31/8/17 Reflection Ski Trip

Last week a small group of people (including me) went to Queenstown for a Ski trip. There was no real point to it in retrospect but it was still epic.

I found the plane rides awesome as the views were insane.  It almost looked as if you were looking over a model mountain range.  The majority of the mountains we passed over had snow on them, I was taken back by it.

My room was the smallest with two bunk beds but was the only one with a balcony and no teacher, as well as the best views. In my room we had myself, Barnabas, Saxon, and Myer U. We also had our own lockers; I used this space to store my chargers, books, and backpack (including lunch).

The name of the ski field was Coronet peak although the mountain's name was Mount Hutt. All the mountain is skiable but some specific tracks are marked out by signs and other skiers. The Ski field has two lifts that will bring you to either the summit (Coronet express) or a fork where you can choose either novice or intermediate. The mountain also includes a ‘magic’ carpet, it’s exactly what it sounds like. A carpet that brings you up the beginner slope.

Each day we left the hostel at 7:30 and was on the mountain by 9:00 for our lessons. Our instructor was a girl named Alice. Because my group was made up of beginners (not to say I wasn’t one) we spent the whole first lesson on the beginner slope which was annoying but necessary. The first time I went on the novice slope I fell to avoid running some people over and had to go on the beginner slope again before going back to novice slope.

The second was definitely the best as I got down the top slope (M1), the Intermediate slope and did all the jumps on the Novice slope. The jumps start almost immediately after you get off the chair lift to your right, you generate a lot of speed going down and you should always try to keep turning so you stay in control. After the two jumps, you execute a relatively sharp turn onto another set of jumps which are more horizontal. The M1 Is about triple the length of the intermediate slope and a bit harder. There are a lot of snow mounds and spots where it’s just Ice making hard to turn.

The trip as a whole was awesome and I was sad (kind of) to leave. I’ve taken lots of photos and I think that Queenstown is beautiful But I wouldn't want to live there

Project conclusion as of week 5

So far each of my activities has been worth two stars so I’m currently sitting on ten stars (the halfway point). I do have a couple activities lined including one where I just have to make a diagram. I have and am really enjoying working on this science badge. I am definitely learning a lot more about these animals but I almost think it can just be called animals (yes I know that there is a zoology badge but I have done it and it’s more birds and bugs).  Overall I think the purpose of the science badge is portrayed nicely.

 Science Badge: Large Animals Pet food trial.

Task:26** You have been asked to trial 3 brands of cat or dog food. Describe how you would test which one your pet prefers.

Give your pet food 1 and let your pet eat it for 15 minutes do the same for the other foods on consecutive days. The next day put all three foods in front of it an equal distance away (make sure then foods have an equal amount)  on around a corner so it doesn't just go for the one in front of it. Let it go for 15 minutes before taking the food away. The food that your pet eats the most of is what it likes best.

18/8/17 Science Badge task 3 Reflection

This task wasn’t particularly hard but it took a while. I found it interesting that the Pacific rat doesn't actually have that much effect on the enviroment as the whole reason I used the Pacific rat  was because I thought it did. I chose the red deer simply because it was an example. THe Myna was a more personal choice just because my parents have told me multiple times about what they do to the enviroment.

18/8/17 Reflection Science badge task 24

Like in task 3, this was easy but took a long time. I think the fact that animals go up in aggressiveness (?) is convenient. I chose the Bull shark because I had prior knowledge of the being extremely aggressive due to their testosterone levels. Lions because Lions and Water buffalo because I know about their aggressive behaviors.

Science badge: large animals task 24

Task:24** Describe and record the different aggressive behaviours of 3 types of animals.

Animal 1: African Lion (Panthera Leo): The only time Lions really show aggressive   behaviours is to other males. male lions will roar at each other. shake their manes and participate in mock charges, while sizing each other up. If there is a clear disparity, It is only when males are relatively evenly matched that a serious fight will break out, when the males will grapple with one another with their claws and bite as well. These fights can be to the death, which is why most dominance issues are resolved by displays.

