Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my final Scimatics project, Comic Cells! In this project we learned about the parts of a cell and a specific disease we chose and then make it into a comic. The big idea for this project is “Life processes are performed at the cellular level.”

The first thing we did for this project was actually watch a movie. Not the “oh its pyjama day, lets watch a movie!” But for educational purposes, but it was an actual movie. We watched it because it was about cells and kind of showed the process of a disease entering the body and being defeated. I didn’t really like the movie (part of the reason I couldn’t hear it) and I thought it could have been taught in a more effective manor. With this introduction to the project done, we can get to the learning…

Workbooks and textbooks! Easy to understand, easy to complete good ol’ workbooks. As I have often lamented there isn’t much to talk about except for what I learned… which I kind of forgot. And its pretty dense anyway. There was three of sets of textbooks and workbooks we worked through. And now with the Building Knowle— oh wait! What is that? Tests and quizzes! Noooo, actually its not that mad. I did struggle with these because the classes they were introduced in I wasn’t there. AND I straight up didn’t know the answers to the questions. But Judah, I hear you asking, you just did three sets of workbooks and textbooks, why do you not know the answers? Because dear reader, there was more info to ingest and consume. I originally was just being lazy and thought I could just fling myself metaphorically into the tests and do fine. I couldn’t. I guessed and semi-cheated (I just memorized the answers instead of learning them) through the first one but I wanted to learn the information about cells, not just know it. I needed to try something else. 

I called in my dad. He’s really smart with science and math. Well, he is an engineer! With him and me we watched the videos and read the articles and took notes. After a few evenings of doing this I watched all the vids. I approached the tests, staring them right in their beady eyes and charged head on. Through a grindy battle I marched and out the other side I came. Victorious! I had complete them! And only got a couple wrong answers. Now that I had ACTUALLY completed Building my Knowledge I could move onto the next step. 

There was just one thing left for this project, the final countdown product. A comic about cells and diseases. Ok, this is basically the rubric. Research your chosen disease (we chose a disease earlier in the project with some one off activity) and make a comic out of it. We also had to have at least 10 vocabulary words about this field of science. The disease I chose is Kuru or the Laughing Death. You get it from eating someones brain. After that it travels to your brain and starts to degrade your neurons. There are multiple stages of losing control of your body until you have random fits of crying and laughter (hence the name). As not being able to swallow and easily choking. All around real pleasant. 

Before I was allowed to start making the actual comic I needed to make my storyboard. I thought it was supposed to just be a concept with low effort in drawing so I didn’t colour and I did stick men. But I was wrong, so I changed it. No big deal. After that I was able to get to work on my comic. Its hard to explain the process of that so I will but sho— oh crap my Apple Pencil broke… if you haven’t guessed already the comic is on the iPad. I need the Pencil. So I could only work on it at school were I could borrow a Pencil. Honestly, not the end of the world it just means I have less time to work on it. But enough delays, drum roll please, my Comic!

I think its fine. I don’t love how I did the vocab words. I felt like I had to cram them in there. If I had more time I would have found a way to get them in more smoothly but oh well you can’t win them all. I used most of my class time for learning and doing my work. Of course I couldn’t focus 100% of the time (thats not how humans work). I did have all my vocab words and correct diagrams. As I said I didn’t love how I put in the vocab words. My characters did interact in a scientific way.

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest Scimatics project, The Ultimate Design Challenge (fiery explosion, fiery explosion!). In this project we learned about calculating the area and volume of different shapes and then we made an object in Tinkercad. The big idea for this project is “The relationship between surface area and volume of 3D objects can be used to describe, measure, and compare spatial relationships.”

Something that we did again that we do in every Scimatics project is the textbooks and worksheets. I also feel weird when I have to write about these because its always the same thing and I don’t know what to talk about. What we learned this time was learning to calculate the area and volume of different 3 dimensional objects. We learned how to do rectangular prisms, triangular prisms, and cylinders. I don’t what else to say. Oh, if you want to find out how to calculate different shapes just looks it up. All the formulas are there. 

