Archive of ‘Grade 9’ category
I can get new ideas, build on, or combine other people’s ideas to create new things within the constraints of a form, a problem or materials. When I first started my assignment I was quite nervous because I was new to Minecraft
and I had to learn how to do a lot of new things. I had to ask my brother, and other people for help, as well as familiarize myself with the game. When building my design, I went through a lot of trial and error, sometimes I had to restart the whole thing, and to be honest it was
quite a frustrating process. I had to research what was already done about my climate change issues, and figure out how I could implement some of those ideas in Minecraft.
I can identify how my actions and the actions of others affect the community and the natural environment and can work towards a positive change. When researching for my assignment I looked at multiple different climate issues and how the actions of humans impact our enviornment. For my assignment
I created a machine that can genetically modify trees. I made this machine because I recognized that we are cutting down to many trees and we need to plant more. This is a problem because the less trees we have the more carbon dioxide we have in the atmosphere, and the less oxygen we have. However, it takes 20-30 years to grow trees so I created a solution that can significantly reduce the amount
time it takes. In my machine you simply put bone meal into the dispenser, (the bone meal represents gmos that can be added to tree saplings causing it to grows faster. Then you place your tree saplings and within a few seconds you have a full grown tree
DEFINE: The climate change challenge I have been given is deforestation. Deforestation is the act of clearing out forest areas. Forests are cleared for many reasons including agriculture, animal grazing and to get wood for fuel, manufacturing and construction, and wildfires. Deforestation has considerably changed landscapes around the world. Approximately 2,000 years ago 80% of Western Europe was forested. Now that percentage has dropped down to 34%. Nowadays, most of the deforestation takes place in tropical rainforests. The main reason why deforestation is a major issue is that the more trees that are cut down, the more carbon dioxide that is emitted into the atmosphere. This is due to the fact that trees take in carbon dioxide to perform photosynthesis.
DISCOVER: Genetically modifying trees isn’t a new concept. In fact, a man named Armand Seguin planted a genetically modified poplar tree over 20 years ago. He designed spruce trees that became immune to deadly pests. Additionally, a group of scientists published a study claiming that they found a way to make trees grow faster and sprout more leaves. They discovered two genes PXY, and CLE, these genes control the outward growth in the tree trunk. They figured out a way to overexpress these genes in poplar trees causing them to grow twice as fast. This resulted in taller, wider, trees with more leaves. If these genes are found in other spieces of trees, this could significantly reduce CO2 emissions. Lastly, a company called ‘Living Carbon,’ have started growing genetically modified poplar, and pine trees that are capable of soaking up more carbon dioxide than regular trees.
DELIVER:
DEBRIEF: Overall, I think I did pretty good, considering I don’t really play Minecraft. I ran into some challenges like I couldn’t figure out how to make each machine plant more than one tree, so instead, I just made multiple machines If I could do this again, Something else, I could have improved on is the explanation, I could have explained how the machine worked better but I was a bit nervous, and to be honest I am just naturally really bad at explaining things. If I could do this again, I would redo the design and figure out how to make one machine plant multiple trees, as opposed to making multiple machines, and I would rehearse the explanation a bit more.
SOURCES:
National Geographic Society. (2019, July 15). Deforestation. National Geographic Society. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/deforestation/.
Prévost-Manuel , J. ·. (2020, December 20). Genetically engineered trees could help fight climate change – here’s how | CBC news. Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/genetic-modification-trees-climage-change-1.5837766#:~:text=Genetically%20engineered%20trees%20could%20help%20fight%20climate%20change,and%20would%20be%C2%A0better%20at%20pulling%20carbon%20from%C2%A0the%20atmosphere.
A Frittata (Breakfast) A frittata is an egg-based Italian dish. You can add a variety of vegetables, meats and cheeses. https://www.food.com/recipe/baked-frittata-for-one-12660 
A Crustini (Lunch) is essentially a soft fried egg, garlicky mushrooms, and spinach on toast. Egg and Mushroom Cheese Crostini | Get Cracking (eggs.ca)
Shakshuka (Dinner) Shakshuka is a middle- eastern dish. It consists of soft poached eggs in a tomato-based sauce. Shakshuka For One | Get Cracking (eggs.ca)
Part 3:
(Pictures:)
The bird is biotic and the roof it is sitting on is abiotic.
