This morning we got out the boxes full of randomness again. First I selected one with the description ‘Games of Probability‘. I love games of chance so I guess I was hoping for a game I could play on my own, but instead of a solo-game I got poker and whatever that marble gambling game is called. I found another box with the description ‘What is it?‘ and after unpacking it’s contents, it proved to be incomplete containing about 12 empty baby-food jars; a paper, accordion-like thing with conjoining plastic ends I guessed to be from a air or heat vent; and a hollow, black, plastic thing about eight centimeters long, with a screw on end and little glass windows in which if you looked in one of them you would see your eye reflected back at you upside-down. It was probably from an optical illusion kit or something like that.
Anyway, I finally settled on a box full of paper with the description ‘Paper Planes‘. I made my ‘indigenous’ pocket plane which is able to launch pencils/pens/crayons from the recesses in it’s sides and travel a fair distance. After that I made the classic paper plane and then cut three flaps in the rear, folding them so that they stuck out like a staircase. Needless to say it didn’t fly very well. After that I made one called either ‘The Mummy’ or ‘The X’ I can’t remember. I got it from a plane book I used to have and it tops all in height and distance. Fresh out of ideas, I resorted to origami. A box, balloon and tiny fortune-teller were the fruits of my efforts.
I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of these exercises are but last week Mr. Sarte said they would improve our cooperation. I don’t see how that would pan out as I went solo today. I wonder what next week will hold?
Me and SCK are kind-of both in the same boat. There is no way we can finish our socials by the year-end; not that we haven’t been trying, quite the opposite in fact. However, Mr. Soiseth has come up with a way that we can -though it involves dropping our current inquiry: He’s going to give us 5 SS10 related questions to research and present like any other inquiry project and there-fore getting us credits for both the SS10 and Foundations of Inquiry courses. Today I wrote one of them on the board. Thank-you Mr.Soiseth!
Today, We researched the specifics in the recipes used by First Nations and selected a few we thought might be interesting to make. I also transplanted a few small horse-tail ferns to use in them.
Today, after compiling our knowledge of various herbs we narrowed our subjects down to ones that are currently available. The next step is to go and get them, which we have to delay until we talk our parents as some of them are in Langley or Surrey.
Today, I did more research on medicinal herbs. I found out that the First Nations used the common Horsetail for everything from curing colds and back-aches to regulating girls menstrual cycles, to fingernail polish!
Aside from dodge-ball, we spent the afternoon researching various herbs the First Nations used, such as Labrador.
Today SCK and I brainstormed and came up with a new inquiry question (can we make an herbal medicine the First Nations used?) and filled in our inquiry planner. The first step towards answering our question is researching various medicinal herbs the First Nations around here used.
I changed the oats in the maze culture which is still thriving! We’ve decided to put it into it’s dormant stage but we don’t know when yet. Mr. Khalili reminded us that we must start thinking about our next project too. What will we wind up doing I wonder?
We finished filling in the inquiry planner today, with much laughter and technological difficulties. First we were typing away and then suddenly, it was a partially read-only document and none of the teachers were able to help. The document was emailed to SCK, then finished. After that, the search for the inquiry planner drop-box began and was soon put off until tomorrow.
Today we practiced and presented our power-point. Now we have to finish filling out our inquiry planner and putting the rest of the cultures into sclerotia and maybe make a website, before we’ve finally concluded our project.