The next thing we started doing was… the finale product! Yes we are already doing the final product! For the final product we had to choose and design a object in Tinkercad. Tinkercad is a online, free to use 3D modelling software. Once we had chosen an object, we had to make another choice. Whether we wanted to make our object have a higher volume or area. One final thing we had to use at leasts three objects. I chose to do a water bottle (it was the first thing I saw) and make it have a larger volume because with a water bottle you want to hold lots of water. I started working. I looked to see if Tinkercad had any water bottle objects already in there catalogue (I didn’t want to just copy them). They did. But it was fine because their water bottle was a plastic water bottle, while I wanted to make a metal water bottle. I started working on my first draft. 

As soon as I started I realized that making that curve to the lip of the bottle would be tough. My first draft was simple but effective. It was just a cylinder with a sphere combined with it at the top. Then I put a much smaller cylinder on the put to act as the lip of where you would put ur mouth. Finally I put smushed, pancake cylinder on top for the cap. The flaw with this one as you probably have realized is how this is only four shapes. Not good. Something else I didn’t like about this design is how it ended up looking just like a canteen. Next draft.

The next draft I did I ended up deleting because… I don’t know. I like suffering and trying to remember what I did? What I did was a cylinder for the main base where the water goes, then I tried to circle lots and lots of half cylinders to try to make a perfect curve like a real water bottle. That however, is really difficult to do. I also had to calculate the volume later so that means that other lapping lots of different objects is a no go. Let’s think of something else. 

Next next draft I did what I did for the start of everyone, cylinder cylinder. Then I tried using a hemisphere for the curve at the top, like in my first draft. It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but it was enough. I also did the lip and cap, but I did tweak the dimensions so that it didn’t look like a canteen. At this point I had six shapes. I also didn’t just want to add random shapes or add shapes where there didn’t need to be any. So I added a handle. I know most water bottles don’t have water bottles but some do so…. I thought for a while and I couldn’t think of anything to add to a water bottle that would make sense. Because of this I gave up and just added a filler shape, a logo. I made the logo a red square and named the bottle The Max 20 Bottle. 

Now that I had my object designed, it was time to present it to the class. But before I could do that I needed a presentation. My presentation was pretty simple, a page that introduces the bottle and my goal, a page with all the shapes, then 10 pages for each shape with their respective surface area and volume, then a page with the ratio and finally a page to say goodbye.

Now I am going to write a little bit about each Curricular Competency. I will be going top down.

Applying and innovating: Contribute to care for self, others, community, and world through personal or collaborative approaches. The proficient for this is using all your class time effectively without distractions. For this project I did use all class time effectively. I took breaks at times so that I could work better when I wasn’t working. However I still had distractions. I actually think this is unreasonable for us to do because we can’t control others or our environment. I can say though I did my best to stay on task on not get distracted. 

The next one is Reasoning and Analyzing: Model mathematics in contextualized experiences. The proficient for this was A 3D object is designed using TinkerCad or other design software. The design is optimized for either maximum volume or maximum surface area. The design should include at least 10 basic 3D shapes. (you should each design components/parts of a larger model or scene for groups of 2 or 3) I did do this. I don’t quite know what else to say here about this. Go look at the startish of this post if you want to know more. 

The finale Curricular Competency was Communicating and Representing: Explain and justify mathematical ideas and decisions. The proficiency for this was The surface area and volume are measured calculated, and compared by ratio. These factors are explained in detail in a keynote presentation to the class. I did also do this. I was able to get a larger volume than surface area and I showed that in my presentation. The ratio was 3.6 volume:1 surface area. 

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest Scimatics project, Chemistry Coding. In this project we learned about atoms and then coded a game or simulation. The driving question for this project is “How can the behaviour of matter be explained by the kinetic molecular theory and atomic theory?”

The first thing I want to talk about that we always do is textbooks and workbooks. That brings me to something that I want to talk about. I want to try to make blog posts where I only focus on the important things or what I liked. 

