We have just finished a math unit and a science unit that are very connected. Energy and graphing, we used the graphing to measure the energy that we created over time, and how that power can be used.

The project was to make a generator that harnessed natural energy to light up an LED light. My group was Sam, Robbie, And Hannah, our first idea was to build a small car where the wheels powered 4 generators and ran on a track. This sounds good, but the car failed. The track went well though.

Here’s how we built the track.

So, after that failure we had to start again. So, we made a water wheel, this worked very well because we needed a way to harness natural energy, and one of the strongest types of natural energy is a flowing river. We worked to attach a generator to a tall pole, then connect a series of spoons and supports to make the actual wheel. Our first prototype had only 4 spoons.

That worked ok but we knew we could do better, so we added more supports and 4 more spoons so that it span faster.

We knew that we needed to see what it could do in the water, but every time that you put electronics in water you run the risk of having water damage, so we went through testing using a fan.

Testing phase

Then it was time to make the video. Time to put together everything that we had made into one infomercial to sell our product.

So, that was the unit but what did we actually learn. Well, at the beginning and end of the unit we made mind maps to map what we knew at the beginning, and what we know now.

Before Unit.

After.

To enhance our WWII unit, and to learn more about the many perspectives we chose one of three books to read. Our three choices were Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand,  Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I had heard from my mother that All the Light We Cannot See was good, so I listened to her and chose it.

When we started talking about book reviews we read a few from The New York Times. One review of Cory Doctorow’ Little Brother stood out to me because it had a good summary and a good expression of opinion, that review is below.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/books/review/Grossman-t.html

Then we get to my review, I liked this because it was a way to express opinion and show writing skills, two things that I am good at. So, without further ado here is my review of All the Light We Cannot See.

All the Light We Cannot See

Review
Adam Gerbrecht

Anthony Doerr did not write a book. He ran a triathlon. In Doerr’s past books like About Grace, we follow one perspective of one character. Even in books where we follow multiple storylines at once we have all 5 senses to follow. We can learn what the character sees, hears, feels, touches, and smells, this imagery takes us into the story. In the case of this book though, the two characters of Werner Pfenning and Marie-Laure LeBlanc could not be more different. Simply because with Marie-Laure we lose our most reliable sense. Sight. That sounds like it makes it complicated for the reader and easier for the writer, but in my opinion it is the opposite. It is easy for us to understand because of the triathlon that Doerr has to run to write this, was done well. What did he do first? Made us see a world through someone who cannot see.

How did he do it? In my opinion, flawlessly. Even though Marie-Laure has no sense of sight, inside her head we still learn of what she ‘sees.’ I love the words and colors that Doerr uses to describe her father in chapter 17: “Her father radiates a thousand colors, opal, strawberry red, deep russet, wild green; a smell like oil and metal, the feel of a lock tumbler sliding home, the sound of his key rings chiming as he walks.” When we are inside the sight-robbed mind of Marie-Laure our imaginations fill with colors, shapes, sounds, and smells. All of these emphasized perfectly to make up simple physical descriptions that you often get when following a character through a novel.

The next part that would have been difficult for Doerr is showing two such different sides. Two different sides of the war, two different cities, and two very different people. Yet, he still manages to find similar emotions, experiences and thoughts between Werner and Marie-Laure. They both have a slight confusion, a lack of motivation and understanding. The war confuses Marie-Laure because she obviously cannot see what is happening and changing around her, but Werner’s confusion is more isolation rather than inability. He has lived in his own little small world, worrying about his own small problems his whole life, that changes when the Fuhrer needs boys like himself, boys to breed into ‘Hitler’s children.’ And then there is Marie-Laure’s confusion. When the Germans start the invasion of France, Marie-Laure doesn’t see the gradual physical changes, so when the changes turn from gradual to extreme, she has to try and understand very quickly.

Lastly, there’s how he brought it all together. Throughout the book we also follow a smaller story line involving a mineralogist named Von Rumpel. He is on a quest to find ‘The Sea of Flames,’ possessed by Marie-Laure’s father, but he too is battling his own problems. Throughout the book his perspective seams unnecessary and boring, but he brings the two characters together when they need to most, and he is the influential part in the connection that our two heroes make.

In the end, this book was a lot. It had a lot of good, but it also had its dose of confusing too. The drastically different narrative between Werner and Marie-Laure is hard to understand for the beginning of the story, this makes the rest of the book a bit hard to connect to the characters. Beside the slight confusion, the middle and final sections of this book tie together nicely into one big, impactful story that shows the small happy things in a big, ugly war.

