ENG - Reading challenge Pt 2

Pirate Latitudes - Michael Crichton

Captain Hunter, a character that was introduced as a pirate but was explained later as a noble privateer. I was told about Hunter's past and I found that Hunter had lost his brother in a Spanish Battalion Island called Matanceros by a pirate named Cazalla. Before we go into details about Hunter's plan, there are a few background details we should know. So to start off, one of Cazalla's ships had encountered a merchant ship going along the coast of Jamaica. The merchant ship was sunk and its treasure was taken to Matanceros. Next, Hunter has a bounty on his head for his privateering and raids among Islands. Okay, so now that we know those facts we can now talk about Hunter's plans. Hunter wanted to go to the Island of Matanceros, where Cazalla resides, to find the treasure from the merchant ship and to also take revenge on Cazalla. He couldn't do this alone so he had to recruit a crew that he could take with him. This wasn't no ordinary crew, Hunter picked a crew with specific abilities. Briefly, we have a man who was amazing at creating black powder weapons, a lady who's eyesight was amazing day AND night, and a man who was mute due to battle but was spectacularly strong and disciplined. This was Hunters crew. I don't trust this crew and I reckon that someone is going to betray them.

Pirate Latitudes - ENG Reading Challenge Term 1

This book takes place in Port Royal, a fictional stage where the beginning of the book "Pirate Latitudes" begins. Sir James Almont, the first character introduced in this book,  is spoken as a highly prestigious character; of which that he is. He was appointed by another newly introduced character named Charles II, the Governor of Jamaica. Sir James Almont is said to also be a widower with the double up of pain from a plague called "The Gout" which causes him pains. From what I have read so far, it sounds as if the "military" on Port Royal is planning an attack on a Spanish Isla in the middle of the ocean named "Matenceros". This Isla is brought up to be some invulnerable Isla that has been armed to the brim and has gold harbored in its docks. Captain Hunter, the leader of this so-called attack, has been trying to gather a crew to go with him.

MAT-9NE

ROB-Robotics and Programming

Using the Design Process to build our Mars Lander

For the brainstorm section of the design process we put our design ideas forward that we had thought about individually. The we tested out the sphero to figure out how it worked and how we could use it to make a mars-lander. Once we tested out the sphero we had a chance to go on something called the mars-lab. The mars-lab allowed us to control three separate rovers and we had to figure out how to maneuver it and how to adjust different settings with the camera. This one helped us to figure out how to control a rover efficiently. They all had their pros and cons, The MAMMOTH had 4 hydraulic legs which would make it sturdy, the MAWSON had solar paneling charging and suspended wheels and the CONTINUUM had a camera with an adjustable neck. We had to decide which one was best and I decided that the MAWSON was the best because of it’s solar panels and suspended wheels which would be good for travel on rough terrain. The MAMMOTH is really sturdy and even though the hydraulic legs would be useful, it would be useless going over rough terrain because when I tested it out, it flipped. The CONTINUUM had a really good camera but other than that it would’ve been very unstable because of the amount of electronics there were near the battery. When we had a good idea about what would go well on a mars-lander we grabbed a piece of paper and drew our ideas. A lot of people had different designs but there was a good few people that had similar ideas to one-another. I tried to incorporate the three key things that the three rovers had on mars-lab. I also incorporated some of my ideas but they were basic adjustments that were needed to make it work. I looked around at other people’s ideas and took some of their ideas and added it to mine to improve it. We then got into groups and brainstormed ideas about making a mars-lander with the sphero and then we trialed and error until we got a good idea of what we wanted to make.  

MARS

The terrain on the planet Mars looks a bit like a desert because it is covered with loose dust and rocks. The soil on mars is full of Iron Oxidize(rust) giving it’s red color. The atmosphere on Mars is cold and thin which means that liquids will most likely decimate after no amount of time.. Although the atmosphere is harsh against liquids, Ice has been discovered under the surface. Mars is the home of the biggest volcano in our Solar System. Olympus Mons builds up to 17 miles(27 kilometers) high which is about 3 times the size of Mount Everest and is 30 miles(600 kilometers) in diameter. The Valles Marineris is a system of valleys that was discovered in 1971. It is around 6 miles deep(10 kilometers) and runs east-west for 2,500 miles(4,000 kilometers). The atmosphere on Mars is made up from:

• 95.32% Carbon-Dioxide
• 2.7% Nitrogen
• 1.6% Argon
• 13% Oxygen
• 0.08% Carbon Monoxide

The gravity on Mars is half of the force as Earth’s gravity making weight different than what it is on earth.The Rovers that we create should be sturdy enough that they would survive with the gravity on Mars. The attributes on the rover would have to be fitting for the environment otherwise it will get crushed with the force of gravity. The surface on Mars is rough which makes it hard for normal wheels to be mobile. With the gravity changing the weight of the vehicle, the rover would have to be pretty heavy but also really mobile. It would have to be able to withstand the gravity and the temperature of the planet and it would have to have a self replenish-able energy source.

