I learned about the by writing academic paragraphs and disscussing essential questions about the book: the giver.
What did I learn?
Writing academic paragraphs
Using Transition words
Building vocabulary
Disscusions
What worked?
My notes where successful and i could write academic summaries of the entire book in chapters.
What Did not work?
It was kind of hard to grasp the entirety of the book’s ideas at first, but afterwards it was pretty easy to see the merits and the bad parts of the things in the community.
Personal Relevance
It helps me think of how much better life is in the real life and also see how the community is so rotten to the core as the people making the decisions are deliberatly closing the space for innovation and true joy and happiness.
We started by completing an investigation to determine the relationship between potenical energy and height. We also did a lot of things such as investigations and a Lab report.
Another thing we did was building a 3D model of a rollercoaster and watched the PE and KE fluctuate on the rollercaoster after that we did many trials and observed. We then wrote a full conclusion for the investigation.
I learned about Otzi the iceman and in using this topic, learned how to write CER (Claim, evidence, reasoning paragraphs to analyze information better. I learned about Observations, Inferences and Wonderings and how they help people think deeply about the information given in a paragraph.
What did I learn?
I learned about prehistoric tools and medical paragraphs, also I learned more about the diseases that Otzi had in particular since it was my area of “expertise” in the Otzi mock trial. I also learned about Otzi and his tools, and other interesting things about the past. Also, I could see why we should care about the past since it provided warnings to modern people. Humans on dietary, medical practices, it shows us in Otzi’s case not to consume too much fatty meats, which causes blocked arteries. We can see how modern processed foods and diet affect the body of modern humans and see how Otzi’s healthy diet made a body that could compare with the modern Olympian Wrestler without him even trying.
What worked?
One thing I am proud of is the final trial, where I provided evidence on Otzi’s numerous diseases as an expert witness. I could talk about most of Otzi’s diseases and could quickly come up with answers to questions that I had not anticipated before. I felt that I didn’t really need my note cards on the day of the trial which was pretty good since I didn’t have to look down at them every time the lawyers asked me questions. I also used the presentation pretty well since sometimes I pointed to the diagrams to prove my point or to emphasize a point.
What did not work?
I could have probably improved my eye contact with the jury and the lawyer, also I could have not stood that still. I probably should have looked at the audience more, since it helps you seem more believable if you look at an audience. I think another point I should work on would be to practice more, even though I could answer all the questions I would sometimes hesitate a little before speaking to the audience and jury members.
Personal relevance
Being an expert witness helped me with confidence, since I usually don’t really enjoy talking to a lot of humans. I think because I knew the answers to all the questions that the lawyer asked me, I felt more confident. I also worked on my collaboration skills with my partner who was also working on the same topic. We sometimes discussed what the other person had found out and usually got something new, like information about the diseases that Otzi had out of each conversation.
I made a egg cart that should be able to contain and egg with 1 meter of tape, it could be no longer than 16 cm. It should also be able to roll freely down the slope and the egg should not crack when it hit the end of the ramp and hit the concrete blocks.
What did I learn?
I learned about all the laws of Newton and incorporated the laws into my design to make the design more secure and hope the design would hold longer. Because of Newton’s 3rd law, I made a buffer zone in front of the car since, every action has a equal, opposite reaction so hen the car slammed into the concrete block the egg would not be directly impacted when the force was exerted from the car to the hard concrete block that would push with the same force back on the car’s buffer zone. We also built the seat belt since Newton’s 1st law states: an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. So the egg will fly forward as the car hits a stop and the seat belt will restrain it.
What worked?
My design worked because the wheels could roll smoothly when we tested the car out. The design could also shield the egg.
What didn’t work?
Unfortunately, our car did not survive and the egg slipped out of the harness since it broke last minute. I would recommend others to make a tight space with a really good harness.
Personal Relevance
I can now understand Newton’s laws in action and seeing them present in day to day activities. Such as using seat belts in cars to prevent people from flying forwards if the car used it’s brakes suddenly. I can understand why cars need buffer zones and the force exerted on objects that rebound onto the original source with the equal force. I can understand better why there are certain features like airbags in cars and why people need them and it is also relevant to trucks too!
