Posted on April 12, 2018
Destination Imagination Regionals 2018
We did it again! This is our third year doing Destination Imagination. D.I. Is a tournament with competitors from all over North America. Each team gets to pick from one of 6 challenges and must present their solution to appraisers and an audience at a tournament. If you would like to learn more about it you can go on the Destination Imagination Website, or you could read one of my past blog posts Destination Imagination Regionals 2017 and Destination Imagination Provincials 2017. We started off by learning what the challenges were and picking our top three choices. We were then put into groups by our teacher and assigned a challenge.
I was assigned the engineering challenge which was my first choice so I was very happy. I was put in a group with Mimi, Ruby, Ryan, Michael, and Adam. The engineering challenge was called Drop Zone. Here is the challenge video.
I wanted to do this challenge because I had never done the engineering challenge before and it looked really fun. Before we could start coming up with a solution to our challenge, we had to do some preparation. We had to do lots of project management. We had to read the rules, give out team roles, figure out what materials we could use, and much more. The project management is very important because it makes sure that we follow the rules and get as many points as possible. One of the first things we had to do was come up with a team name. We were struggling to come up with an idea but we found a restaurant with a name we liked so we went with that. Our team name is Tender Greens.
The Team Outside Tender Greens
Once we get were done with all of the project management we got to start brainstorming. We started off with coming up with a plan for our story. We had come up with a few ideas but they were constantly changing. We decided that we wanted to do a serious story to be different because most people do very light hearted stories. We also wanted to focus on a real life thing that many people deal with so we decided to do a story about anxiety. Once our story was decided, we started working on our structure and event depicter.
For our structure we wanted to try and do something simple that we knew could hold a ton of weight. We started off with a good idea but when we tested it it broke. We ended up going through a few designs before we found one that worked. After our structure was complete we worked on the event depicter. The event depicter was something you had to make that uses technical methods to visually or audibly depict the sudden event within the story. Our sudden event was an anxiety attack so we decided to make a podium that uses speakers to play dramatic music while the anxiety attack is happening. We built the podium and put the speakers into it. We had to wire the speakers up to an old radio and we made the music too. The last thing we had to do was come up with our team choice elements.
In every challenge each team has to have two creations in their presentation that show off the teams skills, interests, and talents. We struggled with coming up with any ideas because we couldn’t figure out how to use our talents. For our first team choice element we decided to do special effects makeup. I am pretty good at makeup so I was in charge of this. I gave Ryan a beard because is character is supposed to be older, I gave ruby eye makeup because she is anxiety, and I gave Adam many tattoos because they suit his character. For our second team choice element Ryan is very good with technology so he created a scene in our story using green screen and projected it on our screen. Once everything was done we got all of our needed props and costumes and we practiced our presentation many times.
This year the regionals tournament was at Seycove which was amazing. It did take a little more work because we had to set everything up and clean up afterwards but it was totally worth it. We didn’t have to worry about moving our stuff to a different school and we didn’t have to drive an hour to the tournament. We got the schedule the day before and we were excited to show all of our hard work. Here was the schedule for the day.
We had our instant challenge at 10:20. The instant challenge is a mini performance or task challenge that you have to do. We did many practice challenged before the tournament and everyone on our team has a role for instant challenges. Sadly I cannot tell you about the instant challenge we did until after the global tournament at the end of May. I will update this post after that. After our instant challenge we went around the school and watched our friends presentations. It was so much fun to watch,the other teams present and be there to support them. There was a lot of waiting between some presentations so we practiced our presentation a couple of times throughout the day. When the time came for us to present I was a little nervous. We did our performance and everything went pretty smoothly. We ran out of time at the end so we missed about two of our lines. I was really proud of how the performance went. Here is our performance
Our presentation time was very late in the day so after we were done we waited for a little bit then it was time for the award ceremony. In our age decision in our challenge there were 6 other teams so we had a lot of competition. Some of the other challenges only had 2 teams competing. Our team got third place which we were pretty happy about. We got raw scores for our performance which our just the average scores the appraisers gave us. These aren’t our final scores because they change based on how the other teams did. Here are our raw scores. 
This has by far been my favourite D.I. Tournament. It was so much easier having the tournament at our school. I worked really well with my group and I’m really happy with how our presentation went, but we aren’t done yet. We now have to prepare for Provincials. The Provincials are on April 7th so we don’t have a lot of time to make changes but we will work hard to make everything better. We are going to have to edit our story, change our team choice elements a little, and figure out a way we can get more weight on our structure faster. I am very excited to get to compete again and hopefully we will be able to improve our scores.
