Revolutions on trial

How can we, as legal teams, determine the effectiveness of a revolution? For this humanities project we were studying revolutions and there effectiveness. There were four revolutions that we could individually choose: Haitian, Xinhai, American and French. I chose to do the French Revolution. I knew nothing about the French Revolution but after this project I had a very deep understanding of the events that took place during the French revolution. In the end, we presented our learning and discoveries about this revolution through a scripted mock trial play to an audience and our teachers. Each revolution was on trial for being ineffective, this means that it did not:

– Reform political systems aligning with the voice of the people

– Increase rights and freedoms for the people

– Remove a dictator with sweeping power

– Achieve financial stability

– Improve standard of living

– Remove internal conflict

Our goal was to argue that it was effective based on Crane Brinton’s Theory and Stages of a revolution which I will talk more about later. In this post, I will use our reading of Animal Farm, research on the French Revolution, the Nation-X Society Simulator, and the mock trial itself to demonstrate my learning and growth through out this project.

HIGHLIGHTS

Animal Farm

As most people do at one point through out high school, we read Animal Farm by George Orwell to introduce and deepen our understanding of what a revolution really is. When I first started reading the novel, I didn’t fully realize until about the second chapter that this book was one big metaphor for the Russian Revolution. Through analysis and a couple writing assignments and responses, I was able to connect plot points in Animal Farm to Crane Brinton’s four stages of a revolution.

Stage 1: Incubation Stage

Stage 2: Moderate Stage

Stage 3: Crisis Stage

Stage 4: Recovery Stage

I learned about how a revolution works because you could really see evidence of this through out the novel. I could connect it to what we were learning in class and use it to guide my research on the French Revolution.

Nation-X

Nation-X was a real-life society simulator to show us how society works. I quickly learned that how a society runs (the pros and cons of it) are a huge factor in revolutions. There were people who were in lower classes than others, people earning less money, we couldn’t talk to people in other classes, and we couldn’t even step out of our own zones. I went to jail for talking to someone in a higher than class than me (they started the conversation!) and I had to basically bribe the guards to let me out. “A” and “B” (the lower classes) attempted to start a revolution as life for them was unfair compared to that of “C” and “D”. We stormed the capital to get our taxes back, luckily we got some of them back but our revolution wasn’t really successful because we got arrested.

This simulator really helped me understand why revolutions in history start in the first place because of people being treated unequally. But I learned that revolutions have to be really planned out and have a specific goal to be successful.

THE PROJECT/EXHIBITION

Research/Affidavit

Crane brinton’s stages of the French Revolution

Before we started gathering research or writing our script, we had to organize our revolution and it’s plot points on a timeline. This timeline followed Crane Brinton’s Theory of a Revolution that we were introduced to in the beginning of the project. Individually, we made smaller mind maps to organize these thoughts and then came together to make a big one on the board that you see above. At this point, I was really able to recognize the continuity and change that a revolution creates over time. By looking at France before the revolution when King Louis XVI was in power and comparing that to the Crisis stage and Recovery stage of it, it is clear to see the similarities and differences in this timeline. By looking at the “Continuity and Change” chart that we wrote below, we are able to see how this revolution effected people in power, people of France and the different classes.

Continuity and change

Once we understood what a revolution was we were able to start gathering evidence and research for why the French Revolution (the revolution that my group worked on) was, in fact, effective. All of this information (witnesses, letters from the time, etc.) was put into our Affidavit. All of this information was the information we knew we were going to use in our script and in our presentation to argue the effectiveness of this revolution.

Affidavit

While working on the Affidavit and research, it was a challenge to delegate work evenly to everyone. To start, it was already really hard to find the sources because at the time of the revolution and the Reign of Terror, no one thought that the revolution was good since people were dying everywhere and their lives were completely disrupted. I found that it was pretty limited since we had to argue that the French revolution was effective because majority of the sources that we were finding argued that it was ineffective. Although this was a challenge, my group found enough relevant evidence to argue our side, bringing us very close to the “prosecution” in our actual skit once we wrote the script.

