For this blog I will reflect on what we learned about tectonic plate movement and how we made a game around the math and science principles that we learned – DISASTER ISLAND!

The game

1. Questioning and Predicting

The first competency we worked on was Questioning and Predicting. We had to  demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest.

The first thing we did was start on our Milestone 1 – Game rules first attempt.  To do this, me and my partners Clare and Fraser had to think about what we might want to make the game like and the rules we would put into the game itself. We all had different markers and wrote our ideas on a whiteboard.  We figure it worked well, and we came up with a couple of different ideas of what the game might be like. Clare took a picture of the whiteboard and we came back to those ideas a couple of times to help us as we did more development of the game.  We were all curious about how fun we could make the game while still making it about plate tectonics.

Another milestone that related to this competency was Milestone 3 – Plate tectonics test. In this milestone, we had to take a Kahn Academy course online and then take a test on plate tectonics.  This was a pretty good way to learn, but if you did the test again, it got repetitive – there weren’t multiple different kinds of questions. I did the test a few times, and I guess I learned by repetition.  I used all of that knowledge in making the game. We also learned by reading texts and doing worksheets -they were long and difficult, but I think I learned more from the worksheets than I did from the Kahn academy tests, especially the vocabulary.  Between those two learning methods, I think I have a pretty good start on understanding plate tectonics, and I am curious to keep learning more. One of the most interesting things was learning that after a big earthquake happens (like in the 1800s), there can be continuing smaller tremors, and then another big one.  I’m interested in the predictions about the next big quake coming to our area.

2. Evaluating

The second competency we worked on was Evaluating. We had to demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of evidence. There is a lot of evidence around plate tectonics. One example is of how Hawaii developed, by being over a hotspot, and the evidence shows how the plates have moved over time, making the islands in a chain. The plates move 1-3 inches every year.  All of the plates continue to move. I think that’s really interesting.

In this competency area, we worked on Milestone 2 – Science vocabulary choices, where we picked 10 terms and thought about how to incorporate them into a game, and how they would affect the people playing the game.  To do this, I needed to understand the terms and also think about how they related to each other, and how they would work with chance in the game format – something might come up every turn, or only once every five turns, for example.

In this competency, we also worked on Milestone 4 – final game rules and Milestone 5 – complete game. For these milestones, we had to use good team work and also an understanding of all of the terms and concepts of plate tectonics and chance. Our group worked on the final game rules in class and over Notes.  We put a document into Notes so people could change the rules any time, not only in class. We made a couple of documents for the rules, and they have changed many times since we first thought of what the game might be like.  The rule changes were to make the game more interesting and fun and easy to play.  The game started out as a destination game, and the plate tectonics moved the player back and forward, but we ended up deciding on a survival island kind of game.  This kind of game worked better with the work we had done around chance calculations (instead of being random).  We could use more of the math and science concepts in our final game form. Completing the game took a lot of time, and Fraser and Clare did a lot of work – I helped where I could and made some game pieces and prizes.

3.  Understanding and Solving

The third competency we worked on was Understanding and Solving.  We had to develop, demonstrate, and apply mathematical understanding through play, inquiry, and problem solving. This was shown through Milestone 6 – Game Day. For this milestone, me and my team finished the game pieces and cards and rules, and brought the whole game to class. We tried it out with the class!

We showed this competency by putting probability into every turn by making it that you pick a card every turn that could make the game change in how hard it is to complete and if it is even possible to complete it. This made the game reflect our math and problem solving learnings.  But it also made the game really complicated.  Because the cards we had didn’t show what they were supposed to represent (they were playing cards) and because it was hard to remember what each card did. We could have made the game even better to play if we had made the cards show what they did.  Not many people played our game for that long because it was complicated to remember everything.  The math and science were really solid, though.

And I was really impressed with my partners work because of how many ideas they came up with and all the work they did (during class and over the whole weekend) and how they contributed to make the game better.  This also related to the competency Applying and Innovating. By working together like our group did, and by demonstrating our game we used a collaborative approach to share our project with our class.

Having just a little more time to finish our game would have made it even better to play. I’m still proud of what I learned and what we managed to do with the game in the time we had.

For our first project in Scimatics we did a screen time tracker where we had to track our screen time over the week.

The very first thing I had to do was to create the chart and set up the sums and percentages in it. I have never used the formulas in Numbers before, but I found it easy to do after I learned how to do it in class.

The next thing I had to do was to track my screen time over a week. I sometimes forgot to input my time so had to estimate. It was surprising how much time I spend on my devices.

The third thing I had to do was put pie charts into the document and program them to change when I added numbers onto the chart. I also did a colour coded graph. Looking at the charts and graphs makes it easy to see how I use my time.

Finally I had to present to the class. I noticed that everyone’s presentation was similar because teenagers usually spend a lot of time on their screens. I am glad to see that I don’t spend the most time in my class on devices.

I feel like I applied my curricular competencies well.

For Applying and Innovating, I learned a lot about myself and others in the class. Also my presentation went well. One thing that was tough was the presentation because I had to speak in front of the class. I got through it by pretending I wasn’t nervous.

For Understanding and Solving, I worked hard on my chart and also learned more about fractions through looking at how my time breaks down. We learned about fractions in class but the numbers and concepts mean more when they’re about things I do every day. The calculations of screen hours in a day helped me understand fractions in the real world.

For Communicating and Representing, I put in multiple charts and graphs to represent different ways I use my screen time. It helped to see the graphs and charts because it made everything clear. The hardest part was picking which numbers to compare to each other that would have meaning, and give them titles and colours that would make them easy to understand. I am proud of making a few charts and graphs using new skills I learned.

