With the 4 lessons we had a week, we divided those lessons into different parts. We had one class dedicated to learning new theory, Wednesday to put those concepts into practice with games and other rotations, then Friday to consolidate these skills.
Some of the skills we learnt were to do with our offense and defence. Some examples include:
Pick and Roll – This involved learning how to utilise this simple strategy in order to score effectively. We worked on shooting of the screen and how to roll of the screen properly
Jump shot Training – Fixing our form in order to shoot the ball properly. Sometimes incorrect form can hurt the shooter, so fixing the form makes sure we can shoot consistently for long amounts of time
Shell Drill – This shell drill was a defensive drill. The aim of the drill was to teach us how the defend on and off the ball. It taught us the proper stance from defence and also allowed us to learn how to support and become the help defender. Below is a link describing my re-enaction of the drill
During the semester, I learnt a lot about my game, especially since playing with people who are in much higher divisions and have higher skill levels. Some of the things I learnt about my game is that:
Pros:
I can shoot really well:
I can handle the ball well
I can be a leader and create meaningful possessions
I am not very vocal on the court and get overlooked very often
I am small, so my size isn’t enough to stop people
My height also limits me from driving
Where to from here:
This course gave me a really good insight into my basketball strengths and weaknesses. The little tips that Mr. Haxby gave me on the side also helped me in noticing different aspects of my game that I did not pick up before. What I will be doing to progress will be:
Start getting comfortable with asking for the ball (i.e. by taking on more dominant roles that require me to always be talking)
Doing Vertical Training – As my size is holding me down, if I can jump high enough I could be able to meet taller players at the rim since they might not expect it
Studies that have been recently conducted have shown an increase in alcohol consumption from kids by up to 14% since they were 19-20 years old. Another study also shows that people right after getting their licences have been getting into crashes, as well about one in five of them exceeding the legal drinking limit every month.
This is attributed to the fact that drink driving is risky driving; but younger drivers tend to engage with it due to the fact that it is considered an element of a ‘risky’ lifestyle. Studies have shown that early adulthood is a period of considerable risk taking, particularly because of the fact that now they have the ability to experience things they never could have done when they were younger without being questioned by the majority.
While the people who indulge in these activities are unaware of the after effects, it is found that those who drink drive, also start taking other risks, like driving without a seatbelt, driving while fatigued or tired and driving under the influence of an illegal drug, which results in accidents or lives being lost too early.
This is a reliable website, because it is a government website. It also has access to different alcohol initiatives which support the idea that you should not drink and drive
Aim of the Campaign:
The aim of the campaign is to make sure that young people make the right choices. As we grow up and are exposed the world as well as given the ability to make independent choices, sometimes its the wrong ones we make that could end up being the reason for unimaginable things. There has been an increase in deaths especially in younger kids, because they engage in risky activities without knowing the risks, or because one of their friends do it, however don’t understand that they are only suffering. So our aim is to make sure that kids are reinforced with what will happen whenever you engage in risky driving.
Key Information:
The main information that we are trying to convey is that the after effects of drink driving is inevitable and by not doing it in the first place you risk the chance of getting into an accident. Not only that but it is something that is hard for experienced drivers so doing it in the first place at a young age increases your chances of getting into an accident.
Safety Message or Slogan:
Drive Hammered, Get Slammered – It is very direct but it is often the things that are very direct that can have the best effect. Not only that but it serves the message, you drive drunk, you increase the chance of getting into an accident
Medium to be used:
I used a poster, because of attention span. If I was to make a video, most people wouldn’t even bother watching, particularly because they are busy or just can’t be bothered, but if it is a still image that they scroll through and see this poster they can just see and process the information, rather than having to watch it
Communication approach:
The approach is to show the consequences, because most people do not really care about things unless they realise the harmful consequences it has, so by showing and reinforcing the consequences of drink driving, which can include losing your life, they hopefully understand and process that next time they think of doing it, because an image is more memorable.
What were the biggest things you learnt while completing this task:
Some of the biggest things I learnt was the amount of young people that get into accidents. I actually never knew that the amount of young people who get into accidents were so high, particularly because they do not focus properly which can be attributed to that risky lifestyle.
