As part of our PBL (project based learning) we wrote reports. To find the information for our reports we followed this process.
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Read or watch to find information to answer your questions
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Highlight or write down key words
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Think about which sub-heading the information fits under
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Write sentences using the key words in your own words
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Repeat the process to find lots of information to answer your questions
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Reports share information with others. Here are some of our reports. Come to Totara Whanau to learn more about the Olympics and anything related to the Olympics. Happy reading.
The Paralympics
Introduction
Have you ever seen a superhuman? I guess you want to but your out of luck but you are going to hear about them. I think you will be like how does the Paralympics link to superhumans. It does just trust me, have you seen the Para athletes they are amazing just because they have disabilities it doesn’t mean that they can not do the same as us because they can. DON’T SAY NO I CAN’T!! Say YES I CAN!!!!!!! What my report is talking about is what is the Paralympics and what is the motto, what is the meaning of the name, the Stoke Mandeville games, history of Paralympic medals, the Symbol and Goal ball.I hope you enjoy my report about the Paralympics.
What is the Paralympics and the motto?
The paralympics is a sport for people with disabilities. What are disabilities? Disabilities are something that people are born with. It makes things harder for the person that has the disability. The disabilities that people have to get into the Paralympics are spinal cord injuries,multiple sclerosis, mental handicaps and seven more and 10 all together. The motto spirit in motion is the new motto. What does it mean? To excite paralympic athletes to achieve sporting excellence. The old motto was mind,body,spirit. They changed the motto to spirit in motion in 2003.
What is the meaning of the name?
Did you know The name Paralympics comes from the greek prefix? Para means beside or alongside. Paralympics actually doesn't mean paralyzed Olympics well that’s what I thought, but it actually stands for parallel Olympic.
The Stoke Mandeville games.
The Paralympics began with a young Dr from the Stoke Mandeville Hospital From England. 1944 he began using Sports as a recreation for physical therapy for veterans of world war 2 then it became an annual event. 1952 it achieved international standing’s. Athletes from Netherlands joined the competition and from here the games began. Now the Paralympic games are every 4 years
History of Paralympic medals
The trophies for the paralympics started at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Paralympic Games and the Paralympic winter games was invented(made or started) in 1948 and is still running today. Part of the co-operation agreement, international Olympic committee(ioc) and IPC (international Paralympic committee). They decided to do medals for both games (Paralympic games and Olympic Games). The first Paralympics didn’t have medals but they did have trophies and diplomas (certificate) for the athletes. Now the medals are more modern. The medals now have little steel balls inside them, the gold has 28 steel balls inside and and produces the loudest amount of noise,the silver has 20 steel balls and makes the median(average) amount of noise and the bronze has 16 and creates the lowest amount of noise The other thing I fogot to mention is that there is braille on the paralympic medals. Braille is something for blind or visually impaired people to be able to read.
The Symbol
The Paralympics logo is called agitos the colours are red,blue and green. The shape of the agitos are crescent moon shape. The agitos represent the four core values of the Paralympics: courage, determination, inspiration and equality. The Paralympics flag colours are red, blue and green because they are the colours of the most widely represented national flags around the world. It was changed in 2003 the old flag was shaped as commas. They changed the flag because it was too much alike to the olympic flags.
Old new
Goal ball
Goal ball is a hearing game and is a sport for people with visual impairments. The athletes wear eye masks on the their faces so they all have the same vision. There is 3 player on the court at all times. The court. The size of the court is 18 m x 9m. The ball has to roll before it goes into the other team's territory/6m line. The ball is the size of a basketball and has 2 bells in it. The ball can be thrown up to 60 mph(mile per hour). The atletes wear knee pads,elbow pads the boys wear box’s and the girls wear chest plates. Goal ball was a demonstration sport and is now a competitive sport. You can play at any age. It is popular for over 100 countries.
Boccia
In 1984 boccia was introduced to the Paralympic games. The game is played by wheelchair athletes only. The boccia ball is only allowed to be thrown ,kicked, rolled down a ramp or rolled. Athletes that can’t propel the ball down the ramp have court assistants. Assistants can’t look at the court or communicate with the athletes. The size of the court is 12.5 /6m. The area is divided into 6 rectangular areas and the athletes must stay in during play. The aim of the game is to get the ball closest to the jack(white ball) There is two teams, Blue team and a red team(those are the colours of the the balls you have is the team that you are in and those are the balls you jet towards the jack(white ball).
Conclusion
The Paralympics is an important worldwide event. It is important because it is a chance for people with disabilities to play a sport and be superhuman. The Paralympics lets the athletes compete to their highest abilities. Do you want to see a superhuman athlete compete to the highest?
Author Christopher
The Olympic Torch
Introduction
Have you ever heard of the Olympic torch? If you haven't this report will tell you all about it. I came up with weighting this report because I am in the modern Olympics group and I am really interested in it. Did you know that the Olympic torch has always changed. Did you also know that the 2016 Olympic torch has triangles curved into the torch.
History of the torch
The Olympic torch was first youst at the Amsterdam Games in 1896. They lit the Olympic torch in front of the ruins of Hera. Baron Pierre de Coubertin created the Olympics because he wanted to create peace to all people. The new Olympics had some of the old Olympic sports like javelin, discus, running, swimming, boxing and wrestling. The first modern Olympic games was in Athens, Greece in 1896. An man ran 26 miles, which is 42 kilometers, from Marathon to Athens. In ancient times women weren't allowed in the Olympics. If they went in they would get killed, in our days women are allowed in the Olympics. They are some of the best athletes. In the modern Olympics the best are awarded medals. Symbols of the Olympics are 5 interlocked blue, black, red, yellow and green rings.
Torchbearers
The Olympic torch travels 22,151 miles it goes to 300 cities and towns. Rio’s 2016 torch is carried by lots of people on lots of things like boats, bicycles and even a surfboard. Some of the people that lit the torch are John Mark 1948, Sandra Henderson 1976, Muhammad Ali 1996. This year's marathon person is Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima. He is a distance runner, he got a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics. The torch is lit on April 21 in Olympia Greece.
The torch
The Olympic torch is made out of recycled aluminium. They wight 1 and 1.5 kilograms or 2.2 to 3.3 pounds. The design of the Olympic torch isn't the same every Olympics. There have been different Olympic torches from 1936 to 2016. Every Olympic torch represents something special about every country that is hosting the Olympics. The flame on the torch repazent the sky, the green wave repazent the mountains, and the blue wave repazent the sea. The blue will get darker and that repazent the ground.
Conclusion
Now you know more about the Olympic torch I can tell you the most important part of the report. Baron Pierre de Coubertin created the Olympics because he wanted to create peace to all people. The Olympic torch travels 22,151 miles it goes to 300 cities and towns. Would you like to be the runner for 2020 Olympics?.
Author Hunta
The Greek Alphabet
Introduction
Have you ever learned the Greek alphabet? If you haven’t, this is the report for you. If you have, well this is for you too. The Greek alphabet is one of the most complicated alphabets in the world. It is quite a common alphabet to use and many people use it daily. This piece of writing will tell you all about the Greek alphabet and I hope when you have finished reading this, you will be an expert on the Greek alphabet.
The First Alphabet
In Greece, the main writing they use is the Greek alphabet, which was developed there. It first appeared in the archaeological record in 8th Century BCE (Before The Common Era). This Greek alphabet was not the first though. As several centuries before this, the Linear Script was the main alphabet used until around 1100 BCE, when all traces of knowledge were lost forever.
The Current Alphabet
A new alphabet was created in replacement, and this is the one that is used.
Now there are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet used currently, mainly in the United Kingdom. Mostly they use it as popular maths symbols, and in college, it is used for fraternities and sororities. (A group of people brought together by brother or sisterhood). F, Q, V and W are the letters that are not in the Greek alphabet. Some of the letters are in the Greek alphabet twice but count as different letters. E.g: Eta and Epsilon both mean E.
The History Of The Alphabet
For thousands of years, humans wrote without letters, as we simply drew pictures to get the point. You wouldn't even have to know a certain language to understand what it meant. All modern day drivers know that a road sign with an airplane on it means there is an airport nearby, no matter what language they speak. These ancient pictures worked just the same. Slowly over time, these pictures turned into symbols, and those symbols then turned into letters.
There would be thousands of these symbols, all of them different, so it would take many years to learn how to say and write the Greek alphabet.
Similar Alphabets
The most similar alphabet to greek is Italian or Arminian (in Western Asia).
Some of the letters in the Greek alphabet are nearly 90% the same as one of the other Alphabets, and some were so much different.
Symbols
All of the symbols in the Greek alphabet are half based on what the letters look like or sound like, and for the other half of them, they are based on a different sound or look of the letters. The Greek alphabet doesn't really use any symbols. They are just letters, like A, B and C.
Conclusion
Now that you know lots of things about the Greek alphabet, I hope you have become an expert on it and one day share this information with someone else that is curious to know more. Pictures that they used all leds to the alphabet that people use now. Most of the letters in the Greek alphabet are very different, but some are the same. In the future, how are you going to use the Greek alphabet???
Author Megan
Ancient Olympics Report.
Introduction
Do you want to know about the Ancient Olympics?Well you are very lucky because this report is about the Ancient Olympics.The Ancient Olympics is an event they had about 3,000 years ago in Olympia.Olympia was a place they had in Ancient Greece.Do you want to know more about the sports or why the men competed in the nude?Well then read on to find more facts about the Ancient Olympics!
Where the first Olympics were held.
The first Olympics,(About 3,000 years ago)was in Ancient Greece. The Olympics were named after Mount Olympus,which was in Ancient Greece and instead of not doing the first Olympics on the mountain they did it in Olympia.
Olympia had the sanctuary of Zeus. Zeus was the head of the Olympian family of Gods and Goddesses.
What sports were held in the Ancient Olympics.
Chariot Racing was one of the first sports of the Ancient Olympics. For the Chariot Racing you had to have 2,4 or 6 horses and you had a Chariot, which was the place that they stood. (The Chariot is a 2 wheeled vehicle.)
The Pentathlon was an event that had 5 sports. The sports were discus , javelin,jumping,running and wrestling.
Pankration.
A sport where the athletes can fight with bare hands. A Pankration is like boxing and Wrestling. The athletes could mainly do anything except for biting and pulling out people's eyes. This event must have to be the most violent sport sport in history. Some competitors were even killed by it! Even when the opponent was on the ground the other person could keep hitting.
What people competed in the Ancient Olympics.
Only men and boys were allowed to compete but unmarried Girls were allowed to watch. If married Women came to the Olympics they would get punished. The unmarried women have their own festival at Olympia every four years. The festival was called Heraia,which was named after Hera,wife of Zeus. Also if you wanted to go in the Olympics you had to be free which means you can't be a slave and you had to speak Greek.
Competing in the nude.
In 720 BC an athlete tore off his loincloth (A loincloth is like a big nappy held on by a piece of material like a belt.) because he thought it would be easier to race.He won the running race and it became a Greek tradition to compete in the nude.
What the Athletes won.
The Athletes were given olive wreaths for a prize. They got given olive wreaths because the olive leaves were sacred and from Zeus. They put the wreaths on their heads to wear. The shape of the olive wreath was kind of like a ring. Another reason they had the olive wreath was that it was a symbol of peace or victory. The olive leaves came from Mount Olympus and were Guarded by the Ancient Greek Gods on the mountain.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed my report and learnt a lot about the Ancient Olympics.I also hope this inspired you to learn more about the Ancient Olympics and to be in the modern Olympics.I hope you share the info in this report with other people.Remember the Olympics was about 3,000 years ago.Wouldn't it be awesome if you will build a time travel machine and go back to the Ancient Olympics.If you were back in those days what sport would you play?
Author Georgina
How to be a fit and healthy athlete
Introduction:
Do you ever want to be an athlete? Eat healthy and train. You also need to do different activities to help to be a fit and healthy athlete. No one magical food helps you build your muscles and your entire body. What makes you stronger and healthy is a variety of nutritious foods.
6 ways to get ready for the Olympics:
1 Eat healthy.
2 Athletes should train a little bit every day.
3 Make sure they sleep well to get lots of rest and recover.
4 Wear proper clothing when training.
5 Family and friends doing things you enjoy.
6 Massaging helps you stay in top shape! Most athletes.
What athletes need to help them:
Athletes need lots of energy to compete in the Olimpics. To get energy they need to eat healthy foods. Before athletes train or compete they have to eat 2 to 4 hours before. So they don't get the stitch and they don't have a full stomach. The athlete's should eat carbohydrates or protein so half a sandwich or a handful of nuts is a good and healthy snack to have before training.
The main thing is athletes need more food because they burn more calories by practicing and playing.
Athletes need to eat lots of different food. These are protein ( Found in meat,chicken, eggs and nuts). Carbohydrates. ( Fruits vegetables grains vitamins and minerals.)
How do athletes build muscles:
If you do physical activity like dancing or football you're using your muscles and making them stronger. When you use your muscles lots your muscles get better and stronger.
About strength training:
Weight machines help your muscles to get stronger. Athletes use resistance training to make their muscles stronger. Resistance is when they pull or push against weights. Rowing running and bike riding helps your muscles get stronger because you use your legs and arms to pull or push.
Conclusion
So to compete at a top level you need more than ability. You need to do physical activity, eat healthy and drink lots of water. It his good to have lots of sleep and recovery. Do you want to compete in the Olympics with 1000’s of athletes around the world?
