Welcome to my blog! I have this post stickied so it always appears at the top, but just scroll down and you can see my other posts.
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Today, we wrapped up our unit of inquiry Sharing the Planet: Actions can deny or provide acces to children’s rights and opportunities. This post is a reflection on the process I took to answer my Personal Inquiry question. A Personal Inquiry is something you do to dig deeper and focus on understanding a specific topic after gaining sufficient knowledge of the general idea.
This is a picture (a rather silly one) of me and a page of my Personal Inquiry flip-book.
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| From STP Inquiry Sharing |
Stages of the inquiry cycle:
1. Asking questions
2. Selecting resources
3. Recording information
4. Synthesizing information to create new knowledge and understanding
5. Presenting
6. Reflecting on learning
The part of the inquiry cycle I find hardest is the synthesizing of information to create new knowledge and understanding. If you put it in a more understandable context, soaking up the water in the sponge is easy, but squeezing out the excess so you only have what you need is the hard part for me. When you first look at your completed research sheet, it looks like you have a whole tonne of information. But once you do actually manage to get all the excess water out, you actually only have a few straggly bits of information that don’t really answer your question at all.
As I went on the Grade 5 China Trip during the extra-long weekend (Monday and Tuesday off as well) I missed out on the valuable working time that took place on the Friday, thus making me very behind on both my PSA and my PI (Personal Inquiry.) However, the trip enlightened me on some of the conditions in which the children in rural China live in. So basically my personal inquiry was a last-minute, stay up till 10:00 at night project. I think if I had more time I would’ve done a better job. I was actually very disappointed in myself, because I know I can do better.
On the bright side, I managed to get it finished ON TIME, which to me, as a ‘time-waster’ is top on my list for completing projects. To tell the truth, I thought my PI was a waste of time, because I didn’t learn anything I didn’t know before except a handful of out-of-date statistics. They all dated back to 1999 and 1993 and ‘ancient’ times like those. What will I do with this learning? I’ll let others know the meagre things I found out, but I really don’t see how it will help me in the future, except maybe learning to stand up for your rights and your beliefs.
Author’s Personal Note: Another negative reflection for me. yay. ( for questions as to why the ‘another’ is there, refer to the post titled A New Photo, Not a New Hope)
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In August 2011 Russian scientists spotted the only all-white adult orca, named Iceberg, who lives with 12 other family members. They think he is about 16 years old, due to the size of his dorsal fin. This is the first time anyone in the world has seen an albino orca whale. Scientists have been hunting around for another glimpse of the orca so as to figure out if it is truly albino.
However, even though this newspaper article says Iceberg is an albino, no one has been close enough to check it’s eye retina to see if it’s red.
I really hope Iceberg doesn’t die, because the 2 other albino orcas that have been found died before adulthood. Apparently there is a property in the ‘albino gene’ that shortens the regular lifespan of the creature.
I think this shows the concepts FUNCTION because we need to figure out how the bodies and minds of albino beings work, as they are unique in the living world. It also shows FORM because albinos have certain aspects that identify them as albinos, ie the red eyes, or the pale skin. Another concept is RESPONSIBILITY because we all need to take a part, no matter how small, in keeping our planet the way it is, and accepting and appreciating the biodiversity of life.
Watch the 30 second video of Iceberg the all-white killer whale.
Photo Credit: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/travel/news/meet-iceberg-the-albino-killer-whale/story-fn32891l-1226336963355
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This is my PSA (public service announcement) that I have been working on for some time in class now. A PSA is created by someone to persuade or inform the audience of a certain issue and to stimulate them to take action. Our PSAs were based on the different articles of the UNCRC (UN Convention for the Rights of the Child.) I chose Article 12: You have the right to give your opinion, and for adults to listen and take it seriously. This article is my personal favourite. Enjoy! Special credit goes to Extreme 18 for acting the ‘Evil Old Granny’ for me.
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Today is May the Fourth, and as all you Star Wars lovers out there know, May the Fourth is also May the Force, so it’s like May the Fourth be with you. (May the Force be with you)
Can you spot all the STAR WARS characters in these pictures?
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Today, I had my SLLR with my parents. SLLR stands for Student Led Learning Reveiw. Here is a photo of me and my mum that the end of the conference.
Today, during my SLLR, the most imortant thing I wanted my mum to notice about my learning was my new knowledge of French. (nouveau la connaissance du Français) I have never learnt French before coming to Canadian and I am pleased to say that I am improving a lot during class.
Here is a menu of the other things that I showed my mum:
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This is a picture I made on Photoshop. We have been working on it in IT (Information Technology) classes with Dr T. I found Photoshop very frustrating and confusing, even though it is a very useful skill to have.
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This a complex math problem in which you have to employ your functional relationship interpretation skills. Me and my friend, Extreme 18, made a video on how we solved just one of the many different combinations you can find out. The steps in the video are rather repetitive so feel free to skip ahead.
Here is the functional relationship, as we didn’t explain it in the video:
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Recently, in math class, we have been working on a game call Game of 31. Basically it’s a card game where you use the cards 1-6 in all four suits and each player flips over one card at a time. The first to 31 is the winner. Unfortunatly, when we were supposed to complete the ‘publishing’ stage, I was at a fundrasing bakesale and missed most of the period. However, my friend Extreme 22 and I were working together on the poster and she was able to finish it. Here it is!
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For the 7th challenge of the BBB, we had to choose a photo from the internet that really captures something and invokes a response from its audience. It could be funny, sad, beautiful, scary, etc. Then we had to write about it. Here is mine.
This is a picture of a Black Kite. These animals are really common around Hong Kong, and this one just happened to be passing by when my mum was there. She snapped a picture of it. I really like this picture because the kite is just staring at you, and you’re staring at the kite, and it doesn’t fly away or anything, it just stands there and makes its weird shreeing noise. And it looks real mad or something and its like a staring contest and then the kite shrees and you jump and then it turns around and preens itself. Suddenly it calls really loudly again and you can hear the answering call echoing across the valley. I also love the beautiful tail feathers: they’re just hanging down, almost like a peacocks. Every morning I wake up to the sound of birds, mainly kites, and I have grown to love them and admire them as one of the few remaining species left here in industrial Hong Kong.
The other day, I managed to capture this video of the kite, and you will be able to hear what I mean by the shreeing noise.
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