Aleesha Gillett
Student Portfolio
Category: Projects
In the Humanities course in year 10, we were able to choose and research a project of our choice to showcase at the final exhibition in term 4. The topic Amelia and I have chosen is Civics and Citizenship. I was very happy when we chose this discipline as there are so many things we could do. We decided to focus on a cold case, specifically the murders and disappearance of the Dupont de Ligonnès family. For our presentation, we will be creating a report detailing a timeline of events and information about all the family members that were involved in the crime. Also, we will have a pin-up board with a map of the area and pictures of potential sightings.
We have completed our 10 annotated references each and this has helped us to collate all the information we need to construct our project. We are now working on making our report with all the elements in that and we will be creating our pin up board next week. The sheet below is a planning document which helped up come up with ideas about what we wanted to focus on and how we wanted to present. Also, it allowed us to think about what steps were involved and to reflect on some key values which we needed throughout this project.
A few key values that we need are:
– Communication
– Problem solving
– Creativity
– Organisation
– Collaboration.
Communication is very important as we need to make sure everyone knows what they are doing and when we need it done by. Creativity is needed as we are creating our own project and want it to be interesting and unique. The other value that we need is problem solving, there is no doubt that we will come across bumps in the road, but we need to find solutions so we can continue on with what we are doing.
In the Humanities course in year 10, we were able to choose and research a project of our choice to showcase at the final exhibition in term 4. The topic Amelia and I have chosen is Civics and Citizenship. I was very happy when we chose this discipline as there are so many things we could do. We decided to focus on a cold case, specifically the murder and disappearance of a family.
So far, we have completed our 10 annotated references, made a rough timeline of what we need to do each week, and started generating ideas of what our presentation might be. Our plan for continuing this project in term 4 includes completing notes on the links we have found and creating our presentation. The sheet below is a planning document which helped up come up with ideas about what we wanted to focus on and how we wanted to present. Also, it allowed us to think about what steps were involved and to reflect on some key values which we needed throughout this project.
A few key values that we need are communication, problem solving, creativity, organisation, and collaboration. Communication is very important as we need to make sure everyone knows what they are doing and when we need it done by. Creativity is needed as we are creating our own project and want it to be interesting and unique. The other value that we need is problem solving, there is no doubt that we will come across bumps in the road, but we need to find solutions so we can continue on with what we are doing.
Our timeline below is only a preliminary draft and may change as we progress further along in this project. We will update our timeline in term 4 and outline what we will be doing in more detail. Even though it is only a rough draft, the timeline will help us to stay on track and to make sure we aren’t falling behind.
When I was introduced to the task of writing a dramatic scene, I was unsure how to start. I had never written a dramatic scene before, and I had only ever performed scenes in past school drama classes, and assessments. I knew I had to start somewhere, and that was to form a group with people I knew I would be able to work with well. This task gave me the opportunity to collaborate with, both people I have worked with before and those I hadn’t. Throughout this task I displayed many capabilities, including communication, collaboration, problem solving and organisation, just to name a few.
As a group, we needed to come up with an idea that we wanted to create a scene about, so we chose to write about wealth inequality in the justice system. We needed to communicate with each other about who was doing what, so we divided up roles so that some people were looking into court language that could be used and others were creating the framework for the script. We all collaborated with a shared document so we could work on the script together at the same time. Collaboration and communication were key components in this task, as we needed to make sure everyone knew what they were doing and when it needed to be done by.
Towards the end of the project, organisation became crucial, as we needed everyone to finish their section of the script and for all props and costumes to have been organised. We needed to problem solve, as we realised that on the day of the performance one of our group members wouldn’t be there, so we needed to find someone else from our class to stand in and read their lines. In the end we managed to organise everything, and our performance went very well. Overall, this task has helped to further develop many skills, including communication and problem solving, which I will be able to use in the future.
Over the last few weeks of term 4, we worked on a project to investigate an area of sustainability and how we can link maths with it. I focused my project on the Gender Pay Gap and the Wealth Divide between a developing country and a developed country. Throughout this project, I learnt many different ways which data can be presented, including examples and comparisons and even rice! I decided to present my information in a PowerPoint which included graphs and a representation of data through rice. This was an excellent project to do because I feel I learnt that sustainability isn’t just protecting the environment, but also looking after our society and the people in our community.
I am proud of the product I created and feel it clearly represents both the gender pay gap and wealth divide and highlights were we need to improve in our community. I learnt many skills, including how to think outside the box when it come to presenting. I could have improved by showing both issues over time, perhaps with an animation. Even though there are a few ways I could improve, I’m still happy with my finished product overall.
