Flow charts and Radio chats

LI: to understand how flowcharts relate to coding blocks

LI: to understand how to get the microbit to talk to another microbit using radio signals 

Here is my flowchart practise document. 

Flowchart Practise

The next activity today was coding the microbit to send a radio signal to another microbit. We had to make sure that both microbits were on the same group number so we didn't accidentally get a message from another group.

Coding in Python

  LI: To Learn how to code the Microbot in the Phyton.

For this example for coding the buttons , the main thing to notice is the "def" which is defining what the on_button_pressed will make to microbit do. Again this has a top and bottom so the content has to go inside it. 

The first one shows the Phyton coding for flashing heart. It flashes between a small heart icon and a large heart Icon. The main thing to notice between the Phython coding and the blocks is the the forever loop is the top and bottom of the content in both. 

Rock, Paper, Scissors Flowchart

 LI: To learn how to code the micro bit to play rock, paper, scissors and understand how the flowchart matches the code. 

Link to DLO

1. When I shake the micro bit it will choose a random number between 1 and 3. 
2. I make a variable called 'hand' and set this to the random number. 
3. If the number is 1 - the micro bit will show the symbol for paper.
4. If the number is 2 - the micro bit will show the symbol for rock.
5. If the number is 3 - the micro bit will show the symbol for scissors.

This week for technology we have been creating flowcharts explaining our coding on makeblock. This week we have been learning how to code a rock, paper, scissors game. There is a DLO showing my flowchart and a video of my rock paper scissors. 

Flowcharts & Dice

 LI: To learn how to use flowcharts to plan coding. 

Our focus this week in Tech is to learn how to use flowcharts during planning coding. A flowchart shows the steps of a problem as boxes of various kinds, and their order is shown by connecting the boxes with arrows. In this DLO shown below, we have practiced creating a flow chart based on rolling dice. 

In this activity we used micro-bits to roll these dices. The flowcharts were based on these micro-bits activities. 

Being a Jedi in Coding

L.I: To code the robot to move backwards without touching it - to be a jedi

 

My robot will wait until i have pressed the onboard button before it does anything. We used an "IF - THEN - ELSE" block as this gives the robot two choices of things to do. We are using the ULTRASONIC  SENSORon the of the robot and we need to sense if something 10cm in front of it. IF something is 10cm or LESS in front of the robot , it will move backwards. IF something is NOT less han 10cm in the front of the robot, it wil move forwards (ELSE). This is all put into a forever block so that the robot constantly senses what is in front of it.

Woodworks | Tech w Mr Grundy

LI: To create the joint of your design.

This week the Yr 8 students have been finishing off their woodwork designs. We were introduced to chisels and a mallet. Some people were still finishing their drawing wood designs while others were already started on their cutting. 

I was cutting joint from my wood to create my ship design. We were reminded that whenever we are holding the chisel, our thumb needs to be covering the pointy bit so whenever we hit someone they on't get hurt or injured. 

It was quite hard trying to put the would in between the joint so i used sand paper to smooth the edges to make it fit. After pushing the wood in the joint a bit harder it finally fit. 

Woodworks Tech Week 2&3 | Mr Grundy

 LI: To plan out your wood design. 

Last week for tech we were getting started on our design drawings using the wood. After drawing the 8 designs we wanted to create, we chose one design and showed Mr Grundy. After we shown our designs we started with measuring and drawing the design using the wood. 

The design I chose was a Ship. I am creating a ship. Using the wood and a ruler I am needed to draw my design with the wood. Once your drawing was approved by Mr Grundy we were able to get started on cutting our wood. Using different tools we measured the amount of wood needed to be cut and the amount of wood that is used for the joint. 

Tech Reflection | Science

LI: to create a blogpost explaining our tech session. 

This morning we had our tech session, this was the last session this year with Mrs Sharma. For this session we talked about plants and foodmakers. First in our project books we explained how plants grow, how it feeds itself, what it needs in order to live, different types of plants, and why plants are important to animals. After we explained what a plant is we watched a video of the system of a plant. We next went around Tamaki College and found 10 different leaves, after we found the leaves we made a table chart describing each leave, on the chart we numbered the leaves from 1-10. There were 5 different coloumns; 

Size - *cm

Texture - *rough, soft, waxy

Color - *green, purple

Thickness - *the thickness of the leaf

Pattern - *veins through the leaves 

Tech Relfection | Rocket Science

 LI: To find out how many fins you would need on a rocket to help it fly effeciently. 

This week we had Tech at Tamaki College. We were learning about Rocket Science with Ms Sharma and Mr Dunn. We started off by identifying the main features and attributes of how a rocket can fly. With Mr Dunn we learnt that weight and mass are two different things, if we were to go to mars our mass would stay the same but the weight would change. This is due to the amount of force in space and the planets. 

The reason we use rockets are to send cargo through space and stop bombs from other countries attacking a certain area. Due to gravity when the rocket flies off into space, it slightly turns horizontally to reduce fuel used. On a rocket their is a 'nose' to help the rocket cut through the pressure of the air when flying. 

