Spencer Laube

On September 7 we, as a PLP cohort, set off on a massive trip to Camp Capilano. This was a retreat of some sort. The point of us taking a trip at the beginning of the year was to try and bond together. The theme of Grade 10 PLP is audio/ podcasts. We were given the assignment to create a podcast that showed our identity. You would do this by using examples to support your point.

Before we did the big project, our teachers had some other things planned out for us to do. We were dropped off at the Capilano Dam. We were put into groups by throwing candy on the ground and whichever one you ended up taking would be the one that would decide which group you would belong to. I chose Starbursts and was put with the other students that chose Starbursts. We had to make a reality show introduction. Our video was called “Gone Wild”.  It is about different people meeting in a forest and trying to survive. After we were done with that we had our second challenge. We were assigned to walk/ run to Camp Capilano from the Dam. We had to find our way there since no one knew where it was or how to get there.

When we arrived at the camp, we ended up eating lunch and then we were given our third challenge which was to make the same kind of movie as before but instead of making a video, we had to make it by using only audio. This was a lot more challenging because you had to explain a lot more in the audio because you don’t have the video. We finished that and had time for some fun. There was a pool at the camp. We had a fun time.

The night came and it was time to step up and receive the big and final project. This project was to make a podcast about a event that showed your identity. You would have to use an example to prove why you thought it showed your identity. Sam, Simon and I thought about the time back in 9th grade where we started to build a trail in the forest behind my house and as we built it we started to notice how many people started to show up. Soon enough we had about 7-8 people at the trail every time we went. I will link the project below to show you. I thought Camp Capilano was a great time and would do it again

So what are smart goals? Well the Internet says that “A S.M.A.R.T. goal is defined as one that is specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time- bound.” I think a smart goal is something you would like to achieve in the near future that relates to what you like or what you do on a daily basis. Our PLP cohort was asked to make three smart goals. The first goal had to be one that relates to your school life such as grades and attitude. The second one had to show your growth as a PLP learner. The last goal had to show your learning or progression outside of school. Experts believe that setting achieveable goals is a great way to live a healthy life. For example you can set a very common goal such as going on runs and working out more. There are two parts to smart goals. There is the goal and then there is the way you plan to achieve it. A smart goal could be that “I want to lose weight”. In that case I would have to say how I would do it.  For example I would say I should get up and get active by running, walking and working out. This plan would get people one step closer to achieving their goals.

Here are my smart goals and how I plan to achieve them:

Three different smart goals:

I wish to get an average of 89 percent in Science. This will be done by starting to study incrementally before I get word of a test.  I will also ask questions right away if I don’t understand something.

I wish to show more leadership towards leading projects by giving more ideas and taking charge and assigning roles.

I wish to have better stamina in terms of sports. I will do this by going on a run every second day. The run has to be at least 5 km long to achieve my goal. Here is an example of one I did yesterday:

So that is what I think smart goals are, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, realistic, timely, trackable. So now it’s your turn pick three smart goals of your own. It could be anything from exercise to wanting to relax more.

https://youtu.be/32Ib74IN8vY

 

 

The point of this blog post is to explain what I think is the greatest moment in Canadian history. I think that is a really hard question to answer, because Canada is an amazing country withe so many great moments. But I will try anyway. So these past couple of months we have learned about the CPR and general Canadian history. So I am well educated around this subject. So let’s start off with the question what do I think is the greatest moment in Canadian history? My simple answer is I think that the greatest moment is the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Before the CPR Canada was in pieces, it was’t the strong nation that we know so well. It was divided into the Oregon Territory, the North-Western Territory, Rupert’s land, Upper and Lower Canada. and The Maritimes. The railway connected all of these divided areas, most importantly was one of the big factors for the Oregon Territory to join the growing nation of Canada, rather than becoming it’s own nation or joining the U.S. The last reason would have to be that the CPR connected a lot of different cultures together to be come friends. This was good because of all the new trade options that they were presented with. This led to a lot of the residence living better than the were before. Overall I believe that the CPR was a great big positive for the this country.

 

Hello there parents and teachers.   My name is Spencer Laube but you probably already know that. Today I will be showing you my learning over the year,  what I have enjoyed and hope you enjoy hearing about.  Basically, I’m going to explain why I feel I am ready to advance to grade 10.

There are 194 days in a school year for the average teen and I tried to make the best of all of those 194 days. I will be reflecting on 4 subjects over these 194 days. Lets start with Humanities. Humanities is a mix of Socials and English. So in Humanities I would have to say that one of my favourite projects this year  would have to be What Draws Us To Imaginary Worlds.

Matterhorn

I researched the topic and used a Disney ride called the Matterhorn as an example.  I then made a video to explain it.  I had a lot of fun doing this project because I love to make and edit movies.  I improved my planning, research and writing skills because I had to research the content and then write the script to be in line with the photos and video.  There are so many historical facts about this ride such as when it was made and why. I think this project showed the quality of my work and my work ethic.  My first draft was on time and I kept revising it to make it the best quality possible.  Now I have a better understanding of why imaginary worlds are so popular.   Feel free to go watch my video down below.

So that was the Humanities portion of this blog post and now we are going to move on to the Scimatics. Scimitacs is a mix of two classes, science and math. I will talk about the cell city project for science first and then the math monster project for math.

Cell city

The cell city was a project where you would create a city that would parts that would represent functions of a cell. So for example the nucleus of the cell (the brains) would be the mayors office and the city limits was the cell wall and the warehouse was the vacuole.  Since we can’t usually see cells, this helped me understand how a cell is structured and how it functions. I could visualize it better when I compared it to a city.

Overall I had a interesting time making this project because I thought that it was a hard one with all of the planning we had to do to lay it out and then a whole pile of colouring.  This took me a solid day to do and I am proud of this project because of the mark of 90% that got on it.  I think it is an example of my work ethic and quality of work.

Now let’s move on to math. I’d like to talk about the Math Monster project and the Game of Life.

Math Monster

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The math monster was also part of the Frankenstuffie project.  We could make a monster out of any kind of material. I ended up using lego to make this monster. This tied into math because after we made this monster we had to take measurements to figure out the area and perimeter of it. The math monster fits into Frankinstuffie project because the math monster had to play the bad guy or the antagonist in the story. Overall I had a great time making this character in my franked stuffy story. I liked this project a lot because it blended math and humanities which is one of the hardest subjects to blend.

Honourable mention should also go to the Game of Life.  I really enjoyed working out the budgets based on my job and adjusting my plan based on the surprise updates in life.  I learned to get a good education with a well-paid job, make good decisions and save for the unexpected.

Next is Maker time and the exciting Blue Sky project.

Blue Sky

Blue Sky is one of the most coveted projects of the year and I really had fun working on this year’s project.   So year, I was not alone since I partnered with Adam. This time Adam and I built a desk to help students focus on their homework and be more productive.  We researched all about different ways that help kids focus on the work at hand. For example things that help students focus is to have music playing (built in stereo and speakers), water and food (fridge), clean air (plant), timer to set short deadlines, good light (spot and diffused LED, foot bands on the chair and a standing section.   I think I showed teamwork skills and a good work ethic because we both cooperated and worked hard and worked well together.  We took responsibility for finishing the project ahead of time and made a great quality product.  

So on June 15 we plp had our big exhibition night.  Adam and I brought in our desk with its focus and productivity tools and we made sure there were labels and explanations for them.  The only thing I would do differently is that we thought the desk would fit into our van to bring it to the school but it didn’t quite fit so we had to be walked down almost a km.  We were part of the teen group at the exhibition. The night went smooth and Adam and I shared the talking and explaining everyone. Overall I had a great time at the plp exhibition night and I am looking forward to the one next year.

Conclusion

Overall through these last 194 days, I have learned about a lot of subjects like history, science and math. My knowledge of these topics has grown and I have grown in my reading and writing and math skills.  For areas of improvement, I think that would have to be my proofreading and attention to detail when I do things fast, especially longer writing.  I have also learned a lot about my self by doing interesting projects like People at My Table (example Branson, Einstein, Jobs) and I am what I eat.

I do think I have a good attitude and work ethic.  I did all my assignments even if it took me a long time. I was happy to do revisions if something needed improving that I didn’t realize.   Even though something may be hard, I want to do a good job.  I like school and the people at school and that makes learning more fun.   Another example of my good work ethic is my blogs. I have tried to keep up with all of my blogs and i really enjoy doing them. Here is a quote related to my blog from last week. “Spencer is the most on top of his blogs in plp 9” Mr Hughes.  I was really proud to hear that and it’s a good example to show how I’m ready for Grade 10.

Blue sky is one of the most coveted projects of the year and it personally it is one of my favourites. This is the second year I have had experience doing Blue Sky projects and it is fun.  So this time around I was not alone, I partnered with my friend Adam and we built a desk of sorts. It is a desk to help students focus on their homework or the task at hand.  We researched things that were recommended to help improve focus like nice music (stereo/speakers), food and water (fridge), good lighting (LED & spot), timer to set short deadlines, foot exercise bands and a standing section amongst others.

So on June 15 we plp had our big exhibition night. We call this the blue sky exhibition. Adam and I brought in our desk with notes that explained the focus tools and features for the desk.  Adam and I were part of the teen group at the exhibition. This means that anyone that has a project that appeals to there demographic would. The demographics were babys, teens, pets and seniors. We had to carry the desk down the road to the school because it didn’t fit in the van but once it was there, the night went smoothly.  Adam and I shared making the desk and then talking and explaining it to everyone.  People were impressed at the quality of the desk and the little features that make a difference.

Overall I had a great time at the plp exhibition night and I am looking forward to the next one next year.

So today, June 13 2017, we as a seycove plp cohort got a 3D printer and I, Spencer Laube got to use it first so I made a GoPro mount for my GoPro. The reason why I made this is because it was fun to do.  Also  the real case for a GoPro is 65 dollars and if I can get it for free and I think everyone would. Here is a picture of the case.

Update June 17 2017:  It is my birthday and I went biking with the case and the go pro. I crashed and broke the case and cracked my helmet. It is okay.  I just know that it isn’t strong enough to take big impacts.

 

This assignment was to create a presentation that would explain what things you carry wth you on a regular basis. The twist to the project was that the things you carry didn’t have to be physical. They could also be mental. For example I chose my experiences because I carry them with me wherever I go because they make me a better person and it helps me to have different skills in life.

In total there are 10 things that I carry with me.  There are 3 that are physical and there are 7 that are mental. I will start with the physical things. I used a different type of presentation because in the beginning I had my title get pushed to the top and stay there and at the end it dropped back in place. It was fun to learn how to use magic move. I carry my iPhone with me because I use it everyday whether it is for calling people or to occupy myself.  I use it a lot. The second thing that I carry with me is something that really carries me.  It is my bike. I love to ride my bike whether it be to a place or ride it where it is supposed to be ridden which is down the mountain. Anonther reason why I like to ride my bike is because I don’t really like to walk. Another thing that I carry is money. I carry money with me because it is what the world runs on and money is a sign of success for me. So that is all of the physical things that I carry with me. Now we will move on to the mental things. Like I said the biggest mental thing that I carry with me is my experience because they make me a better person and it helps me with different skills in life. Another thing is my family. I chose my family because I love them and they love me so I can carry them with me where ever I go. One other thing is my learning. This is what most kids do 5 out of the 7 days of the week at school and it is what most students spend the first 24 years of their life doing. Another thing that I carry with me is my energy. This is how everyone observes me and how I spend my day. Another one of the things that I value a lot is all of the sports I play. I give the sports I play a lot of credit for the person that I am today. I believe sports has helped me in all areas of my life. I carry my attitude with me because it is how I live my day and I would be a different person without it.  Finally I carry my friends with me because they are the people that I have a lot of great memories with. I hope you have enjoyed me talk about the things that I carry with me on a regular basis.

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As well as making an iMovie I will be talking about some other things i did in this section in health and career.

To start I had to make this timeline of my life from the day I was born to the day I made it. I used different events in my life that made a big impact in my life for example the day I was born, first day in school, broke my wrist, and first time riding a bike.

Another thing that we did as part of this project is that we had to write 100- 150 words that that describe what we think is a gift in terms of a gift in a sport. So this guy said that a gift wasn’t something that you were born with you but that you have to work for it and I totally agree. It goes from what you are good at it to a talent to a gift. You have to earn things in life and gifts are just the same no different.

Lastly My Fairy Tale iMovie. This was one of the funniest iMovies I have made this year. I got to use some of the older photos that I had and I got to use all different kinds of technology to make this video. Some of the requirements were that you had to show who will you be, what will you be doing in your future and
how your past lead you to this future. I tried to show these things in the best way I could and I hope you like to. Feel free to watch it and enjoy.

 

So the infamous Frankenstuffie project is here. This is one of the biggest projects this year in my opinion. It started off like any other project that we have done this year because it starts with a story board. So we did that and then we got those put through the ringer not once but twice. After we got those approved we went on to the  epistolary story where we made them in chapters where they would be put through the ringer as well not once but twice. The whole point of this project was to show how the animal that we chose would adapt to its environment. For me the animal didn’t adapt to his usual environment but the environment that he put himself into and pursued change. I felt like I had one of the more unique stories in the class because my story was completely under water.

My Frankenstuffie was an orca whale who befriended a group of seals and then adapted to become a vegetarian so they would hang out with him and not be afraid that he would eat them.  The other adaptation was when he gained a set of wings get more speed and power to save his seal friends from the fishing boat nets. It was a touching storyline.

We ended up making 8 chapters in the story ranging from 2,300 words to 5000 words. So once those were done then it was time to move on to the actual part of these movies where it was time to make them. We made a lot of revisions and edits to all parts of this project. I had to re-record the vocals a lot to make it consistent. Don’t get me wrong. It may have taken a long time and a lot of effort but it made them a lot better and it was the good way to do it. So we put the movie edits into the ringer and they came out pretty good as we went on and on.

Hope you enjoy these movies because I enjoyed making them.

https://youtu.be/b93uL2PiiQ0

This is one of the drafts that I made

 

In this project we had to create an image of yourself that would be made up of totally food. It had to be made up of different foods that you eat on a day to day basis. For me my food for the day looks like a bagel, a lot of fruit, steak or some sort of meat, vegetables, pasta, a lot of water, and some chocolate milk or a protein shake. I thought that this was an interesting idea for a school assignment and it was cool. Some of the problems I encountered was that the app I wanted to use didn’t work but then I fix it and it came out pretty good.

What I eat isn’t the only  part of the criteria for this blog post. The other one was to watch a TED-talk about this guy who tried to become the healthiest person that he could be. He started by going for his mind first and he read the Encyclopaedia Brittanica to get a lot of knowledge. Then he went for his religion and became a Jewish preacher and went hard on that subject for a year and lastly he went for his body and he went to every doctor he could find and he asked them about the healthiest way I could live. They told him different things and then he lived like this for a year. He told everyone that this was actually a bad idea because it made him have no social life and the doctors said that socializing is the best thing for you. He was so caught up in staying healthy that he neglected his social life. If you would like to watch it, the link is below.

So thats it, this project is finally done. It has been along time in the making. The only part of this project I didn’t like was that I didn’t get to go on the trip but it was ok because I had a great time with my bros Sam and Sjmond. While they were away we had to research and make a video about what draws us to imaginary worlds. We would use a Disney ride as an example for this video. This meant researching the topic, preparing a storyboard and script, finding videos and recording.  My ride was the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn is a very fast and fun ride meant to give you the experience of riding down the real Matterhorn mountain in Switzerland on a bobsled. Imaginary worlds appeal to any age group and give people a chance to have fun and get away from the stress of the real world. Overall I think this is a great project to do. I improved my research, planning, recording and editing skills.  It really taught me about what draws us to imaginary worlds. Feel free to go watch my final draft and leave a comment in the comment discription below.

In Science 9 we had to do an experiment that extracted DNA from a strawberry and see what it looked like.   My partner was Adam. First we started off by placing the strawberry in a plastic bag, then added 5 ml of dish soap,  2.5 ml of salt and 25 ml of water to the plastic bag. We pounded the mix together and poured it into a test tube until it hit halfway. We added 10 ml of ice cold ethanol till it hit 3/4 full.

Then we watched the solution until we saw strands form and clump together and become bigger.  This white film had strands of DNA. We put those stands on a slide and looked at it under a microscope.  Under the microscope it looked a satellite photo of a white beach with spider webs on it.  The webs were the strands of DNA.

This process worked because the soap dissolved the cell membrane and the salt broke up the protein chains to help release the DNA.  The DNA didn’t dissolve in the cold alcohol so you could see it better.  I think it would be fun to do this experiment with other foods to see how DNA looks different in other organisms.

We also had to make a DNA model out of materials that a 6 year old would use to make arts and crafts. We had beads, pipe cleaners, macaroni and other arts and craft materials.  We used the pipe cleaners and straws to be the make the strands and used the beads and macaroni to be the cells in the DNA.

By building this model and doing the experiment, I have a better idea about cells and DNA that I didn’t know  made up food and other organisms in the world.  It helped put it in perspective since we don’t usually see the cells.

So this is another blog post about my amazing experience at the Destination Imagination provincial tournament. 6:22 am, I woke up too early for DI. 6:40am we headed to Destination Imagination with all of our props. 8:00 am, we arive at the high school in Surrey British Columbia.

Destination Imagination, or DI for short, is a tournament where teams from different schools compete against each other and try to finish set challenges. This year my team chose the engineering challenge. This was a task to create a structure that would have to be under 25 grams, be made of balsa wood and hold as much weight as possible. Then we had to create a story that would go along with this and it had to be on a international issue.

We prepared by planning the performance aspect of this project first and put more focus into the structure later. We started by brainstorming about what the topic should be and we came up with global warming. We thought this would be a great topic because this is a big issue for the whole world with the polar ice caps melting. Then we included different nations and at the end had them agree on how they could fix this issue. They worked together to build a rocket (the structure) to explore living on another planet.  We used a projector to show a picture of the inside of the rocket and played the sound and countdown for the rocket lifting off.

My group consisted of Lucas, Adam, Sam, Michael and myself. When it came time to present our story as well as our structure we had little bumps like the background falling over and not having enough time for the structure testing. We ended up putting 90 pounds on our structure and doing very well compared to our last presentation in terms of presenting and making the structure work. Even though we had a much better presentation compared to last time we still ended up placing lower than I hoped.

I learned a lot of different things from problem solving, thinking on your feet, engineering, script writing and presenting. I even learned about double checking important facts because we weighed the structure with more than one scale the second time around.

I believe that this is a great challenge for kids to undertake outside of school if they would like to try it.

Here are some photos

 

 

In plp we were given an assignment to make a list of our role models who would sit at our board room table. Here are the people that I chose.

BRETT RHEEDER

Brett Rheeder was born on February 16 1993 in Mount Albert Ontario Canada. He is one of the world’s best free ride/slopestyle mountain bikers. Brett won the XGames in 2013 and the Red Bull Joyride in 2016. In 2012 Brett sustained a possible career-ending injury. Brett broke his back and people thought he could not make a comeback. He worked hard through the pain and got back to the highest level and is a constant finisher on the podium. This is why he is one of my role models. He proved people wrong and made a huge, successful comeback. He overcame the odds.

STEVE JOBS

Steve Jobs was born on February 24 1955 in San Francisco California. Steve graduated from Homestead high school. He went to college to learn but he didn’t get a diploma. Jobs partnered with Steve Wozniak and they started Apple Computer in Steve’s garage. They funded the business by selling their van and calculator. From running a business in a garage to being the cofounder and CEO’s of one of the biggest companies in history, Steve had an amazing climb up the ladder of success. He made computers user-friendly and available to all consumers. Steve is one of my mentors because he didn’t complain that he didn’t have any money to start Apple but he just powered through and did what he needed to do to achieve his goals.

JIMMY BUTLER

Jimmy Butler was born on September 14 1989 in Houston Texas. When he was 13 his mom abandoned him and Jimmy was left to live on the streets but instead of turning to crime and drugs Jimmy turned to basketball. Everyday after school Jimmy would go to the gym to practice the sport he loved. When Jimmy went to college he was not an all-star he was a bench rider. When he got drafted to the NBA, he was the 78th overall pick. When people told him to give up he kept going. Now Jimmy is a NBA starter and an Allstar. Jimmy is my mentor because he never gave up even when everyone told him to and even when there was no one there for him. He still pulled it together and made his dream a reality.

ALBERT ENSTEIN

Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm German. He was a theoretical physicist who developed scientific theories and won the Nobel Prize for Physics. When Albert was a child he was told that he was too dumb for school and that he was not going to do well in life. Little did they know that Albert was smart in a different way. Albert was turned away until someone saw his gift and they hailed him to be a real genius. This is why he is my mentor. He was told he was too dumb and he kept pushing and pushing until someone saw it too. He never gave up.

RICHARD BRANSON

Richard Branson was born on July 18 1950 in Blackheath, London England. When Richard was a kid he suffered in school form dyslexia and teachers told him that he was not smart enough to succeed. His mother always did though and when Branson was 16 he dropped school and started his own business. Now Richard owns Virgin Group and is worth over 5.2 billion dollars. I chose Richard Branson because he never let the haters get to him and he just kept moving forward and that determination got him to a nice place. He used his learning style to his advantage and developed a strong work ethic to make him successful.

