ColePontefract

In class right now we are doing a project called city 20/20. Now you make think 2020 the year but it is actually 20/20 means perfect vision. So the project we are doing is basically called a perfect city or City 20/20.

We have been assigned to small little groups and the groups are Affordable Housing, Food Production, Transportation, Waste management and Energy provision. Currently I am in Affordable Housing.

We got sent problems from the mayor of Victoria and these are the problems:

Food Production

 

1.     What innovative partnerships and technologies could help us increase food production in the City?

 

2.     The average age of farmers in BC is very high (55.7 years in 2011). How do we get young people in the City interested in farming as a career? How do we “grow new farmers” in the City?

 

3.     If we want our region to produce and consume 25% of its food locally, what foods should we focus on? Which crops have the least ecological impact, are part of a healthy and balanced diet, and can be produced in our climate?

Housing:

 

1.     How might we make housing in the community affordable to people in the second and third income quintiles (incomes ranging from $20,000 to $65,000 per year)?

 

2.     How do ensure our community works for people at each end of the age spectrum – 2 year olds and 82 year olds?

Transportation:

 

1. How do we double the amount of people that ride buses in 2 years?
2. How do we triple the amount of people that commute to work by bike in 3 years?

 

Waste Management:

1. What are the three most effective and affordable ways that I can change my lifestyle to reduce waste that goes to landfill?

 

Energy Provision

 

1. How to get regular citizens involved in taking action on climate change?
2. How could my family reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30%, within 3 years (in transportation and building energy)?

*written by Mayor, Lisa Helps

My group is Housing and so my questions are

1.     How might we make housing in the community affordable to people in the second and third income quintiles (incomes ranging from $20,000 to $65,000 per year)?

2.     How do ensure our community works for people at each end of the age spectrum – 2 year olds and 82 year olds.

The main question we are working on in my group is the first one.

 

The question I ask myself, “Is Fair Equal?” When we are talking about fair we are talking about Jack getting an apple and John getting an apple. Is that equal? Yes. 

But is that the way to learn? Is that the easy way to get through life? Yes Equal is much easier like how it is much easier to eat your favourite sweet or dessert rather then gross broccoli or gross egg plant.

But if you keep feeding yourself just that unhealthy sweet you will get used to it and just not grow to learn or in this case not grow to eat those healthy fruits and vegetables.

It is taking the easy way out… The Equal way. Yes.

Sometimes the best way to learn is to learn from what you did wrong and what you could of done next time. So in conclusion I think Fair is Not Equal. 

Because it is not the way to learn.

For the past few weeks in Humanities we have been doing research on a poverty website. I choose a website named Plan International.

Click here to go to Plan International website.

Plan International focuses on helping giving money to people and making sure  that nobody is poor. Plan International has helped 170 developing countries and 81.5 MILLION kids. On the website rating app, Plan International got 4 out of 4 and an A.

 

In humanities we have been reading a book called Journey to Jo’burg.(Johannesburg) The Book is Here. There are 89 pages in the book. I recommend this book for grade 3 and up. The author’s name is Beverley Naidoo. On a scale of one to ten on this book rating I would give it a 5.5. This book takes place in South Africa.

This book demonstrates poverty and is showing some good lessons of how we should’ve gave as many rights to black people back then and we also need to be grateful.The Main Characters are:                                                                                                                                                    Naledi, Tiro, Dieno, Mma, Rra, Nono and  Mmangwane.

 

 

Today in science class we did a Car Ramp experiment. We were dropping the car from the same height on a ramp on a few books. We were measuring the distance the car went. We were adding a marble every time we did a try. My hypothesis was that the less the marbles the further it would go because I thought the marbles would weigh it down to slow it down and making it turn.

After doing the test my conclusion is that my hypothesis was wrong. The more the marble the further it went.

Today in class we did a simulation about poverty. We had two teams. 1, The Havealottas and the Haveanotta. The Havealottas were the rich group and the group with all the good items.

I was in the Haveanottas. The groups were random. The purpose of this Simulation was to get the feel of poverty and how a person/family comes from poverty to becoming wealthy and has enough to live freely.

An example of a kid who was in poverty but then became famous was Cristiano Ronaldo. As a kid Ronaldo suffered from growth pain and his family was very very poor.

The simulation mirrored the cycle of poverty by how we had to make somewhat unfair deals but then if we got more money we could progress to a more healthy and better life.

 

“We don’t want to tell our dreams, we want to show them.” ~C. Ronaldo~

Ronaldo as a Kid                 Documentary about Poverty

 

 

First Term in!:)
The first term in middle school. One word, WOW. This is like the next chapter in the book, instead the book is life. I really enjoy middle school, It’s really easy if you put your mind to it, for example let’s talk about soccer. Soccer is a game, and so is school, to me at least. And for soccer when I put my mind to it I know I will play well, if I put my mind to school it’s as easy as scoring a goal on my sister (no offence).I have been at SMUS since I was in grade 1, (2011) My favorite class so far is Math and PE. I also like Humanities. The teachers are AWESOME! This is a very good school and I love how much sports and other academic work they give us, So in my conclusion is if we all put our minds to school it will all be as easy as scrolling a webpage that’s why I’m going to be scrolling through grade 6.  

Pax is a story about a fox and a boy who get split and the journey to find each other again. Earlier this year I wrote a blog saying we found PAX.Click here to go to that blog post. The characters in PAX are: Peter, Dad, Vola, And now the foxes in the story: Pax, Runt, Bristle. Peter is a very happy kid and loves his fox Pax. War breaks out and Peter’s dad has to go to war. Before he has to go to war they have to drop off Pax. Peter gets really sad and he letś go Pax. One funny and Cute thing that Pax says to Peter is, ¨Oh no, heś leaking again.¨ The author for this book is Sara Pennypacker. She has added great Dialog and great feelings.