So, DI is back, and more stressful then ever. This is my second Destination Imagintion post for grade 10, in the last one I give a bigger explanation about my group and our challenge. Just in case you missed that riveting blog post, here’s a link to it.

Destination Imagination 2k18: Chad Rising

Mike mentioned in that post, we were in the engineering challenge. In that challenge we had to make a structure, a story, and present it all in a very DI way. By that I mean it had 1,000,000 rules that we had to follow, but we did it. That challenge this year is called drop zone. The name comes from how you have to drop weights on your structure instead of placing the weights like we have done in previous years. Here is a video that explains the challenge in more detail and more enthusiasticly then I ever could.

And, like I said earlier this isn’t our second go with our team. Our team being Tender Greens, consisting of myself, Ruby, Mimi, Claire, Michael, and Ryan. Our first performance went well. We were on home soil, at Seycove Secondary and even ended up in 3rd place in our category. I was very proud of how it turned out, and I am going to show our performance. I am going to show it because it is good. I’ll leave it at that.

So, that went pretty well. Hooray. We had things to fix though, the script was a bit long, and our scene to scene transitions were a bit sloppy and in coordinated. Good thing we ha a month to work on them. Oh, and also, the appraisals take your structure that you have built, and break it right in front of you after the presentation. So, we needed a new one of those too. That was my main job. To remake our structure. I made it out of cork, and because it had to have a 41/2” hole in it, I decided to make it a cylinder. If you look in my box of cork and things you can see that I experimented with many kinds of cork, rubber bands, glue, tape and more.

All of that was good, but I needed up using large sheets like you can see in the back to make my structure. To hold the cylinder together I used epoxy. Epoxy is made from a class of synthetic thermosetting polymers containing epoxide groups. In English that means it’s very sticky and holds strong. After my dad taught me how to use it, I was good to go and make a series of prototypes to test, weigh and more. This wa s the final prototype that in the end became our structure.

I drilled holes to reduce the weight, because the main part of the structure was that it had to weigh less that 175g. It met that. Don’t worry.

Ankthw big building piece that I was involved with was the event depictor. This had to be a technical masterpiece, it had to have a combination of store bought and made items to all in the end help the story. We made a podium. Throughout the performance characters use it as a presentation spot, a desk, and a teaching platform, but ultimately it’s purpose is to play sound. It plays ominous music when the tension builds and it also has sound affects throughout. It started as a podium built by Michael. Then I wired it with speakers to make the noise.

So, that was the technical part. Now, we had to worry about the transitions and script shortening. As far as the transitions went all we really had to do was to plan out how many chairs we needed in each scene, and who would carry them in our out. As for shortening the script, there is a pretty useless scene where Claire and Ryan’s characters are talking about how Claire presentation will go. We didn’t think it was necessary so we added a similar conversation onto the end of a scene that already existed a.m. day got rid of the whole scene, this gave Michael more lines and us more time.

Over the years, DI has always had something go horribly wrong with my team. In grade 8 our structure was too big so we had to remodel day of, in grade 9 we were judged very harshly, and grade 10? Well. Grade 10 was a doozy. Do you want to know what went wrong? Everything. It all started with the speakers. They weren’t working, so I wired it again and again and still, nothing. Until, with hours left until our presentation I realizzed that the tiny little piece of our aux cable had snapped, and was lodged in our radio. This piece. \/

Thag piece is no smaller than a fingernail. And it gave me anxiety for about 3 hours. We had to tape the back of the chord so that the shaft of the aux still made contact with the wire. I don’t have any photos of it because I was so frantically trying to fix it that no one dared take a photo of me, and photos were the last thing on my mind then. Ok. Calm down. 😑. So. After that was fixed, we were presenting and things were starting to look up. But, I’m classic DI fashion, everything went wrong. The speakers hade absolutely no noise, so that meant no team depictor and no team choice element, gone. Then there was the structure. It was exactly the same as the last one, all the way down to the height and weight. But what didn’t it do? Hold weight. That thing folded like a lawn chair. To this day, I have no idea why or how. Here’s is how we were judged.

Yes that third note says “Good recovery from technological failure.” Remember these people are called ‘Appraisers.’ No praise there. Just “Technological failure.” But, anyway at least in the end I got the experience. Not everything goes your way all the time, in fact it tends to be the opposite and you just have to live with that. DI will come back as a positive and I know that after seeing a grade 12 student get a DI scholarship just last week. So, even though it makes me sad to think about, this little certificate will be nothing but a positive for my future.

