Life Science 11 Review

Posted on June 22, 2025 by 076-asonawala

What aspect of this course did you enjoy the most? Why?

I have always had a high liking for anything to do with the human body. When going over bacteria in comparison to viruses, learning about how the human body defends against them, a refresher on protein synthesis, and the DNA replication fork had my most attention and made me smile the whole time. Although, the plant, squid, and hydra labs were second to having my most attention, and I enjoyed them greatly.

2. What aspects of this course did you not enjoy? Why?

There was no true unit that I did not enjoy. The main thing that I did not enjoy due to it making me feel discouraged was whenever drawings needed to be done. I feel as though my creativity and skills have little to no place in fine arts, making me coming to a blank when needing to trace things, especially when needing to draw it without already a clear image of the end result.

3. Were there any topics or activities that you are interested in that were not covered in this course? If yes, explain.

My main motivation for joining Biology 11 was for the human body related units. So I was hoping to learn more in-depth about the respiratory, cardiovascular, and lymphatic systems; along with learning about the muscular, digestive, and nervous systems, rather than learning about the biology of different animals, plants, and eras.

4. What skills did you improve on during this course? e.g. studying, time management, microscopes, labwork, critical thinking, etc.

Before needing to read the textbook, I was an extremely slow reader who would feel sleepy just after reading around 4 pages. Now, I am able to read around 10 pages, memorize that set of pages completely within an hour, and read around 20 pages without feeling sleepy. I may not know what changed, but I am happy as I feel like it will do me a world of good in grade 12 and especially university. In the lab, I made a handful of silly mistakes with the focus, stage height, and where the specimen was when using microscopes. I feel a lot more confident in being able to use microscopes, being able to study an animal by dissecting it, and being able to remember larger amounts of information for short periods.

5. Do you have any recommendations for how this course was taught?

Aside from making the students draw (labelling was fine), and possibly allowing for extra time to submit assignments instead of having it due the next day, which would be beneficial, I feel like everything else was well organized and expectations were managed well.

6. If you had the chance to do this again, is there anything you would do differently?

One of the things that made me spend the most time was doing any sort of diagrams. Not the labelling part, but drawing it out. At first, I wanted to print it out, which I did sometimes, but when it came to labs, since the diagrams needed to be accurate to what was seem either outside when identifying plants, or when seeing a bacteria or fern through a microscope, I was not able to find pictures off the internet to match it, and able to draw it to scale within the space given to label, which ended up in minus marks. If I could go back, I would disregard the fact it may not look accurate, and trace the closest I can find to it, instead of trying to make the drawings look perfect.

7. Which science courses are you taking next year?

Physics 12, Anatomy and Physiology 12, and Chemistry 12

Titrations

Posted on June 5, 2025 by 076-asonawala

Curricular Competency Explanation:

Cover the following points. This will take the place of a lab write-up conclusion.

What is a titration?
What was a titration used for in this lab?
What is the endpoint (or the equivalence point) of a titration?
How do you know that you have reached the endpoint of the titration?
What were your results?

A titration is a technique used to determine the concentration of a substance in a solution. Titration relies on a known chemical reaction between the chemical of unknown concentration (analyte), and chemical of known concentration (titrant). The analyte is a measured volume of the solution, with an unknown concentration, while the titrant’s concentration is known, and is added drop by drop from a burette into the analyte (which often sits in a Erlenmeyer flask or beaker). In this titration lab (20C: Acid-Base Titration), a titration was used by putting 10.00mL HCl (hydrochloric acid) of an unknown molarity into an Erlenmeyer flask, adding 3 drops of phenolphthalein to it, then adding 0.10M NaOH (sodium hydroxide) drop by drop from a burette above. Each time even the slightest bit of NaOH made contact with the solution, it turned pink in that area, hence why one of the instructions while adding the NaOH was to constantly swirl the Erlenmeyer flask (to mix it in, therefore getting rid of the colour). As NaOH gets added, each drop became more colourful than the previous, and stayed longer. the Goal was to add a measured amount of NaOH until the solution obtained a slightly pink hue around its surface. This is the ideal point where the titrant added is stoichiometrically equivalent to the amount of analyte (in other words, when the moles of acid is equal to the moles of base, resulting in complete neutralization). The endpoint is when the solution gains its slight tint, as the teacher told us it should be. After four trials, only two of them gained their tint perfectly (while trial 1 and 2’s solutions lost their transparencies too much). As for the questions after the lab, students were asked to find the moles of NaOH in the solution by averaging the volume of it used throughout the trials, then to find the moles of HCl in the solution, then to find its molarity, thus being able to tell us the molarity of the original container of HCl.

Core Competency Reflection:

As stated in the above lab, although I have been given instructions on what to do, there were no instructions on the pacing of the lab. Since multiple trials had to be done, me and my partner agreed to see to it that the table of all 4 trials on our paper are filled in. The problem was that we clearly were being too hasty to the point we were wasting time since the data from different trials were not allowed to be used if outside of 0.05ml of each other. We were about to make the same mistake on the third trial, but I decided that the first time was just to know what we were doing, the second one was a genuine mess up (as identifying mistakes is in my nature before I proceed), but as pressure was starting to weigh on me seen as how much time we messed up with, I decided to do the titrations but this time, follow my own instinct and not rush it. We originally continued adding drops or streamlining too much NaOH, thinking that the swirling would be able to remove all the colour, but we were wrong twice. Although it seems like basic problem solving, it feels good to be able to remind myself like with this lab, that taking a step back, identify areas needed to be changed, yet having the time to advocate for my goals and intentions is still something I am able to do, (and well within my nature) even when I feel under pressure. My partner seemed to want to speed up, and as compensation for speeding up to cause errors, it seemed as though he planned on asking a teacher for help identifying quick mistakes, thinking that they are easy enough to realize and fix instantly. Although he was correct about being able to resolve it quickly, doing the titration the correct (slow) way with only an hour took time and he had to leave for the next block (and the lab would apparently be closed once our class is done). I volunteered to stay behind if needed, which put him at ease, allowing us to get 2 accurate trials. Volunteering to do things no matter the difficulty is both within my personality as a responsibility as someone with several younger cousins and have had to entertain several kids before, and also as a cultural part of my identity being a volunteer at mosques. Throughout the whole time though, I was certain that we would not need to stay longer anyways, and I was correct, as spending time to play it safe and slow would result in better results, making less of a mess to clean up and would ensure we can follow steps precisely, removing time spent needing to think or ask for help; just read and do. That certainty does not come from a “positive” or “optimistic” part of my personality. This has nothing to do with being positive, negative, optimistic, or pessimistic. Just logical.

Guitar Core Competency Reflection

Posted on June 4, 2025 by 076-asonawala

Once I started guitar 12, I already had 13 years of experience, felt professional in older, jazz, and classical melodies under roughly 140 bpm (beats per minute), at a sub-satisfactory amount of being able to predict what notes come next in a song based off of melodic/harmonic progression, and having what felt like an extending level of comprehension and knowledge on musical theory. Once the course started picking up, most of what we went over were chords with consistent opportunities to play bar-chords, while playing extremely easy melodies almost all in tab (tablature) over treble-clef. However, as a proactive reaction to the simple melodies, I decided to play it one octave on the strings up, which made it surprisingly easier to go between notes and now I think I have gotten used to playing simple melodies that way. I am happy to know that I have improved in terms of chords, as I am able to produce clearer sound from my bar-chords, I am able to change chords faster (enough to the point I can play all the songs we have had to play as a class).

Along with the chords, I have also received the opportunity to play a song of my choice several times. That if which I have so far chosen the FNAF 1 song (which plays at 180 bpm), Wet Hands (which even though seems slow when playing it, it is quite difficult to keep the same pace at the piano version, and to have the notes and loud or silenced as they should be), and for my third song I chose Ruins (a background original soundtrack from the game Undertale, but a much lower note version of it. The notes that my teacher helped me find was the perfect sound, just way too high on the fretboard, so after printing those pages for me, I chose to rewrite all of it by hand to simpler but the exact same notes). I spent time from guitar in grade 9 to learn how to listen to and identify notes, and I am happy that skill has been paying off as I write and listen to the music instead of constantly needing to go back to the printed version then flip back to the page I was writing on. Those three are evidence enough that I can master guitar skills possibly to a somewhat “complex” level.

I used to think fast paced or songs with many chords were challenging, but now I know that there are more difficult skills, and the things that I found challenging before the start of the course are much easier than I thought as long as I put in more practice then I normally would, which makes sense seen as how just playing guitar is not just about muscle memory, music comprehension, and sight reading, but also muscle strength to persevere through the songs. Before the start of the course, one of the things that I believed was easy with just a little bit of practice (as long as all parties knew what they were doing) was songs that required multiple guitars (specifically trios), this was proved wrong when forming class groups to decide on a song to play in-front of the rest of the class, and after two weeks of practicing our song (Viva La Vida), it was still troubling to keep in sync and not lose where we are. After that experience, I am now more clear on the difference between playing individually verses collaborating musically.

English First Peoples 11 Identity Project: Self Reflection

Posted on January 7, 2025 by 076-asonawala

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Curricular Response

Explain how this project reflects both the strengths and weaknesses in your work?

I believe I exceeded the amount of content expected, and went more in-depth than I needed to. I tried my best to explain things as clearly as I could in-terms of community oppression and initial timeline history, and have plenty of resources in my MLA bibliography. The problem I think of when having such a long bibliography is that, sure the assessor can see where you got all the information from, and can validate the sites, but at the same time, the fact that there are so many resources may give the wrong impression to the assessor, via a thought that whoever wrote the document must not be educated on the subject(s) at the time seen as how there were so many roots of information needed. This can be countered with the fact that there was a lot of content, and general knowledge for one may equate to minutes of research for another, exploiting the need to show where the written information can be found (but not where the content is from); nonetheless, it still damages the optics between the assessor and you. I would have liked to integrate more quotes, but was too focused to keep on writing content and editing it, that I took time out from optimizing the amount of resources I have, which I now see explains why I needed the massive number of links. Identifying and fixing that time management issue should resolve most of my challenges in terms of goals for the assignment. The only thing afterwards that I can currently think of to improve on would be getting through the processes of content, edit, site, (edit,) and repeat, faster but without losing quality or skipping information. Perhaps keeping things more concise can save time, but that will take longer to relearn how to do, because I feel like I am too used to writing long essays, as a practice for university level writing assignments. The thing wrong with that is you must be able to keep things concise, yet still have plenty of information that concise shouldn’t mean short, unclear, or skipping details.

Core Competency Self Reflection

Think of your assignments generally. Describe what completing assignments is like for you? Easy? Hard? Why is it easy or hard? Or what specific parts are easy or hard? Or what kinds of assignments/work is easier or more enjoyable for you than others? What things outside of a formal school situation do you do, that help you succeed in English?

When needing to do assignments regarding posters or diagrams, I have to use my creativity, which I usually don’t do for assignments and projects, so I’m not used to it, in turn making me a lot slower by overthinking even the simplest of details, because the logic side of my brain tells me that there should be more work than just that, so where is it? That makes me even slower because after putting in the work and still feeling that, it makes me procrastinate while I rack my mind on what else I could add. I am able to differentiate a lot of on task, straight forward creativity in an organized fashion, from somewhat off topic, not vividly organized creativity that makes sense. I cannot differentiate on task, organized creativity, from extending level creativity. I may as well be a fourth grader looking at multiplication and integrals side by side. I have no idea what integrals are, so my brain, just like any other, blocks it out since there is no possible way to identify the important parts that put together the entire thing. When doing written and logic based assignments, whether if I have to present it or not, I am comfortable with it because I have my script, I have a good understanding of how my audience’s brains will react to my information and what factors play into that, and I can quickly and easily identify what parts I may need to add or improv on midway through. I find purely written assignments easier because not only do I use my brain’s logic side most anyways, but I find it easier to explain things when writing them down instead of through imagery or verbally since factors like tone do not play a role, and using uncommon conversational words to help specify to one context and/or an elaboration do not create awkwardness unless there’s a grammar error, which I am trained to identify and think of the most efficient ways to correct it to, based off whatever I am about to write. Even outside of school, for martial arts I had to write a document about the word of the month (usually a positive adjective or action), ranging from 600 – 900 words long, starting from 6th grade. Even sometimes my friends or family ask me for information, in which I put into a word document that is usually a bit over 1000 words. On top of the writing practice by helping others and the martial arts monthly essays to force me to think of new definitions and elaborations for singular words, allowing me to see the vast synonyms and connections between them, I also sometimes get tutored for English academic writing, which boosts my confidence and typing speed/processing speed even more. Unfortunately, having to write a paragraph or more via paper and pen/pencil takes far more time for me to complete, despite my background, due to me being a perfectionist. I am happy with how my skills turned out to be though, especially since I can focus more time on learning how to write better, and do not need to waste time on the act of writing.

Law 12 Core Competency EduBlog Reflection

Posted on October 31, 2024 by 076-asonawala

Should our criminal justice system be more punitive or rehabilitative? Why?

The Canadian criminal justice system has a conviction rate of 62%, but excluding deals and guilty pleas and deals, its drops down to 50%. Based on the charges and the court procedures seen when going to the Surrey provincial court, the system is already rehabilitative enough. A man named Abraham shot someone with a semi-automatic gun, didn’t report anything, almost killed the victim but failed, then tried to hide the gun and threatened the victim to not tell anyone about the encounter, otherwise there would be problems. He was only sentenced to 4 years in jail without parole, but only 2 years would be written on his criminal record in hopes of not deteriorating his life too much. He did not give any reason as to why he committed that aggravated assault. Another guy who had rage problems tackled a woman that lived across from him, who came over to his apartment. He strangled her while allegedly holding a handgun, but ultimately let her run away after she knocked the gun out of his hand and kicked him off enough for her to escape. They both tried reaching for the gun, but neither could get it while holding the other away from it. The man was only sentenced to 18 months of parole (reporting what he’s done throughout the day to any parole officer whether it’s his officer or not, but preferably his own, there is no curfew with the parole, and an ankle bracelet on him for the first few weeks of the parole). The final part of the sentence though, was more consistent anger management rehabilitation and therapy, paid for by the government. The main reason for only parole and no jail time for that simple assault is because the judge thought that the defense felt remorseful by moving a block away from her after the incident, going to anger management therapy (despite already receiving therapy before the incident), and sending her a letter apologizing for the incident. The person being charged didn’t say a word throughout the entire crime or trial, and only nodded to agree to his charges and that he understood what was going on.

I feel as though the system is far too rehabilitative and should be more punitive. The sentences for things should be higher. Crimes that happen are accused of being not as bad as they really are to convince the defense to cooperate, agree to the charges, and make sure that there is a conviction with a sentence. Crowns should be able to dig into evidence more, and be able to charge people with crimes closer to what they actually committed.

“Conviction Rate.” Wikipedia, 19 Oct. 2024. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Conviction_rate&oldid=1252133021.

Core Competencies Self Assessment

Critical and Reflective Thinking

I can analyze evidence of a case to determine what needs to be done and what the restrictions are. I’m able to build evidence and claims off each other to uncover the inconsistency that lets me ascertain the real and important evidence from the fake and irrelevant evidence. I can and have shown the ability to narrow down the important details enough to evaluate the problem at point blank to ensure a fitting judgement has been made in relatively close ties to the Canadian criminal code.

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