Some things I learned in this unit was changing from defense to offense. I improved on dribbling and shooting. We played a lot of dribbling games and football games. I wish I was better at passing because my accuracy isn’t so good.
The unit was a very fun experience. We learned how to serve, smash, hit high balls, and hit drop shots. We played a lot of matches against each other and practiced in pairs. I am looking forward to playing matches with other students. I am proud of how much I improved. Some challenges I face was because it was very tiring.
What did I do…
In this unit, we learned about Dystopian Fiction by reading “The Giver”. We read all the chapters and completed some group discussions. We also had some vocabulary quizzes with the vocabulary words in the chapters.
What did I learn…
I learned some Dystopian Fiction characteristics such as Dehumanization and Illusion of Utopia. I also learned some vocabulary words from the vocab quizzes we did.
What worked…
Some things that worked were the discussion groups. We were able to discuss about our topic very clearly. Also the discussion notes worked well because we were able to get down many notes of examples of Dystopian characteristics.
What did not work…
There weren’t really much things that didn’t work. But some things that didn’t really work were the assignments in commonlit because the paragraph writing wasn’t very descriptive.
Personal relevance…
This could help us in real life since it could let us recognise Dystopian fiction books and places with Totalitarism.
Rollercoaster science project (1).mp4
What we did…
We started by completing an investigation between potential and height. We also built a model of a roller coaster and made a lab report, then we took the data from the lab report and wrote a conclusion with CER.
What did I work on…
In the Ötzi unit, we worked on many things like researching and writing. We listened to a podcast and read a lot of articles; we also watched a museum tour explaining about Ötzi the iceman. After the research, we wrote a paragraph to see whether he was murdered or not, after the paragraph, we had a mock trial to prove whether he was murdered or not.
What did I learn…
After the research, I learned many things about Ötzi the iceman such as what belongings he had and some possibilities about how he died. We also learned some open and closed questions to ask at the Ötzi Mock trial. We learned about some of the ages in the caveman times like the Neolithic, the Paleolithic and the metal ages.
What worked well…
Some things that worked well were the mock trial. The mock trial was a very big success since we all had fun and learned things about Ötzi’s death. Also, the planning for the trial worked since we worked really hard so that the mock trial was very successful.
What did not work…
There weren’t many things that didn’t work. But some things that didn’t really work were the number of people we missed. 3 of the expert witnesses were not at the mock trial, so we didn’t have that many people even if the mock trial was successful.
Personal relevance…
We practiced presenting in front of many people in the mock trial since we had to step up and ask the witnesses some questions. We also worked on making a CER paragraph since that would have helped us write a paragraph in the future. Finally, something we also practiced was being at a trial since the mock trial was a way to represent an actual trial in a court. Below is a photo of my CER Ötzi paragraph that I wrote.
What Did I Do…
Me and my partner made a car that will contain and egg inside, the goal of the challenge is to let the car go down a ramp ad hit a block of concrete, and see if the egg survived. The only materials we had was a straw, a wheel and axel, 3 sheets of A4 paper, and a meter of tape.
What did I learn…
We learned Newtons Laws and the egg car was a way to represent a real car, the egg was a person. We use newtons laws by adding a seatbelt for his first law so the egg won’t fly forward. We add a crumple zone so the force the concrete block pushes back, won’t have that much force since the crumple zone slows down the force.
What worked…
What worked is that the seatbelt stayed still and the egg didn’t fly forward. The crumple zone also worked and bent even though the force was too great and our egg died anyways.
What didn’t work…
What didn’t work was that the egg cracked inside the passenger seat because the force traveled through and broke the egg. Also we made the crumple zone too long, so it didn’t stop that much. force.
Personal relevance…
Now I know to make the crumple zone shorter so the crumple zone will bend a slow down the force by a lot. Also I learned that there should be a airbag or a cushion in the passenger seat so the egg doesn’t break inside the passenger place. Below is a photo of me and my partner’s egg car.
What are we doing?
Writing a fictional story based on a theme that matters to me.
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? (Explain why you enjoyed them)
I liked writing my story since we had a lot of time to do independent work and we were able to practice typing and drafting our story.
What elements of my story are you proud of? (Explain why)
I like how I described the setting of the cave since it was very descriptive how there was a lot of treasure inside of it.
How did you get the idea for your story?
I got the idea from Alibaba since the secret room kind of represents Alibaba’s secret treasure room.
The Best Line from My Story: (Include your favorite sentence or phrase from your story and then explain why you like it)
This is my favorite line: “The smell of hot fresh vegetable soup soon poured out of Bob’s window.” I like it because it makes me want to eat.
