Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of one of my Science project, Exciting Electricity! In this project we learned about circuits, energy, electricity in general. The Driving Question for this project was: N/a. I couldn’t find a driving question. Either I was blind or she didn’t write one. 

The first part of this project was about sustainability. We watched a powerpoint about this topic and took notes (at least I did). Basically different types of energy have different advantages and disadvantages. We also watched a video about nuclear power has a bad wrap for being the most dangerous type of energy. But this is actually not true. It kills less people based on hose much energy is generated than fossil fuels. It does still kill people but it is much less dangerous then people make it out to be. We also choice a form of energy to research the next couple of classes. 

I chose hydroelectric energy because it is very safe and sustainable. We were to make a poster explaining that source of energy. The requirements for the poster were to use Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning, pictures contributing to the text, and of course the text! For the text we need pros (advantages to using this source of energy), cons (disadvantages of this energy), and solutions (solutions to the cons of the type of energy). Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning is just that, claiming something, backing it up with evidence and explaining why that evidence helps ur case. Now that I understood the requirements for the keystone, I started working!

I started by researching using the Canadian Encyclopaedia and Brittanica, both reliable and trustworthy sites. I wrote down down important information I found about the pros and cons. I won’t tell you the stuff here, you can just read the poster included in this blog. The same goes for the solutions I thought of. After I had all the information I wanted to include, I started working on the visual design aspect of it. I wanted some part of it to have a water theme (you know, HYDROelectric). I got a nice basic water surface to use as a background. It was not that distracting and I liked it so I kept it. Next I placed the title and subtitle, so I could get a feel for where I wanted to place things. I found a basic squarish font for the titles. I liked this sub theme of it being simple for I just got a rectangle and two rods on the top and bottom. This is what I then used for all the text on the poster.  

I condensed my research and added some grammar to get the text, then I placed it on the poster. Finally I just need to add some images. I got some simple shapes so I could create my own diagrams. I liked the colour scheme of the greys and blues so I made the diagrams monochrome. I couldn’t get any images for the water cycle so I sketched my own. Finally I added citations and my name. I handed it in and got an A+.

The next part of the project was just learning and taking notes, then doing a worksheet. I can’t really tell a story with this and I doubt your interested, if anyone at all is reading this, so I’m just going to do a quick overview. We learned about current, conductors, insulators, resistance, circuit diagrams, Ohm’s Law, and series VS parallel circuits. If your really curious about this stuff you either already know about it or you have enough passion to learn about this stuff your self. If you really want to know heres my notes. Now we need to start planning our final keystone.

The final keystone is making your own operation game. That game with the tweezers and unconscious man. We made a draft of the circuit the day before we started. The concept is actually surprising simple. There is a box lid with holes in it for you to tweezer stuff out. We put tin foil on the inside of the lid and a design on the front. We got a light and attached it to the foil. Then we got a battery and attached it to the foil as well as the tweezers using wires. When the tweezers touch the foil, the circuit closes and the light turns. I did everything exactly to the instructions and… the light didn’t turn on. I rechecked everything and redid some tin foil but no cigar. I asked the teacher but she didn’t know anything, she just found the instructions online. I asked kids that got theirs working and same thing answer. I’m going to take it home to my dad to see if he can help (he’s an electrical engineer). Anyway I liked my design of the box. Its a little weird and creepy, but I was just doodling. 🙂

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my first Science project, Handle with Care! In this project we learned about the ecosystem and the earth’s Spheres. The Driving Question for this project was: “In what ways have human beings impacted the delicate cycles within our local ecosystems and how can we lessen our impact?”

