Comic cells

This project was called comic cells and revolved around cells and diseases. The first task of the project was to make a project start mind-map. Here is mine:

We had to choose what kind of virus we were going to base our project on. Mine was on the small pox virus. To start our research we made a disease wanted poster to gather all the key information of the virus. Here is mine:

Before starting our main task which was making a comic, we had to make a storyboard to map out our comic and see if it had enough scientific ideas in the story. Here is mine:

 

After we completed our storyboard we could now start on the main task of the project which was to make a comic about cells and diseases and how they affect our immune systems. My comic book was about a man who contracted the virus then it shows the cells inside his body fighting off the virus. You can view my comic here:

 

 

For the grading process of this project we were graded on three curricular competencies such as:

Questioning and predicting: Demonstrate a sustained curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest: I feel like I did well on this competency because I was very concentrated on finishing my comic book as the project was a lot of fun.

Scientific communication: Communicate ideas, findings, and solutions to problems using scientific language, representations and digital technologies: I feel like I exceeded on this competency because I made sure to use lots of scientific language in my comic book.

Evaluating: Demonstrating an understanding and appreciation of evidence: I feel like I did well on this competency by showing in my comic book how the viruses and cells interact with each other.

Ultimate design challenge

The ultimate design challenge project was a project about 3D shapes and models. The task of the project was to create a 3D model of anything you want on a site called TinkerCad, TinkerCad is a program where you use 3D shapes to design a model. For my project I designed a Glider plane because I thought making it would look really cool. You can view the model I created here: 

TinkerCad is a program I had never used before so at first it was really hard to get started on building my model but as the project went on I started to get more comfortable with the program. After I finished designing my model I started on doing the calculations for my model. For the calculations you had to measure the length the width and the height of each shape you used to create your model. After you measured every shape you had to put them in their respective formulas and total up each shapes surface area and volume. Here are my calculations: 

 

 

 

For this project we were graded on 3 core competencies such as:

Applying and innovating: contribute to care for self, others, community and world through personal or collaborative approaches: I feel like I exceeded on this competency by working on my project every chance I got.

Reasoning and analyzing: Model mathematics in contextualized experiences: I feel like I exceeded on this competency by finishing my model and incorporating the 10 shapes in my model as well as optimizing my design for maximum surface area.

Communicating and representing: Explain and justify mathematic ideas and decisions: I feel like I did well on this competency but could’ve exceeded more by calculating the nose of my model plane as a cone instead of a cylinder.

Chemistry Coding

The name of our project was called Chemistry coding it revolved around the atomic theory and the kinetic molecular theory. At the start of the project I had no idea what either of those were but now I understand the behaviour of atoms and how they react with other atoms/molecules.

The goal of this project was to make a video game or simulator which revolved around the kinetic molecular theory and the atomic theory. For our first step in creating our video game/simulator we had to draw 4 atomic models that would be included in our game here are mine:

The final step before completing our video game/simulator was to show the teacher what kind of game/simulator we were deciding to make and If it included the Kinetic molecular theory and the atomic theory here is mine:

 

To make our video game/simulator we used a coding software called Scratch, I had never coded anything before this so it was very hard to understand at first but later on after watching many tutorials on YouTube I started to understand how to use scratch.

We were graded on three main competencies such as: 

Questioning and predicting: Demonstrate a sustained curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of persons allegedly interest: I feel like I did very well on this competency mainly because this project was very interesting and I enjoyed it.

Scientific communication: communicating ideas, findings, and solutions to problems using scientific language, representations, and digital technologies: I feel like I could’ve improved a little bit more on this competency as sometimes I didn’t understand some of the technologies in scratch at times.

Reasoning and analyzing: use logic and patterns ( including coding ) to solve puzzles and play games: I could’ve done better with this as I struggled with the coding part of this project.

The more things change summative post

What did European settlement mean for all the people involved?  

European settlement resulted in Europeans and First Nations trading goods and services. The goods that they traded has changed over time, but economic relationships between groups of people has remained similar. 

“ What did European settlement mean for all the people involved?” That was the driving question of this project which revolved around European settlement in Canada. The meaning of the project the more things change comes from one of the topics we learned about in the project called continuity and change we would have our topic and we would think to ourselves what has changed and what has remained constant?

To Improve our understanding of the project we took a lot of notes in our “ New France project notes template “ that notes template was very helpful when doing weekly reflections and while working on my infographic 

For this project we had to make an infographic in Canva to show everything we know about European settlement in North America. Me and my project partner Ben made our infographic revolve around trade and alliances between Europeans and First Nations. Here is our infographic: 

After we finished our infographic we made a script explaining our infographic in keynote then we recorded our selves reading our script and put it on YouTube. Here is our YouTube video:

This project really helped us understand how to use certain apps like Keynote and Canva and grew our learning about European settlement in what we know today as North America.

D.I summative post

Destination Imagination was the name of the project I will be talking about today. Destination Imagination or D.I was a very different project. It was very hard to understand what we were supposed to do at first. But then I quickly caught onto what we were supposed to do. We were assigned one of the following 3 topics: Engineering, Fine Arts and Technical. I was assigned to the engineering group where our task was to build a 3D model of a building and then film a mini movie about the building model that you built.

