Matariki Pixel Art

Today, working around Matariki, our class created Matariki inspired pieces of pixel art. I chose to create an Autumn tree, because part of Matariki is about the seasons and when to grow/harvest food.

Periodic Table Tile Reflection

Recently as our work around the periodic table, our class has been creating a collaborative periodic table display for the end of term science fair. Each student got assigned one element from the table and had to learn about it in order to create a tile for it. I chose to create two, Xenon, my assigned element, and Neodymium, my extra element. The photos below are my finished tiles, and the reason for the things that are part of it.

For this tile, Xenon, I have included what it was named after, a greek word meaning ‘stranger,’ which is the reason for the shadow figure in the corner, to represent a stranger. I also added a car with headlights, as Xenon is used in the light. Flags, from London in which was where it was discovered. An injection needle, as it is used as a natural anesthesia. And lastly, some symbols at the top, to show that this element is odorless, colourless, and tasteless.

For my second tile, Neodymium, I have once again added the greek word it is named after, meaning ‘new twin,’ and a flag, this time for the country the chemist who discovered it came from, which was Austria. I also added a wind turbine, phone, magnet, and medicine, as they all use Neodymium. Finally, I added a toxic sign, as in some cases it can be highly toxic.

Action Station Reflection

This term as part of our action stations, I chose to participate in dance. For this activity, together we learnt two dances, A hip-hop dance, to 7 Rings by Ariana Grande, and the heel and toe polka, a folk dance.

Whilst doing these dances, I learnt that some things you needed to do, in order to do the dance correctly, were doing them in time, with the correct parts of the dance.

Out of the two dances, I enjoyed the 7 Rings one better, as you didn’t need to do it with a partner. However, it was more challenging, because it had more steps, and at a faster pace.

Examining Credibility

As part of this week’s reading tasks, we compared two texts about famous chemists. We were given five different texts and had to choose two to compare. I selected the texts from ‘UK University Guide – What To Study,’ and ‘Chemistry World Online Tournament Results.’ 

After looking at both texts, I compared things such as what biases the site might have, and where the information came from. Looking into these things, I realized that the first site seemed more reliable, as it is from a university site, which is expected to be correct information. Rather than the second one, as the results are from many people’s opinions on Twitter.

Another thing that influenced my decision included the fact that the information coming from the university site looks to be unbiased. But we could never know whether the people voting on the chemistry world online tournament have biases.

Reading Strategy: Reflection

This week for school we have been learning a bit about the periodic table. We had been tasked to read some articles and practice some reading strategies. Two strategies I did were comparing the two texts and summarizing. I think I did well on the comparison of texts, rather than the summarizing as I found it hard to break down the articles into just 20 words. Here are some examples.

Ready Strategy: Comparing Texts

The easiest text to understand was the AI generated one, because it is specifically made for children to read. However, The most useful text seemed to be the video. It held more information that seemed to be significantly more accurate than the ai generated one, and had more information.

Article: Summarized 

In 1869, scientist, Dmitri Mendieleev created a modern version of the periodic table to help understand how elements behave.

Theater Sports Reflection

This term for action stations, I have been a part of the theater sports group. As part of our activity, we have been learning to use voice, different movements, and our bodies to play a variety of different games such as Whoosh, Lap-Lap-Clap-Snap, Name game, Shapes, Reflections, and Freeze frames. I enjoyed some of the activities, but next time I think I would definitely enjoy it more, and have more fun, if we were to do some actual acting, such as plays. Rather than acting games. But I understand that we didn’t have that many weeks that we were doing action stations this term,  so there would not have been enough time to do some of these things.

Speech Reflection

Recently Sharon’s literacy group has been working on writing speeches or debates. I decided to write a speech based on ‘Why school should start at 10:00 am.’ I believe that I did well on the setting out/presentation of my speech and adding in some interesting facts, but next time I think I could edit it more so as the paragraphs flow together better and more.

School Should Start At 10:00 AM

Wouldn’t it be nice to get a healthy nine hours of sleep each and every night? Most schools in New Zealand start at about 9:00 am, meaning, every morning, thousands of young children drag themselves out of bed, reducing their recommended 8-10 hours of sleep time, in order to go to a classroom crammed with other sleep deprived children. This harsh act should be changed.

Being well rested plays a huge part in attention and concentration. This means, if children are not rested enough, there is an extremely high chance that school age kids are not learning to their full potential. This can, and will lead to lowering both academic, and physical success in the child by a shocking amount. With this, starting school at an earlier time, rather than later, would not be worth the added stress because children’s brains start fully functioning at around 10 am, only then, are they alert and ready to learn.

Along with sleeping, the quality and quantity of it is extremely important for people too. Research shows that as children grow older, sleep length declines. This ends in 29% of all 12-14 year olds not getting a good amount of sleep each night, let alone the 56% of 15-17 year olds that are also going through this outrageous sleep decline. These results show that if you want children to be fit and healthy, the obvious decision in order to improve the sleep quality of these children would be changing the school starting times.

Sleeping affects your daily life, in both physical and mental ways. Due to children these days having so many activities they participate in, it can often result in some kids dealing with cruel stress and anxiety. This is because a lack of sleep can cause several mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression. Adding to this, though about two thirds of teenagers report good overall well being, researchers say that many don’t. This is because the number of teens with depressive symptoms has risen from 13% in 2012 to 23% in 2019, meaning as the years pass, mental illness rates are rising.

In conclusion, Every school should be able to have later starting times. It helps by improving students’ attention, attendance, mental health and overall learning quality. If all schools in New Zealand are able to provide this massive help, Students will get the most out of their school years, succeeding in the future ahead of them. 

Screenshot Collage

Today for cybersmart, we were doing work around screenshots. We were told that to make a whole screen screenshot, you have to click ‘ctrl, windows button’ and to make a part screen screenshot you click ‘ctrl, shift, windows button.’

Our screenshot challenge was making a collage about ourselves, the first picture shows your favourite colour, then favourite working site, game, movie or book character, learning site, food or drink, what you want to be when you grow up, favourite subject and something that interests you.

Maths: Division Test

Today for math we answered 100 questions in 10 minutes. I completed the questions in just over 5 minutes at 5:07, And managed to get a score of 100%. Next time I hope to reduce my time by about 1 minute, to make my total around 4:00 minutes.

Persuasive Writing Reflection

Recently, we have been writing a piece of persuasive writing to improve our writing skills.

I chose to write a piece about the effects and damage of climate change. We started with writing a first draft, then second, and third. I think from the first draft, I have significantly improved with many topics such as structure and grammar. Next time, I hope to improve at using emotive language.