Welcome to my blog post on my mPol. This post will provide an honest evaluation of who I am as a PLP student. It will include my progress, my strengths, and my opportunities for growth.

“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my 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.”

In my journey to become a successful PLP student I have made many improvements such as being more engaged, being a better teammate, and having better writing skills.

I wanted to become a responsible learner this year. Although I have completed all important projects, I have not been consistent in meeting all deadlines and coming prepared every day. Thankfully, I procrastinate less this year, so I usually get work done. Even it it means cramming before the deadline. When I am desperate thats when I can really focus and work well.

This year, I noticed was that I was a lot more engaged. That means I am paying attention, not spacing out, engaging in group activities and discussions, making good use of my class time, being interested in the content we are learning, and most importantly, I am motivated in trying to create work I can be proud of. I even  ask and answering questions in class. Being more engaged,I have found it a lot easier to keep up with what we are. Because I am engaged I can notice small details or ideas that help me understand the topic on a deeper level. This deeper understanding of the content combined with my critical thinking skills has allowed me to complete projects better.

One thing I am good at is create insightful connections, look at the bigger picture, and understand the content. However, I am not always able to show my insights, because my work lacks detail or refinement. Looking at some of my feedback from the past year, I see that I always missing one or two elements that hold my work back from reaching the next level. Making sure that I follow the success criteria will be essential if I want to be a successful PLP student.

Another important skill I developed this year is being able to effectively communicate to the audience through my work. No matter how good your thoughts and ideas are in your head, if they arent these communicated effectively you can’t show others your understanding. There are many parts to this skill, one of which being writing, communication through words. My writing has undoubtedly improved over the past year, I find it much easier to convey my thoughts through words. Learning about sentence structures and paragraphs really helped make my writing more clear and organized.

I have made big improvements on being a successful team member. While I still have ways to go, I have significantly gotten better at collaborating with my team. I am able to take initiative and find ways to make a significant contribution to my team without my team members asking. During a group project on creating a metaphor machine to represent a revolution, I was in charge of writing the script. I finished the script early on and didn’t really know how to help my group. They were all building some part of the machine, and I didn’t want to just start a connection without knowing how it could be connected. So I helped around the machine, painted stuff, decorated, and helped create a flag. But, I saw that my group was a little behind and that there were many parts of the machine that needed to be created, so I tried to ask my team members what they needed help building. I didn’t really get a response because everybody was really busy. At some point, I realised that it wasn’t always my team members job to assign me work and guide me. So, I offered to build the ping-pong connection.I talked with one of my classmassand discussed what I could build and how it would connect with the machine. At first, I couldn’t attach the pots and pans onto the cardboard box, but with some help from my teammates, we managed to create a good solution.
Another collaboration skill I have developed is effectively sharing my ideas and giving good feedback during projects or even just group discussions. I learned that sometimes simply “splitting the work” doesn’t always work because it’s not a very good way for all team members to share their ideas. As part of my DI project, we had to write the script for our play. To me, the script was the hardest part of our group’s DI experience. We were forced to rewrite and change many things towards the end because we didn’t effectively collaborate on our script. Fortunately, we had a meeting where we looked over the script together, all shared our ideas, and created a script we all thought was good. We could have saved a lot of time if we had just effectively worked together on the script in the first place (Collaboration is important!!)

Heading into the final strech of the year I need to step it up and improve my work habits by using tools such as the calender and things. I want to get better at time management and being more responsible. I know that my quality of my work is improving and I want things to keep progressing. I just have to focus on adding more detail into my work and acting quicker on revisions. I will continue being engaged in whatever we are learning(I am enjoying learning about the Russian revolution so far!!) and continue to build on my critical thinking skills. PLP has taught me so much I need to know as a learner. Wether its creatively using different tools on my i-pad or building something fun with my group members PLP has been quite enjoyable.I know that as a get into higher grades the standards reaching new heights but I am ready. I am excited to learn and grow together with my classmates and I hope to end things off on a high note!!

Here is some a sample of my work to show what I learning:

RPReplay_Final1712845514

Louis Riel tastes good. I don’t know what that means, but it is one of many complex portrayals of Riel that we had to analyze in this project.

Our driving question for this project is, “How have the portrayals of Riel changed over time?” To somehow answer this driving question, we explored Canadian history and analyzed different representations of Riel. Meanwhile, we also worked on our writing skills to learn how to effectively convey our findings. This would lead us to our end goal of creating a multi-paragraph response answering the driving question.

