Project Blog: Charity Fair - 12/17

Summary

Charity Fair is the most complex project of the year because it stretches out to every class. Students had to complete tasks and learn new skills in each class, that relates to their product or charity. In social studies, students researched and learned information about the organization they support. Including the charity's mission, story, and how many they have affected on their journey. In math class, students learned the profit they would make by selling their product, the price of their product, and how much it would cost to produce their product. In addition, students learned the charity statistics, such as how much money the charity makes per year and what percentage goes to the cause. In science, students learned the mode of transportation to ship each material that contributes to the creation of the product. In engineering, students learned how to create an instructable and backboard for the project. Lastly in language arts, students learned how to put together an ignite presentation to efficiently advertise their charity in exactly 2 minutes.

Backward-Looking

During this year's annual Charity Fair, students were put into groups of 2 to 3 among the peers in their class. The priority of Charity Fair is to find a charity or organization that you truly care about and sell products to raise money for that charity. To find the ideal charity, each group had to research the different organizations that supports their topic in social studies. Based on observing the charity's ratings and mission, students were able to make a decision about what charity best suites their outlook. This leads to the final choice of the certain charity the group is willing to support/advertise throughout this project. Next, groups had to decide what product they are going to sell in order to raise money for charity. This product has to have some correlation to the group's charity. Once the product is approved, students had to create a Cost & Profit and Statistics document in math class. In addition, students created a google map in science alongside a Carbon Footprint document. Meanwhile in engineering, students had to make an online instructable that would be pasted on a backboard that is also created in that class. To finish it of, students created a quick ignite presentation containing only photos, to influence students/teachers to vote for their charity.

Inward-Looking

Going into this project, I had many standards for myself as well as my group. Since I am currently in 8th grade and this is my last year of Charity Fair, I knew exactly what to expect. So I had many expectations and goals to hopefully accomplish. The first expectation was for my group to choose a charity that we really care for. The main reason for Charity Fair is to raise money for a worthy cause. It is very important that the charity you are advertising speaks volumes to you and that you are passionate about the topic. Another expectation was for my group to get work done efficiently and on time. After years of doing the same type of work for this project, we should know how the assignments are expected to be completed and what to do for them. In addition, we should know the amount of work that needs to be done for Charity Fair, therefore we should be able to split the work up equally so that it is turned in on time. The last expectation I had was for each group member to memorize their lines for the ignite presentation. At our age, we should be setting a good example to the younger students presenting. It is unprofessional to be reading from a script.

Outward-Looking

The one thing I would like people to notice or take away from my group's project is how hard we have worked on it. It has taken so much time and effort to complete each assignment for Charity Fair. There were several different tasks that needed to be done at the same time and for different classes. The amount of work for this project was overwhelming and took dedication to complete. In addition, to create the products we sold at Charity Fair, my group had to stay extra hours at each other's houses to make each item perfect. My group sold gingerbread house kits so it definitely took a while to create each component of the kit. The gingerbread was very difficult to bake because the shapes had to be cut neatly and the dough needed to be at the right thickness or else the cookies would break too easily. It took several tries to get the outcome that we wanted. The same trial and error situation happened with the icing as it needed to be the right ratio of ingredients in order to create a consistency that was strong enough to hold the house, yet would pipe with ease.

Forward-Looking

Looking at the final outcome of this year's Charity Fair, I would only like to change one thing if I had the change to do this project over again. This one change would be to create more of my group's product. In the past, it always took a good amount of time to sell all of my group's product. However this year it only took the first five minutes for my group to sell out. Once all of the products were gone, there was nothing to sell and no more money could be raised from my group's stand. This quick sell out is due to the mistake of making only ten products. Although each item was very difficult to create because of the complexity of each component put into the product, I still believe that we could have at least made a few more products. Therefore making fifteen in total. This would give others who were looking forward to our product, a chance to buy one. It would also allow my group to raise more money for the chosen charity and contribute to its donations.