The Presentation

 We rehearsed the script A LOT! We practiced in the classroom, in the drama room, and in our spare time and spare classes to make sure we knew it for the night of the exhibition. We also watched a couple videos in class to familiarize ourselves with how a court room runs, what you should wear in court, how you should speak, and some words that you can sue in your argument. This helped a lot in our actual mock trial because we knew by this point how a court case should run. Our Mock Trial along with the other Revolution’s mock trials were presented to parents and other members of the community who voted for guilty (not effective) or not guilty (effective). 

Mock Trial

The parents in the audience ended up voting guilty for our revolution. Although this was not our goal, the votes were very very close (only one or two apart) and I am very proud of how my group did in the trial.


Conclusion

Learning about the Russian revolution in class and researching the French Revolution in my group, I noticed something about all revolutions: They all have good parts and bad parts. We only really see the good parts and the good outcomes after time, it’s not something that people during the revolution would see. I found this really interesting, comparing our view now of revolutions to what people thought during. I think this is where my groups challenges really came in when we were researching because the citizens of France couldn’t possibly have seen the Reign of Terror as effective. But looking at the event now, we have the perspective,knowledge, and evidence to argue otherwise. I think this project was very interesting and I really liked learning about the French Revolution. I loved that we learned about it from a court perspective, it made it a lot more compelling and fun to learn about and work with others. Overall, I am proud of what I have accomplished in this project.

Correlation and causation

For this Scimatics unit we focused on correlation and causation. We worked in partners and we had to make our own survey with a topic that had a correlation with causation and correlation without causation. My partner and I decide to make our Survey about how being introverted or extroverted relates to the career one might want to pursue. We thought someone who considers themselves more introverted might go into a career like business, whereas someone who’s extroverted might go into communications.

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

I showed this competency by using Google forms to make an easily accessible survey. I also used the app Numbers to make all my graphs and charts.

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

I defined the math terms correlation and causation to explain how they were relate to the survey. I also learned how to interpret graphs and tell what type correlation they are, such as week or strong.

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

My partner and I used our class time to work on the assignment and we evenly distributed the work load. 

We split the work load based on our strengths for example I did the writing and she did the math. We split the survey questions into even and odd numbers so one of us didn’t have to write down 30 responses

To conclude this blog will answer the driving question: What is the difference between correlation and causation?

The difference between correlation and causation is that correlation is simply a relation between two factors, and they don’t necessarily have to have anything to do with each other. While causation is where one action causes the second action to occur. 

Take Your Kid to Work Day.

On November 3 my class participated in Take Your Kid to Work Day, a day that students go to work with parents or other family members/guardians. I chose to go to work with my Aunt who is the head of communications for the District of North Vancouver. 

Final video⬇️

When I went to District Hall with my Aunt, I sat in on a zoom call with her about updating the district website which was very interesting. It was a very good opportunity to be able to see what she does everyday as head of communications, it’s a much bigger job than I expected.

District Hall⬇️

 After that meeting, we did a tour of District Hall and I saw her office and where the council sits. This was an important part of my day because I had a chance to see where members of the North Vancouver District Council sit as well as the mayor, and discuss issues within my very own community.

Council room⬇️

Our next stop on the tour of things the district is in charge of is the Lynn Valley Library. There was two important things that we looked at while we were there: the first being the construction of the rainbow crosswalk and second being the Lynn Valley stabbing memorial. The reason we focused on the crosswalk is because they have to tear it up for issues with water pipes and BC hydro. But, this is a bit controversial because they are tearing up a symbol of North Vancouver’s acceptance and support of the LGBTQ+ community. My aunt, as she is in communications, is in charge of making sure the public doesn’t misunderstand this for a removal of the crosswalk. It will be replaced, it is simply a necessary construction project:

Rainbow Crosswalk⬇️

A huge part of my Aunt’s job in March was making sure the people in the district understood the circumstances of the Lynn Valley stabbing, making sure that people knew their community  was still safe and communicating any necessary information to the public. We can see a memorial there now that my aunt played a role in designing. Each person on her team had a different role in organizing this memorial, one person designed what it would look like, one person actually wrote it, etc. I think my aunt and her team did a really good job of comforting and communicating with the people of Lynn Valley and the North Shore now that I got to see it from a behind the scenes perspective.

