Science or pseudoscience?

After the Wild Things read an interesting article about pseudoscience in Fact or fiction, we decided to do an experiment described in the article to see if low-fat chips have less fat than ordinary chips.

We had to measure out 25 gram portions of each type of chips for each group. Then, we had to crush the chips with a rolling pin between some grid paper and greaseproof paper. We had to leave the crushed chips on the paper for 2 minutes. Next we had to draw around the edge of the oil patch on the grid paper.  When we looked at the oil patches, the spread of the oil for the low-fat chips was less than the spread for the full-fat chips. We think that there is less fat in low-fat chips but we are not sure how much healthier they are than ordinary chips. We enjoyed eating all of the chip crumbs after all that science!

Thank you Tyron and Kuini for helping to write this blog post.

Buzzers at the ready!

Room 10 were excited to host Senior Syndicate Assembly on Monday 21st March 2016. Everyone had a part to play or a job to do! Katrina and Saluselo organised a Spelling Bee for contestants from Rooms 9, 10, 11 and 12.



Congratulations to Room 12, the winners of the 2016 Spelling Bee!

Music used under Ruapotaka School's OneMusic copyright licence.

Keep your eye on the ball!

Last week our Year 4, 5 and 6 students travelled by bus to St Kentigern College in Pakuranga for a PE session with some senior students from St Kents. As well as running, throwing and catching team games in the gym, a few students, including Bella, enjoyed learning some tennis skills.  Such concentration!

Swimming With The Instructors - by Saluselo

On the last day of swimming with the instructors, they tested how much I swam in the pool. The high standard was 8 lengths and when I started to swim in the pool, I thought I was going to do 6 lengths. After I did 1 length, I thought to myself I could do it and did 8 lengths. That was 100 meters.

Is healthy eating a challenge?

This week, Kuini, Julianne, Tupouseini and Zion worked together to discover how much energy, fat and sugar are in some foods by reading the nutrition information labels.  Kuini shared what they found out in a table.

Based on 4 grams being equivalent to 1 teaspoon of sugar, everyone in Room 10 was amazed when they worked out that one 250ml glass of Coca Cola has about 7 teaspoonfuls of sugar.  Jamie Oliver says that 10-11 year old learners should only eat about 6-7 teaspoonfuls of sugar a day, unless it is the natural sugar in fruit and milk.  Our conclusion is that eating healthily every day is a challenge for all of us.

What is your choice for the New Zealand flag?

Should we keep the New Zealand flag as it is?  Or, should we replace it with Kyle Lockwood's Silver Fern? Room 10 held a 2nd Referendum to make an informed choice.

The ballot box was opened and the papers counted. The result:

               3/4 (75%) of the students in Room 10 voted to keep the current flag
               1/4 (25%) of the students in Room 10 voted to change the flag

Time for T-ball

This morning was a different kind of Monday morning. Some students from St Kents came to Ruapotaka to teach all of the Year 4, 5 and 6 students how to play some team games. There was lots of running and passing playing end ball (which is a little like capture the flag) and then students were able to show off their striking and catching skills playing T-ball.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

What excitement! Mary, Kuini, Henry and Saluselo rolled out their new Chromebooks today while the rest of Room 10 used more traditional ways to record their learning.  Henry was amazed by the number of emails that had arrived in his inbox since December.  Kuini enjoyed browsing through our blog at her own pace, thinking about some of the things we experienced last year.

Talking about Maths x 4

Mrs Pine, the Maths lady, visited Room 10 today to listen to us talking and working together to solve maths problems.