Julia's Passion Project

Goal

Hi this is Julia. When I was little I loved watching science experiments on tv and always wanted to do them myself. So for my passion project I decided to do dramatic science experiments involving chemistry and try to understand why they react like that and be able to teach others. Before my passion project I didn't know much about science and I didn't know that most of the things we use every day are created and used in science. I want to find out how it all works.

Purpose

I love Science (especially dramatic chemical reactions) so when the teachers said we were doing science in class I was really excited but slightly amazed that everybody was upset and were like “oh no not science”. when I was delighted. I soon found out that nobody had done chemical reactions in school when they were little and I had. I have decided to do science with kids (mostly younger) so maybe soon they will enjoy science more when they're older.

My First Experiment

Elephant toothpaste

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyMwvkBkFYI&feature=youtu.be

My next experiment

This experiment is with the Preschool and I'm going to be doing a baking soda and vinegar volcano and then maybe later we will do something more.

Kate's Passion Project

From Pixels to Poems

Hello, my name is Kate and I am going to introduce you to my Passion Project.

Have you had something you’d always wanted to try but never really decided to try it? For me that was photography. Luckily at Selwyn House in Year 8 we are given the opportunity to choose one or two of our passions and create a project including it/them.

I have always loved writing poetry and I have always wanted to try photography, so for my Passion Project I decided to include both. I am planning on publishing and selling a poetry and landscape photography book, with a theme of trees, and donating the proceeds to ‘Toitoi - A Journal For Young Writers and Artists’ because Charlotte Gibbs, the creator and operator of Toitoi is extremely dedicated and only makes money when someone orders a book.

I feel like it would be nice to donate there because it is an amazing opportunity for young artists and writers. The Creative Writing program at Selwyn House is always entering into Toitoi.

So far I have written 6 poems with a couple on the go and taken many photos in different places like Queenstown, Tekapo, Christchurch and Pegasus. It was really cool because different areas have different feels and it’s easier to write about things that have feeling.

I have talked to Jo Grams, a photographer who does classes at the school, about the camera I should use (I had two) but she said I should use my phone because the cameras were very automatic and were harder to customise. I talked to her again and we discussed editing apps and online publishers. She gave me some of her favourites to check out.

Something I have learnt while doing this is the line of thirds, don’t put something in the middle of the frame keep it in the top or bottom half and when taking horizon photos keep the horizon line straight, not angled. Also that not only sunny days make for good pictures. You can get interesting photos if you take them on snowy, rainy or cloudy days.

Check out and support Charlotte, the founder and operator of Toitoi by clicking HERE.

Take a look at my Passion Project Blog by clicking HERE.

To see my Passion Project iMovie, click HERE.

Emily's Passion Project

Call Me Butter ‘Cause I’m on a Roll

My Goals are…

• To use my gymnastics coaching on my Gym Team's YouTube Channel, also posting vlogs and helpful videos on gymnastics.
• I also wanted to train 10 girls from school to compete in the Primary School Gymnastics Competition.
• My last goal is to get my team's YouTube Channel to 1000 Subscribers! And get more people to watch it!

My Progress So Far…

• I successfully completed my coaching and sent some girls off to compete. I know I did this well because: Ava Castles got 15th, Bridget Pye got 18th, Maggie Craw got 16th.
• I also have uploaded at least 10 videos so far this year that were just me and a lot of other Gym Vlogs and more.

