The Life Of Mimi

Manhattan Project Field School!

I’m back! After a long summer break, we’re back in school and back to writing more blog posts. New school year means new classes and also more school trips! If you’ve read my last post you would already know that we went all the way to Washington and Oregon to complete our last unit. First of all before we begin, I wanted to mention how amazing these trips are. We get so many opportunities like this that many people don’t get, and I’m always very thankful of this.

As fun as it is on these trips, we actually learn more than anybody could learn by just sitting in a class room. We gain new perspectives that really can’t be explained through the internet or Google. You can see this throughout the mini assignments and big project we did on the trip by pressing here. By now you’re probably wondering what we did on this trip, so lets get to the highlights!

At the Vista House, overlooking the Colombia River.

We kicked off the trip bright and early and began our journey from Seycove Secondary all the way to Lacey, Washington (5ish hrs). We made a quick stop for lunch then hopped on the bus for a few more hours to Portland, Oregon. Once we got to Portland we immediately stopped at the biggest book store in the world… Powell’s City Of Books! This book store was amazing, it literally had everything you could think of. It is stuffed with more than 1 million books, and takes up an entire city block.

Standing in front of Powell’s Books.

We had two hours there and during that time we had to complete a challenge. For this challenge we had to choose one book with a funny title, and recreate it. We chose the “Billion Dollar Whale”, so of course this happened…

After finding our way out of that book store we went to dinner. For dinner we went someplace called “Fire On The Mountain”. They served amazing wings as well as really spicy wings that you had to sign a consent form to eat! Even thought the food was amazing, the cherry on top of the day was the movie. We went someplace called the “McMenamins Kennedy School”. It was essentially an old school that was renovated into a hotel, bar and movie theatre! We ended up going to watch “Mama Mia”, which I would give a 7.5/10 (not that you care).

After eating wings at Fire on the Mountain!

The next day we went to Reed College to look at their very own nuclear reactor. Learning about the reactors in class was very interesting and all, but actually standing overtop of it is the most mesmerizing thing you will ever see. When the reactor is activated and the lights are turned off the reactor gives off the most vibrant blue luminescence. When I saw images or clips in movies I always thought it was edited in, but there’s actually a science behind it. Basically what happens is something called Cherenkov Radiation, it’s caused by a charged particle moving in a medium (water in this case) faster than light would in that same medium. The speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant (c) which is 186,000 miles per second.

Made by me, in Paper Pro.

Now, if light is no longer traveling in a vacuum but a medium (the reactors medium is water because that’s what it’s surrounded in) it slows down. This is just like when a soccer ball rolls across mud- it slows down. The light slowing is the photons interacting with other particles. In water the speed of light is 0.75(c).

Made by me, in Paper Pro.

This is were the magic happens. Since this is a nuclear reactor, charged particles fly off the core at a greater speed than 0.75c. Now that there is an imbalance in the electromagnetic field the state must return to equilibrium, by doing this it releases photons. These photons make up visible light, which is the blue glow you would see. I know… mind blown, i’ll wait a minute for your brain to recuperate.

The reed college was an amazing experience and only supports the importance of these field studies. There is no way I would have remembered half that info if I just read it on the internet. By being there and seeing the reactor work itself I was driven by curiosity, and in turn learned way more than in a classroom.

Outside the chemistry wing at Reed College.

That same day we also went to the Maryhill Museum of Art. This was by far the coolest museum I’ve ever been to. It was originally founded by Sam Hill after purchasing the property and building a house on top of it. The museum is named after his daughter, Mary. It is filled with the most beautiful, priceless works of art and had anything from ancient Chinese or African chess sets to miniature French dolls. The museum included many of Sam’s personal collections as well as his friends and most notably Queen Marie of Romania’s donations of personal goods and artifacts. Just like Powell’s City of Books, the museum was very unique. With this being said, we had to do a challenge! This time we were given the task to talk about something that simply made you curious and talk about what you had discovered about that artifact.

Although this trip was very educational, I just have to talk about the food. The highlight of the trip was probably the endless shrimp at Red Lobster. They had a mass variety of endless shrimp that came in sets of 5 and 10. I ended up eating 15 (I know, I was disappointed too) but might I add, I thoroughly enjoyed those 15 shrimp. Our class record however, was set by Kate Rogers at 140 shrimp!

Finally we ended the trip with a bang by visiting the one and only B–reactor at the Hanford site. As well as the town of White Bluffs, formally known as Hanford. Just like the reactor at Reed College, this was absolutely mesmerizing to stand in front of. We read about how big and extraordinary it was in books and online, but nothing can really compare to when your standing in front of the reactor. On the tour we met some very nice people who knew absolutely everything about the Hanford site and creation of the atomic bomb. Instead of trying to explain to you how the B-reactor works I’ll just draw a less confusing diagram. Also if you haven’t already, feel free to check out my other post (it has a little more info and media on the actual tour as well as the big project we did while we were there).

