(Insert Awesome Alley Here)

Hello, Internet.

So, last week was National History Week, and in order to celebrate it we did a mini history project. We worked in small groups to research the history, and particularly the namesakes, of different places around Vancouver. Each group chose one place to research that they thought was interesting or iconic. The place my group chose was Blood Alley.

We then made a video about that place, in the style of this video.

Now, while Blood Alley is a somewhat gruesome name, the history of the alley, originally known as Trounce Alley after Thomas Trounce, is much less sketchy than it sounds. It was a pretty normal alley that was renamed in the 70s during Gastown’s rénovation into a commercial heritage district, as it was believed the name Blood Alley would interest more people than “Trounce Alley”.

Rumours were then spread about the alley having a grisly past for pretty much the same reason: to attract tourists. An alley that was said to have been soaked with blood each night after the butchers threw buckets of blood down it, or that was the site of public executions, or was rife with fights and other violence, is much more interesting than just an alleyway that nothing super notable happened on.

Here is our full video detailing the history and namesake of Blood Alley:

Toodles!

(Insert Awesome DNA Here)

Hello, Internet.

So, in science, we’ve been learning about DNA and Genetics. We started out the unit by each making a mindmap of what we already knew, and ended the unit by making a mindmap of what we had learned. Here are my two mind maps.

Start:

End:

Our main project for the unit was to create a podcast that answered the question: If a set of identical twin girls married a set of identical twin boys and each couple had a child, would the children be identical? We did various activities

This is the final result of my project, which I did with my friend Ruby

Overall, I feel like the podcast could have been better in terms of production, but I learned a lot from this unit and I think our final project did a good job of showing that.

Toodles!

(Insert Safe Work Here)

Hello, Internet.

So, in Health and Career, we’ve been learning about work safety.

We started out by watching a video of a few different situations in which young adults were permanently injured due to improperly following work safety rules, and filling out some worksheets about job safety in our own respective work experiences, and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation.

We also talked about the required training for different jobs, and how being trained thoroughly can help you stay safe at work.

We were supposed to have a guest speaker come in to talk to us about work safety, but they didn’t show, so we instead did an activity where we looked at different scenarios and figured out what was unsafe about them, and how they could have been made safe.

As part of our learning for this unit, we were each asked t create a visual to represent work safety. I drew some common safety related symbols (no fire, toxic chemicals, tripping or falling), and a girl giving a thumbs up.

We were also asked to talk about how we would each handle our own workplace safety. My current job has very little in the way of safety hazards, and is generally safe as long as you use common sense. However, for jobs in the future that might be more risky, I’ll make sure to stay out of potentially dangerous situations that I haven’t recieved proper training for, and to wear the appropriate safety gear and use safety precautions when needed. I’ll also keep aware of the fact that I don’t have to put myself in a situation in which I feel unsafe.

Toodles!

(Insert Awesome Solar Panel Here)

Hello Internet,

So recently in math we’ve been working on trigonometry. Mainly, we’ve been focusing on the trig ratios tangent (tan), sine (sin), and cosine (cos), and how to use them to calculate angles and side lengths within triangles. We started out learning what each ratio measured, using the pneumonic SOH CAH TOA to remember: Sine measures the ratio between the opposite side and the hypotenuse, cosine measures the ratio between the adjacent side and the hypotenuse, and tangent measures the ratio between the opposite and adjacent sides.

In order to demonstrate our understanding of these ratios and our ability to calculate angles, we each had to choose a location and find the ideal angle for a solar panel to operate in said location. Then we had to create a model (digital or physical) of the solar panel and the building it would sit on, and to label that model and give an explanation of why that angle and that place were optimal.

I chose to place my theoretical solar panel in Arviat, Nunavut, and to have it at an angle of 60 degrees.

Toodles!

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