Category Archives: Reflections

Reflections, Stories

MPOL 2022

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Hello teachers and parents, and welcome to my MPOL! This year has come with new opportunities, and new experiences, including our first out of country field study! 

(Introduce parents to teacher)

“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.”

First, I’m going to answer the driving questions. “How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?” I’ve shown growth by pushing my comfort zone, and becoming more confident in my abilities. For example, in the “trust fall” activity at loon lake, I was doubting myself at first, but at the end, I had full confidence in myself and my peers. 

“How can I sharpen my Learning Plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of this school year?” I can do that by reviewing and updating it, to make sure I’m doing what’s best for my learning. Also, by setting goals that are attainable by the end of this school year. 

Now, I’m going to talk about my growth in humanities:

In humanities, we’ve completed 3 projects, ”GOLD”, which was about the gold rush in BC during the early 19th century. And “Ology of apology”, which was about different instances of mistreatment in BC, and how Canada has apologized for those actions. And of course our most recent project, “Romeo, Romeo, are we still talking about Romeo?” In which we recreated a scene from the play, with modern aspects….

My strengths in Humanities are being a leader in group settings, and assigning roles to others. Also, I’m good at communicating my thoughts and opinions to peers and teachers. I’ve show these traits in the “ology of apology” project, by voicing my opinions on what our memorial should be. Furthermore, I’m able to manage a lot of things at the same time. For example, different objectives, and being able to plan out my time effectively. 

Things that I want to work on are story-writing and storytelling. Earlier in the year, during the “GOLD’ project, we were tasked with creating a story about the BC gold rush. And at first I was pretty puzzled, and didn’t know where to start. I sook help, by asking my sister for pointers, and she critiqued my existing work. In all, that was a good experience, and I benefitted from that immensely. As the year continues, I want to build upon that skill, and enhance my learning. 

 

One change I have made so far this year, is my mindset on projects. In past years, I’ve had negative opinions on projects, and had a “closed mindset”. This year my goal is to become more opened minded, and be able to put myself out there, by learning about new topics. 

My work throughout the year so far has showed that I like to be different, by creating things that others don’t. For example, in the winter exhibition, my group and I created a video as opposed to creating a physical mural, which most groups did. I found that our video held a deeper meaning, and explained further the idea of our room. 

Now I’m going to talk about Field studies:

So far this year, we’ve been to loon lake for a learning advance. This experience centred around leadership, and working in groups. It was a rollercoaster of a ride, in which I learned about myself, and the PLP 10 team. During this excursion, I learned many interesting things; to not take juice for granted, and that people have more layers than you think. During the infamous “crossing the line” activity, I learned about my peers, and more about myself in the process. 

Looking forward, in the next month we have our first-ever out-of country field study, which will be at Disneyworld. I’m very excited to see what the learning will look like , and for all the exciting features, its Disneyworld! 

Next, I’m going to reference my learning plan. 

A part of my disposition is time management, and finding the time to finish certain tasks. Also, consistency, meaning in my PLP work, and being able to always meet the due date. 

For my habits, I reference staying on task, and not getting distracted by outside sources. And asking for help, from peers or teachers. 

To summarize, this year has been filled with good learning experiences, and opportunities for growth. My goals for next semester are to improve my writing, and ability to tell stories. I can do this by writing more, and regularly getting critique from others. Also, I want to have a better and more positive attitude in every activity/project we do. I can accomplish this by referring to the 7 habits from last year, and by looking at things with new perspectives.

Thanks for watching my MPOL!

Now I ask you, the audience, is there anything that I should focus on more, or that wasn’t;t mentioned in my presentation?

Group Project, Humanities, Reflections

Ology of Apology/Exhibition Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. Today’s blog is about the recent project we’ve been working on: “Ology of apology”. We later applied this project to our work in the the Winter Exhibition. In this project, we learned about key moments in BC’s history. Specifically, the Chinese head tax, the Komogata Maru, and Japanese internment. The driving question for this project was: “How can we keep apologies for past wrongs alive so they are remembered and not repeated today?” We can do this by making promises, and keeping them. Also, by educating the next generation on these events, so they are never repeated.

