Max's Portfolio

Unit 1 The Roblox Chat Battle

December 16, 2025 / Max

What safety behaviour do you think are most important for you.

I think that wearing your seatbelt when you sit on a car is super important because if you get into a car crash it could really save you.

Who are your 5 trusted people you can go to if you feel something isn’t right either on line or in person?

Mom, Dad, Ms Greene, Ms Dani, Elsa

How does Social Media and Technology impact teens the most in your opinion?

In my opinion Social Media impacts teens the most in the way that is could affect sleep and grades.

What strategies do I think are most effective to protect myself online and offline.

Don’t talk to strangers
Wear your helmet
Get permission from your parents to do anything
Keep you info to yourself
Don’t download strange stuff

What would be my biggest takeaway?

My biggest takeaway would be that blue light could affect my sleep, so I often read a book before I sleep now.

Here is my comic:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAG65Jr7eP4/ogAy0svKZJovuqSS5K7AiA/view?utm_content=DAG65Jr7eP4&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h44a63a2355

Unit 4 Dystopian Fiction Reflection

December 16, 2025 / Max

What Did I learn About Dystopian Fiction?

I learned that in dystopian fiction it can reflect many problems in our real community, take The Giver for an example. We see that in that society they “release” people for many reasons, but not good ones. But after carefully thinking about it I realized that this can also relate to the death penalty, which seems not messed up in the real world but really messed up in the book.

How Does Dystopian Fiction Encourage Me To Think About Real Life?

In dystopian fiction, many of the disturbing things could be a hint the author gave us about how messed up our society actually is, and it leads us to think about real life in a different perspective which is helpful and also pretty disturbing. For example in class we were talking about how there is no love in the community of the giver, but after we discussed about love in the real world, we struggled to understand or to express what love really is.

I Enjoyed The Giver.

I really enjoyed the giver because of all the interesting and disturbing things that go on. But not only do I enjoy The Giver because of the content, I also enjoyed reading the book because of the in-class discussions which are very interesting and fun to participate in. The Giver is filled with exciting scenes and scenes that are really deep and make me actually question real life which I found fun to do.

How Has My Ability To Write Academic Paragraphs Improved?

In the past few weeks of reading The Giver, after we independently read a chapter we would have to do a Commonlit assignment which would include an open-ended question that required a academic paragraph as the answer. This was a really good chance to improve my writing skills and I think I used this chance really well, at the start when we first did a Commonlit, I got a 2.5 out of 4. But at the end of the semester and the unit I could get a 3 every time and when I showed STP my academic paragraph he even said “are you sure you need to be checked?” which really boosted my confidence level.

How Have I Become Better At Literature Discussions?

I became better at literature discussions by practicing a lot across the whole unit. Before, when I did a literature discussion for the first time, I would not validate people and would have to read off of my book. But in my last literature discussion I could validate other peoples ideas without even thinking, it became a habit.

Roller Coaster L4 Lab and Model

December 9, 2025 / Max

Roller Coaster L4 Movie.mov

Unit 2 Ötzi Unit Portfolio Reflection

November 27, 2025 / Max

What did I work on?

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

Making observations, inferences and wonderings

Using photos and articles as evidence

Writing a CER paragraph

Asking and answering open and closed questions

Taking part in the Otzi Mock Trial, my role was the prosecution lawyer.

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

We should care about the past because the past can help us learn more about us and it can help us change the future for the better.

What worked well?

I am proud of the following work; I worked on my conclusion while the expert witnesses were talking, which was a thing that I am really proud of. I am also proud of the fact that I was really prepared for this mock trial. I researched a lot of information, and I am super proud of how the trial turned out even if we didn’t win.

I am proud of the work above because all these skills are an improvement of my old self before this whole unit and seeing myself improve is what really makes me proud.

What did not work well?

I found some of this work challenging, creating arguments against the defendant team because the defendant team had a lot of good evidence that could prove that Ötzi was not murdered and proving them wrong was a challenge along the way. Another part that was hard was writing the conclusion while listening to the expert witnesses because in the court room there was a lot of distractions which made it hard for me to think straight.

I found the work above challenging because working against a team with multiple examples of good evidence is a really hard thing to do, and writing a conclusion in a room full of distractions was like trying to work in Disneyland.

Personal Relevance

Collaboration and communications skills are important in my future because communication is in everyday life, we talk to each other and I feel like in almost any job I go to will include communicating. Also, with A.I. becoming more dominant, I will also have to learn how to communicate with a robot, which I think I learned in the process of doing this mock trial preparation.

This is a photo of my work about

Math Unit Three Rates and Percent Tasty Bake Sale

November 26, 2025 / Max

What did I do?

We created a company that made mango yogurt called Tasty Mango Yogurt. On day one we found our recipe that we wanted to make and we also had to tell the teacher why we chose this recipe, finally on day one we had to find the total amount of ingredients we needed for the mango yogurt and convert it to the American unit system. On day two we found our unit price for our ingredients and our total ingredient batch cost. On day three we calculated our total cost for one batch and our total cost for one serving; we also calculated our markup precent and price. Finally on day four we made our pitch for our sale.

What did I learn?

I learned how to convert from metric system to the American system and how to find the unit rate for one ingredient. I also learned about markup prices and markup percents, which I never heard of before.

What worked?

Our sales were skyrocketing, our total income was ¥1186 which was amazing, since we thought that not many people would buy our things since it was so expensive. We also had a profit of ¥899.5 which we calculated by subtracting our total cost from our total income. But our results were super amazing and that is what I thought worked really well.

What did not work well?

On day three, we had calculated that our total cost would be over ¥1000, which was super weird, but it turned out that the mango was way too expensive. So, we went back to E-per market to find a cheaper alternative for our mango which solved the problem. We also had a problem with the amount of mango; we ran out super-fast, so I thought we could make some more mango yogurt and buy more cups if I could do it again.

Personal relevance.

It was super fun, and I enjoyed it very much. This project helped improve my communication skills not only in class but outside when we were selling mango yogurt. I also helped with my math skills because before this project I had a little trouble with the ingredient math, but after this it all feels really natural to me and that I learned a lot of new math skills.

Science Egg Car Reflection

November 12, 2025 / Max

What did I do? We made a egg car to learn about Newtons laws while creating a car to protect our egg from outside forces. We also learned to follow constraints while creating our egg cars to prevent us from getting disqualified.

What did I learn? I learned about Newtons first law and third law while creating the egg cars. I saw Newtons first law when the car crashed into the cement blocks and stopped but the egg kept moving forward because there was no outside force stopping it. I also saw Newtons third law when the car hit the cement block the car would go back because of the equal and opposite force.

What worked? The design we made was very successful because when the car hit the cement block the egg was safe after the crash. I also think that this was successful because while we were creating the egg car we also learned new knowledge which was the whole goal of this activity.

What did not work? I think that what we could have improved was following the constraints because when we gave our first model to Ms. Kirwin, our car was to long and did not fit the 16.5 cm constraint so we had to cut our car in half and tape it together again. We also hade a bunch of empty space in the back so I think that if we could make it again I think that we could make this a double egg car.

Personal Relevance. I now know how to create a safe car because in the process of making the car we also had a car crash simulator and that taught me a lot about making a safe car. Now I know how to make the car safe with the crumple zone and the safety cell and the safety belt and the air bag, which could be very important because it could keep a person inside the car safe. I also think that this skill could help me in the future because if I want to become a car engineer I could use the knowledge I have and make safe cars for the consumers.

https://saschina-my.sharepoint.com/personal/melissa_kirwin_saschina_org/_layouts/15/stream.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fmelissa_kirwin_saschina_org%2FDocuments%2FB2+Egg+Car+Videos%2FIMG_0315.mov&startedResponseCatch=true&referrer=StreamWebApp.Web&referrerScenario=AddressBarCopied.view.bd9f38e4-aa43-42b7-966c-17bcb8e6899d

This is our egg car test.

Design Tech

November 7, 2025 / Max

So for our first unit we made some laser printed coasters. We were also introduced to the design process which was very useful in our later projects. We then brainstormed the product we would give to our clients, in my case Lucas Zhao. I also had to draw out the coasters we would make, and design it on Inkscape. Finally we printed out our coasters and gave it to our clients to test, so after that we would do a reflection. If I was given a second chance at this I would try to make a fridge magnet because I would want to try something new

Max.Wu.6E1.Define.V1 (3)Download

Balloon Car Reflection.

November 4, 2025 / Max

What did I do? The balloon car was built using a balloon, wheels, axel, straw, and a plate. We used the balloon car to learn about Newtons laws. We also used the balloon cars to make investigations and learn about independent variable and dependent variables.

What did I learn? Newtons first law says that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by another force, and a object in rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by another force. We see this law in the balloon car because when we don’t let air out, the car does not move, but when we let air out the car starts to move. Newtons second law says that force equals to mass times acceleration. We see this in the balloon car when we add more weights to the car, the more force it takes to move the car itself with the weights. Newtons third law says that for every action there is a reaction in an equal and opposite force. We see this in the balloon car when the balloon car hits the wall, the balloon car goes back.

What worked? The test where we put weights on the car worked really well because the car could go very far even if there was a lot of weight on it. But to get to this, we had to increase the size of the straw to get enough force to push the car. We also had to re glue the wheels on the the car because the car would curve in the middle so in order for us to maximize our length we had to re-glue our wheels.

It was a struggle when the straw was to small and we were pushing all the air through a small straw which made it very hard to move and the car couldn’t go very far. Also the car wouldn’t even move when we added one weight to it. But to solve this problem we made the small straw a big straw to increase the force which made the car go very far.

Personal Relevance. The balloon car was like a car in the real world because when there was more weight on the balloon car the ballon car would need more force to move, but in the real world when more people are on a car the engine also has to add more force in order to push the car. I see Newtons second laws in life when I do pull ups, because the heavier I am, the more force it takes for me to do a pull up.

Creative Writing Reflection

October 30, 2025 / Max

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?

A story element that I enjoyed planning was the part when Jeff was guiding Bobby to forgive and give others a second chance, because in that part I could really express what I thought about forgiving people and giving others a second chance. A element that I am proud of is my settings, because I really tried to add detail and just make the settings as good as possible. I got the idea of the story because in my old school there was a kid just like Bobby who wouldn’t forgive, and I really wanted to imagine what he would be like if he learned how to forgive. Finally a line that I really love about my story is the part where Bobby says that giving others a second chance is might really be giving yourself a second chance to.

Areas for Growth :

A part that was really challenging for me in the writing process was when I had to add negative traits to Jeff, who was that nice guy and he would almost have to negative traits, but adding negative traits to someone like Jeff really seemed wrong to me so it was pretty hard. I dealt with this challenge by imagining the negative traits of the nice people next to me. There really isn’t any part of the story that i don’t like because I planned the whole story myself so it was pretty chill even when bobby was getting bullied.

Personal Relevance :

I think that creative writing is really cool because even if I am not preparing to become an author, I can still do it in my own time and when I write creative writing it really feels like I can write anything that I want. I think that I could continue creative writing in my own time like if I’m bored or I’m on a plane I can use that time to just get better at writing and unleash my imagination.

Being A Critical Thinker in Robot Cars

October 7, 2025 / Max

What did I do? I played with Indi Robot Cars and Gravitrax to strengthen my critical thinking skills.

What did I learn? I learned that critical thinking is like problem solving and when you see something you think if its real or fake. It can also be like being creative or being logical to solve problems.

What worked? I used my critical thinking when I played with the Indi Robot Cars, the robot kept turning straight when it was supposed to turn left-diagonal but I realized that when you put a right-diagonal block in front of the, the left-diagonal cancels out.

What did not work? I struggled when the Indi Robot Cars did not go the way that I want it and I couldn’t understand the map, even with our whole group thinking we still couldn’t figure out what the map was telling us to do.

Personal Relevance. Today’s learning will help me solve more problems individually in my life, and it can also protect me from scams and false information in the future.