This is my third year of DI, I have done Engineering every year, but this year has been the best for me. I gained the most out of it, I leaned more about failure and how luck is not often on your side, especially when you think it will be. So, next year we are not doing DI. We will be done. We will live with the affects. I don’t know if they will be negative or positive, but I see both. DI advertises a study done in 2014, Dr. Mark A. Runco, Professor of Educational Psychology for the Torrance Creativity Center at the University of Georgia said he found these things about children who had done DI.

Do I agree with everything? No. I think that he shone light on all of the positive that we gain in the long term, but fails to mention what is wrong. I do not have a problem with him or the study though, I have a personal thing with DI called bad luck. Maybe I’m cursed, maybe I’m just whiny, but in the end I’m too sassy to agree right now, even though one day I will most likely feel the same. Thanks Dr. Mark.

It has almost become part of PLP every year. Almost like a constant, looming problem, looking just over our shoulders all year. I’m talking about Destination Imagination, or DI. I have been doing DI since grade 8, so this is my third year competing. This is also my third year in the engineering challenge. Wow, maybe I need a change. Anyway, my group of  Mimi, Michael, Claire, Ryan, and Ruby chose to do the engineering challenge this year, called Drop Zone. Our team was called tender greens for no real reason.

Last year I also did engineering, and the challenge was very similar, you can read about that below.

Destination Imagination Provincials 2

This year is different though, we had to create and present a story about a sudden event that has dramatic impact, build a structure, integrate structure testing into the story, design and create an event depicter that used technical methods to visibly or audibly depict the sudden event within the story, and more. So, yeah this year it’s a lot.

In Destination Imagination, when you a really scored you are scored on your story, your teamwork, and for us we were also judged on how our structure held the weight. The way that you can get a lot of points can be broken down into what you should show to the judges, and what you should say to the judges. You should show creativity, they love to see creativity and imagination in your performance and structure. The second is when you are asked to explain any part of your performance or structure, you have to talk up what you have to make it sound like more than what it is, this is called BSing. I don’t think that I need to explain what BS stands for. So, that was what we needed to do, and we knew that. We also knew that if you have a completely our of the box story idea, they will give you a ridiculous amount of points, so we based our performance around Mental Health, specifically social anxiety.

The idea of our story was to have one character, played by Claire, have social anxiety. This anxiety is kickstarted by pressure when talking to another character, Chad. Played by me. And then the pressure and story peak when Claire is forced to give a presentation alone in front of the class. At this point Ruby, who is playing Claire’s Anxiety, drops the weights on the structure. This is a representation of the pressure building on Claire’s shoulders. This isn’t the first interaction between Claire and Chad, with anxiety looming behind.

That is the general idea of the story, but if you remember I mentioned not that we need something called an event depictor. This is a technical element that helped add a dramatic impact to the story. We made a podium that Claire is presenting at, the podium was wired through an old radio, and had speakers built in that played ominous music when she is starting to have a panic attack. We started with this podium.

Then, I took it, wired it and installed the speakers. The podium also helped with one of our team choice elements, but I’ll talk about those later. But, this is Clare presenting at the finished podium.

Like I just mentioned, this podium also helped with one of our two team choice elements. These are two parts of our story that show our groups interests, skills, and talents. Our first one was a phone call animation, in the story this is when Claire is talking over the phone to her parter, Garret, played by Michael. This is the Animation that was shown. The second team choice element was my tattoos and Ryan’s beard. I’m quite frustrated we didn’t get a photo of them, we were in a huge ri she to go et the them doen, but you can clearly see my tattoos and Ryan’s bear in these photos.

I have showed some photos from our presentation, but I have not showed the whole thing. So you can watch the whole performance by Tender Greens Here.

So, that was all our regional tournament. In April 7, we have provincials. That is the real deal, in a way this tournament was kind of a warm up. We got scored and now we know what to fix to better our scores. These were our scores.

Even though we wound up coming thrid, we have a lot to work on, we got cut short in our performance, so we did not have time to show everything that we wanted to, so that definitely will be changed. Also, when Ruby was testing the structure, she had to wait to think and then say an insult. So, next time we will have her voice pre-recorded and playing through the podium, so that all she has to worry about is dropping the weights quickly.

We have done algebra in the past. You know the whole x+5=10, what is x? But, one of the biggest concepts in math 10 is algebraic equations and functions. An algebraic function is a function that can be defined as the root of a polynomial equation. An algebraic equation or polynomial equation is an equation of the form where P and Q are polynomials with coefficients in some field, often the field of the rational numbers. That’s what Wikipedia says, but what do I think? Well, this is basically when you take previous algebra skills and combine them with things like factoring, expanding, and even algebra tiles to solve and create complicated equations using infinitives.

