Meat Free Pasta - Home Economics

Meat Free Pasta 

Last Friday our group made meat-free pasta with tomato sauce. 

My group were assigned tasks in the lesson. I was in charge of cooking the pasta sauce and drying and washing the dishes. While the other group members were left to cook the pasta and prepare everything. Miss Hindson gave us the challenge to present like they do on Masterchef, we accepted it. Getting into the lesson everyone knew what they had to do due to the time frame. This was a simple vegetarian dish however it took us a bit longer to complete it. But, we were able to finish the dish on time. 

The pasta was really tasty, the pasta was cooked al dente. However, I thought the pasta sauce was a little salty. I loved the sprinkle of cheese on top because the heat from the pasta and pasta sauce caused it to melt and create a delicious crust. This was not a huge problem but as you ate it over and over again it started to overpower the dish. Apart from that, I would love to make this dish again and add a little twist of my own. 

What did the group do well?

The group was really focused and had good time management skills. Everyone knew what they were supposed to do which meant no one was standing around finding something to do or slacking off. Everyone stayed on track even though we didn't have a physical recipe to follow. This meant we had to listen to Ms Hindson and try to remember what she said. All and all everyone did a great job and we were able to produce a delicious dish. 

What could we improve on?

Nothing much because the group was focused and the time management skills were good as well. Maybe next time we could wash the dishes and dry them a bit quicker. 

Feedback?

Feedback from the group was really positive and everyone enjoyed the dish. They loved the choice of pasta we chose which was the spiral pasta. We didn't choose the spaghetti pasta because a majority of the class chose it and the spirals looked more pleasing. 

Next Steps:

Our next steps include:

- Taking more photo's.

Chapter 1 : English Creative Writing

How I Survived

In English class, we are focusing on creative writing and this is my finished copy. Instead of writing a short story I chose to write, chapter one of a novel. 

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Maori Mythology & Gods

Maori Religion & Gods 

In social studies, we have been learning about the Maori mythology and religion. I have created a poster about Ranginui. The Sky Father. The poster gives an explanation of his story.

In class, we were put into groups and given questions to answer. These are answers we came up with:

1. Discuss the idea of Mythology/Stories in religion, and the role myths and stories play in society?

Myths and stories play a huge role in society by helping us understand other cultures and beliefs. They educate people and give us something to believe in. It helps us understand our history and the stories of our ancestors. Also explaining the unknown. 

2. What similarities are there between the myths and stories of Maori and the first British Missionaries?

Both cultures had their own beliefs. They both believed in gods or a higher power they worshipped. 

3. Why would differences between Maori beliefs and English beliefs cause conflict?
Because both cultures believed in their religion very strongly and we're not going give it up easily. Also because the Maori and Europeans had different morals and beliefs. They had diverse ways of worshipping gods and compared to the Europeans the Maori were treated differently. 

Marshmallow Catapult - Physics

Marshmallow Catapult

Aim: To construct marshmallow catapults and record its height and distance.

Equipment: Marshmallows (1 Packet), Rubber Band, Plastic Spoon, Wooden Skewers  ( 7 ) & Tape.

Method:

1. Place three marshmallows in a triangle, them connect them with skewers. 

2. Take a skewer and stick it onto the top of the marshmallow. 

3. Bring the tops of all three skewers and stick them together with one marshmallow.

4. Take a spoon to another skewer.

5. Stick this skewer into one of the marshmallows below the skewer already placed.

6. Take the rubber band and wind around spoon and then loop end of the rubber band around the marshmallow and bringing it underneath the marshmallow {should not be on marshmallow}.

Results:

Unfortunately, we were not able to measure the height of the flying marshmallows but did get the distance. 

Discussion:

Forces Behind The Experiment:
Before we even applied any force or energy on to our catapult, there were already forces acting on the object. This was support and weight force. These forces were keeping the catapult at an upright position, the forces were balanced. This meant that the object was motionless. As we pulled down the catapult kinetic energy was changed into elastic potential energy. When the spoon was pulled down it also gained elastic potential and as we released it converted the energy into motion. As it flew through the air it gained gravitational potential energy. The marshmallow gained as much gravitational potential energy until it stopped at a height which it could no longer go higher and started falling down again, which then was converted into kinetic energy as it fell back down again.

Definitions:
Support Force: is a force that balances the weight of an object.
Weight Force: Weight force is the force of gravity on an object.
Kinetic Energy: When an object is in motion kinetic energy is created.
Elastic Potential Energy: An elastic which can store energy and convert it into motion. 
Gravitational Potential Energy: Energy an object has when off the ground.

Structures:
We found out that different catapults gave us different results. We had three catapults:
Catapult 1: Was the spoon catapult. 
Catapult 2: Was the catapult with the purple bottle cap.
Catapult 3: Was the catapult with the small metal cap. 

These are some results involving distances from our experiment:

Catapult 1			Catapult 2			Catapult 3
Small	Big		Small	Big		Small	Big
0.5	0.8		4.1	3		2.2	0.3
2	0.9		4.2	5		2.5	1
2.5	0.9		4.4	5.7		3	1.8
3.5	1.1		5.8	5.7		3	2
3.8	1.4		6.3	6.9		3.1	2.3
4.6			6.5	6		3.4
4.9			8.3
5.8			5.8
5.8			4
6.3
6.4

As we can see catapult two has the longest small marshmallow throw (8.3m). And, catapult two has the longest big marshmallow throw (6.9m). This is becasue of its structure, catapult two has a bigger structure and more elasticity. This means it's able to bend back further building up more elastic potential to fling further. The more it bends back the further it goes. We can also see that catapult three is not able to fling marshmallows further than 4m because of its size. Catapult three is 2x smaller than catapult two which means it's not able to bend back as much and gain as much elastic potential energy. When bending catapult three we are bending the wood, which is not ideal as it is stiffer. Catapult one is the design we made, it has a spoon as the material we bend back, this means it is bendier. It is quite small than means it does not bend all the way back. In conclusion, without a doubt, the best catapult would be catapult two.

Calculating Gravitational Potential Energy: