Declan has just headed overseas on holiday so had to fast track his Science Fair project. He managed to get it completed just in time.
It is a fascinating look into the affect of talking to plants. His question was whether talking to plants could help them grow. He had three groups of plants. One he spoke lovingly to, one he shouted hateful words to, and one group (the control) he just ignored. Amazingly the plants he spoke lovingly to grew higher (on average).
In his discussion he raised the interesting question of if talking negatively to people could affect their bodies. The sound waves that affected the plant cells could have a similar affect on human cells. Well done Declan! You achieved a lot in the short time you had.
We have had a great term developing our skills in the winter sports of football, rugby, netball, and hockey. It all finished up yesterday with participating in Winter Tournament at Ngahinapouri. Here are our awesome teams. Our football team managed to finish 3rd.
A big well done to our awesome student coaches who stepped in and did an awesome job of coaching the netball and hockey. Well done Jorja, Lola, Tabitha, Stephanie, and Deegan. It can be challenging leading your own peers but you did an outstanding job.
Students are measuring the sound coming out of boxes covered in sound proofing materials. They are are doing memory tests in extreme temperatures. They are blocking the pull of magnetic forces. They are speaking lovingly to plants to see if they will grow better. They are covering fruit in honey to see if it will stop mold growth. They are playing music to horses as well as many other interesting things.
There is so much learning going on about the scientific investigation process, fair testing, time management and all sorts of other things. Keep it up guys. I am really looking forward to all your thoughts and reflections on your findings.
Many students have completed their article on the clothing industry. Many have uploaded them to their blogs and more are coming. For many, if not most, this is the biggest piece of writing they have ever done. It has been a mammoth task and there are some great pieces of writing. Some really persuasive language and arguments have been used. They have included both rational and emotional arguments. They have grouped their ideas under sub headings, added detail, and spent lots of time checking if their writing is concise and makes sense to the reader. There has been lots of learning. Well done guys. You can be proud.
The Environmental Leaders have been very busy this term.
They made a trip to Lake Rotopiko to see the wetland area and the educational activities set up for people to do.
They managed to collect seeds from the Kaniwhaniwha reserve and then plant them. They also helped the new entrants plant a Totora tree for when they leave Te Pahu School.
They have also begun the process of making an application to the Treemendous School Makeover. There is an opportunity to win $10 000 to make a school environmental dream come true. They have made an awesome video and the initial application has just been sent off. Well done guys and a big thank you to Liz and Nardene for inspiring and equipping our leaders with such great knowledge and experiences.
The Enviro leaders also had the amazing opportunity today of watching the reintroduction of Kokako to Mt Pirongia. Today they went up to see one pair of Kokako released. The pair of Kokako came from the Pureroa Forest park. More pairs will be released over the next while. Such a privilege to be a part of and hopefully the beginning of Kokako repopulating our mountain. We have known this would happen for a few years now and our class was named Ruma Kokako in anticipation of it coming to the mountain. Last years enviro leaders helped raise money for the predator control needed so that this reintroduction could happen.
They also completed a waste audit of the school encouraging students to think more carefully about what we are using and throwing out.
A couple of groups have been focusing on ratios and rates. It has been a great challenge for the students to get their heads around something similar to fractions, and yet different.
A ratio is a comparison between 2 things (or sometimes more than 2). It looks at the relationship between 2 things. This could be how many dogs there are for every cat. Or it could be how much red paint gets mixed with blue paint to create green.
A rate is when one of the things being compared is time. So it could mean how far a man walks in 15 minutes or how long it takes a baker to bake 5 loaves of bread. You might know that a car travels 30 km in 15 minutes (this would be shown as 30:15). If I want to know how far it could go in 7 minutes I need to find out the unit rate. A unit rate is when one of the units is 1. I could find the unit rate by reducing the 30:15 to 2:1. So for every minute I travel I cover a distance of 2km. So in 7 minutes I would travel 14 km.
Here is a video that has helped introduce the students to ratios and rates.
