During Unit 1 of the second semester of 9th grade we had to answer the question, “How can we solve equations, and what can be beautiful about this process?” I created a poster that outlined how many cod fish survive from an egg to adulthood in comparison to how long their parent cod was. In this problem a cod fish would lay 25,000 eggs per cm of its length, but only 1 out of a million eggs would survive. I used many different methods to solve this problem. These methods included a graph, a table, and an equation. There are many things from this project that were fun and informative. I loved learning about different ways to solve equations, this type of algebra is one of my favorite forms of math (it makes me happy). In my final project I believe that I made beautiful work because I took time to create a new equation from data I found online and because of the work I put into it. I researched cod and the number of eggs they lay by length, but all the numbers were inconsistent so I created an equation loosely based on the information I found. This created a new equation. I also took time to color code my writing and graphs/tables and I drew a picture of a cod. A challenge that I found while creating this final project was that there was very little information on Cod and there was little time to get everything done. I found multiple sites that all gave me different information on cod, so I had to improvise and create a linear equation to express how many eggs a cod lays. The other problem that I had was how much time we had to complete this project. We did not have very much time to finish up the unit so I had to work quickly to create my poster. This was all good in the end and helped me to finish the project without much procrastination
In the second half of the first semester of 9th grade we had a unit about travel and its costs. This unit was aptly named The Cost of Travel. Throughout this unit we looked at different modes of transportation and their average costs. These costs included gas per mile and maintenance. This unit is an example of a real world problem unit. This unit had me create a documentary about the cost of travel and some comparisons of different costs of travel. Throughout this unit I am most proud of my final project. I am proud of my documentary because I worked hard to create my script and to research my information. I am most proud that I was able to create a documentary, they can be a bit challenging at times. There were a few challenges in creating my documentary. One of the main problems was my inexperience in video editing. I did not know how to use the software I used very well. An example of a challenge I had was in recording, my audio kept cutting out and wasn’t showing up. I overcame this problem by working through it and figuring out what was happening. I solved my earlier problem by putting a long strip of video in. My problem was that I couldn’t record without video. This project taught me a lot about math and equations and it also taught me about the financial aspect of transportation. I learned that it is far cheaper to use an electric car than a gas powered car. We had to work through an equation involving a certain type of car. I chose an electric car. The equation would tell you how much the vehicle cost after any number of years. You would plug in the year and get the cost.
During the first semester of 9th grade we had a unit about patterns. To finish this unit we created a portfolio of our learning and work. Our main question in this unit was, “Where do we find patterns, how do we represent them, and why do they matter?” This project opened my eyes to the patterns around our lives. This unit showed me many things from knowledge, challenges, and that I can create quality work. In this unit I am proud of many things, but I think I am most proud of my POWs(Problem Of the Week). The POW that I am most proud of is the Checkerboard Squares problem of the week. In this problem we had to find the number of squares on a checkerboard, including the squares made of other squares, and we had to make an equation for it. I am proud of this work because even when I was confused and ready to give up, I preserved and solved the problem. In this unit portfolio I learned how to create a portfolio and how to reflect on my mathematical learning. In the past we never really reflected on our learning(at least not in math) so this was a new experience for me. I learned how to write a math reflection. There were a few challenges in creating my Unit 1 Portfolio. One of these challenges was communication. I don’t really like to show my work or talk about it. At Animas we like to share our work and talk about it so that made me a little uncomfortable. I was able to get over this by just doing it and getting it over. The anticipation of something is usually worse than the actual thing. Overall, this unit taught me a lot about patterns and functions.