Creating Zombies

The purpose of this activity was to experiment with alleles and calculate the likelihood of different phenotypes.

We had to choose 2 different phenotypes per genre for our zombies. (The categories included clothes, limbs, skin colour, hair, teeth, weapon.)

We randomly chose whether each phenotype was dominant (had more control/likelihood) or recessive (less likely).

We then filled out the punnett squares for each category and calculated the likelihood of each phenotype.

For example, if the phenotypes were green and blue, they could both be recessive (ss) or 1 could be dominant (SS, Ss) or they could be purebred (SS, SS) (ss, ss). If green was SS and blue was Ss there would be a 100% chance of green skin and a 0% chance of blue skin.

Gene, Allele, Genotype and Phenotype

A Gene is the basic unit of genetics you inherit from your parents. This unit controls the genetics inside your body such as characteristics/health etc.

An Allele is the basic unit of genetics you inherit from your parents. This unit controls the genetics outside your body such as your hair colour, eye colour etc. Alleles are different genes that control the same thing, for example, your mother has green eyes and your father has green eyes.

A genotype is the genetic information that makes up an organism, the thing that your parents genes combine to make, for example your characteristics/health again.

A phenotype is the genetic information that makes up an organism, the thing that your parents alleles combine to make, for example your hair colour, eye colour etc.

Gandhi Profile

His real name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.

He was born in Porbandar, India, on October 2 1869.

Gandhi was a man of many professions, some of these include an author, advocate, freedom fighter,

philosopher, journalist, revolutionary, peace activist, civil rights activist and a political campaigner.

Gandhi was a very religious man, he frequently practiced meditation. He was deep into Hinduism and believed it was the only/most tolerant and liberal religion. Gandhi believed in non-violence, peace and self-discipline.

Gandhi fought for many things for India, but what he wanted most was for India to become an Independent country.

The things Gandhi did to protest India’s independence include starting boycotts (India no longer buying British products) and he performed a massive salt march.

Gandhi was a freedom fighter because of the initiative he took to support his country and make it a better place. He was known as a very strong leader, he put the work in to get rid of the British and finally his actions and decisions weren’t put to waste.

Today in Health we participated in a game of water pong.

We played the game in our table groups, we set up 10 cups and filled them with 1/4 of water to make sure they wouldn’t tip over.

A few rules we had to follow was attempting to bounce/shoot the ping-pong ball into the cup one at a time and we had to remove the cup if a ball landed in it. Of course our most important rule was to clean the tables up afterwards and remove all the excess water.

There were two areas of Hauora that were effected during this game that include taha tinana (physical) and taha wairua (spiritual). My taha wairua was affected because it was a great activity to have a chat with your friends and have a laugh. My taha tinana was affected because I had to keep running after the crazy ping-pong balls.

My taha wairua was affected positively because this activity allowed me to leave my thoughts for a while and try to enjoy the time that I had. My taha wairua was affected positively because I was keeping myself active while also having fun.

I think the values of social justice were shown during this activity, inclusiveness by everyone including each other and being fair letting everybody have a go. Of course, we demonstrated non-discrimination too.

I feel I participated well in the activity today, I enjoyed the activity and I tried to help the others in my group to allow them to have fun too.

Some key concept words that we have been working on include social justice, short term and long term, consequence, personal, interpersonal and societal.

Social justice is a view which means to be inclusive, non-discriminating and for everyone to be equal.

Short term means 0-3 months and long term means 3 months and longer.

Consequence means the results of your actions (it can be good and bad).

Personal is something that affects one person or a close relationship (you and your coach, bf and gf etc)

Interpersonal is something that affects a small group of people.

Societal is something that affects a larger crowd (laws, social media etc.)

Today in science our aim was to perform the DNA extraction of a banana.

