Progress update 2

As part of our year 10 Humanities course we are able to research a project of our own choice and to create an outcome to showcase at a final exhibition in term 4. My group got assigned geography as our project subtopic. The essential question we decided to investigate is “How do dogs live around the world?”. In this project, we will discover dogs around the world and what jobs they do, what breeds are most popular, the populations, and the different cultures surrounding dogs. We chose this topic as we both love dogs and would be interested in learning more about them. By choosing something we are both interested in, we will be motivated throughout the whole project and produce a good quality project.

Brainstorm of ideas, questions and tasks

My role for this project is equal to my partner as we are splitting each task in half. This ensures that we are both contributing to the project and one person isn’t doing all the work. So far my group has completed an annotated bibliography, made a timeline, wrote a progress update, done reflections up to week 2, planned our final display and started working on the different components of our display. We will continue to divide the tasks evenly throughout the project to make sure we are both contributing equally and are getting all of the tasks done effectively.

Timeline for the project

The core questions we are going to explore are:

  • Where are dogs most commonly found around the world?
  • Which dog breeds are most popular in each country?
  • What are the jobs a dog can have and what training do they have to go through to get these jobs?
  • What cultures do different countries/religions have surrounding dogs?
Brainstorm/plan for exhibition stall

For our final product we have included a variety of different displays to make our stall entertaining and informative. Each of these displays have information about a different section of our research question giving a wide range of information. The game and small book will include information about jobs, the map and poster focuses on popularity and origins of breeds, the bigger book focuses on the cultures revolving around dogs and the PowerPoint shows different breeds.

Exhibition plan

During this project, we will be using many capabilities to help us stay on track of time and complete the project to the best of our ability.

Effective communication/Collaboration; We will need to use effective communication throughout the whole project to ensure we don’t overlap our work and that we complete every section of our project. Without collaboration our projects different components wouldn’t fit together and the end result wouldn’t be a high quality product.

Resilience/Problem solving; We will need to have resilience throughout this project as we are going to have to overcome many challenges. We will have to problem solve when challenges appear and work hard to overcome them and complete our project to a high standard.

Organisation; We will need to stay organised for the whole project as we have a lot of work to do and it is easy to fall behind. We will need to use time management to make sure we can complete all components of the project within the given time limit. Without organisation we wouldn’t be able to complete everything to a high standard and would result in an unfinished project.

Capabilities wheel

Progress update 1

As part of our year 10 Humanities course we are able to research a project of our own choice and to create an outcome to showcase at a final exhibition in term 4. My group got assigned geography as our project subtopic. The essential question we decided to investigate is “How do dogs live around the world?”. In this project, we will discover dogs around the world and what jobs they do, what breeds are most popular, the populations, and the different cultures surrounding dogs. We chose this topic as we both love dogs and would be interested in learning more about them. By choosing something we are both interested in, we will be motivated throughout the whole project and produce a good quality project.

Brainstorm of ideas, questions and tasks

My role for this project is equal to my partner as we are splitting each task in half. This ensures that we are both contributing to the project and one person isn’t doing all the work. So far my group has completed an annotated bibliography, made a timeline, wrote a progress update, done week 9 and 10 reflections, and brainstormed ideas for our stall. We will continue to divide the tasks evenly throughout the project to make sure we are both contributing equally.

Timeline for the project

The core questions we are going to explore are:

  • Where are dogs most commonly found around the world?
  • Which dog breeds are most popular in each country?
  • What are the jobs a dog can have and what training do they have to go through to get these jobs?
  • What cultures do different countries/religions have surrounding dogs?
Brainstorm/plan for exhibition stall

During this project, we will be improving on effective communication, resilience, problem-solving, collaboration, and organization throughout this entire project. We will need to be resilient and use problem-solving throughout this project as there will be many challenges which we will need to work around and overcome. We will need to collaborate and use communication so we can use our time effectively and complete this project to a high standard. Without these capabilities, we wouldn’t be able to complete this project to the best of our ability.

English capabilities

Capabilities wheel

In English, we worked in groups to write and perform a play that represented a group or issue that we were interested in. This task required us to use effective communication within our group as we all had to agree on an issue and then find a way to represent it in the play. My group and I brainstormed all our ideas for issues and how we could portray it in a way that the audience could easily understand. After combining many of our ideas we agreed to represent sexism specifically in male-dominant workplaces.
At the start of the project, I had my document with the work I had done but soon realised that wouldn’t be effective as my group members couldn’t follow along with what I had done. To fix this issue, I made collaborative documents that we could all access and edit to contribute to writing the script. This document meant we could all read what the other group members had written which prevented doubling scenes and made the scenes fit together and easy to follow along. This slight growth in communication helped the creation of the play and also improved the final outcome. At the start of the task, I made a group chat with my group members so that we could communicate at any time if anything changed or if someone had a question regarding the task. This meant that my group could be in contact outside of class time if we needed to confirm something or ask questions. Having the ability to contact our group members meant that we could get our work done on time and resolve any issues that may have appeared. Listening to each other’s ideas, using communal documents, and having constant contact with one another meant we could communicate effectively throughout the task and therefore complete it efficiently and successfully. This task showed me the importance of effective communication and helped me discover ways to work more beneficial in group projects.