To first understand who Louis Riel is, we read textbook paragraphs about him. We learned about the Red River Rebellion, the Métis, Riel’s actions, and his execution. This gave me a basic understanding of Riel, needed to write a paragraph about his portrayals. Another activity we did was looking at and discussing different statues of Riel. This activity gave me insight into the many different ways Riel is depicted. Some viewed him as a rebel or a madman, and some thought of him as a hero.

A main focus of our project was to learn to analyze ideas and make supported conclusions. We had to be able to analyze different historical sources and perspectives to support our statements and ideas in our paragraphs. Sources I used in my paragraph range from historic accounts to modern-day books. The portrayal of Riel varies in my sources, but I used them to support my topic sentence that the Canadian government’s relationship with Indigenous people has led to a shift in the portrayal of Riel. Additionally, I provided evidence in our paragraphs with quotes, sources, etc.

While studying Riel, we worked on our writing skills to be able to better articulate and present our paragraphs. One of our lessons was about synonyms, words that have the same or nearly the same meaning as another word. Learning how to use different words to more effectively communicate our ideas or to spice up the writing was a valuable skill, as it can completely change how you want to convey your writing.

My final essay on Riel:

The Canadian government’s relationship with indigenous people has led to a shift in the general portrayal of Louis Riel: “For decades, Louis Riel was condemned as a rebel and a traitor. Today, he is considered the founding father of Manitoba, a visionary thinker and protector of the minority rights and culture”- UM Today News, 2017. This statement highlights the shift in the portrayal of Riel from a rebel to a hero.  While the portrayal of Riel has become more positive in recent times he is still often depicted as a controversial figure. For example, in Chester Brown’s graphic novel “Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography,” the portrayal of Riel is quite complex. Despite being shown as a charismatic hero, the novel also touches on his mental health challenges. Not painting him in the best light. Another example would be the statueq of Louis Riel created by Marciean Lemay and Etienne Gaboury, where Riel looks disproportionate and malnourished. While some may argue these were abstract representations of Riel, heroes aren’t usually shown negatively. These representations may allude to the early reputation of him being a madman or insane. According to the Canadian Encyclopaedia, serval scholars have noted that it was usually Riel’s friends, rather than his enemies, who attempted to cast him as insane.

On November 16, 1885, Louis Riel was hung for treason. Since he opposed the government,(regardless of his motives)he was initially classified as a rebel by historians and citizens. He is often portrayed negatively in official Canadian historical accounts. The book “Canada and its Provinces: A History of the Canadian People and Their Institutions,” was published between 1913 and 1917 has evidence of Riel’s negative portrayal in earlier decades. In a volume, Riel is depicted as a selfish rebel half-breed. It is very one-sided and fails to mention the perspectives of Louis Riel and the Metis people.

Improving the relationship between Indigenous peoples, including the Métis, and Canadians has been a gradual process over recent decades. According to carnac.go.ca, an official website of the government of Canada, Reconciliation with the Indigenous means to acknowledge the past and its present-day impacts. That means understanding historical wrongs, like the unfair treatment of Metis people. Which allows more people to sympathize and understand Riel’s actions and motives. His motives were to protect the rights and land of his people. A Canadian Heritage Minutes video portrays Riel as a righteous hero for the Metis. It emphasizes Riel’s desire to lead his people to equality and freedom. In addition, it shows the perspective of the Metis people, and how they consider Riel their pride and hope. In conclusion, the various portrayals of Louis Riel have been due to the different perspectives on his actions. People understand more perspectives on Riel’s story, leading many more to view him as a hero.

– I got feedback from my teachers and classmates which helped me to create a better paragraph.

This short project taught me about how perspectives of people can change throughout history, Metis history, how to analyze sources, Louis Riel, synomyms, and how to write a paragragph.

Hello everybody, this is a blog post about our latest maker project -Methaphor machines. In this project, we learned about the concept of how ideas drive change. We explored how individual actions, decisions, and ideas have shaped events in history. Our whole project was centred around analyzing and studying revolutions. Our final project would be creating a Rude Goldberg Machine for a specific revolution of our choice. The goal was to create a machine that is a metaphor for a revolution. Each part of the machine should represent for an important event in the revolution. Lastly, our machine shows us how different events in our revolution/history are connected.

Our first keystone, we Crane Brinton’s Theory and created a Revolution Infographic. To understand revolutions we studied the different stages of a Revolution using Crane Brinton’s Theory. There are to this theory inbubation, moderate, crisis, and recovery. All these stages are charaterized by various events present in most major revolutions. This theory really helped me understand what a revolution is and the different parts to it. To showcase our understanding of this theory and revolutions we had to create a infographic on a revolution. I chose the american revolution because it seemed interesting. I first got started on some research on sites provided on basecamp then later switching to some other websites and sources. Gathering info was pretty easy, but I spent alot of time complieing. It was difficult deciding out all the key dates and events to include or leave out, but I eventually figured it out.

On our second keystone we analzyed a book called “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. A book that is about Farm animals that try to create a happy and fair society after overthrowing their human opperssors. Instead, the latter half of the story is about power hungry pig becomes a dictator of the farm that makes everything worse. This book is a good methapor of how in some cases the new system after a revolution slowly becomes the old regime again. If the people(or animals) in power are corrupt and do priorizes their own interests over the peoples. Our tasks for this keystone was mostly read this book and participating in book chats. Having these book chats really helped me futher understand the book better. Because I was able to pick up on key points I might have missed and I got to listen to different perspetives or interpretations of the book. Overall, this keystone help me futher devolop my understanding for revolution.

Our finish line was to create a Rude Goldenburg machine as a group and present in the Winter Exhibition. My group was the American Revolution.
Our first step was to learn about Metaphors so we could create a machine that represents our revolution.
Our second step to look at different Rude Goldenburg machine to get ideas .
Our third step was to indiviually find 7 important events in our revolution and come up with a way to represent it the machine.
Our fourth step was then to create a blueprint of our machine.
After that we shared our ideas with our group. Our group merged our different ideas into page to show all our connections that we where going to build.
We then presented our idea, got feedback, then created our final copy. And we also sketched out our blueprint to vizualize it.
Our next step after that was to create the machine, create a  documentry of our process, and prepare for our exhibion. To manage our work effectively as a group everybody choose one of seven roles to take on.
I was the scriptwriter and Exhibiton Visionary.

Thill us – A maker project

In this project, we focused on the thriller genre. A genre that is similar to horror, but it doesn’t always need to have blood, clowns, and jigsaw. While horror is supposed to make the audience feel fear, thrillers just need to be engaging to create suspense. They often involve plot twists and keep the viewers guessing until the very end. 

Our maker project Thrill Us was an amazing experience. It showed me how interesting and complex filmmaking and storytelling can be. In this project, we focused on the thriller genre. A genre that is similar to horror, but it doesn’t always need to have blood, clowns, and jigsaw. While horror is supposed to make the audience feel fear, thrillers just need to be engaging to create suspense. They often involve plot twists and keep the viewers guessing until the very end. 

We kicked off our project by watching a short thriller called “Run!” which we had to recreate. Our first job as a group was to create a storyboard to plan the shots we needed to take. I was the actor for the “protagonist” in this film. It was surprising how many attempts we needed for some shots, but our group did a nice job of directing me on what to do. Overall our film was successful as managed to replicate most of the shots and the vibe of the film. After some critique from our classmates, we had to remake our film again. This time we focused heavily on shot timing and tried our best to replicate the shots exactly. We also fixed some of our sound and editing issues to make the film a lot more engaging. This allowed our group to create an accurate and successful remake.

We learnt how to process how to create a film with shots and editing, then we studied more on the thriller genre and storytelling. We learned about the “three C’s”- contract, clock and crucible. Elements that make up a good thriller. The contract was a promise to the viewer, the clock is time pressure, and the crucible refers to characters in intense/ dangerous situations. These elements create an engaging narrative that keeps the viewers hooked. To further explore these concepts we analyzed four short thrillers. We discussed how the film utilized the three C’s and how the filmmakers created suspense.

