I learned about dystopian fiction by writing academic paragraphs + discussing topics related to the book: The Giver.
What did I learn?
· Building vocabulary
· Writing academic paragraphs
· Using transition words
· Collaborative
What worked?
I am proud of the notes I took for the dystopian characteristics while reading the book. This is because, when I read books I usually finish the whole chapter or the book without stopping. But stopping and writing down what the book is talking about really challenges me and I am (I guess…) proud of what I wrote. (Idk what to be proud of)
What did not work?
Something that didn’t work as well could be the discussion notes. I sometimes got confused about the topic and might go a little too far and off topic. A way I can improve/
Personal Relevance
I cannot connect to Jonas but I can feel more sympathetic using the story.
What safety behavior(s) do you think are most important for you?
I believe the most important safety behavior for me is not caring too much about online comments, stereotypes, or others’ opinions. It’s easy to get caught up in a negative remark or label, overthinking it too much until it affects our self-esteem. Also, being overly anxious and obsessive about what people say online can harm our own mental well-being and confidence.
So, me not caring or being too obsessive is good because it protects my peace of mind and keeps me from unrespectful and or rude voices that don’t reflect who I truly am. The online world of social media is filled with conflicting perspectives that don’t always sync with reality and rarely deserve to take up significant emotional space. By choosing not to over-engage, I can successfully protect my mental space and focusing on what truly matters.
Reminding myself that my worth isn’t defined by stranger’s words helps me stay emotionally balanced and safer in how I move through both digital and real-life interactions.
Who are your five trusted people you can go to if you feel something isn’t right either online or in person?
A trusted teacher
A parent/guardian
Close family member
Reliable school staff
A counsler
How does Social Media and Technology impact teens the most in your opinion?
Social media and technology deeply impact teens in both positive and challenging ways. On the positive side, they offer connection, community, and access to information and creativity. For example, learning through platforms such as Xiaohongshu, offering emotional value and makes people feel closer to a community. (emotional value translated from 情绪价值) However, on the other hand, social media can also affect mental health, shorten attention spans, and expose teens to issues like cyberbullying and unrealistic comparisons. In summary, the impact often depends on how teens use these tools and the balance they maintain. With mindful usage and support, technology can be more helpful than harmful.
What strategies can you use to help protect yourself in everyday life – online and in real life – list 3-5 strategies.
1. Guard my personal information Limit what I choose share publicly, use privacy settings, and be cautious about who you trust with sensitive details.
2. Listen to your intuition If something just…plainly feels off. Online or in person, stop and think before proceeding.
3. Build trusted connections with people I know Maintain communication with a reliable people (family & friends) so I can turn to for support or advice.
4. Stay emotionally aware Notice when I’m feeling pressured, anxious, or influenced by others.
5. Practice digital balance Schedule regular screen-free time!
What would be the biggest takeaway (learning) you have?
The biggest takeaway learned in class is, I believe, to have a clear cognition and mind. This ability used whether it’s choosing not to dwell on negative comments or setting boundaries with technology. The ability to direct my focus toward what truly matters (and away from what drains or harms me) is one of the most practical forms of self-care and safety I may practice.
During this unit, we focused on the question, ‘Why should we care about the past?’, based on the main topic, we learned about the details of the prehistoric man, Ötzi. In this unit we made CER paragraphs, answered and asked open and closed questions and jotted down observations, inferences and wonderings to learn more about Ötzi. Lastly, using the information we had from all the research, we put on a mock trial with different jobs to put our knowledge to the test.
What are we learning?
We learned deeply into the question of ‘Why should we care about the past?’ We had learned about statements of how Ötzi could have been murdered, or maybe not. Then, based on the 2 big statements, we had dived into smaller beliefs of what could have supported the bigger statements. This includes elements such as the weather, personal belongings, and Ötzi’s health problems. After we had all had some knowledge about Ötzi, we had set up a mock trial and used the stuff that we knew to prove if one of the statements was correct. After the trial, we had answered questions asked from the start of the unit, I had written some questions like:
1. How does learning about the past help us learn more about ourselves?
2. How does learning about the past effect people and things now?
3. Can learning about the past show history of diverse religion?
I had answered these questions after I had more knowledge on the topic, but just to be aware, because the focus was a case of a prehistoric man, it was difficult to answer some specific questions. For example, one of the questions I answered was the first question. I had stated. From the example of Ötzi, we can see that humans could’ve already had lots of knowledge and talent to already be surviving great in the wild.