Areas for Growth:
What story elements were challenging to plan and write? (Explain why you enjoyed them)
I changed some of the things like how Bob fought with George. In the plan, they didn’t even meet, but in my story, they had a fight
How did you deal with these challenges?
I didn’t really have a challenge
What is your least favorite part of the story? Why does it bother you?
I think my least favorite part of the story is the part where he is working in the farm since it makes me imagine working for hours in the hot sun.
Personal Relevance:
How can creative writing help you in real life (even if you’re not planning on becoming an author)?
It helps me manage time since it gives me a amount of time and I need to finish planning in this amount of time and finish typing in this amount of time.
Do you enjoy creative writing – would you possibly like to continue using your imagination to tell stories that matter to you?
I think it was fun planning and writing my story out since it gives me a lot of independent time to type, plan, and many more.
What did I do…
The balloon car was built using a balloon, a paper plate, a straw, wheels and axels, a rubber band, and hot glue. We used it to learn about Sir Issac Newtons 1st, 2nd, and 3rd laws of motion.
What did I learn…
Newtons 1st law says “”An object at rest tends to stay at rest, an object at motion tends to stay in motion. unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” We see this law in action with the Balloon Car when the weights kept moving even if the car stopped. Newtons 2nd law says “The more mass an object has, the more force needed to move it.” We see this law in action with the Balloon Car when the car weighed a lot because of the weights, so the car moved very slowly. Newton’s 3rd law states “Every action has an equal, opposite reaction.” We see this law. in action with the Balloon Car when the Balloon Car hit the wall, the reaction is that it bounced off the wall back the opposite direction.
What worked…
The Balloon Car race worked well since me and my partner got 2nd place. We could’ve gotten 1st, but our balloon car broke down at the last second, so we had to change it quickly, causing us to lose in the final round. Other things that worked were when we were building the balloon car since it was really fun and me and my partner figured out a strategy to make it go quicker.
What didn’t work…
It was a struggle when our balloon Car hot glue fell apart before we even started racing. To solve this problem we quickly hot glued the car back together so we could race. What we also struggled with is getting the right amount of air because when we collected the data, a controlled variable was the air so we had to get teh right amount of air every time.
Personal relevance…
The Balloon was like a car in real life since it moved forward. Like a car and the balloon represented the fuel in a car. I see Newton’s 1st law in real life since when a car crashes, the person inside flies forward. It is important to know these laws since it helps keep people safe when driving cars, and many more.
Above is a photo of me and my partner working and building the Balloon Car.
What I am proud of…
I am most proud of my cardboard projects. I like my cardboard chessboard the most. The materials used are paint, cardboard, and hot glue. I decided to make it since I like chess a lot. I am proud of it since I think it is very cool and it looks a lot like a chess board. I also only used 3 materials to make it. I also think it turned out very well and looks very similar to an actual chessboard. It also has the exact same squares as a real chessboard, and it also has some little pillar things to hold up the board. Below is a photo of the cardboard chess board I made.
What did I work on?
Me and my partner did many things such as the Olympic topic research, the 4-
criterion research, our logo, the script, and the PPT. We did a lot of research about why we
thought Switzerland Geneva should host the next 2032 summer Olympics. We also spent
our time making our PPT on Canva. We also practiced our speech many times. In the end
we were able to memorize the script and didn’t even need our notecards. We also
practiced eye contact, and we paired up with other groups and took turns presenting to
each other. Below is a photo of the PPT and the logo we made.
What did I learn?
I learned many things in this unit, such as some very reliable research sources like
CultureGrams, Statista, and Britannica. I also learned some very cool things about the
beginning of the Olympic Games like the fact that the Olympic games were made in
Olympia Greece 776 BC. Also, there was a person called Orsippus of Megara who won a
race by running naked. Those are just some of the facts I learned.
What worked?
The things that worked were mainly eye contact and the presentation. Since
me and my partner practiced a lot, we were able memorize our speech. We also
were able to have good eye contact in the presentation. We could also memorize
our whole presentation by mind. That way we were able to present very well and
have good eye contact.
What did not work?
What didn’t work was that we were too nervous, so we kept using filler words
like “Like, umm, uhh.” We also kept stammering, and we sometimes stopped
saying things since we were too nervous. We were also fidgeting with our hands. But
luckily we hid our hands behind our backs.
Personal Relevant
I think we practiced our presentation skills by learning what to do in a presentation
and learning to create a PPT. It also helped us learn to collaborate with others and
learn to collect information. Lastly it helped us practice our communication skills to
the audience when we are presenting.