Posted on 1 Comment on Connections based learning

Connections based learning

When we had our first FaceTime I honestly didn’t really know what to expect. I had never really heard of Huntington’s before and I didn’t really know  what was gonna happen. We soon realized we wanted to help Tim get off the couch. We tried a few things out but nothing was really working and we had a lot of the same ideas as the other groups. So we decided to think outside of the box, and came up with an idea to help him hold a cup. It took us a while to think of how it would work. But we soon came up with a design, and printed it off. We realized it was too small so we asked Mr Robinson to get the measurements of Tim’s hands to give us a better idea of what size it should be.

We connected with Nikola and Tim. We needed to know if Tim liked coffee/tea to see if was even worth making. We learnt he does so we could go along with our plan. We also had to ask Tim if we could get a rough measurement of his hands to give us a better idea of how big we needed to make it.

We ended up making a handle that we are able to glue onto a cup. We had to really think through how it was going to work. We ended up with a sort of semi circle with a flat edge that could be glued on. We ended up putting finger holes in. We actually had to print off 2 because our first one ended up being too small.

A few skills I have learned and developed would be working with other people especially ones I dont really know too well. It also learnt how to use new things on my computer. Before this I didn’t even know what teams was and now I feel pretty comfortable using it. Another one is TinkerCad and understanding how 3D printers work a bit more.

I think the skills I have learnt could also be used in other classes not just science because working with others is a life skill I feel like. Also just getting my work done because I know other people are relying on it.I feel like I didn’t exactly meet the goals I set for myself for two reasons. 1 being i thought I was making something for the couch and 2 being when I made them I didn’t completely understand what we were doing fully. I definitely met some of them and looking back at the experience I am happy with what I accomplished.

The collaboration went  pretty good, me and my partner both did our fair share, and i’m happy we got to do it in groups because it just gave us different points of view to look at stuff and someone to go to if you needed help. It also cut the work load in half kind of.

We did well on thinking of a unique idea no one else thought of that hopefully will make Tim’s life a little bit easier. I think that there is a coule things we could have done better. We should have used the class time we got a little bit better. Not that we fooled around all the time but I think we kind of left some final things to the last minute. We also should have asked more questions when we didn’t understand something because it would have made everything a lot easier on us.

I actually really enjoyed the connection based learning because it wasn’t boring, like sometimes taking notes is or something. We also got  to guid ourselves in a way, there wasn’t really a criteria to follow. It also made you feel like you are helping someone witch I hope something we made does help Tim and make his life a little bit easier. I really enjoyed it and I hope I get to do something like it again!

Posted on 1 Comment on DNA Lab

DNA Lab

What is DNA?

DNA is a molecule it is a bunch of atoms stuck together. The molecules are called nucleotides. The nucleotides has 3 parts to it. DNa is a double helix, as you can see with our model. DNA carries genetic instructions for growth and development.

What DNA does

Our DNA carries our genetic instructions, it pretty much stores long term instructions.

How it copies itself

Our cells are constantly copying themselves. It’s called replication. It will copy itself over a trillion times over a life time.  The helicase unwinds the double helix of DNA. When the replication starts it is known as the replication fork.  Then the RNA primase adds stuff, and then DNA polymerase does the rest.

Posted on No Comments on What I have learned about grade 9 polynomials

What I have learned about grade 9 polynomials

What is a polynomial?

A polynomial is a math expression or question that has numbers, letters and exponents. An example of a polynomial is 2x+6y-3.

Vocabulary

Degree: The degree is when you look at all the terms and you take the highest exponent and that’s the degree of your expression. For example: x2 − 4x + 7, the degree would be 2.

Constant: The constant is the whole number that doesn’t have a variable.

Coefficient: The coefficient is the number that goes before before the variable, for example: 5xy (the 5 would be the coefficient)

Leading coefficient : The leading coefficient is pretty much the same as a normal coefficient it just means it’s at the start of the “line”. For example:  4x2 − 9x + 5 4 would be the leading coefficient.

Binomial: Binomial is when your answer has two terms. For example: 3x+5

Trinomial: Trinomial is when your answer has three terms. For example: 3x2 − 6x + 7

Monomial: Monomial is when your answer has one terms. For example: 7x2

Add polynomials

To add polynomials you group the like terms. the like terms are when they have the same exponent and variable. So you can’t add together 4 and 5x, because they aren’t like terms. What i do is a circle or make a box around the different terms and that’s how I make sure I don’t forget any of them.

Subtract polynomials

When you subtract, you still group like terms. But you have to flip anything in your bracket, because two negatives equal a positive and the rest equal a negative.

Multiply polynomials (distributive) 

When you multiplying polynomials you use the distributive property and you  multiply each term of the first polynomial by each term after. Then add the answers together and combine like terms to simplify. You also use the same law for exponents, so when you multiply the numbers you add the exponents.

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Dividing polynomials

For division you literally just divide them, but keeping in mind you have to subtract the exponents.

Make connections to previous units (exponents and rationals)

Exponents definitely connect to this unit because we see them, and the higher the exponent the more powerful it is. Rational numbers also because we see them all, fractions, whole numbers and decimals.