What worked well?
A thing that worked well in this unit was how I can identify the useful and not useful information described in the text. I can restate the useful information provided with clear quotes and evidence without repeating the original piece of text. Another could have been how I could collaborate with my partner that was the same job as me during the trial. We helped each other prepare and shared known information with each other.
What’s not working?
A thing that did not work as well as I wanted was my preparation. During the small practice with the red expert witnesses. I had not prepared enough questions from the defense. I had prepared too much into proving Ötzi was murdered that I had not really thought about how the defense lawyers would try to prove he was not murdered. A way I can fix this problem is standing in others’ point of view and thinking about what they might say, then that would have helped me more in seeing the whole picture.
Personal Relevance
This trial had helped me notice unprepared parts, and parts unfamiliar in my speech. This can help me in the future and in real life by showing me how I can practice more with my management of time and quality. By having good time management and good use of time, I can complete and prepare more for important stuff.
The challenge was to design and make car using only paper and one meter of tape, with the criteria of transporting a raw egg in the car down a ramp without sliding and colliding against a concrete block without the egg damaged. the constraints were that the car had to roll (not slide), the egg had to be visible and easily removable from the car and straws and wheels could only be used for the base and not for something else.
What did I learn?
I learned and noticed how Newton’s first law of motion was important in the egg’s motion. (Inertia) To respond to this law we made our design have a secure, box-like seat to restrain the egg so inertia won’t let it fly away when the car meets a sudden stop. Then for Newton’s third law, we knew the wall would exert an equal and opposite force on our car when our car exerts a force on the wall, so this is why we made a (quite) long and wide crumple zone to absorb and spread out that force over a longer period, lessening the force on the egg itself.
What worked?
Our design worked well because of two key features. First, the “box-seat”successfully (probably) held the egg from flying away without needing a complex seatbelt thing that might even fall of when the car stops, proving to be a simple and effective system. (Is it this word?) Second, the crumple zone✨, it had effectively “crumpled”* upon impact and managed the collision energy as we had wanted it to.
*I mean it didn’t really crumple that much but I don’t know what to say!!!
What did not work?
If we can make further improvements to the car we would probably also experiment with different paper-folding techniques to create a crumple zone that includes something (in fact lots of somethings) similar to a folded paper roll, Joanna and I had saw some other guy’s design that had this and this is what made his/her crumple zone so effective.
Personal Relevance
This challenge helped me learn more about vehicles and what keeps humans safe while being in one. I now see that the goal (i guess) is not to build an indestructible vehicle, since that would just let the passenger get “death from head trauma.” (yay!) But to strategically manage the energy of a crash to protect the passenger.
In this unit we learned about the design cycle. We learned to research/understand our client’s wants and needs in the first step: Emphasize. Then in the second step we summarized what we’re gonna make in clear, brief sentences in the step of Define. Later, in the step: Ideate, we made plans (sketches) of what we were going to make, then made one of the plans that we were planning to make into a much more detailed and useful draft to help make the final product. In the fourth step, Prototype, we made our product and showed the steps leading to the final thing. Lastly, in the step of testing, we recorded if our product worked the way we wanted it to and what we could’ve changed to make it better.
(I AM TOO LAZY TO WRITE IT AS DETAILED AS THE FIRST ONE)
Define) Wrote summary of what we will make, includes brief background about piece. Ideate) Planning, what final product will look like. Prototype) Make detailed useful draft helpful to final product. Test) We didn’t do the test😭.
The ballon car was built using straws, 4 wheels, a balloon, tape and a styrofoam plate as a base. We used this car to learn more about Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion. The criteria of this activity was to get the car to go faster and cover more distance when compared to cars of other students.
