How it kinda started / How it’s kinda going

Hey y’all, Max here.

We have finished the project, How it Started / How it’s going, which means it’s time for another summative blog post. I found that this project had a lot of ups and downs on the road to succession, which meant that sometimes I found myself breezing through assignments, and other times I was completely drained of energy from working. Another thing I noticed about this project was that the environment I was working in felt more high-stress, probably because I was working in a group for a lot of the time. 

Anyway, the point of this short introduction here is to say that I had a harder time with most of the work in How it started / How it’s going.

Milestone 1: What Makes a Great Museum Exhibit? Was our introduction to this project, and it seemed easy. All we had to do was create a meme that showed how we started at the beginning of the year, and how we are doing now. I think this was a good introduction to the project,  as most people in PLP 8 probably know what a meme is, and using a meme as the medium is a good idea in my opinion. 

Milestone 2: What is worldview, and how is it represented? Wasn’t especially critical in the progression of this project in my opinion, but I did like making the collage. 

Milestones 1 and Milestones 2 were an intro into the whole worldview idea. I think milestone 3: What historical significant events helped develop our worldview? was particularly interesting, as it was a written test, instead of a more PLP-like assignment. 

While tests aren’t really my specialty, writing was. Unfortunately, I only got a developing on the test, likely because I didn’t organize my thoughts, before and while writing the test. Milestone 3 wasn’t actually that difficult in retrospect, and I believe I could have done better if I had prepared how I was going to write the test.

Milestone 4: What lessons from history can I apply to my worldview? Wasn’t helpful in the project in my opinion, and was more like a writing exercise. Sure, it got us a greater understanding of what a “worldview” was, but in my personal experience, it wasn’t that helpful, as I already knew what my worldview was at that point, and how it impacted me. 

Milestone 5: How can we create a museum exhibit that showcases different parts of our worldview? Was when we broke into our exhibit groups, and really got to work creating everything we would need for the museum exhibit showcasing our work. Work on this milestone was mostly in groups. Probably the biggest thing to take away from this is our final How it started / How it’s going meme. I think mine came out okay, but not great. I revised it too many times, and added too many unnecessary details. It looks lazily done in my opinion. 

Milestone 6: How can we effectively summarize and present our conclusions about worldview? 

Was the big one. the LIVE presentation of our virtual museum. We practised for this, made scripts, and rehearsed ( I think we rehearsed a few times too many ). At the Zoom call on Thursday, February 25, everyone did great ( for the most part ). 

Here’s the ( virtual ) museum exhibit

Museum 

And the Companion exhibition guide 

Companion Exhibition Guide  

The milestones we did throughout this project were all helpful in some part, just some were more helpful than others. Every milestone has curricular competencies attached to them, and they are all helpful in answering the driving question. 

Responding to Text: Have I constructed an original personal, critical, and creative connection between myself, the text, and the world with supportive credible evidence?

If anything, this whole project fits this description. This whole time we’ve been looking at what worldview is, and how it affects us. Because of this, we’ve learned how exactly we see the world, and how the world sees us. And many of these milestones show us having to make connections between the text, and more importantly, the world. 

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

Milestone 3 fits this description the best. Since this was an open-book test, we were able to use the Cornell noes we had previously made during this test. These Cornell notes were hugely important during the test, since it was a written test, and I likely wouldn’t have been able to do anything if not for my Cornell notes. 

Empowered Learner: How might I use technology to construct knowledge?

Milestone 2, making a collage, is the best example of this. because we made this collage entirely on our iPads, we had to use programs like Canva to create, and edit, our collages. 

The Driving Question  

Every project has a driving question, and every blog post is required to have an answer to the driving question. The driving question this time around is: 

”What can we learn from the past, and why does that matter to us today.”

Well, throughout the whole How it started / How it’s going project, we have based much of our learning around historically significant time periods, such as the medieval, or renaissance time periods. These are periods in history that spawned the greatest thinkers, writers, mathematicians, innovators, and inventors. Much of the innovations of then have led to the prosperity of today. While this isn’t necessarily an answer to the driving question, it is historically relevant, as we have learned much from innovations of old. Many Inventions made then were ahead of their time, and may have been the early inspiration for much of the mechanical, and technical advances humans have made today. 

On a more theoretical note, there is plenty we can learn from the progression of humanity as a whole during this time period, judging by the way the government, economy, and many other social and political factors acted. In my opinion, the innovations and inventions of the renaissance and medieval times rivaled the ideas and theories proposed in the name of philosophy then, and may have even been more important. I wont doubt that science and knowledge was a greatly important factor in society back then. Humanism, the thought that humans had meaning, and that this world wasn’t just a gateway to Christian afterlife, was first proposed in this period, and may have led Christianity to becoming much smaller than it might have become.

 But when you look at all the technical, and physical discoveries and inventions, it looks as if it outweighs the knowledge of the renaissance and medieval times. Eyeglasses were made then. Humans saw into space for the first time. The printing press, arguably the most important invention of all time, was invented in this time period, and spread knowledge and literacy. Also, smaller inventions such as woodblock printing was invented then. Many small invention then would ultimately lead to the printing press’s invention, and more small inventions are still used, and have given us modern day humans more comfort in our everyday lives. 

In conclusion, my answer to the driving question is a tough one. The renaissance and medieval eras ( specifically the renaissance ) were periods of such innovation, inventively and philosophically, that its difficult deciding which one is more important. But ultimately it boils down to wha is still impacting the world today, and how different the world would be today without it. That’s gotta go to the inventive side. Even the printing press alone has shaped how humanity as a whole thinks. So my final answer is this: 

The thoughts of then, and the inventions of then, are probably equally important. Perhaps one is greater than the other, but the important thing is that humanity has been granted these groundbreaking inventions, and we are able to build off of them, and evolve the human race.