Grade 9
Electric House Project
In this project, I had to create a house with at least four working electrical circuits. The circuits had to be of different types like series, parallel, and combination as well as have a certain amount of lights and switches depending on the complexity of the circuit.
Series Circuits
Series–Parallel Circuit
Parallel Circuit
Series–Parallel Circuit
House Interior
House Interior
Circuit Diagrams
Electric House Project Questions
1. You have three lights bulbs. All have the same intensity when lit. Explain how you can prove to a classmate that they are connected in series by unscrewing one light bulb. Support your answer.
In a series circuit, there’s only one pathway for the electrons to follow so if one lightbulb is unscrewed, the electrons won’t flow and the rest of the lights won’t light up, proving it’s in series.
2. You have three light bulbs. All have the same intensity when lit. Explain how you can prove to a classmate that they are connected in parallel by unscrewing one light bulb.
In a parallel circuit, there’s multiple pathways for the electrons to follow so if one lightbulb is unscrewed, the electrons have other paths to follow so the other lights will still light up.
Note: you may need to play around with practice circuits to determine the answers for #3 and #4. You can do this using real circuits or the PhET Circuit Builder.
3. You have three light bulbs. Two are connected in parallel. This parallel combination is connected in series with the third light bulb. Describe the relative intensity of each bulb. Support your answer.
The lightbulb in the series part of the circuit is brighter than the two in the parallel combination. This is because the current must be diverted into two pathways for the parallel part, resulting in a slower flow and less voltage going through the loads.
4. In Question 3, describe the relative intensities of the two remaining lit bulbs if one of the bulbs in parallel was unscrewed. Support your answer.
The two remaining lit bulbs have the same brightness with the other lightbulb unscrewed. This is because the unscrewed lightbulb stops the flow of one of the branches of the parallel circuit turning it into a series circuit, which distributes the voltage equally.
5. Outline a step-by-step method that could be used to determine the resistance of the light bulbs in one of your circuits. Feel free to include a circuit diagram of your set-up.
First, you measure the voltage of the lightbulb by hooking it up to a voltmeter. Next you measure the current in the circuit by hooking it up to an ammeter. Then, once you know the total voltage and current, you can figure out the resistance of the lightbulb with Ohm’s Law, which is V = I x R.
6. Using your method outlined in Question 5, determine the resistance of the bulbs in one of your circuits.
The amount of volts my circuit had was 4.5 V. The amount of amps my circuit had was 0.45 A. 4.5 divided by 0.45 is 10, which means that the lightbulbs in my circuit have a resistance of 10 Ohms.
Solution Fluency
1) Define a problem: Some of our circuits weren’t close to the table so it was difficult to connect the battery to the circuit. This made it annoying to test the circuits because one of us had to hold the battery in place while the other had to check to see if the lights on the other side lit up. The battery was also easy to knock over and when we tried taping the battery to the cardboard, it kept slipping and falling down.
Tinkercard Design
2) Dream possible solutions: To fix the battery problem, we began to brainstorm ways to have the battery attached to the cardboard that allowed us to connect it to the circuit better. Some of my initial ideas were to use a hook or hoop to keep the battery in place but we figured that it likely would be too flimsy. That led us to the idea of a more secure solution of a battery holder, which was a container for it to slide in.
Battery Holder in Circuit
3) Deliver a solution: I designed the battery holder in Tinkercad by measuring the sides of the 9 volt battery in the website. Then, I used cubes and changed them so that they were the right length and width, making sure there was some wiggle room for the battery to slide in. After, I had it 3d printed, which took 2 hours, but it made testing and troubleshooting the circuits a lot easier.
Battery Holder
4) Debrief the quality: While the battery holder did do its job effectively, I feel like I could have made one that was more sophisticated and taken more risks as its design was pretty simple and made with the constraints of the time I had. I think that if I did this again, I would keep the overall shape of the battery holder but combine some of my earlier ideas with hoops for the wires to keep them in place. This would make for a more exciting design and would’ve helped even more with the circuits.