Photo of the memorial⬇️

Finally, our last stop was here:

 Empty lot⬇️

This is where the Maplewood Fire and Rescue centre will be by (2023?) which my Aunt has a role in communicating between the people and the district about what is going on with the construction of it. This Fire Hall will also be a training centre for new Fire Fighters as well as climate friendly with Solar Panels and recycled water. Here is what it is expected to look like:

New Fire Hall⬇️

I think this is a really interesting job that I would even like to go into in the future. I learned a lot about what my Aunt does and what the district is working on right now, but I also learned that it’s a lot of work and takes a lot of skill. I am really happy and glad that I had this experience and I look forward to learning more about her job and other careers in communications.

Fun fact, while visiting district hall I learned that we have a “sister city” in South Korea called the District of Goro-gu. That means there is a city in South Korea that is around the same size as us, and we have been sister cities since 2009. During COVID 19 they have supplied us with over 20 thousand masks.

How do people and the environment affect each other?

In my PLP Humanities 9 class, we have just finished a project called “People and The Environment.” It focused on how people effected the environment, both positively and negatively. We have studied and read different stories and articles about what climate change is doing and how it is impacting people through out the project. With this new knowledge, we had to write a letter to someone in the community who has the power to make a change based on an issue we are interested in. This could be someone from the school board, the district, the government etc. But I decided to write to Megan Curren, a Councillor at the District of North Vancouver who is interested in helping our local environment, just like me. I decided to write to her about the salmon population and kelp forest decline in BC, more specifically Deep Cove, hoping to raise awareness and funds for projects and research. With this letter, I hoped to answer this driving question:

“How do people and the environment affect each other?”
The curricular competencies that we focused on in this project are to use strategies to understand text, recognize the role of context and perspective in text, and recognize how texts use literary devices to enhance meaning. These are what guided our learning and you will see evidence of that through out this post.

COMMON LIT READINGS AND HIGHLIGHTS

A huge part of this project was reading and responding to stories and articles that had an overall theme of climate change, it’s relationship with people, and the consequences of it in real life. The story that I think had the biggest impact on me and my learning is “The Sea also Rises.” It was the most compelling because it shows many different perspective of people who are being affected by climate change. Seeing this issue from different perspectives is very important because it really does affect everybody. 

The Commonlit readings really helped me with my letter as well. A story called “Quiet Town” was one that I really related to my letter because it has a common theme of how climate change is an issue right now, not later. It showed me that climate change not only affects living things like us and the salmon that I researched, but also big parts of our world and every day life like whole oceans. This shows how urgent the topic is and how easily it could affect many people. Thinking about how, living in a place surrounded by water, by 2050 oceans could rise to chest level and cover whole cities. 

Speaking more to different perspectives and climate change, one part of that that I found really interesting was how poverty and different social classes are affected by climate change and how these different groups of people affect climate change. Our world isn’t full of people who can afford things like electric cars and solar power systems, there are still billions of people that live in developing countries and communities that don’t have the chance or don’t have the opportunity to make a difference which is why it is important for me and people like me to try and make a difference with everything we can. The texts that we read in Commonlit taught us about climate change but also about the different perspectives involved which is one of the main competencies for this project. Commonlit and the short stories have taught me a lot about that competency and helped me develop it and use it in the letter.

THE LETTER

The first step in writing my letter was doing a bit of research. This came in the form of reading the news, looking into the Pacific Salmon Foundation and their beliefs, as well as Commonlit stories. This stage helped me develop my knowledge of how to analyze text. By reading the stories on Commonlit, I learned how to find theme, mood, perspectives, as well as different parts of a paragraph which are all important things to look at when analyzing a text. I took this knowledge from Commonlit and used it to analyze my own texts for my letter, like different articles and pages on the PSF website. With this skill, I was able to take pieces of what I analyzed and re-write them in my letter. This research and analysis stage also helped me recognize literary devices in text as I mentioned before with things like theme, mood, etc. It helped decide on my own theme for my letter being:

Climate change is affecting us now, not later

First letter draft⬇️

My final letter⬇️

Next came the writing. I’m not going to go too much into detail about how I actually wrote the letter as that it pretty straight forward, but a large and very important part of writing is the critique and revise stage. I ended up writing seven different drafts! We got teachers to critique, one-on-one peer critique, and critique from the older grades. Instead of just getting the teachers opinion and my opinion, it was interesting to have the opinion of multiple other students who have done this project or projects like this. I think it really improved my letter.

