FINALLY the school year is almost over and summer is about to begin!! As of me writing this there are only 2 days left of school!!! However there is still one gruelling task that I have to complete before summer starts, I still have to present one final reflection of the learning I’ve experienced this year.  Or in PLP language my tPol (transitional presentation of learning).

So for the final time this year sit back, relax and get ready for my final blog post!

    LEARNING PLAN

Driving Question

The driving question for this year is: Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?

My POL Declaration

“Thank you for coming to my presentation of learning. I am the expert on my own learning. I am also responsible and accountable for my own learning. You can expect me to give an honest evaluation of my progress. We will discuss my strengths and opportunities for growth. Thank you in advance for listening and for offering feedback that I can use to improve as a learner.”

Chosen Core Competencies 

Goals   

Actions 

HUMANITIES

Projects This Year:

Throughout this year we’ve worked on:

– people and the environment 

– revolutions on trial

– Working with words

– Case for a Nation 

–A war to end all wars graphically told

Fails:

– Time management

-Quality of work

Growth:

– Finishing everything

I’ve done a ton of projects over the past year and I will be using one project from each class. For humanities I would say one project I really excelled at was Working with words. At the end of the project we did I didn’t enjoy the class but looking back on it I really did enjoy writing poems about my Worldview. Although I have learned so much from all these projects I feel like writing poems was a more difficult task that I feel like  I did well in considering I’m terrible at making poems.

Going deeper, this project was about writing poetry through our interests, hobbies, worldview and just expressing who you are. I love reading poems, you get to learn a ton about a person through poetry which I find really fascinating. I love reading poetry but I am not the best at writing it. Not to say I still tried my best and I think the outcome turned out pretty alright. Speaking of the end of the project, we were tasked with creating a poetry book containing 8-10 poems about ourselves and worldview in different poem styles.

Revision

During the time my class was making the poem book I was in Mexico so when I came back it was rally confusing for me to get back into the swing of things. The hardest part was writing the poems in different styles (Imagery poem and the Self portrait poem.) These are some unfinished panels from when I was experimenting with the style of my comic. Some of the skills that I practiced when partaking in this project were:

– Time Management

–Patience

In the end, I feel like I did a pretty good job for my skill set.

My poetry book took around 1 month to complete, considering I wasn’t there at the start and I never asked teachers for help and tried to figure things out by myself.

SCIMATICS

Projects this term:

– Game of exponent laws

– Correlation vs Causation

– Chemistry stories 

– Metaphor Machines

–  Meiosis Models

– Time is Money

Fails:

– Quality of Work

– Time Management

Growth:

– Group Work

– Learning more about iMovie

We’ve made a ton of projects in Scimatics over the past year. I have enjoyed all of them but for this post I will do more in depth for one specific project and my favourite project that I’ve worked on is Metaphor Machines 🥶. I feel like this project helps show my abilities of teamwork, and individual work but also what I feel like I can improve.

Revision

This project was all about Rube Goldberg machines, they are a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way. My group and I made a pretty great machine. (The vid is down below.) Some skills I demonstrated in this project are: 

-Teamwork

-Leadership skills

-Patience

-Video editing skills

Maker

Projects this term:

– Destination Imagination

– Believe in good

– Vibrant videos

– Your First Film

Fails:

– Quality of Work

– Time Management

Growth:

– Teamwork

-Learning more about iMovie

Maker this year has been super fun, we had DI and Movie making which were both super fun classes. I believe that the work I completed in “Your First Film” shows my best work as a learner in Maker.

Through these projects, we learned about the basics of filmmaking. In the Your First Film project, I feel like I showed my best work as a PLP student. I learned a ton about editing in a bunch of different apps. I worked individually and in groups. I was taught about how to create a documentary with different angles, music and scenery. This maker class is probably the most fun I’ve had out of any other class this year. 

As well as learning filming techniques, we also recapped the history of film. I never have been that interested in movies up until I went into that maker class.

(Here’s the link to my movie maker blog!)

Revision

I believe that I’ve learned more in this class than I have in any other class about a specific topic. I’ve learned how to use different angles, music and scenery to engage my viewer and I’ve worked with a ton of different people that I’ve never worked with before. I believe I’ve managed to understand and grow the skills I needed to write one. Anyways enough talking about how great the class was here are the skills that I worked on and learned during this class:

– individual work

– group work

– Writing a story spine, treatment, and log line

-learning more about iMovie 

Now I feel more confident in my abilities and I can accomplish my goals!

