Category Archives: Summative post

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April 10, 2022

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Destination Imagination: In Person

The latest project in the PLP 9 classroom was DI (Destination Imagination). As you may recall from last year, DI is a worldwide competition that students can participate in, and PLP participates every year. This year, I was put onto the scientific team, where our challenge was to create a performance where our characters get stuck in a micro world and have to use the help of a mysterious object to get out. So, without further ado, here is the post.

To start this project, you need to know some things first: my group members were Teva, Ava, Ariane, and Julian. If you want to read them, the full rule book for this challenge is here, and the general rules for DI are here. We had around three months of time from when we first started DI, and the tournament was on April 2nd. The project did go over spring break though. So now, with that out of the way, I can continue.

Stage 1: Recognize

We started off the project by deciding roles and responsibilities, and learning about each others strengths and weaknesses going into the challenge. This can help up work better as a team to conquer any challenges along the way.

Stage 2: Imagine

Then, we did a around 3.4 metric tons of brainstorming; any idea, from story, technical execution, mechanisms, the visual effect, anything.

Idea Generation ChartDownload

After lots and lots of ideas, it was time for a crucial step in making the final product: planning. This involves choosing which ideas will make their way onwards, as well as deciding how and when they will get used. Then, we created a first draft of the script, which was revised many times.

DI Story
Stages 3-4: Collaborate, Initiate, an Assess

Now, it was time to start creating our final props and presentation. The rest of the project was honing in and improving our presentation until it was perfect. (Although it wasn’t perfect by the time we finished). The Final Script is here.

Stage 5: Evaluate and Celebrate

And finally, it was time to present. All our work has led up to this. Our team went to St. George’s Senior for the final tournament, but our struggles didn’t end there. We forgot to bring a tablecloth, and that may not sound big, but thee tablecloth was going to help obscure a prop, and without it, our set change might not be very clear. But, 30 minutes before our presentation, we taped pieces of paper together to create one large sheet, and with everything prepared, all we could do is present.

And our presentation went great! Below is our groups reflection on what went well, and what went… not as well.

+ / – chart

Again, so much thanks to my DI team of Teva, Ava, Ariane, and Julian. Overall, I learned so much this year in DI, and am surprised that I liked it. See you in the next one, and thanks for reading.

P.S. this year DI had a special challenge where you decorate your car. Here is that:

P.P.S. We won first in the team challenge!

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April 9, 2022

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Rube Goldberg was a cool guy.

in the latest Scimatics project we created Rube Goldberg machines to represent the scientific method. The scientific method consists of 6 steps: observation, question, hypothesis, analysis, conclusion. So, without further ado, here is the post.

I wasn’t here for the first couple days of this project, but as always, we started off with a mind map of what we knew already and questions we had. The next step was to perform some experiments on electricity.

Experiments Download

After this we did some workbooks and a khan academy quiz that helped me understand how electricity works in a circuit. Then, we created individual diagrams of what our Rube Goldberg machine could look like. Here is mine:

First draft blueprint

Then, my group of Colton, Cale, and Max got to work on our final blueprint, which is a scale drawing of our machine, a digital drawing, and circuit diagrams and calculations. We also built our machine. Here is the final video:

And the final circuit and machine diagrams:

Final blueprint
Circuit Diagram

And for the revised mind map containing all my new knowledge:

Now, for the curricular competencies:

Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest

All class time is used efficiently for learning without distractions

I think that I used all my class time very well this project, seeing as I was away for most of it and still learned so much and got everything done

Reasoning and Analyzing: Estimate reasonably

Final blueprint is complete and accurate. Contains grid scale. All measurements are labeled with a high degree of accuracy. All lines are easily distinguished

My team’s final blueprint does contain a grid scale, measurements, and is very accurate

Planning and conducting: Select and use appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data

Hand built series and parallel circuits are used to good effect with efficiency in your metaphor machine. Accurate circuit diagrams are included in the final blueprint. Diagrams use proper symbols. Diagrams are neat and easy to understand. Measurements of current, voltage and resistance are included

There is one series circuit in our machine, the one that lights up the question mark, and all the circuits combine make one large parallel circuit. Their are accurate diagrams of alt eh electronics in our machine in the final blueprint, accompanied by voltage, current, and resistance measurements

Scientific Communication: Formulate physical or mental models to describe a phenomenon

A video is recorded of the complete operation of the machine and voice overs are added which explain the sequence of the scientific method as the machine progresses.

