Category: Grade 9

Climate in Canada

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Here is my Climate in Canada assignment. For this assignment i got the Canadian prairies

The changing climate has affected everyone in the world mostly for the worst but i’m not here to talk about everywhere in the world, I’m here to talk about the Canadian prairies and their causes and effects of the rapidly changing climate. some of the causes of climate change(this is not limited to the prairie) such as an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the prairie doesn’t really have a lot of factories so it doesn’t release a lot of carbon that way but there are lots of animals and plants which expel a lot of co2, there is also a lot of farming in the prairies and some of the livestock (cows) expel a lot of methane which can be very harmful to the atmosphere and ozone layer. some of the effects of the changing climate that affect the prairie are the loss of wetland habitats which could be damaging to the wildlife’s homes. Since the climate is warming up it will also result in shorter winters and reduced snowfall. Global warming will also lead to less rain which would have a very detrimental effect on the agricultural industry which is very present in the prairies because it will rain less and occasionally the crops will be wiped out due to floods.

 

Modelling Mitosis

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Here are the stages of the cell cycle

Prophase:

in this phase the nuclear membrane is still intact and the DNA is all stringy but soon the DNA will form together and two sister chromatids will merge together to make an x-shaped chromosome, in this time the nuclear membrane will also disappear

Metaphase:

In this phase, the chromosomes all line up in a row and prepare to be separated back into two sister chromatids.

Anaphase:

In this phase, the chromosomes are separated into the sister chromatids by the spindle fibers and the spindle fibers pull the chromosomes apart and each brings one sister chromatid from each chromosome to a different side of the cell.

Telophase:

In this phase, the spindle fibers disappear and because of the spindle fibers pulling the chromatids to either side, the cell starts to stretch and two nuclear membranes form around each group of chromatids the two nuclear membranes start to pull apart and are almost done with the cycle.

Cytokinesis:

Now the cells have completely separated and now they can repeat the mitosis project again.

I hope you enjoyed my Modelling Mitosis post, thank you for reading it.

Edible DNA model

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here is my edible DNA model

 

Part A

DNA is the building block of life, It contains the genetic code that makes every person different. it is also self-replicating

DNA has the instructions required for organisms to reproduce, develop, and thrive. DNA can split itself and replicate itself as much as it needs. the DNA sequences can also be used as messages which can be used to create proteins

As was said earlier, DNA can replicate itself very easily by splitting the strand down the middle which creates a template strand which connects with another side with the appropriate bases attached.

Part B

Why does DNA naturally take a spiral shape as opposed to a straight ladder shape?

I found out that DNA has a spiral shape because of an interaction that takes place between the molecules that make up DNA and water.

how do the DNA bases know to connect to each other

I found out that Adenine and Pyrimidine Thymine pair together and Pyrimidine Cytosine and Purine Guanine pair together because the two that pair together are the only combination of the 4 bases that will allow for hydrogen bonding to occur.

 

Connections based learning: building a better beehive proposal post

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On Feb. 2nd and Apr. 18th, 2023, we had a Zoom chat and a face-to-face visit from Saul Mwame of Tanzania (pictured right). We learned about his social bee-keeping company Haven Bees and some of the philanthropic endeavors in which he is involved. We learned about some of the challenges he has faced and we were inspired to help. We are now going to research plans to take action and share them on our digital portfolios.

Co-Design

When we met Saul, one of the things that interested me was the fact that he is able to make a living doing what he loves while also being a philanthropist and human rights activist and doing things like speaking at the United Nations. After having had this experience I felt enlightened and also thankful to have had this opportunity. for this assignment, we (Me, Sam Z, and Aiden W) are going to be addressing the problem of the changing climate and how to help bees adjust to it.