Here is my review of the film “Black Hole”

Black Hole has all three C’s making it an engaging thriller short film. Firstly, the contract in this film promises that the character is going was use this newfound power. The contract leaves me wondering how the story is going to unfold keeping me interested. The film does a good job of keeping the contract throughout the film as the character steals from a vending machine then a safe. However, I felt as though the film was set up for an intense climax. While getting trapped in the safe was a good ending, the climax just wasn’t intense enough. Secondly, the clock in this film was not as obvious as the contract. I think that this aspect of the film didn’t need to be as present given the theme of this film. The filmmakers did a good job of subtly adding time pressure to make the mood of this film more intense and dangerous. The clock in this film rushes the character creating a lot of tension. We can see that the character is afraid, worried that if he takes too long he will get caught in the act. We can see that when grabs money from the safe he is madly desperate because he is excited but nervous. This causes him to fall through the black hole and get trapped in the safe. Unfortunately, this film was too short for us to see what happens to the character now that he’s trapped a the safe. There are time constraints as he has to escape before he suffers from death. Lastly, the crucible in this film is used to build suspense for the climax. The story never presents any force that goes against the character and forces him to act. But the story does force the character to be under intense pressure as he finds a life-changing new power. This situation tests the character’s morals and shows how a person’s greed can lead to their downfall. I believe that the mystery around the black hole’s power makes it seem like a force of evil. So the real antagonist in this film is either the character himself or the black hole. In conclusion, I think The Black Hole is a solid short film.

The climax in the story was well built up, but I thought that it needed a clear antagonist to challenge the main character. The film highlighted that the character’s greed was the force of evil because it allowed the main character to abuse its power. I could have made the black hole itself a more influential force, maybe controlling or persuading the character to commit crimes. The antagonist could make the character struggle and face challenges, which is an important element in every thriller. Regarding the plot, the shots were good quality and the different camera angles used made it a cinematic experience. As the filmmaker, I would have made use of more sound effects to make it an even more engaging experience. Adding more background noise or different music will help build the mood of this film even more. I would even couple this with high-pitched sounds to enhance the build-up and the climax.

Finally, after diving deep into thrillers and filmmaking, we had to create an original short thriller film ourselves. Our group decided to create a psychological-“Narnia” kinda film. The plot is as follows – Two friends are playing basketball together. One of them air balls a shot which causes the basketball to go downhill. The other friend chases the basketball, only to find it rolling further and further down the path. She soon finds the surroundings distorted and gets confused. She stumbles around for a bit until she finally finds the ball. She picks it up and starts sprinting back quickly as she is confused and scared. There are then unknown footsteps and a mysterious person following her. As she gets to the basketball court everything suddenly seems fine. Until her friend asks her where the ball is. Confuzzled she looks down at her hands only to find out that the ball is missing. Then someone who looks like her friend stands behind her and says “You mean this ball?”.
  -The end

The plot doesn’t make sense and it leaves the viewer wondering what in the world just happened.  It doesn’t necessarily have all the elements of the 3 C’s but it’s super suspenseful and engaging. The creative sounds and shot angles we used elevated it as well. My role in this group is mostly being the main actor. I did help around with filming the first bit and gave insightful suggestions. As well as dabbling with the film sounds. Overall I felt as though this project was a lot of fun and my team experience was amazing.

Watch the short film here!⬇️

This maker project was an amazing experience. It showed me how interesting and complex filmmaking and storytelling can be. You wouldn’t believe that a 1-minute short film takes 2 days and 4 people to film. Nevertheless, this is been my favourite maker project this year.

Rockies-Humanities
I went on a 8-day field study to better understand how has the geography of the west shaped who we are. I will be showing evidence of my learning through my projects and assignments.

The driving question: How has the geograpghy of the West shaped who we are?

—————————————————————————————————————
Multitouch book reflectionWhat we did:
-For eight of the main locations we went on during this trip we had to include a write a reflection for each one. The reflection includes a photo and descriptive answers for 3 questions.

The reflections:
The muiltitouch book was basically a reflection of our thoughts, what we learnt and our connections .It was about our interpertations how the photos we took shows answers the driving question. As well how the photos historic or presence signifance of each location. Additionally we also had to show personal thoughts connections to each location.
Example part of my refelction, Rogers Pass:

1. What is geography through one or more of the Five Themes of Geography? 

Human environment interaction and place:
Part of the CPR was chosen to be built in Rogers Pass because they couldn’t build a railroad up the mountains. Even though locations had some of the harshest weather conditions in Canada because of the heavy snow and avalanches during the winter. While the CPR was in Rogers Pass they had to build stone trustles to prevent the tracks from being covered in snow as well as snow huts to ensure the railway could function during the winter. This shows us how humans had to adapt to a place’s challenging environment as well as the geography of a place influencing where the CPR would be built.
This shows my thoughts of how the photo shows one of the five themes of geograpghy.
+ During this I read alot of signs at national parks and mesuems which helped me gather info for my book.

