I can prevent some school-related stress by going on walks and enjoying nature rather than constantly thinking about school work. Spending time in nature helps me relax and remind me of all the positive things in the world, like how beautiful nature is. When I am feeling anxious about a test, I can calm myself by taking some deep breaths and going outside for some fresh air. When I need to boost my mood or re-focus I listen to music to be able to cancel everything else out. When I make mistakes, I don’t beat myself up. Instead I remind myself that I can learn from my mistakes and use them to expand my learning in the future.
For our final project in AP Biology, we had to design our own lab. My partner and I did our experiment on the rate of CO2 production by yeast. We had to use critical thinking when developing our procedure, materials list, and data tables. We also had to research about yeast and different types of flour for our hypothesis and conclusion. When researching, we were able to identify important information that was helpful compared to information that served no purpose in our experiment. The picture above demonstarted the method that we used to measure the volume of CO2 produced which also showed my improvement in crticial thinking because we had to brainstorm and decide on the most effecient and accurate way of measuring the CO2. If I had not used my thinking skills this lab design project would not have been as succesful as it was. Overall, I am very proud of this project and I believe it shows my critical thinking skills very well.
Completed titration with oxalic acid and sodium hydroxide
During our Chemistry 12 titration experiment, I can confidently say that I worked effectively with my partner to achieve our goal of determining the concentration of NaOH. We had to titrate a primary standard 0.050M oxalic acid solution with a unknown concentration of NaOH. I was able to take on specific roles and responsibilities like preparing the 0.050M oxalic acid solution, managing the burette, monitoring the Erlenmeyer flask, and recording data to ensure precision and accuracy. It is difficult to do titrations because the volume of NaOH we add must be perfect or else we’ve over shot it and the solution will be “over-titrated”. But because of our collaborative efforts it highlighted our ability to communicate clearly and support each other, leading to successful and reliable results after 4 trials of titrations. This lab improved my ability to work in a team and take on responsibilities within a partnership to achieve a common objective.
This is a photo of a question my group did from the logarithms chapter. I had been confused and struggling with logs a lot but after working out the problems with my group I was able to better understand. Talking it out helps me see different ways that people in my group solve the problem. We also connected our group with other groups to expand our knowledge on the topic. We were having trouble factoring the polynomial but after talking to other groups, we put it in the quadratic formula and it helped us find the final answer which did not exist. In the future, I would want to develop better teamworking skills. Because after we get stuck at a part of the equation, it is hard for me to problem solve with my group since we think differently. Improving this skill would benefit me because it will make my mind more open to accepting and processing different ways of doing the same thing.
This is the dialysis tube containing starch, 24 hours after IKI and water has diffused through the membrane and into the tube.
Collaborating
I worked with others to achieve our goal. My lab partner and I had to help each other to tie the ends of the tubes. We needed to collaborate and make sure we got the correct amount of starch in the tube. We also worked together to ensure there were no air bubbles and tied it differently a couple times to get it as close as possible. I made sure we were clear on the common purpose of the lab by talking through everything, and explaining anything that wasn’t understood. For example we were a little confused about when to add in the IKI but after talking it out and asking questions we understood what to do.
Critical Thinking
I analyzed evidence to make judgements. After 24 hours of diffusion the starch in the dialysis tube turned very blue. I used this evidence to make a judgement that the IKI entered into the tube and changed the colour of the starch. Further evidence is that the water in the beaker was no longer yellow meaning the IKI must have diffused somewhere else. Also, I remained open-minded as I explored different options because I had no idea if my hypothesis would be supported or not. But I was able to make a judgement after the lab that supported my hypothesis.
During this lab my partner and I (Juheon) had to use collaboration to achieve this pink colour. We had many rough trials where we over shot it and the pink became too bright. But after talking it through we were able to realize what our mistakes were and we used each of our strengths to become successful. The best way we shared ideas was talking about it and writing down our thoughts / notes during the demo. Next time though I would try to make a plan before hand so we can get it right quicker.
This is a free verse poem I wrote using metaphors about my grandma.
Core Competency Reflection
This is how I select images and words to create impact for different audiences: I think using the metaphor of a lion to describe my grandma really helps everyone understand what impact I wanted to create. Most people of different backgrounds have some knowledge about lions so it was easy for me to communicate my feelings. I seek, develop and weigh options as demonstrated by… Since this was a free verse poem I had to try many different options of how I wanted my poem to look. I used critical thinking to decide what way the line breaks worked the best. When it seems the good ideas just won’t come to me, I …. to help calm myself or create space in my mind to… I was stuck quite a bit on what metaphor to use for my grandma and I was a little stressed since I had no ideas. But I actually called my grandma just to talk to her and really notice what type of vibe she has. I also talked to my cousin and we came up with the idea of a lion, so talking to my family really helped me come up with creative ideas.
One goal that I’m working on is boosting my mood or re-focusing. A lot of the times I get frustrated when working because my ideas just aren’t working and I notice the quality of my work also decreases. So I’ve been working on it by taking breaks when I feel stuck and coming back with a fresh mind. I hope by the end of the school year I have gotten into a habit of letting myself take breaks when necessary.
“Are You Ready to Do CPR?” Verywell Health, https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-to-do-cpr-1298446. Accessed 7 Dec. 2022.
CPR Reflection
Something new that I learned this unit that I hadn’t considered before was using an AED. I had always seen them used in movies but I didn’t know I could use one myself to help save someone’s life. I also didn’t know exactly know how an AED works but this unit thought me how they send a shock wave through the body to jump start the heart. A key takeaway from this unit is learning the signs of a heart attack and stroke. I will make sure to always look out for the five P’s of a heart attack and to recognize FAST for a stroke. The CPR unit connects to the nutrition unit because during the CPR unit we learned that having a unhealthy diet can cause a heart attack, whether it’s from high cholesterol, diabetes, or obesity. During the nutrition unit we learned how to have a balanced diet that will allow us to live a long healthy life.
Core Competency Reflection
I can describe how learning about CPR relates to my life because both of my grandpas have had heart attacks and are at high risk. So knowing CPR could potentially help me save them incase they have another heart attack. Examples of where I communicated clearly and purposefully can be seen in lessons when I participated with any information that I already knew about CPR from before this unit. I appreciated feedback on my CPR knowledge and skills when it came in the form of helping improve my technique. I want to know if I need to go deeper or faster because in real life I need to have proper technique for CPR to work.
At the beginning of the year my Life Science 11 class did this activity to practice classifying with buttons. I worked with my partner Alethea, together we had to sort the buttons into different species and give them scientific names. We had to use critical thinking because we needed an understanding what to eliminate and what goes together, like a puzzle. I definitely improved in noticing smaller details to make my decisions and this improved my overall critical thinking skills. Alethea and I had many different ideas so I was able to realize that different people have different ways of sorting things when it comes to priority. Overall this assignment really turned on my critical thinking for the rest of the year and helped me understand what taxonomists do in their job.
Create and Communicate: While doing this assignment we had to present our project to the class. This made me work on my speaking skills. When we had to draw a photo of our mutated animal I used my representation skills to show what we imagined. We also made a PowerPoint to explain our idea in more depth. This helped me grow a lot in those areas.
Core Competencies Reflection
Creative Thinking: I definitely grew during this project because I had to use creative thinking a lot. To come up with new ideas of mixed animals with pros and cons helped me improve my creative thinking. I am very proud of this project because it really shows our creativity and design.