I also learnt that even experienced drivers have problems drink driving, driving while tired or without a seatbelt. This shows me that no one is really safe unless you do everything possible, even those who are experts in their field.
What piece of advice would you pass on to young drivers above all else? Why?
I would pass on advice to make sure you are always doing the right thing, because you cannot predict when something bad will happen. You want to make sure that if there was a flood, your house is protected so that you and your family are safe, so in the same way you need to make sure that you are protected when driving, because accidents are unexpected and can end up being dangerous.
Also because of how you wouldn’t want to be responsible for the death of someone else. In the worst case scenario, if you are driving with someone else, and you get into a crash, but they unfortunately pass while you still live, it will make you feel bad that you took a risk that resulted in the loss of someone else.
Write down a pledge you will commit to when you start driving. Why did you pick these things to commit to? How will you stick to commitments?
I will commit to not drink driving, or being distracted while driving. I picked these things because they are the most important things when driving. My parents are really busy, so when I get my license I know I will have to do things like dropping them of to church or taking them to different places, so I want to make sure that my parents are safe under my control while I am driving, in order to do that, I have to stick to these commitments. I will stick to them, by one giving my phone to my parents while I am driving, but also making sure that I don’t drink and that I am not driving too late at night.
As the year 2021 drew to a close, our last assessment for Science, was an engineering project. We were allowed to choose groups of four people, and in those groups, we had to build an earthquake resistant building, just by using pasta straws and blue-tack within a $60 budget. However, it was hard because 1 gram of blue-tack was equivalent to a dollar, and so was 10 centimeters of pasta. This challenged required a huge amount of problem solving and collaboration with teammates in order to design a building that is effective but also cheap.
In the early stages of this project, before putting pen to paper we all collectively as a group, went home and researched more into earthquake resistant buildings. We did this in order to widen our knowledge of earthquake-resistant buildings and see what architects had used to make buildings stand up successfully. Then, using this knowledge, we would hopefully take some of these aspects and incorporate them into our building.
Here is a summation of the different ways to make a building earthquake-resistant:
Create a flexible foundation – Constructing a building on pads that isolate the foundation from the ground, effectively absorbing seismic waves and preventing them from travelling a building. During an earthquake, the isolators vibrate while the structure remains steady
Shield buildings from vibrations – Architects create a ‘seismic invisibility cloak’ underneath the buildings. Basically, they put concrete and plastic rings underneath the building, which essentially force seismic waves to move through the outer rings, which channels them away from the building, make them dissipate into the plates in the ground
Shock absorbers – Buildings use shock absorbers the same way cars use them. Basically, shock absorbers work by taking your kinetic energy of your suspension and converting it to thermal energy which is then consumed by the atmosphere through heat exchange. This creates fluids that filled up oil-cylinders. In the car, there are orifices (tiny holes) and because these holes only allows small amounts of fluids into the pistons, the pistons slow down spring and suspension movement. This is used in earthquake resistant buildings. Basically the horizontal motion of buildings from earthquakes will make the piston push against the orifices, transforming mechanical energy into heat, which slows down movement.
To start off building, we had to plan and draw a sample sketch of our building, scaled down. Our group, initially was going to build a tower, with a square base, and building up from it, until we reach 30 centimeters, then building a triangle, then adding a stick on top of everything. The sketch can be seen below.
As you can see, on the left there is the first design, of what we were going to build, however we overestimated how much blue-tack we would use, and realised this when we measured out 25 grams of blue-tack. We then went back to the drawing board, and used only 10 grams of blue-tack. With having more money to spend, we tried to redo our design, by adding pasta sticks across each layer in order to connect the building and make it more strong, however we realised that this would be too expensive, and we ended up getting rid of the idea.
This was a risky move at the time, because all the other groups were well ahead of us, buying their materials and some of them already testing their first prototype. At the time, we didn’t even know if we would be able to build a tower in time, however, we still took our time and re-did an idea. We were initially perplexed at what to use as a base, until we started fiddling around with the pasta. One of our group members, started building a little triangle, and that’s when it hit us all, as you can see in the second drawing.
