Maths - Escape Room in Room 21

This week Room 21s learning focus in maths has been using place value to split double digit multiplication equations. To put their learning this week to the test, they entered an escape room.

The objective was to  escape the classroom which they had been locked in by the mad mathematician! Students had to complete three levels of two digit equations, which would give them three different codes.

Once they had cracked the codes correctly, they were given an escape code, which they had to put in online to officially escape!

It was great to see students put their knowledge of place value partitioning into practice as well as their problem solving and teamwork skills and the majority of the teams escaped within the hour!

Mayor Ray Wallace comes to Muritai

On Monday afternoon Mayor Ray Wallace kindly came to visit our school.

Well done to our school leaders who organised an afternoon tea and tour of the school!

Many thanks to all the teachers and students who represented our school so well.

Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths - An Action Packed Day!

Today Team Kāhu had a truly STEM - packed adventure!

First we visited the Roxy Cinemas in Miramar courtesy of the Docs4Schools program which offer free screenings of documentaries from the DocEdge Film Festival for primary schools.

We watched Point of No Return (click here for trailer) and were treated to a Q&A session with the directors to follow!!

Hopping back on the bus, we raced to Weltec for a rotation of incredible demonstrations and 'hands on' activities in their laboratories - with the focus being exploring how testing materials relates to engineering in 'real life'!

Enormous thanks to our wonderful parent helpers; Mary, Dechen, Emily, Sarah, Kathryn, Hayley, Jo and Mel and the incredible team at Weltec who made such an incredible day possible!

Some photos of the action.... (more to be added as we receive them!)

What we have been up to...

Well done to our Charity Group & community for providing 15 boxes of clothing to support those who are in need in Lower Hutt!

Our second Tech rotation is half way through and the team have been cooking up some delicious treats!

HUTT STEMM FESTIVAL - Check it out!

Follow this LINK

Creating AI models

In Room 21 this afternoon, the students had the opportunity to create a simple model linking to science in the everyday world.

We decided to discuss the role of Artificial Intelligence and how that is being used and how we can use it to our advantage, before looking at the negatives of using AI.

The challenge that was set, was that in groups they would be given a bag of random materials, which were all slightly different. In their teams they needed to construct an AI model by using all the materials, they could be as imaginative with their ideas as they wanted.

  The teams had to brainstorm all the possible models they could create, pick one and then think about how their model would work.

The groups had 40 minutes to create their models and present to the class.

The end products were incredibly creative, we had housework robots, dancing robots, a robot butler/piggy bank, a thought machine and a robot to help injured animals.

Science - Baked Alaska Experiment

Today, Team Kahu undertook a food science experiment.

Students were shown different elements of food; sponge, eggs, sugar and ice-cream.

They were asked to make prediction on first what were we making, and what was going to happen to the ice cream when we put it in the oven to bake. The students overall prediction was that the ice cream would get hot and melt in the oven whilst the rest was cooking.

Students had the opportunity to come and help create the baked Alaska, with the results looking good. Next step was for Ms Algar, Mrs George and Rio to whip up the meringue to go over the cake, ready to go into the oven. 

They came out looking amazing!

The students were then asked what their first prediction was and whether or not it was going to be correct. They stuck to their gut and thought the ice cream would come seeping out the middle when Mr Mackie cut into it. 

Students were asked, how is that possible! Ice cream is cold and surely it should have melted in the oven, since the  meringue was so hot! 

How was this possible? The answer is thermal insulation. The meringue took all the heat from the oven, leaving the ice cream to stay cool on the inside. 

And of course, the students got to have a taste, just to confirm that the ice cream was indeed cold!

This lesson, was the introductory lesson for science this term where students will be looking at change and fair tests, with a focus being on thermal insulation.