Day 5: Restaurant Review

Ingredient Review

by Susanna

Ingredient is a pleasant, calm, and quiet restaurant. It has a family-friendly environment in an equally family-friendly location in Leawood. I recommend it for a summer day with the family. The prices for an entree are all under $20. You can find sandwiches, salads, burgers, and more all in one place for an affordable price.

I ordered a medium-cooked burger with a gluten-free bun, no sauce, provolone cheese, bacon, and lettuce. The only issue I had with the burger was that it was a bit overcooked; other than that, it was delicious. My friend ordered fontina cheese on her burger, but they neglected to put it on. She informed the waitress, and the kitchen quickly added cheese to the burger. At my table, everyone ordered fries (either traditional or sweet potato) and loved them. The fries came seasoned and were really enjoyable. If you are a vegetarian, Ingredient has plenty of salad options from which to choose. You can even make your own salad. There is food for everyone.

Park Place is very family-friendly and is beautiful outside. Right next to Ingredient is a park during the summer months and an ice skating rink during the winter. Around the restaurants are many stores, so you can go shop after your meal. Ingredient has a chic, diner-like feel, and the service was fast, accommodating even our party of 10. The ordering process reminded me of Jason’s Deli, where you order, seat yourself, and they bring you your food. I really enjoyed this trendy restaurant with spectacular, flavorful food.

FOOD RATING: Three out of five stars

SERVICE: 3.5 out of five stars

Ingredient True Eatery

Park Place

11563 Ash Street

Leawood, KS 66211

913-948-6800

Open Monday through Friday, 7am to 9pm. Saturday 8am through 9pm, and Sunday 8am through 8pm.

Day 4: KCUR

Teacher’s note: On Thursday, students practiced reading weather, news, and advertisements for pretend radio broadcasts. They worked on monitoring their volume, pitch, and speed to optimize their vocal deliveries. After that, they wrote and recorded their own news, sports, and/or commercial features. Here is Susanna's performance:

Later that day, students toured KCUR studios in Kansas City. As their kind and knowledgeable host, Stephen Steigman—chief of KCUR broadcast operations—provided background information on public radio and some of the technical details that allow the NPR affiliate to beam its news and entertainment programming to radios throughout the Kansas City area. Mr. Steigman then recorded the students as they had a conversation. 

Here is the full interview.

The students watched in wonder as Mr. Steigman then took an excerpt of audio from the proceedings and added it to a popular song. During the entire van ride back to the school, students laughed and sang along to the new hit song:

Day 3: KCPT

On Wednesday, students took a tour of the KCPT studios in Kansas City, learning about what distinguishes public television from its commercial counterpart. With those differences in mind, each student wrote and directed a public service announcement. Here is Susanna's.

Day 2: KU School of Journalism

BARSTOW STUDENTS' AMAZING TRIP TO KU

LAWRENCE, Kan. — On Tuesday, June 2, 11 students from Barstow’s Media Mania summer camp traveled to the University of Kansas’s School of Journalism in Lawrence, Kan., to learn more about the process of creating print, online, and television news.

KU school recruiter Ashley Anguiano led the campers, teacher assistant Matt Gannon, and teacher Mr. Guldin around the Stauffer-Flint and Dole buildings. Ms. Anguiano informed the group about the different aspects of a journalism and mass communications degree at KU. She encouraged anyone pursuing a career in media to write as much and as often as possible.

The tour concluded with a trip to the Media Crossroads, located within the Kansas Union building. Media Crossroads Director Cal Butcher introduced the campers to the “green screen” that KU students use to produce the student news show, Good Morning KU.

"My favorite thing about making shows," said student director Laura Furney, "is the creative process."

Day 1: Tomorrowland Movie Review

                                                            

Tomorrowland

Review by Susanna K.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Disney’s Tomorrowland is pleasant to watch but is surprisingly in need of more explanation. Director Brad Bird cast and filmed the movie in an interesting way to watch. However, writers Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird could have made the movie less confusing by answering questions that the movie set up earlier. Tomorrowland does answer some questions it set up earlier in the movie; what were they not supposed to build and what is Tomorrowland like afterwards? There were many things left unanswered. Although the movie could have been written slightly better, the exquisite and suspenseful staging during the action scenes made the movie worthwhile. 

The movie starts with young Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) at the 1964 World’s Fair.  Frank is showing his jetpack at the inventions fair to David Nix (Hugh Lourie), in hope to win the $50 prize. There he meets Athena (Raffey Cassidy), who gives him a pin that will allow him to get to Tomorrowland, the future. In modern times, Casey Newton (Brittany Robinson) receives the last Tomorrowland pin with her things when she gets arrested for trespassing on government property. Casey does not know who gave her this pin, but she thinks it took her to the future when she touched it. In order to find out where this place in the pin is, Casey goes to a shop in Texas to find out more. The people in the shop were really AA units (robots) and tried to kill Casey. Casey is saved by Athena and the two of them team up with Frank Walker (George Clooney) to get back into Tomorrowland. In Tomorrowland, Casey realizes that the world will end in 58 days. Casey, Frank, and Athena must find a way to save the world before the world ends and all is lost.

There were many questions that came up while watching this movie. Some of the questions were: what happened to the people in Tomorrowland, who built the thing they shouldn’t have, how come Athena did not grow up, why didn’t Athena tell Casey anything about Tomorrowland’s past, and why did Frank Walker stay all alone in his house for his whole life after Tomorrowland? In the movie it explained that Tomorrowland would not end when Earth did, but David Nix was afraid that the people from Earth would mess up Tomorrowland if they came. Tomorrowland never explained why the people in Tomorrowland were not there anymore. This is only one of the many questions of mine the writers, Damon Lindenlof and Brad Bird, did not explain. However,with a little more added detail about these things the script would be amazing. The powerful theme about how the future is not set in stone was an unexpected concept that made the movie even better.

Tomorrowland’s setting made you feel like you were actually there. The special effects helped the movie achieve its positive rating. The cast did a good job getting into their roles and being their character. Brittany Robinson did an excellent job playing Casey. Raffey Cassidy was amazing at acting as a girl from the future. All of the actors did their part in making Tomorrowland an enjoyable movie.

The superb staging of Tomorrowland made the movie worthwhile, although the script could have been written slightly better. Brad Bird did an excellent job staging and setting up the movies scenes. The movie was casted perfectly and that helped get over the slightly confusing script.   If only all of the questions were answered the movie would deserve a four, or possibly five star rating.