The drawing itself, was rushed because we came up with the idea on the spot, however what it was is basically we built a large triangle on the outside, and then had a smaller one connected to it on the inside. Then from the inside triangle, we would start building up and then we would use the outer triangle to connect it, in order to have a really good support. From there, we would then have a massive stick going as high as possible in order to reach the minimum height of 60cm. At first, this idea was good and then we thought it would work.
However, as you can see in the video, the top of the building, once shaken aggressively did not manage to maintain the required height and instead broke off from the top of the building. Using this knowledge, when we went into the second prototype testing, what we did was use a bit more math. The original foundation from the building in the video, was only $30, so we still had half of our money to spend. Like I said earlier, when making changes we did a bit more math. Basically, we used ratios and said that for every stick we added onto the top of the tower, we would add two or three more on the bottom to strengthen the foundation. Using this, we basically made new connections and joints, closer to the top of the tower, which in the next video you will see, allowed us to keep the tower standing.
In our group, the roles assigned were:
Aaron: Project Manager – Delegating tasks to the rest of the group, making sure everything was on time, and everyone was doing the right thing
EJ: Reporter – In charge of taking ideas and sketches, as well as making the actual tower. Also, needed to use a lot of problem solving and thinking in order to effectively handle mistakes and make sure the tower was better
Tim: Speaker – Went around, asking for help from the teacher and other groups, taking in advice and giving input to EJ and myself on how to improve our tower
Kenneth: Equipment Manager – Was responsible for getting the correct length of pasta straws we need as well as the sufficient amount of blue-tack. Was also responsible for cleaning up and prepping workstations.
As the project manager, some of the capabilities I demonstrated during this task were leadership, communication, collaboration and problem solving. As the project manager, it meant running the whole operation, overseeing everything everyone was doing, and making sure we were all on track and ready. Especially when our first design wasn’t working out, we all were lost and didn’t know what to do, which is when I really had to step up and display leadership. Not losing my cool, I held my ground and got all of us re-thinking again, but at a quicker pace, which enabled us to get back on track quickly enough, and support the rest of my group. My overall leadership skills, were supported through my effective communication and collaboration with the group as a whole. This was because, I was able to speak clearly and get by point across in a way that we could all understand, not only that, but I also made sure that everyone’s ideas were incorporated or heard so that no one would feel left or or useless. Lastly, I used problem solving, in order to help build a successful tower. When we built our the first triangular-based prototype, we were simply unsure of what to do, in order to support the top of the tower. To problem solve around this, what our group did, was simply to watch other groups testing during the lesson, and see what worked for them. Some, we saw had used massive amounts of blue-tack, and others had a stronger foundation. Then taking this both into account, we talked about our design, and then came up with the ratio idea of every 1 stick on top of the tower, meant another 2-3 on the bottom, which in the end helped our tower, to withstand an earthquake, while suffering minimal damage.
I really enjoyed this task, for not only did it challenge me to think harder and problem solve better, but also made me a good leader, and gave me insight into other people’s thought process and what they were up to. I was able to see how well EJ could problem solve and innovate, Kenneth’s ability to collaborate with group members, as well as Tim’s ability to communicate effectively with others. If I was to do this task all over again from scratch, I would definitely look into other ways to build the tower, or what we could have done to make our building a bit more presentable and neat.
“In this project, we learnt about the principles of justice that uphold Australia’s legal system, such as the presumption of innocence, an impartial judiciary, and the right to legal representation. I studied the case of Gene Gibson, and analysed how these principles were both upheld and violated in this case. After writing an essay on the topic, we were required to incorporate feedback and edit the essay so that it was fit for online publication. This essay is the end result of that editing process. It demonstrates my ability to take feedback, and to refine a piece of written work to produce a professional result.”
