My Learning Portfolio

The Wilderness Must Be Explored đŸ„Ÿ

By

On June 19, 2024

In Humanities

This year has flown by. I enjoyed every second of it because it was just so much fun. Before I registered it, I was in Oregon having the time of my life! There was so much that happened in this project, and in this post I will be telling the story of how the spring exhibition came to life.

HIKING QUARRY????

As you may know, this project was all about advertising. We hiked the rock as a class, and when we got to the top, our assignment was to ask strangers why they came on the hike. Most said either because they saw it on instagram, or they heard about it from friends or family. After we collected that information, we had to take a picture of the peak for our advertisement we were making. This is the picture I took: 

When we finished our hike, we went home and we tasked with making a first draft of an advertisement for Quarry rock. We all had to make an original catchy slogan to go with our ad. My slogan was ‘Life’s Better At The Top.’  

This is my first draft of my Oregon ad. My feedback was that it was ‘missing something.’ I thought for a while, and came up with an ad that looked like this. 

This is my first draft

This is my second draft

I had added pictures of us along the hike, although my teacher and peers then thought it looked too crowded, which I agreed with. I pondered about how I should make it more eye catching when it hit me. I changed the shape! Everyone thought my ad looked so much better  in this format.

This is my final draft

I think this advertisement hit the right spot. It has contrasting colours, a catchy slogan, and some other photos to get a viewers eye. If I were to revise this once more, I think I would make the letters of my slogan a thicker solid font, so it has more of an effect on being bold. Other than that small change, I think that this ad was a good start to my journey of creating ads!!

OREGON

I won’t put too much information in this section, because we did so many fun things and learned about the coolest things. If you want to read more about our field study along the Oregon coast, then you can flip through my adventure book! 

In our adventure books, we added information about the places we went, videos of us trying new foods, zip lining, and having the time of our lives! I found it a bit challenging to keep up with all the places we went because every new place had a new page.

EXHIBITION TIME

As soon as we arrived back home from Oregon all focus turned to the Spring Exhibition. We were all put into groups around 5-6, and were assigned a theme. My group consisted of; Madeline, Ella, Cece, Griffin, Marcus, and me! We were all tasked with making individual ads with a consistent font, theme, and layout. This is mine: 

We also all had a colour pallet that we were sticking too. It was mostly dark forest greens, and deep blues to go along with natures colours. I think our colours really represented Oregon well because I saw a lot of those colours while I was in and along the Oregon coast. After everyone had a 👌 in Showbie, we got the go ahead to start building our stations and our merch. Our merch was created by different people in our group, and all the articles of clothing, or water bottles had ‘Oregon’ somewhere on them. Our group slogan we created was ‘Oregon, discover your potential.’ Here are some examples of our merch my group and I designed together:

GROUPS

Within our group of 6, we decided to focus on 3 main attractions we stopped at. Because our theme is discovery and learning, we chose the Tillamook Creamery, Fort Stevens, and the Yaquina Head Tide Pools. Ella and Cece were responsible for the Tillamook station and they chose to make a milk the cow diagram and a diagram of how the cheese gets made. Griffin and Marcus built a cannon and had information to go along with it, and Madeline and I created a touch pool, where all the sea animals could be touched and felt in the pool (they were all fake). I think our stations were a huge success and everyone really enjoyed them. 

After putting so much of our time into making our ads and our station a success we were done! All that was left to do was clean up. I think that our entire Spring Exhibition presentation was a success, and I loved that my group and I worked so well together in this project. 

SO, HOW DOES LANGUAGE INSPIRE ADVENTURE?

This was our driving question for this project and here’s my answer to it. 

Language can inspire adventure because it can be verbally communicated to excite someone into wanting to do something or it can be something that is written such as an advertisement. As we have been working on creating and designing our very own ads, I have learnt the principals for using colour, font, and other things to make my ad stand out and be unique and original to me.  I think a slogan is a great way to use words and make a person want to be involved with whatever the ad is saying or telling you to go. Adventure can be a fun way of getting out of your comfort zone and becoming a new version of yourself. I think language can be used in a fun and creative way to persuade someone to go on an adventure. Language plays a massive role in inspiring someone to do something or go somewhere.

THANK YOU FOR READING

Thank you so much for reading my post all about our Oregon trip and the Spring Exhibition. This is my final post I will be making in grade 8, so here I come grade 9, and good bye grade 8! ☀

Time to tPOL!!!

By

On June 18, 2024

In Humanities, Maker, Science

Statement of Learning

“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.”

I have grown and changed so much throughout grade 8, and overall I loved my first year at seycove. PLP was a new program for me. Despite hearing some things from Charlie, I didn’t know too much about how it worked, the learning we were going to be doing, and how I would like it. I am really enjoying my time in High School and PLP, and for now it is a perfect fit for me. 