That last one, algebra tiles, that is what this project and unit surround. Algebra tiles are tiles that represent X, X2, and 1. These are used to make it easier to understand and work with long and or complicated algebraic equations. These three also have twin negative brothers.

Familiar looking, right? I thought so too. I wondered why we were using some coloured squares to do math in grade 10, but even I was proved wrong. They really help. When you are working with equations like a2+10a+25, and you are told to factor it, algebra tiles make it easier. What is special about the previously mentioned equation is that it is what is called a perfect square, another big part of this project. When you draw out an equation it looks something like this.

See how this one especially makes a square, everything is even? That is a perfect square. When you work with this same structure you can work both ways, you can factor, expand and of course determine if you have a perfect square. That were the parts of this project.

We worked in partners to make a board game, this game had to have elements of chance, had to involve physical algebra tiles, and had to exhibit and explain those three topics. Myself and Aiden made a card game that influences your game pieces and board.

In the end I enjoyed and am proud of this project. It involved technical elements, while still being very centered around the math we were doing in class, Andy it had areas where we could show skills. Areas like videography and artistic skills. I think that Aiden and I made a game that was different, it wasn’t you usual ‘travel around a board’ game, and that’s what I think made it different and memorable.

The whole point of science 10 is to introduce and become familiar with ideas and subjects that are available for the grade 11 sciences. This unit is one of those, we did chemistry. This unit is very important for me because I am taking chemistry next year as one of my sciences.

Last year in grade 9 we did a little bit of this topic, but nothing to complicated. We mostly just studied the periodic table of elements, atoms and we did a little bit of Bohr diagrams. In the beginning of this unit we made a mind map aniy what we could remember or any knowledge we had about chemistry. My mind map was not that big, but don’t worry it will get bigger.

So what did we do to expand the little knowledge that we had. Well, we focused more on reactions and experiments. We started with learning about the process that goes into a proper scientific lab, we practiced creating hypothesis’s, procedures, and more to prepare us for making our own experiments at the end of the unit. We did a few experiments to practice making observations, hypothesis’s and going over all of this and confirming what we got wrong and right. While doing these experiments we were also doing a bunch of textbook work. In the textbook we were learning about chemical equations, balancing them, Bohr diagrams, and Lewis diagrams.

After all of this we knew how to balance chemical equations, we knew how to properly show the number of electrons, protons, and neutrons in multiple ways, we also knew how to design and execute an experiment. So, the final part of this unit was a project. In pairs we made experiments using the knowledge that we had gained over the past couple months surrounding chemistry and chemical equations. I worked with Kate for this project. We wanted to take multiple water samples from across Deep Cove, and test for pollution across the southern Indian Arm. We plotted these points.

We had a problem though. Even if the water did have some pollution in it, it would be very very faint and had to see in the experiment. So we had to change. Our teacher, Mr Gross gave us an idea, he asked us to test what is in tinfoil/aluminum foil. This project sounds simple, but what was exciting about it was that it made a very interesting reaction that looks good on video. We performed our experiment in front of the class, but we did not explain clearly, so we made a video to better explain what happened and why.

This is my first post about a project from our trip to California. If you want to read about our trip, that post is attached below.

San California

This post is going to be more about the research two of the projects that we did when i. California. So, our first place we visited in California was San Diego. This was also the place where we made our first project. Before we left we made our own groups, and pitched ideas about places that we wanted to make our project about. Me and my partner Ryan decided to do a podcast about the USS Midway.

https://www.midway.org

The USS Midway was an aircraft carrier, it was the first carrier built after WWII, and it inspired a whole new class of carriers, called the Midway Class. We spent almost a whole day at the museum, which, by the way, is just the ship. That’s how big it is. These boats really are floating colonies, with over 4,000 crew, 90 planes, and 900 feet. That is one of the reasons that Ryan and I wanted to make a project about the Midway, it was so pivotal in the growth of how aircraft carriers looked and were run.

After it was built, it kept changing though. The English had changed their carriers, they angled the deck. This made it easier to land planes and takeoff, so they removed the deck and must on a new one. 6 years she was back in the water, with the same technology as the British, but because they had made this thing an island compared to the other carriers, it was ahead of its competitors.

This is all what jump started our project before we even got there. And, when we got there it just got better. When you make a podcast like this, what can make our break it is the interview(s). And ours made it. When we were at the Midway, there was a little booth set up. At this booth, you could talk to a WWII Veteran! So, of course we had to interview him. That was one of the coolest things that I have ever done, just taking to Ray, and listening to all of the knowledge he had to share with us was ally something special. Also, a WWII Veteran? That makes a podcast interesting, so we were super happy to get an interview with him.

