So flashback to last year in grade 9 when we did the project on the 7 habits ofhighly effective people, this project was basically adding on to what we learned then with some positive brain training and a study of the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
This project was based around the question; How does balance within my life create opportunities?
Atomic Habits
So as I previously mentioned, throughout the course of this project we would be reading and analyzing a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear. I personally did not find this book very interesting and I think there was a little too many anecdotes and much too much repetition of topics. So to help me get through this book, I made a collection of all of the chapter summaries so I could more clearly see the big ideas.
You can find all of those chapter summaries on a Craft document here
Positive Brain Training
So as you can see from the image above, our positive brain training was something that we did everyday as a class. These activities were supposed to re-wire our brains to be more optimistic and function better. Now I don’t know if I see a big improvement or anything but we also fell out of consistency after a few weeks so that may have affected the efficacy. Every time we did do the activities though, we recorded them in a Craft daily note, and I would like to share my favourite one with you.
This is my journaling response to the prompt “Imagine your perfect day and write about what it would look like.” It’s a little too long to copy on to this page so I will give you the link to my daily note of that day here.
Conclusion
Overall answering the driving question, balance in my life creates opportunities by helping me feel more organized and calm. I think I learned a little bit about how I respond to what I feel is an oversimplification of toxic positivity through the duration of this project. I think I preformed well and came out the other side a more organized and self-aware person. 😁
Hellloooooo and welcome back to another blog post by Brooke. For this project I had to get into the mind of a professional tiktok star and create some trendy videos that I’m sure will revolutionize your view of trends in the media and Disney world. Well just kidding I don’t think my videos will revolutionize anything but I hope they are still enjoyable. I know this all may sound a little different, so lets jump into why I had to make tiktok videos for a school project.
Driving Question
How do I make effective personal design choices??????
I make effective design choices by staying organized and planning things out. And I hope the rest of this post reflects that 😁.
The Project + Trip
So before we even stepped in to beginning to make our trend videos, we did some much needed personal productivity management. This included organizing our calendars, email inboxes, and most of all, our Things app. I have always been pretty good at keeping my unread emails at 0 and keeping my things to-do’s organized and functional, so this part of the project was pretty easy for me. But it was important that we got a refresher on how to be responsible for our own tasks because we would need to be able to stay on top of our filming when we had our limited time at the Disney parks. We then started researching popular video trends and looking at how we could make our own videos for the trends. Once we decided what types of videos we wanted to do, we then storyboarded and drafted 5 videos that we planned to make during our trip to Disney World. You can find all of my research and drafting in this link to my video research craft document. Once all of this was done we set sail for Florida.
The Videos
Now unfortunately one of my videos was mainly depending on Minnie’s Beach Bash, a breakfast with some of the characters. I was planning to do a character fit check video because I would have had a bit more time to do so at the bash then at the regular character meet & greets. But unfortunately by the time the teachers made the pivot to not have us go to the beach bash breakfast, I became very sick and was not able to go to the last park day where I could have filmed a replacement fit check.
But regardless, I finished 4 videos and I am quite proud of them. Here you can follow the link to see the completed version of all 4 of my videos.
Although some of my videos did not turn out exactly like I had planned, I still think most of them are enjoyable. I think I forgot about the “Filming Borzoi Shaped Things” until it was too late to grab any more interesting footage. It was a it harder to find those shapes than I originally thought 😅. But still I got 4 out of 5 pre-planned videos complete and I think that is pretty good.
Conclusion
Overall I preformed quite well in this project. I definitely could have done a better job especially at executing the final videos, but my planning was thorough and did my best to stay organized. Disney was also a blast so I think this was a pretty fun project. Anyhoo thanks for reading!
Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner
How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?
Loon Lake
Loon lake was an absolute triumph for me. I laughed, I cried, I loved and lost. Lets head into the post I made about the Loon Lake learning advance so I can talk about how my goals changed the more I worked and my learnings with self-doubt and mental fortitude.