2. What made and made the West by how this photograph represents the physical environment influencing the nature of politics, society, and economics in the West? This photo shows the old CPR trail along Rogers Pass as well as a fancy Hotel called the Glacier House. The photo gives us an example of how the physical environment influences the region economically.
The CPR connects Canada and brings tourism to destinations such as the Glacier House. That’s why when the CPR changed and the hotel wasn’t connected to the railroad anymore the hotel had to close down. This shows some of the influential presence of the CPR because it connects different places and brings tourists. Furthermore, the natural geography of the West impacts where the CPR would be built shaping the the political, social, and economic landscape of the West.
This shows how I connect the photo I took to our driving question

3. Your connection and interpretation of the place the photo represents
-This photo represents the CPR connecting different parts of Canada and how much the CPR economically changes different areas. As well as how the geography of a place impacts our interactions and relationships with it. For example, they had to rebuild the railway outside of Rogers’s Pass because of the avalanche dangers and the nature of the harsh terrain. The photo also shows the natural geography shaping where the railroad would be. And how places near the CPR would develop socially and economically.
-Most popular stores are located in the main part of the shopping centre. Parkgate has more popular stores on the first floor because it is easier to get to and more people see and notice them. I never bothered to explore the second floor because it was less. I think the most popular stores were strategically placed where everybody could see their advertisements and is convenient for shopping. In this case, the Glacier House served as a travel hub that would mostly attract people on the CPR railway because it was in the middle of the Rockies. It was strategically placed in a location where it would attract customers just like the popular stores in shopping centres. That’s why the railway moved Hotel was less accessible and CPR also didn’t have any reason to advertise it anymore.
This shows my interpretation why the Glacier house closed down

—————————————————————————————————————

What is geography- A keystone

What we leant in this keystone:
In this keystone we learnt about the 5 themes of geograpghy.
Location:
Place:
Movement:

This helped me with my book reflection. As well understanding the driving question futher. In how the different elements geograpghy shaped the west.
Example: The CPR much impacted the West by revolonizing movement how movement(how things are moved from placed to place).

Our keystone project was a page on comic-life. We had to photos and desprictions showing all of the 5 themes of geograpghy

—————————————————————————————————————
What made and makes the west-A keystone

This keystone was mostly about Canada specifically the West’s history.

-A investigation of this keystone was learning about what the West is and it’s facts and characteristics. I learnt that the West means (in this context)means the Westen part of Canada including B.C. and Alberta.

-Another investigation of this keystone was briefly learning about B.C.’s history leading up to the construction of the CPR. Our assignment was to take notes about B.C’s history on a keynote presentation. This assignment help me better undertand how to take notes, by writing down the main idea and capturing the key ideas.

My notes on the creation of B.C’s colony:

Welcome to my blog post where I described my PLP Oregon Coast field study experience !

I will be writing some of my trip highlights including restaurants and important locations we went to :

Our first important stop was a Cabela’s ,a huge outdoor equipment shop .It was a fun experience as I got a taste of US culture for the first time .Because it was labour day there were a ton of American themed T-shirts and banners .This was also my first time going into a hunting store that had guns and other hunting weapons in it .Although I didn’t purchase any firearms it was really interesting seeing different snipers and rifles for the first time in my life .Cabela’s really gave of the vibe of a hunting store as there stuffed animal heads all over the place and a huge fake mountain with a mini aquarium inside.

The Astoria Column an important part of my trip because thats the business my group had to interview .We asked a lady questions about the Astoria Column business to create our ads .Our group practiced what we needed to ask during the interesting and how we would introduce ourselves .I personally thought the interview itself went smoothly and our group got a better understanding what we needed to advertise .We didn’t get exact answers on what exactly we had to put in our ads or on how we could advertise Astoria Column to convince more people to visit .But instead I got a general sense its business.I leant about what type of people usually come here the most ,what they come here for, and how important the Astoria Columns history was .Other than the interview we also got a chance to walk up Astoria Columns spiral stare case and look at the awesome panoramic landscape views once we got to the top .Seeing Column itself was an amazing experience as its the world’s only large piece of memorial architecture made of reinforced concrete with a pictorial sgraffito frieze.