I think that our final video is emerging, because the voiceovers do not sync up, and they do not explain what is happening very well. Also, the video only utilizes one of four videos of the machine working, it much less immersive.

Thanks for reading my post! Once again, thanks to my group for helping me in this project! This project was probably my favourite Scimatics project this year, so I hope to see more like it in the future. See you in the next one.

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March 11, 2022

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Lord Selkirk and the Battle of the Seven Oaks

For the last six weeks, The PLP 9 Humanities class has been working on a project about nationalism. In this project, I learned about nationalism, the founding of Canada, and much more. So, without further ado, here is the post.

To kick off this project, I don’t know what we did, because I wasn’t there. But, on the first day I was there for this project, we started the current events presentations, which are daily presentations from students to small groups explaining in depth one current event. My current event took place on the last day we had them, so I had lots of time to prepare it. Here is mine:

Current Event

We each had about five minutes to present our current event, and I easily filled mine. I am quite proud of how well the conversation flowed, and think I picked a good topic.

In the middle of this project, we went to loon lake, and dint work much on this project. But, the next thing I did was pick my topic from this list:

I could also pick a topic of my own after it was approved.

As you probably know from the title, I chose Lord Selkirk and the Battle of the Seven Oaks. Then, after that, I had to research my topic

Lord Selkirk and the Battle of the Seven Oaks Research

On the next day, we found our groups of others that chose the same topic. The final product of this project is an instagram post that takes and teaches others about historical perspectives. The instagram post consists of three images and one 50-100 word caption. Here is my caption:

Lord Selkirk was a powerful historical figure who was present in the Battle of the Seven Oaks, which was fought between the Hudsons Bay Company (or HBC) which Selkirk recently inherited, and their rival, the Northwest Company (NWC). This war took place on the 19th of June in 1816, caused by the escalating tensions of the two companies, and lord Selkirk pushing it over with his new attempt to establish a colony at red river. The Métis didn’t like the prospect of the new colony threatening their ways, so after negotiations failed, the battle started

And here are my three images:

Then the last and final piece of work was an piece about my opinion on this topic:

Opinion piece

And that concludes this project. This was an awesome project and I learned a ton about historical perspectives and public speaking.

Thanks for reading my post. See you in the next one (Hopefully).

Instagram post link here

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March 4, 2022

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Loon Lake Learning Advance

This year in PLP, the grades 8-9 went on the first feild study since covid, and on it, we went to loon lake: a vacation/research area with lodging and fun activities. We spent a total of four awesome days at the facility, and did things like shelter building, laser tag, archery, and more. So, without further ado, here is the post.

On the first day of the advance, we packed out bags and left for loon lake. Once we got there, we did a photo walk to observe the new place and find out some cool landmarks around there. After the photo walk, we did a scavenger hunt where we looked for little sign that marked important places, which was a fun way to learn the lay of the land.

Scavenging!

After the scavenger hunt, the long awaited moment came: we found Our cabins and who is in them. I got paired with Zach, Luca, Ben T, and Julian.

I was pretty happy with who was in my cabin, but I unfortunately got a cabin that is up on top of a hill that only contains five people, and is far away from all the action. This is unfortunate because I generally missed out on some stuff and it was also a pain to drop off or get something from my cabin.

After an amazing dinner (the chefs there are great) I (tried to) wound down with some not at all calm card games. And then went back to my cabin to sleep.

