Journey to Christmas

Geometry - School Playground Area

• The playground area is 10 metres square
• Right in the middle is a tower (T)
• 3 metres N of the tower is a slide (S)
• 4 metres east of the tower is a swing (W)
• In the NE corner there is a netball hoop (H)
• 7 metres south of the netball hoop there is a drinking tap (D1)
• In the SW corner there is a basketball hoop (B)
• 6 metres north of the basketball hoop there is another drinking tap (D2)

Rubbish in Schools

I think students should take home their own rubbish on a daily basis. Even if that means having half eaten sandwiches lying in the bottom of their bag it’s a lot better compared to half eaten sandwiches lying on their school grounds.

If students took home their rubbish each day, they wouldn’t want to bring home a ton of food packets. So, hopefully if this happened they would be able to eat food not in packets like fruit and vegetables which give them a lot more energy compared to something like chips. Plus, they wouldn’t have to take this kind of rubbish home because it could be used for worm farms and composts at schools.

A lot of students don’t even bother to put their rubbish in the bin so having no bins will be better. That sounds crazy but usually people litter because they can’t find a bin around. By not having any bins they’ll know not to litter and to just chuck it in their bag later. They wouldn’t want to say they went to a bad school but if you saw rubbish all around their school grounds do you really think it would be a good school to go to?

When some students put their rubbish in school bins they usually just sit on top with all the other pieces of rubbish at the bottom of the bin, so do you know what that means? The wind can easily push it back to the floor and it’s an easy target for seagulls. Usually seagulls dig to the bottom of the bin but having lots of rubbish sitting at the top and on the floor will make it easier for them to munch on. This also attracts rodents too.

These reasons are why I think schools shouldn’t have bins and that students should take home their rubbish daily. It will not only make their school environment cleaner but it will also have students not bring all this junk and instead, bring healthy things to help them grow strong and healthy.

The Cobra Snake

Cobra Snake

Cobra snakes belong to the elapidae family which are a family of venomous snakes found in tropical environments around the world. There are 270 different kinds of cobra snakes. When they are threatened or angry their necks flatten and make a hood kind of shape. This is an advantage to search for food.

They live in places in Southern Asia, Africa and East Indies. Cobra snakes enjoy the hot weather so its unlikely that they’ll be found in cold areas like Canada and places in Europe. Their habitat is in forest and near streams.

These snakes are 6 ft (2 meters) long and can vary to yellowish to dark brown in colour. Their skin is scaly and they have small heads. Cobra snakes are famous for their hoods. They flatten their necks into a hood, making it more menacing.

Cobras are cannibals which means that they eat the same species as themselves. They also eat other things including birds, rodents, bird eggs, and small mammals. The venom from cobras are deadly to humans but they aren’t capable of eating and swallowing a whole human.

They have a lot of venom in them. A single bite from these snakes can have the power to kill 20 grown men or one fully grown elephant. Cobra snakes are considered to be one of the most venomous snakes in the whole world.

A Biography on Alan Bagnall

Alan Bagnall is a very well known New Zealand author. He writes children books and poems. His work is aimed at an audience for children and sometimes adults too. Alan Bagnall was born in Lower Hutt on the 28th of December in 1940. He’s now 73 years of age and lives in Lower Hutt in Mahina Bay.

His favourite food is fried mush containing bacon, liver and tomatoes. He also likes to eat fresh apples and egg sandwiches. People call him Baggy because of his last name, Bagnall. A way he relaxes is through riding trains, bushwalking and gardening. When Alan Bagnall was at school he was very shy and he looked up to his Grandfather. He enjoyed arts and crafts and didn’t like dancing because he found it embarrassing.

Alan loved Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson when he was a child. If he could meet anyone from the past he’d want to meet one of those anonymous parents who made up nursery rhymes thousands of years ago.  His favourite author changes all the time but he admires Ezra Jack Keats and Barbara Kingsolver very much.

He wanted to be a writer so he could entertain classes as he taught his students. When children at school write he uses that time to write as well. Alan Bagnall likes to share his writing but one of the worst things about it is knowing that some people think it’s rubbish. If Alan wasn’t a writer he’d like to be a plumber. He helps them sometimes on drainage jobs.

Alan Bagnall said to people who want to make a career out of writing is to write for fun and to share with your friends. He said the best writing isn’t always appreciated by publishers because publishers are looking for stuff to sell. The best things in life don’t have a market value.

Manaiakalani Film Festival 2013

For our second year being part of the Manaiakalani Film Festival we wanted our movie to be bigger and better. We also wanted it to be different so we based our film entry on changes of matter. Our plot inspiration came from this article about a group of scientists making meat patties from cow cells. They named their meat patties 'Frankenburger' and we used this as the title of our movie.

The film crew consisted of Aaron, Williefred, Naanise and myself. Before we started filming we had to plan and create a storyboard which took a couple of weeks since we were still deciding on the ending of the film. As part of the film crew we were in charge of making the movie for our class. We wanted this movie to be bigger and better than any other movie at The Manaiakalani Film Festival.

When we created this movie we asked the question... if cow cells could be turned into patties, what would be the outcome if the cells from other animals were used to make food instead of what we normally eat today? If you were to think about eating food created from cow cells, would you? This type of question, as our teacher would say, is 'food for the brain'! What would be the consequences from eating chicken burger made from cells of a chicken? Would you still eat it?

Special thanks to Ms Bullôt for providing the resources and equipment needed to create this movie and we also thank her for her support and encouragement across the journey of this movie. 

Gravity Experiment - What Goes Up Must Come Down

Yesterday I carried out an investigation on gravity, what goes up must come down. I tested out seven different materials and dropped them at the same height. On my database sheet I predicted which would hit the floor first from the same height.

Once I wrote down my hypothesis I tested it out. I first dropped a small marble and a ping pong ball. I guessed that the marble would hit the ground first but the ping pong ball was actually first. The materials I used were a small marble, a ping pong ball, a rubber, pencil, paper clip, a flat piece of paper, a feather and a crumpled piece of paper from the flat piece of paper.

If you drop two different objects at different heights it changes the affect of the outcome. But it wouldn’t change an affect if they were dropped from the same height because usually the heavier object would land to the ground faster.

The table below shows my results

Object Dropped		Which hit the ground first? (guess)	Which actually hit the ground first?
Marble	Ping pong ball	Marble	Ping pong ball
Rubber	Paper Clip	Rubber	Rubber
Marble	Pencil	Marble	Pencil
Flat Paper	Feather	Flat Paper	Feather
Crumbled Paper	Feather	Crumbled Paper	Crumbled Paper
Feather	Paper Clip	Paper Clip	Paper Clip
			3/6 correct