Posted on March 8, 2018
Algebra Tiles Can Be Fun!
This unit in math we learned about expanding and factoring expressions using algebra tiles. A lot of this unit was review from past years but we did learn some new skills too. We started off with an algebra review to help remind us of the skill. We then did a lot of lessons with notes to learn the new skills. We learned about monomials, binomials, and polynomials. We learned how to expand and factor them, and we learned about how they make perfect squares. We then spent some time practicing the skills we learned. Finally it was time to start the project.
For the project we got partnered up and my partner was my friend Kate. The project was to create a game that involves expanding, factoring, and perfect squares. It could be any game from a board game, to a card game, to completely random game. We made our first draft of the game rules just with expanding. We started off with a card game but as we learnt the new skills to add we had to change our rules and we ended up deciding to change it to a board game. Once we had our final draft of the game rules done we started to make it.
We started off with making the cards for our game. We then made the algebra tiles and the board then we were done. The last thing we had to do was come up with a name. This is our game Journey to the Perfect Square.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tcaggHHwBIU
I really enjoyed this project because it was a really fun way to do a normally boring and time consuming unit. I was surprised that we were able to make algebra tiles fun. I do feel like this project might have taken up too much time considering this was a small unit that was mostly review. I hope next time we learn more new skills and can make them fun too.
Posted on March 7, 2018
Chemical Reactions
In science we just finished a chemistry unit. In this unit we learned about how elements are different and how they might react with each other. At the beginning of the unit we got assigned a partner project. We had to choose between doing a chemical reaction project where we would have to design an experiment that shows a chemical reaction, or a video project where we would have to make an animation that shows a chemical reaction equation from the perspective of the elements. I chose to do the chemical reaction project because I liked that it had more of a scientific aspect to it. I was partnered up with my friend Isobel and we were very excited to work. Before we could do the project we had to learn the information we needed it for it. Before we started, everyone did a mind map of their current knowledge on chemistry. Here is mine.
We learned a lot in this unit. We started off with some review work to remind us of the basics. After review we learned about chemical compounds and how to write them down. We also learned about how to draw them using Bohr models and Lewis diagrams. We learned the difference between acids, bases, and neutrals and how they all react with each other. After we had learnt everything we did a couple experiments as a class to help understand the design process of making an experiment. They also helped us learn about lab design for our project.
After we had to Needed knowledge, we started our project. Isobel and I originally tried to create an experiment to test for a dangerous metal in lipstick. Although this was a good idea we weren’t able to test it because the amount of metal would be too low and there were too many other uncontrolled variables. We then changed our experiment to testing to see what fake jewelry is made out of. We got a cheap silver ring to test. First we had to predict what it is made out of and we predicted copper. We designed the experiment to test for copper using nitric acid. To tell if we were right we also had to test a copper wire with nitric acid to see if we got the same results. Here is our lab design.
The reaction did not go exactly as we had planned. The nitric acid concentration was not very high so nothing happened when we first put the copper in it. After a few days the reaction had happened. The copper wire reacted as expected. The ring did not react as we expected. The copper was under layers of silver and only the silver reacted with the nitric acid. Although the results were not what we expected, the experiment was still successful.
To end off the unit we had to do another mind map with the new knowledge we have. Here is mine.
This was such a great unit. I learned so much and the project was really fun. I much prefer doing projects that allow creativity and freedom that are as related to the subject as possible. I had a great experience working with my partner on this project and I hope we do more partner projects soon. I’m very excited for the next unit.
Posted on March 2, 2018
Disruption!
Everything around us is a disruption. It may not be disrupting you but everything is disrupting something. The main focus of our current unit in PLP is disruption. We have learned the definition of disruption and different types of disruptions. When I first heard the word disruption I immediately thought it was something negative. Disruptions can be negative but they can also be positive. A disruption is a disturbance or problem that interrupts an event, activity, or process. For this unit we traveled to California to dive deeper into the topic of disruption. You can read more about the trip to California Here. Of course while we were in California we had a project to do.
Before we went to California we had to pick a place that we were going to and research how it is a disruption. We had to gather information while we were there and then turn it into a project. The project could be a video, podcast, photo essay, game, or puppet show. It was a partner project and I was partners with Ruby. We decided to do a podcast. Sadly no one decided to do a puppet show. There were many places we could choose from including the USS Midway and High Tech High. We decided to do the San Diego Safari Park. Before we left for California we did lots of research on how it is a disruption and we made a solid plan for our podcast. We decided to focus on how it is disrupting wildlife because it is sometimes safer for animals to be there than in the wild.
