As we finish up our project called “The Case for a Nation” it’s time to reflect on the work we did throughout this project. Firstly let’s address what the project is about. “The Case for a Nation” is a project involving humanities, socials, and maker. Our driving question was “How can an understanding of nationalism help us understand today?” Essentially this project was all about nationalism, specifically different types of nationalism and historical examples of nationalism. The definition of nationalism is the pride and loyalty the citizens have for their country or nation. Down below you will see one of the videos I made that helped me ultimately answer the driving question.

This video was about one of the first things we learned about nationalism. We had a choice between the Italian Unification, American Nationalism (Manifest Destiny), The Crimean War, German Unification and Indian Nationalism. As you can see above I chose the Italian Unification topic. We researched the topic and came up with as much information as we could to make our first style of video which was an animatic. An animatic is basically a moving or animated storyboard it helps map out the shots you need and the movements of the subjects in the shot.

I met designing texts by answering the essential question which was “How significant was nationalism around the world?” My intro lays out the purpose, the body has supporting evidence of nationalism, and the conclusion brings everything together. I met the empowered learner competency by creating an engaging map that helps tell the story.

The next video was a “tutorial video” and this video focused on the topic of nationalism in British North America. We had a lot of flexibility in the way that we could convey this tutorial, some people did more metaphorical tutorials and some people did more literal tutorials. I chose to do a more literal tutorial as that was how I visioned the video to be in my head. Learning about this topic we ended up watching this movie called “John A: A Birth of a Country” which you can also see below.

I thought this movie was pretty good. It definitely helped me understand the story of John A. MacDonald and how Canada reached confederation. The reenactments looked very accurate to that particular time in history and there was definitely a lot of time that went into making this movie.

Back to my tutorial video, I met the designing texts competency by having factual information like the Manifest Destiny threatening the colony of Canada and the three conferences leading to the confederation of Canada. I also answered the essential question which was “How did nationalism change British North America in the 1800s?” I answered this by showing CONTINUITY and CHANGE in my video. John A. MacDonald and many other British people had the most power the whole time during the confederation of Canada and of course, the change was that MacDonald created Canada. Onto the last competency; empowered learner. I showed a tutorial effectively and I personally think that this was my best video. I thought it was very clean and simple but effective and I’m very proud of this video.

The final explainer video was done with a partner and my partner for this video was Ethan. Me and Ethan. This video was a cumulative video including the topics that we had already done which were the Italian Unification, Nationalism in British North America, and the oppression towards Métis and Louis Riel.

For designing texts we had factual information from each topic and answer the driving question which I’ll talk about a bit later. When it comes to continuity and change we provided a modern example of oppression which was the oppression in Thailand example which supports the driving question as it is an example of nationalism today that can help you understand what that means today. For using resources we got our information from reliable sources over the span of the project and have put 7 reliable sources in MLA format for this video and also the image citations.

Now, let’s bring it back to the driving question, how can an understanding of nationalism help us understand today? The final video was the answer to that question and what me and Ethan came up with was that when we learn about nationalism in the past you can connect it to the present. For example, people can feel patriotic because of what happened in their country’s past, winning battles for freedom or creating a country to unite people can give you a sense of pride for your country. Learning about the past can give people a sense of community because they are living in the same country and are living on historical land. This sense of community hold’s true when you talk about hockey for example which can unite people and build friendships and community just because you cheer for the same team.

In the end, looking back at the work we have done surprises me because there was so much and we somehow got through it all. This project felt like a sprint and a marathon at the same time, as we come to an end you can bet that I will remember at least one important thing, I don’t know what that could be but I’m sure it will be something to do with nationalism in British North America. See you in June when I talk about World War II.

We made it past the last week of our “Rise of the Frankenstuffies” project and now its time to look back on my learning. If you have not checked out my formative blog post you can find that HERE. Now onto what I have learned in this last week.

This week we went through the creation of our final video. This video was to have a story about your frankenstuffie and also had to integrate the Industrial Revolution into it. My story was about my frankenstuffie who is a cow living in a barn. One day he gets transported to a slaughterhouse and the story goes on from there. You can see the video below.

The competencies we needed to integrate were cause and consequence and historical significance. The way I put cause and consequence into my video was with the slaughterhouse, “what about the slaughterhouse?” You may ask, this showed what toxic chemicals were released into the atmosphere. These chemicals played a huge role in climate change, but another consequence of these slaughterhouses was that they provided clean meat in high quantities for the growing population and increased demand during the Industrial Revolution.