Core Competency Reflection
In this project, I used critical thinking to create the circuits as I had to develop and design the circuits in my house that fit the criteria and my rooms. After creating the circuits, I had to make sure the circuits worked, and the lights lit up as well as be able to be turned on and off with the switches. With all the different parts, this didn’t happen right away, and I had to analyze and investigate the problems to see if I could fix them and get the circuit working. Another competency I used was personal awareness and responsibility. All the troubleshooting required from the project had me use self-determination and self-regulation a lot. A few times I had to spend over half an hour trying to get a circuit working but I kept on working on it and persevered, which paid off. I also tried to self-regulate myself by giving myself breaks or switching to another circuit after working on one for a long period. This helped me from getting too frustrated, although when I did, I tried to use that energy to keep working on the project.
Energy Sway and MLA letter/Information Fluency
Letter
Dear Honorable George Haymen, MLA
We’re Alysa and Christy and we go to Riverside Secondary School in Port Coquitlam. Thank you for trying to consider the environment while improving BC’s economy through the metals we obtain from mining. However, as we write our letter to you, we feel like there are some amendable flaws in our current systems and attitude towards mining safety. In BC, we have rich minerals that can be mined from the ground, and we understand that it is an industry that generates a lot of revenue for the province, but we also wanted to remind you that we have many respected communities of Indigenous peoples too who have been using the land long before us. We wonder if you’re putting enough thought into their needs and if you know the answer to some questions regarding Indigenous communities. How does mining affect indigenous people’s cultures? How does mining affect Indigenous people’s health? We should acknowledge the bond Indigenous people have with the environment and ask why we put that connection at risk for the sake of money? There’s also health issues Indigenous people face that should be fixed regarding mining. We’ve been able to grow up without having to boil our tap water and without having to breathe polluted air or be threatened by any health issues as a result of government projects. If we don’t have to go through that, why are many Indigenous children put through it? Nobody, much less people who have been here first and have suffered enough, should live in lesser conditions compared to everyone else. That leads us to our last question, what are we doing to protect indigenous communities from mine contamination and how can we improve on it to ensure Indigenous people are put on the same standard as every other Canadian?
Thank you for taking the time to consider this very important issue and we hope we will see your answer to our questions in new policies and regulations protecting Indigenous communities.
Sincerely,
Alysa and Christy
Riverside Secondary School
1) What questions did you need to research in order to create your sway?
I started with a main question of ‘how does mine contamination in BC affect Indigenous communities?’ and delved into sub questions about the effect mining has on Indigenous people’s health and culture, as well as why BC still continues with mining projects and what they can do about it. These guiding questions helped me create an informing sway about mine contamination in BC.
2) What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?
I used multiple digital tools like Google, Gale Engage, Citation Machine, and Google Images. Gale Engage and Citation Machines were new to me and I was interested in trying them out to help make my project better. I found that Gale Engage had a lot of information that was useful and I didn’t have to comb through so many sites to find the information I needed. Despite this, I found that I couldn’t get as specific in my subtopics like how mining affects Indigenous people’s health in BC with Gale Engage so I decided to use a combination of Gale and Google learn as much about my issue as I could. Citation Machines made citing my sources much quicker than I thought it would be, making it a site I definitely will use in the future, and it was good to use Google Images again and not having to worry about copyright.
3) What was the process you used to investigate the topic and how did you verify and cite the information you found?
I researched my questions by entering key words into Gale and Google to find articles about the effect mines have on Indigenous people. I verified the information that appeared by checking the date and author as well as reading through the article and checking the website itself to see if it was trustworthy. One article I found had information that would help support my ideas but it stated that the work hadn’t been peer edited yet and I knew it likely wasn’t trustworthy enough to use in my project. After paraphrasing the information, I copied the link into a citation machine and added it to my sources slide.
4) How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?
I think that the process of completing this challenge went well as I was able to divide up the work with my partner and work successfully with her. I collected a lot of information about mine contamination and learned much about how dangerous mining can be for Indigenous people and how they’re often treated second class. I think that we could have used a more variety of sites to gather information since it would have given us more information and made our project stronger. Using more websites like Curio would also help me get used to them in case I have to use them for another project in the future.
English 9 Core Competency Reflection
Math 9 Honours Core Competency Reflection
PHE 9 Core Competency Reflection
This Core Competency Reflection is based on critical thinking and communication skills.
