OPS Exam - Well Done Sam and Kaylee

Room 10 does it again :

Sam Lok came 16th in New Zealand for Year 8 in the Otago Problem Solving Final Exam. The BEST mathematicians in Yr 7 & 8 (1500) qualified for this. Kaylee Johnson finished in the top 30% - go Kaylee and Sam, a huge effort!!!

Room 10 Weaving with Simon

Today Room 10 did weaving with Simon  

we saw lots of different stuff about Maori history and weaving

 here are some photos of us making some Taka (square mat)

Brittany and Olivia doing weaving

Mr Barr helping Vincent,Jackie and Conner

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this is what it looks like when its finished

By Aieshah and Tony 

To check out or latest A.L.L science activites go to A.L.L page .

Lava Lamp in a Bottle

Aim:

 Our aim is to make a lava lamp in a bottle.

Equipment: 

• Beaker
• Oil
• Water
• Food colouring
• Bottle
•  Eye dropper

Method:

Step 1: Pour 200ml of cold water into a one letter bottle.

Step 2: Add 500ml of oil into the bottle.

Step 3: Pour three or four drops of food colouring into the mixture.

Step 4:Drop half of an alka-seltzer tablet into the bottle.

Step 5: Observe and record.

Results:

In experiment one when we added the alka-seltzer tablet the bubbles slowly rose.The second experiment was different.The bubbles rose along the side of the bottle. The reaction  was shorter. The third experiment had larger bubbles and lasted longer. Finally experiment 4 was the most effective.The bubbles were both smaller and larger. There were many more bubbles than the others. The reaction lasted a long time.

Conclusion:

The alka-seltzer made the mixture react because when it hits the water it reacts and makes the coloured  water bubble through the oil. A proper lava lamp heats up the oil which makes it less dense. It causes tiny bubbles of gas to rise. When it gets to the very top the bubbles pop and the colour falls to the bottom. This will carry on and on until the light is turned off. It will still work for ten to twenty minutes with out the light on before it cools down.

By Madison Lynskey-Reid.

Plastic milk

  Our aim  is to try to make plastic milk.

Equipment: Beaker, Bowl, 800w microwave, strainer, (200 ml of milk), water and a teaspoon 

Method:

Step 1: Pour  200 ml of milk into the beaker.

Step 2: Heat it for 50 secs in a microwave.

Step 3: Put 4 teaspoons of vingar into the heated milk.

Step 4: Stir the heated milk and vinegar gently.

Step 5: Strain the mixture through the strainer. 

Step 6: Rinse the strainer.

Results:

The plastic milk had a horrible vinegar smell. Also it was a little bit white and looked off. It felt quite squishy. 

 

Conclusion: 

The hot milk with the vinegar made the plastic milk. Whey comes from cheese. When cream is pressed  while making cheese it separates out into two parts. The curd portion is used further in making the cheese, while the leftovers are called whey.

Next week we are using . . .

By Aieshah Whiu-Bennett :)

Can You Get Plastic Out of Milk?

Prediction: I think the milk will fizz up and explode.

Equipment: 1 cup of milk, sieve, bowl, teaspoon, vinegar.

Method: 
1.    Put one cup of milk into bowl. 
2.    Warm up green milk in microwave for 50sec in an 800watt microwave. Blue milk needs to go in an 800watt microwave for 1min. 
3.    Add four teaspoons of vinegar to the milk. 
4.    Stir the mixture gently. 
5.    Strain the solution through the sieve. 
6.    Rinse and sieve the Casein.

Result: I made a substance that is crumbly and feels like squishy plastic. A vinegar smell is given off by the Casein which also has a white scrambled egg appearance. It sounds like heaps of little pops as you squish it. After a day it has a harder surface. It smells like vinegar and looks like dried up cheese. Now it does not make any noise when you squish it.

Conclusion: We made a substance called Casein (Latin word for cheese). Casein occurs when acid meets milk. The Casein in milk does not mix with acids so it forms blobs. The non-scientific word for Casein is Curd. Casein is used to make cheese. Whey is also used for ricotta, brown cheeses and animal feed.

Art Competition

This Friday year 7/8 had an Art Competition with the one and only Mike Glover the fabulous artist.  It was a tough job for him to judge our outstanding efforts!!!

Skate jam

Skate skate skate last Friday year 7/8 had a chance to learn how to either SKATE BOARD or ROLLER SKATE there were ramps and jumps for the most confident people.

