What is a Scientist?

Welcome to the first slow chat! Answer these questions at your own pace.
We will reply as soon as we can, scientists!

What is a scientist?

There are many different kinds of scientists, and they all do different things.
Some like to learn about living organisms.
They are called biologists. Others like to study rocks. We call them geologists.
People who study animals are sometimes called zoologists - this is easy to remember
because sometimes animals live in zoos.

Scientists are very curious people who like to solve problems.

They solve these problems by doing science projects called experiments.

What are some of these problems?

Well, they can be about keeping our air clean or finding a way to cure people

when they have certain diseases.

So what do scientists do specifically?

Well, it all boils down to observing, measuring, and communicating. Let's take a look.

What Do Scientists Do?

Scientists observe things.

Our senses can help us observe what is around us.

Scientists use their senses when solving science problems.

They use their eyes to spot details. They use their noses to detect if something is stinky.

They use their hearing, touch, and even sense of taste.

Scientists use proof!
They either make an observation or an inference.
An inference is something they will need to find evidence to prove.
Watch the video to find out more

We need you to be scientists this week and help us to observe what is in your school!

1: WHat is a scientist? Fill out your answer on the padlet

2: What things did Ada Twist do that made her a scientist?

3: If you could learn more about something to do with science
what would it be and why?

4: What kind of science have you done at your school?

5:What made it interesting for you?

6: What kind of science would you love to chat about on kidsedchat and why?

7: Go outside and find a leaf in your playground (ask your teacher first!!)
look closely and draw what you see. What detail do you observe?

8: Can you share a drawing or a picture of your leaf?

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2018 - Kia kaha te Reo Māori

Kia ora e hoa, piki mai kake mai,

Every year since 1975 Aotearoa has marked Māori Language Week. This is a time for all New Zealanders to celebrate te reo Māori (the Māori language) and to use more Māori phrases in everyday life. In 2018 Māori Language Week runs from 10-16 Mahuru, the theme is ; ‘Kia Kaha te Reo Māori’.  'When we say ‘Kia Kaha te Reo Māori’ we’re saying  - ‘Let’s make the Māori language strong'.

 
 

Ahakoa iti, ākona, kōrerotia - Learn a little, use a little

A challenge this week could be to take a kiriāhau!

Kaua e Whakamā! Kia Kaha!

You could also ask your teacher to download the  Kupu Spark app from the app store as this will certainly help you build your use of te reo.

This weeks questions:

1. How are you celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori in your class/school?
2. Why is this an important week for Aotearoa?
3. How does New Zealand as a country celebrate Māori Language Week?
4. Can you name any local places of significance that have a Māori name?Why are they significant?
5. What is your favourite Māori phrase or a saying you have heard this week?
6. What other languages are a part of your school and are these celebrated?
7. What are the three official languages of New Zealand?
8. If Aotearoa was to officially celebrate another language what language do you think that should be? Why?
9. Do you know of other countries that celebrate a second language in their country? What country and how do they celebrate?

This week you could include one of these #hastags with you tweet.

#kiakahatereomaori

#tewikiotereomaori

#maorilanguageweek

#tereohangarau 

#tereotaiao

#korerokawhe

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday at 2pm for our chat. 

Student Voice - It's YOUR Choice

Kia ora Kids Chatters!

Welcome back to Kids Chat! This week we would love to know the
awesome things you are learning about in your classes.
What is really exciting you at the moment?
Is there a topic you would love to share with us? We’d love to know!

So we are going to have a chat about the things that you want to see going on
at KidsedchatNZ headquarters.
 If your teachers have anything they would like to see going on at KidsedchatNZ
you can let them know to pass on their ideas to us!

So have a good think about what you really enjoy discussing!
Is it sport? Science? Coding?

Art? Make sure you let us know.

1. What is the most amazing thing that you have learnt this year?

2. What would you like us to create a kids chat about?

3. Why do you think this would be an interesting topic for others?

4. This question will have a link to a google form for you to provide us with
feedback about KidsedchatNZ. I will tweet it out on the day.

