In the target games unit, we practiced our ability to throw things precisely.
A memorable activity was Frisbee golf, where we tried to throw a Frisbee towards a goal in the fewest throws possible. It practiced our ability to control not only the directions but also the distance of our throw, which is crucial when playing.
Another activity that was slightly boring was corn hole, where we threw bean bags at a board and tried to let it land on the board.
Both of these activities made me grow as a better player that could countrol distance but I still need to practice better posture in frisbee so I could throw straight shots.
In Unit 2, we studied mental health and how technology impacts mental health.
What I used to think
I used to think that mental health was quite literal and only included the psychological troubles. A misconception I had was that therapy was the only part of treatments for mental health issues.
Learning
In this unit, we learned about how, sometimes, AI could guide people with mental health issues to commit acts like self-harm or suicide. We also learned the negative impacts of social media and its stigma towards mental health issues, as they use a stereotypical way to portray these difficulties.
Socratic Seminar
I participated in a group discussion (Socratic seminar) regarding the regulation of social media platforms and believed that platforms shouldn’t regulate users under 16 years old or younger. I believed that the systematic error of the platform shouldn’t be blamed on the users, so I pointed out that it is the platforms that need better regulation.
My preparation sheet
Peer feedback
Final Project
I then collaborated with Evan and Preston to present depression as a mental health issue. We learned about the treatments, causes, and stigma towards depression. We noted that not all depression symptoms are the same, so we included a specific perspective too. We used sources that are credible and practiced our speech to refine our performance.
But now I knew that mental health problems are a collection of physical hormone regulation troubles and psychological issues. Furthermore, I learned that many mental health issues have branches with different causes and symptoms. For example, depression is divided into postpartum depression and clinical depression. Postpartum depression occurs in pregnant mothers who have given birth, while clinical depression can occur in everyone.
My perspective on mental health, its conditions, and patients had shifted. Now I understand that while professionals are crucial to helping patients, a safe and open environment for patients to openly talk about their difficulties is needed for the acceptance of the patients.
In this semester, I rejoined the band and committed to our winter concert, Halloween parade, and a trio performance.
Above are some photos of me in the year.
Strengths: I can connect music to my experiences effectively at school, because I am able to identify themes in music and apply them to my life. I can also read notes and have correct finger positions when playing.
Weaknesses: I need to improve my ability to use formal vocabulary and apply more dynamics. I do understand what the vocabulary means but it is important to incorporate them in my responding tasks. Applying dynamics is something I can improve on especially when playing in a trio.
Expansion: To further extend my learning, I plan to apply to ASA Jazz after Lunar new year and I’m currently doing Amis Solo and Ensemble right now.
Above is my vision board for the new year. The first item I included was math assessments. I plan to utilize my math skills and become a better critical thinker. The second element I included was social studies, as it is an important subject where I practice my skillful communication skills. I also included a basketball hoop as I want to be fit to play basketball.
My Goals Are
My three goals are getting exceedings at least 70% of the time in math, increase my presentation quality, and to be fit enough to join the basketball team.
How to complete each goal
As for math, I would remember to review before assessments on critical questions that I might fail, and during the assessments, I should remember to check my answers.
For my presentation quality, I shouldn’t only focus on the slide/artifact itself, but know that it is important to plan out what information I’m sharing, as the goal of my presentation is to present information, not to show visually satisfying pictures.
To be fit enough to join the basketball team, I should increase my stamina through long-distance running practices.
TTG
The TTG i chose to reflect is skillful communicator.
The two audios show my ability to talk with more precision and clarity.
In this unit, we studied our badminton skills, especially drop shots and smashes. These are new skills built on top of backhand and forehand returns. What I am proud of was by up-backhand ability as I am able to return shots at difficult positions. I still need to work on my smashes and drop shots as they often end up out of bounds.
At the start of this year, I made a vision board to represent my goals in the coming year.
My goals include being more organized, getting consistent scores on assessments, and being fit enough to rejoin the basketball team.
To be more organized, I would use more containers that can separate my shelf into organized sections.
To have more consistent scores, I would try to review before assessments, especially the small 3 for 3s in science. A quick review can help boost my performance.
To be more fit, I can start practicing my endurance with running.
I hope to accomplish these goals through small steps.
In the second unit, we are studying functions. To model piecewise functions, we designed a real-life situation to analyze. We modeled Joshua’s approval rate as a president. I am most proud of our ability to design a story that makes sense. All the increasing and decreasing correlate with what happens in the story. The hardest part was writing the linear equations for each interval. We need to find the y-intercept of the line(even when it doesn’t extend there) while noting down the intervals of increase/decrease/constant. If I were to revise, I would make sure that in my calculations, I would always use function notation. I can use f(x) before my equations. This project helps me to understand that, although having different equations on different sections, piecewise functions still obey the basic rules of functions. (Like the vertical line test rule)
After making our tissue box and prior to winter break and Fusion 360, we completed our robotics unit.
The three major builds we (me and Oscar) had done are the sumo bot, racing bot and claw bot. The sumo bot uses a color senser to detect if it is going off the battlefield and has automated code that makes it attack at the robot that was pushing it. The racing bot requires the connection of the motor to a gear box that could make the wheels turn faster but sacrifice torque, or turning power. Moreover, we modified an push sensor to make it touch a wall and return. The other was the claw bot, where we had a basic bot of simple wheel structure along with an attachment of a 2 motor system that could raise and lower a claw while open and closing it.
One thing that we did well in the sumo bot was our code. I used different response systems activated by sensors through coding. Our bot was able to survive against other bots. One thing that we needed to improve on were our defense mechanics. Although I had a variety of them, they aren’t as effective as it always turns.
One thing that we did well in the racing bot activity was that we are able to adapt to our robot’s issues and drive accordingly. Eventually on the race day when we didn’t have enough time to modify we adapted to our robot. One thing that we could do better was to adjust the gear boxes since our robot always drives to the left. We attempted to solve the issue but failed. We suspect that it was due to the not matching gear box structure from both sides and how our motor has gears that connect to both wheels. It seemed that we made things complicated and better. However, one thing I would do next time is to keep things simple as complex structures are harder to manage and perform normally.
One thing that we did well in the claw bot activity was our control. We were able to carefully control the claws of our robot and to stack them well during training. One thing that we could do better is our collaboration. We needed to communicate better with our partner teams so we can get higher scores. If we were to do this again, I would try also balancing out the robot to make sure it doesn’t have weight issues.