After learning about the atom and doing the textbooks, there wasn’t anything else to do except start coding our simulator or game. So thats what we started doing. I choose to do do a simulator because I believe that it is better at conveying information. I had a little trouble with the first day because I was trying to make an animation. After that I chose what atoms/elements of the periodic table. I chose Hydrogen, Helium, Neon and Aluminum. Then I added some different models for them. I did the muffin and planetary models. From there I added some simulation of them in each different state of matter except plasma because aren’t doing that one. I made it so when you click each sprite (that correlates to each state of matter) it moves like that state of matter. It may look super complicated when use it, but its actually just a lot of the same code over and over. If you want to try it out here you go.https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/655831277/

Now I need to review how I did with the curricular competencies. I got a proficient in all three. Now I’m not going to type out all the competencies so I’m going to put a picture of it in the post. For the first one, about being curious I agree with my grade. I always am curious at school, especially with scimatics. I get a feeling that I just want to know everything! Even this was a single person project, I got good with the social part of this. I believe this was because I helped people get back on task as well with the coding of games. Though I didn’t do the best because I got distracted from task sometimes. It was hard with Caden next to me. With the final one about the simulation or game itself. I think I did quite good because I added so much information and details. I think I could have made the simulations better but I’m pleased with them. I did quite well overall in this project and I am pleased with it.

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Lot’s o’ Lazers!

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest Scimatics project, Laser Laws. This project was about learning about the Pythagorean Theorem and then applying that to make a laser display of a right angle triangle. The Driving Question for this project was “How can we test the Pythagorean Theorem and the Law of Reflection?” My group members for this project were Jackson, Caitlin, and Kai.

The first thing we did in this project was look at the launch folder and start working on our mind map. A mind map is something were you put an idea in the middle of a sheet (in our case that was laser laws) and then put ideas and thoughts off. It’s just a way to brainstorm. Then we did something really fun. We were given a laser, a small white bucket, a mirror and some barriers made of wood. What we were to do is put our bucket somewhere and use the barriers to protect it. Then the other team would use there laser and mirror to try to hit it. Mid way through setting the bucket up I had a revaluation. Because of the type of desk we had in our classroom we could jam the bucket underneath a desk and use the barriers to made it near impossible. When both teaks had it set up we look turns setting up firing lasers. Because of the what we were using to make laser still we were able to aim before firing. Now that everyone was ready it was time to fire them! Our team hit it on the first try! But then someone bumped it and the teacher said we had missed! This was terrible! What if the other team hit ours because of the blunder! They aimed, fired… and missed thankfully! We shot again and hit it. Now it was time to do this with our partner class across the hall. Again my team found a great spot. On top off a ledge two meters off the ground! Obviously we won that and completed the first step of a PLP project: Launch.

When doing Building Knowledge in Scimatics we just read and study text and workbooks. I’m not complaining, its a nice break from all the group project chaos of other classes. What does suck about it though is when we have to do the blog post. There barely anything to say that’s interesting. I’ll just give you a run down on what Pythagorean Theorem and the Law of Reflection, ok? Cool. Pythagorean Theorem is a²+b²=c². It is used to see if a triangle is a perfect right angle one. The a, b, and c are variables and you need to replace them with numbers from your triangle. The order of the a and b doesn’t matter, but the c needs to be the hypotenuse (the longest side of a right-angled triangle), or what you think is a hypotenuse if you aren’t sure if its a right triangle. After you have put in your numbers you square them. This means you multiply them by themselves. After that you add them, then you have to find the square root of them and the c. The ² on the c cancels out the square root so it’s now just c. Now you have a number equaling the c. Now that is just one way to use the Pythagorean Theorem and there are other ways to apply it. Now the Law of Reflection. The Law of Reflection states that if a line of light hits a plane mirror it will be reflected at the same angle. Thats not a perfect definition but that’s the gist of it. Now with that MATH out of the way its time to…

…get sick and not be able to help your group the ONE time what we’re doing is in real life. What my group did (or lack there off according to Jackson) was make a cardboard boat, put a coloured piece of paper on cardboard and pick a theme. Now if you think I’m being mean to my group, it was actually Jackson who said this (I paraphrased still). I actually helped with the theme. We ended up choosing the ocean. When I did come in, me and Jackson got some good work done. I got all the measurements down while he worked on the look and the lasers. He helped me with drawing the triangle with pencil to be able to see it if the lasers were off. Kai actually worked on getting some fish to colour and put on the cardboard. The finale class for working on it I was sick again, but Jackson, Caitlin, and Kai got it done. The day that we showed it off with the lasers I was able to be there. What we did was turn on the lasers and then spray some smoke. We had to use smoke because otherwise our naked eyes wouldn’t be able to see them. After that we were assigned this expect blog post which brings us to now. What are we going to do in the next two days of Scimatics? I don’t know. But this is due soon so I need to post it.

