation...etc. And finally, a
reflective paper about the project. The aim of the project was to inform others
about a certain pandemic showing its symptoms, treatment and how can we
prevent it and even end it.
This project was a group project. I usually like working individually, so I asked my
humanities teacher if I could, but it was not allowed. I was fine with that as group
work would result in better projects. I was assigned in a group of 6 people which
include: myself, Karl Ashraf, Yassien Tamer, Aly Ezzat, Omar Tarek and Hamza. I
was pleased as these were my friends, so it would be easier to work with each
other and be productive.

Planning the project

We were designated to make the project on the “Russian Flu” pandemic which
occurred in 1889. We immediately started to think about what we would do, and
dividing each other in certain jobs. We first had to make a draft before we did the
poster. I collected some research provided from our teacher and we started doing
our draft. The topic is easy, but at first it was very difficult to find information
about certain things in the project as many sources didn’t give information such
as symptoms and treatment so we had to scrutinize in almost every website.
Once we collected information, we started trying to design and plan our poster,
and we wrote the information. Our teacher liked our current plan but told us we
needed to gather more information as it was a bit short. Again, we tried our best
to gather more information. Once we gathered all of the information we could
find, we showed the miss all what we allocated and what was only left to do was
to sketch a final plan for the poster. Some of us then started sketching and
making many ideas for our project design, and in the end, we agreed on Karl’s
Idea of sketch, and the teacher approved to us that we could start making our
final project.

We were all assigned different jobs to finish our project in a clear and quick
way:
Yusuf Mokhtar (Me): Getting supplies such as colours, glue, rulers. / Making the
Animation (Task 2)
Karl Ashraf: Writing Information
Yassien Tamer: Getting the poster.
Omar Tarek, Hamza: Getting images or pictures
Aly Ezzat: Supporting in the making of the project such as colouring

Making of the poster

Once we got the poster, we started working on the project, we thought of making
the title in a Russian flag and even write “Russian Flu” in the Russian language
(which is, “Русский грипп” pronounced Russkiy gripp) as if it was hanged in the
corridor of the school, it would grab attention to anyone who would see it, we
made the Russian flag and coloured it depending on its colours. Then, we filled
the poster with the information we gathered, and then the people responsible for
the images went to print pictures to decorate our poster. The pictures showed
patients being hospitalized during the pandemic. We also got a chart representing
the number of deaths from the flu, and there we were done with the project. The
project was really good and we were all very proud of it. The teacher approved to
us to start task 2.

Ideas for Task 2

We started brainstorming ideas for task 2. Task 2 was about making our own
song, cartoon animation, film, poet, play, etc. To inform people about our own
solutions or ways regarding the pandemic like ways to prevent the pandemic or
how to end it. Also, showing the effects of the pandemic either in health
perspectives, environmentally or economically. We were not really into making
songs or plays so we decided to make our own cartoon animation as some of us
have used animations before and know how to use them. I discussed with my
group members telling them that I could do the animation and we agreed on it.

Making of task 2
My idea of the animation was making a cartoon theme when a teacher is
explaining on the board about the Russian Flu. Firstly, I started by adding the
characters and background, added data that we wrote from our poster:
symptoms, treatment and spreading of flu. Then, I asked my friends for ideas for
our own solution towards the pandemic. Next, I added the impacts of the
pandemic and finally, we decided to add our voiceovers and music in the
animation. I also added pictures to make the animation a lot clearer. I honestly
really enjoyed making it and the animation is organized and clear. Task 2 was
finished and we were again approved by the teacher and told to start task 3.

What went wrong when we were making the Project Tasks?

A problem we first faced was finding information about the “Russian Flu"
pandemic, as its information were truly limited and hard to find, and that
required a huge amount of time for researching and scrutinizing which made us
begin with making the project later than others, another thing is that during these
current circumstances, many of our group members were absent (including
myself in some days) which also delayed the making of our project. In addition,
when we were in the beginning of making the poster it was a bit difficult thinking
of designs for our poster but we were able to figure it out. To prevent all this from
happening, I could try to research and check every piece of information carefully
as soon as the project is announced to not be late when doing the project.

Generally,
I thoroughly enjoyed doing this Humanities project, it was a good experience
working in a group and it was a fun topic.