Scimatics

Science, math

Ecosystems of Earth

jacksonc Scimatics 0 Comment

Welcome back! It’s been a while since my last blog post and I’m happy to be back. Over the last little bit, we’ve been working on a science project all about different cycles of nature and how humans impact them. The driving question for this project was “In what ways have humans impacted the delicate cycles within our local ecosystems and how can we lesson our impact?” We did a number of different things to answer this question including, learning about the earth’s different spheres, making food webs, making a bioaccumulation gif, and even a news report about wildlife management. Then to finish off the project, we made social media posts to raise awareness of all this. 

Food Web

The first main thing that we did to answer the driving question was working with food webs. For this we had to make a interactive diagram in scratch that showed a food web. The food web that I made was mainly taking place in the ocean, with a few exceptions like a bear and bird. You can try out my interactive diagram here. 

 

Bioaccumulation Gif

The second big thing that we did to answer our driving question was a gif on bioaccumulation. For this, we used the app of our choice, mine being sketches pro, to make a short animation that we used to show the process of bioaccumulation. This proved to be the most challenging/time consuming part of this unit.

 

News Report

Another one of the main things that we did to answer the driving question was make a news report on wildlife management. Every group was given a different example of a wildlife management technique to base their news report off of. My group was assigned the overpopulation of the sea urchins and how they are affecting the kelp forests. 

 

Social Media Posts

For the final part of this unit, we made social media posts on what we had learned. These weren’t real posts, we made them on a website that created fake instagram posts, but the information that we were saying was very real. I had a posts on the earth’s spheres, the carbon cycle and human’s effect on it, wildlife management, bioaccumulation, and food webs. 

So, In what ways have humans impacted the delicate cycles within our local ecosystems and how can we lessen our impact? As I’ve talked about and shown throughout this post, there are many ways that people have affected these cycles and our ecosystems. Wether it’s with pollution impacting something like the carbon cycle, or us killing a bunch of sea urchins to try and manage populations, we need to be careful. Things that we do on a daily basis can contribute to all of these things in positive and not so positive ways. To lessen our impact on these ecosystems and cycles, we have to start being more wary of our futures. We need to start making eco friendly decisions and using eco friendly products. When it comes to things like wildlife management, there’s not a lot that we can do differently because it’s more of a morals thing. Overall, we need to start being careful with how we impact the world with it’s cycles and ecosystems so we can have a better place to live.

Grade 8 tPOL

jacksonc Humanities, Scimatics 0 Comment

Hi, and welcome to my tPOL. Before I begin, I must make the tPOL declaration. 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. 

Halfway through the year, I did my mPOL. The mPOL was a reflection on my work throughout the first half of the year, while the tPOL is me explaining why I am ready to move onto grade 9. Throughout my tPOL, I’m going to be going through my different PLP classes this semester, scimatics and humanities, and pulling some examples from them to show why I should move onto grade 9. 

Humanities 

Humanities is a subject that isn’t really my strong suit. I tend to especially struggle with history, which wasn’t the best since we had all of our projects that were almost entirely based around history. The projects that we had for humanities this semester were The Renaissance, Argh Matey, and New Beginnings. All of these projects had different thing that went good or bad with them, or even just had things that I FAILed in. 

Out of these projects, I think that my FAILs are the most important things that happened. If you didn’t already know, in PLP FAIL stands for First Attempt In Learning. The reason that my FAILs are important is because mistakes can help you learn. If you do something wrong or poorly, you can take criticism and learn how to improve it. I feel that taking, and using, criticism is something that I do very well. The best example of me FAILing in these projects is the seycove advertisement that we did at the start of the New Beginnings. It was something that we were doing to see what we remembered from past projects about photography, editing, and layout. In my first attempt at it, I forgot about all of the things that I had learned in the past, making it look terrible. I took some feedback from some of my classmates and my teachers then started making changes. The feedback that I was given, allowed me to make my second version much better. 

The other humanities project that I’m going to talk about is the argh matey project. This project had good examples of things that I did good in and things that I could have done better. The main thing that I think I really did good with in this project was getting things done efficiently. I feel that all my class time was used very well and, when we were filming at cates park, I was able to finish the project. The thing that I definitely could have improved on was my story for it. I had a bit of trouble with making the story enjoyable and have all the necessary information. I do think that I could have made my story a bit better if I had put a little more time into the actual writing of it and not all my time into the research. 

Scimatics 

For this semester, with scimatics being a lot more focused on the science aspect of it all, I had to push myself a bit more then normal. The reason that I say this is because I tend to understand math a bit more then I do science, but I do think that I was able to still do a pretty good job understanding the science this time around. The projects that I had for scimatics this semester were Chemistry Coding, Ultimate Design Challenge, and Comic Cells.