The first thing thing we talked about is a basic understanding of the project and the concept. The concept is that the earth is made up of different Spheres and cycles that humans often impact in negative ways. We learned some terms and then we started work on our first keystone. There is one thing that you should know before reading this post. The Spheres of the earth. There are five Spheres: the Atmosphere (Gases surrounding earth), Geosphere (rocks of the earth), Biosphere (all living things on earth, including plants and animals), Hydrosphere (all the water on earth), and Cryosphere (all the ice of the earth). The keystone was about making a interactive Scratch program (or other media) that showed off a foodweb you chose. A foodweb is kind of like a 3D foodchain. It shows all the possible interactions in an ecosystem, not just one chain of it. 

The foodweb I chose to do was the North American Rain Forest. I chose this because I knew it well and I grew up with it. I included a number of animals and plants. The animals I included were bear, deer, eagle, squirrel, salmon, and insects. The plants I included were berries, trees, grass, and moss. After I chose what I wanted to include in my foodweb, I started to draw them. This took a bit of time but it was not to bad (I could watch shows and talk with people while I did it). Once I had finished all the drawing I started putting them into Scratch. I then hooked up some buttons that said what they eat and are eaten by. If you want to see what the end product was, here it is: HERE. And that was my process for the first Keystone. It was too complicated but it got the idea across, I liked this one. The part that took the longest was drawing all of the parts I was going to include.

The second keystone was a group project. It was a news report on an ecosystem the teacher chose for us. My group was me, Cameron L, Jupiter, and Kai. The ecosystem we had to write about was the sea urchins and kelp forests in California. I think it was in California, I could be wrong. The first day we researched it and answered some questions. This is the situation. There was/is a disease called Sea Star Wasting Disease. It killed of nearly all of the sunflower sea star. These sea stars were the main predator of the purple sea urchins. With the sea stars gone the purple sea urchin population started growing. Because it was growing they eat more. They ended up eating up nearly all the kelp forests. This severely effected all fish who lived in the forest for safety. The fish left and the former kelp forest area became zone of nothing but death and sea urchins. If you want more details watch my video. I then wrote the script and we practiced. The final day we practiced more and then filmed. Over the weekend Cameron edited it and make the final product. This was a fun keystone and I’m glad for who I got for partners. IMG_3592

The final Keystone was the 5 Media Posts. I didn’t know about this for a week because I had to take a week off school for personal reasons. When I got back it was already too late but I was still going to complete it. My friend, Caden, hadn’t worked on it either so we decided to be partners. The goal of this keystone was too revisit things we had learned and make a fake social media post about them informing the public. I got three and Caden took two. I then started working. The first one was about the Sphere’s and how humans impacted them. The next one was about  foodwebs and the final about something new, something dangerous… no not dangerous. Nutrient cycles. There isn’t much I can talk about these because they are just mini paragraphs with some photos. I can tell the jokes behind some of them though. The Mr. Clean one has the most. First of all the numbers at the bottom. The number of retweets is the number of youtube channels called Mr. Clean. The number of likes is the number of subscribers the real Mr. Clean YouTube channel has. Finally the date it was posted was the date Mr. Clean was invented. I did my research. We actually got this final keystone done in just two days with the power of friendship and the power of working at home. (The teacher was impressed)

I think I did pretty well in this project. I took notes, I did the work. I don’t think I did incredible work, more like around a B or in PLP terms a ☀️. I thing I could have done better with is staying on task. I was distracted by kids and friends a couple of times but thats bound to happen. I would even go as far as to say its good, if you don’t interrupt the teacher and you get your work done. I also found the topic of this project really interesting. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We got a new Science (its not Scimatics anymore, only Science) teacher. She is very nice and chill. I really like her and I feel comfortable with her. Or as much as you can with a teacher. 

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my (actual) final, Spring Exhibition! This is a blog post about the Spring Exhibition. And I can’t find the place where the Big Question is. 

The first thing we did when we learned of the Spring Exhibition was freak out. The second was be assigned a part of the Spring Exhibition. I was assigned the Conclusion. This time we the grade 8’s and 9’s were both doing the same part of the Exhibition. And they started it first so they did most of the explaining and telling us what to do. Normally I want to choose what I do and have more control over what I am doing but I didn’t care this time. I think this was because I was tired of school and I wanted it to be over. 

