Pink Shirt Day

What is pink shirt day?

Pink shirt day is a day where people spread awareness about bullying. This day originated in Canada in 2007. There is multiple things that you can do in a bullying situation. The first thing that you can do is be a bystander, being a bystander is when you witness a situation with bullying however you don't do anything to intervene. The second thing that you can do is be a out stander, being an out stander means that if you see a situation that involves bullying you try and do something to either stop it or get someone like a teacher to stop it. In my opinion I am more of a bystander rather than an out stander. I also think that raising awareness for this is great because bullying happens a lot in school and in workplaces.

Shark Finning

Shark Finning 

What is shark finning?

Shark finning is a delicacy in Hong Kong and China, shark finning is where some people will take a shark, cut the fins off and then dump them back in the ocean for them to die a long and painful death. It is said that shark finn soup has barely and taste too it, no nutritional value and they have to add some sort of broth to actually give it a taste. Keep in mind that the cost for this soup will be $140 New Zealand price. Sharks only kill around 10 humans every year however humans are killing 30,000 sharks every hour just for there finns. A lot of the companies that do shark finning are illegal, they won't let any cameras in the shops because they dont want to get exposed for what they do. A lot of the shark finns will be sold on the black market because that is the only way to see it.

Why is it a delicacy?

The reason for this being a delicacy is because people have been having this soup for 1,000 years. Back in the days people believed that it had medical benefits and they also thought of it as a massive victory over powerful sharks.

How is this impacting our oceans?

There is many reasons for this effecting our oceans and marine life. The first reason is how it can lead to animals going extinct, think of it like this Sharks are at the top of the food chain named level 1. If we wipe out level 1, level 2 starts to overpopulate because they have no predators. Level 2 then feeds on all the lower levels until the lower levels go extinct leaving the level 2 animals to starve to death. The next reason is that all the coral reefs that are beautiful will turn to a massive swamp lands due too less herbivores feeding on the algae on the bottom of the ocean. 

The Starfish Poem

What is the main message of this poem?

The message relates too plastic in the ocean, if you stop using plastic you are doing the best that you can do to save sealife. This relates to the poem where the boy is trying to save as many starfish that he can. Although it may not make a massive difference it made a difference for that one starfish or that one life in the ocean. This also relates to us in the fact that sometimes we ourselves may need a little bit  of help sometimes

Give evidence for this?

We see evidence of this when the young man says "It made a difference for that one" or when he says "Throwing starfish in the ocean". 

Testing for carbon dioxide gas

Aim: To show that carbon dioxide gas is produced when a metal carbonate reacts with acid.

Equipment: Two boiling tubes, delivery tube and bung, bunsen burner, test tube rack, wooden splint, a bottle of acid, small amount of metal carbonate, test tube tongs, safety glasses.

Method: 

1. Light your bunsen burner 

2. Add a pea sized amount of metal carbonate into one of the boiling tubes.

3. Place this boiling tube into a test tube rack. Ensure you have the bung and delivery tube ready.

4. Add 5ml of acid to the boiling tube and quickly insert the bung and delivery tube into the mouth of the boiling tube.

5. Holding the other boiling tube with your tongs, capture the gas produced as shown in the diagram below.

Results: The one that had the most rust was the tube that had water in it and the one that had the least amount of rust was the one wrapped in aluminuim. 

Conclusion: In conclusion the water tube turned out as expected and a lot of the other ones didnt have that much rust at all such as the nail polish and the aluminuim.

Garbage patch paragraph

The Garbage Patch

Statement I am trying to convince you about the problem going on in the pacific ocean. This problem is named the great pacific garbage patch. You may wonder why this includes us and the reason for this is because we are the main problem. All the plastic that gets into the ocean comes from us, so it is our job to fix it.

State your point:

This garbage patch is the same size as 6 New zealands or 2 texas. This garbage patch is made up of tiny little microplastics so it's quite scary that all those little microplastics can take up that large of an area. Where does all the plastic come from? Majority of this plastic comes from land, 80% is from land and 20% comes from the fishing industry. This is how fishing nets and other plastics get into marine life. It is also estimated that there is around 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic floating around the patch.

Why it matters: This matters because all of this pollution is killing the majority of our marine life, 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are affected every year as well as many other species. Evenus humans aren’t necessarily safe from the dangers, microplastics have been found in the stomachs of nearly half of the most important species for global fisheries.

Evidence: We know that all this is happening because we see it affecting our marine life 100,000 mammals being affected every year. There was a whole movement based on not using plastic straws because of it affecting turtles however what happens to all the other plastics and fishing nets?. Also the garbage patch is estimated to weigh around 80,000 tonnes floating in an area of 1.6m square kilometers.

Sum up: To finish this off let's go over what we talked about, the garbage patch was created by us, is affecting our marine life, spans over 2 texas and majority of it is land based. This means that we need to make a positive change and stop harming our marine life.

Memory

In wananga we started reading the book "Memory" by Margaret mahy, we are currently reading this book as a class and just finished page three. The main characters is a male named Johnny Dart. Johnny is describes to have swollen eyes, swollen lips, curly hair, hat on his head. Some emotions that he experiances is being miserable and feeling Guilty. It is mainly his jokes that make people think he is a miserable person. 

The Pacific Garbage Patch

 The Pacific Garbage Patch

What is the Problem going on right now?

Right now there is a massive problem going on, the problem is that there is this thing in the ocean named the pacific garbage patch, this patch is made up of tiny little bits of plastic which is called microplastics, these microplastics make up all of the garbage patch and is the same size of the state of texas two times over. The type of plastic that is in the patch is a type of plastic named polyethylene and this doesn't break down. 

What is the cause of the garbage patch?

There is actually two gabage patches located in the north pacific ocean, The Western Patch in south japan and and the easteran patch located near san fransisco. Almost all of the plastic that is in the patch is from the land, 80% to be exact and 20% of plastic is from the sea like cruise ships and shipping ships.  All of the plastic in there is not biodegradable meaning that in won't break down, it is also estimated that there is around 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic just in the patch. 

What are the effects of the garabge patch?

Humans, humans are the answer. All the plastic that we make ends up in the ocean. Like i said before majority of the plastic in the ocean comes from land based stuff and only some come from fishing industrys. The effects of this are marine life dying out, 1million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammels that are effected every sing year.

Resilience Reflection

In this terms wananga class we are learning about having a growth mindset and how it is better for your learning. Having a growth mindset means that you are willing to expand or develop your basic skills, you do this by working hard and training. It's also is about trying out new things that you have never done before, for example speaking infront of the class can be hard for a lot of people but once you conquer that fear you will improve your skills with speaking aloud. The power of yet is to change peoples mindset from "I don't think I can do this" and change it to "I dont think I can do this yet" this makes your mindset change from a negative and unhealthy mindset to a Positive and healthy mindset.