Comparing Food Webs

The last few weeks in Te Ngahere we have been learning about the food webs in our forest.  For this we had to compare our food web to the teachers food web. The way the arrows point are important because it represents where the energy will be transferred to. 

The first difference I noticed was that the teachers arrows were color coded based on what every producer eats. The next thing I noticed was that the teachers have that the stoat eats 8 of the species on the food web while mine only says they eat 2. The last thing I noticed is that the teacher’s food web includes four more things for what the possum consumes.

 I thought that the easy part of this was figuring out where the arrows point. The difficult part was trying to figure out what each consumer eats.

What do you think is one of the main producers in these food webs?

A Quick Guide To Mutualism

The past few weeks in Te Ngahere we have been learning about the mutualistic relationship between Birds and Trees. A mutualistic relationship is a relationship where two organisms benefit from each other. For this activity we had to read two texts and write down how both birds and trees benefit from each other in an ecosystem. 

Birds benefit from this relationship because trees produce berries which is what birds eat. Trees benefit from birds because they help trees with pollination and dispersal.

 I thought that this activity was interesting because I got to learn about something I never knew before. The part I found interesting was realising how much trees rely on birds.

Do you know any other organisms that have a mutualistic relationship?

My Anxious Experience In A Tsunami

Last Friday our whole school’s day was suddenly changed because we were one of the schools affected by the tsunami warning. At 9:51 our schools morning bell rang and we all evacuated up Totara Heights. A lot of people were anxious  because they were worried about their families but then we were told that Paihia and Waitangi have been evacuated that put their minds at ease. Since we left school quickly we weren’t able to grab our bags so we had no  food or entertainment but still I felt grateful that we had somewhere safe to be.

 Unfortunately that day the sun decided to be scorching hot but we had huge trees there

which covered our whole class. 

Since we stayed up there for hours to keep our minds off what was happening around us

we played quizzes but we had to produce a weird noise as a buzzer to be picked. Also

there were generous people that  offered to grab all of our school bags and we were even 

given delicious sausage sizzles. Once we had our bags and we were settled it finally felt

like it was gonna be okay. Everyone was overcome with relief when we finally got the

alert that we could finally go back to school. 

Honestly I felt extremely calm through the whole day knowing that a lot of my family lives in land. I also tried my best to stay calm because I knew there were people freaking out and over reacting wasn’t going to help them 

Was your school affected by the tsunami?

Sharing My Experience At Technology

In Te Ngahere the year 7’s and 8’s have the privilege of going to Moerewa school for Technology. In Tech there are two classes, cooking with Whaea Dot and wood work with Mr. E.  I’m a year 8 so we got to start term 1 with cooking and that class is with Whaea Dot. 

This week we got to make Pinwheels which are really similar to pizza but that are all rolled up like a spinwheel hence the name Pinwheels. Something we had to first do which was crucial to making any thing in the kitchen was to read the instructions. We also hardly had any instruction so we had to listen carefully to what Whaea Dot said.

My group thought that making Pinwheels would be difficult because the picture we we're shown as an example looked really complex. We ended up finding it really easy and when we  finished my group ended up really proud of the final result.

Do you think you would be able to make Pinwheels?

A Quick Guide To Learning About An Ecosystem

The last few weeks in Te Ngahere we have been improving our knowledge on an Ecosystem. 

For this activity we were tasked with reading an article then we filled in categories with that information. Our categories were what we already knew, what we now know and an overall synthesis. 

An ecosystem is a cycle that can include producers, consumers and decomposers. 

The difficult part of this activity was definitely the synthesising part because I had no idea what synthesising even was but after a few attempts I finally got it right.

What do you think is an example of a  producer in an ecosystem?

Why The Kawa Of Care Is Important

The second week in Te Ngahere just to start the year we refreshed our minds by learning about the Kawa Of Care . The Kawa Of Care is a makeshift contract that you and your parents sign that insures that you will properly take care of your chromebook. For this DLO we picked a single aspect of the KOC to create either a poster or a comic that explains the consequences of not following the KOC. I chose to make a comic strip that informs people on why it’s important to keep your chromebook lid closed when walking. When I started my comic strip the difficult part was to try and and display the message I wanted to get through. What do you think would happen if someone didn’t follow the KOC?

Interesting Facts About Roy Lichtenstein

In Te Ngahere we have been learning about Roy Lichtenstein  who was a popular pop art artist in the 50’s- 60’s. Next we had to  identify at least six key facts about him that we think are important and lastly we predicted which techniques we might use when we create our own portraits. I found that creating this DLO was really fun because I got to learn lots of facts about an amazing artist who I honestly have never heard about.

Did you know that in 2013 one of his paintings sold for almost 55 million dollars?

Here is my DLO