Finally, once we were all done writing our letters, it was time to mail them. We took a trip down to Deep Cove to find a mail box to send our letters to our selected audience. 

Us mailing our letters⬇️

Nolan, Faith, Alicia and Fraser

Overall I really like this project and I think I learned a lot of new skills based on the curricular competencies and the driving question. “How do people and the environment affect each other?” I was always interested in the environment and having a role in saving the climate but I never knew what to do. This project gave me the chance to make my voice heard and to make a difference. It’s very clear based on my own research just how people and the environment affect each other. Salmon are a huge part of our culture here in Canada and a large food source for a lot of nature so it affects us that the population is decreasing. But, this decrease is an affect of our actions so it goes both ways. This is just a small problem that I researched about how people affect their environment and how the environment affects us but there are many other examples. 

Class going to mail our letters⬇️

Thank you for visiting my blog, have a nice day.

Game of exponent laws

Game of exponent laws

This project was called Game of Exponent Laws. For this project we were put in partners and we had to make a game using four or more exponent laws. We started the project by learning the basic exponent laws and then they got more complicated as we went on. Once we started brainstorming game ideas, we decided to base our game off of the card game War. 

Our game is called the No Name Exponents Game and is for two players. There is a single operations card in the middle and then each player flips up a card that has an exponent on it  (like 3^5) and then you have to solve it using that operation. Whoever does it first wins that round, and whoever gets to 3 points gets to change the operations card. You play until the deck runs out and whoever has the most cards wins the game.

Game⬇️

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

I showed this competency by creating a game that is simple, includes math and is still fun to play. I created this game with a clear points system. Every time you win a round you get a coin, and the first person with three coins gets to change the operation. The game ends when each player’s deck runs out and the player with the most coins wins. 

People playing our game⬇️

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

My game shows this curricular competency by using some of the mathematical exponent operations that we have learned: multiplication, division, distribution law, and the zero exponent law. Another way I showed this curricular competency is in my game rules. In my rules I included images and clear instructions of how to set up the game and how to play. 

Rules⬇️

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

My partner and I made the game together and evenly distributed the extra workload. I used my class time efficiently making the game so that there was minimal homework.  

Our game⬇️

Driving Question 

How does math make games more complex, interesting, and re-playable?

The way math makes games replayable is because the outcome always varies. Our game doesn’t always have the same outcome because you shuffle the pile so that the exponent cards you flip are always different, which makes the game more interesting. 

Protect start mind map⬇️

Thanks Dana for being a great partner and Fraser, Ava and Sabrina for helping with the photos.

Comic cells

Comic Cells

This project was my last grade 8 PLP project and we had to make a comic booksm about cells and diseases or about photosynthesis. I chose to make mine about a disease called the plague. 

Before we could make that, we had to make a wanted poster for a disease or a bacteria that existed in the 1400-1600. I chose to do the bubonic plague. On my wanted poster I put a photo of the disease, what it does to the cells, and what symptoms you get if you have it. 

 

Curricular Competencies 

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

 I showed this competency of scientific communication by using the app Comic Life 3 and Sketches Pro to create my comic book and Sketches Pro to do all my drawings. Within my comic I utilized scientific language to demonstrate my understanding of cells and diseases. For example, I wrote about the white blood cells attacking the bacteria. 

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

For this curricular competency, I sustained curiosity about the scientific topic of the bubonic plague. First, I had to research the virus: for example, what it does to the cell and how it is transmitted to people. I then made a poster to explain briefly what the bubonic plague is, and then I started to make the comic. I was assigned ten scientific words and had to find out what they meant so I knew what context to put them in. I then created a draft of 12 panels and then made a good copy of 18 panels. 

