Research & Problem Solving

Math had never been one of my strongest subjects. I have had a history of either

struggling with it, or understanding it immediately but nothing in between. For my three math

artifacts, I chose two from my eleventh grade Algebra 2 class, and the final artifact from my

twelfth grade AP Statistics course. The first Algebra 2 artifact is a test we took on a lesson

focused on the intricacies of interest and how money can compound (or more specifically, the

math and equations that went into calculating it). This was especially easy for me because earlier

that year I had learned the exact same thing only more in depth in my Economics class. The

second Algebra artifact is an end of the year benchmark we had to help gauge where we were in

our understanding and studies throughout the year/lessons. Finally, my Statistics artifact is an

AFL from my Senior year. The chapter that it was for was about learning to make inferences

about populations by using hypothesis testing. To put it simply, we learned how to either prove

or disprove various hypotheses and back up our answers with mathematical calculations and

evidence.

As for Science, I was did enjoy it more but still didn’t always have the best grasp. For my

lab artifact I chose one that I did with a group in my eleventh grade Chemistry class. The project

had to do with our at the time current lesson on the half-lives of various elements and

radioactivity. Essentially we had to remove blocks from a box and record how many were left

and repeat a few times. This was a way for us to semi-simulate half-life. At least enough for us to

grasp and understand the concept.

For my actual Science artifact, I chose a more recent group project from my Senior year

Environmental Science course. During our unit on populations and the issues and challenges that

they face, we were all put into groups and assigned regions. We then got to choose a country
from that region to study and answer the appropriate questions on. I was assigned the Asia and

Pacific group and naturally chose Guam as my country because I used to live there.

Finally, for my research paper, I picked the most recent one I had done. Across the 12th

grade English, Science, and History classes, we worked in groups based on the region where we

lived. Our job was to pick a current issue facing our local communities and research it in order to

propose a solution or start a change. I live in Warwick so my group and I decided to try and get a

local historical site officially documented. Part of these group projects was to each write a

research paper based on a sub-topic of our groups. So, already knowing a lot about the area and

having an abundance of resources, I chose to write about the history of Warwick Neck (where

the site was located).