Friday Afternoon Sport

Every Friday afternoon at school, the Merrin Year 7/8 kids in the A and B soccer/football team, head down to Avonhead Park, to play other school in a match of football for 20minutes each way.
This week, the A team lost the game in the final 20seconds, the score at the end was 4-3 to Russley. The player of the day, was Tony, who was in goal keep for the second half, he saved a heap of goals like a pro! Yeah Tony!

Celebrating Success

We have created a new page called Celebrating Success. On this page we will showcase success in our room. First person on this page is Hunter.

Dance Performance

Here are some photos of our performance in the hall today from our outstanding dancers!! Move over John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, we are hip to the happenin' jive, grooving to the rhythm, smooth on the dance floor (or sumthin' like that ;) ).

Room 10

This Terms Topics.

This term in room 10, we are learning about careers, learning and reading with understanding, to think using our times tables and division strategies. We are also learning to persuade through writing. We hope everyone had a great holiday and we also hope everyone gets back on track and start working again.

By Vincent Chen

Jeremiah's Recount

The Amazing Camp Glentui

On Tuesday the 28^th of February, it was an exciting day week because I was going to camp. When I woke up I ate my cereal, brushed my teeth and got dressed up for camp. Then I, my sister and my dad drove off to school. I said to my dad and sister goodbye.

First at school lots of cars were parked at the courts. Then I was looking for the car that I was going in. After that I kept looking, looking, and looking but I didn’t know which car so I asked Mr. Barr. He said “You’re with Suzi, Kaylee’s mother.” When Mr. Barr finished talking he showed me were she was (and her car). Then I saw Kaylee, Montana, Olivia, Lucas, and Hunter behind the car. When that was finished John Q., Dave, and Sam walked up to me and just talked.

Just the Mr. Barr blew the whistle and called all of us for a quick brief meeting on how to get there also our behavior on the court with the parents and teachers and students. When Mr. Barr was finished talking he said “Lets go,” with excitement.

We all went inside the car me and Hunter were at the back, Montana, Lucas, and Olivia were in the middle of the car, Kaylee and her mom were at the front of the car. And we were off and on the road and about 30 minutes we got so bored. Then Kaylee put on a Glee CD me and Hunter just ignored it but Lucas was really annoyed of the whole car trip and then Hunter said “You should have taken the back seat Lucas,” and after like a minute he also said, “I feel for you mate.” After 1 hour & 30 minutes we were at Glentui Meadows Camp. When we arrived we parked up and took everything and our bags inside the dinning hall.

Then we all waited for the trailer to arrive and everyone stayed warm at the fire because it was so cold inside and outside. And about 11:20am the trailer arrived and some of the parents and students helped carry the bags inside the dining hall. When I found my bags I put everything beside the door, now we had to wait for Mr. Russell and his cabin sheet. But then Mrs. Mac said “Just go and look for your cabin mates,” and so we went and looked.

Sam, Dave, Caleb, and I were upstairs and went to the 10^th cabin. We looked around and we unpacked our bags, and went to search for the other 4 people in our cabin. So we looked downstairs and looked inside the 4^th cabin and there were Tim, Vincent, Alex, and Sean. Then Caleb said “you guy’s there’s a cool cabin upstairs and there’s a curtain,” then Tim said “but I just unpacked,” and then they just followed us to the 10^th cabin. Then we heard a whistle blow, we all went to the common room and Mr. Russell was there also with Mr. Barr. We all sat down on the carpet and listened to what Mr. Russell was saying and he was saying the group rotations. Then after that I knew I was in group 3 with John.

On the first rotation we did outdoor cooking with Mr. Barr and we made pikelets from a hobo stove and John and I made 3 pikelets. Then we went to Mr. Russell and played softball and our team won. After that we did River Study with the DOC people and we caught tiny little creatures in the river. Then it was morning tea we were allowed to take two biscuits and I just went inside our cabin and Caleb, Sam and I were just playing a card game. And then Mr. Barr came in for inspection and Mr. Barr said “you’ll get 9 out of 10 for your cabin,” and then he just went to the other cabin to inspect. After that we had dinner and the hosts were going to cook and the hosts were Jarn and Gea. We ate and it was the best dinner I ever had and after dinner we had dessert and it was the best and it was delicious. Jarn and Jay are the best cooks ever.

