Recently in science we have been learning about the science of rockets, in PLP we have been learning about wonder and imaginary worlds so the idea of going to space by rocket kind of fit into that idea, in about just over a week we are going to Florida for 10 days. While in Florida we will be visiting the Kennedy space centre which is a big visitors centre where you can learn a lot about NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). In class we did an experiment where we got a sheet of aluminum foil, we had to fold it up and put it in a beaker of copper chloride, the aluminum broke down into a powder. We took out the big pieces so we could clean the powder. We washed the powder down with water several times, sadly me and my parter only got to this part, but from observing my friend Kyle they put the powder into another chemical: hydrochloric acid, this cleaned the metal so it would burn better. Finally we put the powder onto paper towel and picked it up with tongs. We held the powder over a Bunsen burner and watched it burn, the flames around the metal glowed green causing a chemical reaction. Down below there is a video my friend Kyle made showing what we did.

 

So we started a new unit in class about fantasy! We started talking about wonder and why its important. We where put into groups and told to brainstorm about what wonder is, we then shared our ideas with the class. After we had a better idea of what wonder actually is we had to read an article about wonder, while reading we had four questions to answer

The first question was

How was Prinz’s experience with the ” Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus ” different from his parents? Why?

My answer was:

Prinz wanted a break from the bland boring world so the circus was good for him. Prinz would analyze every single thing that was happening in the circus from the green clowns, to the elephants that he seemed to enjoy, they made him wonder.
The second question was:

What are the three bodily symptoms Prinza postulates as components of wonder?

My answer is:

The three bodily symptoms Prinza postulates are sensory, we usually tend to stare at something and engage our scences if we believe it’s wonderful or nice to look at. Cognitive, if we see something we can’t relate to or is confusing we usually freeze and gasp. And spiritual, we tend to look up with respect.

The third question was:

How does Francis Bacon consider wonder?

My answer is:
Francis Bacon who is an English professor and inventor of the scientific method saw wonder as broken knowledge, no one can prove if it’s their, it can only be cured by science.

And the last one wasn’t really a question, we had to describe one moment in your life where you experienced wonder.

I can’t recall a certain time that I’ve experienced wonder but when I was little and went to Disneyland I always wondered how they made the theme park. As a kid Disneyland was magical and still is, you can live through some of the most well known kids movies and have an overall wonderful time while your there (until you get the bill). Everything in Disneyland looks like it jumped straight off the screen from the characters walking around to the actual Disney castle. Disneyland is massive and I always loved every second inside of it, I always wondered how they made everything look so perfect and made this theme park so magical. As soon as you walk into Disneyland your in a different world, you feel like you just stepped into the mind of Walt Disney himself, from all his crazy yet wonderful ideas. It’s truly one of the most magical places on earth, every time I’ve been I’ve been amazed by all the detail in everything in the park. Everything looks perfect and I’ll always wonder how they did such a good job at making the viewer feel like they are in that Disney story.

For the first blue sky project in grade 9 PLP we had to each come up with a inquiry question that has to do with the theme of Harry Potter, we had many classes to think and brainstorm different questions and then share with the class to qrutique and revise are questions. The question that I chose to present was If the muggles knew about the wizarding world could it still function?. I had to do a lot of research as I have only read a few of the Harry Potter books and had watched all the movies but could not remember them, I watched all the movies again and took notes that would help me with the question that I had come up with. I then chose how I would present this question, I decided to make a video explaining how the wizarding world could or couldn’t work, and comparing the muggles finding out about the wizards to when the Spanish people colonized America. I compared these two very different situations because the Spanish people are basically like the muggles, they could come into the wizarding world like the Spanish came to America, because they better technology and they could try and take over. When the Spanish people came to America they took some of the native Americans back to Spain and treated them very poorly, they where tortured and brutalized, which the muggles could try and do to the wizards to try and get information out of them to learn magic. I decided to find what images/footage from the movie I would use in my video and then wrote my script. I then put my video together and recorded my voice over so I could spend time editing and revising my Video.

We got put into groups my group consisted of Alex, Ethan, Robbie, Michael, and ryan d (click on their name to go to their blogs). We got put into groups by what topic our project question was, my group was the world of Harry Potter. We had to decorate our presentation area like a part of hogwarts, the goal was to make the viewers feel like they just walked into the real hogwarts, make them feel transported to another world and make them feel like they are apart of that world. so my group chose the gryffindor common room. We decorted our section with Christmas lights, wallpaper, chests, Harry Potter memrobelia, and we each dressed up in Gryffindor robes to enhance the experience. We also had to create an interactive game that people could do to make our exhibition more fun, so we did pin the scar on Harry Potter which the kids seemed to enjoy. We also brought food that people could eat so we brought dragons milk (eggnog) liquorice wands (liquorice) and Bertie bots different flavoured beans (jelly beans), we even played Harry Potter music in the back ground to make them feel like they are in hogwarts. I thought presenting our projects would be really boring and that no one would really be interested in our projects but i was really suprised with the feedback that i heard and got from the visitors that came around and looked at our exhibition. All i heard was good feedback and it seemed like everyone really enjoyed themselves cause i certainly did, i enjoyed hearing the feedback about my project and that everyone seemed engaged and asked questions on how I compared the colonization of America to Harry Potter. Next time i would probably spend more on my project because like a week before the project was due we where in Seattle for 3 days i should of spent more time before going to Seattle on planning and perfecting my script, I also felt like my voice over for my video could of been a lot better because when i recorded it my through was really sore and it took awhile to record to make it sound ok. Presenting was really fun and i think the parents thought it was fun going around looking at all these interesting and different projects that everyone has put time into. At the end of the exhibition I wasn’t feeling to great because me and my friend Ethan drank a lot of dragons milk, and Ethan ordered a pizza which didn’t help. This was my first exhibition and I can say that I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to see how the next one goes.