In my mPOL I set goals for myself and reflected on my learning plan, and in my tPOL post I will be talking about my year in grade 8 as a whole, talking about a few selected success behaviours and setting some goals and things I hope to achieve in grade 9!

RESILIENCE

In the category Agency, I chose Resilience. An example of resilience would be working through DI (destination Imagination). DI was an interesting experience.  I’ve done DI before, where we got first place, but this was nothing like doing it before. When I got my group, I was thinking ok, we can do this, but oh boy was I ever wrong. We did our plans, and got our story sorted out, but we still had a script to write, costumes to make and find, and props to build. We dedicated 2 pro D days to making our props which turned out really well! The only problem was the DI competition was a week away, and we needed to practice and figure out the other small details. We ended up spending long days at school, and the weekend memorizing lines. I think the competition went relatively well, although if we had more time I think our story could’ve evolved and been a little better. Over the course of finishing our performance I got frustrated a couple times. Yes, sometimes I like things to be done my way, but that isn’t always the answer. I think that when I get frustrated I tell myself things that need to get done, rather than making and doing unnecessary things that aren’t very helpful to my group. I need to focus on bouncing back and spreading out the work so that everyone can be successful in my group. For me, showing resilience is being flexible with my peers, listening to their ideas and communicating my thoughts openly. In the end, DI went ok. If my group used our time better and bounced ideas off each other earlier I believe we could have done better. You can read about my first DI experience here.

ENGAGEMENT 

The next success behaviour I am going to talk about is engagement. Compared to the beginning of the year, I have gotten so much better at class discussions and participating. At the beginning of the year, I felt like I knew what to say and that it was at least somewhat right, but I didn’t want to mess up or say the wrong thing, so I didn’t say anything at all. This was a huge mistake because as I spoke up more, and became more confident with my ideas and thoughts, I got more things correct, or it was a good idea. Now when a question is asked, most of the time, I can shoot my hand up and present my idea, and be confident in myself. Of course, my thoughts aren’t always right, and I have gotten better at accepting that. Sometimes I’m thinking along the right lines, but it just doesn’t quite fit, or sometimes I am 100% on the wrong track, and need to rethink everything. Being wrong and correcting your answer to make it right shows learning because you can show what you learned by explaining why your answer is wrong. I can show my engagement through my blog posts and even in my mPOLS and tPOLS! Here are some examples of my blog posts:

Consequences of Colonization

All About AR Maker

All About Atoms

COMMUNICATION AND COLLABORATION 

For my third and final success behaviour I chose communication and collaboration. 

With teachers: I have become so much better at communicating with my teachers openly. As I learned about my teachers, and got to know them, I became aware that I am not wrong to ask questions. Asking questions shows you are engaged and aware of what’s happening around you. I ask my teachers questions in person and on iMessage, whenever I need help because its not wrong to need help.

With peers: In group projects, I feel as if I am a trusted and responsible group member. I will do my part in the project, and accept and give feedback. I think I demonstrated this best at the End Of The World project, where my group was sometimes off task, and needed some reminders to hop back on and stay as engaged as possible. 

With Technology: I believe I am responsible with my iPad in class, and I am always doing what is expected of me. I stay on task, and do my best to get my work done in class. I had some trouble in the earlier stages of the year, when messages would become distracting, but now I can block those out, put on DND (do not disturb) and focus on the task at hand.

SCIENCE

I learned so much in Science this year that was all new. Last year we didn’t get to do fun experiments where we could involve our hands and be creative in new ways. Where as this year we get to balance doing fun experiments with learning cool information to then using that information and making our projects with it. The project we just finished doing was called Small But Mighty, and in this project we were taught all about cells in our bodies which we demonstrated through our immune system character cards. I was really proud of how I took the feedback I got on my field journal and made it better. I struggled the most with making my observations precise and accurate. 

Another project we completed in science was our scratch video game. This game was another example of how I showed resilience. I found it very frustrating that scratch kept glitching and game deleted several times, but I kept at it and eventually I got it. Coding is something I can continue to work on, and the more I do it the better I will get at it.

HUMANITIES

Humanities has been an up and down subject for me all year. Some projects I thoroughly enjoyed, and some I disliked. In life, you can’t choose it all, so I dealt with it! We have done so many projects this year from writing songs to presenting to grade 11s! The most recent project we did, the Spring Exhibition, was the one I chose, because I think it shows my success behaviours I chose the most. The project on the spring exhibition all started with our field study along the Oregon Coast. As we went, little by little we added to our ‘adventure book’ which was a document of the activities and things we did. Other than the book, our project was all about advertising. We were split up into groups for the Spring Exhibition and my group got the theme Discovery and Learning. We were to represent the theme of our group in our advertisements about the Oregon Coast. I love that everyone in my group collaborated and contributed to our dazzling final result. I think our presentation at the exhibition turned out great and it is definitely something to be proud of.

