Epro8 Challenge Competition

The Epro8 Challenge (Engineer, Problem Solve, Innovate) was held at Monrad Intermediate on March 30th and 31st.  Two teams entered the Year 7/8 competition.  The Whakarongo #Hashtags came in 6th place with their outstanding electronic Mars Rover and the Whakarongo Brainwaves showed innovation and good old Kiwi ingenuity to drive their swing-rover-crane into 2nd place.  The Brainwaves will compete at Roslyn School in the semifinals in Week 11.

The Whakarongo #Hashtags - Ethan Riley, Flynn Harris, Forbes Kennedy and Ayden Armstrong

The Whakarongo Brainwaves - Sophie Collis, Callum Whitley, Trent Shailer and Ryan Morgan

Wednesday morning, March 31st saw the Whakarongo Einsteins compete in the Year 5/6 event, also at Monrad.  They pitted their skills against ten other teams, attempting a variety of challenges and designing a load bearing crane, a manual mars rover and set of airport scales.  They ended the round in 2nd equal place and also move through to the semifinals at Roslyn School in Week 11.

                                                       

 The Whakarongo Einsteins - Caleb Woisin, Kaija Fouhy, Zac Bradford and Axis Simon

Congratulations to all our participating teams - its was a fantastic effort at a fun new event.  Good Luck to the Brainwaves and the Einsteins for their upcoming semifinal!

Epro8 Challenge Training Session

Students were give two and half hours on Friday March 11, to attempt a number of Epro8 practice challenges.  They used a recommended resource list to attempt a catapult and a water tower.   Mr Nathan White, an engineering enthusiast and secondary school teacher, came in for the last half hour to give them feedback on their ideas and to future proof some of their practices.  Mr White said that he had worked with year 9/10 GATE students who had not been as successful as our students were. The competition dates are March 30 and 31 and we wish our three teams entering all the best!

 

    

 

              

Calling Outer Space

This term GATE students are looking at why we have not been contacted by aliens!  If we assume there are other life forms out there, why have they not made themselves known to us?  What do they see when they observe us?  Are we a planet that invites others in, either through our environment, or our humanity?  Groups have been tasked with answering this question.  They have also worked to create an advertisement suitable for advertising Earth.  Here are some examples of their work.

Haepapa

Caleb and Kaija

Greta and Carter

Aroha

Aroha Pod used Pic Collage to advertise their favourite parts about life on earth.  Here are a number of collages.

Prya Simon

Aidan Harris

Cameron Donald

Song Recording

Here is one of the tracks recorded by senior GATE students at the beginning of term four.  The lyrics were originally written by Amy van Leeuwen.  The final  song was put together with Christopher Rankin playing guitar and Mrs Zhou playing the piano.

  

Calling Outer Space

This term GATE students are looking at why we have not been contacted by aliens!  If we assume there are other life forms out there, why have they not made themselves known to us?  What do they see when they observe us?  Are we a planet that invites others in, either through our environment, or our humanity?  Groups have been tasked with answering this question.  They have also worked to create an advertisement suitable for advertising Earth.  Here are some examples of their work:

The Navigator Centre

By Sophie, Callum and Max

By Forbes, Ayden and Alyssa

By Kelsey, Eric and Jacob

And have a look at this article from November 17th, just goes to show we aren't the only ones thinking about this...maybe they would like our ads to broadcast!

Britain joins new hunt for E.T.

Scientists embark on 'truly awe-inspiring' six-year mission to boldly look for extra-terrestrial life

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E.T. from Steven Spielberg's 1982 blockbuster E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Photo: UNIVERSAL

By Sarah Knapton, Science Correspondent

6:55AM GMT 16 Mar 2014

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Britain has signed up to a space mission to hunt for extra terrestrial life on planets outside the Solar System.

The European Space Agency’s Plato project will see a huge observatory launched into space to seek out Earth-like planets in habitable zones which could sustain life.

The mission was described as 'truly awe-inspiring’ by science minister David Willetts who this week pledged £25 million to the project.

