Month: March 2022

Choie Sew Hoy was born in Guangdong, South China, 1838. When Sew Hoy was 13, he went to the United States, California with his extended family to take part in the gold rush. The group did so well, that when he went back home to China, he was able to marry. He had a wife and 4 children. A few years later, when gold was discovered in Australia, Sew Hoy sailed to Melbourne, but he had learnt from his time in California. That people who sell things made more money than most of the miners, so he became a merchant. Some achievements he had were speaking up for the Chinese people who came to New Zealand and experienced racism. 

He always spoke reasonably and used appropriate words for backing himself up. In 2002, the New Zealand Government apologized to the Chinese community for the tax. People say that Sew Hoy was ‘sharp as a razor’ as he would quickly see opportunities to make his business grow. For example, he bought beef bones as in China, they were used for carving ornaments and pieces for toys. He kept finding out more opportunities to make his business grow, and it was successful. After his death, many people admired him of how he was an immigrant, and became a wealthy man. His wealth didn’t make him greedy, it made him more caring and kind as he was able to give more back to his community.

Choie Sew Hoy left behind his kindness and dedication to his descendants. That is why he is such a great man.

Today in class our group built a swing. The swing had to be 1.8 metres high that could swing a heavy weight (in our case 4 wheels on a pole). It really wasn’t that difficult because all we had to do was make 2 A shapes, reinforce it, and add the string for the tires to go in. I really wanted to swing on it but Ms George said it couldn’t support me. After all of that, it was really fun to build!

Yesterday my group and I built a bridge. The bridge was required to be 700mm tall, 400mm wide, and 2.5 metres long. It was difficult because the outcome was not supposed to touch the 2.5 metres long ‘river.’ We read the book for some hints and it wrote, “Triangles won’t skew, but squares will.” We used the hint well and built triangles wherever we could to reinforce our bridge. It bent a bit, but it was sturdy. In the end, we managed to tick off all the boxes- except the part when we were supposed to place cardboard on the bridge. After all, it was still really fun.

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Today for our EPro8 challenge, my group built a ‘Caveman Car.’ A Caveman Car is a car that manually moves by itself, our car is rubber band powered with a rubber band around the reel, resulting in the ‘Caveman Car’ moving. The Caveman Car had to have a roof to protect the caveman from the rain, a seat where the caveman will sit, and the rubber band powered motor. Before we made the frame of the car, we did a prototype to find out how the car would be powered. It was a challenge to make the Caveman Car move because my group and I had to make it lighter, but Miss George told us to make the aluminum rod longer so the car would drive farther. In the end, we successfully built the ‘Caveman Car’.

Today in our EPro8 challenge, my group and I built a crane. The crane’s boom had to turn left and right, and the hoist line(in our case, string) had to be able to go up and down. The crane also had to be 1.6 metres tall. At first when we started the crane, I had an immediate idea on how to start the crane. I asked my teammates to make cubes for the frame of the crane. After a while, we were low on materials, so we decided to start over and watch the tutorial on how to make the crane. In the end, we managed to make the crane just how we wanted. I was really sad that all of us had to dismantle our crane project for the next one, but it was very fun to build. I am excited to build a bridge for our next project.

Everyone in our class created these designs for magpies. To track them, what they do on a normal day, and how far the birds flew.

I walk and walk. My feet and arms are aching. When is this going to end.. Our group keeps walking through the frightful forest, shivering and shaking hoping to find shelter from the rain. Our group leader finds a cave, so all of us could rest and lay down. I cuddle up with my father in a corner as he pulls me closer and closer. A gust of wind seems like an avalanche. I slowly close my eyes. It was a tad uncomfortable and creepy, but this was a great shelter. I hesitantly open my eyes to find the group leader has started a fire outside of the cave. “Thank you.” I said. He turned to me and replied with a smile. But when my dad woke up, he shouted at the group leader, kicked dirt on the fire and stomped on it. “You fool!” said dad.  I ran up to dad and said, “Why’d you do that?!” “The soldiers will find us from the smoke and kill us all!” Everyone looked at dad weirdly. But little did we know doom was heading closer.