After we got assigned a position (mine is the Conclusion), we chose what station we would work at. I chose to work in the Hall of Hard Work. In the Hall of Hard Work each person in conclusion will put a piece of work from the year that they are proud of and one you aren’t proud of. I chose to show my D20 Drawing to be proud of and my Final Ad for Deep Cove Music to not be proud of. I then attached a artist statement to each. Here they are: 

AD: Deep Cove Music

I an not proud of my ad that my group constructed at the start of the year. This project was about making an ad for a company we were assigned. I was assigned Deep Cove Music. I don’t really like it because it is really basic, hard to read, and bad photoshop. I also don’t really even love the idea of it in general. Another thing that I don’t like about it is the black bar at the top. 

ART: D20

I really like my dice that I drew. It was for a project all about drawing and taking pictures. I put a lot of time and effort into into it to make it how it is. This was one of my earliest uses of real shading and I really enjoyed it. I modelled it after a dice I own and the shadow does actually look like that. 

What I was to do in the Hall of Hard Work was whenever someone walked in I would explain what it was. After I finished that work I just helped the grade 9’s with there stuff. That including mostly just using art skills with painting, drawing, and designing signs. It was fun. 

Then the day came of the exhibition. I skipped that school day so that I had energy for the day. When I came to the school I really started to get nervous. So for the hour or two to set up I didn’t exactly know what to do so I just kept asking people if they needed help. I helped but up multiple signs, sort some trophies, and put up letters. Then we started to decorate the Hall of Hard Work. This involved putting up emojis on the ceiling and struggling with paper on the wall. Then we sorted all the work and artist statements. Then… the skittles came out. We were giving skittles away because they’re slogan is taste the rainbow and in PLP the Rainbow Emoji is the A-A+. It also meant I got skittles. It was done. We were ready

Supper time! We went to the cafeteria to have the pizza we ordered. We started off by getting not enough pizza. Then we may get seconds. Actually I did get enough food for once which was nice. Nothing much to say about supper actually. 

Then we went up and started performing. As the first people came to the Hall of Hard Work I said… whatever I said. I forget. Sorry. But I do know I said it many times. I took a couple breaks so that I would stay sane. There wasn’t anything super interesting happened. Sooo yeah that was the night. 

All together it wasn’t that bad of a night and I kind of enjoyed it. 

See ya around and goodbye, Judah!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my final blog post project, Tpol! In this blog I will take a look at what I did this year and do a self assessment of it. The driving question for this project is “Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?”

Class Review 

Humanities

I generally really enjoy learning new things. I just don’t when I don’t think its necessary or if I think that its being taught it in a ineffective way. I also didn’t like the classroom with everyone being loud and how bright it was.   

Maker

I have mostly forgotten about Maker. If you want a class review on it just go look at my Mpol blog post. 

Scimatics 

I have the same opinions about learning as Humanities. I did really like the classroom for Scimatics. We were given seats that we are always at and it has less windows making it darker and more cozy. 

LAC

I really enjoyed LAC. It was just a class to finish all your homework. And after that you could work on your own projects or do other things. I also enjoy that it has two sides so if one is louder you can go to the other one. This is also an empty office I like to use. 

Gym

I actually ended up skipping this class. At the time I was really stressed and my body physically represented that. So I used that class to instead do my homework. I also don’t really like gym. I find it boring moving my body. 

Foods

I actually ended up skipping this class as well. At the time I was really stressed and I needed to take some things off my plate. So I used that class to instead do my homework. I also don’t really like foods. I feel like we should be learning something more important than this. 

Engineering

I actually really enjoyed the work we did in engineering working with my hands. My dad is an engineer and I like to listen to him talk about his job. But the class was really loud with Mr. Muter uses machinery and playing music. Also Mr. Muter’s expression was really flat and I had a hard time reading his emotions and telling if what he said was a joke or not. 

