The Rumbai/Duri Middle School Field Trip 2015

The Rumbai/Duri Middle School Trip to Sulawesi was exciting! We went snorkeling, hiking, and boat riding. I have been to many trips in my five years living in Rumbai. It was one of the best!

The best part to me was seeing the sea turtles. They were 60 feet below our faces. All you could see was blue when you looked below. Suddenly you would see a green oval swimming in the distance. It was a green sea turtle! That was the best part for me because I have never seen a sea turtle when snorkeling. 

Another fun part was seeing the dolphins flop up and down. We went on a motor boat, speeding to our next snorkeling location. Suddenly there was a loud splash, and another! Everyone looked around to see what it was. Spinner dolphins! There was a large pack of them swimming eight feet from our boat. They jumped up and down splashing in the sea. It seemed like they were more excited seeing us, than us seeing them. 

Tarsiers was very enjoyable as well. We went on a major bus ride and hike to get to see the Tarsiers. It was worth it. I didn’t even know the animal existed! I haven’t seen any photos or anything. I didn’t know what I was looking for. We kept hiking, then we showed up at a large, gigantic, tree. The tour guide shined his black flashlight on the tree. There was a little, furry, brown leg. I will give you one guess on what it is. A squirrel! No, just joking! It was a Tarsier. After about one minute it came out and showed it’s self. It was super small. But it has the largest eyes ever! It actually has the largest eyes out of every mammal! It was marvelous!

The main reason we went on this trip is to form friendships with the kids from Duri. I hardly knew any kids there. Now I think I can name of every one of them. Without the kids from Duri this trip wouldn't have been as fun. We also went on the to see the impacts of man destroying nature and nature stabbing back at mankind. There was lots of trash in the ocean and on the shore. But nature was also taking over humans. There was an old, beat up, house that was taken over by leaves and vines. 

Overall it was one of the best trips I have been on. It was fun going with all my friends and making new ones from Duri. Seeing the dolphins, sea, turtles, starfish, and other marine life/animals was extraordinary! I will cherish that week forever! 

Written By: Aiden Sullivan

Photos: Mrs. Clare, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Drew, Aiden Sullivan

The Levitating Pencil!

In this science challenge we had to make a levitating pencil! We had 6 magnets, a pencil, a mirror, and a ball of clay. We had to figure out which magnetism the magnet was, attraction or repulsion. We had to switch and turn the magnets to make the magnetic pole just right. The attraction or repulsion between magnetic poles is called magnetic force, which is basically like negative and positive, like numbers, the same with magnets. Thank god for magnetic fields, because that allows the magnets to interact with each other, like move up and down which creates a levitating pencil!



Facts from: Buckley, Don. Interactive Science. Boston, MA: Pearson, 2011. Print.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.

Cool video on what happened!

(Edited By: Aiden Sullivan)

Explaining Electrical Circuits

In this small, group experiment we had to build a small electric cookie alarm. The conductor was the aluminum foil. The circuit was the cords connected to the battery. A circuit is a pathway through electricity to flow through, and the current flows through the circuit. Our battery we used for this experiment was 1.5 volts (voltage). I liked the experiment, because I love energy, I find it very interesting and geeky!

This is my diagram of our (Johanna, Joseph, Aiden) experiment. 

Orang Mentawai!

I would want to go to Mentawai because it is a new culture to learn about. I am interested on how they make their tattoos. I would like to learn about their religion. I want to know more about them because they seem like a fascinating culture. I would like to learn about their religion. They have many birds that tell people different things and do different things. I am very interested in other culture's wild life, so I would like to learn more about the birds and other animals in the Mentawai tribe. The Mentawai believe in a complex bird oenology. They have a special taboo ritual, and magic, to help conceptual the world of the Mentawai.

http://www.creativeroots.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Mentawai_people1.jpg

Student Led Conferences!

Science Fair Week 8!

Foam: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tile

Tile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tile

"Foam." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

"Tile." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.

Me Playing on the Electric Guitar!

Science Fair: Week 7!

Grade 6 2015 Science Fair Week 7

Indonesian Angklung Instrument

An angklung is an Indonesian instrument made of 3 bamboo rods attached to a bamboo square. They are carved in a fashion were there is a certain beautiful sound. They are used in Indonesian songs and bands. It is very popular near South East asia. It requires practice, concentration, and coordination to play this epic instrument.

Facts and Photos from:

http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/133/0/6/angklung__traditional_instrumen_in_west_java__by_fp93-d4zodd3.jpg

    and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angklung

Science Fair Blog Post: Week 6!

Found a cool sound wave game try it out:

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/changing_sounds.shtml

Citation: N.p., n.d. Web.

