25. Engineering Insights: A Personal Reflection

WALT  : Create a blog around a reflection of engineering 

Namaste Everyone, 

This week we created some engineering boards to sum up the different activities we got to do throughout all of our engineering activities. You may be thinking “Why did you have to create a board for engineering”. Well the main reason was because we would be having this senior school competition around engineering and our engineering teacher ( Whaea Ruth ) would go around and see everyone’s work and see will judge the best one and then which ever one’s are the best she will give their team a prize. 

Here are also some other parts from my blog which are going to be a part of my reflection. 

For this week’s engineering we learnt about electrical engineering. Firstly we got instructed  to play a game and this game had a connection to what we were learning about. We had  to play a ball game and we had to pass it along without touching the ball with our fingers and palm touching the ball. We also couldn’t kick the ball because it would go everywhere and someone could get injured.

We got into teams of around 10 – 13 people in one group. Then we created a circle. Then we got given a ball then one person would one by one pass it to the people beside them. The aim of the game was when passing the ball the ball was represented  as the light or something that relies on electricity to make them run. The people represented the connection to make the ‘thing’ work and it was fun because we got to cooperate as a team.

This week we learnt about Environmental Engineering.  We had been assigned in the last engineering class to bring a empty bottle that has about 1.5 litres. Why? Because we were assigned to make water filters out of the empty water bottle. Here is a bit about what we needed to do to create this water filter.

We had to create a filter out of the a bottle the first step was to cut the bottle in half then we had to add the { Coffee cloth }. Once we did that we had to decide on what should we put in first and we decided to put the { cotton balls } inside first then we add come pebbles into the water once that was done we add { Activated Charcoal } after that we the sand into the water bottle once we did that we added the water into the bottom half of the bottle. Then we watch clear water out of the bottle. 

Did you know that 1.8 billion people have no access to water or dirty and mucky water. This is very bad for the health of kids and family’s and people. They risk their lives trying to survive just off, of dirty water. That’s why it is important that you keep the environment clean so other people around the world are able to experience the sensation of clean and refreshing water.

I also want to give a huge thank you to the people that were able to attend our senior senior school assembly for engineering because they were able to take their time off work and celebrate kids that they only got to know in a few months. So I would like to give a huge thank you to them.

Thank you for reading my blog about my engineering reflection I hope you enjoyed it and remember if you have any suggestions there will be a comment button for you, make sure to spread the gospel.

Nga Mihi – Sala

25. Understanding Angles: The Building Blocks of Geometry

WALT : Understand angles and be able to name the various angles. 

Assalamualaikum Everyone,

Last week for math we were learning about angles and we will be continuing learning about angles.

What are angles? An angle is the space between two straight lines that meet at a point. That point is called the vertex. You can think of an angle like the corner of a book or the hands of a clock.

We measure angles in degrees (°). Here are some common types of angles:

  • Acute angle: Smaller than 90°.
  • Right angle: Exactly 90°.
  • Obtuse angle: Bigger than 90° but less than 180°.
  • Straight angle: Exactly 180°.

We also learnt about two other angles which were called complementary and supplementary.

  • Complementary angle:  angles or any angles that add up to 90 degrees.
  • Supplementary angle: can be only added up to 180 degrees.

We also learnt about the lines in the angles for example in the middle of the angles like this.

As you can see in the middle it’s called a vertex and the lines are called rays or in our textbook it explains the names as arms. We also learnt about letters in angles here is a video that explains what I’m talking about.

Angle Link ( Click to open the video ) 

In the beginning it was easy but then when we got to independent and extended practice it got harder and we needed to make sure it was correct but also clear to read or else it could of been marked wrong. And that was all we did for math this week and last week.

I hope my blog was fun to read and make sure to add some suggestions in your comments to let me make a better blog but always remember to spread the gospel.

Nga Mihi – Sala

25. Civil Engineering: Shaping Skylines and Communities

Malo E Lelei

The task of designing a bridge in our books excited our class, but I was unsure about how to begin. What I quickly realised was that working as a team was the key to making a good design.

