Sunday 4 March 2012

Weather Maps

Over the past two weeks, students have been focusing the different symbols that make up a weather map.  Students have made fantastic weather presenters - some better than others! (You know who you are Mr Mumford).

The next part of the assignment gets the students to use this knowledge to examine the weather maps from Black Saturday.  They need to be able to determine how the different factors on the weather map led to Black Saturday being such a devastating experience.

Students have been given access to the weather maps and a list of questions to help them analyse them.  More information is available here.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Black Saturday - What Happened?

Hi Everyone,

We have started looking at different elements of weather and climate this week focusing on 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 in the Humanities Alive Textbook.  We have also been focusing on the first part of our assignment about climographs.  Students have been creating a climograph about Warragul and sime have completed a second climograph for Brisbane or Cairns.  An example of what they have been creating is below.

Students will then use these climographs to work out when the danger of bushfires is more prevelant.  For more information about the assignment, how to make a climograph in Excel and the list of questions which need to be answered for this part of the assignment please click on here and look at the links down the left hand side.

Monday 6 February 2012

Our First Unit of Work

Hi Everyone,

Our first unit of work for this year will be all about the Black Saturday Bushfires that occurred in 2009.  Your assignment will be to develop a proposal or information report about how different weather, climate and environmental factors were so crucial in creating the worst bushfires in Victoria's history.

We will be focusing on Chapter 7: Weather and Hazards (pp178 - 210) in the Humanities Alive text book so make sure you always have it handy.

If you want to make a headstart on the assignment, you will find it attached to this page.

Welcome to Year 8

Hi Everyone,

It looks like I have a couple of great Year 8 classes this year and I'm sure you are all going to go really well in these two subjects.

I would like everyone to remember the one word that you need to be focussing throughout this year - no matter what you are working on in my classes.  That word is RESPECT.  If we all remember this one word, we will all have an incredible year.

As we have already discussed in class, we break down respect into three different areas:  respect for yourself, respect for others and respect for property.

Respect for Yourself

Respect for yourself means always doing the right thing by yourself.  This includes doing the best you can all of the time.  Remember, the only person you are cheating if you are not doing your best is yourself.  Don't be embarrassed if you get things wrong.  In fact, be more concerned if you don't get anything wrong.  This would mean that you are not learning or growing. 

Respect for Others

Respect for others is something we all can improve on.  This can be as simple as giving other people the opportunity to learn.  How do we do this?  Well, it starts by being ready for class - bringing the correct equipment and being there on time.  We can also make sure that we are no interrupting others when are they wanting to learn. 

Respect for Property

This is the easiest one.  Look after the equipment that you or your parents have bought for you to use this year.  Look after other people's property - particularly if they have lent it to you.  Finally, look after school property.  Don't write on the desks or lean on your chair.  You would be surprised by just how much money the school has to fork out every year on broken chairs and cleaning products.