‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾Solar Energy☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

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• Aim: To learn about how solar energy is used.

Hypothesis:

I think that the colour black would attract the heat the most. 

Materials:

1.  Solar Heater
2.  Thermometer
3.  Tinfoil
4.  White Cup
5.  Clear Cup
6. White Paper
7. Black Plastic
8. Water

Steps

1.   Gather your materials.
2. Set up your lamp.
3.  Cover one of your cups with tinfoil.
4.  Place the cup with tinfoil on a sheet of tinfoil.
5.  Get your clear cup and put black plastic over the sides.
6.   Place cup with black plastic on a sheet of black plastic.
7. Get a white cup and place it on a sheet of white paper.
8. Put the cups in a line close together.
9. Place light in front of the cups.
10. Every 15 minutes use your thermometer to record the data of all three of the cups.

Findings:

Time	Cup 1 White	Cup 2 Black	Cup 3 Tinfoil
0	16	16	16
15	19	21	20
30	20	22	20
45	20	24	21

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Activity:

In pairs rate the livability of coal vs solar energy.

Comparing Coal energy with Solar energy ( Rate; 1 = poor to 10 = great)

Factor	Solar	Coal
Livability	10	4
Sustainability	10	2
Accessibility	10	3
Cost	9	5
Your choice...	10	2

Conclusion:

1. Solar power is more sustainable than coal is.
2. Sun, wind & water are all renewable energy.
3. The colour black attracts sun & heat.

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Ella West

Today Ella West came to our school to visit the year 7 & 8's. She came to talk to us about her book Night Vision and how she wrote it. She also talked about her other books, but mostly about her book called Rain Fall.

She talked about the genetic disorder called XP, and how the main character had XP. She talked about how she was going to base Night Vision in Christchurch she was writing her book around the time of the earthquake, she thought that placing it in Christchurch so she discided to base it in Ashburton instead. She talked about how she needed something big to happen so she thought about the girl coming across a murder in the forest. She said that she needed to come up with how the murder happened. She had to take into account that it was at dark, in a forest, and the main character wasn't social. So she came up with that the murderer was disposing of a dead body with fire.

She also talked about one of her other books, Rain Fall. She talked about how it was based in Westport, she said that the main characters dad works as a train driving taking the coal from the mines. But everyone that words with or at the mines are at risk of losing their jobs because of the coal mine shutting down.

She talked about how she writes her books, and what she does to get them finished. She talked about writing 1,000 words a day so it would take her 50 days to write one book. She also answered our questions about how to write a book and getting it published. She said that she writes her books in New Zealand but is considered an Australian author so she could never get on New Zealand's top to authors list.

Issues Of Climate Change

Aim: To learn about the different activities that contribute to climate change.

• Industry- Factories make clothes, cars, electronics, and processed foods that create pollution. When the factories are running it creates a lot of gas that gets released into the atmosphere. 
• Transport- Most cars need gas or diesel to make them work. Gas and diesel come from oil, which is a fossil fuel.
• Waste- Landfills are covering more healthy land, and when it breaks down it makes greenhouse gasses.
• Cows- Cows create a greenhouse gas called methane when they burp and fart.
• Food- The food creates a lot of pollution, by having to transport it by ships, planes, trains and trucks.
• Electricity- Electricity is a form of energy used to power almost everything in our homes. Electricity can come from renewable resources,  but it can come from non-renewable resources. 

Is laughing good for you.

Today in Drama we watched a video of Mr. Bean, after watching it we had to write about what we found funny in the video. After that, we had to watch three of our own video and write about what made us laugh. The first piece of writing is what I found funny in video second the same but with video two and the same for piece three but with video three.

Video 1: 

Video one was a vine and what I found funny about it was how the man got really scared and instead of just acting like he was scared he tried to cover it up by singing.

Video 2:

Video two was a group of vines about watermelons, I thought that this was so funny, I thought this was funny because he pronounced watermelons so weird and I also thought it was funny because of all the things he did with watermelons. 

Japanese Self Intro

For Japanese this week we had to write about our self.

Tane Mahuta

Tane Mahuta

I have decided to make a slide show and edit it every week, so I can show you what we have been doing in Tane Mahuta. If you would like to look at what we did in week five go onto slide four.

Tane Mahuta

Tane Mahuta

For the past two weeks, we have had the opportunity to work in the garden behind the school grounds. We had a lot of work to do and we have ongoing projects to make the garden amazing. 

For the first week, we were split into three grounds, the first group was working on cleaning up the Outdoor Classroom we have been planning. The second group was helping Mark trim the tree, making sure to trim all the branches that are either dying or are dead. The third group was helping Mr. Tisch with moving types, moving small planter boxes and moving tarpaulins. 

After we all finished our projects we moved on to cleaning up the greenhouse, making sure that it was ready for remodeling. We had to clean out all the weeds and pile all the old wood planks outside of the greenhouse. Along the way, we found a bunch of rusted wood that we had to clear.

For week two of Tane Mahuta, the class was split into three groups. The first group was helping with the Outdoor Classroom, the second group was helping Mark tri the trees. Finally, the last group was helping Mr. Tisch with the planting beds.

Mr. Tisch created a line for us to dig in and turn the soil to make it lose. We used the shovels and dug down into the soil. We made sure that we dug down about shovel height.