We started this by getting into groups of 2-4 and collecting the materials needed (zip-lock bag, pipette, 1/3 banana, beaker, spatula, cloth, dish-washing liquid, safety glasses, salt, a dash of water)

Firstly we started by adding 1/3 of a banana into our zip-lock bag.

We added a splash of water, used the spatula to add 2-3 scoops of salt and mushed it all together until most lumps of banana were broken down and it was mixed thoroughly.

Thirdly, we grabbed our beaker and placed a cloth over the opening, we then poured our banana mixture onto the cloth and squeezed it to strain the liquid through the cloth. We put the excess banana mush in the bin and rinsed the cloth out.

Next we transferred the banana liquid from the beaker into a test tube using a dropper/pipette.

After that, we filled the beaker with warm water and left the test tube to sit for 10 minutes.

Lastly, after the 10 minutes we slowly dropped ethanol down the side of the test tube to reveal the little white strings also known as the banana dna!

This lesson we have been working on identifying/explaining significant people and places.

Here is my work, highlighting the places where significant events took place.

This semester in Social Studies we are learning about significant/important figures/people and events that have happened in history. This includes but is not limited to natural disasters, people who have fought for freedom and how to determine significance. So far we have been able to choose who we are learning about, my choice has been Rosa Parks. In future lessons we will be learning about Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi. We will be showing our learning by adding all of our work to our blogs.

The difference between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset is a mixture of factors that add up.

One of the main factors include believing in improvement and development of their abilities, rather than believing that talented people are born naturally and don’t need to put in a lot of effort. Another thing that makes them different is how you view mistakes. People with a fixed mindset view mistakes as a failure, a reason to give up. People with a growth mindset view mistakes as an opportunity, something to learn from.

A time where I was in a fixed mindset situation was when I was on the way to my rugby game. I went to the field and had immediate thoughts telling me that I would fail and that I was embarrassing. Although I had all those ill thoughts, I still went on and I pushed through. It was a great game honestly, I am glad that I didn’t let my thoughts ruin my game and my day.

I think my survey results were pretty accurate. I’ve had past situations where people would call me naturally talented or ‘gifted’ but they hadn’t seen all the work and all the studying I had done behind closed doors. Some of the questions confused me though, such as ‘Even if I work hard, there will still be things I will not be able to accomplish’. I think that’s just an impractical statement, I know that because of course there are things I will NEVER be able to do.

The Goldilocks zone is an area in space between Mars and Venus (with Earth in the middle) where liquid water can be found. The Goldilocks zone is inspired by the story ‘Goldilocks and the 3 bears’ Too hot, too cold and just right!          For a planet to be habitable you need to take account to 4 things including the temperature, water, air and soil/ground.

Scientists have been exploring the possibility of living in Mars, since it is the closest habitable planet to Earth.

Although Mars is in the Goldilocks zone, the conditions of the planet are simply too cold for liquid water, if we were going to live there we would need a device that constantly melts the ice and cleans it so we can drink it or use it.

The temperature on Mars is much more habitable compared to other planets, it may be quite cold but we could get special winter clothing to manage the coldness.

The air on Mars is very different from the air on Earth. The air on Earth is made up of 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, 0.934% argon and 0.035% of carbon dioxide. The air on Mars is made up of 95% carbon dioxide and 1% oxygen. This means that it would be impossible to breathe the air on Mars as a human.

The soil is too different from Earth so you can’t grow plant.

Gravity is a force that pulls two objects/things together.

There are two properties that can change the gravity of an object, these are mass and distance.

Lets use planets for example, the distance between two planets such as Mars and Earth will change the gravity. Mars orbits the sun much slower than Earth orbits the sun, so the distance between Mars and Earth will differ. When Mars and Earth become closer to each other, the gravity will increase and when they separate/get further away the gravity will decrease. Our second property is how much mass the object has (how big or small it is) Let’s use Mercury and Jupiter as an example. Since Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system (has the least mass) it has a smaller amount of gravity. Since Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system (has the most mass) it has a larger amount of gravity.