Category Archives: Reflections

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!

 

 

Reflections

War to end all Wars Post

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 Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog!

On this blog I write about my progress in school, and what I learn from every project.

Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve finished in humanities, “a War to end all Wars”. This project was all about World War One, which occurred from 1914-1918. The driving question in this project was: “How might we use graphic novels to understand Canada’s involvement in WW1?” We use them to learn, build ideas, and understand key topics of WW1. In this project we used a graphic novel called: “World War One”, by Alan Cowsill. We used this graphic novel to build ideas for our OWN graphic novel.

To demonstrate my learning, I’ll highlight the milestones/stepping stones that helped me answer the driving question best. 

First we had to understand cause and consequence, since it is one of the historical thinking concepts. To understand what it meant, we did a class activity. We wrote what we thought each term meant, then we shared out. 

We then started to read the graphic novel. I finished it pretty fast, since it was pretty short. I also found the storyline interesting as well. 

As a reflection for the first part of the book, we filled out a 3-2-1 chart:

 

 

 

 We then chose our comic topics. I chose “the battle of Vimy ridge”. I chose that as my topic because its one of the greatest Canadian moments ever, and I thought it would be cool to demonstrate. 

To develop an understanding of our topics, we filled out a “Five W’s chart”:

This chart gave us an idea of the people involved, specific dates, and why this battle began.

It really helped me in developing an understanding of my topic.

 

We also filled out a “story spine”. This spine was a bit of a rough outline for our comic.

Then, we started building the final product. For our final comic we had to have at least 10 panels, and have a splash panel and a open panel. We also had to have 2 characters in our story, (fictional or non-fictional). 

I then built my really rough storyboard:

 

As you can see, my drawing are really bad in this draft.. But I think I got my ideas out. 

I handed this in, and began my final comic.

 

For our final comic, we used “Comic Life”, a good app to create different comics. This app had templates to start you off, so it was pretty easy to get started. One thing I realized from this project is how long it took me to do my drawings. It took me an hour to draw my title page! Also, the story was another important aspect that was needed. 

After all those hours, I had completed my comic!

Classic

 

After submitting our comics, we did a peer critique activity. They said that my story was solid, I used accurate dates and times, and that my drawings were well traced. However, my drawings were a little inconsistent at times. 

I think I should’ve spent more time on my drawings and used my time better. But, I’m proud of my story.

In summation, I enjoyed learning about WW1, as I’m really interested in wars. Also, I liked making a comic, and using comic life. I learned lots about my topic (the battle of Vimy ridge), which is one of Canada’s greatest moments. I got familiar with more sketching softwares, such as Sketches Pro, and Keynote. In all, I learned lots about WW1, and I’m proud of my final comic!

Thanks for reading!

Maker, Reflections

Vibrant video post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog.

Today’s post is about the recent post we’ve finished in Maker 9. This project is called “Vibrant Video”, and was all about video creation. During this project we learned about use of angles, sound, and we learned about movie history. We also made some movies as well. 

Firstly, we had to lay the groundwork for this project. In class, we filled out on whiteboards our knowledge of movies. We put down definitions, and examples that demonstrated our understanding of these terms. 

Here’s what my group wrote about film:

Our next task was Skill 1, think like a moviemaker. For this assignment we had to create a video that featured our hobbies. My video was about working out:

 

This of course was my first time really making a quality video so I was proud. I made sure to include multiple angels, and different sceneries. However, I could’ve used more effects that “clips” provided. 

The next milestone was Skill 2, Silent movie. For this skill we had to use one setting, use different angles, and use an “aged film” filter. 

Here’s my film:

 

 

I was really proud of my video in this skill. I thought the scenery in my film was good, my soundtrack was good as well. Also, I used some creative angles, and included lots of “b-roll”. In all, I thought this film was a big improvement from my previous one.

The next assignment, my favorite one for sure, was Skill 3, Tutorial video. This was a group effort, my partners were http://www.blog44.ca/tevab/, and http://www.blog44.ca/cooperk/.

We had freedom as to what our video was about, so it was pretty fun. We based our video around drinking water. However, we had to follow a strict storyboard format, which we then transferred our clips to iMovie. 

Here’s our amazing video:

As you can tell, our video was a bit ridiculous….

