The essential question I chose to answer was : “What happens inside our bodies when we are sick?” Learning about cells and and body systems helped me answer this essential question because when you get sick, it’s your cells and body systems that dysfunction. By understanding your own body, you can also prevent sickness.
This relates to the idea of how the body is a system made up of a group of cells, because when your cells don’t function correctly, your body system fail to work, which leads to illnesses and other problems in your body. I think the dissections were a very important part of the learning, because I saw how these body systems looked like in real life and saw how all the parts were connected. The research I did by myself in the summative project also helped me understand the connection between cells and illnesses.
I would like to improve on remembering to do my citations as I move on, since I forgot to do it this time. I would also like to improve on remembering all the body systems and I will try to not mix up different parts in a body system.
I went through multiple steps to complete my essay. First, I found articles to highlight and research, then I used a graphic organizer to put my research in. I get all the information I put in my essay from my research. After that, I got feedback from the teacher and improved my essay. Finally, I started my essay. When I wrote my essay, the process took a long time and I went back several times to fix and improve the quality and accuracy of my essay.
One thing I did well is my claim. The claims I wrote were strong and precise, and I also think most of my reasoning made sense. Something I would improve next time are the citations in my evidence, because some of the citations were wrong, and that was quite upsetting.
In this unit, I understood how to calculate percent, part, and whole. I also learned to calculate percent change, and I learned several new vocabulary. I understood how important percentages are in real life, and how we can use them.
One new formula I learned is the percent change formula. I already learned about percentages when I was in 5th grade, but I didn’t learn about the percent change formula. This is something new in the unit, and it improved my understanding.
I think the summative project was really fun and interesting, and learning about tax and tip were also interesting for me.
Something tricky for me was memorizing all of the formulas, because I sometimes get mixed up doing word problems, and use the wrong formula by accident.
In this unit, we learned about the harm of drug addiction and peer pressure on teens and what we can do to prevent this. For example, one major strategy we learned is the decide model.
In a decide model, we think about several different choices and what consequences or “path” it could lead to. We also think about what we value, and determine if our final decision fits our values. But sometimes we also have to decide what we value more when 2 values have to be compared. Decide models especially come handy in difficult situations, where we just can’t make a quick choice. By using a decide model to consider our choices, we can make better final decisions and prevent ourselves from going on the wrong path.
We also learned about the different negative effects drugs have on teens. Some drugs like nicotine gives you a rush of adrenaline and dopamine, and other drugs like alcohol might also make you feel less stressed or upset. But this is not a permanent feeling, and taking drugs are very harmful.
For example, the prefrontal cortex is still developing in a teen body. Overuse and misuse of drugs and substances can cause problems in your brain, like bad memory and difficulty paying attention. There are also physical effects of taking drugs, like heart damage, lung cancer, diseases, and increased risk of death. Teens may also struggle to cope with their emotions when taking drugs, and might become emotional or suicidal. Drugs are very dangerous for teens, and the more you take it the harder it is to stop addiction.
In this unit, I understood what scale factor is, and how we can use proportional relationships to calculate scale and scale factor.
I already learned about scale factor when I was little, but this unit in school helped me deepen my understanding about the concepts and formulas. For example, I forgot how to calculate scale perimeter and area, and this unit helped me strengthen this skill.
Something that was interesting in this unit was learning about the new math vocabulary. For example, I didn’t know that “shrinking” is called “reduction” in math, and increase could be called “enlargement”.
Something that was a bit tricky was memorizing the formula for scale area and perimeter. I have bad memory, so it’s not easy for me to memorize things. But I still remembered it at the end after practice.
I used to think that influencers with many followers and supporters mean that all the product they sell are good, and I used to think that what people say in the comments can also prove if a health product or trend is good or not.
But now I think the numbers of followers and content doesn’t really mean that the influencer is reliable, and I should be trusting the people that actually have doctor or health degrees. And now I also think that if an influencer is trying to sell a product, he/she is probably not that reliable.
The CRAAP analysis helped me learn this, and now I can use CRAAP to identify whether an influencer is reliable or not. We also watched a lot of influencer health videos and compared them to see which is reliable and which is not.
This is a piece of peer feedback I received on my final project about how cat’s purring sound can help with mental health. On my final project, me and my partner used the CRAAP test and other ways we learned to identify whether the influencer and the claim is credible or not. We determined that the cat’s purr is not a “miracle cure”, and people should still go to therapy if they have serious mental problems. This is the link to my Final Project:
In this unit, I understood how to calculate constant of proportionality, and graphing it out or showing it in a table.
Something I learned that is new is writing the equation in different forms. Before this unit, I thought the equation could only be written in one form.
Something I found interesting was how this unit was sort of connected to the ratios unit we did last year. And I was able to apply last year’s learning into this unit, making it easier.
Something that was a challenge for me was graphing it out. This was kind of tricky, and sometimes I accidentally mix up things on the graph.
Some feedback I got were to speak clearer and control my pace, and also make the font on my newspaper bigger so everyone can see. I incorporated the advice into my work by making the font on my newspaper bigger and also moving myself so I didn’t cover the screen while I was presenting. And during the presentation in the afternoon, I used the feedback and spoke slower and more clearly. The feedback has certainly helped me a lot and showed me some flaws I had when presenting.
I am very proud of my final media creation, because I think the newspaper looked very realistic, and I really liked the format of my newspaper. I am also very proud of my news report and analysis, because I think it was pretty well-written, and my news report sounded formal and realistic.
Some things I want to improve are not looking at the script too much and face the audience more. I also want to make the words more clear and add some more little stories to my final newspaper creation.
In this unit, we learned how to improve our diet and eating habits, and we also learned about what nutrients different foods can give us. We used the Harvard Plate and learned about Macro-nutrients and Micro-nutrients. Macronutrients are the nutrients your body needs in large quantities for energy, and growth. They are carbohydrates, fats, and protein. Micronutrients are small vitamins and minerals that your body needs.
One of the first activities we did was the Food Journal. We had to list out what we ate in one week and reflect. We looked at what we were eating and decided if our diet was healthy or not. Then we reflected on our diet and thought about what we could do to change our eating habit and make it more healthy.
We also did this activity, where we chose a student and designed a 3-day menu for them. We designed the menu based on their likes and what would probably be the best and most healthy choice for them. I chose Teresa as my student, and I considered the fact that she was an athlete and she like non-spicy asian fusion crispy foods. I chose healthy asian foods that were quick and easy for her to eat.
Finally, at the end of the unit, we did our master chef project. We applied our learning and designed a healthy food to make for the judges and classmates. We chose healthy ingredients and made sure that our food was all handmade and aligned to Harvard Plate. Successes was when we were giving out our food, a lot of people liked the sandwich and came to get it. Challenges were we forgot to add salt and pepper when we were making the chicken and the sauce, but it turned out okay. Overall, it was successful.
My current diet is mostly whatever my Ayi makes for me at home. But sometimes I skip some meals or I eat take-out. My diet is pretty balanced because I like eating vegetables and if I choose to eat a meal that my Ayi cooks, it usually is aligned to the Harvard Plate.
Habit loops are a routine that you are used to. You see someone do it and you might want to start doing it too. You then get a positive outcome from this action and you like it and keep on doing it. For example you are consistently eating junk food 3 times a week, you might get used to it and it forms into a habit. This will influence your food choice and you would not be eating healthy, because you are used to it already.
One goal I have is eat more whole grains and try not to skip meals too consistently because then I get hungry in the night and I don’t sleep well.
To achieve this goal, I will remind myself to eat dinner when I am feeling hungry, and substitute normal grains for whole grains instead.
