If you have been following my blog since grade 8 you would realize that this is my third year of Destination Imagination.
(Throw back to grade 8 DI)
Destination Imagination or DI is defined as “Destination Imagination educational experiences are project-based STEAM Challenges that apply the creative process to develop the core competencies. It is an educational experience that is fun, hands-on, and empowers student teams to take their learning to the next level.” There are seven categories where each challenge is different, they are Technical, Scientific, Engineering, Fine Arts, Improvisational, Service Learning and Early Learning. I was in the Technical challenge which is figure out a way to get a prop through a randomley selected maze with a maze traveller and transforming a prop while also involving and encircling everything in a story. Here is a video that explains it:
My group was made out of six people Izzy, Kate, Spencer, Sam, Calum and myself. This post will be about our experience at the provincial tournament if you want to read about our experience at regionals read my following blog post.
After experinceing regionals at Seycove our home school we realized that we had a lot to improve. After seeing our scores we realized that we had to create a working rover, change our team choice elements as well as our improve our prop transformation. We had a few weeks over spring break to get prepared to provincials so we got right to it! First we saw what we could gain points on so we could win the next tournament. We first prioritized the rover since at regionals it was not working and that was where we could get the most points!
This is us presenting at regionals our first rover:
And this was what our provincials rover ended up looking like:
We also thought that we needed to improve our team choice elements. For regionals our two team choice elements were Kate speaking French and us playing a music recording of us playing trumpet and flute. We realized soon after that we missed out on lots of points because they weren’t strong choices. So we brainstormed to improve them. What we came up with was one basketball. All members of our team live to do sports and Spencer, Calum, Kate and Izzy are all on the school basketball team. We scored more points then our team choice element of speaking French did.
Then to improve our other team choice element we decided that instead of having a recording of us playing it would be more effective for us to actually play live. And as I play trumpet we decided that I would be the be to perform the music. I was happy with how this turned out and was proud of the playing I did on tournament day.
After we had changed everything we had wanted to it was off to Provincials! They were held at Johnston Heights a school in surrey. We felt we were ready and were happy with what we accomplished. However the morning of was a bit hectic. First someone spilt coffee all over our team sign which we had to use in our presentation. Then one of our team members forgot our forms for the tournament and there were no printers in the school so two of our team members sprinted to the nearest Staples. Thankfully we were able to get the forms on time and the sign didn’t effect us to much. Then it was time to do our instant challenge, an instant challenge is defined as “Unlike a Team Challenge where teams have months to prepare, plan and create their solution, Destination Imagination participants will have to solve an Instant Challenge in a matter of a few minutes. This is designed to help students build their quick, creative and critical thinking skills”. I can’t say anything about the challenge though since it may be repeated at globals.
After that it was finally time to perform our main challenge. Overall we were happy with how it went even if we did face a few problems along the way. Here is a video of us performing:
Though im sad to say I was not able to attend the award ceremony because of a family dinner I was very excited to hear that we had placed first in our main challenge and instant challenge! Once we saw our raw cores we were surprised to see that in certain categories we had scored lower in provincials. However these are raw scores meaning the judges even in out to the other teams.
Our provincials scores:
The trophies we got
:
Overall I was happy with how our team was able to complete and succeed our challenge!
I had always wondered though what are the benefits of Destination Imagination?
Well on DI’s website there is an article that talks about the benefits and how there has been scientific proof that it helps you.
There have been multiple studies shown that Destination Imagination helps you multiple studies shown that Destination Imagination helps you. Here are a few of the things that DI will do to you:
More engaged and imaginative when completing given tasks
More creative than non-DI participants
More self-confident and tenacious
Able to elaborate on and generate more ideas than non-DI participants
Great collaborators—86% of DI students agree that their teamwork skills improved within 1-2 years of participation
More inquisitive—92% of DI students agree that solutions to problems are often improved by considering a variety of perspectives
There have been studies conducted at the University of Georgia, University of Virginia and University of Tennessee. Seeing these facts makes me feel assured that these past three years have been affecting me and that I will be able to use these skills I learn every day. Overall there were many ups and downs of this years Destination Imagination but in the end it all worked out!
Since grade 8 now every year around this time of year we have a competition called a Destination Imagination. Destination Imagination or DI is a competition that is all about creativity and working as a team. As DI calls it, it is
“The Destination Imagination Challenge Program is a fun, hands-on system of learning that fosters students’ creativity, curiosity and courage through academic Challenges. Our Challenges blend STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education with the arts and social entrepreneurship. Students who participate learn invaluable 21st century skills as well as patience, flexibility, persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the collaborative problem solving process.”
Since grade eight I have been in a different challenge every year. The first year I was in the engineering group where we had to create a structure that could hold weight and was under a certain weight. Here is a blog if you want to read it:
These past two years I had difficult times where I struggled. This year though I was determined to make the best out of the experience. I was placed into the engineering challenge, the challenge was that there was a maze and we had to have something removed from the maze as well as an eventhappen plus get out of the maze. That is why it was called the maze craze. Here is a video that explains it thoroughly:
I was in a group with six others they were Spencer, Sam, Calum, Kate and Izzy. We had trouble at first thinking of what direction to take the challenge. At first we thought of doing space but then we thought other teams would be doing the same so we decided to do a story about an officer and removing a bomb form the “building” or rather maze. Here are our sheets that we used to help narrow down our ideas.
We thought we had everything planned and ready to go but as the time came closer and closer to get everything done, we realized we were struggling. We had our script done and were happy with that, and we were also happy with how our story came out, here is the script:
Characters:
Grandfather – Spencer
Police 1 grandfather flashback- Sam
Police 2- calum
communicator/head of department: Isobel
Villain 1/undercover cop: Kate
Villain 2: Izzy
Materials
Police costumes
Villain costumes
Handcuffs
Fake weapons
Something that looks like a bomb
Backgrounds: spencer narration, bomb room, police station
Script
Opening scene
-Spencer enters-
Hey everyone, thanks for coming to the smith family reunion. Most of you know me as Rob. Everyone is having a lot of fun I see, and that’s good. But I just wanted to share a story that I have prepared . It was about 50 years ago today actually, when I went on my first mission on the NYPD Bomb Squad. So I’ll take you back to this day so I can tell you this story. My story starts outside the police station but I’ll tell you about the villains first.
FLASHBACK
-Kate and Izzy planting bombs scene-
– there are in a rush because the police is closing in on them. They are scrambling to plant bombs and hide-
Kate: Dépêche-toi, la police se rapproche. Qu’avons-nous à nous défendre?
Ok hurry up, the police are getting closer. What do we have to defend ourselves?
Izzy: lemme Check, but i don’t think I have anything. Ummmmmm…. oh! Look at this, I’ve been looking for these! (Pulls out bombs) I’ve got some bombs, I must’ve left them in my bag from last week!
Kate: Bien, alors. Mettons-les autour et puis se câcher
Alright then. Let’s put them around this apartment room and then hide
Izzy: Ok sounds good. Here take these ( hands Kate bombs)
-leave scene-
CHANGE SCENE TO POLICE STATION
-Sam and Isobel enter the scene-
-Sam’s first day of work-
-Isobel welcomes Sam to the job-
Isobel: hey guys, you must be rob and Thomas. Welcome to the squad. Here, I’ve got your gear, go ahead and put them in the back.
Isobel gives them their jackets, equipment and badges –
Sam: Awesome thanks
Calum: Ugh it’s heavy
Isobel: Yeah that’s because it has our bomb seeking rover. You said you specialized in electronics?
Calum: yeah…
Isobel: Then it should be easy to use. I’ve got to go, see you later
(ALARM GOES OFF)
Calum: What’s that?
Isobel: That’s a code red! We don’t have anyone else on duty, and you guys scored really well in the academy, so, guess what, it’s your first mission. Get in that squad car and they will brief you on the way. Go, go, go!
Sam: Thomas, let’s go!
