We have been learning about bees in the Pukeko Hapori.
One of the activities we completed when The Bee Lady visited was to create a honeybee using play dough and pipe cleaners. We had to as accurately as we could ensure we showed all the parts of the anatomy as a bee.
In the Pukeko Hapori students have been learning about insects. First students ordered Countdown Super Insect cards and then scanned them to add them to the app. Afterwards students participated in a STEAM challenge in which the Design Brief was to create an insect using only 3 pipe cleaners. The criteria was that the insect must:
This week the weather station has finally been set up on the school roof. Thanks to the lovely workers from GutterCare for installing and Mr Jones for the pole.
It is placed really high up, as our school is 3 stories high, so we should get really clear data as nothing can block it.
Today we started to learn how to enter data into a spreadsheet and then make a line graph with some of that information. The station sends so much interesting stuff. It is sent everyday at 2.30 pm to Mrs Hansen. We are working on getting our groups setup and then they will receive the data and do the recording. 
This week we did pH testing. pH testing is a scientific way to find out if a liquid is acidic, alkaline or neutral. If a liquid is acidic then it can start dissolving things, for example our stomach acid, or hydrochloric acid. It can dissolve virtually everything, even metal. The only exception to this is if it’s harder or denser than steel. If a liquid is alkaline then it simply just makes an acidic liquid turn into a neutral liquid, but if the alkaline has a lower pH level than the acid then the acid will turn the alkaline into acid. Neutral is the number seven on the pH scale and neither had the effects of an acid or an alkaline liquid, instead it just doesn’t really do anything. Neutral liquids are normally our rain water but because of greenhouse gases our rain water is now acidic and can create caves by dissolving limestone cavities to create rock.
We tested the pH of various liquids including soda, water mixed with baking soda, water mixed with detergent, milk, our school’s water, orange juice and tomato juice. Fruit juices had a pH lower than six most of the time, diluted waters were alkalis, soda had a pH of 3.7, milk had a pH of five and water was neutral. Our next experiment was about the pH level of soil. Certain vegetables and plants required a certain soil pH to grow. The range of soil pH for plants is about six to seven. We took samples of soil from three different areas, those being the garden, the field and the bark soil. Once we had all three samples, we mixed them with water and mixed it to dilute the water, then dipping a universal pH strip into the mixture and reading the pH. The soil was up to standard, ranging from 6.5 to 6.7.
Today we had a visit from Oscar and Micheal. They came to help us understand potential and kinetic energy. This will help us work out how we will get the water to move once we collect it.
We did an experiment with balloons moving across the string – The balloons were different sizes so we had to come up with a hypothesis of which would get to the end first. There were mixed views so then we put it to the test. Our first one didn’t work as the straw got caught so we had to adapt the setup. Then we had a wide variety of results due to different variables – now we understand why you have to do more than one test. You need to collect lots of data to make an informed decision.
This week we had Mrs Bebleman back to help us understand fair testing and learn about variables. This will help us when we start looking at doing some testing of our own.
After learning about variable and testing we did an experiment with rolling a car down different height levels – We needed to learn to time things and we also learned that we each have different reaction times so you need to do tests more than once and then work out an average and try not to change anything.
We looked at checking the instruments we use are giving a reliable result. This is called calibration. We checked the weight of 1/2 cup of water – you had to be really careful to have it on the line and then you still got variations from the different measures on different cups.
After doing this we went for a walk to look at our community water solutions for our stormwater – we walked along to see how it came from our school down to the first stream and then into ponds. It then moves again through piping into the Puhinui Steam which is the beginning of our water heading for the sea. It has to go through the different levels to stop the water flooding in heavy rain and to stop erosion. It also helps to remove any pollutants that might have been introduced.
We looked at Auckland Water situation
We went out and looked at the drainage and types of pipes around our school
This term students are rotating around 5 different activities to learn more skills and practice what they already know to solve problems and challenges.
Here are some of week 1 blog posts
The Piwakawaka students followed the LAUNCH process to solve a real-world issue, first of all discussing the problem and creating a design they thought would be used by a number of people. Students used the website Tinkercad to create a 3D design and downloaded this so that their prototype could be printed. They created adverts to provide information about their finished product and reflected on the process from start to finish.
Students in the Piwakawaka hapori have been learning about augmented reality (AR) and experimenting with the Makr app to apply this knowledge. They have used this app to create an informative clip for their community. It is great to see the students share their experimentation and knowledge with others and collectively grow their skills.