“Why do you feel you are ready to advance to the next grade level?“

Reasons: 

1. I wish to learn new abilities that I can use for my future work/job. 

2. I’m ready to take on more responsibilities. 

3. I want to graduate high school, get into a good university and get a job so I can raise a family eventually 

I just want to thank you all for reading my blog post, I hope that whoever is reading this stays happy healthy and lives their lives to the fullest!

take care,

Ewan

Welcome back to another blog everyone. We have recently been working on a project called Time is Money in Scimatics. In this project, we were to create a business, determine how long it would take to run, and estimate how much money it would generate over a specific amount of time. I feel like I gained real-world experience by metaphorically selling my goods to actual customers, I truly loved working on this project. I genuinely believe that my arithmetic abilities have improved significantly. I’ll walk you through the process of creating and calculating this business throughout this post.

Driving question: How can we predict our finances for the future?

Answer: We can predict our finances for the future by gather data and graphing the equation “y = mx + b”

The Process

Choosing what we wanted to do as a business was our first Milestone. This required that we have the resources to make it a reality and that it be something we could offer, like a service or a product. I chose vehicle washing because I have access to all the materials and because I believed it would be easy to handle. 

Then we spent a lot of time learning about construction. I completed numerous worksheets, workbooks, and textbooks that would eventually teach me how to properly graph and chart my firm so that I could precisely forecast its profitability.

We began developing the equation for our enterprises at the following milestone. This equation will allow me to see several aspects of my business, including how much money I would generate annually, how much my operating expenses were, and how long it would take me to recoup my initial investment. Check out the equation that served as the foundation for my business below:

Y=15x-700

I took questions on Khan Academy and the final unit test to consolidate my understanding of building. I was satisfied that I could complete this project with a thorough comprehension of the equation y = mx + b after assessing how well I did on all of the test’s questions. 

I finally finished the graphs that would appear in my final film. I was able to calculate my starting cost, the time it would take me to recover my starting cost, how much money I would make in a year, Below are my graphs for your review.

To finish this project, and do a quick summary, we made a video. You can see the video I made below:

IMG_1924   link to the video

Curricular Competencies

Understanding and solving

I executed this project quite successfully because I was familiar with the tool we used to create our graph and the inputs required. I finished the workbooks with ease as well.

Communicating and representing

I feel like I did this pretty well, I showed my work clearly and represented the data and graphs pretty well.

Connecting and reflecting.

On this competency, I believe I did okay. I am aware of what we accomplished and how the procedure aided in producing our finished product. I am aware of what we did and how it benefited us. 

In conclusion, this project was awesome and a great method to learn about graphing. I liked creating our graphs with the Desmos application and seeing how we connected them to real-world events.

Your First Film

I’m back, hello and welcome! We began a project called Vibrant Video about two months ago. Through this project, we gained knowledge about a few various filmmaking approaches. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about because this project was the precursor to another one called Your First Film. In order to design and create a complete documentary film on a subject of our choosing, this made use of the abilities we had gained. This was the year’s major final project for us.

The driving question for today is: Driving Question: How can I engage and entertain an audience using my video and storytelling skills

Here’s me answer: Answer: I can engage and entertain an audience by using different story telling techniques. For example: montage, beginning, middle, foreshadowing, etc. I can also engage an audience using different video skills. For example, close up, transitions, slow motions, time laps (fast-mo). You can see me demonstrating my understating of the driving question through my video.

We started to practice our movie skills with such a small group at first, we rehearsed our interviewing techniques. We learnt the ideal angles to input into our video, how to do an interview effectively, and how to choose an interview subject. Since an interview would make up the majority of our final video, we didn’t delve into the specifics here; instead, we just wanted to practise. We spent an entire class coming up with a topic and some possible questions, filming someone responding to them, and then editing the video together. We could build our final interviews off of this excellent beginning point.

We had to develop an idea for our documentary after honing our interviewing techniques. We completed a few worksheets to try to come up with some suggestions for potential subjects based on our resources and areas of interest, and then we had the weekend to select our interviewee. During this my teacher came up with an example of How sports could positively effect kids in North Shore. Once I heard her idea I knew that I needed to put her idea into action.