At first, we all had different ideas. Some of us started by drawing different shapes for the bridge, while others focused on the measurements, making sure the bridge could hold weight without falling. We also talked a lot about what materials would be best to use. By sharing our ideas and listening to each other, we combined our strengths and made a much better design than if we had worked alone.

Designing the bridge was more challenging than I expected. We had to think about how the bridge would carry cars or people safely and stay strong during bad weather.

This project taught me an important lesson: civil engineering isn’t just about maths or drawing—it’s about working well with others. Engineers often work in teams because many different skills and ideas are needed to build safe and useful structures. Designing our bridge together showed me how communication and cooperation make a big difference, turning simple drawings into a design that could actually work in the real world.

25. Recap: The Essentials of Civil Engineering

Kia Ora Everyone,

Last week we got a choice whether we could do different activities such as a Straw Tower, Cardboard Bridge, Seawall, Jenga Tower,  Davinci Bridge, Water Filter, Matariki Kit, Circuits and Dominoes.

For our first activity we needed to pick an activity that us and our group would be working on. And we decided as a group that we would want to work on the Davinci Bridge. If you don’t know what the Davinci Bridge is then this is what it is.

We had to create this bridge individually which meant our group tried to create this bridge on our own. We tried to create it multiple times but failed. We assumed that it was impossible to create until I tried again and it worked so I added a book onto the bridge and it held up which meant I made it the correct way. I documented it but it is on my other device so I am not able to show it to you. But I promise that I was able to create this bridge.

If you want to learn how to create this then I will add a video link for you to try and create.

YouTube Link 

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and I hope you have a amazing rest of your day / week and remember to spread the gospel.

Nga Mihi – Sala

25. Money Matters: Simple Steps to Smart Budgeting

Malo E Lelei Everyone,

For math this week with the year  8’s we have been looking at financial plans and budgeting money. We needed to work out of our textbooks and they provided all of the questions that we needed to answer.

We also needed to learn about new words like income and expenditures. Income means money that you earn or money you get into your bank account and expenditures are money that you spend on what you want and not need.

Also we needed to create a spreadsheet. But before we get into that there is a backstory to why we needed to create this spreadsheet. In this textbook there was a girl named Harper and this boy named Ari and then we had to do some activities and the spreadsheet is one of the activities we needed to do.

On the spreadsheet were the incomes and expenditures in the income column there were the names of the things e.g. jobs and parents that pay Harper which was in the income column because she was getting paid. And in the expenditures were her bills and things she needed to pay off e.g. her car loan, Going Out, Petrol etc. We had to add up the total which was adding up the income with the income and the total of the income column was $1,164. 95 and for the expenditure and the total was $1,064.95.

After adding up the total we had to see if the 2 totals were balanced or unbalanced. To check if it was balanced the total either had to be lower or the same amount of money and it was balanced    because one was lower than the other. Here is the evidence that I took a screenshot of.

 

Thank you so much for reading my blog I hope you enjoyed reading it and remember to spread the gospel 🫂.

Nga Mihi – Sala 🧠.

25. Persuasive Writing

Malo E Lelei Everybody,

Happy Tongan Language Week Everyone 🇹🇴 !!

This week for writing we had to continue our previous writing that we created last week. We talked about the superior points on why we should go to sports camp or do not go to sports camp.

Here is some reasons why I think we should participate in sports camp.

Attending sports camp is an excellent opportunity for Year 7 and 8 students to become stronger and more confident. Spending time participating in different sports and activities outside of the regular school environment helps students develop important skills like teamwork, perseverance, and respect. Sports camp encourages us to work together, handle winning and losing with good manners, and build positive attitudes that help us both on and off the field.

We also had to create a persuasive writing on why should the year 7 and 8’s go to sports camp. So I will add mine down here for you to click on and take a look and retrace why I think that we should go to sports camp from my perspective.

Doc Link ( Click here to check it out ) 

Thank you for reading my blog I hope you have an exceptional rest of your day / week and remember to spread the gospel ✝.

Nga Mihi – Sala 🙂

 

25. Electricity and You: The Basics of Electrical Engineering

Hola Everyone,

For this week’s engineering we learnt about electrical engineering. Firstly we got instructed  to play a game and this game had a connection to what we were learning about. We had  to play a ball game and we had to pass it along without touching the ball with our fingers and palm touching the ball. We also couldn’t kick the ball because it would go everywhere and someone could get injured.

