First Peoples Principles of Learning Sabrina Sharifzada
The two aspects in the First Peoples Principles of Learning that I am going to connect to, are interconnectedness and sustainability.
In beginning of the year, me and my class participated in the SSEP project which was a project that we got to choose a experiment and in the end all experiment proposals would go to the judges. The judges would then assess everyone’s and choose one experiment and send it to space to conduct that groups experiment. I noticed this project had a lot of sustainability because there had to be a reason to this experiment if we wanted our experiment to be chosen. We also had to state what benefits this experiment would bring to our world for future generations in one of the sections in the proposal.
We have been doing a project called Engineering Brightness which our goal is to send flashlights to the Dominican Republic to villages where there is no electricity. Me and my group are fundraising so that we can buy the supplies for the building of the lights. In this project I noticed that there is a lot of interconnectedness in this project since we as a class have been contacting the Dominican Republic as well as New Brunswick. Me and my group have been also collaborating with Pitt River Middle School and also was planning to go to Kilmer and other elementary schools in the community.
Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities:
During the SSEP experiment me and my group divided the proposal sections throughout the group so it could be done efficiently and equally. Unfortunatley some people in our group didn’t take it seriously and broke our group trust but there was someone in the group who helped a lot in the proposal with me which made me want to group up with her for future group projects. In our EB project I teamed up with people that really care and we mostly do many things together but I had the responsibility to create the posters and Janna had the responsibility to keep in contact with Pitt River. However all of us try to make it to the meetings with Pitt River’s Leadership team which is also a responsibility that each of us have.
Learning involves patience and time:
The Engineering Brightness does involve a lot of patience and time. Nothing is done in the blink of an eye, we did many planning, took the time to create presentations, posters, contacting another school. We needed to give them time to think about whether they want too help us or not. We also have to contact through email and plan when we are meeting with Pitt River. We also have to go on our own time to the meetings so that we don’t miss school. We have to be patient because not everything goes the way we want it to.
Learning requires exploration of one’s identity:
Throughout these projects I learned many things. Both of these projects will be an experience of a lifetime. This is the first time I have actually gone out the real world trying to solve something (light poverty) and also done a project where mine experiment had the chance to go to space. I got the chance to revisit my previous school. I have explored many things in these two projects that I haven’t in other school projects in my previous years of education. Throughout these projects I explored through various emotions and feeling such as frustration, nervousness, excited, happiness, being proud of something, etc…
Learning is embedded in memory, history, and story:
The Engineering Brightness Project have created many memories with friends and also got to meet new people. If I get to state my interesting experiences in my resume, I would surely have this in there. Last year we had to write out our life story as an assignment and if I ever had to do something like writing out another story I would have my experience in there. This has been a experience in a life time and I hope to make the best of it.
