Yippies, Eh

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If you have never heard of The Youth International Party, you probably think I was just having a good time and misspelt yippee. Well that is not the case. The Youth International Party, also known as the Yippies were a huge thing in the late 60’s. They got a lot of attention, as that was their main purpose. They were very involved with pop culture which was Rock n Roll at the time. They were mainly well known for street theatre and politically themed pranks, which made them well known for their senses of humour, but they were either ignored or denounced. They were well known for massive actions, such as trying to levitate the pentagon, which is crazy but, I think I have to give them around of applause for basically fighting the pentagon.

Before I did my research on The Yippies, I read a book called Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. The book mentioned the yippies in a small part, because the book was about taking down the government essentially. The reason why was is because the main characters thought they were doing something wrong. That is almost exactly what The Yippees did, they stood up to the government, and stood up to what they thought was right. That is something that I believe in, although I probably wouldn’t have the confidence to stand up to the government.

I have done this reasearch and read this book because of our main driving question for this unit, which is based off of disruption and how it has caused things to change. If you ask me I think that the yippies caused plenty of disruption, as they basicallly got in the way of people who were opposing them. They were all over the news which obviously means they were disrupting something.

The yippies have interested me greatly, and they will always be something the back of my mind as they are very inspiring and something  I could learn from, but I don’t think I am going to be one. All in all it is probably one of my most favourite topics I’ve learned about in school.

The Golden Ratio, Eh

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Our most recent project that we have done in math was, a project based off of the golden ratio. You probably dont really know what the godlen ratio is so, I will explain it. The golden ratio is a special number in mathematics. It is most easily recognized for its 1:1.6 ratio, which you can find in rectangles. It is also recognized for its spiral which is found in art and photography. Some people believe that the universe was built around it, as it is found almost everywhere. That is the most simple explanatation I have of it.

After my classmates and I learned about what it was, we were told to invovle the golden ratio in a project. That could range from doing surveys asking what picture is the most attractive, with one being a golden ratio or something like that. Another option would be to create an image or object that invovled it. I personally chose that route, just because I didn’t exactly feel like doing a survey and doing several write ups. I would much rather draw something and do one write up.  Now I will show you what I wrote for my write up:

The purpose of this submission is to showcase the golden ratio and how it is observed in everyday items, the item that I have chosen is a container ship sailing on rough seas. It demonstrates examples of the golden ratio in it. That includes, a wave, clouds, and various parts of the ship. The clouds are made up of only the golden spiral, repeated over and over again linking together. The wave is one golden spiral coming out of the ocean towards the ship. The containers, each section of the containers is a golden ratio, and each container is a golden ratio. The bridge of the ship is also made up of a spiral from the golden ratio, and below it part of the tower that holds it up is a golden ratio.

Now I will point out the golden ratios.

There are acutally many golden ratios in that photo that I did not point out like the rest of the clouds are golden ratios, and every single container is a golden ratio.

This project was very interesting, and I have done nothing quite like it, in math especially.  Doing this project has given me something else to think about, as some people believe that it is the centre of the universe. Other than that I don’t know what else to think of this project other than the fact that it was very intriguing.

 

Aboriginal Rights, Eh

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The past couple of months my classmates and I have been focusing on a unit called Sins of the City, that’s what our teacher named it anyways. The first thing we did was go to the Museum of Vancouver or MOV. The reason why we went there is becuase,  all of the exhibits had something to do with this unit. It had quite a few different exhibits, the most memorable one for me was the exhibit based on labour rights in Vancouver. The reason why I remembered that one the best is becuase I was the most interested in it. We then selected what would be our first, second, and third most interesting topic and one we definitely did not want to do. I ended up getting my second or third choice which was aboriginal rights.

