Lol bye

So as the end of the year rapidly approached, we started getting ready for Blue Sky. Blue Sky is huge year end project that challenges us to create an invention that solves an issue. This year the theme was to help a specific age group. We first researched and brainstormed issues for each audience and how we could solve them. This lead us to making a device that would fix the issue. I chose to first focus on toddlers and tying shoes. Tying shoes was a common problem so I thought it would be good because I could have a large target audience. Each step of the way we would have a little lesson on how we were getting closer to the end. We would either watch a movie, read an article or play a game to help us narrow down our ideas. We were also asked to write a journal entry for each step of the launch cycle. The launch cycle is basically a chart that explains the steps on how to create an invention and then launch it to the world.

Once we had narrowed down an idea we had to make a prototype. This first one didn’t need to actually work or be to scale because we still also had to make 2 others. For each prototype we had to meet with a client or someone who we are solving the problem for.

One week before blue sky, I realized that my previous idea (to create a shoe with instructions on how to tie shoes) was not going to work out. The reason was because the 3rd prototype turned out to be more confusing than the actual process of tying shoes!

So I desperately tried to come up with new ideas for a Blue Sky project so I would have something to present. Luckily enough I did, and so I made a multi dog leash handle that would stop my dog leashes from getting tangled when I walk them. It was a lot of work to try and finish is by the 15th of June, but did it. I even got a chance to talk with my client for all 3 of my prototypes. She gave me constructive feedback on how to improve and what to keep.

Overall Blue Sky was a great experience. I worked so hard and yet I am so grateful that I did because of how it turned out. I learned many new presenting techniques and a lot of time management skills too. I am glad that Blue Sky is over but I enjoy looking back and seeing all of the amazing learning and work I put into it.

Over the course of the 3rd semester of PLP, we have done many interesting projects and activities. I learned many valuable lessons and information that I can take into grade 9 and into real life. For my TPOL I want to highlight these examples of work and share them with you.

My first example of work is from Humanities. It was when we did the Sales pitch  unit. This unit incorporated history and advertising, because we had started learning about the renaissance and Italy and it turned into a more business and inventing unit when we made our own product. I think I enjoyed this unit the most because of all the ways we learned it. We watched videos, we read readings, we made a booklet and we even invented and pitched our own invention. The neat thing about this unit is all the connections between modern day and history made. When we made our book we showed the advancements in a certain area and how they changed over time. We made a connection on how each aspect of daily life came to be throughout history. And my personal favourite part was when we got to take the learning to the next step, and make out own history by inventing what we thought was to come in the future. Once we had invented a product we got to create an amazing presentation, done in a sales pitch format and try and sell our invention to the company of our choice. This was a unique opportunity because we also learned all about sales technique, which related us back to our advertising unit at the beginning of the year. The most valuable thing I learned from this unit was that not all inventors were praised for their outrageous ideas. It was later that they became famous because people were afraid of change. This is really answers the question on which the unit was based on “How does Change Create Tension?”

The next part of my presentation comes from Science class. This piece of work was from when we did the disease unit. I have chosen this piece of work because I think it was one of my favourite group projects from this term. Not only was the finishing product something to be proud of, my group also worked really well together in my opinion. The basics of the project was to research a particular disease and make a model of it attack the immune system. We also added QR codes so that we could include information that couldn’t fit on the model itself. One thing I would probably do differently if I was to ever re-do this project, is that I would definitely make sure to check the criteria earlier on to make sure we had it all done. This is because my group forgot to incorporate how the Ebola virus effects the cells on the actual model, versus in the video. We realized that we needed to add something to show how it attacks about 3 days before it was due. Fortunately for us, we got it done just in time.

Short video of model

My last and final example of work from 3rd semester is Blue Sky. Blue Sky was overall the unit or piece of work that I am most proud of and learned the most from.

