STEAM- Table Construction

 

Kia Ora Bloggers! How was your June 2021? 

This week for Wednesday we went back to doing S.T.E.A.M work (steam stands for science, technology, engineering, arts, and maths) Our task today was to construct a sturdy table/ tower that was at least 15cm above the table using 10 sheets of newspaper and 1m of tape, our goal by the end was to be able to hold at least 1 textbook for 3 seconds. We had 25 minutes to construct and 5 minutes before that to come up with a plan and ideas how we would make the tower. In my group of 5, we had the idea to have a base plate with 6 supports in the middle holding up another thick plate on top, this design was going well but then we ran out of time and tape, we hadn't finished but we had to just go with it, when we went up it all fell apart and all came crashing down we had 30 seconds to quickly reconstruct our tower and what we ended up putting all of the supports inside each other as they were all different sizes and then we had made a tube that was very thick and ended 1 book and then the second one held for about 1/3 seconds and then all fell down. 

I think that we had a good initial plan but our compromising was quite good and we're all proud of how much it held. What do you think of our design? Do you think that you could've come up with a better design? Please leave me some feedback and maybe check out some of my other posts. Blog you later! 

Māori New year - Matariki Art

 

Kia Ora Bloggers, Do you know what the Meaning of Matariki is?

This past week in Toroa we have been working on some art, this art is based around Matariki. 
Our process was first we had to make a sketch/ draft copy on a piece of A4 paper of our design, this had to include mountains and the Matariki stars after we drew our very first sketch we then had to turn the stars into swirls. After this, we had finished our sketch but had to reverse the image so it would be the right way when we flip it later, then the first step had finished so we moved onto the second step the foam, our task was to copy our design onto the foam and be very careful not to snap, poke through or slice the foam as we only had one piece if that broke we had no other chance, Our third step is what I'd say was the most fun one, The oil paint, this was a very fun step and what we had to do was get a roller with some paint on it and then just roll it onto our foam, we got to as many colors as we wanted ( I chose to use two ) and then we flipped it onto a piece of A3 paper and got a clean roller and rolled it onto the back to make sure it was on correctly and the paint showed, Then we got to choose if we wanted to do another one, I chose to so I had to wash off the first coat of paint, make sure it was super dry and then do the process again ( This time I chose to do Purple and Balck). After I had done my second one I decided to not do another and snapped the foam in half so It wasn't mistaken for another person's one. So today our task was to first of all pick what one we wanted to frame and then to frame it, we had to cut a frame out of A3 card and then glue it to our Picture so we had a nice clean border. Then we were finished, I think I did quite a good job on my design and I like how the colors blend into each other. What I probably would've done differently is make the indents a bit more visible because you can't really see them and maybe added on a bit more paint because there are a few spots I missed. Do you know the names of all the Matariki stars? What mountains would you've done? 

Please leave me some feedback on my post. Blog you later! 

Touch Me Two - Senses Science Experiment

 Kia Ora Bloggers, How has your week been so far? 

Today we did another mini science experiment but this week it was about our senses, in particular touch. We got into pairs and then half of the class ( my half ) got given a kit, inside was a 15cm ruler, 4 colored pencils, 1 normal pencil, 1 rubber, 1 pencil sharpener, and one caliper (to poke). Our task was: There was a person A and a person B, Person A started off blindfolded while person B poked, we had to do it with 2mm, 5mm, 10mm, 15mm, and then 20mm we had to record how many pokes we felt from the caliper. After this, we finished and moved to the other person. From our data we collected, we think that 15-20mm were the times you mostly felt the 2 pokes and not the 1, with the 2mm we didn't feel the 2 pokes at all. 
Have you ever done something like this? Do you know what a Caliper is? or have you ever used one? 
Please leave me some feedback and Maybe check out my other posts. Blog you later!