Drama

I enjoyed this class and I think I did good in it. Part of the reason I enjoyed it was that I sat beside and worked with Cameron L, Owen CM, and Caitlin. I also like being dramatic and acting if I am comfortable with who I am doing it with. I also already had some practice with this because I do D&D as well as listening people playing D&D.  

Where I’ve Grown

Perfection

Throughout the year I have less worried about things being perfect. An example is with different projects when I needed to draw. I did kind of stubby, cartoon people instead realistic. 

Group Work

I have gotten much better at communication. Proof of this is literally all the projects I did. I still want to get better at communication though.  

Emotion Control

I have learned a lot about emotions and controlling them. My mom and counsellor have been teaching me those kinds of things. Of examples are deep breaths, positive self talk, breaks and using fidgets. 

Where to Grow

Emotion Control

I want to learn even more techniques to make school and every day easier. Also I need to work on remembering to do them. 

Homework Control / Sorting

One of the reasons school was hard this year because I didn’t have a great way to catalog what was happening. Also I had some difficulty forgetting homework until Sunday afternoon.   

Self Care

I want to get better at self care like taking showers, brushing teeth and creaming. My mom said that she had a plan we can use in the summer. 

Things I am Proud of 

D20 (Constructing Creative Communication: Carr)

This is what I used for the Spring Exhibition. I really enjoyed making it and I think that all the hours were worth it. I like how I did the shading and the shadow. One thing that I would redo is the outline of the icosahedron. It isn’t perfect. 

The MAX 20 Bottle (The Ultimate Design Challenge)

I chose this because it had to go through many drafts. And when I say drafts I mean restarting completely. It took a lot of time, effort, and tears to finish this but I believe it came out really good in the end. 

Loon Lake (Loon Lake)

I am really proud of doing this. I went to a far off place with basically all strangers for multiple nights. I also stood up for myself by not doing every activity and taking breaks. Also me and my best friend, Caden, got moved to my room. 

Things I Would Change

Final Ad DCM (Medium is the Message)

I don’t really like how we made this. Looking back I don’t like any of my designs either. I feel like it is too bland. Also the photoshopping is sloppy. I do like the slogan, it has some nostalgia,  comfort, and good intentions all involved.  

Winter Exhibition (The Outsiders)

First off all I would have been more prepared to take breaks and having fidgets. But this was my first Exhibition so I couldn’t really have known. The second thing is that I would have gotten a teacher involved with my partners. They were tapping and rubbing my back all night. That was one of the main things that made me crack multiple times. Or I would have gotten a different role.

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my first PLP trip. This isn’t a project but an camp/field trip that we were at for a few days. This was with PLP 8 and 9.

Loon Lake is a place and retreat centre near Maple Woods. As soon as we got to school on the day of the trip we did… nothing! I just sat with my friends until we could put our bags on the bus. Then we got introduced to the book. The book is something we would be working on for the entire trip. It is basically just take some photos, draw a picture, take a video and do some reflection. You can see it here if you like. I, of course, forgot about it after two days so I didn’t do it there. This means I don’t have all the pictures or videos. My book is fine and I am okay with it. All together I doubt I will be getting any rewards for it.

Here are some photos that I took at loon lake.

Although I didn’t love Loon Lake or what we did there, I think it was a valuable experience for me to have and I am glad I did it. I would also do it again. For this being one of the first times away from home and with people I don’t really feel safe with I think I did a really good job.

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest blog post for PLP, my mPOL. This isn’t a project but an end-of-semester presentation I have to do. The driving questions for this presentation 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?” 

Accomplishments I am proud of

In this part of the post I will be showing what I am proud of that I did this year. I am not really one to jump up and and be proud of what I do. I can be a little cynical at times, and I’m always able to see where I could do better. Always trying to achieve perfection. Because of this I had to actually think about it and get some help from my dad.