For this curricular competency, I sustained curiosity about the scientific topic of the bubonic plague. First, I had to research the virus: for example, what it does to the cell and how it is transmitted to people. I then made a poster to explain briefly what the bubonic plague is, and then I started to make the comic. I was assigned ten scientific words and had to find out what they meant so I knew what context to put them in. I then created a draft of 12 panels and then made a good copy of 18 panels.

Evaluating: Demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of evidence  

My comics characters show the symptoms of the disease and what the outcome of the sickness is. For example, my character gets swollen glands, coughing, sneezing, weakness, chills and fever which are symptoms of the plague. In my comic a doctor uses a microscope to examine a sample taken from a sick patient. The doctor finds out that it’s the plague. 

End of project mind map⬇️

Driving Question: How do cells and diseases interact?

 My comic answers the driving question because it shows how cells and diseases interact. The way cells and diseases interact is the diseases try to take over the cells in your body. They fight and eventually one side wins. The body fights with immune cells and the pathogens release toxins to make the immune cells think they’re not wanted. The immune cells move away from the pathogens and the pathogen win against the body’s cells.

FINAL COMIC

Ultimate design challenge 

For this Scimatics unit we used a 3D printing software called Tinkercad to design a model of something that we could either make for maximum volume or surface area. For this project I was in a group of 3 and my group and I decided to make 3 separate objects. We decided to make 3 of Europe’s most famous land marks including: Big Ben, The Leaning Tower of Pisa and The London Bridge. 

The hardest part of designing Big Ben was trying to create the face of the clock. I tried to fit all the numbers on the clock but it didn’t fit, so I just added 12, 3, 6 and 9 in Roman numerals. But I had to make sure that the numbers were touching the clock or else they wouldn’t print properly.

clock⬇️

After we finished our models we sent it to the school library to be printed. Then we made a slideshow that showed our model and all our calculations. 

Curricular competencies

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

I showed this Curricular Competency by helping my group choose what objects to make and by helping them execute their part of the project. We chose to model famous European attractions including Big Ben, the London Bridge and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. I chose to design Big Ben. I also found copyright free reference photos for our presentation and wrote my own slide. 

Models⬇️

 

2: Reasoning and Analyzing: Model mathematics in contextualized experiences

I showed this competency in milestone 2 and 3 which was writing the formulas then after adding the numbers from our 3D shapes into the equations to find the total surface area and volume of the shapes in the model. I demonstrated the mathematical reasoning and analyzing by creating a math chart to organize my calculations of each shape. 

 

All shapes included⬇️

3: Communicating and Representing: Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions

I originally wanted to design Big Ben for maximum surface area but after doing my calculations it turns out that it had maximum volume instead. I also made some decisions about what measurements to use based on what shapes where in each model. For example I had to calculate the surface area and volume of square pyramid but I had to subtract a cone from the top of it to achieve mathematical precision. 

Calculations⬇️

How can we design an object to optimize its shape?

Throughout this project we aimed to design an object and to optimize its shape. We learned about the differences between surface area and volume and how to calculate them. This project taught me how to design an object for maximum surface area or volume. We used Tinkercad which helped me analyze all sides of Big Ben so I could be as precise as possible. 

Thank you Faith and Jocleyn for being great partners

Chemistry coding

How can the behaviour of matter be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and atomic theory?

In this scimatics unit we studied the the kinetic molecular theory and the atomic  theory. For this project we had to individually create a simulator or a game with a coding program called Scratch. For one of our milestones we had to draw different types of atomic models. For another milestone we had to weigh and find the mass of 3 gem stones and figure out if they where real sapphires by measuring there density. 

Evidence of Learning 

I learned a lot about matter when we did an experiment using a water bottle and eye dropper.   In the experiment we put an eye dropper in a plastic water bottle filled with water and when you squeezed it the eye dropper sank to the bottom. When you released pressure the eye dropper returned back to the top. They air filled eye dropper was less dense than the one filled with water. The eye dropper sank because it was full of water so it became more dense than the water. We also learned about density and matter when when we did the gem stone identification experiment. 

