Category: Hanga | Create

25. Artistic Learners – TECHNOLOGY

Kia Ora Reader!

;WALT;

This term, group 2 of technology has been shifted into DVC (Design, Visual and Communication), commonly known as art class.

A few Mondays ago, we fiddled with clay and learnt how to use a pottery wheel, making bowls (which was around week 2-4 or something). The bowl I sculptured was inspired by my own creativity, using the colors only black and red to balance the beauty of my creation. I would’ve showed you a photo of my bowl if I had a picture of it. I hope my description of it brings you well.

What we’re currently focused on

Recently in tech, we’ve created tie dye shirts,  having the opportunity to select either; a white tee, or; a black tee. I chose the white shirt because the colors would be more pigmented and visible, highlighting the beauty of it. Meanwhile if I picked a black shirt, not only is your color scheme limited (to 1), which was brown (bleach), but also it’ll bore me out a tad. (Or I’m just indecisive, because I actually like both of the designs.)

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When dying my t-shirt, I know for a fact that I definitely put thought into my creation. To stabilize the colors of the clothing, I limited myself to 2 complexions of blue (light blue, or just white, and a dark-ish blue)—using one of the 3-4 options of shirts to tie which was a Bullseye pattern.

I was browsing online to find something that matched my vision. Here’s what I tried to do:

I’m aiming to make something similar to that image, because I personally think it looks somewhat nice. What do you think?

We haven’t have the results yet, but I’m sure next week Monday we’ll receive our creations.

I’m intrigued to see the outcome of my seeming masterpiece, stay tuned if you like.

25. This Week’s Recap (Week 5)

What does a protected flag and a sequence of numbers have in common? More than you might think. This week, we learned that identifying a repeating pattern isn’t just for the classroom—it’s also a crucial skill on the sports field. We can burn calories by using your brain (<– fact), not only by physical participation!

WALT

Kia Ora!

We are learning to comprehend the patterns in maths (like from shapes to number) and mainly understand the basics of fraction (so revising). Something that intrigued me this week (that we did) was this certain sport called ‘Capture the Flag’.

This week, I’ve stacked my knowledge about mathematical patterns, understanding the differences and the order of the sum we’re currently being educated about.

Allow me to start with the thing I found fascinating!

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– Rules of Capture the Flag –

Before I explain the rules, here’s the layout that I made:

So the side with the red squares,  we’ll call squares, the other side we’ll call circles.

As you can see in the corners, (the yellow circles shaped into a 90 degree angle) there is one ball in each corner, that’s the flag, also known as a safe zone for the opponent.

The Squares objective is to run onto the team Circle’s side and into the safe zone (where the ball is) without being touched. If touched by a Circle individual, they have to stay still in the spot they’ve been tagged on until a team is successful with capturing the flag. The same rules also apply for team Circles *

When you prosperously obtain the ball from the enemy’s side, you can’t throw it over the cone’s that borders the two teams, you have to pass it to a teammate of yours that’s on the side of the opposition. No one can tag you when you’re in the flag zone. Once passed, the teammate that caught the ball can either pass it back or make a run to perch the flag (the ball) into their region.

**Additional modification makes the sport more enjoyable!

Try out the game for yourself with your friends or family.

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Symmetry Sequence

For Math’s, the type of pattern we’re focused on is basically something like matchstick squares. (like 4 sticks = 1 square)

The pattern is often like number patterns (like counting in even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10..) or Geometric patterns (example: A pattern of a triangle followed by a square repeating itself (triangle, square, triangle, square). 

Also,  another example; ratios, 7:3 — (like there are 7 triangles for every 3 squares) with the total of 10.

Hope you caught on with what I’m trying to imply!

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Basically it

thanks for reading! That’s basically what I’ve learnt (and enjoyed) this week, let me know what your thoughts are!

 

25. Fake or Fact? CYBERSMART

Kia Ora, Reader!