Now, onto the historical significance, this is about the events that took place being worth remembering. Here we see that slaughterhouses were significant because the outcome of them still resonates and affects us today in the form of, again climate change. Historical significance also comes in when we talk about how meat became accessible to many people because that made meat accessible to the people of today.

The way I created this film my goal was to keep people engaged for the story. I made it so there were lots of moving visuals to compliment the audio. When it came to the explanation of the events happening I tried to keep them concise and easy to follow. This film accounted for a lot of work and editing but in the end, I thought it came out pretty good considering the time I had to create it.

Finishing up our first week of this new project was no easy task, but we did a lot of learning. So let’s walk through the top three things I learned from this first week so far. Before we get into that I bet you’re probably thinking “what is this project about?” This project is called “Rise of the Frankenstuffies” and it is all about the Industrial Revolution. So how do those relate exactly? In short we cut up some stuffies sewed new body parts on them and made a story about them that includes the Industrial Revolution.

My Frankenstuffie

First thing I learned the Industrial Revolution started much before I thought it did. It started from 1700-1800 and this was known as the agricultural revolution, here is where people were starting to change the way they farmed and harvested crops. Things like the seed drill invented by Jethro Tull, crop rotation which allowed for more crops to being grown and new breeding techniques like farmers breeding only their best sheep.

Another thing I learned is that trains were really popular during the industrial revolution and they were so revolutionary that we still use them today. Trains were much faster and more reliable than coaches. The development of trains came from the increasing of good and that meant they needed to move them in a better faster way. Then this lead to bigger cities because transportation was much quicker and more accessible and also the spread goods and ideas.

Finally, I learned that the Industrial Revolution played a big role in what is now one of the if not biggest problem facing humanity right now which is climate change. Don’t get me wrong the Industrial Revolution had many positive effects like better housing, increase in wealth and the production of goods. But now because of the harmful pollution of the Industrial Revolution, people today face a huge problem that could lead to the extinction of humanity.

Those were the top three things I learned about the Industrial Revolution. These were all courtesy of a lecture from Ms. Willemse. Next week will include lots of video and more Industrial Revolution so be on the look out for next week’s post.

One two week sprint later we find ourselves at the end of another project. This project is called “Storm the Barricades” and I already made a post about the first week so if you haven’t checked that out yet you should, and you can find that HERE. So on to the second half and this was all about the French Revolution and answering the driving question which was “How do revolutions transform societies?”. If you dont know exactly what “society” is click HERE to find out.

It took a lot of learning to put together a strong video answer to this question and what I learned throughout this project is quite incredible to me. I knew nothing about the French and American revolution and now I know much more about the cause and consequence and historical significance of these revolutions. One thing I might add is something that was very interesting to me and I now know because of my learning about the French Revolution and it is actually that I found out the song “Viva La Vida” is about the French revolution and from the perspective of King Louis XVI. The song is about King Louis’ last speech before he was executed. Down below you can listen to the song.

Now on to what I think helped me answer the Driving question the most and it was the final video. On this I worked with Annie, Ethan and Liam. Since this was about how revolutions transform societies we needed to figure out just that. To make an answer to this we had to tie in the American Revolution, French Revolution and Crane Briton’s Theory of Revolution. What we came up with was a story about a French farmer named Joseph Gagne who’s father just came back from America and was part of the American Revolution. His father then tells Joseph about what happened over in America and well, you can just see the rest down below. In the video we also implemented our Rube Goldberg machine to help guide the story along and I thought it came out well. I think this story highlights understanding of transformations of societies because throughout the video you can actually see the changes and I think it is much easier to understand.

This project involved a lot of learning in a short period of time to ultimately create the final video. I thought I got a lot out of this project and actually thought it was very interesting because I could tie in what happened in the past to what is the present so that shows that if those revolutions never happened the world would be a much different place than it is now.

Welcome to the final Humanities blog post for grade 8. This project was called “Every Object Tells A Story”, basically all the knowledge that we were building was based solely around artifacts and what historical significance they have been through. The driving question for this project was “How can artifacts teach us about settlement, peoples, and life in New France?”. So as you could probably tell our project was about researching artifacts in New France. After researching artifacts and choosing an artifact we were to make a historical fiction story with the artifact included. The artifact that I choose was a mortar and you can find more information about it in the book. You can check out the book below.

One Lucky Shot

The important competencies being assessed for this project are communicate and evidence. We can start off with communicate and what is being looked at are things like the information you collected and shared in written form or any other form. For this I think that I can say I had very concise information about my artifact and I represented it in nice written form. An example for this was the “artifact research form”, for this the content represented New France competently and showed how the artifact was used during those times and what significance it has for today. I also communicated ideas by video on zoom to peers and teachers which is something that we have just been doing in the last few weeks but I have gotten used to it and it seems now like a normal class. Next is evidence and that is how you evaluated your artifact to decide that they were good to support a historical fiction story. I feel that I met this from doing the extensive research about how this impacted New France and fitting that into a fictional story. I think that I put my artifact into a story and it fit well.