-Scene change to building-
Spencer walks in, Izzy and Kate are hiding in maze –
Spencer: we pulled up to a run down looking apartment building, two storeys high. Thomas and I were pretty nervous. The cop who drove us out told us that there were two fugitives hiding somewhere on the top floor, and that they were pretty sure there were some hidden bombs as well somewhere in the maze of the room. Thomas would be driving a programmed rover through the room, and it’s meant for finding bombs. I was there to support and protect him. Our police captain was on the radio giving us instructions
(Spencer leaves the scene)
Sam and Calum enter the maze –
Izzy and Kate are in the maze hiding and setting up bombs –
Isobel: Ok guys It’s safe to enter, good luck
Calum: here we go. Stay close
Spencer: We entered the building and it was all dark. It was completely silent as we crept through. Thomas was carefully watching the video display from the rovers camera.
Sam: hey is that something in that corner over there?
Calum: umm let me check. (ROVER DRIVES TO EVENT SQUARE 1) Yes that’s a bomb. Good thing we found it. I’ll take it and drop it outside once it’s defused.
Sam: Ok nice work. We’re doing good. Keep driving through and keep your eyes peeled for anything else.
Isobel: Good work team. Keep on going. Follow the rover and work your way through slowly.
-rover keeps moving through and Sam and Calum follow-
Calum: Do you think the criminals are still in here?
Sam: Definitely, all the other ways out are covered.
Calum: Okay the next area looks clear, I’ll move the rover through.
rover reaches next event square, the transformation one –
Calum: wait a minute, the rover isn’t moving. Wait, what does this button do?
-Pushes button, lights turn on-
Calum: oh, that’s good. It’s still not working though. I’ll go grab it. Hang on
Sam: no, thomas wait!
Sam and Calum freeze, Izzy and Kate unfreeze –
Izzy: Did you hear that? I think it was the police…
Kate: oh no isn’t that just great
Izzy: I know perfect timing
(Kate looks over at rover)
Kate: hey What’s that thing moving over there?
Izzy: It looks like an… RC Car
Kate: it’s right near the bomb, maybe we should set it off
Izzy: good idea, going off in 3,2,1…
-Calum walks forward-
BOOOM
-Bomb goes off, explosion sound through speakers-
-Bomb kills Calum. Calum lies on floor-
Spencer – The bomb explosion turned out the lights and I couldn’t see Thomas anymore. I knew he’d been hit, and my ears were ringing so loudly I could barely stand. I barely heard the captain speaking in my earpiece.
Isobel: What happened rob? Rob? Get the rover out now, we need to get you and Thomas out of there.
Sam: I can’t see Thomas, but I’ll get the rover out. Everything is falling apart!
Kate: We gotta find an escape route RIGHT now!
Izzy: there! That window! Go, go go,
-Izzy and Kate run-
-izzy and Kate get caught by the police-
-Spencer enters, but no one freezes-
-Sam is still moving through maze, depending on how fast the rover is at this point. And Izzy and Kate are being held by police-
Spencer : At this point, I was almost out of the building. I could see the criminals getting arrested through a hole in the wall, and I ran for it. Then I was safe. Safe again.
-Flip background back to family reunion one-
Spencer: And that was the end of my first mission in the field. I’d lost my best friend that I’d known since I was 6, and that was … crushing. I will always remember him as my best friend and a great police officer.
At this point we still didn’t have have a working maze traveler. Calum one of our group members said that he could get it done but we were struggling. It wasn’t until the night before that we had a rc car and even then it wasn’t correctly working. In the mean time while Calum was working on that it the rest of our team was working on the props and background.
Then came to the day of the competition! This year it was at Seycove so I felt like we had an advantage. This was our schedule along with the other Seycove teams;
We were up against the grade nines from seycove as well, also they were the only other team in our grade. So we knew we were getting either first or second. Here are some pictures of my team presenting:
During the performance some things did go wrong for example the car didn’t work so we pushed it with our feet. Also we didn’t show of our team choice elements very well and that showed in our scores.
Because of these reasons we did end up getting second out of two. For provincials we know what we are going to fix and improve upon, one of them being having an actual working rc car. I feel for provincials we will do better by being more prepared, maybe even win?