Carbon Footprint 12/3

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A carbon footprint is historically defined as the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an individual, event, organisation, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent. A simplified definition of carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere when certain items are shipped around the world. Shipping these items helps companies gather the materials they need in order to create products that are sold in stores today. It is important for companies to know what their carbon footprint is because depending on how far the items are shipped, it could effect the environment crucially. In addition, the length of how far the items travel can determine how much money it costs to ship the items. To calculate the carbon footprint, you have to find out how far it takes each material to ship from the manufacturer's to the factory where your product is built or sold. First, you have to consider what possible mode of transport should be used to ship each material. If the manufacturer is in the same country then a truck should be used. If the manufacturer is in the same continent then a train should be used. If the manufacturer is in a different continent then an airplane should be used. Then you find out how many miles each item travels and convert those miles to the amount of CO2 that is released depending on the mode of transport.

S&EP - SP2: Developing and using models

I constructed physical, mental or conceptual models to represent and understand phenomena when I created a google map with my group to represent the location of each material needed to create our product for Charity Fair. I used models to explain and predict behaviors of systems, or test a design as I marked the locations of the manufacturers or where each material was made. Then we marked the location of the retailer or where we bought each material. Next, we connected the manufacturers to the retailer with the line tool as we decided the possible mode of transport for each material. Lastly, we found out how many miles the materials traveled and converted the amount of miles to the amount of CO2 that would be released when each material is shipped. I refined/rebuild my model as I learned that each location needed to be marked with their own individual icon.

11/12

Common Descent 11/5

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Common Descent describes how, in evolutionary biology, a group of organisms share a most recent common ancestor. Charles Darwin came up with this theory to explain how all species have evolved from one species, over time. Scientists can find out if organisms of different species have a common ancestor by looking at their homologous structure. By comparing the similarities and differences in the bones of organisms, you are able to make connections between the structures of the individual species. Darwin's discovery is supported by Embryological evidence. Embryological evidence proves that all animals developed from a common ancestor. An embryo is the early stages of development in a multicellular organism. Through observation of several organisms, you are able to distinctly see that the embryos of each species all look almost identical.

S&EP - SP1: Asking questions and defining problems

I formulate testable questions when I observed the document that we were required to do in class, and read what questions I needed to answer in order to complete this document. I established what is already known about common descent and the theory that all organisms originated/evolved from a common ancestor by writing down all of the information I found when investigating the provided website that correlated with the questions. I determine what questions have yet to be answered when I went over the document and saw which questions I haven't answered or found the information for. I defined constraints and specifications for a solution as I saw that some questions required information that wasn't in the provided website. I had to answer those questions with the knowledge I already had.

Elephant Adaptations 10/29

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Throughout generations, elephants have grown to help their species be more fit in the environments they are native to. In order to live the savannas of Africa and Asia, elephants have adapted traits to help them thrive in these harsh conditions. The three main features of an elephant that are key to their survival in the savanna are their trunk, tusks, and gigantic ears. An elephant's trunk is a (at most) 7 foot long appendage that contains 40,000 muscles. The trunk can help elephants drink water by sucking up water and spraying it into the elephant's mouth given that elephants aren't able to bend down to reach the water source. In addition, the trunk can spray water onto the elephant's body to keep them cool in the heat or can fling dirt over the elephant's back to protect from the sun and biting insects. To help elephants obtain and eat their food, the trunk can pick up food, gather food, and grab food from higher areas such as tree branches. An elephant's tusks can develop up to 11 feet long to help them dig for water in times of drought, strip bark from trees to eat, lift objects, fight, and defend. The tusks also protect the sensitive trunk. Elephants have large ears that have an extensive supply of blood vessels so they can flap their ears to create air currents across the ears. These air currents reduce excess body heat.