There were a couple of things that didn’t go all that great. For example, our edits weren’t that smooth, since that was our first time using that specific template in iMovie. Nevertheless, I thought our video was hilarious and followed the requirements well.

 

Furthermore, we had to do these different challenges during the project. I did the “add a song challenge”and the “play with angles” challenge.

Here’s what I created:

IMG_2368

 

And here’s my “playing with angles” challenge.

IMG_2414

 

Finally, the last skill, Special effects sequence. This was another really fun assignment, as we were allowed to use all sorts of effects. My group used lots of green screen, as we green-screened things like water, a dock, and a shark.

Here’s our vid.

As you can see, this video’s pretty funny as well. Looking back, we should’ve used more settings and more effects in our video. We also could’ve incorporated more characters.  

In summation, I learned lots of things about film during this project. I learned about angles, story boarding, and how to shoot in different settings. Also, I learned how to further use iMovie, as well as clips. I’m most proud of my silent film, as I thought I used angles well, and told a good story with a twist.

 

Individual Project, Reflections

Believe in Good Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to the blog. Today’s post is about the recent project we’ve finished in Maker 9. This project was called “Believe in Good”, and was centred around the book: “7 habits of highly effective teens”, by Stephen Covey. This book suggests you ways to improve your quality of life. For example, how you handle problems, organize your life, and work with others. The driving question in this project was: “How can I be my most effective self?”. You can do this by organizing your life, working in synergy with with others, and renewing yourself regularly. 

The activities that helped us to answer the driving question were the workbook and the assessment choice board activities. 

The first understanding was the “Set-up”. This section was all about getting familiar with what the habits meant, and how to apply them. The main idea for my assessment choice board activity was “what I balance in my life”.

 

We also created a personal mission statement. A personal mission statement demonstrates what you want to do with your life. This statement interlocks with habits 1 and 2, be proactive and begin with the end in mind. For our our personal mission statement table, we had to include at least 5 figures that have inspired us.

Here’s my table:

 

The next topic that we explored was the “personal bank account”. The “PBA”, is how you feel about yourself. It’s like a savings account, you can make deposits and withdrawals with the things you say and do. So you want your PBA to have a high number.  

Here’s a picture of my PBA:

The next section that we covered was the “Public Victory”. This section is about the “relationship bank account”, which is like the PBA, but it’s about how you treat others. For my assessment choice board in this section, I created a keynote slide that had examples of deposits and withdrawals in your “RBA”. 

Here’s that slide:

The next section was “Renewal”. This section is cantered around four pieces, Mental, Physical, Social, and Spiritual. Renewal is one of the most important pieces of your life, cause if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you’ll miss it. 

Here’s my renewal assessment choice board activity:

The next section of this project was the Final Product. 

For the final product, we created 3 pieces of learning that demonstrated our learning for each habit. We had to create one visual piece, audio, and kinesthetic piece. 

For my visual pice, I choose to create a keynote slide that listed good and bad examples of habits 3, 4, and 5. 

Here’s that piece:

For my audio piece, I did a podcast about Habits 1 and 2. I talked about how I use these habits in my life.

 

 

 

And finally, for my kinesthetic piece, I did a video of myself and my sister canoeing, to represent habit 6, synergy.

 

 

To summarize, learning about the 7 habits taught me many things. It taught me how to express ideas and understanding through media, and how to influence positivity into my life. When we were first assigned the 7 habits reading, I didn’t have much interest in the topic. To me at the time, it was just another book that we had to read for school. I quickly discovered that these habits really related to aspects of my life. I found that these habits could really have a positive effect on myself.

 

Group Project, Pages, Reflections

Destination Imagination Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. 

Today’s post is about the recent project that I’ve completed in Maker 9, called Destination Imagination. This project follows the creative process, and it requires hard work. Each team is a assigned a challenge. In my case, I got the Fine Arts challenge, “Tricky Tales”. This challenge was all about a Trickster, an Illusion, and a costume transformation. My group members were https://www.blog44.ca/inesm/, https://www.blog44.ca/mateok/, https://www.blog44.ca/cooperk/, and https://www.blog44.ca/dylans/. Our group name was “The Coin did it for us”.