A BIT ABOUT ROBOTICS

JavaScript is one of the most popular languages in the world. It is mostly used for coding modern day websites and other things that require coding. It was created in 1995 and was one of the first companies that created a popular website with the dial up internet that they had back in the day. The company “Java” was created to help with coding and powering apps on early computers and other devices. The company NetScape(the people who run Java) and Sun Micro systems built a plugin that would run natively inside popular browsers. NetScape created javaScript as a tech language that would fine focus websites. Other websites back in the day were run on HTML and CSS. JavaScript started to get used for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.

Punctuation in JavaScript is very important because it has been put in a structure where the code has to be
specific for the computer to recognise what you are trying to input.

A specific app that runs on JavaScript is Sphero, especially the drag and drop code function that it has.
The drag and drop is really easy to use because all you have to do is drag and drop.
One block is the roll block which tells the sphero that you want it to roll.

Syntax is basically a rule that has been set for how the structure of code should be. HYPOTHESIS

Our Robot has these parts because it is very sturdy, very mobile and is very agile/nimble. It should be able to carry weight with good stability.

CODE COMBAT

We have been learning to use JavaScript to code a game. It has been a bit challenging but at the same time it has been very fun and on some levels very time consuming. the level of code is quite similar to Python but it still teaches us the difference with Python and JavaScript. Both manors of code has to be very specific for it to work other wise it will not work.

NZL-Graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.

Graffiti comes in a variety of different forms. Although graffiti is illegal, many people still do it even though they know the consequences of what could happen if they get caught. If someone is caught committing graffiti then they can be arrested, prosecuted, fined and even be sentenced to jail. The most common reason for graffiti is because people feel like their lives are dull and pointless and with this in the lives it could add a bit of colour.

Graffiti to graffiti artist is like an urge of adrenaline that they have to respond to otherwise they have this guilt feeling.Graffiti can be interpreted in many different ways. To some people graffiti is a way of expression and to others graffiti is vandalism.

Graffiti in all sorts of places is starting to become a job for some people due to the sheer look of it. Different graffiti artists have been hired to create pieces of graffiti that would/has been sold for thousands of dollars. In London, graffiti is one of the most popular tourist attractions. Graffiti art has entered the Mainstream market in some places and has started to sell globally. Services like galleries, advertising, fashion, film, television and high street retailers are more than happy to take from this culture and make a profit off of it.

Internationally acclaimed, multi-millionaire graffiti artist Banksy has set a life for himself with graffiti. He chose a risky path to take and it paid of. Now he’s a famous graffiti artist that everyone should know about. Obviously other artists weren’t so lucky. Since graffiti is accounted for as an act of vandalism and sometimes trespassing(depending on where the graffiti is based), a lot of street artist have been arrested, prosecuted or put in jail for doing graffiti. I personally think that graffiti isn’t that bad, it’s a very creative of expressing our thoughts but sometimes graffiti can be bad. By bad I mean put downs, cussing and sometimes nudity. There are different types of artist in the world. Ones with a dream and ones who do it as a joke.

I don’t really think graffiti is that bad. I am probably 50/50 about this.

The government’s point of view on graffiti is a good and bad one.

The bad part about this is that different government’s have to shell out a quarter of a million dollars every year to get rid of all the graffiti. Sometimes the government pays talented graffiti artist’s to paint a picture or a collage to represent something in the city.

The government is thinking of shrinking the “ban” for graffiti. They are thinking of making a specific area for graffiti. The most common idea that they are thinking about is adjusting the punishment for graffiti because there is a lot more “bad” graffiti than there is “good” graffiti around.

I personally don’t care about what they do about graffiti but I do care about if they punish the right people. Even though they might raise the punishment, we all know that there will always be a bit of tagging now and then.

My overall opinion on graffiti is that it’s not bad but it’s not good either but I don’t really care what happens because it makes me laugh when I see it.