What did I learn?
Newton’s 3rd law states “Every action has and equal, opposite reaction.” I believe this is the main law supporting this investigation, we see this law in action with the balloon car when the air from the balloon is exerted from the balloon. The air being exerted from the balloon was the action we applied to the car, the opposing reaction was pushing the balloon car to move the opposite direction of the applied force. Newton’s 2nd law states “The greater the mass of the object the more force needed to move it.” We noticed this law in play when deciding the amount of air inserted into the balloon, supporting the movement of the car. The more air we blow into the balloon the more force is applied. This also means it accelerates the weight of the car more according to how much force we have. Newton’s 1st law states “An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon an unbalanced force.” We can find this law in action when the balloon deflates, the car starts slow because it does not want to move.
What worked well
I worked well with my partner and was very effective (is it this word?), we shared ideas and changed based on what each other believed, allowing the whole construction process to go smoothly and pretty successfully.
What didn’t work well
The part that didn’t work well was how our car’s wheels weren’t that smooth and also went in different directions than we wanted it to. Also, it was hard to ensure the same amount of air is in the balloon each time making it harder to calculate and record the amount of distance and time the car travels.
Personal Relevance
The balloon car experiment can help me in real world science because of Newton’s third law, it states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This can help me understand more about why some accidents happen and make me ask more questions. In summary, this activity shows us the reason for basic forces in everyday life.
In this unit our focus was on the Olympics; to make a report with a partner on a possible city that might host the Olympics. My partner was Alfred, and we chose Edmonton, Canada, as candidate that may host the Winter Games. Then we researched the city and made a PPT and script.
What did we learn?
We learned how to gather useful information from articles, statics and photos that help prove our main topic, why Edmonton, Canada should be the host of the 2030 Winter Olympics from resources such as Brittanica and Statista. By doing a high amount of research, we filled a graphic organizer about the criteria Edmonton, Canada meet that makes it an ideal host city. Criteria such as the economy and ideal weather. We used an organizer that gave us sentence starters that might persuade the audience.
What worked?
Something that worked was the research; I was able to use the resources provided to identify and rephrase useful information then add to my report. I also worked okay with my partner on agreeing on the same things. For example, who was supposed to do what. Lastly, we collaborated to make an exceptional ppt that not only followed the format but also had guiding images and only keywords.
What’s not working?
One thing that we did not do that well was agree on the matching logo we would both use. My partner and I have different opinions on what an ideal logo should look like and spent some time debating on which. Yet, other than this small part I do not believe there are any other huge problems worth stating.
Personal Relevance
It can help me in the future by being collaborative and communicating with a partner. For example, I can use these qualities to prevent arguments and disagreements with future partners so we can ensure quality work. This can help someday when doing group work in places such as college or high school.
I might have known a little more about ping pong entirely because I have never played ping pong or watched ping pong or anything . Since I’ve never played I’m not really sure if I improved much or not.
Creating a portfolio, or blog is a great way to collect all the work you’ve done throughout your academic career. You can include academic, athletic, and personal artifacts or experiences that you want to share with a wider audience. This is a great way to organize all your learning in one place and you can take it with you when you leave SAS. When you make your portfolio, you create posts that are categorized according to your subject. Some categories have already been set up for you, but if you need more categories you can add them as needed. It’s important that your posts have the following:
An engaging title – this should not include the name of the subject since this is referenced in the category. Think of this as the first opportunity to engage and hook your reader!
Body – this is where you share your learning. This should include a combination of text and media in the form of images, graphics, and embedded videos. You should always consider how your post looks to your audience. Is it engaging and organized? Do they want to keep reading?
Category – select one that has been set for you or add a new category. Posts can have more than one category e.g. Humanities and Myself as a Learner
Tags – create tags that can be used as keywords to describe your post. Tags help organize your post a little more! Aim to have 3-5 tags for each post. For example, if you are posting about a novel you wrote, you might want the following tags: #Fiction, #MurderMystery, #Theme, #PlotDiagram
Take a look at the images below to find a few helpful tips for creating your posts and using the block editor:
