Category: Grade 9

Science 9 – Artifacts of Learning

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This semester in Science 9, I learned many new things about the Periodic Table, circuits and electricity, cells and the reproduction cycles, and climate change.

Safety

                

During the start of Science 9, we learned about the health and warning symbols on daily and household products that we should be aware of, such as the corrosive sign, the health hazard sign, the compressed gas symbol, and the flammable symbol. Each symbol or sign has its own meaning of what it means and what it does so you can protect yourself and others around you.

For example, the compressed gas sign means that whatever is being compressed is a gas and can exploded out the material if not cautious with the product.

Chemistry

During our chemistry unit this year, we learned about the periodic table and their groups, families, and features. I also got to familiarise myself with the table and how it was arranged, some other compounds that weren’t on the periodic table, polyatomic ions, element features, and their chemical reactions to other substances.

For our final chemistry project, we had to choose an element and do some research on it as well. For example, the element that I chose to research was platinum which is made to make records with.

Physics

                                                                                         

Throughout our physics unit, we learned about Ohms Law along with voltage, current, and resistance. We also learned how to read resistors with their different coloured bands, how to read a voltmeter and an ammeter with one, five, and ten volts for a voltmeter or amps for an ammeter.

                                                                                         

For our lab, we did the Currents of the Kitchen Lab where we had to make a circuit with fruits from our home.

My group and I used half a lemon, half a potato and a whole banana. We then had to try and make an LED light turn on with only using the food that we had. We made series and parallel circuits and we learned how electricity moves through different objects.

Biology

Our Biology unit was full of new things that needed to be learned, such as mitosis, meiosis, the cell cycle, cell division, and reproduction. We learned all of this with the help of our may learning experiences along labs, worksheets, and group projects.

                         

Here are some pictures of the projects we did during our biology unit of Science 9 with Mr. Robinson.

Climate Change

                           

With climate change, we’ve learned about the carbon in our air, the four spheres to our Earth, biotic and abiotic factors, and what we can do to help make a change.

                           

We also made our own innovation to help solve climate change called the Carbon Compressor and Collector in Minecraft with the help of Elandi and Emily.

Skype With Catherine

   

With Catherine, we learned how most girls can’t go to school because of pregnancies or because of the commute to the school itself.

That can be hard on them, especially without water or it being so far away to reach. Climate change is even a bigger factor in Uganda because of it’s rising heat temperatures nowadays.

Here is a picture of all the questions we asked Catherine:

My Core Competencies Reflection: 

Core Competencies Self-Assessment for Science 9

Français Langue 9 – Core Competencies Reflection

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Here is the link to the document: 

Riverside CC’s Self Assessment Document – Reflection

Here is our add for our project that my group and I made together: 

Here is my reflection: 

Communication

Collaboration

I think that my group and I did a fantastic job on our collaboration part of the project. We all worked great together on the project and distributed our tasks evenly, even if one of us weren’t present in class. For example, whenever someone had a dance competition, or had an important appointment to attended to, or was even not feeling well, we all still did our part of the project along with the rest of our group members.

Whenever one of us had a new or interesting idea to share with the rest of the group, we all listened together and shared any other ideas that we came up with. When one of our ideas wasn’t quite clear, we would build upon the original idea as a base and have an even better idea then we did before.

Whenever there was a problem that we came across as a group, we all resolved it together. When we needed to create a box for the board game itself or we needed to review some of the cards and their spelling, we all did that together as a group.

I think we all did an incredible job on our collaboration part of the project.

Communicating

For our communication part of the project, I think we could have improved on a few things together as a group. For focusing on the intent and the purpose of the project, we all understood that this was a group project and that we had to create an engaging and interactive board game, but at some points we focused on the little details too much and less on the bigger picture. We would focus on the small point of view in front of us, but we didn’t really take a step back to look and to see the bigger picture.

Along with that, we presented our information well to everyone, but some spots still could have been a bit more clear as well. Other than that, I feel that we all did an outstanding job on our project together.

Science 9 – Emily and Elandi – Climate Solution Fluency

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Define:

Climate change has always been a huge problem for our environment and for our Earth, so we diecide to change that with one of our own ideas. 

The challenge that we have been faced with is to think of a problem that we can solve with our own innovation regarding climate change. Our problem that we came up with was how to get rid of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases from our atmosphere and our lives. 

Discover: 

For our research, we investigated in what others have created and done, such as smog towers. There are multiple smog towers in Dehli, Beijing, and in Korea in order to get rid of the ridiculous amount of carbon in the air. In Iceland, they have the world’s largest direct air capturing facility that can remove carbon from the air and is then injected into a volcanic rock. China has been working on refurbishment projects to help with the many problems that carbon dioxide is causing to our Earth. China also have lots of valuable points on how we can help our reducement of carbon in the air.

With all of this information, this will help us in the future so we can know how to improve our ways of life and try and use less carbon in all our lives.