 

 

Over the course of the year, worldview is always something we put into consideration. ‘How does this affect your worldview?’ ‘How does this project influence your worldview?’ These were questions we were peppered with and they will always and forever stick with me. It helps me put myself into other people’s shoes. The Oregon trip influenced my worldview because all the little stops and stores and jobs people do can change a persons mind.

WHAT HAS HELPED ME GROW AS A LEARNER?

2 small things have helped me become a better learner in and out of school.

  1. Attending Tutorial 
  2. Using The Things App

PREPARING FOR GRADE 9

Looking back on my grade 8 year, I have learned so much about how PLP works, how my teachers teach, and how my peers work. Although grade 8 is a difficult year, I love that I now know that getting revisions is ok, and learning from your mistakes is great, because you are a better learner from it. 

A goal I am setting myself for next year is being more efficient with my time. I feel as though I spend more time on my work than I really need to. To make it become good to great takes time, but not so much that I am only adding little things at a time. 

I feel as though I am ready for next year, and I hope that it is just as fun or even more so than this year! I have become more confident in myself as a learner and a leader in the classroom, so I hope this shows through next year, and the following years as well.

Thank you so much for listening to my tPOL!! Have a great summer!!! ☀⛱

Small But Mighty đŸ§Ș

By

On June 10, 2024

In Science

How Does Our Knowledge Of Cell Biology Contribute To Public Health?

The driving question for this blog post is ‘How does our knowledge of cell biology contribute to public health?’ I have learned so much from this project including how to make a Hypothesis and Prediction, testing and checking our experiment, asking a question and then experimenting, and reflecting upon the process! We have also explored the wonders of cells and different varieties of vaccines. Despite all the thoughts about vaccines, vaccines are good for you, and they prove to have worked against multiple diseases. These are all valuable lessons that I can keep in my brain for later!

Asking a Question

When you start an experiment, the first thing you do is create a thoughtful question that will get an answer when you finish the experiment. You also think of a prediction and a hypothesis which you then follow up at the end of the experiment. Despite what most people think, a hypothesis and a prediction are 2 different things. A hypothesis is an educated guess, where as a prediction is a more detailed and informative guess.

Cells

Before we started our immune system character cards, we needed to learn about the cells we were going to write about. We used window notes, and a book that Ms. Kadi read to learn about the T-Cells (which have different types of cells called the memory T-Cells, killer T-Cells, and the helper T-Cells.) In addition to these cells we learned about B-Cells

Petri Dish Experiments đŸ§«Â 

Previous to this experiment we had learnt all about bacteria so we were all ready. We were told to swab one or 2 surfaces and compare the bacteria. I chose to do the desk in my science classroom. One swab I used hand sanitizer and one I used soap. The idea was to see which product helped kill more germs. My results were surprising because the hand sanitizer pulled ahead and looked like it had less growth on the Petri dish than the soap did.

Field Journal  

This is the field journal I created to keep track of my results, hypothesis, prediction, updates and how much growth was on the Petri dish. I am proud of my layout in this keynote because the theme is consistent and I worked hard to make sure it looked good but also wasn’t too distracting from the information.

Immune System Cell Cards

The next thing we focused on in this project was learning all about the adaptive immune system. I explained some of the cells earlier, but these cards we could make our own! We drew characters and then labeled them as a cell and explained their function in the body. The cell cards were a fun way of showing our knowledge about the cells. I liked how making these cards not only taught me about the cells but also made it fun so I enjoyed doing it!

Vaccine Media Campaign

Why don’t people get vaccinated? This is a well asked question and there are multiple answers our whole class came up with. A few are: The vaccine was released too quickly, can cause side effects, caused autism, religious reasons and micro chips are in them tracking you. Some of these reasons don’t seem real or like they would happen but some people are actually worried and scared about these. Everyone should pay attention to the important articles released by the government or doctors that give real information to make sure people don’t get worked up over nothing. This is why we are learning about this in Science class because its right to be educated! 

In this assignment we were to create 3 media campaigns that showed our research and knowledge about what we had learned. My partner was Ella, and we chose to research the micro chips one. People thought micro chips were being put into us to track and keep an eye on us. Here are our 3 designs:

 

 

 

How Does Our Knowledge Of Cell Biology Contribute To Public Health?

Before learning all about the immune system, and cells I didn’t know anything about these things! That’s the great thing about learning something new, its never boring because you don’t know what’s coming next. With all this new information I know how my body deals with diseases, vaccines and bacterias. When you show symptoms to viruses, it is actually your immune system trying to fight off the virus. Although I am now educated on these things, not everyone is and that results in anti-vaccers. Knowledge can affect people’s views on many things and this is one of them. It is completely your choice if you don’t get vaccinated against Covid-19, but the vaccine certainly helps protect you from the virus. The more you learn and know about vaccines the healthier and more knowledgeable you will be. 