We started this project by defining what made good audio. We watched this halloween podcast, and as a group, we discussed whether this audio was effective or not. We talked about the characteristics of good audio, and how to portray it. Next, we defined our “KWL’S”, know, wonder, learn about the respective topics we were exploring. 

For keystone 1, we researched, and created a keynote on our assigned topic. Out of the 3 topics, we were given one, I was assigned Japanese internment. For this assignment, we explained our topic in story format, and defined whether it was just or unjust.

I had created a decent first draft, however, my story needed some work, and I needed to explain my topic in further detail. I applied the critique from my peers and from teachers, and made a final draft. 

Here’s what it looked like:

Presentation 67

For keystone 2, we were tasked with creating a audio clip, that accompanied our keynote, and told the story of our event. It had to be 2 minutes long, and explain whether our event was justified, or unjustified. At first, I didn’t know where to start. So I just focused on telling an effective story, that explained the key events. 

Here’s my completed audio clip:

After completing both keystones, we were put into groups. We were each assigned a topic, I got Japanese internment, Mateo, and Patrick were my partners. 

The next step to this project was incorporating it into the Winter Exhibition. We each got a room to demonstrate our learning, and how it connected to James Cameron’s fantasy world of “Avatar”. Each group had to create a memorial, that described our event. We were in the “Corporate greed” room, so we had to explain how our event related to that idea.

For our memorial, our group created a “heritage minute” about Japanese internment. We used photos and videos from the event, and we created some clips of our own, that described the event. Here’s our heritage minute:

On the day of the exhibition, it was chaos. We had to quickly assemble our rooms, and make sure they were presentable. We were emulating a “buiseness lounge”, so we all dressed in fancy clothes. In our room, there was mostly grade 8’s, so we had to be leaders, since we had done this before. After spending hours getting our room ready the teachers cleared us, and it was time for dinner, which was pizza.

During the exhibition, I presented for many family friends and family members, which was a cool experience. Also, I got asked lots of good clarifying questions, that further tested my knowledge.

To summarize, this project was very interesting and I learned a lot. I didn’t know about the internment in Vancouver, or the mistreatment of refugees off the coast of east van. I was also able to collaborate with others, to reach a common goal. The exhibition had many ups and downs, from being in a panic, to feeling good about the work we had created.

Thanks for reading!

Learning Advance, Reflections

Loon lake post (the second time around)

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Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog!

Today’s post is about our first field study of the year at loon lake. We spent 5 days at “looner”, which for some reason, felt like 5 months…

This field study was centred around leadership, and effectively working with others. Most of this trip was run by “Pinnacle Pursuits”, a company that values people, passion, and performance. The guy who was running it was a man named Jonathan willcocks:

 “Johnno”, as we called him, was our leader during this experience, and had us learning at all times. 

We began our loon lake journey with a freezing cold bus ride into the wilderness. I want dressed the best at that moment…..

Here’s what I looked like: 

Once we got there, we were introduced to Amber and Johnno from pinnacle pursuits. We did a few “icebreaker” games, and we needed it, (it was pretty cold). The rest of the day was spent inside, doing some start-up activities. Coming into this, I didn’t have the best of attitudes, for several reasons.

The next day, we woke up at the crack of dawn to start our day. The second day was all about defining who we were. We did this activity, where a partner would constantly yell: “What do you love?”. And we would spit out things we loved, which we later wrote down in our workbooks.

Here’s what I love:

One thing that I realized from this activity, was that I remembered other peoples “loves” better than my own. 

We also did an activity regarding our strengths and skills. It was slightly different from the “love” activity, as we just wrote down our strengths and skills. I really had to dig deep to uncover my skills, as I didn’t really know at first.

Later during the second day, we did a creative activity. We drew a collage, of the things that we love, and are interested in. Here’s what my drawing looked like:

I’m a really sporty guy, so I had a few sport related sketches in there. Also, I showed my “hidden” music side of myself, with the music notes. 

Once we had finished our drawings, we put them up on the wall around the room. 

At the end of each day, we would go around the room and write compliments to people, on how they did in certain activities. As you can see, my page was pretty full.