5. What facts have you learnt and what information are you now sure about?

6. What are some new ideas you have learnt and how can you see this being used in the future?

7. What have been some of the challenges you have faced this year?

8. Do you have a special piece of work that you would like to share?

See you Wednesday at 2pm

Kate

Plastic Straws Suck.

manfredrichter pixabay.com

Kia ora all

We are carrying on with looking at ways to help our environment!
Thanks for sharing your ideas last week! This week we are looking at single use
plastic straws.

Did you know that everyday we use enough straws to wrap around the world four times!?
Scientists think that at the moment there could be more than 5.2 trillion bits of
plastic in our oceans.

We want to take action this week, what can you do or design to help solve
the plastic straw problem?

We want to talk about your ideas! Can you design/make something to
solve this problem?

Room nine and ten did some persuasive writing to our local cafes to see if they
could stop using plastic straws.

Last week we started to track our rubbish, were you surprised how much you used?
Are you able to cut down on plastic?
If you have any great ideas make sure you put them onto the rubbish bag
flip grid https://flipgrid.com/71be22

Password: Enviroschool

Take a look at these two links:

https://www.facebook.com/brightvibes/videos/907487429437897/?hc_location=ufi

https://twitter.com/dukelyer/status/1009371266694799360

QUESTIONS:

Q1: Do you think you could live without straws? Why/why not?

>

Q2: What did Molly Steer do about plastic straws? (Ted Talk Straw No More)

Q3: Molly said that some people need to use straws why do you think this is true?

Q4: What do you think you could do to help out the plastic problem?

Q5: What could you design to stop the use of plastic straws?
Feel free to post your creations if you have made something!

Q5: What questions do you have now about single use plastic items
(straws, cups, knives and forks etc)

Q6: What do you think you could do to cut down you waste?

Q7: Did you create a paper bag last week? How much rubbish did you collect?

Q8: How do you think you could convince someone else to stop using single use plastic?\

Sustainability

Kia ora everyone!

This week we want to talk about sustainability. This means doing things
that we can keep on doing without hurting our environment.
We want to know what this means for you.
What do you do at home and at school to help your environment.
Do you have any good ideas of how we can help our environment?
We would love to hear your ideas.

The enviro leaders from Hawea Flat School have a challenge for you.
You will need some newspaper to create your very own rubbish bag.
Leave your bag out and see how much rubbish you use each week
and if you can cut anything out.

Here is the link to their video you can add a video on the grid of you
making your own or add how much rubbish you have collected.

https://flipgrid.com/1c4a91

Password: Enviroschool

Feel free to add any ideas you have on how we can help our environment to this padlet

What does Sustainability look like in your local community?
















Questions:

1. What does sustainability mean to you?

2. What things do you do in your school that show sustainability?

3. How would you include sustainability practises into your day? Can you add some ideas of how you could help our environment to the padlet
https://padlet.com/kateb5/duriv1b990bp

4. Have seen any sustainable practises in you community?

5. Watch the video and take some time to make a rubbish holder post a photo of it if you can


6. List somethings that you could do at school to reduce your school’s carbon footprint.

7. What would you say to other students in your school about what they could do to develop sustainable practises at home and school?

See you Wednesday

Matariki 2018

Kia ora koutou,

Tenei wiki kei te ako matou e pa ana ki Matariki. 

Our chat will be on Wednesday 13 June.

Matariki is the Māori name for the star cluster known as the Pleiades. Traditionally for Māori when it appeared just before dawn in late May or early June, it signalled the start of the Māori New Year. Different tribes celebrated Matariki at different times.  For some it was when Matariki rose in May/June. For others it was celebrated at the first new moon, or full moon, following the rising of Matariki. In the 21st century it is the new moon following the rising of Matariki that signals the New Year. This year Matariki begins on the 15th of June.
I think that it is awesome to develop our knowledge of our collective heritage and identity.  

This made me wonder.........in your opinion or culture, when is New Year?  So get your curiosity and wondering brains in gear and challenge yourself to ask..... Is today really today? Does everyone around the world have the same date and time, or calendar as we use in New Zealand.

