Category Archives: Grade 9

The “Looooong” Bar – A Science 9 Electrical House Project

Leave a reply

An Introduction to our “House“

  To start things off, it’s not a house. And before you say anything like, “Wait a minute, but I thought this was an electrical house project?!” What’s wrong with going off the rails a bit and getting creative? I’m pretty sure some people have made castles, or boats, so me and my partner Vlad designed a bar. A quirky bar, a big bar for people of all sizes, and the whole gimmick of it are that it’s extremely long. Like the first floor is just the bar. Our intended design was to go with an old-time colorless 1950s bar or something like that, thus explaining the black and white color theme. However, the brown cardboard at the back doesn’t really help.

Anyways, I’ve established one of the rooms. The bar. But what about the second floor? 3 rooms, with 3 different purposes. We got a bathroom, to the left. Apparently, a rumor was established there that just some pants still lay on the toilet to this day, nobody’s really sure how it got there. And then in the middle room, we got our storage room, filled with shelves and tables, and then our staff lounge to the right. That room’s got a TV, 2 big comfy chairs and a little cabinet sitting alone in the corner.

We lighted the bar with a series circuit, really only because we had a set of lights that were already connected to each other in a series way, which was perfect for the lights we wanted in the bar. The bathroom then had a parallel circuit, so just in case one of the lights went out, you wouldn’t be alone trapped in the bathroom, in the dark. The storage room and the staff room were involved with the compact circuit, and for our choice circuit, we thought of making an “emergency”  series lights. Why? Well… it’s because we were running out of ideas.

Solution Influence Questions

Define: When we were looking at our circuit, we kind of realized… where were we going to put the battery, without it falling off? To be honest, we couldn’t just glue it to the back of the house, we wanted it to be held without us touching it and just stay in place no matter how you placed it. Which was when Vlad, my partner, came up with a genius idea, or ideas? Let’s dream a little.

Dream: We did have a few ideas.

  1. We could have just printed out platforms for the battery to rest on, but I feel like that was a lame idea and totally would not work.
  2. We could have just left the battery inside the circuit, and just 3D printed a wire organizer going through the wall and somehow connected  to it, but that seemed like too much effort, and placing the battery in a place where all wires could have been connected seemed like a pain.
  3. But then we thought of just making a battery holder, now we didn’t get the chance to make multiple battery holders, so we would just have to hold it around while it’s in the holder, but the idea is still there.

Deliver: So that’s exactly what we did. Now, we can place the battery holder anywhere, just glue it to the circuit and not have to worry about it slipping out. I didn’t really feel comfortable with just straight up hot gluing the battery to the house, and I have to admit, there could have been some better options, but that critiquing is for another section in the blog. Vlad whipped something up that would make the holder just a bit smaller than the actual battery, that way, when we break it in a little, it would squeeze in on the battery, making it difficult for the battery to just slip out.

Debrief: The battery holder did turn out great, we did only get the chance to print one, but the idea is there as intended. And I think the battery holder is super cool because no matter how you hold it, the battery would never slip out. You technically could have done this without the battery holder. Holding it regularly would mean you wouldn’t have to worry about it slipping out, because… you’re holding it. But this was super cool nonetheless and made me appreciate 3D printing more.

However, I do wish we could have printed something better, or multiple battery holders all connected to each other. I do feel like this idea could have been optimized to be better, and it might have been more helpful if it could hold multiple batteries at once. But I still think this was a success nonetheless and shows us that it can be improved, and the start is the most important part.

Project Questions

1.) 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 series by unscrewing one light bulb. Support your answer.

If all the lights go out by unscrewing one light bulb, that means the loop was broken because that voltage was traveling through that lightbulb, like everything else! In conclusion, that is a series circuit.

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.

If all the lights are still on after unscrewing one light bulb, this means that electrons aren’t just traveling through one specific path, but multiple. Meaning that this would be a parallel circuit.

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 series bulb is the brightest because it is one of the only paths electrons could travel to before reaching the parallel circuit where they depart. With a 9V battery hooked up, the series has 6V and the parallel lights have 3V.

 

4.) In question number three, describe the relative intensities of the two remaining light bulbs, if one of the bulbs in parallel was unscrewed. Support your answer.

As I said, I think the two lights would be even. If you think about it, in a parallel with 2 lights, it makes sense, because there are two paths to travel through, but if you were to unscrew one of them, there is only one loop back to the battery. Meaning it is a series circuit, and the remaining light is also a series circuit. And in series circuits, voltage is evenly distributed amongst the lights, so my conclusion is that the lights are around the same light level.