The Australian legal system seeks to justify citizens wrongdoings by nine different principles of justice, which have been integrated into the modern-day functioning of the legal systems for them to be just and equal, but there are still occasions when these principles are entirely disregarded, resulting in innocent people being sentenced. Gene Gibson was a young Aboriginal man, who after being unfairly treated by the police, was accused of murdering young Broome man Josh Warneke. Advised by his lawyers to plead guilty, he was sentenced to a jail term of seven-and-a-half-years, however, his conviction was set aside in a unanimous decision made by the Court of Appeal. The injustices that he faced within his case were his rights to equal treatment before the law, being innocent until proven guilty, and his right to silence. A principle of justice that was kept was Gene’s right to appeal
On the 26th of February 2010, a 21-year-old man by the name of Josh Warneke was found dead on the side of the road by a taxi driver, just after he was seen leaving the local nightclub. The Major Crime Squad (MCS) took over the investigation and called it Operation Aviemore. A post-mortem examination found that the cause of death was head injury in a man with acute alcohol intoxication. The head injuries consisted of bruises, abrasions, lacerations along with extensive fracturing of the skull and injury to the brain. The MCS had conduct different homicide investigations from 2010 – 2012. Using this, they were able to identify several suspects, one of which was Gene Gibson. Gene was 18-years-old in 2010. He lived in Kiwikurra, sometimes described as the most remote country of Australia. He had a mental impairment and his English understanding was basic. He had bad habits from a very young age. He was sniffing petrol at the age of 12 and already had smoked marijuana at the age of 15. For a short time, Gibson wasn’t a major person of interest during the investigation, however witnesses said that Gibson was in the car the night of Josh’s murder. After a few unjust interviews, police unfairly accused Gibson of manslaughter, despite the rejection faced in the court, Gibson pleaded guilty and was jailed for four years and eight months until the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction after discovering that not only was his interviews corrupted, but his lawyers forced him to plead guilty.
The principle of justice, equal treatment before the law is when a person is to be given equal treatment irrespective of race, gender, mental and physical disability as well as given rights to legal representation, interpreters and access to all facts and evidence presented by the prosecution. This principle is important in our justice system because it allows the accused to have a fair and equitable trial in which they can prove their innocence. In Gene Gibson’s case, he wasn’t given this opportunity. His Aboriginal race caused him to be discriminated against, and his mental condition was overlooked. Despite the prosecution’s knowledge of his poor understanding of the English language, he was denied the right to an interpreter. As a result of his limited understanding of the English language, he was accused of manslaughter. Notwithstanding the rejection already given, he pleaded guilty as he was told to by his lawyers. Because of the prosecution’s unfairness and harsh punishment, an innocent man was sentenced to jail for a crime he did not commit.
Being innocent until proven guilty means that the accused is to be treated innocent until the prosecution has proven to an impartial judge and jury. The presumption of the accused being innocent in a court case is crucial to ensure a fair trial and to respect the human dignity of people who are accused of committing a crime. For Gene, he was disrespected and treated as if he was guilty. During his interviews, the MCS made a statement saying that Gibson cannot be eliminated as being involved in the death of Josh Warneke. Gibson was already guilty of having stolen a motor vehicle on the night of Josh’s death, but the MCS completely ignored that and pressed charges against him for manslaughter. So despite being guilty for stealing, they presumed him guilty for another completely unrelated matter.
The right to silence in a criminal case means that a person suspected of committing a criminal offence has the right not to speak and remain silent and are given this right throughout the whole investigation, however, they are still legally required to give information like their name and house address. This principle’s importance in a court case allows for the accused to prevent themselves from self-incrimination, which is the act of giving evidence that may expose the witness as the person who committed the crime. For Gibson, he wasn’t given this right, for he was forced to take interviews and didn’t have an understanding of language, so, therefore, could not have understood basic police instructions. Therefore in doing this, he gave away evidence that led to him being charged and eventually ending up in prison
Even though there were a lot of principles of justice that were either ignored or corrupted in this court case, some were still upheld like Gene’s right to appeal. The right to appeal is an application to a higher court by a party who believes the decision made by the subsequent lower court was incorrect. In Gibson’s case this was supported, for after spending four years and eight months in prison, he was able to have his case heard in the Court of Appeal which in turn led to his release after they learnt about the injustices in the legal system that he faced, showing how Gene’s right to appeal was a principle of justice upheld among the many that were ignored.