NZL-Identity

This term for New Zealand Histories we learnt a lot about identity and who we are. We have also learnt about where we come from and the Census. The Census is a survey that happens every five years in New Zealand. Before we did anything quiz wise, we had to go deeper into what a Census is. We had to figure out what is was specifically, why we needed it and what does it benefit for our future as New Zealand citizens.
The main thing we focused on for the Census was the type of questions they asked and why they asked them. There was all the personal questions like your gender, ethnicity etc. There were also questions about your dwellings or in other words, the house you lived in. A few of the questions they might of asked was
how many residents live in your house at the moment, any mold or asbestos or do you own the house you live in. The reason why they ask so many questions about your dwellings is because They will know what needs to be improved, mostly in households so living would improve by them fixing the problems that have occurred in the household. We got told a few fun facts here an there and we asked a few questions that we got the answer to. One of the main ones that stuck in my brain was the fact that if you weren't in the country at the time of the Census, you didn't need to fill it out. I learnt later that you didn't need to fill it out because your name would've been written down by a friend in the dwellings section.

We got to design our own coat of arms. When our teacher told us about these, it flew over most of our heads until she showed us what one looks like and it clicked in my brain because my home country has a coat of arms. We only had one lesson to do this so we didn't have much time to do it but we had to make it so it represented who we are as a person. Since we didn't have much time, I did it at home.

Near the end of term we did "The Great Greymouth Treasure Hunt". It was basically a quiz that our teacher made up and we had to search the internet for the answers but lucky for me, I had already known some of the answers that she asked in the quiz. I finished first equally with another person but it wasn't about who finished first, it was about who got more correct and we basically had the same answers. The winners at the end got some chocolate eggs as a prize.

The final Project that we did this term was making a poster that was basically saying how great Greymouth is and that it can bounce back and there was a hashtag on one of the articles that we had to read for the treasure hunt and it was #LoveGreymouth. My group had really good designs on our poster and I think we were on track to win. We had one issue with the printer which basically made it so we had to wait before we could glue our information onto our poster so we didn't win. We spent a whole lesson finishing it off and at the end it turned out to look really good.

NZL/ENG-Trip to Kumara

Yesterday on the 9/4/2018 the whole year 9 group went on a trip to Kumara for a New Zealand Studies and English lesson for the day. We had to split into 4 groups and those groups would stay together for the whole day.

We had 4 activities to do:

1. Walk to Londonderry rock
2. Dramatization
3. Team Building Activities
4. History Test

For the Londonderry walk we had to take the bus out of town and we went to where the walk started. Well we had to walk a bit to get to the actual walk but our English teacher Mrs Donovan stopped us at some points to tell us the back story of some of these sights that we saw while going to the walk. One of those sights that we saw was the tailings. This was basically how miners removed large rocks back in the day. They had to use pickaxes, shovels and wheelbarrows to remove large rocks and pile them up. When we got to the start of the walk Mrs Donovan stopped us told us a bit more of history behind mining in Kumara. 

The Londonderry rock was a lot bigger than I imagined and Mrs Donovan told us some old Irish legends that the Irish miners brought to New Zealand. One of those legends was about the Banshee. The Banshee was a spirit of a lady that was killed unjustly and came back to warn people before death comes. She also told us of the changelings and these were basically beings that took the identity of children that wandered too far into the mountains and while they were with the fairies and leprechauns, the changelings would live their lives for them.

The Dramatization activity was okay in my perspective because we got to go see the Historical Bath Sites. It was a lot different than what I had imagined, it was a lot bigger and it looked different than my thoughts on an olden day pool. When we saw it it was full of grass and the rocks that separated the dirt and water were covered in moss, roots and dirt. We had to go into groups and pick a poem for us to act out. My group chose an Irish poem called Blackjack Joe. It was basically about a person who fights this brute called Blackjack Joe and wins and they celebrate. I was the narrator and the others were the actors(of course). We were 1 of 2 groups that actually acted out the poem and the other groups read out their poems that they chose which to me was an easy but effective way of doing so.

After we had lunch we had to do a few team building activities. Mr McDonald was leading this activity and the first team building exercise we did was "crossing the river". We had to split into 3 teams and use lily pads and a plank to get everyone across the "river". If any part of your body touched the "river" you would drown and you will be taken out of the exercise to watch. We had to make sure that one of our limbs were touching the lily pads or he plank at all times other wise that piece of equipment got washed away. My group ended up coming last but at least we got one piece of candy for perseverance at the end. The next exercise was making a catapult. We had to use ropes and sticks to make a catapult. we got a cup with elastic strings on it to launch the ball. We put ours together and it turned out that the cup was too deep which made the ball bounce of the sides of the cups before it launched. The conclusion at the end was that the ball didn't go very far.

Our last activity was a History test. We got told the history behind a person named Richard Seddon. We got in groups and walked to the bill-boards that had information on them. We had to read and search through the paragraphs to find our answers. Our group got most of it done but we missed out a few. It didn't matter at the end because we all got lollies and then we left and went back to school.