Make connections to previous units (exponents and rationals)

IMG_2614

(This is my video)

 

 

Posted on 1 Comment on Currents from the Kitchen Lab

Currents from the Kitchen Lab

So in my hypothesis I thought the potato was definitely going to work the best. We firstly started by grabbing all fo our materials witch were 1 bulb, 1 voltmeter, 2 wires, 1 nail, 1 copper strip and your fruit/vegetable. We then set it up with the copper and the nail in the potato and connected the wires. But after doing this with the potato we realized that not much was happening. We then used a lemon witch worked the best. We then tried to light the bulb witch we could not do. We tried many things but it wouldn’t work.

Posted on 1 Comment on Explore the Field

Explore the Field

My essential question is how can we make something that truly will help Tim, and what can we focus on and how can we use his body to really understand what we are making. What I mean by that is what can we focus on that will actually help him, because if he has a lot of strength in his arms then we would focus on his legs or vice versa.

When we started this project my group and I wanted to focus and making something for Tim so be able to get off the couch. But after some brain storming and tries we realized we kept coming up with the same result as the other groups. So we took a step back and thought “what else can we do?”. So we came up with a handle we will glue onto a coffee mug, because we remembered Tim saying his hands were shaky. I think it’s meaningful because it shows we really did listen because we caught that his hands were shaky. Its meaningful to Tim because I hope he can see all the work we put into it.

One of the small questions i asked was what movements can people with huntington’s do. I started off with this so I could really understand more what Tim was able to do and what he wasn’t. I think that this question actually really helped me to understand huntington’s more because I also learned more just about what it is and some symptoms.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/huntingtons-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20356117

My second source was Tim and Nikola. I learned  a lot from our FaceTime calls with them. I learnt that Tim was shaky. After me and my group came up with our new idea for the cup we had to ask Tim if he drink tea or coffee or there would not really be a point to make the handle. We learnt that he drinks and enjoys both. I also could reflect a lot about what Nikola said Tim could do and not because she would most likely know the most.

-Tim

-Nikola

The last question was how does it affect the brain. For this question I have 2 sources. One is from a website and the other one is Nikola. She was able to kind of explain to me how it affects the brain but I still had some questions so I had to do some more research. After this I found out that it affects the motor movement called the basal ganglia.

https://hopes.stanford.edu/the-basic-neurobiology-of-huntingtons-disease-text-and-audio/

-Nikola

It helps me answer my big question witch was “how can we make something that truly will help Tim, and what can we focus on and how can we use his body to really understand what we are making”. The research helps me because I needed to really understand how he can move and what works for him and what doesn’t because I didn’t want to do all this work for something he didn’t need help with.

So at first when we realized we wanted to make something else we started brainstorming. We defined that we wanted to make a handle. We needed to discover if Tim even drank out of a cup and around what size his hands are, we also got the idea to ask what size ring he wears because that would help us. We started envisioning what we wanted to make but we had a hard time actually putting into TinkerCad. We then started to try a few different designs and options. We then came up with a final product on TinkerCad. Right now we are in the middle of figuring out what we need ti make this. We haven’t done a debrief yet because we are’t done.

My critical questions were: what is Tim able to move and were does he have strength? Then I asked How does this affect the brain? Finally I asked What does Tim need help with?

I learnt how to use Teams because I have never used it before. I also learnt how to use TinkerCad and I have never used anything like it so it was cool to see. TinkerCad was actually not to hard to use, so that was good!

I didn’t just one website I would check a few to make sure the information was repeated and made sense. And for Nikola I trust her because she lives with someone who lives with it so she would know.

For next time I would probably wanna be less shy on the call with Tim to make sure I wasn’t left with any questions in the end. I also wish I worked a bit harder and used my class time a bit better, not that I wasted my time I just wasn’t always 100% focused. But overall looking back at this whole experience i’m actually really happy with our final product.

 

Posted on No Comments on What I have learned about Grade 9 Exponents

What I have learned about Grade 9 Exponents

  • What is an exponent?

An exponent is a little number above it’s base  and it tells you how many copies you have to make of the base. You don’t multiply the exponent by the base, that will give you the wrong answer. You have to remember you are making copies and the exponent is the number telling you how many copies to make.

 

  • What is the difference between evaluating and simplifying?

The difference between evaluating and simplifying is that when you evaluate you get the answer, like the final answer. To evaluate you use the rules and make it easier to do and you dont end with a normal number its sort of an easier way to get the “answer”. It always you to leave it at a simpler answer.

  • Multiplication law and why it works

The multiplication law for exponents is that if the base is the same you add the exponents together, but if the bases aren’t the same there is no short cut or rule you just actually have to do the work.

  • Division law and why it works

The division law is that when both of the bases are the same you take the two exponents and subtract them. It is pretty similar to the multiplication rule except you subtract.

  • Power of a power law and why it works

The power law is that when there is two exponents and one number. You multiply the two exponents  together and that is your new exponent.

  • applications of exponents

An application of exponents could be when you are trying to find the length of the side of a triangle. Because you square the number and then you find what the side is.

  • one more thing you learned about exponents

I learnt about the copies thing, because I always used to think that you just multiplied the two numbers together.