This artefact represents at least an ability to think critically and reflectively as writing a paper explicitly requires both of these ‘modes’ of thinking. Critical thought is required when interpreting the results of the paper and thus drawing conclusions from the data. Reflective thought is required for looking back on the paper, recognizing pitfalls or errors and suggesting further research to compensate. That’s about it.
#ThinkingCC
It is safe to assume that I, along with my group, were thinking during the dissection. There were periods where an outside observer might beg to differ, and one of those temporary but somewhat contagious lapses of judgement came when we were trying to find the esophagus in the midsection of the pig. Our initial guess was the long tube that was fused by cartilage to the dorsal wall of the abdominal cavity, running a line down the middle. There was great debate as to what this tube was – some called it a blood vessel and some called it the esophagus. It did not bleed blue or red latex when lacerated and it was not connected to the stomach (a fact apparently lost among the collective consciousness that had formed sometime between the events of the initial incision and this particular moment in time). It wasn’t even the same color.
That being said, we were sapient throughout the remainder of the lab.
Pictured: A Substance in a Test Tube – Probably Contains Lead
The objective of 19C is for students to determine the solubility product constant of PbI2.
I have showcased my ability to communicate thoroughly with my lab partner(s) when I told one of them to “put the thing on the thing”, as seen in the artifact above. For the sake of anonymity, they will henceforth be referred to as . More examples of when I communicated with
was when we collaborated during the laborious process of pouring Pb(NO3)2 and KI into test tubes.
postulated the brilliant idea of delegating the pouring of Pb(NO3)2 to me and the KI to him (
). What I would improve for next time would be delegating these types of responsibilities with
sooner in the timescale of the lab for the purpose of efficiency. God save the king
It is possible to assess and rationalize the actions of any character in the Crucible by referring to Kolberg’s moral precepts for guidance. Kolberg outlines his precepts as the pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional moral state. It should be noted that these precepts are chronological in nature, meaning that a pre-conventional baby will progress to a post-conventional elder throughout their life. Additionally, one does not lose the behaviors of the previous precept once the next step has started – all three precepts remain in a person’s psyche once they’ve absorbed all three at old age.
There are many examples of pre-conventional characters in the Crucible. Pre-conventional characters behave in a way to maximize reward and/or minimize punishment with no regard for group acceptance or personal values. The first pre-conventional character is Abigial Williams, who cries that “It were sport” when confronted by Reverend Parris about the dancing they did in the middle of the woods in the dead of night. Abigail and her accompanying posse did try and perform “witchcraft”, but she lied about it because she fears the consequences of witchery. A Christian is taught to never lie as God damns all liars, but Abigail fears punishment more than she fears the wrath of God. Another character who behaved the way they do to evade punishment or maximize gain is Thomas Putnam who convinced his daughter to testify against Jacobs, which a witness describes as him saying that “she’d given him a fair gift of land”. Putnam, via a proxy, damned Jacobs solely to absorb his land and increase his own status. Finally, Tituba claimed herself to be a “good Christian woman” after being pressed by Parris because the punishment for witchery/turning away from God was being whipped to death – she lied about her religious feelings to avoid dying. To conclude, it is evident that there are pre-conventional characters in the Crucible.
Additionally, there are conventional characters in the Crucible. Conventional characters are characters that perform actions to gain or retain group acceptance. The first example is John Procter, who said “I’ll think on it” when told to confess to adultery to save multiple people from getting hung on falsified charges. He waits so long to confess because his previously good reputation will be completely tarnished as adultery was considered a violation of one of the ten commandments. Furthermore, another character that behaved in a way only to seek group acceptance is Betty, who claims to have seen “Goody Bibber with the Devil!”. She has not, nor will ever see the Devil or any of his accomplices and she chooses to lie about it to corroborate Abigail’s claims after Hale pressed her for names. The final example(s) are the girls who cry “Abby, stop it!” after Abigial initially mimics Mary Willaims to frame her for witching them. Mary Warren is not a witch and has not sent her spirit out to harm them, but they follow along with the de-facto group leader to keep their association. To conclude, it is evident that there are conventional characters in the Crucible.
There are also post-conventional characters in this play. Post-conventional characters internalize a set of values and act according to those values regardless of reward, punishment, or group acceptance. The first example of a post-conventional character is John Procter, who tells the minister of the theocratic town that he “hardly mentions God anymore.” This is a rather inflammatory statement to make to the most powerful cleric in the town, which may lead to a tarnished reputation among the group or retaliation from the minister himself. Another character who behaves in a way to preserve their own value system is Giles Corey, who the narrator describes as not giving a “hoot about public opinion.” He could appeal to the values of the town, or he could be entirely preoccupied with avoiding punishment, but he only sticks to his values. The final example is Mary Warren, who in Act III exclaims to John Procter that she is amazed that Procter and Elizabeth “not see the weighty work we do” when talking about her position in the Salem courts. She does not gain financially, materially, spiritually, or socially from her position, she only does it because she believes that the work in it of itself is pure and righteous. To conclude, it is evident that there are post-conventional characters in the Crucible.
Therefore, the Crucible is packed with characters that may be analyzed thoroughly using Kolberg’s moral precepts.
Working collaboratively with others
During the runtime of the course, I have had to aid my table group members numerous times when they struggled with the problems at hand – especially EB. This has happened every day during group work and when we’re doing the homework questions. Although I haven’t acted as the unofficial peer tutor of the table group as much as some other person has (damn this name dropping restriction!) has, I still feel that I’ve done more than enough. For EB, of course.
