Inquiry Learning Going Platinum

Throughout Term 4 the Year 7/8 Inquiry group have been investigating their own inquiry questions. Today they shared their learning with the group. All the students have worked hard researching, analysing and evaluating the information they acquired. Many picked the brains of experts in their field and conducted surveys to gain information from a variety of sources.
Kaleesha wanted to investigate the role of the harp in an orchestra and find the instruments perceived to be most important. She presented her findings by writing alternative lyrics to Taylor Swifts "We Are Never, Ever, Getting Back Together", and did a fantastic job. Well done Kaleesha!
Look out for more posts sharing the work of these hard working students.

Teddy Town

Welcome to Teddy Town. In Teddy Town there are four houses of each colour and four teddies of each colour. The streets are very special. If you walk along a street from east to west all the houses are a different colour and the teddies living in the houses are a different colour too. The same is true if you walk in a north south direction. In other words, looking at a map grid, each row and column must have different coloured houses and different coloured teddies.

The JEM's (Junior Extension Maths) have been puzzling over Teddy Town for a while and today Camryn found a solution. What great perseverance she showed to solve this problem. Great work Camryn. Here is her solution.

What will Teddy Town look like if there are five teddies and houses of each colour and five purple teddies move into town and build five purple houses?

Thanks nrich for the great ideas and resources.

If Persistence was a Person

Recently on TV One's Close Up there was a story about Hana Old. Hana is 12 years old and has just published her first book, "If Persistence was a Person: The Story of Professor Swee Tan". Hana was just 11 when she watched a TV documentary on the life and work of Professor Swee Tan and was so moved that she decided to write a book to help fundraise the $4 million dollars that Swee Tan needs for his research with the Gillies McIndoe Research Institute. "If Persistence was a Person" is the result.All the profits from the sale of the book go to support Swee Tan’s research. Hana is an amazing example of just what can be achieved when we believe we can make a difference. Watch the Close Up excerpt to hear Hana's story. Copies of the book can be purchased from Paper Plus Online

New Inquiry

This term we will be working on a personal inquiry. Inquiry involves asking questions, gathering and analysing information, generating solutions, making decisions, justifying conclusions and taking action. It may be inspired by the book Taketakerau The Millenium Tree by Marnie Anstis, or there may be something else you feel particularly passionate or curious about. You will need to complete the Inquiry Contract before you begin.

Too Much Toothpaste

Do you ever get told you use too much toothpaste? Last week we worked out how much toothpaste we use in a day, in a week, in a month and in a year! Tama and Connor use 7.3 metres and Camryn, Erica and Ray use 14.6 metres each year!
This week we wanted to find out how much toothpaste there is in a tube so we could work out how many tubes of toothpaste we must use in a year and how much it all costs.

Camryn, Ray and Erica use a whole tube of toothpaste every 11 weeks but Tama and Connor make one tube last for 23 weeks.

How much do you use?

What Do You Want To Know?

There are areas in maths we all need some extra help with or areas where we possibly wish for greater challenge. In Term 4 I will respond to student requests for mathematical concepts you would like extra work in. You can go to the GATEMathsLearning wallwisher to add your thoughts, comments and requests.
Make sure you put your name with your request/comment.

Chocolate Fish Challenge

Here we go again with those tricky maths puzzles. Can you write an equation using only 6,6 and 2 to make 7 or 5? Or... can you write an equation using only 2,2 and 1 to make 7?

Enter your solutions as a comment here or through your Kidsblog.

Calculating the Scale Factor

Maths today

Aotearoa New Zealand

Earlier this week the playground had a make over with fresh new paint and a brand new map of Aotearoa New Zealnd. We wondered if the map is an accurate representation of The Land of the Long White Cloud, and if so just how long is it?
We set out to find the answer to the following questions:

Is our new New Zealand map drawn to scale?

If so, what is the scale factor, and if not, how much is it out by?

Groups working together to decide on the best way to approach the problem.



Measuring distances to compare with the internet or the atlas.

The measuring tape proved much more accurate than metre rulers.

Ryan researched distances in New Zealand on the internet.

Ethan compared distances on an atlas map with those on the playground map.



Science Fair 2012

Recently we held our Kimihia School Science Fair. It was exciting to see the students involved sharing their work and discussing their investigations with the judges, and then later with classes that came to view the projects. Today the winners of the School Science Fair took their boards to the Waikato Science Fair in Hamilton. We are anxiously awaiting the results from that competition to see how well we fared. Check out the Science Fair page to see all the project boards and the results of our School Science Fair.

WaiMaths Quiz 2012

Last night a team of three Year 7s and a team of three Year 8's competed in the annual WaiMaths competition run by the Waikato Maths Association. Around 30 schools enter a team of three who work together for 45 minutes to solve maths problems as quickly as possible.
Well done to the Year 8 team; Sonya, Caleb and Blair, who began strongly showing co-operation and perseverence through to the end of the competition.
Congratulations to the Year 7 team; Stephen, Joe and Cameron who demonstated excellence and cooperation to achieve 4th place. A fantastic result.

Remembering Margaret Mahy

We're deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Margaret Mahy, famous New Zealand children's author.


Check out this link to information about her life and her work, including stories and movies you can read and view.
http://www.wicked.org.nz/Themes/Hot-topics/Remembering-Margaret-Mahy

Competition

You can add your thoughts about what it means to be a winner by clicking here.

End of Term

With the end of Term Two fast approaching some of us are busy working on our Science Fair projects. Remember to refer to the notes and ideas on the Science Fair page. Next term we are going to be busy with the School Science Fair, the Waikato Science Fair and the WaiMaths Quiz, all in August. A large number of students are also involved in the ICAS English amd Maths tests. You can view practice questions and read helpful tips on the ICAS website.

Otago Problem Solving Challenge Set 2

We have recently completed the second problem solving challenge and overall we did much better than we did in the first one. In the first set we achieved 25 correct out of 60! That's 42%. There was definitely room for improvement as a group. This time we achieved 36 out of 55! That's 65%. What an improvement! Now we need to aim for an even better result. If you did the challenge and would like to know your score you can ask your teacher.

It's A Problem

In maths today we were able to use the digits 6,5 and 5 to create the numbers one to ten with the exception of 2, 9 and 10. The chocolate fish challenge is to find a solution for these numbers.

1 = 6! / 5! - 5

2 = chocolate fish

3 = 6! / 5! x 0.5

4 = 5 + 5 - 6

5 = (6 - 5) x 5

6 = 5/5 x 6

7 = 5/5 +6

8 = 0.6 x 5 + 5

9 = chocolate fish

10 = chocolate fish

Remember to blog your solution if you come up with one.

Kids Lit Quiz

We are all looking forward to the Kids Lit Quiz on Thursday at St Paul's Collegiate. Tomorrow our quiz will be created by the children in the teams. What will the questions be? Each child is creating 10 questions on a theme of their choice for the other team members to answer? It will be interesting to see just how difficult they make it for each other.

Kids Lit Quiz

Today the teams for the upcoming Kids Lit Quiz were announced. Congratulations to Joel, Amy, Katie, Jennifer, Sonya, Kirsten, Luca and Liam. Make sure you keep reading between now and next Thursday. Every minute counts! Thanks to the rest of you that came along to the library in your lunchtimes to take part in the practice quiz sessions. Keep up the great reading and it could be your turn next year.
You can find out more about this exciting competition by visiting the Kids Lit Quiz website.

Science Alive Pt 2

Yesterday a group of students from Team 2 investigated capillary action. We already knew about molecules of air and found out about molecules of water. They like to stick together and this is called cohesion. We also discovered that some materials like paper and fabric are made with fibres and have tiny holes between the fibres that the water molecules are attracted to. This is the reason some materials mop up spills better than others. The plastic bag didn't work at all!

Fonterra Science Roadshow

This afternoon 85 students travelled to the Fonterra Science Roadshow at Te Kauwhata College. What a great afternoon we had exploring scientific concepts through hands on exhibits. We learnt all sorts of things about light, density, colour, the human body, earthquakes,      tsunamis, liquifaction and lots, lots more.

Science Alive

This term two groups of budding young scientists will be working on a range of experiments to make discoveries about the world around them.

Have you ever wondered how water and nutrients from the soil reach the leaves of trees? Or why a sponge mops up a spill when a plastic bag doesn't? It's all down to capillary action and we spent some time discovering how this works. Watch as we see capillary action at work

.

If you would like to do this experiment at home you can find the instructions to make your own Magic Flowers here.

Anzac Poster Competition

On 25 April 1915, eight months into the First World War, Allied soldiers landed on the shores of the Gallipoli peninsula. Every year we remember this important day in New Zealand's history. A day which helped New Zealand to define itself as a nation.

This year the New Zealand Defence Force is running Operation ANZAC Spirit 2012, a design competition for Year 7 & 8 students.Click here to find out more.