When we arrived at the park we got to go on an educational tour. It was led by an amazing tour guide who gave us tons of information on our topic. We got extremely lucky on our tour and we were able to go into the elephant habitat, while the elephants were in a separate pen, and watch a training session. The elephant keeper who was talking to us gave lots of information on why it is better for the elephants to be there than in the wild.
After the educational tour we got to explore the park on our own. Ruby and I went around and saw all of the animals. We asked tons of questions and we got a couple of really good interviews for our podcast. I love being able to do projects on places we visit because they are way more fun and the final project is always really good.
When we returned from California we evaluated all of the information we collected and started creating our podcast. We had tons of amazing information and interviews so it was a little challenging to decide what we were going to put in our podcast. We narrowed it down to a specific topic that we both had interest in. We decided that we wanted our main focus to be tigers because it is very dangerous for them in the wild and there is a great program for them at the Safari Park. We wrote our script, recorded it, and edited it using ferrite. The hard part was adding in the interview because we had to place them so they followed the story and made it more interesting. We handed it in and got ready for some critique. The teachers did a class critique where they just critiqued a couple in front of the class so everyone knows the expectations. I don’t like these because I much prefer to get specific critique so I know exactly what to change.
I am so happy that Ruby and I chose to do the San Diego Safari Park. It was a topic that I really care about which made this project so much more fun. I love doing projects like this because there is lots of freedom to be creative. Ruby and I both put lots of effort into this project and I feel that it turned out really well.
A couple of weeks after California to wrap up our unit we had to write a synthesis essay. We had been preparing for this essay since the beginning of our unit. A synthesis essay is an essay that draws on at least one or two different sources. For our essays one of the sources had to be a book we read at the beginning of this unit, Little Brother. We also had to include two other sources of our choosing. The topic of our essay was how technology has been a disruption through out history. Everyone got to choose how they wanted to answer the topic so there was some freedom in the essay. We did lots of practice work in class to prepare for the essay. We also had to make a full outline which really helped me write even though we couldn’t use it while we wrote. The outline was really helpful in helping me figure out how to start and organizing our ideas.
We had two classes to write and proof read our essay. I am a pretty fast writer so I was done writing about halfway through the second class which meant I had tons of time to proof read. I made sure my essay was organized and grammatically correct then I handed it in. Here is my essay.
Synthesis Essay
This whole unit was really cool. I defiantly feel like I learned a ton of information in this unit. I liked this unit because the topic was interesting and I felt that I learned information that could be helpful in my future. I have warmed up to the idea that disruptions can be positive. This was also my favourite unit project wise. I loved all of the projects in this unit because they had a lot of freedom. I hope the next unit is as good as this one.
Posted on February 26, 2018
High Tech High
As you may know, PLP uses project based learning. PBL uses projects instead of tests for the students to show their learning. In my opinion it is a better way to show your learning because you actually get to show your understanding rather than just memorizing random facts and forgetting them a week after a test. Not many schools teach with PBL yet because it is new and is harder to teach with than tests. Luckily there are some amazing teachers who take extra time out of there lives so they can do PBL. There is a school in San Diego where the whole school uses PBL. It’s called High Tech High and it is an amazing school. While we were in California for out field school we got to spend two days at HTH and it was a great experience.
High Tech High isn’t just a high school. It’s a school for every grade. There are elementary, middle, and high schools on the campus in different buildings. There are also different types of schools. For example there is High Tech High International and High Tech High Media Arts. We spent our two days at HTH Media Arts. At HTH they call their teachers by their first names. We got to visit Anna’s classroom. When we first got there our class was split into two groups, green group and purple group. I was in purple group. Once we got our groups everyone got a partner or partners. I was partnered up with Bryah and Ajok. 
We talked for a little bit to introduce ourselves and they were very friendly and fun to talk to. After our introductions we went on a tour of the campus.
The campus is huge and there are so many buildings on it. It used to be an army camp so the architecture is a little strange. The ceilings are open and you can see the bars in them. In some of the buildings the classrooms don’t have walls, they just have windows. It’s really cool because it makes the space feel really open and you get to see what’s going on in all of the classrooms. They also have student artwork everywhere. The students there are very talented and their work is amazing. It took us almost half an hour to do a tour and I don’t even think we saw everything. After the tour we headed back to Anna’s classroom. We then went to Trish’s classroom and played some introductory games. After that we participated in Media Monday. Media Monday is when they talk about events that happened and everyone is allowed to voice their opinion on the subject without being judged. It was really cool to get to talk about the stuff that’s currently happening instead of just stuff that has happened in the past. We spent the rest of the day in Anna’s classroom until school was done at 3:30.
