Welcome back to my blog! In this unit we explored how the New World was formed. To begin, we had a short lesson on Beringia and how it helped form what we know as the New World. Beringia was an ancient land bridge from Siberia to Alaska that existed about 20,000 years ago which for us is a long long time ago! So of course, this land bridge no longer exists. Beringia helped form the New World as it created a passage for both animals and people to access a land full of more resources, hence forth known as the human migration from Asia to America.

As time went on, the Norse, Portuguese and Chinese voyaged in search of land and goods. The Norse occupied mainly smaller coastal areas on the Southwestern coast of Greenland. However, settlements in Greenland later declined due to the cooling of climate, threat to agriculture, the trade of the ivory market and finally, many people became victims of one of history’s most deadly deceases, the Black Death! The Portuguese and Chinese, on the other hand, eventually stopped their explorations in the 15th century as both countries had what they needed. The Portuguese, had multiple resources and began to explore the coasts of Africa, and the Chinese had a strong Navy and much wealth.

These people were not the only ones to explore, the Europeans were big on exploration at the time. Their motivation or “means to explore“ was to fill in the blanks of their mental map and to discover the world beyond their home. This was mostly caused by the European’s growing curiosity. At the time, their knowledge of the outside world came from books which were based off of either religion or illogical guesses. Most of that information turned out to be nothing but nonsense.

Shortly after these few classes of introduction, we were assigned an explorer. This was meant to help us learn how he persuaded people to fund his voyage as we would be doing the same at the end of the unit. The explorer I chose was John Cabot, which I later discovered had less than a paragraph written about him on Wikipedia😬! To begin, we read about different things that could have motivated our explorer to go on his voyage. For some, it was the desire to gain wealth, expand their trade or gold supply or even to expand the understanding of Christianity. Which even today is believed to be an act greatly praised by God. We then were asked to write a short paragraph about someone that was motivated to do something. It could have been anyone, but I chose Bethany Hamilton. I mentioned Bethany in one of my previous posts but always seem to come back to her inspirational story as it is very powerful. To learn more about Bethany Hamilton, view my paragraph by click on the image below⤵️ or by simply clicking on the link in her name.

Let’s fast forward this lesson a bit. As time went on, everyone seemed to want a piece of this “New World.” While everything about the Americas was new to the Europeans, from the plants, to animals, to food, this land was however NOT unfamiliar to the aboriginal natives. These people were there long before the Europeans arrived. For a while, the two nationalities were peaceful with each other. Each group trading with each other. The name “Canada” actually comes from an Aboriginal word, “Kanata” which means “village”. The word was, however mistaken by the Europeans for the name of the area and therefore, the land was named Canada.

Talking about trades, the next part of our studies was the Middle Passage. This was the sea route people took to trade slaves from Africa. What was cool about this lesson was that we were reading about it from different points of view. Depending on who you were reading from, the Middle Passage, although filthy and terrible as it was, was presented to us while keeping each person’s individual goals in mind. From the ships captain, he described the job as gross, tiring and frustrating as the slaves kept dying which meant less money for himself. From a slave’s point of view, it described how life would be better dead than alive.

As we shifted gears more towards our final project, we studied comics to prepare for when we would have to create our own comic to help with our final presentation. We were divided into groups. Each group would read a different genre of comic each week and complete a column for each genre. This gave us an idea of how comics are designed such as their use of shading, pictures, bleeds and so on. Click the link below to view our chart!⤵️

Comic Book Comparison Chart-1p9dfro

I wrote my comic based on what I knew about explorer John Cabot. The comic was set in the time estimated when he voyaged as well as keeping in mind the general story on what happened during the voyage. I used the knowledge I had learned on comic layouts and design to create my comic. I then had to add myself into the story, so since girls rarely were on boats as part of the crew at the time, I made myself a stowaway. For more of my story, click on the picture below!⤵️

Adventure Of A Lifetime

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

https://read.bookcreator.com

Finally, it was time to present the big presentation. As I mentioned before, we had to persuade the Queen to fund us for a voyage. I created a PowerPoint and a script that I would read. I also used examples from my past voyage (my comic) to help both visually and persuasively. The following video is of my presentation.

As I wrap this post up and begin preparing for my next, I kind of thought about how people wanted to expand their knowledge which then made curiosity and voyaging part of their worldview! I also thought about how just as the people wanted to expand, I want to try to expand and grow my mindset! That has been one of my many goals this school year. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for reading!

Now that DI is done, we have started a new unit featuring the L.A.U.N.C.H. Cycle. This is a creative process where you brainstorm ideas, ask questions, create a prototype and then test it! This cycle, whether by a different name or a slightly different variation, has been used for pretty much every famous invention. The process uses the acronym L.A.U.N.C.H which makes the cycle easier to remember.

L – Listen, Look, Learn

The cycle begins with the usual brainstorming and learning new ideas and observations.

A – Ask Questions

After you’ve brainstormed, it’s time to get curious and ask questions! Questions could take form as surveys or graphs which aid you with the creation of your prototype.

