Scimatics, humanities, they go together!

 

Hello. My name is Simon. Today I will be talking about a project called argh matey. This project was a combination of my humanities and scimatics classes. Over the course of this project, my milestones from both classes gradually merged together. We had six milestones. The ones on the humanities side started separate from the scimatics milestones. After our fourth milestones, the two separate projects became one. Here are some key terms and a project outline.

 

Scimatics: a specialized course in school where both science and math are combined into one course. Humanities: a combination of social studies and English. Milestones: the projects that my class does are broken down into large sections that you do one at a time. As you progress in your project, you advance to new milestones. Stepping stones: these are the little class activities we do between milestones, like peer critique or a class wide examination of a relevant subject.
The goal of this project was to create a comic of scientific nature. The story element contributed to our humanities class, whilst the scientific language and knowledge that we demonstrated counted towards our scimatics class. To begin with humanities, we study the story spine, as well as a analyze comic books, and research an early explorer. Our comic book that we went on to write revolved around this explorer, as well as cells and bacteria. The cells and bacteria part is where scimatics kicks in. Our first task was to create a mind map explaining all our questions about this project and all that we already knew. The next thing we did was research a disease, like a bacteria or a virus. The new create a wanted poster for that déviasse which relays all the necessary info. Then, we read up on bacteria and viruses as well as cells and did a quiz on them. Then, the two projects merged. From their on, we created a storyboard for our comic, created our comic (no small task) and write blog posts about this project.
The most influential milestones on the humanities side were:

– Milestone 2. An in-depth analysis of a comic book.

– Milestone 3. Mandatory research on the explorer.

– Milestone 4. Story spine.

– Milestone 5. Comic book making.

The most influential milestones on the scimatics side were:

– Milestone 1. Project start mind map.

– Milestone 3. Cell test and reading.

– Milestone 5. Comic book.

 

My comic book:

 

Comparing my project start mind map to my project end mind map

Before:

After:

An answer to my humanities driving question

Driving question: what is the significance of global exploration? Well, global exploration is very significant for events that still impact the world today, like the large African American population which was brought over by the slave trade established by the Portuguese. Spices and an exposure to new cultures were brought to Europe, as well as new trade routes which brought the opportunity to make new allies. Another way in which global exploration is very significant is that it drastically impacted economies and populations to this day.

 

An answer to the scimatics driving question

 

Driving question: how do cells and diseases interact? Not well. A disease of any kind will attack cells, like a bacteria which will kill prokaryotic cells with toxins and rupture eukaryotes to cause bleeding. And virtues are basically parasites which infect cells to be able to reproduce. This infection of the cell will kill it. So cells and disease interact in the same way a host and a parasite do, or prey and predators.

 

An answer to the humanities competencies

 

Competency N°1. Connect.

Connect: How do I understand my own and others’ personal connection to texts I read, listen, and view?

My answer: I understand them by comparing the media I consume to real life events I have experienced, heard of, or researched.

 

Competency N°2. Establish historical significance.

Establish Historical Significance: How do we make choices about what is worth remembering?

My answer: in context around explorers, how their actions have changed our lives to this day, or had lasting consequences.

 

An answer to my scimatics competencies

 

Competency N°1. Questioning and predicting.

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

My answer: I showed this competency through my project wide research as well as trying to learn as much as I can during the span of this project.

 

Competency N°2.  Scientific communication.

Scientific communication: communicating ideas, findings, and solutions to problems using scientific language, representations and digital technologies

I showed this by using scientific language appropriately in the comic book to demonstrate my learning.

 

Competency N°3. Evaluating.

Evaluating: demonstrate an appreciation and understanding of evidence.

I showed this by using a spice known to boost the immune system as a remedy for my comic book. I also used well known facts, like salmonella produces typhoid toxin, to enhance my story.