English Honours 9 – Bento Box for The Help
on Category: Grade 9
on In-class Write and Story Process Core Competency self-assessment
on
I am an active listener and can respond to simple, direct questions.
When we were listening to Signora Durand tell the story of Richard Gere Impara Ballare il Tango, I showed that I was listening by actively engaging when she asked us questions. Another way that I show I am actively engaged and listening is by answering questions with the class when Signora Durand asks us. I know that if I do this, it will help me to understand the language faster, and keep the phrases in my brain longer.
I can present information clearly and in an organized way.
When writing my third story in class, I felt like I could piece different vocabulary together much easier than during previous writings. I also found that I was using my skills from the verbathon, as I was trying to remember what conjugations went with the correct tense. I am very proud of myself for being able to utilize my knowledge from previous lessons and stories we have done. At the beginning of term, I never would have thought that I would be able to write a full story in Italian without any references in only a month. One thing that I would do differently would be choosing different vocabulary throughout the story, as I tend to use things that I already know in Italian.
I can recount simple experiences and activities and tell something I learned.
Being an active participant during the storytelling sessions with the class and Signora Durand has helped me to complete the in-class write much easier and more efficiently. Actively participating had also helped me to learn new vocabulary that I can recognize in other stories or songs. When doing my in-class write, having done a lot of stories with the class really helped me to complete the story.
HCE 9 – English Assignment
on My narrative paragraph was inspired by the “Assimilation vs. Inclusivity” created by an unknown artist.
The Grey Ladies
I was on a big bus, filled with all the kids from my village. Mama and Papa were talking last night, saying they were coming. I didn’t know what that meant. Now I did. The children in my village were being taken by old ladies, pale as the snow that dusted the ground during deep winter, wearing long, woollen grey dresses. I called them the grey ladies in my head. I called them ma’am out loud. We were taken to a big gray building that had tiny windows on every wall, with a big bronze sign over the doors. I was told to get off the bus. I was very scared. I wanted to see Mama. The grey lady told me to go through the big doors with all the other children. There was another grey lady inside the doors, who gave me a long woollen dress, not unlike their own. She told me to put it on like the other girls. It was very long and went down past my knees. It was also extremely itchy. I looked around at the rest of the children, and everyone was wearing a long grey dress, like me. Then, a lady came around with a gleaming pair of shears, cutting off our long black hair, one by one. Ida, a girl who I knew well, began crying but she got yelled at and stopped. I was very afraid but kept quiet, not wanting to be yelled at. We were led to little rooms with copper beds for us to sleep in. After some time, I lost track of how many days it had been since I saw Mama and Papa. I tried to say something to my roommate, Ana, in our native language one night, but I couldn’t remember how. That was what scared me the most. I wanted to go home and get away from this horrible gray place. I was older and taller. Would Mama and Papa even recognize me? I didn’t realize it until afterward, but when the grey ladies released me, they were setting me up for failure. I was sent home to my family and couldn’t even speak the same language as them. I had become a grey lady, who couldn’t speak any language except for the one they taught us that was apparently correct. A grey lady who no one could pick out of a crowd. I blended in, and when I left that horrible grey building with its big bronze sign, they said I had done very well. I didn’t feel like I had done well at all.
Fumetto 1
on Book Talk Podcast: The Veldt
on This is a podcast project where Ava and I discussed the short story, The Veldt by Ray Bradbury. In this episode, we discussed two different themes that we thought fit well with the story.
Woodworking Step Stool Project
on This is my grade nine woodworking project. I spent three weeks, planning and working on my step stool passion project. I made some adjustments to the original reference picture in my sketch, in order to make it my own.
CC Self Assessment
on This year in math, I have worked really hard in order to understand and be able to get good grades. Something that I have done really well with is putting aside time to work on things that I have trouble understanding. One thing that I can work on in the new year is asking more questions when I have trouble understanding something.
One of the skills that I have developed in math this year was improving my multiplication skills. I have been able to work on knowing multiples more this year, which has not been something that I was confident in before. I have also improved my integer skills, which I also struggled with.
My goal for the rest of this quarter is to put aside more time to work on the things that I don’t understand, and to ask questions more when I need help. I can also help myself in math by staying for flex time if needed, or coming earlier to have help.
Electrical Innovation Project
on Introduction
This project is centered around our unit on electricity. We have been working hard on coming up with an innovative and theoretical circuit, or micro: bit, to solve a problem in the world, big or small. My group has chosen to focus on overfishing in rivers. This is a problem that not a lot of people are aware of, and it can greatly impact the ecosystem. Using websites and information that we know about circuits and micro: bits, we must solve our problem.
Solution
The way that we decided to solve our problem was by coding a micro: bit, so that when a boat comes into the river, a sound is sent out, and people can monitor the fisher, making sure that they don’t over fish. In our micro: bit, we had to make it a temperature sensor, as there was not a way to make a sound sensor. The reason that we did a micro: bit to sense the boats was because fish can come and go through the river, so it would be hard to track them.
