Month: March 2020

Destination Imagination Continues

megumib

This whole month has been a blur. Especially because of Covid 19. Events have been cancelled, parks closed, and even the number of people you can meet has been limited. This means that the provincials tournament had to be cancelled. However, PLP would not let the work we did for the regional tournament go to waste! We decided that we would hold an online tournament. It took some creative quick thinking but we did it. So how did we get to where we are now?

After our underwhelming success at the regional tournament my group, Alex, Ally, Julia, Kaden, Ben, and I got together to discuss what we could improve. We had decided that the snake costume would work much better if there was only one person wearing it. On top of that a lot had gone wrong in the species and habitat morph. So we had decided to completely change how we were going to do both of them and were every discussing whether to continue using the snake as our species. In the end we decided that we would keep the snake as our species but we were going to change the costume and the morph. 

For the species morph decided that we would use recycled bottles to create a scale effect and would turn inside out when the actor opened the neck flaps to represent the morph. The plastic bottles also helped to emphasize our team choice element which was recycled materials. Our second team choice element, live music, had gotten a lot of positive feedback and gained us a lot of points so we had kept it in our performance. 

The story that we wrote itself was fairly good but we need more science in our scientific challenge so integrating that into our performance became a focus for us. Finally, we decided that the scissor lift that we had originally used wasn’t going to make the cut. We had used the wrong materials to make it and it wasn’t strong or fast enough to make a dramatic enough effect. Using an air pump became an attractive idea. It would be easier to make and much faster in the transition. We would also be adding lights that turn in once the morph begins to make it happen. 

Of course that was what we had planned on doing before the break started. However during the break, once more and more news about Covid began spreading and restrictions were made we found it difficult to find times to meet up and work on these changes. One of the most problematic challenges that we faced with the online performance was that all of the supplies and props that we had we had left at school. This meant that we would have to improvise with the little materials that we found lying around the house. Luckily the app that we were using, zoom, has a virtual background feature that lets us green screen photos that we created. Our group decided that we would focus mainly of adding scientific facts into our script which ended up becoming our strongest asset. Finally, the most common problem that we found in all of our meeting and in our final performance was the lag and internet connection. There were a few times in our rehearsals where I couldn’t hear what my group was saying and missed my cue to come in. To fix this problem we muted our mic’s or turned off our video. In our instant challenge one of our group members got kicked out due to a connection problem and we had to improvise on the spot.

This was a really fun experience and it was nice to have something to do while being stuck inside. All in all I am proud of my group for being able to adapt to circumstance really well. This project has taught me how to better problem solve and communicate.

below you can see some photos from our online rehearsals!

Destination Imagination

megumib

Welcome back to DI. Destination Imagination is back again and I have just finished regionals in my group. If you remember my last post in DI you would know that last year I was in the technical challenge. This year I am in the Scientific challenge. This year the goal of the challenge is to portray a first encounter between a species and a habitat and show how the encounter effects and changes them. We also have to use technical methods to show the changes in both the species and the habitat. My group this year is Ally, Alex , Julia, Kaden , and Ben. Thankfully all of us got along well and we were able to divide up our tasks evenly. 

Our solution for our challenge involved the Black Mamba, and the forested savanna of Florida. We tried to make our habitat morph using a scissor lift. Our plan was to have the Black Mamba, Bubbles, restore the ecosystem which is where are morph comes in. The story is on the lines of this; the Forrest Savanna of Florida is being over run by a rodent population. This means that the rodents are eating too much seed and not leaving enough for the ecosystem to continue. The ecosystem is unbalanced and the forest is dying. Thankfully, some reaserchers discover this and send for a black mamba to exterminate the rat population. Unfortunately they send the wrong snake and Bubbles isn’t strong enough to kill the palm rats himself. That’s where his fairy snake mother comes in to save the day. They exterminate the rat population, using some magic, and the day is saved.

What we did:
Our final result was defiantly not something I would say I was proud of. True, we had put in a lot of time and effort, but on the day of the performance it was easy to tell that we hadn’t met the requirements of the challenge. We didn’t incorporate enough “science” to the scientific challenge meaning that there was nothing for the audience to learn. On top of that both of our morphs were not dramatic enough and hard to identify. The scissor lift was incredibly slow and hard to notice unless you were watching it the whole time. We had tried to make our own, but we had chosen the wrong materials and it was too weak. By the time we reached the performance we didn’t have enough time to make another one so we had used a premodern one that wasn’t built by us. The species morph, meant to change the colour of the snake, had not science behind it and was just their for flashy effects. We also timed it wrong and had to improvise because the costume was falling off. On the bright side our story wasn’t too bad and our team choice element, which was live clarinet music, scored fairly well. We were also complimented by a couple of people on our set pieces which looked really good.

What we need to change:

After a team meeting discussing the faults of our Reginals performance, our group decided that change needed o happen. A lot of it and fast. We quickly realized that the scissor lift idea haven’t worked and would ba a waste of energy to work on. So we scrapped the idea and decided that we would use and air pump instead which is much easier to make and also looks a little better. We also decided that we would add lights to our tree to make it as dramatic as possible.

 

After talking with Ben and Kaden, who had played the snake, we realized that the costume for the snake wasn’t going to make the cut either. It was too big to fit in the stage area and the actors could not see where they were going. After talking with the audience it was also noted that it was hard to hear what they were saying. So we decided that we would make another costume. This time, we would make sure that Ben could see and that it fit on his cloths so it didn’t take up that much space. We would use recycled bottles to help make the scales on the costume and also become our second team choice element; using recycled materials.

