Light Bars - Digital Technology

For the past few weeks in digital technology we have been designing and making light bars. Light bars are wooden pieces made into a bar with an led light strip in between the wood. A piece of acrylic sheet is placed in the slit of the bar and the led light makes the sheet glow.

We started off on laser cutter designing what we wanted on our acrylic sheet, I decided to put my favourite boy group name. Then Mr Rzoska printed it out. We then created the bars.

Creating the bars were really easy we only needed wood, pva glue and a light strip. We put all of the materials together and used the belt sander to make the edges smoother.

After all of the putting together all the bits and bobs we tested it out by connecting the led strip to the desktops and watching it light up.

Jikoshokai - Japanese

Today in japanese we did our 'Jikoshokai's/Mihi. \
Here is my one.

Creating Our Own Game - P.E

Today in P.E we created our own games to play with another team, we were given random equipment but the team that we were with had the same equipment as us so if we needed more supplies we could borrow theirs. My group ended up creating a game that was inspired by tapu wae.

How to play/brief description - Each end of the court will have a hula hoop with a circle around the outside, your aim is to get the ball into the hula hoop but the cones are your barrier also there are two kaitiakis/guardians stopping the ball from getting into the hoop. While getting the ball down the court you are only allowed 5 seconds with the ball and no stepping. 

Equipment we used - The equipment was simple and easy the equipment we used were cones, two hula hoops, racket and a tennis ball.

What went well - Before we started playing we were a little unsure if our game would work out or not but as everyone got the hang of it we ended up having a lot of fun and were scoring more points than we expected.

What we could improve on/change for next time - Next time I think we could make the playing area bigger because the ball kept on going out and all the swap overs were taking too long, I liked the equipment we had so I wouldn't change anything about that.

Overall I really enjoyed not only making our own game but getting the chance to play somebody else's game.

Working As A Team - P.E

Blog Reflection 

The team game we played was: Cross Courts

For this activity, I rate myself (circle one) 1 2 3 (4)

  

I gave myself a four because I felt like a leader during this game, I was always making a contribution to the team to help change our ways of playing to give us better chance to win. Also one of Mr Goodfellows “spies” gave me a four.

What was something that was challenging about today’s activity? (in relation to teamwork)

A little challenge was at the start was when people were arguing who was going to start with the ball but it usually happens. Everything was good today and everybody in the team was being a good sport which I was really happy about.

How did I overcome this challenge?

I suggested we throw up the ball and one person from each team have to jump and get the ball for our team and my idea worked.

Guitars - Music

Today in music we learnt about guitars, different types, the names of parts of guitars.

Acoustic Guitars -
The pro's of playing acoustic guitars are they don't need an amplifier and they sound good on their own. Some cons of the acoustic guitar are that they're a little hard than electric guitars to play.


Spanish Guitars -
Spanish guitars are similar to acoustic but some pros and cons of owning them are that they have nylon strings which are softer on your fingers. A con is that the strings are further apart from each other rather than other guitars.

Bass Guitar -
Bass guitars are guitars that aren't played by them self but played for the beat. They can reach lower notes that acoustic guitars can't play, there's no need to learn chords for them aswell. They have a long neck which is difficult for a child to play.

All different types of guitars can have a cut out which helps the player play bar chords, at the start of this lesson I had no idea why some guitars had those cuts I thought it was just for show.

Working as a Team - Pancake Wars

Working as a Team

The team game we played was:  Pancake Wars 

For this activity, I rate myself (circle one) 1 2 3         (4)

I gave myself this rating because (describe something that happened that supports the rating you gave yourself).  

I gave myself this rating because I worked well with my team and whenever I saw someone from my team not doing anything I went over to them and helped them by giving them something to do. I cheered on my teammates when they were trying to get to the other side or coming back with pancakes.

What was something that was challenging about today’s activity? (in relation to teamwork)

Something challenging to me was when people would fuss over who was doing what but we got there in the end as a strong team.

How did I overcome this challenge?\

I overcame this challenge by helping my teammates find what they could do to solve the tiny problem and after that they ended up contributing to the game which helped us a lot.

Cooking Theory

This week for cooking technology we made cookies, first we made the cookie dough then the next day we cooked them. 

