I can work with others to achieve a goal. In this lab I demonstrated my ability to work with a partner to yield a wonderful result. As shown in the first artifact, my partner and I obtainted a near perfect neutralization. The indicator, phenolphthalein, was barely producing a pink colour in the liquid. This shows how good of a result was produced during this titration. We acquired this result through effective team work. My partner was doing the drops, while I was swishing the acid-base combo around inside the flask. When my partner was doing half drops I was using the distilled water to drop the base into the flask. Eventually I was able to produce my own half drops after my partner taught me, further proving how I demonstrated collaboration with others. Through our potent teamwork we were able to achieve an excellent titration.
The careers I chose were aerospace engineer and corporate lawyer, because I like science and debating/negotiating with people. When we started this project I knew one of my careers had to be science based. I have been good at math and science for as long as I can remember, and I find it interesting. After doing some research I thought that aerospace engineering was cool, because it involved hands on work and physics. My second career was corporate law, and it attracted me for a few reasons. I initially thought of researching law for a job, because I enjoyed the TV series suits (a lawyer drama show). I also enjoy debating and rebutting with people based off of evidence. I did lots of public speaking throughout elementary school and middle school, so I thought it’d be a good fit.
What were the takeaways for you after doing the research for 2 careers? If someone were to ask you, what would it be like to be a ___ what would you say?
Doing research on aerospace engineers and corporate lawyers has been very eye opening, because I got to really learn what a day at work would look like.
Aerospace Engineer: Being an aerospace engineer seems like a pretty cool and maybe even easy job at first glance, but it is not like that at all. To be an aerospace engineer, you need to be extremely skilled at what you do. Making one small error in your calculations is the difference between a plane flying or not. My cousin whom I interviewed creates wings for planes, and he says that it is very stressful making sure everything is absolutely perfect. If a company spends thousands of dollars on materials for a project, but it ends up failing due to errors in calculations, imagine how stressful that would be. Being an aerospace engineer is a mentally demanding job, however seeing your creations at the end is worth it. Pouring time and energy into creating something that can benefit millions of people (planes or satellites) gives a rewarding feeling. I took away that aerospace engineering is a fulfilling job if done correctly, however meeting deadlines and working with a small margin for error can make your life stressful.
Corporate Lawyer: When I first started to research corporate law, I thought it would be just like the TV series – Suits. Although, I learned that the reality of being a lawyer is different than what you see on TV. Let me start by saying I think I would enjoy law, because I love arguing, debating, and negotiating with other people. I also like the high-income potential side of the job, where there is always opportunity for improvement. A real day in the life of a lawyer, however, is not all sunshine and rainbows. Corporate law is high stakes, long hours, and competitive. If you are trying to swindle someone with a contract that benefits your client, you best believe they are doing the same to you. Clients won’t just come to you, and you have to prove your worth if you want to get hired. As an established lawyer, life is a bit easier, because you have a reputation and people may want to come to you. However, if you are new to law, you need to prove yourself and show your worth through hard work. Law is no easy task, and it is very deceptive. Often there are loopholes to laws that you never knew about, and it can make being a lawyer very stressful. Although this is the case, when you win, you win big. Landing a huge client may be one of the best feelings you can achieve in any workplace anywhere (according to my interviewee). The work is long, but the reward is sweet, and it balances out. Every win is memorable, and being a lawyer can feel great after a win. I took away from my research that being a lawyer isn’t all fun and games. It’s serious, deep work, that only when finished will feel like it was all worth it. There are definitely lots of highs and lows in corporate law, but the wins really do make up for the long work weeks. Overall, I think being a corporate lawyer is interesting, and like aerospace engineering, is a career to think about pursuing.
What education programs are you most interested in right now and think you might want to pursue?
I don’t yet know the exact field I’d want to pursue after high school; however, I am fairly certain I do want to go to university. I plan on applying to all the prestigious Canadian schools (UBC, McGill, UofT, Waterloo), but I do not know for what program I’d be applying to. Researching engineering was cool, but I am still unsure about it. Researching law was also interesting, especially because I watch lawyer TV shows, but I think the ethical dilemmas pushed me away. I am a very strong-willed person and have an over looming sense of justice. So, if I was forced to do something I didn’t believe in I would be very upset. Going into any sort of science program at these universities is always an option as well, because science and math are my strongest subjects (and I like them). Although I don’t know for sure what I want to do, I at least know I do not want to go into anything biology related. I strongly dislike biology.
