Category Archives: Grade 9

My Model Town

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Creating a Model Factory Town

Name of the town: Windwoods

Company Name: Willows

Resources available: Coal, minerals, lumber, crops, and cotton

Elements of the town: Spruce forest, mountains, lake, farms, mills, mines, housing, and dock

Population: 231

Explanation / Brief History: In 1798, Fredrick Willows along with his group of explorers discovered the land filled with mountains and trees. They were a wealthy group that placed their settlement there and began to create a larger town where jobs could be easily gained in the mines, mills, and farms. Fredrick named the town Windwoods due to the land’s large spruce forest and fresh winds that breezed during the spring. The work was tedious and harsh, but you’d be paid fairly as well as have access to cheap housing. Eventually, the population continues to increase as more factories are being built and foreigners start to travel to Windwoods for its accessible jobs, however, housing prices increased.

Media Fluency Reflection

A. How was the ease of access in building the town, and what software did you use specifically?

The software I used is called Inkarnate which is a program that allows users to create fantasy maps. I am quite familiar with using Inkarnate and had access to an account so it wasn’t too difficult to use. The program did limit my creativity, however, as I didn’t have the full membership. I couldn’t access some of the tools and stamps that could have added much more detail to the final result.

B. Were you able to apply the skills you learned in the planning stages appropriately to a digital environment?

Before creating my design, I listed what I wanted in the factory town then sketched it out on paper. This made it easier to create on the program as I had a guide to where each building would be. If I didn’t plan ahead, I would probably be very lost and take more time on the program.

C. What were the sources you researched that made this an “authentic make-believe” town?

I used a source from Khan Academy to research resources that were prevalent in the Industrial Revolution such as coal. I also used the novel Lyddie as a reference when creating the town as I remember how the setting of the book included many tall buildings. I gathered inspiration from pictures online as well as a place called Oldham which used to be a factory town. Additionally, I used facts I learned in my classes such as housing becoming expensive due to the overpopulation in cities.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/big-history-project/acceleration/bhp-acceleration/a/the-industrial-revolution

D. Is there other software online that could have done the job better? Explain.

I think Minecraft could have been a better software to use as the details and intricacy you can put into the buildings you create bring out a level of realism to the project. It’s very easy to use as well once you’ve gotten the hang of it, and it takes about an hour or two to create a satisfactory build. I think that the software I used limited the smaller details that could have been done in Minecraft.

Our Utopian City (Modern Capitol)

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Modern Capitol

This design was created by Sariya, Kaylee, and Leah

Community: We picked community as one of our values as we believe that it’s important to connect with other people and have a sense of belonging in our city. To represent community, we decided to build a community centre to gather people together. In the community centre, people can socialize and do group activities such as fighting/combat classes, gaming rooms, and quizzes. On top of that, spending quality time with each other is important. We do this by creating a concert hall that would involve entertaining such as a wide variety of movies and live television shows, and a park where people can walk and socialize.  

Safety: In our city, safety is a priority, so our people remain comfortable and secure. We built a fire station to take care of any fires that would occur along with a police station where people can report issues and crimes. With a sense of protection around the city, people can feel safer and comfortable. 

Health: Health is an important value for us as staying healthy leads to a long and happy life. We want our people to be ensured stability. We help ensure our people are healthy in our city by building a hospital as well as a gym where people can get access to medical help and exercise. The hospital and gym can be accessed by anyone. Additionally, there are restaurants around the city that serves food and drinks. Lastly, in the community centre there can be access to groups where people can express their feelings to ensure their mental health is stable. 

Nature: Nature is one of our values as we want a city with a lot of greenery. We put a lot of grass and flowers around our buildings as well as including a park where people can go out and enjoy the fresh air. We didn’t want a busy city with no greenery around, therefore, we ensured that any areas flourishing with greenery could be accessed.  

Symbolism in colours: We picked a green and blue background for our city to represent our values. The colour green represents health and nature which are two of our values. The colour blue represents stability and serenity which corresponds with the values safety and community.  

Communication Reflection

In this project, we had to create our version of an Utopian city that represents the core values we chose as a group. The program my group used to create our design was City Creator. Since we only had two classes to meet up to work on the design, we needed to communicate with each other during the week. We created a Snapchat group chat where we could ask questions as well as check up on each other’s work. We often pitched a bunch of ideas to one another and jotted them all down on a word document. Then we narrowed them down by listening to each other’s opinions about each idea to come to a consensus. My responsibility in my group was writing out the values on a word document and creating a list of buildings that would feature for each value. Each member contributed to the project as we didn’t necessarily assign tasks but rather built onto ideas with suggestions. We worked well as a group as we used our class time efficiently by completing the tasks that would be difficult to do online such as establishing our values and the buildings we wanted to do. During class, we were able to complete a lot which allowed the work to be easy to accomplish during the week. Decisions were made as a group. We would discuss to make sure everyone is confident in the decision. We didn’t face many problems, but if we did we would probably solve them by brainstorming solutions together. I’m satisfied with the final product as I think it represents our values well. Something I would improve next time is maybe staying more organized and communicate with my group members to check whether we’re at the same pace.

My Most Memorable Food Experience

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My most memorable food experience is baking and eating a strawberry cheesecake. This happened in my kitchen with my family who aided me in making the cake. This meal stood out to me as it was the first cake I’ve ever made, so I lacked any previous experience of cake baking when I first started. This felt like a challenge for me to improve at my baking skills. I also had gotten a standard mixer which was a new experience that made the process of making the cake easier. It had taken around four hours to make, but once we were finished I felt very proud. The cake itself was sweet and well balanced, as it had a graham cracker crust that was crispy. The smell of strawberries overflowed the kitchen, and the taste of the smooth whipped cream went well with the tartness of the raspberries. This food was a memorable moment because of the laughter and enjoyment that came out of eating the cake as well as spending the time to bake it with my family.