Before we cooked them we had to equally divide the batch into 12 cookies. We calculated how much our dough weighed by 12 then that was how big each cookie had to be. Me and Kyla's batch was 353 grams and divided by 12 that equals 29 so we had to make each cookie 29 grams.

We finally divided them, some were exactly 29 and others were close to 29 grams. Before we put them in the oven we checked the weight on our test cookie again too see the before and after weight of them. After they came out of the oven we weighed it again and it ended up becoming lighter with 24 grams. 

My theory for this was when we put it into the oven the cookie lost all it's moisture which contributed to making the cookie lighter in grams. 

Music Through The Decades

Here is my slide of music through the decades it includes popular genres from then, popular musicians/bands and most popular songs.




I hope you enjoyed please leave feedback for my next post.

Bruce Springsteen Biography

Name: Bruce Springsteen

Decade: 1970’s

Birth Date: 23 September 1949

Genre: Rock

Famous Songs: Born To Run and Badlands

Challenge: His father didn’t acknowledge him (his guitar) and his love for music, he quoted "When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house," the singer later recalled. "One was me, and the other was my guitar."

Music Biography's

Today in music we did music biography's on a band and a solo artist from New Zealand. I chose Sons Of Zion for my band and Marley Sola for my solo artist. First we had to do it on paper then we made it into a DLO ( digital learning story ) Here are my finished biography's.

Instrumental Industries

Today WH and AL started a new hurumanu called music but as we call it instrumental industries. Today we looked at different genres, what music we like to listen to, where we can find/listen to music and what we want to learn in this hurumanu.

We watched different types of videos of different genres, I really enjoyed this because we got to sing along to the songs we knew and it was interesting to hear other types of music I don't usually listen to.

We then looked at the ukulele, after we had learnt a bit about it we had to name the parts of the ukulele on our glossary for instrumental industries. Here is my labelling of a ukulele.

I'm excited to see what we will do for hurumanu this term.

My 10 changes to climate change.

My Investigation

Aim: To look at how I can prevent climate change in the future.

1. Complete the activity 'Ecological Handprint'.

2. Complete the activity 'Carbon Footprint'.

3. Write down your 10 changes to climate change below. Using ideas from the Ecological Hand print and Carbon Footprint list 10 changes that you can make to stop Climate change?

1.  Unplug anything i'm not using.
2.  Turn off the tap water while brushing my teeth.
3.  Take shorter showers.  
4.  Turn off the light when I leave the room.
5.  Eat less meat based products.
6.  Use recycled things.
7.  Use my electric blanket less.
8.  Compost and recycle things.
9.  Conserve water. 
10.  Conserve electricity. 
11.  Walk more places.

Emotions and Feelings

Naming your feeling: Look at the list of feelings, is there an emotion that you feel right now or that you have yesterday. 

How do you feel now/your feeling face: 

I feel anxious but happy.

Taking responsible action for your feelings: 

Respond to your feelings in a way that is kind to yourself and others. These a ways you can respond kindly to how you feel.

- If you feel happy you help share your happiness with others.

- If you feel tired and angry it's better to not take it out on anyone.

- If your feeling anxious you can talk to someone about it that will make you feel relieved and make the other person happy for helping you.

When your going through puberty not all changes are physical your emotions are going to change. It's good to keep control of your feelings and make sure your responding to them in a kind way. 

I looked at all of the plays and I really enjoyed this one because I had a clear idea of what they were talking and learning about. 

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Here is the link if the video doesn't work: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lVNDyFgCmC10cY_nojxCc1j9Ipw0QEeH

Hurumanu - Fossil Fuels.

Hurumanu - Fossil Fuels.

 

Aim: To look at how fossil fuels are contributing to climate change and how we can prevent this.

Definition of Fossil Fuels:

Scientific Terms for Students

• coal: a dark-brown to black solid substance formed naturally from the compaction and hardening of fossilized plants and used as a fuel primarily for electricity generation
• natural gas: a mixture of hydrocarbon gases that occurs naturally beneath the earth’s surface and is used as a fuel primarily for cooking and heating homes
• renewable resource: a resource that is never used up (e.g., solar energy)
• non-renewable resource: a resource that is not replaceable after its use (e.g., coal, gas)

Examples of Fossil Fuels:

1.  Coal
2.  Oil 
3.  Natural Gasses

Activity: 

In groups of 3 you will learn about different fossil fuels and the way they are mined?
Each group will be given a fossil fuel. The recorder will read it to the group. The recorder will write down some of the important points.
Person 1: Recorder: to write down 5 points of interest from the text. 

