Correlation Vs. Causation

As of two days ago when writing this, the latest PLP project just ended. I am writing today about that project, the correlation and causation project. in this project, I learned how to identify correlation and causation, and make surveys and show the results. So, without further ado, here is the post.

To kick off this project, I started the same way I usually do: with a mind map. This Mindmap graphs all the existing knowleadge I have and the question I have onto paper (or pixels).

This project was about correlation and causation. Correlation is a statistical term that evaluated the degree at which two or more things are related. Causation is when those things actually cause eachother.

The final product of this project is a presentation featuring survey results on graphs that show correlation and causation. For the next major milestone in this project, me and my partner had to make a plan for our survey. We had some ideas for what our survey could be, and in the end we made this:

After making this, we assembled and wrote the questions into a survey we made using google forms. We sent this form our via Basecamp, Snapchat, and iMessage. We received 40 responses in total, all of which are 13-18 years olds. We put our results onto graphs, and found no correlation with our original plan. But, we didn’t just ask four questions, we asked more so that we could look through the data to find correlations (almost) no matter what. And with that, we found these two correlations:

Correlation 1: Friend height VS. Your height
Correlation 2: Perceived height VS. Actual height

Finally, it was time to start working on our final presentation. We started out with an outline of what our presentation would look like

And after that, we made out final presentation, and nothing to notable happened with this.

And then we presented. The presentation went smoothly, though I think we could’ve improved upon it by making our data more clear.

And for the curricular competencies for this project:

Planning and conducting:Select and use appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data


Two correlations are found using well crafted survey results. The survey results and correlations are are displayed and explained through presentation software. At least two graphs are analyzed to confirm correlation.

Our presentation clearly showed our survey results, correlations and featured two graphs

Communicating and Representing: Use mathematical vocabulary and language to contribute to mathematical discussions

Verbal and pictorial explanations help the audience to understand the circumstances where both correlation and causation are present, and also where a correlation is falsely associated with causation. A Logical explanation for causation is explored for one case.

We showed our exploration into one of the correlations to prove causation which follows a logical course. We also have verbal and pictorial explanations that help guide the audience to a conclusion.

Applying and Innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches

Good ethics are followed when conducting surveys. All class time is used efficiently for learning without distractions.

I used my time wisely and only missed one deadline this whole project.

Well, thanks for reading my post, and I hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for the next one.

My partners Max’s blog

Take Our Kids to Work Day

On November 3rd this year, it was take our kids to work day. I learned a lot about being in the workforce on this day, but I still have yet to learn why there is an “our” in there. Anyways, without further ado, here is the post.

School was cancelled on this day so that kids could go to their parents, relatives, or other guardian’s/adults job (unless you couldn’t arrange a job to go to, then you would just go to school). As PLP learners, we were required to make a video documenting our day and featuring an interview with an adult at work. Here is my video:

Thanks for reading todays post, it was a short one but I hope you enjoyed it. See you in the next one.

My Mom’s work

People And The Environment

Hello, and welcome to another post. Today, I am going to be talking about the latest PLP project I have done: people and the environment. The driving question for this project is: “How do people and the environment affect each other” and over the last five weeks, I have sought to answer that question. So, without further ado, here is the post.

The first thing we did was a writing activity about whether most people are protectors or destroyers of nature. For me, I almost immediately knew I thought they are destroyers. This is mine:

The end product of this project is a letter to someone important about an issue. The letter must include possible solutions to that problem, evidence of the problem, and a clear and meaningful call to action, with the intention of creating meaningful change within our province.

Throughout the project we did multiple commonlit activities to help us understand message, meaning, themes, and how to use evidence. Each commonlit consisted of a story, and then questions about the things above.

The first milestone in this project was a letter plan conference, were I pitched the idea for my letter and clarified my plan to make the product. I decided I would write to the premier of BC, Mr. John Horgan about a law that could help stop BC’s extremely large amount of forest fires. BC accounts for over three quarters of Canada’s wildfires, so I wanted to try and help. This conference went well and provided lots of much needed clarification.

The second milestone was just an accumulation of all the commonlits: hey, come on out, quiet town, the sea also rises, and Lee Sherman and the toxic bayou. And for milestone three, we were to choose one of these stories, and connect the theme of the story to the theme of our letter in a three paragraph write up. before writing, I wrote an outline for my multi paragraph writing to sort my thoughts.

And, in the 60 minutes of class time we had to write the paragraph, this is what I came up with:

If I were to do it again, I would try to connect the two themes more strongly, and try to cut down the first paragraph a ton. But, all in all, I think I did a pretty good job.

