Week 2 blog post

This week, we continued with Sir Edmund Hillary, Jean Batten, and Ernest Rutherford — three amazing New Zealanders who changed the world.

We found out about the incredible things they did:

• Sir Edmund Hillary was the first person to climb Mt Everest, and he helped build schools and hospitals in Nepal and did you know that he went to both the North Pole and the South Pole.
• Jean Batten was a brave pilot who flew all the way from England to New Zealand by herself!

Ernest Rutherford was a scientist who discovered important things about atoms — he even split the atom!

 

We talked about how each of them inspired other people and made a big impact on future generations.

We also mapped Jean Batten’s flight path on a world map and saw all the countries she flew over. It was really cool to see how far she travelled!

Then we chose one of the three people and made a fact file about them. We wrote about who they were, what they did, and why they were important.

For our STEAM challenges, we got creative!

• We designed a survival tool or shelter, thinking like Sir Edmund Hillary on an expedition.
• We designed paper airplanes to test which would fly the furthest, like Jean Batten

We also built a structure to keep an ice cube from melting. We had to think carefully about materials, insulation, and design.

💡 What We Learned:

• We learned that one person can make a big difference in the world.
• We practised teamwork, problem-solving, and design thinking.
• We used science and creativity to build and test our ideas.
• We gained confidence in sharing our learning in different ways — maps, writing, building, and presenting.

It was an exciting week full of challenges, learning, and fun! We’re proud of what we created and how much we discovered about these inspiring New Zealanders.