1. 5 Points:
2. Positives and negatives of your type of mining.

Person 2: Reporter: to read back to the class their 5 points of interest.
Person 3: Collector: Gathers the required stationary from the teacher.

Mining Fossil Fuels

What Fossil Fuels are mined?
How are they mined?

1. Digging
2. Scraping
3. Exposing buried resources
4. Drilling

Where are they mined?

1. America
2. Russia
3. China 
4. Australia 
5. India

Activity;

On the sheet provided you need to make two drawings of your cookie. 
1. looking down at it. 
2. side on -  of the imaginary habitat that will live on the top of the cookie. ( trees, buses, flax, sea, etc)

Material:

1.  Cookie
2.  Plate
3.  Tooth Pick  
4.  Paper 

Steps:

1.  Get your paper 
2.  Get a cookie 
3.  Use the toothpick to pick out the chocolate chips in the cookie. 
4.  Draw any type of habitat before and after mining.

Once you have drawn your cookies you must take 2 pictures and upload them to your blog.

Findings: I found out that we actually caused a lot of damage and the cookie ended up breaking.

Conclusion: In the end I realised that the cookie in the end is how the habitat will look after people mine and rummage through it. The similarity between how a damaged habitat and the cookie was scary, this means people need to stop damaging other species habitats and killing our species.

Hurumanu - Solar Energy

Solar Energy

Catching the sun movie

Materials:

1. Cups (4x) 
2. Water 
3. Tin Foil
4. Two sheets of white paper
5. One sheet of black paper
6. Thermometer
7. One large cup
8. Heat lamp

Steps

1. Fill 3 of the cups up with water.  
2. Lay down each of the surfaces.
3. Place the cups of water onto the papers and tinfoil. For one of the white paper place a the bigger cup on the top of the smaller one.
4. Plug in the heat lamp and wait for each time stamp.  
5. After waiting for each time stamp check the temperature and right down the results.  

Which surface conducts / attracts the most heat?

Time + temperature	Cup 1 White paper	Cup 2 White paper+ plastic.	Cup 3 Black paper	Cup 4 Tinfoil
0	12	12	12	12
40 minutes	15	14	20	20
15 minutes	15	13	19	19
30 minutes	17	19	22	22

Findings: During this experiment I found that when we didn't have the heat lamp on the temperatures still went up which I didn't expect to happen, we were in front of natural light so that could have somehow triggered the temperature to rise with out the heat lamp. Also the black paper and tin foil had the same results which but the two white paper didn't 

Conclusion: I thought this experiment was very interesting, it was cool to see how different objects/things can effect the temperature of something. In the end I was really surprised how two cups of waters temperature rise without the heat lamp. Overall I enjoyed this experiment and would love to do something similar to this one again.

Drama, Puberty, Slam Poetry.

In drama this week we did a couple of things. We started off with learning a bit about puberty and the changes we have to go through. We learnt about the scientific names of each part of the body and the menstruation cycle. Also we learnt our hormones and emotions will affect us.

Then we did slam poetry, slam poetry is where 1 or more people perform a poem the poem doesn't have to rhyme and it can be about numerous things. We watched a 2 video's of slam poetry, one was about being islander and the other one was about being 12. I really enjoyed it. 

Lastly we performed our own poem, May and I's was about human rights, discrimination and racism and about how we wanted it to stop. During the poem we said one line in unison and the rest one by one.

Poem - Drama

This week for drama we created poems about us or about things we liked. I created two poems one about me and then one in a group with May.

My poem about me:

Who hated racism and people who would discriminate against others for their cultures, beliefs and who they were as a person.

Who loved equality and human rights towards both men and women.

Who feared that racism was never going to end, that people wouldn’t accept who she was, that generations in the future would take after this one and the hatred and discrimination will continue towards people.

Who wants to help make a difference and change the way people think because we are all equal, we are all human. 

Who wanted to see the society around us become a happier and safer place for everyone.