Now, just like in the last project, the milestones were kind of shuffled, so this whole time I was also writing drafts for my final letter. I wrote five drafts of my letter, which are featured below.

So, once my final letter was finished, I addressed it, put it in an envelope, and sent it off.

Thanks for reading my post! I learned a ton in this project, and will in the next one too, so stay tuned. See you in the next post, bye.

Epidemic Exponents!

Hello, and welcome. I am back to school, and starting this year in scimatics with exponents! In the first scimatics project this year, Game of Exponent Laws, I learned how to evaluate exponents, exponent laws, and more. So without further ado, here is the post.

To kick of the project, we did a quick activity were we made up games that used one and two dice. We got into groups of four, and started working. And here are the rules we came up with:

Rollie poll-E

Assemble all the players in a circle. Decide who will roll first, and have them roll the die. If their roll is a 4, 5, or 6, add the roll to their point tally. If their roll is a 1, or 3, subtract their roll from their point tally. Point tallies cannot drop below zero, and if they reach twenty, that person wins. If they roll a 2, they get to roll again and multiply that roll by two and add it to their point tally.

Rollie poll-E 2.0

To win, gain 5 points. You gain a point when you correctly answer a question faster than your opponent(s). Choose someone to roll each round, and have them roll the two dice. Once the dice have settled, every player starts solving the math problem. If the dice are both even, devide the greater roll by the smaller one. If the dice are both odd, multiply them. If the dice are odd and even, add them together. Once you figure out the answer, say it aloud, and if you are the first to solve the problem, you get a point. Decimal points are allowed for answers. If the roll has a 1 then subtract 1 from the other roll

(Special thanks to Jocelyn for thinking of the names)

So, as common with scimatics projects, we all were supposed to make a mind map that’s outlines what we already know and what questions we have.

Project Start Mindmap

Now, in this project, the milestones were not a linear process, but in a slightly erratic way, with the milestones not coming in numerical order. So, for the sake of this post, I will tell you about the events of this project in chronological order.

After these first assignments, me and my partner started brainstorming Ideas for our game. Our first milestone was milestone four (confusing). For this project, everybody was given a partner, and together you and your partner would make a game that uses exponents as a central mechanic. So, eventually, me and Aliciah decided to make a game about viruses. Our idea was quite similar to pandemic: contagion, which is a game were each player is a virus trying to exterminate humanity. Our first draft of our rules are here.

Throughout the next week, we updated our game rules and did some exponent practice, and eventually landed on this set of rules:

After making these final game rules, it was time to make our game board and pieces.

Final Game Board!

And, of course, there were curricular competencies for this project, which are listed below.

Applying and innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches.

All class time is used efficiently for learning without distractions. All group members contribute equally.

I used my class time well, and I think that is reflected in the quality of my work. My partner and I shared equal part in the workload for this project.

Reasoning and Analyzing: Use logic and patterns to solve puzzles and play games

A clear and simple points system and win conditions for the game are carefully designed.

Points system is clearly represented by physical game pieces, and finding out who wins a game is easy and concise.

Communicating and Representing: Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms

A set of clear, complete, interesting and personalized instructions are created for how each player takes their turn. Examples are included. The game design uses at least 4 different exponent laws and using these laws is integrated into each player’s turn.

Our game features game rules completely written from scratch, with our own ideas and examples of gameplay and game pieces. There are over four exponent laws included in our rules.

And that concludes my blog post for today! Thanks for reading this far, and if you want to check out my partner Alicah’s blog, click here.

See you in the next post, bye.

Ultimate Design Challenge

Today, I am going to be talking about the latest project I have done: the Ultimate Design Challenge! In this group project I learned how to use a design software called Tinkercad to create an object optimized for either surface area or volume. I also learned how to measure my shape to figure out if I have achieved my goal. So, without further ado, here is the post.

We started of the first day of the project with an activity. This was our task:

Use measurements and surface area calculations to determine how much it would cost to paint our classroom (4 walls and a ceiling) and replace the flooring. your group will be assigned one wall/floor/ceiling
-Measure and record the dimensions of your surface.
-Estimate and subtract areas that do not need new paint or flooring.
-Do research and a calculation

Math

So we did that, and figured out that the floor would cost approximately 1,193.45$, and the ceiling would cost about 1,424.72$.

The first milestone for this project was rephrasing the driving question in a more specific way. The driving question for this project was: How Can I Design An Object To Optimize It’s Shape? My milestone one question was: How can I design a model of an electric hobby motor for maximum surface area in a certain area?

For the second milestone, I created my model and wrote out the formulas I would use to measure it.