Another important piece of this was our “credo”. A credo is a short description of what you value, and who you aspire to be at all times. While working on my credo, I found better language to describe myself, more positive language. I also got peer critique from Johnno, and members of the PLP 10 team, which was really helpful.

Here’s a photo of my Credo:

After finishing our credos, we put them into a wallpaper:

We also created a “personal logo”, that defined us a whole. We went into keynote, and used shapes to show our interests and values. Here’s my logo:

 

I chose the balance shape, cause I’m always balancing things in my life, from sports to music. I chose the Fire shape because I’m always heating up, by improving in different skills. And the boat, because I live waterfront, and that defines who I am.

 

The last few days were the most defining for me. From doing new activities, to going out of my comfort zone. We went from having lots of fun, to the polar opposite. 

On the Thursday of that week, we went straight to the lake that morning, After a short discussion, Johnno encouraged us to “wash our faces in snow”, as a way to feel energized. Which for me, worked really well. 

We then went up to the high ropes course, and we all shared our goal for that day.

Then, the real fun began…. My group started with the “trustfalling” activity, something that I had never done before. We gradually worked ourselves up from smaller falls, to bigger ones. I felt really confident during this entire activity, and I had trust in my peers to catch me. Once we got near the end, Johnno really stepped up the activity. He placed a chair on top of a table out on the deck. At first we were confused what it was for, and when he said we had to fall off that, we all said “no shot”! I went 2nd, and I did it pretty easily with no hesitation. 

The 2nd wild activity of the day was the High ropes course. Accomplishing this course was part of my goal for the day, so I was set on fulfilling that. I also did a milk carton stacking challenge, where we would have to stack as many cartons as possible, without them tipping over.

Later that night, the heavy stuff came…..

After dinner we did this activity called “crossing the line”. In this game, if the question asked resounded to you, you would cross the line. At first, the questions were pretty straightforward, and almost everyone crossed the line. Gradually, the questions got deeper and more personal. Things such as, “do you have a relative that’s died of cancer?”. And as things progressed, the emotions ran higher and higher. And for me, emotions were high as well, to see other struggle with different things really got me……

In conclusion, Loon Lake was a rollercoaster of a ride! We went from being excited, to being in straight tears. One thing I noticed from this experience was how my mentality developped over time. At first, I wasn’t all that excited about Loon Lake, and had a pretty negative attitude. But, at the end, I felt changed in a good way. Through Johnno’s teachings, and the activities, I was able to take control of my own life, and uplift others in the process. As I mentioned earlier, this trip felt like months, which is a good thing. 

Thanks for reading!

 

Humanities, Individual Project, Pages, Reflections

Gold digger Post

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Hello readers, and welcome to my first blog post of grade 10! This year so far has been a lot different, and I’m excited to write to you guys this year!

Our first project of the year was called “gold digger”, and was all about the gold rush in BC. Specifically, the Fraser River gold rush, and the Cariboo gold rush. We started our project by establish our need to knows. We did this while watching a documentary called “Gold fever”. This doc explained gold in BC, how it was discovered, and which groups were involved. We also wrote some preliminary notes, that gives us an initial understanding of the gold rush as a whole.

Our first assignment was to create a timeline that demonstrated the events that occurred, and what changed during the BC gold rushes. We created our timelines in “Canva”, an app that is really useful for graphic design. Here’s what our timeline looked like:

 In this timeline, we discussed the events leading up to the Fraser and Cariboo gold rushes. We also discussed confederation, and how it was affected by the gold rush.

 

We then learned the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing. Summarizing meaning to condense source material, still in your own words. And paraphrasing meaning putting something into your own words int he same detail as a source. We  further explored this by using “craft”, and app where you make notes instead of “taking” them.

We then began our first keystone of the project, which was a web of cause of consequences, something that we had done previously in PLP. The key question of this assignment was “How did the gold rush shape BC?” Along with filling out this sheet, we wrote a summarizing paragraph to accompany it. Here’s a photo of my completed worksheet:

The purpose of this assignment was to organize our thoughts, and understand the topic more thoroughly.

Our 2nd keystone of this project was creating our own “character cards, of the gold rush. We created them in pages, and these characters had to be fictional. To build ideas for our character, we “made” notes in craft. I was assigned “black Americans in the gold rush” as my topic. I found some good sources that explained their involvement, and I found sources that talked about significant people. 