Out of these three projects, the Ultimate Design Challenge was the only one that was mainly math, it was also the one that I think I did the best in. A big part of the final result of this project, the presentation that we gave to the class about our design, was the calculations. For most of the shapes, we were given the formulas for surface area and volume, or we could just look them up, but I changed myself by doing shapes that didn’t really have a set formula, meaning that I had to figure them out. It was a fairly hard and tedious process, with a few FAIL moments, but I was able to do it in the end. I think that the whole process of that showed that I am a very persistent, and stubborn, person that will always do my best to follow through with things that I’ve committed to, in school and personally. 

The Chemistry Coding project is the last scimatics project that I’m going to talk about because I feel that it really showed who I am as a learner. The first reason that I say this is because, like I was saying with the Ultimate Design Challenge project, I was really trying to challenge myself and see it through. We had to code a game in this project, and I was trying to do something a bit more complex, so I was using tutorials and videos and even other students to help me with making it work. It also definitely showed my ability to take and use feedback. I was continuously making changes and getting feedback/ideas from others.

In the end, I have really learned a lot about myself as a learner this past year. I think that, in this semester especially, I’ve really started shaping into the learner that I want to be. I do still think that there are things that I need to change if I really want to become that learner. The biggest change I’d need to make being my ability to use time more efficiently because, I know I’ve said this a lot in the past, but I always struggle with procrastinating and staying on topic, making my work not always as good as I want it to be. With that said, I do think that I did better with that every once in a while and that, with time, I can become a lot better with it. 

3D Barn

jacksonc Scimatics , , 0 Comment

Welcome to another Blog! For the past few weeks I’ve been working on another scimatics project. For this project we did work with 3D models and how to calculate surface area/volume.  There were 4 main parts to this project, first to learn how to use tinkercad (the 3D model app), then we had to build our models, after that we had to do all the calculations, and to finish it off we presented this all. The goal of this project was to be able to maximize either surface area or volume, depending on what you choose. 

To start off this project we had to learn what we were going to be working with. To do this, we started working with tinkercad and just kind of messing around and seeing what we could build. This would really turn out to be helpful because tinkercad would prove to be difficult to use and I needed the practice.

Once we had a general idea on how to use tinkercad, we started actually building the shapes that we had planned out. We spent quite a bit of time on this because tinkercad can be very tedious. The thing that I decided to build was a barn. The main reason that I decided to do this was because I thought that I could make a barn look good and meet the requirements pretty easily. 

The next thing that we had to do were the calculations. The calculations were the hardest part because we had to do surface area and volume for every shape. Some of the shapes that I did had very complex formulas that took awhile to do. Once we had all the calculations done we had to add them up and figure out what the ratio was. Doing this showed us if we managed to complete our goal.

The final thing that we did for this project was put everything into a presentation. We had to show our object, the shapes in it, the calculations, and if we completed our goal. I think that I was able to reach my goal of maximizing volume for my barn. If you want, you can check out my presentation here.

Presentation 22

In the end, I was able to reach my goal of maximizing volume with my object. I think that I did a good job using my class time effectively to make my object in tinkercad. Tinkercad did take awhile to get used to, but once I got the hang of it I was able to build everything easily. I do think that I could have done a better job at maximizing the volume, but other then that I think that I did this project well.

Atom Run

jacksonc Scimatics 0 Comment

Another scimatics project has finished. This one was pretty interesting because of the fact that the final project was for us to code a video game. This was harder because we had to learn how to code as while as the normal work. The major parts of this project were the mind map, atomic models, and the game itself. 

The mind map was more or less the same as every other one. At the start of the project we would put down questions, thoughts, and examples of what we think this project is about. As the project goes on, we add onto the mind map until the end. 

The atomic models were where we chose 3 or 4 different types of atoms, all with different models, and put down all the info on them. We then drew them and later used those drawings in the game. 

The final main thing that we had to do was actually code the game. Our game had to be interactive and had to show the KMT and the atomic theory. This was a challenge because I’ve never really done any coding before and this was a big project. Luckily, the scratch coding is a lot more simple and there were people that were really good at it that’s I could get help from. 

In the end. I think that I did a good job with this project. I think that I used my class time efficiently and that I was able to show the KMT/atomic theory in the game and make it fun. In the future, I would want to work more on making the game have more levels and be a bit less glitchy. You can check out my game here.

How I’ve Done So Far

jacksonc Humanities, Maker, Scimatics 0 Comment

Hi and welcome to my mPOL. Before I even get started, I’d like to make the mPOL declaration. “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.” Now that I’m done with that, lets get into the mPOL. In this first semester, I have changed and grown a lot as a learner. Because of my PLP classes, Scimatics, Humanities, and Maker, I have learned new ways to learn. 