I am super happy that Ryan and I chose the Midway, it was so amazing to see what a real life megastructure can become after its long service in the navy. All of this culminated into our podcast, and because of our experiences, we took that and made a post-war technology informational podcast, if that makes sense. If it doesn’t, then have a listen.

We have been making podcasts all year, it is after all, the focus of this year. But, this one felt different for me. I think that isn’t because in the last podcasts I have made they have been made about something that I already know about, or something that I had to do research about. For this one it is a project about what I learned in a completely new environment then where I normally learn. This made it more enjoyable because I was not just interested in the final product that I would have for produce, but I also enjoyed where I was and what I was doing when I was there. So, in the end this was one of my favorite podcasts to research, record and create.

The final part of this unit was to write and essay, the point of this essay was to answer the question, throughout history, how has technology acted as a disruption? This was a way to cap off our unit, as well as to show our understanding of the idea of Disruption. Thor was written a couple weeks after we returned from California, so we had those experiences also to call upon in our essays.

Earlier in the unit we had read a book by Cory Doctorow called Little Brother. That book sim about teens using technology in the future to fight against injustice. We were to use that as one of your sources for our essay. The other two could be whatever we wanted. I decided to use Apple, Cory Doctorow’s Litt Brother and Undefeated to answer that question. This essay was written over the course of two classes, I spent the first one writing, and the second one revising and proofreading. Below is the essay that I wrote.

Disruption Essay
Adam Gerbrecht
February 28-March 1

What is technology? It is a tool, a tool that helps us in our everyday life. That is what technology companies do, they create products that are supposed to make our everyday easier or more entertaining. Technology has changed our lives in so many miraculous ways, but, throughout history, society will always twist and disrupt technology to build or change a product. This is true in personal technology, startups, and even the world of shoes. When the technology successfully changes us, we always use it to completely change and disrupt again, whether the brands are with us or not.

This even carries to non-fiction books, like Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother. The main character Marcus learns that he is constantly under surveillance from the government unfairly and unnecessarily. So, he takes a video game console, the XBOX Universal, and makes it work for him. Using the technology he was already given in the XBOX, he creates the Xnet. The Xnet is a place in which players use the XBOX Universal to communicate and play, without the government looking over their shoulders. This is just the start. To show their resistance against the government, they organize a concert/protest, through the Xnet. This is to show their resistance and voice against the injustice they feel they are facing. At the protest, the police force responds by pepper spraying the giant mob of children and teens, but then they work the story so it makes it sound like the kids were making the situation unsafe for the public. So, Marcus and his friends use social media to create a second protest, as well as using firsthand footage they post to various platforms to show the kids perspective of what the police was doing. Speaking of journalism, one of Marcus’s many ways of posting updates about the Xnet is his blog. When he still feels that he isn’t getting the justice he deserves, he uses that blog for the greater good. He shows a journalist all of the footage, proof, and interviews on that platform to prove that the government is not doing the right thing at all, and in the end, this is what resolves the main problem of the book. Even in this futuristic world created by Doctorow, he shows that people twist the technology. In Marcus’s case he uses the XBOX along with his new Xnet to publish and share videos created by firsthand witnesses, interviews of witnesses and parents, and more, all to turn around and share back with the world. He took an XBOX, and made it a weapon of justice.

Marcus did not work with XBOX to learn how to code or anything like that. He did it by himself. Some brands do the same as Marcus, learning from each other by watching, but sometimes brands share ideas and technology with each other, for better or for worse. If you do any research about computers, one of the first computers to use a GUI had a very familiar company badge on it. The Apple Macintosh. But, it was not Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who came up with the user interface idea. That was Xerox. Yes, the printer company. They brought Steve and Steve to see the Xerox PARC. When there, they showed them the Xerox Alto. The Alto was a revolution. To use it, you didn’t have to use code, and dint have to use any prior knowledge, all you needed was understanding of how to type and click. cumpiterhistory.org called it “a radical leap in the evolution of how computers interact with people.” Nobody had done this before, before you had to code your own computer. But, this idea didn’t last long as a child of Xerox only. When Steve Jobs saw the user interface during a tour of Xerox, he decided that the next Apple computers would have this user interface as well. Steve was not a technology wizard, all he had to do was get the people at Apple who were to recreate this technology, put an Apple badge on it, and he sold it. And sell it he did. It is phrased perfectly in an article written on mac-history.net. “Steve stole fire from the gods, and gave it to the people.” Perfect. This need to best each other continued throughout Apple’s history. I could go through and tell you about how the company has done very similar things with their phones, taking things from brands like Samsung. Things like Face ID, the edge to edge screen, and more were Samsung before Apple. But, I could say the same thing about companies copying Apple. It’s not always the consumer that changes the product for the better, sometimes this disruption starts at another company, but I turned around again at another company. That happens so much now, disruption of other technology is almost always a part of new technology.