On the second day, we did shelter building for part of the day. this was a great way to practice some survival skills with friends, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, every morning and every night, we would participate in advisory, which is like a check in with all the students to gauge how we are feeling. Here is my advisory group:

A Troupe Of Monkeys

On the third and final full day on the advance, we did some really fun stuff, bow tag and laser tag. for me, the first half of the day was spent working on DI and the other half was bow tag and laser tag! These two activities were immensely fun and were my highlight of the trip.

And finally, on the last day of the trip, we packed up, loaded the buses and played a large game of capture the flag! This was also super fun, and lasted about 2 hours. Then we headed home, concluding the trip.

Also, this whole time, I was writing a book that documented my time at loon lake, so check that out too:

Thanks for reading my post about the loon lake learning advance! stay tuned for more, bye.

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January 25, 2022

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Electrons and Atoms!

In the latest Scimatics 9 project, I learned about electron arrangements, magnetic charges, and much more. So, without further ado, here is the post!

As with most scimatics projects, we started off with a mindmap that showed what we knew going into the project and questions we had.

Project start mindmap.

The second assignment in this project was an experiment, which was split into two steps: an animation that explains the lab procedure and the actual experiment+lab report.

Experiment 2A lab video

The experiment was very fun, and I really enjoyed this experiment.

Lab report

I should also mention how throughout the project we did workbooks and other small activities to continue adding to our knowledge. The next big event in this project was milestone 4 though, which was the Bohr models and storyboard. The final product of this project is an animated video that shows electron arrangement through Bohr models. I decided that in my video I would show how sulfur dioxide and calcium phosphide form. My storyboard had 7 boxes that show the general direction of my video, and I created two Bohr models for each of the atoms, one after bonding, and one before. And after that, this was my final product:

storyboard and Bohr models.pdf

Then, I went on Christmas break for two weeks, and when I came back, I started working on my final animated video. I followed my storyboard pretty well, but added some extra details.

https://youtu.be/vU9p2WCHKpU

And now, for the curricular competencies of this project.

Communicating: Formulate physical or mental theoretical models to describe a phenomenon

Detailed and clear voice overs are synchronized with animation to explain bonding processes using proper scientific language.

My video contains clear voiceover that is well synchronized to the animation. It uses proper scientific language as well, like covalent, ionic, atomic, electron, etc…

Processing and Analyzing: Construct, analyze and interpret models and/or diagrams

A carefully animated video uses Bohr models to show electron arrangement of atoms and ions. It accurately portrays the electron exchange in ionic bonding and electron sharing in covalent bonding.

I spent time making sure that my electron arrangements are correct, and that the electron exchange is also correct.

Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest

All class time is used efficiently for learning without distractions.

I handed in all my work on time (excluding revisions, of course) and my work was quality.

Thanks for reading my post! If you liked it stay tuned for more. Bye

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January 25, 2022

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A Project about Poetry

The latest PLP project was all about poetry. I learned about myself, poetry, and what made the me right now. So, without further ado, here is the post.

We started this project with a cool entry event were we put together pieces of a chopped up poem and answered questions about the poem with it groups. From the very start, we knew we would be making a book of poetry, and the first assignment was to create 2 poems: a simile poem, and a metaphor poem.

The driving question for this project was “How might I construct text that shows who I am right now?” The answer to this question is almost anything! Poetry, art, writing, photography, drawing and creating all are forms of self expression that can help anyone show or learn who they are.

On the second day back, we learned about two concepts: juxtaposition, which is basically just surprising readers with two contrasting things, and comprehending poetry, in order to understand the message of the poem. Each day we got assign one or two new poems. That day, they were a found poem: creating a poem out of previously found material, and three haikus, which are poems were the lineage 5 syllables long, 7 long, then back down to 5.

On day three, not much happened we were assigned a new poem: an imagery poem. This poem is supposed to vividly describe one image.

On day 4 we were assigned a Sunday poem, a poem about the sounds of your worldview,and in class we practiced making silly sounds. (It sounds immature, I know) we were also tasked with starting to put our poems into out book.

In the last two days of this project, we were assigned three poems: an experience poem that describes an experience that shaped your worldview, a self portrait poem that describe who you are now, and a personification poem that describes what worldview is using personification. The self portrait poem can also be used to answer the driving question. And, on top of all that, we had to create and record meaning statements for all our poems and make complementary texts that go next to our poem.

After staying up very late for many days, I completed my book (which can be found below) and concluded this project. This project seemed shorter than previous ones, so this post is more snappy, but I hope you enjoyed it. Also, I feel like there was not enough time for this project, and I wish there was about 2-3 more classes in it.

Thanks for reading my post! I hope you enjoyed it. See you in the next one.

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January 3, 2022

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Revolutions on Trial

Hello, and welcome back to my blog. This post is about the latest project for PLP Humanities, Revolutions on Trial. In this project I learned about the French Revolution, the causes of a revolution, and what determines a successful revolution. So, without further ado, here is the post.

As with all PLP projects, we started with a driving question that we strived to answer in the project. The Driving Question for this project was: How Might we as Legal Teams Determine the Effectiveness and Ineffectiveness of a Revolution? And this is how I found the answer.

The first big activity we did in this project was called Nation X. We created a simulation of a society with very large class divisions. There were 4 groups, each with different right and abilities.this activity lasted two days, and contained many events that reflect actual similar societies. For example, in our simulation there was a large revolution to put our old king back in place, and this revolution split the country in two groups. My full reflection on this experience from my perspective is below.

The New Republic Of Nation X, in my opinion, was a fair and functional society. We had food, farms, wealth, happiness, and entertainment. I think that we achieved this by rooting out the people who would not fit in this society and creating a society so good it doesn’t even need laws. To ensure a fair and functional society, I think that there are three main elements that need to be there: basic needs met (food, water, etc…), some way of preventing people from doing bad things (laws, rules, or just generally good people), and lastly, an economy that produces these two things repeatedly. I think of these three things, the last one is the most important because to ensure the survival of a society, the society needs to be relatively self sufficient. But, both of the nations together are not functional in the end, so I do not think our classroom as a whole accomplished the goal. But, overall, this was a really fun activity, and I think it was also an interesting social experiment.

Another great tool to understand how and why revolutions happen is the crane brinton scale. Crane Brinton was a historian of France, and among other things, he studied multiple revolutions and fund common traits in all of them. Using his observations, he create a diagram that split a revolution into four stages: the incubation stage, the moderate stage, the crisis stage, and the recovery stage. My diagram of his theory is here.

Now that we had a clearer understanding of why revolutions happen, we were ready to start reading a famous story based off of an actual revolution. This story was Animal Farm. Animal Farm is a widely renowned novel with a movie adaptation written by George Orwell, which follows the events of a farm as the animal rise up against their captors and form their own society. We had book group discussions about what we read daily. It was great to see what a revolution is like from the perspectives of the people in it.

While reading the book, we were also assigned to groups of six that would each be studying a revolution. I was assigned the French Revolution. I researched the French Revolution until I fully understood it, and then created a graphic organizer to show my learning, Which I revised once.

Revolution Notes.pdfDownload

The next major step in this project was the Animal Farm written response. This was a three-paragraph writing were we explained the anatomy of the revolution in Animal Farm using Crane Brinton’s theory. We had an hour to write this in class, and I think that I got it done fairly Easily in that time constraint.

My thoughts on the revolution in Animal Farm, using the Crane Brinton theory

Now, we knew what we needed to know and were prepared the start creating the final product of this project. The final product is a courtroom trial were we put the effectiveness of the revolution up to the test. We created affadivats, scripts, props, and a set to perform out trials in front of our parents, friends, colleges, and even some random people. And after all that preparation, this is the final result:

So that conclude today’s post, about the revolutions on trial project. I hope you enjoyed this post, and if you want to check out my group member’s blogs, click any of the links below. Thanks for reading, bye.

Cole D.

Dana P.

Makenna C.

Cooper K.

Carter C.

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November 21, 2021

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Correlation Vs. Causation

As of two days ago when writing this, the latest PLP project just ended. I am writing today about that project, the correlation and causation project. in this project, I learned how to identify correlation and causation, and make surveys and show the results. So, without further ado, here is the post.

To kick off this project, I started the same way I usually do: with a mind map. This Mindmap graphs all the existing knowleadge I have and the question I have onto paper (or pixels).

This project was about correlation and causation. Correlation is a statistical term that evaluated the degree at which two or more things are related. Causation is when those things actually cause eachother.

The final product of this project is a presentation featuring survey results on graphs that show correlation and causation. For the next major milestone in this project, me and my partner had to make a plan for our survey. We had some ideas for what our survey could be, and in the end we made this:

Survey Plan

After making this, we assembled and wrote the questions into a survey we made using google forms. We sent this form our via Basecamp, Snapchat, and iMessage. We received 40 responses in total, all of which are 13-18 years olds. We put our results onto graphs, and found no correlation with our original plan. But, we didn’t just ask four questions, we asked more so that we could look through the data to find correlations (almost) no matter what. And with that, we found these two correlations:

Correlation 1: Friend height VS. Your height
Correlation 2: Perceived height VS. Actual height

Finally, it was time to start working on our final presentation. We started out with an outline of what our presentation would look like

Final Presentation Outline

And after that, we made out final presentation, and nothing to notable happened with this.

Correlation vs. Causation Presentation.pdf

And then we presented. The presentation went smoothly, though I think we could’ve improved upon it by making our data more clear.

And for the curricular competencies for this project:

Planning and conducting:Select and use appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data


Two correlations are found using well crafted survey results. The survey results and correlations are are displayed and explained through presentation software. At least two graphs are analyzed to confirm correlation.

Our presentation clearly showed our survey results, correlations and featured two graphs

Communicating and Representing: Use mathematical vocabulary and language to contribute to mathematical discussions

Verbal and pictorial explanations help the audience to understand the circumstances where both correlation and causation are present, and also where a correlation is falsely associated with causation. A Logical explanation for causation is explored for one case.

We showed our exploration into one of the correlations to prove causation which follows a logical course. We also have verbal and pictorial explanations that help guide the audience to a conclusion.

Applying and Innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through individual or collaborative approaches

Good ethics are followed when conducting surveys. All class time is used efficiently for learning without distractions.

I used my time wisely and only missed one deadline this whole project.

Well, thanks for reading my post, and I hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for the next one.

My partners Max’s blog

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October 20, 2021

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People And The Environment

Hello, and welcome to another post. Today, I am going to be talking about the latest PLP project I have done: people and the environment. The driving question for this project is: “How do people and the environment affect each other” and over the last five weeks, I have sought to answer that question. So, without further ado, here is the post.

The first thing we did was a writing activity about whether most people are protectors or destroyers of nature. For me, I almost immediately knew I thought they are destroyers. This is mine:

Baseline Thoughts Writing

The end product of this project is a letter to someone important about an issue. The letter must include possible solutions to that problem, evidence of the problem, and a clear and meaningful call to action, with the intention of creating meaningful change within our province.

Throughout the project we did multiple commonlit activities to help us understand message, meaning, themes, and how to use evidence. Each commonlit consisted of a story, and then questions about the things above.

The first milestone in this project was a letter plan conference, were I pitched the idea for my letter and clarified my plan to make the product. I decided I would write to the premier of BC, Mr. John Horgan about a law that could help stop BC’s extremely large amount of forest fires. BC accounts for over three quarters of Canada’s wildfires, so I wanted to try and help. This conference went well and provided lots of much needed clarification.

The second milestone was just an accumulation of all the commonlits: hey, come on out, quiet town, the sea also rises, and Lee Sherman and the toxic bayou. And for milestone three, we were to choose one of these stories, and connect the theme of the story to the theme of our letter in a three paragraph write up. before writing, I wrote an outline for my multi paragraph writing to sort my thoughts.