What I have learnt so far…

So far this year I have learnt how to coach a Gymnastics Team, if you would like to see one of my coaching videos click HERE. So far we have 41 videos. I think that if I didn’t do this early then I wouldn’t have been able to complete it, because it takes time and a lot of effort. I think that I was a great leader because I took charge and made most of it all happen. We even got a Fan Made Video! Click HERE.

https://youtu.be/_p5tNXIrkQA - Passion Project iMovie

Felicity's Passion Project

Architecting Adventures

Hi, I’m Felicity and for my Passion Project I am designing floor plan for a house on a software archiCAD and I will be making a miniature model of this house as well i will also be making my floor plan into to a digital 3D model. I choose this topic because love designing houses and have always wanted to learn how the architects get there floor plan into a 3d model. I also love drawing and maths and I think this is a great thing that involves both of those things

Process

1. Research

2. Get software and trial the software and learn how to use it confidently

3. Start practicing and designing my own floor plans

4. Begin designing the final floor plan.

5. Complete floor plan

6. Start getting all measurements for miniature design

7. Use foam board and start making miniature model

Here are some photos of me working, my mentor meetings and the expert who I learnt a lot of things off.

I have made a blog where I document things that I have been doing in passion project I have been posting when there is something the has happened in my passion project that i think people would want to know about. Click here to view blog!

What have I learnt?

During Passion Project I have learnt a lot!

• I have learnt about ArchiCAD and all the features on archiCAD and I now feel quite knowledgeable.
• I have learnt a lot of things to remember about making a floor plan like which direction the house should be facing - North, East, South or West, is it functional, what the family wants - big kitchen, big laundry, big entertainment area, small garden etc. Does the family want an open space kitchen dining living.
• Things don’t always go to plan.

Here is a link to my passion project imovie - https://youtu.be/rud2-FTG4Mw

Thanks

Felicity

Phoebe's Passion Project

Drawing Vibes

Hi everyone, my name is Phoebe. This is a blogpost about my Passion Project.

Can you imagine yourself beaming with pride because you have written your very own graphic novel? Well, I can and that’s what my Passion Project goal is. I chose writing a graphic novel to be my passion project because I thought it would challenge me and I would learn lots of new drawing skills along the way.

I started off my passion project by doing lots of research and finding out about lots of things I needed to learn in order to draw my graphic novel. For example how long it takes to draw a page so I know how many I will actually be able to draw when I plan out my story, how big the strip size should be and how graphic novelists color their novels. Next I needed to plan out my story - the storyline, the characters and roughly how many pages long it will be. At the moment I am up to drawing my graphic novel! Below is one of the pages of my graphic novel. It still needs to be colored and a bit more detail needs to be added.

I have learned lots of new things so far. I have learnt all about how getting drawings colored online works, time management, what equipment graphic novelists use, how long it takes graphic novelists to draw one page and plenty more.

Here is the link to check out my blog http://phoebepassionproject2017.blogspot.co.nz/

Eloise's Passion Project

Bonnie's Passion Project

Chlorine is my perfume

Hi everyone, Bonnie here reporting about my Passion Project. Hope you enjoy!

My Passion Project

For my passion project I will be vlogging about water sports because I am always In the pool so I thought it would be nice if people see what I do also I want to do more sports so I thought I could do things like,

• Wakeboarding
• Water skiing
• Knowing
• Stand up paddle boarding
• Surfing
• Fishing
• Swimming

And I have already started some of these videos.

My First Video

My Goals

My goal is to have 15 videos around 5 to 10 minutes long done by the end of the year. Most of the videos I have uploaded are 5 minutes long mut if a get into it and set myself goals I could bet them longer and I have uploaded 3 now and working on others. For the few videos I have uploaded I have found really hard to upload them onto youtube but I will get better by the end of the year. And I know I can continue on with making youtube videos when i'm older.

Research

At the start of the year I was more looking for things to film my videos about like the list above, and watching people do them. And now is the fun part I get to make them. Aso at the start of the year I thought I was just going to vlog my videos like holding the camera and go wakeboarding but now I have had my mentor meeting I thought I could do how to wakeboard and I have also did what's in my swimming bag, and more videos like those.  Also i have started to make the started to make my outros and my intros to my video on a site called filmora I think it adds a cool vibe to the video and with fun music behind it rather than using imovie music and their titles.

