Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Birthday Invitation... in Chinese!


As a 'present' from our Chinese teacher, we had a random writing assessment; a birthday invitation! I wrote the (fake) invitation to my friend, Davis, who's also in my Chinese class. Use Google Translate to find out what it means...
刘浩光:
你好!十一月十二日是我的十三岁生日,我想请你到我家参加我的生日会。我的生日会会很好玩!时是上午九点。我家的在香港快乐街八十五号,我的电话是二五三oo四三三,请你在十月二十日前告诉我你来不来。我的生日会会很多食物例如生日蛋糕。我们也可以聊夫和跳舞!
我很期侍。我会安排一辆巴土。去接你们到我的家。你一定要夫。我真兴奋!

瞿文曼
二0一二年四月二十四日

我的假期计划 (My holiday plans)


In Chinese class, we learnt how to describe the weather, and activities we'll do. So now we must see if we can transfer our knowledge into our work. Here's my holiday plans (use GoogleTranslate to find out what it means)!

我的假期计划
我们学校的圣诞节假期在十二月十七日开始, 一共十六天。我的感觉是兴奋和凉快。
假期时,我会斐济在的海边游泳。我会是凉快,我游—爱游泳。我会看电影和玩电视游—。我会在家里看书,我会时连快,我爱我的的家。在平安, 我会吃圣诞节的晚餐。我会吃火鸡。我也会睡觉。
我爱圣诞节!我很里六奋!我很期圣诞节的来临。

Volleyball Criteria A Assessment


For our Volleyball Criteria A Assessment, we were to...
Look at the play from the 32 second mark to the 1 minute mark of the following video. Focus on the girl in dark blue playing in the middle of the back row (the one returning the ball using underhand passes) and answer the following questions about the technique of this player.
1) On which passes (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) did she move to the proper position to execute the pass properly? Why is her positioning important?
2a) On which passes (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) does she look balanced? Why is being balanced important?
2b) What does she need to do to improve her stability?
3) Analyse all aspects of this player's underhand pass technique and comment on why she was successful on the first pass but not on the second.

This is what I replied with...
1) The girl was in the correct position on the 1st and 3rd passes. And because she was in the correct position at those times, she was able to execute the pass properly. On the 4th pass, which wasn't passed properly, the distance between her and the ball was too great when she had gotten into position and therefore it was impossible for her to properly pass.

2a) I think that all passes were balanced except for the 4th pass - because she hadn't moved to get under the ball, when she attempted to pass the ball, she got off-balanced. I think being balanced is important because it helps to balance the power from legs, arms, etc. And therefore, you can stay energetic throughout the whole game.

2b) To improve her stability, she could use more power from her legs. She could also keep arms ready and stretched out.

3) She was successful in the 1st pass because her arms were ready and her legs were bent. Her eyes were also on the ball, so she was prepared to pass the ball. The 2nd pass wasn't successful because she started off with her legs straight. This was a bad decision because, if she had bent her knees, she would have had more power, which is especially important when there is more force on the ball and the strength of your arms can't match up.

Kindness is Better Than Victory - Free Verse Poem

The last poem we've made this unit; free verse! We watched short videos, from which we got inspiration to write our poems. The video I got my inspiration was from "The North Wind and the Sun". Here it is...


Kindness is Better than Victory
Sun, smiling and sparkling
North wind, strong as rock
And cunning to the bone
They argued, argued and argued
North wind insisted he, the better
"I'll last through day and night!"
The sun set, disappearing
"I've won!" said wind to the moon
"Yes, you've won," said the moon
"However, although sun's not here
The sun lets me shine and comfort
The humans that try to sleep
Isn't that better
Than winning a simple game?"

Hope you liked it!

Gym Project Essay


Painting The Gym Assignment
By: Emma Chickles 7F
The assignment is to find the cost if the Canadian International School of Hong Kong were to repaint the lines and varnish the entire gymnasium floor. This project links with the AOI of Community and Service because doing this service, it will prove me as a responsible citizen; a essential concept of Community and Service. This also links with Human Ingenuity because we are required to use our prior knowledge to create and investigate into the measurements of the gym. My estimation for thickness of all the lines would be the same, at 3 centimeters. My estimation for the area of all the lines in the main basketball court is 10 meters squared. My estimation for the area of all the lines in a smaller basketball court is 6 meters squared. My estimation for the area of all the lines in one volleyball court is 5 meters squared. My estimation for the area of all the lines in one badminton court is 2 meters squared. My estimation for the entire gym is 300 meters squared. My estimation for the total cost of paint would be around $1000 HKD.
I found the area of the semi-circular line by finding the radius of the it. I could have gotten a bendable measuring tape, but that could be inaccurate because the measuring tape could be bent oddly, making the result incorrect. The way I measured had a down side as well, as it is only a semi-circle, using the Trundle Wheel, we couldn’t be sure if I was measuring in a straight line, however there was less risk of the result of being inaccurate this way than measuring with the measuring tape, since measuring tapes aren’t meant to be bent.
Here is my sketch of the entire gym.
Key:
Red Lines ~ Main Basketball Court
Black Lines ~ Smaller Basketball Courts
Blue Lines ~ Volleyball Courts
and
White Lines ~ Badminton Courts
*I made a mistake in the Volleyball courts, the middle volleyball court is supposed to be on its side*
I was able to find the perimeter of a court by using the formula 2 length plus 2 width. For example, I found perimeter of the badminton court by first measuring the length of the line and the width of the line. The length is 14.48 and the width is 6.16. This is the best way because the formula of 2 length plus 2 width, will always give the perimeter. Another way to find the area is to use the Trundle Wheel, and wheel it all the way around the court. This is not the best way because there is more risk of mistake since the Trundle Wheel would have to turn at the corners, therefore, it may not give a accurate result. Where as, the way I’ve done, you only have to measure 2 separate, straight lines. Therefore it is the best way.
Besides the measurements of the lines, I also need to find the area of all the lines, if I find out that, I can find out how much paint will be used and the cost. To find the area, you have to multiply the width by the length. To clearly show all the findings I have found, I put it in a pacific format, consistent within a document. For example, for the Volleyball Court, the following was what I recorded “Volleyball Courts (3) - Blue Lines:
Length: 18.03m
Width: 9.03m
Perimeter: 54.12m
(18.03 x 2) + (9.03 x 4) = 72.18
Line Width: 5cm or 0.05m
1 Court, Area of the Lines: 3.609m squared
3 Courts: 10.827m squared”.
Computer technology has also helped me in this project as the Calculator has helped me ensure my calculations are correct.
The measurements I made for the main basketball court are, for the length is 18.36m, the width 14.33m, the key 14.36m, the semi-circle in the key is 5.20m, the semi-circle outside the key is 8.57m, the three-point line is 24.10m, the line width for the three-point line is 0.054m and for the other lines, the line width is 0.041m.
The measurements I made for the smaller basketball court, the perimeter is 74.85m, the key is 11.32m, the semi-circle in the key is 4.80, the semi-circle outside the key is 5.20m, the three-point line is 15.30m, and the width of al the lines is 0.042m.
The measurements I made for the volleyball court, for the length is 18.03m, the width is 9.03m and the width of the lines is 0.05m.
And lastly, the measurements I made for the badminton court are, for the length is 14.48m, the width is 6.16m and the line width is 0.039m.
After finding the measurements, I had to find the area of the line. To do this, I multiplied the total length of all the lines and multiplied it by the line width. For example, when calculating the total area of the lines for one volleyball court I took into account that there is 4 lines that have the width measurement; 9.08m, and 2 lines that have the length measurement; 18.03m, as shown below. As I added them all together using this operation, (18.03 x 2) + (9.03 x 4), I got 72.18m. The line width is 5cm, or 0.05m, was then multiplied by the total length of the lines; 72.18, resulting as 3.609m squared. There are 3 volley ball courts so I multiplied 3.609 by 3, 10.827m squared; the total area of all the lines! After finding the area of all the lines, from all the courts, I got 53.39464m squared. Since I know that 1L of paint covers 20m squared, I divided 53.39464m squared by 20m squared, then multiplied that by 120, since 1L costs $120.00 HKD.




When preparing to measure the lines, I noticed that the Trundle Wheel I had borrowed was broken, and would be useless when attempting to measure the lines. This problem was overcome by sharing a Trundle Wheel another group who was also measuring that day. Although this problem made me contribute less, I did as much as I can and I believe I was exceptionally useful when recording the data neatly. I could have also solved this by using meter sticks or measuring tapes, but Trundle Wheels really is the most effective measuring instrument in this situation. When I was at the gym, I also realized we needed a ruler to effectively measure the width of lines. One of our group members went back up to the classrooms to get one. Because of this, I have to regret not being prepared with the needed measuring instruments. Another problem I had was when I was calculating the area of the lines. Thankfully, I realized my mistake when sketching the entire gym including all the courts, I had only added the lines for one court, meaning I only calculated the area of the lines for 1 badminton court instead of 7 courts. So I had to go back to my measurements and make more calculations on that and the total area of the lines of all the court, as well as the total cost of paint and the total cost of everything. I decided to do it this way, the longer way, because I can be sure that it is accurate, as I could lose track of what I’ve added. And lastly, when at the beginning of calculating, the process was relatively slow, as I did it with pen and paper. I fixed this by using a calculator on my computer, recommended by a friend.
I believe the total area of the gymnasium is 484.459m squared, meaning the total cost of varnish would be $4844.59001 HKD. I believe the total area of all the lines is 53.39464m squared, meaning the total cost of paint $320.36784 HKD. Resulting in that the total cost of both the varnish and paint is $5164.95785 HKD. I believe my answer is accurate since around three quarters of the time I used a calculator to calculate, instead of using scrap paper, and the calculations on the scrap paper was double checked by the calculator. However, it may not be accurate since many people had different final answers as me, but after checking, and re-checking my calculations I can’t find where I got it wrong, unless the measurements were incorrect. If I could do this assignment again, I would like to measure the gym myself, only myself. I would prefer to have the measuring be slow, to make sure that it is accurate.


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Definition Poem


In English class, we've started to explore poems. We started off viewing definition poems. We performed definition poems by Michael Salinger. Here's an example of his poems:
Brevity gets right to the point
doesn’t dawdle, dicker, or delay
always short and sweet whenever
there is something to do
or say
brevity comes in handy when you
are subject to a chewing out
a bout of the flu
a pain in the neck
or waiting in line for the loo
in fact, this poem has gone on so long
that its recital
would no longer qualify
as an example of its title
[brevity (noun): conciseness of expression; shortness]

After performing poems like the one above, we attempted to make a definition poem ourselves! Here's mine:
Pusillanimous will only be found
at the end of the line
don’t expect a performance from her
bravery is her opposite
she’s about as silent as a mouse
and active like a sloth
the fire of her determination has been extinguished
everything about her
soundlessly says timid
[Pusillanimous: showing a lack of courage or determination; timid]

When searching for other examples of definition poems, I came across a 5 & 6 Definition Poetry Competition. And I remembered that last year, I submitted a definition poem! After some editing of the poem I made last year, I have this:
Optimistic

Optimistic is as yellow as a rising sun
always smiling at everyone
she’s like a bumble bee in a flowery field
raising its thumbs
not pointing and cursing
instead, complementing everything!

[optimistic (adjective): hopeful and confident about the future]