Topic+Term+2



This is where I will have all my work regarding our Topic during Term 2.

Our Topic:

= What's The Plan Stan? =

This focuses on Disasters, How they happen, How to prepare for one etc. We cover this Topic every 2 years. We started over by having class talks about disasters and the aftermath. We then went into groups and those a certain disaster. My group chose floods. We had to create a Wordle with words that come to mind when we think of Floods. Here is my groups Wordle:



We have also started a Mini Inquiry with Whats The Plan Stan? We have to choose a Natural Disaster and come up with a Big Question focusing more on the aftermath instead of what actually happened. I have chosen the Pike River Mine Disaster and my Big Question is: How has the Pike River Mine Disaster effected the community and New Zealand?

Instead of having Mrs Stevens mark our inquiry our peers will be assessing our Inquiry. Mrs Stevens will put us into groups of 6 and they will have a rubric that they follow when assessing. We will have to remember all of our information and say it to the group so they know we understand the information they found. This will definitely be an interesting change.

We have presented and have been assessed by our peers. I think I went really well and have improved. Here is my presentation:

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A few days ago we skyped a teacher over in the USA. His name was Mr Mcnulty. He talked to us about the Mississippi RIver Flooding. This was awesome as we all learnt some information about this disaster. It all tied into our disasters topic which was great. It is also pretty amazing how we have been skyping people all around the world. To follow up this skype call the entire class had to make a fact sheet about the Mississippi RIver Floods. We had to present this on a site called: http://www.cacoo.com

Here is my Fact Sheet:

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= Overall: =

I found that this unit of work was very worthwhile. I definitely think that learning about what to do in a disaster is extremely valuable. It could even save your life. we had a man from Civil Defence come and talk to us about disasters and what role he plays when a disaster happens. I learnt more about what Civil Defence does and how they help in a disaster. This talk was very interesting in my eyes. We also skyped Mr Mcnulty which was great. He was able to tell us about what has been happening with the Mississippi River flooding.

I enjoyed the mini inquiry as I was able to learn about my disaster but also learnt about the aftermath from this disaster. It was a huge tragedy and didn't only affect Greymouth but the whole country.

I definitely thought What's The Plan Stan was a great unit of work. It tied in nicely as New Zealand has had the earthquakes and around the world there has been various disasters.

= Our Living World = This Topic is about what humans impact is on our planet and how we can reduce our impact. This topic I think will be quite interesting. We did a similar topic last year and I enjoyed that topic so am looking forward to Our Living World.

Our Living World: We are focusing on our living world and what people (The Guardians) are doing to the planet.

Below is a Venn Diagram showing what natural things occur on the planet, the man-made things that occur on the planet and things that occur in both.



= Inquirys: =

Just recently our class had a huge discussion about possible Inquiry questions. As this inquiry we need a Big Question and 3 Subsidiary Questions. We used the Umbrella method which is where we have our topic inside the umbrella and then talk about things that come under that topic. From there we think of questions. Our finished Umbrella was amazing and I think that nobody will have trouble thinking of Big and Subsidiary Questions.

Here is an image of our finished umbrella:



Over the last few weeks our class have been completing our inquirys. We needed 1 Big Question and 3 Subsidiary Questions.

My Big Question = What is causing the most polluted places in the world to become polluted? My Subsidiary Questions = What type of pollution is affecting these places? - How has the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster affected the land? - What is causing Air Pollution in NZ?

I presented my inquiry on 8/7/11 on a website named Vuvox. This tool is definitely a great way to present inquirys. Below is my Inquiry Presentation.

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I scored 5P on this inquiry which I am very happy about. I will continue to improve so next term I can score another 5.