Why Do Stars Twinkle

The scientific name for the twinkling of stars is stellar scintillation (or astronomical scintillation). Stars twinkle when we see them from the Earth's surface because we are viewing them through thick layers of turbulent (moving) air in the Earth's atmosphere.

Why Do Cats Always Land On There Feet

The cat righting reflex is a cat's innate ability to orient itself as it falls in order to land on its feet. The righting reflex begins to appear at 3–4 weeks of age, and is perfected at 6–7 weeks. Cats are able to do this because they have an unusually flexible backbone and no functional clavicle (collarbone).

Why Does Hair Turn Grey

As we get older, the pigment cells in our hair follicles gradually die. When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, that strand of hair will no longer contain as much melanin and will become a more transparent color — like gray, silver, or white — as it grows.

Why do bees Buzz

A bee's wings makes it buzz. When an insect flies, the size of its wings and the speed of their flapping affect the sound they make. Small wings push against less air than big wings do, so they have to beat faster in flight.

Why Do We Have To Sleep

Researchers have also shown that after people sleep, they tend to retain information and perform better on memory tasks. Our bodies all require long periods of sleep in order to restore and rejuvenate, to grow muscle, repair tissue, and synthesize hormones.

Why Don't The Oceans Freeze

Ocean water freezes just like freshwater, but at lower temperatures. Fresh water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit but seawater freezes at about 28.4 degrees Fahrenheit , because of the salt in it. When seawater freezes, however, the ice contains very little salt because only the water part freezes.

Why Is Laughter Infectious 

According to a new study, laughter truly is contagious: the brain responds to the sound of laughter and preps the muscles in the face to join in the mirth. "It seems that it's absolutely true that 'laugh and the whole world laughs with you," said Sophie Scott, a neuroscientist at the University College London.

What Causes A Rainbow

A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun.

Reflective Writing

 M Y  S U C C E S S  T H I S  W E E K  WAS A T H L E T I C S   because I did pretty well in it. I got 3rd in basically every event except 100m final where I got 4th but it was still really fun and one of the highlights of the year although I felt really good but really sore for a couple days. 

Another one was doing a live broadcast with Mr Cottrill in media studies, it was really fun working cameras and seeing how everything works in the filming business I was the interviewer in the broadcast. we spent a week learning about a story about the gold rush in Otago and then the last two rehearsing and then eventually doing it. 

M Y  C O N C E R N S  T H I S  W E E K 

Are not getting a placing in the 100m final in athletics because if I did I would be on a streak of third places for everything except the throwing ones. This isn't really a concern but I wish that we got to do media studies for longer because that was a special experience.

M Y  G O A L S  F O R  N E X T  W E E K  A R E

I am looking forward to working in another class for two days next week because I reckon that will be fun seeing what it's like with another teacher in another class doing different things while the Masterton cultural exchange is going on.

Emergency Lights

In electronics we have been making emergency lights. First of all we got a template of a vehicle, the vehicle had to be a vehicle that had flashing lights so for instance it had to be a police car or a fire engine, so I chose a police car and then I glued it onto a piece of corflute then I drilled holes where I wanted my leds to go after I finished that put copper tape on the sides and put my leds in the holes, after that I soldered the v+ wires to the copper tape so that leads me to where I am now.

Rio 2016 Olympics Art

This is my Rio 2016 art, we had two choices do the Olympic rings or the Olympic torch as you can see I did the torch and I think it turned out alright because I'm not the best drawer. the hardest bit was doing the fire because it was skinny and I had to use a really fat orange pastel. this art was really hard so I hope you like it. The shapes in the background are geometric shapes and the pastels that I used were oil pastels, there is one place where I accidentally used a black chalk pastel which smudged everything. I hope you like my art, thank you for reading.

Thank you letters

This is my thank you letter to Mainfreight thanking them for donating us water in our Gastro outbreak. Our water fountains were unavailable so that meant no water and that meant dehydration and sickness so we are very thankful that these companies came to our aid. the companies that helped us were Mainfreight, H2Go and one pure, very special thanks to all of these companies. to do our letters we took a photo for the cover and wrote the best we can on some paper and glued into the inside of a piece of folded card. Thank you for reading.

First Day At Electronics

The get ready get thru tells us there are 3 things we need to do to get ready for a disaster.
1. Have a household emergency plan.
2. Assemble emergency survival item.

3. Have a getaway kit.
It says I need a torch with spare batteries and survival items, I am going to design and make an emergency light at electronics.
My family would need three 15 litre get thru water containers.

Year 7 Speechs

In inquiry we have been studying the incredible human machine. We had to write a speech for homework and i chose to do mine on visual impairment.  

Hi I would like to talk to you today about visual impairment/blindness and the people who are visually impaired and talk about some of their incredible stories and how they have adapted to a life where they cant see. Being blind and doing everyday things that most people do is incredibly difficult and it affects your life massively, just imagine being so blind you couldn't even make out light well welcome to the world of the visually impaired. when you see a blind person most of the time you won't even know their blind they look like ordinary people and most of them get along with their lives well. but probably the ones that you see have a white cane and if you didn't know it's the  stick like thing they hold to feel out things so they know where they are going, well these are for the partially blind which is still really bad but they can still see but really badly. But the people that are fully blind usually have a guide dog which is usually a labrador and the dogs will guide them around so they don't end up being roadkill. Now I would like to talk about Daniel Kish and how he has learned to use his remaining senses to help him, he can do everyday things like ride a bike, do chores do chores and go for walks but what is most interesting is how he achieves it. He makes a peculiar sound with the back of his throat and the sound waves bounce off all the objects around him and they come back to his ears which tells him where thing are and say if it was a car how fast it was coming.
Probably the most common ways a person is visually impaired is from birth  and other ways is from accidents that has injured the eye and the other is certain types of eye cancer. Back in the old days if you were blind you were blind and there was no cure to it but now in the modern days there are surgeries and one of them is replacing the old lens that disables the vision to a new synthetic lens and the surgery is only $300 but that is not good for the the millions of kids or people in poor countries or areas or families becuase they can't afford it.

This is my ice cream van, i made and designed it in graphic design in tech,  its a really simple design and my logo is a tilted ice cream. I hope you like my design.

Idioms

An idiom is a word that is not taken literally. We have been looking at idioms relating to the human machine.
Mine is Eyes Like A Hawk so I wrote the lettering in futuristic block font and I drew two large hawk eyes and coloured the background brown.

Scale Drawing

In mathematics we have been studying transformations. We have completed an enlargement which is called a scale drawing. My scale factor is 2:1.
Here is my one

ANZAC Study

Diary/Letter Writing
Last week we were learning about life in the trenches during the ANZAC campaign at Gallipoli in WW1.
Here is mine I hope you like it.

13.6.15
My dearest Peter

I'm at war now and it's hel, the gunfire never seems to stop and the deaths never seem to stop as well, I hope that you never have to go to war so you never have to see its horrors. i would do anything to be back at home with you, your sister and your Mum.
i am writing to you now on a sack of ammunition in my trench, I cant tell you where I am or what I'm doing, we have the exact same thing for dinner every night which is horrible and the stench is horrendous, the smell comes from the dead and decaying corpses lying everywhere.
So Peter how's school and how are your friends and what have you been up to since I wrote to you last, how's it like with so many people gone. I could go on forever but i have to go now the shells are starting to come.
Write to you soon
Your loving Father XO
Ben

ANZAC Stamp
We created an ANZAC stamp using relevant from WW1. On my stamp i have included a cross and lest we forget because so we can remember those that risked there live for us.

Whale Pot Bay-Character Portrait

In class we have been reading Whale Pot bay by Des Hunt. We had to to choose one of the main characters-Jake,Steph, or Milton Summer and complete a character portrait I chose Jake  and these are the descriptive words I used to describe them. Bad Driver,Likes engines, Good at surfing. those are some of my adjectives.

Today we designed a Room 2 Hillary house banner for Kotahitanga week.
Here is my one i hope you like it.
My one has the HNI logo mountains and a whale tail for what we are learning and reading about.

My first impressions of H.N.I

When i met my teacher, met my class I was pretty chuffed because my class was awesome. I really like how we have  a P.E uniform as well as a normal uniform. I love how in this school we have tech, this term I have food tech with Ms Basset. H.N.I Isn`t that different from primary but the opportunity`s are way better.I am in HILLARY house and my class in room 2. I have made loads of new friends in my my new class and have loads of friends from my old school which is awesome!!!!!! I have enjoyed making new friends at H.N.I and I look forward to what i`m am going to do at this school in the future.