ASK…

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

In order to answer my overall question “How could genetic engineering help humans live in space?”, I was required to ask a few subquestions that would help me understand my topic better. Some of these questions included:

  • What is genetic modification and how does it work?
  • What has CRISPR done with genetic modification?
  • What happens to our bodies in space?
  • What needs to be changed in order for our bodies to be able to live in space?
  • What does genetic modification on humans look like?
  • How much genetic modification is too much?

These questions did not only simplify the subject, but guided me in my research, in order to find the answer. Once I was able to answer all of these questions, I was able to take my research one step further, and ask:

  • Is it possible for us to live on other planets through genetic modification?

And took me just that extra step forward!

ACQUIRE

What digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?

For this science biotechnology research project, I used a variety of sources. Some of these would include:

  • Gale
  • Youtube
  • Tedtalks
  • Google

When I was able to use a variety of different sources, I was able to not only confirm information, but then also provide more detailed responses, as I would get more out of the websites.

ANALYZE

What was the process you used to investigate the topic and did you verify and cite all information used?

When researching about this project, I used Gale Science, to find the large majority of my information. When I dug through as much as I could, and take was no longer able to answer my questions, I switched over to regular platforms. When I did so, before even reading the information, I would verify the work, and search up the author to make sure it was a valuable source.

In terms of tracking my research, I used the science 9 research template, where I was able to keep all of my work organized, including the citations and the capture of copy right. I would create simple notes that made it easier for my grade 9 self to understand, then I was able to elaborate on this with other supporting sources.

When I completed my project, I was sure to add a citation tab at the end of my Sway. This include the URL for the website that was used and I received information from.

ASSESS

How did the process of completing this challenge go?

Overall, the project was a bit stressful at the beginning, however, as I was able to break it into subquestions, it simplified the project, to a point where I was able to understand it, even though Im not a scientist.

Because this is a wonder question, when I was researching it was very hard to find an overall answer, considering the question hasn’t fully yet be discovered.

What could you have done better?

If I were to do this project all over again, there wouldn’t be any large things I would change, but maybe few details here and there, and this would be:

  • Spend more time trying to really understand the science. This would overall help the overall assignment, but for a very complex subject, it was hard for a grade 9 student to fully understand. With there not being too many connected websites out there (can humans travel to mars + genetics of travelling to mars = why can’t humans genetically travel to mars) it was sometimes really hard to connect the dots. So overall, next time I would dig even deeper into websites, or possibly even to books, in order to find a site, that explained it all, because surely, there has to one out there.
  • Organization of putting the research all into the Microsoft sway. Overall this process wasn’t done poorly, and it all worked out just the way I wanted it too, but the next time, wI could figure out a better system of writing all of my notes from the research into the Microsoft sway.
    • The way I did it was as soon as I finished gathering the research from one reliable source I would put it into the sway.
    • But the way I would do it next time is I would, gather all of my information, then add it into the sway. This way I will be doing it all at once and won’t be re-reading a thousand times of wether I had or hadn’t put something into the blog post.

Overall this wasn’t necessarily done bad, but there is room for me to improve.

And finally, through this biotechnology I was able to learn not only about space travel, but as well as the valueability of collecting proper information, and information fluency. This is something that I will be able to carry with myself into the future for research projects, and this overall process will make it a whole lot simpler.