The next day we started off by doing some math which was really challenging. We did a really complicated problem and it took us quite a long time to figure it out. After math we went into Anna’s class and discussed different schools and how some schools are better than others and how that might affect the students. We also had a debate on the topic and it was really interesting to here everyone’s opinions. We ended off the day by getting to interview our partners for a podcast. A couple of moths ago we did a project where we had to make Story podcasts. You can read more about those here. We had to make a story podcast with our partners. My partners for this were Bryah and Hanna Maria and they answered all of my questions and were great interviewees. I had so much fun at HTH and I would love to go back and visit there.
When I returned from the trip I got to edit the podcast. I had almost 30 mins of recording so I had lots of material to work with. There were a couple good stories in there and I was hard to decide which one to do. I decided to focus on what it is like at HTH because that’s what I found most interesting. I edited it so it flowed smoothly, added and intro, added some music, and then it was done. I had some of my peers listen to it and got some good critique. I edited it a couple more times and here is my final draft.
I love doing podcasts like these because there is lots of freedom and they are really fun to do. It was cool to get to visit HTH and do this podcast with some of the students there.
Posted on February 25, 2018
California
Every year in PLP we take a trip to somewhere that connects with our unit. We are just finishing up a unit on how technology has been a disruption throughout history. Our main focus was on the tech giants such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft. For this unit we went to California because it is the home to the Headquarters of almost every big tech company. To prepare for this trip we learned about the definition of disruption, how certain companies have been a disruption, and how many of the companies started. Of course with every trip there a couple of projects we have to complete while away. One of the projects was to make a book about the trip. Everyone was given an outline for the book which told us what we needed to get each day. We often needed things such as pictures, interviews, audio recordings, and a little writing. Everyone filled out the book as we went on the trip.
Our plane left for California at 6:30am which meant we had to get up really early. The plane ride was short and I napped the whole time because I was exhausted. When we arrived we got our rental cars then went for lunch. After we had eaten and regained our energy we went to Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. It is a beautiful park with the rarest pine tree in America. We went on a hike there and the views were stunning. 
After that we went to La Jolla Cove which was a beautiful beach with lots of seals. We played frisbee there and took lots of pictures of the sunset. After that it was time for dinner which was delicious. After dinner we went to the hotel and got ready for the next day.
On our first full day we went to the San Diego Safari Park. It is owned by the same company as the San Diego Zoo but the safari park has much more open habitats and less animals so it is a lot nicer for the animals. We were very lucky while on our tour because we got to go into the elephant habitat and watch a training session up close. The elephants were all in pens so it was safe for us to be in their habitat. Seeing a training session was a really cool experience and I am really grateful that I got to be there. While we were there we watched the cheetah run which is where they have their cheetah run almost full speed on a 100m track.
The safari park is the only place you can see that in North America and it was really cool. I much prefer safari parks to zoos now because they have lots more space for their animals and they focus more on research and helping the animals.
The next day we went to the USS Midway. It is aircraft carrier that is no longer in service and has been turned into a museum. It is an extremely big ship that was like a town on the ocean when it was in service. We went on the audio tour which was cool because we got to choose where we wanted to go and still got to listen to all of the information. The aircraft carrier had almost everything a regular town would have including a jail. All of the people working on the midway had worked on an aircraft carrier which was awesome because they loved to talk about what it was like. They were very friendly and told some amazing stories.
The next two days we went to High Tech High. HTH is a high school that uses project based learning. PBL is when the students learn information then show their learning through projects instead of tests. PLP is also PBL but it was really cool to see a whole school doing it. HTH isn’t just high school, it is all grades. It also isn’t just one building, it has many buildings for different grades and slightly different schools. For example there is HTH international and HTH Media arts. We spent our two days at HTH media arts. It was so cool to get to spend two days at this school because the way they learn is so much fun. They talk about the important issues in the world and the projects they do are amazing. On the first day I was paired up with two girls from HTH, Bryah and Ajok. They are really nice, cool people and I had so much fun hanging out with them for two days. I would love to go back and visit HTH soon.
