Osmosis

 In Biology, we did a simple experiment to demonstrate how Osmosis works.

Classical Paragraph

Roman Empire grew and developed over its existence. Rome began around 1000BC as a village of small huts. Over time they grew and ruled over all of Italy by 200BC and started invading their neighbours. From 100 Facts on Ancient Rome, I learned that while Rome started out small it grew into an Empire that controlled most of the known world at the time.

Source

100 Facts on Ancient Rome, Miles Kelly Publishing, This edition published in 2008, Copyright 2001

Campania is a coastal plain where the ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum are located. The Coastal plain is located 200 kilometres south of Rome. It is known both in ancient times and today for its temperature, climate and beautiful landscape.

Source

Cameron, Kate and Lawless, Jenifer, Secrets of Vesuvius: Unlocking Pompeii and Herculaneum, Nelson Cengage Learning, Copyright 2006 Cengage Learning Australia Pty Limited

Roman art is essential to the history and lives of Roman women.

Source

I, Claudia: Women in Ancient Rome, Hull Printing Company Meriden Connecticut, 1996, ISBN 0-89467-075-1

Titans

For the last couple of weeks in Classics, we have been looking at the Titans in Greek mythology. The titans are the children of the Primordials Gaea and Oranus and Kronos and Rhea are the parents of the Olympains.

Here is the slide I made about Hyperion.

We had to write a paragraph comaring a greek story to a story from another culture. I compeared the Greek story of Rhea giving her husband a rock instead of their son to eat and the Egyptain story of Isis killing the king of gods to make way for her son.

In some cultures, a women’s power comes from her role as mother to her children as shown in their stories. In Greek mythology Rhea shows her power by tricking her husband Kronos into eating a rock, saving her youngest child Zeus. Her love for her children motivating her to save her youngest help save the rest of her children who had been eaten by Kronos. Similarly, in Aceint Egyptian stories Isis shows her power by killing the king, and the god of the sun Ra. Ra’s throne is then pasted to her son Horus. These two stories show the power that mothers have in their culture through their children.

Probability

 This week we started on our probability topic. 

Yesterday we looked at two dice probability. First we drew up a table in your books before receiving our two dice. I was in a group of three. We then took turns throwing the dice. We had roll the dice a total of 100 times then figure out the frequency and the percentage of all the possible totals that you can get rolling two dice. 

Technology Through The Ages: Ancient Egypt

This term we looked at how technology has evolved through time. My group decided to focus on the impact and inventions that Ancient Egypt has had on today. We had to research five technologies that where invented during that time period. We choose Medical tools, Papyrus, The Civil Calendar and scissor. After that we had to choose three of them and write a essay on them.

My essay.

In Ancient Egypt there were many important inventions that were created. Some of these inventions are papyrus later known as paper, scissors and the calendar. These inventions are still commonly seen and used today.

The Ancient Egyptians also created the first civil calendar. The Civil calendar is a very important invention, because keeping track of time was essential to their civilization since everything relied on the flooding of the Nile. The civil calendar allowed them to keep track of when the Nile would flood and their yearly celebrations. Originally like many other cultures they solely used a lunar calendar to keep track of time, but at some point they changed to the first solar calendar. The solar calendar had twelve months with three ten day weeks with an extra five days of celebration to make up the rest of the year. It was also the one of the first calendar to have four seasons instead of three. The civil calendar is an important invention for the Ancient Egyptians that is still used today.

One important invention in Ancient Egypt was the invention of papyrus later known as paper. Papyrus is the first form of paper in history. The creation of papyrus is important because you could write instead of having to carve into rock all day. Papyrus is made with the papyrus reed that commonly grows in the mashs around the Nile. The longest papyrus scroll is around 40 meters. Papyrus is an important invention because it allows someone to easily record information.

In 1500 BC the first scissors were created. Scissors were used in fashion to cut hair. Scissors were made of one solid piece of bronze. They were two blades connected by a metal strip. The metal strip kept them apart until they were sweased together. In 100 AD the Romans took the basic idea and created the sort of scissors we still use today. These days scissors are used for a lot more than just cutting hair.  

Ancient Egypt is an era where a lot of important inventions were invented. Some of these are papyrus, scissors and calendar. These inventions are still commonly used today.