My personal favorite part of this trip was the Tillamook cheese factory simply because I love cheese .We went on a tour of the cheese factory .We got to learn about the factory’s cheese product process and see the factory in action producing cheese .Seeing the different machines for cheese production and packaging was so satisfying because everything just seemed so flawless and efficient. It was also a great learning opportunity as we leant about Tillamook ,Oregons agriculture history and the origins of the cheese factory .After tour we got to sample some of Tillamook’s 🧀 ! The different cheeses were all so tasty in their own ways .In my option the smoked cheddar was the best flavor because it was just so rich and it was my first time tasting smoked cheese .Finally we went to the factory’s gift shop .Sadly we couldn’t buy any food related items but the I had fun looking at the shop’s merch .

Another highlight of my trip was the Marine Hatfield science center(We went to the Marine Hatfield science center twice I am only about some of my personal highlights throughout the whole experience) .The Hat field Marine science center is a marine research center and an education center .Some staff toured us through the visitor area at the center which had an cool tsunami machine and a topographic map projector where we got to play with sand ,and a flight simulator .I enjoyed trying out all there interact machines that taught us about marine research that were related to the Oregon Coast .

The most memorable part of my visit and the center was R.O.V challenge .We had to work in groups to create R.O.V’s limited pipe’s ,connects ,and motors to pick up spoons.My group came up with a decent R.O.V design that worked in theory but we failed to figure out ways to connect our motors.But at the end we figured it out and created a successful R.O.V that could pick up spoons .Reflecting on this challenge I wish I thought about and discussed with my group the mechanics of how the R.O.V would actually moved by following the standard protocol of assembling the motors .But overall this challenge challenged our teamwork skills and creativity.

The food:
A lot of the meals we eat in Oregon week trip were easy prep food like wraps or crackers ,but we also got go to restaurants and try tasty food.
-A restaurant went to was a road side restaurant called Clark’s .The burgers and fries where nice and this was my first time going to a road side restaurant.
-Thai food takeout ,I am happy I got to try unique foods from different cuisines .
-Pig and pancake was a fun family-style restaurant with a cool gift shop .I ordered their french toast and it was mid ,but on the bright side their other food that I didn’t try look appetizing.
-The buffet we went to in Oregon was by far the best restaurant we went too .Their desserts were exceptionally good and they just had a good food selection like ribs and pasta .

Overall the Oregon trip was an enjoyable and great learning experience .I made many fun and memorable experiences with my classmates ,teachers ,and friends .friends. While it had its share of ups and downs—living in camps and yurts wasn’t exactly my preference, and the constant traveling became quite tiring—the overall experience was definitely positive.I am looking forward to future PLP trips!!

 

Overview :
Welcome to my blog post documenting the Medium is the message project .We leant about different concepts of media specifically advertisement ,what it is ,techniques ,and how it affects society etc  .This was a really great hands on learning experience as we actually got to create an ad for a company using what we leant .

Keystone 1:
Keystone 1 introduced us to topic .Learning and analysing media to understand what media was .We had to fill out questions relating to our experiences with ads and interview a person for their answers .And finally we had to write a paragraph about what media is .This keystone gave me a better understating of what Media was and how it was effecting peoples life .

Keystone 2:
Keystone 2 taught us about media literacy ,what media is doing .We leant about 5 core concepts and applied them to some media we see on a daily basis to see how different types of media are trying of affect us .Our assignment for this keystone was filling out an ad chart about different types of ads and information about them including the ad form ,the target audience ,the ad techniques used ,the appeals ,what types of ads there where and the message of the ad.Researching 3 different types of ads(commercial ,print ads ,web ads) gave us an opportunity to target different forms of ads and learn more .