Here’s what the app craft looks like:

After completing our notes, we had to start on our character cards. These cards had to explain the character, key details, and it had to include two “artifacts”, that described the character.

Here’s what my card looked like:

I was proud of my work, and I thought I had described the character well. This character would be important for the final product…..

Then, we began our story outline. And, surprise, the final product is a story about our assigned group of people. So my story was about black Americans in the BC gold rush. Here’s what my outline looked like:

 My story was sounding good, but I felt there was a few plot holes. I had never writen much, so all of this was new for me. 

And now for the final story. All of our note-taking and note-making had been leading up to this. To shorten it down for you guys, my story was about a man from San Francisco named Tyrese Laquavion III. He wanted to strike riches, and to make that happen he endured several expeditions, created buiseness, (with the help of others). And in the end, it all came together. 

Here’s a link to my full story:

Black Americans in the BC gold rush

As previously mentioned, I’m not much of a story teller, so this was a gruelling process for me. To get an idea of what to incorporate, I asked my sister, (who’s in PLP 12). She’s a much better author than me, so she set me on the right track. She taught me about detail, setting, and how to move from idea to idea in your writing. 

After submitting our first draft, we did some in-class peer critique. I found this to be very helpful, as everyone was insightful, and clear. I got mostly positive feedback, except for some spelling mistakes and small mistakes. So, my revision was limited as a result.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this project, as we tried out new apps, and learned about story writing. It was also cool to learn about BC history, and what happened before confederation. New concepts were explored in this project, with “note-making” as opposed to note-taking. In all, this project was great, and a good start to PLP 10.

Thanks for reading!!

Reflections

TPOL Post

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Hello teachers and parents, and welcome to my TPOL. In this presentation, I’ll talk about my growth this year, and how I’m ready for grade 10. Moreover, I’ll talk about the core competencies, and how I’ve achieved on those this year. 

The driving question is: “Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?”.

I feel ready because I’ve grown a lot this year, and I’ve learned many key skills. For example, this year we learned about film, and how to conduct interviews. Furthermore, I learned about establishing historical significance, and learning about different point of views. 

“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.”

First, I’m going to talk about my growth in Scimatics.

Scimatics:

In Scimatics this year, we learned about many different topics. From exponents, to chemistry, to Rube Goldberg machines, to learning about reproduction. Moreover, I learned many different skills, such as working with others, communicating, and using time wisely. 

The project that I struggled with the most had to be “game of exponent laws”. The math was tough to understand, and I found it difficult to work with my partner. Eventually, I understood the math by watching YouTube videos, and by asking Mr. gross. And as for the issues with my partner, I learned a valuable lesson to communicate better with others when doing a group project. 

My strengths this year in Scimatics this year were communicating my ideas to others. For example, I’m good at creating video presentations and doing in-class presentations. I’ve also improved in my ability to work with others. A good example of this was in my “metaphor machines” project, because I collaborated well with my group, and I generated ideas of my own. 

As for my growth, I really improved my math skills throughout the year. Also, I got better at understanding concepts quicker and more thoroughly. A good example of this was in the “mitosis vs meiosis” project. I showed this by creating a good video that explained the differences and similarities between the two processes. I did this by reading the workbook, and using google to research these topics. 

As for support in this class, I need to be able to manage my schedule, so that I’m able to complete assignments on time. Also, I need to take advantage of the time that I do have. 

Humanities:

We did lots of cool projects in humanities this year, such as revolutions on trial, case for a nation, war to end all wars, and most recently, the exhibition. 

One of my biggest “FAILS” this year was when I was doing the “Revolutions on Trial” project. We were presenting our revolutions and it was my turn to present my team’s evidence, and I forgot to take off my mask, so my speaking was really quiet. So my argument wasn’t as effective as it could’ve been, but we ended up winning the trial anyways.

My strengths in humanities this year were leadership, and being able to take charge for my group. Also, I was really organized with my work, and met due dates regularly. Also, I’m a good communicator, as I’m able to keep in touch with my group members out of school time. 

