Today, I completed yesterday’s activity with the Mountain Stone Wētā. This wētā lives in the freezing mountains and can have it’s whole body frozen for weeks without being dead. Then, when the sun comes out and thaws it, the wētā can come back to life. How cool is that!

For this kick start activity, I compared the Mountain Stone Wētā with another animal that can live in extreme weather and temperatures. I chose to compare this wētā with the Long-eared Jerboa. I think this jerboa is almost the exact opposite of this wētā because my jerboa lives in hot environments. I really enjoyed this task learning about a new type of wētā that I didn’t know about and a new type of animal, the jerboa, that I never thought existed! This is my comparison chart.

What would you compare the Mountain Stone Wētā with?

Today, I did a science experiment given by Eleanor from a few weeks ago. For this experiment, I used a balloon to rub against someone’s hair or certain materials like cat’s hair, and tried to pick up a tissue paper with the static balloon. A normal 3-ply tissue from the box didn’t get picked up as I expected, although it moved a little. I tried again using 1-ply from the same tissue and it worked really well, including being picked up by the balloon for a few seconds. The theory behind it was when rubbing on hair, the balloon gets a negative electric charge. That charge can attract very light particles nearby.

I also tried this experiment with pepper and salt. My hypothesis was that the salt would separate from the pepper by sticking onto a statically charged balloon while the pepper would stay behind. I tested this and had the opposite result: the pepper stuck while the salt stayed! Then I thought maybe that is how plastic interacts with this static electricity and so I did a third experiment.

For this third experiment, I tried making polystyrene balls dance with the static electricity by using a plastic box, aluminum foil and bits of polystyrene. I rubbed my arm on the lid and soon enough, the polystyrene floated to the top. As soon as I touched it on top of the lid, the balls would be pulled back by gravity. The following is the evidence of my three experiments.

How do you like to explore static electricity?

Today, I completed yesterday Māori Step It Up task about the Taniwha guarding the north and south island of New Zealand. Last task, I made an animation on the Taniwha guarding. This time, instead of an animation, I think I had to trace the 11 paths that are rivers or creeks, that the Taniwha can guard and access to Hokianga. I watched a few videos including some that help me with my Google Earth journey from the tutorial. It took me so long because I had to figure out how to do to this task, translate the māori, assume what I need to do for this task, and learn how to use Google Earth. I didn’t quite enjoy this task because it took me ages and I didn’t quite get what to do. This is my journey to the 11 rivers/creeks.

What cultural mythical guardian creature(s) can you think of other than the Taniwha?

Today, I finished this week’s Māori kick start activity on the two taniwha guardians. For this task, I got the understanding of making an animation. I didn’t get the task, so I assumed that I had to make the animation about the two taniwhas. One of them guards the North Island of New Zealand and the other guards the South. They are now known as the cliffs in Hokianga, North Island. This is my animation that I think was the task.

Which taniwha would you want to be and why?

Today, I completed the Step It Up version of the creature of the unknown. Last task, I learnt and created a dinosaur. This time, I learnt about the creatures of the deep and the software SculptGL. First, I learnt about what we humans know about the creatures of the deep waters. I watched a short video to get a slightly better understanding. Then, I learnt how to use SculptGL because I had to use this platform for this task.

After learning those things, I had to make my own mysterious sea creature. I’m not familiar with this platform and it’s the first time I’ve heard of it, so I wasn’t really good at sculpting online. I had a lot of fails, not knowing how it works. A big challenge I faced for this task was making my creature because it kept messing up. I tried to recreate the dumbo octopus, but again, I may of have kept destroying my own art.

At the end, I took some screenshots of my sea creature and placed it on a background in Google Drawings. This is my new sea creature, the Mummy Long Legs octopus, based off the spider and the octopus.

What would you sculpt with SculptGL?

Today, I completed yesterday’s kick start activity with the creatures of the unknown. I learnt about the well known extinct animal, the dinosaur! This creature once dominated the Earth millions of years ago. Because dinosaurs were here way before humans were, we could only know about the dinosaur by searching fossils and studying them. For this activity, I made my own dinosaur using a dinosaur making game. The Chickosaurous is my dinosaur, with scales like a modern day chicken. This is my dinosaur.

Would you rather keep the modern day dinosaur (chicken/bird) as a pet or an ancient day dinosaur?

Today, I did the Step It Up version for today’s great octopus battle between the Fijian gods. Last task, I made a poster on this myth on Canva. For this task, I switched back to using Google Drawings’ polyline tool to make a mosaic of a sea creature. I found a picture on Google and half traced half made my picture into a mosaic and added lots of random colour. This is my awfully weird fish and I’d be very surprised if you can guess the answer to what fish this is.

Would you rather make a mosaic digitally or physically and why?

Today, I did this morning’s kick start activity on the great octopus battle that is a Fijian myth. This myth talks about a Fijian God in the form of a shark fighting against other gods in the forms of an eel and an octopus. I watched a video on this myth and learned about how the gods fought and Fiji being connected to the sea. I think the moral of this story is to be kind and treat others the way you want to be treated. After learning the myth, I made a poster of that myth. I used Canva to create it, and I tried to match out the myth as much as I can. This is my Canva poster on The Great Octopus Battle.

If you can change one of the god’s sea creature, whose character would you change and what would you change it to?

Today, I completed the Step It Up version of using Google Drawings with stuff like the megalodon. First, I had to choose an extinct creature, which I had to find an image of it. Then I had to trace my picture with Google Drawing to make it look cartoon. Finally I dragged the image away and coloured my creature. I chose the Terror Bird. As the descendent of the dinosaur, the closest to this bird is the Seriema in the modern day. This is my cartoon Terror Bird artwork.

What extinct animal would you bring back to the future?

Today, I completed Friday’s kick start activity with the megalodon. A megalodon is an extinct species of shark that was a really good swimmer and a massive fish. For this task, I had to make a megalodon mosaic art on Google Drawings using the polyline tool. I based my art of an image of the megalodon in Fisch, a game in Roblox. When I finished the artwork, I moved the original image and added a water like effect as part of the background. The massive megalodon is my artwork, and the smaller one besides it is the original Fisch megalodon. These are my megalodons.

Would you rather be the megalodon or eat the megalodon and why?