Reflection

I have learned so many things in this unit that I will not forget my whole life. I love that we get to evolve ourselves in learning about topics like this because it helps us stay healthy and share our learning and knowledge with other people to educate themselves. As well as learning in my head, I acquired some life skills in this project such as communicating with my partner and being open to her ideas and not just mine. 

Thanks for reading my post, and keep your eyes peeled for more! 

Consequences of Colonization 🇹🇩

By

On May 12, 2024

In Humanities

Driving Question đŸŽïž

Every project in PLP is led by a driving question. Our question for this project was ‘What were the Consequences of Colonization?’ Throughout the project, as we spent more time thinking /about the driving question, our line of thinking went to ‘What ARE the Consequences of Colonization?’ 

Craft

We started our project off by enrolling ourselves in learning about the helpful app Craft. This wondrous creation has helped me so much, and I wish that I had started to use it earlier. Craft has taught me to be organized, even if I want it to still be aesthetic.

Keynote

It was decided that our answer to the driving question would be presented to the BCFP grade 11’s through a Keynote presentation we would put together in groups of 3. My group consisted of:

Tyler

Siena

Click on the links to visit their blog to see their answer to the driving question and how they thought the project went!

Yet again, this project was connected to worldview. We learned about worldview in our very first project of the year, and most projects since have been connected to worldview.

Watch Tyler, Siena and I’s presentation here!

I thought our Keynote went reasonably well, and the grade 11’s seemed interested enough. Our main feedback we got on our 2 presentations we made was the same both times: SLOW DOWN!!! We thought the second group we presented to we were going slower, but apparently not! It seems when you are nervous or you know the information really well, you talk fast, even if you aren’t!

Algonquin People

The Algonquin people were the specific Indigenous group we chose to focus on. They originally occupied western Quebec and Ontario. They lived in Wigwams, which were kind of like Teepees, although Wigwams were much more stationary, while Teepees could be transported with visitors. The Algonquin people shared their knowledge through storytelling, and they believed in a supernatural being.

New France

Samuel Du Champlain was the man who came and pretty much started New France. He started by building one settlement, but his men kept working, and they started to build more and more. The early European settlers depended on the Indigenous to survive because they were living with different resources and on different land.

Individual Keynote

After my group and I presented our Keynote to the grade 11’s, our teacher told us we then had to make an individual keynote. I think this assignment was a way of finding out if we knew the information through and through without cue cards or anything. We could only use presenters notes, and we needed to make a 2 slide keynote with 3 words per slide, although we could add as many pictures as we wanted. My individual keynote presentation was my final answer to the driving question.

Conclusion

Overall, I thought that this project went smoothly, and I wouldn’t make any major changes in the layout. I enjoyed working with my group members, Siena and Tyler, and I thought we all contributed evenly. Group work is still something I have a bit of trouble with because I like doing all the work, and getting it done ‘my way’ but the more experience I have with it the better I become at working with my peers.

Thank you for reading and stay posted for more!

 

FIRST MPOL EVER

By

On April 8, 2024

In Humanities, Maker, Science

Hello! These are my parents, Katie and Ian Mortimer. 

Statement of Learning

“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.”

Maker

Let’s start with Maker. Maker has been my favourite PLP class so far this year. I love art, and involving myself in creative and unique ways, and having fun while experimenting. I had 3 teachers for Maker this year; Mr. Harris, Ms. McWilliam, and Ms. Kadi.

The very first project we did in Maker was Becoming a PLP Learner. I enjoyed this project  because I acquired so much useful information. We learned how to use multiple apps such as Keynote, Notability, Pages, WordPack, and some small details on other apps. I think my favourite app that we learned about would be WordPack. You put text into a box, and then you can choose your shape and colour. The app configures the words to go with the shape and colour which ends up looking really cool. This is mine that I made. We all thought of words to describe ourselves, and then made our own personal WordPack.

Memoji

Making my Memoji was my favourite part of this project. I enjoyed this, because I got to display  myself through an emoji. When I was creating it, I contemplated carefully how well the stickers went together, and the depth and perception of how they looked on my laptop. I acquired skills such as animating my stickers in keynote by making them spin, bounce, drop, burn fire, and more. 

Success and FAILS

I think my design on my final presentation was very me. I included drawing skills I learned from one of our other Maker projects, Finding Fun with Drawing. I decorated the pages, and made sure the patterns and background carried throughout my entire presentation. I think I was proficient in this area, because of my marks, but also because I tried really hard and participated with class discutions. 

One thing I believe I struggled with was time management and productivity. I tend to leave things to do last minute, and when I do finally get to them, I spend lots of time working on it when I really could have done it earlier, and I would be less stressed. My goal for this in the future, is to start right away when the assignment is addressed to us, and then I will have more time over the days to making sure it gets done to the best of my ability. 

Science

I just started science in the second semester. My teacher, Ms. Kadi is awesome. She explains things really well, and is super enthusiastic about teaching us. We have only completed one project so far, Mind over Matter. 