After school ended on the second day of HTH we flew from San Diego to San Jose. The first day in San Jose was the first day we got to visit some of the tech companies. We started off the day at google. We got to see all of the android update statues which are each a different dessert. 
We also got to go in the google store which was cool and had lots of cool stuff to buy. We walked around the google campus even though we technically weren’t supposed to. They had tons of stuff there including a library truck and tons of google bikes. After google we went to the Apple visitor centre at Apple Park. It was an amazing building with a huge store. It was really cool because they sold some merchandise that you couldn’t buy anywhere else. It also had a cafe and a structure of Apple Park that you could explore on an iPad. 
We went on a short tour and it was really nice then we got to explore the centre by ourselves for a bit. After Apple we made a quick stop at the Intel museum before our dinner. At dinner we got to talk to two really cool guys who have worked in Silicon Valley for a very long time, Scott and Brandon. Scott was on the team that made the first iPhone and he even got to work with Steve Jobs for a little bit. They told us a lot about Silicon Valley and what it’s really like. It was a very interesting conversation and I had lots of fun. After dinner we went bowling which was also really fun.
The next day we started off at the Computer History Museum. To be honest I was not excited about it at all because it sounded really boring. I was pleasantly surprised with how interesting it was. The tour was great and they had so many cool exhibits. They had some extremely old computers from when they were made to punch wholes is paper and when they were the size of rooms. They also had some exhibits that showed cool things computers can do today such as MRI’s. After the Computer History Museum we went to the garage that HP was started in. 
Next we went to Stanford. I was so excited to visit Stanford and I was not let down. It is an amazing school. The architecture is stunning and the students seem to really enjoy going there. We went on a tour led by student named Chase. He was a really nice guy and gave an amazing tour while he told us what it was like to go to Stanford. Stanford is defiantly now my dream school even though I probably won’t go there.
The next morning we got up early to visit the garage that Apple was started in. After that we got on a train and headed to San Francisco. When we arrived we waited for a bus for about an hour which put us behind schedule. We had to be at twitter for a certain time so we had to skip lunch. Twitter HQ was really cool. We went on a tour led by David, Blair, and Dorothy. They are all people who work at twitter and they gave us a tour while telling us what it was like to work there. Like many of the other companies we visited twitter is really chill and a fun place to work. These tech companies want you to enjoy working so you do your best work. After twitter we went to the Golden Gate Bridge which is stunning. We were there at sunset and it was absolutely beautiful. After that we had dinner which was amazing because I hadn’t eaten in over 12 hours.
On our last day we went on a walking tour of San Francisco. It was by a company called Wild SF Walking Tours and it was amazing. Our tour guide was Wild Wes and he knew so much about the city. On the tour we went to Height-Ashbury, The Castro, and Mission. After the tour we went to Alcatraz. I was most excited for Alcatraz because it was such a famous prison and I wanted to see just how impossible it was to escape from it. We went on an audio tour there and it was the best audio tour ever! They had the voices of actually prisoners and guards talking about what it was like there. They also had really cool sound effects and it was a very entertaining tour. After the tour we got to see a demonstration of the cell doors opening and closing and that was really cool.
They were really loud and that was what the prisoners heard everyday, twice a day. To end off our amazing trip we spent our last night riding the trolley around town and getting ice cream. It was the perfect way to end the perfect trip.
Flying home was both sad and happy because I was sad it was over but I was happy to be home. It was by far the best PLP trip I have ever been on. When we got home it was time to put all the projects together. I was most excited to work on the book because I got to look back on the trip and remember everything I learned. Here is my Book.
Posted on January 25, 2018
mPOL
It’s the most wonderful time of the year again. It’s time for SLC’s. The name of these student lead conferences changes almost every time we do one and this time they are called mPOL’s which stands for mid-year presentation of learning. We have done quite a few projects so far this year and not all of them have turned out amazing. Although there is always room for growth, some projects need more growth than others.
