Have you ever heard the term Like-Term? Haha got the pun there? Ok, moving on, I’m sure you’ve heard of algebra before. You know, the weird looking math equations with a mix of letters and numbers? Yeah that. But what the heck is a Like- Term? Well, before diving into the answer, I had no idea what it was either before starting this unit. I didn’t even know what a polynomial was. So, if you’ve been following along in my Scimatix adventure, you might know by now that before starting each project, we are required to create a project start mind map. And, because I knew nothing of this project, my mind map was nothing more than questions upon questions. Below, you can see that my original statements are in black and everything I learned is written in purple.

So yeah, I obviously didn’t know much. But, that’s ok because the point of school is to learn. Right? Let’s just quickly explain what a polynomial and like term is. Basically, a polynomial is like a group of algebraic equations such as r2. There are many forms of polynomials depending on the number of terms in each problem. So what is a like term? Like Terms are used to simplify polynomials. So if you had a number with the same variable(s), they are “alike” so you can put them together and create a simpler problem.

To summarize and show what we learned and our understanding for this unit, we were each paired up to create our own creative project to represent polynomials and like Terms. Unfortunately for me, I was left to do this project on my own so I decided to create an iMovie trailer. I included both charts to show my equations and used coloured blocks to show different variables and terms. The thing I really wanted to focus on for this project was creative thinking and innovative design. We had a lot of freedom in this project so we could create anything we wanted. I personally thought that doing an iMovie trailer would be both fun and unique! This was a great learning experience for me to work both independently and show off some of my video making skills.

Unfortunately, even with my hard work, my video was still a F.A.I.L. Now I’m not talking about a giant F on my assignment, but a F.A.I.L. in PLP simply stands for a First Attempt In Learning. Yes, Incompletely missed the mark for this assignment, but I still learned about polynomials and Like Terms. And so, to demonstrate this, I completed the last 4 pages of a workbook.

Although my Video didn’t work out as planned, I feel that I demonstrated the following curricular competencies: Reasoned and Analyzed the equation and used technical methods (iMovie and video apps) to complete my solution and present my project. I used apps on my iPad such as Keynote and iMovie to create a trailer and write out an equation. I also showed my understanding and solving abilities while completing the workbook pages. I may have screwed up my original project, but in the end, still proved that I learned something and showed my understanding of the polynomials concept.

So, that’s about it for this little post! Thanks for reading!