Introduction🗣
This project was super fun and I cant wait to share everything that happened over the last month. I went form knowing nothing about light to understanding the pythagorus theorem through the many milestones and workbook pages assigned to us. So here’s a summary for how I got to the end of quarter 2.
Launch🚀
Mind node document/milestone 1
We started this project if with a mind node document with a bunch of questions about light and its laws. We then had to answer them. This actually really help get the basic understandings of light. The mind node document document also answered a couple of questions that where not answered the in the entire project like.
Laser tag
We also played something called laser tag which was game gear two teams should try and direct lasers and try to hit the other persons target. I don’t know how much this taught me about lasers but it was still pretty fun.
Here’s a picture of mind node document…
Building knowledge🛠🧠
In the building knowledge section we really started to dig into light and its properties.
workbooks
First we looked at all the different waves from ultra violet light to gamma rays. This gave me a good idea on what different frequencies of light looked like. 3.2 built on that a showed how different frequencies of light shows different colour. After that we learned about how light shines through glass in workbook 3.3. On workbook 4.5 we looked at how light reflects and the laws of reflection. This helped me understand that light reflects in a 90 degree angle which would be a big part later on in milestone 5. On the work book pages I think I could improved a lot. It was hard for me to push my self to do the workbook questions and often got distracted. I still think I learned a lot and completed most of them but still feel like I could of done a better job with the workbook pages. The work book pages definitely helped me learn a lot about light and probably is where i got most of the knowledge for this project from.
Math text book pages…
In the math text book pages we learned about the pythagorus theorem. This is the theory that states a2 b2=c2. I also learned that this can only be used on a right triangle and nothing else. The Pythagorus theorem helped my group in milestone to create or final design. I think that i quit easily understood the pythagorus theorem and actually found it quit fun to do the math work sheets. I think that i did really well on this and would like to learn more about the pythagorus theorem.
Quizzes/Milestone 2
For the final section of building knowledge we had to test out selves with some man academy quizzes. These quizzes had five multiple choice questions that we had to answer. This really helped me realize how much I actually knew about light and helped me get a good view on the overall project.
Milestone 3
In milestone 3 we made pretty much a mini milestone 4 and 5 with a group. This was the first project that we really started to test the pythagorus theorem. In this project we were assigned to some how create a laser display that somehow tests the pythagorus theorem. I think that this milestone went buy pretty fast but what I can remember this was the first time our group really worked together and started to argue. I think that during milestone 3 we should of learned how to work better as a group so that’s in the future we could been more productive and not had as many fights. If i can remember this project went pretty well and was pretty fun.
Develop and critique ✍️👂
Waves simulator
The first thing we did for develop and critique was the wave simulator he we tested wave lengths and frequencies using different calculations. I don’t think personally this did much for us during the final project but definitely helped me understand wave frequencies a lot better then before.
Milestone 4
Know on to what I thought was one of my favourite parts of this quarter. In milestone 4 we had to test the pythagorus theorem and the laws of reflection through the scientific method using a online light and reflection simulator (that is really annoying to work with. This really opened up or driving question (“How can I demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic”) and helped to build my individual knowledge on how milestone 5 would look like. For my question I took three triangles one of them being 90 degrees and tested each one of them to see if I could get the pythagorus theorem to work. Obviously none of them worked except for one of them which was exactly ninety degrees. Even though I already knew the out come of the experiment it still gave me a better on how science is normally tested; Many people constantly testing it to make sure that it is correct. Milestone 4 also played a big role in helping me understanding the scientific method since this was one of the first projects I have done that has relied on the scientific method. I didn’t actually finish entirely milestone 4 since I forgot to add the part where I test the law of reflection, but i took that as a learning experience that i should read the instructions more carefully next time I do a project.
