Tag: #criticalthinkingcc

Physics 12 – Equilibrium Project – Sonoma, Heliya and Aya

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Here is a picture of our final project and my calculations for the top level:

Here are some pictures of how our thinking process started:

Self Reflection:

I believe this project went really well. I had a chance to develop my knowledge on equilibrium and to clarify my calculations with the help of my peers. I learned about some factors that I wasn’t too sure about, such as, if certain variables would change our data significantly. At first, I was unsure if we needed the weight of the popsicle sticks that we had on each level that we were measuring. I was thinking that the mass was needed because each mass for the popsicle sticks were different, then that would contribute to our data. In reality, because the mass of the popsicle sticks were so light, there isn’t a huge difference to note in the calculations.

My data for each weight was relatively similar with 0.0260946Nm for the 0.20kg mass, and 0.0288395Nm for the 0.50kg mass that was hanging on the other side of the popsicle stick. The difference between each of these were 0.0028449Nm, but that was resolved once I rounded the data to the correct amount of significant figures (0.03Nm each). Some possible errors that could have caused this difference in data were the friction between the table and our objects in equilibrium, or how the surface we were using for our project wasn’t exactly straight, causing our project to be at a different angle and having our project not be in total equilibrium. My only suggestions for next time would be to create it on the ground away from others to step on because the surface would be flatter, and to add some more colour or more visually appealing aspects.

Core Competency Reflection:

The Core Competency that I feel works best with this project is Critical and Creative Thinking. During this project, Critical and Creative Thinking really kicked in when designing, creating, calculating and presenting our project. For example, when starting to think of ideas, we tried to think of something that was eye-catching, but that mainly followed all of the criteria for the project: to maintain equilibrium.

After looking at a few ideas for inspiration, we decided to start building for fun to see what we could come up with. I started by adding a few beads into two different spheres to change their weights, then we were creating additional levels using other objects. While we liked our ideas and the way we were thinking towards building, we still had some things to adjust. We decided we liked some components that we created, however the next step was to develop our ideas. While we still used objects such as popsicle sticks and paper cups, we had to scrap some other aspects that weren’t needed, like the spheres. From there, we changed our idea from a few simple levels to a few levels with more weights, string tensions, and fulcrums involved.

For the next step, we were more focused on the set-up for the presentation, and our correct calculations. To make sure our set-up was correct, we made markers on the popsicle sticks to make sure that all objects were in equilibrium. Whenever we had one object leaning or starting to fall, we knew we had to adjust our placement of the objects on each level. With that process, we were left with a lot of questions, such as if we measured and placed everything correctly? If not, how could we fix that before presenting?

While critiquing our work, we realized that everything would be in equilibrium as long as our paper cups (fulcrums) weren’t too far apart from the center. Even though each level had different centers of gravity, we used that to our advantage in order to help keep our project in equilibrium, and to help make the visual aspect look less messy. For our calculations, we took each level apart one at a time, and we measured each competent that was needed to determine the total torque on both sides of the popsicle sticks. We had to assess what parts were needed for the calculation and what parts weren’t necessary – such as the mass of the popsicle stick itself.

Finally, we presented our project and explained how our it was in equilibrium, as well as how particular our set up was. We reflected on our past ideas and how they helped us work towards our final product. In the end, I learned more about how equilibrium works, especially with more weights, more center of gravities, and more dimensions involved.

Français Langue – Core Competencies Reflection – Debate Project

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What was the most challenging element of the debate project for you personally? Did you overcome that challenge and if so, how did you do so?

The most challenging element from the debate project for me was finding a topic that had two unbiased sides, and that was written in French. To start, we had to find a good argument, write a introduction, then present it to our partner in order to decide on our topic. While finding a topic wasn’t too difficult, writing a good draft of an introduction was tricky because I didn’t really know which topics would be best to dive into to create a well written argument to present to the class. After, neither my partner nor my ideas were good enough for a topic, so we went back to searching. While Le Monde or Radio Canada are great sources, sadly my partner and I couldn’t find anything on either sites to help us with our argument. After lots of research, we finally found a good article to use, even though it was a bit too long for our liking. Another challenging aspect was creating a convincing argument for our audience and writing it formally. Once we had our official topic, it was to find good evidence and to write it formally. Our last step was to fine-tune our original argument with all of our evidence, but there was a lot of rewriting that needed to be done. For instance, when we were mentioning one topic, a different piece of evidence was used, yet it had no relevance to the subject. After doing our final edits, I believe we didn’t have any other conflicts with the project.

How did this project (as presenter or listener) change your perspectives?

This project changed my perspectives in many ways as both a listener and a presenter. For instance as a listener, I was convinced by the presenters and their arguments, as appose to the opposite argument that the audience was supporting. While the audience knew very little on the subject (other than the article that was read at the start of the debate), the opposing side always seemed more convincing as they did the research to understand their subject best. However as a presenter, my partner and I understood both sides to the argument and wrote down key facts for both of them. This was done to help build our original argument. For example, we turned those key point about the apposing side and turned them into questions to help build our argument even more. If someone in the audience asked a question, we had the answer to it, which demonstrated where we stood with our argument.

What were you most proud of in your project?