Curricular Competencies 

Questioning and predicting

One of the first things I did to show my learning was to make a mind map. It was about what I know and what I wondered about the behaviour of matter and how it is explained by the kinetic molecular theory and atomic theory. This showed my existing knowledge on that topic and it made me want to know more about the topic. At the end of my project I added all the new things I learned throughout the project. 

Scientific communication

I demonstrated this competency by researching and drawing atomic models for the element carbon. I chose to draw the the Bohr and the Rutherford models and include them in my simulation. I learned about the different sub atomic particles and their charges. I also learned more about the periodic table and the elements and the different molecules that form the different elements. When we studied density I learned how to calculate it using the formula D=M/V.

 

Reasoning and analyzing

I learned how to use scratch by helping my classmates also learning form my peers mistakes and help from my classmates. I learned how to code a simulation that shows the kinetic molecular theory. I used logic to plan every step. For example at -78 carbon turns into a gas and I need to program it so it looked as real as possible. I thought the coding would be moderately easy, but it turned out to be so much harder than expected. I ended having to restart my entire code 3 times because I could figure out what wasn’t working so I thought it would be easier. 

How can the behaviour of matter be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and atomic theory?

By creating my simulation in Scratch I showed how the element carbon can behave differently depending on the temperature. This relates to the kinetic molecular theory which says that molecules are constantly moving. Carbon changes it’s state of matter depending on temperature, for example if carbon is above -78 is a gas but any degree above it is a solid. I also learned about the atomic theory by drawing the Bohr and Rutherford models of carbon. 

Thank you Fraser and Faith for helping me to improve my code and teach me how to use Scratch 

End result

The more things change

Driving Question: What did European settlement mean for all the people involved?

For this project we made and learned about infographics (informational graphics). We worked in partners to create an infographic about European settlement and the three groups involved, the French, the British and the First Nations. We learned about what makes a good infographic like a clear topic, cohesive aesthetic and it should tell a story.  In contrast we learned about what makes a bad one for example, too much text, unclear topic, and a chaotic aesthetic. We also had to make graphics that related to the French, the British, and the First Nations. We made a QR code linking to a video explaining our infographic

. 

To make the infographic we had to learn about European settlement and the three groups the British, the French, and the First Nations. We also learned about what roles each group had in the fur trade and what alliances they formed.  For example, some of the First Nations had alliances with the French and others allied with the British. 

Answer to the driving question: What did European settlement mean for all the people involved?

We answered the driving question in our infographics thesis, which was: European settlement changed the lives of the First Nations. Alliances between the two groups allowed them to trust each other and to trade with one another, which would expose them to new resources. This partnership was mutually beneficial, and the concept of trading goods between alliances has remained to this day.

Thank youTeva for being a great partner 

Destination Imagination

Solution: https://youtu.be/R0Fv-l7ZG9I

Q&A: https://youtu.be/QYMpcNywcNI

When I first started Destination Imagination I thought it would be an easy, small in- class project. But it turned out it was a lot harder than I expected, in fact, it was the exact opposite of what I anticipated. I found this out when my group and I spent 3 weeks just trying to come up with ideas while the other groups were already starting their scripts. When we finally came up with an idea, we showed our teacher our first video draft, but she said we had to restart because the quality of our work needed improvement. 

Blueprints⬇️

My team and I started to get really stressed about having to completely redo our video in under a week. We had to rewrite our script and rebuild our building. We also had to redo our whole video because we couldn’t use any scenes from our original video. Once we finally finished our video we weren’t very happy with the turnout but we had to hand it in. 

Once everyone finished and submitted their videos our class went down to our school’s theatre room and watched the other teams’ videos. After each video the team got pins that said “Destination Imagination 2021” and a certificate of completion. Overall our team, “All Clear Engineers”, won 3rd place in our age group out of all competitors in Canada. Even though sometimes, it was hard working in a team I am very proud of how my team did!

Team photo⬇️

Thank you for being a great group: David, Claire, Alicia, Kwosen, Dylan, Eric

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