My Final Day Ever At Enrich!!! :'(

Today is my final day ever at Enrich!!!  :'(

A few years ago when I first stepped into Enrich@iLT I felt nervous about meeting new people but soon found out that I had a few old friends that had got into Enrich as well. After I had got over the nervousness I was completely over whelmed with the amount of Apple™ products in one room, since all the computers at Enrich are either MacBook Pros or iMac desktops. Once I got over that we came down to the Main Whiteboard Area and talked about respect for the computers and people and we signed the Enrich 'Code Of Conduct' which stated that we all would follow the rules. Then we talked about blogs and how to use them. That was when I started this blog. Then the year flew by with me completing my first Passion Project, which was a comparison between the FA-18 Hornet Jet Fighter and the Airbus A380, to see which was the best with flight/fuel range. The winner was the A380. Next year we did more Passion Projects and this time I made a Lego animation for the Fair Go Ad Awards as half and then I made a Lego documentary style animation that talked about combat flying through the ages. Next year was the year of the shocking February earthquake in Christchurch which killed many people and so, to do our part, we dedicated our Passion Projects to helping Christchurch. Finally we come to 2012 were I have made brochures to hand out around Thomson's Bush talking about Predators, Pollution and How to Help Around Thomson's Bush.

And now, as I am leaving Enrich, I would like to thank the Teachers who have taught, supported and helped me during my time at Enrich.

Goodbye, once and for all,

Declan.

Animal Rights

Today at Enrich we did a P4C workshop about Animal Rights. We talked about if animals should be tested on and we also talked about the movie 'Babe' in which a pig is taken away from it's parents to a farm where it will get killed. Firstly, when we talked about animals being tested on, everyone said it was horrible and shouldn't be done.  We also watched a couple of clips from the movie 'Babe' and that was when we talked about how Babe shouldn't have been taken from their parents. After all that we discussed about how animals are mistreated by lots of owners.

Thinker's Keys

Today at Enrich we learnt about three of the Thinker's Keys. The two that I had time for were the Variation Key and the Ridiculous Key. The Variation Key is about listing different uses for something or ways to do something, such as how to keep dry in the rain. The Ridiculous Key is when you list the good or bad things about random topics that would never work, hence the name ridiculous. Looking forward to dissecting an eyeball next week.

Sea Shepherd Guest Talk

Today at Enrich we had a guest in to speak with us about Japenese Whaling. This guest was Grant from Sea Shepherd. He told us about the different types of Japanese Whaling ships, the different Sea Shepherd ships and the way they stop the Japanese from Whaling in protected zones. First of all, the Japanese are Whaling in a protected area called the Southern Whale Sanctuary. This zone means you cannot go Whaling in that area, but since it is in International Waters, no one can arrest them for illegal Whaling. and that's where Sea Shepherd come in. They are an Anti Whaling group that stop the Japanese from making Whales extinct. The Sea Shepherd fleet contains the Steve Irwin, which is the mothership, the Bob Barker, which is the main ship and the Brigitte Bardot, which is the fastest of their boats, because it is fiberglass and designed for racing. This year, Sea Shepherd is starting a new mission called 'Operation Zero Tolerance' which is their mission where they hope to stop the Japanese from Whaling completely in the Southern Whale Sanctuary. The operation started on the 5th of November.

Waihopai Planting!!!

Today at Enrich, we headed down to the Waihopai Dam to plant some Flax and Toitoi at the side of the river to stop the sediment and too many nutrients from getting into the river which will damage the river  and surronding land, which would ruin the amazing nature here in New Zealand. We had help from my Dad, some other parents, the teachers and Darryn's dog, Bruce. When planting the plants we had to first dig a hole with a spade, so no having to dig with our hands. Then we placed the plant in the hole and kicked the dirt back in around the base of the plant. We then placed a wool mat around the plant and stuck four bamboo stakes into the ground surrounding the plant that hold a plastic cover that keeps the animals away and also makes sure that they don't accidentally spray the plant with chemicals. After planting 250 plants, we finally headed back to the bus back to Enrich, knowing that we had made a difference to the world. I am hoping to be able to come back and look at the plants and see that I have made a difference.

Presentation Day

Today at Enrich a lady named Chloe Scarla came in from the airport to watch the presentation of ideas for how we could enhance the airport. That was very successful as she said that the ideas could be possible. We also assessed our Term 3 goals to see if we had completed them. We did another Key Competency sheet as well. Next week we are making new goals for this term.

Bye,

Declan

Iran has the world's most polluted air.

