Calculus 12 Reflection

The core competency that I used the most is personal awareness and responsibility.

I persevered with one of the most challenging tasks I have ever had to deal with: taking Calculus 12 and Pre-Calculus 12 at the same time. There were times where I had to teach myself the required Pre-Calculus units in order to be able to keep with whatever we were learning in Calculus. Despite starting off with less-than-desirable marks, I eventually got the hang of it and improved my grades. Learning from home allowed me to rearrange my schedule in a way that allowed me to study more for quizzes and tests.

I created a couple of strategies in order to deal with stress. In order to deal with stress, I would slowly breathe in and out ten times before assessments. I would sometimes take a break from studying before assessments. During the quarantine, if I was really stressed I would do my homework the next day.

Social Media PSA

I believe that social media does more harm than good. The topic I focused on in this PSA was scams and/or malware. My target audience is youth, mainly teenagers. My message is to be wary of scams and do not give away your information so easily. I want the viewer to really understand the idea that if it seems too good to be true, it’s most likely false. Scammers can take your information and use it to commit fraud or sign you up for random stuff, flooding your inbox with spam that may make you appear shadier than you really are. I want the viewer to understand that shady downloads can lead to PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs), which may not do any real damage but may clog up one’s computer and can be difficult to remove. Before giving away your information to any website or clicking on any download links, do some research on the website/download, read the “about us” page. If the website does turn out to be malicious, inform others about the website and about the user who sent you the link. Pay attention to all the details that you are being presented with, look for anything that seems off. Be wary of catfishing and do not open random emails and be careful when talking to strangers as they may try to scam you or infect your computer with malware. This is a very important topic, as phishing scams are quite common in today’s day and age, especially via catfishing. Shady downloads can be found all over the internet, such as offers for “free” photoshop licenses or “free” premium currencies in online games.

In 2000, the ILOVEYOU virus was spread from user to user via email, as people would receive an email with the subject line, “ILOVEYOU,” and would open it, with some thinking it was someone declaring their love for them. This is one of the most well-known examples of how malware can spread through social media. The ILOVEYOU virus cost between 5.5 and 8.7 billion US dollar in damages around the world. Recently, Israeli soldiers were tricked by Hamas agents pretending to be women online into installing malware and spyware on their phones. This is a modern-day example of how social media can be used to spread malware and can be used as a weapon.

Sources:

Cimpanu, Catalin. “Israeli Soldiers Tricked into Installing Malware by Hamas Agents Posing as Women.” ZDNet, CBS Interactive, 17 Feb. 2020, www.zdnet.com/article/israeli-military-tricked-into-installing-malware-by-hamas-agents-posing-as-women/.

Garza, George. “Top 10 Worst Computer Viruses.” Catalogs.com, Catalogs.com, www.catalogs.com/info/travel-vacations/top-10-worst-computer-viruses.html.

Gewirtz, David. “Scam, Spam and Phishing Texts: How to Spot SMS Fraud and Stay Safe.” ZDNet, CBS Interactive, 31 Jan. 2020, www.zdnet.com/article/scam-spam-and-phishing-texts-how-to-spot-sms-fraud-and-stay-safe/.

McGuire, Dr. Michael. “Social Media Platforms and the Cybercrime Economy.” Into the Web of Profit, Bromium, www.bromium.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Bromium-Web-of-Profit-Social-Platforms-Report.pdf.

Core Competency Reflection – Transformations

This unit helped me improve my communication skills by teaching me new vocabulary words for math. These terms may be useful when I am trying to give an explanation to someone who may not understand a math problem. I also have learned how to communicate transformations in other ways (ex: mapping language). I improved my critical thinking by learning how to analyze the problem, whether it’s a graph or an equation, in order to find what transformations have been applied. I improved my creative thinking by being open to new strategies, such as mapping language, that can help me to visualize the transformation in my head in order to reduce the time it would usually take me to sketch a transformation.