Pass it on blog

Your writing task for the week is to leave 3 quality comments on the Pass it on blog.

Michael's Lemon Cake

One of our home learning tasks is to make a baked symbol of our country. Michael made a scrummy lemon cake which we all enjoyed last Friday. Michael's mum was nice enough to email in the recipe so that we can all enjoy awesome Lemon cake.

Lemon Cake

125g butter softened

3/4 cup sugar

rind of 1 lemon, grated

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

4 tbsp (1/4 cup) milk

1/4 punnet sour cream

1  Combine the above in that order

2  Bake at 150 for 30-35 minutes

3  When done, poke holes in the cake and pour over the topping

Topping:  juice of one lemon and 1 cup of icing sugar whisked together.

Going Viral

Last Friday in Maths we learned about why videos go viral. We learned that taste makers, communities of participation as well as unique and unexpected moments are reasons why videos go viral.

But how can maths explain why videos go viral? Room 15 broke into groups and tried to find some explanations.

I liked how some groups used blocks to help support their explanations.



The reason I asked you this question is that each student in our class has a blog that has the potential to reach millions of people around the world.

That's exciting as kids have a way to reach people in a way that wasn't possible 10 years ago. But it is also a bit scary as something you post as an 11/12 year old could stay with you well into adulthood.

 What do you think are some of your responsibilities when you share something online, a video, a facebook status, a photo?  What are some of the responsibilities?

 How can we show the school norms of caring, respect, fairness and honesty online?

Using augmented reality to help us learn about astronomy

Our class is very fortunate to have three ipod touches available for learning.

Today we took a bit of time out from out literacy block to have a look at the Transit of Venus through both live links to telescopes around the world. Lachlan had a great idea to track the progress of Venus across the sun by putting markers on the board.

The Year 8s also use Sky View, an augmented reality app to help us 'see' the Transit even though the weather was rotten. Simply by pointing the ipod in any direction we can see the location of different stars, planets, the sun and even the international space station.

I wonder how the Transit of Venus looked in the Northern Hemisphere.

Can anyone name the famous explorer who noted a previous Transit of Venus on his way around the Pacific.