Chocolate Fish Challenge

Who among us can resist a challenge? Especially when the prize is a quintessentially New Zealand chocolate fish!
Some of the students in the GATE programme are resisting the opportunity to reflect on their learning through their blogs so I decided a little encouragement (AKA bribery and corruption) might just do the trick. Katie was today's lucky chocolate fish spot prize blogger. Who will be next? All you need to do is reflect on your learning or encourage your friends and family to comment on your reflections and it could be you!
Comment now on KIDBLOG.

Bug Lunch

Did you know that different insects have very different mouths depending on what they eat? Some insects chew, some suck and some lap. You can watch several insects at work through the links below, but watch out....when you are an insect you need to keep your eyes open or you might BE lunch!

House fly

Wart-biter Cricket

Bullet Ant

Monarch Butterfly

From Slum Dweller to Brain Surgeon: The Amazing Story of Dr Ben Carsen

Wow! On Tuesday Team 4 were fortunate enough to get the opportunity to hear the inspirational story of Dr Ben Carsen. Ben Carsen was raised by his mother in poverty in inner-city Detroit but against the odds became a gifted neurosurgeon at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and was the first surgeon in the world to successfully separate siamese twins conjoined at the back of the head. He has been in New Zealand sharing not only his incredible story, but his beliefs about how to achieve success and reach your goals.  Follow the links below to hear more from this inspiring man.

The Ben Carsen Story in 5 Minutes

Inspiring Words From Ben Carsen

For the full story watch "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carsen Story."

Watch excerpts from the movie below.

 

Intriguing Insects

With summer here the crickets and cicadas are singing up a storm. A small group of children are working to find out about the insects around us. Below there are several links to some short videos explaining the life cycles of different types of insects.
 The Life Cycle of a Butterfly
The Amazing Life Cycle of a Cicada
The Life of a Praying Mantis
Once you have watched the video clips see if you can complete the Metamorphosis Quiz to reveal a close up picture of one member of our intriguing insect world.

And we're off...

Today some of us wrote a short statement about what we hope to achieve through the GATE programme this term. You can view our ideas through the Kidblog icon at the top left of the page. We have also made a start on our Inquiry topics. You can see the Year 5/6 inquiry task here and the Year 7/8 inquiry task here. I am keen to see how the Year 7/8 groups manage their shared task and look forward to the Year 5/6 group developing their research  skills. It was exciting to hear the enthusiasm of the students as they set off on these tasks today.

Competitions Galore

Many of you love to compete in your area of expertise and unfortunately there is not enough time in the GATE programme to enter everything that comes our way. Below is a link to the TKI site which lists all sorts of competitions you may be eligible to enter. Some of them need to be run through school so if you are interested in them please come and discuss the possibility of entering. If the competition is limited to a particular age group, then that is noted beside the link. Competitions galore!

Student Page 2011

The two posts below have been added so the Student Work and Science Fair pages can be emptied for current work. The entries from these pages have been added as posts so they will be archived rather than lost.

     Emma's blog raising awareness of those who show academic excellence

Rani's blog advocating Free Range Frog Farming




                            Caitlyn and Courtney's Video on fighting for animal rights.

Science Fair 2011

Every year interested students from Years 7 and 8 can enter our school Science Fair. This year 14 students thought of a variety of projects. They ranged from creating natural dyes from a variety of vegetables to measuring the effectiveness of liquid and bar soaps in removing bacteria. Everybody worked extremely hard on their projects and can be congratulated on their efforts. The projects, along with scientific drawings of native plants by children from all levels of the school, were displayed in the School Science Fair on Wednesday 10th August. Thanks to Mrs Dunn and Mrs Elvin who acted as judges.

And the winners of the School Science Fair were:

 1st Place Bubbles Vs Bacteria by Kirsten Maclaurin and Sonya Fenton

 2nd Place Making the Cut by Emma Harris and Caitlyn Dawbin

3rd Place Trick or Treat by Courtney Creighton and Elena Stephen Rouvi

These people took their projects to the Waikato Science Fair held at the Hamilton Gardens Pavilion on Thursday 18th August. We were thrilled to hear that all three projects were to be awarded prizes at this regional level. All the girls attended the prizegiving held at the University of Waikato on Friday 19th September where they were awarded the following prizes:


Third Place Making the Cut by Emma Harris and Caitlyn Dawbin
Highly Commended Trick or Treat by Courtney Creighton and Elena Stephen Rouvi
Highly Commended Bubbles Vs Bacteria by Kirsten Maclaurin and Sonya Fenton
Congratulations and well done to you all. You can be very proud of your achievement.

Welcome back

2012 is well underway and I am looking forward to another exciting year working with the students involved in the GATE programme. Follow our blog and see what we get up to in the weeks ahead.