In preparation for our chat:

1. Design a poster to advertise Matariki (incorporate the star cluster and the time of year)

2. Watch the following videos 

This clip will help you learn all the names of the Matariki stars - enjoy singing along with Room 5 from Mahora Primary School- Awesome effort Miss Boaler and Rm 5



Questions:

1. What is Matariki?

2. There are two meanings to Matariki. Can you tell us what they are?

3. Matariki is referred to as the 'Māori New Year'.  When do other cultures/religions celebrate the New Year?

4. What does the rising of Matariki signal to the Māori?

5. Matariki played a significant role in determining when to plant foods such as kūmara (sweet potatoes). What did clear, bright stars indicate?

6. Matariki is a cluster of stars.  Do you know of any other star clusters or constellations in our southern skies?

7. Share with us the poster that you have designed and tell us about it.

8. In your opinion is Matariki important enough to be recognised as a National Holiday in NZ, if so why?



Have you tried a digital breakout with your class? There is a Matariki one coming soon.
Check out the link here

https://sites.google.com/view/mldavidson/digital-breakouts

See you on Wednesday 13 June.

Juliet Revell

The Jetsons and The Flintstones

The Jetsons and the Flintstones. Were they right or wrong?

Kia ora koutou.

The Flintstones were the modern Stone Age family. Residing in Bedrock, Fred Flintstone
worked an unsatisfying quarry job, but returned home to lovely wife Wilma and eventually
daughter Pebbles.

Fred, a big fan of golf and bowling, also enjoyed bullying neighbour Barney Rubble, while Barney's saucy wife Betty was best friends with Wilma. During the show's run, Barney and Betty would adopt an unnaturally strong son, Bamm-Bamm, who would become friends with little Pebbles. "The Flintstones," heavily inspired by "The Honeymooners," convinced a generation of children that dinosaurs and humans occupied the planet at the same time.

This popular primetime cartoon show features the Jetson family living in a utopian future.
People live in housing in the sky, work a three-day workweek, drive aerocars that look like
flying saucers and have incredible conveniences that leave them with plenty of leisure time.
George, his homemaker wife Jane, and their children, Judy and Elroy,
also have a robotic maid named Rosie and a talking dog named Astro.

Both of these animated comedies were seen to be well ahead of their time.
Let’s have a look and see how far ahead they were in thinking.
Last week we looked at Artificial intelligence and its relationship to our current lives,
what can you see here that may also be linked to this thinking and the future?

Q1. When do you think these animated comedies were created?

Q2. What inventions do you see in the Jetsons clip that you can see used today?

Q3. Do you see any inventions that are not yet seen in everyday life?

Q4. How many inventions that are everyday tools we use can you see in the Flintstones clip?
Can you name some?

Q5. Can you name some inventions you are looking forward to seeing in the future?

Q6. What tool do you think should be developed further to help us in school?

Q7. What sort people do you think create these inventions?

Q8. Do you think these inventions help our economy?

Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday at 2pm.

Danielle

Artificial Intelligence

Kia ora koutou!

https://www.kidscodecs.com/what-is-artificial-intelligence/

This week we are going to dive into the world of AI (artificial intelligence). This Thursday Room 10 will be Skyping an AI scientist Anirudh from University of Montreal  so this is your chance to get your burning questions answered!

Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic lately. From self driving cars to using Siri or Alexa on phones/tablets and iPads. 

You might have had an experience by using it and it not even known about it. Have you ever been on Netflix or Lightbox? Every time that app suggests a movie you might like that is an example of Artificial intelligence at work.

 

So what do you think AI is? We will take your questions to our scientist and report you back the answers! If you can’t make the chat but still have a question feel free to post it on this padlet with your name and school. https://padlet.com/kateb5/duriv1b990bp

1. What do you think AI is?
2. What is an example of Artificial Intelligence you can think of?
3. Would you take a ride in a self driving car? Why/why not?
4. Do you have a question we can ask Anirudh from University of Montreal a computer science and AI scientist?
5. What would you do with your very own self driving car?
6. How do you think AI might be helpful to us in the future?
7. If you could create a robot that could do any job for you what would it be?
8. How would your robot work?

Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday at 2pm.

Kate