As this was a Leadership-themed retreat, we did a lot of talk about leadership and how we could be the best versions of ourselves. One of my favourite activities that we did was creating a personal credo, which I think is more easily described as personal affirmations. I found it hard to get past the barrier of self-doubt when trying to list my strengths or talents. I found that reflecting on my personal values helped me see what I was actually good at and what my ideal qualities were.
I was stuck at a point on the wall that I could just not get over. But the amazing guy at the end of the rope would not let me go down. I spent around 15 minutes stuck at that one point on the wall and I felt so bad about holding up the line of people waiting to try the side I was on. He told me that he knew I could do it and that I knew what I needed to do I just had to put my mind to it. I tried SO HARD to climb up and use all my mental strength to conquer the wall, but I failed. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. But I also think I was overwhelmed because of the amount of support I was receiving from my peers. And how a man who I had only known for less than an hour had so much faith in me. So in conclusion, I was able to do a lot of learning and self-reflection during my time at Loon Lake. I hope to carry this experience with me throughout the rest of my life and take full advantage of the opportunities that this trip has opened for me.
Humanities
Out of the 3 humanities projects we have done so far, I think I showcased my best work in the “Ology of Apology” project. Even though it took me quite a few revisions to get to where I wanted it to be. I really enjoyed getting to create the monument with my partners and showing it off at the exhibition was a blast. So lets hop over to that post so I can talk about how I got through the revision process and got to utilize my public speaking skills.
I really enjoyed showing off my Keynote presentation and talking about our monument to all of the passers by at the exhibition. Despite being occasionally quite socially anxious, I actually really enjoy public speaking and commanding a room. So that was really nice for me to get in touch with that part of myself again.
How can I sharpen my Learning Plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of the year?
First lets review my statement of learning intent,
I think that my statement of learning intent has been well upheld for the past semester. And I think that I will be good to stick with it in the upcoming months.
During the last semester of humanities, I played well to my strengths and I have also turned one of the things I initially wanted to have growth in into a strength, the goal of having my work sound authentically like myself. So now since my growth area looks a little empty, I have decided to add one more area where I wish for growth, timeliness. I am going to pay more attention to getting work handed in on time with no sacrifice in quality. I will do this by using my Things to keep better track of tasks and when they are due. I also want to bump up my goal for maker from an accomplished to an extending. I was basing the accomplished goal off of my grades in maker in the past instead of striving for the best for the future. I believe that I am capable of getting an extending in maker this term so lets see how that pans out.
And to achieve that plan I will use my pre-determined ideal disposition, habits, and systems to my advantage.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to my mPOL for 2023. I hope next semester is going to be just as good.
It is a brand new year but still the same semester. So lets quickly talk about the project and exhibition that we just finished last year.
Driving Questions
How can we keep apologies for past wrongs alive so they are remembered and not repeated today?
We used the exhibition as a way to educate about the past wrongs we studied. Education is very important in making sure that those past wrongs are properly remembered and accounted for in our society today.
Us grade 10’s were working on a project called “The Ology of Apology” where we studied historical wrongs towards different races of people in Canada’s past. The three main topics we studied were the Chinese head tax, Japanese internment during WW2, and the Komagata Maru incident in 1914. I ended up studying the latter and for an easy explanation of the incident I present to you my Keynote presentation, also known as “Keystone 1: Keynote of Transgression”.
What does James Cameron’s “Avatar” reveal about our society?
Avatar brought up many themes present in our society today. Themes like militarism, imperialism, colonialism, racism, corporate greed, and such. Avatar magnified these issues as their world is almost an augmented reflection of ours. The Winter Exhibition was themed around this question and each room/area was to tackle one of the themes and how it was represented in the movie and in our topics that we studied. For the Exhibition, I was in the library room that was originally themed to represent racism but had to have a bit of remodelling done.
