My story was about a zoo. This zoo was called Kwonchan and Steven’s Zoo of fun made by the Kwonchan and Steven’s Mystical Merry Mindful Marvelous Mathematical Magnificent Magical Unicorn and Fairy Adventure Squad (K&SMMMMMMMUniFairAdv²) in the city of Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, also known as Lake Chaubunagungamaug. We modeled the amount of people that went to the zoo each week of the zoo’s opening and how the amount of people was affected by what animals they had on display.
I am most proud of the name of the zoo, because I think it’s very creative, along with the name of the company and the city that we chose the zoo to be in. Besides that I am also proud of showing my work in a nice manner and learning about different ways to display equations in MS word.
The hardest part about creating the piecewise function was finding the slope and equations of each line because that took us the longest time overall. Another challenging part was writing out a defense for why we believed that slope-intercept form was better for our piecewise function
If I could revise one part of this project, I would add more clarity and in depth explanations of each slope and the real-world implications that it has, because we were missing deeper connections with the real world that could’ve gotten us a higher grade.
This project helped me understand that piecewise functions are just a bunch of functions put together on a graph. It also helped me understand why people would use piecewise functions in the real world and how they are used potentially in business to analyze revenue and such.
Our final project for this unit was an analysis of a relationship in media. I worked with Chase to analyze the Titanic’s relationship regarding boundaries, healthy relationship characteristics, communication, and gender roles + stereotypes. In the end we found out that this relationship is very stereotypical with traits that were very unhealthy. One example was that Cal always tried to assert his dominance over Rose.
Attached below are some artifacts from our video
This unit, we learned about identity and healthy relationships. I learned many big ideas in this unit. First, I learned the origin of gender stereotypes, and why some people believe that girls need pink and boys need blue. Not only that, but I also learned about gender expression and identity, and it’s not just boy and girl, but there are many genders. During this part of the unit I also leaned what an ally was, and how to be one. In the second half of the unit we learned about healthy relationship characteristics. I learned about boundaries, which are basically limits to what people can do to you physically and mentally. An example of a boundary is telling someone that you don’t want to be touched in a certain area. Lastly, another important thing I learned was the different between flirting and sexual harassment, where flirting is when both sides want/enjoy it, while sexual harassment is not wanted and is one sided.
Overall health this year has been pretty informative on new topics I didn’t know about.
During this unit, we learned about mental health and it’s importance.
In the beginning of this unit, I didn’t know much about mental health conditions or illnesses. I didn’t realize that mental health was as serious as it actually is. I used to think that mental health was just how happy you were, and if you were really happy then you would have good mental health, and if you were unhappy then you wouldn’t have as good of a mental health. That was the main assumption that I made, but I also didn’t think much about its severity and how serious it was.
One of the things that helped me realize this was an image that was shown on one of the first days that we were talking about mental health and stigma. It was this image below.
Images Ms. Miller showed us on the first day learning about mental health
This image essentially is saying that people won’t say things like “Have you tried not having the flu?” to people that have physical illnesses, but they will say things like that to people with mental health because they believe that people with mental health illnesses can just “walk it off”, which is not true. It’s also because it’s very hard to put yourself in the shoes of someone with mental health, as there isn’t really anything that you can actually see on their bodies that shows that. This is in contrast to a physical illness where you can physically see that they broke their arm, or are not feeling well.
My thinking has changed through the lessons that were shown in class, and the images that were shown, for example the one above. My thinking also changed when I started doing research on my mental health topic (PTSD) and I realized more about it and how it was different that I originally thought it was, in addition to all the misconceptions about mental health.
Mental Health Stereotypes/Stigma in movies
After learning about all the things in this unit, I have learned more about 6 different mental health illnesses: PTSD, Anxiety, Eating Disorders, Depression, and OCD. This information has helped build my perspective on how mental health is a real thing, and should be cared for as much as physical health.
My current active learner self assessment is above
My current goal is to be more persistent when something is not going my way. I haven’t really made progress on this goal yet because there hasn’t really been anything that was challenging for me in science class yet. I think that that will probably happen hopefully within the next few months or weeks so I can see if i’m making progress on this goal.
