You've Gotta watch this one!

Inspiring video of a boy at his school's "Field Day" (kind of like our Sports Day-but not exactly)

EURO 2012... It's coming (to French class)

Here are the flags of the countries of the 16 teams in the Euro 2012 tournament that is starting next Friday.

HW for Thursday

French: Some people who haven't done their orals will go tomorrow.

LARTS: dialogue story due at the end of the class on Friday

HW for Tuesday

Science: Pre-Consumer Garbage and Solid Waste sheet both sides

Math 7: Get test signed. Finish # 1, 3, 4 on mini sheet

Math 6: punch holes in your paper

Great Speeches

As part of drama today, we practised some great speeches. Here are a couple of the videos of other great speeches over time.

Amalgamation of 40 films great speeches 

From Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" 

 Dr. Randy Pausch gives his "Last Lecture" 

 Severyn Suzuki speaks to the UN about the state of our Earth

Steve Jobs speaking at Stanford.

And a Great link to some other important speeches.
http://all-that-is-interesting.com/greatest-modern-history-speeches

This is pretty neat -Aurasma

Not a disease, it's an App that augments reality when you point your SmartPhone or iPad at certain things

Baseball

Fun game today, everyone. Please remember to bring a glove to school tomorrow, if you have one.

A whole bunch of dice

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/cmdwillis/1183009

Try these problems.

 How many different cones are possible? 

What is the circumference of this tire?

What are the chances of getting all 6's? 

What are the chances of getting all 6's and a Head? 

HW for Thursday

Grade 7's: a reminder of the walking trip to Burnett for the Orientation tomorrow. Please wear running shoes as you will be going to the gym.

LArts: Please complete your minor characters sheet if you have not handed this in already.

HW for WEDNESDAY (Busy night)

Apologies for several things coming due tomorrow, THursday. This was unavoidable due to how many math days we have missed recently due to the holiday and also the upcoming grade 7 Burnett orientation.

Math7: Chapter 7 test THursday. Outliers, M, M, M and Range. Probability, Definitions and Tree Diagrams are the topics. As review try #2-11 in the unit review.

Math 6:  Finish Worksheets

Science: chapter 2 quiz (this will be easy if you have done the review questions for Ch. 2)

French: Practice your mini sheet oral.

L ARTS: Find your "favourite literary character" from a work of fiction. Bring the book in if you can. We are going to be creating a character sketch/profile using this character.

New Blog to Follow

It's David Suzuki's Blog. The most recent post is about some students from Richmond doing a study on Earth Day. 

Check it out on the right or click HERE

HW for Tuesday

LARTS: Finish your list of 10 things (decalogue) for your created character

Math 7: Test THursday (yes, we will be having math on Thursday)

Science: Chapter 2 review questions. Do these to prepare for Thursday's quiz

Grade 7 reminders:
1) Car Wash on Saturday at the Blundell + # 1 Road Esso
2) Walk to Burnett tour on Friday

List of Top 100 Children's books

Go HERE http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2010/04/13/the-top-100-childrens-novels-poll-1-100/

after our discussion in class today. How many have you read from this list? Can you recommend one of these top 100 books that you have read to a friend?

Rolling through the Bay

Check this one out! 

100,000 toothpicks. And the ping pong balls move through "on a tour" kind of like a Rube Goldberg machine. It's pretty neat if you have been to San Francisco.

Check out the NAZCA LINES

These mysterious lines, first seen by modern day people when pilots flying over Peru noticed them in the 1920s are still a mystery. Archaeologists have theories, but don't know why they are there. They have been able to tell how they were made, however, which you can see in this animation IF you click HERE

check these other great pictures out at National Geographic HERE.

Check out Mr. Out's stop motion video on his blog

"An Aztec Tragedy"

HW for Wednesday

LArts: Final 4 Q due Thursdfay

French: Quiz tomorrow on verbs (from the songs) for ALLER and ETRE. Also on body parts.

Socials: Tenochtitlan Sheet due Thursday

Cyber Awareness

Go HERE for the link to this great resource for safety when using the internet.

Stop Motion Star Wars Movie

That my son, Nolan and I made a couple of years ago.

HW For Tuesday

Math 7: EP 6 and Robot Problem (below)
You are in charge of a robot factory where robots need arms, wheels and a box shape body. Colour choices are:
yellow or blue for arms
Green, purple or orange for Wheels
Red, Black or Grey for Body

1) Use a tree diagram to find out how many different robots can be made
2) If you picked in the dark, what is the probability you would create a grey robot with blue arms and purple wheels?

Math 6: Unit 6 lesson. pg 216 #1-8 and lesson 3 p 220 #1-10

Socials: Finish your Tenochtitlan sheet due Thursday

Science: Tomatosphere lab write-up due next Tuesday.

Wish this shirt fit me for Star Wars Day

and here is Darth with Yoda on May 4th...

This is a new shirt that Mrs. Rollins just bought for Nolan. I'm jealous!

HW for Wednesday

Math 7: EP 6 + Robot problem Due Wednesday

LARTS: Last 4 Q due Thursday

Creating a "Serendipitous" Character

go here: http://writingfix.com/right_brain/Serendipitous_Character1.htm and keep clicking until you find an adjective/character/phrase that you will be happy to write about.

Here's an example:
http://writingfix.com/images/Corbett/stick_serendipitous_character_lg.jpg

Tomato Plant Diagram

Here is a picture:

Interactive Maps

Many options on this map: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/interactive-map/?ar_a=1

Your job: Look at 5 different types of maps and make up 5 questions (1 about each map) for your neighbour to answer. Don't make them too easy or too hard.

An example question might be: Using the "Physical Systems Land Map" what region typically has the most earthquakes?

Once you finish answering your partner's questions, you can play this game:

Called GIS (Animals) http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/multimedia/interactive/maps-tools-gis-action/?ar_a=1

Coin Flipping. Is it really even?

Liam was conducting a bit of an experiment today. His premise was that he needed to know which side of the coin was facing "up" on my thumb when I flipped it as this would influence his choice of whether to call heads or tails. He said there was a "Strong" advantage to calling the same side that faced up. I stated that it was probably a "slight" advantage, probably closer to something like 51% (instead of the experimental probability of 50%). Here is my evidence to prove that.

Here is (tongue in cheek) the SHORT answer

If the coin is tossed and caught, it has about a 51% chance of landing on the same face it was launched. (If it starts out as heads, there's a 51% chance it will end as heads).

To go to the website this is all from (trust me, it's fascinating stuff): Click HERE

The 51% figure in Premise 1 is a bit curious and, when I first saw it, I assumed it was a minor bias introduced by the fact that the "heads" side of the coin has more decoration than the "tails" side, making it heavier. But it turns out that this sort of imbalance has virtually no effect unless you spin the coin on its edge, in which case you'll see a huge bias. The reason a typical coin toss is 51-49 and not 50-50 has nothing to do with the asymmetry of the coin and everything to do with the aggregate amount of time the coin spends in each state, as it flips through space.

A good way of thinking about this is by looking at the ratio of odd numbers to even numbers when you start counting from 1.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

No matter how long you count, you'll find that at any given point, one of two things will be true:

• You've touched more odd numbers than even numbers
• You've touched an equal amount of odd numbers and even numbers

What will never happen, is this:

• You've touched more even numbers than odd numbers.

Similarly, consider a coin, launched in the "heads" position, flipping heads over tails through the ether:

H T H T H T H T H T H T H T H T H T H T H T H T H

At any given point in time, either the coin will have spent equal time in the Heads and Tails states, or it will have spent more time in the Heads state. In the aggregate, it's slightly more likely that the coin shows Heads at a given point in time—including whatever time the coin is caught. And vice-versa if you start the coin-flip from the Tails position.

And HERE are there amazing 7 tips (for winning) at choosing a coin. I would only go into this much depth if my life was at stake, but still...

1. Always be the chooser, if possible. This allows you to leverage Premise 1 or Premise 2 for those extra percentage points.
2. Always be the tosser, if you can. This protects you from virtuoso coin-flippers who are able to leverage Premise 6 to produce a desired outcome. It also protects you against the added randomness (read: fairness) introduced by flippers who will occasionally, without rhyme or reason, invert the coin in their palm before revealing. Tricksy Hobbitses.
3. Don't allow the same person to both toss and choose. Unless, of course, that person is you.
4. If the coin is being tossed, and you're the chooser, always choose the side that's initially facedown. According to Premise 1, you'd always choose the side that's initially face up, but most people, upon flipping a coin, will invert it into their other palm before revealing. Hence, you choose the opposite side, but you get the same 1% advantage. Of course, if you happen to know that a particular flipper doesn't do this, use your better judgment.
5. If you are the tosser but not the chooser, sometimes invert the coin into your other palm after catching, and sometimes don't. This protects you against people who follow Rule 4 blindly by assuming you'll either invert the coin or you won't.
6. If the coin is being spun rather than tossed, always choose whichever side is lightest. On a typical coin, the "Heads" side of the coin will have more "stuff" engraved on it, causing Tails to show up more frequently than it should. Choosing Tails in this situation is usually the power play.
7. Never under any circumstances agree to a coin spin if you're not the chooser. This opens you up to a devastating attack if your opponent is aware of Premise 2.

What's the Probability?

A neat way of looking at things:

Tropical vs Temperate rain forests

WWF Wildfinder: http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/wildfinder/
Rain Forest at night: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/10/01/html/ft_20011001.2.html
What's It Like: Botanical Gardens of Earth http://www.mbgnet.net/sets/rforest/index.htm
PBS Tropical Rainforest http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/tag/tropical-rainforest/
Rainforests: http://www.world-builders.org/lessons/less/biomes/rainforest/rainintro.html

What are the similarities and differences in terms of climate, native flora and fauna, economy, population, and threats

HW for Tuesday

Socials: Aztec Calendar due Thursday. Aztec sheet also due Thursday.

Science: Read section 2.7 of the text and do questions # 1-3 on pg. 55 Due Wednesday

LArts: 1 page sheet from the "glossy" sheet we read in our groups today. Due as soon as you can hand it in.

Burnett Grade 7 tour is on Friday May 25th. Students will come to school and then walk over to Burnett at 9:30 for a 9:50 start. I believe that hot dogs are involved... Sounds like it will be fun.

HW For Monday

Math 7: EP 4 due Wednesday

Math 6: Test Wednesday
               Makes Sense pg 108 #1-6 &8

French: Aller booklet due Thursday

LA: Double Entry Journal due Thursday

Congratulations Runners

The Vancouver Marathon was run today (I was working there) and I was able to high 5 Ms. Biorn at the 4.5 km mark of her (42km long) run. She finished in a super-fast time of 3hours and 38 minutes. Way to go!

I also saw Ms. Chen after the finish and she said that she had a great race. I didn't see Mrs. Byrne but she ran the half-marathon as well. Congratulations to all three of these fit teachers!

The winner (a man named Gezahgn Eshetu from Kenya) finished in a time of 2 hours 21 minutes.

The SuperMoon!

While Anastasia posted about the Planetarium, I thought I would keep things "celestial" with this post.

The "SuperMoon" happens once a year when the moon is the closest distance it will be to the earth. You get some great close-up images of the surface if the night is clear

HW for Thursday & Star Wars Day Tomorrow

LA: Double entry journal. 2 "events" and 2 quotes. Due Thursday.

SS: Work on Aztec calendar.
Finish 2 Aztec sheets.

French: Aller booklet due Thursday May 10th

HOOPS for Heart fundraising forms in on Friday.

and don't forget about Star Wars Day.

Go here if you don't have a costume and you want to print out a character "face" http://www.squidoo.com/printable-face-masks

or HERE

Looking for Star Wars? Use Wikipedia? No. Use Wookiepedia!

It's the Star Wars Wiki

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

What's a wookie you ask?
What's a wiki you ask?

Hopefully you know the answers to both by the end of this lesson.

Le Chat Angora song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lunYK3wXjXE

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhF64o_ato4&feature=related

Who is Ray Bradbury?

I didn't think he was still alive because he was born in 1938, but he is...

Click HERE to learn more about the great Sci Fi Author

The story we read/watched/listened to, "A Sound of Thunder" was first published in 1952 (when Mr. Bradbury was only 14??? Wow!

“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury, first published in Collier’s magazine in 1952. As of 1984 it was the most re-published science fiction story up to the present time.^[1] It is based on the concept that was later termed the butterfly effect, as well as, perhaps, the snowball effect.

HW for Wednesday

Science: Study for quiz on Chapter 1 (Thursday). It should be easy. You can do the review questions at the end of the chapter to prepare you.

Math 6: MMS pga 102, 103 # 1-6 and 10 tangram pictures

Math 7: Extra Practice 3 and Step by Step 3 for question #6.

HW for Tuesday

Socials: Mimi Booklet due Wednesday if possible, Thursday is the final deadline.

Drama: Please bring in props if you are supposed to do so.

Great Invention? The Flo-Bee

A vacuum cleaner like device that you could use to cut your own hair: Click HERE to read about this wacky invention that was mentioned in class today.