Making salts and stuff

As part of our last experiment for our acids and bases unit, we are learning how to make salts.

Making salts

Aim: Produce copper sulfate salts by reacting copper oxide with an acid. 

Equipment:

• Copper oxide powder, dilute sulfuric acid
• 50ml measuring cylinder 
• Two 100 mL beakers, 
• Bunsen Burner
• Tripod
• Gauze mat
• Funnel
• Filter paper
• Thermometer 
• Spatula
• Evaporating basin 
• Stirring rod 

Method

1. Add 20mL of sulfuric acid to a 100 mL beaker. Heat this until, it reaches 70 degrees (this is in Celsius) then turn off your bunsen burner
2. Use a spatula to add pea-sized portions of copper oxide to the beaker. Stir for 30 seconds. Repeat until no more will dissolve. Allow beaker to cool.
3. Fold the filter paper and place it in the funnel. PLace the filter funnel into the second beaker.
4. Make sure the beaker is cool enough to hold at the top. The contents should still be hot. Ask Teacher for help if needed.
5. Gently swirl the contents of the beaker to mix, then pour into the filter paper in funnel. Allow to filter through.
6. Rinse the beaker you used to heat the mixture previously and place back onto tripod once filled with 50-60mL of water. 
7. Place evaporating basin on top of the beaker and carefully pour some of the solution from the beaker into evaporating basin. 
8.   Gently heat the beaker until the solution in the basin has reduced by half.
9. Leave the basin to cool. Once cool, move the basin to a warm place where it will not be disturbed and observe over the next few days. Hopefully, if done correctly, crystals will start to appear.

                    

Discussion

Everything went smoothly and we managed to finish everything with time to spare which is good. This was pretty straight forward so there isn't much to talk about. UH YEAH NEVER MIND APPARENTLY ONE OF THE GROUPS IN A DIFFERENT CLASS KNOCKED OURS OVER AND TRIED TO RE MAKE IT AND THEN MR STOCK BURNT IT AND THEY DIDN'T TELL US. Any way this is what a burnt version of the experiment looks like.
 

It ends up like this because the water evaporates which leaves the copper sulfate left. The white stuff is because Mr Stock decided to boil it until there was no water left in the beaker. This burnt the liquid and left little to no solution left to crystallize. 

Conclusion

When we re-made the experiment we had to wait until Tuesday (because Queen's birthday). I'll update when we do see it (if it hasn't been destroyed).

Women's weekly should hire us as page layout designers

In art we're learning how to create page layouts using knowledge and skills we learnt last term (leading lines, thumbnail sketches, etc). We we're put into groups and decided what aspect of school we were going to cover. My group chose theater but we later changed this to The Arts as it's more general and we can cover more.

First we looked at different page layouts to get an idea of what a layout needs and how to use things such as leading lines, fonts, font size, and color schemes to page our page stand out. After this we did a couple of thumbnail sketches to get an idea of what we want to possibly do. Then we learnt and mucked around on Adobe Illustrator to learn how it works and get a feel of it. We didn't take it to seriously as this was the first lesson on this unit and 1/3 of our group was away. Once we had our whole group together we went and looked at our thumbnail sketches as a group and picked one.


So far we've written about performing arts and visual arts at school. We have yet to figure out what font we want to use for our paragraphs and are still sorting through photos that we're going to use.

original plan

Our current page.

Reflection

Does our design reflect our thumbnail sketch?
Sort of. At the moment it does resemble it but we've change a few things (such as the space between boxes) but if you compared our current layout and the thumbnail sketch we chose, then they would look similar. So yes? I think?
Does the design reflect the feeling of your topic?
So far I think it sort of does. It's not quite finished so I don't know for sure, but so far I think the feeling is starting to be there.
Do you know where your leading lines are?
We're planning on tinting some of the photos different colors so hopefully we can use that to sort of create leading lines. Other then that we might need to look back on our design and change some things
Do you know what your focal point is?
We're trying to make our heading that or the picture that we'll be putting behind the heading. We haven't found a picture of the stage we like yet but we do have some lined up to try.
Have we played around with layering visuals
Yes. We were originally going to have our text over the stage but then we didn't like that. We do plane to have images overlapping on the text boxes and have a sort of collage of pictures with one main image + the title on the left page. This will probably end up changing but we'll see.
Have you figured out how to screenshot your work?
With some help, yes.
Is there something you want to learn how to do? Have you asked or googled how to?
At the moment, no, nothing comes to mind with something to learn in particular. As the term progresses though that might change.
How does this help your learning?
It shows that we can work as a group and know the steps to creating a page layout. It also shows that we can take what we have learnt and apply it to other projects.

