Mary Jane's 2 Minutes to Make a Different Reflection

Google Presentation:

This google presentation shows all our research, pictures and other things we did for our movie project.

Poverty in Winnipeg: Version 1

Poverty in Winnipeg: Final Version

What were the changes you made between the first and final cut of your movie? Were the student comments helpful in making your final cut better?

There were many changes we made between our first and final video. One was that we changed the music because we thought the song we chose for our final video suited the pictures we found more than the first music. Second change we made was that we added pictures we took at the garage sale we had for our making a difference. We also made our voices more audible and added one or two more pictures. These main changes we did were mostly mentioned by the students so I would say that the feedback from the students did help us.

How did you find your expert? List 3 important points your expert added to your movie. What did you learn from your expert?

We found our expert when Binesi brought in a newspaper article on a girl named Candace Sutherland. Binesi quickly explained who she was and so we did research on her. We emailed her for our interview and we got her to answer ten questions we had made up. We decided that we wouldn't put up the email we sent back and forth to each other but we had evidence of who we interviewed. Even though our video didn't feature our whole interview, one very important thing we learned was that even though you're young and don't really have much say in some things, you are able to make a big difference in the present day. We also learned that people do care about having to make a difference and Candace proved that anyone can make a difference.

What was your greatest success in the 2 minutes project? What skills will you take away with you and use in the future?

I would say that our greatest success was probably being able to find an expert on our topic who has actually gone through poverty and is now helping to make a difference. Skills I will take away with me and use in the future is probably being able to work iMovie with the help of Mr. Harbeck and other teachers. Another thing I would probably take away is finding Creative Commons pictures so that I don't feel like I'm taking someone else's work without their permission.

What frustrated you during the movie making process? What strategies did you use to become successful?

Something that frustrated me during the movie making process was not being able to work iMovie the first time, although eventually I got the hang of it toward the end of the process. It was also frustrating when we couldn't upload our video onto iMovie, but with some help, we became successful. Some strategies we used to be successful was that we would take a break whenever we got really frustrated and just give ourselves time to think. During the movie making process we also had to ask some teachers for help.

Why is the 2 Minutes project important to Grade 8 Students?

The 2 Minutes project is important to grade 8 students because this project teaches us many lessons and helps us to be aware of the world around us. It is also important because we get the opportunity to educate other people about our knowledge on poverty, global warming, etc. Another reason why this project is important is because not only will we start making a difference but rather everyone else will as well.

How will you make a difference in the future?

In the future I will make a difference by continuing to donate clothes, money, etc. My friends and I will also continue to run little projects and raise money for an organization and continue to support Candace Sutherland.

Mary Jane's Fraction Growing Post

In our past few math classes, we learned how to multiply and divide fractions.

Here is a video showing what I did correctly on the fraction quiz and what I did wrong. I will show you the correct work for the questions I got wrong.

I will now show you how to multiply a fraction by a whole number using one of the questions on page 202 of our Math Links textbook.

I chose to do my example on the question 5 x 2/3.

To find the answer:
- you could add 2/3 5 times, like this:



- you could have 5/1 x 2/3 and multiply the numerator and denominator of each fraction like this:

Next, I will show you how to divide a fraction by a whole number using one of the questions on page 208 of our Math Links textbook.

The question I chose as my example is 1/3 ÷ 3.

To find the answer:

- use a diagram showing a fraction strip divided into 1/3 then you divide that 1/3 into 3 portions using horizontal lines, as shown in this picture:

Lastly, I will chose a word problem to solve from page 208 of our Math Links textbook.

Problem: A pitcher of orange juice is 2/3 full. If four students equally share the juice, what fraction of the full pitcher does each student get?

What you have to do to solve it:

- find the key words in the question that will help you solve the problem

The key words in this question is 2/3, four students, and what fraction of the full pitcher does each student get.

- you now have to make a simple sentence answer

Each student gets ___ of the full pitcher of orange juice.

- you can now solve the problem

To solve the problem, I drew a fraction strip and divided that into 2/3, then I divided that 2/3 into 4 portions using horizontal lines. Since our numerator is 2, you then have to shade in 2 rectangles in the new fraction strip that contains 12 rectangles.

Each student gets 2/12 or 1/6 of the full pitcher of orange juice.

Part 2:

For part 2 of my fraction growing post, I will be showing you how to multiply fractions.

1) Multiplying a fraction by a fraction

To multiply a fraction by a fraction, you will have to multiply the 2 numerators and the 2 denominators. When you have done that you will then have to put the fraction into its simplest terms if possible.

2) Multiplying a fraction by a mixed number

To multiply a fraction by a mixed number you will have to convert the mixed number into an improper fraction. To do that you will have to multiply the whole number by the denominator and then add the numerator. Once you have done that you will have to multiply the numerators and the denominators. If the product you get is an improper fraction you will have to convert it to a mixed number in lowest terms. If the product you get is a proper fraction, all you have to do is put it in its simplest terms.