On the 2^nd day I went down and had breakfast cornflakes with milk and fruit salad and I also had toast with jam. Then I went up and got dressed and went down again and went to common room, and after Mr. Russell had finished talking we did our rotations. Our 4^th rotation was sports with Mr. Russell and we played softball, it was a pretty intense game but we won by 2 points and it was an awesome game. Next we did abseiling we waited for Naomi at the parking lot we just went to the cliff that were going to abseil. While we were walking John and I were just talking. When we got there I waited for a long time for my turn to abseil and I was really nervous that I keep thinking I might fall. Now it was my turn to abseil some people say “It’s not that high,” but to me it was. This is it I was going to do it and I did I felt so scared and like 10 seconds I got used to it and I felt confident and I forgot of thinking that I was going to fall. Then after that I felt really joyful and after that I got back up took my watch and jacket and went to the dinning room at camp. After that we played spotlight at 8 to 9:30 pm and it was really great I got caught on the 1^st game on the 2^nd game I won on the 3^rd I got caught again.

On the 3^rd it was the same as yesterday and the same thing like breakfast then we had a meeting about the walk and you could choose the long or the short walk. I chose the long walk. We had to stay who choose the long walk and discussed about what we had to bring. After we finished we got our bags and packed everything we needed. The walk was supposed to be a 3 hour walk but then it change to a 5 hour walk. At 9:30 we watched Mr. Bean Disaster Movie it was really funny movie and everybody was laughing At 10:30 I was really sleepy and I just went to my bunk and slept.

On the last day it was a fun day because we got to play games at the bottom field and we played lots of games we played non-stop cricket, bullrush and another game of non-stop cricket. It was really fun playing those games, but now we had to go home. I was going home with Beatrice, her mom and her dad (I know her dad that’s why I’m going home in there car) and after a while I got really bored. But then we went to McDonalds and it was great that I had McDonalds again because I haven’t tasted it for along time.

When I got home my legs got sore, I got bitten by sandfly’s, I got bites on my legs and I was really tired. At least I had an awesome time at camp and I really enjoyed it. I wish we had camp again.

Dave's Camp Recount

­­­­­­­­Camp at Glentui

On Tuesday, 28^th of February, most students who are year 7 and 8 in Merrin School went to Glentui Camp. We went there by parent’s cars because if we went by bus, it would cost more money. I was in Zia’s father’s car. One of my friends, Sam, was in the same car with me. Sam and I talked while going. We also heard music that Zia turned on. I was excited.

When we arrived at Glentui Camp we left our bags in our bunkroom and we went to the common room. Mr Barr, Mr Russell and Mrs Mac had already divided us into 5 groups. I was in Group 1.

My group did abseiling first for our first rotation. I had never abseiled before and I thought it would be hard. I was third from last at abseiling in my group. The height that we abseiled was about 5~8 metres. I felt scared because I thought I might fall down. When I was coming down I felt easier. I felt more confident. Finally I finished abseiling. I wanted to do again because it is exciting to abseil. I will abseil next time as well.

After when we finished abseiling, it was already time for lunch. When we all had our lunch we could play until 1:30. At 1:30 Mr Barr, Mr Russell and Mrs Mac blew a whistle and we went to the common room. Mr Barr said my group is going to river to study. My group and Group 4 went together. There were too many people so my group went to river to study while Group 4 stayed and played softball with Mr Russell.

I saw some insects that I never saw before. I learnt some things about the river. One hour later, my group played softball with Mr Russell. We divided into two teams and we played softball. My team lost by few points but I still enjoyed playing softball.

From 4 o’clock to 5:30 was free time. We could do anything and we were able to swim. Jeremiah and I swam but Sam didn’t because he didn’t have swimming togs. I had fun playing with Jeremiah in the pool.

5:30 to 6:30 was dinner time. We had delicious dinner. After dinner the teacher who taught us how to abseil came and she told us what we needed to go on a walk. We played games as well. She talked for long time and it was already time to go bed when she finished talking. They gave us Milo before going to bed.

At night I couldn’t sleep because I wasn’t tired. Sam, Jeremiah and I didn’t sleep until 10 o’clock because we could talk until 10 o’clock. But still I wasn’t tired and we talked little bit more. We started to feel tired and we slept. Sam woke Jeremiah and I up at 7 o’clock and I went to have shower. The water was very cold when I went to have shower. At 7:15 Jeremiah went to have his shower. After he had showered he told us that the water was warm. I think water turns warm from 7:15.

9’clock was breakfast. We had to get ready for third rotation which was outdoor cooking with Mr Barr. From 9 o’clock to 11 o’clock we were going to cook. We had to get wood that is easy to burn. Dried wood is easy to burn. Mr Barr told us if it breaks easily then that wood is dead but if it doesn’t break easily than it is still alive.

We cooked pancakes. We needed to make fire and put a can on top and we had to put pancakes mixture on top. My partner was Shunto. We made together and we shared our pancakes. We made about 3 pancakes. Mrs Thornton helped us. She is my ESOL teacher. I gave some pancakes to her. They tasted good. I wanted to make more but we had to stop cooking.

