Michael Harshbarger RAFT

Role: CEO

Audience: Board of Directors

Format: Letter

Topic: Request to add new product to business

 

As a class we have just explored how to write equations for real world situations. Each of you were asked to create a business and then think of a new product that you would like to sell within your business. Now that you have selected a new product and created a formula that can be used to determine profit you will need to present the Board of Directors with your formal request. You need to use the graph so the Board can see at-a-glace the potential for profit. You must also describe in detail the new product.

 

Dear Board of Directors,

I have found an exciting new product that I believe we should add to our product line. This product is a new fashionable pocket protector. This pocket protector will be made in new, bright colors. There is currently nothing on the market like this pocket protector. I have found that this new pocket protector can be sold at a profit of $2.50 per pocket protector. Although there is a onetime fee of $10 I still believe this product can take our company to the next level. My team of mathematicians has created a formula that we can use to help us evaluate our potential for profit.

The formula is y = 2.50 x - 10 , where x represents the number of pocket protectors sold

Below is a graph that shows the potential profit that we can make from this new product.

Please review the information I have submitted and let me know as soon as you have made a decision. I look forward to adding this product to our company and feel this new product can help boost our sales.

Thank you for your consideration,

Michael Harshbarger

COE, Cool Mathematicians Inc.

James Hicks

Role: 8^th grade student

Audience: Mr. Smith (Local WV Historian)

Format: Thank you letter

Topic: WV History

Dear Mr. Smith,

Thank you for taking the time to come to our class and talk to us about our states history and the important events that occurred in West Virginia during the Civil War. I really enjoyed the information about the different Civil War battles that took place in West Virginia.  This summer I am going with my family to Harpers Ferry. I am looking forward to visiting the different historical sites, especially the federal arsenal that John Brown tried to attack and where the Battle of Harpers Ferry took place. 

I also enjoyed listening to you talk about how West Virginia became a state, especially how it is the only state that was formed by splitting from a Confederate state and how some people consider the way we became a state to be illegal, but President Lincoln said that it was not illegal.

 I am very interested in learning more about the history of our state. I was wondering if you have any suggestions of where I could find some more information about our states history. Once again, thank you for taking the time to visit our class.

Sincerely,

Tommy Smith

Mr. Hicks

8^th grade WV History Class

ABC Middle School

Heather Elliott RAFT

Role: Musician
Audience: Record Label Executive
Format: Letter
Topic: Potential Record Contract

Assignment: Your band, The Treble Tones, is attempting to negotiate a recording contract with the record label Capitol Records. Based on what you have learned in class about the steps involved in this process and the specific items that these companies look for within a band, write a persuasive letter to the record company explaining why they should extend you an offer for a recording contract. Make sure that you include at least three specific reasons as to why Capitol Records should consider offering you a contract, as well as why you have chosen their record label. Use your notes that you have taken during our Music Technology Unit to help you write this letter.

Dear Capitol Records Executive,

The purpose of this letter is to express our strong interest in signing a recording contract with Capitol Records. Our band, the Treble Tones, has been working on our second album, Treble in Paradise, for three years. We have written songs that we feel speak to our listeners on a personal basis, and we anticipate that it will be a great success. Additionally, our band uses a unique combination of instruments that is unlike most other mainstream artists. With our unique sound and creative lyrics, we believe that our band offers a refreshing and new type of sound to our listeners.

We are interested in signing a record label specifically with Capitol Records because of the company's reputation and high standards. Capitol Records is a well-known label and has signed many extremely talented artists who have grown to become very popular. Additionally, this label is well-known for recording bands that are cutting-edge and have many new things to offer to their audience. We know that, if we were given the opportunity to sign with Capitol Records, we could create a professional album that would appeal to the general public and would help promote both our band and your label.

In closing, we would greatly appreciate your consideration of our album for a recording contract. We strive to maintain professional standards and pride ourselves in our ability to create a unique and fun listening experience for our fans. Please take the time to listen to our demo that we have included with this letter. We feel that you will find that it offers a refreshing sound and lyrics that are extremely thought-provoking. Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

The Treble Tones

RAFT-Corey Woomer

Corey Woomer

What’s your Role: Student
 What’s your Audience: Yourself in the future
What’s your Format: Letter
What’s your Topic:Life

This assignment is for 6th graders. This assignment is for you the student to write a letter to yourself in the future. You are to pull the letter out and read it after you graduate from high school, 6 years from now. In the letter I want you to include who all of your current friends are, who are your favorite teachers, what some of your hobbies are and what are some of your likes and dislikes. Include whatever you like as this is a letter to yourself.

