Romeo and Juliet: Act 1 - Scene 1: Reflection Section | Wānanga

Text title: Romeo and Juliet - Act 1 (Scene 1)

Text type: Play

Text creator: William Shakespeare

Critical Literacy Question: How are children, teenagers, young adults, and adults constructed in this text?

Date: 28th May 2021

Act 1 - Scene 1 Summary

In the first act of the play Romeo and Juliet, we've first seen the two servants of the house of Capulet, Sampson and Gregory. Sampson expresses his hatred of the house of Montague. The two chat, punning comments about physically conquering Montague men and sexually conquering Montague women. Gregory sees two Montague servants approaching, and discusses with Sampson the best way to provoke them into a fight without breaking the law.

Sampson bites his thumb at the Montagues - a highly contemptuous gesture. This verbal argument turns into a fight. Benvolio - kinsmen to the Montague, enters the scene and draws his sword to endeavour to stop the fight. On the other hand, Tybalt, a kinsmen to the Capulet, sees Benvolio with his sword out and takes his out. Benvolio explains that he wants to keep the peace, but Tybalt proclaims a hatred for peace as strong as his disgust for Montagues, and then strikes. A skirmish spreads. A group of citizens bearing clubs attempts to restore the peace by beating down the combatants. Montague and Capulet enter, and only their wives prevent them from attacking one another. Prince Escalus arrives and commands that the fighting stopped, on penalty of torture. The Capulets and Montagues throw down their weapons. The Prince declares the violence between the two families has gone on for too long and declares a death sentence upon anyone who disturbs the civil peace again. He says that he will speak to Capulet and Montague more directly on this matter; Capulet exits with him, the brawlers disperse, and Benvolio is left alone with his uncle and aunt, Montague and Lady Montague.

How are children, teenagers, young adults, and adults constructed in this text?

As we can see from this first part - Sampson and Gregory are servants of the Capulet, who, like their master, hate the Montagues. Shakespeare has also made them dirty, as seen, they've been talking about sexually conquering Montague women. 

Benvolio is seen as a peacemaker, and he made a genuine effort to stop the fight from occuring.

Tybalt is aggressive, violent. A peace hatred. He has said that he hates peace as strong as his disgust as Montagues.

Denzel Washington's Life Advice: Reflection Section | Wānanga

Welcome to another post on my blog. After watching Denzel Washington's motivational speech and life advice in Wānanga today, I thought to use that for the reflection section for today. 

Source title: Denzel Washington's Life Advice Will Leave You Speechless

Source: Motivation Madness

Speaker: Denzel Washington 

Source purpose: To motivate viewers about Denzel Washington's life and how he showed resilience in his life.

Critical literacy question: What views of the world is the text presenting?

Date: 21 May 2021

Denzel Washington explains that we should show resilience by never giving up and always keep on trying no matter what. Washington first talks about falling forward with given examples of former Baseball player Reggie Jackson who got struck out 2600 times in his career, the most in the history of baseball. But, you don't hear about the strikeouts, but people remember the home runs.

Another example he gave was Thomas Edison, who conducted 1,000 failed experiments and the one thousand and first was the light bulb. Washington quotes that, "every failed experiment is one step closer to success. You need to take risks."

Denzel says, "at first, we all will fail at some point in our lives. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something."

Later, he talked about his earlier life on how he did many acting auditions, but he failed and kept on failing. In 2019, he did a play called Fence's on Broadway. Washington also won the Tony Award. The play was held at the Court Theatre, it was the same theatre that Denzel Washington failed that first audition 30 years prior.

Plastic Pollution | Social Studies

Welcome to another post on my blog. This week, for Social Studies, we have been focusing on plastic pollution and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. First, we watched an 8-minute video about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch which gave us a lot of information about what it is and what we can do to resolve this global problem.