T.A.K.O BELL

In English we are getting ready to write our first essay of the year. We'll be doing a essay about the movie The Power of One by John Avildsen. We first needed to learn how to actually write a essay. We're doing this in bits but we started with learning T.A.K.O (Title, Author, Key Words, and Outline of Ideas). This will make sure we have a strong essay introduction.

Sample Introduction 
During the harrowing time of Apartheid, a lot of injustices were served to the black population of South Africa. In the film The Power of One, directed by John Avildsen, the scene where Sergeant Borman forces Geel Piet to eat donkey excrement paints the picture of the ill treatment towards black people. The following techniques are used in this scene: diegetic sound, camera angles and shots, and dialogue. These film techniques helped convey this important idea and caused the scene to have a strong impact on the audience.

Highlight the different aspects of T.A.K.O
During the harrowing time of Apartheid, a lot of injustices were served to the black population of South Africa. In the film The Power of One, directed by John Avildsen, the scene where Sergeant Borman forces Geel Piet to eat donkey excrement paints the picture of the ill treatment towards black people. The following techniques are used in this scene: diegetic sound, camera angles and shots, and dialogue. These film techniques helped convey this important idea and caused the scene to have a strong impact on the audience.
Blue = Author, Purple = Title, Green = Key Words, Yellow = Outline of ideas.

What is the persons argument going to be?
The person is going to use the diegetic sound, camera shots, and dialogue to further push their point of what they believe was the directors intention.

What do you think the person's three body paragraph is going to be about?
Diegetic sound in the scene, the camera angle, and dialogue

Write your own conclusion to this opening

In conclusion, John Avildsen’s film, The power of one, strongly depicts the reality of the

Apartheid and its effect on black people. There are 3 different techniques used in the scene where

Sergeant Borman forces Geel Piet to eat the donkey excrement off his foot. These techniques are diegetic sound, various camera angles and shots, and dialogue. Put together these techniques have a powerful effect on the audience and helps showcase the terrifying reality of the apartheid.

Neutralizing acids and bases

In science we have began our topic on acids and bases. Part of this involves learning about the PH scale, types of indicators, and neutralization.  We did an experiment on how to neutralize an acid.

Neutralizing Acids and Bases

Aim: Neutralize Sodium Carbonate using Hydrochloric Acid

Equipment: 

• Test tube
• Test tube rack
• Sodium Carbonate 
• Hydrochloric acid 
• Dropper bottle/pipette 
• Universal indicator solution 

Method

1. Place 1-2 mL of Sodium Carbonate into test tube. Add 3 drops of universal indicator
2. Using a dropper bottle add Hydrochloric Acid and Sodium Carbonate one at a time until the solution is neutralized. You'll need to do this in drops otherwise you could potentially miss the neutralization point.

Your liquid will be green if it has been successfully neutralized.

Discussion

It took a while for the liquid to actually change color at first, but it eventually did. I also noticed that if you put too much liquid in it will be harder to mix while if there's two little liquid it will mix too easily. I would say you should go for just below a 1/4 of the tube and then slowly add more of the base and acid until it's green

Conclusion

Even though it took a while until it hit the neutralizing point it eventually did. This means we completed our aim. 

Why green is the neutralizing point

The PH scale and indicators

The PH scale is a scale from 1 to 14 and is used to tell if something is either an acid or a base. 1 is violet and means that the liquid is a base while if it's 14 and red, then the liquid is an acid. The middle is 7 which is green and means that the liquid contains roughly equal amount of acid (Hydrachloric acid) and base (Sodium carbonate). This will turn the universal indicator green which means that the liquid is neutralized.

Alkaline is another name for a base.

To figure out if something is a either a base or acid, we use indicators. There are various indicators but the most popular one is the universal indicator. The universal indicator is a solution that you only need a couple of drops (depending on how much liquid there is). This indicator also gives you one of the most exact results and can show whether it's slightly acidic or sightly basic. The second most popular is litmus paper. Litmus paper are strips of paper that are either red or blue. Let's take blue litmus paper for example, when you dip it into the liquid and it stays blue, it's a base, if it changes red, it's a acid and vice versa for the red litmus paper.

