Week 7

Language Arts: I studied some photographs of New England forests. I read some more of Just David. I brainstormed some ideas for my insight paper that I will start working on next week.

Math: I learned some beginning geometry concepts. I was introduced to the proof of how you know an equilateral triangle is actually equilateral. Its based on circles and the rules/definition of what a radius is.

Science: I learned about velocity. I calculated velocity with some different variables.

History: I read about the early explorers, including Christopher Columbus. I also learned about the Conquistadores, including Hernan Cortes.

Welding: I learned about and practiced lap joints. I also learned about practiced T joints. These are a couple of the five basic welding joints.

Sports Conditioning: We did weight lifting. We also played frisbee. I had a game for my Vinaka League. We also had practice. I went to open gym twice this week.

Drone: Canvas class

Equilateral (aka dumb, haha) triangle 

Weekly Report 39

Language Arts: I diagrammed sentences with compound subjects and compound verbs. I worked on a short article about reasons to visit patagonia. I reviewed parts of speech and read more of the story in my book about Vinzi who lives in the mountains.

Math: I worked through two more tests from Saxon Algebra. Reviewed problems I missed with my mom.

Science: We watched the next episode of Cosmos. It was about the women who figured out how to categorize stars based on their color spectrum and also that the color spectrum was correlated to the temperature of the star. The professor they were working under did not believe them but he eventually came to see that their calculations are correct.


History: I listened to the next episode of the history podcast. It talked about the story of Joseph and how he was not killed because he was able to figure out what the Pharoah’s dream mean.

Makerspace (Tech):  We had our Maker Showcase this week. In class we didn’t have assignments but I got to use the VR viewer and I cut out eyeball stickers for the Oculus Go headsets. Oculus Go is really fun because it is basically internet VR. You can watch movies. If you have a friend also watching one, you can connect with your friend and see them like you are watching in a theater. It’s pretty cool.

Programming (Elective): I am stuck on this one Programming Variables with the Bee exercise. I might see if my dad can help me figure out what I am missing. I tried it three different times this week and still couldn’t get past it.

My clock that I made at Makerspace

Some of my maker projects displayed for the showcase. I did the vinyl sticker on the
skateboard, not the skateboard

Week 37 5/3/2019

Language Arts: I finished my Brazil article this week. I also read more in the Unwind series book I am reading. I kind of set it aside for a few weeks. I also did some language arts lessons and read in the assigned book.

Math: We learned a bunch about quadratic equations and how to determine the roots and the vertex. We learned about derivatives. Practiced finding everything needed to graph the equations.

Science: We watched the next episode of Cosmos. There are differences between molecules. Solids, liquids, and gases are different because of the speeds at which their molecules can move. Solids only move a little bit, kind of just jiggle in one place.

History: I listened to the next Podcast History of our World. It was about the Israelites and how some of their history is mixed up with myths and stories of the bible, so we don’t know for sure what is factual, but this is the case with a lot of ancient people.

Makerspace (Tech):  I have pretty much finished my project so this week I got to do whatever. I made a paper flexagon.

Programming (Elective): I did more code.org lessons. I did all of “Build A Flappy Game, “ did some more Functions in Artist exercises.

Other: I had basketball practice. My friend Heber had a birthday party. I practiced guitar and am working on learning a new song.

Screenshot of my Brazil article from Google Docs

Bandit

Week 36 4/26/2019

Language Arts: I read some more of the story that is part of my L. Arts program. I also wrote some more of the body paragraphs from my notes about Brazil. 

Math: I did a chapter in the Algebra textbook and we also got some more homework from our tutor to work on. He really wants us to master the concepts we have been working on. We weren’t able to have class with him this week because he had to go to the doctor. 

Science: We watched the next episode in Cosmos. It talked about the speed of light and how telescopes allow us to see back in time because of how long it takes light to reach us from far away. At HeeHaws we learned about dairy products and about the multiple stomachs of cows. 

History: We listened to the intro of Story of the World Vol 1. It talks about how we know what happened in the past. We use both written records and also archaeology, which looks at objects that people leave behind. 

Makerspace (Tech): This week I finished my clock. I had already assembled it so I had to take it apart a little so I could paint it. Then I painted it. I couldn’t bring it home yet, though. 


Programming (Elective): On code.org I finished Functions in Artist exercises. I also did the first couple of exercises for Determine the concept. 

Other: We had our last week of co-op for this semester. We also had a field trip to HeeHaws with some members of our co-op. We also went to Avengers: Endgame on Friday. My mom had already seen it on Thursday night with my dad, but she took most of us kids on Friday. My older sister couldn’t come because she had school. I had two basketball practices but we had an off week from having a game. I got to go to Night of Gaming at my friend's school. It was a fundraiser. We had fun. They had lots of different types of games, board games and video games, you could play. 

Week 35 4/19/2019

L. Arts: I worked on my Brazil report this week. I did some more research, and I got drafts of the opening paragraph and two body paragraphs written. We also did some reading and lessons in the language arts book, but most of the assignments were just to work on the paper.

Math: We had some worksheets from our tutor to work on. They covered a lot of the topics we have worked on so far, including complicated solve for X problems and linear equations. 

Science: We didn’t have a science lesson this week because my mom had to go out of town for a funeral and we didn’t have as many days for school as usual. I did take apart my phone because the screen stopped working so researching that and trying to figure out what was going on was kind of a really annoying and frustrating science lesson. 

History: No history this week because of my mom being out of town. 

Makerspace (Tech): Worked some more on the final project. I measured stuff out. I divided the clock face into the twelve sections so everything will be in the right space. 

Programming (Elective): I finished the final two exercises of Functions with Harvester (#13-14). I did activities 1-10 of Functions with the Artist. 

Other: My mom took me to FanX with her in Salt Lake City this weekend. It was fun, even though there was lots of standing and walking around. We got to meet a couple of actors from the Marvel movies and take pictures with them. I got a cool Punisher hat, a dragon knife, and some other small things. It was fun to see all the interesting costumes people make. 

Cool costumes

With Pom Klementieff, the actress who plays Mantis

Super cool Star Wars droids that can really be driven around

Mom rented me a bird scooter to ride back to the parking lot

Some more awesome costumes 

These lightsabers were really cool. They cost $200-300 so I wouldn't buy one
but they are fun to look at

My Precious

With Clark Gregg who plays Agent Coulson in the Marvel movies and on Agents of SHIELD

Fun optical illusion room that makes mom taller than me again--haha

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 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 27 - 2/22/2019

Language Arts: Watched Romeo and Juliet with my parents and brother and sister. I did a lesson in my language arts program. We went to The Untold Story of the Tortoise and the Hare play at the Scera theater.

Math: Worked more on exponents and radicals. Went over how to rationalize expressions which means to get any roots out of the denominator. Did 3 chapters in the textbook as well.

Science: We watched some science videos on YouTube.  One cool one was slow motion of a wave pool. It made the water shoot up really far and it kind of looked like a sword made out of water. We also played Professor Noggin Human Body.

History: We listened to the podcast episode about Ancient Egypt, specifically the Old Kingdom. That was the time that the pyramids were built. Current evidence suggests that they weren’t built by slaves like it has been thought in the past. There are records talking about how they got paid and how working on the pyramids exempted workers from paying taxes and even benefits received. It was a prosperous time for Egypt which explains why there were people and resources to spare for pyramid building. We also watched a Crash Course video about Ancient Egypt. 

Makerspace (Tech):  No class this week because of presidents’ day.

Programming (Elective): I did some activities on code.org. One was a block programming language that you would program a little artist guy to draw a shape. See picture.

Other: Went skiing at Snowbird with my dad. It was my first time skiing somewhere besides Sundance. He had a client in town who wanted to go skiing while she was here, so I got to go with my dad and his business partner and the client. They have a pretty fast tram that you get to ride which was cool. For my guitar class I am learning how to play “Hey, Jude.”

At the SCERA play

My cat, Bandit 

Science videos we watched

Riding the tram at Snowbird

Skiing at Snowbird

Screenshot of the code.org program I made to draw the 3D cube

Week 26 2/15/2019

Language Arts: In one of my co-op classes we learned about similes and metaphors. We came up with some of our own. I had to write my own fable for my writing assignment at home. Then I typed it up. We also did some more reading in the reader and some of my dyslexia handbook lessons as well. Math: Worked a lot on exponents and square roots and other roots this week. Worked on being able to pull out the squares and rewrite problems to be able to solve them more easily. History: We discussed the song The Day the Music Died in my co-op class. At home we listened to the next episode of Podcast History of our World about Egypt. One interesting thing was that the guy who united Upper and Lower Egypt made a new crown that was a combination of the two crowns. I thought it was cool that they fit together so well. We also celebrated Charles Darwin's birthday with our usual tradition of Darwin Day Donuts. Science: We watched some science videos this week. One interesting one was about whether fish pee. Ocean (salt water) fish hardly pee at all, but freshwater fish pee all the time. It is all about needing to maintain the right level of salts in their body. Makerspace (Tech): We cut out the shapes we are going to do for our woodcarving. I am going to do the mini cooper logo. Programming (Elective): I didn’t do any programming this week. In my Survival class we learned how to make rope out of different fibers. Other: We didn’t have a basketball game this week but we did have practice. I went skiing with my dad and sister.