Returning to the quote about Steve giving fire to the people, sometimes the gods want to work with the people, giving them fire. Allow me to flip the landscape first. Let’s take a turn from computers and technology, to the world of sneakers. Specifically, to Undefeated, a California based brand. It has stores, yes, but what most people don’t know, is that Undefeated started the custom sneaker revolution. A revolution all about reinventing shoes that people love by working with brands directly. Back in 2001, James Bond talked his friend Eddie Cruz into helping him start Undefeated with that exact vision. The vision do disrupt the sneaker designing process. It all started when they took and Air Force 1, a shoe that is no less than an icon, and then worked with a Canadian designer to customize it. This was just the beginning. They continued this until they made a store. A store where they sold these shoes alongside the most desirable shoes that brands made. High Snobiety, a news giant based around fashion said this about the founder, James Bond. “He had the clarity of mind to identify and create a business that simply didn’t exist.” That business they started growing until it became so popular, that brands started to want to work with Undefeated. Since 2001, Undefeated boasts one of the most prestigious portfolios of collaborations. They have worked with Nike, Adidas, Converse, and Vans to create shoes that have all flown off shelves. But it doesn’t stop at shoes. Undefeated also has worked with brands like Bathing Ape, to create collections of clothes that all go for thousands of dollars. Businesses is good for them. When the gods want to give you the fire though, they often want to take it away at some point. Since 2001, all of the sneaker brands I have mentioned have all launched customization platforms, to try and combat Undefeated. The most successful being Nike ID. Launched in 2012, this gave the consumer the power to make their own colors, patterns and materials of their favorite shoes, for a little bit more money. The fire is still burning bright for Undefeated, though. Their collaborations are still flying off of shelves, because of the reputation that they have created. This shows how brands sometimes work with us to create new technologies and ideas, even in a world that most people wouldn’t call ‘technology’.

So, when the people have the power to reinvent and disrupt the technology and the products that they are given, it creates a huge change. This technique has become so popular, that brands have started to work with the people, they almost encourage the disruption. And, if we look back, some of the worlds biggest brands use our technology changing skills to create some of the worlds most well known products. It is all about the big companies, the small consumers, and how they work together, how they oppose each other, and how each side works to benefit everyone. It’s a very complicated connection that some people call change, some call it plagiarism, but I think I know a better word. Disruption.

This essay was good for the same reason that the podcast was. I was writing about places and ideas that I had learned about first hand when in California. And I also included ome topic that necessarily wouldn’t be allowed in an essay, it’s not everyday you write an essay that uses shoes to enforce an argument. Even though I was not happy about writing the essay before we started, he topics and experiences led to a very strong essay and a good experience.

Every year each PLP class has one large field school, last year for my year we went to Florida to research imagination, in grade 8 we went to Oregon to create advertisements, and this year we went to California to create a multitude of things, all based around disruption. We spent time in San Diego, San Francisco, and San Jose. In this post I am going to go through every day with a short summary for each day, accompanied by a couple of my best photos from that day.

Day 1- Traveling sucks. There’s no better way to put it. Being crammed into a plane with a couple hundred people for long periods of time sucks, and to get on and off these things, you have to line up for a bunch of things, security, boarding, customs, and more. But, it’s all worth it. We started our day at 4:30 when we met at the airport for our 6am flight. But once we got to our destination: San Diego, it was all good. We went to Torrey Pines National Reserve, the only home of the Torrey Pine, La Jolla Cove, and Coranado Beach. Here are some of the best photos.

Day 2- This day was the Safari Zoo Park. This isn’t a zoo though, the Safari Park is very very focused one rehabilitation. It is a nonprofit organization, with giant enclosures for their animals, Andy they are 100% dedicated to helping animals get back into the wild. Day 2 was extremely scenic, but we also learned a lot about the rehabilitation process of many animals. My highlight was our elephant experience. We got let behind closed doors, and into the elephant enclosure just to watch them feed and train the animals. The public cannot do this, we were invited in because our tour guide knew the elephant trainer, who we just happened to run into. We also got to go on a ballon that gives you a view of the whole park.

