Pawel Kuczynski

Pawel Kuczynski is a prolific Polish artist. His satirical works can be found all over the internet. His art is usually a reflection of his social, ecological and political opinions.
We had a chance to look at a few of his paintings, and considered the messages he might be trying to convey.

Sam suggested that something terrible had happened to the man, and he was in a depressive state. Hunter helped us all to see that the wall, ladder and fire might all be metaphorical items, all representing something going on in the man's life or in his head. What an interesting (although sinister) discussion we were able to have!

For the picture above, we all wrote down our thoughts about what the artist's message might be, or we wrote a piece of creative fiction based on thoughts and feelings inspired by the work. Here is Isellah's "take" on the painting:

 

The glass had been up for years now, they insisted it was the safest option. But we all know they're lying, we all know they're killing the air, minute by minute, second by second. My husband had already died, his lungs too weak to consume the bleak air around the city. My children were forced to wear contraptions, like masks on their faces. Their eyes were already dead. The world is not kind to us, they choose what happens, we don't even get a say. They are the killers.

What fab inspiration for a novel! :-)

To see more of Pawel Kuczynski's work, click here. Just remember that many of his images will make you feel uncomfortable; I believe that is his intention.

Oh Noes!

We're all getting used to seeing that little phrase on our screen whenever we're typing in code. :-)
This week we continued our exploration of JavaScript code. The goal was to draw the food on a dinner plate using all the codes we've learned so far. We can draw shapes such as ellipses, circles, rectangles, triangles, and arcs, plus we can change the line weight and colour, and add or delete the fill colours.
Everyone had to finish the session with a printed copy of their dinner plate for the Library wall. We had a huge variety of food on show, from Sushi to hamburgers!

Intro to Programming

Today we nearly had a full house for a very cool session on Programming. First we viewed a few Khan academy tutorials about the basics of code and how to command your computer as though it is an obedient dog. Then we got a chance to complete a few challenges.
Along the way, we learned about the parentheses ( ) the semi colon ; the parameters and the functions, and the purposes of each.
In just an hour, we went from drawing this, to drawing this! (Aleks' ice cream)

 

Here's the code for the ice cream:

Next week we will get a chance to extend our skills, and see what else can be done with programming language.



Teeny weeny group today!

We had a sum total of two students in the class today! Our school musical is going to be fantastic, but the dedication to practices does mean that other afternoon classes such as Explore It will suffer losses all this term.
Ivan and Sam already knew a lot about polyhedra... this is a particular 20-sided polyhedron called an icosahedron. It is made of twenty equilateral triangles.

In order to construct a net for it, the boys first had to learn how to draw the equilateral triangle using a compass, then repeat that process twenty times... as evenly as possible!
We actually found that the drawing part was easier than expected; it was the gluing that was tricky. Next time we're going to use a hot glue gun!
We would like to explore stellations. We hope we will have a bigger group! :-)

Bridge Design

Fun practical session time!

We watched two Khan Academy videos produced by MIT - world famous technology college, I wish we could all go there - and loved
1. their clear explanations
2. their bridge inspiration and
3. their humour! :-)

Bridge Design and Destruction! (part 1): This is a two part video that introduces the different types of bridges. The bridge types will be introduced in historical order from simple (beam and arch) in the first video to more complex (truss and suspension) in the second video. This will show how bridges evolved as our designs and available materials expanded. The design of each bridge will be shown schematically along with the load distribution. The advantages and limitations of each type will be described. Video of actual bridges around Boston of the different types will be shown with the load distributions overlaid on freeze frames. Other iconic bridges will also be shown as still images with load distributions. Technical concepts covered will be tension, compression, bending, span, force balances, material selection and beam/cable design. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA More information at http://k12videos.mit.edu/terms-conditions
Bridge Design (and Destruction!) Part 2: This is a two part video that introduces the different types of bridges.


Then we split into four groups and practiced our own bridge construction.

 

Here are some things that we discovered:

1. Why cut when you can fold? A folded edge creates strength.
2. You can't block the flow of water when you are spanning a river!!
3. A bridge doesn't need to be pretty to be strong... but we all love pretty bridges...
4. Roads on bridges really should be horizontal for the poor cars. Even before the weight is put on them.

Cheating

Is it ever okay to cheat in sport?

This was a really neat discussion inspired by the situation which Valerie Adams had to face at the London 2012 Olympics - Ostupchuck beat her to the shot put gold by cheating.

 

We read an article written by Matt Harvey, who is of the opinion that cheating is a part of all sports - otherwise referees would be out of a job.

This inspired a lively discussion about whether it is a sportsperson's duty to her/his teammates to make sure that s/he works every angle s/he possibly can in order to score points against the other team.

 

Interested in the top 10 Sporting Cheats of all time? Here's a good one. Here's another - this is a mainly American list, but provides some interesting viewing. Note of course that none of these athletes every got away with it long term.

What is "success"?

It was a purely philosophical session today. Our group explored the theme of "success" - what is it, how can it be measured, how do you know if you are successful, is success finite, is success age related, what does success look like at my age?
There were many quotes that came out today -
Hunter's Gem "It's not where you're at, it's about how far you've come."
Aleks' Gem "Quality not quantity"

Some further questions to consider:
Is success about comparisons? Someone mentioned today that one of the ways we know we're successful is when we receive a certificate in assembly. If everyone received a certificate, would this still be a valid measure?
Is success about money? Can you say a rich person is more successful in their life than a poor person? What if they inherited their riches? Does that still make them successful?
Is success about being idolised? There are many different kinds of people idolised today - some are people you would rather NOT be like. Here is a tongue-in-cheek look at some teenage idols of the past... it's scary how many idols have wound up addicted to drugs or alcohol. I would question these people's lives as being "successful".
Is success the same for everyone? We read a book called The Troll which was a bit of light relief from the philosophical ponderings. We found that success for the Troll was quite different from success for the Pirates. And although in the end the Pirates got what they needed to be happy, it wasn't at all what they had been aiming for.