Rope I made out of some raffia

Love my new Canadian Flag phone case

Old tablet that was found about King Narmer, the uniter of egypt

Narmur's combination crown

My shape cut out for Maker class

Darwin Day Donuts

Some of the exponent problems from this week's assignment. Still working on them.

Science videos we watched

Watercolor of a dandelion I did as part of a language arts assignment this week 

Week 25

Language Arts: I did some of my dyslexia workbook lessons. I did lessons in my Language Arts program and a lesson in IEW. I summarized with a key word outline the fable of the eagle who is saved from a serpent by a passing man and then repays the man’s kindness by stopping him from drinking water that was poisoned by the serpent’s venom. 

Math: I worked mostly on units from my math teacher. They covered a variety of math topics including fractions, converting fractions into decimal and vice versa, and solving equations for variables. I also did a lesson in the textbook on solving challenging ratio problems. 

Science: we did an expanding foam experiment from our MEL chemistry set. The chemical reaction that takes place releases a lot of carbon dioxide and that is what makes the foam. 

History:  We learned about Hammurabi and the laws that he made. The laws were not always the same if you were in a higher or lower class. Lower class people would get punished more severely than higher class people. And if a higher class person did something against a lower class person, the punishment wasn’t at severe. We also learned about the agricultural revolution and how people who lived in the villages were smaller and less healthy than the hunter gatherer people. This is because they were more likely to get diseases and also didn’t eat as good of a variety of foods as the hunter gatherers.

Makerspace (Tech):  This week I designed my project. We are going to be doing wood burning. I designed a logo. I am doing the Mini Cooper logo because those are my favorite kind of car. 

Programming (Elective): I took a break this week because we have been doing so much with First Lego League the past month. 

Other: I had basketball practice a couple of times and a basketball game. We also went as a family to the Utah Jazz game which was fun. 

My cat Bandit likes to hang out with me sometimes while I do schoolwork

He's not particularly helpful but I still like having him around

Week 24

Language Arts: I did some reading in Unwholly, the second book in the Unwind series. I did a lesson in my dyslexia workbook. I wrote in my journal about our visit for scouts to a mechanic shop.

Math: We had a lot of review assignments this week to make sure we understand a lot of algebra fundamentals. I did the assignments and took the online tests.

Science: I learned about Newton’s first law of motion in the Physics class on Khan Academy. I watched the first video and the "more about" video.

History: I missed my co-op history class this week because I was sick.

Makerspace (Tech):  I missed Makerspace because I was sick that day.

Programming (Elective): We had FLL practice two days and then the state tournament on Saturday up at Weber State. It was fun but we didn’t place. Lego League was good this year and I’m glad we did well at the local tournament but I am also glad it is over for the season.

Other: I had basketball practice and a basketball game. For scouts we went to an auto mechanic shop and also learned about some of the jobs you can do with training instead of a college degree. In my co-op Survival Skills class we learned about different kinds of emergency shelters you can make and we also made one in the classroom out of a tarp and some other items.

I'm the one hunched over--I had the ball and the white guy came after me to get it but ended
up falling down so I got a foul called on me. 

My cat Bandit hanging out on my bed with my math 

We had to leave at 6 am to go to the FLL tournament. My mom took this picture before we left. 

Week 23

Language Arts: I am reading the second book in the Unwind series, called Unwholly. I did a couple lessons in my language arts program and did some writing. I am in a class at co-op that is learning about figurative language as well and we had the first class this week.

Math: We practiced solving linear equation pairs by graphing. Worked on solving long problems with lots of signs and parentheses as well.

Science: This week we watched some Brain Pop videos about the ocean, plate tectonics, and volcanoes. We started our next semester of co-op and made soda can stoves in my survival class.

History: In my co-op history class we learned about Disneyland and when it was built. It didn’t do well when it first opened. Too many people came and they weren’t actually ready but said they were.

Makerspace (Tech):  No Makerspace this week because of MLK Jr holiday.

Programming (Elective): We had another practice for the FLL strategic tournament. It is next week on February 2nd. We also brought one of the tables home so we could work on our missions more.

Other: I went skiing with my grandma, my dad, and my sister. I had a basketball game and got a lot of rebounds and some good blocks.

Basketball game

Windswept art installation at the BYU MOA