Made by me, in Paper Pro

I cannot stress enough the importance of field studies. They aid our learning in so many different ways. For example, when I begun this unit I was completely against the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When we were interviewing the docents, one of them talked about how his uncle wouldn’t have came back from Japan if it wasn’t for the bomb. This totally changed my perspective on everything and pushed me to do more research and the importance of understanding all perspectives before making decisions. I’m not saying that my opinion is totally changed, but I learned the importance of perspective.

Once again this is something I would have never been able to learn if I was stuck in a classroom. I have to admit, I wasn’t that interested in atomic bombs, WWII or the history behind all it when we started the unit. I think it was because I had never experienced anything like it before, It was just a figment of my imagination. The trip absolutely changed my opinion on this topic though. After hearing the story’s of people working on the bomb, seeing the reactor at read college, the countless museums, touring Hanford and what was formally known as White Bluffs the history was no longer a figment of my imagination but something I had experienced.

Blue Sky 2018!

Yet another year has passed, which means another year end blue sky project! If you haven’t the slightest clue of what blue sky is click here and here to catch up. Anyways I would say this year was a sucess, keep reading to find out why!

Blue sky is something that our class has been doing for quite a while. Many other company’s also use this idea in their offices. It’s essentially extra time where people invent things that may not have even been thought of yet, its a time when all big idea’s and dreams are taken into consideration. If I’m not mistaken an office actually invented saran-wrap during this time!

A big part of blue sky is understanding the LAUNCH process. Every year we watch this very detailed but quick paced video explaining the process, click here to watch it! The LAUNCH cycle is meant to be a process that can lead you to creating a successful project. At this point your probably wondering what the heck does LAUNCH stand for?

L- Look, Listen & Learn
A- Ask tons of questions
U- Understanding the process or problem
N- Navigate Ideas
C- Create a prototype
H- Highlight and fix
LAUNCH to the world!

Along the way I’ll be mentioning when a letter correlates to a step of my project so make sure you remember what each letter stands for!

First step to creating this process was being aware of the topic or theme. This theme acted as a creative constraint that would come into play during the L stage. The topic this year was surrounded around the UN’s development/sustainability goals. These goals were put under categories like “economy“. An example would be: Improve suicide prevention and educate about mental Illness. That goal would then go under the topic of “physical health and well being“. Each group of four that we created was then put into a topic, my groups topic was “physical health and well being“.

Next thing we dove into was the A step, asking tons of questions! During this stage we totally immersed ourselves into our topic goals. We researched tons of big ideas or questions we had, and every project idea we had was written down. This brought us to the next stage, U, understanding the process or problem. At this point we began to narrow down our ideas and figure out the true task at hand.

During the N stage we began to juggle ideas. Our first idea was an inflatable fanny pack for lifeguards. We then moved to the idea of creating carriages for babies in developing countries to prevent malaria, but quickly realized this would be to expensive for families in developing countries. Then we moved to improving babies immune system using vitamins, then a collapsible container that could turn salt water into drinkable water and finally a board game to increase physical activity! As you can tell we moved from one idea to the next very quickly, and no idea was ever a bad one. We finally settled on the challenge of decreasing anxiety in schools. After some light research we found out dogs actually release a hormone called oxytocin in our brain, this is a similar reaction to when we go outside or get exercise. This hormone has been known to decrease anxiety and create a more stress free environment.

After coming up with the inquiry question “How can we decrease anxiety in schools?” we wrote a pitch form to get approval from the teacher. Below will be a screenshot of that form!

Now moving on to the next stage: C, creating a prototype. Since our initial plan was to bring dogs into the school we obviously had to speak and get approval with the principal. To do this we wrote a pitch form and set up a meeting with her. Fortunately she allowed us to bring dogs in, which meant we could move onto the next step! This step was finding a class that was reluctant enough to partake in the experiment. After a lot of asking around we found a physics11 class that was more than happy to help us out. They also had weekly tests, which was perfect for our experiment! The final step for prototype 1 was creating the survey the students would take after doing the experiment. This survey asked simple questions like how much sleep you got, how much exercise you took part in and how much you studied for the test!

The second prototype was actually doing the experiment. Basically what happened is we took the classes average for each student, using this we split the classroom in two equal halves (both with a 92% average). Next we took half the class down to a secluded room filled with dogs. The students spent about 20 minutes with the dogs then went up to do the quiz with the other half of the class. At the end of the block they filled out the survey we had previously created!