In humanities at the beginning of the year we did a video project on how WWI started. It was a group project and I was working with Sydney and Alex. We worked really well together and made a very informative video. The problem was the the video was extremely boring. We didn’t have many camera angles and our visuals were uninspired. We had a good concept we just didn’t execute very well. The background music was also very slow and didn’t help make it more entertaining. For our second draft we completely re-filmed it and added costumes, more angles, better music, and made the characters more interesting. The second draft was definitely better but it still wasn’t very entertaining. I am pretty good at writing scripts and making informative videos but I feel like my visuals aren’t very entertaining. This has happened a few times and I need to start putting more creativity into my projects. I always come up with good ideas after I have finished the project and I feel this is because I am too worried about getting it done that I forget to be creative. From now on I have to take more time to plan my videos creatively and be able to have enough time to go back and change them if they aren’t entertaining. Canada’s Part in WWI
We haven’t done a lot of projects in maker and for the most part mine have been pretty good but there have been a couple that haven’t met my standards. We recently had to make a video about ourselves for the students at High Tech High. I really struggled with this video. I don’t like talking about my passions and hobbies to strangers because people often judge me on those before they get to know me. It took me a while to decide how to make this video because I wanted it to show who I am but I didn’t really know how to do that. I also tried to tell a story with this video and that didn’t really happen. I once again struggled to use my creativity to make this video entertaining and even though it wasn’t boring it could still be a lot more interesting. My video had a good shot of me with a nice background and lots of pictures showing what I like to do. It was visually pleasing but I needed to find a way to make it more interesting.
In science we’ve done two big projects this year. The first project was a video about Lab Safety. I was in a group with Sydney and Kate and our video didn’t turn out very well. We made a video that was strong with the information and authenticity. it was funny and personalized but it didn’t have any character development and only had one angle. We needed to spend more time developing a stronger story with better editing and our video would have been great. Science Lab Safety
The other project in science was a podcast about DNA of which I was very proud of how it turned out. It was a partner project, I worked with Izzy and we worked really well together. We had to answer a question so we decided to answer it in a fun way. We had characters and a story so it was interesting to listen to. We had all of the needed information and some extra, and we had good sound quality. We put a lot of creativity into that project and it turned out even better than I expected. Identical Cousins?
I have struggled in math a bit this year. I have never really done a math project before so when we were assigned one at the beginning of the year I didn’t really know what to do. The project was to make a solar panel using trigonometry. I completely understood the math and the math in my project was done perfectly. The area where I struggled was the creativity and execution of building the project. I had a plan to put the solar panel on the roof of an apartment building that I was going to build out of cardboard. I started to build it but I ran out of cardboard so I had to use paper for part of it and that made it look a little messy. I also didn’t have that much detail in my write up so I immediately revised it. Fun with Trigonometry . I had never gotten less than an A in math and normally they were very high A’s but because I was pretty much only graded on this project in the first term, my grade was a low B. For the next project I made sure to make my project look really aesthetically pleasing and add extra detail to make sure I wouldn’t get another low grade. Golden Ratio. As much as I love doing projects I don’t really like math projects and I would much rather just do tests.
This year I may have had a few projects that didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to, but I have also done some very good work. I was really proud of my storytelling podcasts in maker. As soon as I saw the criteria for that project I was very excited. It was so much fun getting to listen to everyones stories. I really got excited after I listened to some of the story’s from Storycorps. They were such meaningful stories and were told amazingly. I loved editing the stories that were shared with me and hearing them come together. I was very nervous on exhibition night to get the interviews because I get very anxious when I have to talk to strangers. I have been getting a lot better at it but it was very nerve-racking to ask a stranger about a personal story. After my first interview I realized how much these strangers enjoyed telling their stories and I became a lot less nervous. My final podcast told an amazing story about emigrating to Canada from Mexico. I was so proud with how the podcast turned out. I didn’t really want to do podcasts this year because I had heard some bad things about them, however I have loved every single one I have done this year. Everyone Has a Story
https://soundcloud.com/claire-teegen/immigrating-to-vancouver
My work ethic has been really good this year. In the past I have struggled with time management but this year I have finished everything on time, in fact, I have even finished some things early, which is really good for me. I have approached almost all of the projects with a positive attitude and this has really helped me get them done faster. For the rest of the year I would like to continue to work hard and get my work done early so I have extra time to revise it. I am excited to continue working this year and improve as a learner even more.
Posted on January 14, 2018
Everyone Has a Story
You don’t have to have traveled around the world or saved someone’s life to have an interesting story. You would be surprised how interesting the little stories you have are and how much they could affect someone. Before the break from school we had the first exhibition of the year. Normally in exhibitions everyone in the class would make an inquiry question then try to answer it by doing a project of some kind. If you would like to read more about past exhibitions you can go Here. In PLP this year our main focus is podcasts, so instead of answering a question we had to make Podcasts. If you don’t know, a podcast is an audio recording of someone talking about pretty much anything they want. There can be group discussion podcasts, storytelling podcasts, and many more. For this exhibition we had to make storytelling podcasts.
