Category: Science

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Science Student Led Conferences

Science Semester 1 reflection

Evidence of organization

Above are the documentations of my science notebook.

Throughout the year, my notebook has improved as a tool that assists my learning. Initially, there was just pages of text, but now I learned to use graphs and symbols to represent ideas.

Evidence of active learner habits

Active_Learner_Science_Rubric_August_2025Download

Above is my active learner rubric. I have struggled in remembering to bring my supplies to class, following directions, and reviewing for assessments. I once made a mistake on my 3 for 3, but eventually corrected it. I have made progress, as now I always bring my needed supplies to class and I follow directions on assignments. My 3 for 3 grades are much more consistent now.

Evidence of understanding key concepts

In the second semester, I began to have a constant score on my 3 for 3s demonstrating my successful understanding of key concepts.

Evidence of Growth in Science skills

The skill I chose to reflect on is engaging in argument from evidence.

  • Standard 1: Developing and Using Models               
  • Standard 2: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions                  
  • Standard 3: Engaging in Argument from Evidence (CER)                  
  • Standard 4: Asking Questions and Defining Problems                      
  • Standard 5: Using Mathematics and Computational Thinking
  • Standard 6: Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information                      
L3+-+Amazon+ImpactsDownload

I improved in my CER abilities as my writing performance improved as time passed. I changed from misusing evidence to writing a sophisticated CER.

I believe in the 2nd semester I would continue to improve as a learner in science.

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Critical Thinker Reflection Science

Unit 6 Science Reflection

In unit 6, we learned about chemicals and materials in our food. I made lemonade, and I explained how water and citric acid are components of it, and modeled them too. The process of making Lemonade is mixed, as it contains both physical change(Mixing) and chemical change. (Boiling the sugar) Because the characteristics of the final product have changed, the boiling of the sugar is a chemical change. Due to the fact that no property changes had happened, it is a physical change.

I could have improved in my presentation, as most people just drank my Lemonade and weren’t interested in my poster. I might need to reduce the number of words on each page to make it more engaging. Also, I would study more on complex and simple structures, as I cannot really differ them from each other yet.

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Critical Thinker Reflection Science

Science U6 Summative-News Report

In unit 6, we have to choose a method of media and use it to pass information on algal blooms. I chose to use a news report. Moreover, we have to explain the causes and effects of algal blooms using energy and matter cycles like the carbon cycle, the hydrologic cycle, and the oxygen cycle.

Black and Grey Modern Breaking News PosterDownload

The essential question of this unit is: “What is causing pleasant ponds to turn green?” So over here, Pleasant Pond is a random pond in a park, where the water is still. The green in the pleasant pond is from the algae in it, and there are also many reasons that algae can bloom inside the pond. One big reason is fertilization use. Fertilizers, as stated in the nitrogen cycle, provides loose nitrogen to the soil, which could be carried away by runoffs. With all the extra algae, the fish will die because according to the carbon cycle, the plant in the water needs sunlight for photosynthesis. Since the algae above the water covered sunlight for the plants, the plants die, which meant that there would be less fish in the pond that eats plants. Thus, the algae harms the ecosystem as it completely destroys the producer section of the food chain, impacting all the later sections.

Experiments helped me to gain an understanding of models in matter and energy cycling in ecosystems. First, the starch test in leaves experiments that we did showed me in what form the leaf store glucose and proved to me that plants can make glucose out of carbon dioxide, sunlight, and water. The station activity on food chains and webs showed me how energy is possible to go around everybody in an ecosystem and eventually go back inside the dirt and decay into nitrogen. In sum, these activities gave me proof and hinted me on how these energy and matter cycles can work.

Above is a picture of the ecosystem in a bottle project I did with Brendan. We used different materials like gravel and dirt, along with different animals like goldfish and crickets, to form an open ecosystem(the land and the water is connected).

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Drama English Language Arts Health language Math Music PE Reflection Science Social Studies Student Led Conferences

Semester 1 Report Card Reflection

My report card was relatively stable during the first semester, and there were no approaching grades. I am proud of my high grade in English Language Arts, as I had multiple exceeding grades. I did great in making a dystopian storyline and pitching it to others. (Partly due to the soft grading of Ms. Devin) However, I did badly on math as it was my strong subject, and I didn’t get even one exceeding, even though my grades didn’t look bad. (Mainly 3 and 3.5’s) If I would go back and change something about how I approach this semester, it would be that I would want to be cautious with tests and review for it as the first scores of formatives hit me hard in the start of this semester. Some actions I can do to improve is to review the points the teachers told us that we are going to be accessed on the test, so I can clearly know the format of answering and ways to correctly calculate the answer. Below is my report card.

1412031A0D1E270314FCED5FDD486ECBrcDownload
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Critical Thinker Science

Science U4: Growth, Development, and Reproduction

Science with Ethan HuangDownload

Above is my unit summative project with Evan. We discovered that both genetic and environmental factors affect the growth of fruits. For example, when the parents of the fruit are native to the environment, the child will probably be adapted to the environment. Also, when the water supply is low, fruits that need less water will survive. These factors all affect the characteristics of a fruit. When asexual reproduction between fruits happen, DNA of a certain fruit is replicated and has more stable DNA. When Sexual reproduction happens, the DNA of the plants might vary and create different types of fruits.

apple creationDownload

Above is the apple reproduction model I made with Harrison. When extracting the DNA of plants, I learned that the plants themselves have the DNA in them already, and not only part of the fruit has the DNA. When doing the reproduction activity, I learned that Sexual Reproduction can lead to complexity in genetics and variants might appear. One example of plant structures affecting reproduction is pollination. The stamen contains the pollen that can be spread on the pollinators and passed around.