Keystone 3:
Our final keystone we interviewed a business in Oregon and created ads for them .Then we showcased our ads with our business group and presented it in an exhibition .We used a launch cycle to help with the learning and making process of creating a good advertisement
-The first stage was Look ,listen ,and Learn .This stage was mostly learning about my business the Astoria Column .What the column was ,it’s business ,and other additional info that we thought was important .We also had to define the brief ,which was basically understanding our end goal and what we need to learn in the process to complete it .
-The second stage “Ask Tons of Questions” was for asking questions to get a better understanding about our business .In my case my questions where mostly related to marketing to get some info on what my ad should focus on or target .
Some examples for my ads were:
-What would you say is your biggest problem in attracting customers?
-What makes Astoria Column Unique compared to other land marks in
Astoria
-Is there any specific design principles you want your ad to follow?
-The third stage about understanding the problem or process
In this stage we looked at potential competition the business might have and it’s target audience .We also spent some time understanding the process of making an ad ,which partly did when researching and investigating ads in our earlier keystones
-The fourth stage “Navigate Ideas” was about navigating ideas as the name suggests .I looked at different design ideas to brainstorm what I might want I ad being .I did that by creating a mood board of Astoria Column .The mood board included beautiful photos of the Column ,its breath-taking scenery ,and its rich history ; that was the vibe I wanted to give of in my ad .Our whole group had to come up with 3 design principles to follow ,this helped us with understand ,remember ,and  uphold important elements we want to include in our ads .One of our design principles was that we must include a photo of the Astoria Column(Obviously)
-The fifth stage was to create prototypes ,these where some of my prototypes before the final product .I was fun experimenting with different colours and photos to create an appealing ad .

-The sixth stage was to highlight and fix our ads
I noticed that the colour scheme of my second draft .The green seemed really unnatural and contrasting to the rest of of calmer photos .I though that I would ad white space in my ad to bring attention to words Astoria Column  it it just didn’t match with the color scheme and high quality photos .So I decided make brown my main colour scheme bc it relates to Astoria Column , it’s the column’s colour scheme,and  conveys emotion relating to nature and wholesomeness .Another main problem is that people don’t know what Im actually trying to advertise
To fix that I changed the border from green to brown .And made “Astoria Column” the same font .I also changed the white space to art depicting Lewis and Clark showing part of Astoria Columns historic appeal (it also fits the colour scheme).Then I added more contact information and a QR code on the bottom of the page .Finally ,I added a quote from Astoria Columns’s official website that imply that Astoria Column is a fun adventurous place that tourists can visit .

My exhibition experience :
I worked with 5 other classmates to set up our exhibition area .We had about one week to discuss foods to bring ,costumes ,how we would arrange our stand ,and individually worked on a keystone presentation .It went pretty smoothly and our communication was ok .Before the actual exhibition we helped set up the gym and our exhibition area and it looked really great .The preparation was also good as we all had our outfits and brought our food .This exhibition itself was pretty fun as got to see other peoples exhibition and I was happy to finally get the exhibition over with .I do hope next exhibition we assign breaks because people including where leaving for way too long and leaving the area empty .

Keystone 1:

Keystone 1 was mostly learning about how we interact matter .What matter is and ways we can describe matter .

Their are two main ways we can describe matter ,we can describe its physical properties or chemical properties .A physical property is a property of a substance that can be observes without changing the substance itself .Like its looks or its density .And a chemical property is related to its chemical attributes like its reactivy or pH level .During keystone 1 we did activity’s observing chemical or physical properties .Some things we did include ,finding the density of objects by dividing mass by the volume or doing experiments to find out wether something it was a physical or chemical change .
Our final project in keystone 1 was about making observations about an object we choose :

keystone 2:

Keystone 2 was learning about different states of matter

We learnt that there are four states of matter solid ,liquid ,gas, and plasma .We also learnt the kinetic Molecular Theory and how matter changes in state .We played with an program that showed how different matter act when in different temperatures.It showed us how matter was always moving and how different temperature can change the state of matter .Also relating to KTM we leant about diffusion and osmosis which we did an experiment on .Out final project in keystone 2 diffusing gummy bears .This project was very intriguing as we had to come up
with our own experiment including our hypothesis ,our process, and our findings .

Keystone 3:

Keystone 3 was to create a video game that showcases any scientific concept we leant during this project

I used scratch to code my video game because it was easier to grasp and actually make a game that other coding programs .I decided to make a zombie shooter game that highlight the four stages of matter .I tried to play with scratch for a little bit and watched some videos to understand the basic mechanics of the software but I couldn’t actually figure out how I would make my game actually work .So I decided to break everything down by starting on the basics and adding more complex elements to the game as I go. Using this method and watching some scratch tutorials I managed to finish my game .
The game – You had to shoot matter zombies and each wave gets increasingly difficult as the zombies changes its state .It starts out with slow solid zombies (Because the molecules in a solid are slower than the other stages) and ends with an extremely hard plasma final wave .