Self-Reflection
In the Substance Abuse Role Play project, I used critical thinking to create and develop responses to my given scenario that peacefully resolved the conflict and kept previous relationships intact. I found it a bit challenging at first to work around these limitations because it was easy to just have the character break off the relationship instead of preserving it yet setting the boundaries. So, I had to use critical thinking to figure out how to incorporate the strategies in a way that would match up closer to real life scenarios and followed the requirements like coming up something similar to Tylenol, yet not deadly, to keep both groups happy. In the project I also used communication skills to collaborate with my groupmates so we could act out a satisfactory skit. While we were creating the script, we discussed who would have what role and asked each other what we each wanted to say so that everyone was happy with it before we filmed. We did have differing ideas on the filming and editing aspect, like what we should include, as well as how to create a negotiation solution, but we managed to work it out peacefully, which resulted in a filmed skit we’re all satisfied with.
HCE 9 – English Assignment
For this assignment, I chose to explore a work by Banksy called “Birds on a Wire” through a poem based on the learning concept of applying decision-making strategies to a life, work, or community conflict and adjusting the strategies to adapt to new situations.
Right
They come in a group.
With faces as forbidding as a storm,
And as thunderous too.
(There are so many of them so it must be right.)
They put a sign in your wing.
Hand painted with hatred,
And framed with fear.
(On paper, their words make sense.)
You go with them.
You hold their signs.
And yet you can’t bear to look at the—the thing.
(Why do I feel so uneasy?)
It is smaller than you realized,
A pink shrimp in the vast, blue ocean,
With strange colours and features you’ve never seen before.
(Could such a defenseless thing be so dangerous?)
“It is a creature from Africa!” a bird caws, but you aren’t sure how they know for certain.
“It will steal all our worms!” another cries, but you don’t know how that is possible.
Everyone turns to you and you quickly squawk out, “It isn’t welcome!”
(Did…did I really mean that?)
The thing shrinks at the noise, warbling a sound you don’t recognize.
It shuffles to cover itself more securely with its wing, body cringing in fear.
The others jeer at it, jabbing more sharp words into its colourful feathers
(T-this isn’t right, is it? But…)
You want to say something, but your beak won’t open.
You’re not even sure what you would say,
And what if the other birds get angry?
(If it’s wrong, someone will probably speak up instead.)
This thing could turn out to be dangerous too.
A crafty trickster hidden behind its meek gaze.
And anyway, the thing came from somewhere so it could probably just go back.
Right?
Right?
…Right?
Independent Novel Study – Bento Box Book Thief
For this project, I used genial.ly to create an interactive Bento Box to represent my book, The Book Thief. I collected five different objects to symbolize key aspects of the story that match with my written content, which explores theme, text to world connections, character, and inquiry.
I tried recording my audio reflection on genial.ly several times but the audio kept glitching and speeding up at times so I recorded it on Audacity instead and inserted it here.
Core Competency Reflection
I used creative and critical thinking for this project, shown in my Bento Box arrangement, written content, and troubleshooting. At first, I found it hard to come up with object ideas because of the constraints of the items having to clearly relate to book, yet still be an everyday object lying around my house. So, throughout the project, I tried to trigger some inspiration by reading passages from The Book Thief, writing my content on it, and walking around my house to see what I had available. Through a combination of these, I came up with new ideas for my Bento Box that I was satisfied with and fit the criteria. Once I had gathered my objects, I arranged them around my book in several different positions so that I could figure out which positioning looked best and fit on my painted background, resulting in an appealing and creative interactive image. I also used critical thinking to analyze my book and explore different facets of it with my in-depth discussions of theme, inquiry, character, and connections. I gathered information from the book and my group discussion journal to write my content, using evidence from the book to support my thesis and ideas. In the different sections, I expressed my thoughts from two perspectives, one as a formal literary analyzer and one as an informal reviewer. I also encountered some problems too with the audio reflection that I had to use critical thinking to resolve. When I recorded on genial.ly, it ended around three minutes, but when I tried to edit it, the bar only showed two minutes and the audio became warped and incomprehensible. I redid it three more times, but I received the same result each time, which frustrated me. To solve this issue, I had to step back and think about how I could fix this. Eventually, I decided to record it on a different program, Audacity, and insert it at the bottom of the Bento Box on my post so that it would be as close to the intended result as possible. Throughout the Bento Box project, I had to think creatively and critically to complete each aspect of the project, resulting in a finished product that I’m proud of.