Mind over Matter has been a great experience for me, because we leaped into the deep end,  and involved ourselves with learning about atoms, physical and chemical properties, determining mass, and how to use scratch. We also got to learn how to use microscopes and the different parts of them. We all got to make our own sliders, which fit under the microscope so we can look at them. I used dirty water, and found little critters in the murky water. 

Our final project for science was to create and code your very own video game on scratch. Scratch can be extremely glitchy and finicky. I started by making a plan for my game, and handed it in. When I got the go ahead, I started to explore with scratch and tried to figure out how it all worked.  My game deleted multiple times, which was quite frustrating. In the end, I got scratch to cooperate with me, and I finished my drop game. I showed my knowledge through the game, because you need to collect all the different parts of an atom. Once you get to 50, you move onto a page that explains the different parts of the atom in some detail. 

Play my video game here!

Success and FAILS

I think I succeeded in making my game easy to play, yet still complicated at its core. I spent a ton of time creating my scratch game, Atom Drop, and I think it payed off really well. I am proud of what I have created because it displays how much new information I learned, but also because I really like how my game turned out. I used my coding skills, which were newly learnt, and put them to work by coding an entire game! I think I was proficient in Science because I was intent to learn, and I payed attention to what Ms. Kadi was saying.

One thing I think I could’ve improved on in this project would be my resilience. I got quite frustrated when my game kept deleting my progress, I wanted to make an easier game to code. Instead of thinking ‘I need to make sure I can code an easy game so it doesn’t delete, my mindset should have been, ‘okay, it deleted again. How can I figure out a way to make sure my entire game is saved?’ My goal in the future, would be to persevere and keep going, even if I face some hardships.

Humanities

Humanities has been an interesting block for me. I quite enjoy some of the content we learned about, while other things I couldn’t absorb as well. One of the things that really stood out to me, was the winter exhibition and the lead up to it. Previously to the winter exhibition we learned about the Renaissance and medieval periods in time. Our assignment was to create a triptych representing three time periods; the Renaissance, medieval, and present day. We were to then put these into a tableau, which we would present at the winter exhibition. We were put into groups for this, and I felt as though Ella and I were great leaders in the group. We made sure our group members were on task, everyone was contributing a bit, and practicing! Our props was my favourite part about our entire presentation because we spent hours making them, and to see everyone saying they liked them was quite rewarding. 

Success and FAILS

I enjoyed the journey throughout the winter exhibition. Our group grew together, and we really bonded during the process. I liked how we worked together to make 3 tableaus into 3 amazing works of art. My proudest moment was the very last presentation we did, when my teachers and Mrs. Best were watching. During the contemporary, everyone was like, ‘wow, it looks great’, and ‘all that work turned into something great.’ This was nice to hear after all the hard work we had put in. I think I am proficient in Humanities because I am present in conversations, and I share my ideas openly even if I am not always correct. I also have ✅ in my assignments. 

The biggest struggle for me was getting everything done in time. Time management can sometimes be hard for me. We had our ideas, but we didn’t start getting together costumes and building props until the last couple weeks. We were even still building a prop on the morning of the event. My goal for the future is to start as soon as possible after the project has been assigned, because it will cause less stress for me leading up to the due date. 

Learning Plan

At the beginning of the year, I completed a learning plan, which shows what I am good at, what I can grow in, and how I can get support in these areas. 

           

How Can I Grow as a Learner?

I have talked about some things from multiple areas, but I think the ones I need work in are preparation, self-regulation, and communication and collaboration. Some areas I have shown improvement in are attending to tutorial more often, and asking for help when I need it. I like things done my way, there is no other way of saying it. I can grow by using other peoples ideas, and making sure everyone gets a turn to talk. Another one of my goals for the future, is to know when enough is enough. Sometimes I spend too much time working, when it’s good enough. I really want to do well and achieve extending, so I need to put quality work in instead of just work. Making good use of time is a big thing for me, because I am a very busy person, and I need to use my time well. I have one big goal that I am setting for the rest of the year, that I will reflect on in my TPOL. I want to achieve extending is some, if not all of my PLP subjects. This is really important to me because it sets my standards for next year, and to keep pushing myself as a learner.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for reading my script for my very first MPOL! I spent lots of time working on this, and so thank you for listening to my yap!

All About AR Maker

By

On March 15, 2024

In Humanities

Have you ever tried using AR maker? The app is hard, frustrating, and rewarding. 

My Final AR Maker Video

Watch my final AR Maker video here!

European Exploration

These past 5 weeks, we have learned about the cause and consequence of exploration. We read about the motivation of European exploration, early trading, and of course, the cause and consequences of exploration.