U – Understand Ideas

Now that you have an idea of what people want or prefer, understand what they want and use the information towards your invention.

N – Navigate Ideas

Turn your ideas and brainstorm towards one main idea that you wish to try! Start to narrow down your ideas and come up with one great prototype.

C – Create a Prototype

Now that you have some final ideas, it’s time to create! Or as Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus would say, take chances, make mistakes and get messy!

H – Highlight and Fix

After testing your prototype, it’s time to fix anything or make changes. Once this is done, the cycle repeats!

This video I’ve attached below further explains the cycle in more detail. ⤵️

For this L.A.U.N.C.H. project, we were put into groups to create a sport using at least four of the following materials:

– A ball

– Five cups

– Two Rackets

– A roll of Ducht Tape

– Balloons

– Some string

With four or more of these materials, my group, Aedan, Fraser, Paisley and I had to create a sport that we would share with the class. To begin this, we brainstormed ideas and did a bit of research on what makes a sport exciting or boring. From this, we did a survey with the entire class to ask questions to get an idea of what our audience wants and prefer. From there, we played with some of the materials to get ideas on what we could do with them. It was then time to gather some main ideas and create a prototype. We decided to use the cups as they were the perfect size to hold the ball. The racket came in handy too to hit the ball longer distances and the ducht tape was great to outline the court. Because we caught the ball with the cup, we decided to name the sport ice cream ball.

Ice cream ball consists of three players per team (not including subs) two of which have cups and one with a racket. This video below has all the rules and explains how to play our sport!⤵️

Now that the actual sport was created, it was time to try it out. Each group had to teach another group how to play the sport. We had a great time sharing, playing and getting to try out new sports. Some of which were really cool!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Ice cream ball is a fun yet simple sport that you can try with some friends! Give it a try! You’ll love it!

Did you know that light travels in straight lines? Or that it can both refract and reflect depending on the lens or mirror? Light is incredible and can appear to be in many forms. Light is both a partical and a wave. To show this our class did a mirrors lab with partners. Jordyn and I used a ray box and baffle to shine light onto a variety of mirrors such as convex, concave, normal mirrors and even tin foil! Like particles, light bounces off of things and that’s exactly what we proved with the mirrors when the light bounced and reflected off of them! Have you ever been to a wave pool? Well, waves in a wave pool bounce off of the walls surrounding the pool as they form. That is just like light! When we used mirrors to see the light reflect, the particles and waves were really bouncing off of the mirror and because both waves and particles can bounce off of things, that means that light must be made of both waves and particles!

The second lab that we did was to show how light can refract and go through an obese tu such as a lexan block. For this lab, I was grouped with Ben, and the two of us completed the lab sheet together using similar materials and methods as the first lab. To view our lab sheet, click the pictures below! ⤵️

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Physicist Ibn al-Haytham, studied a dark chamber he called a « Albeit Almuzlim » which, in English is translated to camera. He was a Muslim Scholar during the Golden Age. He made significant advances in optics, math and astronomy.  Ibn al-Haytham observed how when light travels through a small hole and in straight lines, it can project an image. This was the beginning of the camera.

Cameras today can capture both real and virtual images. The benefit of a camera and how it can capture images has influenced our understanding on how light can project an image.

As you probably already know, light plays a huge role in our world today. Most of us use it everyday in multiple different ways and forms. Our largest and most important source of light today would be the sun. It gives us both heat and light. Without it, our world would be lifeless. Nothing more than an ice coated rock. Besides just giving light to Earth, the sun generates weather patterns, stirs our atmosphere and gives plants energy. Other, man made lights, do this too. Infact, light has many roles most of which are to help us people for example, lighting up our rooms so we can see at night! Some people might even call light as part of their worldview. 

Light plays a huge role in my worldview. I’m dependent on it so I can see. And not just so I can see in the dark, but in general. See, pupils absorb light (hmmm…maybe that’s why they’re black?) most of which comes from the sun. This allows us to see and form an image kind of like a camera! Well, no light? No image!

After thinking all about how much humans depend on light, it’s time to think about why we are so drawn to it. Is it because it’s bright? Or that it’s fascinating? It turns out that we aren’t actually attracted to the brightness of the light but the changes such as in appearance and movement. Some people nowadays just feel more attracted to light simply because of how it can give warmth and the fact that they can see around it. Some people just feel safer around light and seeing as we humans are all animals, animals have a natural instinct to go towards safety. But studies show that humans are attracted to light when it contrasts with something. People say that when light contrasts, it gives us some sort of visual cue. Perhaps that’s why business ads use contrasting colours to catch attention! Anyways, movements are a sign that something has happened and therefore we are mostly drawn to light, just as we are to ads, out of pure curiosity.

Well, light sure does play a huge role in our everyday lives. Us humans have studied it and have been drawn to it for thousands of years! Light is incredible and can be used in different ways and take place in different forms. It can be a wave, a particle and it can refract and reflect.

I hope you enjoyed my Refracted Reflections post and feel free to leave a comment and check my blog for future posts!