Setting up the materials and equipment for the lab
I can work with others to achieve a goal. I demonstrate this in my chemistry labs, especially in the Titration lab, because it is necessary to communicate and work together to complete the lab accurately and on time. I had to collaborate with my partner, and we had to decide who was going to do each step in the procedure so we could work effectively. During the Titration lab, my partner and I worked together well because we split the roles between us, with her doing the pipette and acid, and I did the burette and base. By splitting these tasks, we were really fast with our preparation, and had more time to titrate. During the titration, I used the burette to drop the NaOH into the beaker with HCl, while my partner swirled the beaker after each drop so it was fully combined, making sure we could see the indicator change colour.
I can persevere over time to develop my ideas, and I expect setbacks and failure, but use that to develop my ideas. It took first took a lot of effort and thinking to figure out which specific Ancient Greek art era i wanted to convey, and then I had to use creative thinking to develop my design. I had to be creative with the aspects and elements that I used, being creative with the story I was telling but also connecting it back to Ancient Greece. I seek, develop and weigh options as demonstrated by figuring out the story I wanted to tell. There were a few that I had in mind, but after thinking and weighing each option, I felt that the story about getting my first cat was going to be the best story that I could realistically convey on the clay pot. I also faced setbacks and difficulties, especially with trying to make the handles for the pot. After they kept falling off and breaking, I was going to pivot and change my idea, but I persevered and found a way to get them to stay on. I built upon other’s ideas, and used inspiration from the pictures in the Powerpoint lesson to develop ideas, and then I was further able to create my own. I analyzed other Ancient Greek pottery in the Black-Figure technique era so I could incorporate the correct designs and techniques into my pottery, so it would be accurate to the era I chose. For next time, I could improve by taking the time to make my clay pottery more detailed. After putting in a lot of effort into the drawing portion, I feel like the pottery art itself was somewhat rushed and didn’t turn out the original way I wanted it. If there was a next time, I would focus on making sharp, consistent and geometric patterns.
What aspects of this course did you enjoy the most?
Throughout this course, I enjoyed doing labs and simulations the most. I especially enjoyed the bird mutation simulation, and the acid and bases labs. They were the most interactive thing we did, and I especially found it more engaging and easier to understand when it was explained through a simulation or lab.
2. What aspects of the course did you not enjoy?
Some of the aspects that I did not enjoy as much was the memorization for biology, the understanding/math in physics. I also did not enjoy the radiation unit because I found it to be a hard concept to grasp, and overall I found it boring.
3. Were there any topics or activities that you are interested in that were not covered in this course?
The main topic I am interested in is the system and movement in the human body. Biology for science 10 was mostly about DNA and mutations, so I am looking forward to Anatomy and Physiology 12 when I take that course in grade 12.
4. What skills did you improve on during this course? (ex. studying, time management critical thinking)
During this course, I improved my time management skills because I had to balance this class with other academic classes and school sports. I found that Science 10 involved even more studying, assignments and focus, so I really improved with getting things done right away, not procrastinating and having better time management.
5. Do you have any recommendations for how this course was taught?
I don’t really have huge recommendations for how this course was taught, but I do have some minor suggestions or some feedback on my opinion. I found that some concepts needed more explaining, as some units were a bit brief. I also found that some multiple choice test questions were not what we learned or focused on, so this was a bit frustrating at times.
6. If you had the chance to do this course again is there anything you would do differently?
I would probably study even more thoroughly because there were some test questions on some worksheets/notes that I did not study or did not think were important, resulting in me not knowing the answer.
7. Which science courses are you taking next year?
Next year in grade 11 I am taking the three main sciences; Life Sciences 11, Chemistry 11 and Physics 11.
When I need to boost my mood or re-focus, I enjoy listening to music, especially when I am at home. Instead of getting distracted and doing something else, I listen to music and continue working on my assignment or project. Music helps me calm myself down, and/or change my mood. I can listen to upbeat music when I need more energy, or calmer music if I need to focus.
When I get stuck on a problem, I have strategies for what to do next. They include taking a short break to clear my mind, or breaking the problem down into smaller parts. When I get stuck on any sort of problem or difficult assignment, my first step is to take a deep breath and stay calm. If I get stressed out, it only makes it harder to think clearly and stay focused. When I do get stuck, I reread the question carefully, usually multiple times, making sure I understand what its actually asking.
Some of the things I do to stay mentally and physically healthy include getting enough sleep each night, getting exercise everyday and doing things that allow me to relax and recharge. One of the biggest things I try do is get enough sleep, because I’ve noticed that when I am tired I feel more overwhelmed, stressed and less motivated. Even though my day is busy from school and sports, I try to get as much sleep as possible. Also, I make time for physical movement or exercise. This includes walking to and from school, and doing sports in and out of school. Lastly, to help with my mental health, I do things that help me relax and recharge like listening to music, reading or hanging out with friends.
When I am feeling anxious about a test, I can calm myself by getting a good sleep the night before, preparing ahead of time instead of cramming all my studying into one night, and changing my mindset. When I study for longer, especially over a gradual amount of time, I feel more prepared and confident. I also find that I need to change my mindset, because whenever I think that I am not going to do good on a test, I stress myself out more and tend to forget or blank out during the actual test.
If there is disagreement within the group, I find it helpful to get the opinion of each person in the group, and then find an alternative solution that includes both sides of the situation. The best solution is to not necessarily pick one side as the other person will not agree, and this could ruin the group collaboration for the rest of the groupwork, but to instead come up with something that makes everyone happy. If the disagreement cannot be solved, the easiest option is to go with what the majority of the group wants, and to move on quickly so we can get the rest of the assignment finished.
One of the ways I ensure my group is clear on the common purpose is to work collaboratively together while completing the assignment as a group. This way we can make sure we get the perfect solution, also making it easier to form ideas and make sure each person contributes their ideas. I also make sure my group members are focused, on task and I make sure I can provide support if needed.
Moving forward, my goal is to show that I value feedback from others in my group by not taking the feedback as a negative comment, but to accept and acknowledge that the feedback will help me improve. Feedback from others can help me see a different viewpoint, and can help me think of something I haven’t thought of before. Moving forward I need to realize that while working in a group, its not just my opinion that matters, but we have to work collaboratively and give each other feedback.
One of the ways I ensure my group is clear on the common purpose is to regularly check on each member to make sure they are pulling their weight, and to make sure they know what they are doing. In some cases, I can ensure my group is clear on the common purpose by working together and sharing answers.
I know the group is working well together when I see each person completely focused on their own task, but at the same time there is a collaboratory group effort happening. This means that some people are collaborating and working together, while others are communicating what they are doing and what task they need to do next.
My Goal:
Moving forward my goal is to improve on my critical and reflective thinking, more specifically, putting feedback that I receive to actual use, and reflecting on how the feedback can benefit me next time. This goal will encourage me to ask for editing and feedback on my work so I can do better on assignments by having the opinion of someone else.
After my semester in English 10 I feel like I have learned a lot as we covered many major units such as Romeo and Juliet, Short Stories and Poetry. The unit that I learned the most from was probably the poetry unit because I have a better understanding of how to identity and use poetic devices. I have also had a lot of practice analyzing poems and integrating lines into paragraphs from all the poetry cluster assignments.
I am most proud of my final English project, which was a children’s book that coverers a social issue. I am most proud of this project because I worked extremely hard to make it my best work, and even went deeper into the social issue to highlight the importance of it.
The assignment I enjoyed the most was the Romeo and Juliet diary entry because it allowed me to be creative, and I really enjoyed having the ability to write freely. I truly enjoyed getting into character as Juliet and expressing how she would feel when she first saw Romeo.
Some of the things I plan to do to stay mentally and physically healthy includes joining different athletics and sports, spending time with friends and family and keeping up with school work. I am planning to join school sports such as the morning basketball class, cross country and track & field, while doing other activities out of school to keep active and have fun. Also, keeping up with school work will prevent me from getting stressed and help me with time management so I can spend more time with family and friends.
Some short/long term goals for myself include participating in class, asking questions and getting work done right away without procrastinating. My plan to achieve them is making sure that if I do not understand the unit, I can ask the teacher for help, and this way I can participate in class by answering questions. I will also ask a teacher right away if I do not understand a project so I will not have to worry at home the night before the project/assignment is due.
My first year of High School was a learning experience where I achieved goals and made new friends. At first it was stressful because I had to learn my way around a new school and make new friends. However, after a few weeks I started to enjoy being at High School because I had more freedom and found that it was an enjoyable and fun experience. I have definitely shown that I have the ability to be independent and collaborative, well being very successful. Additionally, I am proud of myself for working hard with school academics and sports, and I continue to push myself and improve. I believe that my grade 9 year was about pushing myself and exploring new things such as picking new electives that I enjoy and joining school athletics. From doing these things, I have learned that I have a passion for different arts such as cooking, baking and photography, and sports such as basketball and running.
A Quote That Inspires Me
“Success is not an accident, success is actually a choice.”- Stephen Curry 🏀
This quote is very inspirational for me because it really describes the meaning of success. This is something that really connects to me, as a person who is always pushing myself to be the best that I can be. This is both for academics and sports. When I read this quote, it reminds me that I have the choice to be successful if I really work hard.
