Science 3rd Quarter Reflection

This quarter in science was full of achievments and ideas.  So many fun things happened.  We had our Science Fair and we had started studying cells.
The core value I have found that I am the best in is curious. I think that I am mostly curious because I am always excited to learn about new things. I like to notate what I learn and I love to listen to what is newly planned. I want to become more of a risk taker. I have always had a little bit of a stuggle with this when it comes to science. I have new ideas, but I am scared to mess up a lot if I were to use a new strategy. To become more of a risk taker by looking description of the word before class. Every day, I will focus on one of the values in the description until I improve in that. I will try to move on to another one until I am more of a risk taker.  
During the science fair, I learned so many new things. I learned to always be bold and unique. It will help you because different ideas make you stand out from others. I also learned how important it is to be inclusive. We were working in a group of three and that meant that someone could have been left out. I also learned that you have to be innovative because the more creative you were, the more it payed off. It was a huge part of the science fair. You needed to be innovative when you are choosing your topic and innovative when you design your board. Also, when we were looking at the cells, we had to be critical thinkers. For example you had to use your prior knowledge to think of the names of the parts of the cell. You had to think of what part of the cell is what.  
Third quarter was so much fun, and I cannot wait for Fourth quarter!

Exploring with Iodine

During science, we have been using the microscope to look elodea and onion clells.  It was really cool, because we got to see things like the nucleus or cytoplasm.  We first looked at Elodea with water, and then with idodine.
Before doing this experiment, I had expected for the elodea and onion cells to look rectangular, like any other plant cell.  If we were lucky, we might have been able to see nucleus.  I did not think we would see very detailed pictures of the cells.
When I actually saw the cells, I was in awe, because they were so interesting because there was so much to look at.  My favorite to see was elodea 4X because you could also see the outside of the actual leaf, not just a little part of it.
I also really liked to see the onion cells at 100X because you could see the nucleus up close.  It was really interesting because I realized that that was what funtions a cell to do something.  They are what controls the cells.
We also looked at cheek cells!  We took a toothpick and rubbed it in the inside of our mouths.  Then, we put iodine on a slide and stirred our toothpick around in it.  Then, we put another slide on top of that and out it under the microscope.  We saw little flakes, that looked like confetti that were a really dark green, almost brown.
I wonder what would happen if we were to look at an onion cell that was still alive.  Would we see cytoplasmic streaming?  Would things be more enhanced and detailed?  I cannot wait to do another lab like this!

Onion Cells

Elodea Cells 

Theme- City of Ember

Curiosity is a great thing to have, but it could also be a costly thing.  It can be worth the risk. 
For example, in the chapter ''Something Lost, Nothing Found,'' Sadge had gone to the unknown regions out of curiosity.  He did not find anything and his nerves got the better of him.  He can only remember this from his curiosity.  He should not have used his curiosity here, but in a place where it could be more useful.  He was unable to find something and could have used it in a way where he can look even deeper into the situation.  Later into the book, Doon and Lina tell the guards about their discovery about the mayor, but they do not believe them.  Although this was an amazing discovery founded by their curiosity, they shared it with the wrong people.  Finally when Lina is caught by the guards, she tried to convince them that it was not a lie, but they did not believe her.   This shows that there are consequences in curiosity.  Curiousity helped Lina and Doon all throughout City of Ember and did risk themselves, but it was the net that caught them in the end.

I used to think that "The City of Ember'' was about two children that wanted to explore and discover new things.  I read that Lina liked to run and wanted to be a messenger.  She also knew her way around Ember by heart.  I also read that Doon wanted a job in the pipeworks because he wanted to fix the generator.  My initial thoughts when I read these were that the theme could be freedom and adventure.

Now, I realize that the City of Ember is really about how curiousity is something that will help you.  I see that you should not be afraid to take the risk.  I noticed this later in the book, when Doon and Lina are wanted for spreading untrue rumors.  They risked telling someone where their curiousity had lead them, and they soon had to pay for it.  I realized that theme is not something that can just be seen by taking the first idea that comes to mind, it is something that you have to dig deep to find.  

Answered Questions- Science Fair Reflection

After all the hard work of bringing in materials and making our poster board, we finally presented it on the day of the science fair!  I would like to reflect and share how my group's project went.  Our project was the reaction between coke and mentos.  Our independent variable was the coke.  Our dependant were the different flavors of mentos.  Our constants were the meter sticks, the coke and the mentos.
The only thing that I knew about my topic before we started researching was what actually happened in the experiment.  These are the things that I wanted to find out-

• What caused the reaction?
• What ingredients are in mentos that cause the explosion?
• How high can the explosions really go?