For this project everyone in my grade was paired up with a grade 12 is PLP. I was paired up with Anatolia which was nice because she is friends with my sister so I already knew her. The grade 12’s job was to produce our podcasts. They had to make sure we did everything correctly and handed them in on time. The idea for telling story podcast came from Storycorps. Storycorps is an organization that interviews people and tells their stories. I listened to a lot of their podcasts and the stories were normally 2-4 mins but they were so powerful. For the exhibition we had to create 2 podcasts before and one during the exhibition. To create the podcasts we had to interview people and get them to tell us a story. To do this you should never just ask someone to tell you a story because they won’t think they have a good enough story or they won’t be able to think of one under pressure. The trick is to ask them open questions about them and their life and a story will probably developed out of it. Before we did the interview we had to create a list of questions that could lead to someone telling a story. Once you have asked a question that started off a story it is important to ask lots of follow up questions. You have to really listen to your interviewees answers and ask questions that will lead the interview in an interesting direction. Here are some interviewing tips.
My first interview was with my grade 12 buddy. Anatolia knew the project and to make the first interview easier she already had a story and I based my questions around that story. There are many different styles that you can choose to edit your podcasts. You could leave the questions in but I chose to edit them out so it would flow better. I also edited out all of the ums, empty spaces, and extra information that didn’t add to the story. The goal was to let the stories stand alone in the podcast so I only added music in the intro and outro. Here is Anatolia’s story.
My second interview had to be with a family member. I chose to interview my mom because she lives a very interesting life and she tells me a new story almost every day. It was a little trickier to get a good story from my mom at first because she was trying to think of an amazing story and couldn’t come up with one. Once I started asking her the questions she mentioned something that had the possibility to be a good story so I followed up and it turned out very good. Once I was done the interview I edited it and handed it in. Here is my Mom’s story.
Finally it was time for the exhibition. If you have ever been to an exhibition then you know that there are lots of people there which was both good and bad for this project. It was good because we had many people to get story’s from but it was bad because it was very loud and hard to get good audio. To help that problem everyone had to get in small groups and transform a classroom into a recording studio. My group put two comfy chairs and small table in the classroom. We put plants and a lamp on the table to make it look nice. We also had snacks and drinks for our guests. 
When the exhibition started it was the grade 12’s job to find people for me to interview. I had to interview at least three different people so I would definitely have a good story. I was really nervous because talking to strangers scares me a little. When my grade 12 brought in my first interviewee I was very happy because he was my old soccer coach so I was comfortable talking to him. I asked him a few questions on my list and once he gave me an interesting answer I followed up on it. It started to get easier and easier and he told me a really good story. After my first interview was done, I was confident and ready for my next one. There were three people in my room so it was a little challenging making time for everyone and knowing when the next interview was going to be.
When Anatolia brought in my second interviewee I did not know him so I was a little more nervous, but he was a very nice man. When he walked in the room I saw something that reminded him of his childhood and started telling me a story before I even asked a question. The first story was a little short but it brought up another topic that I asked about. He then told me an amazing story about his life. After he left I only needed one more interview. The last interviewee answered all of my questions with very short answers which made it hard to get a good story out of. After the night was over I was very excited to edit my podcast.
It was really hard to decided which story to turn into my podcast because they were all so interesting and different. I edited the first two podcasts to see which one had a better story. The first one had a very good story but it was a little short and repetitive. The second story was perfect so I continued to editing it. I edited out all of the questions and tried to make it flow as smoothly as possible. I also edited the volume which was really hard because there was a ton of background noise. I handed in the first draft to Anatolia and she gave me back some critique. I edited it a little more then I handed it in again and I got no critique. Here is my exhibition podcast.
I loved doing this project so much. It pushed me out of my comfort zone a lot but it made me learn more about my self. I loved hearing everyone’s stories so much and after each interview I was excited to move onto the next one. I even found editing the podcasts fun because it was so cool to hear the stories come together. At the start of this project I thought it was going to be really nerve racking to get the interview and boring to edit them but I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to do more podcasts.
Posted on January 12, 2018
Summer of Love
Throughout history many different things and events have disrupted life on earth. In PLP we are currently working on a unit about technology and how it has acted as a disruption throughout history. The main question for this unit is “How has technology acted as a disruption with its creation throughout history. We just finished reading a novel called Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. It was a book based in the future about a boy, Marcus, who gets accused of committing a terrorist attack and gets extremely mistreated by the government. He then must use the internet to try and stop the government from mistreating others. For this project we had to pick a technology or a concept that was mentioned in Little Brother and research about it. I chose to research the Summer of Love.
