Boomerangs in Social Studies.

Explain the purpose of the activity

Since the last week of term two, we have been learning about aboriginal art, symbols and boomerangs. The first task that we had to do was research. The research involved finding out information about the symbols that were used, and the types of boomerangs. The purpose of the activity was to find out about a different culture and to explain the way that some people express themselves through the art and designs that they do. 

The story of my boomerang

I didn't really have a story, I just went straight in and painted as I wasn't here the first two days and didn't have time to plan it. But after I started painting and hoping for the best, I found a story within the paint that I had strewn across it. I decided that it was about how the earth water and sun all relate to one another and help each other thrive. I not as happy with my boomerang as I hoped to be, but with only one day to decide on a story and what the story was going to be about, I think that the boomerang turned out as good as expected. The green, black and brown all represent the earth while the different shade of blue show the oceans, lakes and rivers. Then finally, the orangey-browns, oranges and the yellows are the sun/sunlight, touching all the land around them. 

What went well while painting your boomerang?

Everything went well, I think. While I didn't have a plan at all and just guessed, the colours all seem to fit together, like a puzzle. If I could change some things about the design, it would be that I had a plan that was detailed and that I didn't have to rush the painting part of the boomerang. Using tape to create a nice, crisp (well, sort of crisp) edge was the best thing that went well. It helped me sort of see where my design was going and where each colour was going to go. I believe that people tried their best while painting their boomerang and that people enjoyed this activity.

Test for Carbon Dioxide Gas

Aim: To show that carbon dioxide gas is produced when a metal carbonate reacts with acid
Equipment

• Two boiling tubes
• Delivery tube and bung
• Bunsen Burner
• Test tube rack 
• Wooden splint
• Bottle of acid
• Small amount of Metal Carbonate
• Test tube tongs
• Safety glasses

Method

1. Light your bunsen burner

2. Add a pea-sized amount of the metal carbonate into one of the boiling tubes.

3. Place this boiling tube into a test tube rack. Ensure you have the bung and delivery tube

 ready. 

4. Add 5ml of acid to the boiling tube and quickly insert the bung and delivery tube into the mouth 

of the boiling tube.

5. Holding the other boiling tube with your tongs, capture the gas produced. 

6. When you think that the tube is full, light a wooden splint. 

7. Carefully remove the boiling tube from under the delivery tube, taking care to keep

 it facing upward. 

8. Insert the burning splint into the mouth of the test tube. 

Observations:

If you weren't quick into when you shoved the splint in the test tube, then there is a chance that the
splint won't go out. But other than that, the test was a good way to test for the carbon dioxide gas. 

Making a Metal Oxide

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

• Magnesium strip
• Bunsen Burner
• Safety glasses
• Metal scissor tongs

Method:

1. Light your Bunsen burner
2. Hold the piece of the magnesium in the scissor tongs. Ensure that you are holding onto the very tip of the magnesium
3. Place the other end of the magnesium into the flame. (At the top of the blue flame.)
4. When the magnesium starts to bun, do not look directly at it as the light that it emits can cause permanent  damage to your eyes

Observations:

It takes a wee while for the magnesium to catch, but when it does it looks amazing. Its a white light that, when looked at through a pair of tinted safety glasses, sparkles. The burnt magnesium looks like an orb of pure white light. Once the magnesium is burnt out, you should be left with  a white, crumbly powder. That's the metal oxide powder that we needed to make. While it was an easy experiment to accomplish, it is still quite dangerous to do as you could get seriously injured. S we had to make sure that we took the right safety precautions so we don't get hurt.

Making Salts II

Aim:To produce copper sulfate salt by reacting copper oxide with acid

Equipment

• Copper Oxide powder
• Dilute sulfuric acid
• Measuring Cylinder
• Two Beakers
• Bunsen Burner
• Tripod
• Gauze Mat
• funnel 
• filter paper
• thermometer
• Spatula
• Evaporating basin
• Stirring Rod     

1.Add 20ml of sulfuric acid to a beacker, heat the acid until it reaches 70 degrees. Turn your Bunsen Burner off.

2.Once heated, use your spatula to add small amounts of copper oxide powder to the beaker, mix for 30 seconds

3.Repeat step 2 until no more oxide will dissolve. Allow the beaker to cool

4.Fold the filter paper and place it in the funnel. \

5.Place the filtered funnel in the second beaker

6.Make sure that the beaker is cool enough to hold at the top, gently swirl the contents in the beaker, then pour it into the funnel

7.Rinse the previously used beaker and place it back on the tripod with 50-60ml of water. 

8.Place the evaporating basin on top of the backer and carefully pour some of the solution into the basin. 

9.Gently heat the beaker until the mixture is reduced in half

10.Leave it to cool. Once cool remove from the beaker and place somewhere it won't be disturbed. Leave for a few days and observe. If done correctly, blue copper sulfate crystals should form.

Results:

We were able to somewhat create the desired salt, except that it isn't ours. Our experiment was destroyed by another classes student, this is the results of their experiment. 

However, on Monday this should be redone with the experiment that is being recreated. 

Discussion:

During the experiment, we were able to recreate the original. The acid in the sulfuric acid was combined with the copper oxide powder and triggered a chemical reaction which created the copper sulfate salt. While in the earlier parts in the experiment, if you did it yourself, you would have noticed that it was a complete liquid until when you next checked up on it after some time. By when you looked at it, it would have crystallised. This is simply because after evaporating the water molecules only the copper sulfate salt was left.