Strategically preparing for assessments
Additionally, I’ve had to develop smarter ways or preparing for tests, given that I have to balance math, history, chemistry and spanish while also playing Metal Gear Solid V (a game that’s too fun for my own good). This includes the near herculean tasks of using class time wisely (never been done before by the likes of me, or EB), NOT playing video games for 4 hours straight and only completing the homework questions on topics I don’t have a “satisfactory” understanding of (the definition of satisfactory changes by each unit – sometimes I just don’t care).
You’d think that I will just say what everyone else is saying – that is to study chapter 1. I know that most people will be far below their prime in the first weeks of the class regardless of what preparation they will take on, unless you’re an Einstein tier mathematics student. In other words, not EB. I’d say to study as you usually would for chapter 1. Other than winning the genetic lottery, there really isn’t a way to be good at chapter 1. That’s my advice.
This artifact [which has thankfully avoided capture by the British Museum] is a light pink solution of phenolphthalein, salt water and excess NaOH. This is an excellent example of Communication given that the solution would be very sensitive to any added NaOH around this point, meaning that extra care and teamwork was exercised to ensure that it didn’t turn bright pink, as what happened with the first trial. Here’s a transcription of that incident [hereafter referred to as The Day the Earth Stood Still], where Lukas comically overshot:
KUBA: Lukas! Lukas, calm down Lukas!!! Slow down!!
LUKAS: huh?This time, we learned from our mistakes. Compared to The Day the Earth Stood Still, we did not go full throttle with the NaOH and took the time to coordinate the stirring, flow rate and half-drops.
Parent Function -> y = x²
My Function -> y = ⅓(x+1)² - 3
a is the coefficient of the binomial in which x resides, so modifying this value grants great control over the final value of x. Making the value of a greater than 0 but less than 1 makes the y value always lower than if the identical x value was plugged into the parent function. In graphs that open upwards
[a > 0], having a y value consistently lower than what would result from the parent function given the same value of x produces a graph which is “flatter” – where achieving the same y value as a point on the parent function requires an x value that is further from 0.
I’ve nullified [made equal to 0] both h and k on the function I was given to make comparing both values of a easier.
If the value of a is less than 0, the graph reflects vertically and is considered “opening down”. Much of the same rules apply here. Values of a greater than -1 and lesser than 0 produce a flatter graph [see picture above] but flipped vertically [the vertex is unaffected] and values lesser than -1 produce a thinner graph.
h is the value inside of the brackets and is responsible for shifting the parabola horizontally. Note that it is represented as (x – h)², meaning that if you want the parabola to be shifted to the right [in the positive direction], the value of h has to be negative to produce a double-negative [positive] number in the final equation. Thus – positive values of h make the parabola shifted to the left and negative h values shift it to the right.
Finally, k is the lone constant sitting at the end of the function and shifts the graph vertically. It’s not as confusing to compute as h – positive k values shift the graph vertically and the inverse is true for negative values. Note that adjusting both h and k affect the position of the vertex.
I’ve represented the same idea numerous ways when I both said and shown what changing the a value would do via written words and embedded images and expressed these ideas using relevant mathematical vocabulary like “opening down”, “greater than / less than”, “shifting”, “double-negative” and “constant” which makes my explanation less dependant on guesswork to interpret. Additionally, I’ve organized the sentences about a, h and k into their own separate paragraphs and always started those paragraphs with the corresponding letter that was talked about and separated those paragraphs with spacers.
My inquiry question was “How do I make the Centennial Morning Show good?” That has not changed since I originally set that as my question. As for time management, the addition of CENT time has not been helpful at all given that there is not enough time in it to set up, film and take down. We instead meet and film in block 0 on the last day of the school week. The resource that has been most helpful is the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite provided by Rensen. Otherwise, I have not looked at any past Cent Show episodes or other videos in general.
In the beginning, the hardest challenge was the output of the old editor. We would film an entire episode, send the raw footage to Henry and hear crickets as we waited the entire weekend for him to finish filming. Most of the time, he delivered the final episode late or never. We sacked him [without severance], and I absorbed the position and responsibilities. Over the current 3 week span that I have been editor, I successfully pushed all 3 episodes filmed and done them early. I certainly grew in the Thinking core competency given that I had to develop skill in videography [I’m still the producer] and editing. A plan to share the learning is not needed given that the point of the Cent Show is to be seen by all.
All of the crew are within a friend group and are grade 11’s, so it’s very feasible that this will continue onto next year. Maybe not as my capstone, but still.
i. When I need to boost my mood or re-focus, I remind myself that I am, in fact, not the poor sod who thought that the core competency curriculum was a good idea. I thought that everything SD43 touches turned into manure like the antithesis to Midas [and what a naïve thought that was to think that the problem had only gone up one level], but now I realize that this curse has befallen the entire BC government. It is now my goal to renounce this singular aspect of the curriculum each and every single time I am told to do it.
ii. Because I know the Core Competency Curriculum can have a negative impact on my opinion of the educational system, I make sure that I get to complain about it at every moment I get to help reduce any problems. – the only way to make sure that I retain even the tiniest smidgen of respect for the Board of Education is to vent all of my frustration to at least one person who is complicit in delivering this filth; doing so will make sure I can not let it out on myself.
iii. How do you learn best? I learn best with a “hands-on” approach – there is no better way to learn how to do an action or learn a concept via either doing that specified action or doing an interactive project that explains the ins-and-outs of said concept, instead of listening to some person drone on and on over some PowerPoint slides.
I demonstrated the core competency of thinking by using evidence to make judgements on what I should or should not do on my project. I have actively chosen to fire my neurons and make the executive decision to label my family tree’s personal titles in Spanish because I am in a Spanish class and it would be stupid not to make everything in Spanish. I normally hate thinking and love to live my life in autopilot mode, but I made an exception for this class and this class only. I hate my life and this class.