The light of the sun which is an abiotic component is giving the tree, which is also abiotic, light so it can photosynthesize. 
The fish is biotic and it is swimming in the water which is abiotic, so it can survive.
The rock is abiotic and the fungus is biotic. The fungus eats the minerals from the rocks.
In this ecosystem, what is a natural event that could affect one or more other spheres? Explain
Rain is a natural event that can affect other spheres. Rain is a hydrosphere that provides lakes, rivers and streams for the atmosphere, so animals (the biosphere) can drink from it.
I can take responsibility for my learning, asking for help as I need it. When I didn’t understand how to write chemical formulas I made sure to ask questions. I asked for help from the people around me and asked my teacher lots of questions to make sure I understood the concept. I know that the only way to succeed in my learning is if I ask for help and understand what I am doing.
I can gather, select, evaluate, and synthesize information. When making my information fluency sway I had to research a lot of information about my element, mercury. I looked at many different websites for my questions and gathered the most accurate and important information. I used my previous knowledge about the element and combined it with the new information I found online. In the end, I made sure I understood what I was writing, and I was able to write a well-thought-out sway based on everything I knew and learned.
- What questions did you need to research in order to create your sway?
- Where is it found?
- How reactive is it?
- How dense is mercury?
- Is mercury toxic?
- Where did it get its name from?
- \What is its freezing point?
2. What new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?
I used Gale, WorldBook online, Google, and citation machine.
3. What was the process you used to investigate this topic?
I researched as much basic information about mercury as I could and then I narrowed it down and came up with specific questions.
4. How did you verify and cite the information that you found?
When searching up my question, I checked multiple websites to see if they had the same answers. I also tried to avoid websites that weren’t secure, or hadn’t been updated in a long time. I used citation machine to cite my information.
5. How did the process of completing this challenge go? What could you have done better next time?
The process went well I found the answers to most of my questions and it was interesting to learn about the element and I found out a lot of facts about mercury, that I did not know before. In the future, I think I could have come up with more questions and I should have come up with the questions before researching because it would have saved a lot of time.
When I think about the foods I eat and the packaging they have, I, along with other people tend to forget where it ends up going. I typically only eat food with packaging when I’m having a snack, lunch for school, or if I’m eating food from a restaurant. The foods I eat usually come in different types of materials, like plastic containers, glass containers, aluminium foils, cardboard boxes, and plastic wrappers. I think companies choose these materials because it is cheap and efficient to make. Packaging is positive for the customer because it is convenient and ensures the product is safe and clean. Packaging can be negative for a customer, because they typically throw it away, and don’t use it again.
Once we have eaten the food inside of the packaging, it usually gets thrown away. After one day the food packaging waste is usually in a garbage bin or sent to a landfill. From there, it goes to a transfer station, which is a temporary location for garbage trucks to drop off their waste. Once it is compacted and ready for transfer it is sent onto larger trucks. It is then sent to a material recovery facility. These are locations where debris is sorted to separate useful materials from the waste stream before it reaches the last destination. When the waste leaves the facility it is then sent to the final destination, which is the landfill. Here, the garbage decomposes, but it is a very slow process, due to the lack of oxygen. A year later, the waste is still at the landfill and left to decompose, but as I mentioned, this is a very slow, long process. Plastic can decompose in 100 years, but it usually takes 20-500 years.
When food waste ends up in landfills, it produces large amounts of methane- a greenhouse gas that is even more powerful than carbon dioxide. Greenhouse gases like methane, CO2, and chlorofluorocarbons absorb infrared radiation and heat the earth’s atmosphere, thus, causing global warming and climate change.
We can reduce waste in numerous ways:
- Get rid of single-use items- and replace them with reusable ones. For instance, instead of using plastic straws, we can use metal ones, or instead of plastic containers use glass.
- Buying Local- Not only does buying local mean less waste in terms of the packaging of the product, but it also means less waste in terms of the cost of emissions for transportation.
- Composting your food can significantly reduce the amount of waste being put in the landfill, and speed up the decomposition process substantially.
- Buy less- the less you buy, the less you waste. Buying excessive amounts of stuff that you might not need is not only a waste of money but also a waste of packaging and materials.
In conclusion, there is a lot more we as humans need to do to reduce our waste, or there could be grave consequences, like an increase in pollution, overflow of landfills, and destruction of habitats. This is preventable, however, if we reuse products, buy local, compost food, and buy less.
