Week Five

Week 5

First before I begin, I want to thank Mr. Abud for letting me post this late: Thank you!

Alright, well as much as I'd love to start talking about the new things that we've learned, I have to stop and ask, what did we learn this past week? I'm truly at a block about this. Maybe it's because we've been reviewing? If that's true, then obviously I can't provide any commentary about new material as we begin to put a wrap on unit 1.

But now here's some talk about other stuff. Let's start with that density lab. When Mr. Abud first mentioned this, I thought he was joking. I thought this was all some big concept that we would have to plan for as if we would actually go through it. But there it went. It really took off and was a success. The results were really interesting, showing how our densities do contrast in genders, and especially how the densities are very close to that of water. But I guess that part isn't too surprising since they say that our bodies are 90%+ water. Overall I would have to say this was a pretty cool experiment. I've never done anything like this before. I can only imagine how much thought went into this by the teachers, so my applause to them for making it happen. I see that it's that whole experience that we can really learn from rather than simulating an experiment on paper. I think I've covered this before, but this is the best direction to go in; hands-on work and experimentation, which is good especially for people like me that are looking into the research world.

And now we move on to the assessment talk. I can't say that I am disappointed, but I can't say I am satisfied either. What recently doesn't get my approval was how I got to an answer. I remember that the question demanded a slope equation...that part was easy, but then I had to plug something or like that. To get to my answer, I guess I strayed the path a little bit by using some easy elementary fraction-multiplication math to get my answer. It all made sense to me. I knew what the fraction was, what the numbers represented, and how I got to the answer. But apparently we can't do that. I'm not mad about this, but I am a little stumped on how that's not considered a four on the standards based grading. That's my rant (if that was??).

What I can accept responsibility for thoroughly is the extra questions within questions. Often, when I am rushed to other tasks, I speed through, not noticing the embedded questions, like for example if you must find the cm^3 to mL conversion (which is obvious since 1mL=1cm^3), but they twist the track turn and subtract a value real quick. That is my fault though for not looking through this. But I can't help but ponder if it's fair to consider my attempt as a one although I know the material well but I am thrown off by a wild turn in the race.