As PLP students we were given an assignment to make a video for this contest called Here’s my Canada. This contest is for Canada’s150th birthday. We had to make a video that would be 30 secs long that would explain what Canada means to us. I originally decided to make my video about pride and the history of great things Canada has done to help people in Canada as well as countries outside of Canada. After reviewing my first draft, I decided to make it more personal and use clips that I took on my trip across Canada this summer as well as mountain biking, cliff jumping and being outdoors. I used Explain Everything as well as iMovie to make this video. I Ised multiple different camera angles to make the view more interested. I decided to make this a video because I thought it would give it a different feel to the video after looking at a lot of the submissions. Feel free to check out the video below.

Here is my first draft. You can tell that it isn’t very close to the final because I decided to go in a different direction.

https://youtu.be/sx_-voq30BE

Our assignment was to build a monster that would play a key role in a movie that we were making for Humanities and to learn about geometry. To start I made a draft of my monster.  Then I thought what material could I use to make this monster. I was thinking  about Styrofoam but I didn’t end up going ahead with that idea because it didn’t stick in the places I wanted it to. I ended up building the monster out of Lego because it stuck together better. The monster included a head, torso, 2 arms, 2 legs, and some skis. When I was done building the math part came into play and it was time to figure out what the surface area and volume of the monster would be. Next we are going to make a movie with the monster and have a hero that will take the monster down. I learned how to calculate the surface area and volume of an object and who to use different materials to make things.

Here is a picture

 

 

Here are some highlights from my portfolio of the learning I have done so far in Grade 9

EXAMPLE OF WORK FROM FIELD SCHOOL – THE PAUL ALLEN PROJECT 

Paul Allen Blog

We were given a person to research who had a crazy idea and we were asked to study Paul Allen. I enjoyed this group project for the Seattle trip because I like to film and edit. I improved my editing skills and tried some new techniques. For example, I was really proud of how I worked hard to line up the action movements of the drone footage with the beats of the music that accompanied the video.  I think it made the video more professional and kept the viewers’ attention. Here is a clip from the video. If I could make this project even better, I would have interviewed Paul Allen and included this in the video.

 

 

EXAMPLE OF CLASSROOM LEARNING – SCRIPTWRITING, VISUALS AND VOICEOVERS  

Matterhorn

I think that I have made a huge jump in the quality and productivity of my scriptwriting and voiceovers this year.  For example, when I did the Industrial Revolution Railroad project, I must have tried over twenty times to make the voiceover sound good and match the visuals in Explain Everything.  I kept practising and slowly improved,  Next, I worked hard on my Frank Sinatra Explain Everything project and created more eye-catching visuals accompanied by a longer script and more fluent voiceover. Then for the Fantasy video, I improved my video editing skills and the quality of my script and voiceover.  I think it helps that I can hear myself speak when I work on these projects and I can keep evaluating, editing and improving this work. Here is a clip.

 

DESTINATION IMAGINATION – GROWTH MINDSET

Destination Imagination Blog

I believe that I showed a growth mindset this year because I felt much more comfortable performing in front of an audience.  Last year I was nervous to perform but this year I was as cool as an ice cube. This year there was a problem right before we performed because the weight-bearing structure was too heavy and we had to rush to strip it to 24.99 grams to meet the weight requirement of 25 grams. Unfortunately, this weakened the structure but we kept our cool and our group performed the presentation the way we rehearsed and it went very well. Overall, the project was a great experience in teamwork, creativity, scriptwriting, planning and implementation.  I’m looking forward to Provincials and doing even better with a stronger structure.

We were given a task to create an inquiry question about Harry Potter. My question was ” Can I create a Facebook page for Hogwarts school to promote the school like a business?”

I designed a page that showed why it’s a good school to attend and information about it. It has photos of the school and students, a tour, the houses you could be in and some classes you could take like Potions.  The main thing is the sign up button. It takes you to a survey to complete to tell you which Hogwarts house you would attend.  I had to do a lot of research about Harry Potter because I knew only a little bit about the books. I watched about 5 movies I had not seen before and did research on the internet.

When I started this project I thought that it was going to be easy but I was wrong. I thought that I was just going to create a page and a survey to do but it was a lot more work than that. I had some difficult times building this Facebook page. For example, the link for signing up was not working at first and trying to find hidden features.

For the exhibition I had a poster board that shows the qr code that takes you to the Facebook page as well as all the houses and a description of the Facebook page. I also had my MacBook open to my Facebook page so that people could scroll through it. I had a separate paper that showed people the results of the survey.

I had a lot of people take the survey and many said they loved it. I had them sign up to which house they where assigned after the survey.  The majority of the people were part of the Ravenclaw House with Hufflepuff coming in second with Slytherin and Gryffindor tied for third.

My group for the exhibition set up our station like the great hall for Hogwarts. We had fake candles hanging from the ceiling and we had Christmas lights because it was Christmas time. We also had to have a food element. My group chose a chocolate fountain with things to dip in it.

Over all I thought that the Harry Potter exhibition was a good one. There were a lot of great projects that I saw. The library looked like the real Hogwarts school and the students looked like real Hogwarts students.

 

 

Destination Imagination, or DI for short, is a tournament where teams from different schools compete against each other and try to finish set challenges. This year my team chose the engineering challenge. This was a task to create a structure that would have to be under 25 grams, be made of balsa wood and hold as much wood as possible. Then we would have to create a story that would go along with this and it had to be on a international issue.

We prepared by planning the performance aspect of this project first and put more focus into the structure later. We started by brainstorming about what the topic should be and we came up with global warming. We thought this would be a great topic because this is a big issue for the whole world with the polar ice caps melting. Then we included different nations and at the end had them agree on how they could fix this issue.  They worked together to build a rocket (the structure) to explore living on another planet.  This is what we chose to build for the structure:

.

We worked hard on our script, backdrops and projector slide show to prepare for the competition. We all worked well together and rehearsed so that we were well prepared.

The regional tournament was an good one.  The only problem was that when we weighed the structure before performing at DI it was heavier than when we weighed it before the tournament. So before we went on stage we had to shave down the balsa wood structure until it met the new scale weight.  Unfortunately this meant it wasn’t as strong and one section broke when the first weight went on it.  The good news was that we didn’t let that distract our performance and we didn’t get flustered.

We went there to learn and we know if we can address the structure issue, then we can do well at the Provincials.  I liked how we tied our structure into our story.

In Destination Imagination this year I learned a lot. Our group worked well together from the planning to the implementation stage.  I learned how to use my creativity to the best of my ability when we designed the props and projector scenes and how to make a good script that wows the audience. I was more comfortable performing this time in front of an audience,even when there was the structure problem.  We had lots of good feedback from the audience.  It was fun and I’m looking forward to Provincials!

The Game of Life is also known as GOL. We are going to call it that from now on. GOL is the absolute best math unit, at least I think so. I think the aspect of being older and having to deal with real life problems is the most useful math you can learn in school.

We started with getting a job and I got to be a pharmacist. I got paid $104,678 a year but the only downside was that I started with $65,043 in debt. The next thing was to consolidate my debt. I found that the hardest part of the whole unit but it taught me how to work with my debt. I hope that I will never have to do it in real life though.  My goal is to never be in debt. The next step was to pick a debt repayment plan and use that as the monthly budget. For the first year I rode a bike to work instead of driving and made some budget cuts but in the second year it was a different story.

In the second year I got married to Lucas which helped out my budget a lot. We shared most things surrounding the budgets. As a couple were able to purchase the biggest home as well as go on a lot of big vacations.

In year three I was given the ‘you had a baby card.’ It was a pleasant surprise to find out Lucas was pregnant. This put a damper on our spending sprees a little bit.

After that we had year during which I didn’t change my income or expenses very much.  It gave me an extra $8,000 dollars because of a holiday bonus but that was about it.

After all that I had a great time doing the math for this project and seeing how much to spend in different aspects of my life. I do really think this could help me down the road.  I learned how to budget and plan and the importance of having a good job with a good salary and to be careful not to spend too much.  This unit helped us realize how the different stages of life can cost a lot but if you plan ahead, it can work out.

On November 30, our PLP class went to Seattle Washington USA on a field trip to visit different places that were related to people who had crazy ideas. Then we made a movie about one of those people. My group researched and did a movie about Paul Allen. We visited the EMP and Microsoft. These were dramatically impacted by Paul Allen because Paul was a cofounder of Microsoft.

Paul was such an iconic figure because he was the business partner of the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, and they had big ideas.  Everyone thought they were idiots because they had the crazy idea to create a computer that you could have in your own home. This was such a crazy idea because years ago, a computer filled a big room and you would book time to work with it.  It would be like saying today everyone could have their own spaceship. But they proved everyone wrong and because of that Paul is  one of the richest men in the world. This allows him to buy what he wants to fulfil his childhood dreams. For example he owns the Seattle Seahawks as well as the Portland Trailblazers.

I really enjoyed this field study trip and improved my editing skills for the video.  One of my favourite parts of the video was when I figured out how to line up the beats of the music to the action of the drone footage of the Seattle space needle.  I think we made an informative and entertaining video. Please feel free to watch it and learn more about why we think Paul Allen was so crazy.

While most of my PLP 9 cohort went off to sunny Florida some of my friends and I stayed here in snowy Vancouver.  We had to research and make a video about what draws us to imaginary worlds. We would use a Disney ride as an example for this video. Even though I didn’t go on the trip I still got to participate in this activity. This meant researching the topic, preparing a storyboard and script, finding videos and recording.  My ride was the Matterhorn. The Matterhorn is a very fast and fun ride meant to give you the experience of riding down the real Matterhorn mountain in Switzerland on a bobsled. Imaginary worlds appeal to any age group and give people a chance to have fun and get away from the stress of the real world. Overall I think this is a great project to do. I improved my research, planning, recording and editing skills.  It really taught me about what draws us to imaginary worlds. Feel free to go watch my video down below.

In science we as grade 9’s did a lab that made something very cool. We soaked copper in chlorine. We kept washing it out and out and out till it was the right consistency at the bottom. Then we poured out the leftover liquid and scooped the contents. Then we took the wet sand-like substance and put it over a bunsen burner and it made a cool green flame. You can see the exsparement happen below.

Here is 2 videos of the lab

I enjoyed this lab I thought that it made a very awesome green effect. It helped me under stand more about the elements and what happens when you mix them together or in this case soaking.

Our goal for this project is to create a super hero that is made up  of an element that we choose as a group. Then we have to design and create an IMovie trailer for that super hero.

For our super hero element, my group has chosen hydrogen because it is very light which means that he or she can fly and it is flammable so he or she can be set on fire. I wish that my group could function a little better because most of us are but there is one person that is not and it is hard to get work done when that person is dragging the group down.