When A Teacher Gives You Homework! (Feat. Mrs. Lisa The Art Teacher)

Science Fair Blog Post: Week 5

Science Fair Blog Post: Week 4!

This week in the amazing science fair, we have been working on out Interim Report. We have filled it with everything we have done so far. Our, research, question, variables, and bibliography. 

We completed out hypothesis we think that If the recyclable material is plastic then, the sound waves that penetrate the soundproof wall will go slower, because the plastic bottle contains air which is a gas, and gas makes sound waves travel slower. 

We decided that we will be using wool, plastic, and wood to build three walls. One with wool, one with wood, and another with plastic bottles.

 Our next step is to gather all the materials and resources we need and start to build each wall. Can't wait to begin!

What Is Excellence?

In Language Arts class today we learned about Core Values. The Core Value we learned today was excellence. To me, excellence is to always try your very best and if you fail then always get back up and do great things. Here are some examples of excellence...

When work really hard on a science project and you do very well on it. (You took the time to do well on it)

When you lose a basketball game and you practice and win the next one. (You kept on trying to win the next game)

When you are feeling sad and lonely, you push onward and continue in life and you won't let the fear and sadness bother you.

http://us.123rf.com/450wm/dskdesign/dskdesign1205/dskdesign120500034/13670684-hand-writing-excellence-business-concept-by-crossword-of-relate-word-such-as-expert-development-stra.jpg

This is the book we read in class today for excellence. It is titled "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Suess. It talks about when you don't do good you can always get back up. I like the book because when I am feeling mournful, I think of this book and it makes me get back up again. 

http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/insidedores/manage/wp-content/uploads/Book-Cover.jpg

Science Fair Blog Post Week 3!

This week we worked on our question and our variables. Our independent variable is our recyclable material and our dependent variable the amount of hertz that goes through the wall. Our controlled variables are the location, pitch, and distance. Our question is "How does the recyclable material affect the hertz that penetrates the soundproof wall." Our next step is to start to make the soundproof wall using recyclable material.

We Are Professional Dancers

Here is a project Joseph, Hudson, and I did for PE. We had to make up a 30 second dance routine. Here it is. 

Science Fair Blog Post: Week 2!

In class today we played with sensors!

We had a tuning fork and had a block of wood holding the string. We pulled the tuning fork back and it hit a cylinder of wood. Then we put the sensor up to the tuning fork and recorded how many Hz the fork made. We did this with different sizes of tuning forks. I enjoyed it and it was very fun. Our project is to make a soundproof wall. This is going to be helpful in our project because we are going to need to know how to use the sensor. We all know hot to now. Next we will get the resources we need to build our soundproof wall. We still need to know what sound does not go through. That is all I got for this week in science!

Science Fair Blog Post: Week 1! It Begins!

This is a video of me explaining the 6th graders science fair project. Please enjoy and click a feeling below!

Today we played with the sensors. We have tuning forks of all different sizes and we are going to bang them and the sensor will collect the amount if Hz (Hertz). We are not sure how we are going to bang them without banging to hard or too soft.

Mesopotamian Drawing!

This is my drawing of Mesopotamia. It is a village of people doing jobs of everyday life. There are people chopping down trees with axes. Egypt had no trees so they had to use mud brick from the Nile to build homes and building. Mesopotamians built wood houses with trees. Down by the lake is a man scooping up water for the crops with a bucket. The lake provided water, fish, and transportation. Egypt had used the Nile for the same reasons. Mesopotamians built canals to bring water to their village. Farmers had to work hard to feed families. They made lots of foods like vegetable stew, fish, and fruits. To the right there is an animal pen. Cows were used for milk and meat, pigs were used for meat, and chicken were used for eggs and meat. There are dirt and rocky roads because cement was not invented at the time. My drawing shows many details of Mesopotamia that relate to Egypt and there are also differences between the two.

Hour Of Code Computer Science

      When you click the link below you will see a rectangle that is a little game that I created. You click in the space and then your character will flop in the air. You want to keep on clicking and try to go through the gaps. Every time you go through a whole you get one point. How many can you get?


My flappy bird game: http://studio.code.org/c/5422

    The hour of code is basically you use a coding website or app, and you code for an hour! Everyone around the world is doing the hour of code, you should try it too.
I completed the "Make Your Own Flappy Bird Game".
At first I had no clue what to do because all I saw was a bunch of loops. Then after experimenting it became easy, I figured out I had to end up dragging loops to make it do what I wanted it to do.  I used http://code.org/ to complete my flappy game. If I had more time I would like to edit my game or try a new one like the "Angry Bird Code Game".