  

Those mothertruckers don't know how to accccct - sexxy paragraphs continued

This is the sexxy paragraph work continued. I chose to do the aspect of lighting in the scene we were given. This is a continuation of this blogpost

This scene takes place at night and uses low-key lighting. In the shot we see Sergeant Borman holding his baton up against Geel Piet’s neck against a wall as a way to get information. This scene is set at night and the director, John Avindsel, made this decision as to create tension and suspense in the scene. If it was set during the day it wouldn’t feel as tense and serious. This also made the audience sit on the edge of their seat, will Geel Piet die? Will Geel Piet crack and tell the Sergeant what he wants to know? The Audience feels the suspense and tension and they are engaged. This can be compared to many of the raids that appear throughout the film including the school raid and the township raid which are also set at night, use low-key lighting, and are incredibly tense scenes.

I'm bringing sexxy baaaaaaaack

In English we are learning about how to write a sexxy paragraph. This will help us when it comes to writing an essay for our film study. If you don't know, a sexxy paragraph is a paragraph that is structured with a statement, an example, explanation for why the director chose this technique, explanation about the effect it has on the audience, and your link. To practise this we got into groups and write a group paragraph. I was in a group with Chloe and Nadia. Below is our paragraph.

The long shot is common throughout the film including this shot of Sergeant Borman's legs while in the prison. In the foreground we see the guards legs and baton while in the background we see P.K and Geel Piet talking. The director used a long shot for this scene showcasing Sergeant Borman's baton to make you believe that something may happen in this scene, mainly to Geel Piet. We, the audience, also feel a sense of worry for Geel Piet, as we believe that something may happen based on the stance of Sergeant Borman. This shot makes the audience feel worry and empathy for Geel Piet. In the shot is strikingly similar to the one where Geel Piet gets beaten to death. In that shot you can see his legs and the baton, then see Geel Piet on the ground. This scene is almost foreshadowed by the previous scene.

Social Studies: Emigrating from England to New Zealand - Draft

In social studies we are learning about migration with a focus on migrating from England to New Zealand in the 1850's. We had to create someone who was leaving England for New Zealand and write about their experience in some way or form. I decided to write it in the form of a letter.

Dear Eliza

I've finally arrived in beautiful New Zealand and the sky here is so much bluer compared to England's black smog. The boat trip here, however, was absolutely horrendous, the boat reeked of a smell that would make you drop dead if you hadn't already. Talking of dropping dead I believe that there were at least five people who died of some disease or another and the fact that the bunks were 1/2 an inch apart didn't help. Not only that but in the steerage there was constant flooding and the bunks were 1/2 an inch apart. Your form of bedding was a mattress and nothing else, no blankets and no pillows. Alongside this, there was little to nothing to do. The most we had for entertainment was books, chess, and performances conducted by my fellow passengers. Although they put on wonderful performances, if I hear someone say "to be or not to be" again I swear to god I will lose my bloody head. New Zealand really is wonderful compared to England. There's hardly any diseases and, not only that, but it doesn't smell like absolute shit either which is wonderful. I can't wait till you and your Uncle join me here as I believe it will most definitely help his illness, I'm sure of it.

Forever yours, Nancy

Floor Hockey babey

In PE class we've been doing floor hockey with our two student teachers from Canada. It's really weird because here we call floor hockey unihoc so I got a little confused at the start but it's all goods now.

1. On a scale of 1-10, rate yourself on how well you participated in the floor hockey lesson on Tuesday (yesterday) and why did I give myself this rating?
- I think I participated pretty well so I would give myself a 9. It was at the end when we were playing stuck in the mud with the tennis balls and hockey sticks that I participated less. This was mainly because I was a little tired and it was kind of awkward. I also got out fairly quick in the second and third game because the rule changed to when you get out you are out of the game completely. Other then that I participated quite a lot mainly because I enjoy hockey and played it for Friday sport and yr 5&6 sport.

2. What skills do I think I did well?
- I think I'm fairly average at most of the skills in hockey. I think my strongest skill is maybe control but I don't quite know. I also almost always try my best and I'm good at cheering the team on.

