William's Portfolio

1. I chose Question 1 from the L4 as evidence of my best thinking because the question required converting resiudal plot to a normal scatter plot to the best of my ability. This shows my understanding of residual plots and how it relates to scatter plots.

2. I chose Question 1 of the critical thinking section as evidence of my best thinking because I analyzed the original question and pointed out whether the data was justifiable to be implemented, and also connected what this could mean if it actually happened, and why the data was not justifiable.

3. Throughout Unit 2, I improved the most at writing my function notation, as before I wasn’t so clear about what functions were and what they represented or how they were read.

4. One skill from this unit that I still need to work on is being able to explain whether the data is correlation or causation, and find evidence or write logic to support whether or not it is correlation or causation.

5. The biggest challenge for me on this assessment was being on pace because by the L4 part of the test, I had completed most of the questions to satisfaction, but I didn’t have enough time for a final question, and I didn’t have extra time to check my answers. This resulted in a grade that was okay, but definitely could have been improved if I managed my time better.

6. One strategy that helped me on this test was checking the graphs that either I made or were provided when answering any question. This test was focused heavily on graphs, and by analyzing the graphs, I was much more accurate and fast in answering the questions in the test.

Goal Reflection & End-of-Semester Check-In

Last unit, I set the goal of writing my process more clearly so that when I find that my answer feels off or doesn’t seem appropriate, I can quickly and clearly find any errors that I had in the process.

To progress towards this goal, any time I had to solve a problem, especially longer multi-step word problems, I tried to remember to write the process neatly and clearly.

Something that got in the way of my goal was not always being able to remember to clearly write my process.

A strength that I have shown last semester is being able to quickly fill in my knowledge gaps. Another strength that I have shown is being very cooperative and communicative with the numerous group activities and group projects throughout the semester.

In the next unit, I want to be able to take better notes so that I can easily study and review whenever I need to. To achieve this, I will try to create a system of organization that suits me and also try to put more effort in the notes of each lesson. This primarily includes adding more visuals for better understanding. This goal is important because, especially with the increasing amount of course material needed to be mastered across all courses, a good note-taking habit can help me all the way throughout college and even through the rest of my life.

My story was about a student who had to find the quickest way to his college. He faces the option of 2 possible routes, so with math, he can find the faster route, which allows him to achieve his goal. The part I was most proud of was the story part of the project, as it logically makes sense and feels natural enough. The hardest part of the project was probably creating the graph, as creating a better graph makes almost every other question much easier. One part of the question that I would revise is making the time needed to arrive at the destination more balanced between the two routes, as the difference. Because of this, one might argue that the difference is obvious and does not need further calculations, which lowers the purpose of the project. This project helped me understand how to graph piecewise functions and how to write the notation for it.

In our swimming unit, I learned how to play water polo. I learned how to throw the water polo ball legally and how the game worked.

I used to think that most mental illnesses were just excuses or illnesses that only had temporary impacts. I thought that the more serious illnesses were just character traits and just change some habits. I think this was mostly due to the media’s portrayal of these illnesses. In a lot of shows, they portray OCD just as wanting to be very neat and not liking germs, when in fact, OCD is much more serious and covers more than just being neat. Other conditions, like depression, were portrayed as a phase of a character just being sad for a while.

After learning about OCD (OCD is a very serious illness that impacts people throughout their lives. The illness causes very serious “Obsessions” that can’t be controlled. This causes the person with the illness to perform a “Compulsion” to soothe the feeling of the “Obsession”. This cycle can’t just be stopped by forcing the person. It’s like telling a person with a broken leg to just walk it off) For my group’s project, I learned that mental illnesses bring devastating impacts to people and cause a lot of harm, just like other illnesses. Taking away the weight of these illnesses can be very harmful and mislead a lot of people, causing less awareness and understanding of mental health. Now that I am aware of mental health, I know that instead of just brushing mental illnesses like excuses, I should encourage people with illnesses to seek health and guide them through the stigma usually faced with mental illnesses. Although I can’t fully understand what they are going through the least I can do is guide them to help.

I hypothesize that this app will save a lot of time from procrastinating.

It will probably end in 3 ways. The first way is that I save a lot of time with the app and greatly increase my productivity. The second way is that I can’t take the annoying reminders of the app and delete it, making no difference. The third way is that I just ignore the app’s reminders and just use distracting apps/websites, normally just with a short reminder before using them.

I think that the metrics I will use will be the hours I saved by using the app. Another metric that I can use is the frequency and the number of times I use the app/website.

Functionality

One Sec’s science-based approach to stopping scrolling, according to their website, is when,

“Our social media habits are the outcome of psychological mechanisms that apps trigger in our brains. They use the system of instant gratification, which releases dopamine whenever we perceive a like or a message on our phone. onesec’s breaks those habits. By making you wait longer for social media to open, your brain loses interest in those (destructive) short-term dopamine hits.”

Based on my experience, I believe that One sec really does help with “losing interest in short-term dopamine hits,” which stops me from constantly just wanting to open a distracting app/website every free second. OneSec doesn’t really have many features except for its core feature, which I think is enough. One part of the app that I don’t really like is the fact that on the computer app, if you click off of your browser, the app still treats it as if you left the app. This is kind of annoying and unnecessary.

Usefulness

The limited analysis that the app gave back to me was that I did save a lot of time using distracting websites. Something I didn’t expect was that the app lowered the times I actually used the app.

In the analysis, I saved a great deal of time, and during these 7 days, I found myself procrastinating a lot less, making the usage of my app a success. This also means that my hypothesis is correct.

Design

The overall design for onesec is very simplistic. On the website, it doesn’t push you to buy premium and just explains how the app works, the benefits, and real data that backs up onesec’s claims. This app still offers a premium version, which primarily provides more customizability, allows you to add more apps to the list of distracting apps, and includes additional exercises before entering the app. Using the app without a premium works totally fine and accomplishes its goal, but it can get annoying with the lack of customizability.

Onesec works by slowly numbing the sudden dopamine of opening a distracting app/website. They do this by having an exercise (only breathing if no premium). This means that after using the app for a sufficient amount of time, you will gradually no longer need it, and hopefully change your habit of constantly visiting these distracting websites.

During this unit we learned about grammar by training an AI “alien” that could not understand English. During this process we had to teach the alien how each of the 8 parts of speech functioned, and sentence structures. We also learned about connotations and denotations which is something I didn’t really know about until this unit. After teaching the alien we analyzed a paragraph written by the alien. We analyzed the skill level and mastery for each subject in English grammar. While doing this activity I improved and identified a lot of my weakness in grammar such as connotations and identifying sentence structures.

I hypothesize that my app Onesec will help me achieve my wish because every time I think about how I should not be scrolling and not open the app due to the Onesec intervention, I save time that could be used for productivity.

3 Outcomes

1. I deleted the app because it’s very annoying
2. I doomscroll, ignoring the intervention
3. My screen time for these distracting websites will decrease, and I will have spent more time being productive

I want to have 3 hours saved on the one sec dashboard.

We created a card game about getting combinations as seen in the poster.

When creating the game we first started brainstorming what kind of concept of a game we want, then after settling on card games we decided on what makes a card game engaging fun and replayable.

Something that went well was that a lot of people played our game, and among those players, some continued playing, demonstrating the replayability of our game.

Our theoretical win rate was 74.5% and our experimental win rate was 62% around a 10 percent difference.

For our film, we first brainstormed our topic and came to the dotcom bubble because it combines economics and technology. Next, we researched the topic across 4 sources. After researching our sources and organizing them, we wrote a script with an introduction, historical context, the first body paragraph about short-term impacts, and another paragraph about long-term impacts. Then we end with a conclusion. After this, we record the script and then insert it into the film. For the film, you need to find music and media, which are both very key aspects of the film. Finally, after editing and organizing our film ,we got feedback and reviewed our own and other people’s films.

At first my partner and I worked pretty well, but towards the end, because we got pretty behind, I did all of the video editing and media, and music.

During unit 5, we researched a topic that is about an abuse of power. For my topic, I chose BlackRock and its controversies. After collecting our research, we created a presentation with minimal words and impactful pictures and presented it to the class.

During the research process, I learned how to find good primary sources.

While preparing for the presentation, I practiced it many times, both to myself and to my peers. I also used a timer to pace myself since the requirement was to have 5 minutes of presenting time.

Something challenging about the presentation was meeting the requirement of not having a script at all and making my presentation 5 minutes long.

One of my skills that I have developed this year is my CER skills, and knowing how to write a good CER.