I think that this is a good project and I am having fun doing it. I really like to film and make movies so the trailer will be fun. I like how Ms Pye mixed super heros with Science. It is a good combination for people that likes super heroes.

We were given a task to build a Rube Goldberg machine that incorporates a steam punk element and has a lot of metaphors for the revolution that we had chosen. First we started with research on the revolution that we chose. My team researched the American Revolution. We started off by doing a lot of research on what happened, why it happened and the factors that led to the revolution occurring. Here is a website that explains the American Revolution. Here is a picture of the time line we made of the american revolution.

I thought that my group shared the workload well.  We shared how much each person worked on each part of the machine. By the time we had to create the movie, my primary job was to get all the voices and edit the movie and make sure it met all of the requirements. I also had to make sure that it all made sense and that there was nothing that was not suppose to be there. We had a lot of challenges when making this project. Some examples are trying to get pipe cut to put a marble through it and trying to make an elevator for marbles.

Here is a short movie of all the work we did on the Metaphor Machine.

In this project I learned a lot about the American Revolution and how it shaped who America is today.  I also learned about metaphors and how they can be a symbol  for a place, idea, event or person such as putting the teapot on the machine representing the Boston Tea Party. I also gained more knowledge about working in a group.

Here is the final metaphor Machine video

https://youtu.be/YqWzKFaz8Xs

On Wednesday November 2 it was ‘Take Our Kids To Work’ day.  I went with my dad. He works for Vancouver Coastal Health.  He is the Manager, Home and Community Care, Palliative Care and Hospice for  the North Shore. I love think that it was a cool experience to have when you need to start to think about what you want to do for a career.

I liked that you get to meet all kinds of interesting people that you get to work with. I was surprised by how much my dad manages and the number of people in his areas like nurses and supervisors and physiotherapists.   I didn’t like all the e-mails he has to answer.  I wouldn’t want to do that all the time.

We went to his three offices. One of them was at the hospital where I got to meet a lot of cool doctors and I got to go into the ICU ( Intensive Care Unit ).  I interviewed people in three different jobs.  One was a Program Leader, one was an Environmental Health Officer and one was a Physician.  I would love to work as a doctor and help people get better so I’ll tell you more about that interview.

I think that the job shadow did impact my career choice because I used to think that I would be ok with being a manager. But now I do not want to. Before I didn’t want to be a doctor but now I do.   I talked to Dr.Shaw and she said something very interesting.  “You don’t have to be the person with the highest IQ but you have to be that person who will work very hard and study a lot.” I asked Dr Shaw some of the questions from the sheet and she gave some interesting things to think about if I want to become a doctor.

Question 1: What are the essential skills necessary to perform your job?

“You have to be prepared to work hard and  have a lot commitment and application.”

Questions 2: What are some of the duties performed in during a typical day?

“You will have to see assigned patients. Constantly adjust and plan for your day.”

Question 3: What are the academic qualifications for your position?

“You will need a Undergraduate degree’ medical degree than a specialty degree and than you will have to pass university exam.”

Question 4: What are employement prospects in your field?

” Employment prospects are good with doctors wanting to work less hours.”

Overall I think that this is a good experience to have when you are in grade 9. It shows you what a day would be like in a certain job and it could change your mind on your career goal.

 

The goal of the assignment was to work in a team to create a dream house with everything you want in it. We had to do some research for what we wanted our house to look like.  We used a website called floor planner. It works very well. After that we had to determine what the scale was that we were going to use, we used square feet.  We had some requirements that we had to follow. One of those was that the kitchen had to be up to code with the government standards.

We made some blue prints of the house. After I got some ideas for the house we started to build it. Some of these ideas included the pool, basketball court, and tennis court on the roof. Then we had to find out how many square feet was in the house and how much it was worth in different places throughout different neighbourhoods. My group was me, Sam, Robbie and Ethan. We made a 3d model of the house in Minecraft. We had a nice pool with a see-though floor and we had a tennis and basketball court and helipad on the roof of our house. I like that me and Sam had a hot tub in our room. We were going for the modern style house and I think that we made that happen. I really enjoyed this project. I thought it showed how creative we can be. I think that this was a great project and would do it again.

Here is the layout

We were given a task. That task was to create a machine that would explain three things. One was Crane Briton’s theory of revolution. here is my blog post about Crane Briton’s  theory of revolution. Another was to show a revolution you where given (my group was given the American revolution). The third one was to show the key points of the revolution in your machine. The machine is a metaphor that represents the revolution and change and it will have simple circuits.  By end of this project I think that the machine that my group builds is going to show all of those things.

After my team researched about the American Revolution, the major events were put on a timeline. A major event that stood out for us was the Boston Tea Party. The American colonists poured the tea into the harbour because they were sick of the taxes. I thought it was interesting when the British navy moved up to Halifax so it touched on what is now Canada. Below is the timeline:

Here is a link to some more information on the American Revolution

Making the machine would be very hard if you or some people in your group didn’t have the right tools or the right experience. It took a lot of sawing and drilling and screwing things. We used wood glue to hold the wood pieces together and we used screws to put everything onto the base of the machine.

We made sure share the work evenly throughout the group. My role in the group was to build the machine (sawing, drilling, putting things onto the machine). I was also assigned to help make the circuit work to pull the marble up.

In our machine metaphor, the teapot that is tipping over represents the colonists’ anger boiling over when they throw out the tea into the ocean.  There is a boat that moves down that represents the boat going to Halifax.  We are going to add a couple more.  We are making good progress on our project.

Here is a time lapse of our team working on the project:

I’ve recently finished a project to show three impacts that the railway had on Britain during the Industrial Revolution.  Here is some information on the Industrial Revolution:  Industrial revolution . The impacts are presented as a visual essay in Explain Everything.  Here is how I tackled the project:

I started by chosing the most interesting topics I could find and did some research on the causes and consequences. Then I made my first outline using the template we were given to show what the Explain Everything would look like and the content. Later I did some more in-depth research on my topics to find more facts and added more consequences. For example when I first looked into political impacts, I originally said that politicians could now travel more and reach people farther away.  Then I found some consequences of politicians travelling more.  It meant they could raise awareness of their cause like the unfair election rules.  In that case, they got support from across the country as they travelled by rail to make elections fairer and available to more people.  That is a big impact.  I updated the outline.

Here is the outline

First Draft:  Once I had my content I went into Creative Commons and found photos that matched my outline. Then I found pictures to make animations on the slides.  I updated my visual essay outline with information on the pictures and sources.  I started with a few tester slides for my first draft to see how to record the voiceover and animations.  I added titles to the slides to explain the content and made sure I had references in the Outline of my sources. It was harder to time the animations with my voice recording than I thought. I wasn’t happy with my first draft so I made some changes to create a Draft 2 before handing it in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td0zfMFb06U

Second Draft:  In my second draft, I added slides for a title, introduction and conclusion.  I changed some of the pictures to make them better.  An older looking print was okay to use because it fit with the Victorian era.  I updated the animations and the voice recordings. I practiced this many times to try and keep improving it.  I used app smashing.  In my conclusion I also related the introduction of the railway in Britain to the internet today.  I think they both have had a big impact.  When I was done the second draft I went to one of my fellow students for them to critique it. I got some very good feedback. Then I went and made some changes from the input I got from my classmate to start working on my third and final draft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVzgYUdeWuc

Third Draft:  The final revisions I made included adding more text to the slides to explain why it was important.  This reinforced what I said in the narration. I also made sure text in the slide showed up more so I put it on white background. I also re-recorded my narration for several slides to try and make it sound smoother.  As a double-check, I went back and confirmed that I had met and exceeded all the requirements 1)  beginning middle and end  2)  three different causes and consequences, 3) at least one voiceover (I had six), 4) animation on every slide and 5) used only Creative Commons.  I think it turned out pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujGYRZ8I4aM

Fourth and Final Version

Below is my fourth and final draft of my Explain Everything.  I took my teacher’s feedback and made some changes.  I have fewer words because I have voice overs on each slide.  I added some more animation and better quality of recordings.   I now know more about using Explain Everything and how the railway impacted Britain during the Industrial Revolution.

https://youtu.be/gWZAoDktd8A

 

My question is how effective would walkers be in today’s military?  I compared it to a tank to help figure this out.

In Leviathan, walkers are a kind of Clanker machine used to travel and to fight on land or sometimes sea. They are based on Darwinist fabricated beasts and were invented to fight with them. Walkers are used by the military and by some civilians for travelling. I will describe some of the type of walkers that the Clankers use in Leviathan. I will also show the pros and cons and if walkers would be effective in the military.

Walker:

Walkers in Leviathan
One type of walker in Leviathan is The Herkules. It is an eight-legged walker and it moves pretty fast for a walker. Another one in the book is called The Stormwalker. It is a two legged walking machine and Alek drives it. Let’s focus on the Stormwalker.

Stormwalker:

Stormwalkers are war machines, used for light battles and scouting runs because they can run pretty fast. It takes a lot of training to drive one. They have dual machine guns that produce a lot of noise and smoke. The guns are operated through vision slits but they should have bullet proof glass to protect the shooters. They have to wear face masks. If the walker is knocked over it is hard to get it up again. They move around by using their two legs that are heavily protected by metal. The main body is large and bulky. There are fuel tanks mounted outside the main body above the legs. It is designed this way so that the crew don’t get killed if the fuel tanks explode. If they do explode then they will be without fuel. There are  a few places for the crew to look outside to see what is going on, including a hatch on top. The engine block is mounted on the back and the Stormwalker has a balance system to help it stay upright.

Another Stormwalker

Findings:  Effectiveness of a walker compared to a tank:
Tanks and armoured vehicles in general have most of the armour in the front. The side and rear armour is 1/3 or 1/4 the thickness of the front armour. Since the walker is not as long as a tank, it can have heavier armour on the sides. Smaller walkers require one or two men crews vs 4 or 5 crewmen in traditional tanks. Walkers require less manufacturing resources to build them. Tanks have the treads to help them move cross country and they work best in open country. They can shoot at their targets a mile away. Tanks are not as effective in built- up areas like in cities, forests and where there is rough terrain. That’s where the walkers have the advantage. They are very mobile and can move around obstacles and over rough ground easier. Also tanks usually have to stop when they are shooting but not the walkers. The treads of a tank are much weaker than the legs of the walker when it comes to direct fire.

Here is what the inside of a stormwalker looks like

Overall, I think the effectiveness of a walker in the military depends on the situation.  When comparing a walker to a tank, the location is important.  Tanks are good for flat open areas. Tanks work best in teams. Their role is to break through and destroy as much as possible. If it is not an open area and there a lot of trees or rocks or urban obstacles, a walker would be better. The smaller walkers are even more agile because they are lighter and can move faster. The world is becoming more populated and developed now so a walker is good for those areas.