In conclusion, Gene Gibson went through a lot of injustices in the legal system, however there were still principles that were upheld. In total, the justice-involved in the case of Gene Gibson was upheld to a very minimal standard. Compromised by his rights to being equally treated before the law, being innocent until proven guilty and his right to silence, he was still allowed to have a right to appeal. In saying this, there are many incidents where people have suffered miscarriages of justice within the legal system, so to help, there should be changes made to better help people going through the system be treated in an equal and fair matter benefitting all Australians and society in the long run.
During Semester 2, our school launched a program called $20 dollar boss which were groups would pitch business ideas to Mr. Green or Ms. Strentz and receive $20 per person. My group originally consisted of Jet, Toby and myself but added three new members, (Jing, Dylan and Josh).
Our logo for Cuztm
$20 Dollar boss, was a program sponsored by NAB where kids were allowed to release and discover their inner entrepeneur. After forming groups and discussing on ideas, groups would then pitch to Mr. Green or Ms. Strentz in return for twenty dollars per person. Using this money, groups created different products and sold them at the morning Wanju market. Groups who wanted to go further were given the opportunity to sell at Runway and other markets.
With every single school project, there are always many difficulties, and with this project there were certainly many obstacles that we encountered. One of the first of these problems would be the colours. From starting up our business, we surfed the internet for many hours going through colour schemes that were visually appealing to the eye. From surfing the internet, everyone had multiple ideas, and because we couldn’t afford all the colours at the start, there was a problem of what colours to buy. This resulted in bad communication between each other which had a trickle down effect on our teamwork. Individually, it was hard to balance schoolwork and our business at the same time, because there was so much work for school as well as having lots of customers that were expecting products really quickly.
What I would like to showcase would be the improvement of our products from the beginning to the end. With any product or anything, it always starts out bad and slowly progresses to something more applicable and pleasing. This is no different with our hydro dips. They were not covering the whole bottle, there was mismatched paint and the colour combinations were not of the best choice, but as we got better and started experimented, we realised things like what speed we should use for dipping the products, what is the best time to gloss and let the product dry, how long we should leave the primer spray to dry and much more, and all this allowed us to create much better quality products to sell and resulted in more customers as well.
Last week, the Year 7’s were holding their annual Christmas Market where they sold their amazing crafts which they have been working on for the past 5-6 weeks to the Junior and Senior School staff and students. Our group made laser cut coasters that consisted of cities, quotes, hello in different languages, and drinks on a coaster. For me, this experience was really helpful for it helped me to understand the world of economics and business. During the Christmas Market, one thing I learnt is that how you price your product will effect your customers. Things like coasters, are small products with no real quality. Therefore, our group used Ms. Shawn’s suggested cost plus margin pricing strategy and looking at whether our products where worth the money. In the end, we came to the price of a dollar for a coaster. Another thing I learnt, was how your appearance can define you. Our stall was a purple tablecloth, succulents and our product. Our stall was not the most appalling. I learnt during the Christmas Market about the life of an entrepeneur
During Connected Learning, all of us were handed a booklet on online behaviour. Over the last few connected learning periods, all of us have wrote down our thoughts on a few topics and what they meant to us. After that, we had a big class discussion on each one and how we can use them in everyday life. The topics that we went through were Young and e-Safe , Critical Thinking, Empathy, Respect, Responsibility
YeS Project
To start of the booklet, we watched this video and spent the rest of the lesson having a class discussion and reflection the video. During the video, what I noticed the key message was that, the introduction of new technology has completely shaped everything. Campaigns have started, governments have fallen on their knees. So many goods things have happened, but the problem is that they are taking over our life and shaping the future that we have. We shouldn’t let them do that, do we want a future we like or a future revolutionized by phones. We then talked about the negative and positive influences of social media that we have and how the ideas in the video influence our College Values of ERIC (Empathy, Respect, Integrity, Courage). I personally thought that Social Media allows you to be more empathetic. On the news, we hear stories of people struggling or disastrous things that have happened to a country. By doing that, the news has allowed people from all over the world to put themselves in other people’s shoes showing empathy, which then falls into respecting other peoples situation, feeling for others, and take a stand to support them no matter the troubles.