Even though at times I wanted to scream because of a prototype not working or a final touch turning our to be not for final, I still am glad that I did it. The steps that I took to reach my end goals really is something to look back on and be thankful for documenting them in my journal entries. It’s neat to be able to tale something from my mistakes and use them to my advantage. One example of when we did this is when we would get feedback from our clients. My client, My Mom, really helped me understand which part of each prototype was good and what needed to be fixed asap. This I think helped me to not only revise, but also see what the issue was first hand. Blue sky pushed me to my working limits, because I re did a whole project in just under a single week. This was because my first idea didn’t workout and I had to not only conclude what I had for my first one but also create an entirely new project and product. This was a lot of work because I had to go through all the steps again that we had gone through in 2 months.

I spent a good 6 hours working on it each day if not longer, and that is how I finished it proudly by the 15th. My setup was good and I liked how my posterboard and 2 videos turned out.

As I did last term, I would like to set some goals for next year and the rest of my high school carreer…

Communicating with classmates and teachers earlier on in a project
Next year I want to make a point of checking with teachers and the criteria before its too late in a project. Even though I may not be on an IPAd as much next year I still want to be able to feel confident with the materials I have created and that they are up to standard. I also want to always refer back to the criteria when I am working to make sure stay on track and in line with the rules.

2. Choosing a Workgroup that is good for me
Next year I want to know who works well with me and who doesn’t to avoid possible conflict or not getting work done. I know in some of the work groups I was in this year didn’t turn out great and I want to make sure next year I know who I work well with and who I don’t. I will do this by observing how each person works and observing their strengths and weaknesses in a group project.

3. Set a realistic timeline for homework
I think I put this one on my last SLC but it still applies even though it has gotten better. I use the reminder app more often now and I also write a list of priorities on notes occasionally when I feel stressed. The one thing I want to do more of is to set aside days for homework so I don’t do half days where I don’t get nearly enough done.

In PLP right now we have been focusing on the question “Why Do People Explore?” This unit we went deeper in what drove the early explorers to go out into the unknown and look for land and trading routes. We also talked about the early stages of exploration and how humans populated the earth over time.

The project for this unit was to create a comic about a certain explorer and their famous expedition. We were supposed to have it wrote as if we were trying to convince the king and queen to fund their crew for another expedition. This requires us to try and make it as interesting and exciting as we could. We were put into groups and each person had to make a page of the comic. My group was given Joan Rodriguez Cabrillio . Despite the confusing name, he was actually quite an interesting guy. Before we started, we had to plan out the story with the climax, downfall, beginning etc. I made the first page which focused on him and his crew setting out to go explore the California coast. He was very influential because he was the first to explore the Coast. Before him, people thought California was an island. He needed to explore that area because he was asked to colonize the coast and make acquaintances with Indian (Natives) if they were there.

Our comic went though many stages and drafts that allowed us to create the best of the best. The first draft was rough and was only to plan out the squares. The second was to plan some of the artwork. The third was our final and turned out quite amazing. Even though each page’s illustrations differed because of each of our individual styles, the booked still flowed and looked put together.

In the end, this short unit was very jam packed with information and learning, which helped me understand a lot about the motives of exploration and how it came to be today. Fashion, Power and Money were not the only motives because their also was human curiosity that drove other explorers.

So recently in PLP we have been learning about how change and inventions create tension. We focused on how famous inventors were shamed on their outrageous ideas and how that fueled them to be the start of change.

We had many lessons that involved all types of media from guided notes to short movies or documentaries. We learned about all of the different changes in history and religion and also how things were run back then. The main time periods we focused on were the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Industrial Era and then Modern Times. Each era was associated with its own rules, style and social structure. For example, we learned about Feudalism and how it played a crucial role from the Middle Ages. We also learned about the boom in scientific advancements after the period called the Dark Ages. We were required to do short review in the form of a paragraph or notes that we later put into a large document called our “Renaissance Notes”.