Have you ever gone online, searching the internet out of boredom and then stumbled across images that even A.I won’t believe? It’s gone to the point where it’s even difficult to tell what’s real and what is fake.

W.A.L.T

On Tuesday this week, Matua Aina visited our class to educate us about the differences between edited photos or real photos, also showing us a video that basically explained the topic. He then pulled up a digital learning object, (if not, then I’d consider it as a tutorial on how we can modify ourselves) that talked about the steps of our editing background.

Our task was to take a head to toe picture of ourselves and use the ‘BG remover’ website. When inserting your desired photo onto this site, it crops out the background excluding ourselves, the name of the website basically speaks for itself. Our job was to edit ourselves in a setting like NYC or yourself standing in Paris, or basically wherever you’d like to be. It was a pretty fun challenge in my opinion!

The photos I took for fun!

Hereby are the pictures I edited:

That’s me in Sukuna’s lair, cool, right? It’s definitely real.

In addition, here’s another ‘totally not edited’ picture of me in my mansion with my pet worm!

(I’m aware that the lighting ruins the realistic look…)

What I’ve learnt:

Those were two of my snapshots that I’ve created! Hope you liked them. I’ve learnt that if you’re wondering if a picture is edited or not, say that you saw a UFO online, you can ask your guardian / parent and gather their current knowledge then do your own research about it like a real detective.

Now, if you saw those pictures of mine online, would you think that they’re real or fake? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!

Thanks for reading.

 

25. Vibe Check on Social Media – Explanation Writing

Have you ever scrolled through your feed, seeing one perfectly compiled post after another, and then looked up from your phone to a quiet, empty room? I have. And in that moment, the “connected” world of social media felt like a lie. 

Kia Ora, Reader.

This week, the year 8’s and 7’s of room 9 are writing about how social media affects us humans. This blog is my attempt to find and explain the “how” and “why” behind this complex issue. I’m going to lay out the causes and effects I’ve discovered, turning this hazy, personal observation into a clear, logical explanation.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The good, the bad, the ugly

Yeah, the foundation of the internet is great for keeping up with your crew; It lets you send memes to your bestie across the world and celebrate wins with people you haven’t seen since kindergarten or primary school. But let’s be real, the negative stuff can hit differently. Cyber-bullying, for one, is a whole other beast. It’s not just some casual shade; it can be legit malicious and mess with people’s heads.

In my writing, I’ve been focusing on the more messed-up side of social media. The internet can be a dark place, and the algorithms aren’t helping. My whole goal isn’t to be a buzzkill, but to put things in perspective. It’s about helping people see how this stuff actually affects us and gets us all twisted up. So, this is kind of a call-out to that behavior.

Here’s what I’ve authored:

25. Explanation Writing_ How Does Social Media Affect Us

Read it!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Just a heads up

This post is my take on the topic, but it comes from a place of “I get it.” This is for anyone who’s felt that weird, empty feeling after scrolling for too long, or anyone who’s been on the receiving end of online garbage. My hope is that by explaining how this behavior works, we can all maybe do better. Let me know what your thoughts are by commenting down below 👇🏾.

Nga Mihi

25. CIVILian Builds! – Engineering Of Tomorrow #2 – RECAP

Kia Ora!

As you know, it’s week 9!… which is also known, for us, presentation week.. well the presentation day was on Tuesday. I found this whole project very fun and I actually enjoyed working with others, building with different designs, and learning more throughout engineering! I might become an engineer in the future, who knows!

Over several weeks, (like 6 or 7..) the civil engineering class focused on transforming a complex, real-world challenge into a tangible solution. My group was in a pickle because at the last second our needed items were finally printed after like some time that took forever.
What kind of everyday usage building would you build if you were to do engineering like us?