Challenges I am facing

The challenges that I am facing is that I got a waterproof camera to vlog on but the sound doesn't work for me to vlog on. I took a lot of footage with that camera and it it doesn't have any sound so I can't use the footage as I wanted. I might not be able to vlog many more videos than swimming because I can't go wake boarding because it's too cold to go out on the boat.

What I am most proud of

I am most proud of all the videos I took when I was in Australia. Even though most of the videos had no sound I can still use some of it. I thought I could make a whole video about 2017 highlights where I can show all the cool things I did and it doesn't have to have sound in it. Even though it wasn't how I wanted I think it will be very cool video, but I will have to to do a lot of editing. Also, I am really happy I bought the camera because I can get some really cool underwater shots.

Subscribe to my channel!

Here is the link

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxg2MpXWfvdOhZoig_s56Gw/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=0&view_as=subscriber

Hermione's Passion Project

Life isn’t perfect

but your outfit can be!

Hey, it’s Hermione. I have always loved clothes and DIY’s but I never thought about doing sewing to make my own clothes because it seemed like a bit of a faff, I found a way to make my own clothes without always having to sew. This year my Passion Project goal is to make my own clothes that I can wear and a bag that I can use, but make them out of old or second hand clothes and different types of materials that I have found. Then I want to take photos of them and put them in a book or magazine.

Early on in Passion Project I did lots of research on how to easily upcycle clothing. I have looked mainly in sewing magazines and on Pinterest. One of the most common ways to upcycle bags that I saw was making by them out of coffee bean bags.

Here is an example

of a coffee bean bag

The most common way to upcycle jeans that I found was to make them into shorts by cutting old jeans at the length that shorts would usually be at. I looked at a some sewing magazines and I saw that at the moment embroidery is quite popular (I already have collected and used some iron on’s from Spotlight).

I phoned Jane Gilder who does sewing courses, near the beginning of the year. She got back to me and said that I can start the course on the last week of the Term 1 school holidays. It is now Term 3 and I have been going to sewing lessons since then once a week , I have made one bag which I got the material for off of a dress that I found in the second hand clothing store in Merivale.

This is the bag that I made

I recently started sewing a skirt which I found the material for in Spotlight at The Colombo. In the holidays I found an old denim jacket of my sisters, I took of the sleeves and put on some iron on sparkly icecreams and glasses.

This is the waistcoat I made

Next I want to finish off the jeans that I am making into shorts, all I need to do for that is finish off cutting off the exes leg part. After that I need to find a shirt to upcycle and start looking for some other things to upcycle.

Some new learning that I have made:

• How to use a sewing machine
• I also found out that when you are making something from scratch you need a LOT of fabric.
• You can make a massive difference to an item of clothing without much effort

Eliza's Passion Project

Maggie's Passion Project

The Ins and Outs of Being a Journalist

Hi it’s Maggie here and and at Selwyn House we do a Passion Project. Passion Project is a year long project for year 8. You have to choose what you are passionate about and you have to take action and do something about it. For this years Passion Project I am doing journalism. I want to write an article and get it published in a newspaper or magazine.

The experts I have contacted so far are:

• Anna Dalzell
• Michael De Hamel
• Sarla Donovan

All three people have replied but I also sent an  email to One News but they didn’t reply, and Russell Brown is still to be confirmed. Michael De Hamel was really helpful though and sent me an e-book. So far I have learnt how to ask the right questions about what you are wanting to know and to who you are asking. This is because you would ask a different question to a 5 year old than you would to a 35 year old. When I asked the kids questions for my article about the printmaking course I asked different questions to Anna the teacher. The Bay Harbour News said they would be happy to print my article on printmaking and wanted to know more information about passion project. But the Akaroa Mail didn’t need the printmaking article and Michael De Hamel asked me to write an article about the tennis courts in Little Akaloa.

It has been quite hard to come up with ideas to write about because you need to think if I write about this where is the best place for it to go. (e.g newspaper, magazine, which newspaper?) So you have to brainstorm ideas for what you want to talk about and what questions you want to ask to get the right information. It was helpful when Michael de Hamel told me what he wanted me to write because then I know that it’s helpful.

The newspaper I have had an article published in so far:

Soon I will have an article published in:

Maggie’s Passion Project iMovie:

https://youtu.be/xTq3mejKBDg

Scarlett's Passion Project

Snapping Pics For A Good Cause

Hi I am Scarlett and this is my introduction to my Passion Project.

Have you ever thought about all the different facts about the animals in Orana park zoo. Like where they are from, what their names are, how old they are. You get the picture! For my passion project I am raising money for Orana park zoo. I will do this by making accessories and a book with photography that I will take around the zoo. In the book there will facts about the animals on each page. This will hopefully answer your wonderings. All the money that I raise from selling these things will go to the zoo.

• My goal is to gather all of my images and facts and put them into my book and accessories. Then to make sure that I give the money that I raise to Orana Park Zoo.

• The purpose of me doing this is to improve my camera skills and to learn that giving to good causes is a good thing to do.

The skills I have gained so far:

• Camera techniques
• What time of day to take photography
• Good lighting arrangements
• To plan things ahead of time
• What to focus on when photographing an animal

Click below to see my Passion Project i-Movie introduction

https://youtu.be/Y-BBOGX8xVM

Lottie's Passion Project

Follow this link to see my Passion Project video :-)
https://youtu.be/1WT9KcNuBiY

Introduction

Hi, I am Lottie Heywood and for my Passion Project I decided to coach two Year 3&4 Netball Teams. This is so I can experience the challenges that come with coaching and all of the different things to remember to do when coaching.

Purpose

I have been playing netball for five years and every year except one I have had a great coach!

The coaches were good because they were organised, prepared and on time. They also made it very clear what they wanted to do and how.

The coach that I had that wasn’t so great forgot the ball bag every week, went off topic and started talking about other things and developed a relationship with us so that we became more of her friends than players.

My Goal

My goal is to be organised, prepared and on time.

• To do this I created a table to help me organise the positions the girls will play each week.

• I had a spread sheet to record every time the girls have been off and how many times each girl has been captain.

• I also had a chart with how many times each girl has played each position.

• This is really handy because if a player or parent complains about how many times they have been off etc I can just show them the documents.

• Every week usually on Monday I plan the practise for Friday.

• To help me with this I use the coach's guide book I was given at a coaches meeting. This book has a weekly focus that I help the girls with for example shooting, defence, footwork etc. They then list games and exercises I can do to teach them these skills.

• Without this book I think I would have gone off topic like my previous coach.

Research

• Before I started coaching I really had to research about skills/games I could do with my team, tips on how to work with younger children and basic coaching skills.
• To do this I went to a coaching course which was really helpful and went through every single detail I need to know about Year 3&4 Netball. It didn’t really focus on actual coaching just more on netball.
• I also had a meeting with Mr Pearce as he is an experienced netball coach and he helped more with how to coach younger children and necessary skills of a coach.

Reflections

I do reflections on how the game and practise went and my thoughts on it. I also do reflections on how I think I am doing as a coach and the players improvements. I include a next step so I know exactly what I need to do and when.

Team Drink Bottles

I really wanted to the girls team drink bottles so I asked my Dad's business if they could sponsor them. They said yes so I went out and bought drink bottles which were two different colours for the different teams. I then went to a business that puts logos on things and asked them to put the logo on these drink bottles.

Unfortunately they took a really long time to do this and didn’t end up doing it they just gave me stickers with the logo. From this I learnt that if you want something done quickly research about which company to use otherwise it may not get done.

My Mentor

I have a mentor who is Mr Henry our PE and Sport Director. He gets the gear ready for me and gets things organised with parents.

Facebook

I decided to make a Facebook account just for netball so that I can record/track the girls improvements.

Conclusion

Right now I am ten weeks through with my coaching and I’m really enjoying it. The girls are improving so much. My netball skills are also getting better as I have to learn about positions I don’t play.