     

The first task was a test that evaluated our initial knowledge of the challenge. I didn’t do all that well in the test, but I eventually learned all the aspects of the challenge really well. 

The next step was to determine the details of our challenge and also assign roles.

Here’s the roles that we assigned:

 

I was the “DRI” in our group, so I made sure that everyone was on task, and fulfilling their roles. 

Here’s the different aspects that were required for our performance:

The next step was to start building our challenge. It was difficult at first for us to brainstorm ideas. At first, our idea was about a rich hotel owner that was a bad guy, and his decisions would soon come back to get him. However, we made our story about a medieval king that gambled away a sacred coin. This sacred coin kept the peacefulness and serenity of the town, so when it was gambled away, the town of gregoria fell into a famine. (I don’t wanna spoil too much). (You can watch the video at the start of the post).

The script took lots of work to make. It took me and my partner Mateo 6 hours to write it!

And I wrote it during my vacation in whistler.

Anyways, we read through the script in-front of the teachers. And they had one big question.. “Where’s your stuff??”. Meaning our set, costume illusion etc. 

So the next step began, building. The building would end up to be the hardest part of this project.I was in charge of building the set, and I did a bit of the painting too.

Mateo had the idea to put our 2 sets on a dolly. So that it could be turned easily and quickly.

Here’s a video of our completed set in action. IMG_2284

 

The first set is the town setting/castle entrance. And the second is inside the castle. 

The structure is made of wood, connected to the dolly with zip ties, and I used a hockey stick for extra support on the sides. My group and I spent lots of time in and out of school to build stuff and paint the set. 

We then did our second dress rehearsal, but it didn’t go so well. Since we hadn’t had the opportunity to practice transitions. We then spent the time to make those transitions smooth.

Then it was spring break, we used the break to memorize our lines and get familiar with the performance. I had the main role of “Radcliffe”, so I had lots of lines, (and a song).

When we got back from the break, everybody seemed nervous for the Tournament. We used the last bits of class time we had to practice as much as possible. 

The day of the tournament we were all really nervous and scared. We had spent months to prepare for this, so it was a pretty big moment. 

After our performance, we felt pretty good getting it over with, but we still had the Instant Challenge. (Unfortunately, I can’t discuss the details of the instant challenge with you guys). But I can say that we did pretty well, however our performance got halted by the 2 minute timer. As we ran it on too long.

Here’s a picture of the feedback we got from the appraisers for our MAIN challenge:

They didn’t tell us our placement at the tournament, however they will tell us soon. I’ll make sure to post how we placed. 

In conclusion, this project was just as tough as I expected it to be. With the tough deadlines, constant revising, group members not getting along, and just building our presentation. Nevertheless, it feels good to be done this project. One thing this project teaches me is that this is what the real world is like. Tough group work is something that I’ll for sure see in my adult life. Also, constant revising and refinement, and getting critique from others. 

Group Project, Reflections, Scimatics

Metaphor Machines

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. 

Today’s post is about the recent project that we’ve completed in Scimatics 9. 

This project is called “Metaphor Machines”, and was all about circuits and the scientific method. This was a group project, my partners were: https://www.blog44.ca/coltonw/, https://www.blog44.ca/theryns/, https://www.blog44.ca/caleg/.

The curricular competencies in this project were Questioning and Predicting, Reasoning and Analyzing, Planning and conducting, and Scientific communication. 

Questioning and Predicting: 

In this project, I think I used my class time to my advantage. I was always on track with assignments, and asked questions if I didn’t understand. However, there were times where myself and my group partners were off task. For example, we got sidetracked with something else, or we weren’t that keen on getting much done. In the end, I accomplished this skill.

Reasoning and Analyzing:

Both my individual and group blueprints were detailed and specific. However, in the final blueprint we could’ve done a better job in measuring different parts of the machine. In my individual blueprint, I thought my ideas were pretty good, but we only included a few of my ideas in the final machine. I accomplished this skill.

Here’s a picture of my individual blueprint:  

 

And here’s my final group blueprint:

 

Planning and Conducting:

We built some pretty creative circuits in our machine. For example, we built an eye shaped circuit, a question mark shaped circuit. Furthermore, we had some cool switches. We had one made of tin foil, and one that triggered by magnets connecting. As for our circuit diagram, it took me awhile to figure out the math. To figure it out I asked a fellow student, who told me to use the “PHET simulator”. I then found the current of my circuit and completed the diagram. 

