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Tuesday 31 May 2016

Science so far

Our class is doing science. This is my plan so far:

Plan:
Find research questions
Look at fire physics
Experiment with fire, research fire
Find good research sites
Research the 5 states of matter; which one is fire most like?
Find how liquids can catch fire
Create presentation
Share

Questions:

Side:
What makes fire burn? How does this work?
What makes some liquids flammable and why?
Is fire a part of SHC? (Spontaneous Human Combustion)
Does fire have a place on the Periodic Table, and if so where and what?

Main:
What is fire, and what makes it so destructive?
Is it possible to create less destructive, modified fire? Explain

Notes:
Fire is the visible effect of the process of combustion – a special type of chemical reaction. It occurs between oxygen in the air and some sort of fuel. The products from the chemical reaction are completely different from the starting material. - Google

We look at five states of matter on the site. Solids, liquids, gases, plasmas, and Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) are different states that have different physical properties. Each of these states is also known as a phase. - Google

Solids, liquids, gases, plasmas, and Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) are different states that have different physical properties. Each of these states is also known as a phase. Elements and compounds can move from one phase to another when specific physical conditions change.
- Google

The three states of matter are the three distinct physical forms that matter can take in most environments: solid, liquid, and gas. In extreme environments, other states may be present, such as plasma, Bose-Einstein condensates, and neutron stars. - Google

Sometimes we might think that fire is a living thing! It moves, ‘eats’ things and seems to breathe. The ancient Greeks thought it was one of four major elements, along with water, earth and air. They could feel, see and smell fire just like they could the earth, water and air, but fire is something completely different. Earth, water and air are all matter – they are made up of billions of atoms. Fire is not matter at all, and it is not a living thing. It’s the visible effect of achemical reaction between oxygen in the atmosphere and some sort of fuel. - Sciencelearn hub

Sites:
Science behind fire

Monday 30 May 2016

National Young Leaders Day 2016

Reflections:
This year, the year 8's at St. Joe's went to NYLD//16. It was in Dunedin, at the Town Hall. Our class sat near the back. It began at 9:30 in the morning, and it began. Our teacher, Mr C, nearly won a game. We listened to lots of motivational speakers, from 9:30-2:30. My favourite speaker was called Chris Jupp. Near the end we got to listen to a mini-concert by Avalanche City.

Highlights:
At the end we listened to a mini-concert by Avalanche City. There were two songs. (Not going to mention names for copyright reasons.) Another highlight was the humor that was inserted, SPECIFICALLY added for year 7's and 8's. We also had games. We had to do a Mexican wave, in specific orders. We had a game where we had to use a odometer. (Footstep measure) The goal was to make it go up as far as possible by using ONLY your head. Mr C had the top score of 79 in the qualifiers, but only got 51 in the final. The winner got 53.
Lessons learned:
My favourite lesson was from Chris Jupp. The message was of social acceptance. He told us about a time when he found a man on the street. His name was James. He started talking to him and slowly made James smile. They helped him find his laugh again, and made him happy.

This has been my NYLD experience. Hopefully you get a chance to go to it as well. You'll enjoy it, so ask your teacher today!
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Wednesday 25 May 2016

Fire science investigation

Plan:
Find research questions
Experiment with fire, research fire
Find good research sites
Find how liquids can catch fire
Create presentation
Share

Questions:
Side:
What makes fire burn? How does this work?
What makes some liquids flammable and why?
Is fire a part of SHC? (Spontaneous Human Combustion)
Does fire have a place on the Periodic Table, and if so where and what?

Main:
What is fire, and what makes it so destructive?
Is it possible to create less destructive, modified fire? Explain

Notes:
Fire is the visible effect of the process of combustion – a special type of chemical reaction. It occurs between oxygen in the air and some sort of fuel. The products from the chemical reaction are completely different from the starting material. - Google

Sometimes we might think that fire is a living thing! It moves, ‘eats’ things and seems to breathe. The ancient Greeks thought it was one of four major elements, along with water, earth and air. They could feel, see and smell fire just like they could the earth, water and air, but fire is something completely different. Earth, water and air are all matter – they are made up of billions of atoms. Fire is not matter at all, and it is not a living thing. It’s the visible effect of achemical reaction between oxygen in the atmosphere and some sort of fuel. - Sciencelearn hub
Sites:
Science behind fire

Monday 16 May 2016

Catholic Schools Day

Yesterday was Catholic schools day. Our school, St Josephs (https://sites.google.com/a/stjoseph.school.nz/teaching-and-learning-at-st-joseph-s/), was naturally a part of it. Our morning was all fun and games; literally! Some of the teacher were at a conference and us year 8's had to take some games for the smaller kids. Kaleb (http://kalebtc.blogspot.co.nz/) and I took a game called X-treme tic-tac-toe.
 
You have to set it up with 9 hula hoops in a 3x3 grid. then you have two teams with different colored bean bags. they then run out and put the bags in the hula hoops till they get 3 in a row. If they fail, once they use all their bags, they can run out and move them. It's more fun than it sounds. After that we had mass with St Kevins (http://www.stkevins.school.nz/) at the church. Me and Seth (http://ssinclairschool.blogspot.co.nz/) were on the projector. We had a couple of slip-ups, but other than that, we did well. After the mass we went home. It was a pretty good day. After all, who DOESN'T want to play games all morning?

Monday 9 May 2016

Hoidays

I had a great holiday. It was filled with family, cousins, and horse heads.
It has been fun, playing cricket, soccer, rugby and hanging out with friends.
My family and I went for a walk to the top of the Harry Lee trail to see the "Sign of the Kiwi." The walk took about 45 minutes, and the walk  down took about 30. We were staying at my auntys house and went to visit my cousins several times. Our other cousins were at Stuart Island, but we still had a great time. We went to the park about 400m from my cousins house. On the way there we were walking down the middle of the road. It wasn't a busy road though. It may as well have been closed down for how little traffic there was. On the way back we just walked on the footpath like normal people. While there we played cricket and my cousin made a bet to me: if I could make a one handed catch on the full with the horse head on, he would buy me a scoop of hot chips. Unfortunately, I didn't make the catch and didn't get the chips. I came really close though, with the ball bouncing out of my hand. Overall, I had a great holiday with my family and friends, but now I'm back at school.

Wednesday 16 March 2016

Swimming Sports

On Wednesday I went to the North Otago swimming sports. I had qualified for Freestyle, Backstroke  and the relay. But like the total idiot I sometimes am, I accidentally brought my board shorts, which slowed me down by about two seconds per race. I came 6th equal with Jacob
(http://jdfowler.blogspot.co.nz/) in the whole grade for freestyle and wasn't sure in my heat. In backstroke I came 8 in my whole grade after Jacob and last in my heat. Overall I did pretty well in the individual races. I then had the relay for ages 12+ with some other people in my class. We came 5th in the relay. The last two grades won their relays, and overall St Joseph's did really well in the NOs. My highlight was being chosen in the relay over Jacob. It was a good day with a good outcome.