PTC Reflection: Q: What are you most proud of in this class so far? A: When I showed improvement in my 3-for-3 understanding and collaboration with others. In addition to my meteor project where I showed deep understanding of the topic.
Q: What has been your biggest challenge in this class? (For example: managing time, staying focused, contributing in group work, or understanding a concept.) A: Staying focused as sometimes I got off task and started talking to my table mates about non science related topics.
Q: How have you demonstrated the qualities of an Active Learner — preparing effectively, participating fully, collaborating well, staying positive, and reflecting to improve? A: I turn in all my homework on time, prepare for assessments, and I know the material well.
Time spent on my phone/laptop – screen time decreases, hopefully from 4 hours to 2 hours
2. I get more things done – I spend less time on distracting apps allowing me to spend my time on completing work in/out of school
3. Effectiveness (does it work or not)
Hypothesis: I will be able to get more things done, with a decreased screen time, allowing me to do more things.
Where I am right now:
Around 4 hours daily average screen time, I spent 10 hours last week on social media
2. Wellness Metrics: Time spent on selected social media app, time saved (according to one sec). Things I got done.
Part 2: Multimedia Functions
One Sec’s primary function is stopping me from opening a distracting app, by displaying a prompt that asks me to confirm my intention before accessing designated distracting apps. When I still choose to proceed, the app requires me to set a time limit, and once that limit expires, it reactivates the breathing exercise and confirmation process.
The one sec intervention
As a free user, the feature I use the most is the breathing feature, as that is the only one that is really in the app and that I use. I found that the app did indeed help me reduce my scrolling time, as it stopped me from scrolling every time I did want to.
The app’s promise is to “stop mindless scrolling” and to “gain back control over your time”. It claims to be scientifically proven, and helps improve productivity, mental health, healthy habits, etc.
I think that some of these promises do help, for example stopping me from scrolling a lot, helping me gain back control over my time. From the short timeframe that I tested it (around 1.5 weeks) I didn’t exactly see healthier habits, they mostly stayed the same. I did get more things done, and I was able to be more productive in designing a VEX robot for this year’s competition. I also finish designing my drone, and built it.
Above are the things I got done that week
The biggest limitation of the app is that it only limits one app at a time without the paid version, which means other distracting apps like games are still unregulated
. In addition, the Android version (the one that I am using) is still in beta, which means that I don’t get all the functions of the iPhone/IOS version.
Part 3: Usefulness
Since there really isn’t a way for me to show that I used the app every day, or it was installed, my evidence of usage was me showing Ms. Miller (my Health teacher and Advisor) that I had the app on my phone each day.
Here are my wellness metrics: Time spent on selected social media app, time saved (according to one sec). Things I got done.
For time spent on social media, there was a measurable decrease. According to one sec, my usage went down by around 50%, showing the usefulness of this app. For time saved, one sec estimated 2.7 hours saved over 54 attempts, and an annualized prediction of 2.1 days saved.
Data from the app on my phone, and the browser extension.
My hypothesis was correct, as I was able to decrease my screen time. From an average of 36–38 minutes, to 3 minutes. This shows a massive decrease, allowing me to do more things and plan my time better (WOOP Goal). For the 3 measurable outcomes, I did reach all of them. My 3 measurable outcomes and their list is below:
Time spent on my phone/laptop – my screen time did decrease by a lot. (as seen above)
2. I get more things done: during that week I finished building parts of the VEX bot, and finished building my drone and it’s frame.
Note: the week that I tested this app was the MAP testing week, so I don’t have data about homework. If this was a regular week, it’s highly likely due to this data that I would’ve gotten a lot more done.
3. Effectiveness: It did work, and it was definitely effective as I got more things done, and I was able to spend less time on my laptop
My usage on the selected app’s screen time. Sept 8-21 was before One Sec and Sept 22-28 was when I used One Sec.
An unintended consequence that I did see happen for me was that instead of going through the breathing exercise and thinking, “do I really want to do this?” I instead just didn’t want to open the app because the breathing walkthrough was pretty annoying. I’m not sure if this is an unintended consequence or not, but it helped with the app’s usage and function.