Dear future me,
My name is John Smith, as you already know. I am writing to remind you of yourself from 6 years ago. Hopefully you graduated from high school with really good grades and hopefully going to college here soon.
I am sitting here in English class doing this paper. This is my favorite class in school, Mr. Woomer is my favorite teacher. I am sitting here with my best friends Matt and Andy who are also doing this. My girlfriend Chelsea right now is in gym class. We have been dating for 1 full year now, hopefully we will still be dating in high school. As you know I love to play sports. My favorite sport is football. I have been a Dallas Cowboys fan my whole life, hopefully they will have won another Super Bowl by the time you read this. Tony Romo is the QB right now, but my favorite player is Dez Bryant. I also like to watch movies. Batman v. Superman comes out here in like a year and a half and I am super excited for this. My favorite food is Pizza, and my favorite place to eat is probably Chipoltle, which just opened up here this year. Anyways, I know I am supposed to write this paper longer but this is all I got today. We will write another one of these papers next month so that one will be longer. Talk to ya later.
-Yourself

Robert Cooke RAFT

Role: Ex Southern Slave

Audience: President Abraham Lincoln

Format: Letter

Topic: Slavery

President Lincoln,

We slaves here in the south are begging you to help us with the disastrous conditions in which we must survive.  Mr. President I can assure you what I am about to tell you is no exaggeration.  When we first arrive we are stripped naked and inspected all over while being separated from our loved ones to never see them again.  If we do not do what our master tells us we are beaten with a whip.   We are not even allowed to be called by our names, but given new names from our master we must call each other and respond to.   One day my friend Alex tried to escape and was captured by some men.  When he was returned back to our master my master had Alex was placed in a tiny box that he could not even stretch out in for 4 days.  When they finally let him out after not feeding him or giving him water my master summed all the slaves to the box and in front of all of use cut off Alex's big toes so he could not run away again.   I have been fortune I was sold and my new master set me free.   I am begging you President Lincoln help your fellow men and women in the south by getting rid of slavery.

Rikki Miller RAFT Assignment--High School Science

Role: Researcher

Audience: Mayor and City Council of City XYZ

Format: Letter

Topic: Mountaintop Removal

Assignment: The mayor and city council of city XYZ are debating selling a piece of land to a mountaintop removal company. Utilizing class notes and personal research, write a letter to the mayor and city council of the city as a researcher either in support or opposition of mountaintop removal in city XYZ. Use and explain at least three definitions from class notes and at least one outside source to support your argument. Regardless of your position, include at least one pro and one con to mountaintop removal for the city.

Dear Mayor and City Council of City XYZ,

The purpose of this letter is to convey my research findings regarding mountaintop removal. Although there are benefits of mountaintop removal for our community, such as the creation of new jobs, the benefits do not outweigh the risks. First and foremost, I am concerned about the level of pollution that would result from mountaintop removal. Pollution is the contamination of air, water, and land by a substance or substances that have harmful effects. Studies have shown decreases in water, air, and land quality surrounding mountaintop removal sites. Secondly, the process and effects of mountaintop removal will drastically reduce the biodiversity, or diversity among plant and animal species, in our area. Third, mountaintop removal also requires deforestation, which is the cutting down of trees (Perk, 2010, n.p.).

It is my suggestion that the city should prohibit mountaintop removal in our area. I would also suggest that the city consider renewable sources of energy, such as windmills. I believe, like mountaintop removal, that the production of wind energy would bring new jobs to our area. Furthermore, by preventing the mountaintop removal company from buying the city’s property, city XYZ can ensure the cleanliness of our air, water, and land for current and future populations.

Thank you for your concern,

Rikki Miller

Researcher

Work Cited

Perk, R. (2010). Mountaintop Removal: Farewell to Forests. Retrieved from http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/rperks/mountaintop_removal_farewell_t.html

Samantha Stapleton -RAFT

Samantha Stapleton 

Role: Student on a 4th Grade Field Trip to COSI

Audience: Thank you letter to financial sponsor of field trip

Format: Letter

Topic: Science/COSI

Dear Sponsor, 

  I wanted to write you a letter to thank you and tell you about the amazing things I experienced on our 4th Grade trip to COSI. I would love to tell you everything that I saw and did, but that would be a (really) long letter. So, I will tell you my three favorite things that we did on our field trip. 