Starting Week of Engineering

The project began with a problem statement: Design a bridge to span a given distance, about 50 cm, support a specified load, and use the limited resources in class. This began complex calculations and creative problem-solving.
My team was called “T.T.K.M” Which are the initials based after our name (of the people in my group) and also had another meaning that says “Think, Test, Know, Make” which is a relevant topic of engineering and is easy to comprehend! T.T.K.M started by sketching various designs, such as suspension bridges with cables, arch bridges, and beam bridges with simple supports. After initial calculations, the truss bridge design was chosen. A truss bridge, composed of interconnected triangles, was considered ideal for distributing weight and preventing collapse.I didn’t choose this type of bridge voluntarily, I just noticed its strength!

Constructions and Challenges

Constructing the bridge involved detailed precision. Accurate cutting and strong joints were essential. Any inaccuracies could weaken the structure! We used the school wooden ‘sporks’ to make our bridge, along with hot glue to obviously stick it together. I wanted to control the group, (like design the bridge to something that I preferred) but knowing me, I’m someone who doesn’t want to be known as a bossy girl. I let the year 7’s do most of the work on our bridge since they want to prove their opinions right.
Extensive testing methods were used to join materials, reinforce weak points, and achieve precise angles. This process demonstrated the iterative nature of engineering! That was the civil part of our challenge.
A bit more complicated additions, we also wanted to add lights within our bridge, for the electrical part. In my other post, I’ve mentioned how I didn’t want to do civil engineering–but wanted to do electrical which my group didn’t want to do. So instead, we went with both which was quite perplexing to compromise. That was the main challenge that we didn’t face. Wouldn’t that be super cool if we added the lights, though? We were planning to add it across the railings.

Count-Down To Week 9 (rn)

The final week focused on the presentation (Week 8 – week 9 on Monday). My team, T.T.K.M, aimed to explain the construction process effectively. As I mentioned, our printing was done last second so our display wasn’t that fascinating. Our presentation was better!

Week 9 arrived, and the team presented their work. Did I mention that we also had to build another structure? Well my team all agreed that we should construct the Leonardo Da Vinci Sketch and present that next to our design. Since Leonardo’s famous bridge was one of the challenges we recently had to build (relying on tension). We used chopsticks and Blu-Tack to withhold the Leonardo Bridge, the design, load-bearing capabilities, and challenges were discussed. Our bridge (the Leonardo one) was capable of holding 2 Chromebooks! We’ve presented our projects up in the hall of Edmund Hillary School which the year 6’s 7’s and 8’s were involved within. I had tons of fun especially when I achieved a certificate of “The Engineers Of Tomorrow TENZ”

The project’s completion was satisfying, and me and my team shared our journey from the initial design to the final, robust bridge. The project demonstrated that civil engineering involves problem-solving, teamwork, and effective communication of ideas!

If I had more time or different materials, I’d definitely make a better bridge than I have right now!

Thx for Reading!

“Sometimes, you don’t need maths nor physics to become an electrical engineer, it involves things mainly like ideas or your blueprinting plans.” — Sam, who said something similar.
I’d like to give a big THANK YOU to TENZ for helping us students to do engineering, and also to Whaea Ruth for teaching us during the engineering progress!! I feel like an engineering pro after a whole term of tutoring! I appreciate their time :).
Anyways, Thank you for reading! Any questions or suggestions–Just comment them down below!

25. The Right (correct) Angle

Tēnā Koe, Reader!

Recently in maths, the year 8 has been focusing about the fascinating world of angles! We’re moving beyond simple measurements to truly understand their–the angles–properties and how to describe them accurately. The key to our success has been mastering the three-letter notation, like ∠ABC, which has allowed us to comprehend communicate our geometric findings. That brings me to my question.. what are you learning about in Maths? I’d be intrigued to know if I’ve learnt about something similar or not!

What’s The Deal With ∠ABC?

It all comes down to being super clear. See, when you write ∠ABC, you’re telling everyone exactly which angle you mean. The letter in the middle, B, is the pointy bit of the angle—what we call the vertex. The two letters on the ends, A and C, just show you the two lines that make the angle. It’s a great way to avoid confusion when you’ve got a bunch of lines all crossing each other.