Design of Motor
Formulas to Measure Motor

After this, I exported my model as an .STL file for 3D printing. (Though it never got printed in the end)

For milestone three, I measured my model. The pages of measurements are below.

Milestone four would’ve been the final printed object, but, as said before, my group’s model never got printed.

Then, Milestone five: the presentation. This is the final presentation in front of the class about our objects. Here is my slide:

breakdown of my part

And, as with all PLP projects, throughout the whole project there are curricular competencies as guides for us.

Applying and innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches.

All class time is used efficiently for learning without distractions.

I used all my class time well, and I think that is reflected in the quality of my work.

Reasoning and Analyzing: Model mathematics in contextualized experiences.

A 3D object is designed using TinkerCad or other design software. The design is optimized for either maximum volume or maximum surface area. The design should include at least 10 basic 3D shapes (A model should also be built cooperatively for groups of 2 or 3)

My 3D object was designed to fit the criteria above, but if i did the project again I would add more complex shapes to my design

Communicating and Representing: Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions

The surface area and volume are measured, calculated, and compared for efficiency. These factors are explained in detail in a keynote presentation to the class.

Most of these factors are explained in my keynote presentation, but I think I could’ve added more information about how I made my calculations in my keynote presentation

Thanks for reading my post! If you want to check out my group member’s blogs, click on a link below:

Noah

Cooper

Anyways, see you in the next post. Bye.

Don’t Eat Rat Feces!

Today, I am writing a summative post about my latest, and last project of the year. This project is called Comic Cells. I learned a ton from this project, from what subsequent endocytosis is to why you shouldn’t eat rat poo. So, without further ado, here is the post.

As with all scimatics projects, we started off the project with a mind map of existing knowledge, question, sources, and anything else about the topic. Here is mine:

Project Start Mind Map

For the second milestone of the project, I created a wanted poster for a disease containing the date of discovery, how it affects cells, it’s mortality rate, and more.

Typhoid Wanted Poster

Then I started working on a storyboard to guide the making of my comic. The storyboard was a very rough guide to the comic, and some parts were not even in the final comic.

Rough Storyboard

Then I started to research a TON of facts about the virus I chose. (Hantavirus) To read more about hantavirus, veiw the sources down below. I learned a ton about cellular processes, and then started drawing pictures for my comic. I am not the best at drawing, so this was a hard task for me. However, I a very proud of the final comic, which is the namesake for this post.

And, as with all projects, there were core competencies I worked towards throughout the project. They are:

1. Questioning and predicting: Demonstrate a sustained curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest.

All class time is used for learning and creating a comic book story about cellular processes and/or diseases. I think I used almost all of my class time efficiently, but even so I still think I could’ve worked slightly faster in class and had less homework after school. But it worked out in the end, which is good.

2. Scientific communication: communicate ideas, findings, and solutions to problems using scientific language, representations, and digital technologies

Correct vocabulary and accurate diagrams are used. At least 10 interesting science vocabulary words are included in the story. I used more than ten science words in my Story, and I think my diagrams are concise and accurate at what they represent.

Evaluating: Demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of evidence

Cell/bacteria/virus characters interact in a scientific way. Symptoms and logical outcomes of the chosen disease/cellular/ body process are integrated into the story. In my story, the reaction to the virus is realistic to real-life cases, and the outcomes are on the probable side.

Sources:

Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4

Source 5

Source 6

Source 7

Thanks for making it this far. If you liked this post, make sure to check my other ones here. See you in the next post! Bye.

Exploring European Exploration

Welcome to another summative post. Today, I am going to talk about our latest project on European Exploration. This was a three weeks long, and consists of five milestones. So, without further ado, here is the post.

The driving question for this project was: What Did European Settlement Mean For Everyone Involved? To answer this question, there are two thing you need to know first: what is European settlement, and who was involved, and this post is documenting how I found the answer to this.

We kicked off this project with our first milestone: a stream-of-consciousness writing about European Settlement. This was the first assignment of this project.

We did some other activities to build our knowledge, and then did milestone two, a sheet were we used evidence to rank events by significance on a chart. This is what it looked like:

Continuity and Change sheet

Throughout this project, me and my partner have been writing almost everything in one shared document. We have written scripts, notes, photos, content, and sources.

After we finished researching and creating our facts and graphics, we handed the rough infographic in as milestone three.

Milestone 3

Over time, me and Cale refined our infographic, and created six different version before the final product was created.

We then created a script, description, title, QR code, and Keynote magic move for our YouTube video.

Video Script
YouTube Information
QR Code To Video

Using all of this, we created the video which the QR code on the infographic leads to. You can find this video here.

And finally, we worked on putting all 26 infographics up around the school. We decided on were to put the infographics and which ones should go together, then put them up!

And that brings us to now, where I can answer the driving question: What Did European Settlement Mean For Everyone Involved? Well, the answer is complicated, because of how broad of an event it was. In my infographic, I focus on one aspect of it: alliance and trade. European settlement affected the First Nations, British, and French. Even today, and I’m sure for long afterward, trading will remain a constant. But what resources that are being traded, how they are traded, and the people trading them will always be changing. Alliances are crucial to humanity, and we are able to accomplish much more when we ally together. European Settlement gave new resources, trading routes, and opportunities for alliance to everyone involved, and that completely changed history for long after.

Thanks for reading my post! If you want to check out my partner’s experience with “The More Things Change” project, click here. Anyways, thanks for reading my blog and see you in the next post.

Tectonic game rules

Tectonica Rules

Object of the game

The object of the game is to either push your tectonic plate far enough to win, or push the opponents plate back enough for them to lose.

How to setup:

To set up the board all you have to do is place the tectonic plates four spaces in from the edge of the board.

Numbers of players:

This is a two player game.

What a common turn looks like

In most turns, you will:

1. Roll die

2. Hold which die you want to keep and re-roll the rest

3. Repeat step 2 once more

4. Move tectonic plates

5. Roll for earthquake (if you want and do not have the volcano chip)

In-depth description of each step:

Step one: Roll die

In this part of your turn, you roll all the die, and pick which ones you want to keep.

Step two: Hold die

In this part, re-roll the die that you do not want to keep.

Step three: Repeat step two

Just repeat step two.

Step four: Resolve dice

Once you have rolled the die, you must resolve what they do.

How to resolve dice:

If you rolled more than one of a 1, 2, or 3, move your plate forward on space for each die in the streak. This is the start of making a convergent plate boundary.

If you get a ascending streak, you move the opponents plate back one space for each die. You must have at least three die in the streak though. This is how a mid-ocean ridge is formed.

For each six you roll you get to move your plate one space forward. This is another way to create subduction.

If you roll a five or four, you can choose to try to make a volcano. To make a volcano, you must choose any number from one to six, and roll the four or five you are using in the creation of the volcano. These die also cannot be used in other streaks. If you roll the chosen number, you successfully make a convergent plate boundary, which also leads to a volcano. If you make a volcano, you get the “volcano” chip, which allows you to have one extra re-roll each turn. The most recent person to make a volcano should always have the volcano chip. You can try to make a volcano more than once in a turn.

Other rules:

1. If both of the plates are within four spaces of the middle, they form a convergent plate boundary. This makes it so you cannot move your player forward, only move the other player’s plate back. This is because of convection currents pushing the plates apart.

2. If you move the other player’s plate back past the last line, they lose. If a player’s plate crosses or lands on the middle line they win, because they have made a convergent plate boundary.

3. If you don’t have the volcano card, you can also try to cause an earthquake. To cause an earthquake, you must choose any number from one to twelve except seven, and then roll two die. If the sum of the two die is the same as the number you choose, you create a reverse fault, so the enemy player cannot move their plate for two turns. If you roll and it is within one of the number you choose, you creat a strike-slip fault, and the enemy player cannot move their plate for one turn. If you roll a two, you create a normal fault, and this causes your plate to move back two spaces, and on your opponent’s next turn, if they have a roll that is supposed to move their plate forward, they actually move it back that number of spaces.

4. If the first two turns have rolls that win the game, re roll them immediately.

Probability:

The chance of rolling a ascending streak of six on your first roll is ¹⁄₄₆₆₅₆, but for every time you re-roll your chances increase. This is because if you roll six die, and there is a one in 6 chance of rolling the right number on each, the equation is ⅙ x ⅙ x ⅙ x ⅙ x ⅙ x ⅙ = 1/46656.

The chance of getting three threes on your first roll is 1/216, but re-rolling gives a much higher chance of getting it. This is because of if you roll a three on one of the die the chance of rolling another two three’s is less likely. The equation of rolling this is 1/6 x 1/6 x 1/6 = 1/216.

User Manual Reflection

When I wrote my user manual, I learned how to use keynote like a pro(ish), how to creatively communicate who I am through an image and text, and how to make a Memoji. Some things I liked were the keynote activities were we made our Memoji laptop and writing my user guide. I didn’t really enjoy the station work because I found the stations passed by to fast. All in all, i found this project very enjoyable and would totally do it again! However, I would totally change the “getting started” section to make it more specific.