Co-operate

To get this project started we are going to need to do some research on what the ideal climate is for bees, some ways that we could do this is by using gale engage, google, and the school library to find information that will help us make a product. We can also ask Saul or Sam’s aunt for information as they are both beekeepers. Some of the steps that we will need to take in order to complete this project are 1. Research as much as we can about the subject so we can put out the best possible product 2. Decide how we are going to carry out the idea 3. Design our product 4. Create our product 5. Give our product to Mr. Robinson who will look at it and hopefully decide that it will be of use to Saul.

Co-create

We brainstormed and came up with the idea of making a beehive climate controlled but in doing this we also pondered the idea of maybe helping Saul advertise his company a bit better. After coming up with these ideas we decided to go with climate control for beehives.( photo of circuit prototype right) we also figured out that to make this project work we would need to know how to code, 3d design, and problem-solving. For this project, we will need a microbit and attachments, computers to code microbits and 3d design and we will also need a 3d printer and filament to make things for the project.

Commemorate

In this project, I think that the connections-based learning experience went well and I am very happy and thankful to have had this experience. I think that the post that I have made is of average to high quality because I believe that I was very clear as to what I was doing and I answered all of the questions asked. In this project, I think one of the things that we could have done better was making the most out of our time and spending more time making our project better rather than settling for “good enough”.

 

 

 

Science 9 core competency reflection

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For this reflection I chose the critical thinking core competency and the project I chose that I think helped me improve on that core competency was my Beekeeping information fluency post titled”Does the type of materials used in beehives affect bee quality of life?” you can see the presentation here:

 

I think that this assignment reflects growth in this competancy because I had to take something that i new very little about and research the topic until i had enough information to answer a question (that I came up with) and during this research period i had to use my critical thinking skills to weed out all the incorrect things and make sure that all my information was proven to be true. for these reasons I think that I improved on my understanding of this competancy.

some ways that I will continue to to learn and develop this competancy is by continuing to question everything I see, and not take everything that I am told at face value and not believing in everything that is told to me

Currents from the kitchen lab

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Purpose: Which fruit will produce the most voltage

Hypothesis: A lemon will produce the most voltage when tested

Materials: 1 voltmeter, 2 ires, 1copper strip, at least 3 fruits/vegetables

Procedure: 1. Take fruit  2. Put copper strip and galvanized nail into fruit  3. Attach one wire to the nail and one to the copper  4. Attach to voltmeter  5. take reading  6. Repeat

Reasoning(why): I think that the lemon will give off the greatest charge because it has a lot of citrus in it and citrus has lots of electrolytes

Setup photo and results:

Large orange: 0.3 volts

Small orange: 0.4 volts

Lemon: 0.8 volts

Pickle: 0.9 volts

Pear: 0.5 volts

Potato: 0.5 volts

mixed fruit/ vegetable juice: 0.4 volts

Observations: Voltmeter gauge didn’t stay at one number(bounced around), more fruits = more volts, fruits with more citrus produced more volts, LEDs are very difficult to light with fruit, my hypothesis was wrong in that lemons were not the highest voltage fruit/vegetable(in fact it was a pickle for us).

 

Prompted questions:

  • What is causing electrons to flow in this experiment?

When the citric acid in the fruit reacts with the zinc in the galvanized nail draws electrons toward the copper and                  the copper is conductive so the electrons travel from the fruit to the copper and through the wire into the voltmeter              or whatever you have hooked up to the other end of the wires (motor,LED, etc)

  • what are the independent, dependent, and controlled variables in this experiment?

The independent variable: This is the fruit that we use in the experiment.

The dependent variable: We are measuring the voltage outputted by certain fruit.

The controlled variable: We always used the same wires, copper sheet, and galvanized nail. We were also measuring the voltage the same way for all fruits.

  • How could we modify the experiment to improve our results?

You could add more fruits to make a fruit circuit, therefore, outputting more voltage.

  • What could be sources of error or uncertainty in our experiment?

Some sources of error are that you might not connect the wires to the right parts on the voltmeter which makes it appear like the fruit has no charge when that is not the case. Some sources of uncertainty could be not factoring in the size of the fruit, and how worn out the other materials were.

  • How can you use this in your everyday life?