We also found some facts about climate change that effect Canada and the rest of the world:

  • Climate change is mainly caused by the increase of greenhouse gases – also known as GHGs – in our atmosphere.
  • This change in our climate has multiple impacts on our environment such as on our health and our economy
  • Canada’s total greenhouse gases emissions were found in 2020 with approximately 672 megatons of carbon dioxide in the air
  • Between the years of 1990 and 2020, Canada’s greenhouse gases emissions have increased by 13.1%, but went down again between 2005 and 2020 by 9.3% with the help of the use of electricity in our daily lives

We even came up with our own definitions of what carbon is and what greenhouse gases are too:

What is Carbon:

Carbon is a gas that has no odor or colour to it. It is made when animals or humans turn food into a useful energy. Carbon can help plant plants and can help animals grow, it can also release heat into the atmosphere. Sometimes too much carbon gets released into the atmosphere and that causes the result of climate change to our Earth.

What are Greenhouse Gases:

Greenhouse gases are gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing lots of radiation and lots of carbon dioxide.

Dream:

Some solutions that we came up with together were these:

  • Extracting carbon dioxide from our atmosphere
  • Planting more trees and helping our forests collect more carbon
  • Creating global goals to reduce the rising carbon in our environment
  • Ecosystems that can have an enhanced capacity to store more carbon into a chamber
  • More windmills and turbines to help with the air circulation
  • More carbon and smog towers around the world
  • Recycling our waste and composting it into the Earth
  • Replacing aluminum window frames with recycled aluminium

Deliver:

Here is a drawing of our prototype for our Carbon Compressor and Collector:

How our Carbon Compressor and Collector works is by placing on a roof so it can collect any carbon floating around the machine itself. After that, all the carbon gets compressed in a chamber and gets turned into fuel, oil, or jewelry. It then gets dispensed into crates to get transported to wherever its need to go.

Debrief: 

The process we went through for our solution fluency project was to start off with what our problem was and how we wanted to resolve it. Then, we did our research on what carbon dioxide is, what greenhouse gases are, what other countries have done it the past, and what’s going on with Canada with the resources of Destiny Discover. We then turned everything into paragraphs using our own words.

We also came up with various other ideas ans solutions to end the amount of carbon in our atmosphere and in our lives. Our carbon collector can compress the carbon into energy once again after it has already been used once. That will make the carbon reusable and more efficient to use in our lives.

Finally, Elandi drew our prototype for our invention called the carbon compressor along with what it does exactly. For our project now, Elandi and Emily will be constructing it in Minecraft as I create a video demonstrating how our carbon compressor would work. 

Sources:

Science 9 – Climate in Canada Project

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About Heartland, Ontario:

Heartland, Ontario is known to be one of Canada’s largest power centers for retail shops and speciality services. First off, where is Heartland in Canada? It’s found in the southwest of both Québec and Ontario with service industries as the main industry in Heartland. This is because of it’s convenient location and population of around 3 million people and 79% of the province’s employment and economy.

That’s half of the country’s manufacture workers and half the country’s total amount of production found in Heartland. With around 98 billion dollars in manufacturing sales and over 190 storefronts, that is 2 million square feet of real estate (about the size of West Virginia).

Heartland is such a great place to live and work for multiple reasons, such as the good fertile soil and landscaping, along with a rocky and mineral-rich center and fertile farmland in the south with grassy lowlands from the north. There are numerous jobs in cultivate crops, mine minerals, manufacture automobiles, design software, information and communication technologies, biotech, medical devices, and on the edge technology.

All of this makes Heartland the ultimate place to eat, shop, and work.

Causes:

The problem with all of these industries found in Heartland, that means that there are lots of natural hazards to be found. That can be heat and cold temperatures rising and descending at insane rates. Not only that, but there’s also the rising air and ocean temperatures causing more and more natural disasters every year.

Effects:

A lot of effects on Heartland can be easy and gradual changes of sea level rise and plant species migration or dying, adaptations, and preventions of new opportunities in the northern parts of Canada for its economic development. In the summer, the temperature can be as high as 30°C (86°F) and as low as -40°C (-40°F) in the winter. That is a big difference from what is was 10 years ago. With these rates, the temperatures won’t stop rising and sinking every year.

Cites:

“JavaScript Is Required to View This Site.” Ontario.ca, https://www.ontario.ca/page/about-ontario.

(Ontario Climate Change and Health Vulnerability and Adaptation Assessment Guidelines, 2006)

Warren, F.J. and Lemmen, D.S. (2014): Synthesis; in Canada in a Changing Climate: Sector Perspectives on Impacts and Adaptation, (ed.) F.J. Warren and D.S. Lemmen; Government of Canada, Ottawa, ON, p. 1-18.

