During this unit, we learned about the different parts of the brain and how a teenage brain makes decisions. As a final project, we divided into groups and each group has to research and present on a specific mental health disorder. My team’s chosen topic is depression.
Before & After
Before this unit, I used to think that the public media prostrates mental health illness as a very serious condition with supporting contents, since people get to share their story on the medias for more people to relate. I thought that mental health means your thoughts and emotional peace. I believed that it can both positively and negatively impact one’s life.
After this unit, I learned that the media actually shows mental health patients as ‘extreme villains/weirdos’ and raises a lot of negative stigma around the conditions. I learned that mental health illness is as serious as physical injuries and with proper care, the patient can still lead a healthy and positive life.
I learned these by watching my other classmates’ presentation which lower the stigma and also educate us about the treatments of different illness.
Our Project
For our project, we first researched about our illness as a group to ensure that we use credible sources. The following file is our L2 valid source research.
After the research step, we moved on to our final project. Our team chose to use a video formed interview to share informations and reduce stigma. The following image is a screenshot of part of our script.
We then film it using Zoom Meeting and animated it with graphics through canva.
Some peer feedback that we got throughout the process was that our original first draft, which includes me as a ‘depressed patient’ might actually raise stigma due to joking about depression patients. So we eventually changed our script to 2 doctors and the interviewer.
I improved on this as now I can work the hardest and attempt the optional extensions for a 4 at all times.
I have improved on the learning skill of understanding natural selection,creating a timeline, and building a SAS model. This is shown by my schoology grades of a 4 and two 3s in the assignments respectively. I would like to keep improving my ability to write CERs, for there are many chances where I have could improve a 3 to a 4.
Part 3 – Evidence of Understanding of Key Concepts
These evidence of my grades shows how I have a strong understanding of the key concepts, since I always achieve a meeting on the 3 for 3s and not miss any questions.
Part 4 – Evidence of Growth in Science Skills
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
I improved on Standard 3: Engaging in Argument from Evidence, the CERs shows my growth from S1 to S2, as I included more detailed evidence, more consistent reasonings, and also a more specific claim instead of copying the teacher’s.
For unit 1, we reviewed the verb tenses that we learned in 7th grade and took quiz on verb tense like past tense. I am proud of the fact that I am able to conjugate regular Spanish verbs in the present and past tense quite well and am able to recite some of the irregular verbs.
Unit 2
For unit 2, we learned about the human body and the words for different body parts. We also learned about how to express discomfort and how to ask someone if they are feeling ok. I am proud of the fact that I can say where I am hurting in Spanish. I would like to improve on my ability to name all the body parts.
Unit 3
For unit 3, we are currently learning about the environment and ways to protect our Earth. We learn about words related to climate change and environment preservation in Spanish and verbs like protect, destroy, and recycle. I am proud of the fact that I can say how and why I want to protect the environment and also use the future verb tense. I would like to remember more words about the planet.
For our health unit, we were asked to chose an app that can help us accomplish our WOOP goal. A WOOP goal is a specific goal designed for you to help track and eventually reach your target. For my app, I chose the goal of getting a healthier sleep schedule every night by ensuring I limit my screen time to get at least 8h of sleep. I learned about the 2 different types of gratification: instant gratification, meaning you get rewards/comfort immediately but it might only last for a short amount of time, and delayed gratification, meaning that you accomplish something big in the long term.
This connects to myself as to I have to chose between instant and delayed gratification when I am reaching my goal. Whether I immediately be happy and play video games or if I resist the urge and get a better sleep habit loop.
One strength I bring to math class is I always come to class prepared with my learning materials like my charged laptop, pencil case, math notebook, and finished homework from last class.
Another strength I bring is I always take detailed notes during class, which allows me to review the topics later in the semester.
A third strength I have is I can work with all of my classmates, and I can cooperate well with any group mate.
One habit I want to improve this semester is I want to try to ask the teacher when I have something that I don’t understand and get support.
This is an area of growth for me because I don’t usually ask teacher questions or for help.
I will work on this habit by remembering my teachers can help me when I am struggling next time.
One specific action I will take is ask my teacher 1 question I don’t understand every week.