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Critical Thinker Science

Science U4- Asexual and Sexual Reproduction

In unit 4, we designed a Franken-fruit made of two different fruits. My partner Evan and I chose the Yubari king melon and the Dekopon orange. We made a Canva presentation and included the genotypes and phenotypes of the gene, which can be modified by using different alleles to combine into different traits. We also used a Punnett square to simulate the different results of reproduction. In the end, we did a gallery walk and introduced people to our fruits. Even though our fruit is expensive, it has a very high quality. What we did well is to write a CER and introduce ways of reproduction in the powerpoint. What we need to work on is to improve our badly-made physical model of our fruit and improve on our advertising speech too.

Science with Ethan HuangDownload

Above is our PPT.

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Reflection Science

Science-Disease presentation

In Science, I and my teammates provided a presentation on a mystery disease to my classmates, and some of them guessed our disease. Also, we have to do that too, and we wrote a CER on why this disease is the disease we think it is and how it impacted the other cell systems.

Ethan-CER-for-body-systemsDownload

Above is my CER

The essential question of the unit is what happens to your body when you get sick? I will answer that with some examples from the video we saw in class. When we get sick, different subsystems of the body will be impacted, and they will react according to the damage done to the system. As shown in the video in class, when Ali had CPT 2, her body reacted by breaking down her muscles for energy since she could not break down fat for energy. However, her case was special. Usually when we get sick, the immune system reacts and clears the germ/virus away. This can relate to how a body is made of subsystems made out of organs made out of cells because the problem with DNA of one person or a germ/virus first effects the cells, which effects the tissue as it spreads, then effects the organs, and lastly goes into subsystems of a body if not treated well enough.

Above is part of my presentation.

In class, we have done a dissection on pig lungs, pig hearts, and bullfrogs. Seeing what is inside the pig organs helped me to understand what they do, and seeing how the intestines are connected in the frog’s body proves how the subsystems, especially the digestive, work together to digest food.

If I were a teacher of this Unit, I would add more dissections of pig liver. Pig liver is a common food in China, so it won’t cause that many reactions. Also, it is important to learn about the liver too. This way, we can learn more about the digestive system.

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Science

L4 Science Cell Exhibition

Essential question: How can a single cell be an entire organism or part of a larger one? To answer this, in unit 2, we have been learning about the function of cell organelles, like the nucleus (which acts like the brain), the lysosome (which acts like the stomach), and much more. A cell can survive on its own, and when they combine in large amounts (like how creatures are formed) it can also be a whole.

In my video, I have analyzed and used many models built by my classmates. Models like the lysosome are cool since I can touch it and feel it. Also, the cell membrane 3d printed model looks cool and looks more like the cell membrane. In sum, the experience was great and my classmates brought up great work. Some constraints we have is the materials we have. We can bring materials other than that, but we cannot bring everything. Also, some components we are asked to have is a live model and text explaining the model. One limitation of my own model is on I cannot show how the enzymes really break down the waste.

The organelle that I did is the lysosome. It acts like the digestive system and cleans out the body. It is placed with the other lysosomes. (Our exhibit doesn’t have any consideration of the positions of cells.) My analogy for this organelle is the stomach and this connects to its function since the lysosome uses its enzymes to break down waste and resources, just like what the stomach does with its acid. Me and my partner decided to use a foam ball to represent it, and we had cut one-eighth of it off so we can have a cut section of it. Inside, we glued in little clay balls to represent the enzymes. (We also glued in some cardboard with our introduction of the organelle on it.)

If I could improve my project, I would elaborate on my model. First, I will use a different color that contrasts the color of the clay ball to paint the body of my model, and I will color the outside too. Also, I would try to put more thought into holding the ball as it cannot stand on its own. (I might make a holder to hold the ball)

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Science

Endangered species project-what can we do?

This is my unfinished science project on endangered species. We were supposed to introduce them, record their threats, and put the information in different media. I chose to do a Thinglink, which is a grouping of citations, text, graphs, and pictures. This digital project will provide information about the endangered creature Red Panda. Some strategies to do this assignment might be carefully researching, and choosing credible and reliable sources, also a strategy or step to do this is to decide with thought where you should pin your cites. This assignment represents my growth in media literacy, which is to create, find, and determine information on different media. That is because we are asked to do- write, search, and evaluate, then at last put them in media. Thinglink was a brand-new media that I am using, and I did learn a different way to present the information found.

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Science

Crumple zones-Crash test

This is my crash test assignment. I selected this because this really took me time to think and study the relationships between the different variables. The learning process of this includes to find what is important, what is not, what should be rigid, and what should be soft. It is basically learning on design. I am proud of this because I had good results and a great amount of effort put in this, while I am cool with it. (I just like crash tests) If I could do this differently, I would try to not put everything so rigid first and waste my time for trying again and again.