One of my goals earlier in the year was improving my blog posts. I wanted to add more media and be more expressive. I also wanted to write more un-related blog posts that further enhanced my blog. Now at the end of the year, I’d say that I’ve accomplished most of these skills. 

My goal earlier in the year was to reach an extending grade. I would say that I’ve pretty much accomplished that. In some competencies I’ve extended, and some I’ve accomplished. But, I think that was a good goal to have because it really pushed me to get better. 

Now to talk about Maker.

Maker:

We did some pretty challenging in maker 9 this year, such as Destination Imagination, Vibrant video, my first film, and believe in good. 

Did all the work you completed this year meet your standards?

Yeah, I would say so, I had many tough projects in maker so completing them felt really good. I was most proud when I finished DI, considering how much time and work I had put in. My team had presented a good solution, and we placed pretty good. Furthermore, in the First film project, I was really proud with my final doc. I had spent all those hours filming, editing, and interviewing. Also, I had gone through lots of revising and redoing, so it felt good to finish that project as well. 

My strengths in maker this year were being a innovative designer and being a collaborator. For example, in DI I created a very good set for our presentation. Also during DI, I communicated well with my group on different to-dos, and due dates. I showed innovative design by creating the set in DI, as my set was on wheels, and could turn around easily.

Here’s a video of my set in action:

IMG_2284

My goals at the start of the year, were to become a more artistic learner. For example, by drawing more often, making more creative designs, and by becoming better with technology. For example, in my assessment choice boards for “believe in good”, I used many artistic aspects.

My goal at the beginning of the year was an accomplished grade. 

I would say that I achieved a grade in-between a accomplished and extending. 

In summation, this year has been lots of fun, with new projects, and learning new skills. I feel as though I have accomplished most of my goals that I set earlier in the year. These include communication with others, improving my blog posts, and creating more artistic work. I demonstrated this through DI, and through my choice board activities in “believe in good”. This year brought upon new frontiers, with our first learning advance, and DI being in person. I’ve also learned many new skills, such as filmmaking, establishing historical significance, and telling the right story. 

I hope you all enjoyed my TPOL!

Group Project, Reflections

Spring Exhibition 2022

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. Today’s post is about the PLP spring exhibition. For the exhibition, we were tasked with showing how we got into PLP as a 7th grader. I was tasked with the conclusion, so I showed how all of our understandings came together. The driving question in this project was: “What is a PLP learner?”. A PLP learner is someone who’s open to critique, someone  who can work well others, and someone who can adapt to different circumstances. 

The first thing we did was assign stations. I was assigned the conclusion, and my partners were Nolan, Hannah, Cooper, Xander, Julian, Alfie, and Brooke. 

We started things off with a brainstorming activity:

We had brainstormed some pretty good ideas, such as doing an instant challenge, having skittles as our food, and displaying our documentaries on a projector. All of which were included in the actual exhibition. Next, we had to formulate our ideas into a “pitch form”, which we would present to the class. 

We then curated our first draft of the pitch form. The main requirement for the pitch form was that the grade 8s had to understand them easily. Since, there would be grade 8’s in our station. So, at first the grade 8s had trouble understanding our pitch form. We then revised and revised till it was readable for the grade 8’s.

Here’s what the final pitch form looked like:

Another task that we had was creating an “exhibition layout”.  The purpose of this milestone was to visualize what our room would look like, and how much space we would have for different things. Just like the pitch form, this layout had to be clear enough, so that the grade 8’s could understand.

Here’s what our final layout looked like:

As the date of the exhibition loomed, we built our sets for our room. This included building clouds, putting up streamers, setting up our projector, and creating the “reflection station”, and instant challenge station. 

Then the day came, we rushed to set up our stations. I was at the instant challenge station with cooper. We ran a challenge where guests had to create a cup pyramid using a “rubber band/string thing”, that lifted the cups up. Originally, we were gonna have the guests compete against the grade 8’s, but due to time reasons, we had the guests attempt to do it as fast as possible. The record was 22 seconds! During exhibition night, we were also allowed time to see the other grade’s presentations. I found some to be very interesting, (I also really liked the food they had). 