I am really proud of the work I did even though I am not happy about how much time I spent on screens.

The Medium is the Message reflection

This term we:

•Did lots of group work and learned how to blog

•Looked at ads from a historical and target audience perspective,

•Analyzed design techniques, persuasion techniques and categories

•Read a book and some extra texts (like McLuhan)

•Designed an ad for a customer

Before we started learning about advertising, I wasn’t really interested in ads.  The only ads that caught my attention were about food or tv shows.  I liked retro ads like “where’s the beef” and ads that are funny, like the ad for insurance for women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIphoZxFJ0k.

In the Medium is the Message, we didn’t only focus on advertising, we also learned how to deliver a message. I set up my first blog, and worked with a few groups.  This taught me how to discuss, listen and learn from other people, and give them ideas and take their critiques of my work.  I also learned how to blog – I found it really tough at the start, but it is getting easier. I was proud of my blog that included posts to music. I had never done that before and it was fun: http://www.blog44.ca/bent/sample-page/

One of the things I enjoyed was looking at ads from a historical perspective. I like old retro ads about airplanes, so was able to find some interesting ones, analyze who they were targeted to, and how well they might have worked, and also thought about my own response to those ads today. My favourite ad I found was the TWA one. It features my favourite airplane. (Picture of  ad)  I also got to interview my dad about his perspective on advertising, and learned that we basically think almost the same thing about ads – we like to do more research less than relying on advertising claims.

We didn’t just look at ads and talk about them, we also learned how to analyze them and even make them.  We learned some design stuff – layout, colour and how to get people’s interest in the ad.  Persuasion techniques were one of the things we looked at in our weekly ad chart – one of the best I found was an ad for a taxi company that made taking a taxi look adventurous. When I first did an assignment to watch TV ads and talk about the persuasion techniques, I didn’t enjoy it, but when I did the ad chart, I started to find it easy to put ads into categories like “water is wet” and the “we’re different and unique” claim.   

The Gospel According to Larry was cool.  It was a book about a character named Josh that used an identity called Larry to motivate people for anti-consumerism. The book wasn’t really my favourite because you didn’t really get to meet the characters and it had no plot to it.  I did work hard on understanding the text by doing the worksheets. I didn’t really like the McLuhan text either. I still like reading though, just not this stuff.

The biggest project was designing an ad for Ahoy.  My blog about that is here http://www.blog44.ca/bent/2020/11/08/advertising-draft-reflection/. I’m proud of the work I did in designing and refining my ad.

Those were some of the projects we did in the Medium is the Message. That is all.

We had to design ads for companies.  My company was A’hoy in Deep Cove.

This project was really cool because I learned how to use Canva to design an ad. It’s my first time ever designing an ad. It was fun seeing how much change I could make to my ad and how I could make it better.

I knew that I was going to share it with my group and see their ads too. I wasn’t really looking forward to sharing with other people because they might not like it.  But it turned out to be really fun.

1st draft

On my first draft I decided to put a font that kind of looks like the one A’hoy uses and I put a picture in the background that fit into the idea of A’hoy – because it reminds me of a nice water setting like Deep Cove.  It looks good in the background.

I used the work we had done in class on placement and colouring and spacing to play around with the ad and fonts until it looked good.

2nd draft

In my second draft I didn’t really change that much, all I changed was that I changed the size of the text on the bottom of the poster and I moved the picture in the background a little bit.

I made the changes because I was told during our group work that the text on the bottom was too hard to read. In the group, I also commented on other peoples’ work – we noticed that someone else in the group had text that was too hard to read and they changed that.  I think we all learned from the feedback.

 

3rd draft

On my 3rd draft I changed my background picture to one of Deep Cove and I changed the colour of the text to the one that A’hoy uses ( from dark blue to very dark blue).

I haven’t got feedback on this yet. I’m looking forward to that.

I learned a lot about how to make my ad better by discussing it, seeing other peoples ads, and looking at historical ads. I still think that there is more for me to learn about making  an ad.

Welcome! Hi this is my blog that I am going to put all my work onto and my opinions into if I have to. This is definitely going to be the shortest blog that I am going to do. I hope that you like my other posts. More in my next blog… got to go.

 

 

 

Hi, this is my User Manual. My favourite part is the settings because it tells the most about me.

User Guide: Ben

 Brand: Grade 8 Student

Model: Ben Tuck Model 13

PRODUCT GUIDE

Ben Tuck’s functions include:

• Loving airplanes
• dog walking
• fast skiing
• trombone playing
• knowing everything about cars

GETTING STARTED

Before you access Ben, you will need to make sure you have music.  He responds well to classic rock.

ACCESSIBILITY

 

You can access Ben by using iMessage or by email. You can also reach him by yelling very loudly because if you don’t he won’t hear you if he is listening to music.

SETTINGS

Ben only has two settings: PLP student and normal person.

Setting 1: PLP student

This is Ben’s setting that is usually used during 9:30 am – 2:55 pm (for unknown reasons the setting turns off early). 

Setting 2: Normal person 

In normal person mode Ben usually is out on his family’s boat or normally out at restaurants, or sometimes he rarely even gets out of his house. 

WARNINGS

This device may…

• often make random jokes
• Sometimes gets distracted from work 
• Randomly tells weird facts.

Troubleshooting 

Problem	Solution
You find that I am distracted	Kindly remind me to get back on task
You see that my assignments could be better	Try giving me more specific help

TIPS TO MAINTAIN OPIMAL PERFORMANCE 

Fuel with chocolate milk and chocolate bars.

Be clear what you mean when talking to Ben.

Refresh by telling the device Garfield and Far side jokes.

I felt like the project was fun because It started out at being hard to start but it ended up being very fun after I started working on it.