Day 3- This was my favorite day in San Diego. We went to the USS Midway Museum. The USS Midway was an aircraft carrier, it was the first carrier built after WWII, and it inspired a whole new class of carriers, called the Midway Class. We spent almost the whole day at the museum, which, by the way, is just the ship. That’s how big it is. These boats really are floating colonies, with over 4,000 crew, 90 planes, and 900 feet. We got to do and see some really awesome things, we got to see the anchors, we saw all the planes, we learned about how they launch and catch planes, but, by favorite was we got to interview a WWII veteran. Ray is one of few still left, it was so cool to meet someone who had lived through so much, and had so much to talk about.

Day 4 and 5- I am combining day 4 and 5 because we went to the same place 2 days in a row, High Tech High (HTH). At HTH we all shadowed a grade 9 student to see how their school is similar or different from our school. I was with a grade 9 student named Nate. The first big similarities between our schools is that we are both on the PBL program (Project Based Learning,) this means that we both learn through the process of learning the material as well as the skills required to create a product, apposed to cramming information before a test or a quiz. I really enjoyed my time here, I learned a lot about how schools like HTH are creating stronger learners, and better people. There are also big differences though. They all stay together by grades, all the kids from each grade have an area where all of their classes are held. Also after the first day we went to the Carrillo National Monument, so we turned it into an opportunity to take a bunch of cool photos. This section I have more photos because I combined two days.

Day 6- This was our first day in San Jose and Silicon Valley. We first went to Google, we technically didn’t have a tour, so we totally legally walked around the Google campus for a bit, took some photots, them made a quick exit. We then had a real tour at Apple, even though it was only in the visitor center, we got to take and walk around with iPhone Xs, and do AR of the Apple Park. But that wasn’t the end, after spending a bit of time at the Intel museum we went bowling  and went to this thing called the Sonic Runway. The Sonics runway is a line of hoops, these hoops have LED lights on them, and they are activated by noise. And, when you have a long lane of lights and tons of energy what do you do? You run. A lot.

Day 7- This day was all about education. Our day was divided into two halves, one half was spent at the Computer History Museum, and the other half at Stanford. Our first tour was through the CHM, and we followed the progression of computers, how they have changed, and how the purpose of them had changed. I think my favorite part of that was seeing pieces of the first ever computer, and I say pieces because they whole one wouldn’t fit in the building. Then we went to Stanford. We had a tour of the whole campus, and let me tell you, that is a beautiful school. Don’t worry mom, I don’t have expectations as high as Stanford. My favorite part of that day though was probably jumping on the track and running a 400m and realizing how I need to start training for track.

(Shoutout to the Olympus Digital Camera)

Day 8- This was our San Francisco adventure day. We started it by actually getting to San Francisco. We took a train, and thenthe BART, and then a bus. Well, by took the bus I mean waited for 2 hours for bus passes, then took the bus. But, once we got there it was awesome, we started the day at the Twitter HQ. It was really cool to see how a social media giant makes an environment to inspire creativity and to show what Twitter is supposed to look like in a physical form, then we went to my special request. We went to Undefeated, a sneaker store. Yeah, I talked the teachers into that. Then, we ended the day at the Golden Gate Bridge. And I saw a race paddle boarder! Those are very rare specimens.

Day 9- Last full day! And, it was one to remember, we went on a Wild SF Tour, a tour that took us all across San Francisco. We learned so much about things like The Summer of Love, the history of Haight and Ashbury, Harvey Milk, and how they’re all connected through the hippy movement, and the gay rights movement. And after that we went to Alcatraz Island. The notorious maximum security prison, that has been converted into a museum. We went on the last tour of the day. That might seem scary, but it really just meant that we got to see a beautiful sunset on a true landmark. I was super interested in how people got out, and they had the cells that they got our of open and on display.

The End- (I’m not including the last day, because we were just on planes,) This post has been cool, but every post like this has a project involved, and that’s true with this one. I made a book. This book is about day by day what we did, and some fun bonus assignments along the way, and a reflection.

A big part of our trip to San Diego was our time spent at High Tech High. HTH is a different kind of school, but is also directly connected with PLP. We are not connected through the use of technology, in fact HTH isn’t High Tech compared to your average school at all, the similarities are in the projects. In PLP and at HTH we are all on the PBL system, Project Based Learning. This means that instead of having a series of lectures, worksheets, and eventually a test, we work with real world experiences, we work in groups, we constantly revise, and we are always doing projects.

When at HTH we were paired up with a buddy. Our buddies took us around every day, and we followed them to their classes for 2 days. I shadowed a grade 9 named Nate. Below is a photo of me, Nate, my classmate Ethan, and his buddy, Caitlyn.

I got along really well with Nate, so I quite enjoyed our two days together. But, because are are on th PBL system, and because it’s a PLP trip, there was a project involved. The project was to make a podcast. What’s new? Well, it was very open ended. We could ask our buddies anything we wanted, as long as it was appropriate for school, and was about something we found interesting.