Creative Element:
My creative element is a picture of the ideal war machine. I took the best parts of a walker and a tank and put them together. All the different angles stop the enemy from using radar on it. There are port holes on every side so the crew can see from every angle. There are guns on every side and one big missile launcher. It is smaller than a Stormwalker so it won’t tip over so easily. Scott Westerfeld might want to use it in his next book.

Here are some of the links that I used for research:

thortrains

board game geeks

cyklop walker

 

It’s time to dig deeper into Crane Brinton’s theory about revolutions.  The question I will be answering today is “Why has Crane Brinton’s theory of revolutions stood the test of time since it was written in the 1930’s?”  Back then things were a lot different.  There were no computers, internet or cell phones like today.  The revolutions he studied to come up with his theory were a long time ago.  What makes the theory useful today?

Brinton was a historian who wrote the book The Anatomy of Revolution in 1938. It examined four revolutions (English, American, French and Russian) in order to find the common pattern between them.  His theory compared a revolution to a disease with a high fever over four stages.   Stage 1 is incubation when there are some signs of concern and injustice.  Stage 2  is the moderate stage where moderate leaders try to make improvements.   Stage 3 is the crisis stage which is violent and radicals control the government.  Stage 4 is the recovery stage where the radicals are repressed and there is a slow return to quieter times.

https://youtu.be/7GagpR79KkQ

Easy to Understand:    Brinton’s theory continues to be relevant because he used a metaphor that is easy to understand by any generation. This makes it useful for teachers when teaching students about revolutions.  Revolutions can be long and complicated but this makes it clearer.

Applicable to Other Revolutions:    Students can apply the metaphor to analyze other revolutions (past and present), not just the four Brinton used to come up with his theory.  There have been revolutions since the 1930’s that can be analyzed using his theory.  Brinton also gave students insight on revolutions when he said simply “revolutions are born of hope”.

Explainable With Modern Technology:  Even though Briton’s theory is older, it can be used with modern technology and culture to help explain a revolution to a young generation.  For example, here is a video that I found by Jerome Lingo that applies Brinton’s theory to The Hunger Games:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztDaSnAB6QQ 

Well-researched:   The theory has lasted a long time because it was well-researched and carefully put together.  Brinton was an expert in history and revolutions and he did a lot of work to back up his findings.  He even went out and did lectures about his theory before he published it to get feedback and make his book even better.   With feedback from audiences, he could check it was understandable.

Updated:    Another reason it has lasted is because Brinton kept the book up to date and he kept revising it so it was re-published every so often.  He added titles to the bibliography and included an important epilogue in the last edition. Brinton’s The Anatomy of Revolution became an evolving, updated book.

Not Just for Schools:    Brinton’s theory has proven useful over the years because it has not only been used in schools but in other areas like government and news reporting. For example, reporters have talked about it when looking at the revolution in Egypt.  In the 1960’s Crane Brinton gave the US government’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee a lesson in revolutions focusing on Vietnam.  US President Jimmy Carter was advised about the Iranian Revolution based on the principles of Mr Brinton’s theory. Brinton’s theory is used to help understand current revolutions and try to forecast what will happen next with them.

Still A Lot of Interest in Major Revolutions:   Brinton used four key revolutions that are still studied by students today and the general public are still very interested in them.  For example, the French Revolution has had impacts that lasted hundreds of years.   Every year thousands of people flock to the French Revolution historical sites in and around Paris.  Here is a slide show I put together that shows how the French Revolution fits into Brinton’s theory and it uses photos taken on my vacation to France.  This is another example of how Brinton’s theory can be combined with modern times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GagpR79KkQ&feature=youtube_gdata

Summary:   In summary, Brinton’s theory has stood the test of time because it was well researched, regularly updated and it stands up to scrutiny. It is easy for students to understand so they can learn about past and present revolutions. It is helpful in many areas like school, university, government and reporting.  It is a theory that can be explained using modern techniques to update it for today’s generation.   People today are still interested in learning about revolutions. Brinton’s theory is simple to use and understand and he put in a lot of work to pull it together and keep it useful.

Sources:

Keynote photos belong to S Laube

Slideplayer: Brinton photo source: http://slideplayer.com/slide/9030305/

For picture of White House   http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=13611

Culture Travel Guide:  http://www.culturaltravelguide.com/french-revolution-in-1789-historical-sites-paris-part-2

PBS:     http://www.pbs.org/marieantoinette/life/

A and E History:   http://www.history.com/topics/napoleon

The Five Stages of Egypt’s Revolution by C Holmes June 2012:  http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/06/15/the-five-stages-of-egypts-revolution/

Brinton Teaches Senators Lesson About Revolution – The Harvard Crimson February 20, 1968    http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1968/2/20/brinton-teaches-senators-lesson-about-revolution/

Amazon Book Reviews:   https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/0394700449/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_viewpnt_lft?k=The+Anatomy+of+Revolution&showViewpoints=1&pageNumber=1&filterByStar=positive

Like Success Quotes:    http://likesuccess.com/author/crane-brinton

Anatomy of a Classic:  Crane Brinton’s The Anatomy of Revolution  Matthew Beland Oct 2008 Paper  https://books.google.ca/books?id=-jUvsJVUBpsC&pg=PA184&lpg=PA184&dq=anatomy+of+a+revolution+brinton+still+referred+to&source=bl&ots=aoWB5D_myk&sig=_2R7JcdWB88jMWf4mYWPqnfmiXI&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=anatomy%20of%20a%20revolution%20brinton%20still%20referred%20to&f=false

This summer I had a lot of fun. One of my favourite things to do was to go mountain biking with my friends. I went on a lot of different trails. Some of them where Boogie man, Boogie nights, Corkscrew and Dales. I also enjoyed swimming in lakes up the coast. I also had a lot of fun swimming in the Cove with my friends.  I enjoyed seeing relatives and trying out their trampoline.  We also had family visiting from Switzerland this summer and we showed them around Vancouver.  They were impressed with the city.  Another highlight was going to the Blue Jays game.

Please see my other blog post for more highlights of our family trip:  http://www.blog44.ca/spencerl/2016/08/29/good-bye-summer/

Here are some pictures from my summer

 

 

This summer I went on vacation with my family and visited Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and Ottawa.  We flew into Toronto and drove to Kingston, Montreal and Ottawa and flew home from there.  I found Toronto to be like a mini New York. A tour guide said that Toronto is used to film movies set in New York because it looks similar.  I really liked to take pictures there like this one I took on a harbour cruise of the city.  This is the CN tower.

When we were in Toronto we saw a Blue Jays game. It was cool to see a Canadian baseball team play at home. The Blue Jays ended up winning against the Tampa Bay Rays. Troy Tulowitzki of the Blue Jays hit a home run that made it 3-0 for the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays ended up winning 7-0. It was a fun game. Go see the season:  http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/schedule/?c_id=tor#y=2016&m=8&calendar=DEFAULT

After Toronto we went to Kingston. It is a university town with Queens university and it has Fort Henry which was built to defend against an invasion by the Americans after the War of 1812.

Then we went to Montreal. I was surprised how many people speak English even though it is a French province. We walked around old Montreal. It reminded me a lot of Austria, France and Switzerland because of the cobble streets and architecture like the Notre Dame church.

After Montreal we headed to the capital of Canada, Ottawa. I thought it was cool to get a tour of all the parliament buildings. We saw the Changing of the Guard and got a tour of the East Block and Centre Block and went up the Peace Tower.   It was interesting to see inside the House of Commons where the Prime Minister sits.  On the last day when we were there we went to the light show. It was so cool to see the Parliament buildings lit up.

 

 

 

Hi there! Welcome to my SLC.   Ms Willemse, this is my mom Alana.  No photographs please during the course of this presentation thank you.

My Blue Sky

The first thing I will talk about is my Blue Sky project.  I tackled an important problem based on something I was interested in (which is mountain biking) and came up with a solution that has been well-received.

The Blue Sky Problem was how to provide more current and useful information to people who use trails. This would improve knowledge, enjoyment and safety. My solution was to add a QR code to  trailhead signs and when the person uses their smartphone on it, the website shows up on their screen.  It would explain how to stay safe as well as interesting points about the trail.   It could be updated by trail users and park management staff and rescue services with new hazards and points of interest like seasonal vegetation.

I did some research, got some excellent content from my subject matter expert, Kevin Woodhouse at Sea to Sky Park Services and designed a prototype website.  The name of the website is Trailinfo. During the exhibition, I was part of the safety group and I could show people the prototype website and how it worked.

From doing the project I learned more about how to be safe on the mountain, how to set up a blog website and I gained more experience on how to set up an exhibit.  It was interesting to combine technology with nature.  Feedback overall has been very positive.  My subject matter expert said it was a “well thought-out project that can make a difference.”  Other people said things like it was a brilliant idea that should be rolled out further and it could save lives.

How The Raven Brought The Light.

The goal of this project was to construct a visual representation of Geometry, Symmetry and Light. The theme was “How the raven brings the light”. Since it is a Haida legend, I decided to build a longhouse out of Lego as the centre piece.  Adding things like flashlights, a CD sun, triangular prism tree, tissue paper, artwork, cylinder and mirror, I was able to represent opacity, translucency, transparency, colour, reflection, refraction, symmetry and geometry.  I explained the stories behind the Haida legend and the scientist Ibn al-Hatham and defined the terms I was showing in the display for the exhibition.

I liked the Haida story and it took me a while to figure out how to show all these geometry, symmetry and light terms.   I learned some new things like Raven brings the Light legend, Ibn al-Hatham, refraction and why a CD displays so many colours of light.  I also learned how to combine many different topics in one project like an ancient Haida legend and a scientist from Iraq with math and science terms and modern parts like Lego and CDs. I liked how the CD sun, raven on the lit smokehole and shadow reflection turned out as you can see below.

 

Field trip – The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

At school my class learned about world religions. I didn’t know about these religions before and that so many people belonged to them.  We did research for the test and had a test but after that we got to go and learn about the religions in person.  We went on field trips to visit different places of worship in Vancouver.  I learned that even if a lot of those religions started in different countries there are many people practising them right here. We learned about religions like Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Islam and Judaism.   We even got to taste some food at the Sikh temple.  I had a lot of fun going to visit the churches and temples. My group had to cover Christanity. We went to St Andrews United church for that. The minister there was very nice about answering our questions and telling us how it was built and more about the religion. The field trips were a great way to enhance what we learned in the class.

There were other highlights this term too but time is limited.  I liked learning about Robert Hooke from the Renaissance, also known as England’s Leonardo.  The exploration unit was interesting.  It was an eye opener to see how hard it was to get through the Northwest Passage. I won’t complain about getting through slow traffic now I see how hard it is to get through ice flows.

Year in Review:

Looking back over this school year I can see that we’ve learned many things.  I’ve read more than ever before, my writing and project skills have improved and I know more about technology.  I think I am a better listener and see that working hard pays off.  I understand the importance of a growth mindset so you are open to new ideas and have a better knowledge of things.  Thanks for giving us so many opportunities to learn.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goal:  Our project was to construct a visual representation of Geometry, Symmetry and Light.  The theme was “How the raven brings the light”.  We needed to include light (opacity, translucency, transparency, colour, reflections and refractions and Ibn al-Hatham) and include symmetry (like radial and bilateral) and geometry shapes (like prisms and cylinders).

Construction:  Since it was a Haida legend, I decided to use Lego to build a Haida longhouse with a smokehole, a raven, a sun and a prism tree.  I included the Raven brings the Light story, opacity, translucency, transparency, colour, reflections and refractions and Ibn al-Hatham, symmetry (radial, translational and bilateral) and geometry shapes (prisms and cylinders).  The following explains how I included them and the definitions. I included these descriptions as part of my display.

Raven Brings the Light Story posted on the display:    Raven Brings the Light is a Haida legend. It starts with the world in total darkness. The Raven found that all the light was hidden in a box in a longhouse. The Raven became a human baby and joined the family in the house. He talked the grandfather into showing him the ball of light and he turned back into a raven and flew out of the house with the light. That is how light came into the universe.

Geometry:   Prism:  The prism is a triangular prism and is part of the tree outside of the house.  Cylinder:  A cylinder is the smoke hole of the house. The raven escapes out of it with the translucent light.

Symmetry:  Radial Symmetry:  The sun has radial symmetry since it has similar parts regularly arranged around a central axis.  Linear Symmetry:  The roof of the longhouse represents linear symmetry because if you cut it in half with a line of symmetry, then each part is the mirror image of the other.  Translational Symmetry:  The pictures of the Raven on the house represent translational symmetry because the same figure is being moved the same distance and in the same direction.

Light:   Reflection:  Reflection is represented when light comes out of the house and reflects off the mirror to cast a shadow of the house and raven on the opposite wall.  The angle of incoming light is the angle of incidence. The incoming light hits the mirror and is reflected back. The angle of the reflected light is the angle of reflection. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection so that is why the light gets reflected back and causes the shadow.  Refraction:  Refraction is represented by the light hitting the prism (tree trunk) and the light is shown on the ground split into two streams.  Light waves can bend or refract. Refraction is the change in direction of a light wave due to a change in its transmission material. The angle of deviation is equal to the difference between the angle of incidence (entering) and the angle of refraction of a ray of light passing through a different transmission material.  Ibn al-Hatham:  The Ibn al-Hatham theory is represented by the light coming through a small hole in the middle of the window.  Ibn al-Hatham was a scientist born about a 1000 years ago in Iraq who made discoveries in vision and light. One day he saw light shining through a tiny pinhole into his darkened room. It projected an image of the world onto the opposite wall that was lit by the sun. He concluded that light rays travel in straight lines, and that vision occurs when these rays pass into our eyes. He realized that smaller holes would create sharper images.  Transparent:  Transparency is represented by the light inside the house that comes out the door that is covered by clear plastic.  Transparency is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without being scattered.  Translucent:  The light comes up the smoke hole through the tissue paper represents translucency. The tissue paper allows only some of the light to pass through.  Translucency means that the light does not pass directly through the materials. It changes direction and is scattered as it pass through so we can’t see through it clearly.  Opacity: The right front window is covered by a piece of cardboard so the light can’t get through and this represents opacity. Opacity occurs when light strikes an opague object and none of it passes through. Most of the light is reflected by the object or absorbed into it.  Colour:  Colour is represented in the model when light shines on the CD and the light spreads out in different colours on the shiny surface.  These colours are due to the scattering of light by the surface of the CD. Data is burned into CDs by lasers forming a series of grooves. The light is scattered when it hits the tiny grooves so the white light splits into the rainbow colours.

I liked doing this project and I learned a lot.  I liked the Haida story but it took me a while to figure out  how to show all these geometry, symmetry and light terms.  At first I described how they were set up in the box and then I got feedback to add in the definitions so I added that next.  I learned about Ibn al-Hatham when we made the camera. It was hard to transport to school and the lego totem pole was hard to keep together.  I thought a couple of things worked well.  One thing was the raven sitting on the chimney that had light shining up.  Another was the reflection of the house and the raven on the back wall.  The tree prism split up the light well.  They needed darkness to show up clearly so the best thing was using the CD to make the sun out of because you could see the light colours even if it wasn’t too bright.

Here are some more photos to show you the work in progress and parts of the finished project.

 

 

Driving Question and Problem:  How to provide more current and useful information to people who use trails.  This would improve knowledge and safety on the trails for bikers and hikers.  It would help reduce the number of people who get injured or lost.  It would also increase enjoyment of the trails by providing information on topics like points of interest, wildlife and vegetation.

My Big Idea:  My Blue Sky solution is to add a QR code to the trailhead sign and when the person uses their smartphone on it, the website shows up on their screen with more information. The website could be updated by trail users and park management staff and rescue services.   Updates could include new hazards spotted or needing to be fixed, seasonal vegetation and interesting points.

Content and Subject Matter Expert:  I do a lot of mountain biking on Mt Seymour so I know a lot of the biking trails and existing signs.  I also hear about people getting lost and hurt on North Shore mountains so I thought this would be useful.  I filled out my Blue Sky Design Project Pitch form and it got approved.  My main subject matter expert was Kevin Woodhouse, the Outdoor Education Manager at the Sea to Sky Park Services.  He was very helpful and said it was a “well thought-out project that can make a difference.”  Here are some of the questions I asked and his answers:

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1. What type of information do you think that hikers and bikers would be most interested in learning about from a QR code on a trail sign?
· Hikers and Bikers have some overlap, but typically are interested in different information.

Hikers:
a. Current information on trail conditions (snow, mud, etc.)
b. Recent wildlife spotted, including birds…birdwatchers would love it
c. Flowers in bloom
d. Note that cellular service is inconsistent.
e. Pick up dog poop reminder!
f. Safety warnings
i. What to bring (although, at the trailhead is too late usually) http://www.northshorerescue.com/education/what-to-bring/
g. Highlights
h. Sunset Times and weather
i. Typical trail duration and difficultly level
j. What to do if you get lost

Avoid Getting Lost

Bikers:
k. Trail Conditions, length and difficulty level (http://www.trailforks.com/region/mount-seymour/)
l. A map from the trailhead with a you are here
m. Sunset Times
n. What to bring

2. What are some seasonal wildlife and flowers on the Mt Seymour trails eg spring-summer?
a. Spring (lower mountain)
i. Skunk Cabbage flowering
ii. Grouse begin thumping
iii. Varied Thrush are making whistling sounds
iv. Salmonberries flower and produce berries
v. Thimble berries flower and produce berries
vi. Bears become active
b. Spring (Upper Mountain)
i. Snow is melting!
ii. Swallows return from migration to nest
iii. Frogs and Salamanders lay eggs in the ponds
c. Summer (Lower Mountain)
i. Red Huckleberries
ii. All wildlife active
d. Summer (Upper Mountain)
i. Blueberries everywhere in August
ii. Indian Paintbrush blooms
iii. Queens Cup Lily blooms
iv. Copper-bush in flower
v. White-Flowered Rhododendron blooms
vi. Bears and birds come to eat the blueberries

3. Is there anything that could be added to a trail sign that would help rescue services find hikers or bikers if they are hurt or lost and can’t figure out where they are?
a. Information on what to do if you become lost is key. Hikers account for far more rescues than mountain bikers. The knowledge of how not to become lost, and what to do if lost is huge in helping Search and Rescue (SAR).
b. As for finding the where they are, if SAR could know who has been on certain trail that day it could prove very helpful.
-So maybe on the blog there could be a strong reminder IF YOU GET LOST, WILL ANYONE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE? A prompt too call or text 2 people while you still have reception to tell them which specific route you are about to travel, who’s with you, and when to expect you back.
-An optional section could exist to put your name and the time you began the trail. This however allows people a way to not be properly prepared by leaving there intentions with people they trust. Some hikes have a book at the trailhead for this purpose. It would need to be clear that no one is checking to see if you have come out safely.

4. Other suggestions.
a. The local trailheads that your project would prove most useful are the Mt Seymour Trail and the Dog Mountain trail on the upper mountain. This area accounts for far more traffic with unprepared hikers and more rescues than any other in the area. It also has the most variable and unexpected conditions.

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I also had input from my uncle and my neighbour’s dad who do lots of hiking.  They both thought it was a great idea.  My neighbour said her dad mentioned it to someone from North Shore Rescue and he thought it was a great idea too.  A firefighter said it would be good to have these types of signs along the trails to help people understand where they are because sometimes when people get in trouble they can’t tell rescuers where they are located.

Website Prototype:  So now it was time to design a prototype website that I could use for the project.  I went biking on Mt Seymour to get some photos of the trails to help with the project.  Here is me on the trail and the second photo is a hazard because the tree has fallen across the trail.

Then I worked on the website prototype for a QR code on a biking trailhead sign.  Here are the topics that could be put on a sign that would have a QR code on the bottom for a smart phone to click on for more information:

So when the trail user clicks on the QR code with a smart phone scanning app, the website prototype shows up on the phone screen.  For the prototype website for the Blue Sky exhibition, I had to find a name and I chose Trailinfo so people understand what it is about.  See the top of this blog for a photo of the starting point of the website.  I set it up as a blog website.  The first entry has a photo of a flower I took on the trail and the first post is called Getting Ready and Being Prepared.  There are safety warnings about letting other people know where you are going and how to avoid getting lost and what to do if you are lost.  That is the most important for safety.  Since I am most interested in biking, I added a couple of biking trail photos and trail information for Boogieman, Corkscrew and Pangor.  Future information could include what people are seeing for seasonal vegetation and wildlife and an option to sign in.  Here is some key safety information on the website:

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KEY SAFETY WARNINGS:

Communication and Sign-In:

IF YOU GET LOST, WILL ANYONE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE? Call or text 2 people while there is still reception to tell them which trail will be taken; who is going and expected return time.

Bring a cell phone with a fully charged battery. Turn it off and store it in a ziplock bag to keep it dry and charged. Learn how to get GPS coordinates from your smartphone to give location to rescuers if you are hurt or lost. Be careful. Cellular service is inconsistent.

Future website development will include an option to sign in for the trail with the time you left and when you expect to return.

AVOID GETTING LOST AND WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE LOST: (SOURCE: NORTH SHORE RESCUE) For more details see http://www.northshorerescue.com/education/avoid-getting-lost/

-Leave A message with a friend about your destination, route, others with you and return time.

