Madelyn's Portfolio

Unit 4 Dystopian Fiction Reflection

December 16, 2025 /

What did I learn about Dystopian Fiction?

I learnt that there are many types of dystopian fiction, like social control, dehumanization, totalitarianism, control of nature, illusion of utopia and “sameness”. I think Dystopian Fiction makes a community very fair, but maybe too fair, because there are a lot of things that us, in real life, don’t have.

For example, their ‘Birthdays’ are all put on the same date in December and on a large ceremony. No one’s birthday is different and they don’t get cake nor presents.

Also, They get assigned their ‘assignments’ (as known as a job) and they don’t get to choose it theirselves, and some of the jobs aren’t very fair, like the Birthmother gives birth 3 times and after that, it is full labor until they are sent into the “House of Olds”. However, those 3 babies are not for the birthmothers themselves, they get passed out to other citizens who made a family together.

How does Dystopian Fiction encourage me to think about real life?

After reading The Giver, it really makes me think that we actually have a great life, since we have the freedom to choose and decide things ourselves. But sometimes, reading to some parts makes me imagine if we also had to go through those things, how would I feel? do I think it’s fair? Also, when you do three things wrong, then you will be released, which means killed by injecting a chemical into your body, and that makes me think: Why don’t they accept mistakes that much? Everyone makes mistakes, why are they killed so quickly?

Did you enjoy reading The Giver?

Yes, I really enjoyed it because it is a very new style for me. It has reverses which is very cool and it is a very interesting book, I would consider reading more of the series in the future.

How has my ability to write Academic Paragraphs improved?

Back then before this unit, I didn’t really know how to write a academic paragraph, but after this unit, I understand the format of a academic paragraph and I understand how to write one.

For some reason, my mind always thinks that I need to write a academic paragraph and starts writing a academic paragraph for any of my assignments and I always would write “For example” for thinking that I’m writing the first piece of evidence and then delete it again 😃👍

How have I become better at Literature Discussions?

I now know how to validate others when we discuss about our topic, and I know better how to start and end the discussion, and I also know how to break the silence in the middle of our discussion.

Unit 2 Otzi Unit Portfolio Reflection

November 27, 2025 /

What did I work on?

During this unit, ‘Why should we care about the past?’, I worked on  

  1. Making observations, inferences and wonderings 
  1. Making observations, inferences and wonderings 
  2. Using photos and articles as evidence 
  3. Writing a CER paragraph
  4. Asking and answering open and closed questions 
  5. Taking part in the Otzi Mock Trial, my role was …………. 

What did I learn? Why should we care about the past? 

    We should care about the past because it helps us learn about history and cultural differences from the past, it also helps us understand the past and how it changed the future.  

      What worked well? 

        I am proud of the following work: completing the mock trial, my CER about Otzi, and learning about open and closed questions.  

          I am proud of the work above because I have never done a mock trial before, and it was a new experience, also since I wasn’t very sure about how to write a CER paragraph.  

            What did not work well? 

            I found some of this work challenging: finding enough evidence of the arrowhead for the mock trial, determining what questions the lawyers would ask, and finding reasonable answers.  

                I found the work above challenging because I wasn’t sure of who and what they would ask me and if I would be unsure of the answer. If my answer isn’t strong enough, then there would be an automatic win for the defense team.  

                  Personal Relevance 

                    Collaboration and communications skills are important in my future because there is lots of collaboration happening in all classes like science and language arts and being able to communicate and collaborate well is very important.  

                      This is a photo of my work about what I wrote when I was a jury in the mock trial. 

                       

                      Unit 3 – Rates and Percents Reflection

                      November 26, 2025 /

                      What did I do?

                      We (my partner and I) calculated the income, total cost, batch cost, serving cost and profit. After all the calculations, we prepared all our ingredients and baked our goods together after school the day before the bake sale. We baked the Marshmallow Cookies and made Mango Grapefruit Drinks and sold them at the bake sale.

                      What did I learn?

                      I learned how to use ratio tables, double number lines, and tape diagrams. These strategies can all be used to calculate our total, batch and serving costs. I also learned that baking goods and selling them isn’t as easy as it looks, because you would need to be ready for any questions that the consumers ask, and it is hard to estimate how much of 1 item you should prepare. (The bake sale was harder than I expected)

                      What worked?

                      The selling part actually went smoother than we expected, having friends that bought our products recommending it to others. At the start of the bake sale, there wasn’t anyone who stopped and came to our stand (only teachers came😃). but after one friend came, things started to get smoother as more people came in. Something that also worked well was our estimation of the income and profit. The estimation and the reality matched up really well although there was a slight difference. (we made less Mango Grapefruit Drinks than we estimated to make in our calculations.)

                      What did not work well?