3. What skills did you use to pass and dribble the ball?
- I kept two hands on my stick (one at the top and one around the middle) so I would have more control and when someone tackles me I can put more force from my side. I also kept my body fairly low to the ground because that's what I was told to do when I first did hockey but I don't remember why you do it. I think it's so the stick actually touches the ball.

4. What do you think you need to improve on and how will I do this in today's lesson.
- exercises I will probably work on my passing and control as sometimes I get ahead of myself and lose control. 

Film techniques and other things (mostly queerbaiting)

In English we are beginning our visual study unit. To start off we are looking at various film techniques, including color, blocking, costumes, lighting, etc. Our task was to create 8 gifs that display various film techniques.

1. Bullet time lighting - Thor:Ragnarok.

                     via GIPHY

This scene is from Thor:Ragnarok (Dir. Taika Waititi) and this is actually the first time this technique has ever been used in a movie. Satellite Labs achieved this by having a rig of lights the surround the set and go off one after another. This allows the light speed and camera speed to go at different rates. Taika Waititi talks about it more here.

       2. Long/Continuous shot - The haunting of hill house

                      via GIPHY

The haunting of the hill house is a highly acclaimed adaptation of the book by Shirley Jackson. This scene uses the technique of a long/continuous shot. This means that the whole scene is filmed non-stop in one go. What makes this scene so interesting is it transitions between time periods, sets, involves people teleporting, and is 17 minutes long. That means this scene takes up almost half the episode. You can learn more about this scene and how they accomplished it here.

       3. Wide shot - Oldboy

                     via GIPHY

Oldboy is a Korean movie by critically acclaimed director Park Chan-wook. This is a fight scene that takes place in a hallway. By using a wide shot the hallway feels more filled even if it's not. If there was no one else in the hallway it can make it feel empty, which the director may want. The impression that a wide shot gives off all depends on who's in it and the background.

      4. Costuming - Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory (1964)

                      via GIPHY

Costuming is able to tell a viewer about a character. An example is in the 1964 movie adaptation of Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory. If you compare Willy Wonka's outfit to the background characters he looks odd and stands out. This is intentional because it tells us that Willy Wonka is a quite strange character.

        5. Color association - (500) days of Summer

                      via GIPHY
In (500) days of Summer the two main characters have distinct colors associated with them. Tom has the color brown associate with him while Summer is blue. This allows you to create scenes such as above and know what character is being represented. This technique also appears in Baby driver.

         6. Motifs - Literally any Loona music video ever

                      via GIPHY
A motif is usually when something is repeated throughout a visual text. Motifs are usually a movement, object, peice of clothing, and, most commonly, a peice of music (i.e theme songs). In Loona's music videos there are three main motifs; running, tape recorder,  and the mobius strip. A motif can also be a symbol of something such as the mobius strip symbolizing the layout of the loona universe (aka loonaverse).

       7. Subtext - Nightmare on Elm street: Freddy's revenge

                      via GIPHY
Subtext is a technique which involves getting the reader/watcher to read in between the lines. This is most common in horror films such as Get Out, Jennifer's Body, and, most notably, Nightmare on Elm street: Freddy's revenge. Freddy's Revenge was long suspected of being about being gay and coming to terms with being gay. Things such as Freddy needing the main characters body to exist in the real world and Freddy coming out of his body. This was later confirmed. Subtext in movies/TV/music videos before 2011, when gay marriage was legalized in America (where most entertainment comes from) but you can still see this subtext in other countries. Popular TV and movies with this kind of subtext is Rock Horror Picture Show, Xena: Warrior Princess, Revolutionary Girl Utena, most movies in the 30's/40's, Rebecca, Moomin, and the anime that has the best subtext but still makes it super obvious and does this in an absolute amazing way is Sailor Moon. Like god damn their lesbian couple was so obvious the English dub couldn't hide it, and America broadcasting agency never picked up the last season because their was so much gay and non-binary subtext that they couldn't hide it.