Riverside CC Self-Assess GR9 Brent

How could genetically modified humans change the future of jobs?

Leave a reply

With the new era of genetic modification slowly evolving into something more real, come questions that none of us would have thought we needed an answer to. And I can help you answer one of them.

How could genetically modified humans change the future of jobs?

 

  • What questions did you need to research in order to create your sway?

All the questions I wanted to research were about genetically modified humans in general. Even to this day, genetically modified humans are very far from the concept of being a genetically modified human and being really good at everything. I wanted to research if genetic modification on humans were even safe, ethical, and actually happening. For the stuff about work, I wanted to really research how much genetically modified humans can make a difference. I’ve mentioned multiple times that I think it’s inevitable that genetically modified humans will be taking over jobs, so I wanted to see how they would compare against something like machines. So I researched what machines were good at, and how much machines took over human jobs. I did this because machines were designed to efficiently do things better than humans at jobs, which is can be the same way I can see a future genetically modified human. It’s a little far-fetched, but I think it makes sense when you think about it a lot.

  • What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

The tools that were new to me were Gale and Google Scholar. I didn’t see myself using them at all when I first heard about it, but it’s a really good tool you can pull good and reliable sources. The tools that were familiar to me were the citation websites, and of course, YouTube. Both are really easy to use and very valuable.

  • What was the process you used to investigate the topic and how did you verify and cite the information you found?

The process I had to investigate the topic was really difficult to find at first. The hardest part was the first step. But I figured it out by then, the way I did it was to figure out all the simple questions at first and use that momentum and energy to find more creative ways to solve the other questions. For some questions, I’d think about what would be the easiest way to not just answer the question, but the easiest way to find the information for that question. An example of this was when I was a bit stumped on how to answer some of the machinery ones. There was no way I could compare genetically modified humans to machines yet because genetically modified humans aren’t even that advanced at the moment. But both are designed to be efficient and in some ways “better.” So, by comparing the pros and cons of a robot to a human, I can accurately say which pros/cons also go alongside being a genetically modified human. I also had factored in how easy it would be to find this information.

To verify the information I found and made sure it wasn’t some lie, one of the things I would do is go to the author and do research on him as well. For example, K. Lee Lerner is a Harvard graduate who was an author, and an editor and was known for making science-related articles. I only knew this because K. Lee Lerner was someone who wrote the genetic engineering article on Gale that I had pulled one of my sources from. After finding out K. Lee Lerner was trustworthy, I used a citation machine (https://www.citationmachine.net/mla?ref=ama) to cite all my websites.

  • How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better?

This challenge was very difficult for me. I’m not much of a research person, although I have to admit. I was super hooked on reading more about genetic engineering. If it’s anything I wish I could have done/included, I would talk about modeling specifically. This is because altering your appearance overall seems less far-fetched than altering your skills and interests in the future. But I think it was too specific and hard to get a source off of, but imagine the controversy when people start genetically modifying themselves to look really good for a shoot. It turns into this whole system where people have to be genetically modified to compete against others, and it becomes more cosmetic than medical. Should cosmetic genetically modified people not be allowed in modeling at all? See what I mean? I think it would have done really well, but I was on a time limit here.

 

 

Grammar Video Project — “Introductory phrases, complete sentences and fragments” with Jadon L.

Leave a reply

Me and Jadon’s topic was about complete sentences, fragments, and introductory phrases. Each of these are somewhat important to learn in writing, because you can open any book and find a handful of these in a page or two. It’s crucial to know them, when to use them, and how to use them. Building a complete sentence is like
building a house. Every complete sentence requires 3 major things, like how building a home requires 3 major parts of a building. A complete sentence wouldn’t be a complete sentence without its subject, its verb, and a complete thought. Like how every house needs some beams, some walls, and a house.

Some complete sentences may have an introductory phrase. An introductory phrase is still a part of the house, but it’s supposed to welcome you before reading the complete sentence. Think of the front yard of a house, it might have some flowers, or it might be in ruins. Whatever it is, you still read the introductory first, like how you see a yard first before the house.

The fragments are just parts of the components. But not all of them together. Think of just the beams, the wall, and the roof alone. Not really is a house is it?

 

 

 

Test Questions
1) What is a complete sentence?
a – when the sentence has lived a complete life.
b – a sentence that has a verb, subject and a complete thought
c – a sentence with a period and capitalization.
d – a sentence with an introductory sentence.

