MATAPU SCHOOL – Room 1 Talkback

We are writing narratives and one of our focuses is to use exciting language.  This is a great piece of work from Hayley that does exactly that.  Well done!

Overview…
My experiment was to test whether plants need soil to grow.  My prediction was that plants do need soil to grow. 

Pictures of the plant I planted in soil…

Pictures of the plant I planted in cotton wool…

Results…
As you can probably see, both plants grew.  My prediction in this case was wrong as the plant that was planted in cotton wool and not in soil still grew, so I can conclude that plants do not need soil to grow.

Closer observations…
Both plants did not grow exactly the same however.  As the pictures show, the lupin planted in soil grew a lot bigger and quicker than the one planted in cotton wool, so I can assume that soil will help a plant to grow.

Problems…
There were some other things that may have also affected my results, such as…

• At times the plants were watered unevenly, and over the weekends they weren’t watered at all.
• We have had some really cold weather which effects the growth of plants at this time of the year.
• My plants were banged about at times (particularly during interval and lunchtime) due to where they were located which may have effected how they grew.

Things I would do differently next time…
I think that because of my inconsistent watering of my plants, my results are not as accurate as they could be. I would make sure to water both plants exactly the same and more often than I did this time. I would also do this experiment during summer when it is warmer because the seeds do not grow very well at this time of the year because of the cold. I would also have a wider variety of things that the seeds could be growing in, such as water, newspaper, carpet etc.

Possible further studies…
I can think of a couple of things I could study based on my results…

• I could study the speed of growth in plants that are planted with or without soil.
• I could study how large the seed can grow without soil or food compared to one planted in soil.

Click on the image for a bigger picture…

Hi everyone!  Lots of things happening in Room 1 at the moment.  We have just posted our new basketball video which looks great!  We are also working hard at our narrative writing, hopefully I will be able to post a few great examples here. You will also be able to view other pieces of great writing on the blogs of students in Room 1 when they post their Work of the Weeks (WOW) this week.  Just follow the links on the right.
We will be wrapping up our plant studies in the next week or so, so lookout for our posts/videos/powerpoints on those!! They will be GREAT!!!  Our studies are about how plants grow under different conditions.  Although it is a little cold to be planting at this time of the year, I think everyone has had some success in finding out what helps plants and what doesn’t.
As we are just starting our algebra units in maths, there is going to be some great math work on show in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned!!

Yes, we are priming for the BP Tech Challenge.  This is us having a go at making wind wands, some reached the dizzying heights of almost 3 metres!!!  Others…well, despite the lack of height we had fun making them for sure!  That tennis ball is quite a lot heavier than you would think when you have to balance it at the top.

Check out this GREAT game to test your knowledge of the world!!  Click on the link below to play!

http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq

Well, we finally solved the “What is behind Ele-boy” challenge. It was the big barrel just outside the office with the flax plant growing in it. That took a while, but we finally got there! Well done Courtney and Kate. These two girls have created “What in the World is Behind Nancy?” challenge. Post your answers here!

We were super lucky today by having Trent Adam, the Taranaki Dynamos basketball coach, at our school taking our own miniball teams through a few drills. We were amazed at how good he was and had a great time trying out the skills he was teaching us. Thanks heaps for your time Trent! We are looking forward to having you back next week!