Storytelling

 The driving question for this project was,  how can we use storytelling to investigate what  sparked global exploration and understand its impact? We can use story telling by making a story! We all made a AR maker video to do with this project. Mine tells the story of a girl called Anika. Anika desperately wanted to set sail with her father, and explore the world. One day when her father was leaving on a voyage, she decided to sneak her way along. She made it to the middle of the ocean, when a big wave hit her and knocked her overboard. Anika washed up on the shores of the land they called ‘Newfoundland’ (New Found Land). She somehow transmitted a disease called small pox to the people of the Americas. The disease grew and grew bigger, and it became exceptionally dangerous. Years later, her father reunited with her when he was on a voyage to the Americas. The two of them lived happily ever after in the land called the Americas. 

AR Maker

AR maker can be extremely confusing and hard to operate. You need to press place in a specific area, and make sure that you do not lose sight of your little friend in the white placing box. It was a very frustrating app at first, when we were making our practice stories. My story was deleting over and over, and I was done with the app. I then just kept moving forward, and was glad when I finished.

Small Pox

 I think my story shows my knowledge very well because I demonstrated how the Europeans transmitted the disease ‘small pox’ into the Americas. The disease lasted for many many years,  and was highly contagious. Small children and women were most likely to contract the disease, while men were just the little bit more immune. The more people were exposed to small pox, the more their immune system built up, but the disease could still harm them harshly. Later, a vaccine was created to stop small pox, which helped a lot. Although people were taken care of, there weren’t enough hospitals for everyone, and thousands sadly past away from it.

Reflection

Overall on this project, I am proud of what I have accomplished, and created. I did get some revisions, but I took them in well, and used them to fuel me to make my next draft better. At the end, I got all 👌, and I feel good about that. In the future, I think I could’ve gotten the whole project done faster, but it’s all okay, because it is done and I am proud of the work I have produced. Thanks for reading, and keep your eyes peeled for my next post!

Destination Imagination – How It Went

By

On March 15, 2024

In Maker

Destination Imagination

DI stands for Destination Imagination, and it is a project based program that teaches kids life skills. These skills include being innovative, creative, collaborative, and more. In PLP, we enter the tournament every year. My group is in the fine arts challenge, and and here is a bit about my experience from the provincials tournament, and the lead up to it. 

Past Experience

I have done DI before. In grade 4, my friends and I entered the tournament. Covid was going on that year, and we were doing everything either online, or in my basement with masks on. We didn’t really know how long Covid was going to last, but we tried our best to make the most of what we could do. We were in the fine arts challenge, and we decided we were going to make a Malala music video. We made all of our music by ourselves in garage band, with help from my Mom who was the team manager. My group consisted of 5 people; Madeline, Ella, Cece, Paxtyn, and me. Paxtyn has a great singing voice, so she sang the chorus, and the song. We all wrote the lyrics to the song, and it is actually good!

When we finally finished our music video, we all felt a sense of relief. We had filmed everyone separately online, and then somehow put it together. Ella’s cousin named Buzz is really great at editing. The awards ceremony was online, and we were all really proud when we won globals in grade 4! We came 2nd in our instant challenge which was still something to be proud of.  I cannot add the video, for some friends in my group do not want the world to watch. You can probably find it online if you look up 2018/2019 DI Global Finals.

Preparing

Doing DI this year was different through. We didn’t get to choose our groups, and we were working with people we hadn’t before.  My team struggled with getting things done, so one weekend, when we had 2 professional days, we met up at my house and got to work! We had lots of fun playing with the saw, and painting. We finished all of our props on those 2 days which left only a couple things to do. We had to complete the costumes, forms so we could enter the tournament, and most importantly, PRACTICE! 

Team Work

My team and I went through some hardships along our way. Teamwork was one of them. Not all members were helping at times, because they were distracted by games, and texting on their iPads. As I’m sure most people know, it can be frustrating to work in a group that doesn’t help a lot of the time. My teammates showed up, and I that’s sometimes as much as you can ask of someone. 

Instant challenge

Although I cannot disclose much information about my teams instant challenge, I can say that I am proud of us, and I thought we did really well. 

Final Product

I think we have a lot to learn for the next DI competition, but for our first, in person regionals event, I think it went okay. We all need to know our lines better for the provincials, and some of our props broke, so those need to be fixed. Our team did not place. We came 4th. If we had 4 more points we would’ve been 3rd. Although it matters to me a lot, it doesn’t to some, and that’s okay. But I want to do better in the next competition, so watch out team! The Colosseum Crushers are coming! Other than some minor details, I am proud of our group, and we can get better for the next event. Good job to The Colosseum Crushers!!!

Thanks for reading! Keep your eyes peeled to see how my team did in the Provincials!

All About Atoms!

By

On March 11, 2024

In Science

Have you run out of games to play? Try my game, I made it myself!

These past few weeks, my science class has taken on the project of using Scratch to make our very own games about atoms.

Try my game

Atom Drop

Atoms

Before we started this project, we had learned all about atoms. We focused on the structure, and then the background of atoms. We talked about who discovered them, and what different scientists theories were. We did lab experiments, and took notes on what we discovered. We used math to figure out the mass of objects, and we even got to use iodine!