Ocean Pollution
Credit: Greenpeace

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Credit: Times of India

1. What did the video show us / encourage us to think about?
• This video explains the debris in the ocean. The scientists estimate that by 2050, there might be the same amount of plastic garbage as the amount of fish. SOME estimates hold that 99% of ocean-bound plastic waste is still unaccounted for. Plastic is a global issue and plastic accumulates in gyres (a large system of circulating ocean currents). Just the eastern part of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch spans to 1.6 million kilometre square (roughly twice the size of Texas).
• The patch is like a smog of microplastic particles, billions of them, very toxic over a wide area. 
• Plastic can also become brittle and break apart, plastic pieces persist. It’s unable to oxidise or become waterlogged like metals, wood, or paper, all types of plastic are designed to defeat natural decay.
• “All the plastic that’s been produced since 1950, since it’s a synthetic material, hydrocarbons, it’s probability still here on the planet,” explains IPRC oceanographer Sarah-Jeanne Royer, PhD at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.
2. How much plastic is there? What are the scientists working on?
• Scientists are worried about single-use packaging (straws, bottles, bags, cup lids etc).
3. What do YOU think?
• This is not a good thing because each plastic bottle breaks down every 650 years.
• We can help and try to save the environment by using the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle), not use single-use plastics, putting the rubbish in the right bins, etc.
• Now, we are seeing the UN talking about it, companies rising up and saying, “We’re going zero waste.” Seeing countries committing to stop the flow of trash from land to sea. It is possible to solve this problem. 
4. How can we help?
• We can help and try to save the environment by using the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle), not use single-use plastics, putting the rubbish in the right bins, etc.
• Now, we are seeing the UN talking about it, companies rising up and saying, “We’re going zero waste.” Seeing countries committing to stop the flow of trash from land to sea. It is possible to solve this problem. 

Protecting the Environment | Social Studies

Last month, we looked at protecting the environment and what we did was picking up rubbish in the school area. Our class was split into groups and we chose our designated area to pick up rubbish. After 20-30 minutes, we came back into class and saw how much rubbish was picked up by all groups. The picture below is how much our group picked up in two areas of the school.

Metals and Oxygen | Science

When a metal reacts with oxygen it produces a metal oxide.

Metal      +      Oxygen      ⇾      Metal Oxide

When a substance burns, the burning process is actually a reaction with oxygen. So when you burn something, you are adding oxygen to it.

Making a Metal Oxide

Aim: To make a metal oxide and observe the difference in properties of the product compared to the reactants.

Equipment:

1. A piece of magnesium
2. Bunsen burner
3. Safety glasses
4. Metal scissor tongs

Method:

1. Light your bunsen burner
2. Hold your piece of magnesium in the scissor tongs. Ensure you are holding onto the very tip of the magnesium.
3. Place the other end of the magnesium into the Bunsen flame (at the top of the blue flame).
4. When the magnesium begins to burn, do not look directly at it, as the light emitted can permanently damage your eyes.

The Western Front

The Western Front 1916-1917 map
Credit: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/western-front-1916-17-map

The Western Front was the main war during the First World War in 1915, invading Luxembourg and Belgium, to gain military control; this war ended in 1918 which symbolised the end of World War 1, the Allies (British Empire, France and the Russian Empire) won. Later, there was a Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on 28 June 1919, brought peace and the war came to an end. This treaty was between Germany and the Allied Powers. 

During 1918 and 1919, the German Revolution occurred and it was a civil conflict in the German Empire at the end of World War 1, which replaced the German federal constitutional monarchy which than later was known as the Weimar Republic.

The Seahorse and the Reef - Reflection Section | Wānanga

Welcome to another post on my blog. Today, I've completed my reflection section about the story I read in Social Studies. 

Text title: The Seahorse and the Reef

Text type: Fictional story  

Text creator: Witi Ihimaera

Critical Literacy Question: How does the text construct a version of reality?

Date: 7th May 2021 

In the fictional story 'The Seahorse and the Reef' by Witi Ihimaera, the story sends the message of saving the environment by not littering and polluting. 

he air

How does the text construct a version of reality?

The problem of the story is the sea is polluted. This problem is also seen in reality, many seas and oceans are being polluted due to many reasons. Plastic pollution is one reason why, plastic and debris is being dumped into the sea making the sea poisonous, toxic and polluted, which kills the sea creatures. Another problem is air pollution, this is also another problem in the story because the family lives in the industrial area. Air pollution also comes into the oceans and pollutes the sea. Due to pollution arriving into the sea, creatures are encrusting with ugliness and many creatures are dying.

I believe that this story is nicely made because it sends the message of saving the environment and taking awareness of saving the environment. 

Encryption Methods & Techniques - Cybersecurity: Cryptography | DTE

Crytography
Credit

Welcome to another post on my blog. In Digital Technology (DTE), we are looking at Cryptography in our main topic Cyber Security. For the final week for Term 1, we looked at encryption and its methods and techniques. First, we had to look and use Discover Crypt, decrypt the encrypted message. This game is designed to increase the knowledge of those who are interested in learning cryptography.

Next, after playing the game, we had to use the knowledge which we had learnt from Discover Crypt into the slide which we were assigned. This slide involves three stages of cryptographic methodologies - easy, medium and hard.