Throughout the resarch process, I learned so many cool things about our project.  For example, suprisingly enough, the reaction is actually a physical reaction, not a chemical.  Also, to answer one of my earlier questions, it is not an ingredient in mentos, it is actually the tiny pores in the mentos that make the carbon dioxide go in them and make the coke flow more easily out of the bottle.  So, during my research all of my questions were answered.  A new question I have the I did not research is if the type of soda/fizzy drink affects the explosion.  My plan for my future science expirement is to work alone.  I think that I will work alone because I might be less distracted and more focused on only my project.  One of my favorite parts of this expiriment, not counting the fair, was probably preparing the board and doing the actual expirement.  I feel like one of my core value strengths are being innovative and being innovatine while making this posterboard was really important.  Doing the actual experiment was actually really cool too, because we where able to see that coke and mentos could really go up 3 meters!  One of the more frusturating things in my group was disagreeing about certain things.  We had problems sometimes with having an odd number of people because it sometimes felt like there was an odd one out.  If I could change anything, I might have changed the script lines, because sometimes in certain presentations, there was someone who had less lines than others.  During the science fair, I tried to project my voice as much as possible, because I know that that is one of the things I struggle with. I know that our collaboration was as big a challenge as anything else because there was an odd number of us, and we had to evenly divide and conquer.  We also ran into quite a few disagreements as a group, but were aable to overcome them by calmly talking them out.  In the end, I was kind of half satisfied, half not satisfire with my topic.  I liked it because it was intersting and there was a lot to learn about, but I disliked it because there were a lot of different groups doing it, so it was not really origional.  When we were about to present, I felt kind of nervous, but then I realized that I knew all the information.   I liked the QR code system because it was really organized and it was not handwritten, although there were some irrevivent comments, not really focusing on the project as much.
Overall, this was a great experience and I am so excited for next year!

My Science Fair group- Claudia (Right) Rosanne (Middle) Me (Left)

City of Ember- Deep Question of Choice

Why do you think more people in Ember did not act like Lina and Doon did?

I think that people did not act like Lina and Doon because they were still asleep, unable to see the true mayor, unable to wake up and see the real scarcity in Ember.  For example on Assignment Day, nobody thought twice about the mayors reaction towards Doon's outburst.  Suddenly Doon spoke up.  "But Ember is not prospering!" he cried.  "Everything is getting worse and worse!"  "Silence!"  cried the mayor. (13)  Nobody really suspected there could be something more to it.  Little trails the mayor leaves behind are not picked up by the citizens of Ember.  They are just left there, but Lina and Doon look more closely at them and go deeper.  Secondly,  on page 85, the citizens of Ember are invited to a town meeting.  He then, on page 87 says; "Slooshns!" he bellowed "Arbingfoun!"  "Solutions,'' the people in the front called to the people in the back.  "Solutions are being found?"  Later, he does not answer what king of solutions.  He just wants to cover up his tracks.  These are things that Lina and Doon would pick up, but other citizens are unable to see.  Finally, on page 156, Doon's curioustiy puts him in a position where the truth comes out.  He is in the pipeworks when he notices a key in the door he and Lina were looking at.  He then opens it.  "On the table were dishes smeared with the remains of food, and in an armchair facing Doon was a great blob of a person whose head was flopped backbard, so that all Doon could see of it was an upthrust chin.  The blob stirred and muttered, and Doon, in the second before he stepped back and pulled the door closed, caught a glimpse of a fleshy ear, a slab of gray cheek, and a loose, purplish mouth."  This, we later find out is the mayor.  Only somebody with curiousity like Doon or Lina would really get to the bottom of this.  Also, you realize that nobody really second guessed the fact that the Mayor was bigger than the rest of the citezens.        

Theatre 6 Quarter Reflecion

Throughout this past quarter, I have learned so many different things in Theatre.  During the Greek drama, I learned how to encorperate research into an interesting play.  At first, it was hard to include all of this important information, but I overcame this obstacle through dialouge.  When we did tableaux, I learned how important body language is.  My group at first struggled with conveying facial expressions to show part of a story, but we were able to resolve this by using critique in a positve way.  When we did pantomimes, we could not talk, and we really stuggled with making our characters have certain characteristics, without talking, but we then chose personalities that could be shown through body language.   During "Theif!," I learned how to work with a large group of people and how important other peoples' say is.  That was something we struggled with, because it was hard to organize how to say things when everyone was talking at once.  When we organized, however, the outcome was really good.  Our group stuggled with the pair scenes.  We were in a rush to get it done,  so we went with whatever idea came up.  Once we finally came up with something we could add a story to, we got feedback from Ms. Moraes to make it richer and it turned out nicely.
My goals for the rest of this quarter are to be able to speak up during perfomances and try to be more focused.  For this final assesment, I will try to be more prepared and memorize my lines, not rely on improv.

Digging Deep With Doon

       Doon Harrow is caring and selfless.  Right after everyone chose their jobs on Assignment day, Doon felt did not want to be messenger, and he explains the reasoning behind it and he taps Lina on the shoulder and says; 
"Will you trade with me? he asked.  
"Trade?"
"Trade jobs.  I don't want to waste my time being a messenger.  I want to help save the city, not run around carrying gossip."  (Page 15)  This shows that Doon is selfless because he wants to help save the city.  He knows about what could be coming, and wants to help protect people from it.  Further into the book Doon makes a selfless act that shows he is a good person.  It says;  Now he could see only two courses of action: he could give up and do nothing, or he could start to work on a different movable light. Doon didn't want to give up, so on his day off one Thursday, he went to the Ember Library to look up fire.  (Page 117)  This idnicates that Doon wants to help the city so that nothing bad happens.  It also proves that he is selfless because on his day off, he did not spend it relaxing at home.  He spent it looking for a solution for the city.  Lastly, on page 82, we learn how other people really think of him. it says:  "Lucky for you Doon Harrow was around," said Nammy Proggs, who'd been watching them with her sideways glare.  "He's a good-hearted boy.  Anything breaks at my house, he fixes it."  This lets me realize that Doon is always there and happy to help.  Nammy Proggs is elderly and she probably can't do as much now, but Doon helps her fix things.
Source