Conclusion:

We don't currently have a conclusion of whether the experiment worked or not. However, we can report that we followed all the instructions to a tee. This post and my other classmates will be later on updated with the results of the experiments.

Introduction to Essays...

Sample introduction

During the harrowing time of Apartheid, a lot of injustices were served to the black population of South Africa. In the film The Power of One, directed by John Avildsen, the scene where Sergeant Borman forces Geel Piet to eat donkey excrement paints the picture of the ill treatment towards black people. The following techniques are used in this scene: dietetic sound, camera angles and shots, and dialogue. These film techniques helped convey this important idea and caused the scene to have a strong impact on the audience.

Highlight the different elements of TAKO (Title, Author, Keywords from the Question, Outline of Ideas) using four different colours. Create a key to indicate which colour goes with which part of TAKO.

Orange-Title 
Yellow- Author/Director
Green- Keywords from the question
Blue- Outline of IdeasWhat is this person’s ARGUMENT going to be in their essay?
I think that their argument will be that during the apartheid in Africa, the native black people were treated very unfairly by the whites. The whites being the ones who thought that they had more rights than the black did, who, by the way, were there in Africa way before the whites...

What do you think this person’s three body paragraphs are going to be about?
1. Black Africans were segregated from the whites, and were put into their own villages away from everyone else.
2.People (the blacks) were treated unfairly just based on the colour of their skin, and because no one would stand up for them or their rights. 
3. The ill treatment and the injustice that the black people of South Africa endured during the reign of the apartheid.


Now it’s your turn to write a conclusion. You just need to re-state the same ideas in a different way! Here is an example.

In conclusion, The Power of One by John Avildsen is a film that shows the unacceptable treatment of the Black Africans in South Africa. Throughout the scene, Avildsen uses assorted file techniques to portray what is happening; which is Sergeant Borman making Geel Piet eat poo off his shoe. Dialogue, camera angles, sound and the camera shots help show that the treatment of not only Geel Piet, but all the Black Africans endured just because of the Whites and becasue of what the Apartheid was doing to them as well.

Neutralisation 101

In Science, we have been learning about the topic Acids and Bases. When an acid and a base get mixed together, a chemical reaction can occur. A base cancels out the effects of the acid, and when this happens it is called a neutralisation as when you add just  the right amount of acid and base together, you get a neutral solution.


Aim: To observe a neutralisation reaction
Equipment:

• A test tube
• Test tube rack
• 1 mol L-1 Na2CO3 (Sodium carbonate)
• 1 mol L-1 HCI (Hydrochloric acid)
• Dropper or Dropper Bottle 
• Universal Indicator Solution 

Method:

1. Place approximately 1-2ml  of sodium carbonate to a test tube and place the test tube in the test tube rack. Then, add 3-5 drops of the Universal Indicator solution. 
2. Using the dropper bottle, add HCI drop by drop, slowly. You need to be very careful with how much you add in as even a little bit extra, you may miss the neutralisation point. 

Observations/Results

It's very hard to get it to neutral especially when you add just the smallest bit over. Getting the colour to a nice green colour took us a while, with it going between to colours the most; red and indigo. But after a while, we managed, as a group to get it to green. Well, Jess, Nadia and Molly did. The closest that I got to a green colour was a very off yellowish green. After we played around a bit, had a competition to see who could get it to green the fastest and actually got it to green, we got told we could make a rainbow. A good rainbow. Which we managed to do. Not with all of the fourteen colours but with five, which covered the length of the pH scale. The colours that we made into a rainbow were red, then to orange and yellow.Green, Blue and a purple-ly indigo colour to finish. 

Red is the strongest acidity of all the acids and then indigo is the strongest base. Red, orange and yellow are all acid, while the blues and indigo's are all bases. The green, as you may have realised by now, is the neutral colour, at pH seven. This was a very interesting experiment as you got completely different results from another team. It may have been easier for another team to get to the pH seven, or the may not have been able to get it green at all. 

Just to the side is the rainbow that we made. It also features the tips of someones finger? Okay. As it turns out, it's my finger. :)

Overall, this was a very exciting experiment and I can't wait until we get another chance to do an experiment like this. 

SEXXY Paragraph Writing

For the last week, we have been focusing on writing SEXXY paragraphs based around the film, The Power of One. The paragraph below is one that I wrote in a group with Nadia and Molly. The picture that we used is the scene where you see Sergeant Bormann and Geel Piet. 

The long shot is common throughout the film. Including this shot of Sergeant Borman's legs while in the prison. In the foreground, we see the guards legs and baton while in the background we see PK and Geel Piet talking. The director, John Avildsen, used a long shot for this scene showcasing Sergeant Borman's baton to make you believe that something may happen to Geel Piet. It is also to show the guard is in a high position of power. The audience also feels a sense of worry for Geel Piet, as we believe that something may happen, based on the stance of Sergeant Boram. The audience is made to feel worried and empathetic for all of the characters in this shot. Where Geel Piet gets beaten to death, there is a strong similarity to this scene that we have mentioned. This can be contrasted to another scene were you see Sergeant Borman's legs and the baton with Geel Piet at the Sergeant's feet, almost foreshadowing the scene that came before it.