To prepare for the final video we got these periods of time where we would make up a mini story and we would have to act them out in front of the judges. For each one we were given a different subject.

Our final story was about 3 architects who build a recreational centre and have to come up with what kind of architectural styles they want to use and they came up with Post Modernist style and Aboriginal art as well. The story was supposed to show how opposite styles can be complimentary. After about a couple weeks of filming and editing we came up with our final product. You can view our video here:

In the end I think me and my group did a great job planning out everything and filming. I am very happy to have experience a project like this.

Argh Matey summative post

Today’s post will be about our Argh Matey project which was about the age of piracy.

We first watched a movie about modern day pirates in Somalia so we could understand why they were pirates and what was there motivation for what they did. We learned that pirates were mainly motivated to be pirates because of poverty. In the movie we watched the Somalian pirates hijacked a cargo ship and then took the resources and took the captain of the ship for ransom money. In the end the US navy had to shoot the Somalian pirates because they weren’t cooperating in giving back the captain of the ship. That movie really helped me understand what pirates did and what they were motivated to do.

The main focus of our project was early pirates from the age of exploration and the different types of pirates from that age. One of the more interesting types of pirates were the Barbary pirates who were from Africa and would kidnap Europeans and would take them as slaves but they had a choice to be released if they wanted to but they had to do one thing. The Barbary pirates would set them free if they were successfully converted to Islam.

Our final product was to make a mini movie with this new app that we were introduced to called AR Makr which was a really cool app actually, you got to draw objects then put them in the app and you open a camera and you could put your objects around in the space on your camera and you could walk around 3D objects. So we had to make a script of what Christopher Columbus and/or England and France did to venture over to the new land which is now known as North and South America. Here is my script:

 

After we had made our script we would film our 3d AR Makr video and then voice over our script then we would post it onto YouTube.

This project overall was pretty cool and fun to learn about even though it was a shorter project then normal.

Final student blogging challenge

Today is the last day of the student blogging challenge so I’m going to reflect on the recent posts that I have done as well as some other things. On day 3 of the student blogging challenge we got to write about a topic that interested in and imbed a YouTube video into the post. For my post I talked about my favourite soccer team, Manchester United then I put in a YouTube video of my favourite Manchester United player Robin Van Persie scoring a stunner of a goal against Swansea City. My other favourite post of the student blogging challenge was my previous post about my favourite basketball tournament March Madness.

The blogging challenge really helped me with my writing and was really fun to write about the topics that interest us. I hope in the future we get to do more projects like this one because it was really cool to write about some fun topics.

As the blogging challenge went on my blogs started to get a little better each time which I am glad to see. In conclusion I really enjoyed this project and am glad that it helped me with my writing skills.

Growth Mindset

The project I’m going to write about is called the growth mindset challenge. This project was a surprise to me because I had never heard of growth and fixed mindset until we started this project. We learned about a lot of things like Having grit and that failing is just the first attempt and learning and if you don’t fail then you wont learn. This project gave me a totally different perspective on school and the academic system. For example we learned that being intelligent doesn’t really mean anything and doesn’t get you anywhere. You can be intelligent but you need to have grit and perseverance to show that knowledge.

Our task was to make a growth mindset journal which we made an entry every time we learned about a new topic on growth mindset. You can view my growth mindset journal here

From learning about grit to learning about failure as a first attempt at learning it really taught me a lot and I feel that it will really help me not just academically but in the world as well.

Our final product was to make a growth mindset selfie which would have your goal for the school year and you would put a text of that goal over your the head of the selfie you took.

My goal for the school year was “ I will ask for help from trusted people about what should be the focus of my learning.

Overall from making my growth mindset journal to my growth mindset selfie this project was really interesting and I think it was a good subject to learn about as it can help us in anything like school or sports.

March Madness

Spring Break is just under a week away and since we can’t travel I have other plans. Every March there is a college basketball tournament called March Madness. It is definitely one of the most exciting tournaments to watch for sure. My favourite team to cheer for in this tournament is North Carolina Tar Heels. The Tar Heels are usually one of the best teams in the tournament and over the years some very well known basketball players have come out of North Carolina for example players like Michael Jordan, Vince Carter and James Worthy.  

 

Unfortunately last march there wasn’t a March madness because of Covid. So this year I will be very pumped to watch this tournament since last year I didn’t get to. The Tar Heels have won this tournament 6 times and have been the runners up 7 times. The most recent time they won the tournament 71-65 against Gonzaga in 2017. You can watch the highlights of the 2017 tournament here:

I am very excited to watch the tournament this year and I hope to watch to some very entertaining Basketball.

Winter blog post

Hello, welcome to day 9 of the student blogging challenge. Today we are doing a post on the holidays we celebrate. My family’s favourite holiday would have to be Christmas. Every Christmas I go and visit my mom and her family in Bella Coola. Every Christmas we go sledding and skiing and everything that relates to the winter.  

This photo reminds me of winter because it is always very snowy in Bella Coola. Here’s what its like driving in the winter in Bella Coola: