CAS Reflection January 18, 2015


Physical ‘Activity’ Based Questions / things to note

  1. What is your activity? I joined the Volleyball team and the swim team.
  2. What encouraged you to choose it? I played both sports in Middle School and decided I would continue to try out in High School.
  3. What skills are you hoping to learn? I hope to in general get better at the sport itself, and personally gain fitness from it as well as a understanding of the game.
  4. What skills are you focussing on in particular that you would like to improve? Specifically for Volleyball I want to improve my coordination and agility, while in swimming I want to improve my speed.
  5. Explain your participation. My role in the team on Volleyball was to be an active player on the court and help keep the ball off the ground, while in the swim team it was a bit more individual but I participated by going to the group practices.
  6. What do you notice about your progress? I’ve noticed that in all sports I’ve improved and I’ve measured it by either points in games, or by specific time trials.
  7. How have you collaborated with others in your activity? I’ve been helped, and helped my team mates in various ways on the volleyball court, and in swimming with numerous group races.
  8. What things have you noticed have changed weekly / monthly?  This can include both physical and emotional changes? I notice that I consistently feel healthier after each activity as they are physical exercises that I push myself to do better in.
  9. What are you learning about others in participating in this activity? I’ve learned how to corporate and coordinate myself with my team mates to a better advantage of the game.
  10. What are you learning about yourself? I’ve learned through physical activity how to push myself both physically and mentally when it comes to team work.
  11. Is there anything that surprises you about your progress? Nothing too shocking.
  12. Is there any more goals and targets you would like to concentrate on? At the moment, there is nothing I would like to improve other then my overall general skill in the specified activity, but overall I enjoy the games and have fun.


Student Led Conference Reflection

What went well?

I think the overall experience was good, and my parents liked to see samples of my work done in class, especially graphic examples.

What did you struggle with?

I struggled specifically with my presenting skills. My parents noted that I was very monotone and looked unprepared.

What can be done to improve this?

I think maybe letting us students have more preparation time and notifying us a month earlier so we can at least be aware of what is to come.

P.E 8

What were your highlights?

The highlights of this years sport unit for me, was probably being able to create our own games and play them in class. I find that last year all we did was do activities that our previous P.E teacher told us to do, but I find that making our own games and actually playing them in class makes it more interesting for everyone.


What activities/sports did we do so far this year ?


Well, this year we had many units. Some were sports and some were activities. In the first semester we had a basketball unit, a swimming unit and a plank challenge. For the second semester we started with making our own games, and presenting them to the class while getting to play them, but we also had to make a video explaining how the game works. We also had a soccer unit as well as starting a volleyball unit, and a short mini frisbee/archery unit. But one challenge we had was a 7 minute run where you run continuously around a soccer field for 7 minutes.


What were your biggest challenges/successes ?


One of my biggest challenges in this class was keep motivating myself to do runs. So for example we have the 7 minute run where you are supposed to run continuously, however you can also walk if you are too tired. In that unit my biggest struggle was pushing myself over the limit to try and run as far as I could each time we did it.


One of my biggest successes in this class was probably the fitness testing. For fitness testing we have a part called pacer where there is a machine that makes a noise everytime you’re supposed to run one lap of a 20 meter length side of the gym. The pacer gets faster and faster and it tests your endurance and counts how many laps you did. I feel that I have improved a lot since we do it once in the beginning, once in the middle and once at the end, so with me increasing a large number of laps from last time, to me is one of my biggest successes.


Describe your attitude and effort towards p.e


Personally, I find my attitude and effort very hard working when in P.E class. I feel this way because I try to aim for as far as I can go and push over the limit when I try anything in class. To me P.E is not a class but an opportunity to learn new things and break your boundaries.


For our P.E basketball unit we had to make a video demonstrating ball handling skills. Here is my group’s work :

Mandarin 8

Describe one of your best successes in this class. What did you do to make it so successful?

One of my best successes in this class, was understanding more conversational structure. For example in class we consistently learn new words that combine and link sentences together, like phrases such as “When I…I also….”. So that would be one of my best successes and the one thing I improved most on.

Describe a challenge you faced in this class. What did you do to overcome that challenge ?

My biggest challenge in class is memorizing characters, and it always has been one of my biggest challenges in Mandarin. I haven’t fully overcome it but Ms.Taoli has highly encouraged me to every night go home and memorize new vocabulary and review old ones so that advice really helped me to try and learn more and widen my variety of Chinese. Also using a website called Quizlet that lets you learn auditory and visually, it helped me memorize and get more of the hang of talking and pronouncing Chinese characters.

