Robotics Club

Balmoral School has recently set up the opportunity to be involved in a Robotics Club as part of the Lego Mindstorm for education initiative. This is the first year we are looking into entering a team of children to take part in the robotics competition. The competition not only involves programming a Mindstorm robot to enter a set series of challenges, but also involves a large research project.

This entry is to allow you and your teams to discuss and contribute to the ideas around community, and what it is. See the out take from the site instructions. Use this post over the holidays to share your ideas about this big idea.

Begin your project by describing your community. This season, it is up to your team to define your community. Is it your school? your neighborhood? your city, village, or town? your country? the world? Be prepared to share how you defined your community.

Rich Task - Our Inventions and Innovations.

Room 18 has had a busy term looking at inventions and innovations. The children were placed into groups and within these groups had to come up with a product that could be made and sold at this years Balmoral Big Day Out.

Each child had to take on a role in this collaborative technology effort and a number of considerations had to be taken into account. Such as cost, sale price and profit, the ease of creation, the design and materials, whether it suited a particular market, whether it was a need or a want, how it worked and the promotion of the product to our class. We had seven great ideas - The Pouch Pocket, The Broominator, Velcro Rope, V - Belt, Sticko-Towel, Beads and Bracelets, and even the Funky Brush.

Room 18 this task is to comment on the invention or innovation you and your group have come up with. It does not matter whether it was the one we will make as a class or not.

Tell us about your role in the group and the information you shared with the class – Cost/Profit, Need/Want, Market, What it does, How it is made and so on. If it was your job, post about it – the world should know!

Some other inventor/innovator might want to know about it…maybe you will be world famous!

Inventions and Innovations

Kia Ora to the best class in the universe!

Welcome back to Term 3. Doesn't time go by so quickly? From the stories you have told in class, I know that you all had a well deserved holiday break and are ready to continue with your amazing learning journey.

Over the next 2 weeks you must research an inventor or innovator. Include these things:

- Name

- Date of Birth and Death (not applicable if they are alive ...)

- Details of who they are

- Details of there inventions/innovations

- Personal comment about their personal characteristics

- References of where you got your information from.

Your inventor/innovator does not need to be world famous, but must have changed something in our world for the better or even for the worse.

Example Inventor: Thomas Edison

Example Innovator: Bill Gates

Looking forward to it!

Rest in Peace Michael Jackson

On Friday we paid tribute to Michael Jackson, shortly after the news broke that he had passed away. I asked the class who had heard of Michael and every hand went up.

We proceeded to fill a wet lunch hour with a range of video clips from Michael's career, including 'Blame it on the Boogie' from his Jackson Five days, 'Black or White' and even the full version of 'Thriller'. Our neighbouring class couldn't resist, and joined us for the final song we played, 'Heal the World'.

Today for news board we talked about this news, and any updates that had occurred since Friday (NZ Time). We discussed a range of topics and someone asked about Michael Jackson's dance moves, in particular the "Moon Walk". Shortly after I cued up a YouTube clip of the famous Motown performance of 'Billy Jean'

Here is that video:

Room 18 - if you have any ideas or thoughts post them in. Or just enjoy this classic Michael Jackson performance.

New Zealand Native Fauna and Flora

Kia Ora Room 18!

For this exciting task you are to get your research thinking caps on and find out about some of New Zealand's wild life. Be they small creepy crawlies, insects or birds; how will we attract them and support them in our adopted school area.

Firstly, come up with a chosen fauna species; then find out as much as you can about it. We need to know how it will be attracted to our area, and how we can keep them in their natural environment, this means finding out about what fauna we may need to plant.

This is going to be great.

Room 18 - you are excellent scientists, so lets start studying!

Carey Park Camp 2009

I hope everyone has recovered from our awesome week at Carey Park Camp in Henderson Valley. The weather was great, the activities amazing and the children 100 % top class.

This task is for you to reflect, discuss, share thoughts and feelings about your experiences. Be honest and let us know about challenges you faced and over come, highlights that will stand out in your memories for years to come, or just any random thoughts you have about Carey Park Camp 2009.

Looking forward to reading your responses Room 18!

What's happening in our world?

This new section is for you to post your ideas about any current events that are happening to you and around you, be they in our country or somewhere else in the world. You may post links to articles that you have found, video clips that may be of interest or anything related to your post. It is also important that you respond to the article clearly and justify your opinions. Post comments and questions related to your current event or to the posts of others. This topic will be ongoing and I hope to see you adding more into here as you find it out.

Some links you may wish to use are: The New Zealand Herald, theStuff news site, TV 3 news, CNN (U.S.A), BBC (U.K), Australian news, TVNZ, or Google news. Any other great sites you find, please include your link.