                      Making the Mango Grapefruit Drink didn’t go very well. Originally, we were making Mango Grapefruit Desserts. (Solid food, not drinks) But after taste testing on the night before, we found out that the flavor wasn’t as good as we expected. With imagination, we put the mangos, yogurt and a little bit of water into the mixer and after trying it, we found out that it tasted much better than the original idea. And so, we ended up selling the drink instead although it still didn’t taste the best.

                      How this is relevant for me:

                      This is relevant for me because it tells me that I need to prepare when I still have enough time, If we don’t prepare when we still have plenty of time, we would be rushing through our project and no one would be happy with it. It also gives us a chance to collaborate with others and make new friends. This was also a great experience for us since we get to bake our own goods and sell them ourselves.

                      Science Unit 2 Reflection – Egg Cars

                      November 12, 2025 /

                      IMG_0295.mov IMG_0296.mov (These are the links for our egg cars)

                      What Did I Do?

                      I created a egg car to stop the egg car from cracking after it crashes into concrete at the end of a ramp.

                      What Did I Learn?

                      I learnt about making crumple zones, and continued learning about Newton’s first and third law.

                      The first law states: “When an object is in motion, it stays in motion, if an object is at rest, it stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.” This was seen in the egg car challenge when it ran down the slope. If the concrete block wasn’t there to let it stop moving, it would still be moving forward because there is no outside force to go stop it from continue moving.

                      The third law states: “For every force applied, there is a equal and opposite reaction.” This was seen in the egg car challenge when the egg car hit the concrete block. When it hit the concrete block, it had a equal and opposite reaction by being bounced backwards.

                      What Worked?

                      In our design, making the “walls” and the “seatbelt” for the egg went well. We used a piece of paper to wrap the egg to give it some protection to prevent it from being squished or bounced out of the egg car, and we needed to make a “window” in our lid because there was a constraint where you must be able to see the egg when it is in the egg car.

                      What Did NOT Work?

                      Something that didn’t really work was having a crumple zone. Through the time where we could create our egg car, we completely forgot about adding a crumple zone to protect the egg, we only thought about the size of the egg car and that the egg won’t fly out of the egg car during the real test. The result was that none of our eggs survived the crash 😭

                      Personal Relevance

                      Now I know that you need a crumple zone, seatbelts, and safe seats to keep the passengers safe. We need to make sure the wheels don’t go too fast so that the egg car doesn’t have too much force. We also need to make sure the “walls” of the car are thick enough so that the damage to the passengers can be lowered to the minimum.

                      Science Unit 2 Reflection-Balloon Cars

                      November 4, 2025 /

                      What did I do?

                      We built balloon cars using foam trays, plastic straws, wheels, axles, balloons, tape, etc. The balloon car works by inflating the balloon and when the air comes out of the balloon, the car will move forward. We used the balloon cars to learn about Newton’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd law.

                      What did I learn?

                      We learnt about the definitions of Newton’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd law. Then, we put them in action by doing the balloon car experiment.

                      The first law states “an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by another force.” we see this law in action with the balloon car when we want the car to stop. If we want the balloon car to stop, it will need a outside force to stop it.

                      The second law states “The greater the mass of the object, the more force it will take to accelerate the object.” we see this law in action with the balloon car when we apply weights on our cars. If we put multiple weights, then it will take more air blowing out of the balloon to make it start moving.

                      The third law states “For every force applied, there is and equal and opposite reaction.” we see this law in action with the balloon car when a balloon car crashes into a wall. If it crashes in the wall, the balloon car will go backwards because of the force that pushed it forward.

                      What worked?

                      The experimenting part worked well because we had a machine that could help us inflate the balloon on the balloon car. It helped us save a lot of our breath. 😃 Another thing that worked really well was the collaboration with my partner Annabelle. Because we usually be partners together in all our classes and play together outside of class as well, we know what each other think, so we think alike. (great minds think alike 😃👍)

                      What did not work?

                      Something that didn’t really work at the start but eventually ended up working was tying the balloon onto a piece of a plastic straw using a rubber band. It didn’t work very well because we were unsure about how many loops it took to keep the balloon strong enough to stay tied onto the straw but able to inflate it through the straw at the same time. at first, we but too many loops, eventually, we found out that it only took 5 – 6 loops.

                      Personal Relevance

                      The balloon car was like a real car in the real world when we made the balloon car start to move. I can see Newton’s Laws (all 3) in the real world on rollercoasters and cars. It is important to learn about this because then we know the reason why it happens.

                      Health Puberty Reflection

                      October 30, 2025 /
                      1. Why is it important to understand the changes that occur in puberty? It is important because if we do understand the changes, we won’t be worried, scared, or freaked out when it actually happens on our bodies.
                      2. What is the change that you feel most confident about? The change I feel most confident about is my height change because last year, my height increased by 9cm. (which I think is pretty high)
                      3. What is the change you are most concerned about? The change I am most concerned about is getting my period because I don’t know how I’m gonna survive PE. 🥲
                      4. When looking for information online, how can you make sure it is credible and appropriate? I can make sure it is trustable by only looking at information through the Library Databases.
                      5. What is one aspect of your learning you want to improve on moving forward? I want to improve my focusing skills because sometimes I focus for 1 minute then I just start daydreaming. 🤪

                      MY PROJECT: (PUBERTY SURVIVAL GUIDE MADE WITH STEPHANIE WU)

                      Creative Writing Reflection

                      October 30, 2025 /

                      What are we doing?