Critical Thinking:
Next, we talked about Critical Thinking. I think that Critical Thinking is judging everything you see on the internet and making wise choices about it, not going blindly and doing the action, critically thinking about the consequences after attempting the stunt. During this unit, we watched a video on Critical Thinking. (https://vimeo.com/229069996). After watching this video, I learnt to think before I act. Don’t trust anything or anyone you see because it may be fake. So always think, if you see something really cool, cause it may be fake.
The next online behavior we looked at was respect. Respect is just being nice to others no matter how they look or how other people view them. Generally means, be nice to others and respect them. In this unit we talked about what it takes to loose respect and what it takes to gain respect. If you want respect, you have to give it as well
As the last unit, we learnt about responsibility and what it means to be responsible online. It means protecting privacy, knowing your rights and responsibilities, thinking about the impact of your actions and consequences, and respecting the law.
In term 3 of InnovatED, I was put into Mr. Coleman’s group or UN GOAL 14 which is life under water. I was really excited for this for this is a topic which my heart and soul goes to and with my time in Term 3, I wanted to do my level best to try and make a positive difference. After a lot of talking and explaining, I was with Emily Turner in the Public Speaking Group. When we started talking, it was clear to both of us that we wanted to go around to everyone explaining the bad side of plastic and it drastic effect on the environment. With that in mind, we set of to our allocated tasks. My job, was to create a presentation that would appeal to different year levels. After, lots of dedication and time put in, I was able to make an attractive and appealing presentation to the types of audiences we decided to present to. After getting an approval from Mr. Coleman we decided to then plan our script. It took one period and then we were finally finished. All we needed to do was to go and present it first. Alas, we didn’t get time to even though I was really hoping we could. The River Cleanup that we did though was fun as it was supporting our goal and showed us how much plastic was thrown away and how it had a drastic effect on the environment. I really loved Term 3 of InnovatED and no doubt that Term 4 will be any different
On Sunday the 15th, Sam and I went to Murdoch University to participate in the British Parliamentary Debating Competition. We had to bring lots of pen and paper for an impromptu competition. It meant that we weren’t allowed to prepare our speech beforehand. We had thirty minutes to prepare topics for our speech. The schools at the competition was just All Saints and Perth Modern.
The Roles for a BP Debate are split into four team each team consisting of two people. Out of the government and opposition there was Opening Government, Opening Opposition, Closing Government and Closing Opposition. From Opening Government there was Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s role was to define the case and present points for them with the Deputy Prime Minister following on what his Prime Minister said and rebutting Opposition Leader. The Opening Opposition consists of the Opposition Leader and the Deputy Opposition Leader. The Opposition Leader’s job is to rebut what the Prime Minister said and give points supporting their side of the topic with the Deputy Opposition Leader rebutting the Deputy Prime Minister and following his Opposition Leader case. The next part is the Closing Government following the Closing Opposition. The Closing Government consisted of the Government Member and Government Whip with the Closing Opposition with Closing Member and Closing Whip. Their roles were to define the case, look at it from a different perspective, and summarize the case with rebutting the other teams.
Another important part of BP Debating is POI’s also known as Points of Information. During the 1 – 4 minute marks members of the debate are aloud to ask questions to do with the topics to try and help support their side. The person speaking has the choice to accept the POI or deny it. Speakers have about 5 minutes to speak before cutoff.
The First debate topic was that we regretted the trend of STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) being treated higher than the arts and humanities. Our points was that STEM is just hardcore facts and doesn’t encourage creativity, communication is not used well, STEM makes robots, not humans and it doesn’t give humans the chance to express their feelings
The Second Debate Topic was an actor debate. It means that we have to pick a stakeholder (an aimed audience) and pretend we were that person. The topic was that parents should pay their children regular allowance. This was a hard topic but we raised some good points to how it makes them responsible, provides them with some motivation and teaches them skills for the future
The Third Debate Topic was that the Olympic Committee should include non-sporting events such as debating and chess in the Olympics. We were against this and we said that it would lose it’s popularity and so many other points.
On the day I made lots of friends from Perth Modern with whom we watched Yakko World Memes (Video Included countries without McDonald’s getting destroyed or the amount of people from each country who participated in WW1 and WW2)
This day was really fun and I hope to compete in the same event next year