The last but not least that I’m going to talk about is my Curricular Competencies. This is the rubric for which I am being graded. I will add a picture so you know what I’m talking about. I think in the first two I am proficient. I almost always am on task in class. And I also created my project successfully that represented the Law of Reflection and the  Pythagorean Theorem. I think I maybe could do that I little better because I was off be about 1 degree but over all I think it was good. The final one however I think I was not as good. I did my best best to help my group with the design of the laser display, however I was sick for most of the days that we had to work on it. I asked if there was anything I could do but there wasn’t anything. But when I did get there I did a lot of work. I worked out all the math for our triangle and the Theorem. I did have some difficultly getting one of my group members to do any work. Part of this was my fault because I couldn’t think of anything for them to work on. Splitting up work is definitely something I should work on.

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!

Survive the Plates

Hello! This blog post is the summary and story of my latest Scimatics project, Tectonic Chances. This project was about learning about the tectonic plates and making a game about them with probability. The Driving Question for this project was “How are thematic and mathematical elements used in game design?” 

The first thing we did for this project look at the launch and start draft an idea of what we wanted our game to be and its rules. I knew from the very start of the project I wanted to have a game where your trying to outlast the other players playing the game. I talked with Chris if there should be cards to make it so you attack other players so they would have to defend against you AND the catastrophes. He thought I shouldn’t so I decided not to. Looking back on it, it was probably a good idea because that can really make some feel bad situations. In this stage we also started a Mindmap about our game and the project as a whole. Launch done, on to building knowledge.

The first thing we did for building knowledge was learn lots of scientific vocabulary about plate tectonics. We did this by reading textbooks. This was super interesting to me not just because the subject was interesting, but this was the first time I used textbooks. It was cool being able to go at your own pace but all finish by the end of class. While taking notes without falling behind! Textbooks are not as bad as there cred would suggest. Also we did workbooks about the information in the textbooks. For anyone who doesn’t know what workbooks are they are textbooks except with questions.We also did some quizzes on Khan Academy which was my first time using it though I had heard of it. Something about the quizzes that confused me was that you were allowed to do them multiple times and give the highest result for your grade. Does not make sense to me. Building knowledge has been built now onto Develop and Critique.

In Develop and Critique we started building our games and editing according to feedback. I chose to build a card game so I started working on the designs in Canva. Canva’s an app that is used to make things like posters and logos. Before we knew it we started working on our final rules draft! This was big so we couldn’t screw it up. I worked on rules all class. Though about balancing, checked spelling, did calculations. I’m just kidding it wasn’t so bad. The criteria for it was have calculations about how probability is used in your game, a drawing of how the game, and of course the rules themselves. The next thing we had to do was build it. The only thing I had to do was design more cards and print them out. I worked on lots of drawings and got feedback for them. People really liked my goofy way of expressing the catastrophes, so that was good. Next I had to print them out and cut them. I got some help with my dad and it was actually really nice spending some time with him doing something’s that he’s really good at. With my game build and having critique in hand we finish Develop and Critique.

In this next part I learned that my game is genuinely fun to play. Personally I don’t think it’s amazing but it’s at least a little interesting. The people that I got to play my game with were Luca, Hayden, Caitlin and Kira. Luca is defiantly the one that knows the game the best since he has played the game the most. Hayden, Caitlin and Kira were the next people who played my game. Caitlin actually drew on one of my cards with a marker. After they all finished my playing my game they got the chance to fill out a rubric and give me an artificial grade. Now that that’s done we can write our blog post… which we’re doing right now! How these things tie themselves up!

All together I did find this fun because what we were learning was interesting and we got to make a game! I found this a great learning experience and I do find myself still remembering about the things we learned. I favourite part of the project was probably doing this experiment with different temperatures of coloured water.

See ya around and goodbye, Judah G!