And, in the 60 minutes of class time we had to write the paragraph, this is what I came up with:

If I were to do it again, I would try to connect the two themes more strongly, and try to cut down the first paragraph a ton. But, all in all, I think I did a pretty good job.

Now, just like in the last project, the milestones were kind of shuffled, so this whole time I was also writing drafts for my final letter. I wrote five drafts of my letter, which are featured below.

So, once my final letter was finished, I addressed it, put it in an envelope, and sent it off.

Thanks for reading my post! I learned a ton in this project, and will in the next one too, so stay tuned. See you in the next post, bye.

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October 13, 2021

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Epidemic Exponents!

Hello, and welcome. I am back to school, and starting this year in scimatics with exponents! In the first scimatics project this year, Game of Exponent Laws, I learned how to evaluate exponents, exponent laws, and more. So without further ado, here is the post.

To kick of the project, we did a quick activity were we made up games that used one and two dice. We got into groups of four, and started working. And here are the rules we came up with:

Rollie poll-E

Assemble all the players in a circle. Decide who will roll first, and have them roll the die. If their roll is a 4, 5, or 6, add the roll to their point tally. If their roll is a 1, or 3, subtract their roll from their point tally. Point tallies cannot drop below zero, and if they reach twenty, that person wins. If they roll a 2, they get to roll again and multiply that roll by two and add it to their point tally.

Rollie poll-E 2.0

To win, gain 5 points. You gain a point when you correctly answer a question faster than your opponent(s). Choose someone to roll each round, and have them roll the two dice. Once the dice have settled, every player starts solving the math problem. If the dice are both even, devide the greater roll by the smaller one. If the dice are both odd, multiply them. If the dice are odd and even, add them together. Once you figure out the answer, say it aloud, and if you are the first to solve the problem, you get a point. Decimal points are allowed for answers. If the roll has a 1 then subtract 1 from the other roll

(Special thanks to Jocelyn for thinking of the names)

So, as common with scimatics projects, we all were supposed to make a mind map that’s outlines what we already know and what questions we have.

Project Start Mindmap

Now, in this project, the milestones were not a linear process, but in a slightly erratic way, with the milestones not coming in numerical order. So, for the sake of this post, I will tell you about the events of this project in chronological order.

After these first assignments, me and my partner started brainstorming Ideas for our game. Our first milestone was milestone four (confusing). For this project, everybody was given a partner, and together you and your partner would make a game that uses exponents as a central mechanic. So, eventually, me and Aliciah decided to make a game about viruses. Our idea was quite similar to pandemic: contagion, which is a game were each player is a virus trying to exterminate humanity. Our first draft of our rules are here.

Throughout the next week, we updated our game rules and did some exponent practice, and eventually landed on this set of rules:

Epidemic Exponents Final Rules.

After making these final game rules, it was time to make our game board and pieces.

Final Game Board!

And, of course, there were curricular competencies for this project, which are listed below.

Applying and innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches.

All class time is used efficiently for learning without distractions. All group members contribute equally.

I used my class time well, and I think that is reflected in the quality of my work. My partner and I shared equal part in the workload for this project.

Reasoning and Analyzing: Use logic and patterns to solve puzzles and play games

A clear and simple points system and win conditions for the game are carefully designed.

Points system is clearly represented by physical game pieces, and finding out who wins a game is easy and concise.

Communicating and Representing: Represent mathematical ideas in concrete, pictorial, and symbolic forms

A set of clear, complete, interesting and personalized instructions are created for how each player takes their turn. Examples are included. The game design uses at least 4 different exponent laws and using these laws is integrated into each player’s turn.

Our game features game rules completely written from scratch, with our own ideas and examples of gameplay and game pieces. There are over four exponent laws included in our rules.

And that concludes my blog post for today! Thanks for reading this far, and if you want to check out my partner Alicah’s blog, click here.

See you in the next post, bye.