10 Years Since Christchurch Earthquake

It has been 10 years since the earthquake in Christchurch happened. A decade ago on the 4th of September an earthquake with a 7.1 magnitude hit in a town called Darfield. The shaking of the earthquake was so strong that the whole of the South Island managed to feel it. 

An earthquake happens when the tectonic plates of the earth's crust crash into one another. The earth's crust is the last layer, when the crust moves it becomes fractured. 

Delaying Elections

It has been discussed that the elections have been rescheduled 4 weeks back. This decision was made because Jacinda's attention is  dealing with COVID-19.

This has only been announced because people kept questioning her about the elections and she needed to clear it up. She didn't make this choice herself but talked to all the other parties, everyone else  agreed that it should be pushed back so when people vote they can safely.

Lockdown #2

Having to go back into lockdown for the second time this year isn't really fun, but I fully understand that it's for our safety. As a country if we would like to go back to when we were clear of the disease disappeared, you should get tested if you show any symptoms of corona and immediately quarantine yourself. 

It truly is sad to see lives being taken away because of the Coronavirus, so the best thing we can do is keep social distancing and always wash your hands! Stay safe and make sure to protect yourself :)

Volleyball 2020!!!

Yesterday some students went and represented our school in volleyball. Our tournament was held inside the Barfoot & Thompson Stadium at Selwyn College. The fact that we won more games than we lost without having any reserves, I'm proud of the year 7 & and 8's.

Our volleyball team manager was Sebastian's mum. She would help us during our break to practice on what needed to get better and always encourage us. I really enjoy playing volley because I get to use different skills and I forget about the things I'm worried about.

Grow Green

Recently we went back to tech, instead of working with sugar this time our experiment had to do with plants specifically leaves. We talked about the structure of a leaf, the ones we are able to eat and how they grow. 

For our experiment we each used different leaves we could find outside our classroom and then boiled them in a tube of alcohol to see the colour drain out! From one tiny leaf there was definitely a lot more pigment than I would have expected. Some of us even got the chance to find out the meaning of words like photosynthesis!

Working With Sugar

For this weeks lesson we were working with sugar, talking about the different types and getting the chance to experiment with some coke.

Apparently, we are only supposed to be consuming 5 to 6 grams of sugar but instead we decide to have more sugar and end up having about 96 grams per day. Too much sugar can give you type 2 diabetes! Type two diabetes is when you have to get insulin shots to keep your blood sugar normal. Type one is when it comes from your genes. 

During the experiment we boiled the coke in a beaker, around 15 minutes after the coke evaporated we could see the amount of sugar that we have in one cup of coke.

Alert System For White Island

A senior studying at the University of Auckland is one of some scientists who came up with this new alert system. This system was designed for White Island's volcano, only because in the last decade it has erupted numerous times and has caused major damages. About 16 hours before the volcano erupts a signal will be sent to warn everybody. Now scientists are looking to get the same system installed in Ruapehu and Tongariro.

Personally I think that installing a system to notify you when an eruption will happen is really helpful, because in that period of time citizens have hours to leave the grounds and get to a safe destination.