Something that I feel that I succeeded in this project was the book, I feel that it every time I write another book it gets better and better and I think that this was one of my most interesting ones. Something that I struggled with was finding specific information about my artifact, I really had to dig deep to find information about it. A part of the end product I’m most proud of is probably the actual storyline of my book and I thought it was one of the most interesting ones I have done. The skill that I feel I explored the most was writing, I got better at writing and felt that it was easier to come up with ideas. The content that I enjoyed learning the most is the artifact, I chose because when I was searching for one and it caught my eye and the information that I found about it was really interesting and that is why I enjoyed learning that the most. To answer the driving question I would say I learned and gained enough knowledge to show what the impact that this artifact had on New France and also how it was used in New France. In conclusion this project was great also considering it was all done online and I feel that I have left off humanities on a good note. 

We just finished another Scimatics project called “The Ultimate Road Trip”. In this project we were asked to plan how to spend from $9500 – $10000 in an Ultimate Road trip. The driving question was how can we model changes over time, this would mean we would need to make a graph and so that brings me to one of our big ideas which is continuous linear relations. We then put these together on a graph and then we have graphing linear relations.

Next up are the curricular competencies

Reasoning and analyzing: I used this competency effectively when doing the budget, I made an accurate chart of the money I spent and also made it very close to $10000. 

 Communicating and Representing: For this competency I met it by showing understanding of equations graphing and creating a map to represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms. I showed a good looking graph and also used an accurate equation.

Connecting and Reflecting: For this I have shown a great connection with mathematical concepts and have accurate answers. I am also able to connect that with this project and what I have chosen to do and where to go on my road trip.

My project was a trip going from Vancouver, BC all the way down to Yosemite, CA. It took me 14 days and I stopped at 5 different places in total. I started at Vancouver went to Whistler then down to Seattle, after at I went to Portland and then finally Yosemite. The total money that I used was $9985.95. In my opinion this was a great project even though it only lasted 4 weeks.

First of all… wow I can’t believe grade 8 is over I can tell you that some of the memories made in this year are some that I will remember for the rest of my life. I feel that this year has given me a solid foundation to build off of in future years and I really have to credit a lot of that to my teachers. The change from elementary to high school is pretty significant but I didn’t feel left out at all. Since the driving question is “Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?” lets look back on the growth of me as a learner this year.

My goal from the Mid Year Presentation of Learning was to not get stressed out with work. Though this was something that I have always found that I have struggled with I have made efforts to improve this particular trouble. One of the big things that has helped me with this is listening to music while doing work, this really helps me forget about everything that is coming up and helps me just focus on the thing that I’m doing. Another thing is also going for a bike ride for the same reason, it helps me forget about all the stressful things and keeps me calm therefore getting my work done without stress. Although I feel that I have done this pretty well I think that I could bring this up another level.

Now lets check out my growth in humanities. Throughout this whole year we had 5 Humanities projects, The Medium is the message, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, The Renaissance, Argh Matey and our latest Every object tells a story. This was a subject that at the start of the year I didn’t particularly like but also didn’t hate it. Through this year it has grown on me a bit. I have gained more interest about this subject and have also gotten a lot better at communication. For my MPOL I stated that I am not very good at speaking but, since the MPOL and especially lately I have gotten better at communicating verbally. I feel a lot more confident and it feels less awkward. One of the things that have showed this is the peer critiques in zoom. My favourite Humanities project was probably The Medium is the message because it was included in the Oregon trip and I also liked it because I enjoyed designing the advertisements and refining them to get an awesome looking advertisement. Something that I could improve more is work ethic in this subject, as I said this has grown on me but I’m still not sold on it.

Next is Maker, in Maker we did Big Life Journal, The Power of a Pencil, Student Blogging Challenge, Star Wars Mini Blue Sky, Destination Imagination and A Sustainable Blue Sky. Maker is probably one of my favourite classes if not the most. What I have learned from Maker is super important, from mindset to teamwork and everything in between. Throughout Maker I have learned that mindset is a huge aspect of daily life, I’ve also learned how to work together in a group. I really enjoyed the Big Life Journal project because it really opened my eyes to different ways of thinking and also better ways to keep your life together. I will strive to improve my teamwork skills more which I think also goes with communication.

