In this lab, the core competency that I demonstrated was communication with my lab partner. In this lab, we had to communicate efficiently for the lab to run smoothly and for all tasks to be completed. We gave each other certain roles or tasks in the group so that we could get through the procedure effectively. For example, one person would be in charge of measuring one substance while the other person would follow along by adding the second substance. Then for our next step, one person would be in charge of observing the change in the precipitation and temperature while the second person would record the data. We split roles like this throughout the entire lab and had to communicate when we switched tasks so that there wouldn’t be any misunderstanding. This was important because, with the limited amount of time and large tasks, we had to strategically set out roles. Also throughout the lab, we were able to communicate with each other what we thought was going on and share our opinions while working together and coming to a conclusion. In this lab, I was able to work on my communication skills and collaborate with my partner to successfully finish lab 19C.

This was a problem my group and I solved on the board for the unit Application of Derivatives. We have worked well together over the semester so far because we contribute equally and have roles in our group. One person is in charge of looking up the questions and the notes to help us out, the other person writes out the question and is in charge of the marker, and the last person helps solve the problem and directs the person with the marker. We change these roles every day, so everyone gets a chance to do everything. We are always encouraging each other and contributing so that board work goes smoothly. For this specific question, one person was looking up formulas, notes, and examples to help out. I was in charge of the markers and writing out the information that we discussed in a group. The last person helps put things together and contributes to solving the question. This question was from the related rates chapter, it was “Two cars start moving from the same point.  One travels south at 60 km/h and the other travels west at 25 km/h.  At what rate is the distance between the two cars increasing two hours later?” First, we decided to draw the question and multiply 60 and 25 by 2 since it was the distance in 2 hours. Then the person with the phone in the group gave us the formula which was Pythagoras theorems. We then used that formula to find the Z which was the other side of the triangle. Eventually, we derived the original formula and started to plug in the numbers that we had. In the formula x was the number multiplied by 2 and dx/dt was the original number which is 25 then we did the same for the rest of the variables. After we had one part of the equation that didn’t have a number which was dz/dt which we had to solve for. Then with some algebra, we solved the question and got 65 km/h. During this question, we were helping each other when we hit a struggling point, for example figuring out the number of the variable and the rate of change. At the end of our collaboration, we figured out the correct answer.  

 A leadership quality I possess is being an active listener, I can listen to feedback and ideas that are presented in a group. I can also listen to negative and positive responses from team members to improve going forward. During our meetings as a group, I listen to everybody’s ideas and thoughts that they contributed and make sure they know that I am actively listening to the conversation. When we were talking about how we should organize our interactive survey many ideas were put on the table, and I was an active listener. This is an important quality for being a good leader and team member because you need to hear others’ opinions and ideas to grow in the future.    

A leadership skill I possess is being able to communicate in our group and in general, I can communicate ideas and give my opinion during appropriate times. When in a group setting, I try my best to communicate and have a say in the conversation and can get my ideas through clearly. While talking about ideas for our Christmas event in December I was able to communicate my ideas to the entire group. I can communicate with team members and others about problems that need to be solved and ideas that should be considered. 

A quality of mine that I would like to develop by the end of the course would be creativity. In general, I am not a very creative person when it comes to coming up with creative ideas or solutions. I struggle to think out of the box sometimes and come up with innovative solutions. Sometimes when we brainstrom for new creative ideas for our next event I am a bit slower to think of one compared to the rest of the group. I prefer thinking more critically and that doesn’t always help in certain situations.   

A skill that I would like to develop by the end of the course would be decision making. This is something I also struggle with when it comes to deciding between things and considering the impacts that would have long and short term. I am also not fast at making a decision, which is a problem because in some situations making quick and accurate decisions is important. I would also have to consider the effect that decision would have on the team and club.  

I am able to work with others to achieve a goal, I can work with other teammates to generate ideas, and solutions to reach our endpoint. I am able to communicate and listen to them so that we can both be on the same page to get the job done. I will always be willing to cooperate and work collectively so that everybody gets a share and a chance to speak. 

1. Reflect on how these songs contribute to making the community or natural world a better place and identify how the lyrics actions call others to action and can work to make positive change.  

In both of these songs Wreak Beach/ Totem Park and Cariboo Ghost and Untold Stories, they both convey a message to the community to make it a better place. They talk about the past and present issues going on involving the indigenous community. They speak about the unfairness and mistreatment that they had to face and the struggles they went through. The artists of these songs are trying to bring awareness to this issue and ensure others are aware. The lyrics have strong meanings and messages that work to bring positive change in our society. 

2. How do these songs represent that something is unfair? What is that “something”? Explain. 

These songs represent that something is unfair and that would be the rights of the indigenous people how they had everything taken away from them. The indigenous community had their culture, land and children taken away from them. These songs represent that unfairness through the meaning of the lyrics and the hidden messages throughout them as well. 

3. What emotions do these songs generate for you? Compare your emotions between each song. Which one is more compelling? And why? 

These songs generate many emotions for me, and some are indescribable, but I would say anger and devastation. These songs bring out these emotions because of what the indigenous community had to go through, and I feel angry because of what the settlers did to them. They mistreated, manipulated, and tricked them for their own needs. In the song Wreak Beach/Totem Park I feel angry because of how they were treated, for example, “I’ll sit on the beach till they put me in cuffs” This line shows them fitting against the settlers, but it is unfair since this is their land. In the song Caribou Ghost and Untold Stories, I feel devastation because of how tired they are from being treated badly in the line “We don’t have a plan for the win, we always lose anyway”. 

4. What is important to each of the singers? What is the message they are trying to convey? 

The singer The Zolas is trying to showcase the perspective from a “White Man” of how the indigenous people were treated and what they went through. The message they are trying to convey is the fight the indigenous people had against authority and how they stood up for what was right. It shows determination and persistence against authority. Leanne Simpson is showcasing her song from the indigenous people’s perspective and how they felt through this. The song’s message is trying to convey their silent approach against authority and the things that they did hidden to bring awareness. 

5. Using one of your similarities and differences, discuss in a short paragraph how music can convey different perspectives on the same cause? 

Music can convey many messages and powerful ones as well through the lyrics and in both of these songs it is very clearly seen. 

The lyrics I will be using are “Pinker than paradise, redder than blood” and “Hyped up on aesthetics and tripped up by real life” these two have similarities and differences. They both talk about how the expectation of life is pinker than paradise and hyped up on aesthetics which is how people want to see life. However, in reality, life is redder than blood and you get tripped up and that is what people have to face every day which isn’t anything compared to the expectation. They both talk about how our imagination of a perfect life is never true because real life is rough, and an uneasy road. The difference between these two lines is that the first song is more visual with a unique way with their words. They use colours to describe the negatives and positives of life. In the second song, the line is harsher and straight to the point about life. This can also be because of the artists and their approach to conveying their message to the world. 

For this project, we had to create a self portrait on Desmos using equations that we learned throughout the year. I first started by putting my photo into Desmos to use that as a reference and see where my features line up on the graph. I then had to see what equations and functions would represent different features the best. First starting with my eyes I had to use parabolas to shape my eyes properly. I first used an ellipse to shape my eyes however it didn’t have sharp corners so I had to improvise and use parabolas below and above my eyes. Then for the inside of my eye, I had to use a circle and I used sliders to adjust the size for both my iris and pupil. Next for my nose, I had to use a hyperbola because that was the best function to represent that feature. I also used circles and parabolas for my nose and used restrictions to get it exactly how I wanted. For my mouth, I used mostly parabolas to get the shape how I wanted and used a couple of equations for the top and bottom lip. For my eyebrows I used all ellipses with different restrictions to get the shape right. Then for eyelashes, I used all parabolas again with restrictions and sliders to place them right above the eye. Lastly, for the hair, I used parabolas first but they weren’t creating the shape I wanted so I switched to ellipses. This then gave me the correct curve for my hair and made it look more like my picture. While using these equations I had to add in restrictions, adjust my x and y, and add in sliders to make it look like my picture.

This semester when we started group work, I would say we all got along right away since we knew each other and didn’t have any big issues with communicating. I think we were all comfortable sharing our ideas and taking turns from the beginning, which was really nice. We would give each other roles sometimes, for example, who would do the writing, who had the questions up, and who was going to type in the question on demos or get the notes. Our group overall was quite organized and productive, so it was easy to get things done. However, we did struggle with the problems even after using our notes and talking it out. One of the problems we had some trouble with was in unit 6 chapter 5 World Problems. This question was a bit tricky because of the way it was worded maybe but we didn’t understand how to start. In our group, one thing that we were quite confused about was when the questions said “varies sinusoidally with time”. We all didn’t know what that meant and had trouble so we checked our notes and previous questions and couldn’t figure it out. After we searched it up and talked it out, it made sense and then we went on our way to start the question. We worked as a group, got our notes out and tried to problem solve by drawing the diagram of a spring. We then figured out from the diagram and our notes the midline, the amplitude then started to put all the pieces together for the question. We then figured out that the question had a phase shift from the question then created our equation for it. Lastly, we figured it was a cosine graph and started to graph our equation. We worked collectively and helped each other by putting our ideas together. Our group is really good at communicating with each other by sharing ideas, problem solving, and helping each other out when someone doesn’t understand. We always make sure that everyone understands the question before moving on to the next one. If there is something our group needs to maybe work on is after trying a couple of times asking for help from a teacher or asking another group. 

About the Activity

For this project I had to create a legal code for 30 people who were stranded on an island. We had to create a system and code for the people on the island to make sure that everyone was in order. We got to chose what type of system we wanted for example a dictatorship or a democratic system. Then had to create jobs, punishments, and laws that the people had to follow. Once we made this code we compared it to other codes like the Hammurabi code to find that similarities and differences.

Core Competency Reflection

I can understand and share information about a topic of interest in a clear, organized way.

I can understand and share information about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and different government systems in my desert island project. I shared this information in a clear and organized way for my project. I made sure to give definitions and explain what i was saying in a detailed way so it would be as clear as possible.

I can take on roles and responsibilities in a group; I do my share.

I can take roles and responsibilities in my group to make sure i am doing my part equally. I make sure to do my share so that the work load isn’t just on one person and is divided equal among the two of us.

I can work with others to achieve a goal.

I can definitely work with others to make sure our end goal is reached and that we do our best to meet that goal. For this project my partner and I made sure to stay on task and planned out our project to achieve our goal.

I can give, receive and act on feedback to progress in my goals.

I can also give, receive, and act on feedback to get to my goal quicker. I make sure to act on the feedback given to me as soon as possible to make sure my progress is efficient. I can also give feedback to others and my partner to make sure that it will impact our progress.

Goal Going Forward

I can get ideas when I use my five senses to explore or when I pursue my interests.

I think this is an area i tend to struggle with because i find it a bit hard to explore and find ideas using my five senses. I also find it a bit difficult doing thing with a creative perspective and lean more towards critical thinking. I am slowly working towards this goal by trying to find new ideas creatively and pursing areas of my interest. I am working on this goal because i want to widen my perspective on new ideas and just exploring these ideas.