Our Memorial And The Exhibition
The monument I created was in collaboration with Ines and Gwen. We had all studied different topics for our first 2 keystones so we wanted our memorial to relate to all 3 subjects. Gwen came up with an excellent idea of a figure breaking down walls to represent combatting racism and discrimination. I suggested that we put cutouts of racist newspapers and notices from the 3 events on the walls to give more meaning to the monument. We accidentally learned that spray paint actually eats styrofoam while trying to paint the walls black. We also were scrounging for paint and other supplies to bring our work to life. It was a work-in-progress up until the verify last minute. I LOVE our finished monument and was very proud to be able to display it at the winter exhibition.
I really enjoyed showing off my Keynote presentation and talking about our monument to all of the passers by at the exhibition. Despite being occasionally quite socially anxious, I actually really enjoy public speaking and commanding a room. So that was really nice for me to get in touch with that part of myself again.
Conclusion
After not attending any exhibitions last year, I can say that I think this exhibition was my best one yet. I am very proud of the amount of work I was able to put into this project and the fact that I actually had enough energy to go to the exhibition. Overall a successful semester in Humanities 10.
*Brrrrrrrr* g-greetings frrom m-my -11º C lloooon lak-k-ke memoriesss
Three layers of pants, two layers of wool socks, two shirts, a sweater, jacket, winter boots, a touque, gloves, and a scarf, welcome to the outfit of the day; Loon Lake edition. I guess my ultimate conclusion from this 5 day field study was that I am not built to survive moderately cold weather.
Challenging Myself
The three days we had with Pinnacle Pursuits were an amazing opportunity to get to step outside of my comfort zone in ways I usually wouldn’t have access to. One of the things that I think effected me greatly was my experience on the climbing wall. I was stuck at a point on the wall that I could just not get over. My fingers were frozen, my winter boots were slipping, palms sweaty, physical strength was completely zapped, and mentally I was so done and longing to get off the wall. But the amazing guy at the end of the rope would not let me go down. I spent around 15 minutes stuck at that one point on the wall and I felt so bad about holding up the line of people waiting to try the side I was on (again so sorry guys I wanted to come down he would NOT let me). I think after about the 5 minute mark there was no hope left in me that I would ever make it further up the wall, but every time I wanted to quit the guy told me to just focus on the wall and nothing else. He told me that he knew I could do it and that I knew what I needed to do I just had to put my mind to it. I tried SO HARD to climb up and use all my mental strength to conquer the wall, but I failed. We ran out of time and I was at last allowed to return to solid ground (thank god). And all of the sudden the tears that I had been holding in on the wall started to run down my cheeks. I was exhausted both physically and mentally. When trying to figure out why I was crying, I realized quickly that these were not “sad tears”. I think the main reason was because of the exhaustion and physical pain that I was experiencing post-hanging on a wall for 15 minutes. But I also think I was overwhelmed because of the amount of support I was receiving from my peers. And how a man who I had only known for less than an hour had so much faith in me. So special thank you to Brandon because this wouldn’t have happened without him.
My Learnings
As this was a Leadership-themed retreat, we did a lot of talk about leadership and how we could be the best versions of ourselves. One of my favourite activities that we did was creating a personal credo, which I think is more easily described as personal affirmations. I found it hard to get past the barrier of self-doubt when trying to list my strengths or talents. Sometimes it feels wrong to toot one’s own horn per say but in this case that’s exactly what we were trying to do. I found that reflecting on my personal values helped me see what I was actually good at and what my ideal qualities were. We need up making or credos into wallpapers for our devices and I decided to do one for my iPad and one for my phone.
I chose the photos with a certain aesthetic because I actually wanted to enjoy having them be on my screen every time I open my device. Having those affirmations will help me to become the person I want to be and even though the credo may change every now and again, it will help me keep close to my goals.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, I was able to do a lot of learning and self-reflection during my time at Loon Lake. I hope to carry this experience with me throughout the rest of my life and take full advantage of the opportunities that this trip has opened for me. It was a fun trip and I can’t wait to see how it compares to the PLP 10 DISNEYWORLD TRIP!!!!
Long time no see huh? Well if I was a prospector in 1858 then it probably would have been a much longer time until we spoke again! Haha cheesy terrible gold rush joke. But yep that perfectly introduces the topic of this project, the BC gold rush.
Project intro and Driving Q
How did the discovery of gold shape our province and it’s people?
The gold rush brought the attention of the world to BC for the first time. Thousands of prospectors from all across the globe came to our great province and it has never been the same since. The gold rush caused British to declare BC an official province and brought a huge economy boost to the small settlements that soon turned into bustling cities. It also brought diversity, culture, infrastructure, and exploration to an area largely unpopulated by europeans. So one thing is for sure, without gold, BC would be a totally different place than it is today.
The goal of this project was to 1) learn about the BC gold rushes, 2) learn about the people during these times, and 3) write the story of those people. So without further ado here is a closer look on what I accomplished in this project.
Jewish Migrants in The Gold Rush
My specific topic of research in this project was originally going to be focused on the Europeans that came to BC during the gold rush. But while researching I fell down a rabbit hole of specific Jewish people that made an impact in Victoria during the gold rush. So I decided to focus specifically on the Jewish migrants and the role they played in the gold rush. Some specific people that I researched were Alexander Aaron Phillips, Kady Gambits, and Selim Franklin. They were all business men and pioneers in Victoria in 1858, paving the way and providing important services that allowed Victoria to grow and become a suitable town for the thousands of prospectors who passed through. You can find the complete document of the research and information that I collected on Jewish Migrants by clicking this link. I am very proud of the research that I did so it isgreat to be able to share it with you today.
Creation
So as I briefly mentioned earlier, one of the goals and technically the “final product” of this project was to write a short story of the group of people you researched. The story could be of a real or fictional character and so I decided to create a fictional chatter that was a mash-up of the three individual people that I researched. His name is Jacob Myers and here is a character card to tell you more about him.
So when it actually came down to writing his story I had a rough idea of how I wanted it to start and end. I wanted to show him arriving in Victoria, start his own store, go struggle a little bit, and then settle down and start a family. Here is what my planning looked like using the “3 Act Structure”.
So unfortunately I hit a little bump when writing my story and it didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted. I made sure that I got all of my main points in somewhere but I feel that the last few bits of the story are quote abrupt and don’t have a nice flow to them at all. I would have liked to spend more time adding flavour and depth to the story if I could go back and do it again. But unfortunately sometimes life has its ways where things don’t always go as planned. Anyway I guess I’m still proud that I was able to write the story even though I know that it is nowhere near reaching my quality standards. Here is my short story about a Jewish migrant during BC’s gold rush;
Even though I am not super proud of my story end product, I am very proud of the work I did along the way. My research was thoughtful and deep and I definitely learned a lot about how the gold rush shaped our fine province. And I would say that my planning for the story was also quite good even though the writing itself did not turn out. My next steps are going to be about moving on from this project and trying to put my best foot forward for the next one. Anyway thanks for reading my first blog post of grade 10!!! See you soon!!
Before we start, here is the POL declaration- “Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”
Hello and welcome to my TPoL (transitional presentation of learning). In this post I will try to answer the question “Why do I feel I am ready to advance to the next grade?”. In short, I am ready to go on to grade 10 because I have become proficient at the skills that I learned in grade 9. And hopefully the rest of this presentation proves that. I have chosen one project from each class to represent my progress as a learnerthis year.
First, a quick look at my learning plan. I think I did a good job at trying to reach my proficiency goals for each class. At my MPoLs I stated that due to stress I lowered my goal for maker from an extending to an accomplished. And I think that that was probably a good call because It set a realistic goal for myself to achieve.
Some things that I feel I have done well at that are in my learning plan this year would be;
I have been using things regularly for both school and non school related tasks and it has helped me greatly.
I have set up routines that help me focus on my homework and help me not to get discouraged.
I have been asking my peers/parents/teachers more often when I need clarification on concepts that I do not understand.
Some areas that I want to have more growth in my grade 10 year would be starting homework asap so that I don’t put it off until the point where I am then rushing to get it done.
Evidence From my Classes
Humanities
“A War to End All Wars”
You can check out my blog post for this project here.
I chose this project because I found it to be the project that I had the most interest in researching. I have always been intrigued by world wars and I found it really fun to be able to research a topic that I was genuinely interested in. Because of this, I was really determined to know the battle of Monchy Le-Preux inside and out, and make my comic book a tribute to the battle. I usually have a hard time doing art in projects because I am not the most talented artist and then my self-proclaimed perfectionism gets in the way ofbeing able to pump out a lot of work. But in the end I am super proud of the work that I created because I know that I put a lot of hard work into it.
I think the skills that I really improved on in this project would be my researching and summarizing skills. My notes were extensive and I was able to work with a fellow researcher to understand a cohesive summary of the topic. I held a sustained interest and was very passionate in the topic I was representing.
Scimatics
“Time is Money”
You can check out my blog post for this project here.
I chose this project because I think it shows my perseverance and reflection skills. I have always been interested in owning my own business/practice and the type of math that we learned is super important in that line of work and just general adult life. So that was an extra push to help me get through all of the math that I didn’t understand at first. And as I was reflecting on my business in the video, I was able to see where it was not sustainable and how I could’ve improved upon it for next time.
Maker
“Believe in Good ”
You can check out my blog post for this project here.
Believe in Good was a chance for me to expand my creativity and think critically about myself as a person. I feel as though over the course of this project, I matured as a person and learned how to be a more effective version of myself. I was able to reflect on how I maybe need to put first things first more often and think carefully about what actually needs to happen and when it needs to be done by. I think these skills will help me in being an effective grade 10 student next year.
So hopefully you can now see how I am ready to be a grade 10 student! I hope you enjoyed my TPoL and I’ll see you next year for my grades 10 MPoL’s!
Hello party people and welcome back to my Learning Portfolio, or simply, my blog. The year is almost at an end and that means that a lot of these posts are going to be coming out at once so don’t forget to check out my other posts as well! So here is the summative post for my last grade 9 maker project, “Your First Film”
ProjectOverview
You may remember that I recently did another project with videos called “VIBRANT VIDEO POST”, and I would say that this project was basically the final product of that project. This project was all about using all of the video skills that we’ve gained top make one final video, a documentary with a topic of our choosing. The documentary had to include an interview, storyline, message, and original music. At first I had no clue what I wanted to do my documentary on, and after a few ideas I landed on a general topic of “gardening”. You see, a few days ago I moved into an apartment and I really want to grow a little garden on our balcony. Originally, I was going to focus the doc on my journey of planting a potato, but as I got to filming I realized that my original idea may have been too “vlog like” and that I could use the influence of my interviews to guide the story instead. This project was also going to be the grade 9’s focus for showcasing at the spring exhibition. Now unfortunately I was sick so I wasn’t able to be at the exhibition this year, but I’ll talk more about that later.
Driving question
How can I engage and entertain an audience using my video and storytelling skills?
By using all of the skills that I have learned about making videos, I can create something that is of good quality and interesting to the viewers. A well written logline and treatment indices the viewer and can help get your video to the right audience. Hopefully as I explain a bit of the project, you will be able to see how I was able to use my video and storytelling skills to engage and entertain my audience.
The Documentary
As I mentioned briefly in the driving question, we created loglines and treatments for our documentaries. A treatment is a short summary of your documentary, and a logline is a few sentences that you would put in the description or be the tagline of a movie trailer. This helped us start to envision a storyline to create a structure for our documentary. Then we created a screenplay. A screenplay is a written view of what you will see and hear in the film, who will be in each scene, where things take place, etc. My documentary ended up being quite different from my original screenplay, you will probably be able to tell later on when you finally get to see my doc.
Next, step we created the storyboard. A storyboard is basically the screenplay but in drawings.
Then we had a whole butt ton of filming to do. I went through quite the roller coaster of trying to find a person to interview, but in the end I managed to have a great interview with Alex Johnson, the assistant manager at my local Gardenworks. We also had to create original music using GarageBand and I found it quite tedious but fun. And of course will al of the filming, there came even more editing. The editing was soooooo meticulous but it is a really improvement part of creating a good film. And then Ta Daaa! Documentary finished. I am super proud of the final result for this project, as it is the last maker project of my grade 9 year.
Exhibition
So as I already stated, I didn’t actually end up going to the exhibition but I will talk about the part of the process that I was a part of. Exhibitions are a chance for every grade to tell a story and answer a question, while using their work to enhance and show as an example. The grade 8s+9s worked together to tell the story of “What Does It Mean To Be A PLP Learner?” Throughout the first part of the school, and then guests would walk to the gym to see the main event of the 10/11/12s. I was part of the the conclusion of our section, where our driving question was “What is a PLP learner?”. We decided that a PLP learner was hardworking, creative, thoughtful, collaborative, and detailed.
It was our job to design the layout of our section and make all of the decor that we would need. It was a lot of work to design everything and create something visually appealing. We were also given a group of grade 8s to help us at the exhibition and give them a chance to display their work as well. Most of the work was put into the “Hall of Hard work”, where we tried to show the process of developing work to extending quality work.
Our group’s documentaries were displayed on a projector in our “Dungeon of Docs”. And I am quite disappointed that I wasn’t there to see all of the masterpieces.
We also were running some instant challenges and getting the guests to self-asses on how they preformed. As any good PLP student knows, we don’t learn from experience, we learn from reflection. Self-assessment is heavily incorporated in PLP’s structure so we thought that it was a perfect showcase of what its like to be a PLP student.
And that’s it for my section of the 2022 spring exhibition!
Conclusion
So this will be my last blog post of the year. Wow. If you’ve made it this far I really want to thank you for taking the time to read these because it takes a lot personally for me to write a whole post. I’m so proud of myself and all of my classmates for making it through this year, we did it guys! Anyhoo cya in September!
Greetings fellow earthlings. Welcome to another scimatics post on this ghastly blog of mine. I am currently writing this in my bedroom where I have been glued to a tissue box and a whole plethora of cold medications in my system. If you didn’t get it already, I’m sick (not covid).
Project Overview
This project was called “Time is Money” but for some reason I’ve been calling it “Time Beith Money” like in an old-English type of flare. Anywho, in this project we were to create a small business selling products or a service and learn about finance though linear relations. I chose to make a small jewelry store through Instagram and sell some cute lil’ accessories to my friends. Now I am no wiz at math but eventually I did catch on to this whole algebra thing and boy is it helpful to know how to do.
Driving Question
How can we predict our finances for the future?
With calculating your expenses (living), startup costs, sale price (income), and time, you can get a pretty accurate estimate of how sustainable your finances are. Using a linear relations equation like where and putting the equation into a graph where the y axis represents profits and the x axis represents hours of work, you can get a visible representation of your financial situation.
Curricular Competencies
Communicating and representing: Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic form
I successfully used a linear equation to determine my profits. I calculated my hourly wages, predicted NET earnings for a year, and how much money I had made (and lost) over the actual amount of time that I worked for. My graphs are clear and functional, and I labeled them for easy understanding.
Understanding and solving: Apply multiple strategies to solve problems in both abstract and contextualized situations
I calculated all of the time, materials, equipment, and impact, in the cost of making my products. I used recycled materials and used a digital method of selling my product in order to create less waste. I chose to make products that I already had most of the materials to make, and still calculated the cost of the items that I had bought long ago.
Connecting and reflecting: Connect mathematical concepts to each other and to other areas and personal interests.
My business is sadly not sustainable as a full time job. I think this is partially due to the fact that I grossly under-priced my products for the security of making transactions. Realistically I should’ve priced my products in a way that would have me make more money on every transaction, which wasn’t the case mainly for the engraved items. Other businesses in the class, like Dana’s cookie sale, would make more money annually than I would but they both would not be sustainable as a full time job. Maybe with some remodelling and another go at this I could make a more sustainable business.
Conclusion
Honestly we do a lot of connecting our projects to the “real world” but I think this one was the first project that I think actually has an important connection to my future. I have always been interested in owning my own business/practice and this type of math is super important in that line of work and just general adult life. So now I can proudly say that I can do algebra and understand linear relations!!!
Wassup y’all. Welcome to another scimatics post on this benign blog of mine. I am currently writing this in the San Francisco airport on my way back home from my cousins wedding. Congrats David and Sam! Ok lets just get this over with;
Project Overview
This project was called “Meiosis Models” and in this project we were to learn about the cellular reproduction processes of meiosis and mitosis. We would be growing our own garlic samples to put under the microscope and take pictures of the cells during different phases. We also made 3D models in Tinkercad to show the different parts of the cellWe then put all of your pictures and models into a video and added voiceovers to explain the processes and our representations of it with the photos and models. Then the final video would be presented to the class.
Project Mind Map
As per usual we started the scimatics project off with a project start mind map. I put in any questions I had for the project, what I already knew about cells and reproduction, the project, and any of the questions that I had.
At the end of this project we also added to the mind map a section about what we learned from this project and I also answered as many questions as possible that I came up with at the beginning of the project.
Driving Question
How is the reproduction of cells essential to the survival of organisms?
Cell reproduction helps help organisms growing and healthy. They replace cells that are dying with new cells that can take over the jobs of the old cells. They also can make new organisms and therefore prevent the species from going extinct.
Curricular Competencies
Planning and conducting: Collaboratively and individually plan, select, and use appropriate investigation methods, including field work and lab experiments, to collect reliable data (qualitative and quantitative.)
We did a few of workbooks as usual in any scimatics project. I started this project not knowing much about mitosis and meiosis and so I found the workbooks very helpful. As you can see by how much I added in my project end revision of my mind map, I learned a lot of new things. We also did a Khan Academy quiz to test our knowledge on what we had learned from the workbooks. I think this was one way that I really strengthened and solidified my understanding of mitosis and meiosis. It also was a good indicator for where I was with my understanding and what I needed to review. The microscope slides of plant tissues from my garlic were prepared properly using the correct method but unfortunately my garlic did not produce strong images of individual cells so I used the professional cell slides for photographic evidence of mitosis. (Tbh the pictures that I took are pretty cool :p)
Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest
I used all of my class time efficiently for learning without distractions. I was on the opposite side of the room from my beloved friends and even though I felt lonely on my little island, I did get work done a lot faster.
Scientific Communication: Formulate physical or mental models to describe a phenomenon
This competency is well represented by the final narrated video. This was the final moment for us to demonstrate what we learned and created through at the entire project, in our own style. My recorded video with voice narration explains the reasons for and processes of mitosis and meiosis with accurate 3D models and Photographs. I also accurately describe the similarities and differences between the two processes. Check out my narrated video below.
Conclusion
This project has been one of the coolest biology projects I think we’ve done so far. I really enjoyed being able to use the microscopes to look at the cells. I am exploring going into a career in dermatology so I found this project to be very important for that career path. I definitely learned a heap of new vocabulary and can’t wait for the next bio project we do, although since this year is almost over I might have to wait until grade 10 :(.