How ready are you to start this journey? What do you have to do to be ready and make these decisions? How can you prepare yourself for what lies ahead?
If I had to go to university and get prepared to work tomorrow, I would not be ready. After completing this project, I can now see there is so much more that goes into choosing a career than just picking something you like. I believe I am a very smart and disciplined person who will be able to pour everything I have into pursuing a career I like. The problem is, however, that I do not know at all what type of job I want to pursue. Even after doing this project, I still do not know.
Some things I can do to ready myself to make these decisions would be to conduct more in-depth research about various fields. I also think I should ask myself some questions that will lead me to find what I am passionate about. As it stands, I enjoy every school subject, and I excel in each subject as well. To narrow down what I want to do, I should ask myself things like, “If money were no object, what would I do to fill my time?” I still don’t know the answer to this question, but finding the answer is definitely a step in the right direction. In the case of researching a wider variety of jobs, I think I will use MYBLUEPRINT on my own time. MYBLUEPRINT has a superb catalog of jobs to look at, so maybe I’ll be able to find more that stick out.
To prepare myself for the journey to come, I should continue working hard inside and outside of school and start working a part-time job. I am very focused when it comes to school and sports, and I think that continuing my eagerness to perform in both will be a great asset to me in the future. One thing I can implement in spite of that is working part-time. If I work a part-time job I will be exposed to the real world of working. I can also look up to my co-workers or boss for career advice on what to do after high school. I think more exposure to money and the “real world” will be beneficial to my journey ahead.
Core Competency Reflection:
I used to think being a lawyer was all about strong arming people and making bold decisions, but now I know that is not the case. As I said previously, I researched law because I watched a lawyer drama TV series. Because my background knowledge came from TV I thought there was much more drama in law than there actually is. After this project I have seen that law involves lots of paper work, long hours, and basic cases.
Examples of where I communicate clearly and purposefully can be seen in my presentation. When I presented my careers project I tried to leave out any unnecessary information to make the presentation go faster. I understand the kids in the class don’t want to listen to someone speak about meaningless information for 10 minutes, so I said my main points and glossed over the extra info.
Evidence that I can acquire information about complex and specialized topics from various sources, synthesize it, and present it with thoughtful analysis can be found in my careers project. I used many different, unique, sources to cultivate my project. I used MYBLUEPRINT, WORKBC, and interviewed two of my cousins who worked the same jobs I was researching.
My shopping for food in France skit script English and French.
Core Competency Reflection
Others find my feedback useful because I have a good understanding of the course material. In the French skit project I was able to give lots of feedback to my peers. I did things like translate words, or helped another person pronounce a word.
I know the group is working well together when I hear/see people asking questions. When working with my partner to decide what the sequence of events for our script would be, we were bouncing ideas off of each other a lot. I think this shows good group work, because both parties are engaged in the activity.
One goal I have for this class is to pay attention to the accents when spelling French words. Something I struggled with in French 9 was spelling words with the correct accents. I believe that if I practice writing my homework answers with correct answers, and spell the words with accents when I study, then I will be able to remember where all the accents go.
By explaining my groupwork to peers in the classroom, I make a positive difference to my peers. If somebody doesn’t understand a concept, or how to do a question, I always try and explain it to them. When doing groupwork I am able to show my work as an example.
The way I communicate at school differs from how I communicate at soccer practice. The biggest difference between how I communicate at school vs at practice is that I am more blunt and hard on people at practice. Since I am familiar with all my teammates, and I take on a “Team Captain” role, I try to push them harder than I would to classmates at school.
When I need to refocus on a task, I set myself a challenge. For example, if there is 20 minutes left in class to finish our homework, and I have been unfocused, I try and see how many questions can I get done in 10 minutes. I end up focusing and getting into a rhythm, which lets me focus for the full 20 minutes.
Some of the ways I work to maintain relationships are: communication and honesty. I try to have clear communication that goes both ways in any sort of relationship that I am in. If somebody does something that upsets me, I’ll tell them straight up, and I try to be a person who invites other people to tell me when I do something that upsets them. Honesty is also key, because lying to people, or talking about them behind their back is bound to cause trouble.