The driving questions for this mPOL are “How have I demonstrated growth as a learner so far this year?” And “How can I sharpen my Learning Plan to ensure I will reach my learning targets by the end of this school year?” I’m going to be using past projects and my learning plan to show how I’m doing now and what I want to work on in the second part of the year. 

Learning Plan

Some of the things that I put in my learning plan are different to what I am doing now. One of the things that is different is a bunch of the Scimatics stuff. I actually feel that I have followed my learning plan, at least with the growth section. I found that with the more recent work and project we’ve been doing, I’ve really been working on the science portion as well as the math. This was a big thing for me because I found that when I put more work into the part that I have a bit more trouble with, I have some results that were a lot better then before. I actually would have added this in my strength section now. For the other subjects, I feel that, for the most part, it is pretty accurate for me right now. 

One thing that I want to work on with my learning plan to reach some of these targets is to really work hard on building the habits that I talked about. The ones that I think are the most important are the ones where I talk about having set time for work and working on things that aren’t due for a while. I’ve for sure gotten a lot better with these things, but I still find myself getting distracted. I really need to start taking these work times a lot more seriously so I don’t end up doing all the work at the last minute. If I do these things, then I think that the outcome will be work that is done a lot better and that I’m a lot happier with. 

Maker

The first thing that demonstrated my learning growth was actually the first project that we did this year. This project was the Me as a PLP Learner project. The reason that this demonstrated my growth as a learner is because, going into this, I knew almost nothing about PLP and the way that I would be learning. In this project I learned how to properly use apps like basecamp and showbie. I also learned things like why it really is important to apply what you are learning to the real world and why it’s important to reflect on your work. The reason that it’s important to reflect on your work is because, if you don’t reflect, the work wont stick with you and you wont really learn because, as we learn in PLP, you don’t learn from experience, you learn from reflecting on experience. Another big reason that this showed my growth as a learner is because of my Big Life Journal. My BLJ made my think about who I am and where I want to be. This really got me Thai king about the work that I have to put in to get there and it motivated me to work harder then what I was before.

The other Maker project that I’m going to talk about is the Constructing Creative Communication project. In this project I learned about a lot more amazing tools and apps that I have access to. I also learned that there are many different ways that I can express myself and my learning. The reason that this demonstrated my growth as a learner is because, going into this project, I would sometimes have trouble expressing my work and this project really helped show me some ways to do that. The reason that this is important is because, if the work I do is more fun and memorable then it will stick with me a lot better. 

Humanities 

The humanities project that I’m going to talk about is the medium is the message project. This was the project where we worked with local businesses to create advertisements for them.  This demonstrated my learning growth in a number of ways. The first way is that I started learning why it is important to revise your work. I learned that the client, your team, the teachers, and even you wont always be happy with the work you did so you have to learn to take constructive criticism to improve it.  

Scimatics

The scimatics project that I had the most learning growth with was the laser laws project. This was the most recent project we did in scimatics. In this project we learned about the Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection and how we can use them. For the end product we made a big laser display to prove the Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection. This showed my growth as a learner because I found that, with this project, I actually learned a lot that I didn’t know about science and math. Normally, when I go into a new project or subject, I have at least some idea of what I’m doing from past things, but I had absolutely zero idea what anything was. By the end of the project, I knew how to do these things easily. I think this really showed my learning growth and it had some really cool outcomes. 

In the end, I think that I have grown a lot with my learning. I think that the examples that I’ve given, with my different subjects, has shown that I have really changed since the start of the year, and that I’m still changing and growing with my learning. I think that since the start of the year I’ve really improved even with things like my teamwork, my responsibility with my work, and the way that I revise/look back on my work. I think that to sharpen my learning plan I would have to do a lot more work having specific times to get work done and what work I’m doing in that time. 

Laser Light Show

jacksonc Scimatics 0 Comment

Welcome back to another Scimatics blog post. Lately we have been working on a project that I have really enjoyed. We’ve been working with lasers, the law of reflection, and the Pythagorean theorem to answer the driving question, “How can we test the Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection.” These are important tools to have because they are used in the real world a lot, for example if you are building something. To test the Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection, we did a number of things. We did a mind map, read a story about the Pythagorean theorem, used online light/laser simulators, and even played laser tag. Then to end it off, we made a laser display. 

The mind map is something we do at the start of almost every new Scimatics project. I did a section for questions, thoughts, and examples. At the end of the project I went back and did my best to answer some of those questions and add more thoughts and examples. 

Another thing that we did that I found important was the book. The book was a story about Pythagoras as a kid and how he discovered the Pythagorean theorem. I don’t know about everyone else but this really helped me understand the Pythagorean theorem better. This is because the book used examples of how it’s used in the real world and I find that makes things easier to understand. 