For a little while after that, we just focused on clearly outlining and summarizing our ideas and documents. To do this, we created a logline and treatment. A logline is a one or two sentence summary of your movie. A treatment is a succinct description of the what, when, who, and where of your movie. We created a script based on these newly formed concepts. The majority of the mass was located here (writing wise).

Then, we quickly drew out a storyboard. We thankfully didn’t have to make the storyboard super detailed because my drawing was terrible. This made it easier for us to picture the documentary instead of just reading about it in a screenplay and gave us time to consider the angles, camera movement, sounds, and music before it was too late.

We were essentially set free after this. Every other day we had a block to check in and wrap up any incomplete storyboard or screenplay sections, but other than that we were out shooting, interviewing, and editing. In the beginning, we were also instructed to plan ahead for our interview so that we could reserve hours and materials. (I interviewed my father and my Lacrosse coach if you were wondering.)

This went on for about a week and a half and than mostly editing was left, we where in the class editing and working on music for a couple classes. After completing all of the editing, writing, music, and interviews I finished minutes before my documentary was late. Overall I did really enjoy the process of writing, shooting, and editing my documentary. I also want to say thanks to Mrs. Maxwell for giving me her idea to work on, if it wasn’t for her my documentary would’ve been completely different and possibly a lot worse. (P.S. if you want to see my documentary its posted in the link below.)

The Exhibit

The information we received about our impending spring exhibition, where we would be displaying our documentaries, at the end of our documentary project motivated us to finish the film as best we could.

The first step was to choose the groups we would be working in throughout the process. One thing to keep in mind is that we collaborated on creating the majority of our props and setup with the grade below us in order to finish our station. Sepaus, Ben Y, Dana, Fraser, Arianne, Ava, Gabby and I were the first group of students from our grade with whom we began working. For many hours to come, this was our group. After forming our groups, we worked in the extension classroom as our designated station. From that point on, it was really a matter of coming up with ideas for what we wanted to do with our station—which was pretty tight considering we were sharing the room with the grade 10’s—and figuring out how to make it happen.

We discussed more specifics in the following classes and had our plans accepted and rejected until we were very certain of what we wanted to work on. I was put into beyond the classroom, and it was our responsibility to show the audience our understanding beyond the classroom. The exhibition’s topic was the journey of a PLP student, thus we illustrated this by showing the future audience our trips and learning experiences beyond the classroom. Now we did this by incorporating one of our trips (Loon lake) into our station.

After a couple of classes of working by ourselves it was time to add grade 8’s to the mix! For a short portion of this project, we worked alongside the eighth graders, which was great fun and led to some creative ideas. We had little time to work with them because they weren’t in our class. But we managed to pull it off thanks to our quick and effective effort.

We gained a lot of knowledge about what we can actually do as a larger group and how to allocate jobs and responsibilities to both the grade 8 students and ourselves. I also saw how, as the deadline drew closer, our speed really increased. This illustrates how having a strategy and a deadline might enable you to complete the required tasks on time.

I wasn’t there to experience the exhibition because I had a lacrosse game (We won!) I was told it was pretty fun and it went well so I’m happy about that. Overall I enjoyed working with the grade 8’s, they are really responsible. I did enjoy my time working on the exhibition as well, it was a pretty great learning experience!

Until next time,

Welcome back to my blog everyone!

the project we just finished was called Meiosis Models. In this project, we made a video showing how meiosis and mitosis work, and we had to use 3D models that were made on Tinkercad.

Tinkercad is a good tool for 3D designing, especially since there aren’t a lot of 3D design sites that are free to use. The only things I would say that Tinkercad could work on it would be to make it more iPad user friendly and some quality of life updates for the app would be great to have.

This project started in April. The project started how most Scimatics projects do: with research and refining our knowledge of whatever we’re researching for the project. We created Mind Maps and watched a video on the topic we were studying, as is customary at the start of a project.

Making models of the meiosis and mitosis cycle was one of the first parts of the project we completed for this project. Meiosis 1 and 2, as well as the processes that occur throughout both phases of meiosis, were all covered. Creating the models in Tinkercad was very interesting to me, both the actual science and the medium we were using to create the models, I believe this milestone demonstrated the ability inquiring and forecasting ( Tinkercad ).