Milestone 5
On milestone 5 we finally got to the final point of the project. We where all put into groups of four and had to make a laser display using all the knowledge that I gathered since the. Beginning of this project. My group tried to get our laser back to where it started and used different calculations like the pythagorus theorem and our understanding of the laws of reflection. We seceded in the end but still had a lot to work on. We struggled to work as a group especially since some of felt un motivated to do the work and didn’t really get much done while others tended to over ride every one and not let others do work. Even though we kind of messed up as a team I still learned a lot about the laws of reflection and how laser work in real life since on this milestone we actually could see the laser.
Pictures of the milestone 4 project…
Pictures of milestone 5 project…
Curricular competency’s 📃✏️
Questioning an predicting.
This is the one that I think I did the worst on and could definitely improve. Questioning an predicting means did I use all my class time appropriately and the answer is a hard no. I was often times distracted on my phone and needed reminders to get of. I think I can improve this in the future bye putting my phone away a not getting distracted by every distraction. I also think that I should try to stay more motivated to do my work and not get as distracted. If I do that I think that in future subjects I could really improve my productivity.
Communicating and representing
This one I guess I did the best on. This one pretty much describes my love for science or how much I showed my understanding for science. I think I did pretty good in Both milestone 4 and 5 but could of definitely improved and put more detail into my work. I also think that I could of done better if I had added the laws of reflection to milestone 4. Which wasn’t done and could definitely of been improved. So in the future to improve I am going to read instructions more carefully and thoughtfully. I will also try to add more detail into my projects to make sure they are the best possible typing they can be
Applying and innovating
This is the one where we really messed up as group. Applying and innovating was basically could you work well together and create a project that looked good and had all its assets. In my opinion the reason I was bad at this was because we could not work together as a group. I wasn’t really motivated to do work abs other members didn’t really me work because of that. So it was harder for me to work especially unmotivated when others members of the group took control and acted like it was there project. I obviously could of done more an tried to force my way into helping the group instead of being told I couldn’t help with this part and just sit down. So I think all group members messed up here. None of us really wanted to work together and struggled to even try to make a working group. I think In the future we could try to listen to everyone’s opinion, let everyone help, keep everyone motivated and not it all the work on other members of group.
Final thoughts🤔💭
How I think this project interacted with Project Based Learning.
I think that this project did a really good job at letting the students figure out how to do the project themselves. The reason I think this is because we constantly had to test our knowledge through countless experiments. We had to learn through the experiments if light and its laws where correct. So in my opinion this project really helped me learn how to find information on my own and in this case through the scientific method and experiments.
What this project taught me
I think one of the biggest things that this project taught me was how to use the scientific method. In my opinion the scientific method is one of the biggest parts of science an I didn’t know much about this project really helped me see all the different parts of science and how scientists test it. I obviously also learned a lot about light, but more specifically how to calculate it and use the pythagorus theorem. I also learned to consequences of not working well as a group and not reading over instructions.
How I think I can improve in the future
I think that in the future i could definitely do a better job at not getting distracted and paying attention in class. I definitely think there is a lot of space for me to improve on. In the future I am going to try to keep myself more motivated and try to stay on task. This quarter definitely. Taught me a lot about that and I hope in the future i will do better.
What I liked about this quarter
I think I liked the overall science part and being able to experiment. I found the light project super interesting. I think what I liked is when I really started to get into learning I wanted to find out more about the projects subject and I discovered a lot of new subjects in physics. I also really like the fog machine and playing with the lasers.
What I disliked about this project
I really have to say there’s not much I disliked about this project I think that it was mostly fun. I think that the part of the project that went badly was mostly my fault. So I cant really think of anything I didn’t like.
Project end mind map 🧠📜
For the final part of this blog we where tasked to add some of the new things we learned to a mind node chart so here is all of the knew things I learned added on to the old things…
Conclusion 🏁
I think that this project really helped me improve my skills and gave me a lot of knowledge on light. After the countless experiments workbook pages i think quarter 2 was awesome and am definitely gonna miss mr Gross and schematics . I hope that grade nine will be some what as fun as this. I learned a lot from this quarter and am looking forward for another project just like this one