My poem with May:

We are who we are

We shouldn't pretend to be anyone else

We won't change for you

So just let it be

I won't waste my time

Trying to change me

I'm not a fake

And I'm unwilling to break

Accept what you see

And just let me be

Here's a video of all the poems that 7/8WH and 7/8AL:

Here is the link aswell if the video doesn't work - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tsoYczj7mTAmAMDwVwl_npH4wiPWwYaj

Science - Recycling

Aim: To learn practical ways of recycling so that we can make our world a better place.

The Zero Waste Climate Solution movie

How can we prevent climate change though recycling these products?

Plastics: It prevents us from burning coal and oil and helps us use less energy. 
Cycling or walking: Instead of taking a car or a bus which releases carbon monoxide which evaporates into the air and rises the earths atmosphere. Walking to different places means you're not releasing carbon monoxide 
Paper: If we stop using as much paper and wasting paper it means less tree's are being cut down 
Steel: Less coal is burnt and that means less gasses which rise our earths temperature are released. 

Video questions:

What is Zero Waste?

One of the quickest and cheapest ways a community can immediately reduce climate impact. 
What can we do on the planet?

1.   Resign
2.   Recycle
3.   Stop feeding animal products
4.   Start feeding soils

What do we need to recycle?

All plastics, paper, glass bottles, jars, milk and juice cartons and everything else that can be recycled! Share things.

What does recycling do?

It stops the use of fossil fuels which means less carbon dioxide would be released into the air. 

How much of our rubbish is food scraps?

42%

What does soil do to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?

CH4 Methane 

What do we need to do?

1. Have Zero Waste.

What is a carbon footprint?

the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a person or a community.

How can you make your Carbon Footprint smaller?

To stop the use of fossil fuel products, lower the rate of energy in your household, walk and not using cars or motorcycles. Sharing your resources. 

My Goals

1. Turning off the lights in the house that i'm not using.
2. Walk more places instead of getting my parents to take me.
3. Use recyclable products/don't use fossil fuel products.

AT WHAT RATES DO DIFFERENT ITEMS DECOMPOSE?

MY INVESTIGATION.

Choose 5 items from the list and investigate them. 

You need to answer three questions.

Name: Aluminium Can

1. How long do they take to decompose? 200-400 years
2. What resource / fossil fuel are they made from? Metal
3. How is this resource recycled? The aluminium is taken to a treatment plant and it goes through a re-melt process and turns into molten. Then it's made into a large block called ingot then they are made into cans or aluminium products again.
4. How does this object contribute to climate change? When aluminium is made they use a lot of electricity and releasing CO2 which is obviously bad for our planet. 

Name: Milk Carton

1. How long do they take to decompose? 5 years
2. What resource / fossil fuel are they made from? Polyethylene
3. How is this resource recycled? Milk cartons have a similar process to aluminium but in the end of the process some processed milk cartons are sent over seas and can be used for a roof.
4. How does this object contribute to climate change? When milk cartons are made they use up a lot of electricity and releasing CO2 which is obviously bad for our planet. Same as aluminium.

Name: Glass Bottle

1. How long do they take to decompose? 500 years-forever
2. What resource / fossil fuel are they made from? A liquid sand.
3. How is this resource recycled? Glass is taken from the bin and taken to a glass treatment plant then the glass is washed and sorted by colour. The glass is then crushed and melted then moulded into new products like jars and bottles.
4. How does this object contribute to climate change? CO2 is released when glass is made.

Name: Plastic Bag

1. How long do they take to decompose? 10-20 years
2. What resource / fossil fuel are they made from? Polythene 
3. How is this resource recycled? They have similar process to other fossil fuel products, broken down and then made into the same or similar product.
4. How does this object contribute to climate change? CO2 is released when the plastic bags are being made.

Name: Plastic Bottle

1. How long do they take to decompose? 400-500 years.
2. What resource / fossil fuel are they made from? Polythene terephthalate
3. How is this resource recycled? Every plastic bottle is separated from metal, glass and other things that we put into recycle bins, the plastic bottles are also sorted by the different type of plastics they are made from. Then the bottles are washed. Then the same process as milk cartons, plastic bags and more.
4. How does this object contribute to climate change? The use of electricity and CO2 being released into the air.