The app is effective for many demographics, but I think it’s mostly suited towards gen-z and gen-alpha. This is because those 2 generations both have attention span and distraction issues, so this app helps with that a lot. Lifestyle wise, people that are trying to be healthy are going to find this app effective. It will make them feel healthier and hopefully be healthier. This app won’t be effective for people with a lifestyle of being addicted to social media, unless they want to fix that issue. Then it would be effective.
One sec is an amazing app for people that want to reach wellness goals. People that want to reduce their screen time are able to have less time on their screen, which allows them to do other things such as go outside, which result in better wellness.
Part 4: Design
The One Sec app has a few functions in its design that encourage more usage. For example, its interface triggers dopamine release when I see the numbers going down, encouraging myself or other users to continue using the app, and in some cases continue to pay the subscription. Another function is that there are bright colors in the IOS version, which also attracts users due to the bright colors. These bright colors and numbers going up and down attract users and myself to use the app more.
Image from the One Sec website, showing the screen time decrease
This app does make money. It has a pro. This affects the user experience because as a free user there are a few functions that I cannot access.
I am unable to add more apps, so my intervention is limited to one app only. This means that I can’t add interventions to distracting games that might also impact my productivity.
Only one type of intervention. This impacts my experience because after a while it’s possible that I am already used to the breathing experience, so I don’t think about it anymore.
Limited re interventions: If in the case that I scroll for an exceeding amount of time, it would just stop intervening. Pro would continue intervening. (I have never met the limit yet 🙂
After I and other users realize that the One Sec app works, it’s highly likely that we would upgrade for more app function. I think this is how One Sec would make money.
I think overall this app builds better habits. It has helped me reduce my phone usage, which will help with my overall WOOP goal. It doesn’t create dependency, as there is nothing that I really depend on. If it was an app that made me log in every day to do something, then that could’ve been dependency.
In addition, the breathing function helps activate the prefrontal cortex and the rest and digest part of my brain (parasympathetic nervous system) by trying to have me calm down. This idea of going into the parasympathetic nervous system by breathing definitely helps build healthy habits on paper.
To conclude, One Sec is effective at supporting my WOOP goal of being productive. It has helped to decrease my screen time from around 38 minutes to 3 minutes (around 92% decrease). The breathing exercises are its strength, and it has helped me complete more tasks. There are limitations, I am using the free version, which means that I am unable to use all the features, and that I am using the Android Beta Version. Although these limitations are certainly impacting my usage, One Sec is still a valuable app for building better habits. Because of its design, my screen time has decreased significantly.
For other people wanting to have less screen time, One Sec is an effective tool at reducing time spent scrolling.
This unit was all about learning grammar. The thing is learning grammar by itself is pretty boring. So instead of just learning grammar, we were tasked to teach an alien about grammar in an AI simulation. Mr. Fisher would teach us grammar, and we would teach it to the Alien. In the beginning when I was teaching the alien I was very confused. I didn’t know what I should do because I have never taught anyone, let alone an AI bot pretending to be an alien. As the unit progressed on, though, I learned more and more about how to teach this bot, and I was able to successfully teach it.
My teaching strategies changed a lot in the process. In the beginning, I was not sure about the alien’s overall knowledge, so I started very slowly. I used objects and actions to teach Naru, my alien parts of speech, and different essential words. After a while, when Naru learned more and more, I was able to just tell it things to teach it, which made the process a lot easier. Attached below is Naru’s final paragraph.
As you can tell, Naru uses a lot of language that may not seem familiar to some English readers. I taught them how to use slang, words such as “6-7”, “Sigma”, and “Skibidi”.
During the final “FBI Interview” I was able to successfully explain my alien’s paragraph, and how that related to ,motives, and because of that I was able to get a 4 on this assignment.
This was the FBI agent’s remarks on this interview.