Author Jacob H
Mountain biking
Introduction
Have you ever rode a real mountain bike? Well if you haven't well this will tell you all about mountain biking. Mountain biking is a very cool and adventurous sport that is in the Olympics.Have you seen the mountain bikes that they use to have races? There suspension is so big to get over a bumpy terrain.
Safety first
Mountain biking is an adventurous sport but can be a very dangerous too. Always wear a helmet,goggles,elbow pads,knee pads,gloves,neck brace,body armor,padded shorts,ankle guards,shin pads,wrist protection to protect you and your brain.
What is mountain biking?
Millions of people at all ages have freedom mountain biking.Mountain bikes makes it easy to get up the bumpy terrain because of their gears and their light frames.Mountain biking is dangerous and very hard work.
What makes a mountain bike different to other bikes?
The hydraulics on mountain bikes are very big and chunky, The back of the bike works like the front because it goes up and down.the mountain bike saddle(seat)is good for offroad but not very comfortable,Mountain bike frames can come in aluminum, Steel, Metal, and carbon fiber.On the mountain bike tyres are different to other bike tyres because they have more traction and road bikes have none,Mountain bike brakes are better because some of them are disc brakes which makes them good for stoping at high speeds.
How do they make the frame?
So what manufacturers do is they get aluminum tubes then cut them into shape, they tack weld the tubes together, what you do now is weld all of the tubes together,then they put the frame in the hot oven then put it in cold water to make the frame strong.
Shocks
How the shocks work is simple all it is is a spring that goes up the fork then there is a (ugustible nobe) that you twist to make it go harder or softer for different terrain. What you do is put the bottom part of the fork on then tighten the bottom part to the top.
Tricks you can do
The tricks you can do are a Stopy, threesixty, frontflip, backflip, and the switzerland squeaker, the switzerland squeaker is a very hard trick that you can do but it takes practice do do it. What a switzerland squeaker is it's a mountain bike trick that you do a wheelie then stop the back brack next you stand on the back. wheel with your feet. A stopy is a trick where you ride then pull on your front brake then what happens is you and you bike tip ford until you are to scared so when you are you let go of the brakes.
Why do mountain bikes have brakes?
Mountain bikes have high quality brakes Because When the bikes go down the hill They have to stop somehow otherwise they will fall off and hurt himself or herself and break their bike.
What kind of pedal do they have on mountain bikes?
The Canfield Brothers ( A brand of a pedal) is very good because it has clips on it.The Canfield Brothers are good for going up and down the hill but they do not have clips for the shoe to clip on. The good part about them is they are wide, long and look cool.
Summary
The reason athletes have mountain bikes are so people get outdoors and explore the world. Mountain biking is a very exciting sport because it exercises you and your family.Over time people have got more interested in mountain biking so it came an Olympic sport.have you ever experienced mountain biking? If not you should try it.
Author Alex
Macaw report.
Introduction
Have you ever heard of a macaw? Well if you haven’t this report will tell you what it is. This report will include the macaw diet, macaw habitat, predators, species and conservation. I’m sure you will love this report and you will be very interested in what you will learn.
Macaw Diet
Seeds, fruits, nuts, berries and other vegetation yummy yummy for the Macaw. Their beaks are extremely adapted to eating nuts and seeds and now it’s not hard it’s easy for them to crack open nuts to eat. The fruit they eat is guava, mango, rasberry, well any fruit really.
Macaw habitat
The trees of the Rainforest shelter the animals under the Emergent Layer in the Canopy is the great graceful beautiful Macaw. Most macaws live in South America but 2 species live in Mexico. It rains 200 days per year. There are 2000 species of animals that call the Amazon Rainforest home. This is also the place with the 2nd biggest river in the world home to piranhas and boto river dolphins.
Some people live in the Rainforest and eat the fruit, drink the river water, and use trees as medicine. Up in the trees there are sloths, macaws, tree frogs, monkeys, and more. Rainforests are very important because people need trees to live it gives them food and medicine
Predators
Monkeys, toucans, possums, and snakes all steal macaws eggs. But humans are the main predator of Macaws humans are chopping down the trees of their habitat. That’s why some people are doing conservation work to help the macaws.
Species
There are 17 species of macaw and several are endangered. Here are some of the species: Glaucous Macaw, Hyacinth Macaw, Spix Macaw, Military Macaw, Chestnut Fronted Macaw, Scarlet Macaw, Lear’s Macaw, Hahn’s Macaw. The Military and some Scarlet Macaws live in Mexico
Conservation
The Scarlet Macaw: Scarlet Macaws are an endangered species due to their capture as pets and loss of habitat. Before the Scarlet Macaws decline in population, its distribution included much of Costa Rica. However, by the 1960s Scarlet Macaws had been losing their numbers due to a combination of reasons, particularly hunting, poaching and the destruction of habitat through deforestation..