Project

Our big project for this section of Science was making a video game in Scratch that displayed our knowledge about atoms. We handed in a plan for our game on Showbie, and then got the  go-ahead to start coding. The first couple days we got to play around with the site, and figure out things on our own. I then started to code my game. Scratch was very frustrating because my game I started deleted a few times. I had to start again, which cost me even more time, digging into time I like to spend playing sports, friends, and family.

Scratch

 At first when I started I didn’t really understand how Scratch worked. After 20 minutes of trying to figure out my very complicated game, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. A game might seem simple, but as soon as you try and code it yourself you will realize that, nope, it is super hard. It was all okay though, because I quickly adjusted to making a simple atom drop game, and my life suddenly seemed good again! I used a YouTube video to help me, because this is the first time I have ever used Scratch, and it was hard. The video explained the different steps really well, and it helped me a lot.

Making My Game

My game is a drop game. You need to collect all the different parts of an atom; the protons and  neutrons inside the nucleus, the electron orbits, and the electrons. My game is coded, so when you collect 50 parts of the atoms, you go onto another screen that explains all of the parts in detail, and tells you a but about the parts. In an atom, the various parts are neutrons, protons, electrons, nucleus, and the electron orbits.  

Definitely go play my game! It is fun, I made it myself, and it’s fun! Go enjoy yourself!

Reflection

Reflecting back on this project, I felt many different emotions. I was angry because my game deleted a few times, happy because it’s done, and excited for other to try it! I am glad I got to experience this project, because I think it was a good area for me to grow in. I always like things to go my way, but that doesn’t always happen. I loved playing all my friends games, and I hope they like mine. I worked very hard on my game, and assignments, so I really look forward to hearing my critique in this project. I am proud of what I have accomplished, and I am grateful for all of those who have helped me make my game! Thanks for reading my blog post All About Atoms!

Keep your eyes peeled for the next one! 

Working With Words! My Poetry Journey!

By

On January 30, 2024

In Humanities

Do you like poetry? At first I wasn’t sure I did, but this project might have changed my mind. Read on!

At first, when I heard that we were doing a project on poetry, I wasn’t very happy, or excited. I have never enjoyed poetry, because I find it hard to write about most things, especially myself. 

Favourite Part

My favourite part of this project was the About Me video and poetry in my poetry book. I enjoyed making it because it was a good starting point that helped me with the rest of this project. Another amazing help was the very first project we did in grade 8! This was because we learned all about our worldview, which we needed to write the poems. My MindNode helped me as well because I had brainstormed about the 7 pieces of worldview.

Hardest

My least favourite part of this project was writing the found poem. I found it difficult to find the right book to use, and then choosing words out of it. Despite my struggles, all the poems were pretty fun to create.

Easiest

In this project, the easiest poem for me to write would probably be my sound poem. I had to connect and base all my poems off of my worldview. Our first project this year was learning all about our worldview, so I knew a lot about it coming into this project.

Driving Question

Our driving question for this project was “How might I write poetry that I enjoy and shows who I am?” this project was not my favourite, but I fought through it to write what I think are lucid poems. All of the poems we wrote are connected in some way to our worldview. My worldview is how I see the world, my beliefs, knowledge, values etc. At first I found it hard to express myself through my poetry, but throughout the project, I became more motivated to spending time to make my poems the best they could be, rather than just being good enough. The farther we got into the project, the more I enjoyed it. 

So what poems did we write?

Here are the poems that we wrote:

– Simile Poem

– Extended Metaphor Poem

– Sound Poem

– Haikus

– Found Poem

– Experience Poem

– Imagery Poem

– Self Portrait Poem

For all of these poems we created a document in pages for the terms. For each term we wrote what it meant, and an example. 

Reflection

Throughout this project, I feel like I became more aware of my surroundings and what is happening around me. I am very proud of how much I have grown and learned with this project. Although poetry still wouldn’t be my first choice, I enjoy it a lot more than I did before we started this project. This has helped me in lots of ways, but mainly focusing on things that I wouldn’t normally pay attention too. 

Thanks for reading and keep your eyes peeled for my next post!

 

Radical Innovations or How It’s Going

By

On January 4, 2024

In Humanities

Through group work, hard work, and lots of tears we have come to an end with our stressful exhibition.

Do you want to know why the lead up to this exhibition was so demanding? Read on to find out!

Exhibition

As we are grade 8s this year, we just had our very first exhibition. An exhibition is when the PLP students present to our parents, relatives, and the public. This year the grade 8s were split into 5 groups, and we were presenting a set of 3 tableaus. The three tableaus were based on medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary times. A tableau is a group of stationary figures representing a scene.

Medieval Tableau

The first tableau we presented was medieval. This was our planning for the medieval tableau. We have planned out everything from the drawing, to who’s playing each part. Once this drawing was done, we could start making props, and writing the script. Each tableau had to consist of 7 aspects of worldview; geography, time, values, beliefs, economy, and knowledge. For geography we did a horse, which represented how people used to travel. They could explore new places, and know where they are so it could be recorded on a map. Time was shown through a sundial we created. A sundial was the main use of telling time in the medieval times. For society, we did knights because they were a key part of the kingdom, doing their part to protect everyone. We chose a king for values because the people of the kingdom valued the king to lead them well. The king lead them into battles, and made big decisions for them. For beliefs, we did a cross the king is holding. The people in medieval times were Christian’s, and believed a lot in that. Knowledge is shown through a map that the king is holding because they relied on maps for where they were traveling to. The last one is is economy, and we have shown that through the expensive fabrics that the king is wearing.

Contemporary Tableau

The contemporary tableau was the hardest for me. I have no idea why because we are living in contemporary times at the moment. Just like the other 2 tableaus, we had to use all 7 aspects of worldview. Our voting booth is displayed to show society because these days we have the opportunity to vote for whoever we like. Our voting booth also shows values, because back in the medieval and Renaissance times, women were not allowed to vote, but nowadays we are. Geography is shown through the food truck as the truck can move places to serve its food. Sven is representing beliefs because he believes that he would be the best choice for someone to vote for him. During elections, you see the people who are running have signs on the side of the road, in peoples lawns, or even people holding them! Time is displayed with the clock,because clocks are how people tell time today. Economy would be shown through Ella. She is ordering food from the food truck on her phone, because lots of people do that these days. For knowledge, we also display it with the voting booth. People need to use their knowledge for who would be the best pick to vote for. Here is the photo from the exhibition.
Renaissance Tableau

Renaissance Tableau

For the Renaissance tableau, we had to incorporate the same 7 aspects of worldview. Forgeography, we reused the horse from the medieval scene, because it represent how people travelled. For time, we made a clock, because in the renaissance times people had thought of clocks, although the clocks told time by striking bells. We reintroduced the king into Renaissance times as well, because the king ruled the land, and they were valued by its people. The king would also hold a lot of power in the monarchy. We showed values through a food wagon because people valued food, but the wealthier people in the society were able to purchase more food. The wagon filled with food would be brought a long when they were travelling, pulled behind a horse. For beliefs, we made a bible that represents how many people were Christian, and a cross that the king was once again holding. The wagon would also show economy because wealthier people would be able to believe in more things. Lastly, we showcased knowledge as a painter because painting would require a vast and knowledgeable mind.

Renaissance Artwork

We started off by making our renaissance art chart and photo. This art chart took a long time, but it was worth it because it payed off. The Renaissance photo we made was created in Superimpose just like the medieval one I did. This photo took lots of work as we had to add each photo from our Renaissance art chart. The art chart I found was harder than when we did the medieval one, because it was harder to find the photos to include in it. However, I got it done,and it turned out well. I think next time I could work on making it less crowded because it looks as if everything is just smooshed into my artwork.

Renaissance Paragraph

Once we had completed this part of the project we wrote a paragraph to describe it. We focused on our topic sentences, and improving our writing from the medieval paragraph we wrote. My feedback on my medieval paragraph was describing my topic sentence in more detail, and I think I have achieved this in my second paragraph.

Power Play Post

We recently completed our Power Play project that focused more on the medieval side of things. The Power Play project has linked and helped us in this recent project because we learned many new things to help us with understanding this project. The many assignments we did helped us prepare for the learning ahead with this project. Here are some examples of things that helped me.

This was the Haudenosaunee project we did. I had trouble with this, which is why I was successful. I got a revision, because it didn’t clearly show my learning. I will not add the explanations I had to the pictures, because they are too long, but I will explain how it helped.

Revisions are probably the best thing that can happen. Of course you don’t want to get them all the time, but once and a while is good. When I got this revision, I was upset because I didn’t understand why. I reread the assignment, the criteria, the document, and I still couldn’t find anything wrong about it. I really wanted to get a check on this, so I just started all over again. Once I had read it multiple times, I really had an idea of how this could improve. I added way more detail, and then rewrote my explanation. This taught me if you put lots of work in, it will pay off, and you will be grateful.

Triptych

As a part in our preparation for the tableaus and exhibition, we had to create a triptych. A triptych is a three panelled piece of art that shows three different things. Usually, there is something similar that carries out in all of them.

Snack

In the exhibition, we were required to have some sort of snack for the audience. We decided to have cookies. My mom volunteered to make 100 cookies. I am very thankful that she did this, as it helped our group tremendously. Carmyn nicknamed them ‘snowballs’ which worked.

 

Conclusion

This was the most stressful project yet. We completed assignments, made props, wrote scripts, and worked super hard. I thought that every single minute we put into this exhibition payed off. I am super proud of what my group and I have accomplished. Thanks to everyone who have helped us make the exhibition possible.

Keep your eyes open for the next post! Thanks for reading!

 

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