                      Writing a fictional story based on a theme that matters to me.

                      What are we learning?

                      1. Theme (my purpose for writing this story, my message to readers),
                      2. Character Development (creating believable characters with positive & negative traits),
                      3. Plot (the sequence of events in my story; Western and Eastern approaches to storytelling)
                      4. Setting (the world that I create for my story)

                      What’s working?

                      1. What story elements did you enjoy planning and writing? I really enjoyed planning and writing the names of both my characters and the names of he settings in my story because you can think of really random and fun names to use.
                      2. What elements of your story are you proud of? I’m proud of the paragraph in my story that was the part where a person they once helped found them and helped them, because that paragraph kind of contains the theme of my story, which is “being kind is never wrong nor a waste of time.”
                      3. How did you get the idea for your story? I got the idea of my story from the demonstration STP did during class once. He talked about helping others as well, and that was where I got my idea from.
                      4. The Best Line from My Story: “You should always be kind when someone needs help if you can handle it. Being helpful and kind is neither wrong nor a waste of time.” I like this phrase because it really encourages people to help people in need. (This phrase is also the theme / message of my story!)

                      Areas for More Growth

                      1. What story elements were challenging to plan and write? One that was really challenging to plan and write was the scenarios where the girls helped others because you needed to make scenarios that people would actually see daily, it shouldn’t be something really big like a building collapsing.
                      2. How did you deal with these challenges? I thought about things that I see in youtube videos, (clips of movies and skits) and that made me think of my scenarios.
                      3. What is your least favorite part of the story?  Why does it bother you? I wouldn’t say that I have a least favorite part of my story, there would only be parts where it is hard to write, like the part for the interview, and the introduction of the character. It bothers me because the interview part has to feel formal but I’m not very sure how I should write formal. 😃

                      Personal Relevance

                      1. How can creative writing help you in real life? Learning how to write good quality creative writing stories can help you know better how a good story is written. You can use creative writing in real life when you write in your diary and you want to talk about what happened at school, or any scenario.
                      2. Do you enjoy creative writing – would you possibly like to continue using your imagination to tell stories that matter to you? I very enjoy creative writing. I will continue to write stories using my imagination.

                      Critical Thinking Activities Reflection

                      October 13, 2025 /

                      What did I do?

                      I played with Indi robot cars and Gravitrax to strengthen my critical thinking skills.

                      What did I learn?

                      Critical thinking is a type of skill that makes you solve problems smartly and finding a good solution to solve something.

                      What worked?

                      I thought critically when I problem solved to let the ball be able to go to all three tracks, and not only the main one in the middle, and making a path for the Indi robot car to get to the end.

                      What did not work?

                      I struggled to placing the color spots in the right spot so that the Indi car could scan the color and move how I wanted it to. I also struggled when I was building the gravitrax and changing the heights of the pieces.

                      Personal Relevance

                      Learning this helps us understand what critical thinking is, and how it is used in real life.

                      Unit 1 Olympic Reflection 

                      September 24, 2025 /
                      1. What did I work on? 
                      1. During this unit, Campaign for the Olympics, I worked on creating a ‘pitch and persuade script’ to convince the IOC to choose my host country, Los Angeles, to host the 2032 summer Olympics. I worked on my presentation skills, and I created note cards to help me memorize my script. I created a presentation using Canva, and I used the SAS Databases images. I used the SAS Databases to complete my research about Los Angeles.  I used the class persuasive sentence starters to make my speech very persuasive. 
                      1. What did I learn? Why do global sporting events exist? 
                      1. Global sporting events exist to bring people together and help people celebrate different cultures through sport. They increase the economy; they showcase the host country’s culture and are a positive influence in the world. 
                      1. What worked well? 
                      1. I am proud of these things: I did my presentation with a score that I am happy about, and that I used less filler words and made eye contact with the audience when I was presenting. I am also proud of my script. 
                      1. I am proud of the things above because I haven’t done a presentation like this one, and I think my note cards were very organized for me to understand. I am proud of my script because I had pieces of evidence that are strong and trustable. 
                      1. What did not work well? 
                      1. I found some things challenging, they were it was hard to memorize my note cards, and that it was hard for me to speak on stage. 
                      1. I found the things above challenging because my memory isn’t the best, and that I have stage fright. But it all turned out okay because there weren’t that many people watching. 
                      1. Personal Relevance 
                      1. Collaboration and communications skills are important in my future because I could be doing many presentations in my future life in school or in my future job.  
                      1. This is a photo of my work about our logo we used for our presentation.
                      1. This is our logo we designed for Los Angeles

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