Comment: Agent Steven, Your interrogation of Subject Naru revealed a compelling backstory: that its craft had failed and that it was seeking a way to repair the ship and return home. You reported this with clarity and attention to detail, showing strong command of both motive and evidence. In the Parts of Speech category, you exceeded expectations. You identified, explained, applied, and connected every part with precision, demonstrating how grammar could reveal both intent and meaning in Naru’s testimony. In the Sentence Types category, your work was equally advanced. You not only identified and explained all sentence types but also connected them to how the alien’s message gained strength. Your clear articulation of compound-complex and complex sentences showed mastery of how structure creates layered meaning. In the Shades of Meaning category, you demonstrated exceptional control. You identified and explained strong word choices, critiqued vague or weak ones, and offered sharper alternatives. Your ability to connect these word choices to the overall reliability of the interrogation report showed an advanced level of insight. Overall, your performance exceeded expectations across all categories. Your leadership and clarity suggest you are ready for greater responsibility. You are hereby promoted and cleared for the next operation. Set up your next mission with your Director.
Throughout this unit, I learned more about prepositions, and the different parts of speech. This shows my growth by showing how I was able to grow in knowledge on grammar, sentence types and such, and I was able to effectivley show this by teaching my alien.
During unit one of health, we learned about stress and the teen brain.
During this unit, the main thing we learned about was how the teen brain and adult brain were different. The teen brain has a hyperactive amygdala, but a non-developed prefrontal cortex. In addition, the teen brain’s reward center is hyperactive, resulting in faster learning. Since the teen brain doesn’t have a developed prefrontal cortex, they sometimes make decisions that adult will think are not smart. The amygdala usually goes into FFF (Fight Flight Freeze), which cuts off the prefrontal cortex. It’s also important to note that not all stress is bad. Some stress can actually help you get motivated to do things.
By learning about the teen brain in this unit, I have understood more about the brain in my head. With that information, I was able to understand why sometimes I just felt like everything was off. I also learned about some of my stress triggers, which have helped me learn more about myself and why I might be acting certain ways.
With that information, the most surprising thing I learned was the reward system. Before, I knew some things about how younger people were able to learn languages quicker, but I never realized that teens also had this power. In the reward system, I learned about how instant gratification allows you to feel better at the moment, but delayed gratification allows you to overall be better. For example, instant gratification could be going to a party, and delayed gratification could be staying at home to study for the big test coming up instead of going to the party.
When adults learn about the teen brain, they will be able to easily understand why their teens are acting certain ways. For example, an adult might think their teen has a bad temper, or is overall a bad kid. By learning about the amygdala and FFF, adults will better understand teens. In addition, by learning about the reward center, adults will also better understand why their teens are taking risky behaviors, or choosing candy over healthy food.
Not only have I learned about why the teen brain is acting how it is, but I also have learned what to do about it. During this process, I have learned about coping strategies such as breathing through my breath anchor, or guided imagery. By doing so, you can create a meta-moment where you start to realize why you are doing your actions. For example, you could use that meta-moment to calm down when you’re getting angry. There are also different coping skills, including emotion-focused and problem-focused. Problem-focused coping skills are when you cope with your problems. Emotion-based coping skills are when you cope with your emotions. I tend to be more problem-focused.
For my final project, I decided to create a video style documentary. Overall, the project was pretty successful, and my feedback reflects that. I was able to create a 4-minute-long video including the differences between the teen and adult brain, the 3 main parts of the brain, a real world scenario and coping skills.
Another interesting thing that happened during this time was I actually learned about my own stress responses and coping strategies during this project. In the middle/beginning of this project, I realized that my partners were not doing their fair share of work. Initially I thought it was OK, but after a bit I realized that it would be unfair for their names to be put on work that I did. Initially I just used freeze, and didn’t know what to do. After a while, I thought about it for a bit, and while I was in the meta-moment realized that this wasn’t going to turn out very good, so in the end I didn’t work with my partners.
In conclusion, this unit was pretty fun. It had a lot of hard parts to it, but overall it has allowed me to learn more about the teen brain. This allows me to understand myself better.
If you want to see the health video I created, it’s available here
We created a game called Spin Drop Flip Win. It had 5 levels. The first level was roulette where if you got on red you could move on. The 2nd level was marble drop and if you dropped it into the correct section you could move on. The third fourth and fifth level were coin tosses where if you got heads you could move on. The grand prize was Apple products.
My partners and I worked pretty well during the game creation process, there were some small conflicts on how the games should be made but no big conflicts.
Something that went well was that we got over 600 tickets. One thing I would change is probably do more math on how many people will win the mystery prizes because we only had 4 left out of the 17 that we had.
The experimental probability vs the theoretical probability