The experiment we did this project involved planting garlic cloves, nurturing them, then dissecting them to show their DNA through a microscope. Dissecting them came later in the project, but it wasn’t easy. I went through the process of dissecting the garlic with Luca, The experiment is a good example of the proficiency Planning and Conducting, because the experiment had to be executed properly, for the best possible results.

The competency Scientific Communication is demonstrated through the Tinkercad models, and the presentation that showed all my scientific knowledge.

My end project was a screen-recorded film of my Tinkercad models, complete with a voice-over explaining each stage of meiosis. A comparison of meiosis and mitosis, as well as microscopic photos of garlic root-tips, have to be included in the film. Because I had already created 3D models earlier in the project, all I had to do was add a voice-over and some editing to complete this movie. My final video didn’t have nearly as much information as some of the others I watched, but I believe it fit the project’s requirements.

Overall, I did like this project, one thing I would change would be adding more content to the video but besides that I enjoyed this project.

Think Like a Movie maker

During the past couple of weeks we’ve worked on a project called Vibrant Video. The goal of this project was a to develop skills to become an effective movie maker. Before I go any deeper I just want to say that this class has been one of my favourite classes of all time! From learning about movies to casting in them to directing them, I’ve enjoyed every bit. But, still there were some aspects that I feel I could’ve really improved on. The main concepts I completed were 4 main moviemaking skills, note taking, and challenged based, which all corresponded  to becoming a video maker. 

The skills I completed for the first part of this project were skills 1 and 2, which are ‘Think Like a Movie Maker’ and ‘Framing Shots and Developing Angles’. I’d say Mrs Williams has taught us very well about movie making, I feel like I learned more than I would’ve with any other teacher. I know really learnt a lot from both of skills in different ways. The first skill was very necessary for me to understand the concept of this project. After learning the basics of movie making we were tasked with creating a video about one of our hobbies, the hobby I chose was my friend Sepaus, as a joke but I ended up getting a really good mark. The criteria for the video included combining a few videos and photos (as well as stickers background music, etc.) in Clips, which is the less advanced twin brother of iMovie. Something I feel like I could’ve improved on would’ve been adding more to the video, better angles, maybe more effects and I definitely should’ve taken the project more seriously. Overall I’d say that project went pretty well for my first video.

Skill 2, was arguably more important than skill 1 in my opinion. Sure skill 1 taught us the basics of movie making but learning skill 2 really helped me go above my own expectations for movie making. Skill 2 helped us learn about developing angles. To show our knowledge we would have to make a silent film using different angles, background music, a old timey filter to give the movie a more old timey look, and most importantly we couldn’t talk because it was a silent movie.       The day before the silent movie was due I forgot about it so I had to plan a really scuffed silent move that I had to make only 2 hours before I had to go to bed. I came up with incorporating lost treasure into my movie and since I was filming in my living room I named the silent film “The Hunt for the lost treasure of the living room.” It took me a whole 2 hours to complete the movie and it was worth it for all of the effort. In the end I would say that my silent movie went well considering everything. The only thing I would add would be more camera angles into my movie, there was different angles but I definitely could’ve added more. Overall I think I was able to use my skills and develop further pieces of evidence to show that I am able to create videos. 

-Movie Making Notes

During my research I worked two more skills called ‘Skill 3: Planning and Shooting’ and ‘Skill 4: Making Most of Effects’. Skill 3 was centred around planning a film by using a storyboard. We were divided into small groups, and I was paired with Landon. We were tasked with developing a tutorial movie that demonstrates professional approaches commonly used in these types of films. We worked together to create a storyline, shoot our film from unique perspectives, then edit the film using composition and colour. We also used the latest iMovie update for iOS 15 template (we used the DIY storyboard version). Now you must be asking yourself “What did we make the video about?” Well we made a tutorial video on how to be cool like Layton McRae. This skill, I believe, let me grasp the relevance of all of these skillz and how they can significantly improve the film’s quality.

