The purpose of my conference is for me to share…

• My progress in my classes, both core and encore
• Some areas of growth and struggles
• Work that I am proud of

Vision Board

I really enjoy coding and I want to learn python or another coding language.

Shanghai has been my home for the past 11 years.

I really enjoy reading different books.

Goals

• Read at least 3 books before March.
• Exercise every day.
• Turn in DT homework before the deadline.

Transdisciplinary Transfer Goal

My TTG was related to being a Creative Learner.

Core Subject: Language Arts

Core Subject: Math

I will now share my progress in Math.

This is the L4 question I answered on the Mini Triangle Congruence CoL. While answering this question, I had to connect back to the knowledge I learned in the unit, such as the different theorems and postulates used to prove angle congruence and proof of triangle congruence (SAS, ASA, AAS, SSS). Challenges I faced included when I didn’t include the correct (full) proof of congruence, however I overcame this problem by conferencing with my teacher and convincing her successfully that I deserve an Exceeding.

This is a project that we’ve worked on for a few lessons. When filling out the graphic organizer, I had to remember what I’ve learned about slopes and graphs. I overcame the challenge of getting confused between different intervals by labeling them on my graph with its matching equation.

Core Subject: Science

I will now share my progress in Science.

 Evidence of Organization

My notebook was clear and tidy with notes of activities from lessons that required me to do so. It remained a organized tool that I could look back on throughout the year.

 Evidence of Active Learner Habits

Evidence of Understanding of Key Concepts

The evidence here shows that I have an overall solid understanding of what we’ve been learning throughout the units.

Evidence of Growth in Science Skills

Core Subject: Social Studies

I will now share my progress in Social Studies.

Encore: Art

Group Clay Vessel Reflection

In the past unit in Art, we learned how to create a pinch pot and add more details and layers on its structure. We reviewed certain techniques such as scoring, slipping, and blending separate elements, like coils, onto our vessel.

This is our product which is still in its drying stage.

As a creative learner, I was able to incorporate original ideas into our plan and final project. During our planning process, I helped my group put our plans together and form a unique design consisting of an octopus and sakura flowers. We were able to use the coiling technique to build most of the walls of our project as well as our octopus’s tentacles and use score slip and blend to merge the tentacles and flowers onto our base. 

As an active learner, I helped my group organize and everyone could do something to help our project. We were persistent; even when some of our coils broke and the project didn’t go as planned, we continued to find a way to make it happen.

All of us had to remember to be patient and inclusive with each other. For example, during the planning process, we asked everyone for their opinions and ideas and made sure that everyone was on board with our design before we made a move. Furthermore, a lot of times some of us would forget to score slip and blend; during these moments the others wouldn’t get mad, instead they would remind patiently. 

Encore: French

Bonne Sante

This artifact specifically was made at the end of our health unit, where we had to demonstrate mastery of what we’ve learned. This project is able to demonstrate what I had learned in the unit like using vocabulary and sentence structures. For example, a sentence structure I learned was how to give advice in multiple ways: “Il est important de…”, “Je te conseille de…”, etc. I also gained new vocabulary related to the unit, such as “eviter” (to avoid).

This letter was written at the end of the WW1 unit, allowing us to practice and show what we had learned about the context of WW1 and the structure of a French letter. We did research during the unit about conditions of living in the war and read a few real letters from that period of time, understanding their importance, and I reused what I had read in their letters in my own writing. I was able to match my letter’s content with my partner’s, showing how terrible war conditions were for ordinary families caught up in it (limited resources, family members dying, sending food to soldiers). For the structure of a letter, I learned that I had to include the date, the address, and the proper signature to end it.

Design Tech

PE

Health

Social Media & Teen Mental Health

I used to believe that social media harmed teens’ mental health solely because it is able to make users doubt themselves. However, now I think not only is that true, but another way social media can harm teens is due to its addictive nature. As algorithms keep analyzing data and recommending posts that seem to be of interest to the user, teens are easily sucked into a loop of scrolling and clicking on more and more posts. This cycle gets teenagers constantly thinking about what’s on their social media page. Furthermore, their critical thinking center, the prefrontal cortex, isn’t fully developed, making it harder for them to break out of the scrolling loop and therefore decreasing their socializing time. So not only does it influence their self-esteem, their real life relationships and well-being can be harmed as well.

Social media could also benefit certain teenagers though. They can remain anonymous online, meaning they can be their true selves. They can also contact people from around the world and not just from their school. This can benefit lonely students who feel like they don’t fit in with their current peers since they can form new societies online.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Mental Health & Stigma

Previously, my thoughts on stigma included the firm belief that people who kept stigmatizing mental health were “uneducated”. Some stigmas I even agreed with, for example the one about how killers are more likely to have mental health issues. Currently, I understand my incorrect viewpoints on stigmatization. Many people who stigmatize mental health issues believe in what they are told in movies, books, social media, and other information outlets. Take for instance my example on killers being more likely to have mental health issues. This is actually the opposite in reality; people with mental disorders are sensitive to violence and would therefore be less likely to participate in any of them. To reduce societal stigma, I think certain films might need to have clarifications/fact checks so that fans wouldn’t blindly believe their artistic representations. Social media especially should be fact checked because it generates many hurtful memes that aren’t true about certain people with mental disorders, and as it circulates it harms and misinforms more people.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Conclusion

In conclusion, I learned that mental health conditions are becoming more widespread nowadays due to hateful and hurtful comments on social media, which is gaining lots of popularity and users recently. If teenagers misunderstand mental disorders through stigmatizations like “mental disorders aren’t real, just snap out of them”, “mental disorders just prove that you’re a weak person”, “mental health problems can lead to crazy people”… teenagers with mental health conditions would be more afraid to speak up about their problems and their peers without would make fun of them, causing a loop of hurt and hate.

Passion Project

I am not finished with my passion project; this is just a overall structure.

Robotics – a Male-Dominated Field

Introduction: What is robotics?

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/robotics

• Definition & Examples
• Usage in daily life https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/everyday-robotics#:~:text=Everyday%20robots%20have%20already%20found,cleaning%20robots%2C%20and%20cooking%20aids

Part 1: My experience

• FLL
• Vex-IQ
• Future inspiration: VEX V5
• There were always more males than females…
  Statistics: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379071575_Underrepresentation_of_Women_in_Robotics_Research_Women_in_Engineering

Part 2: Why are robotics fields so male-dominated?

• Gender stereotypes:
  How do gendered toys impact mindsets overall: https://www.humanium.org/en/pink-for-girls-blue-for-boys-why-toys-for-children-should-be-free-from-stereotypes/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CMost%20research%20on%20the%20material,social%20expectations%20regarding%20gender%20roles.%E2%80%9D
  How do gendered toys impact participation in robotics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raIjNyBtneg
  Gender mindsets: 
• Lack of a Role Model… Really?
  

Part 3: Stereotype breakers

• Actually, women are making a lot of progress.
• The world’s first programmer – Ada Lovelace: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ada-Lovelace
• Daniela Rus: (Background; needs further research) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Rus
• Li Fei Fei: (Find better source) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fei-Fei_Li
• The list goes on and on and on… https://www.roboticscareer.org/news-and-events/news/25690

Part 4: What can we do?

• Start your robotics journey now!!
• Our school has FLL programs from grades 6-7
• Grade 8 has VEX-IQ
• High school has a VEX V5 team
• Or learn programming online; it’s fun

Highlights of the Year

Closing

Thank you for listening to my progress towards my goals over the last year. Do you have any questions?

This artifact specifically was made at the end of our health unit, where we had to demonstrate mastery of what we’ve learned. This project is able to demonstrate what I had learned in the unit like using vocabulary and sentence structures. For example, a sentence structure I learned was how to give advice in multiple ways: “Il est important de…”, “Je te conseille de…”, etc. I also gained new vocabulary related to the unit, such as “eviter” (to avoid).

This letter was written at the end of the WW1 unit, allowing us to practice and show what we had learned about the context of WW1 and the structure of a French letter. We did research during the unit about conditions of living in the war and read a few real letters from that period of time, understanding their importance, and I reused what I had read in their letters in my own writing. I was able to match my letter’s content with my partner’s, showing how terrible war conditions were for ordinary families caught up in it (limited resources, family members dying, sending food to soldiers). For the structure of a letter, I learned that I had to include the date, the address, and the proper signature to end it.

In the past unit in Art, we learned how to create a pinch pot and add more details and layers on its structure. We reviewed certain techniques such as scoring, slipping, and blending separate elements, like coils, onto our vessel.

This is our product which is still in its drying stage.

As a creative learner, I was able to incorporate original ideas into our plan and final project. During our planning process, I helped my group put our plans together and form a unique design consisting of an octopus and sakura flowers. We were able to use the coiling technique to build most of the walls of our project as well as our octopus’s tentacles and use score slip and blend to merge the tentacles and flowers onto our base. 

As an active learner, I helped my group organize and everyone could do something to help our project. We were persistent; even when some of our coils broke and the project didn’t go as planned, we continued to find a way to make it happen.

All of us had to remember to be patient and inclusive with each other. For example, during the planning process, we asked everyone for their opinions and ideas and made sure that everyone was on board with our design before we made a move. Furthermore, a lot of times some of us would forget to score slip and blend; during these moments the others wouldn’t get mad, instead they would remind patiently. 

Social Media & Teen Mental Health

I used to believe that social media harmed teens’ mental health solely because it is able to make users doubt themselves. However, now I think not only is that true, but another way social media can harm teens is due to its addictive nature. As algorithms keep analyzing data and recommending posts that seem to be of interest to the user, teens are easily sucked into a loop of scrolling and clicking on more and more posts. This cycle gets teenagers constantly thinking about what’s on their social media page. Furthermore, their critical thinking center, the prefrontal cortex, isn’t fully developed, making it harder for them to break out of the scrolling loop and therefore decreasing their socializing time. So not only does it influence their self-esteem, their real life relationships and well-being can be harmed as well.

Social media could also benefit certain teenagers though. They can remain anonymous online, meaning they can be their true selves. They can also contact people from around the world and not just from their school. This can benefit lonely students who feel like they don’t fit in with their current peers since they can form new societies online.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Mental Health & Stigma

Previously, my thoughts on stigma included the firm belief that people who kept stigmatizing mental health were “uneducated”. Some stigmas I even agreed with, for example the one about how killers are more likely to have mental health issues. Currently, I understand my incorrect viewpoints on stigmatization. Many people who stigmatize mental health issues believe in what they are told in movies, books, social media, and other information outlets. Take for instance my example on killers being more likely to have mental health issues. This is actually the opposite in reality; people with mental disorders are sensitive to violence and would therefore be less likely to participate in any of them. To reduce societal stigma, I think certain films might need to have clarifications/fact checks so that fans wouldn’t blindly believe their artistic representations. Social media especially should be fact checked because it generates many hurtful memes that aren’t true about certain people with mental disorders, and as it circulates it harms and misinforms more people.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Conclusion

In conclusion, I learned that mental health conditions are becoming more widespread nowadays due to hateful and hurtful comments on social media, which is gaining lots of popularity and users recently. If teenagers misunderstand mental disorders through stigmatizations like “mental disorders aren’t real, just snap out of them”, “mental disorders just prove that you’re a weak person”, “mental health problems can lead to crazy people”… teenagers with mental health conditions would be more afraid to speak up about their problems and their peers without would make fun of them, causing a loop of hurt and hate.

-Opinion: I don’t think I’ll be impacted too much because I don’t really use my phone as there’s not much necessity for me to. However, my friends might use their phones a lot more than this year, so maybe there would be less in person interaction. Also, there might be more information spread on cellphones, so I might need to use it more often than this year. My parents would agree with me as they know I don’t usually bring my phones to school normally.

-Strategies: To ensure that I don’t use my phone to the extent that I disregard my learning, I would bring my phone only on days where I have ASAs to communicate with my parents if necessary.

“I constantly refreshed my likes as they came in, spent hours reading and replying to comments and taking in other people’s posts. I became obsessed with living what social media promotes as a worthwhile and perfect life.” – Anuja, 20

“[Social media can leave youth] cut off from human connection, social interaction, and normal classroom activity.” – New York Gov. Kathy Hochul

We created vision boards for our Student Led Conference in March in Extended Learning.

Here is mine: Scarlett’s Vision Board

I’m designing a box for my recycled board game. We are using recycled cardboard to make the box. We are using the utility knife, hot glue gun, and box template to make it.

The process of making the box is as follows:

1. Trace the edge of the template on the cardboard.
2. Using a ruler and the utility knife, cut it out.
3. Fold the edges and hot glue them together.
4. Do the other part of the box.
5. Finish!

I am being safe by using the tools correctly and not playing around in the area. I learned that I should cut cleaner instead of cutting it softly.

Here is my box: