Mr. Rees' Class Blog

Bending Light (Refraction): Soap Bubbles

Mr. Rees — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 09:05:11 +0000

Light travels in straight lines from its source. While it looks white to our eyes, light is made up of a whole spectrum of colours. Our eyes can see only a small portion of the entire spectrum. We see light as Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and violet (Roy G. Biv).

When light rays move from one transparent medium to another (Air and Water), some rays go through, and some rays bounce back. The light rays that go through bend at the point where the air meets the water. When light bends it is called refraction.

Refraction is what causes soap bubbles to be coloured. The bubbles are transparent and let light rays enter and bend. The more the light ray bends, the more blue from the spectrum will become visible to the human eye. Smaller bends make the red parts of the spectrum visible. In effect, the surface of the bubbles acts like a prism (Sir Isaac Newton experiments) that separates the various light rays into their individual wavelengths, which look like colours to us.

more photos are in the gallery

“Scarecrows on the Beaches” competition

Mr. Rees — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:35:41 +0000

As we are part of the Peninsula Community of Schools (PCS) we are going to participate in the ’Scarecrow on the Beaches’ competition.

The theme is to do with ‘Harmony – Together we can make it happen’ and as it is the Year of Sustainability we need to try use recycled material.

I had the idea of creating a ‘Barber Shop Quartet’. Four singers dressed up and singing in Harmony, like the B-Sharps in the Simpsons. We could get three other classes to create three of the singers and we do the fourth. What do you think?

Dale is getting us two posts put together in the form of a cross on a base.

Things to bring on Monday/Tuesday:

Barbershop Theme:

White long sleeve shirt
old vest or two (needs to be similar on all 4 scarecrows)
bow-tie (or we create our own)
boater hat or something similar (needs to be similar on all 4 scarecrows)
lots of newspaper (for stuffing)
old belt /braces
old socks (please wash first)
old long pants (Dad’s old dress pants)
old shirt (to be cut up)
old cloth (to be cut up)
old glasses, sunglasses
old wire coathangers (to provide stability)
straw?
your creative ability
anything else that might be useful?

Do you have any other ideas?

World Maths Day – 3rd March

Mr. Rees — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 07:00:57 +0000

World Maths Day is on NOW! Can we unite to break the world record?

CONGRATULATION EVERYONE ON YOUR WONDERFUL EFFORT

YOU ANSWERED ALMOST 30 000 QUESTIONS CORRECTLY

This year features an exciting new format with multi-levels for all age groups. Can we beat last year’s world record of almost 2 million students from 204 countries correctly answering 452,681,681 questions?

Reminder: Everyone starts on Level 1 until they complete 100 games and then they go to Level 2.

Click here to log in.

Results so far:

Class total: 27 384

Top 5 in the SCHOOL (Total)

Sophie – 2558
Matthew – 2448
Nick – 2178
Adrian – 1718
Chloe – 1521

Top 10 Correctly Answered in the SCHOOL (Level 1)

Matthew – 2078
Sophie – 1743
Adrian – 1581
Chloe – 1284
Michelle – 1262
Nick – 1261
Olivia D – 1053
Emily – 1050
Talija H – 1000
James – 974

Top 10 High Scores in the SCHOOL (Level 1)

Talija H – 38
William A – 37
Emily – 36
James – 32
Adrian 30
Hannah S – 30
Sophie – 30
Matthew – 29
Jakob H – 29
-

Top 10 Correctly Answered in the SCHOOL (Level 2)

Nick – 917
Sophie – 815
Matthew – 370
Chloe – 237
Adrian – 137

Top 10 High Scores in the SCHOOL (Level 2)

Adrian – 28
Sophie – 27
Matthew – 26
Chloe – 23
Nick – 20

If you score higher post a comment with your score.

The World Maths Day Epidemic in Malaysia

Aussie Students Storm Sydney Apple Store on World Maths Day

Gifted Japanese maths students using an imaginary abacus, WOW!!

Who Stole the Anzac Cookie from the Cookie Jar?

Mr. Rees — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:23:09 +0000

This is a very difficult puzzle: There are five people – Holly, Cameron, Julieanne, Alex and Jackie. Each one stole a special cookie of their favourite brand which was kept in a jar. Each person ate it in a particular place and drank their flavoured milk with it.

Jackie is next to the person who eats on the lounge.
Arnotts brand cookies are kept in a round jar.
The person beside Cameron eats cookies at a table.
The person who eats Oreos eats in the closet.
Julieanne likes Paradise brand cookies.
The person who drinks banana milk is in the middle and owns a tall jar.
The first person likes vanilla milk.
Holly is the person on the far right.
The person who eats in the bedroom drinks strawberry milk.
The person who owns the tall jar is next to the person who owns square jar.
Cameron drinks caramel milk.
The person who likes the Dick Smith brand is next to the person who likes the Coles brand.
The person who likes the No Frills brand is next to the person who owns a round jar.
The person who stole the 100s and 1000s cookies is next to the person who owns the brass jar.
The second person from the right eats No Frills brand and is next to the person who owns a round jar.
The first person on the left stole the choc chip cookies.
The person who eats Dick Smith brand is next to the person who eats Paradise brand.
The second from the left has a brass jar.
Julieanne is to the right of the person who drinks strawberry milk.
The person who drinks chocolate milk does it at the table.
The Paradise brand cookies are eaten in the kitchen.
The person who eats Tiny Teddies doesn’t keep them in a round jar.
The Coles brand cookies are kept in a mini sized jar.

To answer the question you need to have five of the following list, one for each person.

Person
Flavoured Milk
Cookie Jar
Brand
Cookie
Place

Help:

Draw 5 stick figures and then add the information you find (start with – Clue Number 18)
Create a list for the different flavoured milks and then write in the names as you solve the clues ( start with – Clue Number 11)
Create a list for each brand, cookie, jar and place. Then read the clues for help

REWARD: $1 000.00

Creating an Imitation Rainbow Spectrum

Mr. Rees — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:40:34 +0000

Today in class we created an Imitation Rainbow Spectrum using just the primary colours RED, YELLOW and BLUE. We could have done this using paint but it is very limited, unless you spend a lot of time with the creation. A far more impressive spectrum can be created following the procedure below.

Goal: Creating an Imitation Rainbow Spectrum

Things we need:

Food colouring (RED, YELLOW, BLUE)
Plastic Container with lid (we used preformed soda bottles)
Rain Saver Crystals (100g)
Spoons
1 Litre water jugs x3

Procedure:

Step 1
Fill each of the three jugs with water and add food colouring so you have one jug of each colour RED, YELLOW, BLUE. A good strong colour will give better results.

Step 2
Add 3 or 4 tea spoons of Rain Saver Crystal to each jug and stir. Let it stand until the crystals have soaked up all the water and food colouring.

Step 3
Start adding the mixture to the plastic container/ preform starting with RED, YELLOW, BLUE and then RED again. Make sure you have an even about of each layer. Make sure layers are packed tight and then close the lid. Extension: Experiment with different combinations and what the possible results will be.

Step 4
Observe your creations for the next 24/48 hours as the colours start to bleed and all the colours of the rainbow are formed. The end product should look like the example below.

RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, VIOLET
(Roy G. Biv)

click picture for larger version

? Question ?

If I was to stir a rainbow in my mixing bowl it would turn WHITE. (see earlier post)
If I was to mix all the primary colours together it would turn BROWN.

WHY ?

Preserving (Saving) our National Parks

Mr. Rees — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:31:54 +0000

Minnamurra Rainforest in Budderoo National Park on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. It was a tiny rainforest remnant that was gradually but surely being loved to death by the thousands of visitors who came year after year to admire and marvel at its many wanders and bath in the icy waters of its creek and waterfalls. Then the NSW national Parks and Wildlife service took over management responsibility in the late 1980s and constructed a unique steel and timber boardwalk that allowed people to continue to come but without causing harm. Today the Minnamurra Rainforest is a multi award winning tourist destination with a rainforest remnant that will continue to flourish well into the future.

Click the more link below to see more videos

The Little Tern is one of the most endangered birds in NSW with only a couple of thousand left in the wild. Over the past decade the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service has engineered an intensive recovery program aimed at reversing the decline in their number. It’s been a successful campaign and one involving a huge effort by the community.

Dunns Swamp is on the Cudgegong River some 25kms east of Rylstone in the Wollemi National Park in NSW Australia apart of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage National Area. Tent camping sites are available and there are areas for Caravans can and trailers too. Opportunities for canoeing bush walking, fishing, photography, picnicking or just a relaxing getaway. Dunns swamp was formed when in the 1920s the river was dammed to provide water for the Kandos cement works some 25 kms away.

Made in 1997 “Ancient Future” takes a brief look at what is so special about the South East Forests of New South Wales, Australia and why they were ultimately declared a national park to be protected forever.

The Australian Alps cover a massive area across three state boundaries and are home to a unique array of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. It’s also a source of spiritual inspiration for Aboriginal as well as non-Aboriginal people. “Stories Among the Snowgums” offers a brief glimpse of this amazing landscape.

Kosciuszko National Park is one of the world’s great national parks, and the largest in New South Wales. Covering almost 675,000 hectares, the park contains the highest mountains in Australia, the famous Snowy River and all NSW ski fields. Its many and varied attractions include walks through alpine herbfields; spectacular caves and limestone gorges; scenic drives; and historic huts and homesteads.

Light and our Eyes: Anaglyph 3-D Glasses

Mr. Rees — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:30:34 +0000

Most human beings come equipped with two eyes and an absolutely amazing binocular vision system. For objects up to about 6 to 7 meter away, the binocular vision system lets us easily tell with good accuracy how far away an object is. For example, if there are multiple objects in our field of view, we can automatically tell which ones are further and which are nearer, and how far away they are. If you look at the world with one eye closed, you can still perceive distance, but your accuracy decreases and you have to rely on visual cues or focusing distances, both of which are slower.

The binocular vision system relies on the fact that our two eyes are spaced about 5 cm apart. Therefore, each eye sees the world from a slightly different perspective, and the binocular vision system in your brain uses the difference to calculate distance.

In a movie theater, the reason why you wear 3-D glasses is to feed different images into your eyes. The screen actually displays two images, and the glasses cause one of the images to enter one eye and the other to enter the other eye. There are two common ways for doing this:

Polarisation – If you went to see Avatar at a 3-D venue you would have used polarised lenses because they allow colour viewing. Two synchronized projectors project two views onto the screen, each with a different polarisation. The glasses allow only one of the images into each eye because they contain lenses that are polarised as well.

Red/Blue – Polarisation cannot work on an ordinary TV or computer screen, so the anaglyph system is used. Two images are displayed on the screen, one in red and the other in blue (or sometimes green). The filters on the glasses allow only one image to enter each eye, and your brain does the rest. You cannot really have a colour movie when you are using colour to provide the separation, so the image quality is not nearly as good as with the polarised system.

Left Image Right Image

Combined

Click the link below for the fun stuff.

Click on the image to enlarge

Now the videos

Links

http://robertinventor.com/anaglyphs/index.htm#cube

What causes a rainbow?

Mr. Rees — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:56:56 +0000

One of the most important experiments on light was made by Isaac Newton. He was the greatest of all English men of science. He discovered that sunshine (white light) is made up of many colours. Over 300 years ago, Sir Isaac Newton passed a beam of white light through a prism. A prism is a triangular piece of glass, which allows light to spread out into a band of six colors. These colors are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Newton then sent this light through a second prism where the light became white once again.