The next skill, number 4, was about making the best qualities of effects. For this skill we were placed in a small group, once again, and were tasked with creating a special effects sequence. This time I had to work with Julian, Mickey and Hannah. We worked together to create another short video (but this time based on special effects). This special effects sequence was tasked to be a short scene that features one of more special effects. We created a special effects video about two robbers (Mickey and I) who robbed a bank but then a magical fairy fluttered in (Hannah) and made Mickey vanish. After Hannah made mickey vanish I blew her up with a special effect missile, after I her blew her up I ran away with all of the money. We also added sound effects with different camera angles. I think that we probably could’ve improved the transitions for the film. The transitions weren’t smooth and some elements could’ve be presented better. Overall I enjoyed this little project, it was fun and I didn’t have to do any homework after (which I usually have to do.)

That concludes the blog! hanks for reading and until next time!

The latest project we learned about was WW1! We had to do a bunch of research of WW1 and I fee like I have a pretty concrete understanding of what transpired in the Great War. For the final product we had to make a graphic novel about a certain battle or aspect in WW1. I chose to write about the battle of Cambrai. I told the comic from 1st person but I didn’t add an actual in depth character which I do regret doing. There’s a link to my graphic novel below.

 The Driving Question for this project is: “How might we use graphic novels to understand Canada’s involvement in WWI?”

Graphic novels, blend text and visuals to convey an engaging and complete account about WWI, graphic novels are an excellent method to learn about the conflict. Making graphic novels is also a fantastic approach to learn about WWI since it demands you to have a thorough understanding of your subject in order to write a tale and supporting drawings.

One of the first tasks we were given was to write an opinion paper outlining what you believed were the most important causes of WWI. We learned about the subject by reading textbook pages and viewing this  interesting YouTube video about the events that transpired before WW1. I believe I have made significant progress in the curricular competency “Analyze Cause and Consequence: Analyze why events occur and what are the consequences?” Alliances, in my opinion, were the primary cause of WWI. 

To build more knowledge for WW1 we read a graphic novel called “World War One: The War to End All Wars” by Alan Cowsill and Lalit Kumamoto as part of the project’s Building Knowledge stage. I enjoyed the graphic novel a lot actually, I loved the action and art style and the story really made me feel immersed in the book. We discussed the themes and images throughout the novel over the course of two weeks as we read it. The book contained many interesting facts and information, but there is so much more to this war that one project cannot really include. So, since we cannot learn everything abut WW1, we had to pick a topic that we would like to learn about, and, eventually, make a mini comic book about. Most people did add colour to their comic. I purposefully did not add colour. My process was I traced over a picture then used those tracings, put them into a filter then I added a yellowish hew to the picture. Thats how I got my art style for my comic.

Causes and Consequences of WW1 

Overall this project was really fun, I enjoyed making the comic book and the art style I went with. The story I based my comic book off of was very entertaining to research the Battle of Cambrai, even though I didn’t have much time to work on it because of other classes and extra curricular activities I hope to see more projects like this in the future.

 Until next time

How can I be my most effective self?

In this project we learned a lot about how to be our most effective selves by reading the book “The 7 habits it highly effective teens” by Sean Covey and creating “choice board assessments” to show our understanding of each section in the book. The Seven habits are meant to improve your way of life and help you develop into a better more full person. Without any further introduction lets dive right in!

Personal Mission Statement Table: 

One of the earliest projects that I remember doing was the personal mission statement table. My Personal Mission Statement was all about finding my life motto and who represents that in my life. For this part of the project we had to make a table with all the people that we look up to and in the idle should be a quote made by yourself that summarizes the motto you live by. This project helped me understand myself and how my goals relate to the people in my life.

Private Victory Assignment:

We had to represent routines, be proactive, keep the end in mind, and put first things first for this aspect of the project. After I accomplished what I believed were the assignments, I realized I didn’t truly grasp the explicit directions. But what I did was put down a personal experience and associate it with the behaviours. For this component of the project, I believe I could have done a better job of describing my experience in greater detail. Overall, this section of the research allowed me to delve into the Private Victory behaviours in greater depth.

Public Victory Assessment:

The Public Victory was all about listening to others, thinking about your own and others’ achievement, and cooperating with others. These habits are known as Seek first to understand, then to be understood, consider win-win, and Synergize, to name a few. By conversing with a buddy and displaying the three habits, I was able to demonstrate these habits.