This semester I did an independent inquiry study answering the question, “Why was inflation so high in the 1970’s?” I had a lot of fun learning about my topic, because I believe learning how inflation went out of control in the past is important to prevent it in the future. I think one of the most interesting things I learned was how much America depended on OPEC’s oil. Multiple countries’s economies relied on whether or not OPEC countries sold them oil, which was a recipe for disaster. Another thing I found interesting is how the Federal Reserve, the MOST powerful economic institution in America, messed up their understanding of economics – leading to inflation. The way I gathered information this project was by focusing on finding a solid primary source, and then filling in the gaps/going further in depth with other non-primary sources. The main source I used was from the Federal Reserve’s website, and that gave me lots of information, like how the Federal Reserve messed up, or graphs showing the inflation. I was able to express my ideas through writing, as I feel writing an essay is the best way to display my information. My topic is significant in the present time, because if you do not learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it. By learning the mistakes and misunderstandings that led up to the hyperinflation in the 1970’s we can avoid it from happening again.
Artifact:
This is the Federal Reserve building, and it relates to my inquiry question, because the Federal Reserve was partly responsible for the “Great Inflation.”
Core Competency Responses:
I can examine and evaluate to improve my own work; evidence of this is my note taking. At the start of the semester it was noticeable that my Cornell Notes were too long. I had never been someone to take notes, and at the start they were bad. However, I was able to improve my notes through practice, feed back, and going over them to shorten them.
I have valuable ideas to share in class, and I do so by participating in class discussions. I try to contribute every day by raising my hand and answering questions based on all sorts of social studies topics.
I use evidence to make judgements and decisions; I have demonstrated this in the paragraphs I write on tests. For example the WW2 paragraph, I was able to identify underlying causes of the holocaust like Social Darwinism by finding evidence that Nazi’s thought Jewish people were inferior, and connecting it back to that big idea.
I contribute to my well being through what I eat everyday, and this meal for lunch is a prime example of that. This is the wrap I eat for lunch at school almost everyday. It contains spinach, lettuce, chicken, and cheese. Not only do I eat a healthy meal containing protein, vegetables, and grains, but I also enjoy my lunch. The Canada food guide recommends that you eat with others and enjoy your food, which is exactly what I do at lunch. I always eat with friends, and it is always a good time. Something I learned in the health unit is how expensive food is in other places. I never thought about food prices in a place like the Yukon, or northern Nunavut, and knowing about the inflated prices up north makes me more grateful for the food I eat each day. Nutrition can impact your mood and stress levels in many ways. For example, if I eat a bunch of sugar at 11am, I will be bouncing off the walls. However by 2 or 3pm, I’ll have a sugar crash and my mood will drop drastically. Food is the fuel for your body, and just how if you give cars the wrong fuel they get damaged, if you give your body the wrong fuel it’ll get damaged too.
Core Competency Reflection:
“I find it easy to be part of a group.” I believe this competency relates to me, because I am an outgoing person who is able to fit in with many groups of people. I have many different friends with different personalities, which is why this competency relates to me.
“I participate in classroom or group activities that improve the class, school, or community.” I show this competency by being a peer tutor. Every Monday and Wednesday I peer tutor a student during flex. By doing this I not only hope to improve their life, but maybe that person can go on to help another, and then the person he helps can help another person, and so on so forth.
“I can explain when something is unfair and advocate for others.” Something that recently happened to me is a great example of how I can advocate with others. Me and my younger brother were playing online with my friends, and my friends started messing with him a bit. I could tell my little brother didn’t like it, so I stood up to my friends for him and got them to stop.
This year I will seek new learning opportunities through joining a club. This year I want to try and join a club (athletic teams not included) to learn more about different topics that interest me. I also think that by meeting new people, I will learn more about a variety of topics, not just club related.
By helping peers around the classroom, I hope to make a positive difference. This year I want to try and use my academic strength by helping those around me. In doing this, I hope I can make school more enjoyable for everyone.
This is the file of my persuasive essay I wrote on why philosophy should be taught in high school.
Curricular Competency
In this assignment, I was able to develop my speaking and communication skills. I had to present this essay in front of the class, and I think I did well. I practiced the speech until I had it memorized, and I was able to deliver it. The more I practiced my speech the more confident I got. This helped me grow my communication skills.
Core Competency
During this assignment, I grew in the thinking core competency. To be more specific I improved in the critical thinking competency. When I was writing my speech, I was brainstorming ways to make philosophy appeal to my peers. Once I had finished brainstorming, I came up with the idea that students didn’t like topics that required memorization, and philosophy has 0 memorization in the course. Now that I had my point, I had to find a way to prove it. Again I had to brainstorm, and I thought of doing a poll. A poll would’ve been great, but I didn’t want to bother people in my class, so I thought of doing it online. This turned out to be a huge success, and is how I used critical thinking to solve my problems.