You could, in theory, make a big enough circuit out of lemons you could make enough voltage to power a lightbulb.

Additional questions that I have after doing the experiment

What would happen if we used a battery to charge up the fruit beforehand?

What would happen if we used dried versions of the fruits(dried apple, dried banana, dried mango, etc)?

If I recreated this experiment on a bigger scale, could it be a clean sustainable source of energy?

how big of a lemon would I need to (in theory) power a house, a village, a town, or a city with this same setup?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indigenous Exploration- Living Conditions, Water

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Indigenous Podcast

Introduction

Here is My COL and English 9 project “Indigenous Exploration Podcast” in This podcast episode Me and my Partner Jordan discussed the long-standing issue with the water in many indigenous reserves. To make this podcast we used audacity to record and we used Blue snowball mics. we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed making it. Blue Snowball USB Microphone for PC, Mac, Gaming, Recording, Streaming, Podcasting, Condenser Mic with Cardioid and Omnidirectional Pickup Patterns, Stylish Retro Design – Black : Amazon.ca: Musical Instruments, Stage & Studio

As we said in our podcast before, the indigenous people deserve to have clean water, they shouldn’t have to even think about whether their water is safe, they should be able to turn on their tap, fill up a glass and have a drink without thinking about itToo many First Nations lack clean drinking water and it's Ottawa's fault, says auditor general | CBC News. 

 

 

 

 

My Reflection

When we created this assignment we didn’t know where to start, neither of us had recorded a podcast so we didn’t know what we needed to do, on top of that we were on a bit more narrow of a timeline than we were used to, this resulted in us having to do more homework to make sure that we were always caught up with the rest of the class and able to follow the timeline that was given to us. Making this project I experienced how podcasts are made, learned how to better manage my time, and learned what it was like to get a topic and with no further information, research and find enough content to fit a 7-minute podcast episode.

The path Jordan and I took while researching the topic went as follows. First, we were informed on some of the resources we could use to research for our project, secondly, we had decided to split up and said that one of us would research our topic on one of the research platforms that was shown to us and the other person would do the same thing but on a different platform, thirdly we compiled all of our research into a shared google doc, and finally we ordered our content and figured out a way to convey that information as a conversation.

We encountered many obstacles while we were recording and learned many things while doing so. Some of the obstacles we encountered were,  we couldn’t find a quiet room to record as we had a room the day before, audacity didn’t let us record for some reason, we found out all the music that we had selected for the episode was not royalty free and we also didn’t know who was going to say what and that took a bit of getting used to. We learned a lot of things such as how to script a podcast, and that you need to really look closely at the little details to make sure that what you think you understand is what you are meant to understand because if you think you understand something and then you find out that is is wrong you have to do a lot more work fixing your error than if you were just to put in the little bit of extra work at the start. We also learned how a good working cooperative team should look, and that if you mess up mid-sentence while recording you should re-record the whole sentence rather than starting recording halfway through the sentence( we would have done this but we didn’t have the time to do so.)

Core Competencies Question

For this part, I chose this question: What are some ways that you use to communicate your learning?

I communicated my learning in many different ways such as spoken word (podcast), conversation (podcast), and written word (reflection). I was able to ask and answer direct questions through my research and my podcast and I was also able to present and share ideas with an audience through my podcast. This project required me to be in a group with a partner and there was a lot of collaboration that went on there. Such as us making sure that we have each other’s contact information so we can stay in touch and talk about the project outside of school, we also had to figure out how we were going to split the script in an even way. All of this required a lot of collaboration and a lot of communication.

Works Cited

https://curio.ca/en/catalog/ec6cc8bc-2802-4117-8902-caa789be2a65

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/carmacks-boil-water-sewage-release-1.6697035

https://go-gale-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Magazines&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=MultiTab&hitCount=1&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CA243713846&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZXAS-MOD1&prodId=CIC&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA243713846&searchId=R3&userGroupName=43riss&inPS=true