First, we got to ride on a High Wire Unicycle (the only one in the world) across an 84- foot cable while being 17 feet above the ground! I know what you are thinking- did anyone fall? The answer is no, because the unicycle had a 250- pound counterweights that drops the cycle's center of mass to well below your feet, which kept us safely upright the whole time. 

We also explored energy and discovered how our energy choices matter. We learned how energy powers many things around the world- like transportation, the way we live, and what products we buy. We discovered different types of energy and how it powers the world. For example, Solar Energy is light-wave photons and radiation that is captured from the sun. The light and radiation is then turned into heat or electricity. Did you know that saving energy can be as simple as turning off the light when leaving a room. (You'll have to remember that!)

My favorite part of our COSI visit was the 4D National Geographic Movie Theater - 'The Great White Shark'. I have always loved sharks and consider Shark Week on Discovery Channel the greatest week of the whole year (besides my birthday). When my teacher, Ms. Stapleton told us about the movie we would be seeing, I seriously almost fainted! The movie took us below the sea water to the life of the famous, Great White Shark. They are iconic predators that sit comfortably at the top of the food chain. We were able to explore (comfortably in our leather movie seats) the depths of the ocean and get an inside scoop on how Great White Sharks live and survive in the ocean. 

I cannot thank you enough for your generous sponsorship to our COSI trip. It was an exciting field trip/place that I will never forget. I loved spending time with my friends and being able to explore the different parts of COSI. We are truly a lucky 4th grade class to have such a wonderful sponsor! 

Thank You Very Much!!!!! 

Brad Hammond

Whitney Chandler RAFT

Whitney Chandler

Role: Student Studying Abroad

Audience: Family

Format: Letter

Topic: Volcano

You are a student studying volcanoes outside of the U.S.  You are particularly interested in one volcano (of your choice).  In your weekly letter to your family you describe this volcano in great detail.  Since your family has little knowledge of volcanoes, make sure to explain any words they might not understand.

Dear Mom, Dad, and Tyler,

            Yesterday I met with Dr. Smith to take a tour around Mt. Vesuvius.  Dr. Smith works as a geologist for the Italian government.  He is in charge of monitoring Mt. Vesuvius for any possible eruptions.  The volcano has been my favorite so far.  I think because it is capable of being so catastrophic if it erupts again.  Mt. Vesuvius sits on the on the boundary of the African plate and European plate.  The European plate sits beneath the African plate.  These boundaries are where most volcanoes are formed because the heat from the center of the Earth can travel to the surface.  Mt. Vesuvius is a composite volcano.  Composite volcanoes typically have steep sides because lava flows out and cools forming the sides.  The magma of composite volcanoes are made up mostly of silica.  Magma is similar to lava but magma is still beneath the Earth's surface while lava comes out of the volcano. Mt. Vesuvius has a caldera, kind of like a big hole in the middle, caused by a previous eruption.  Caldera's are formed when part of the volcano collapses after an eruption.  Scientists think Mt. Vesuvius's caldera happened in the big eruption of AD 79.

            Mt. Vesuvius has a long history of eruptions.  It has been on a 20 year cycle but there hasn't been a significant one since 1944.  So it is overdue!  This worries a lot of scientists because they don't think the people living near it take the risk seriously.  If Mt. Vesuvius has a major eruption 3 million people could be in danger and the entire town of Naples would be wiped out, just like Pompeii.  In AD 79, Mt. Vesuvius erupted and killed more than 16,000 people.  It was like they were frozen.  The ash, heat, lava, and debris killed them where they stood.  The city was practically preserved by the volcano and scientists were able to study it extensively.

            Dr. Smith is amazed that people live so close to Mt. Vesuvius even though it is an active volcano.  He feels that he has a good chance of warning the people if an eruption seems to be coming.  He and his fellow scientists are monitoring the magma levels, seismic levels (like rumblings in the volcano), ground movement, and chemical analysis.  Dr. Smith thinks that once all these things show significant changes they would have less than a couple weeks to evacuate people.  I really like what Dr. Smith does.  I think I might want to be in charge of monitoring a volcano, maybe the one under Yellowstone. 

Miss and Love You,

Whitney Chandler