-Never bike or hike alone

-Be physically prepared for the trail by being fit and sticking to your plan and leave enough time to get back.

-Do not panic if you get lost. You will be fine if you are prepared. Stay where you are. Help will come.

-Do Not Go “Downhill” off the trail. On the North Shore, going downhill often leads to dangerous natural drainages. These drainages have the common features of very thick bush, steep cliffs, and waterfalls.

-Use Signaling Devices. Blowing a whistle, lighting a fire, and staying visible will help searchers find you.

-Build or Seek Shelter. Make sure you are still visible from the air.

WHAT TO BRING:

-Refer to the North Shore Rescue’s The 10 Essentials http://www.northshorerescue.com/education/what-to-bring/

It covers off everything for the trail enthusiast who is going to tackle the more challenging trails.

BIKERS: Remember, you should have an extra tube, pump, multi-tool (Allen keys) and chain break, water

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EXHIBITION:

For my section of the exhibition, I put together a poster board that explained the problem being addressed and my solution.  I explained how the QR code on the trailhead sign would work and how I built the website prototype with the subject matter expert content.  Then I showed an existing trailhead sign (Pingu) that shows there isn’t much information on it.  Then I showed a prototype trailhead sign with lots of topics and the QR code that takes people to the prototype website.  I had my macbook there to show the website and people who visited my exhibit could click on the QR code with their scanning app on their iPhone and it would take them to the website I built.

For the group work, I was in the Safety group.  To help show our safety theme, we put up yellow caution tape in our area.  We also put up white paper to show that it was a clean, sterile and healthy area.  During the exhibition a lot of people who stopped by said my Blue Sky idea was great.

Feel free to go and check out the pilot website at https://trailinfo.wordpress.com.

Reflecting on the Blue Sky project:  I had fun doing this project and I learned a lot.  I had fun because I really enjoy mountain biking and I got to go on the trails to do research.  I learned a lot from my main subject matter expert from Sea to Sky Parks about what is on the trails and how to stay safe.  I also learned about how to build a website.  This was harder than I thought and took longer than I thought it would. It was hard to edit some sections.  It was fun to combine learning with a sport I like and it was interesting to combine technology with nature. I like that I got so much positive feedback from people who I talked to about it. People who couldn’t come to the exhibition are asking to see how it works.  Some people said it could help save lives and that is pretty awesome!!

 

How did the Renaissance influence the western worldview?

First I researched  a Renaissance thinker, artist and scientist.  The thinker was Leilo Sozzini, the scientist was Robert Hooke and the artist was Bernardo Zenale.  I researched their main achievements and answered questions related to our worldview.  After, I created the Venn diagram to show what they had in common.

Leiolo Sozzini

The humanist I read about was Leilo Sozzini. (1525-1562). He studied the bible and was one of the founders of ideas that led to Reformation.  Reformation was a movement to address concerns some people had with the Roman Catholic church. Reformation led to the start of the Protestant religion and the Unitarian church was part of it.  Sozzini questioned things like the need to attend mass and resurrection. There are still many people who are members of Unitarian church today. One of his theories was that even though Jesus had a special status, he was a human being.   The Unitarian church followers still believe in this today.

Bernardo Zenale

The artist I studied was Bernardo Zenale.  He was born in Italy (1460 – 1526) He has many famous paintings in churches and his style was influenced by Leonardo da Vinci.  A famous painting is Madonna and child with saints.  By 1513 Zenale started to work more on architecture and he became an architect for the Milan Cathedral.  He also wrote about art theory and a paper on the science of perspective.  Linear perspective emerged during the Renaissance as the tool for artists to capture the world in a very realistic way.

Much of the renaissance art focused on religion and the individual but today our worldview of art is more diverse and people have more freedom of speech to write and create what they want. I think this means that our worldview is more global.  We see more because of the internet and travelling.  Art can send a very clear message or it can be hard to understand and left up to people to figure out what it means.  Modern art still uses ideas from the Renaissance like perspective.  People today appreciate both the ancient and historical classical art but we also like modern art and modern buildings.  We mix old and new to get the best of both worlds.   There is something for everyone.

Robert Hooke

Robert Hooke was the scientist I researched from England (1635 – 1703).  He was also an architect.  He wrote the law of elasticity (Hooke’s law), (a small amount of displacement is directly proportional to the force).  He was the first to use the word cell to describe the basic unit of life.  He invented the microscope with light and an adjusting focus.  He also worked on gravity and he built some of the earliest Gregorian telescopes and observed Mars and Jupiter rotating.  He figured out wave light theory and that matter expands when heated.  He was also an architect and he set up planning controls for London which are still used today. He helped rebuild London after the great fire of 1666.  Robert Hooke is considered one of the greatest scientists of his age and has been called England’s Leonardo.

Robert Hooke’s work is an example of how Renaissance’s experience with direct observation and experimentation is carried through in Science today. Hooke was Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society, whose purpose was to advance scientific understanding of the world.  He wrote the book called Micrographia that showed tiny details of the natural world never seen before.  That is why it is considered one of the most important scientific books ever written.  This work with direct observation and experimentation influenced our knowledge today of microbiology, quantum physics and nanotechnology.

Modern science and math is based on the foundations of direct observation and experimentation developed during the Renaissance.  It is still a source for growth and knowledge in many areas like the medical field, nutrition, agriculture, computers, transportation and quality of life.  Advances in technology have provided an opportunity to take observations and experimentation even further like solar systems, deep sea oceans, molecules, oceans beds new energy sources and advancing life expectancy.

I like this quote from Robert Hooke about observation that seems to predict what we can do today:

“By the means of Telescopes, there is nothing so far distant but may be represented to our view; and by the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visible World discovered to the understanding.”

When looking at all three Renaissance men, it seemed like what they had in  common was that they loved to learn and look at change.  They were driven to seek knowledge through their education and mentors.  They all shared their work by displaying it or writing about it.

Here is the Venn diagram

For a visual, I thought of using a photo of the Louvre because it is the most famous musuem in the world and its goal is to educate and share knowledge.  It shares culture from all over the world and every century, especially the Renaissance and is very popular in modern times. Even the architecture is old and new.  I went there and I thought it was neat that you could get so close to the most famous art in the world.

I started with a photo of the outside of the Louvre that my cousin took and then I added photos from inside that I took, even the Mona Lisa by Leonard da Vinci.  The artist and scientist I researched were both linked to Leonardo.  I used PicCollage and Afterlight.

Here is the final visual of the Louvre, inside and out. The Renaissance influenced the western worldview’s appreciation of art and learning. The Louvre is the worlds most famous museum with art from all ages, for all ages.

Here is the earlier draft.

By studying the great achievements of the Renaissance I can now see how it helped create an important part of the foundation for our western Worldview.

 

At school my class learned about world religion. We did research for the test and had a test but after that we got to go and learn about the religions in person. Yep we went to visit them. We visited Vedic Cultural Society, Thrangu Monastery, Ling Yen Mountain Temple, Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple, North Shore Jewish Community Center, Masjid Ar-Rahman, St Andrews Church and a Buddhist Society Temple. I had a lot of fun going to visit the churches and temples. My group had to cover Christanity. We went to St Andrews church for that. The minster there was very nice about answering our questions and telling us how it was built and more about the religion. The field trips were a great way to enhance what we learned in the class. Here are some pictures of the United church.

Welcome to my view of the world.  I’m sharing my point of view on things like sports, technology and education.  I think my worldview seems to change every year as I learn more.  A big chance to learn more about the perspective of different groups happened when I visited countries in Europe.  Click on the link and learn more about what has helped form my worldview from family and culture to friends and current events.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XazibajCG7g

The work I am most proud of would have to be the DI (Destination Imagination) team project on the Pace of Change. (I will be calling it that for the rest of this blog post). So the criteria for this DI project is that we are supposed to build a vehicle and have it move 10 feet by itself and we had to make a backstory about it. The reason why this is work I am most proud of is because we had to do this work by ourselves and  there were no instructions provided on how to build a go cart! So we came up with different ideas and built it.  There were a lot of problems and problem solving like when the chain didn’t fit or when the wooden dowels weren’t strong enough for the axels  or putting in a second propulsion system. The lawn mower engine was tricky to pull out.  The team also had to make two team choice elements which were a cake and a chalk board. In the play, I was the realtor and the teacher.  Then the team won an award for it and we are going to provincials and it was fun to do the challenge.

 

I think that I have shown growth as a learner in my Star Wars Blue Sky project.  The question was “Is it possible to live on an asteroid?  I went to the SFU aerospace physiology lab where Dr Blaber studies the effects of low gravity on people.  I also did research on the internet and found out why people would want to live on an asteroid (who knew that there is so much money to be made up there in mining) and the challenges of trying to live in space.  I found out about asteroid living requirements and how to create artificial gravity.  I learned that NASA has already visited an asteroid called EROS. I designed and built a space station for an asteroid that had artificial gravity created by spinning sections. So I ended up thinking that it is possible to live on an asteroid in the future but not yet because it is expensive and we don’t know all the impacts on people. I see Scott Kelly just returned from a year in space so NASA can study the impacts of space on him and compare him to his identical twin brother.

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I think that I showed a growth mindset when I did the Julius Caesar play in PLP.  At first I really did not want to do it at all because I am uncomfortable acting/performing. But as I went through the project it got better because I made it fun and I learned even more about Julius Caesar. When it came time to perform it was okay because we were ready.  We had a good script and everyone knew what to do.  Our team worked well together. We practiced all the lines and it was fun to do a different version of Julius Caesar. We were gangsters and that was cool to mix gangsters with Julius Caesar.  I don’t know if I’ll win an academy award but it was a fun chance to perform and learn at the same time.

This assignment was about creating a body biography for Gaius Cassius.  First we researched about him and then we took what we learned and made the body biography.   It is a giant visual and written representation of this person’s life that we drew on a big piece of paper.  We thought about the placement of the words that described Cassius’s personality and the things that happened in his life.  Cassius really wanted Julius Caesar killed and he led the plot to murder him.  He was the brother-in-law of Marcus Brutus and a senator of Rome.  He was known to be impatient and he took his own life after he thought Brutus had lost a battle.

We decided to put things in places that made sense and had some meaning behind them.  We put when he died on his organs because you need organs to live. On his shoulders we put the words ‘politician’ and ‘general’ because it means power and he was a powerful leader.  We put a knife on his body because he led the plot to kill Caesar and then he killed himself.  One of his qualities was that he was impatient so we put on the body ‘#grumpy.’  We put his brother-in-law’s name ‘Marcus Brutus’ in the centre of his body because Brutus was so central to Cassius’ life.

