How have I changed as a student this year?
In August of this year, I thought that 9th grade was going to be very difficult. Everyone had told me that it gets a lot more difficult in the 9th grade, but that was not my experience. While it is a bit more difficult than 8th grade, I feel that I adapted to the conditions of 9th grade. At the beginning, it was pretty easy, but I knew that it would get harder, and it did, but y changing the way I did work, I was able to adapt to the situation. One of the things I did to adapt to 9th grade was keeping an agenda. In 8th grade, the homework was minimal, and I was able to remember it, but in 9th grade, we had homework almost every night. I used an old notebook that I had to keep track of my homework and check off the things I completed. This has definitely made me more efficient in my homework since August. I also learned that I could apply this to things other than my schoolwork. I decided to use another notebook to write down things I need to do. I think this behavior has definitely helped for high school, and for later on in my life. I believe that me keeping an agenda and other changes I have made this year have prepared me for the rigors of 10th grade.
To excel means to go above and beyond, like trying to get extra credit, or just trying as hard as you can just for fun. Say you have a project that involves a lot of creativity, and you want to do something that is easy, and meets all the criteria, but you decide to do something more difficult just to challenge yourself. One project I think I exceled in this year was the 3D printing project in Engineering. This project involved us using inventor to CAD something to 3D print. The object had to be functional, but aesthetically creative, and had to use multiple different tools in Autodesk Inventor. My first design was functional, but did not look good aesthetically, so I tried again, and I made a hedgehog. While we only had to use a few of the tools for the project, I used all of them. I also was one of the first ones to get mine 3D printed. My CAD files show that I used all of the tools we could use in the project, and my final version showed that I was able to successfully 3D print the model, and that it works as a USB holder. I think my previous CAD skills helped me a lot in this project, as I was already familiar with most of the tools from a class I took in 7th grade at my old school. Throughout my life, I was good at coming up with creative designs, but this was the first time I was actually able to create a real design, and have it created. Another project I exceled in this year was the Car project, which was also in engineering. The purpose of the Car Project was to reverse engineer an Automoblox Car into inventor and have an accurate model. This was a group project, and I worked with Victor Nusekabel. Since I had previous CAD experience, I was challenged to reverse engineer a car with a trailer and the motorcycle. The first thing we did was to hand draw technical drawings of the car with all the dimensions needed. This initially took a long time, but eventually, we got some very good drawings. We then used the technical drawings in inventor to create the CAD model. We were able to create the car and the trailer, but we ran out of time for the motorcycle, but I think I could do it. I think our group did so well because Victor and I are good friends and were able to work efficiently. I feel that in these two projects that I went above and beyond the requirements and was able to get a good final product.
My USB holder for the 3D Printing Project. (His name is Harold)
A CAD Model of our car from the car project.
One project I struggled in this year was the apocalyptic short story project in language arts. For this project, we had to write a short story about a post-apocalyptic group of people trying to survive. I initially struggled with this project because I am not that good at writing realistic stories. I am very good at coming up with alternate universes for stories, but when it comes to it being realistic, I start to have trouble. To overcome this struggle, I wrote as realistic a scenario I could before adding in some extra details. I am also not very good at adding details to the story, as I focus on the big picture before the details in a story. I worked on that by adding details as I wrote, which helped me incorporate them better in my story. I did a writing STEMersion last year, and if you look at my final story, you can see a big improvement. For my STEMersion story, there is not a lot of detail, but when you look at my short story, there is much more detail. Another project I struggled in was the Chinese rap project. For this project, we had to make a wrap in Chinese. This was difficult for my group, since this was all our first year of Chinese, and we only knew a few words and phrases. We initially had the idea of doing a military chant, but we could not come up with a good script. We eventually settled on a drumbeat, but it did not flow well with our script. We then found a good rap beat, which seemed to flow perfectly with our rap. We also used a sheet that our Chinese teacher gave us that had some names for sports, which was the focus of our rap. I also learned a lot about using Adobe Premiere Pro during this project, as I was the editor for the project. This year, I learned a lot about my struggles in these projects, and they will definitely help me in the future.
The Title cover for our short story.
A scene from our Chinese rap. (From left to right: Antoine, John, and Bryan)
This year, I have grown a lot in terms of both art, and creativity. One project I think I grew in the most was the colored pencil project. The colored pencil project was where we had to create a pattern using stencils, and color it in with colored pencils. At first, we used graph paper, but for our final, we used leger paper. At first, I had trouble with getting all the required shape transformations for the project, but I tried multiple times, and eventually, I got the right stuff. I also struggled because I had broken my arm, and that made it very difficult to color in. By the end of the project, I think that I got a really good result, and I think I grew a lot in this project. Another project I grew in was the Silent Film Project. For this project, we had to make a silent film about industrialization and progressivism. At first, my group and I had trouble with coming up with a good script that fit the requirements. We were having trouble with writing and making realistic scenes that we could record. One thing that really helped was that Victor invited our group to his house to record, which really helped us get our script ready. By the end of the project, I think we got a really good script, and silent film. Overall, I grew a lot this year, and I was able to grow in creativity, and artistically.
A portion of my colored pencil pattern.
A scene from our silent film. (Factory worker being brutally injured in factory while boss forces him to continue working. Circa. 1898)
In August, I thought that 9th grade would be just like 8th grade, but it turned out I was wrong. I feel that I am more matured, and organized from this year, and I think this will help me later on in my life. One DRSS quality that I had to rely on most was creativity. This year involved a lot of projects that involved making some sort of media or writing a script. Projects like the Chinese rap involved my group members and I to have a lot of creativity, not only to meet the criteria, but also to have a good product. I also had to use creativity in the colored pencil project, as we had lots of different shape transformations to have, but also have a creative pattern. I feel that this year has completely prepared me for 10th grade because of what I have learned, and the different techniques I used this year. Geometry taught me a lot of what I have yet to learn, and I feel that there was a lot I learned that I could apply later in life. The time tests also helped me mastered different math procedures. I also learned Chinese, which is very useful, since a lot of the population speaks Chinese. One technique I used to keep organized this year was to keep an agenda, as it helps me keep track of all my classes. I also got an agenda for outside of school because of how useful it was to have one. In 10th grade, I want to not only learn more, but I also want to do work much harder. I think that if I work harder, I will get not only better grades, but also learn more, and understand better. Overall, I learned a lot in 9th grade that will affect me later on in my life, and also in the 10th grade.
