Change. Some people hate it. Some like it. But it’s always here. Some people create lots of change, but sometimes not for the better. The most well known people like this lived during the renaissance era. These people include Leonardo da Vinci, Francis bacon, Raphael, etc. During our unit on the renaissance we learned about these people, what they did, and the tension they caused.

Firstly, we were put into groups. I was with Alivia, Jamie, and Raina. We were given the topic of agriculture to research. We had to make a notebook presentation about the changes in agriculture from the Middle Ages to the modern era, and each of us had to make one page about one era. I did work of the renaissance pages.

We researched a few deferent ways, brainstorming, Google searching, etc. After we found our info, we made a book in book creator. Our book focused on the topic of changes in agricultural tools and farming techniques that came into being during our assigned eras. My pages talked mainly about crop rotation and forage crops. Crop rotation was a technique used to allow nutrients to seep back into the soil. By growing different crops each season, specific nutrients can seep back into the soil for the next time the need to be used.
Forage crops are crops planted to feed farm animals. This was mostly hay, but sometimes farmers grew other crops like clover. Nowadays its still mostly hay, and this is where the common hay bale or hay roll.

Have you ever wanted a tree that takes care of its self? Have you ever wanted a tree that can move, pick, and prune itself? Well with the TreeBot, you can!
The next part of our project was to create an invention that would help people around the world in our field of expertise(our topic). We decided to make a robot that goes inside a tree and controls one branch to preform labor induced tasks. The goal was to reduce labour and free up time for farmers to pursue other things they wanted too.

We made our model out of paper towel tubes and paper. We put it in a plastic cup and stuck some dirt in it. Our model is a model of a fruit tree with a TreeBot inside it, and it goes off into a branch.

We had to pitch our idea to a company related to our topic, and we chose john Deere. Sadly, we couldn’t get John Deere to actually come, so we pitched our idea to Mrs Willemse and Mr. Hughes.

Change can help a society grow. It can also tear it to shreds. Very rarely to changes benefit everyone, and opinions are usually split when it comes to large change. One thing I took away from this experience was that even the most rediculous, crazy idea can be a worthwhile idea.

So the year is coming to an end, and there were some memorable moments throughout. I’m pretty proud of a few projects I’ve done, and I would like to share them.
Im still proud of my Learning Portfolio, because of how simple and fun it is. I really enjoy being able to post my work on a blog, and I like that I can post other posts about what I like to do. One post I am proud of is my DI Provincials post. I think this is one of my biggest posts so far, not only in text but also in photos. I’m proud of the post due to the content of the post. I’m still happy I finished and I’m happy that I did it. I learned a lot from DI and, while I don’t want to do it again, I think it was a good experience now that I look back on it.

I feel im ready to advance grade levels because I know how to manage my time well. I will need to manage time well to get assignments done on time. I also have a little system for prioritizing work. If i have multiple assignments due on the same day, I work on the one that needs more work. If their due different days, I work on the closest one for a while or until its done, then I work on the other one for a while.

I’ll be honest, blue sky was… interesting. For those who don’t know, blue sky is this year end exhibition in which we present a project we’ve been working on for the past few weeks. We are allowed to make whatever we want for this, but we have to come up with a question, get it approved by Mrs. Willemse, and build something to solve a problem relating to the question. I had a few ideas I was super exited for, but they all existed sadly. I finally thought about what problems I have, and i thought about solving a problem i have while swimming.
Lane ropes are a pain, and I hate bumping into the wall. I wanted to find a way to stop myself from doing that. I finally thought about building a fin that I can wear on my back. More information can be found on my designers journal. (This will be here at some point.)

Overall, I feel I have grown as a learner this term. I learned how to use a few new apps, I learned new tricks on my blog, and I am slightly more comfortable with recording myself. During maker I wasn’t able to do much work on blue sky because all my stuff was at home and hard to transport. I was able do do some work on my journal entries, and I helped other people with their blue sky.

In terms of work habits, I didn’t learn many new ones. I did learn that it is incredibly important to check Showbie every time a notification pops up, no mater what I’m doing. If I miss something like an assignment or a comment, I could be in serious trouble. I check Showbie when I get home from school, around 9 am on the weekends, and after dinner all days.

I feel I am ready for grade 9. I learned new skills and techniques to use during classes, and I generally know what I’m doing. I am ready.

Exploration is key to any new colony. Have knowledge of your surrounding is important. But throughout history, many people have explored for one or two reasons. These two reasons are the leading reasons to why people explore. People will explore to either gain as many resources as possible to benefit the home empire, or to spread that home empire, and indoctrinate people under one religion/leader.

Does anyone remember the Roman Empire? They explored the land around them to claim it under Roman rule. They captured cities and took prisoners to spread Roman rule and indoctrinate people under the Roman religion. However, Rome fell due to its massive size and inability to control all the land.

Many people explore for the other reason, as well. France and Britain first explored the new world to find a quick trade route to India, but found North and South America instead. Because they found this new land, they explored to find resources like gold, silver, minerals, spices, and crops. Little did they know that First Nations were already living there.

There is a third reason as to why people explore that dates back to a really long time ago. People, long long ago, explored to follow the traveling food. This caused people to travel across the land bridge between Russia and Alaska. As the food traveled across the bridge, humans followed. This lead humans to explore Eurasia and the Americas. Now just one question remains. How did humans get to Australia and Polynesia(Hawaii)?

Having knowledge of your surroundings is important. Exploration is key to any new colony. But people rarely explore to just gain knowledge.