Overall this project challenged my critical thinking skills and improved my understanding on

 

Over the course of this year I have grown as a PLP learner  by improving on my work habits and teamwork .I can say I achieved the final grade a wanted but I still feel that some of my work didn’t meet  expectations.But these experiences have led me to understand what I have to work on more .I will be using my experiences in PLP to discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth .

Part 1 :

One thing I consistently had to work on was my work ethic. It involved prioritizing important tasks, meeting deadlines, being punctual, completing my work, managing my class time effectively, and striving for productivity. This semester, I made a conscious effort to stay on top of my work, although it proved to be more challenging than I initially thought. Nevertheless, I am slowly improving.

In terms of science, I believe I have successfully completed all my assignments and met most of my deadlines, which makes me proud of my progress. However, the situation was different in humanities, especially after the Oregon trip. With a substitute teacher and the absence of the teachers who usually kept me in check, I became confused about the required work. As a result, I handed in the second keystone for humanities one week late because I had to redo it. Even though I collaborated with a friend (although it was an individual project), we didn’t meet the requirements. Instead of describing different ways and techniques of advertising, as expected, we focused solely on reviewing commercials, forgetting print ads and web ads.

This experience taught me that I am responsible for my own work and I should improve my ability to listen to instructions. It also led me to reach out to a teacher for help in staying on top of my work. When it came to my final product in humanities, I was really proud. I not only liked the outcome but also felt proud of myself for staying on top of my work throughout. I realized that it wasn’t difficult if I made use of my class time and motivated myself. Doing multiple ad drafts helped me avoid last-minute rush. I finished early and was one of the first to get my ad approved, which surprised me. I also managed my time well for my final keystone, which I personally believe turned out well. It explained the process of creating my ad and discussed the colour choices and techniques I used.

Being productive in class has become easier as the rules have become stricter. I have developed a more productive mindset and reduced procrastination. This semester, I also learned the importance of finding motivation. Initially, I was not meeting my own expectations, which made me realise I needed to step up my game, especially since my humanities grade from the first semester was not satisfactory. This realization motivated me, and it has paid off as I am currently meeting my expectations (or at least I think so).

Another project that I wasn’t proud of was a science gif. Although I completed it before the deadline, I ended up cramming all the work into the last day and finishing it .The final product wasn’t that bad though .

Part 2 :

I have improved on my team work and communication skills in PLP .

-Everyday in science or we have to sit next to a random person and some times work on assignments or projects together .This helped me get used to expressing my ideas and cooperating with other people 

-The Quests in Oregon also made me realized that teamwork can come along way

-I really wanted to help me group do something but I didn’t know how 

In the last quest instead helping my teammates .I voluntarily tried to help and contributed as much as possible .I think this might have helped and motivated my other team members to work to getter more .The result of that was getting first place in our quest  possibly got a record for the quest .

Part 3

A project I enjoyed this year a was Science’s sciences Mind over Matter project 

Where why looked at theory reality’s most basic elements (atoms) .And did different projects to test these theories out of showcase our understanding .

 In our first keystone we looked at the correspondences between volume ,density,and mass .The final thing we had to do for this keystone was to choose an object and figure out is volume. By measuring and weighing the object .

In our second keystone we learnt about diffusion 

 We did an experiment with gummy bears to test how they react to water over night .It was really surprising they grew instead in the water instead of melting .My and my friend decided to do a bit of extra research on why that was happening and worked to getter to make a good keystone documenting our findings .

Our last keystone was about making a scratch game relating to something we leant during the first two keystones .This keystone was the the best one yet .It made me remember how to used scratch even though i didn’t use it in 2 years .I made a shooter game where the particles get harder to shoot every stage because they are heating up making them go faster.

I really enjoyed this project because it was fun an  I reminded me that I enjoyed coding .I was surprised because I didn’t know atoms could be that interesting 

Part 4 :Why I’m able to move on to 9th grade 

-I think that although I need to improve on my work ethics a promise that I understand all the content we learnt in PLP and I am pretty sure I met the grade that I wanted .And in grade 9 I am going to try to work harder and aim for higher goals and standards .All PLP assignments and projects made me realize how much more I want and have to improve as a learner .That’s why And that’s why I’m going and am ready to PLP in Grade 9.