We got into teams of around 10 – 13 people in one group. Then we created a circle. Then we got given a ball then one person would one by one pass it to the people beside them. The aim of the game was when passing the ball the ball was represented  as the light or something that relies on electricity to make them run. The people represented the connection to make the ‘thing’ work and it was fun because we got to cooperate as a team.

Then we learnt about circuits which looks like this.

We also created something similar to this. But it was in a Matariki Kit  that looks like something similar to this.

This activity needed people to cooperate and make sure that we do this activity correctly. The rose gold thing is called cooper tape and it was  one of the many things that were provided in the Matariki Kit. We had an instruction paper that provided us with the instructions. We had this card and we needed to make sure that we followed the instructions. But that’s all we did for engineering with Whaea Ellen.

Thank you for reading my blog I hope you have a good rest of your day and remember to spread the gospel 🔥.

Nga Mihi – Sala  😁

25. Tuhi Mai Tuhi Atu – St Jospeh’s Catholic School

Fakaalofa Lahi Atu Everyone,

Our class is called the navigators and right now we are navigating our way into the different schools around New Zealand. I decided that I wanted to describe St Joseph’s Catholic School. Firstly we needed to discover more about this school because we were going to be blogging on there blogs and we should know more about their school.

We needed to create a google drawing about the schools and the things around it. We also needed to do some other things like describe the similar things that  are similar to  our school and their school. Here is my DLO  about the school I decided to blog about.

Vocaroo Link ( Click on the link to hear my audio )

As you may see in this image I have put some labels of the different places around the school. This school and my school have some similarities that my school has. We have some of the same features like we have a court and they have a court. We also have a church that is near our school which is such a cool coincidence.

We also got allocated to create a voice recording of us saying some similar things and some not similar things that our school has in common or don’t  have in common.

Thank you for reading my blog I hope you enjoyed reading my blog but remember to spread the gospel.

Nga Mihi – Sala  🔥

“Algebraic Expressions: Your Secret Weapon to Mastering Math!”

Ni Hao Everybody,

Our focus in math this week was around algebraic expressions. We learnt about what the different letters and numbers meant and represented. We learnt about pronumerals / Variables this means the little letter beside the number can be changed. We also learnt about Constant numbers which are the number that cannot be changed. And the last was called formula this means a written rule showing a relationship between numbers and letters. Here is an example of the different numbers and letters that we used.

In this term they have used Coefficient as the meaning formula. They just have just used a  different type of word but the same meaning ( Which is called a synonym) .  We had different types of equations that included algebraic expressions. We had to use multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. We also used brackets in some different equations. We worked in a text book this is what it looked like.

Here are some examples of the types of questions we were asked.

     

These are some similar questions we needed to answer.

Thank you for  reading my blog I hope you have an amazing rest of your day / week and remember to spread the gospel.

Fafetai – Sala 👋

25. Te Aro Pa – Reading

Kia Orana Everyone,

Happy Cook Island Language Week 🇨🇰 !!

This week for reading we have been given the task to learn about a place called Te Papa located in Wellington. We needed to read a book about how Maori life was way back in history in the 1800’s into the 1900’s. After reading about this book and how the Maori life was back in the days we got allocated to create and design a DLO. In our team we all discussed that we should create one DLO so it makes us stress free and we can all rely on each other to do some work and participate. Here is some understanding about the book.

Te Aro Pā was a Māori village long ago in Wellington. It was near the water and used for fishing, trading, and meeting other people. The Māori who lived there were part of local tribes.

Today, even though the city has changed, we still remember Te Aro Pā because it teaches us about Māori history and culture. Archaeologists have found old tools that show how people lived there.

Learning about places like Te Aro Pā helps us understand how important the land and sea were to Māori people. It also reminds us to respect and protect these special places for the future.

We also made a DLO so here it is.

Thank you for reading my blog and remember to comment if you have any suggestions or recommendations and remember to spread the gospel.

Nga Mihi – Sala 😁