Once we had done a large amount of research, we were put into groups for one of our end projects. Each group would focus on a specific aspect of life and how it changed over all 4 of the eras. My group was assigned to focus on transportation. More specifically, water transportation and sea ferrying. Each person in the group then chose an era to research. I did the Middle Ages. With all of our research we then had to create a book that would explain a bit about the inventions in that time period and how they created tension. We created many drafts and revised so many times that you wouldn’t even recognize our first attempt. I learned many new tips and tricks about Keynote and also about the importance of traveling efficiently on water in the Middle Ages.

After we had shared our booklets with the class, we had a new project to start that also had to do with change and tension. We were asked to use our previous knowledge from our advertising unit (click here for that blog post) and create a Sales Pitch for a new invention we would create in the future. The goal of the project was to successfully sell our new invention to a group of people that were from our chosen company. We would convince them to invest money in our idea just like in the show “Dragon’s Den”. We even watched a short episode of a tv show called “The Pitch” to help us incorporate important feature like Pathos, Ethos and Logos. My group decided to focus on a smaller scale of sea traveling and make a solar powered paddle board. Our presentation explained all the features of the invention and a model or photoshopped image of what it would look like. Another aspect of the pitch was that we had to create a fully detailed script that would go along with our keynote presentation. We were asked to have almost completely memorized it and say it as if we really were trying to become billionaires. Of course this process also included many drafts that got more and more professional over time.

 

Overall, if I was to reflect on this whole unit and answer the concluding question “How does change create tension?” then it would probably take an hour to go through all the things I learned. But, trying to keep it short I would say that the most important thing I took away from this unit, is that people are afraid of change. They are afraid that if a new invention that can completely adjust the way they live comes along it will hurt them. Change is necessary though and without it we may still be living in the Dark Ages where things are so great and luxurious. Change and advancements must happen for humanity to keep surviving and adapting, even if it will create tension. For example, if someone said that we would be connecting with billions of people through a World Wide Web, even 40 years ago, they would think that person is crazy and possibly outcast them just like they did to Galileo and Leonardo. The point is we need to see people with amazing and mind blowing inventions as gifted and smart as opposed to crazy. and psychotic. For they are responsible for why we live the way we do. So don’t be afraid to dream big and experiment with insane ideas just like we did in our past unit… we are

Recently in PLP we have been learning about ancient medieval times and how change can create tension. We were asked to think of one person who was influential or still is influential and explain a bit about them.

Name: Ellen DeGeneres

Age: 59
Birthday: January 26, 1958
Place of Birth: Louisiana, USA
Occupation: American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer

Why are they influential? Ellen was one of the most influential celebrities to advocate gay rights. She inspired so many people to open up even before it was legal everywhere . She has been married to her wife since 2008. Even though not everyone supported her when she first came out gay, she didn’t care and pulled through. This is just one part of how she has inspired so many people. Her talk show gives out millions and millions of dollars a year to people who are in need and inspire people worldwide to share the generosity and kindness. She is also an an activist for positivity and shows that though every episode of her show.

What characteristics help make them influential?
Kindness, generosity, compassion, empathy, leadership, inspirational

How did people react to the changes or ideas that she had?
When Ellen came out as gay, she was happy. The unfortunate part was that her views and popularity received a lot of backlash. Not everyone supported gay rights at that time and so she almost had to cancel the show. Instead of trying to please others, she pulled through and now people look up to her for her leadership and bravery. She is now a huge activist for gay rights and has inspired tons of people to be true to themselves.

What things influenced her?
When she received a lot of criticism from peers about her coming out, She really was effected. As I said before, she was threatened too cancel the show. She strongly thought this was wrong and believed that everyone is equal no matter wheat their sexuality. This is what she eventually became even more famous and influential for. The hate only made her stronger and that is what I think was extremely important.