One of my favourite things that we did in this project was laser tag. We didn’t do traditional laser tag but what we did was somewhat similar. We had two teams that put a target somewhere in the class and the other team had to try and bounce a laser off of a mirror to hit it and vice versa. The lasers started in one spot and we weren’t allowed to move anything until the lasers were off. The first round my team won by hitting the target on our second try. In the second round we did class against class. We set up our targets in our class and we had to shoot the laser down the hall, into the other class, and hit the target using two mirrors. To make it harder we also had to keep the lasers in our class. Our team actually won this by hitting the target first try. 

Another big thing that we did was the laser optics simulator. This is where we started planning out what our big laser displays are going to look like, at least the triangle. We started getting used to working with lasers and reflections, which we quickly found out is very finicky and precise. We then did a bit of a lab with our newfound knowledge. In the lab we had to use the law of reflection and the Pythagorean theorem to make a right triangle. 

To end off this project we did a laser display. We were put into teams of 4 or 5 and we built a laser display. My team did a very large triangle with an ocean theme. We did our best to prove the Pythagorean theorem and the law of reflection but there were some flaws. We did prove that with the law of reflection, the angle of incidences and the angle of reflection will be an equal distance from the normal. The problem was with the Pythagorean theorem. Our measurements weren’t adding up with our calculations. This was most likely due to an error in our measurements. We were off by 0.66cm from a perfect triangle. Once we were done building our projects we had a morning where everyone set up their projects, we turned out the lights, and we put smoke on them all. The smoke made it so that we could see the lasers and it made for a really cool effect. 

At the end of every project we do, we have to do a self assessment and say how we think we did. The rubric that we were following had three parts to them. The first part was how we used our class time. I think that I am at the proficient level with this. I don’t always do the best with using my class time but for this project I was actually getting a lot done in class and I was using my time well. The second part is the knowledge part. This part is about how well you know the Pythagorean theorem, the law of reflection, and all the work leading up to it. For this I think that I may have actually done pretty good. I think I was at more of an extending level with this for a few reasons. The main reason is that, even though my measurements and sometimes my calculations were a bit off, I could always figure out where the source of error was. The third section on the rubric was about how well actually built our project and how well our team worked together. I think that the way the project turned out was at a proficient level but our  teamwork was at more of an emerging/developing level. The reason I say this is because there was only like one or two people working on it while the rest of the group didn’t barely did any work. I think that if everyone did more equal work, then the project could have turned out a lot better.

In the end this was a really cool project. We did work with lasers, both in real life and online, mirrors, and we even played laser tag. To answer the driving question, I think that the easiest way to test/prove both the law or reflection and the Pythagorean theorem is to just make a right angle triangle. If you make the triangle right, you can easily prove both of them. 

If you want you can check out my group here!

Judah

Kai

Caitlin

Tectonic Chances

jacksonc Scimatics 0 Comment

Welcome back! Lately, me and my scimatics group have been hard at work with our latest project, Tectonic chances. In this project we have been using probability and Plate Tectonics to create an unique and fun game. Me and my group, Makai and Magnus (you can check out their blogs here. Makai Magnus), worked together to create Disaster Island. 

How are thematic and mathematical elements used in game design? This has been our driving question throughout the project. To answer this question we dove into game design to see how it’s done. There have been many changes made to our game, I’ll talk about soon, and many things that still could use changing. To help with our understanding of probability we did a lot of work with dice and fractions. 

To start off this project we had to start thinking of game ideas. For this one, our groups weren’t finalized so we also had Cameron B. Our original ideas were similar to later on but much too complex. In the original it was much too hard and time consuming to get the keys, the extra life, and the wheel spins. Another difference was that some things, like the wheel spin, were optional. This made it too easy because, unless you went for these things, you wouldn’t even have a chance of getting the bad option. 

At the end of this project we started to finalize the game rules and then we had fun. We got to spend a bunch of time playing our game with other people, from our class and the other one, and we got to play other people’s games. This was a fun experience that further helped us understand how we can use thematic and mathematical elements in game design by seeing how other people did it.

Another important thing that we did was the mind map. We did a mind map at the start of the project to see some examples of what we know, think, wonder about, and some ideas for our games. As the project went on, we added more and more to it so we could see how far we came with our knowledge about plate tectonics, we also answered some of our questions. 

Throughout this project we have learned a lot about game design and the effort that goes into it. We have done a lot of work with tectonic plates and how they work, with them moving on top of the mantle and causing many things to happen. We also did a lot of work with probably and fractions using dice rolls. So, how are thematic and mathematical elements used in game design? Well, many games use some form of mathematical equations to help determine the outcome. Sometimes it’s using probability with dice, cards, or a spinner, and other times it’s using simple math like adding/subtracting or dividing/multiplying. Some games, like Monopoly, will use multiple of these things to make the gameplay more exciting. In the end, this project has taught me a lot about how thematic and mathematical elements are used in game design.

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