       8. Queerbaiting -  Supernatural, BBC Sherlock, Riverdale and many more.

                      via GIPHY
If you don't know what queerbaiting is, it's a technique used by creators to attract LGBT+ viewers/readers. Often this is shown by hinting and hinting that they are together but never explicitly showing this or never having them end up together. An important part to differentiate the difference between subtext and baiting is the context of subtext. Usually this subtext is used when something is representing something else (see example #7) and the time period/country the movie/TV was created in (i.e Fried Green Tomatoes, Revolutionary Girl Utena, etc.) Queerbaiting is more shows such as Supernatural, BBC Sherlock, Voltron, Teen Wolf, and a few more. Supernatural is known for it's queerbaiting between the two characters Dean and Castiel. There's been a long subtextual "romance" between the two (in fact over 10 years) with nothing confirmed and the writers only hinting that they might be together, just enough to keep LGBT+ audiences engaged but not to the point that they're actually confirmed. And with the show approaching it's final season I doubt they will ever confirm it and if they do then it's still technically queerbaiting. You can learn about queerbaiting more in this short. A lot of people think that if a TV/Movie has a LGBT+ character than all queerbaiting is forgiven. This is completely and utterly wrong in every way. Who knows I might write a more in-depth blog post about queerbaiting and queer media but who knows.

I don't have enough friends to create the neon element lol

In science we've began our atomic science unit and to learn about atoms we did some crafting. Our task was to create a model of an element of our choosing. I, if you didn't read the title, chose neon.

Materials 

• Paper
• Scissors
• Blu-tack
• String
• Tape
• Two different color set of beads
• Pencil/felts/pens to decorate and label

Method

1. Select an element. I suggest something less than element 7 but, if you do want to go higher then just half the amount of electrons. 
2. Grab a small ball of blu-tack and place the beads in the around the outside. For the beads use two different colors to create the neutrons and protons. 
3. Draw and cut out the required number if circle to form the outer protective shells. Make sure the circles are big enough to draw in the electrons. I would also suggest to draw in the 
4. Attach the string to the blu-tack ball of beads and tape the two circles onto the string.
5. Create a little label of what your element is and attach to the top of the string.

I decided to draw my friends as the electrons but then I realized I didn't have enough so I drew Mr Carter, Mr Taylor, and Mr Heath instead. Mr Taylor was originally going to be Mr Heath but Nadia said I drew his beard too big and that it looked like Mr Taylor. 

                                    

 

How to figure out how many electrons you need to draw

On an element there will be two different numbers; the atomic number and mass number. The atomic number is the smaller of the two and tells you how many neutrons and protons there are. For example neon's atomic number is 10 which means there are 10 protons and 10 neutrons. The mass number is the bigger number and tells us how many protons and neutrons there are. To figure this out you subtract the atomic number from the mass number, for example neon's mass number is 20. 10 - 20 = 10. There are 10 electrons in the atom. 

How to figure out what electrons go in what circle

This one is fairly easy to understand. One two electrons can go in the first ring and up to eight in the other two. Electrons often appear in pairs as well. 

 

Push and Pull factors

In social studies we have began our migration unit. We've started off by learning about push factors and pull factors, types of factors, and different types of migration. To explain this we had to create either a powtoon or a my simple show. Also I apologize for the robot voice.

Here is a transcript of the video: 

Migration is when you move from one place to another. This move can either be temporary or permanent just as long as you're going there to live.

There are many reasons for why someone might move. We call these reasons push and pull factors. A push factor is what pushes you away from where you're currently living (i.e: politics, living conditions, etc).

A pull factor is what pulls you to move to another country (i.e: education, work, family, etc). Push and Pull factors are sorted into 6 different categories; economy, cultural, social, political, environmental, and natural.

Political would be things such as the government, president, prejudice, while social can be things like neighborhoods, education, and job opportunities. Economic factors are will usually be things that include money such as housing and pricing among other things.

Natural factors are going to be the scenery, air conditions, pollution, rubbish, etc. Environmental factors would be things like the places you live and are often paired with other factors.

An example of this would be crime rates which would be considered social environment, or prejudice which can be political environment. Often times these factors are paired together such as political economy, natural environment, or social culture.

Culture, which I forgot to mention, is the country and usually takes into account how diverse it is and how they react to other cultures.

Hopefully now you understand migration and why people might migrate.

Because I have limited words in my simple show, here is a more in-depth explanation of migration
Migration is a general term used for moving either permanently or temporarily to another place. The two types of migration are easy to remember. Immigration is moving into another country, i.e they immigrated to America. The other type of migration is emigration which is when you are migrating out of a country/place. An example would be she wanted to emigrate out of America. An easy way to remember the difference between the two is Immigration is Into while Emigration is Exiting.