Spix macaw: In 1990, only one Spix's macaw could be found in the wild, living together with an Illiger macaw. Since the year 2000, the species is considered extinct in the wild. Today only around 100 Spix's macaws exist in captivity worldwide. Only little is known about the life of the Spix's macaw that why there will be little in the spix macaw
Military macaw: In 2015 october 1st military macaws were listed endangered. This was caused by the pet trade industry and deforestation.
Deforestation is the permanent destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other uses like golf courses.
Conclusion
You can help save a parrot at www.act-parrots.org
Hope you learned something about macaws.
Thank you for reading this report maybe you are happy to learn all this or maybe you are sad that deforestation happens and maybe you are mad that people are taking macaws out of the wild for pet trade but know this you will have a bunch of knowledge about macaws in your head!
Author Olivia
What is a mascot?
Do you know a mascot or something that represents your city\country ? Well a mascot is a animal or an object that brings luck to sport or simply just a logo to bring attachment to companies or shops. Quality mascots have a meaning for what they are for instance Vinicius is a mix of Brazilian animals and represent Rio in Brazil. mascots use to be cardboard cut out’s and logos but the people got the idea of the 3Dness from the Muppets in the late 1960’s.
What are the mascots for
Mascots are used for good fortune for the athletes that are competing in the Olympics. The mascots are common in the U.S.A for many reasons including the Olympics.
How mascots started.
The first mascots started for the Olympics was called Waldi that was a Dachshund because the president of Germany’s dog which is full of energy and it is very common to Germany too. The first Olympic mascot was at the Munich Olympic games and since then the mascots have been an important element of the Olympics.
The mascots from Brazil.
The creator of the Rio 2016 mascots was Birdo Producões. Vinicius is a mix of brazilian animals he is named after a famous musician and so is Tom the plant mascot with leaves with of all different shades of green.
Who creates the mascots.
The Rio 2016 mascot were made by Birdo Producões yeah you know but there were many more mascots that wanted to enter into the Olympics. The I.O.C (international Olympic committee) doesn’t choose the mascot. A part of the Olympic committee sends out a survey and the mascot with the most votes wins and becomes the mascot of the Olympic games.
Vinicius
He was born on the 2nd of October 2009 and Tom was born on the same day. Vinicius was made by an explosion of joy when the Rio de Janeiro was going to host the Olympics. Vinicius can small adventure and his best friend Tom the Paralympic mascot comes along with him on his adventures that he smells out. Vicius can call any animal he wants on his tree house roof in the Tijuca forest. Vinicius’ dream is to everybody happy and kind. He likes to play Olympic sport and make new friends Vinicius power is to stretch as far as he wants his feet could be in New Zealand with his head resting in Mount Everest in Nepal and his hands in Malaysia on the Petronas twin towers, but he only uses his powers for good use like getting to the Olympics fast if you're late.
Tom
Toms hair/ leaves are made of foliage that might be native to Brazil (It’s unknown for me). Like plants Tom is going towards the sun as he is getting better and using his determination the things on Tom are actually intense that are for pointing directions, making a V for victory and a ♡ for selfies. In the winter he loses his leaves so he has to has to stay in his house that floats in the water in the Tijuca forest Tom’s power is to grab any object out of his leaves
London 2012 olympic mascot Wenlock
Did you know Wenlock's metallic look is from the last drops of steel used to build the Olympic Stadium in London. His head is the shape of a triangle podium and he has 5 bracelets on his arm with all the colors of the Olympic rings.
Beijing 2008 mascots.
Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan Ying Ying, Nini the Beijing 2008 mascots means welcome to beijing (Beijing huan ying nin). All the colors of the mascots represent the Olympic rings and the natural elements which are fire earth sky water and wood.
The creator of the mascots was Hun Meilien.
Beibei the fish is a reference to the element water because she is blue and her wish is that everyone has good fortune. The waves on her head is because of the Chinese painting .
Jingjing the panda is based on the forest. His wish is happiness and his colour is black.The lotus flowers on his head are from painting on plates and cups.
Yingying is a tibetan antelope the represents earth and his wish is good health and his colour is yellow.
Nini the swallow represents the sky her wish is good luck her color is green and the design is based on the Chinese kites.
Huan Huan represents fire and transfers his colour red to the passion of sport. He has good luck symbols on his upper body.
Conclusion
To be honest the mascots aren’t the only important bit in the Olympics but the mascots are still important in the Olympics one of my favourite mascots are the Beijing mascots and Tom. What is your favourite mascot and how will your mascot look if designed one yourself?
Author Joseph
