Veronica's Portfolio

In this unit we mainly learnt about percentages, decimals and fraction with their conversions. We studied questions where we calculated tax and tip, while we also explored interest and interest rates. For our summative, I chose the topic banking where I focused on comparing two different banks’ interest rates and discover which one was better. I compared BOC (Bank of China) and ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China) and did my research based on the official websites of their bank.

Something I learnt in this unit was how percentages and the questions we studied could benefit and impact our daily life through restaurant prices, product prices etc. Something I could improve on was maybe I could work on my calculation errors more and prevent them in my tests, also I should also read the questions more closely to prevent getting them wrong even if I knew the answer.

According to my check of understanding and quizzes, I feel like I sometimes don’t understand the concept even if it is easy, I tend to over-calculate and make them more difficult than it actually is, additionally, I also have a lot of calculation errors which I hope would improve in the following units.

Something I feel like I did well was after classes and practices, whenever I see questions related to the topics like percentages, tax, or interests, I have the way of solving it in my mind and I try to solve it. Something that is also a highlight was I tried every L4 test whenever there is one, even though it is really hard and I never got any correct, I still keep trying because I think challenging myself can lead to better understanding of the knowledge and also try higher leveled questions in-order to see if I have really understood the concepts or improved compared to the beginning of the unit.

Most of the questions I got wrong is focused around new vocabularies and mis-concepts, and also mistakes that was due to carelessness of the question itself and the calculations, which I would try to avoid.

• U: What do you understand in this unit?

• In this unit I understood how to calculate the percent from knowing the fraction or decimal form, how to calculate tax and tip, simple interest and interest rates, mark-up rates etc. Those skills were very crucial to solving tasks assigned in class and homework.

• N: What new information did you learn in this unit?

There isn’t anything new but it was a great revision of these skills especially a good revision for how to calculate interest and mark-up rates since I totally forgot about how to calculate it and use it in daily live.

• I: What was interesting in this unit?

Something interesting was knowing the different countries and regions have different ways of expressing a ‘sale’, in which some places say 50% of and in China, people say 5折. Furthermore, I also knew that some countries doesn’t include tax in product prices but add them (with the tip (in tipping countries) additionally when the customer pays, in China, tax is already included and tip is not complimentary.

• T: What was tricky for you in this unit?

Something tricky was though almost everything is a revision, there is still a certain level of difficulty and trickiness. The questions are mostly daily scenarios that might occur later in life which means this unit is eally helpful if I improve on the following weaknesses. first, I should revise more on equations and model that could help me solve questions, I sometimes forget them. Secondly, I should also improve the speed of my work. Lastly, I want to fix the problem of not checking my work after I am finished which could lead to questions getting wrong unnecessarily.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

A: What happens inside our bodies when we get sick?

How did what you learn about cells and human body systems help you to answer this essential question?

In science class, we studied the main functions of the human body systems and functions of organelles. This helped me answer the essential question by letting me understand how it relates to the disease I researched and how it affects them. In our final project, we had to research a disease or a sport and model the cell that it affects. The disease I studied in depth was Leukemia. When a patient gets Leukemia, all seven main body systems and the lymphatic system is affected. Some common symptoms include fever, easy bleeding, a reduction of white bloods cells etc.

How does this relate to the idea that the body is a system of subsystems made up of groups of cells?

As we can see in our learning, body systems each functions differently and supports the body by different aspects. Take the nervous system as an example, what is it made from? It is made from neurons forming cell tissues which further develops as the nervous system, the nervous system works in which the neuron transmits an electrical message to the tissues and your brain sends it in the directed part in your body, which then keeps our body functioning. This example exemplifies how the subsystems support the example system. The example gives evidence to the claim: the body is a system of subsystems made up of groups of cells. It clearly underscores how the body system is built up based on groups of cells that further help our body and keep it functioning.

Which learning experience was the most impactful or memorable for you as a learner?

CHOOSE 2 experiences that help you learn the body systems and cells best:

The most memorable experience of this unit would probably be the pig heart, pig lung, adn bullfrog dissection. It was memorable because it was a great opportunity for us to understand our learning and really, have a real life reference to the systems and the subsystems. The dissections also helped me develop lots of essential skills like communicating and teamwork.

If you could improve ONE aspect of your learning in this unit as a whole, what would it be and why? Provide a change that could enhance future learning experiences.

If I could improve on my learning this unit, it would be my CER writing and time-management. For my CER, I was adding reasoning to my evidence, which was wrong and my explanations were to vague, my feedback from my teacher includes only adding information of what is observed in the dissections rather than explaining how the body system works, and my reasoning should include more explanation of how the evidence supports the claim and link back to the claim when I’m writing my conclusion.

I created this piece in order to raise awareness for global warming, some design techniques I used while creating this piece include color psychology and juxtaposition.

I mainly used red and warm colors to represent heat, fire etc. I also used grey to represent death and despair.

For juxtaposition, I made the polar bear-which is the part holding the most information-in the middle, making people see this as a focal point.

I learnt basic soccer skills such as dribbling, passing, shooting etc. which further improved my skills in game we played. In those games I mainly participated as the attacker, I created opportunities for teammates to shoot and score.

Something I need to improve on is my aiming and defending since I’m scared that people would crash into me and kill me so I wasn’t as aggressive as I though I would be.

• U: What do you understand in this unit?

I understood the concept of CoP, and I learnt how to calculate the factor of the relationship between two numbers

• N: What new information did you learn in this unit?

What is CoP, the formula to calculate it, and something new to me was that a proportional graph must be a strait line and starts from (0,0)

• I: What was interesting in this unit?

-Graphs can also represent proportional relationship

-That the the proportion of sides of a shape decides whether the shape is scaled or not

• T: What was tricky for you in this unit?

Sometimes when x and y are fractions, i fail to correctly calculate them and I need improvement on understanding word problems + strengthen my calculation

• U: What do you understand in this unit?

-I understood how different sized shapes can be scaled, which means the ratio of each side is multiplied by the same amount. I also learnt that the area scale factor is the square of the original scale factor

• N: What new information did you learn in this unit?

One example is that the area scale factor ≠ scale factor, I originally thought that they were the same and I get it wrong in tests a lot, but now I can differentiate them.

• I: What was interesting in this unit?

Something interesting in this unit was solving questions based on scale key on maps because we get to measure the scaled picture of the map

• T: What was tricky for you in this unit?

Even though understand the concept of scale copies and factors, i sometimes still forget the formula an the relationship between scale factor and area scale factor

In this unit we focussed on synchronized swimming where we worked together to provide a performance and utilized skills like lifting each other up safely and keep ourselves floating in the water.

What I did well was that I could successfully lift my teammates up and somehow kept myself floating.

Something I could improve on is my jumping and diving skills and flipping.

My final clay piece is a pencil pot I created with several section for different use, it reflects on my identity because my stationaries are always messy, so this is why I chose to make a pencil pot out of clay.

My name drawing reflects on my self by including symbol that represents me. For example, my favorite season is winter, so I drew a snowflake, another example is that I like reading, so I drew a book representing ‘reading’.

In this unit we focused on two hand volley in a dynamic environment. We learnt basic bumping, serving and setting skills. We utilized these skills into games and effectively understood the concept of volleyball.

Something challenging for me was I could not effectively return the ball in a game and I could not do a good serve.

I did well on bumping short distances and setting.