In our current unit we are writing a story based on theme that sparks interest in me. This story contains a protagonist and antagonist at the same time and also a supporting character, we chose a story ark to see the progress of the story.
What are we learning?
Theme (my purpose for writing this story, my message to readers)
Character Development (creating believable characters with positive & negative traits)
Plot (the sequence of events in my story; Western and Eastern approaches to storytelling)
Setting (the world that I create for my story)
What’s working?
What story elements did you enjoy planning and writing? I enjoyed creating the emotional scenes involving Liora’s family and her personal struggles. Developing moments like her memories of her brother’s death and the betrayal by her sister allowed me to explore deep feelings of loss, trust, and resilience.
What elements of my story are you proud of? I am proud of how I was able to depict strong emotional moments that reveal the characters’ inner struggles, especially the scenes with her family’s grief and betrayal. Additionally, I like how I tied the magical and political things together, making the theft of the Heart of Elyria feel more personal.
How did you get the idea for your story? The idea came from imagining a young princess discovering her own power while dealing with family secrets and betrayal.
The Best Line from My Story: “The haze, the disturbance in the air—it all pointed to one person. Mira.” I like this line because it captures the moment of realization and suspicion in a clear way.
Areas for growth
One of the harder things to do was to capture the emotions of the character precisely and describe the setting of the story and the magic that gripped the character since it is not realistic and comes from a fantasy world where characters feel magic naturally attracted to because the urge is something that we cannot feel. So it was difficult to capture the magic of Elyria.
Personal Relevance
Creative writing can be incredibly beneficial in my everyday life, even if I’m not planning to become an author. It helps me improve my communication skills, allowing me to express ideas clearly. Creative writing also improves my ability to think and see different perspectives. I enjoy creative writing and would like to continue using my imagination to tell stories that matter to me. It’s a fun way to explore my thoughts, share my experiences, and connect with others.
Why is it important to understand the changes that occur during puberty? Understanding the changes that occur during puberty helps you better manage your body and emotions, reduces confusion or worry, and promotes healthy development. It also helps you communicate better with others and seek support when needed.
What is the change that you feel most confident about? I feel most confident about my physical growth, like how I am getting taller. I’ve also learned a lot about the changes happening to my body, so I don’t feel as unsure or worried about the new things I notice.
What is the change that you feel most concerned about? I’m most concerned about the emotional ups and downs I experience during puberty, like feeling moody or upset for no clear reason. Sometimes I worry that these feelings are unusual or that I can’t control them, which makes me feel anxious.
When looking for information online, how can you ensure it is credible and appropriate? To make sure online information is reliable, I check if the website is from a well-known health organization, school, or government agency. I also look at who wrote the information to see if they are experts or professionals in health or education. Additionally, I prefer sources that are recent so that I get the most accurate and updated advice.
What is one aspect of your learning you want to improve on moving forward? I want to improve my understanding of how to take care of my mental health, especially during times when I feel overwhelmed or stressed. I also want to learn better ways to talk about my feelings with friends and family so I don’t keep everything inside.
What Did I Do? I participated in building and testing a balloon car by selecting materials, designing the car, and conducting experiments to see how it moved. I collaborated with my partner to assemble the car, inflate the balloon, and gather data on its performance. The balloon car was made with styrofoam and had wheels that enabled it to move freely.
What did I learn?
Newton’s 1st Law says: an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and an object at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. We see this since whenever we let the air in the balloon go, the car would start to move his same action proves the 3rd law to as it states:” every action has an equal, opposite reaction. And when the balloon on the car deflated the force coming out of the rear of the car makes the car move forwards as the air as going backwards, the car moved forwards as the opposite reaction.
What Worked Well Our collaboration with my partner was very effective, allowing us to share ideas together. The design and construction of the balloon car went smoothly, and it worked pretty well, though the wheels sometimes wobbled.