From 11o’clock we started a fourth rotation. My group did sketching with Mrs Mac. I drew one tree because I thought that was the easiest thing to draw. But it was very hard. I had to finish drawing it. It was 1 o’clock when I finished drawing.

At 1 o’clock we had lunch and the last program started at 2 o’clock. My group was doing indoor with Mrs Black. We played lots of games and I enjoyed playing with the ball the best. We needed to stand, make big circle and three people will be in the circle. One of those three people is standing in the front and another person will stand behind the first person and grab the front person’s clothes. Lastly the person will stand at the back and try not to get hit. The first person and second person have to protect the last person from getting hit by the ball. If the last person gets hit by the ball the first person will join the circle, the second person will be in the front and the one who got hit will be the last person.

From 4 o’clock was free time. Jeremiah and I swam but Sam didn’t swim again. Paige, Lisa and Melissa were there as well so Jeremiah and I splashed water on them. We had a lot of fun.

We were very hungry after swimming so we ate some snacks. 5:30 was dinner time and we lined up and went to eat dinner. Jeremiah, Sam and I were going to the long walk on Thursday so after dinner we had to meet with those people who were going to do the long walk. Mr Russell and Mr Barr told us what we needed to take for the long walk. After, when they finished talking, Jeremiah, Sam and I went to pack our bags for the next day.

Dinner finished at 7:30 and some people were allowed to play outdoor games with Mr Barr or play board games with Mrs Mac. I chose to play outdoor games with Mr Barr. We played non-stop cricket. I had lots of fun. I like playing sport where we can hit and catch balls like cricket, baseball or softball.

About 8 o’clock it was dark enough to play spotlight. We could hide in one area where Mr Barr said we could go. Sam and I went together and we hid beside trees. But we got caught by some people. We played three times but Sam and I got caught every time. There were some people who didn’t get caught. I don’t know how they hid and where.

Everyone was tired after playing spotlight. I felt really tired. Sam and Jeremiah felt tired as well. We all went to bed as soon as we arrived into our bunk room.

On Thursday morning, I couldn’t get up at 7:30 because I was very tired. So I woke up at 7:50. I brushed quickly and Sam, Jeremiah and I ran down to the first floor. We had to go down because my bunk room was on the second floor.

We were going to go for a long walk to the mountain but it was raining heavily so we had to wait until it stopped raining. Meanwhile, we divided into 3 groups. Group one, two, three are same but group 4 and 5 people went into the group one, two or three. So I was still in group 1. My group played with balloons with Mrs Mac. We did lots of activities.

We had to hit the balloon and it shouldn’t have touched the ground. And we had to pass the balloon as well. In our group, we divided into 4 groups. My group wasn’t good and my group was last. But I had a lot of fun playing with balloons.

From 10:30 group one did one thing with Mr Russell. He gave us some things to put on my eyes so I couldn’t see. We played games without using eyes and I found out that eyes are important. It was very uncomfortable not being able to see.

At 1o’clock we rode to one place where we started walking. We waited until everyone who was going on the long walk and met at that place. We started walking from 2 o’clock

 It was windy but it wasn’t raining. Sam and I walked together. We were tired. I regretted going on the long walk. Sam and I talked while walking up the mountain. About 30minutes later since we started walking at about 2:30 we rested and started walking. At about 5 o’clock we reached the top. We stayed for a few minutes and we came down again. The ground was muddy when we were coming down. Some people went in the mud but I didn’t. I thought we would be back at camp in 3 or 4 hours but we arrived back at 7 o’clock. We had been walking for 5 hours.

I had to have a shower because my feet were muddy. We had dinner after we came back from walking. It was about 7:30 and we usually had dinner at 5:30 in camp.

From 8:30, we watched a movie called “Mr Bean’s Disaster.” It was funny but I was very tired and I can’t remember the story well. It was about 10:30 when the movie finished. I was very tired. We went to our bunk room. I was going to go to my bed but people in the bottom bunk found some stones in their sleeping bags. But when I checked my bed there was nothing. I was very tired and went to sleep as soon as I went to bed.

On Friday, which was the last day I woke up at 7:30. I talked with Sam and Jeremiah and at 8 o’clock we went down to eat breakfast. After breakfast Mr Barr chose 20 people to stay and help with cleaning. The rest played some sports with Mr Barr. I played sports and I played cricket. We could choose to play cricket, soccer or volleyball. We played until 11 o’clock and we came back to camp again. We had morning tea and at 11:30 we went to play again. I played cricket and my team won a few times and lost few times. At 12:30 we had to go to camp again.