2) An example of a fragment is

a– Jadon ran home.

b—On the way home, he found

c—”What is the dog doing?”

d—a piece of broken glass

3) What is a introductory sentence?
a –  a sentence that kindly introduces itself.
b – a sentence that only has the subject and the verb.
c – a sentence that gives the context to a complete sentence
d – a sentence with a complete thought

 

4) Which of the following is a complete sentence?
a – “He ran.”
b – “Walk home.”
c – “Johnny mourns his dog.”
d – None of the above

5) Which of the following is NOT a complete sentence?
a – “He studied the map for class.”
b – “Ran for miles.”
c – “I was eating ice cream in the park.”
d – “All alone, Jeremy had to fight the boss himself.”

 

Indigenous Exploration – Kamloops Industrial School

Leave a reply

This project was really fun to work on and filled me with knowledge of industrial schools. Making a podcast of it was entertaining and intriguing. I, Jadon, and Devon’s approach to research this topic was creating a word document we can all access and edit and creating separate sections for each other. We’d assign each other different topics to search up about the school. However, there was a handful of challenges we had to face when choosing this school.

One of them was only being able to find one source of information for a specific topic. Ron Ignace was the only person that we could find that attended the school, survived, and was interviewed on it. The second challenge was finding the information ourselves. For this school specifically, you have to scavenge for specific details or buttons to find something about this school. The worst-case scenario was looking through an entire page that’s subject is unrelated to the school.

We managed to get around them and we created a script we can read off to avoid stuttering or lagging when trying to improvise.

 

Communication: The ways we communicated our learning was using a third-party program that lets us communicate through voice chat, share URLs, pin certain ideas and messages, and screen share. It’s called Discord and it is very user-friendly.

A Mountain Journey – Questions

Leave a reply

A Mountain Journey – Questions

Brent A.                                                                                                          10/4/21

 

  1. Dave is out on a trip to prove to himself he can withstand nature and the cruel cold. He shows good examples of his resilience when he is chilled to the point where he has icicle stubs on his mustache or refusing to set up camp after falling into the river.
  2. The moment Dave found out he was in a deep pickle was finding out the cabin he was going to was burnt to ashes. He even tries to turn his lighter on, but his hands were frozen to the point where it seemed impossible to move.
  3. The mistakes Dave made were all about refusing to back down from the cold even
    just for a moment. Like not stopping at the first tree to set up for camp and give himself a breather, not even bothering to change his clothes after falling into the ice-cold river. That could have prevented him from his hands freezing up. He chose to start trapping in the winter in March, which looks like the cold weather hit its ultimate prime time. Going trapping just a bit later could have at least eradicate his fear of getting frozen. I’d say his biggest mistake was not setting up camp earlier.
  4. The title of this book is “A Mountain Journey,” written by Howard O’ Hagan. The story is about a man that goes by the name of Dave Conroy, who strides alone in a cold forest, clinging to his life while desperately trying to find shelter. The initiating incident was when he decided to not set up camp under a tree. Him moving on from not so bad camp idea was the reason he fell deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole, and the chances of him not freezing up grew narrower and narrower. The first rising action of the story is when he fell into the ice-cold river, causing his hands to freeze up. The second rising action was finding out the cabin he was going to stay in for shelter was burnt to just a few atoms. Meaning his time to warm up and shelter himself from the cold was postponed. The third rising action was making the final decision, to abandon his furs and was to stride 80 miles ahead for a cabin he hoped he wouldn’t find disintegrated to ashes. The climax was when Dave stumbles into the snow, and his hallucinations become stronger and stronger, and in the falling action, it reveals Dave was losing grip of his consciousness
  5. The setting is in an insanely cold forest in a mountain, not only would this be difficult for Dave in itself, seeing how difficult it was for him to deal with the weather. It’d make it even harder for him to find other people.
  6. The cabin represented anticipation and disappointment. It was false hope, Dave refused to camp out because he was convinced the cabin would be there to grant him, even more, warmth and comfort, only having it 5 miles away would be nothing to him. Yet the unexpected happens, having Dave find out the loss of a cabin due to a heated fire.
  7. Metaphor – “The cold nibbled on at his nose.”

Personification – “The fire gutted the cabin.”
Simile – “Curved and smooth and thin, like of a pen upon the snow.”

Metaphor – “The cold was an old man’s fingers feeling craftily through his clothes.”