The final prototype was our interview, analysis and creation of the poster. At this point we were also at the H phase, highlight and fix. For this we had a mini interview with our counselor, she shared with us that she feels dog therapy really works, and that she would like to do something just like this in the future with her dog! To figure our if this experiment really did work we analyzed the data from the test’s the students did. We found the average for both halves of the class and compared them. Turns out dogs really do help reduce stress! The class that visited the dogs shot up to a 98% average and the class that didn’t see the dogs stayed at a 92% average. With this data we created charts and graphs which we then put on a poster, along with a slideshow of the process.

“So many youth struggle with anxiety and I know that animal therapy really does work”

-Counsellor

Finally we had to LAUNCH our project to the world! This would be done at our yearly exhibition night, along with food, drinks, games and a theme. The theme was surrounded around the idea of the sustainable development goals of the UN. Since each group had a topic or goal, we used those as our themes. Usually at these exhibitions we have lots of decorations that don’t necessarily serve a purpose. So this year we had to have a thesis, and everything that we wanted to bring had to answer that thesis statement. For example our thesis statement was “The key to great mental health is to have limited stress and positive mental attitude“. If we wanted something like donuts we would have to find something like “donuts are comfort food that reduce stress“. I think by far my favorite part we created was the stress ball making station. Click on the names of my group members to check out more posts: Sydney, Robbie, Luca, Kai, Kiera, Fraser and. Paisley. Here’s a few of my favorite pictures from the exhibition night!

This anxiety experiment was a huge success! Not only did the grade averages improve for the students participating in the experiment, but the feedback we got was very positive. We have realized that this experiment made students more confident and relaxed before a test, which means that all aspects of this experiment went well. After receiving such a positive outcome, we hope to continue this program in the future at Seycove. Bringing dogs in for anxiety purposes is a very helpful idea that the majority of students agreed upon. Many students wrote that they wanted to do this program again in the future because it helped them with their stress and anxiety. Our counselor was also very excited by this experiment and has agreed to help us in the future. Overall I felt like the project exhibited a perfect LAUNCH process. Throughout the process I learned many new things and improved many of my everyday skills. Can’t wait until next year!

Stars, Parsec’s and Black Holes!

About a week ago we wrapped up a unit on Astronomy! I personally loved this unit because I’m really interested in space. This was also our final unit and project in science 10! We kicked off the unit by downloading an app called StarChart. This app showed the sky, solar system and universe in the past, present and future. All you had to do was select a date and point to the sky. With this app we studied our moon cycle and our solar system, this gave us just a glimpse into our astronomy unit!

For this project we got into pairs of two, then picked a topic in astronomy. This could range anywhere from stars to black holes. My partner (Sofia) and I decided to choose “the components and scale of our solar system”. For this project we actually got to create our own criteria sheet (what we would be marked on). For this we got a sheet with all the core competencies, we then circled which ones we would be using in our project. After, we wrote a mini paragraph beside each competency stating specifically what we were going to be doing to show our understanding of these competency’s. We also didn’t have to much criteria for the format of the project, we could do anything from a movie to a keynote.

Our project topic was components and scale of our solar system but we decided to focus on the different astronomical measurements of the galaxy. Before we began to create our actual project we created a poster with our ideas and driving question. The class then went around to each poster and gave critique using sticky notes. Here’s ours!

After we received the critique we realized that our original idea probably wasn’t the best because it was something you could easily google. We then had the idea to focus more on measurment of the sky, like light years and arc seconds!

We ended up doing tons of research on three main measurements: parsecs, arcseconds and light years. After we got all this information we added it to a keynote along with pictures. The purpose of our presentation was to mainly teach the class what we had learned. We thought the best way to do this was add some sort of question the class could answer at the end. Click here to see our keynote we created, see if you can answer the question!

We then presented our keynote to the class as well as the question at the end using our core competencies communication skills. I would say it was a success, but I think it would have helped if we added some visual examples for each measurement since they were really difficult to understand. After our presentation we had to listen to everybody else’s so we could obviously learn from them! We heard everything about black holes, star life cycles, our solar systems scale, living on mars, the Big Bang and other theory’s! Overall everything had some connection to the galaxy and other theory’s. I ended up learning a lot from the presentations because my classmates created very thorough explanations for the class to easily understand! Here’s a web I created of all the awesome concepts, theory’s and ideas I learned!

Overall this unit was very short but I learned a lot as well as improving my core competency skills along the way. I learned many different ways we can measure our solar system, got a deeper understanding of many theory’s and improved my researching skills! So I would say this unit was definitely a success!

Lord of The Flies and The Great Debate!

Recently we wrapped up a huge unit in humanities, it was surrounded around the idea of human nature, laws, politics and debates. Throughout this unit we would take part in reading a book, social experiments, debates and elections. Overall I think this was one of my favorite unit’s this year!