Recently in science we have been learning about chemistry. Chemistry is defined as “the branch of science that deals with the identification of the substances of which matter is composed; the investigation of their properties and the ways in which they interact, combine, and change; and the use of these processes to form new substances.”
This is a mind map of what I knew at the beginning.
Compared to what I learned by the end of the unit. As you can see I learned a lot and that was thanks to the project we did. We were to design an experiment explaining chemical reactions and also test our experiment. We did this in partners and my partner was Claire. At first we wanted to take into the aspect of finding out if there was lead in lipstick. We saw that there was flaws in this though so we changed it to finding out if there is copper in cheap jewelry. Here was our write up:
Inquiry question:
Is the fake ring made out of copper?
Predications/Hypotheses:
We predict that the ring is made out of copper and we will see that in the experiment because it will react to turn the liquid blue and possibly form a salt.
Chemical equation:
4HNO3(I)+Cus(s)—Cu(NO3)2(s and aq)+2 NO2(g)+2H2O(I)
Copper plus nitric acid makes copper nitrate salt and nitrogen dioxide
Reaction:
The copper nitrate salt that forms is a deep blue color or will just turn the liquid blue. The nitrogen dioxide is a maroon vapor but is only seen if the experiment is done with a very high concentration of nitric acid.
Materials needed:
Copper
Low end ring
Two beakers
Nitric acid
Experimental design:
We first will fill both beakers with nitric acid
We will put the copper in one beaker and observe the reactions
We will record our observations
We will then place the ring in the other beaker
We will observe and record our observations
Compare the copper to the ring
Answer our question
Observation:
Nothing happened at first because the concentration of the nitric acid was low. The copper wire mostly dissolved and the liquid around it turned blue. This is exactly what we predicted would happen to the copper. The copper ring was coated in a thin layer of silver to make it look like real jewelry. The silver reacted with the nitric acid to create silver nitrate, the chemical equation is 3Ag(s)+4HNO3(aq)→3AgNO3(aq)+NO(g)+2H2O(l). The copper in the ring did not react with the nitric acid.
Conclusion:
The copper wire was definitely made out of copper and reacted the way we excepted it to. It can not be confirmed if the ring was made out of copper but we can confirm that the coating is silver.
Recently in math class we have been looking at algebra tiles. More specifically algebraic expressions. We have been doing this for a few months and learning all of the steps needed to solve these difficult equations.
For the project we had to create a math game that shows we learned about factor expressions, expanding expressions as well as making perfect squares. These are all important aspects to algebra and through the project we had to make I learned a lot about these aspects of math. We were to do this in partners and mine was Hannah, we worked well together and had fun working on the game. At the beginning we didn’t know where to take the project.
This was the first draft for the game:
We saw that there were flaws in this draft so we improved the rules here are our rules:
Goal:
The goal of the game is to get to the finish line on the board first and collect the most points.
Rules:
You start out by each player rolling the number di and who ever has the highest numbers gets to start.
Then you roll the number di again to move forward
The game board is full with red and blue squares if you land on a blue square you get a positive point, and a red square negative point
If you land on a red square you have to pick up an equation card. If you solve the equation before the time runs out you get 1 point if you don’t you get a negative point.
If you land on a blue you create an equation for your opposing player by using the number di and the equation di twice. If the opposing player gets it right they get a point.
Anytime you solve an equation and it’s a perfect square you get two points
Points are tracked on the individual note pad where you write out your negative and positive points in the columns and candle them out.
Materials:
Game board
1 di
Blue and red algebra tiles
Equation cards.
Figures
Note pad
Disruption is found every where around us from people to technology it is all a disruption to the way we live. That is what we have been looking at for the past few months, how technology disrupts our world. We learned about this through California and more specifically Silicon Valley, that’s why we went to California which you can read about here.
We went to places such as Twitter , Google and Apple. It was truly amazing to visit these huge tech companies that influential our lives massively.