At 12:30 we ate lunch and it was the last food that we ate at camp. We had a sausage sizzle. It was delicious and we came to school after lunch. I enjoyed the sausage sizzle so I ate twice.

I enjoyed staying at camp. I think this camp was the best camp that I have ever been to. I like camping because I had the chance to abseil and other fun things and had delicious food. I enjoyed everything that I did at camp. I want to go camping again. 

Tony's Camp Recount

The First Two Days of Camp

On Tuesday the 28^th of February was the day I was going to camp for the very first time.

When my alarm went on at 7:30 I woke up with excitement and joy. I quickly got dressed, brushed my teeth, packed my things and off to school I went.

Once I made it to school I had to put my things and belongings in a trailer. The car I went in was Zia’s dad’s car. Vincent, Sam, Dave and Brittany were in his car as well. The ride from Christchurch took 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Once we made it to Glentui we had to go into the dining hall to meet Jarn and Gea. (Jarn and Gea is the owner of Glentui camp they also the chiefs)

After meeting Jarn and Gea Mr Russell split us into 5 groups. I was in group 5. After that it was the first rotation. Group 5 and group 3 were doing water study, group 1 was doing abseiling, group 2 was doing outdoor cooking with Mr Barr. We then had to walk down some stairs which I call the very annoying stairs because when you walk down the stairs its ok but when you go back up the stairs its really hard because there’s lots of stairs  to walk. Once we went down to the instructors, they said that there’s too many people here and not enough equipment. So Mr Russell took my group and the instructors took group 3. Mr Russell then went back up the annoying stairs to get the gear to play softball.

When Mr Russell came back with the softball gear he split us up into two teams. After each team had three rounds of batting Mr Russell went down to the river to see if  Group 3 was done. After a minute or two Mr Russell came back with Group 3, then we went down to the river.

Once we got down to the river we had to split into groups. In my group there was Sam and Isobel. Water study was overwhelming. After we finished doing water study we went back up the annoying stairs. Once we made it up the stairs we went into the common room to sit down. Once we rejoined with everyone it was time for the 2^nd rotation outdoor cooking with Mr Barr.

Mr Barr told us to go down the annoying stairs and wait down in the field. After a while Mr Barr came down with some cooking gear. Next Mr Barr told us to come around the table and find a partner I picked Jamie. Then we had to pick a bowl and add some flour, sugar, baking powder, and an egg. After that we then had to beat up all the ingredients together. Then each group got a hobo stove and some sticks. Then we had to find a place to start cooking. It took us a while to get the fire going. Jamie and I only made two pikelets.

Then it was DINNER. (I was so hungry) For dinner we had pasta it was the best pasta I ever had. After that we had desert we had ice cream with plum (yuck). After we all finished our dessert we had to go to our bunkroom. In my bunkroom there was Brock, Jack, Matt, Loyd, Jamie and Luke. Then it was lights off so I went to sleep.

Day 2

I woke up at 7:40 because Luke woke me up. Anyway I went to the sink to brush my teeth and went back to my bunkroom. I waited till 8 o’clock in my bed to eat breakfast then one of the teachers said it was breakfast time so I rush into the dining hall to eat breakfast. For breakfast we cereal and toast. After we had breakfast it was time for rotation 3.

At rotation 3 I did sketching with Mrs Mac. We were sketching patterns and then we had to find a partner to sketch the forest. I picked Campbell. Then we had a little break. We had cookies.

It was time for rotation 4- Interactive games with Mrs Black. First we had to line up in our birthdays without talking, it was hard. Then we had to play this game where you had to find 4 cups and place them under the chair legs, blind folded. I banged my head on the chair a couple of times. Besides me banging my head it was a really fun game. I liked playing interactive games with Mrs Black.

The last rotation I was so excited :

ABSEILING

Once my group and I got to the hill we had to put on a harness. Then our instructor Naomi asked us who wanted to go first. (I was third). Once it was my turn I was nervous. Once I got down I was relieved that I made it down to the bottom safely. Then I had to walk a long way up a hill. Once I made it up the hill I was back at the entrance. After a while abseiling was finished so I walked back to camp and ate dinner.

Today’s lunch was drum sticks with wedges and broccoli. For desert we had crepe with cream and plum sauce, again yuck. After 10 mins we had Milo and cookies then it was bed time.

So that was the first two days of my camp. It was a really extraordinary experience. I can’t wait to go to camp at high school. I just hope it is good as this camp.