In my project, I was most proud of the research that was accomplished as well as the presentation done towards the class. My partner and I both did lots of research to build our argument with facts, research experiments, statistics, graphs, etc. We both found a fair amount of evidence, but it was important to use the pieces that were concise for our argument to help make our point clear. It was a lot of hard work and research that was done during and outside of school as well. In the end, our presentation to the class went well: we provided answers to key words and tried our best to explain the ones we didn’t have written down, we spoke clearly to the class when presenting our discussion, and we tried to answer the questions as best as we could. Overall, the project went well, it could have been better but I am confident that our argument was strong regardless.

Final Quarter Reflection – Tech Team

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Tech Team Reflection

This year as a member of the Tech Team, there have been many new experiences that I have had the chance to be a part of. Some examples are helping to welcome in new grade nines, being in the Maker Space in the morning before school, during lunch and after school to help with any assignments, assisting with welcoming in parents of future grade nines to our school, and coming in early to work at the Wave.

During this last term, some initiatives and volunteering that I have been involved with are coming in early to provide any assistance needed at the Wave, helping in the Maker Space during class time or early in the morning, and by helping with any technical problems in my classes. I try to help in my classes whenever I can to the best of my abilities and I was working in the Wave for 380 minutes during the month of April, 360 minutes in May and about 100 minutes in June.

Something that I learned during this term was how to use the 3D printer better with the help of Tinker Cad, Mrs. Henderson and Ms. Leung. My strength with 3D printing is how to create a design using Thinker Cad, then exporting it in as the correct file to prepare for slicing. With that, a challenge I had was not knowing how to slice as I have never done it before. At first, I was a bit unsure of how to slice my print, but after being shown how to do the process a couple of times, I now know how to do it myself and how to help others as well. Something small I learned about the 3D printer was that when printing, the printer will create a base for the print job, therefore it does not stick to the glass or plastic printing mat.

With the end of the year approaching, I am now hoping to continue to print projects next year using the 3D printer whether they are big or small, for school or for myself, then I can also improve and experiment with the knowledge that I have. Along with that, I hope that I can assist other students and teachers with using the 3D printers correctly, either with the Tinker Cad program, or with slicing on the Maker Space computer.

Core Competency Reflection and Goal – Chemistry 11

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In Chemistry 11 so far, I have shown strength and growth with my critical thinking skills, and I will continue to do so. I can analyze and critique my work, question and investigate what leaves me confused, as well as develop my learning and comprehension skills.

For instance, I can analyze and critique my completed homework or lab work, then rewrite or reword it in order for it to make complete sense to the reader. For questioning and investigating, if there are any questions that confuse me, then I can ask my peers or the teacher questions. After that, I can try to solve the problem and investigate for the correct process and answer myself or with the help of someone else. When developing my learning and comprehension skills, that can be done with the help of asking my teacher or peers for assistance and by practicing more of the material that is being done in class. Whether it is extra practice or refining my skills, it will still be useful in the correct direction.

Lastly, my goal for future Chemistry labs is to continue to measure any lab data with little to no errors along with high precision and accuracy, and to apply my critical thinking skills to the labs in any way that I can.

Core Competency Reflection – Français Langue 11

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Here are my Core Competency reflections that show my strength and growth with Français Langue 11.

A Core Competency that shows Strength:

I showed strength with the communication competency by always contributing my ideas to any discussions or conversations with the class, by synthesizing, deepening, and developing my thoughts, and by acquiring, analyzing, and integrating my ideas together with the big ideas of the course. For example, with our group discussions about our class novel study “Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran”, I always made sure I contributed to our group discussions about what we had read, and the big themes of the book. When it was time to work on our homework for the novel, I always made sure that my ideas and thoughts made sense, then expanded further on those topics and ideas.

 

A Core Competency that shows Growth:

I feel I could grow more with the critical and reflective thinking competency with examining various perspectives and analyzing interpretations of complex issues. For myself, I believe I need to work on taking time to fully understand a concept if I don’t understand it, and then discover what it is I need to work on in order to achieve better results, such as with French grammar and verbs.

English 10 – Core Competencies Reflection – Tic Tac Toe Assignment

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This is my Core Competencies Self-Assessment Reflection on my process with my English Tic Tac Toe Assignment, where I describe my process and what I did with Critical and Creative Thinking.

Refection Sur Le Projet de Groupe

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Socials Group Project – The French Revolution

Communication 

When our group started working on this project, we first talked about how we were going to divide up the work so that everyone was equal. We talked about what we were going to work on and discus, such as “La Prise de la Bastille” and when King Louis the XVI and his family tried to escape France.

After that, we discussed and planned how we wanted to present our information to our teacher and to our peers. Every day we went through each step to make sure that we didn’t miss anything and to make sure that we all knew what we were still doing and working on.

Critical Thinking

Whenever we started a new task or one of us in the group had a new idea, we always questioned if it was a good idea for our subject. For example, if one of us had the idea of adding a funny clip into our video to add some humor, we always made sure that it made sense to us and for our audience. We developed our ideas along the way together and we always worked together.

For designing the video, I was the one doing it because I have an app on my phone to help create videos. I worked hard on creating the video and I think that the end result was very good; it was amusing, engaging, and it showed our understanding of the French revolution and what happened during that period in time in  history.

Personal Awareness

I know that I worked hard every time that we were given time to work on the project, I always put my best foot forward in making my own decisions and in making my own choices. If I ever had to ask my fellow group members for their help or their advice on the video or with anything else, I would ask for their opinion.

I was always ready to work inside or outside of the class with our group and I was determined to accomplish our daily goals along with our overall goal: to work hard and do well on this group assignement.