Today we watched a video at Enrich that showed the top 10 world's most polluted cities and Iran had the most polluted with 372 micrograms (0.000001 of a gram) of filth per cubic metre. Then we had a discussion with Darryn about what we learnt and what we wondered about pollution. Katie also read out the list of the cleanest cities in the world and we found out that our very own Wellington was the world's cleanest city!!! We are also doing Passion Time and I am researching about video editing so I am hoping I will get some props edited in.

Declan

Nature Does NOT Want Pollution!!!

The Earth Does Not Want To Be Polluted.

That is the main thing we learnt about pollution from this video we watched today at Enrich:

Water Pollution Video

We also learnt about the fact that, because we have clean, fresh water at the turning of a handle on a tap, it is hard to notice that people in other countries such as Africa don't have access to any freshwater.

Earlier on we did our environment project and I worked on most of the aesthetics of the brochure.

Looking forward to next week for more Environment Project.

Declan

Eggonardo Da Vinci Lives Up To His Family Name

Today at Enrich the Physics group made their own custom parachutes. Mine was a Leonardo Da Vinci type parachute that consisted of a big parachute with a little parachutes attached to it. Both parachutes had a small hole in the middle for stability. When we tested them, though, my plan for a great flight was       destroyed when my parachute made a world record breaking 0.87 second drop from about three metres.  Later on we did more on our environment project and I worked on the fliers to hand out and worked on my proposal to the ICC to send out the fliers around the Thomson's Bush area.

Egg-a-chutes

Today at Enrich we chose new High Interest Stations and I chose Physics. The other choices were Maths (Fibonacci Numbers/Sequence) and Art (3D Drawing).
In Physics we made parachutes out of different materials and we are testing the parachutes with eggs.
We worked in pairs and I worked with Je Eun and we made a parachute out of blue tartan material.
All the parachutes were a circle of the same diameter and had the same design except for the material.
At the beginning of lunch we tested the parachutes and Je Eun and I did pretty well.
Our egg, Scotty, came out at the end with only a little graze on his side.
Overall, no one got a broken egg while testing.

Looking forward to next week when we make custom parachutes.

Bye,

Declan

Soldier Cartoon

Today at Enrich at the cartooning group we could choose something to draw from a cartoon book and then upload it to Kid Pix and colour it in.

I chose this soldier cartoon:
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                                               Which I then changed to this:

         
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Later on I worked on my Environment Project and started working on the brochures about Thomson's Bush to hand out.

Cartooning

Today at Enrich we split up into new High Interest groups and I chose Cartooning with Katie.
Since I had already been in the Science group I couldn't join this time.
The other group up for choice was Biology, which I wasn't too worried about.

In Cartooning we drew some cartoon characters as demonstrated by Stu Duval on his website,
www.studuval.co.nz.

Earlier in the day, we did our Environment Projects. My Environment Project is handing out Thomson's Bush Predator and Pollution awareness fliers around the Thomson's Bush area. I am working with Kyle and Jackson which is good because we can split up the workload between the three of us, eg. I type up info, Kyle researches and Jackson surveys on Google Earth.

Next week we are probably going to start making the fliers.

Type To You Later,

Declan

Teacher comment

It was great to see how well you and your group worked on the technology challenge today Declan.
I was also impressed with the amount thinking and effort you are putting into getting an environment project that you are passionate about and that will make a real difference. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with Declan - Keep up the good work
Darryn

Mural Designs

Today at Enrich we did some mural designs in groups of four. These designs were for our Invercargill/Environment Project. We had to use some photos of Southland/New Zealand Icons and we had a sheet of paper on which we had to fill up as much of the space as possible with either the pictures or drawings.

Later on we had a lady called Anastazia from Environment Southland come in to talk about the Waihopai River and how it is filled with sediment(Mud). She told us about how we can help and why the sediment is bad. The sediment blocks up dams and is very harmful to animals/wildlife living in the river.

Elephant Toothpaste!!!

First day of Term 3 at Enrich already!

Today at Enrich we chose a personal interest group in which we would do either Science, Maths or Art.

In Science we are doing different chemistry experiments.

In Maths we are doing tessellations.

And in art we  are doing painting.

I chose Science and I had some trouble getting in.

There was a limit of 11 people per group.

There were four of us competing in a game of Paper, Scissors, Rock for the last space.

I managed to beat all four and won the title of 11th Science group member.

The  chemistry experiment we did today was making 'Elephant Toothpaste'.

Elephant Toothpaste isn't really toothpaste but more toxic foam.

Here is a website to look at if you are interested:

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/elephants-toothpaste

I am looking forward to next week when we do another CRAZY experiment.

Term 2 Reflection

It's that time of year again. Yes, it's the end of a term at Enrich. Following tradition, here is a reflection sheet.
We also played a Wilson game. We had to hold hands in a group of three and kangaroo jump to the hoop ONLY when Darryn clapped. It was a hard game and only three teams got to the hoop. The point of the game was to learn Self-Control so you don't jump when he doesn't clap. Looking forward to next term to see what adventures will come about.