Drawing:

I actually decided that I wanted to get better at drawing in my Learning Plan and I think I really have. I actually did a project on drawing here [https://www.blog44.ca/judahg/2021/12/14/carr-the-joy-of-the-pencil]. I worked on this further during the winter holidays by reading some books about drawing figures. Some key drawings that I’m proud of that I did this past couple months are Attack Penguin, the Green Dice, My Hallway and my Peanuts character of myself that I use as my profile pic everywhere.

Screens:

Now I bet everyone during Covid is been on screens more and I’m not exception. But I have been working on being on screens less. Some examples of this are taking up sketching on paper again, not going on my computer, and just reading a lot. A challenge with this however are getting a brand new iPad for school and doing all my work on it. But I have time limits and I have not been getting carried away with it.

Attending school:

I know this is like oh of course you’re going to school. You shouldn’t feel proud of that, it’s just what you have to do. But hey its more complicated then that. I have had a flipped lid for the past couple of months, I have lost a dear friend, I am having high anxiety and I’m finding school really challenging on top of that. The fact that I go without complaining and get myself ready always is something I’m proud of no matter what they say.

Where I’ve grown

Before starting this I didn’t think I had grown much, but after I looked back at it I realized I really have. For all of these things I obviously have room to grow but really have gotten better.

Perfection:

I really have started to let go for perfection more and just say “thats good enough.” I still have to actively think about it but thats still a start. Where I have done this is with drawing and all my school work in general. 

Handling anxiety:

Now I still have anxiety. And a let of it. It is still a real, real challenge. However I have started to learn some ways to calm it down. For instance telling it the truth about right now. Showing the anxiety that I am safe in this moment. 

Group work:

Now same with anxiety, and all the things on this list but I really have grown, with working with people. Sometimes letting an idea happen even I don’t agree, like it, or think I have a better one. It can be really hard doing it.

Where to grow

Most of the things here are from where I’ve grown because I really want to get better at those things. There is also some new ones.

Handling anxiety:

This will be quick because I have already touched on it. I specifically want to learn how to deal with it in the moment. This is something that I can talk to with my mom and counsellor.

Help:

I really need to learn to ask for help. It’s not just that I don’t want to, I convince myself that I can do it myself. I also forget a lot of the time to ask. I also have a hard time accepting help. I can’t even give myself any help.

Group work:

I still struggle so much with group work. I have grown in it but I believe I can always do better. Part of this is communicating. I have always had a hard time communicating even with people I know well.

PLP Class Review

Here I will be talking a bit about each PLP class I did this semester. Humanities, Maker, and Scimatics. 

Humanities:

In Humanities I feel I did fine. I pass safely, but don’t completely excel. I have actually not tried to spend all my time doing work and getting 100%. This is different from how school has been for me so far in my life since I used to get all A’s. I got those not just because I’m bright but the material felt very easy. It was more challenging. I actually find this with all my other classes as well. My favourite project we did in Humanities was poetry. It brings together feelings and writing. Both things I am not too bad at (its also quiet dramatic:). All together I do like Humanities.

Maker:

So for I am liking Maker. The only thing I haven’t loved about it is doing DI, but thats not really Maker, just what we did in the Maker time. I feel like Maker is a mix of everything you do at school. Thinking, building, writing, etc. I favourite project that we did for Maker so far is probably Constructing Creative Communication. Specifically the Carr class where I got better a drawing, though the picture taking was interesting as well.

Scimatics:

Scimatics is the class that seems most like real school. We learn about math and science two really fascinating things that have gotten even more interesting now that I’m in high school. We learned and created laser displays! We would never do that in elementary! I really like scimatics. There is also less group work. My favourite project in scimatics that I have done so far is for sure the Laser Laws. We learned about a mathematical law for goodness sake! A formula! a²+b²=c². It’s amazing. And then we tried to prove it in real life! 

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!