Why do you feel you are ready to advance into the next grade level? 

 

Why did I choose to write about the projects below?

The projects I am about to mention, are all examples of my work shown by category. One of the categories being a subject (Science, Math, Humanites, and Maker), the other being the importance of PLP student characteristics. There were a lot of projects I could’ve talked about, but I thought carefully about the meanings of the words Teamwork, Revision, High Quality, and Responsibility, to curate an array of projects that represented these words.

Example of Teamwork

One big lesson I’ve learnt this year is how to work as a team, how to use the strengths of a group to create something you could’ve never created on your own. Throughout reading More Happy Than Not, I kept the final product in mind by colour coding parts of the book I thought would be helpful. These highlight categories included, location ideas, script ideas, character scenes, and lessons. As a group, we sat together and drew out a simple story board to get some solid ideas down. When the teamwork really kicked in is when the filming and editing happened. Melika’s mom let us use her office space as our hospital set, Luca O wrote and recorded an original song for the trailer, Adlih edited. Everyone did their part within the project. We were all very engaged in each part of the project, even though separate tasks were assigned. My goal is for future group projects to go as well as this one, for everyone to do their part and stay in communication with the group.

Example of Revision 

I’ve learnt that with Scimatics, you have to be flexible. Your original plans will change, you will fail, and you have to be ready to try again. A couple of the projects from scimatics that showed me this, were The WinderWow, and Cousins and Chromosomes. Both of these projects required revision in either, the creation step, or the presentation step. With The WinderWow, it was the creation step, over and over, Luca J and I reworked our plans to make our wind mill work. And once it did it was very rewarding. With the Cousins and Chromosomes video, it was presentation revision. This was a very intricate video, with steps and many layers of editing. I worked with Mr. Gross to make sure I could get it right, and when it finally made sense, this too was very rewarding. I’m really proud of the way I’ve learnt to become comfortable with revisions, that theres always space to fix mistakes, and it doesn’t need to be messy or stressful. 

Example of High Quality

There are quite a few projects this year that I’d say were high quality, but this example is going to be specifically taken from the math projects from this year. I really like Maggie and I’s Polynomial Picnic project, it is very clean, and simple. This is the goal of most projects, especially in Scimatics, the lessons can already be a bit confusing, so why not make the project the opposite? I’m a huge fan of colourful design, and the fact that Maggie and I were able to incorporate that into math, made the video, and game, a lot more interesting to create. I think that each Scimatics instructional video I create should make sense, so that someone who has never had of my product or a topic will be knowledgeable after watching the video. This project is a great example of what I’d like my future math projects to be like. 

Example of Responsibility

 

A huge part of my grade 10 year was the crazy unit, specifically my Pecha Kucha presentation at our winter exhibition. It was one of the most stressful projects I had ever been apart of, but, once it was done, it ended up being one of the most rewarding. So many changes were made during the timeline of this project, I always had to be on my feet, ready for anything. I was extremely nervous, and through hard work and practice, I was able to present for 6 minutes in front of a room full of people. This was a HUGE accomplishment, it felt so good to have it finished, it was a unique feeling as well, because I had never done anything like this before. It was all up to me to make sure my presentation went smoothly. And I took the time to make sure that I practiced, altered, and had a concrete idea for the meaning of my presentation. This was the project that really had me understanding the strength of public speaking, how hard it can be, and how much work is put into it.  

 

A Giant Rose and Thorn

Rose: Something I think I’ve done well with this year is using keynote. Before this year I’ve always thought of it only as a way to display a slideshow, but it really is so much more than that. You can create animations, your own clip art, almost anything can be created here. An example of this use of keynote is my Who Am I presentation for Career Life Education. I am extremely proud of this presentation and had a great time putting it together. I used tons of new techniques, such as object grouping, creating a path, and new transitions. I had pictured how I wanted this presentation to look, and I was able to bring these ideas to life. 

Thorn: The biggest failure of the year was my group and I’s Seattle video. At the time I didn’t understand what was being asked of us, we thought it was to be a video about Seattle. As I mentioned above with my Pecha Kucha presentation, it was a bit of an abstract project idea, and we didn’t quite get it. What I can learn from this project fail, is how important “on the scene” footage is. To make sure you get good quality interviews, and that you have a solid plan before the interview. When on a field study, its easy to get carried away by what’s around you, but I know if from now on I plan out my video projects, my future self will thank me.  

A Goal for Grade 11 Me

One goal I’ve set for myself for projects next year is to create more physical products when I have the opportunity to. When I have the chance to stray away from from a common final product, I should. I work well with my hands, I like to make physical products just as much as creating digital ones. I really enjoyed creating my time machine project for PGP, “The Cranium Boxes”. I used both my iPad and physical materials to create the final product. I designed the brain, and did the first sketches on my iPad, and used materials from home to create the boxes, it was a perfect balance of digital and physical. I would really like to be able to create more projects like this one in grade 11.