Renewal Assessment:

For the renewal assessment I decided to make a video in clips using different camera angles, background music and emojis to make the vid pop. For this assessment I had to represent the habit Sharpen the Saw. For this habit I included examples of habit 7 into the video. Overall, this part of the project helped me better understand how I can apply the habit 7; sharpen the saw in my everyday life. 

Final Products:

The final products helped me have better understanding of how I can represent multiple habits with one object. I had to plan how to represent the categories of communication, thinking and personal and social. In these categories I had to show which habits best related to them . I had to show them in three ways, visual, audio and kinaesthetic. 

For the visual I created a drawing of habits 1 and 2. For this part of the project I did well on making a visually appealing drawing. However,  I think I could of improved upon making the habits a little more interesting and in depth.

Audio Player

For the audio, I created a playlist and added a 7 habits podcast made by the author of the book. This audio represents habit 5 seek first then to be understood. If I were going to do something different about this I would’ve made an actual podcast talking about habit 5 but I didn’t have enough time because of my other classes and outside life.

For the kinaesthetic I created another example of lego characters doing habits 3, 4, and 6. I added a bunch of camera angles and added background music. If I was gonna make the lego characters do the habits again I would make the lego characters go through more complex habits with more meaning to them.

Conclusion:

Overall, this project was very helpful for me because it helped me work on more productive and useful habits that I need to work on. I definitely learned a lot about all 7 habits, habit 7 is my favourite habit out of all of them. The work aspect kinda sucked, I felt like it was to much work along with all of my other classes but I did enjoy this project. Until next time

Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog. This time I will be writing to you all about my first experience with Destination Imagination! Destination imagination or DI for short is a hands-on, project-based educational experience that encourages creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills. Also known as the most stressful classes I have ever been in. But without any more interruption let’s dive right in!

DI is basically a challenge prompt that you and a few friends must solve through a performance (there’s also an instant challenge, but it’s not as significant). We were given 5 months on and off (because of other classes) to develop a new performance from scratch that reflects our team’s interests and fulfils the challenge prompt.

We were assigned to a group and given a task at the start of the project. I was assigned to a group with Alicia, Claire, Mickey, Nolan and Luca, and we were given the Tricky Tales fine arts task.

Throughout this project we had to follow the stages of the creative process

For recognize my team and I had to fill out a project plan.

Story Deliverable

It was during this that we also started the next step Imagine. 

Idea Generation Process

During this time, I wasn’t here for the first couple of classes because I was in Mexico for an extended winter break. (It was amazing.) When I got back my team already had a relatively concrete idea. But I did help with giving ideas to my team before I left which they then combined with their other ideas to form the final plan. The process leading up to the final idea was Nolan mentioning “creating cool mechanical wings.” Which then lead to having a steampunk theme for our play. Which then lead to having a clock as our central plot device, which did really help getting us a ton of points. Personally I prefer working with other people, I prefer being more reliant on other people so that we can collaborate multiple ideas into one big one. I go by the saying “Two heads are better than one.” This goes to show how powerful building off of other’s ideas can be. 

Initiate and collaborate

The next step was to Initiate and Collaborate. The project included a variety of collaborative pieces of work. From building the wings and the clock to writing the script, everything was done by hand. The story and the clock, in my opinion, were the best collective efforts. The story was a collaborative effort. Everyone contributed ideas, some of which were insane and some of which were not very good, but when we combined them, we came up with a fairly fantastic plot.

The other area that we collaborated well was with the clock. This was much more hands on, with everybody pitching in to help paint it, and to get it working. 

I was at a disadvantage because I wasn’t in DI last year because I still lived in Fort Mac so I wasn’t used to anything, to say in the least I was pretty lost at the start but my teammates guided me to the right path and I eventually got on top on what I needed to complete. At first I really disliked DI but looking back on everything I can appreciate why all of us were forced into DI. Now I’m going to write about everyone’s strengths used to create the play. Our script was written by Alicia, who excels at creative writing. Claire is an excellent seamstress, so she made the majority of our costumes. Nolan is highly talented in all of the critical components required to make this play; he performed a little bit of everything, but as our group’s engineer, he undoubtedly scored us a lot of points. With the clock and the wings. I played one of the main characters (the clock Wizard) I think I did a really good job by getting into character. Not to brag but I feel like I was the best in the play. Finally Luca worked on the illusion which was making a pocket watch float with fishing line (which I think was a really great idea!) Our team would be in shambles without Nolan and Alicia. I’m grateful to both of them because they put in the most effort out of all of us and were instrumental in our accomplishment. I would say Nolan and Alicia were definitely the group leaders. Whatever Nolan or Alicia told me I did without a complaint. Which worked out for all of us.