We chose to use Canva to make the print ad for a few reasons. The main reason I like to use Canva is because of the templates. Canva has thousands of templates to get your design started, which made it easier to create something. One thing I don’t like about Canva is the fact that many of the custom images are only available to people with Canva premium. This made finding an image for the jelly beans, and M&M’s difficult. A challenge we needed to overcome when deciding ingredients was picking ingredients that would pair well with the vanilla cupcake. M&M’s do this job great because of their chocolatey flavour. Jelly beans were added to fit that “Rainbow Deluxe” description we had in mind. We didn’t face any challenges when trying to find a solid price for the cupcakes. Our cupcakes were very cheap to make, and that gave us free reign when finding a price to sell at that would still bring in profits. I believe our print ad is effective because of the use of vibrant, popping colours, and the “sale” we added above the cupcake. With the way we used the colours, the important words stand out, and the cupcake stands out as it is in the middle of the ad. To make our ad more effective we created a fake sale that would attract more customers. We say 50% off, but we have never sold this cupcake before, so how would people know it is actually 50% off. We also keep driving the desire to buy the cupcake by saying “Only $2.49.” With the use of the word only, people believe the product is more of a deal than it actually is.
· Why is it important to remember who benefits from the advertisement when you view an advertisement? Advertisers will do anything to manipulate you in order for you to buy there product/service. If you are able to remember who is benefitting from the advertisement, you will snap out of being manipulated, because you will remember that the store or company isn’t trying to help you out, but reel you in.
· Choose one form of persuasion and explain why it is effective in persuading you/an audience: logical, ethical, emotional. Personally the logical persuasion technique works the best on me. There is nothing better than cold hard facts about why a product or service is good. Advertisers can use as much ethical or emotional persuasion, however if the product doesn’t seem like its good, I won’t buy it. I think focusing on creating a good product/service, then using mainly logical persuasion to advertise it, is the most effective way to get someone to buy your product/service. When I watch ads, I never seem to fall for the emotional persuasion, and ethical persuasion means little to me, because I understand that advertisers can pay people to make their product seem better than it is.
· Choose an advertising technique and explain why it is effective in selling a product. I believe one of the most effective advertisement techniques is the “Special Offer” technique. This is the main one I used in my advertisement. Something about getting a deal on a product or service just seems so desirable. When finding an item on sale, you almost get a sense of accomplishment. As well as that, putting a special offer on something can make people feel like they are missing out if they don’t buy it. Most of the time the “Special Offer” technique is well hidden. Customers may think they are getting a deal when in reality the original price was extremely expensive, or the store is trying to get customers into their store, to then buy more expensive items. The fact that this advertisement technique is hidden, and stirs up many emotions and urges in the most people is why I believe it to be so effective.
Core Competency Reflection:
This is how I selected images and words to create impact for my planned audience: To figure out how I wanted my advertisement to look, I first googled some examples of what other companies used to sell similar products (everyday necessities). Then I went to canva, uploaded the picture of my egg, and made my flyer’s background a lighter colour to match with the eggs, and to contrast with the dark letters of the main information. To make the sale and “Special Offer” pop out I made them darker colours, and made the letters very big. When choosing the words I wrote for the description of my product, I was thinking about what I remember seeing on egg cartons. So, I came up with the free range and organically fed to give my customers an extra push, an extra reason, to buy my eggs.
I used to think that advertisement was black and white, but now I know that it really isn’t. To elaborate, by black and white I mean that I thought it would always be obvious whether something was an advertisement or not. However, with learning advertisement techniques like “Special Offer” and “Glittering Generalities” I know that this is not always the case. The special offer technique is often well hidden, and leads you to believe a store is doing a basic sale. However, there are manipulative intentions behind those cheaper prices. Often, stores will try to get customers to walk into their store because of a sale on something like eggs, for customers to then get lost in the store and start buying. The glittering generalities technique is another hidden one. Advertisers will put all these different good things about their product on an ad, and they will make you forget about any down sides. Ms. Olchoway had a great example in class about burger king fries. I believe the fries said something like 80% less fat…. 80% less fat than what? During this week I have learned that advertisements are not black and white, and have hidden intention behind them.