Through the lead up to our trip, when we talked about HTH, and when at HTH I noticed something interesting. They have a Humanities block, a science and math block, and then they had an X-block. I had absolutely no idea what this was, because for the first day we had left after lunch to do other things. So when I say down with my buddy Nate, and his two friends, Mason and Jacob, I asked them about what the confusing X-block is.

So, it’s not as complicated as I thought. At Seycove we recently have had a similar program starting this year, we call it flex time. Every Tuesday we have a block where we can do a different kind of class. We sign up every five weeks for a different class run by a teacher, the teachers chose what they teach, and we choose what to do. This block is all about doing things that we like to do, and in turn improving the learning experience at Seycove. This is similar to the X-block. They are trying to help build skills, so that the students enjoy and get more out of their school experience. My buddies earlier in the year build a bench for example. They joined a shop class and built a beautiful natural wood bench, that is now in the 9th grade commons. They are also in the process of building another one.

This project and our days at High Tech High were very eye opening to me. Not only did I meet a lot of super cool people, but I also learned a lot about what schools are doing to try and create a better generation. Especially at places like HTH, where the students work collaboratively and in cohorts, through their high school years. This in turn will not just make better students, but better people. People who work hard, and work well together, because in the end; that is what we need in this world.

This is the third year that we have student lead conferences, or SLCs. Last year the name changed to TPOL (transitional presentation of learning,) and this year the name of the earlier one was changes to MPOL  (Midyear Presentation of Learning.) Also the format has changed. Before we would share 3 things, one that would e are proud of, one that shows growth mindset, ne one that needs work. This is different. We are showing how we need to grow as a learner and how we plan to do this. We were told to use examples to show what we need to work on, and they could be good or bad examples. And finally we made questions to ask our audience: our parents and teachers, about our development as a learner.

So to begin let’s talk about what I need to work on. Every year since I started PLP in grade 8, in all of my SLCs and meeting with my parents, there is always a common concern from my teacher and parents. Attitude. My whole life I have been very loud and expressive, I am naturally an extrovert and a leader, so when my attitude is not good, the whole class is affected. Last year and this year the main problem with my attitude is my negativity. This spans from my language, to how much I apply myself to my projects. I have made steps to change this, this year and the end of last year, I started using my infectious and loud attitude to make my projects unique and strong. I also have started using my leadership for the greater good.

My leadership is something that I have have started using more and more, this is a way I want to continue to progress as a learner. A good example of how I have used this in the past is Destination Imagination last year. You can read my post about that here.

Destination Imagination Provincials 2

That is an old post, but it is the most recent DI post that I have. I have also brought my strength of leadership to my DI group this year. My group chose the most multi-layered and complicated challenge this year. In the beginning we disappointed our teachers very quickly due to the fact we didn’t know what an event depictor was (one of the most important parts of our story,) and since then I have tried to step up as a leader to make my group work better together, and cooperate well. So far I think this is working, as my group has a very strong plan to follow even before California.

The complete other end of the spectrum is my experience in the solar panel trigonometry project. In this project we were to make scale model of a house and a solar panel, with the measurements and angles depending on where in the world the house was. The post is below.

Trigonometry Unit

The problem was this project was that I took a house that I had already made in the past, and used that. I had done all the math I had to, the solar panel was scale to the house and the angles were right for where the house was in the world. I didn’t understand the project at first, so what I did was I tried to take the easy way without putting in more effort. If I were to change this I would have tried to maintain a more positive attitude and used all of my skills to make a more impressive project that I am more experienced proud of.

So that is both sides of the problem. That is what’s wrong and what I have started to do to turn this problem around. But how can I grow? I need to always put the same amount of enthusiasm and effort into everything, because I have seen what I put in, I get out.

I have a test of this attitude I need to work on in a little over a week. In 8 days we will leave for our biggest field school this year, and I know this will be long, hard, and jam packed full of activities. This year I need to turn around my last impression that o made when we were in Florida. Last year around this time we went to Florida and made a huge video project, you can read about that here.

Florida. Again.

When I was there I lost interest in the learning and I took it as a vacation, and stopped trying to learn from the opportunities we were given. We have been told over the past momth how we will have to soak up everything when we’re there and ask the right questions to get the most out of this trip. So this next week I need to start bringing that attitude and motivation that I have brought out in surges over the past few months, and I know that I am ready for this. Ever since my TPOL, when the problems on the last trip were talked about I have been thinking and planning how I want to make this trip the best amd most productive I can.