3) Multiplying a mixed number by a mixed number

To multiply a mixed number by a mixed number you will have to convert both mixed numbers into an improper fraction. You will again have to multiply the whole number by the denominator and add the numerator. Once you get the improper fraction you will have to multiply the numerators and the denominators. When you get the product as an improper fraction you will have to convert it back to a mixed number. To do that you will have to find how many times the denominator goes into the numerator. After converting, you will have to put it in its simplest terms.

Part 3:

For today's class we wrote some notes on dividing fractions in our foldable. We were also asked to do 2 questions and show how we got our answer.

One of the questions were: 1 1/2 ÷ 3/4 = 2

How many 3/4 are there in 1 1/2 ?

Answer: 2

What I did was I drew 2 fraction strips and divided each into 4 portions. I divided it into 4 because you have to find how many 3/4s are in 1 1/2. I then colored all 4 portions in one strip to represent 1 in 1 1/2 then I shaded 2 portions in the other to represent 1/2 in 1 1/2. Now I found how many 3/4s are in 1 1/2 and I got 2 3/4s in 1 1/2.

Here is a picture to show what I did:

The other question was : 3/4 ÷ 1/2 = 6

How many 1/2s are in 3/4?

Answer: 6

To find the answer I drew a fraction strip and divided that into 4's. After that, I divided the strip into a half to represent 1/2. I came up with 8 little squares in my fraction strip. I now colored in 6 little squares altogether because if you looked at the strip without the half it looks like you colored 3/4. Since you technically colored 6 little squares in, that becomes your answer.

Here is a picture to show what I did:

THANKS FOR READING MY POST AND PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT !

Mary Jane's Surface Area Growing Post

Triangular Prism:

Formulas:

-A = b x h/2

-A = l x w

TSA= A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5

To the find the total surface area of a triangular prism you have to find the area of each of the five faces. After finding all the areas, you then have to add all of them up to get the TSA.

Cylinder:

Formulas:

- r = d/2 or d = 2r

- C = π d

- A = π x r x r

- A = l x w

TSA = A1 + A2 + A3

To find the total surface area of a cylinder you have to find the area of each of the three faces. After that you have to add up the areas of each faces and you will then get your TSA.

Rectangular Prism:

Formula: A = l x w

TSA = A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6

To find the total surface area of a rectangular prism you have find the area of each of the six faces. After finding the areas of each faces, you add it all up to get the total surface area or the TSA.

Mary Jane's Scribepost for February 3, 2010

Question #4 (page 148)

Chris purchased the following items:

• 2 binders at $4.99 each

• 1 math set for $3.99

• a backpack for $19.99

Find the total cost including 5% GST

and 7% PST.

What I did:

$4.99 x 2 = $9.98

$9.98 + $3.99 = $13.97

$13.97 + $19.99 = $33.96

Now you have to add the tax which was 12% when you add 7% PST and 5% GST together.

The total cost would now be $38.04 with the tax.

Question #6 (page 148)

A store discounted items by 50% off the

original price one week. The following

week an additional 10% was taken off the

already reduced price. The regular price

of a CD player was $85.00. What is the

reduced price in the second week?

What I did:

Regular price = $85.00

50% off the original price one week

additional 10% after reduced price from the first week

After finding 10% of $42.50:

$42.50 - $4.25 = $38.25

The reduced price after the second week is $38.25.

Question #10 (page 149)

What is the total cost for four tires that

sell for $85 each, plus 5% GST and a

1.5% environment tax?

What I did:

each tire = $85

tax = 6.5 % (5% + 1.5% = 6.5%)

$85 x 4 = $340

The total cost for 4 tires would be $362.10 with tax.

Thanks for reading my post !

PLEASE COMMENT

Mary Jane's Scribepost for January 6, 2010

I chose to do my scribe post on question number 14 on page 113.

Find the missing side length of each triangle.




a) a² + b² = c²
12² + 5² = c²
(12x12) + (5x5) = c²
144 + 25 = c²
169 = c²
√169 = √c²
13 = c





The length of c also known d is 13m.






b) c² - a² = b²
15² - 9² = b²
(15x15) - (9x9) = b²
225 - 81 = b²
144 = b²
√144 = √b²
12 = b

The length of b also known as v is 12cm.

REMINDER: study for the quiz tomorrow!
Tip: Do the practice questions in the math links. You could go to mytextbook.ca to find these questions.

Mary Jane's Pay it Forward

Part One: What is "Pay it Forward"?

After seeing this inspiring movie, I realized how important it is to pay it forward. It is important to pay it forward because it just doesn't make a difference on the person you helped but rather the whole world. This movie sends a strong message to many people and I am glad to have seen this movie because it's going to inspire me to do the same thing Trevor did. For me, paying it forward means helping a person and asking them to help another person which will result in making a difference in our world. By doing this, people will realize that it's time to do something to help make a difference. This is certainly something I am willing to do and I will attempt to get others involved as well.

Part Two: Our Act of Kindness

Our group involved four people, Binesi, Elaine, Faye, and I. For our act of kindness, we decided to make bracelets and sell them to help get vaccination for polio for a community in Africa. We were very fortunate to get a spot at the book fair to sell the bracelets. We completed our act of kindness during the parent teacher conference which was on Thursday night and Friday morning/afternoon.

