Organization: I am always on time for school, work, and other commitments
Stress resilience: I am dealing well with any major life changes, planned or unplanned, that have occurred over the last few years in my life
healthy relationships: I am able to resolve conflicts in a productive way with family and friends. we are able to talk through conflicts so that it does not continue.
rest and play: I have at least one hobby or interest that renews me, and i take intentional time for it on regular basis.
handling emotions: I am able to communicate my emotions in a positive way without being irritable, critical, or angry.
spirituality: I have a clear sense of meaning and purpose in my life.
school and work: I am confident that my use of social media, the internet, and video games has no negative impact on my school or work performance.
care for the body: I am satisfied with the amount of exercise I get on regular basis.
This health unit has been super eye-opening! We explored how the brain develops—especially in teens—and how that affects our emotions, stress responses, and decision-making. One of the biggest takeaways from this unit was – the amygdala (the brain’s emotional alarm system) develops way faster than the prefrontal cortex (which helps with planning and self-control) and the hippocampus (key for memory and learning). This imbalance explains why teens (like us) can feel emotions so intensely and react quickly under stress. 🚨
We also learned about the Mood Meter, a tool to help identify and manage emotions, and how mindfulness and Meta-moments can help us pause, breathe, and respond instead of react. 🧘♂️ Plus, understanding cortisol and the fight-flight-freeze response made it clear why stress can feel overwhelming—but now we have strategies to handle it better!
Another big topic was negativity bias (THINKING TRAPS)—how our brains tend to focus on the bad over the good—and thinking traps like catastrophizing (“This one mistake ruins everything!”) or overgeneralising (“I failed once, so I’ll always fail”). Recognizing these traps helps us reframe thoughts and stay balanced. 💡 Tech & the Brain 📱🧠: We discussed how technology affects our focus, dopamine levels, and instant gratification (hello, endless scrolling!).
What we learned in the lessons:
Social Media & Body Image 💭📸: Highlight reels vs. reality—how curated online content can skew self-perception and ways to foster a healthy body image.
Mental Health Awareness 💚: Breaking down stigma, researching mental health conditions, and creating PSAs to spread accurate info.
Resilience & Self-Regulation: WOOP goals, behavioural psychology, and techniques to build emotional strength.
Final Thoughts: This unit wasn’t just about facts—it gave us real-life tools to navigate emotions, stress, and social pressures. By understanding our brains and practicing self-regulation, we’re setting ourselves up to become healthier.✨
👍The research project was a great way to dive deeper into mental health topics
Some of my strengths are that I have a good music base so that I don’t have to try that hard to complete assignments. I am good at identifying what is a priority. Prioritizing. This helps me focus on what’s important and keep me organized and on task. Creativity – This helps me come up with great ideas!
I am good at multitasking! – Being able to keep multiple ideas in my head. This helps me manage my workload!
GOALS / IMPROVEMENT
less overdue homework and better grades
2
3
HEALTH
In this health unit, we discovered the process of brain development and how the brain influences what we feel. We’ve used the Mood Meter in order to identify various emotions. We also learned the process of stress and various methods of building resilience and control. 👍
Design Tech
Highlights of the year:
My favourite lessons, moments, activities, days of the year were…because…
The Forest app is a timer app with a fun twist. How it works is you pick a tree to grow and if you stay focused (cannot quit the app) for the set amount of time, you get to add that tree to your forest, otherwise, it withers. But, when it withers it stays in your forest as an eyesore but also as a reminder that you did not stay focused for that session.
OVERALL: ★★★★☆
Another motivating feature is the coins. Every time you complete a tree successfully you get a certain amount of coins, which you can spend to unlock various kinds of trees, also to get rid of the withered trees. You can also gain coins by completing achievements, these will give you a hefty chunk of change. For example, the first achievement you’ll get is to reach a total focused time of four hours.
The Forest app has really helped me focus on my tasks and avoid looking at my phone while dealing with stress/emotions and also while completing homework and other assignments. There’s something about wanting to grow a useless tree that motivates me to stay on track. It’s like I’m growing a digital garden, which is more creative and enjoyable, better than a plain clock, or just shutting down my computer. Overall, I find it quite helpful, but IT COSTS 30 RMB. Still, the benefits it offers for maintaining focus are hard to overlook.
In this health unit, we discovered the process of brain development and how the brain influences what we feel. We’ve used the Mood Meter in order to identify various emotions. We also learned the process of stress and various methods of building resilience and control. 👍
🙋♀️Among the discoveries was noticing that the amygdala, which belongs to the limbic system, matures quicker compared to other sections of the brain. The imbalance makes teenagers have a lot of cortisol, which makes them experience fight-or-flight upon stress. To balance out stress, we worked on skills in mindfulness, like taking a Meta-moment and using a breath anchor, that help us manage our emotions and resist negative influence.
🧠The brain consists of various parts that develop at various ages, influencing the way we feel and respond. The amygdala, responsible for detecting danger, initiates the FFF response to protect us. The hippocampus is where we keep things and memories. The prefrontal cortex makes us rational and allows us to cope with stress; it typically completes development at 25 years, which enables us to cope better with our feelings.
✨We also learned some principles regarding negativity bias and thinking traps, which show how our brains distort our view of the world, focusing more on bad things than good (Negativity bias is the tendency to experience bad thoughts or things more intensely emotionally 🤬) For instance, dwelling on one error on a generally excellent test can generate lots of negative feelings. Cognitive distortions such as worst-case thinking and overgeneralizing can generate cloudy thinking and poor emotional health. We need to be in a position to identify these patterns so that we can maintain clear thinking and possess good emotional health. ✨
🐧our goal for this unit was to save the African penguins by making them a cool nest (to prevent heat from killing them)🏠.
🌊the name “SI hut” means Shelley and Isabella, and we wanted the nest to be near the sea so the penguins can easily get to the sea to catch fish and cool down.
🪵we used wood, foam, and felt. we chose these materials based on the cold cup challenge, where we put on piece of ice in cup made out of different materials. Wood was the best insulator because the ice had the lowest mass change.
😥the nest didn’t works really well because there was 6 grams of mass change which a I think a little too much comparing to the other nest that worked really well, and another problem I found is that I think because my partner wanted to save money so didn’t buy enough material and the sides of the house was too thin, saving money is right but at last we got a lot of money left over and we were not able to use them and they were wasted😳.
☹️but if we got to do the project one time again I would have made a lot of changes. for example, like I would have made the gaps between the flap door and the house smaller because thats where I think the heat 🥵 got in, and we use too less money and too less material so the walls were too thin.
we are designing a box to put our stuff, for example like the 3D printing we made, and the other things we made for our recycled games.
the recycled materials we used are cardboard and hot glue
we used hot glue guns, markers, and rulers
we first draw our the outside using markers and card stock, to trace it out. then I folded the parts up and then glued them. lastly I put the ones greta made with mine.
we didn’t glue each other
I learned how to glue cardboard and cut strait using rulers.
This is my planning sheet of the recycle game I was going to make. I am going to make a game with 2-4 players. RULES: players will stand on the starting line and they are roll the die and the person with the biggest number goes first, and each person will want to climb up the mountain to win the chest.