For PGP I think that my goal from the MPOL fits here. Not getting stressed is a big thing in getting things done. The ways that I have found to cope with this really help but they both have one thing in common and that is a way to forget about what is coming up next. I feel that really stresses me out. Another way is to get work done before it is due which I still have to get on board with. Obviously the most awesome thing this year was Oregon, In terms of teamwork since this trip I think have improved quite a bit. I can give my opinion in conversations, ask questions and also give answers. In PGP I want to be able to speak strait off my head without hesitation or freezing.

Last subject is Scimatics, For Scimatics projects we have done Fractions of Your Time, Tectonics Book, Mazer Tag, Chemistry Coding, Ultimate Design Challenge, Argh Matey and Ultimate Road trip. I have learned so much different skills and calculations in Scimatics and have definitely expanded my range of knowledge. My favourite project was probably the Ultimate Design Challenge because it was fun to design objects and also present it in front of the class. Something to improve on is to get the concepts in my head really good so I don’t forget them.

In conclusion I absolutely think that I am ready to move on to grade 9. After all of this gaining knowledge and learning different concepts about different things. I have also made changes to my work habits to be a better learner, but even though I have done a lot this year I will strive to do my best and be better than before in the coming years.

Welcome to the renaissance, about a month ago I talked about the Middle Ages and now we have arrived in the renaissance with a musical twist. The driving question for this projects was “Who or what has challenged your worldview in the transition from elementary school to high school?”. A lot about this was also about worldview and what stated in the driving question which is the transition from elementary school to high school. So for that we were to create a song based off of the R.E.M song “It’s The End of The World As We Know It” with all of our experiences from elementary to high school. In this project I worked with Julien and Annie.

First of all the competencies being assessed. The two big ones that were part of this project were the create and the cause and consequence. Create was “What literacy skills am I using to write, speak, and represent in the texts I create?” and cause and Consequence was “Who or what influenced events to occur and what were the consequences of those events?”. For create I worked effectively to show the elements of worldview in a song of my own and in a collaborative effort. I used my writing skills to show the parts of the song in the form of my own lyrics and used my GarageBand skills to mix the tracks together to make the song sound good. For cause and consequence I made a mind map about who or what has challenged your worldview from elementary to high school. In this it shows all the aspects of worldview and what has effected me from each category.

Next up how to project went we started off with the worldview MindNode for milestone one, this included geography, time, beliefs, society, values, economy and knowledge. We took our mind maps from one of our other projects and added to it in this project.

Milestone two was the individual song lyrics. I enjoyed making this because it gave you a sense of creativity and it was fun to make your lyrics rhyme to what the lyrics were for the R.E.M version.

Milestone three was the final individual song and this was the first big one. This was when I needed to go to a quiet space and record and deal with my voice no matter what. In the end I was proud of my product.

Milestone four was the renaissance cause and consequence. This is where we chose a topic about the renaissance and I chose warfare. I talked about the battle of Marignano and the battle of Pavia.

Milestone five was the final group song that is at the top of this post. In this Me, Julien and Annie put all of our lyrics together to make one mega song. This is also accompanied by pictures of us from grade 7 to grade 8.

Overall this project was fun and I liked that it incorporated music. I am now curious about what the next project for humanities will be. I guess we will see in the next blog post.

The latest scimatics project has been a fun one. Seeing the name “Ultimate Design Challenge” got me intrigued. The big idea for this project was The relationship of between surface area and volume of 3D objects can be used to describe, measure, and compare spatial relationships. “The driving question was “How can we maximize the surface area or volume of an object?”. This then lead us to make our own driving question that better suited our plan for the 3D object so me and my partner Josh made our driving question “How can we design powder skis for maximum surface area?”. Down below is what our skis and ski bindings look like. The next part is the competencies listed below.

Communicating and representing: This competency was about explaining and justifying mathematical ideas and decisions. I met the requirements by clearly explaining the formulas and also showing the steps and what the outcome of what I was measuring was.

Reasoning and analyzing: This competency was about modelling mathematics in contextualized experiences. I met this by writing and labeling the formulas I used in the final presentation and stating what shapes were for whatever formula.

Applying and innovating: This competency was to contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches. I met this by working well and efficiently with my partner in collaboration for our 3D models, calculations and final presentation.

Communicating and representing: This was about Explaining and justifying mathematical ideas and decisions. I met this by creating a keynote presentation and explaining the mathematical decisions that me and my partner made to ultimately find the surface area, volume and ratio of our 3D models.

Overall I enjoyed this project and now I’m looking forward to the next scimatics project associated with cells and diseases.