I demonstrated communication competency by explaining my topic and getting audience engagement, demonstrated by the numerous questions asked. I did this by prepping properly and being confident in myself to create an interesting presentation.
I demonstrated critical thinking by processing, understanding and reflecting on the 3 movies that made up the majority of my presentation. This was demonstrated when I explained in depth how I felt about them and how they lack passion, making them less like true art and more like slop.
The artifact I chose is my Comida project where I learned and explained Jugo de Naranjilla, or Naranjilla juice.
I demonstrated Communication by creating a visually appealing presentation to explain what my food item was, and by presenting this project I demonstrated my ability to explain ideas to others in Spanish. Ms. Alvarez allowed me to present to her alone due to my anxiety which really helped, but because I was still nervous I spoke very fast, which created some errors as I was not used to pronouncing words at that speed.
I demonstrated Critical-Thinking in this project by researching about my food and understanding its significance for the cultures that use it. I also asked for help when I needed it and used all the resources that I had access to. During this project I learned a lot about my food and learned about Spanish sentence structure more than I already have.
The artifact I chose is the Fetal Pig Dissection Lab because despite missing multiple days due to illness my partner and I were able to complete most of the labelling.
Communication: This lab I demonstrated the communication core competency by working with my partner and sharing our ideas together. I showed communication and collaboration with this artifact by working with my partner to simultaneously label parts of the pig to work faster than we could alone. I was able to share my ideas successfully during this lab when I used my knowledge to explain where the various parts of the umbilical chord and vein so that my partner understood the differences. By ignoring our differences during the lab and focusing on the work we were able to collaborate successfully and complete as much of the lab as possible with our lost time. I will continue developing this skill in the future by working to not only ignore our differences, but try to connect in other ways when I have disagreements with group members.
Critical Thinking: This lab I used critical thinking to understand and locate organs in the pig by using my logic and understanding of the human body. This was best shown when looking for the kidneys, as I used my previous knowledge and critical thinking to recognize what they looked like (little beans) and to locate them (pretty low down in the torso). I used feedback to improve my dissection when, at the start I did a very shallow cut into the pigs head, but after advice from another student and Ms. Chew I made a much deeper incision to properly separate the jaw. I did not use much creative thinking during this lab due to its nature.
This picture shows my dissection of a squid in the Animals Unit.
Core Competency Reflection
Communication:
I used communication in this lab by following the instructions given for the order of cutting, as well as helping others who may have missed the instructions. I was able to help others by explaining clearly what was required, as well as pointing to the specific organs and lines that we were supposed to cut. At the end of the lab when we were preparing the squid to be calamari I helped others understand what was expected to be eaten and what was to be discarded.
Thinking:
I used critical thinking during this lab by properly cutting up the squid, and properly identifying the sex of my squid without being told. I was also able to demonstrate my critical thinking skills by showing my competency when it comes to dissections, as well as the anatomy of mollusc’s. During the lab I used my thinking skills to discern the different organs of my own squid, as well as helping others discern what they were looking at.
Personal Social:
I have a sense of personal and social competency from this lab as I was able to help others, but also ask for help when I needed it, which is has been a weakness of mine in the past, and it seems to be fading as time passes. The fact that others asked me for help also shows that others consider me trustworthy and they feel comfortable asking for my help, which can be scary. I am proud of my dissection because I put effort into it, and the results show that as I got 100% on the lab.
I think the best lab we did in this class were the lemon blueberry muffins. The muffins had the perfect ratio of citrus and blueberry because we used our critical thinking skills and knew that we weren’t huge blueberry fans so we didn’t put the whole amount of blueberries into the recipe. The contrast between the sourness of the lemon and sweetness of the blueberry made for really good overall flavour. While preparing the food we shared our ideas, and to keep used dishes to a minimum we shared some of the measuring tools. This is why this lab was my favourite lab that we have done so far in the Food Studies 10 class.