S&EP - SP2: Developing and using models

I constructed physical, mental or conceptual models to represent and understand phenomena when I created a cartoon comic strip to explain the adaptations that elephants developed to survive in the savanna. I used models to explain and predict behaviors of systems, or test a design as I wrote a story line that follows a tour group driving through the savanna to explain elephant adaptations. Along their journey throughout the savanna, this tour group learns about the different parts of the elephants body that helps it survive on a daily basis. I refined/rebuild my model as I learned about more of the different abilities that the trunk, tusks, and ears of the elephant does to help the elephant be more fit for the savanna environment.

Natural Selection - 10/20

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Natural Selection is the process where organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. However, the organisms that are unfit for the environment struggle and don't survive. To put the definition more simply, Natural Selection is known as "survival of the fittest". The theory of Natural Selection was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin and is now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution. This process happens when there is a variation of traits in the population. Therefore, the traits that have most advantage in the environment would thrive while the other unfit traits would die out and disappear in the population. This action would result in the population of species adapting to their environment as the environment changes overtime. An example of Natural Selection is when there are green and brown beetles in a population. Over generations, the green beetle trait dies out and disappears in the population. The reason being is that the green trait is not fit for the environment because the green beetles are not able to camouflage in the dirt. The brown beetles however, are able to camouflage in the dirt. The brown color trait becomes more common in the population because the brown beetles are able to survive/thrive and the brown trait has more advantages in the environment.

S&EP - SP7: Engaging in argument through evidence

I use evidence to defend my explanation. I answered and filled out a guided notes document about the theory of Natural Selection. When completing this document, I provided a couple of websites about Natural Selection as evidence. These websites were assigned to the guided notes and I had to use these resources in correlation to the questions on the document. I formulated evidence based on solid data when I stated that Natural Selection allows species to adapt to their environment and evolve. To support this statement I used the fact that throughout the process of Natural Selection, the traits with the most advantage in an environment survive and thrive while the trait with the least advantage die out and disappear from a population, as evidence. This proves that as the environment is changing, the phenotype of the species in a population are changing to, in order to adapt to their environment. I examined my own understanding in light of the evidence. I used to think that the process of Natural Selection was random. However, because of completing the guided notes activity and answering the questions on the document, now I think that Natural Selection is the process in which random evolutionary changes are election in nature in a consistently, orderly non-random way. This is because through the process of common descent with modification, new traits are randomly produced. Nature then carefully decides which of those traits to keep or which of those traits get to survive. Positive changes add up over multiple generations and negative traits are quickly discarded.

Genetic Drift - 10/15

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Genetic Drift is a mechanism of evolution in which allele frequencies of a population change over generations due to chance. Genetic Drift is a random process that can lead to large changes in populations over a short period of time. It is when important genes are not passed on to the offspring. There are two different ways Genetic Drift can occur. These two major types of Genetic Drift are the bottleneck effect and the founder effect. The bottleneck effect occurs when there is a disaster of some sort (such as a natural disaster or predator) that reduces a population of species into a small handful of species. This small handful of species rarely represents the actual genetic makeup of the initial population. This leaves smaller variation among the surviving individuals. An example of the bottleneck effect is when there is a population of beetles. A predator invades the territory of this beetle population and wipes out part of the population. This means that the traits in the genetic makeup of the beetle population that was killed, is gone. Therefore, these lost traits won't be passed on to the offspring of next generations. The founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. An example of the founders effect is when a small population of beetles left to find new land. A variety of these beetles left so their genes and traits are taken away from the original population. In result, these traits won't be passed to offspring in next generations of the original population.

S&EP - SP4: Analyzing and interpreting data

I used a table or spreadsheet to display and analyze data while performing a lab in class. I recognized patterns in data and see relationships between variables. For example I observed that after the Genetic Drift, all traits in the original population of M&Ms or colored candius were changed. No amount of traits or colors in the original population stayed the same after the Genetic Drift. I revised my initial hypothesis when the data doesn’t support it. My original hypothesis was that some of the traits in the original population of the colored candius would be completely lost while some traits would stay the same amount after the Genetic Drift. But my new hypothesis is that all traits in the original population of the colored candius will change after the Genetic Drift.