To kick this all off we did our first social experiment. Our task was to create groups of four or five, but here’s the twist the teacher left the room! Now for most normal classes this might have been somewhat of an easy task, but our class is nowhere near to normal. We all have so many different personalty’s, priority’s and perspectives so when it came to a simple task like creating groups we all had things to say. When the teacher left the room we wrote on the board six names (these were the heads of the groups) everybody then began shouting out ideas and places to put people, so I came up with the idea of a talking stick. Unfortunately, the then talking stick turned into a pile of useless ripped up cardboard. Everything went down hill from there, in the end we did execute the task and create equal teams but all this came along with lots of shouting, cursing and standing on chairs. Although this was a rough start I think it gave us all a glimpse of how we act as humans when put in situations with no order. Without us knowing this led us into a big part of our unit, Lord Of The Flies or LOTF!

LOTF is a book that students ages fifteen to seventeen usually read for school. It’s a story about boys who crash on an unknown island and have to survive, we learn the truth about human nature along with what the young boys have to do in order to survive. Our task was to read certain chapters over a series of weeks, every week we would also do a book quiz. As I was saying before our class put our selves into teams, these teams would be our table groups and project partners. My team mates were Kyle, Ethan and Parker! With these groups we would also be taking part in a second social experiment. The experiment was essentially a point system that would be taking place throughout the whole unit! The points were given and reduced when we did certain things. After about a week of doing the point system the class started to feel like a mini political system with laws and everything! Instead of making a list of the point system I’ll just add a picture of the sheet below.

Throughout the book we also talked about many different concepts like:

– Power and Authority
– Humanity and Inhumanity
– Violence and Destruction
– Human Nature
– Civilization and Savagery
– Individualism and Community

These concepts would eventually relate back to our end of the unit project, a debate! To get a better understanding of these concepts we brainstormed topics and ideas that we learned about throughout the year like Disruption, WWI, WWII and Sins of The City. Here’s an example of one of our concept posters:

Finally to become more comfortable with these concepts we wrote two paragraphs on the topics. The paragraph could talk about really anything we wanted as long as we drew back to either one of the concepts. One of my paragraphs talked about the Inhumanity of war and the other talked about anarchy in Somalia. Here’s a screenshot of the two paragraphs:

Throughout the book we were also filling out a character sheet as we finished each chapter. The book was very complex so this really helped us get a grasp of each of the characters. As well as this we completed a book symbol sheet, we did this because the book was filled with symbols of order, civility and evil. These symbols were a very important part of the book and gave it more meaning. Here’s my character analysis chart!

A huge part of this unit was understanding forms of government, political systems and electoral systems. Throughout the weeks we completed many assignments to further our understanding of governments. We started with learning different forms of government like democracy, anarchy, monarchy, dictatorship, oligarchy and theocracy. We got into groups and created keynotes stating where it can be found, how it works, who is in charge and the pros and cons. Next we learned about the role of the charter in our constitution. The constitution is a body of fundamental principals that state how an organization is governed, there are four main rights the constitution and charter talk about. These four rights are rule of law, freedom, democracy and minority rights. After discussing this topic we created our own flow chart of Canada’s government, here’s mine!

After learning about politics in our country we completed an assignment that would give us an idea of where we were on the political spectrum. The questionnaire asked us our opinion about abortion, current events, rights and laws in Canada. Then depending on our answer it would give us a certain amount of points that would place us on a number line with right wing on one side and left wing on the other. I got a score of 68 which put me on the far left wing of the spectrum. After this we took on the difficult task of trying to figure out our countries different electoral system. BC uses a system called First Past the Post, which is in my opinion the simplest of them all. Basically what happens is each voter can vote once for a candidate of their choice in each riding. The candidate with the most votes wins, simple as that! There are also a few other electoral systems like Proportional Representation (something BC may be voting for this summer), Ranked Ballot and Mixed Member Proportional. Overall we got a very thorough glimpse of our country’s politics aswell as how some other countries work!

The final portion of this unit was learning to debate! Throughout this portion we played many games that improved our critical thinking skills and taught us to think on our feet! My favorite game was “Pass The Buck” and “A Story“. The purpose of pass the buck was mostly to get us to think on our feet. What happened was each team mate went outside and got a topic from the teacher like “why is bubble gum great?“, the student would then silently go back to their seat and begin to talk to their teammates about there topic without telling them what it is. Once the teacher said pass the buck the next teammate had to build off of their statement still without knowing the topic. This would go on for a few minutes, the game taught us to think critically as well as paying attention and communicating with our teams cues. To further practice our speaking skills we played another game called “impromptu speeches” this helped us get rid of those distracting words we use in our everyday life like “um”, “you know” and “like”.
We then watched a TED talks giving us seven key tips of the greatest speakers which we took notes on. Here’s the seven main tips:

1. Word choice

2. Tone: Passion

3. Body language: look into somebody’s eye’s.

4. Headline: what you want too get across.

5. Nothing more than having a conversation that you are passionate about. Don’t give a Speech or performance. Connect on a human level.

