Yifan's Portfolio

PE: Badminton Unit 

January 15, 2026 /

What did I learn? 

I learnt to use a forehand grip, do a forehand serve, under hand shot, and learnt to do the long shot, all legally. 

What worked? 

I could serve properly and had no problem doing a match with my friends.  

What didn’t work? 

Sometimes, the serve just didn’t work, even 10 times in a row! In the end, I got it right though. 

What did I improve on? 

I improved on my grip, making sure my finger wasn’t blocking my wrist, and I learnt to do a proper forehand shot. 

What can I work on? 

I can work on making sure my power is consistent. I still serve too short or too long, losing a point. Sometimes I can control it, but many times, I have to be careful! 

Dystopian fic: Reflection

December 15, 2025 /

Did you enjoy The Giver? What did you enjoy about it?

I enjoyed the topic a lot. I never really read dystopian fiction, and this was a new experience for me. Louis Lowry wrote this book in an open-ended, thoughtful style that I really enjoyed.

Did you find the literature discussions useful?  Why or why not?

Yes! it helped me understand other people’s thoughts and think of new ways to think of the Giver.

What academic discussion strategies did you improve on?

I improved on… just thinking more broadly and summarizing better, with more specific details but keeping it broad.

Do you feel like you understand the major characteristics of Dystopian Fiction?

Sort of. I’ve seen other dystopian fiction characteristics different than this, so I’m a bit confused, but I think I’ve got the main idea of the genre.

How does reading Dystopian Fiction require/encourage you to think in different ways?

It encouraged me to think in more ways than the main character and think of things that might seemingly not matter. Also, I’ve learnt to think of more people’s thoughts and have a more ’cause and effect’ mindset.

PE: Soccer unit ⚽️

December 10, 2025 /

What did you learn?

I learnt how to dribble with the inside and outside of my foot and receive high balls with my foot too.

What went well?

I received good and specific feedback from my teachers and classmates, and I could play a simple match.

What didn’t go well?

I didn’t really understand the rules really well and I keep forgetting to receive a high ball properly.

What did I improve on?

I improved on my technique and my dribbling in total. I also learnt the general ‘skills’ better, such as teamwork.

What can I work on?

I think I can work on spreading out and playing together in total. While we were playing, we didn’t really have ‘roles’ and didn’t spread out.

Unit 2 Otzi Unit Portfolio Reflection 

December 1, 2025 /

       1: 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 an expert witness. 
    1. What did I learn? Why should we care about the past? 

    We should care about the past because: 

      • Origin of humans and their culture 
      • Learn how pre-historic people lived 
      • Learn differences and similarities  
      • Prehistoric people were resourceful, innovative, and skilled.  
      1. What worked well? 
      1. I am proud of the following work of my CER, mock trial, and open and closed questions. 
      1. I am proud of the work above because it was the first CER I ever wrote, and I did an expert witness job decently well in the trial. Also, the open and closed questions were pretty fun. 
      1. What did not work well? 
      1. I found some of this work challenging, CER, Mock Trial, and researching. 
      1. I found the work above challenging because I have never done it before, and I felt like the questions asked in the trial were sometimes off topic. Also, for researching, some information contradicted each other. 
      1. Personal Relevance 
      1. Collaboration and communication skills are important in my future because while finding a job or even doing a group project, they look at whether you can communicate well and collaborate with your peers. 
      1. This is a photo of my work about the CER 

      Math: Bake Sale 🍪!

      November 27, 2025 /

      What did I do?

      In general, we had a bake sale. On day 1, we chose a recipe and calculated the amounts needed for each ingredient. On day 2, we got the unit rates of each ingredient and price for each unit/gram. On day 3, we calculated the batch and servings amount and cost, and made a markup percentage to set a price and calculated our expected profit. On day 4, we made a pitch to show our work and answer questions.

      What did I learn?

      I learnt how to apply math to real life, such as calculating prices, and that making a good sale is NOT easy. We have to make a high price to get money, but not too high, or people will think it’s overpriced.

      What worked?

      We sold all of our products and made a decent profit. Our price was ¥20, but the sugar melted and people thought it was overpriced and we lowered it a bit. In the end, we got a profit of ¥107, and even though some people got it higher, I’m pretty pleased with our profit.

      What did not work?

      Unfortunately, the tanghulu’s sugar melted, causing a sugary sticky mess. In the end, we did make it through and sold it successfully!

      How is this relevant for me?

      I had a fun time and it really was a good project. Plus, it gave me something to think about. Also, I’m not going to be a baker. For sure.

      PE: Swimming

      November 19, 2025 /

      What did I learn?

      I learnt how to efficiently and safely use a snorkel.

      What did I do well?

      I did a rather good snorkeling position and managed to keep up with the group during normal swimming. I also learnt the hand signals, and I’m pretty familiar with them. Though sometimes I forget about them and try to speak underwater.

      What do I need to improve?

      I feel like breathing with the snorkel is still kind of uncomfortable, and sometimes with the actual nose-and-eyes mask, I somehow manage to suck up the air in the mask and have to get up to breathe.

      What helped?

      The teacher guided my through the process really well, and my friends are very supportive.

      Egg Car Reflection

      November 11, 2025 /

      What did I do?

      We built an egg car to withstand a ramp, all while preventing the egg inside from cracking.

      What did I learn?

      We learnt about Newton’s laws in real life. The car stays in rest until moved (first law of inertia). Also, the third law, and how the egg car hit the wall and the wall hit back with equal and opposite force.

      What worked?

      We built a neat, tidy net car, with a working seatbelt. We also had a cushion to minimize impact force. Finally, we had a crumple zone (front part) which helped save the egg.

      What did not work?

      I think our car was perfectly fine, but I saw someone’s car. Their ar was like a small pod, very sturdy, and the egg won’t fall out, but their car was just a pod. I think they should add a crumple zone, since the paper isn’t thick enough to be a cushion. The egg hit hard on the wall through the paper on their run.

      Personal relevance

      I now know more about vehicle design. A crumple zone is the part to crumple and absorb most force (so that the person doesn’t crumple) and an airbag to cushion the hit. Seatbelts are important, so that they don’t fly out.

      Science- Balloon Car Reflection

      November 3, 2025 /

      What did I do?

      We made a car powered by the force of a balloon. We used some thin styrofoam/ cardboard, some tape, straws, bottle caps (for the wheels), and a balloon (of course). We used it to investigate Newton’s laws of motion. (picture below)

      What did I learn?

      Newtons’s first law- an object will not move unless moved by an unbalanced force, vice versa for a moving object. The balloon car won’t move unless ‘powered’ by the balloon’s air. Newton’s second law says that the larger mass something has, the more force required to move it. We added weights to the car to test how much movement it will have with the same amount of air. For the third law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, we figured that an action (balloon letting out air), has an equal and opposite reaction (car moving).

      What worked?

      Even though I wasn’t there for the building, we collected data pretty well- even though the weights would kind of slide off the car. We also had no problem connecting our project to Newton’s laws, and we worked great together. We had to collect data and we did it even though there was some problems.

      What didn’t work?

      It was hard to collect data AT FIRST, since the weights didn’t stay on the car. We still managed to collect it though. I’m not sure about the building, but I think everything was decently fine.

      Personal relevance

      Newton’s laws are EVERYWHERE. To just sitting on a chair (3rd law) to kicking a ball (1st law) and pushing some heavy furniture (2nd law), you can see them everywhere and knowing about them can help to answer a lot of questions. It’s important to know them because we will need them in our studies, and as I said before, we get a lot of new answers to the world and how everything works in our everyday life.

      Growth & Development-Reflection

      October 29, 2025 /

      1: Why is it important to understand te changes that occur during puberty?

      It’s important because knowing all of this can help you know if everything is normal, and you won’t be stressed if it happens since you already know. This also means that if you’re curious, you won’t accidently stumble on something inappropriate.

      2: What is the change that you feel most confident about?

      I feel most confident about mood changes. I think I’m pretty good at controlling my mood and big emotions. I can keep pretty calm, and I have multiple strategies to keep calm and controlled. My friends and family also understand, so mood swings won’t be too problematic.

      3: What is the change you feel the most nervous about?

      I don’t feel too nervous about anything. Puberty is normal, and everyone goes through it. This also means that I have lots of people to help me get through this process of growing up.

      4: When looking for information online, how can you ensure it is credible and appropriate?

      For me, just use sources from the databases in SAS and other sources with .edu and .org as endings. Also, if i’m not sure, I can ask the teachers and my friends.

      5: What is one aspect of your learning you want to improve on moving forward?

      I want to be more time organized. With the survival guide, I didn’t really do it mch and had to spend a long time on the last day.

      My survival guide is here:

      HEALTH

      « Older posts

      © 2026 Yifan's Portfolio

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