As a student I really enjoyed this activity.  It made me stop and think about what makes up a person and what they do in their life. It is easier to learn about someone when it is in a picture like this.  Here is a picture of our body biography of Cassius.

 

Here are the steps our group completed to plan and create our story for our quilt. I had Claire, Sam and Alex in my group. We worked well together and made a good story.

Quilt Civilization Initial Group Planning
The Overview Group Organizer helped our group plan and identify our civilization. We had to decide things like who, what when, where and why. We brainstormed many ideas. Coming up with the ideas wasn’t hard but deciding the best ones to use was harder. I helped come up with ideas like the location close to Hawaii because I was there recently and it seemed like a good spot. The group planning also helped us determine the worldview of the civilization. For example we decided how they would view things like human nature and the good life. Then we picked artifacts to represent their views like there is a painting about helping people even for nothing in return.

Quilt Civilization Hero Group planning
We decided who our ideal hero would be including his qualities and his journey which was important to writing the story. It starts with the hero’s call to adventure from the ordinary world. He faces challenges and overcomes them and is rewarded. Then he returns to his ordinary world to make things better and everything gets resolved. We discussed these questions as a group again. The Ideal Hero Note Organizer was a big help in understanding the steps and organizing our ideas. We all had a similar role by contributing and supporting each other’s ideas. We made good progress.

Quilt Civilization And Hero Group Storyboard
By completing the Quilt civilization and Hero Group Storyboard we brought together our Civilization’s worldview and our Hero’s journey. We carried on our group brainstorming process. We started by summarizing the Exposition about the war between our civilization and another one with a different worldview. I talked about the rising action where the hero must go past enemy soldiers to the enemy castle. The climax occurs when the enemy king is killed. When our hero returns, he is thanked and they make changes to avoid a future war. The storyboard helped because it provided a visual to follow. We had to make storyline choices that could be presented visually for the quilt.

Quilt Civilization And Hero Group Final Planning
Now we were ready to start planning our own quilt square. First we met as a group to fill out the first column of the Civilization and Hero Group Storyboard. We each were assigned a block and for each one we described the events. We had to work together to make sure the story flowed. I had the first block. Then we showed it to our teacher.
Then we had to start working on our own quilt square. I had to decide what symbols would best describe that part of the story. I drew a draft on Paper53 and then our group came back together to review our work and see if we all agreed which we did.
These are the choices I made: I first drew a picture of the world like a globe to represent the worldview. I drew two castles on top of the world on opposite sides. They represented the power of the two fighting Civilizations. Between the castles is a large silver sword with a very sharp blade. It represents the fighting between the Civilizations and the hero’s sword who kills the enemy king. I chose very bright, rich colours to represent the beauty in the world and the richness of the Civilizations. Later I added stars to make it look more detailed.

Conclusion
I liked to do this project because it was inclusive and it really made me think. I like that kind of thinking because you get to know your classmates very well. I thought everyone worked well together. I also learned a lot more about how stories are put together. It was also useful to learn to quilt/ sew because that is a life skill. I think that it is cool that the teacher put sewing together with story writing and iPads for a project. I wouldn’t have thought of that and I give full credit to our teacher. I like when we got to make our own hero because it was like creating a person and we got to take into consideration the good things and bad things about people and many other qualities I hadn’t thought of before.

My Question:  Is it possible to live on an asteroid like in Star Wars?

Planning My Project:

I filled out the Pitch Form (see below) to start planning what research I should do and where to do it.  I needed to find out what living conditions are like on an asteroid and what humans need to live.  I did research on the internet and found that NASA had a lot of information.  I also went to SFU’s Aerospace Physiology Lab and heard Dr. Blaber talk about the effects of space on people’s health and how they are trying to address the impacts of low gravity on people.

Here are my research findings that helped me plan my model and answer the driving question:

What are asteroids?

• Asteroids are objects made of rock and metal that orbit the sun.  Most are found in the Asteroid Belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter.

Why try to live on an asteroid?

• Growth and survival option for the earth’s growing population
• Lots of valuable minerals could be mined to use in outer space or back on earth
• Water is available from the ice on asteroids
• Could study how to prevent an asteroid from hitting earth
• There are low gravity benefits.  It is easier to mine and move large objects for manufacturing.
• Offers a chance to become very rich from mining.  Raises question:  who owns the asteroids?

Challenges of asteroid living?

• Low gravity and radiation impacts health like the heart and blood circulation
• Less solar energy
• No oxygen or food readily available
• Very cold (-73C to -143C)
• Hard to control the atmosphere in a closed habitat
• More likely to be hit by another asteroid in the asteroid belt

What are the human requirements if living on an asteroid?

• Self contained modules with travel tubes
• Artificial gravity in one section using rotation (centrifugal force)
• Stationary sections for docking and manufacturing
• Radiation shields using special plastics and a thick hull
• Oxygen.  Could use plants to produce oxygen (absorb CO2) or extract from ice water (H2O)
• Solar energy.  Use solar panels to convert light to power.
• Food and Farming Space.  Soybeans and wheat (nutritious and use small space)
• Service-Community Centres. Education, Social, Medical, Exercise
• Water for drinking, washing and plants.  Use ice water on asteroid
• Recycling of all oxygen, water and wastes
• Mining and manufacturing centres.  Use 3D Printers
• Communications and Transportation including an escape system
• Living and Working Quarters (Lab)

Construction Process:   

Based on my research I started drawing an asteroid space colony in Paper53 to help plan my construction:

• It shows two self-contained modules with a travel tube between them.
• The round sections rotate to create artificial gravity (centrifugal force). You would walk on the sides of the inner walls.
• It is based on the Stanford Torus design that looks like a donut.
• The non-moving parts have the docking station and manufacturing (3D printers)

Here are my project materials:

• thick plastic (radiation protection) piping and connectors for the bases, docking stations and travel tubes
• toilet seals covered in duct tape for the round, rotating sections
• Knex parts to go inside the pipes to help with holding the pipes up and the rotation
• shiny insulation strips for solar energy panels
• a platform made from foam and a paint canvas.

The pipes fit well into the connectors and I used a lot of hot gun glue to hold it together.  The hardest part was making one section rotate for artificial gravity while the attached sections didn’t move. I used very small Star Wars spacecraft beside it to show the large scale of the colony.  I labelled the parts so people knew what they were and how they worked.

 

Final Project:

I put together a display board with slides on it as a backdrop to the model so everyone walking by could read my research findings and see the answer to the question “Is it possible to live on an asteroid like in Star Wars?’  I added references to the back.  The slides had information on the following:

 

• What are asteroids?
• Why try to live on an asteroid?
• Challenges of asteroid living
• NASA’s asteroid visit of 2001
• SFU Physiology Labe
• Answer to the question:  Is it possible to live on an asteroid?

The moment you’ve been waiting for….drumroll please…..here is my answer:

• In the future it may be possible to live on an asteroid but right now it is too expensive and risky to try.  Scientists need to find out more about the long-term mental and physical impacts on humans. They need to do more studies like SFU does.  Once space travel is cheaper, the money to be made in space tourism and mining will probably push humans closer to settling an asteroid.  NASA has already sent an unmanned spacecraft to an asteroid so we are getting closer

I met my goal of learning how to set up a space colony and improved my research and planning skills.  I also learned things like:

• The benefits of settling an asteroid and that they have minerals and ice water
• The challenges of asteroid living (radiation, cold, low gravity)
• What humans need to survive and what would be needed for asteroid living
• How to set up a space colony
• How to create artificial gravity (centrifugal force)
• How scientists are studying the impacts of low gravity like SFU does
• NASA’s achievements like visiting an asteroid
• We are closer to living on an asteroid than I thought and it is a future possibility.

Exhibition:  

Here is what we did for the exhibition night:

• Our group decided to set up our projects in an open area in front of the library door to try and catch people as they entered. I put down paper from the entrance to our area to help guide people our way.
• Our group talked about costumes and I tried different options at home.  I ended up dressing in all black to represent Darth Vadar and make it more formal for the exhibition.  Someone else brought food for visitors to our group’s area.
• I put a playlist together of Naboo and Star Wars music and brought in my speaker so it could be playing as people entered our area.

When I had visitors to exhibit, the most common question was “Is it possible?” and I was prepared with my answer that it was too risky and expensive right now but possible in the future.  I also explained how my space colony worked.  Some people were impressed that I had learned about artificial gravity.

The exhibition was a great way to display what I had learned and built and to see all the other projects.

This blog post is about making my quilt square. My square represents the first part of my group’s story.

First Part of Our Group’s Story:  There is a war on an earth-like planet between the first two human civilizations called the Alexonians and the Shoewees.  If the war continues on its course then it could result in the death of thousands of people.  The king of the Shoewees wants to rule both civilizations.  The Alexonians have Ballator who is a strong warrior and a special weapon that is a valuable sword but will it be enough to stop the Shoewees?

Designing and Making my Quilt Square:  In designing this quilt square, first I drew a draft on Paper53.  The picture of the world is like a globe and it represents the worldview. I drew two castles on top of the world but on opposite sides. They stand for the power of the two fighting civilizations, the Alexonians and the Shoewees. I chose very bright, rich colours to represent the beauty in the world and the richness of the civilizations. Later I added stars to make it look more detailed.  I reviewed my quilt square design with my group to make sure it fit with the rest of the story. We decided to add the large silver sword between the castles. It represents the fighting between the civilizations and the hero’s sword.

My Quilt Block Drawings:

1  First Draft

Second Draft (added sword)

Final (improved the sword)

Sewing The Quilt Square:

Before I started sewing:

Sewing in progress:

 

Here is a time lapse of me making the quilt:  Click here to see it:  TIME LAPSE

Sewing finished!!  The final version:

Please see Sam’s blog to find out the next part of our exciting story.

I designed three ad posters based on photos taken on our Oregon field study. One was a persuasive tourism poster for a natural landscape and my topic was the Newport Bayfront. Another was a business ad and I did mine on the Yurts we stayed at. For this one we were lucky to interview the volunters that worked there so it was easier to do the ad. The third was an environmental advocacy poster and the topic was don’t overfish. I had trouble getting a picture of an endangered fish so I had to use a different photo of the ocean.

I worked with Canva and Afterlight apps to make them better. I used editing techniques like adding colour text and using a filter. I added  white borders and put text on colour banners to help get it noticed. I tried to add some humorous phrases to make it more memorable. We got feedback from our class and I used that to try and improve the ads. I made them clearer and brighter. Next time I would do more research earlier so I had a better plan for the photos I needed.

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  Final

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I do think that I am like Luke Skywalker because I am very adventurous. For example, I went zip lining and on an adventure course in the mountains of Switzerland. It was a connect-yourself’ course. So you are way up three stories and on a small ledge and if you slip you could die.