6. The four languages of human connection: visual (energy), auditory (tone), auditory digital (analytical), kinesthetic (Connecting). Do all four of the languages to be a great speaker.

7. Authentic passion: what is it that is compelling about you

After this we began listening to podcast called intelligence squared. This was a podcast that debated various topics like North Korea, nuclear bombs and even romance! While listening to these we took notes since our debates were going to be very similar.

As you probably know by now our final project for this unit was our debate. With the debate we actually made a podcast, we also got a few student volunteers to be hosts and some teachers to be judges! Click on the topics below to listen to the correlating podcasts.

Human Nature (this one is mine)

Savagery

Power

Our debate groups were our teams we made at the beginning of the unit. For this debate we had approximately six days to prepare everything after we got out topics. To get our topics we actually got to vote for the ones we wanted. After we voted we flipped a coin for who would get pro or con. Our teams topic was human nature and the statement was “Be it resolved it is human nature to put yourself above others“, we were pro. The guidelines for this was pretty simple, we had to get evidence and debate only on things we had learned throughout the year. Our team began by making a Google doc, then a chart where we could brainstorm ideas on different topics. The debate followed a standard outline, here it is:

– Introductions: 2-3 minutes

– Hosts, Topics, Teams

– Opening Statements: 2 minutes each side, PRO, CON

– Rebuttal: 2 minutes each side, PRO, CON

– Question from judge or audience: 1 minute each side, PRO, CON

– Concluding statements: 1 minute each side PRO, CON

Once our team had lots of notes and rebuttals we practiced our opening and closing statements. After watching the first two debates we learned alot. I think the most important part we learned was not to follow a script and just speak from your knowledge, in my opinion this ended up making our debate alot more genuine. Unfortunately we lost, but I definitely learned a lot from the debate. I think the biggest thing we could have improved was pulling on more unique ideas because I found we really only talked about a few subjects.

Overall I learned alot this unit, and improved many skills. Instead of just listing all these big ideas and skills I learned I created a web of learning using mind node. Here it is!

Overall I really liked this unit because it really pushed me outside of my comfort zone. Although I like to talk a lot, I hate public speaking. But throughout the unit I gained alot more insight and tips to being a great speaker giving me much more confidence! I think the most important thing I took away from becoming a great speaker is to memorize concepts not content. This essentially means to talk from the heart and not from a script!

TPOL’s 2018

If you’ve been reading my posts for a while, your probably familiar with TPOL’s, MPOL’s or maybe even SLC’s. If you haven’t click here and here for some other examples! Anyways TPOL’s are something we do at the end of the year to share and reflect all the great work we did over the year. We usually have a question that we need to answer throughout the presentation, this year the question was: Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?

I think this term I improved in quite a few areas as well as grown as a learner. A few examples of this are the perspectives of war project in humanities, my job shadow in maker and our renewable energy project in math and science.

A few weeks ago we wrapped up a unit on the perspectives of war. We learned a lot about WWII but also widened our perspective on different countries and people who fought in the war. Throughout this project we had to learn to create a website as well as do extensive research on a certain country. You can read all about the process here! I really felt like I grew as a learner for a few reasons. First of all, if you read my post on the project you would know that a historian named Kathleen Barter (Mrs. Barter) came in to see our end product. We had to present all our completed work in front of her. At first I was really nervous, but if anything it challenged me to grow as a learner. I had to triple check all my facts and do extensive research on reliable sources. I think doing this I learned way more than I would have if I didn’t have too present in front of Mrs. Barter. In the end by doing this I grew as a leaner and got new perspectives on the war.

We also had to complete a job shadow which you can read about here. At first I had no idea who I wanted to shadow, but after I did some research and a few people helped me out I eventually found something I was interested in, this was physiotherapy. As I explored this career I began to further my options into a future career and started to look at other branches of medicine. As I did this I grew as a learner and eventually found a future area of interest. This sparked ideas and put more inspiration into what I was working on. In the end it as well led me to growing as a learner.

The final thing that taught me to grow as a learner was our renewable energy project. Throughout this project we had to create a video alongside a homemade generator. Personally I don’t have to much experience with circuits, solar panels and the use of natural energy so to me the project was very challenging. As we furthered throughout the unit I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone which ended in me learning all about those things I didn’t have a clue about. I know now about quite a few things like using hydro electricity to power an LED light as well as using many other sources of renewable energy. Without this challenge I don’t think I would have learned or grown nearly as much as I did. 