Our group’s props and scripts

Forced perspective

Forced perspective photo

For this photography task we had to use forced perspective and a large depth of field to make it look like someone is smaller than the other. We used a smaller f-stop and had the people stand far away from the camera. The person sitting on the floor was really far back to make them look smaller than the person stepping on them.

I like this photo as the camera was at the right angle to make it look like the bigger person was stepping on the smaller person. The photo had good lighting and was clear. To improve we could have taken it on grass so the lines on the ground didn’t show how far away the person actually was. We could have also taken the photo where the background was less distracting. Overall, this was a good photo but could have been improved by changing the location.

Little people photo

Little people photo

For this photography task, we had to use little toys to take a picture that looked a realistic size. I chose this photo as it is creative and it has good lighting. To get this photo we had to use little toys and set them up so it looks like reality. We used a small F-stop to create a small depth of field making the toys look bigger. To get this photo we put the little toy in the water to make it look like someone was canoeing in a lake. We experimented with different toys and backgrounds I like this photo as it is good quality and has a creative background making it look realistic. To improve this photo I could have taken it from a different angle to remove the shadow or made the shadow look more like a cliff. Overall, I think this is a successful photo.

Light graffiti photo

For this photography task we experimented with camera settings and lights to capture the moving lights in the still image. I chose this photo as it is clear and has a creative light pattern. To get this photo we had to make the room as dark as possible and use torches to make the light graffiti affect. We used a slow shutter speed to capture the movement over a long period of time. While holding the button down we used the torches to draw around the model and then moved to the other side of the frame to draw the other apparition. I liked this photo as it tells a story and experiments with both movement and light. To improve we could have made the background darker so it was less distracting and the devil and angel more visible by staying in one spot for longer.

Levitating photo

For this photography task we had to take a photo which had the affect that someone was levitating. We did this by using a high shutter speed to capture the person jumping in the air. I chose this photo as it is clear and shows the model levitating off the ground. I like this photo as it is not obvious that the person is jumping and gives off the affect that she is being pushed off the ground. I also like that the people are positioned in the middle of the frame and it has good lighting. To improve this photo I could have made the model levitate higher so it is more obvious she is off the ground and made it more creative.

Capturing kindness

Capturing kindness

For this photography task, we had to capture kindness through generations. We had to plan a lot for this photo as we needed to include an elderly person and a teenager. We had many different ideas for this task and the final photo I chose was playing a board game. This photo captured the different ages through the hands as one is clearly older than the other and the two people are playing a game together which shows kindness.

To improve this photo I could have made the background less distracting by not including the bottom of the table. I could have taken it from a different angle so I got more of the hands and letters instead of the distracting background. I like that we have used the game to incorporate the words teen, kindness, and elderly all connected together. Overall I think this photo was good but could have been a bit more creative.

Flat lay photography

Candle flat lay

For this photography task, we experimented with flat lay photos. The photo I chose had items of many different shapes and sizes which all related to candles. I chose this photo as it wasn’t blurry and has variety with the items. I like how the composition has placeholders to make it look more interesting and cover up any blank spots. The lighting in this photo could be improved by having no reflection coming from the candles by using better lighting. I could have also put more items in the corner of the frame to fill the empty spaces.

Birds and worms

Photo from “worms” perspective
Photo from “birds” perspective

For this photography task, we had to experiment with different camera angles. We had to choose our best photo taken from above and one from below.

For my worm photo, I like how the red flowers stand out from the background and are the main focus. They are positioned towards the left of the photo to make it look more aesthetically pleasing. I would improve this photo by adjusting the amount of light in the top around the leaves.

For my bird photo, I like how the background is a dark colour and is blurred so the flowers stand out. I could improve this photo by focusing on the flowers to make them less blurry and more to focus on the detail.

A low angle makes the object you are photographing seem big and superior to you. The angle makes you look up to the object making you feel small and can be used to show who is in control. A high angle can make the object seem small and insignificant which makes the camera seem in control. These angles can be used in movies to make the characters seem submissive or aggressive.