Wind Racers

Introduction
This week we are making wind racers or land yachts in groups. I am in a group with Wajihah and Tyra. We will be researching, designing and creating a sail for our wind racers. After we have completed that we will test how well our design works with a leaf blower, then make some adjustments to make it better. Eventually when the whole class is ready we will race them against each other.

Day 1
Today we are researching different types of sails that we think can work. We got suck between a pirate ship sail or a yacht. We are going to test the yacht sail first, then we will test the pirate ship sail next. We have started to make the yacht sail with newspaper.

Day 2
Today we were given our wind racers and the pole we are using to hole our sails. Some groups are using a metal rod from a retort stand, but most are going with bamboo. We are making pirate sails and putting the yacht sail idea aside for the moment. We are working on the structural support of the sail.

Day 3
Today we finished making the structural support for the sail. We used popsicle sticks, bamboo skewers and electrical tape. After that we attached the sail to the support. We also started making another sail by  attaching another mast to the wind racer with hot glue.

Day 4
Today we had about half an hour to make last minute adjustments. We added two new triangle sails to the back of the masts. Then we got to test them for the first time with the leaf blower. The first thing I noticed was unlike most of the other sails we had a big gap between the bottom of the sail and the top of our wind racer meaning that it would move for a long time as we lifted the leaf blower up to hit the sails.

Day 5
Today we are making some adjustments to make our sails better. We added small sails to where there is a gap between the bottom of the sail and the top of our wind racer. In the test our sails went the furthest distance out of the whole class. We retested our sails with the leaf blower. We decided to remove one of our main sails. Tomorrow will be the final race to see who has the best sail.

Day 6
Today was the final race. The whole class went outside to test our wind races. While the rest of the classes modifications helped them improve their distance, ours didn't. The modifications that we made halved the distance our wind races were able to go. After every group had gone multiple times we went back inside to deconstruct our sails and selvage what equipment we could. We took so long that another group had to help deconstruct.

Conclusion
If we were able to do this again we would not have made the last adjustments that we made to the second big sail, but I would defiantly do this again if I had the chance.

Acid Rain

In science we are looking at acid rain. Acid rain is formed when fossil fuels are burned releasing carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. They then mix with the water droplets making it more acidic then normal.

Equipment
Petri dish, blue litmus paper, bromothymol blue, universal indicator, leaf, apple piece, weigh boat, Calcium Carbonate, dropper,

Method

1. set up petri dish
2. Add one spatula of sodium sulfate to weight boat
3. Add 5 drops of sulfuric acid and quickly put lid on.
4. Watch and take photos

Observation

The blue litmus paper started changing first. It slowly faded from blue to red. The bromothymol blue started to change next going from blue to yellow to dark green. The universal indicator changed to a light red. The apple piece, leaf and Calcium Carbonate didn't have a noticeable change.

Neutralisation

Today in science we are doing a neutralisation experiment. We have been looking at what an universal indicator, base and acid is, and what is the pH scale.  An universal indicator is a dye that shows the pH level and if it is a base or acid by changing colour. The pH scale goes from 1-14. A neutral is a 7 which is shown as green, acids range from 6-1 and are red. Bases range from 8-14 and are blue. Acids and bases are opposites of each other so when they combine the neutralise each other. Acids are sour and will corrode metal and other things. Bases are commonly used in cleaning products like oven cleaners.

Aim
To observe a neutral reaction

Equipment
Test tube, test tube rack, sodium carbonate, Hydrochloric acid, dropper, universal indicator solution

Method

1. Add 2mL(2cm) of NaCH into a test tube
2. 2 drops of universal indicator
3. Add drops of HCl until you get a neutral green.

Observation

It was very easy to add to much HCl turning the solution red instead of green for neutral meaning we had to add even more NaCH to try and balance it out again. That also happened when we where trying to weaken the NaCH for a lighter blue for the rainbow.

Syrian Refugees

In Social Studies this term we are looking at refugees. For this assessment we had to chose a country to look at. I chose to look at Syria. Here is the slideshow.

I think I did well keeping track of all the websites I used with my bibliography.

I answered the question 'What Aid or support has been provided for these Refugees?' terribly. I couldn't word it the right way and I left out a lot of information.

I enjoyed learning about something it had no prier knowledge of, even surrounding such a horrible topic. We shouldn't need to be learning about this because this shouldn't be happening.

