Hello! Within this blog post I will be reflecting on my last scimatics project ‘Time is Money’. In this project we created a product or service to sell and analyzed the income, time, and costs used. To accurately learn using the curricular competencies we also learnt some very important content, linear equations. The driving question for this project is “How can we predict our finances for the future?”. I learnt enough from the project’s experience and milestones/stepping stones to answer this driving question. I also think that throughout this project I was able to constantly learn and understand the curricular curricular competencies that were strongly associated with my learning.
The first milestone I completed was “Project Choice”. To complete this milestone we were all displayed with an introduction to what this project is about. From this briefing I understood that we were tasked with selling a product/service and analyzing this data. After understanding these basics I started to brainstorm different business options that would work with my skill set, as well as the criteria of this project. Hence this milestone… in which, I picked three business choices; sewing textiles, desk organizing, cleaning driveways. After the approval I locked in my first choice, sewing textiles bags.
The next big factor of learning I completed was a stepping stone called “Notes and practice”. This stepping stone was about completing workbook pages. It was a create way to understand the basics and foundation of the concept of linear equations. In total I created 4 workbooks, which collectively helped my understanding of this topic in different ways. I think just generally knowing this knowledge helped myself strive throughout the rest of this project.
The second milestone I completed was called “Spreadsheet”. In this milestone we recored all of the important data from our business venture. To complete this milestone we all had to create our project (mine being pouch sized bags). I think this milestone was really important because it was what this whole project was centred around, because without data there would be nothing to calculate. From the data that I collected I’m able to tell that it took me 37 minutes for one purchase, which shows that I really put effort to creating an actual product. I’m actually proud of the product I created, but after the last milestone you’ll be able to see if this is something I would purses as an occupation.
This milestone best used the curricular competency “Understanding and Solving”. This competency was used throughout this milestone because I applied multiple strategies to solve problems in abstract and contextualized ways. More specifically, I did this by accounting for time, materials, and equipment throughout the spreadsheet based on my creation of my product. I could have improved my use of this curricular competency by creating a different way of recording this data, but I did complete this competency with extending results in mind.
After the completion of the spreadsheet I moved onto, in my opinion, one of the most important steppingstones called “Khan Academy quizzes and tests”. Throughout this milestone I completed a unit about linear equations on the platform called Khan Academy. In total there were 3 quizzes and the unit test. I truly think I was able to learn a lot about the concept of linear equations. A big part of linear equations is algebra and I was able to learn some additional techniques of solving these problems (with special thanks to Nolan and Teva).
The next milestone I created was milestone three “Equation”. In this milestone I used my data from the spreadsheet, that was previously created, and I developed an equation. This equation was in the form to be transferred into a graph to analyze profit. With the knowledge of the past informational steppingstones I was able to understand the components of the equation with ease (I think I was even able to extend beyond the requirements and use this knowledge to create more equations).
After creating the equation I was ready to move onto the next equation “graph”. In this milestone I showed the equation of my project in a form of a graph. I calculated how many hours it would take for me to make a certain amount of money, break even, etc. I was also trying to incorporate more information then the guideline (of calculating the amount of money I would make in a year). To go above this standard I calculated how much money I would make in a day, week, month then year. I also insert another equation about I what would happen if I hand sew my pouch bags instead of using a sewing machine. From my data collected I think I showed my insightful learning in this milestone.
This milestone showed my use of the curricular competency “Communicating and Representing”. This competency was used throughout this milestone because I showed a representation of mathematical ideas in different forms, such as concrete, pictorial, and symbolic. Throughout the content of this project I specifically showed this throughout the linear equations I created. I also used this curricular competency when I was determining the hourly wages, predicted net etc. I think I could’ve improved on this competency by using and building on it more throughly within this project. Overall, I understood and applied this competency to my learning.
In the last milestone, “Presentation” I created a presentation showcasing the information I’ve gathered. Throughout this video I tried to show the comparison between mine and an average business. I showed all of my data for how long it would take to machine sew a bag or hand sew, including the profit and time associated it. Throughout this presentation of my data I also supported the question of ‘can this business cover your cost of living and operating?’. I really this this video was a great way to combine my data to show my results.
In this milestone I built and used the curricular competency “Connecting and reflecting”. This competency was used throughout this milestone because I connected mathematical ideas/concepts, as well as other areas of interests. I did this by using a video to compare my business to other careers and considered the value of my time and long-term effects of my business. I could have improved my use of this curricular competency by showing how my business could have a bigger impact of the world around me, referring to the connection of ideas (the main point of the curricular competency). Overall, I think I improved and build on my use of this curricular competency.
In conclusion, this project taught me a lot about mathematical concepts. I think I really improved on the curricular competencies that were apart of this project. With this project at an end I’m able to answer the driving question “How can we predict our finances for the future?”. We can predict our finances for the future by collecting and analyzing data. As well as specifically creating linear equations and graphing them in comparisons to calculations of time.
I really enjoyed all of my Scimatics work and I hope you enjoyed reading about it. Now what business would you create?
Alicia 😀
Credits:
A special thanks to Mr.Gross for teaching Scimatics!
And an acknowledgment of…
for all additional support throughout this project!