Week 32 3/29/2019

Language Arts: I did some sentence diagramming of compound sentences. I went through the checklist on one of my paragraphs I wrote to look for the style improvements. I read an article about the Andes mountains and identified the main topic of each of the paragraphs. I started reading UnWholly again, since I haven’t read it for a couple of weeks. 

Math: With our tutor his week we learned how to find the determinant of a matrix. We also reviewed algebra rules and learned how to calculate percent increase and percent decrease. 

Science: We watched episode three of Cosmos. It talked a lot about Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley. Halley was a real advocate and friend to Newton, who didn’t really have a lot of friends. If he hadn’t taken on the task of encouraging Newton to publish Principia and then financed the printing, it might never have gotten published. Pretty interesting to learn more about their lives. 

History: We finished up the history podcast episodes on Egypt. We learned about all of the pharoahs in the Ramses line but mostly about Ramses II. 

Makerspace (Tech):  We are planning our final project. It is going to be a clock. 

Programming (Elective): I did more Harvesting with Conditionals exercises and finished up that lesson/activity. Then I did Functions with Minecraft exercises 1-11. 

Other: I had basketball practice twice and we also had a game this week. 

My cat Bandit checking the table for food

Week 31

L. Arts: I wrote a paragraph about the history of humpback whales. I did some of my Dyslexia workbook. I did some lessons and readings for my language arts program.

Math: We did more practice and work with linear equations and matrices. We had another take home test. I also did a lesson in the textbook.

History: We learned about Amenhotep IV who changed his name to Akhenaten. He was married to Nefertiti and they had 6 daughters. He tried to shift Egypt to worshipping the god Aten instead of multiple gods. It wasn’t widely accepted. He was the father of Tutankhamun.

Science: We watched the next episode of Cosmos. One cool thing in this episode was how the eye evolved. The video showed what vision was like for early organisms that had light sensing cells and how it improved over lots and lots of years. Our eyes don’t actually work as well as the eyes of water creatures do because the sophisticated eye evolved in a watery world. We did some MEL Science experiements about appearing ink. One of the inks we made is based on a really old type of ink that’s been used for over 1000 years. It is an iron ink and it is really durable and water resistant.

Maker Space: I finished up my upcycling chair and brought it home. You can see a couple of pictures of it below.

Tech (Programming): I did more code.org activities. I went through all the  Until Loops in Maze exercises, the If/Else with Bee exercises and started Harvesting with Conditionals.

At basketball practice

Another basketball practice picture

Our appearing ink experiment

My upcycled chair, front view

My upcycled chair, back view

Week 30 3/16/2019

Language Arts: I did some lessons in my Language Arts program. I made some edits in my humpback whale paragraph. 

Math: We had a take home test to complete, and also an in class test over matrices. I actually understand matrices pretty well so far. 

Science: We watched the first episode of the Cosmos series. One thing I remember is that lots of people had the idea of an infinite cosmos but it wasn’t accepted by most people for a long time. 

History: We listened to the next episode of Podcast History of our World. It was about Hatshepsut, the female king. The ruler after her destroyed a lot of the records of her. We aren’t sure why, but one theory is that having a female ruler went against the Egyptian idea of Maat, which was truth. Another theory is that he resented her ruling when he was the rightful ruler, since she ruled as regent since he was a small child when he became king. 

Makerspace (Tech):  We worked some more on our upcycling project. I wrapped yarn around the back of the chair. That’s pretty much what I did the whole time since it takes a long time to wrap. 

Programming (Elective): This week on code.org I learned about If/When blocks. You can use one if you are trying to have something happen as a result of something else. Like “If there is food in front of you, then eat it.”

Other: I had one basketball practice this week. For our combined church youth activity we played Giant Twister. It was really fun. 

Week 29 3/8/2019

Language Arts: I wrote another paragraph about humpback whales from multiple sources. I typed it up another day. I also did some of my dyslexia workbook and started reading book 3 in the Unwind series.  

Math: Did a lot of review this week because we have a test next week. With our tutor we went over multiplying matrices. It’s kind of tricky but not that hard once you memorize the steps. Also did the next lesson in the math book. 

History: We learned about the takeover of Egypt by the Hyksos. One of the technologies that the Hyksos introduced was horse pulled chariots. They were big enough for two people, a driver and an archer. The Egyptians took the chariot design and made improvements. In my co-op class one of the things we learned about was the dance the Twist. 

Science: This week in Outdoor Survival Skills, students were given the scenario of needing to we a fire with only items that might commonly be found in a lady’s purse.  We predicted how each item would perform (lipstick, lotion, chapstick, sunscreen, etc), then watched a video that demonstrated actually lighting a cotton ball covered in each substance.  We also discussed the value of having versatile items in a survival kit. At home we did some experiments from our MEL science kits. One was to make homemade batteries and use them to power a small LED. It was cool to think you can make batteries with chemicals and to learn more about how they work. We watched some videos about batteries, electricity, and solar panels. I tried testing our batteries with our battery tester but they didn’t register. It doesn’t take much power to power a single LED light. 

Tech (Maker): This week we mostly planned stuff. We are going to do an upcycling project so we talked about that and brainstormed ideas. 

Elective (Programming): I did more activities on code.org. One of the projects was to write a program to draw a snowflake. 

Other: I had two basketball practices. For my church youth group we are in charge of the next combined activity so we planned that. We are going to do giant Twister. 

Another experiment we did had electricity flowing through this solution and it caused
the Tin ions to come out of solution and form into tin metal. 

In my survival skills class, testing the water we filtered using different techniques

Learning about what items in a woman's purse could be best used for fire fuel

Week 28 - 3/1/2019

Language Arts: I learned about how to write a report using multiple sources, and how to look for the key ideas in a paragraph (usually in the first and last sentences but not always).  I used the sources and my outline to write a paragraph about the flukes (tail fins) of humpback whales. 

Math: With the math tutor we went over different ACT problems, especially ones on linear equations. We reviewed how to figure out the equation for a line when you are given two points. I worked on the next lessons in the textbook as well. Lessons 43 through 46.

Science: We watched some science videos on Youtube. We caught a mouse and took it out to the fields near the river after observing it for a little while.

History: We listened to the next episode of the Podcast History of our World. It was about Middle Kingdom Egypt. This was a time where Egypt saw a decentralization of power and there was a civil war. One guy took over the crown who wasn’t royal at all, so that caused a problem, too. At the end of the Middle Kingdom, the ruler didn’t have a male heir so the first female pharoah was put in place. They didn’t even have a word for “queen” in their language at that time. Not very much is known about her. 

Makerspace (Tech):  I cut out my MINI Cooper logo and did the burning. We also got to use the 3D printer and I printed a little blobby guy who now lives in my mom’s car ashtray. 

Programming (Elective): I did some more learning/coding activities on code.org. One of them was a more elaborate drawing program where the pen had to move to different locations and change patterns/colors. 

Other: I had another playoff game with the Bantam League. I also had tryouts for the Vinaka League for basketball. I have been working with a trainer who is a coach in that league so I am switching over to that one. We had our first Vinaka practice. 

My 3D printed guy

My Bantam team -- The Orem Fighters

My program