In summation, I really enjoyed my second ever exhibition. I would say that this one was harder than the first, because it required a lot more preparation. Also, I liked how we had more say in what our station included, I thought mine was cool. Even though it was a lot of work, it was worth it to be able to present to friends and family!

Thanks for reading this post!

Pages, Reflections, Scimatics

Time is Money post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve completed in Scimatics 9. This project is called “time is money”, and is all about conducting a buiseness and predicting your earnings over time using linear equations. The driving question in this project is: “How can we predict our finances for the future?”. We can do this by using linear graphs and equations. Also, by identifying the determining factors of your buiseness, such as wage, expenses, and startup costs. 

To begin the project, we had to choose our buiseness. In Showbie, we commented our top 3 choices, mine were selling prawns, collecting bottles, and power washing. In the end, I chose power washing as my buiseness. 

We then had to determine our expenses, wages, and startup costs for our buiseness. We organized this in a numbers spreadsheet. 

Here’s my spreadsheet:

After creating the spreadsheet, we took the data and put it in a equation. This equation would determine our initial profit from this buiseness. 

Here’s my equation:

In the equation, y= total earnings, x= time, and b= initial startup costs. Since I had such a big startup cost, my initial profit was -635.5$. However, I still didn’t know how long it would take me to break even. Or how much I would make in a typical work year. 

To determine those numbers, we took the results from the equation, and put them in a graph. 

Here’s what my graph looked like:

Using the graph, I determined that it would take me around 43 hours of work to break even. And that in a work year of around 1700 hours, I would make 25,000$. 

Now for the curricular competencies. 

Understanding and solving:

I accomplished this skill. During class time, i spent most of my time on task, however, there were some times where I was off task. Furthermore, I completed most of my assignments on time, except for the khan academy quizzes, as it took me awhile to understand the concepts. 

Communicating and representing:

I extended in this skill. My equations was accurate and descriptive. Also, my graphs we’re clear, and demonstrated profit over a year, and how many hours it would take to break even. Furthermore, these were clearly demonstrated and explained in my video. 

Connecting and reflecting:

I extended this skill. In my video, I compared my buiseness to a career at McDonald’s, and how much you would make over a year. I also clearly explained how my buiseness affects the environment. My business uses gas, so I predicted that my buiseness negatively affects the environment over time. 

Now for the final product, the video. 

In the video, we had to explain our buiseness, whether it would be successful, and how it affects the environment. I created mine in iMovie, and added voiceover underneath the images I was showing. 

To summarize, I had lots of fun in this project, as it was cool to simulate y own buiseness. However, my buiseness didn’t turn out to be that good, cause I only made 25,000$ a year. In contrast, a job at a grocery store would pay much more. Furthermore, I was really proud of my final video, I thought it explained my buiseness really well. 

Thanks for reading this post! 

Individual Project, Maker, Reflections

First Film post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog. It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and a lot has happened in PLP 9. Today I’ll be talking about the project we just finished in Maker 9. This project is called “my first film”, and was all about documentaries. In the end, we created our own documentary, on a topic of interest. The driving question was: “How can I engage and entertain an audience using my video and storytelling skills?”. You can do this by using interviews, b-roll, multiple angles, and many other skills. 

To start this project off, we conducted our own interviews. We were split into groups, and we chose a topic and specific set of questions. Our topic was: “does pineapple belong on pizza?”. Over that weekend, we had to interview a family member or friend and record it. I interviewed my friend Tyler. After we each conducted an interview, we brought our clips together, and created one big video. This assignment was really helpful, cause it was our first crack at interviewing, and it tested our video making skills.

During the entirety of the project, we watched a “doc a day”. While we watched these docs, we answered questions about them. It really helped us in getting ideas for our documentaries.

Then, it was time to determine our documentary topics. We filled out this interest brief sheet, to get some ideas:

I chose to do my doc on granite falls, since I live really close to it, and it’s something I’m interested in. I focused on the falls’s history, and how its changed over the years.

Here’s a picture of granite falls:

The first step was to create our treatment and Logline. A treatment and Logline are breif descriptions that specifically explain your topic. 

Here’s what my treatment and Logline looked like:

After we completed the treatment and Logline, we created our screenplays. A screenplay breaks down each shot, and what’s in the shot. So it was an outline of what our final documentary would look like. 