The main focus of the unit was to learn about Vancouver during the interwar years which was the 1920’s and 1930’s. The end result of the unit was a podcast. Anyways, we did many things along the way before we got the final result. This included learning about what acutally happened in between WWI and WWII. We leaned about what happened to the indigenous, for a little bit of the unit. We learned about “The Roaring Twenties”. A main focus in that section of the unit was the changing role of women. This was a focus cause during the First World War, women took the role of men’s jobs, and after the men returned and got their jobs back some women were reluctant to go back to being housewives. One of the big things that happened in the twenties was in 1921, when the women were finally allowed to vote in a federal election. You might be wondering why it was called “The Roaring Twenties”. It was based off of the fact that lots of people were doing things such as going to jazz clubs and motion picture movie theatres, and last but definitely not least, dancing the Charleston. In the twenties, not everybody got to dance the Charleston and do other exciting things like I have mentioned, as there were people with not enough money to pay for extra things that weren’t necessary to live. Some people had to deal with racial discrimination, like aboriginals did not have the right to vote. While we were learning about these thing’s, we were all reading a book, not everybody was reading the same book as there were groups. The reason why we read a book is because we were planning on writing an essay about the book at the end of the unit. We prepared for that by learning how to cite what we said and implement quotes into the essay.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJC21zzkwoE

(If you want to learn how be somebody who was born in the early 1900’s, watch this video)

During this unit we also learned about the immigration into Canada. We were split into 3 groups;1911,1921,1931. We all made charts about what we found about the immigration into Canada during those years. We then learned about Economy, and boom and bust. The next thing we focused on was our essay but, our teacher decided to change the essay topic into something completely different. The reason why we changed course is because basically everybody in the class did not enjoy their book. Our teacher did not want to have to read 25 essays about much they didn’t like the book. The teacher changed it to a each of our group members writing individual essays about the same thing, but the essay is a letter. The letter is meant to make a change in something we believe needs to be changed, underneath the topic of our group. We decided to write a letter about how negative stereotypes directed towards aboriginals, is wrong and needs to be stopped, and a way of doing that is by including a unit of some sort into the curriculum to teach children about the aboriginals history and who they are today. Of course, there are some things we learn about aboriginals, but their needs to be a little bit more just becuase there are still people who believe in these negative stereotypes.

 

Now I am going to finally talk about the end result of the unit which was a podcast. My group of 3 and I mainly researched the Truth and Reconciliation Commision, which our teacher told us should be the main focus of our podcast. Our teacher did not want us to be like every other documentary, podcast or book about, because all of those are sad, and talk about what horrible things happened. Our teacher wanted us to talk about how we are making an effort to mend the relationship non-Aboriginals and Aboriginals have. I could tell you about what else we researched and how we wrote a script, but that stuff is boring and I think the better option would be to let you listen to the podcast.

Although I forgot to to mention that we interviewed somebody for the podcast. I interviewed Joy Fontaine-Cramer, who is the niece of Phil Fontaine.  We had to interview somebody who could back up what we were saying, so that we could prove that we werent just writing random things and this is believed by other people aswell, not to mention people who are expierenced in that field.

This unit was a very interesting unit and I believe that my group and I executed on the podcast very well. I found that I learned a lot and my podcasting skills became much stronger, and I will be able to make podcasts that are as good if not better.

If you would like to check out my groups’ blogs here they are: Sofia Bergman, Willa Bisanz

 

#HistoryWeek , Eh

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In class we happened to be learning about a part of Canadas history in the middle of history week, so our teacher decided that we should put #HistoryWeek out on social media. Naturally, we decided the best place for that would be our blogs. Anyways, I should probably start talking about the actual history in the assignment.

The assignment that we were given was, select a topic that involves Vancouver’s history. Most of the options were places but you could select a person that has a legacy in Vancouver.  Anyways, our place we decided to research was Blood Alley. It originally wasn’t an option but my group and I convinced the teacher to let us reasearch it. I did not know very much about, I had just heard of it before and why it got it’s name.(If you are wondering, it has nothing to do with the movie.) Blood alley got it’s name from being the back alley of a bunch of butcher shops, and after every day they would throw meat out the back door and blood would run down the alley.

Blood alley is located in Gastown Vancouver, I have already told you too much as my group and I made a short video that tells you what blood alley is.

In this project I learned a lot about blood alley, and since I have done this project my dad and I have tried to spot Blood Alley when we drive through Gastown.