Nolan made the wings, What he did was he made a small scale prototype of the wings. He took them to class and showed us how they worked. You must be asking yourselves “How do they work?” well at the back Nolan would twist the crank which was attached to rope and the rope was attached to the wings which pulled the wings up. Making the wearer look like a steampunk jet pack guy thing.

Some pictures of the prototypes

[Prototype] 

Prototype

[Final Wings]

After Nolan made the wings my team and I had to practice, practice, practice, and you guessed it a little more practice. Even with all of the practice the final play went eh. We missed cues, I messed up the cues for the music, Alicia knocked over the pole but besides that everything went peachy. I would say the cues was our biggest weakness. If we worked on cues a little more I feel like we could’ve scored so many more points. It doesn’t matter to much though because we still won the DI play. (We actually had the second most amount of points out of everyone there!)   

Overall I would say the actually play went alright. I had to carpool with Ines, Mickey and, Claire which was a fun time I’d say. I forgot the name of the school we went to but that school was the most beautiful school I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting, it felt like I was in a museum! 

What did I learn?

Well I think I learned about how to effectively be in a team and contribute to the groups end goal. I definitely wasn’t the head of the team but I would say things that my team and I worked on and learned would be how to effectively work together and hand things in before the deadline. Another thing I noticed that Nolan and Alicia would assign our group members to tasks that played into their strengths which I appreciate. Something I would like to work on would try to be more of a leader. I feel like I am a natural leader but for this project I was more of a pawn that’s anything. I look up to Nolan and Alicia because they are the definition of great leaders and I would love to be more like them in the future. 

Wowie that was a ton of writing and info about DI. Anyways, that was Destination Imagination in a nutshell. Overall I’d say this project went pretty smoothly but I feel like there could’ve been a ton of room for improvement. Not to name names, some people could’ve been better at getting into character but besides that I think things went well. There were still conflicts and stressful days, but in the end I would say it was pretty fun!

Until next time, Ewan

Hello and welcome back to to my blog post. In this post, I will be reflecting on creating a Rube Goldberg machine for scimatics. This machine is created to be a metaphor for the Scientific method. Before we made our machine we had to make a scaled blueprint to know what to do before we built it. During this project I worked with some of my good buddies Carter, Noah, and Luca. This was a really fun project, I would say it has been my most favourite project so far! 

The Scientific method

The Scientific method is an approach to seeking knowledge that involves forming and testing a hypothesis. The scientific method is used for most experiments within science and other fields.

Rube Goldberg Machine

A Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption that uses a chain reaction to carry out a simple task.

Now without any other interruption lets dive right in!

To start this project we had to complete an activity “Junkyard Wars”. This activity was a competition to create the best Rube Goldberg machine with the most mechanisms using only materials in the classroom. We had about 45 minutes to plan, create, and film our machine. I don’t really remember what we did but from what I can recall we did pretty alright.

We began our MindMap after the “Junkyard Wars.” To do so, we first posed a set of questions about the project, and then each of us developed our own mind map. We compiled all of our previous knowledge about electrical circuits and machines, as well as any questions we had about the project, on this mental map. 

During this time, we also completed the second milestone of the project, which was the electrical labs. In this milestone, we used the scientific method to address three questions with our group. We were able to construct circuit diagrams, use maths, and apply our overall grasp of electricity in the labs using real electricity.

I wasn’t to sure on what to do but my group steered me in the right direction and told me what to do and I did it. Most of the time I didn’t do much besides voice the lines, video the Rube Goldberg machine, help make the machine and a bunch of other things. I felt we had way to much time for this project but that gave me more free time so I’m not complaining. The end of the machine turned out pretty good and Im pleased with how the end project turned out to be. I only have on picture of a blueprint but my team and I collectively combined our blueprints into one final one. (This isn’t the final blueprint and idk where to find it.)