What did Sir Isaac Newton do?
He first took the white light apart and then he put it back together again.

The most common example of a spectrum is the rainbow created in nature. The rainbow is caused by sunshine (white light) shining on water droplets that are in the air just after a summer shower. Thousands of these water droplets break up the light, just like Sir Isaac Newton’s prism. Can you make a rainbow? Of course! Make your own rainbow by turning on the garden hose, which has a nozzle that will make a fine mist, or spray. Make sure the sunlight is coming over your shoulder. You have made a rainbow.

If light is white and all we see is light why do things appear different colours?
Objects absorb some of the colours in the white light and then reflects the rest. The colours that are reflected provide the colour of a specific object. Think about these three basic colours (Red, Blue, Green), if an object absorbs green but reflects blue and red then the object will be purple. The mix of blue and red light gives us purple.

Did you know?
The computer screen you are looking at now can only produce three colours – Red, Blue and Green. So how do we see white on the screen? It follows Newton’s experiments on light and puts the three colours all together to create white.

EXPERIMENT TO TRY

Colour Wheel

Print out this template (you need a PDF reader like the one from Adobe).
Cut out the discs and then put a toothpick, or pencil, through the centre. You may need to fix the disc with a bit of sticky tape.
Spin the wheel and have a look at the colours that are created. Look at the outer ring of the first disc shown above and the colour should disappear.
Repeat with the other patterns and colours.

Note: You may need to stick the paper on to cardboard if your paper is too thin.

Can you colour your own wheel so that when it spins all the colours disappear? (Bring it to school for $500 reward money)

Fun Facts about Light

We do not know of anything in our universe that travels faster than light. The sunlight we see today left the sun 93 million miles away to reach us about 10 minutes later. Light from stars farther away may have taken billions of years to reach our eyes. How many times can light travel around the world while you are saying your name? ……………..more than four times.

Writing 4 Fun Competition

Mr. Rees — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:32:58 +0000

Writing4Fun is a unique competition that showcases some of the finest young writing talent in the world today.

Entry is NOW OPEN in the 2010 Schools Writing Competition! Students all over Australia are invited to enter their short stories OR poems, and battle it out for the great cash prizes on offer.

This year – there is no theme! Entrants are encouraged to let their imaginations run wild and get their creative juices flowing to write on ANY TOPIC and ANY STYLE.

Where to start:

Read some of the winning entries from last year -Why do you think they won?
Read the rules and other information about the competition
Brainstorm ideas for your topic
Plan your work if writing a story
Begin writing your story or poem
Make sure that you reread and edit your work
Copy and paste it to the comments section of our blog by 31st March.

Once you have put your work into the comments I will then enter them into the competition.

Assignment: Saving Nemo and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

Mr. Rees — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:30:03 +0000

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the richest, most complex and diverse ecosystems in the world. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park begins at the tip of Cape York in Queensland and extends south almost to Bundaberg. The area is larger than Victoria and Tasmania combined and stretches more than 2300km along the north-east coast of Australia.

Background:
Due to global warming, tourism, farming, mining and over fishing the Coral Reefs in Australia are being eroded and marine life is being threatened. You have been asked to prepare a report assessing the dangers to this fragile environment and suggest ways of preventing further damage in the future.

Task:
Which would you consider to be the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef and how do you propose to correct it?

Points to Consider:
What do you know about the Great Barrier Reef?
What are the threats that are affecting the Reef?
What are people doing now to preserve the Reef?

Where to start?

Work through the next three points:

1 What do I know about the Great Barrier Reef?

What is a Coral Reef?
How are Coral Reefs built?
Where is the Great Barrier Reef?
Name two types of Coral
What types of sea creatures live there?
What are three ways people use the Great Barrier Reef?

These sites may help:

2 What are the threats that affect the Reef and what is being done to stop these threats?

Name of Threat
Effect on Great Barrier Reef
What is being done to stop the threat?