DNA, Eh

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In science class, we had a whole unit that was based around DNA and genetics. I had only learned the basics of genetics in grade 9, so I was expecting to go into a lot more depth. While we learned about everything we were told what our end project was going to be, and that was if a pair of Identical male twins met a pair of identical female twins, and they both married and had kids, would they look the same? I’m hoping you understood that, as I am not sure how to explain that without talking to somebody in person. So what we did is learn about how genetics are split up between parents. That was the main focus of this unit, we learned about genotypes, phenotypes, and a bunch of other really big words that mean important things in science. I could explain all of this but I made a video that goes into detail on the whole unit.

The podcast was supposed to explain everything about genetics as if it were to somebody who had never learned about it ever, and still answer the question.  We also had to incorporate some comedy of some sort to make it interesting. That is what apple bottom jeans is played at one part. I think that the podcast turned out well as it displayed my learning throughout the unit.

Anyways I thought that I leaned quite a lot from this unit as I show in this mindmap.

 

Safety in the Work Place, Eh

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In school we learned about working safe because there are many incidents every year that change peoples lives that could be prevented. I personally have a job and havent heard of anything life changing but one really bad burn. Most of the dangers at my work are common sense, and if there not you are told what to do.

We learned about your rights as an employee for example, you do not have to do something if you feel it is unsafe. As this a very important subject our  teacher made sure we knew this is by making us fill out these multiple choice tests that had answers embedded in the reading. we also watched a video about people who had gone through life changing expierences.

I found that a couple of those incidents weren’t that easy to prevent, but some of those were just complete lack of common sense. If you watched the video you would know that someone stuck there hand in a moving machine, like come one you have to be kidding me its like one of the most stupid ideas there is. I work in a kitchen so thats like the equivelant of me sticking my hand in the deep fryer when its on. Just from that one incident it proves common sense isn’t so common.

This photo basically explains how I feel when one of my friends does something stupid.

For the final assignment of this unit, we were instructed to make a visual that involves something that we learned this unit. I decided to make an ad.

I chose to use Work Safe BC because it is where we got a lot of our information from. I found that it looked like a pretty official ad except the photo is a bit overkill.

I found that I learned quite a bit from this unit, and I will be using the information at work now. I don’t believe that I will run into any major incidents as long as I do what is instructed and do my job properly.

Trigonometry, Eh

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Just recently in math class  we did a project using trigonometry. After the whole unit of learning how to figure out side lengths and angles on a right triangle. While we learning everything we were working on this project to figure out the optimum angle for a solar panel. We had to choose any place on earth it didn’t matter just as long as the math was correct. I chose Iqaluit its in Nunavut, Canada. It’s a very cold place in Northern Canada.

 

The main thing we learned in the Unit was SOHCAHTOA, which is the main way to figure out side lengths and angles. That’s what I used after I figured out the optimal angle for my solar panel. I decided on how long I wanted the base to be and I just needed one angle and one side length and I figured out the rest using that one way.

When I was younger I thought cause trigonometry was a hard type of math because its a big word, it turns out once you get the hang of it its fairly easy as its mostly punching things into your calculator. One thing I know will be hard though is calulus. As it turns out the career I want to pursue forces me to do calulus so yayyyyy…

My project went fairly well as I got a decent mark, my angles and side lengths were correct. Now I hope I did not bore you with math,eh.

WWI Soldiers, Eh

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If you have read other posts you should know that I have a post that I made not too long ago about how the First World War started. Naturally when you learn about how something starts you most likely will learn about what happened during it.  We learned about how technology changed so much during WWI. Like one thing that was new for warfare with foot soldiers was gas, the Germans used it quite a lot and it was very effective. Another new technology on land were tanks as they were basically giant metal boxes that killed people at the time, they have become much more effective now but back then they still played a major part in the war. In the ocean german U-boats hugely effected the war as they killed many people who were on war ships and just people who were on supply ships. In the air plane warfare changed hugely as planes were mainly used at the beginning of the war for scouting the enemy lines. Planes ended up developing to the point where they had small machine guns attached to them so they could have dog fights and drop bombs as well.

We then talked about the battles in the First World War like, The Somme, Ypres, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele. We mainly focused on the Canadian aspect of it. We learned the basics of each war and how greatly it impacted each country and the contribution each battle had to the war. In all of these wars many people died on both sides of the war. One battle that was huge for Canadians is Vimy Ridge. We focused on that quite a bit as it is a huge part of Canadas identity. At Vimy Ridge all other forces attacked before the Canadians and were basically wiped out. It was finally Canadas turn to attack and it was their first time fighting together with all 4 divisons. After it was over the Canadians had over come the Germans and taken the ridge. Canadians are known has heroes for that battle and their is a big memorial at vimy ridge today of all the Canadians that lost there lives in that battle.

We then focused on what life on the home front was like, so basically what life at home was like when people were off at war. Most of the time when you think of war you think of troops fighting, but there is another side of it which is the people haveing to fill in for those people who left their jobs behind. A lot of women took primarily male jobs, as primarily males left for the war. People even made victory gardens to make more food for troops. After the war was over women were expected to go back to their original jobs as otherwise the troops that survived.

The next thing in this unit that we learned about was the Halifax Explosion.  It is the biggest man made explosion before the Nuclear Bomb. It killed many people and one persons muscles on his arm were ripped clean off. It was a massive disaster as many people died who were in that port at the time.

While we learned about all of this we were working on the main project for this unit which is a podcast on a soldier. We had to pick a soldier that fought in the First World War, and find as much information on him as possible. I chose my Great Grandfather Charles Brudenal Johnston. He is from my fathers side so I asked my great aunt question about him to figure out as much information on him as possible. The most notable thing I found out is that he fought and survived in Vimy Ridge. We did two drafts, the first draft that I did was fairly good but of course needed improvement, and thats what I did for the second draft was improve everything I could possibly think of.

 

That is my first draft and here is my final draft.

That is what I learned about for my unit on WWI, I hope that I made it interesting in someway for you.

I learned a lot from this unit. Even if I already knew something we went into more depth on that subject. This was definitely a more interesting unit for me, as I find battles and wars very interesting to learn about. This is definitely a unit I won’t forget about.

Russian Science Lab, Eh

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In science class we were doing a very simple unit on Safety. We had to make a safety video in a group. It had to have some humour involved but still get the points across of what to do and what not to do. My group decided to base it off a Russian lab, so one of my group memebers used a Russian accent to narrate the video. I was going to do it but I was the main person who was in the video and we needed to spread around who did what.   Here is the video.

If you don’t know who I am, I’m the idiot wearing the goggles the wrong way. It was a lot of fun and I would do this project again. This is the first time that this blog hasn’t been all canadian, eh.

Camp Capilano, Eh

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Back during the first week of school my teachers decided to take us on a overnight field trip. The field trip wasn’t very far away, it is a place called Camp Capilano. Before we went to the camp we went to the Cleveland Dam. We then did our first project which was to create characters for an intro to a T.V. Show like the beginning of The Amazing Race, or Master Chef, and even Big Brother has a intro like that. It was basically a short little clip that explained what kind of person they were in a very short period of time.

 

That is what the view from the park.

The teachers then told us to hike to the camp which none of us knew where it was. So they showed us on a map where to walk on the trail to get to it. After we hiked for a short time we found it then we sat outside for a while, then we were called in to have burritos. We all had our burritos and then were told that we had to do another project. Which was similar to the first one but we weren’t allowed to use visual we only had audio to work with. We stuck with similar characters so we didn’t have to change the story and spend time on that. We also we encouraged to add background music and because the way iMovie works and how we ran out of time we have Cody Simpsons Album Cover through the whole clip.

The main thing I learned from that is that I can do a pretty good fat Albert impression. After that we were given a brake and were aloud to go into the pool for an hour. We got to relax for a little while but as most good things it came to an end and we were given our final project.

That video took a long time as we stayed up late and woke up early to get it done. I was then exhausted, but we had one more stop, are teachers decided to take us to the hatchery. We were there for a short time we then had lunch and finally went home. Even after all of that I still had to go to work. 6 hours later I was passed out in my bed.

That was my field trip to Camp Capilano, eh.