If I could do this again I would chosen the country to look at quicker so I had more time to actually do the research. Although I spent a little less time to do research than I normal do for something like this.

Triangles and Angles

This week we have been looking at angles and triangles using geogebra. We had to follow a few instructions to create lines/shapes and measure the angles. Then we had to move them around and find a rule for all of them. We found out that vertically opposite angles are the same, and that the inter angles of a triangle always add up to 180o.

Solo Performance: Take 2

For this performance I will be playing the guitar because I find it easier then playing the piano or the keyboard.

The song I picked is Castle of Glass by Linkin Park. I chose this song to perform because for my first solo performance I chose to do Numb by Linkin Park and I really like the song.

Link

I will be recording my performance because I won't be doing music next semester so I don't need to perform in front of the class. Although I would love to perform in front of the class anyway.

Into To Geogebra

In maths this week we learnt about a tool called Geogebra that we are using with our new topic geometry and angles. This week has been more about getting used to the tool and teaching ourselves how to use it than having someone show us how to use it. Here are a few designs I made.

Link To Geogebra

Dream Capture

Owl

Prisms

This term we are looking at measurement. This week we have been looking at prisms in particular. Yesterday we looked to how to work out the volume of different prisms, and what is the length of a prism. The formula is volume = cross-section x length. Length is the distance between one cross-section to another.

Child Slavery In The Democratic Republic of the Congo

In Social Studies we are looking at our human rights and what happens when someone takes our rights away. For this assessment we had to chose a topic and a country to focus on. I decided to look at child slavery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Here is my slideshow.

Medical Science

Bones
Bones protect our organs and provide suture and shape that the other cells of our body attached to.

Muscles
Muscles move parts of the body by pulling on bones. Muscles are attached to the bone by tendons. Muscles work in pairs called antagonistic muscles giving us more control over our bodies and our movements. Antagonistic muscles are on both sides of a joint of example your biceps and triceps, as our biceps on the top of our arm contract the triceps relax moving the arm up slowly. Then to move your arm back down your biceps relax then your triceps contract.

Blood
There are four composts in your blood, Red blood cells, white blood cells, Platelets and Plasma. White blood cells fight infections. Plates make blood clots when you cut your skin.

Joints
There are two types of joints in our bodies, ball and socket joint and hinge joint. An example of a ball and socket joint in the shoulder, and a hinge joint is your elbow joint. The difference between the two is that the hinge joint can only move in one direction while a ball and socket joint can move in most directions.

The make up of a joint -
At the end of each end of a bone there is a tough, smooth stuff called cartilage. Cartilage stoppes the bones from wearing away. Ligament hold the two bones in place. Synovial fluid keeps it slippery and is held in by synovial membrane.

The Border Problem

This week we have started to look at algebra and what it is. To me algebra is subbing out numbers we don't know with letters or images to answer equations.

Our big problem of the week this week is the border problem. We where given a 10x10 square like the one below, we had to work out how many red squares there are without counting them all individually.

My strategy to work it out was to take a side length or row and ignore the corners for now. Times the number of squares in the side length without the corners by 4 then add the corners back onto that number to get your answer.

r-c=s     sx4+c=a

Mystery Genre Performance

This term we are doing a group performance. The twist on this activity is that we had to pick a random genre from a box. The genre that my group got is R'N'B also known as Rhythm and Blues. The other people in my group are Leeane and Liam. I'm playing the guitar and he's also playing guitar and sing.

What Makes A Good Mathematician?

In my opinion a good mathematician is not necessarily someone who is fast at solving equations. Nor someone who get a right answer first try, but someone who does give up when they get something wrong. Someone who seeks to understand why an answer may be wrong.

Growing up it has been ingrained into us that you have to be fast to be any good at maths, that we have to get the answer right first time. While people say we don't have to be fast or get an answer right, we are told the opposite making it harder for people to get into maths and to enjoy it.

Musical Me

My favourite artists are Avril Lavigne and Jamie McDell, because they can actually play the instruments hear and sing.
I also like Linkin Park and Nickelback
I am play the guitar.
This year in music I want to get better as a musician.

30 Second Film

We have finally finished our film and Subhnesh has sent it to the rest of the group. Here is the finished video for you to watch.