                                           *Click the photo to enlarge*

Static Images

Today I had a great day. First of all in the photography group we chose our static image entry for the MADE Awards. If we did that early we got to go on PhotoFunia and make some more photos. I made this diploma for the University Of Awesomeness. Afterwards we worked on the Habits of Mind with the class and then I went on to Spanish with Paola. We did some fun things and in one of them we were given a name and had to make a code with the alphabet. We then used the code to put a number with each letter of the name. The name I got was Antonio and I ended up as a 101 year old.

Editing Mania

Today we did some very fun editing on photofunia.com were you can put your photo on an FBI Identification Keycard or give yourself an awesome motorbike. Later on I green screened myself into a SWAT Squad. I also finished off my Tapa cloth which is a traditional Pacific Island originated form of art. It involves drawing patterns on brown paper and scrunching it up a decent few times and then you dye it dark brown and it gives it a traditional look.

Queen's Park Adventure

Today at Enrich the Photography group headed to Queen's Park to take some photos. I took some cool photos of such things as a plane flying over and some worm views of a tree. We saw some pretty strange things at the park and I almost made friends with a duck. After the Park adventure we did some green-screening back at Enrich. Later on in the day we played some cool games for Spanish with Paola.

Skydiving!

Today was a good day at Enrich with me accomplishing some cool tasks. First of all I did some extreme editing in the photography group by making myself skydive(Picture above). Later on in Passion Time I drew some sketches showing what materials go on which parts of the armour. I am looking forward to photography next week because we are going to Queen's Park for some photos.

8/5/12

Today was an awesome day at Enrich. For a start we started Passion Time. I did some more work on my designs and they are looking cool. In the photography group we talked to Rachael Kelly who is a photographer here in Invercargill. She showed us her cameras including her new Canon 5D Mk3 which only came out a few months ago. She also gave us tips and took photos of us.

1/5/12

Today was a great day at Enrich. In photography we explored www.citrify.com where we had lots of fun adding wigs and using Obamify. We later on headed to the Wearable Arts exhibition at the museum. When we were there we saw some truly amazing outfits that were made from all kinds of materials including wood! My favourite was the suit of armor made by someone who worked on the Lord of the Rings movies. That inspired me to make my own, which I could do during Passion Time. Passion Time is like the Passion Projects we have done in previous years except with less time and we have to completely manage our time ourselves. Looking forward to photography next week.

Declan.

End of Term 1

Today it was the last day of term 1 for Enrich and we did this reflection chart about term 1. It shows my feelings, wonderings, what I tried, what I used and what I learned. It mostly says about how I got better at managing my time. It also has a few things I learnt like it talks about how I learnt Spanish and photo editing. If you want to read the whole thing you can click to enlarge the photo.

Hey Declan,

Your SCAMPER presentation today was OUTSTANDING! The different perspectives that you took the images from was a great way to put our concept into practise. The creativity that your group put into the ideas amazed me... the Statue of Je Eunbity did make me laugh! You will need to get the completed file to me so that I can put it on the website.

I look forward to more of these tasks, to see what you come up with!

Alana

27/03/12

Today we started the main work for Talent Development, I was in the photography group (No surprises there) and the other groups were maths where they have to measure and make a structure out of cans for Canstruction© which is a worldwide charity organisation/event where you build a sculpture out of cans that looks like a real life thing. There was also drama which ( No surprises) my friend Willson joined because he really likes drama (He's quite the actor.) and thats why he joined.

Anyway, we took some really cool photos. I took photos of Signs, Pictures and Words as that was my theme.

Bio-Poem

Here is my Bio-Poem!

If it is too small you can click to enlarge.

A bio poem is a poem about us from our own perspective.

13/3/12

Today at Enrich I have done a little bit of photography(which was pretty fun). I also did some more Spanish lessons and we learnt a song/story about a fat whale that wanted to conquer the world by learning to ski, then swim and then clap. I also got better at chess again. :)

Week 3 2012!

Woohoo! It's 2012.

Anyway it's week 3 back at Enrich and I haven't posted since the last week of Enrich last year. On to the real reason for this post. Today we have been doing some taster sessions in which we tried out some different things. Those things were:

-Science, in which we made a vortex in a bottle of water with glitter to see the vortex.

-Maths, where we measured a Lego brick and calculated the amount of bricks in certain shapes.

And finally,

-Art. We simply experimented with water-colour paint to make a sky-to-ground painting with mountains.

Then, just after lunch, I joined a HUGE group of people with Agustin's Mum and she taught us a little bit of Spanish. I am definitely continuing with that group.

See you next time.

Declan