Before I chose Muir as my elective, I had never really been snorkeling before. I was excited that we would be able to go to Rottnest Island as I had never been there before. Even though Rottnest was our main excursion to test the skills we had been practicing, we went to Coogee as well so we had some real life experience before going to Rottnest. Before we even thought about hopping into the water, we had to to learn all the safety rules before using the water. To help us with this, we used the acronyms SAFE SNORKEL. This stands for Safety, Accident, First Aid, Emergency/Sun, Nourishment, Ocean, Reef, Keep in Pairs, Environment, Leave no Trace. When we had learned all the precautions about using the water, we went down to the Aquatic Center and learned all the skills we would need for snorkeling. We also learned water entries, and rescues. The entries we used were the Compact jump, Stride entry, Slide entry, and the Back Roll entry. We also learned how to tow someone from one side of the pool to the other, even though we probably didn’t need to know this, it is good to be prepared just in case something happens and we need to pull someone out the water. Once we had learned all these skills, we were ready to put them into use.
Coogee
Coogee was a great place to put our newfound skills to the test for the first time. Not only did it have a shipwreck we could explore, but it had a Maritime Trail we could go round. We found the Omeo Shipwreck had become home to loads of marine life. There was so many marine animals like fish and octopus that we saw. The conditions on the days we went on we really nice, the weather wasn’t too windy and the water was clear, most of the time. In regards to the Maritime Trail, there we things plotted on the seabed which you could swim down to see. There were also signs we could swim down and read which provided us with some information with what we were looking at. The think I liked the best about the trail was the big star on the seabed. It was approximately 6 meters below the surface. Because it was quite deep, we needed to equalize to balance out the pressure from inside our ears and the water pressure outside. To do this, we had to cover our nose while blowing out as we swam down. I never ended up going through the star as I couldn’t properly equalize yet, but if I go again to Coogee, I will definitely try going through the star.
Rottnest Island
I was so excited about this excursion because I had never been to Rottnest before. We boarded the bus at 7am and arrived at Victoria Quay, in Fremantle, at around 7:40am. The ferry left at around 8am and took around 25 minutes to get to Rottnest. Unfortunately, I didn’t realise I got seasick and didn’t take anything before the ride. Luckily the sickness wore off when I was back on land. We walked across the island till we reached the Basin. While we were walking to the beach, we saw a Quokka. This was really amazing as I had never seen one before. When we had finished setting up at the Basin, we went over SAFE SNORKEL. My group was the first to go into the water. It was quite cold when I first got in, I was very thankful I had my wet suit in that moment of time. We went out and explored the reef for 20 minutes with our buddy. It was quite wavy but in most parts of the water, it was easy enough to snorkel in. When the other group had got back, we went out to the cave section and had the opportunity to swim down through a cave. It was really amazing because the cave was filled with marine life that was living there and there was so much to look at. After our lunch break, we went back out to another part of the Basin where we could look at the reefs. I loved that there were some deep parts where we could dive down and look at the reef on the seabed. After we arrived back at school, I was tired from a long day. Overall, this was an amazing experience where we could use the skills we had been practicing, and I was able to see a place I had always wanted to go to.
I worked on the Digital Scrapbook project for Nulsen. One of the main skills I have learnt from this is how to create a website and the different things you can do with computers. Coming into this project, I was worried that I would struggle with the technological side but within my group, we were all able to design a website which suited its function. We created a website which allowed the carers to design to suit the residents personality and for the families to be able to see what they did on a specific day. Even though there were features we couldn’t build because we weren’t as confident in coding, we were able to show the Nulsen representative what we hoped the website would look like with a little bit work to the features which required more skill in technology and coding. We wanted to add a feature of security and even though we didn’t have enough time to work specifically on that part, we again clearly explained what our intentions were for the project in the future. I have attached a link of our sample website that we worked on. https://editor.wix.com/html/editor/web/renderer/external_preview/document/b0d641db-a37a-46bb-97b4-9425d13af4dd?metaSiteId=1e9678d3-eaaf-45b8-8a46-19e8672e5ca2
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My first real memory of photography was when I was about 7 or 8. I was at this car racing event and my dad helped me take my first photo. When I was 10, my parents bought me my very first proper digital camera and my love for photography blossomed from there. I feel from photography, you learn to look at the world in different perspective. You have to adapt to your surroundings and make beauty from what you least expect you can. You have to be creative from what is around you. I like to try and find picture perfect out of as little as possible, sometimes with just the environment around me. I love to show people the way I see the world and to look at things from a different perspective.
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