Throughout the year I did improve quite a few work habits but I also have some things I think I still need to work on. I think it’s safe to say I’m pretty good at handing things in on time but I would like to work on being more focused in class. I have personally found that the past few weeks I have been really unfocused, this has led to me having excessive work to do after school that could have been finished during class. This is something I would definitely like to work on in the upcoming year. But regardless of that, I am very happy with the outcome of quite a few projects and I feel as though that’s because of the effort I put into each one of them. 

Another aspect of the WWII unit was a podcast we created with the audio we got from a WWII veteran. You can read more about that here! Overall I was very proud of my podcast but as per usual I knew I had revisions to do. After we paired up and critiqued our podcasts I received lots of good advice and improved my podcast even more! Thanks to all the critique and revisions we do after every project it helped me create an even better draft two. I think this shows that I not only grew as a learner but also shows that I can take that critique and turn it into advice I can use towards an even better project!

Helmut Lemke (WWII veteran we talked to)

By now you’ve probably heard me mention the project “Perspectives of WWII”, but I think it’s a great example of team work. Throughout the project we had to use a website called Weebly to create our own website. We tried over and over again to use it on iPads, but the software was not at all compatible with the iPad. Every time somebody would attempt to edit something it would delete or move around. We had to use our team work skills to make sure the project was done on time. After school we would contact each other and create a semi schedule to split up the work at different times (otherwise the website would glitch). This showed great examples of how when we put our minds to it and use our team work skills we can get a lot done no matter the circumstances. 

I also mentioned my job shadow project multiple times. This was something my whole class had to participate in and I feel as though it pushed us all to become more responsible individuals. During this project we had to research and contact employers and businesses in order to find a job shadow. We also had to set up dates and act and dress accordingly to the work environment. In the end doing this pushed us to be more responsible individuals especially because we were dealing with real world situations. Not only did I become more responsible but I also got a glimpse of what my future could look like!

Finally I feel as though my #BcTech blog post showed high quality work. I felt as though I pushed myself to create the best product possible. I incorporated many links and picture as well as my own media I had collected from the day. On top of the post we also had to do some research and take notes on at least one speaker. I felt like I really found lots of information from many different sources for each of the speakers. The final thing I was proud of was the video we had to create. Although the actual video quality wasn’t the best, I still felt like how I had reflected and the information I was giving was very thorough while still being to the point.

Now to answer the question, Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level? Well, over the year I have put in so much effort into everything I do, this has ended in me only growing as a learner. This effort shows through my writing, presentation skills, teamwork and responsibility (all traits I have just talked about). So, I hope throughout this you at least got a glimpse of the work we have done over the years. Personally I am very proud of the projects of not only I, but of all my fellow classmates as well, I can’t wait to start a fresh school year!

Data Savings Plan!

Recently we wrapped up a math project on systems of equations. This projects main focus was to compare data usage on particular cellphone plans. Once we compared the graphs and created equation we would then present our findings to the class!

There were a few bits of criteria we had to follow if we wanted to exceed expectations but not to much. Here’s the criteria:

Understanding and solving-
Linear equations are created for each potential plan.
System of equations is solved graphically and algebraically.

Communicating and representing-
The slope and y intercept of each equation is interpreted for meaning.
The intersection point is interpreted for meaning.

Reasoning and analyzing-
The lowest cost plan that meets the user’s monthly data requirements is determined

Connecting and reflecting-
Potential cost savings over an extended period are analyzed.
Expect future data usage amounts are considered in the decision.

Finally here’s a chart of the requirements (basically the same as what is above, the only difference is this is what our teacher uses to mark).

The first steps we took was to create a mini character analyses we could relate our decision back to. Our character was based around our family’s, it was basically a mom who needed a cellphone plan with the cheapest overage rates because her children were always going over their data plan. The next step we took was choosing three different plans from three different companies, Virgin, Rogers and Telus. To make this work we also had to choose plans that offered the same amount of data (we chose 5 GB). Here’s a screen shot of each plan:

Once we figured out the logistics of each plan we punched the data into a chart as well as creating a substitution equation. We did this to make sure before we started our graph so we would know the data would meet up at one point. Once this was complete and we were certain they would meet up we started making our beautiful graph! You’ll notice that we decided to use mega bytes instead of Gigabytes (every 1000 MB = 1 GB) because the overage rates were measured by 100 MB. Here the graph and equations!

We then had to create a slide show for our presentation which we used Keynote for. During our presentation we had to use our core competencies communicating skills, which we have been utilizing the whole year. Along with the presentation we had to include a conclusion of which plan we used (which was obviously the Rogers plan). Overall I had a lot of fun with this project and I really got a deeper understanding into the math we were doing. Take a look at my slide show conclusion and the critique I got!