 

HCE 9 – English 9 Write – “Birds On A Wire”

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By Sonoma Booth ang Avery Hong

“Birds On A Wire” by Banksy

“Birds On A Wire” painted by Banksy, has a lot of meaning to unpack. A symbol displayed in this is respect, the birds on the right side do not respect the African bird who is all alone because of where it comes from. All five birds are united together to fight against the unique bird from somewhere else. Migration usually occurs when birds or other animals want to get away from the cold weather, with immigration it is typically in search of a better life with more opportunities. This a reference to a racist argument about immigrants taking jobs and recourses that was once theirs or the five birds in this case. Another note is that the point of view shown is straight ahead meaning that it has not a lot of other complications to it. The lighting shown is also bland and boring with no in-depth details other than what we see on the surface. There is a complete lack of respect that brings in the factor of racism which shows visually that the birds are in a smooth, white sanded box, which is a way of thinking or showing idealism. The group of birds are not colourful at all, they’re mainly grey and black showing a sad, stale, and dull community amongst them. With the African bird, it is small but beautiful and full of colours like blue and green showing a more vibrant and happy side to it even if it is all alone. The bird came from Africa probably looking for a new beginning until they came across this group of birds. When I look at this picture, I see a separation between all of the birds. With one group of birds fighting for what’s theirs, and the one lonely and colourful African bird just trying to fit in with them. Clearly both birds have different points of view that they’re seeing, almost as if they are two worlds apart from each other.

FlipBook – “The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian”

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For this project, I created a Flipbook on the novel study for English 9 called “The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie. I used a tool called Flipsnack in order to create this Flipbook.

First, I created a PowerPoint presentation, then I saved it as a PDF to my OneDrive, uploaded it to Flipsnack and added some details to make it look even better.

Here it is and I hope you like it, enjoy!

Science 9 – Mitosis Lab Modeling

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Interphase: 

During the beginning of interphase, the cell performs normal functions as usual and keeps on growing. Interphase is also the longest phase during the cell cycle and still absorbes nutrients during the phase.

During the late stage of interphase, the DNA copies itself in the nucleus for the process of replication.

This part of stage involves the DNA molecules to unwind with the help of ab enzymes which separates the DNA molecules. Then, new bases pair with the original one along with the original DNA.

After the DNA is copied, the last step of interphase is for the DNA molecules to join together to form sister chromatins and replicates to make an identical copy of the DNA.

Prophase: 

These spindle fibers form from opposite ends of the cell.

The nucleus disappears for a reason that scientists don’t really know why yet. Then, the spindle fibers attach themselves to the both ends of the sister chromatins.

Metaphase: 

All of the chromatins line up in the middle or in the equator of the cell during metaphase.

Anaphase: 

In the anaphase process, the chromatids are being pulled away from each other and they are being divided into two.

Each one of the halves of the chromatids is on the opposite side of the cell.

Telophase:

During the final stage of mitosis, the spindle fibers disappear and a nuclear membrane start to form around each of the separated set of chromosomes.

Cytokinesis: 

Cytokinesis is the separation of both nuclei that are finally dividing into their own two daughter cells.

The very last step forms both of the nucleus again in each cell.

Science 9 – Edible DNA Lab

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Here are some pictures of my edible DNA: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. What is DNA?

DNA is something that we all have in our bodies and it define who we are to what we look like. From the colour of our eyes to our hair colour, that’s what DNA does. DNA is usually found in the nucleus of a cell and contains deoxyribonucleic acid. It is also known as the molecule that sends a set of instructions to the other cells telling them how to function, what to produce, and when to stop.

DNA looks like a twisted ladder that has two strands wrapped around each other in a spiral shape – like in the photos above. Both of those sides are made up of sugar (glucose) and phosphate. If DNA were a ladder, then each one of the steps are made of four different nitrogen bases that connect to one another. Adenine (A) connects to thymine (T) and cytosine (C) connects to guanine (G).

2. What does DNA do? 

Most of the time in the nucleus, DNA is in the from of chromatin, which contains DNA and proteins and then coils into a very tightly X or Y shaped chromosome. In every organism, it has a specific amount of chromosomes, such as the human body which has a total of 46 chromosomes arranged into 23 pairs. Usually, the 23rd pair determines the sex with XX for females and XY for males.

The genes are the smallest segments of DNA located on a chromosomes and can carry thousands of them. Each gene stores information needed to produce specific proteins for the body, such as enzymes and hormones which carry out very important functions for the body.

3. How does DNA copy itself?

The nucleus receives a chemical sign in order to make a specific kind of protein. The DNA then massage’s the protein is to be copied into an even smaller molecule called RNA and that leaves the nucleus through the nuclear pore.

Then, the RNA sends a message to be delivered to a ribosome to make protein. After that, the protein enters the endoplasmic reticular (the ER) and a vesicle forms at the end of it carrying the protein all the way to the Golgi body. The Golgi body then receives vesicles from the ER and repackages protein for transportation out of the cell. A vesicle then forms off the end of the Golgi body to carry out the protein to the cell membrane and the protein is then released out of the cell.