If you could ask her one question what would it be?
Other than asking to be on her talk show, I would probably ask her “What’s one thing you need to be happy and successful, in your opinion?”. It would ask her this because her outlook on life is exactly how I want mine to be. She is happy, independent and strong but still compassionate and truly winning at life. 🙂

Destination Imagination  is tournament that encourages kids and youth to access their creativity by competing in a competition by solving a challenge. If you haven’t read my Regionals Blog Post , I would recommend checking it out now to gain a greater understanding of it works. So shortly after Regionals we were asked to start preparing for Provincials. My group went back and looked at what categories earned us the least points. We seemed to not have many points for our team choice elements, so we changed it completely and added a better one as well. We made the ukulele part longer and louder and added a staff prop that was decked out and made by us. We also revised the script a touch. The one thing that really helped us was all the practicing we did. We learned all of out lines better, we practiced the vanishing act and everything in between. We hadn’t got to do a lot of practicing last time because we had run out of time. The extra time really helped and made us just that more confident.

As the time to compete came, we were getting just a bit more stressed. In the morning of the tournament we went to the school and made sure we had all of our props. The whole day was spent watching other performances and perfecting ours. I thought the actual presentation went pretty well, and so did the appraisers because we got second place overall. There was a few minor difficulties with the rainbow again but so much better than last time. The one major thing I think helped us get second, was how confident we were. We said our lines loud and proud, we weren’t afraid to explain how much work we put in (to the appraisers), and we actually had fun presenting it.

Looking back at the whole DI experience, I can truly say it had its ups and downs. Sometimes I hated even thinking of it and others times I couldn’t stop raving about our finished product. I think this is a good thing because it means a learned a lot. I learned how to build a set, time management, became a better actor and most of all, teamwork skills. In the process, my team had a some issues regarding ideas and leadership. At the begging everything was great, we all got along and started building a really interesting story, but after we started splitting ways. Half of the group wanted to change the whole entire story completely and start fresh and the other half did not see any reason for it. So we made a compromise and created a new story with remanence of the old one. This of course set us back a whole bunch of weeks but we still got it done on time, despite two teammates being away for a while during the work period.

Overall, DI was good. When I say good, I don’t mean bad and I don’t mean that I would do it all over again next month. I mean that it was an experience and I enjoyed it for that. As I said before, I learned lots that I can take away from this experience and I am thankful for that.

Recently in PLP we have been doing a poetry unit. This includes learning about different poetry, writing poetry and even critiquing poetry. It has been very interesting because we have tied in our two units by making all of our poetry about worldview. This has given me a new perspective on my own worldview and just the idea of having a worldview in general.

The first thing we made was a dictionary of poetry term or types. Every class or so, we would add another term with an example so we could remember it and study for a test coming up. This was something we could look back at whenever we needed help looking for different things in poetry.

Next we started writing a poem every time we learned about a new type. There would be a new one due almost everyday and they all had to be about worldview. The hard part was trying to keep the topic fresh. After we had wrote about 7 poems about worldview, it started getting harder to find a new side of worldview. In a way this made my understanding of the word more deep because I had to think about all the points of view.

Our final project was to create a poetry booklet with all the poems we had wrote over the last few weeks. This book was to be in full detail of all the kind of poems and even come with an explanation of each poem. Another side of this task was to incorporate some of our advertising unit by making it look nice and appealing. That was probably the most fun part because we could go wild and use whatever type of media we wanted to and make our point clear. In my book I made videos, talking emojis, audio recordings, drawings and I even added some of my favorite scenic photos to add a mood. The one thing that I was kind of skeptical about was my Explain Everything about our Worldview, which was mandatory to put on a page. The reason for this, was because we had made it early in the year and I was not as good at editing as I am now. So I went back and changed a few mandatory things.

Over all, this unit was full of learning. I really was impressed at how well I understand Worldview now and how much my poetry skills have improved. I now feel like my message can really be understood through my poem. I found that poetry can be really fun if you know how to really play with your words and be able to understand something from a completely different angle.

Click  Here to see the book!