With this new way of talking about angles, we, the Year 8’s, have become experts at spotting all the different kinds! Like:
  • Acute angles: These are the “sharp” ones, less than 90°.
  • Obtuse angles: Think of these as the “wide” angles, bigger than 90°.
  • Right angles: The classic 90° corner. Now they know to look for that little square box to spot them (like the corner of a picture frame).
  • Reflex angles: These are the big angles, the ones that are more than 180°.

Vocab Wall

During class, the students learned some new words that are great shortcuts for describing different types of angles. For example, the word “supplementary” is a quick way to talk about two angles that add up to a straight line (180 degrees)! Instead of talking about the angles that add up to or into a straight angle. Another word I’ve learnt whilst studying was complementary! ”Complementary” ANGLES are a pair of angles that sum up to a right angle (90°). They can be visualized as two pieces that fit together to form a perfect L-shaped corner.
Alternate and corresponding angles
When two parallel lines are crossed by a transversal line, the relationships between alternate and corresponding angles become apparent.
For alternate angles, I ideally think that the key word is “opposite.”. They are on opposite sides of the transversal line that crosses through two parallel lines. When the lines are parallel, these angles are always equal to each other.
In regular life, “corresponding” means something that matches up with something else. Think of two houses that are built exactly the same on a street. The window on the top-left of one house corresponds to the window on the top-left of the other. That’s the best way I could visually explain the word.
So our two other new words I’ve learnt were:
  1. Alternate Angles &
  2. Corresponding Angles.

What we’ve learned isn’t just for tests. We see angles everywhere. The right angle of a building, the acute angle of a roof, or all the different angles in a cool drawing. It’s awesome to see people using this stuff to describe the world around them. I think my understanding is great because I understood most of what I was tasked to do. We did a great job, and it’s been fun seeing us get so into it!
Thanks for reading! Comment your thoughts on this post down below 👇📝.

25. Becoming Engineers ~ Civil/E

Hey, Reader!

Today we’re reflecting on our engineering skills, by that, I mean that we’re working/constructing our own ideas in order to create something useful for our environment. For example: We’re building a bridge using recycling products like the wooden forks provided from the school lunches (we have a lot).

On Wednesday this week (Week 6), we had the option out of the 3 engineering types which were; Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, & Environmental Engineering. I was passionate about doing electrical engineering but the majority of people in my group decided to do Civil, kinda happy but I can’t see myself working collaboratively well. That was when my teacher allowed us to do both civil and electrical engineering, I didn’t know we could contribute to two at a time!

We’ve been given an engineering journal book and had to write our group name and design a book cover for it. In the book, we’ve recorded our plans and ideas inside for us to work around with.

Here’s what my group has designed for the book cover:

(I hope it’s visible enough)

And our plan is to build a stable and steady bridge with lights constructed within the rails of it, and that’s civil and electrical engineering combined. I proud of our book cover and bridge design and will keep you updated on when I’m done building with my group on my next post about engineering!

25. Mastering Persuasive Writing: How to Convince And Inspire

Talitali Fiefia, Reader!

🇹🇴 Faka’ofo’ofa ‘a e uike lea fakatonga! – Happy Tongan Language Week! 🇹🇴

What We’re Working On

Recently, we’ve been focusing on persuading Writing, trying to convince the readers to follow our beliefs. For this certain writing, we had to convince the teachers (or just people) on why the seniors of EHS (the year 7 & 8’s) should go to Sports Camp.

I’ve learnt the structure of persuading Writing in year 6, improving now that I’m in year 8!

If you haven’t heard of what persuading Writing is, or just don’t know what persuading means, then I’ll be glad to explain.

Persuading: induce (someone) to do something through reasoning or argument. So me convincing the teachers basically says so. I’m just converting my persuading-ness into writing so people can become convinced by my point and understand what I’m trying to induce the person into!

Glad to help.