#BCTECH Summit

Recently as a class we took a field trip to something called #BCTECH Summit. You’re probably wondering what that even is? Well to start off its a big convention for technology in BC and day of entry tickets are almost a thousand dollars. Now obviously we didn’t pay that, we actually applied to go as a class. Every year they have a youth innovation day and schools can send in applications to prove them and their class can benefit from an amazing experience like this. Anyways, every year the convention has many inspiring speakers. The speakers usually talk about their careers, experiences in the tech industry, stories and success’s! During this speaking part there are many booths upstairs that display innovation, new ideas and secondary education programs. If nothing I just said made any sense to you than watch the video below.

Below is the schedule for the day, as well as a list of the amazing speakers!

• Arrive at the school at 7am – Bring snacks, water, iPad, any other video/photo devices
• 8:30 – 10:45 First Big Session (John Horgan)
• 10:45 – 12:15 Explore the Summit
• Interview a Mentor in the Tech Industry – get your interview!
• Explore programs offered at schools – explore the programs!
• Check out the Robotics contest put on by BCIT! – get lots of pictures of everything!
• 12:45 – 3:30 Second Big Session – The speakers you’ve chosen may be in this session!
• Bus ride home – Arrive at school by 5pm

•Two Bit Circus (Brent Bushnell) AM
•Plastic Bank (David Katz) AM
•Futurpreneur (Paulina Cameron) PM
•Ava Technologies (Valerie Song) PM
•Science World (Scott Sampson) PM
•ECCW Championships (Andy Bird) PM
•Hootsuite (Ryan Holmes) PM

Obviously we weren’t going to go to this tech thing and waste the awesome opportunity on nothing, so as you may have guessed we had lots of tasks to do! The first was some research that had to be done on two of our favourite speakers. We did this because our teacher wanted to make sure we knew a little bit about what was happening before hand. I ended up doing my research on Brent Bushnell (Founder of Two Bit Circus) and David Katz (Founder of Plastic Bank). The next part of our tasks was finding one post secondary program that we were interested in upstairs in the booths. Finally we had to create a podcast on a mentor we interviewed and for an extra challenge we made a behind the scenes video/vlog.

As I mentioned before I researched David Katz and Brent Bushnell. I then got an opportunity to hear their perspectives and stories, and let me tell you I learned a lot!

David Katz

Brent Bushnell

David Katz as you already know is the founder of Plastic Bank, a system that slowly reduces the plastic waste laying on our land. Basically what happens is in developing countries like Haiti civilians are encouraged to collect plastic bottles. With those bottles they can take them to a plastic bank, were they are given money, soap, fuel, cook ware, first aid materials, electricity and wifi depending on how much bottles they collected. The money people earn then goes into online accounts creating assets, this can create security against robbery. The idea is to create a new sense of worth to people living in poverty.

The plastic is then taken to a factory to be crushed and shaped into mini plastic beads. These bead are called social plastic and are sold to places like Lush, who can melt the beads into bottles. The plastic in the end is more expensive but can help clear beaches, landfills and towns in developing countries.

The plastic bank first opened up in March 2013 and was founded in Vancouver by David Katz and Shaun Frankson. The idea was also brought to the attention of the famous TV show called Dragons Den, but was immediately shut down. By March 2015 social plastic lunches in Haiti and in November 2016 the Philippines expansion Launched. The plastic bank soon will open in Rio, Brazil, Bali and Philippines.

“The ultimate goal is that every piece of material that anyone encounters should be saved, the opportunity to take plastic which is discarded freely and take it to one of our centres and be able too exchange that for cash.”
–David Katz

Brent Bushnell was the next speaker to share his stories. He is most well known for his creations at the Two Bit Circus, a micro amusement park in the middle of downtown LA. Among his creations are: Clouds that rain tequila, Dunk Tank Flambé, Turret Motor Platform and the Robot Bartender.

The Two Bit Circus is basically a circus that uses tech to apply to all demographics of people. It was originally founded in LA after him and his friend discovered their talent and passion for entertainment and innovation. We didn’t hear to much about his company but he did give us lots of insight on creativity. Below are a few notes I took on learning how to be creative, enjoy!

• Cultivate creativity- Use experience, go crash conferences about nothing that has to do with you or your life.
• Random input- You only pull creativity and problem solving skills from life experiences, if you have none you’ll be stuck.
• Reflect- Do nothing, don’t listen to music, don’t meditate.
• Take notes- Write things down, you don’t need to look at it again just write things down.
• Stimulating environment- The more you can surround yourself around people who create the better.
• Cross Disciplinary- Team with variety, background and skills are perfect for solving skills.
• Brainstorming- very powerful, can systematize ideas.
• Mentorship- We all have something to teach, everybody needs your creativity.

Overall his presentation was really inspiring. It showed me knew ways I had never thought of to achieve my goals, meanwhile sharing his amazing experiences and creations!