What We Struggled With We faced some challenges when our balloon car went in inconsistent directions. Additionally, it was sometimes difficult to ensure the balloon released the same amount of air each time, which affected the consistency of our results. It made that hard to record accurate information on the distances the car moved. That made it hard to collect data that was accurate because it was hard to
Personal Relevance
Using the Balloon Car relates to real-world physics such as Newton’s Third Law of Motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This concept is similar to how rockets propel forward by expelling gases, or how cars use engines to generate movement. Additionally, it demonstrates the importance of design and experimentation. Overall, the activity helps us understand the basic forces involved in motion that are present in many everyday things.
I used my critical thinking skills to complete challenges to with Indi robots that were sensitive to color. We also built rollercoasters for marbles using a game called Gravitrax.
What Did I Learn?
I learned about how I would be graded for Critical Thinking skills. I learnt that critical thinking is the skill to solve problems and connecting different points of a problem to the entire whole. This helps us make good decisions.
What Worked?
I was able to work with my teammates to successfully construct the tower. It was a fun activity and with the robot we could complete the hardest challenge! It was a fun and engaging thing to do and I learned a lot about critical thinking too.
What Didn’t work?
It was a bit hard to measure and also at the end we had 2 seperate structure since one person thought we should make more but then we ran out of materials to build either structure.
Personal Revelance
I learned to collaborate with random people and it worked out okay. We all enjoyed the activities and there were no conflicts in the tower or using the robot that could sense colors.
In this unit I used reliable resources from the SAS databases such as Brittanica, CultureGrams and Statista. Me and my partner organized the information that we learned into 4 different empowering reasons we should host the Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. My partner, Adeline and I efficiently gave each other different roles and different parts such as the introduction and the Olympic logo explanation. We worked to make sure our country was chosen to host the Olympic Games.
What Did I Learn?
First, I learned to use time given to us efficiently and to organize each task ordering them in the most urgent to the specific details to the PPT. I learned how to successfully navigate the SAS databases that were a bit confusing to start with since they didn’t always have the exact, straightforward answers that I needed since to data and graphs on Statista where sometimes hard to understand, but in the end I could use the data to make my cause into an easy and simple way for the people I am presenting for to understand the reasons for choosing my host county to host the Olympic Games. Most of all I learned to successfully collaborate with my partner and give each other tasks to work on so that we wouldn’t be doing to same thing or neglecting a task.
What Worked?
A lot of things worked out such as the result of the PPT and presentation we gave to the IOC member we presented for. Our PPT was simple with guiding images and small amounts of text. Our PPT followed the format required and showed our examples well. We chose empowering images that reflected the topic well and helped the audience gain a clearer understanding of the entire topic and why our argument was the way that it was. Our collaboration worked as well, we successfully completed the entire project and communicated well: We used the TTG effective collaborator and skillful communicator.
What Did Not Work?
One thing that got a bit confusing in the end was who was doing to logo and whether or not my partner knew what the logo was about, as I had created the logo intentionally making the iconic symbols of Sydney, the great Barrier reef for Australia, the Sydney Opera House, the Eucalyptus leaves and the stunning Oceans of Sydney. But other than this slight mishap our project was smooth and we didn’t encounter any significant issues.
This is the picture of our finished flag!
Personal Relevance
As I mentioned before in the What Worked paragraph, I used the TTG of effective collaborator and skillful communicator. These two things really stuck out and showed me the importance of collaborating. This could someday help me in real life situations. This really helped with the running of our project, making it successful and causing us no arguments.
I have never actually learned table tennis, but now I learned how to serve and do backhand and forehand. Now, I understand the rules of the game like serving and having to bounce the ball on your side while serve and only being allow to hit your opponent’s side while playing. I have never in table tennis before and it was really cool to learn a new sport, since I do triathlon and Spartan (which is an obstacle race) outside of school. I also happened to go to the Spartan world championships this August.
I really like how we learned table tennis, by going step by step and not rushing. With different levels of people while playing like the game kings and queens of the court.
Overall table tennis was really fun and now I want to try it outside of school too. It seems like a really fun sport since I train harder in other sports outside of school!