Lastly, after making the presentation, our next task was to write a personal reflection of our experience in developing our work.

Personal Reflection

I feel I've learnt a lot from the cryptography topic; this is because I really didn't know what cryptography is, what it means and information relating to cryptography such as encryption. I learnt that there are so many encryption methods and techniques that are found in the slide that I made. It was really good that we were given an video that overviews and introduces the main topic of cryptography.

Protecting Our Planet - Trashing The World | Social Studies

Protecting Our Planet Starts With You
Credit: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/ocean/earthday-infographic-large.jpg

Welcome to another post on my blog. In Social Studies, we've moved on from the big topic of Music Through Time to the next topic, Trashing The World. This topic involves climate change, our oceans, our planet. What we are doing is harming the oceans and the planet. Today's activity was to find the positive things which are going on in the world which is helping climate change. I've found a few articles which is helping pollution, reducing fossil fuels, planting trees, etc. Next to the article, is a link to the full article.

• France voted to ban domestic flights in favour of train travel if the trip takes 2.5 hours or less. Link
• Norway has been the first country in the world to see the sale of electric cars overtake sales of those powered by fossil fuels. Link
• Paris is removing 140,000 on-street car parking spaces, replacing concrete with gardens to make the city greener and more friendly. Link
• History made: for the first time ever, renewable energy surpassed fossil fuels as the European Union’s main source of electricity. Wind and Solar for the win! Link
• Scotland, home to 90,000 species of animals and plants, has announced plans to protect 30% of its land to boost biodiversity and tackle climate change. Link
• In just the first week of 2021, hundreds of locals in Indonesia have helped to clear 110 tons of plastic off four beaches (equivalent to the weight of 57 cars!) Link
• A Danish company lets you grow trees or plants from pencils. Their biodegradable pencils, which contain seeds, can be planted once you’re done using them! Link
• Plogging is a fitness trend that originated in Sweden and means to pick up litter while jogging. It not only takes care of the environment, but keep the ‘ploggers’ healthy too. Link
• Why cut down trees when you can grow wood in a laboratory? MIT scientists have developed a way to grow wood from plant cells that could help slow deforestation. Link
• A compassionate city in New Zealand is closing a busy road from a month to allow an endangered sea lion to nest with her pup and reach the ocean safely. Link

Corrosion | Science

Welcome to another post on my blog. For science, we've moved on from the Acids and Bases chapter to the next chapter, Metallurgy. Metallurgy is the process that is used for the extraction of metals in their pure form. Yesterday, we started off with an experiment about corrosion. Corrosion reacts with the environment and eats away the layer which corrodes the metal. When metals are exposed to the environment, they can eat away, break down. This process is called corrosion. Rust is the term used to describe the corrosion of iron.

Corrosion

In this experiment, we are investigating rusting and preventing rusting.

Aim: To investigate the factors that cause rusting and techniques that may prevent rusting in iron

Hypothesis:

• A  =  A bit of rust
• B  =  Rust, but more than A
• C  =  Lots of rust
• D  =  The nail won't rust because the oil has protected the nail
• E  =  The nail won't rust because the nail is protected by the bung
• F  =  The vaseline is going to protect the nail from rusting by giving it a coating
• G  =  Like the vaseline, the nail polish has coated the nail, so it's not going to rust
• H  =  The zinc might protect the nail, but I'm not sure

Equipment:

1. 8 Test Tubes
2. Large beaker
3. 8 iron nails
4. Tap water
5. Salt
6. Boiled water
7. Oil
8. Calcium Chloride (CaCl)
9. Bung
10. Vaseline gel
11. Nail polish
12. Zinc pallets (Zn)

Method:

1. Label the eight test tubes, from A - H and place them into the beaker.
2. Put an iron nail in each beaker.
3. Test tube contents:
• A  =  Nail
• B  =  Nail + Water
• C  =  Nail + Salt water
• D  =  Nail + Boiled water + oil
• E  =  Nail + CaCl + bung
• F  =  Nail + Vaseline + water
• G =  Nail + Paint/Nail polish + water
• H =  Nail + Zn + water
• Fill the water in the test tube at the same amount (less than half)
4. Leave the test tubes undisturbed for at least three days.

1. A  =  Nail
• Control - normal condition - comparing to other test tubes
2. C  =  Nail + Salt water
• It rusts the iron nail quicker. 
3. E  =  Nail + CaCl + bung
• Drys the air which is trapped in the test tube