As a group we ended up combining our ideas to form this plan;

After my team and I created the blueprint it was time to build! I would say this was the most laid back I’ve been this entire project, I helped build it but not as much as my teammates had but I would like to say I made up for it by videoing the machine in action! I did help voice lines and stuff too!

Four classes later, we were done building, and it was now time for our final step, which was creating the video.

Overall, this was a really cool project! In this project, I enjoyed working with Luca, Carter, and Noah. I found that I was able to collaborate with them well throughout the project. I am happy with the overall understandings that I have learned and the Rube Goldberg my team and I have built. 

Curricular competencies

For my first curricular competency: Questioning and Predicting: Demonstrate a sustained intellectual curiosity about a scientific topic or problem of personal interest. I feel like I’m in between emerging and proficient because I was still in the project helping out and I was curious to see how the final project turned out but I was still fooling around a bit with my peers. For my second curricular competency: Reasoning and Analyzing: Estimate reasonably. I feel like I deserve a proficient grade because I estimated where the marble would land and fix whatever problem arose in the making of the Rube Goldberg Machine. For my third curricular competency: Planning and conducting: Select and use appropriate equipment, including digital technologies, to systematically and accurately collect and record data. I feel like I’m in between emerging and proficient because I definitely helped out with making the board and using my skills to see where the ball would land but I feel like I’m in developing because I wasn’t always on task with the project.  Last but certainly not least my final curricular competency: Scientific Communication: Formulate physical or mental models to describe a phenomenon. I believe I deserve a proficient mark because I made mental visions and guesses to see how the marble would land creating another chain reaction before we set out to do that so my plans could come to fruition.

So, How can we represent the Scientific method? We can represent the scientific method by making a Rube Goldberg machine with mechanisms that represent a metaphor for each step in the scientific method. What factors influence how well electric circuits work and how efficient they are? There are a number of factors to consider, including the voltage, which affects the circuit’s electric current, the amount of resistance in the circuit, and external influences such as your lightbulb being burned out before testing or the steadiness of the hands testing it! There are numerous elements that could play a role. Many things can affect your circuit, but the majority of them can be resolved by understanding current, voltage, and resistance. Until next time, take care!

Hello everyone welcome back to my blog! Today I will be telling you about the most recent project my class and I worked on; Case for a Nation but before we dive right in I want to tell you about how I solved the driving question for the Case for a Nation Humanities project. “How can an understanding of nationalism of the past, help us make sense of today?”

For this project we had to make a instagram post about a topic we were given. I chose the Crimean war as my topic. Now the reason why I chose my topic is because, Russia is invading Ukraine and the Crimean war was almost just like what’s going on right now between the two countries.

I think that if I were to do it again then I would make a more detailed image and use more photoshop to really make it pop! With that being said I still think that the finished product looks pretty cool, and I am proud of the final result.

The Curricular Competencies for this project are:

1) Communicate Compellingly: I can respectfully exchange ideas and diverse viewpoints to build shared understanding and extend thinking.

I believe I did exceptionally well in this core skill because, when working on our shared caption and photographs, I clearly communicated my ideas to my team and we collaborated to create a caption that effectively represented all of the required information

2) Take Historical Perspective: I can infer and explain different perspectives on past and present people, issues, or events by considering prevailing norms, values, and beliefs.

I believe I did well in this skill because I am capable of putting myself in the shoes of someone that took part in the war and  can see from both worldviews from both sides, which aids in gaining a better knowledge of the many viewpoints of those who took part in the battle.

The steps that I took to make this were:

Keystone 1: For this keystone we did a nationalism jigsaw

Keystone 2: For this keystone we made these four images.

Image 1: Luca

Image 2: Carter

Image 3: Noah

Image 4: Me

Keystone 3: For this keystone we made a instagram post

Link here (not yet posted)

I made this instagram post with Carter (blog here) Noah (blog here) and Luca (blog here)

Part 4: For this milestone we made the blog post which I am doing right now.

As the answer to the driving question;

I learned a lot about nationalism and how it is relevant to today, like how Russia seems to be reacting out of greed and not strategy, like how they acted at the start of the Crimean war. I feel like Russia is has to stop because the entire world sees them as a threat and they don’t want to trade with them which will crash their economy. Thus starting riots from the public and the entire country will fall into chaos. 

Thank you for reading my blog.