Canada is my home. It’s where I grew up, where my history is and where the majority of my relatives live. I proud to call it home and this is why I have recently submitted a video to Historic Canada. The task was to create a short video that explains what we love about Canada for Canada’s 150th birthday. The video will then be reviewed by the people at Historic Canada and then a winner will be chosen and granted a prize of $3000 and then showed as the representative of its birthday. Canada is such a huge part of who I am so I was very excited to get the opportunity to participate in this contest.

First we were asked to think of a category that we wanted the video to be about, for example: sports, food, history. I chose to focus on a lot of them instead of just one. One thing that I wanted to make sure I included, was the beauty of my home Deep Cove. I did this by filming and taking pictures when I went on a dog walk. Even though it was pouring rain, the beach and creeks were just as beautiful. In a way, the rain kind of set the mood for my video because of the serious and emotional topics. After all the filming was done, I needed to edit the clips and put them together with text and music. I used iMovie to edit and I added text with an app called Vont. I started by adding text to the video that said “My Canada is…” in the corner. This would set up an area for me to insert a word or phrase that explained some of Canada’s virtues. I tried to create the theme of a natural looking video, by making the text not as bold and giving it slow transitions. The only thing left to do was add music behind. I found a really slow but interesting clip of music from an Instagram video that I saved and added behind. So here I was, thinking I was finished and done and feeling super proud of my work. When the time came around to gain peer feedback, I was happy to hear that my video wasn’t that bad. The only problem was that I forgot to make sure that the music wasn’t copyrighted. Turns out it was, and unfortunately for me, I had edited the video so the clips were synced with the music. So I found some other non-copyrighted music and added that to the background. Even though the music isn’t as perfectly fit as before, it still can help add depth to my video.

Here is my finished product…

In my opinion, the strongest part of my video turned out to be the words. They may be a but fast, but overall they really do have meaning. When I chose a word to describe something I like about Canada, I didn’t go straight to actual things or stereotypes like maple syrup, or red and white. I chose to focus on words with a more deeper meaning like “Cultural” for example. These can mean many things to different people but I explained what they mean to me. Overall, I think that I gained a deeper knowledge of Canada and what it actually “Means to Me”. I had never thought about this before and I am glad that I actually got the opportunity to look back at how lucky I am to live in such an amazing place.

One of the more stressful projects we have done this year is Destination Imagination. Both grade 8s and 9s complete in this competition every year. Let me explain a little more about this huge tournament that happens globally each year. DI is a series of challenges that school or other groups can apply to complete in. Each group must have less than 8 people and be able to create a project to help solve the given challenge. There are 5 categories for challenges that each require a specific type of skill. For example, I was put on the Fine Arts team, because I enjoy art and design. Our challenge was to create a play that would show the effects that would happen if a singular colour was to disappear. In our play we had to have a vanishing act which was possible with one of the modern theatre methods used today. My group was very fortunate because we had a variety of people with a variety of skills. The selected colour we chose was yellow. The only bad part was that we didn’t think about how colours mix and how yellow is a primary colour. This set us back quite a bit because we had to change all the other affected colours of the rainbow too, while keeping it looking like magic. We chose to use lighting technical effects and create a rainbow model with colour changing LED light strips. For the story and play piece, we wanted to be creative and base it off of Greek Mythology because we had some prior knowledge. Each colour was given a goddess but then the goddess of white and shades comes in and steals the yellow gem, which controls all of the colour yellow. This is when we turn of the yellow bow of the rainbow because it takes out all the colour. The rainbow goddess family later convinces the white goddess to return it and she becomes the controller of weather. We worked really hard on the story piece which scored us a lot of points when we went to the DI regionals. The only piece that didn’t work was the rainbow. Unfortunately for us, the light up rainbow (which we hand-made) decided not to turn on. This lost us a few points but we still managed to make it in 3rd place out of 8 teams. Overall, DI was a great experience of hard work, team work and skill building and I hope we place even higher in provincials.

Click here to see a timelapse we made when we constructed the rainbow.

Photos from the actual presentation will appear here soon when I get them from my family. 🙂