 

The final main change that we would be making is to the story. Though the story did have a good concept to it, we still needed more facts to back it up. As such we are doing more research on the Black Mambas, Forested Savanna, and Palm Rats to learn about how we can make a more realistic story that still has a wow factor.

I find that DI is always really stressing and really fun. I am glad that I have a group that works well together and is open to each other’s ideas. This means that we are able to reach consensus much quicker, and everyone can be happy with the solution that we provide. We are defiantly going to be working hard to get back to where we want to be and you can check out how we did in my upcoming provincials post!

Ethical Jugdment

megumib

Ethical judgment. Who decides what is right and what is wrong? The law decides that and so does the government. However, looking back to the past we can see that they were not always right. Historians now look back and debate on whether or not the decisions of the past were just or not. This is what our class did for the past few weeks. We were tasked with choosing events of the past that were ethically questioning. With my partner Matthew, we decided to research the Doukhobors in order to answer our driving question; How can we present past actions and decisions through images to help us make decisions of what is fair or unjust?

In this project I used the following competencies.

Connect: 

During this project we were also reading about Louis Riel as our primary example of ethical judgment. Reading this book helped me make connections to the real world and history. The book portrayed how the Métis were treated and the unfairness of the government back then. With discussing the book and using my past knowledge from the Star Wars unit, I was able to understand that it was biased and to read it with an open mind.

In this project I learned about how to look at two or more perspectives. This helped me in understanding the 2 sides, not only looking at the immediate problem but also what lead up to that moment and why people did what they did. Looking deeper into a situation helped me learn about what kinds of questions I need to ask to get the kinds of answers that I need. Not only that but researching about the Doukhobors helped me become more empathetic.

I thought that Matthew and I did a good job with our images and adding different layers to symbols. I was most proud of the animation that I made. It had two levels to it. The first was the person who was representing the Doukhobors. At the beginning of the animation I showed him with his hands over his mouth. This represents the fact that the Doukhobors had tried to change. However, after many problems involving land, discrimination, and the denial to practice their religion, the Doukhobors had had enough and decided to speak out and protest. This is shown in the animation as the man lowers his hands, jumps up and picks up a torch. I decided that the reason why he jumped was because he was freeing himself from the burdens of the government. This was also their reason to their choice of protest. They burned their own objects to express their religion and show their freedom of marital possession. The second level to the animation was the background. In the beginning there was the flags of the countries involved as well. However by the end the countries had exited the picture.

Looking back, I wish that I had decided to change one of the photos to one of the government. Since the objective of this project was to be able to look at two different perspectives, it kinds defeated the point when all of our visuals showed only the Doukhobors. Showing the government would show both sides and be more ethically questioning. I also think that I could have managed my time better because that way up I could make more drafts and get more freed back to improve.

This project has taught me about how to look at situations with an open mind. It has also broadened my view on how we can decide what is fair and unjust and the depth of knowledge that we must gather in order to make a decision about a situation. I think that overall it I was able to make images that conveyed a message. 

Link to Instagram account

Metaphor Machines!

megumib

https://youtu.be/JnaeICd7p3c
A Rube Goldberg machine. It’s a machine that overcomplicates a simple task. Requiring engineering skills to make. This is what we made in our new Scimatics project; Metaphor machines. We were tasked with building a Rube Goldberg machine that solves a task while representing the scientific method. All to answer our driving questions: How can we represent the scientific method? And What factors affect the function and efficiency of electric circuits? 

We spent the past few weeks learning about how electric circuits work and making a machine with our group. My group was: Ally, Holly, Anders, and I. 

In this project I was using the following competencies: 

I used this competency when we did the project start mind map. I was coming up with questions that I needed to know about the project and I was able to make predictions on how we would answer them. At the end of this project I answered these questions and added to my mind map.

  • Before
  • After

I was able to use this competency when making our blueprints. I had to come up with a reasonable design that would work. In my blueprint I didn’t add a place for the circuit which was a problem and though I had a plan of what I was going to make I had no idea how it would work. Thankfully, even though each group member made their own blueprint, we came together in the end and combines our ideas. This meant that I was able to still use my ideas and together as a group we were able to find out how we were going to execute them.

  • Individual Blueprint

This competency was something that I used on the workbooks and test that we had on electric circuits. I used my logical skills to learn about how electricity travels through circuits. I learned about Ohms law and electric potential difference and using reasoning and analyzing I was able to determine how to incorporate our electric circuit into our machine.

Our final product was this machine. We used technical methods to include a wheel, a pulley, and a series circuit. The first part of our circuit is a wheel with symbols that represent the five senses. This part of our machine represents the observation stage of our machine. Then, the ball roles down a slope to a rope that releases another, smaller ball. This ball travels down and falls behind a question mark. This is meant to represent the questioning and hypothesis stage. The ball rolls down as it hits many obstacles to show how this stage narrows down the possible outcomes. This transitions to the experiment stage shown using a beaker. Finally the ball slides down to where two slopes converge. This shows where there are two possible outcomes. A expected outcome and unexpected outcome. Once the ball get past this stage it will fall down onto a light switch that turns on our electric circuit and finally lands in a bucket. This is the conclusion of our machine letting the person choose whether or not to start again or leave it be.

In this project I was really proud at how well our group worked together. We were able to combine our ideas really well and were able to come up with technical methods to create our machine. One thing that I made was the wheel and I was proud of how good it looked in the end and how it worked. Over all I thought that if we were to change anything I wish that we were better coordinated with time management so that we could have finished the video on time. Through trial and error my group and I was able to end up with a really good solution that I was proud of.

https://youtu.be/JnaeICd7p3c