In science we are starting a new unit about the human body, cells and how to use a microscope. So far we have studied bug heads, insect wings and even human blood under a microscope. I thought it wouldn’t be that interesting, but I was completely wrong. It is actually really interesting, kind of gross but also amazing. It is cool how you look at something so simple and plain but then once you look at it closer it is something entirely different with all different designs and patterns. I can’t believe that an object (microscope) that is simply made of glass and metal can do that. Then of course there is the wonderful teacher who teaches it in such an interesting way. Now enough talking, here are picture of some of the things we looked at.
This is an insect head.
This an insect wing
I can’t wait for the next speciman we get to look at, and study in more depth.
Did you know that drownings in British Columbia have been going up since 2011. I learned all about drowning in a course I am taking (bronze medallion). It is teaching me how to save someone and give CPR if they are in need. Once I finish this, and all the other courses my goal is to become a lifeguard. Now back to the subject of drowning I was surprised to hear that 8 out of 10 are men who have drowned. And the ages are between 20-24. I always thought it would be toddlers at the ages between 1-6 but apparently not! Now the reason it is men and at that age is one thing that isn’t surprising, it’s alcohol. They probably just had a bit to much to drink and are fooling around in the water then suddenly it goes too far. Now all of this isn’t to make you sad but to make you aware of the dangers that could happen.
Here is a graph of what is happening from 2012.
You might be wondering where this is taking place so you can be careful in the future. The number one place is natural bodies of water #1 rivers, #2 lakes and #3 ocean. But it is also important to be careful and watch infants around water as they can drown in very little water very fast. For example you have to be careful when your child (0-4) is in the bathtub because that easily happens a lot of the time.
All of this is for your benefit so your safe and also have fun. I recommend learning a little CPR so that if you do see someone drowning you can help and save someone’s life.
I got my statistics from Life Saving B.C. so click Here for more information and here is the article about drowning that I got statistics from.
You might be wondering from the title of this post what I am talking about we’ll I will explain. In class we are learning about Julius Caesar and also Shakespeare so to do that we had to learn not just about Julius Caesar himself but also the people surrounding him. To accomplish that we were put in groups of 5 and assigned a person to research and then make a body biography which is basically an outline of a life size person with facts and pictures on it and then presenting it, so my group was assigned to Marcus Brutus. Here is a slideshow I made that explains it but just before you watch that you should now he was born in june 85 BC Rome, Roman Republic and died 23 October 42 BC (aged 43). Now here it is!
I saw the new Star Wars movie! It was great now I won’t do any spoilers but it is action packed. I personally liked it better then the older movies. Now to corespond with the new movie coming out we did a Star Wars. The night before the movie came out we had our Star Wars exhibition. Where everyone in PLP grade 8 & 10 created a question about Star Wars that they could look into and present. Now there were a variety of things from dresses to creating a movie to dancing. And I chose to do mine about the Death Star and what a huge design flaw was.
I found out that the huge flaw was in the first movie when Luke shoots into the exhaust port and the Death Star blows up that shouldn’t be like that. So I decided to recreate it so that there wasn’t that huge of a flaw. I changed it by not having 1 exhaust port but 2, also by using an energy recovery system. Having two pipes with one with new air coming in and the other letting old air out and then crossing over the two not only protects the Death Star but also saves energy. Because when the old air going out crosses under the new air coming in it heats up that air and then you could distrubt it through out the Death Star keeping it heated. If you want see my presentation here is a link to a slide show I made click Here to see it.
Me at my station showing of my project
The exhaust port on the Death Star
A Death Star model of what should happen
So that was what I found out about the Death Star. It was a great experience because I did learn a lot. At first I didn’t understand but then it just came to me and I understood it all of a sudden. Overall it was great and I learned what an exhaust port was and whole bunch of other mechanical things and I had a great time doing it.
In my last post I talked about making a quilt with a group about a myth. This myth was created by Willa, Ethan, Adam and me. Our myth was about the civilization of the Polygonians, a civilization that we made up. Along with the myth we had to create a quilt, so each of us picked a part of the story and had to create a quilt square about it. In the end we will be sewing them together to create a big cozy quilt. Now here is the story!
The finished quilt square
The first part of the story was done by Ethan this was the part where we meet Cordelia a girl from Astoria who doesn’t like it there because she thinks it is discriminatory and wants to go to Canada because she thinks Canadians aren’t discriminate but can’t leave USA. Meanwhile Poseidon the god sees leadership in her and wants her to create a civilization based around him. He telepathically tells her to go onto flight 19 the first plane to crash in the Bermuda Triangle so she can start a civilization.
That is where my quilt square comes in my part of the story is when she is on the plane. And there is a huge storm happening and Cordelia doesn’t know what is happening because Poseidon told her she was going to Canada. She crashes into the Bermuda Triangle where she is transforming into a Polygonian which is a goose/fish/beaver person and in the corner you can see Poseidon doing this.
The third part of the story was done by Adam this is where Cordelia is done her transformation and realizes that she has changed. She swims around for weeks discovering what she can do. With her is Kai the guy, he was on the plane when it crashed and was the only other person to survive. He transforms into a goose/fish/beaver person with Cordelia becauce she is going to start a civilization and needs him. After all of this and the weeks of swimming they finally find a beautiful island in the Bermuda Triangle.
And finally Willa finishes it off where Cordelia and Kai the guy create there civilization together. Passing on there history and values to there civilization. They also decided to call themselves the Polygonians because they are in the Bermuda Triangle. As time goes on they are remberd for this Legend of the Polygonians.
The End
My first draft Quilt Square
(Look at my last post Ouch I Poked Myself if you want to now how we made that story and what we went through to get to this story.)
To make that we drew on our iPads using the app Paper, we then printed them out on fabric. It was really interesting how what you just drew on an iPad and it was now on fabric. We didn’t print it first time we drew but after a couple of drafts we got there.
Almost finished quilt square.
We also had to do the actual sewing also. At first I had no idea what to sew but then it just started coming to me. First I did the border and then all the actual quilting inside. I did poke myself a couple of times but I’m okay.
This is an insect head.
This an insect wing
