Month: November 2023

Question 1

During the engineering process, the rules were you had to make the tower at least 60cm tall and it couldn’t be wider than 30cm by 30cm. Each group was given a $60 budget for their tower with each spaghetti stick costing $1 and each gram of blue tack also costing $1. Each group also had to calculate how much of a ratio it was between the number of spaghetti sticks and blue tack within the $60 budget. Changes I would make to the process to make our group’s outcome better is by playing around with the ratio a little more because we just calculated how much we would need and then just stuck with that for the rest of the project. Instead, I would have tested different ratios and then eventually would have discussed with my group and come to a group decision on which ratio would work best.

Question 2

This project is about being able to use prior research and looking at other earthquake-resistant buildings to try and create a structure out of spaghetti and blue tack that will be put to the test of being able to withstand an earthquake simulation and added weight put on top of the structure. The end goal was for the structure to survive the simulation and add as many 50-gram tiles on top until the structure gave out.

Question 3

Each of us was involved in different parts of the investigation and the actual construction of the structure. I was mainly in charge of researching different ways architects across the world have constructed their buildings to withstand earthquakes. Michael was mainly in charge of the actual construction of the structure whilst Jacob and I helped him every now and again. Jacob also researched ways we could make our building more supportive. Overall we all did a bit of everything and we all contributed to group decisions.

The achievement that I will be talking about in this response is my 80% average in science for semester one. The people involved in this achievement was me, my parent, and my science teacher. These people were involved by me being the person taking in the information and then showing my knowledge in test conditions. My science teacher by clearly explaining the needed information about those particular science topics, and my parents by pushing me to make sure I understood it to the fullest of my ability. This achievement took me a full semester of consistent hard work and determination. The process I followed throughout this was to integrate all the information in class through explicit learning opportunities presented by my teacher. Right before taking a test, I will write down my notes on the specific topic to ensure that I know the information needed for the test. I am very happy with my achievement because it makes me and my parents proud, my parents are also happy to see that one of my strengths is science and I like that subject very much. From this point on, I will continue to put in the necessary effort to maintain this score and perhaps in the future I will choose to do some science for one of my Atar classes.

Part B – skills

The skill that I have learned and developed throughout this semester of specialised basketball is retreat dribbling. Being able to learn and develop this skill throughout the semester has allowed me to be able to create for myself and for others by making it harder for the defense to read what I’m doing. Instead of just picking up the ball once I get blocked off retreat dribbling allows for the ball to still be in play and enables me to either find the open pass to a teammate or shot/ layup for myself. Also translating this into my game has opened up my ability to see the floor a lot easier allowing me to be able to make the correct play to give my team the advantage.

Part C – Courses

The course that I think had the most impact on me was the strapping course. The reason I think it had the most impact on me is that now that I’ve been taught different techniques by a professional in that field, I feel I’m confident enough to take the techniques and advice given by the expert and perform them on myself or others when in need. I also now understand which equipment and what techniques are needed for each injury, for example finding an anchor finger that won’t affect my sporting capabilities. Another example for when taping your feet you want the tension to pull the foot inward so that you are less likely to roll your ankle and when creating the anker don’t put it too high otherwise you’ll create a pinch point which will make it uncomfortable.

6 week weekly program