My Product

What I’ve done so far was pretty good. I think the way I started off was strong. Let me know if I clocked it, I know there’s room for improvement for me.

Here’s what I’ve started off with:

” Did you know that 90% of the year 7 & 8’s are willing to participate in Sports Camp? “

I started off strong with that introduction because everyone likes sports camps, right?

Anyways! I hope that’s a luring-enough introduction… What are your thoughts?

25. Sparks of Fun — Electrical Engineering

Have you ever wondered how your TV remote functions? Or your light switch? you might think it’s connected by wires–but deep down it’s way more fascinating than you think. It all comes down to electromagnetic forces, making electricity flow and gadgets work like magic. Electrical engineering includes that type of thing. It may sound like a bunch of wires, numbers, and “I’m stumped” moments, but trust me, it’s actually more enjoyable than you think (speaking from experience).

Hey there!

In our recent session of Engineering, we’ve (the year 7 & 8’s) got to explore how electricity powers the world around us and even tried at some hands-on projects. I thought that we were looking into electromagnetic forces, since the topic sounded relevant, but turns out it was just wiring. I’ve learnt about electromagnetic forces when reading a book! I just wanted to share my knowledge.

Warm-Up

Firstly into the session, us engineers (the year 7 & 8’s) had the task to participate in a team activity that taught us about circuits in a physical(ly safe)way. Everyone had to get in a group of 8+ and form a circle then pass the ball around WITHOUT using our hands. The goal? Get the ball back to the starting person without dropping it. If it fell, the so called imitated circuit was broken. I found this ‘Simple’ game surprisingly tricky, but super effective at showing how electricity flows through a circuit: because every connection matters, and if one link fails, the whole system stops working! I had tons of fun.

Pitfall Project

For this engineering part, we had to get in our usual group. I joined in with my 2 friends. (Here’s a pic of us contemplating on our project of what to do)

For this experiment, we moved on to an LED project, which seemed exciting.. which it was, but it was both exciting and chaotic. Each group was given a card that needed to light up (like a letter card not playing deck cards). Along with the card came an instruction, instructing us on what to do. In the packet were a battery and LED lights thing, with a drawn diagram that shows where we should put the LED chips on. Following the drawn lines on the card, we had to add copper tape that would connect to the LED battery, making sure we didn’t cover the part where the light flashes as well as making sure that the copper stays intact for connection. The tricky part for me was taping the copper on top of the LED micro chip without breaking the connection. Let’s just say the copper was a little too sticky–It clung onto my fingers as I was aligning it, causing it to break the circuit. I attempted to save it but failed once more. I did learn from my mistakes!

 

25. Becoming a Gaming Programmer !

Howdy, Reader.

Have you ever done coding before?

We’ve done some coding recently, using the “Hour of Code” website to determine what we’re going to do coding on. There are a lot of options / popular games to choose from that you could code within! Like Minecraft, Roblox, and such. You could also code from cartoons to challenges if you’re confident about your knowledge with programming.

Explanation

For example: You chose to code the Flappy Bird. Here’s a demonstration that I’ve recorded using Google Vids (since that’s a program that my class is learning to use) to show my code-play on how I coded Flappy Bird. It’s 4 minutes and 34 seconds long, so you can put it in 2x speed (if possible) if you can easily focus on fast settings! Unfortunately there’s no sound due to the noisy background! I hope this video still helps though.

That’s an example of how I’d use Hour of Code, it’s simple! In the video I showed how I would code, if you have enough time to go through the process I did then you can if you want! Try out the other options if you feel the need to. It awards you at the end with a certificate if you manage to finish your progress. That made me feel proud and triumphant!

Glad to Help!

I’ve actually used this app when I was at Technology (STEAM), I found it easy since coding is one of my specialties. If you can, try to use the website yourself! I recommend it since it is educational and enjoyable. You should use this website when you’re bored or when you want to learn how to code.

Thank you for reading! Comment down your ideas or thoughts.