Disappearing Shells

Eggs are amazing! Today we investigated the principles of OSMOSIS and DIFFUSION so that we can better understand what is happening in more experiments we have planned. Did you know eggs have a membrane inside the shell?
This membrane allows some substances to pass through while keeping other substances out. This is called osmosis. We experimented with this idea by mixing salt and lentils and then passing them through a sieve to simulate the membrane. Only the tiny particles of salt were able to pass through the sieve.

Next we looked at diffusion. We put a couple of drops of food colouring into a glass of water and watched. When first dropped into the water, the part of the water that shows colour has a high concentration of food colouring. Over time, the colour begins to spread throughout the water to areas with no colour (low concentration of food colouring). Eventually, the colour is evenly spread throughout the entire glass of water.

 

Chocolate Fish Challenge

Today we used the numbers 5,5 and 3 to create all the counting numbers to ten but just couldn't figure out a way to make 9. If you can use all three numbers to make 9 I will give you a chocolate fish!

How Strong is an Eggshell?

 We all know eggs are very fragile, right? Today we did an experiment to see just how easily they break. First we emptied the egg and cleaned out the shell. We drew a line aroung the egg and then broke the shell off down to the line. We had to be extremely careful because the shell was very easy to break. Once we had four eggshells ready we placed them on the tray and started loading books on top of them! We were pretty sure they would break but we had THIRTEEN books stacked on top of the eggshells before the first one cracked. Eggshells were much stronger than we realised so the wee chicks inside are kept safe. We also found some building structures that use domes and arches to give them strength.

Where in the World?

Challenge yourself to work out just where in the world you are with this fun game using Google Street View. Cities all over the world are shown, and you can turn around, walk down the street or look round the corner to see if you can find clues to your whereabouts. Look at the signs on buildings, streets and vehicles. What language are the signs on the buildings in? What are the people wearing? What are the shops selling? Which side of the road do they drive on? Can you see any familiar landmarks in the background? Beat your score.
Have a go with www.gr8ctz.com  Good Luck!

Monsters Under the Bed?

Have you heard of Rube Goldberg? Very briefly he was an American cartoonist best known for his cartoons depicting deliberately over engineered gadgets that perform simple tasks in convoluted ways. Many people have created their own Rube Goldberg machines and contraptions, even kids! Have a look at what Audri has created to trap a monster!


Have a go yourself. We would love to see a cartoon or a construction of your very own Rube Goldberg machine. What are you capable of?

Quest is Fun

For those of you requiring a little inspiration to start 2014 take a look at this TedXYouth@Auckland presentation by Tristan Pang. Tristan is a remarkable young man driven by curiosity to understand the world around him. He has clear goals and is well on his way to achieving them. Be inspired!

That's Progress

The Otago Maths Group are taking part in the Problem Solving Competition run by the University of Otago. Over Terms 2 and 3 the students complete five sets of five problems in half an hour. We have kept a record of the total number of correct answers achieved by the group. Look at our progress over the three sets we have completed so far! In the first set we solved 53% of the problems but by Set 3 we improved our problem solving skills and solved 75% of the problems correctly. Keep it up you clever mathematicians!

Live Life Like a Marathon Not a Sprint

Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.

Have Your Say!

As part of our school vision, we are keen to ensure that all students have opportunities to develop their potential in areas of strength.

The teachers and parents have been talking about students’ gifts and talents but we also want to hear from the students. If you are involved in the GATE programme at Kimihia school please click on this link to the SURVEY where you get to have your say.

World Loses Great Mathematician

Shakuntala Devi
Shakuntala Devi, the Indian mathematical wizard known as "the human computer" for her ability to make incredibly swift calculations, died last month in Bangalore, India. She was 83.

Ms. Devi demonstrated her mathematical gifts around the world, at colleges, in theaters and on radio and television. In 1977, at a University in Dallas, she extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds, beating a computer which took 62 seconds.

In 1980, at the Imperial College in London, she correctly multiplied two 13-digit numbers in only 28 seconds. The 28 seconds included the time to recite the 26-digit solution. The numbers were selected at random by a computer. Here is the calculation. Try and do it in your head!

7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779.

Struggling for the answer? Not even your calculator will give it to you. It is 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730.

If you are looking around in second hand book shops and come across Shakuntala's best selling book "The Joy Of Numbers" then make sure you buy it for your bookshelf.