Twitter HQ
Googleplex
Apple Park
While we were in California we also had to do a project loooking more in depth at these disruptions. We did this project in partners, my partner being Sam. Over the coarse of the project I feel we worked well together though we could have improved our communication skills since at times it felt like we had different ideas of how we wanted our videos to end up. We had the choice to decide what way we showed this, we could choose from puppet shows, photo journal, podcast and video. Sam and I decided to go with creating a video as we feel it would best showcase our place. The place we chose out of California that we visited and showed disruption was High Tech High.
High Tech High
If you want to read more about my experience at High Tech High read this post.
At the beginning of this project we weren’t sure what way we should take it. Eventually we came up with the idea though of looking at how HTH is disrupting the education system around it. Our thesis ended up being: With the new ideas that High tech high is showing in their school, they have changed the education system in the community around them and eventually worldwide. After getting the thesis we continued to research HTH and plan out what we needed to do once we got to California.
It was then time to travel to California!
We went to high tech high a few days into the trip. We got lots of different angles of the school as well as interviews so we could learn more about it. It was an amazing experience to be able to see how other students experience school.
One of the projects they did
When we got back we then worked on our script for our video. We spent a few days on this and then we got to working on our iMovie. Here is our first draft:
We knew we had improvements we needed to make such as adding different clips and making the transitions smoother. That’s what the next and final draft was for:
This was a really interesting aspect to our unit on disruption, but we weren’t done there. We then had an essay that we knew would be the final step to this unit. Our essay was all about how technology is a disruption. This was a synthesis essay which is basically using sources to support your argument. I decided to focus on privacy on social media and how that has changed through history. We had a week to prepare and get the information we needed to complete the essay. We made essay outlines and this is mine:
This really helped me get my ideas ready and the info ready for the essay. One thing we were supposed to include no matter what was the book we read called Little Brother. This was a book about San Fran and the government taking over after a terrorist attack. So with that we had two classes to complete our essays, I was ready to write!
Technology as a Disruption
Isobel DeVille
February 28, 2018
The first social media platform was called six degrees and connected people to there friends and family by sending messages and posting them to a bulletin board. From the very beginning social media has changed us and effected the way we live. As technology continues to take over this is becoming an increasing problem within all of social media and technology in general. Worldwide technology is evolving in negative ways such as Russian bots who are taking over social media, taking away your privacy and changing the world that we live in currently.
Social media is changing the way we live, from communication to education it is all effecting us in positive and negative ways. For example Google created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google is such a huge influential company that has changed the way we go about our lives. One hundred years ago you wouldn’t be able to simply “google it” meaning open up a web page type in a question a find millions of responses but rather you would have to go to the library and research it. In this aspect technology has made our lives better and easier to live. Another example of how social media is changing our lives is Twitter. Twitter was created as a platform where you could share anything you wanted with no censorship. That’s an issue currently though as they are considering creating a censorship against topics such as terrorism. David an employee from twitter explained that there is great divide within the company as there are so many differing opinions as to whether it’s taking away freedom of speech. This shouldn’t be an issue since technology is such a powerful tool and yet we are all taking advantage of it.
Russian bots are yet another increasing problem as they are taking away your privacy and changing the way you interact on social media platforms. A bot is defined as a robot and are used to “wrap assigned ideas around the most personal stories” by spreading information and many times are set up by trolls who are real people but have a reason to spread rumours or change minds so they use bots. As Ben Nimmo says “ it’s like a plane flying on auto pilot.” This is changing the way you use social platforms because they are influencing what you see, read and talk about. For example on twitter Russian bots are said to have helped with the 2016 USA presidential election. “Accounts and bots on Twitter and Facebook engaged in a systematic routine of promoting misinformation and propaganda-style messages — ostensibly to praise Trump and denigrate is then-opponent, Hillary Clinton.” Business insider Bryan Logan. This election changed the world we live in and possibly how we continue to live and it all could be because of Russian bots. This is such a huge problem that should not be happening and needs to be fixed.