Math Notation and Communication
my math notebook from the beginning of S1
my math notebook from the end of S1
My work has improved in the sense of that I not only recorded more notes but I also added the process of my work.
Understanding of Key Concepts
I believe my piecewise function project demonstrates my understanding of using functions in daily life. The work is included below.
I believe I did well in showing the process of calculating the slope of the different intervals of increase/decrease. I am also proud of it as I got a 4 on this assignment.
This work showed my growth from not understanding functions to having a clear explanation of each part of a function.
Overall, my work shows that I have a very solid and strong understanding of function notations.
I believe my sticker design project demonstrates my understanding of different forms of transformation and using it to create a aesthetic design. The work is included below.
I believe I did well in this project as I used a lot of different forms of transformation to form a pattern. I am also proud of me getting a 3.5 in this assignment.
This work shows my growth in transformation of shapes and different types of movement.
Overall, my work shows I have a good understanding of using transformation to create patterns.
For our first unit in S2 in PE, we were practicing badminton. During this unit, we learned about different techniques that we can use during matches. We practiced backhand serve, forehand serve, drop shots, forehand clear shot, and many other different ways of hitting the birdy. (poor birdy)
We then split into MS and HS gym to practice with our partners. We played a lot of games and I think I improved a lot. I am most proud of me beating an opponent which I previously cannot beat. I might improved my ability to serve if I had more time to practice.
In our Unit 2 Math project, we were asked to create a real life project that included functions and then solve it with graphs. The following document is my final project.
Our project described the French re-re-re-re-re-re-re-revolution in 6769 where headless people connected to their head via bluetooth is the new fashion. Our question is to use the graph to model the change of the new number of headless people each year.
I am most proud of our work in the part of which we were asked to identify the intervals of increase, decrease, and constants. I am very proud of it because not only did we included specific equations with variables, but we also showed all functions in the right format, which took a long time and effort.
It was very hard to design a solvable questions and create a graph that models it. It was very hard and we had to redo our graph several times in my notebook. But we eventually overcame it by revising our problem from asking about 1 year to over a course of years.
I would improve our last part of explaining the functions in our story’s context, if we had more time, we would include more details into our responds so that someone who did not read our background story can also easily understand our model.
This project helped me a lot at understanding the piecewise function as it provided a chance for me to actively engage in learning and design the problem ourselves. It helps us deepen our understanding of how the functions connect to the real world.
For this unit, we were using a special technique to create a poster effect for a selfie that we chose for our portrait. We used Procreate to make our image into different shades of the same colors, creating a posterized image. We then printed out the image and incorporated other elements with it into our canvas that we spray painted earlier. We used a lot of different materials to make collages and mixed media elements that represents ourselves and our identities.
The following picture is my portrait.
I wan the audience to understand a bit about me when they see this portrait. They can see that I prefer a dark and cloudy environment, as shown by my black background and the silver train of rain. In addition, my main portrait of my self is made in dark blue, also showing that I like darker areas. They may know that I am pessimistic as there is a sad eye crying on the left side of my portrait. I also love jellyfish, which they can get by looking at my jellyfish symbol under the portrait. I deeply believe in ghosts and supernatural forces, so I added a ghost as my main element. The colorful cut out people on top shows that I value my families and friends. Although the main background is black and white, there are many pops of colors that shows how I can be very energetic from time to time.
The following images are my planning drawings and process.
I took several risks throughout my process. For example, most students do not want puddles of spray paint on their canvas for it is hard to dry. But I took a risk and sprayed a lot of paint to create the rain drop effect, which turned out very nice. I also experience with pops of colors on black and white, which also turned out interesting. And it effectively showed my personality of quick switch between pessimistic and energetic.
The above file is our process journal. For this unit, we built a Vex IQ bot that competed in 3 different challenges – wall racing, speed challenge, and stacking challenge. I focused on building the bot and both of our teammates worked on the process journal. Our team performed very well in the speed challenge, driven by Frans, my teammate, as I was absent the day of the test. We broke the record of the speed challenge with 16.02 sec. However, we didn’t perform very well in the stacking challenge, as my driving skills were not very good.