The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people, mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behavior, converged in San Francisco’s neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury. These hippies came to express their opinions, protest the government, and have a fun summer. Hippies were an eclectic group, many of them were suspicious of the government and against the Vietnam War. Those who gathered for the summer of Love rejected the conformist and materialist values of modern life. They preferred to live a life that emphasized sharing and love. A council was put together to help organize the summer of Love. They made sure there was a free Clinic, organized housing, food, sanitation, music and arts, along with maintaining coordination with local churches and other social groups. They made sure that the community was aware of what was going on and handled any situations with the authorities. Here is a video with a little more information on the Summer of Love
College and high school students began streaming into the Haight during the spring break of 1967. The government was determined to stop the influx of young people after schools ended for the summer, so they released a series of articles in local papers which alerted the national media to the hippies growing numbers. They would report daily events of what was happening in San Francisco and also what was happening at other festivals around America. This only caused more hippies to hear about the events and come to San Francisco. Many teens and young adults dropped out of high school or college and abandoned their education to enjoy a summer of love, drugs, and rock n’ roll. Many extremely famous artists performed during the summer of Love including The Who, The Animals, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Jefferson Airplane.
The Summer of Love was generally a mixture of a music festival and a protest. People came to have a fun summer but also to protest against the government. It would be like if people went to Coachella, the popular music festival, and protested against something the government is in charge of, such as racial and gender equality. The Summer of Love disrupted life in San Francisco and all over the world. Many people were inspired to protest and many other events similar to this happened all over North America. The authorities were all over these events and the crime levels rose due to the use of drugs. The Summer of Love was an iconic event and was events have been held in its honour for its 40th and 50th anniversairy. It is an event that will never be forgotten.
Posted on December 21, 2017
Golden Ratio
Math is everywhere and it effects the way we view things. Math is in architecture, nature, and even on you. In this unit in math we learned about the golden ratio and how it makes things more aesthetically appealing. The golden ratio is a ratio of 1:1.618… and it is more appealing to the human eye. We also learned about the golden spiral which is a spiral within a rectangle with the golden ratio. 1.1618… is considered to be the perfect number and that is why shapes and items are more visually appealing when they have that number somewhere in their measurements.
The golden ration and spiral are found in many famous art pieces such as the Mona Lisa and is also found in nature in hurricanes.
For this unit our project was to make a piece of art using the golden ratio. The art could be anything from a drawing or a sculpture, to a song. We had to make this piece of art authentic and original. I decided to draw a picture because I love to draw. It took me a while to decide what to draw because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do a nature scene or a single item. I ended up deciding to do a nature scene and I chose to draw a beach because I find them very beautiful and I wanted to find out how much the golden ration could possibly be at beach. I also wanted to make it a little abstract to make it more creative.
To start off I looked at pictures of the beach to find different ways I could incorporate the golden ratio. Here is one of the pictures that helped inspire me. 
It inspired me to draw a wave using the golden spiral. I also liked the trees in the background and I wanted to incorporate more nature into my drawing so I decided to add a tree. I wanted to play with the depth in my picture so instead of having a tree next to the wave, I decided to put a branch in front of the wave. My plan originally was to have one shape in each section of the scene and use the golden ration in those shapes. I started off by filling the sky with rectangles, I then started to fill the beach with triangles and the ocean with circles but the measurements weren’t working out the way I planned so I had to scrap the beach and ocean shapes. Once I had completed the drawing I got to colour it in. I didn’t want the sky and the ocean to both be blue so I decided to do a sunset in the sky so I could add more colours. I also added a line outlining the sun that I later removed because it was unnecessary. Once my picture was complete it was time to label the measurements.
For the measurements we had to label some of the golden ratios with decimals and some with radical notation. Here is an example of how to label a rectangle with radical notation. 
I measured and labeled all of my golden ratio rectangles and golden spirals. I measured about half with decimals and half with radical notation. I also drew the leaves to have their diameters be to the ratio of 1:1.618… in each pair of leaves. None of the shapes have the lengths of 1:1.618 but they have that same ratio. On each rectangle the width is the length times 1.618. Once all of the labeling was complete I was ready to hand in my project.
I really enjoyed this project. It was a very fun way to use math in art. I loved the freedom of this project because it allowed me to be creative and do something I liked. I am really proud of how my project turned out and I hope we do more projects similar to this in the future.