“In the 1970’s, congress passed a law to make a particular form of subliminal advertising illegal because it was believed to be morally wrong. That advertising technique is child’s play compared to the kind of personalized manipulation that companies do today”- Harvard news from the article Privacy in the internet be very afraid analyst says. Privacy through history has become increasingly complicated. Many people think they are protected and on the internet are safe but in reality they aren’t. For example cookies on sites, cookies can follow you around and track exactly what you are doing. They can see who your friends are as that is one thing many people don’t think about when you say privacy. Through all of that information they can tell exactly who you are and things like where you live or even what you like and dislike. Another example of privacy in a wider aspect is devices watching you through cameras. In a podcast about this issue they say that though it may not be likely that people are actually watching you through the camera they will look at what you look up, what apps you use, what your friends are doing and even what you have recently bought. Though this may not be as bad as watching you through your device it is still scary to know that you are always being watched. A great example of this is in a book called Little Brother written by Corey Doctorow. Within the book the government is watching exactly what people are doing so they have to find new ways around this issue. Truly privacy is something that needs to be protected and yet simply isn’t.
Social media is defined as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking”. We have changed as people and society as social media becomes larger. It is changing the way we interact with other people, the way we look at them as well as taking away our privacy. Overall we have to be careful and use this powerful, influential tool for the better.
This essay I found very interesting to learn about and I am proud of the essay that I produce by the end of the two classes we had. Overall I learned a lot from this unit and had a great time on the feild study that helped us learn all of this.
PLP is a performance learning program so what better way to show that then field studies. We already went on one locally at the very very beginning of the school year, we went to camp capilano. You can read about that in this blog post:
Well just recently from the 2nd to the 11th we travelled to you guessed it California! We were in California because we were studying a unit on disruption. A great example of this is Silicon Valley in San Jose, Silicon Valley is more an area rather then a region. Fun fact it was named after the silicon transistor which revolutionized technology and computers So that’s where we headed but first it was off to San Diego! We left at 4:30 in the morning on February 2nd. This was so extremely early and yet it didn’t seem like it because I was so excited for the oncoming trip. After two flights we arrived in San Diego and went to Torrey pines. Torrey pines is national park where the trees the Torrey pines are the only ones in the world!
The following day it was off to the zoo! We had an amazing opportunity to go inside the elephant enclosure.
On the next day we went to the uss midway, a huge aircraft carrier ship that used to be in commission.
The next day we went to high tech high, you can read all about what it is and the experience that I had there in this blog post:
We were at high tech high for two days and then we traveled of to San Jose in the evening. That night we had in n out which was pretty fun.
The following day it was off to Silicon Valley! We started at google a huge influential company. I found it so interesting at the campus because everyone is so focused on there work and aren’t to distracted by all of the opportunities they have around them. Plus it’s just like the intern.
At the campus there is a real t-Rex fossil becaus why not.
In the afternoon we went to apple and Intel, two of the biggest companies within Silicon Valley.
That night we had dinner with Brendon and Scott two people who work with Silicon Valley. After dinner we then went to a light tunnel that was very fun!
The next day we went to the computer history museum.
In the afternoon we went to Stanford, a fantastic school that I hope to go to one day.
Then it was off to San Francisco! As soon as we got there we went to twitter head quarters. Going to twitter was an amazing opportunity and it was such a cool workplace environment.
‘That afternoon we traveled to the Golden Gate Bridge.
The next day was our last full day so we went out with a bang. In the morning we went on a walking tour around San Fran, I learned a lot from the tour guide. Such as that the summer of love was at the end of the hippie movement and they didn’t like that everyone came and made a bad reputation for everyone.
Next we went to Alcatraz, the inescapable prision that changed prision history.
You can read about my trip more in depth in this book I made on the trip:
‘Overall this was an amazing trip that I will never forget. I had fantastic experiences and once in a lifetime experiences. Until the next plane ride!
Going to California on a school trip we weren’t excepting to actually go to school an yet we did. In San Diego there is a fantastic school called High Tech High (HTH) that is very unique. The school which includes elementary, middle, high school and an international school. They are all project based which is similar to PLP. Project based learning or PBL means no textbooks or tests but rather hands on and using projects instead. That’s why we went to HTH because of the similarities and that it’s a great opportunity. We were paired with students from HTH on the first day that over the following two days we would get to know better. I was paired with Maya a sweet, quit girl who is really interesting.