Another reason why I chose this quote is because it inspires me to play basketball. This year especially, basketball has become a passion that I really want to improve in. Even though I am not the best at times, this quote tells me that I can be successful if I practice and work hard. This is even more inspiring coming from Steph Curry because he isn’t just an amazing basketball player, but he is so inspiring for everyone because he makes the word “success” seem so real.
My Image!
🌼🌷🌻🌹📷
This is actually an image that I took while I was in Photography 10 during the first semester. I chose this photo because it is one of my favourites that I took in Photography, and it is something that I am proud of. It demonstrates that I learned how to use the camera and incorporate different techniques that we learned. In this specific photo, I learned how to have a blurry background while focusing on one part of the flower. In this case, it was the center part of the flower because the yellow pops against the white petals and the dark background.
The reason why I used one of my own photos that I took during Photography is because it helps explain my Grade 9 Year. One of my electives that I chose was Photography 10, and I have discovered that Photography is a passion which I enjoy. Photography was a class for me that was enjoyable and kept me relaxed when I had other harder classes such as French and Math in the same semester.
A website that I found useful this year was “Thesaurus.com”. This website makes it easy to find synonyms and more sophisticated words, rather than using happy, nice, good, etc. This makes you have a larger vocabulary and makes your writing more engaging.
I used “Thesaurus.com” in my Food Studies 10 class when we had to write “Food Folios” about our recipes. By using this website, I was able to find better describing words for my food. An example of a word that I used a lot while describing my food was “delicious”. Instead of repeating this word, I used the Thesaurus to help me find similar words to replace “delicious” . I used words such as “appetizing, delectable, exquisite, and heavenly”.
An Educational Video That Was Helpful
Meiosis- By: The Amoeba Sisters 🧪🔬
This video is by the “Amoeba Sisters” and it explains the different steps of Meiosis. This is important to understand because it is a big part of the Biology unit in Science 9. I found learning about Mitosis and Meiosis very confusing and hard to memorize, but the “Amoeba Sisters” made it easier for me. Their videos are very engaging/fun and they use phrases like “IPMAT-C” which helped me memorize all the steps in Meiosis. All their Science videos are very helpful, but I found this one video specifically helpful as it was a challenging and complicated unit.
Works Cited
Admin. “Steph Curry Quotes: Inspiring Words of Wisdom from the NBA Superstar.” Thatonerule.Com, 24 Dec. 2023, https://thatonerule.com/rule/steph-curry-quotes-finding-inspiration-in-the-words-of-the-nba-superstar/.
Reflection Questions: Is violence justified during a revolution and/or a protest?
A) How did the use of AI assist you in developing this project
When doing this project, Perplexity.AI helped me find different websites that I could use to gather information. This helped me because I found it easier and more accurate to find websites, rather than looking on Google. I was able to read through all the points that it gave me, and then pick a link that would take me to more information that was related to my subject.
However, I found that the AI was not super helpful at times, depending on what I was asking it. The position I had to argue was pro violence, and the AI always seemed to not support this side. This made it difficult to find convincing arguments that would help back up what I had to say.
B) How did you ensure that the work you created was still your own, rather than just a product of the AI
When using AI and other websites, I had to make sure I was not copying points that were already created by the AI because that would not be my own work. To make sure the work was still my own, I read through the AI and and remembered the main subjects in the article. Then, I took some of the main points and made them into my own words. This allowed me to get some inspiration, but also gave me an opportunity to do my own work.
C)Did you agree with the position you had to argue? Why or why not?
The position that I had to argue was: “Violence is justified during a protest and/or a revolution”. I would say that I do not totally agree with this side of the argument because violence is absolutely not right and causes a lot of harm. However, if you think about it, violence is the only way to really fight back and overpower another side.
My partner(s) and I did not care about what side we were on, because we knew it would be challenging to make each side convincing, as both positions have negatives and positives. As a result, I decided to be on the “pro” side because I thought that it would be a challenge to say that violence is okay, and it would be interesting to dive into different violent events that have happened in history.
Core Competency Reflection
I seek, develop and weigh options as demonstrated by picking a side for an argument and debate. When thinking about what side I wanted to argue, I really had to weigh the different negatives and positives. It was important that I developed ideas of great arguments before I started so I could seek the best side for me to argue.
Examples of where I communicate clearly and purposefully can be seen in groupwork because for any group project, clear communication is necessary when two people are needed for the assignment to be completed. My partner and I demonstrated this because even though we were on two different sides of the argument, we communicated and supported each other because we were partners. We worked together to start getting ideas down about the arguments, and we really had to communicate clearly about who was going to answer what sections. Also, communication was key because we needed to make sure we were both stayed on track and were ready to record ourselves on the chosen day.