Animal 2: Cape Buffalo: Cape Buffalo are ranked as some of the most dangerous and aggressive animals on the planet. Between mating spars and defensive attacks on predators these guys will make you poop your pants. The cape buffalo have been known to kill lions if they attack the herd and can outrun them. Overall the Cape Buffalo are more protective than actively aggressive.

Animal 3: Bull Shark: Bull sharks get their name for their behaviour. They have the highest testosterone levels of any animal..as well as the highest fatal shark attacks (by at least 10), most shark attacks (by more than 10 again) and can kill a saltwater croc with ease. So basically they are Chris Brown. on steroids and in water.. The way the hunt is quite unique in that they give the prey a chance to escape. First they bump you at this stage you should simply slowly swim to the shore keeping your eyes open for any strange ripples or currents. It will then attack, you should try to hit it on the nose and then run for it.

Science badge: Large animals: task 3

Task: 3** Write notes on 3 introduced animals e.g. opossum, deer, goat, stoat, rat etc, stating the effect they have on our environment.

Animal 1: Red deer: more than 250 Red deer were introduced between 1861 and 1919 for sport. These were usually brought directly from the UK. The Red deer is the most widespread type of deer in New Zealand.

Effect on the enviroment: The deer feed primarily on understory vegetation, which has led to a reduction in the abundance of seedlings and saplings and threatens to change the forest composition. They preferentially browse certain species, which alters forest composition and allows only the least favorable plants to recover. Therefore, the introduction of deer has caused a serious decline understory herbs and shrubs. As of 2009 the government of conservation has declared them a threat.
Controlling the numbers: At the moment there are actions towards restricting the population, hunters are encouraged to kill as many as they want.

Animal 2: Pacific rat: The Pacific rat was introduced 700 years ago in the boats of polynesian seafarers. At the time of the first landings there were 50-500 rats.

Effect on the enviroment: Nowadays the Pacific rat has almost no effect on the enviroment as ship and european rats pushed their numbers down but back when they first arrived is a whole different story. The Pacific rat is believed to have put multiple species onto the extinct list when the first came. In 1920 the Pacific rat were considered extinct due to the ship and european rats but a few still survive on Fiordland, on Stewart Island and on several offshore islands.

Controlling the population: Because of the small numbers they have no actions towards controlling the population. You could almost say that the places they live restricts the population.

Animal 3:Common Myna:  around 200 Common Mynahs (yes that's it’s plural) was introduced between 1870 and 1877 by Acclimatisation Societies and private individuals.www.nzbirds said this “Mynahs persisted in the South Island until about 1890. They were once numerous in the southern part of the North Island but now are mainly found in the northern North Island farmland, orchards, and suburban gardens”.

Effect on the enviroment: Mynahs have had both postive and negative effect on the enviroment. The positive side is that they take out crop eating insects so basically they’re living insecticides. The bad side is that they are a threat to native species as they are bigger than them so can steal food, nests and even kill chicks.

Controlling the population: Unfortunately there is nothing currently controlling the Myna population due to the good things they do on farms (also the government doesn't care but whatever) although some people do kill them.

7/8/17 Evidence of learning Graphic design

For one of our Friday workshops, our one with Nicole is centered on graphic design. Graphic design is the skill to be able to combine text, pictures and colours in a way that is pleasing to the human eye. Currently we are focusing on colours and the colour wheel. Using the colour wheel we can use complimentary colours (opposites on the colour wheel) to pick out a good combination. Another way we can create good colour combination is using split complementary. Split complementary is opposites but on one end the are split into two on either side. We were then asked to create a postcard and have complementary colours on it (it also had to have a quote on it). My first one was dark blue and orange which are straight opposites. My second one wasn’t actually on the colour wheel  as it's black and red and Black isn’t on the colour wheel. I am interested to see what we're doing in the near future and am looking forward to it.

2/8/17 Evidence of learning Daniel maths

On Thursday. of last week Daniel called myself, Aman, Harrison, Horatio, Christella, Saxon and Roman to a special math workshop in the boardroom. He announced to us that the high school kids were having with Algebra and that kinds of math. He wanted to stop that and get us up to NCEA level 1 by the end of the year. To see what we could do he gave us a chapter from a year 9 textbook.

I have found it (so far) found it quite easy and are looking forward to harder stuff in the future. Below is a picture of the things I am working on.