Meeting Anna the grade 9 teacher
Walking up to high tech high
This is our class in front of HTH
A project in the halls that they did
Over the two days we were there I got to know some really nice students who I am still in contact with today! High Tech High is so different and has influenced the education system around it hugely.
At High Tech High we had a project that we had to do as well. Since this year we were looking into podcasts what better to do the make a podcast with our partners. I wasn’t sure as to how this would turn out since it was so open ended and yet by the end I was really intrigued by how the interview went. I learned a lot about both the school and the three students I was talking to, also I am proud of how my podcast turned out in the end.
Overall it was a fantastic experience getting to know Maya plus finding out about how here school works was really interesting. Maybe I will go back to San Diego one day and visit them, who knows!
It’s come to that time of the year again when it’s time to reflect on what I have done. So far grade ten has been interesting. For good and bad, that’s why today I will be talking about what I am most proud of, my skills, all of my PLP classes and also answer the driving question which is, How are you going to progress as a learner before the end of the school year?
So to start it off I will be talking about the work I am most proud of, which is my human rights podcast which I did in humanities.
I am most proud of this because of the effort and time I put into this podcast. I feel that even though my first draft didn’t come out amazing I tried my hardest and put lots of effort and time into the final draft and I am happy with the outcome I got. Also even though my group had its ups and downs which if I were to repeat the project I would improve I still found the unit about the human rights and more specifically homelessness very interesting and it taught me a lot.
The next subject I want to talk about is math. And more specifically my project on the golden ratio. This project I feel shows what I can improve on.
From the beginning of this project I was uncertain of what I was supposed to do. I didn’t understand the concept of the golden ratio, nor how to make it into art. Because of that I feel I didn’t produce the best work I could have. In the past I have always struggled with asking teachers fo help and I know that in the future I have to and will start asking more questions when I don’t understand something.
Know I would like to talk about science and how in a specific project it showed my growth as a learner. The project I am talking about is my identical twin project.
I feel this represents my growth as a learner because at the beginning of the project me and my partner weren’t share how to make a podcast about science and dna. Though once we wrapped our heads around the idea we got a sense of what we wanted our podcast to be like. Also I feel we were creative and I was happy with the results we got.
And finally my maker class. I would like to talk about the unit Everyone has a Story.
I feel that in this project it showed my growth as a learner, some of my weaknesses as well as that I am proud of it. The reason for all of that is because of how much time and effort I put in. One of the downfalls though was that I could have planned my time more effectively.
Also I feel that myself and my group could have more effectively planned our room since I feel that it was thrown together at the last minute.
Overall I know in the months to come I have things to improve such as time management, group work and more. Though to end this MPOL I would like to ask you how you feel I could improve my blogposts in general. Since term one I have really tried to improve and put more time and effort in my blogposts and I want to see if you have noticed it and how I can thus improve it.
Recently in class we have been working on a project called everyone has a story. We were to pair up with a grade twelve PLP student who would then be our DRI for the entire project. A DRI stands for directly responsible individual, my dri was Chloe. This whole project was based on Story Corps, a website that is about spreading peoples stories.
So the first thing we were to do was interview our grade 12 partners and turn it into a story. Me and my partner talked about many different ways we could take this podcast. Here was our first attempt at making the podcast.:
We made a joint decision though that this wasn’t really a good story, so we decided to choose a different aspect and story that Chloe had.
The next story that we had was a family podcast. At first I didn’t know what to do, since my family has multiple interesting stories. Finally though I decided to ask my grandfather about a story that I had heard a few times before but didn’t know the entire story. I figured then that this was a perfect opportunity. Here is what I came up with:
Recording this I was really interested and intrigued by all the facts that I was given and didn’t know about. Plus it also made me grateful for my family and made me realize how important family truly is.