Here’s what the first draft of my screenplay looked like:

My first draft was good, put it needed a few fine tunes. I needed to add more detail on how the falls are currently used, and give examples. So I got to work on my second draft:

We then created our storyboards:

In this storyboard, we started to envision our shots and what the doc would look like. We also had to include the different camera angles that we planned on using.

Now for the documentary….

We started by organizing interviews, and beginning to film our shots. It was a tough process to plan an interview, as I had to find a time that worked for me and my interviewees. But, it wasn’t that tough to organize film time, as granite falls is pretty close to my house. 

After we handed in our rough cuts, we did a peer critique activity. At that point, my doc wasn’t fully completed so most of my critique was pretty straight forward. However, I was told that I only had a middle and end, and I was missing an intro. Also, that I had to connect the topic to myself, and what the falls meant to me… 

Then I began to craft the final cut…..

I took the critique and used it to improve upon my documentary:

To summarize, I learned lots about videography and filmmaking in this project. Those skills are really important to me as a learner, since we’ll be building of these skills next year. I also really enjoyed making my documentary. It was cool to teach others about the areas around me. The toughest part in this project was the editing, it was really tough to sync everything together.

Thanks for reading!

Individual Project, Pages, Reflections, Scimatics

MITOSIS VS. MEIOSIS

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve completed in Scimatics 9. This project was called, “Meiosis models”, and was about meiosis and mitosis, and how they are similar and different. To shoo our understanding we made models, conducted experiments, and created a narrated video to show our understanding. The driving question in this project was: “How is the reproduction of cells essential to the survival of organisms?” It’s essential because if the species ceases to reproduce, the species becomes very weak and more vulnerable to extinction.

To start of this project, we created a “project start mind map”. In this map, we added our thoughts, questions, and examples.

Here’s what mine looked like:

My understanding was pretty low at the beginning, so I had a lot of questions about this topic. 

Then, to begin to build our understanding, we did a workbook. These workbooks had info about meiosis, mitosis, and how they are used everyday. This workbook helped me lots in understanding the project as a whole.

Then to test our knowledge, we did a Khan Academy quiz. It seemed that there was a lot of new content in the tests, so it took me awhile to get a good score. In the end, I got a solid 8/9.

The next step was completing our Meiosis and Mitosis models.

In this milestone, we used “tinkercad”, a design software, to create these 3D models. 

Here’s my models:

Now to go over the competencies of this project:

The competencies were: Questioning and Predicting, Planning and Conducting, and Scientific Communication.

 

Questioning and Predicting:

I demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of this competency. I used my class time well, finished assignments early, but most of all, created really good work. There wasn’t really a tie where I was off task, but next time when I have nothing to do, I could look forward to other assignments/projects.

Planning and Conducting:

I demonstrated an extending level in this competency. At first, I didn’t understand the experiment all that well, and I made many mistakes. But, I asked others for help and eventually understood the procedure. I didn’t get the greatest of microscope results, but we later did another experiment, and I got much better results. As my first microscope experience, I think it went well, and I learned a lot.

Scientific Communication:  

I demonstrated a solid, sophisticated understanding in this competency. My video effective showed my understanding, I used good vocabulary, and effective transitions. I also used my models to explain both Meiosis and Mitosis well. My voiceovers were concise, and were synced well. 

The final step of this project was the Final narrated video. In this video, we combined our knowledge of the processes, our models, and our experiment photos to demonstrate mitosis and meiosis. I created my video in iMovie, a software that I’m pretty familiar with. 

Here’s my final video:

I’m pretty proud of my video, even though I didn’t do some things that well. For example, my final models could’ve been more detailed, and I mispronounced some words in my voiceovers.

To summarize, I learned lots about reproduction in this project. At first, I had no idea what mitosis or meiosis were, I couldn’t even pronounce them. I learned how to use a microscope, use tinkercad, and used iMovie more in this project. The toughest part of this project had to be the Khan academy test, as it really tested my knowledge. There was alot of new content, so it took me a while to understand. My favorite part of this project was making my narrated video. I always find video making a fun thing, so I put a good amount of effort into my video. 

Thanks for reading!