Kalbarri Camp 2022

For year 9 camp we went to Kalbarri and explored the national park. The purpose of camp at All Saints College is to build relationships and to work together in a team with some that we generally wouldn’t and overcome challenges and obstacles.

Majority of the days we were hiking in different locations including z bend, the coast and the gauges where we had to use different skills as a team such as communication to warn each other of any dangers, teamwork when we had to cook our meals and set up tents as well as encouragement and enthusiasm when supporting others while they were doing challenges such as the bouldering down in placid pool.

Working with others is important for our working future we may have to work with people that we don’t like very much but must utilise their strengths in order to to get maximum enjoyment and an amazing experience. An example of where we had to utilise people’s strength was when we were hiking, a few of the experienced and confident hikers would stay at the front and lead the group while all the slower people would then be behind them and set the pace while the rest of the confident and people who are better at hiking would stay at the back.

There were also many other skills that we’d use to support ourselves to keep us going throughout the hiking journey. We’d continuously have to preserve as we were carrying big hiking packs everywhere proving a challenge which had all our food, tents and personal belongings. By persevering through all activities it became a fun and enjoyable time where we tried many new activities, found new interests while doing other stuff that we may not have liked as much.

Year 9 Science Engineering Project

The problem that we were required to solve was that many buildings weren’t strong enough to withstand earthquakes as seen with the 2015 Nepal earthquake that destroyed many homes and were struggled to be rebuilt in the aftermath as in 2 years only 5% of the homes had been rebuilt. Our task was to build a scale model structure that could withstand a major earthquake that would be simulated through a shake table. When building we were required to use the design thinking process which started off with a 50min design sprint where we had to build and plan the structure in the set time that would fit all requirements. We had a $60 budget and our structure would be made out of spaghetti ($1/stick) and blutack ($1/g). Our next step was to research and brainstorm potential designs and different structural supports that we improve our design. We then constructed our structure which wasn’t very structurally supportive and didn’t have any room in the budget which is why we then started a new structure that actually turned out quite well. It was then put on the shake table where it survived and was destroyed after a 100g weight was added.

Our original design that didn’t have very good structural support

Some changes that I would’ve done in terms of the process in the future is to maybe spend the time planning our design a lot better and looking at many potential different designs that are much stronger in terms of the structural supports. Reasons why I would improve the ideating stage is because our original design that we were planning to do was not very strong in terms of structural supports which affected our whole structure as it couldn’t generally hold itself up. Looking back now we should’ve looked at multiple potential designs that are slightly different but still had the same concepts with cross braces, equal distribution and triangles as they’re the things that supported the structure the best. In terms of collaboration it definitely had its flaws as our communication wasn’t the best in terms of what our individual jobs were as we couldn’t all build at the same time as we’d get in each others way. Although we also all had our strengths as Paula was good at the ideating stage, while Kate was the one who did most of the problem solving while I did most of the prepping for the build.

It was a highly enjoyable project that helped us connect to real world problems while collaborating with others

Ideation with Ikigai

For Innovation and Leadership one of the projects that we did was the Side-hustle. Our aim was to create a product/service for the community. One of our first steps in creating our product was the ideation of the product. The way how we did this was through creating an Ikigai.

The Ikigai consisted of 4 main categories

  1. What you are good at
  2. What you can be paid for
  3. What you love
  4. What the world needs

That then intersected into 4 components of the ikigai.

  1. Passion
  2. Mission
  3. Profession
  4. Vocation

Using the ikigai we then listed 3 things relating to the categories. After completing them we had this focus group throughout the class where we would look and discuss with a partner at our classmates ikigai about potential goods or services to sell at markets, this process would’ve continued for everyone in the class.

The recommendations that I received were all products which were:
A cookbook
Healthy snacks for athletes on the go
Sports therapy stress less sessions
Sport coaching
Dog walker
Bakery stand
 
Using the recommendations, I then brainstormed some ideas of what I personally have enjoyed. My decision for the product that I would make would be cookies with different flavoured bases that have custom designs iced onto the cookie that vary from different themes including Christmas and nature.
 
Using the ikigai had helped me come up with many unique products and services that I could’ve potentially done.

Year 8 LifeSkills-Reflection on Neuroplasticity

Over life you can improve yourself in many ways and learn lots of news things. In life skills we have been looking at neuroplasticity, training your brain, resilience/grit and happiness. Over the lessons that we have been learning about all of this I have learnt many things on different ways that we can think about the world and change our lives.

I never knew that neuroplasticity was a thing, but I have learnt that it’s the ability of the nervous system to change in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganising its structure, function and connection. Neuroplasticity represents how the ability of the brain can adapt and change over time to be able to master new skills, store memories and information.

Do you believe that it’s possible to train your brain, well guess what it is. Training your brain is a program of regular activities claimed to maintain or improve one’s cognitive abilities. Some different that you can train your brain include doing puzzles, playing cards and building your vocabulary. You can also improve your reaction times. The main way to training your brain is to practice which will help improve it.

In life you must require resilience to move past obstacles and challenges. You might encounter this really hard question in a maths test that you can’t remember how to solve, and you might want to give up but part of having resilience is to not give up so you keep on trying until you get it. Trust me afterwards you’ll be pleased that you didn’t give up which helps build your resilience. Grit is also somehow similar but also represents someone having courage such as Nick Vujicic, he was born without any arms and les but doesn’t let any obstacle in life stop him from being who he is. Since Nick had Grit he has now become a motivational speaker, painter, swimmer and skydiver. He can even steer a boat with the one foot he has which he’s very grateful for. If Nick didn’t have Grit none of this would have been possible for him.

The key to life, happiness. It is a sense of joy which you can feel when you’re successful, lucky, safe and much more. Happiness is something that will most likely naturally come and it’s not something we learn but we just feel. Even if you have a time when you’re unhappy you can always find happiness as Eddie Jaku. During World War II he was imprisoned in 2 concentration camps as a child. He’s still alive at 101 and he calls himself the happiest man alive. This shows that no matter your circumstances or what has happened in the past you can always find happiness.

Doing all of these things will help you to have a happy, healthy life, be resilient and have a strong brain both mentally and physically.