I accomplished this skill.

Scientific Communication:

I was in charge of editing the video and handing it in. The voiceovers were clear and concise, however I should’ve explained the scientific process better in my voiceovers. Also, could’ve made it a bit longer and I should’ve got more camera angles for my video. The voiceovers could’ve been synchronized with video better as well. I accomplished this skill.

In summation, this project was difficult and I learned lots about circuits, and the scientific method. I liked that it was a group project, and that we had many options as to how our machine was designed. This project included graphic design, wiring, and video creation. 

Thanks for reading!!

Individual Project, Reflections

Case for a Nation Post

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CboK0VqJmDm/?igshid=OTE2OGRmYjI=

 

 

Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog. 

Today’s post is about the recent project I’ve been working on, “Case for a Nation”. 

This project is all about nationalism, and the relation between events from the past, to today. 

The driving question was: “How can an understanding of nationalism of the past, help us to make sense of today?” An understanding of the past can help us to discover the reasoning behind events, who were involved, and what the effects were.

To demonstrate my learning, I’ll be highlighting the milestones/stepping stones that helped me most in answering the driving question. 

Firstly, I’ll be highlighting the Current events activity. In this activity, we had to reaserching a topic, and then relate it to nationalism. My current event choice was “the Brian Flores lawsuit”. Former NFL head coach, Brian Flores sued the NFL over racism. 

This event helped me to better understand identities and perspectives around the world. Also, to further understand the reasoning behind events. 

Here’s a picture of my current events doc:

 The keystone in this activity was “How are nationalism and identity connected?”. They’re connected because ones nationalist reveals their identity.

The second event I’d like to talk about is “the confederation simulation” activity. In this activity, each group represented a different province. My group represented Canada West. Also, in this activity, each province had to present a list of needs. We then later held the “British North America” conference. In this conference, it was revealed what each province would get/lose from the signing of this act.

This activity taught me about Canadian history, and how Canada was formed. Moreover, it taught me about about the nationalist ideas at the times. For example, the validation of power, greed, and expansion.

The keystone in this activity was “How did nationalism change BNA?”. It changed “BNA” because each province had varying terms, and needs.

The last events I’d like to mention is my “Image Curation”.

The final product in this project was an instagram post that had 3 images, and a supporting caption that explained our topic. My topic was “Lord Selkirk and the battle of seven oaks”. My partners were Theryn and Cale. 

Here’s the images that I created:

As you can see, the first image is a drawn on image, the second is a quote, and the third is an image of our choice. We first crafted our drafts, got feedback, and then applied it. The feedback that I got was to improve my quote. They said that the image in the background of my quote was too plain. I then applied this critique to my next draft, and I made it a lot better. 

This milestone was apart of the the keystone “How can I write to support an opinion?”.

You can do this by using media/tech to describe that opinion and explain them well.

Now for the Final product, the Instagram Post.

To look at my post go to the instagram account: “historicalperspectives2022”. https://www.instagram.com/historicalperspectives2022/.

 

In summation, I enjoyed learning about nationalism and identity. I learned that nationalism can be used positively and negatively. Also, I learned lots about my research topic, “lord Selkirk and the battle of seven oaks”. I liked how this project had writing, as well as artistic design. 

Environment, Learning Advance, Reflections

Loon Lake Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. 

Today’s post is about our learning advance to loon lake.

This “learning advance” lasted from February 14th to 17th. We did many things during this trip. Such as DI sweat box, Shelter building, laser tag, battle archery, and many more. Also, the food was really good at Loon Lake.

To reflect on our experiences, we wrote in a book after each day. In this book we would reflect on activities, competencies, and what we ate that day. A lot happened at Loon Lake, so my book’s pretty full.

The competencies that I best demonstrated at Loon Lake were Communication and Collaborating. I showed these skills in Laser tag by developing strategies with my teammates, and just by communicating well. Another activity we did, Battle Archery required these skills as well. For instance, to develop a strategy on where to shoot our arrows, and to collaborate with each other to win the game. 

I also really enjoyed Evening Fun at Loon Lake. We played basketball, watched the olympics, and played board games. My favorite activity was basketball, as it was fun to play with my friends. 

Here’s my Book:

 Another great part of this advance was my cabin. We stayed in a really fancy building, and most of my friends were in my cabin. In this image you can see Colton and Dylan building a couch fort. 

 Here you can see a picture of Luca with the caption “Tired as F”.

After he posted this on his story it turned into the camp joke. We’d always say: “are you tired as F?”. 

Colton ended up drawing a picture of Luca’s infamous “tired as F”.

(The image is attached below):

To summarize, I really enjoyed my first PLP retreat. I enjoyed the area we stayed, it was really pretty, and it reminded me of my house. I liked the laser tag, the basketball, and the shelter building. In this advance, I built on my communication skills. I did this in laser tag, shelter building, and battle archery. In future field studies, I’m going to take more pictures. Also, I want to work on the “Personal Awareness and Responsibility” skill. I think at times during Loon Lake I wasn’t the most responsible or aware of my surroundings. Nevertheless, I’m really excited for advances in the future. (Especially California).

Thanks for reading!

Individual Project, Reflections

MPOL Post

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Hello Teachers and parents, and welcome to my Mid Year Presentation 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 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 Humanities. 

Humanities:

So far this year, we’ve completed three humanities projects: People and the Environment, which was a project about writing letters to government officials/organizations, that were about an issue that was important to us. Revolutions on Trial, which was a project about researching revolutions. In this project we had “mock trials” for each revolution. I was in the Xinhai group. And most recently, Working with Words, which was about writing poetry that showed who we were right now.

Some of my strengths in Humanities are being a leader, and staying on track with the work that is assigned, I don’t think I’ve had a single late hand in all year. Moreover, I think there’s room for improvement. For example, one of my goals for next semester is to improve the structure of my blog posts. I could accomplish this by adding more media, and by being more descriptive in my posts. 

To be able to reach these goals I need self-support. I have to be confident and I have to push myself to succeed. I also have to take it upon myself to improve, I could do this by asking others or researching.

To give you a better idea of what I need to work on, I’m going to talk about the skills that I want to develop this year. Like I mentioned earlier, I want to improve on my blog posts. I could do this by being more descriptive, and by enhancing my posts with media and links.

Furthermore, I think I could improve my technology skills. I could do this by exploring more apps, and by watching tutorials. I think accomplishing this goal would really help with my learning, especially in Maker. 

                                                                    

Another one of my goals for next semester is to achieve an extending in humanities. I could do this by “thinking outside the box” in certain aspects. For example, in extending work that I’ve seen, there’s always a unique part of that piece of work. So I think if I put that extra bit of effort in, my grades will improve. 

Also, I think I need to work on my communication skills. During the semester, there have been times where communication was lacking in group projects. Achieving this skill would improve the work that my group puts out to the world. 

There were also times where I felt dissatisfied during the process of group projects. For example, if the workload was put onto one person, or if people were off task.  

 

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

Scimatics:

In Scimatics we’ve completed three projects. Game of Exponent Laws, which was a project about math, and creating a math game that included exponents. Correlation vs. Causation, which was a project about creating graphs that demonstrated multiple factors. Chemistry Stories, which was about creating a animation that demonstrated the covalent and ionic bonding processes. 

My strengths in Scimatics are communicating ideas well. For example, I do well in class presentations, and explaining my ideas when called upon in class. However, I could improve my math skills in this class. In the Game of exponent laws project, I felt as though it took me longer than most to understand concepts. Also, I felt behind in the project, cause I didn’t fully understand the concepts. I could improve my math skills by watching YouTube videos, or by asking Mr. Gross. 

In science, I think I need to improve my “Processing and Analyzing”. For example, in the “Chemistry Stories” project I didn’t explain the “covalent bonding process well. To improve upon this skill I need to understand the concepts better. Again, I could do this by watching videos, and by reading the science textbook more throughly. 

Like in Humanities, I think I need to work on communication skills. For example, there was a time during the “Game of exponent laws project” where the communication between my partner and I was lacking. It was a weekend and I didn’t know that we were supposed to do anything for homework. And on Monday, my partner pulls up with these nice paper mache towers, (for our game board). It just made me feel bad cause I coulda made some as well, its a group project for a reason!!

Now I’m going to talk about my Dispositions, Habits, and Systems. 

 

Dispositions, Habits, and Systems:

In my mind, a good disposition is where someone wants to change for the better and someone that puts in the extra work. To add, this person believes in themselves and finds the time to work on their goals.

I need to also work on my habits. I need to find the time for meeting my academic goals. I have to find time between my soccer, choir, and other activities. Also, I have to be more productive and take advantage of my work time. Coming to tutorial time is a good idea as well. 

I could develop a homework system that abides by my schedule. Again this includes going to tutorial.

Now I’m going to talk about Maker. 

Maker:

Although we haven’t done Maker yet this year, I think it’s important to mention my goals for Maker coming up. 

The project we have coming up for Maker is called “Destination Imagination”. We did this project last year, however this year it’ll be in person. 

Like in Humanities and Scimatics, communication is a big part of “DI”. The thing about DI is that there’s so many components and keystones, so communication is key. 

Also, having a growth mindset is key in this project. DI is a very demanding project so It can be lots for students. So I think having a positive attitude is key for being successful in this project.

To summarize, I have lots of goals for next semester. These include communication, Processing and Analyzing, growth mindset, and having a positive attitude in any project that I do. I can accomplish this by putting the time in after school, by getting help from teachers, and by developing specific systems. 

Individual Project, Reflections, Scimatics, Stories

Chemistry Stories Post

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Hello readers, and welcome back to my blog. 

Today’s post is about a project I’ve been doing in Scimatics 9, called “Chemistry Stories”.

This project was all about chemistry, and creating an animated video about covalent and ionic bonds.

The driving question in this project was; “How do the electron arrangement of atoms determine the chemical and physical properties of elements and compounds”?

My answer to that is: that the electron arrangement affects whether the atom has a full valence shell or not. The electron arrangement also affects the overall charge of an atom.

To demonstrate my learning in this project, I’ll be highlighting the milestones/stepping stones that helped me answer the driving question best.

The first piece evidence that I’m going to highlight is the “project start mind map”. In this mind map we organized our thoughts and asked questions. We then later answered these questions.

The second piece of evidence that I’ll be highlighting is the textbook and workbook pages. Reading these workbook pages taught me about key chemistry concepts. Learning about these concepts was really important because they were a key part in creating the animated video.

 

The third piece of evidence I’ll be highlighting is the Animation Storyboard. In this storyboard, we layed out what was going into the final animation. 

Here’s what my storyboard looked like:

 

 

This storyboard helped a lot because it was an opportunity for me to receive feedback, and to see what I needed to work on. Mr. Gross noted that in covalent bonding, I needed to elaborate more on the sharing process.

 

The next piece of evidence I’ll be highlighting is Milestone 5, the final animation. To create this animation we used keynote. The goal of this animation was to explain covalent bonding and ionic bonding. A covalent bond is when two non-metals share electrons. An ionic bond occurs when one non-metal, and one metal exchange electrons. *The link to my animation is attached at the top of the post.

 

The curricular competencies in this project were: Communicating, Processing and Analyzing, and Questioning and Predicting.

Communicating: Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon.

I think I accomplished this skill. My animation had clear voiceovers that explained the bonding processes well. Also, my video had good music and Mr. Gross thought it really enhanced the animation. At the start of this project, I had a preliminary knowledge on keynote animation. However, I learned by watching tutorials and by asking others.

Processing and Analyzing: Construct, Analyze and interpret models and/or diagrams.

I think I accomplished this skill. I explained the ionic bonding process really well, and the animation clarified that process. However, I didn’t do as well on the covalent bonding. I didn’t clarify the sharing in covalent bonding. But, my animation was smooth and showed how the electrons were transferred from each atom. 

Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest.  

I accomplished this skill. I used my class time well, and I was always on track during the project. At the start of the project I wasn’t all that interested in learning about chemistry. But now that I know the concepts it doesn’t seem that bad.

To summarize, I’m really proud of how I did in this project. At the beginning of the project, I had barely any knowledge about chemistry. However, I now know a lot more. I enjoyed creating the animation, but I think I could’ve enhanced its story a bit better. I think I was too worried about the concepts, that I forgot about creating a good story.