Part Three: The Experience

I thought that our act of kindness went fantastic. Our goal was to sell all of the bracelets and raise $175.00. I was so happy to have reached our goal and knowing that we helped a community Africa put a smile on my face.

At first I was afraid that no one would buy our bracelets and so we wouldn't be able to raise enough money. In case that happened, we were prepared to do something else but I wasn't ready to give up. Our sale was going slow at first but none of us wanted to give up. To make our sale go a bit faster, we decided to make posters and walk around the hallways to see if we could get more people interested in buying our bracelets. Along the way, there were many people who stopped to read our sign and asked "what does pay it forward mean"? We briefly told them what it meant and I was pretty sure those people stopped by the library to check out our merchandise. To get even more people interested, we decided to ask for requests of what color the customer would like their bracelet to be and that we would customize it for them. Many people bought our merchandise including teachers, parents, students, and even the staff in the office. At the end I thought it was a very successful experience and we managed to reach our goal of $175.00.

As we were doing our act of kindness, I felt so good about what we were doing. I had that warm feeling that everyone said that we would get and it made me smile. I was so happy to know that we were actually going to help the community in Africa and help them live a better life. I'm sure that the rest of the group had the same feeling I had. Hopefully the people who bought our bracelets payed it forward. I would certainly like to do this again and this is an experience I will never forget.

I would like to give special mention to the people who helped out which were: Sharmaine, Jerick, and Noelle. I would like to thank them for helping us achieve our goal and hopefully they had fun.

Part Four: Why is this important?

The idea of pay it forward is important because it will make a difference in our world. By this I mean that you will not just help someone out because you are expecting something in return. You do this because you want to help make a difference and put a smile into people's faces without getting anything in return.

I think that our act of kindness has made a difference because we didn't just do it because we were asked to but rather because we wanted to. Hopefully the community in Africa will now live a better life and that we were able to put a smile on each and everyone of their faces.

Mary Jane's Scribepost for December 1, 2009

For today's math class, we got our quizzes back and we did some more work on our foldable.

This was the rubric that Mr. Harbeck and Ms. Usiskin used to mark our quizzes:

We were then asked to revise our quiz, by correcting our mistakes or explaining our answer better by using examples.

Ms. Usiskin told us the we were confused by the wording of the question so she explained what the question really meant.

After that we did more work on our foldable. Here were some of the slides that shows what we did on our foldable.

This slide shows the spaces between the perfect squares using a fraction and later converting it into a decimal.

eg. area is 2 and the side length is 1 1/3 and converted to a decimal is approximately 1.33. We got that by dividing 1 by 3 and keeping the number 1 the same.

Then we talked about square root. Here was the slide that shows what a square root is:

These are some of examples of a square root:

The short cut to get the side length is using square root which should be a button with the square root symbol on your calculator.

eg. the area is 2 and the side length would be 1.41 rounded to 2 decimal places (using square root).

HOMEWORK:

Finish revising quiz and finish your number line (with fractions, with decimals and with your calculator).

How I stopped an Alien Invasion using Proportion

When I got home from school, I had noticed that their was an oddly shaped vehicle parked in our backyard that turned out to be a UFO. I ran inside the house and found my parents tied to a chair and beside them were aliens. They told me that if I didn't solve three proportional questions, they would take my parents to their planet and blow up the earth. I had no choice but to obey them.

The first question I had to solve was:

21. David can saw a log into three pieces in 7 min. If he continues sawing at a constant rate, how long will it take him to saw a similar log into six pieces?


It will take David 14 minutes to saw a similar log into 6 pieces. I got 14 by multiplying 3 pieces by 2 to get 6 pieces and what you do to one side you to the other so I multiplied 7 min. by 2 to get 14 min.


They told me that this was just the start and it will get harder.



The second problem was:

20. A breakfast cereal contains corn, wheat, and rice in the ratio of 3 to 4 to 2. If a box of cereal contains 225 g of corn, how much rice does it contain?


The box of cereal will contain 150 g of rice. A breakfast cereal contains corn, wheat, and rice in the ratio of 3 to 4 to 2. I took 3 from the ratio and multiplied it by 75 because a box of cereal contains 225 g of corn and to get from 3 to 225 you multiply by 75. To figure out how much rice the cereal contains, I took 2 from the ratio and multiplied it by 75 to get 150 g of rice.


They were starting to worry that their plan of blowing up the earth was not going to happen. I had answered two questions correctly, now it's time for the last question.



The last question was:

14. Last night 30 cm of snow fell in 6 h. If it continues snowing at the same rate, how long will it take for 45 cm of snow to fall? Determine the answer two different ways.


It will take 9 hours for 45 cm of snow to fall. I got that by multiplying 30 cm by 1.5 to get 45 cm. I also multiplied 6 hours by 1.5 to get 9 hours.

Eventually I was able to solve the problems without having much trouble. They finally let my parents free and left the earth without blowing it up.