“Space-based observatories have shown that rocky planets very much like Earth are almost certainly common in the Galaxy,” said Mr Willetts.

“Plato is a mission to find and understand these planets and in particular to assess their potential for hosting extra terrestrial life.

Related Articles

Kahurangi

By Christopher and Max

By Axis and Flynn

Calling outer space!!

Why aliens haven't called us.

Why have aliens not called us yet? One reason is that they may not have found us. Another, they might not be able to call us yet. But maybe, they haven't called because of us. Maybe they haven't called because they don't want us to lash out at them, like we do whenever we don't know something. Maybe they don't want a galactic war. They may not want our viruses and pollution, and they don't want us to rip apart their planet as well. The wars, the plagues, the death, these are all the things that may be dissuading aliens from revealing their existence to us.

Zentangle Art

Zentangle is a wonderfully creative art form which is built up stroke by stroke rather than starting with an image in mind.  A number of students explored this style of drawing, which was originally created to help calm the busy minds of busy people.    Play the slideshow to see their terrific art!


                                       

Have a read of our terrific poems about the stars.  We have used images from the Hubble telescope as inspiration and worked on finding our own personal voice in our writing - as well as using poetic conventions.  Can you spot our metaphors, similies and alliteration?

Acrostic Poems  

Sparkling space stars,

Twinkling in the big night sky.

A glimmering, shiny diamond

Racing across the glittering galaxy

Sounds beat like a drum but nobody can hear them.

 

By Aidan Harris, Callum Thompson,

Cameron Donald and Prya Simon.

                        Stars in the night sky

                               That twinkle

                              A shimmering, beautiful galaxy

               Flying acRross the diamond sky

                               Sparkling hot stars

By Aidan Harris and Cameron Donald

       Shimmer shimmer through the sky

Talking stars for you and I

      A star can travel through the night

     Racing stars can be red and white

       Shimmer shimmer through the sky,

         Talking stars for you and I.

(to be sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle)

By Prya Simon

Free Verse

Little Fireflies

Stars, stars, up so high

Shining brightly upon me.

When its dark

They are my nightlight,

Lighting up the world.

Made of gas,

Different colours and shapes,

White dwarves, red giants, rainbow nebulas

Like a crowd of little fireflies sparkling.

They’re big, small and rainbow

All very different.

Nothing is like a star.

By Mackenzie Swindells

  

Stars

What is something, sparkly, shiny and bright?

A Star!

Glowing in the velvet sky.

What’s that I see?

A shooting star

Leaving glittery sparks behind.

I make a wish

To fly and see a red giant

Twinkling stars above me

Lighting up the world,

I see everything around me,

Including…

A comet and a star burst.

What is happening?

I’m flying to the Pillars of Creation

They look so pretty

In the peace around me.

Most stars are colourful - shimmery and bold

But no star is like any other.

I see a neutron star

Like a nuclear explosion

As I fly down to Earth,

 I see the Ring Nebula

It is like a circular rainbow

Standing as still as a statue.

When I am back on the green grass,

I look up and see the Winter Stars

Like tiny fireflies

The stars begin to fade away,

In the sun’s giant rays

In space, where the other galaxies live

They are still vibrating and shining brightly

But,

I always know they are there.

                              By Kaija Fouhy

Twinkling Stars

Twinkly, glittery,

The stars in the sky sparkle.

Suddenly I see a shooting star and make a wish

To go to space.

I see a red star

I wonder what it is?

As I look up I hear my Mum calling me to come in

Time to hop into bed.

By Grace Connor

                

Nighttime Stars

The time is night

The stars are shimmering in the air.

They look like they are right there by the window –

But actually,

They are far far away.

You can’t see them all the time but,

They’re always there.

They fade away because of the sun

Strangely,

Because the sun is a star too!

Oh, how bright they are!

Some shimmer,

Some shine,

Some sparkle,

Stars.

                       By Hunter Kennedy