As I mentioned before hand, the next part of this was choosing one post secondary program in a field that may interest you. When I was exploring the summit I came across an awesome neonatal nursing program at BCIT. They had these awesome robots that can re create anything even birth, they also use virtual reality to re create many different procedures! Maximum program length for either the Advanced Certificate or the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree is seven years. Overall it was really cool seeing how much technology has really impacted the program and peoples education.

The final part of this experience was speaking with mentors and creating either a video or a podcast. Their wasn’t to much criteria except for the length (1-2 minutes) and you had to answer the driving question: How has BC’s economy been disrupted by the tech industry? The setup of the room wasn’t at all what I was expecting and it was kinda hard to film with all the flashing lights and sound but in the end we got what we needed! The person we interviewed was the founder of a startup app. The app was used to send a message to people in your vicinity, its called Buzz! For my project I decided to create a video, which I put together with Ferrite, Garage Band and SoundCloud. Here it is!

Overall this experience was awesome, I got to listen to many amazing people speak about their creations and inspire me to create more! I think my favourite part was probably seeing all the programs offered in my interested post secondary program. I also got to see the future of education and how technology will change so much in so little time!

My Job Shadow Experience!

Every year the grade tens have to partake in a planning assignment. For this assignment we had to contact an employer of a business we were interested in. We then had to shadow them and see what their day to day job looks like. We are doing this because a lot of the time kids my age think they want to do something very specific but don’t really know what that job entitles. Throughout this process we also learn very valuable skills that can help us in the future. For example we have to contact employers on our time, set up dates and learn basic etiquette in a workplace. Once we complete the assignment we also have to send out a thank you letter, which is something everybody should learn how to do eventually.

The first step of this assignment was to brainstorm some jobs we could be interested in and come up with a call list. Personally, I’m very interested in human anatomy and I love to help people but at times I’m also very interested in Anthropology and evolution. It was really hard for me to decide what I wanted to job shadow. In the end I decided to pursue a job shadow that had something to do with human anatomy.

I researched several places that might accept my request to job shadow. But often I wasn’t old enough, since a lot of the time there were issues with patient doctor confidentiality. After searching for quite a while my teacher mentioned she had a friend that recently got a job at a sport physiotherapy centre. I then got her email and contacted her!

She worked at City Sports & Physiotherapy Clinic and before I got to the centre I did have to sign a few release forms just recognizing the businesses policies. As soon as I got to the clinic I got a tour of the whole place. It was really cool to see the whole layout because there clinic had a more open area so the physiotherapists could move from one patient to the next while still keeping an eye out for other patients on the floor.

We first worked with one patient who’s shoulder were super tense (and we obviously had to make sure that it was alright with him before I shadowed her). It was so cool seeing all the steps she had to take to roll out the muscles and all the questions she had to ask to figure out how to help. She was also really awesome to shadow because she explained literally everything she was doing and why, so that I would better understand. As she prepared somethings for the patients I also got to look at the files and notes she took. We then visited another patient that had a neck strain and got to prepare a heat wrap and an electrical muscle stimulator which would provide circulation.

After shadowing her, we sat down and she answered some of the questions I had prepared beforehand. I learned a lot from this portion. I asked her about the traits and personality needed for this job, she said that you need to be a people person which I didn’t realize at all. You also have to be motivated to improve peoples issues, be able to empathize and listen to patients. We then talked about similar occupancy’s I could explore like a physiotherapist assistant, rehab physiotherapist, occupational therapist, kinesiologist and athletic therapist. She then told me about how when she was little and danced, she would go to the physio when she was injured. When she went most of the physicians would tell her things like ‘the only way you’ll get better is if you quit dancing’. She always thought there had to be another way, which is why she is now a physiotherapist! Overall I learned way more than I thought I would. Along with this project I decided to create a mini collage using superimpose. The collage includes pictures that represent skills, traits and diplomas you need in order to become a physiotherapist.

As I was talking about before their are many key traits that physiotherapists need (empathy, patience, motivation and a people person). I think that many of those traits you learn over time, I definitely think I have motivation and empathy but not much patience. If I were to pursue a career in physiotherapy I would definitely have to improve my patience everyday by trying to listen and engage with people around me.

The final step of this project is to create a “thank you letter”. Obviously we know how to thank somebody, so we mostly did this so we can learn how to properly mail a letter. Once we wrote what we wanted to we handed it in to the teacher for a critique and revised what we needed to before mailing it off!

Overall this experience was awesome and I learned way more than I ever thought I would! I’ll definitely consider physiotherapy as a future career path throughout the next few years. I think to get to that point I’ll have to revaluate my education path and figure out what I have to change and complete to start a career in physiotherapy. As I move forward i’ll also have to adapt to opportunities that come my way so I can successfully begin my career. Overall I’m very pleased with the information I received, and very thankful to Sarah for offering time out off her day to guide me through her job as a physiotherapist!