Weather Project

During the first semester of the school year, we did a weather unit. We learned new vocabulary and we had to make a video based on a Newscast format of informing others of what the weather is in a certain city. Here is my weather video:


Sickness Project

In the beginning of our second semester our class was assigned to make a dialogue based on vocabulary we learned about doctors, nurses, medicine, that category of subject. We are supposed to video it, but for now we only have our dialogue, which is shown down below.

在家 Home

Huei (Patient) : 爸爸！我想我生病了，咳嗽， 还头痛！

Minh Long (Dad) ：你去看医生了吗？

Huei: 我还没去呢。

Minh Long: 好的。我们一起去看医生。

Huei: 等一下我要去厕所。

Minh Long: 好的! 我等你去厕所。


Minh Long: 走吧。

 在医生 Hospital


Minh Long: 你好。


Minh Long: 我的儿子生病了.


Minh Long: 好的.

*Doctor comes over*

Min Ho: 我听说你的儿子生病了。

*Doctor turns to son*

Min Ho: 你哪里不舒服？

Huei: 我生病了，咳嗽， 还头痛！

Kaitlan: 跟我来我给你药.

*Kaitlan gives Huei the medicine*

Minh Long: 我要回到我的车去拿我的钱。

*Minh Long gets the money*

Huei: 多少钱？

Kaitlan: 是三百元.

Minh Long: 好的。

*Minh Long gives money to Kaitlan*

Kaitlan: 谢谢。

Min Ho: 谢谢你。

Minh Long, Huei: 谢谢，再见！

Minh Long, Huei: 走吧！

Restaurant Menu: 

During our first semester of Mandarin, we had an assignment to create a drink menu in a restaurant menu format. However, before we created it we learned a lot about traditional Chinese cuisines and how to make them. For our menu we had to have 4 different category’s of drinks and we had to put the price ranges for each.

Here is my drink menu:

IMG_5274 IMG_5275




For our Social Studies class Block H, we created a CSI which stands for Color, Symbol, Image. That means, we have to create a google drawing that represents a certain word, which in this case was Industrial Revolution. My drawing is of a factory, and dollar bills surrounding it. This represents the industrial revolution, because it shows that factory, and machine power were starting to become very popular, earning a lot of money (which explains the dollar bills).The colors I picked were green, grey, black and a very light pale grey for the background. I chose these colors because I think they contrast well together, and the grey to show mechanics, and the green to represent money. The symbol I chose was the factory blowing smoke out of it, because it represents mechanical work and not hand work, like they used to do in the olden days (for example, they made their clothes in their homes). For the image, I chose dollar bills to represent how big industrial work is, causing a revolution, due to more manufactured things earning money.

Newton’s Vehicle Project #3

For our vehicle, we made several prototypes to help build up to the final design. While we were making and testing out the prototypes we learned a couple of things. For the first few prototypes we made balloon powered vehicles using a can as a body and discs for wheels. We learned when attaching the wheels that the discs were to big and un proportional. With other prototypes, we made a rubber band powered vehicle, and the problem was that the vehicle wasn’t accelerating fast and far enough. So throughout the whole process, we learned it takes a lot of time, hard work, and a lot of tries to get a vehicle successfully working. If we had a chance to do this project again, the only thing that we would change, would be not having so many prototypes. We had over four prototypes and that took up a lot of time. Instead of making so many prototypes I think it would be better to stick with one idea and build upon it and not coming up with completely new ideas. When building, testing, and making new prototypes, we learned that Newton’s Laws were very important. A lot of factors affected how our vehicle worked and how well it did. Throughout the whole design we had to keep in mind about how much friction we were causing (Newton’s 1st Law), the mass of the body (Newton’s 2nd Law), and how the vehicle is powered (Newton’s 3rd Law).  But overall, our final design of our vehicle turned out really well, and even though it took a lot of time, we are very happy with our outcome.



Newton Vehicle Project #2

For our Newton Vehicle, we applied all of Newton’s Laws of Motion in many different ways. The law of inertia states that an object will stay not moving, until an outside force is acted upon it, and an object will move at a constant velocity until an outside force is acted upon it. By applying the law of inertia and Newton’s first law, we decided to make our vehicle rubber band powered. For our trials, we conducted them, making sure there was no wind, and to make as little friction there is as possible as to make sure the vehicle is moving at a constant velocity throughout the experiment. Newton’s second law states that an object’s acceleration depends on its mass and the force acting upon it. For this law we decided to construct out vehicle out of as little materials as possible, which are now straws, toothpicks, bottle caps, and a single rubber band. We also decided to use a thick rubber band specifically to create a stronger force so the vehicle can accelerate faster. Newton’s third law states that if an object exerts force on a different object than the second object will exert the same amount of force in the opposite direction. We figured out that if we release the rubber band for the vehicle, the wheels would push off the floor, which causes the floor to exert the same amount of force upon the wheels, that the wheels are on it (the floor). But, however the floor has more mass than the vehicle, causing it to move forward.



Newton’s Vehicle Blog Post #1

In science class, we’ve recently been assigned a new project, which is to create a a vehicle, using our basic information of forces and Newton’s laws that we have learned in class. Now, before building this vehicle I didn’t know a lot about Newton’s Laws of motion, as well as some other things. For example I didn’t know that if an object/person has mass, it has gravity. But however we don’t notice this because mass and distance are factors which affect gravity, and we do not have as large as a mass compared to the earth to pull everything towards us. I also learnt that friction doesn’t always happen, but only when 2 objects rub against each other. And, the friction can be stronger depending on varying types of surface and the strength of force that is exerted on objects. The newest thing I’ve learnt in science class, was probably inertia. Inertia is a “refusal” to change motion, meaning objects do not move, or change speed until an outside force is acted upon it. 

As well as learning these facts in science class, we were taught about Newton’s Laws of Motion. There are 3 laws in total, and according to Newton’s 1st Law, and object on it’s own will not move until a force is exerted on it. This also leads to the connection of an object will not stop moving, until a force is exerted upon it. For Newton’s second law, it states, mass and net force acting upon an object affects the acceleration of the object. So, it explains why if an object is heavier, it will take more force to move it.  Newton’s third law is about an object giving away the same amount of force when a force is exerted upon it. The forces are of equal strengths, but they go in different directions. An example of this is when you lean on something and it doesn’t fall over (a wall). The force you exert upon it, it exerts upon you.

Out of all the factors, and topics we’ve learnt in science class on this subject, I think our group will have to focus on Newton’s second law, and friction. As I said before, Newton’s second law explains that mass and net force acting upon and object affect it’s acceleration, so for my group we have to keep in mind the weight, and how much force we will need to exert upon the vehicle to make it move ratio-ing out with the mass of the vehicle. But, even if we do have a fairly light vehicle, if the force isn’t strong enough it won’t move the required number of meters. This means, to make it easier and the force “stronger” we have to reduce as much friction as possible, and we can do that by getting a smooth set of wheels that will not be rough on the ground. In conclusion, for our group’s Newton’s Vehicle, we will have to be mindful of Newton’s second law, and friction when testing and creating.

Newton-Vehicle-Part-1-Template-June-Vanessa-JY-Kaitlan-Interpretation-231x300 Newton-Vehicle-Part-1-Template-June-Vanessa-JY-Kaitlan-Discovery-242x300



Into The Maze

Into The Maze 

For our robotics class, we were assigned to create a game of our own. There were several levels, which consisted of either creating a game completely from scratch (The software, and from nothing), or using tutorials, and references to remix a game or create one. I chose level 1, which was the hardest out of all the levels where you had to create it on you’re own using no tutorials, and creating all your sprites, backgrounds, media on your own.

As for what type of game it is, this is a maze game and I got this idea from a student who I saw their game from. My game is quite similar, but I did not look at any code from the game I based it on, neither did I use tutorials of any kind.

If I were to say some challenges I faced while making this game, I think a big obstacle for me was was figuring out the base controls of how to build the maze. It took me some time, but once I got the base of the controls, I could than build upon that and personalised it to the point in which I was satisfied.

In my game, I’m very proud with the actual maze part of the game. It took a few classes to make the actual maze part, and I had to decide if I want to make it difficult or easy. The maze part of things is actually quite easy, but you just need a lot of patience. Overall I’m very proud of how it all turned out !


Here are my reviews of games I played when brainstorming for what I should create:

Gamestar: Red Inferno 

I think for this game theres not a lot of interaction (user interface) . It has an average about of interaction between user and character, so you can do all the normal things like jump,  move left or write, etc. but the actual character sprite of the game has a lot of interaction with the background, like obstacle blocks. because of the amount of interaction it makes the game a lot harder to achieve. i think that this is a good way to challenge users and not make it your typical game, but i think it should be easier to achieve. for the graphics the overall appearance looked good. the overall design was quite good, and i would recommend for users to play. it can get quite addictive.

Scratch: Ben Shon’s Game 

The game was quite impressive for an ammeture to make. The interaction  between user and game was an average, right, left, down, up,  the typical. the suitability I think is fine, it appeals to everyone, and is hard but winnable  and the graphics were a little dull, but it looked simple. Good job Ben. 

Hour of Code

Today in science we experimented with code and how to make code. This wasn’t my first time using code, because I’m in robotics, so I was fairly familiar with everything we used. It wasn’t hard, but it wasn’t easy. I got stuck in some of the tutorials, and it was a little challenging to only be able to use a limited number of blocks throughout creating the game, but it was overall a very fun and great learning experience !


Screenshot from 2014-12-02 11:43:27 Certificate