How this micro: bit works is when a boat passes through the way of the micro: bit (which would be water proof) it will sense that movement and play a sound to alert the people who would monitor it, that a boat had entered the river. this way, we could track how many boats are in the river, and check in with the fishers periodically so we know how much fish they are taking.
Define
The challenge that we have been given was to find a problem that is happening in the world and come up with a solution for it using a simple scale circuit or micro: bit.
Discover
https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/overfishing
Overfishing happens when one area of an ocean or river is fished in so much and so often, that the natural process of replenishing fish cannot happen. Overfishing is a big problem, and it will continue to be if we do not do something about it. One way that the WWF is helping overfishing is by creating new protected wildlife areas and expanding existing ones. This will help to ensure that the ocean has enough time to replenish its stores, so that overfishing does not happen.
Dream
Some of our ideas for fixing the overfishing problem were…
-make a circuit that senses fish coming into the rivers and tallying them up daily (this would be during salmon season, when they are coming in and there is lots of fishing)
-a circuit that senses the boats entering rivers and if there is an unhealthy amount of fish taken that day, they can track the boats that came in.
Deliver
Our solution to the overfishing problem was to create a micro: bit that senses when someone come into the river, and sends an alert so that people can monitor them while their fishing, to see how much fish they take. In our micro: bit, we had to make it a temperature sensor, in place of a sound sensor.
Debrief
In conclusion, we had some bumps along the way, like not having the supplies to make a real micro: bit, but we found a solution that would still get our idea across. I enjoyed coming up with solutions to the problem, as it allowed me to be creative, although it was difficult not having to much class time to work in our groups. I understand that this isn’t something that can really happen, as we have to move quickly through each subject. Overall, I am glad that I got to bond with a couple of my classmates, and be creative in an innovative project.
spheres field studies
on What was the objective of our field studies? How does it connect to our 4 spheres?
Doing our field studies on testing water samples and looking at the types of invertebrates in the Coquitlam River and Oxbow Pond, helped us to see what the quality of our water is. This connects to the four sphere types, hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere because the water quality can affect what types of invertebrates can live there, and the water quality can be affected by the atmosphere and the geosphere.
Coquitlam River Site:
In the Coquitlam River, we first looked at testing the water quality using these testing strips, which show us the pH levels, the nitrates, and the phosphate levels. We also measured the temperature of the water, between upriver and downriver.
We measured the water quality for the river using a chart, and here are our results
This tells us that the water quality of the Coquitlam River is good, and that it is protected and supports lots of life. This also means that we can swim in the river.
The invertebrate life of the Coquitlam River was somewhat abundant. Most of the invertebrates that we found were mayfly, stonefly, and damselfly.
The invertebrates that we found tell us that the water quality and health of the river is good because these invertebrates are found only in good quality of water.
Oxbow Pond
In the Oxbow Pond, we used the same testing strips as we did in the river, which showed us the levels of pH, nitrates, and phosphates. We also measured the temperature of the pond water.
The index tells us what the health of the pond is good, which means that a variety of different plants, insects, and animals can live in it.
When we looked for the invertebrates, we were able to find an abundance of different ones, such as dragonfly larva, water penny, small fish, caddisfly larva, and many others. These types of invertebrates can live in good quality and non polluted water.
The water quality value of the Coquitlam River is 87.8, which tells us that the quality of water is good. The Oxbow Pond has a water quality value of 79.8, which also means that the water quality is good. When water quality is good, a variety of animals and plants can live in it, and it also means that humans are able to swim in that water.
Comparison of the two sites
The water quality between the pond and the river is not that large of a difference, although the quality of the pond is at the lower end of the “good” category of water quality. I think that the reason for the difference between the water quality is because the river is flowing water, so things that may cause the water quality to go down, would move along down the river. Whereas with the pond, it is still-standing water, so stuff that would alter the water quality cannot move either at all, or as quickly. The invertebrate difference is quite great. We found approximately double as many invertebrates in the pond as we did in the river. I think that this is the case because in the river, the invertebrates would have to hang on to rocks or plants much harder, as it is flowing water, so there isn’t as large of a chance that you will get lots of invertebrates. In the pond however, the invertebrates do not need to hang on because the water does not flow. This means that the number of invertebrates in one area increases, which gives you a better chance of getting more invertebrates in one “sweep”. The type of invertebrates that live in a body of water depends on the water quality. If there is pollution in the water, invertebrates such as stonefly, caddisfly, or mayfly will not live there, but invertebrates like leeches, water mites, or aquatic worms will live there.
Reflection
I thought that these activities were a lot of fun, and it was a great way for me to get to know the people in my class, as I did not know to many of them. I also found that it was very interesting to learn about the science behind the river and pond right by my school. I learned about how to test water and how to collect invertebrates safely from waterways. Another thing that I learned was how to calculate the water quality using the testing strips, which I found very interesting. I think that it would be difficult to make activities like this meaningful, as what we are doing is for information and not something that requires meaningfulness.