TOKTW Day 2022
On TOKTW day, I went with my mom to her work, which is Colliers International. The name of my host was Leanne Reynolds, and she is my mom’s manager.
Interview:
1. What is your job title? My job title is director, property management.
2. What is your job description? I oversee property managers in British Columbia.
3. What are the duties and/or tasks you perform at your job? I coach property managers, set standards for the company, and disseminate information.
4. What qualifications do you have for this job in the following areas:
Training: I have training in customer service, accounting, operations, and safety.
Education: I have a Bachelor of Arts, RPA certificate, and am licensed.
Experienced: I have experience in development, leasing, and health and safety.
Skills and attributes (personal qualities): I have good leadership, collaboration, communication, and am open to learning.
5. What are some of the things you like about the job? I like how my job allows me to work with a variety of different people and how the schedule changes daily so that there’s rarely any monotony.
6. What are some of the things you dislike about this job? I dislike how my job involves lots of technology, which requires skill to operate.
7. How do you anticipate this job changing in the next 5 years or so? I anticipate that technology will change accounting as it improves and grows, making it more efficient.
Other questions: When is the busiest time for work? The year end (December to January) is busiest because it’s critical for deadlines.
Student Reflection:
1. Give three reasons why you would like this job (be specific): I would like this job because I would be able to work with multiple likeminded people and continue to learn more from them. I would also like it because it changes frequently, making it interesting and enjoyable in my day-to-day work. The office environment is very quiet and friendly too, making it easy to work in and get to know your colleagues.
2. Give three reasons why you would not like this job (be specific): I wouldn’t like this job because there’s a lot of tight deadlines that need to be met quickly, which isn’t something I would enjoy. It’s also a long commute to the offices, which would require me to get up early to catch the train. While I wouldn’t mind doing it, the job itself doesn’t really match up with my interests and what I want to do in life.
3. Is this job for you? Why or why not? I don’t think this is the job for me because I don’t have much of an interest in math or finance-based jobs, although I like the calm environment of the offices and friendly people there.
4. Explain the value of the TOKTW experience in relation to your ideas about postsecondary (after high school) plans (education?, training?, travel?, work?). This experience was valuable to me in that although I don’t see myself doing it, I learned that there’s more to accounting than I thought in both work and qualifications. While I have other ideas about what I want to do postsecondary, accounting is still an open career path that I’m glad to know I have the option of taking now that I have more experience of what it entails.
The Veldt by Ray Bradbury – Blackout Poem
This is my blackout poem on the Veldt. I used Canva to create the poem and took the words from page 38 of The Hunger Games.
Alysa chose to write about the theme of alienation from the Veldt in her blackout poem ‘Bubbled’. This is evident in the lines ‘grimly, I forget people at all’ and ‘I’ll never know we’, which represents how we are becoming disconnected and isolated from everyone around us. She uses the social media symbols and bubbled people to show how technology is pulling people apart, leading them to become purposeless and alone as if they were floating in an empty space. She also explores the repercussions of our alienation, which is feelings of panic, sadness, and ‘starvation’ of interpersonal connections as shown in the line ‘too soon, I start to panic, starve, cry’. Alysa uses the repetition of ‘I’ in the line ‘clinging to I, I, I-‘ to emphasize how isolated we have become that there is no he, she, or they, only I, painting a picture of the narrator alone in a room with only themself for comfort. She uses the simile ‘the station is swarming with reporters like cameras clean of emotion’ to represent how some people have become like technology in their obsession with it, making them as robotic and mechanical as a camera. Alysa’s poem echoes some of the Veldt’s themes in that it shows a world isolated by technology, leaving some anxious and aimless like the Hadley parents and narrator or simply indifferent like the Hadley children and reporters. The line ‘to appear weak and frightened is from years back’ connects to the Veldt and our world by representing our desire to always have the best thing like the Happylife Home or go with the trends of social media, sometimes at the expense of our own health and values.