We made straw rockets. We made our rockets out of plastic straw and paper as fins then used another straw to make the rocket fly. To help our rocket fly we had to make a lot of changes and variations to find our best flying rocket. The variable we changed was the fins. The winners were; Lukah - 6m and 40cm; Heavenly - 5m 90cm; Fau - 5m 80cm. 

Tech Reflection | Science | STEAM

 LI: To understand and identify the meaning of science with Mrs Sharma. 

This week the Yr 7&8's in LS2 had a new Tech rotation. The year 8's had Food Tech with Mrs Heka and the Yr 7's had Science (STEAM) with Mrs Sharma. Mrs Sharma was our Tech teacher for this term. We started by receiving a project book each. In our project book we wrote down what we were learning and what was happening during the session. 

We started off the session by introducing ourselves to Mrs Sharma. The topic of this week was 'being a scientist'. Mrs Sharma then showed us some science equiptment thats used during testing or in a science lab. There were some equiptment we knew and did not know. Mrs Sharma told us about what the equiptment were and what they are used for. Some of the science equiptment she showed us were; funnel, bunsen burner, test tubes etc. We wrote down the science equiptment we learnt in our project books. 

After that we had some time to think about some words we thought of when we hear science. Everybody participated and wrote down what they think relate to science on the board. Some words in the list were Biology, Physics and Chemistry. Those 3 words are also known as the 3 main areas of science. Each scientist studies at least one of those areas. The words we wrote down on the board also were written in our project books. 

While talking to the people around us we found out answers to 3 questions. They were; 

What is a scientist? 

What do scientists do? 

Have you ever thought about being a scientist? If so, what area in science would you study?

We had an activity to finish off our session. Using an A3 paper folded into quaters we did our activity on it. On the top left quartile we wrote down some more words we think of when we hear science. On the bottome left quartile we drew sketches of what we think of when we hear science. On the top right corner we wrote down the area of subject we'd study if we were a scientist and a question. The area I chose was biology, my question I asked was 'who found out that the sun was the source of light?'. Lastly on the bottom right corner we cut out an image and sticked it on the quartile and wrote down what was the science in the image. 

Food Technology | Mrs Heka | Hotcakes

LI: To learn how to follow a recipe making banana pikelets. 

Today was the Yr 7's second session at food tech. Juel and I both worked together making our food. The food we were making today was banana hotcakes/pikelets with blueberry sauce. Juel and I both followed Mrs Heka's insctructions throughout the session. 

Cooking the hotcakes:

First we got out our utensils and mixing bowls. In the large bowl we added 1 cup of flour and 1 tblsp of sugar. We split the workload between me and Juel. Juel had gotten 3/4 of milk and 1 or 2 eggs. I had gotten the flour  and 2 tblsp of butter. We first mixed together the milk and eggs. Then we added one mashed up banana and milk and eggs into the flour bowl making our batter. After preparing our batter we started on our blueberry sauce. Juel and I both took turns making our pancakes. We made 6 pancakes each. Then after we made our blueberry sauce and our hotcakes, Mrs Heka had added the blueberry sauce on our hotcakes with Vanilla Ice-Cream. 

Since me and Juel were the first people to finish, we helped out some people making their hotcakes and washing their dishes. 

MOTAT trip | Inquiry | Mind Lab

LI: To invest more of technology and transport.

This week LS1, LS2 and rm 5 had the opportunity to go and have a visit at MOTAT, MOTAT stands for Museum Of Transport And Technology. We went there to invest more of our topic we are learning for Cybersmart. We had three hosts, they were Emma, Kenza and D ( aka Damen ). Emma and Kenza were doing activities with us based on technology and transport. We were going to be doing a lot of collaboration in our activities.

Making Electric cars
LS1 year 6 started with Kenza first. We had a challenge to try make a electric car with a small motor, battery pack and a propeller. We worked in pairs. My partner was Angelica. We first started off with our wheels. We connected our wheels on with a skewer and piece of tape. Me and Angelica were under a lot of pressure because we only had 30 minutes. We spent most of the time creating the wheels and trying to start our motor and connect the propeller. We had some help from Kenza. We used some cardboard to make the body of the car. We first made the base. We connected the bottom of the car with the wheels. Unfortunately we never had enough time to finish our cars because we had to move on to the next activity with Emma.

Making a flashlight
We then moved to Emma. With Emma we made motor powered flashlights with LED ( Light emitting diode). We worked as a trio. I worked with Angelica and Hosea. We had to connect the LED to the motor and make sure it was working. After that we had got our blocks and gear we needed. We had to try make the flashlight work without using so much energy. We first made the foundation than we made our body. We used cogs, stoppers and axels. These were kind of like Lego. Our idea was to make  a cranker to turn the cog on motor easily. Unfortanately we never finished but we were happy with what we almost made. 

Next we had a tour around MOTAT. LS1 split up into groups. I had went with Mokai's groups ( Te Raumati's mum who volunteered). We visited the MOTAT village first, it showed artifacts from the 19th - 20th century. We also visited the Innavators, which showed new made technology that will help with the future. We also visited the car exhibit showing race cars from the 1700 - 1900. We had also visited the telephone exhibit, it showed how people communicated back in the day. We had an awesome time. I'd like to thank Mokai for coming to supervise us for the day.