The next and final podcast was about a random stranger and there story. The two previous stories were leading up to this one because our whole year is based around podcasts. Also this podcast would be done at our annual winter exhibition. Where all the PLP students present one thing or another. The grade 8’s and 9’s had blue sky about Star Wars, as I did in grade 8. So to get the stories we needed we didn’t simply interview them in the middle of the hall, but rather set up “recording rooms”. We were to be in pairs and make the room feel comfortable. This is what ours turned out to be like:
That night we were to get three stories and then take the best one. I got three interviews and two of them turned out good. I decided to go with one that I got from Janet Maxwell Russel, who is actually my teachers mum. Her story was really interesting and about being a teacher. Here is her story:
That was the final draft but before we got to that point I got this critique:
Comments From the Grade 12 TA’s:
– Lower audio on your voice is that it is the same as your interview person
– Storyline was great and your questions helped her to develop her story flow
Overall this was an interesting project and I know it will help me in the future since I will be making podcasts. Also it taught me about my family and some interesting facts I didn’t know.
On May 4th 1961 a group of seven African Americans and six white people left on a greyhound bus. These thirteen people were part of a civil rights movement named the Freedom Riders to change the segregation in interstate transit terminals. This was a massive movement that changed equality rights and peoples lives around the world.
The reason this is important because recently in class we have started a new coarse called disruption. With the main idea question being: How has technology acted as a disruption with its creation throughout history?
We have also read Little Brother, a book about when a terrorist attack goes on in San Francisco and a teenage boy named Marcus uses technology to help and save the day. So what we were supposed to do is relate a real life event that happened in the book to our main question. In the book there is a big civil rights/humanitarian aspect which mentions the freedom riders. Here is the part in the book where they are mentioned:
“You’ve heard about the civil rights movement to end segregation, white and black kids like you riding buses into the South to sign up black voters and protest against official state racism. California was one of the main places where the civil rights leaders came from. We’ve always been a little more political than the rest of the country, and this is also a part of the country where black people have been able to get the same union factory jobs as white people, so they were a little better off than their cousins in the southland.
“The students at Berkeley sent a steady stream of freedom riders south, and they recruited them from information tables on campus, at Bancroft and Telegraph Avenue. You’ve probably seen that there are still tables there to this day.”
Excerpt From
Little Brother
Doctorow, Cory
What the freedom riders did was on may 4th 1961 thirteen activists left on a grey hound to travel across the southern states such as Alabama, South Carolina, and other southern states. They wanted to allow all people to access anywhere they wanted on busses and bus stations. This was based off of the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation. The main difference between the two though is that the freedom riders included women as well.
Here are some of the freedom riders, multiple of them being women.
These people and many others were treated terribly for what they were doing. On may 14 1961 a greyhound entered Anniston Alabama and was welcomed by 200 angry white people who surrounded the bus until the bus went past the station blew its tires and then once it stopped someone threw a bomb in the bus where the freedom riders left the bus in flames. And since the freedom riders didn’t believe in fighting back they couldn’t do anything.
The bus that was set on fire
After the bus was set on fire there was another bus that was coming into town. They had to take a detour and once they stopped were attacked and harmed by many other protestors.
A news paper article about the bus
There were multiple other incidents in the following six months of the freedom riders. Many freedom riders going to jail, being harmed and even being attacked by the group known as the KKK.
A freedom rider who was injured because he was attacked on May 12th, they would use iron pipes,chains and clubs to harm people, occasionally even attacking innocent bystanders
That very same night Martin Luther King Jr. had a sermon at a church where multiple freedom riders attended. That night Martin Luther King asked Robert Kennedy for protection. Mr.Kennedy helped and pushed for it.
The freedom riders lasted six months. By the end though they won when the inter estate commerce commission issued regulations prohibiting segregation in interstate transit terminals. Meaning after they changed the law anyone could sit or go in any area in public transit.
This was an amazing thing to learn about and I learned so much. It reminded me of Rosa parks and here sitting at the front of the bus. The reason for that is because not only are they both based on busses but these people made such a stance. They changed the world we live in today, showing that everyone should truly be equal. As for how has technology acted as a disruption with its creation throughout history? Though they may have not physically made technology they changed the world dramatically. Internationally equality improved because they made such an impact. It’s also similar to little brother because Marcus (the main character) improves and changes his environment even if many people don’t agree with him.
Overall this was an amazing thing to learn and I have so much respect for the people who changed the world we live in today.
