Summer Learning Journey Day 5 Week 3

DAY 5: Creativity +

Activity 1: Ministry of Inspiration [4 points]

So you might have heard of the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health, right? They are groups of people who give advice to the government. But have you heard of the Ministry of Inspiration? It sounds like fun, doesn’t it?! Well, this is a real organisation based in Nelson, New Zealand. Their aim is to get kids thinking creatively in the areas of science, technology, engineering, arts, maths and society (STEAMS).

The Ministry of Inspiration hosts many cool activities and events, including an Aquabot competition. Aquabots are robots that travel under the water. They are built by secondary school students. Once a year, the students bring their aquabots to a pool to compete in a series of challenges. These challenges include picking up items from the bottom of the pool, delivering and/or collecting items from various locations in the pool. The team with the best aquabot wins the competition.

For this activity, we would like to know if you would join an Underwater Robotics team at your school. Why or why not? Post your answer on your blog.

If I was giving the opportunity to Join an Underwater Robotics, I would gladly join the Robotics team! The reason why I would join the team is because of a few reason. The first reason is that the Aqua bot competition, which includes a lot of fun challenges, sounds like a lot of fun! The second reason is that you can challenge other Teams or schools to make things a bit more challenging. The final reason is that Children from Year 5 to Year 13 can compete in the challenges!

Activity 2: Caine’s Arcade [4 points]

Caine Monroy is a 17 year old boy who lives in Los Angeles (L.A.), California. When he was younger, he spent his summer holidays at his dad’s work - an auto parts store in downtown L.A. While his dad was working, he decided to build himself something that he had always wanted - an arcade! He built an arcade all by himself out of cardboard boxes and things that he found lying around the shop.

One day a man came into the store to buy a handle for his car and he met Caine. Caine showed him what he had made and the man was so impressed with the arcade game that he made a movie about Caine and invited all the people in L.A. to come and play the games in Caine’s Arcade!

For this activity, we would like to know about your favourite game. It can be a board game, a card game, a game that you play outside with friends (e.g., rugby) or a quiet game that you play by yourself. Tell us about your favourite game. What is it called? How do you play it? Post your answer to this activity on your blog.

My Favorite game to play is a free-to-play mobile game, called PUBG. I really like playing this game because it's a really fun and competitive game you can play with your friends and Family. PUBG is an online multiplayer battle royale game. PUBG is a game which contains 100 players in one map and they have to fight until there is only 1 player left. To make things challenging, there is a zone in every map that shrinks which makes players closer to each other.

Activity 3: Choose your own [6 points]

You have now made it to the end of Week 3 and have the chance to choose your very own scientist,
technologist, or inventor who you think has changed the world. There are no right or wrong choices for
this activity, so find someone who interests you and tell us about them on your blog. It could be someone from your family, church or community or someone famous that you admire.

Here is an example in case you get stuck. The information came from the Coconet TV documentary
series

Dr Taitusi Taufa - Cancer Researcher, Tonga

Dr Taufa recently completed a PhD at Victoria University in Wellington. For his PhD he was looking to
see if specific ocean plants (e.g., Marine Sponges) could be used in the treatment of cancer. His interest
in this area can be traced back to his childhood on Tongatapu, the main island of Tonga. When he was
8 years old growing up in Tonga he accidentally poked a stick into his cousins eye and doctors there had told them there was nothing they could do and he would never see out of that eye. However, a traditional healer in a neighbouring village applied drops from a local plant and within a month his cousin could see again.

For his PhD, Taufa collected samples from marine sponges, sea cucumber and sea squirts. It’s these chemicals that he believes could form the basis of future anti-cancer drugs. Medication isolated from sponges could also prove more effective than conventional anti-cancer drugs, because the chemical compounds bind permanently to cancer cells, unlike many current treatments. Taufa’s work is ground-breaking and may save hundreds of people’s lives over the coming years.

For this activity, please choose one person (Dr Taufa or someone else) and tell us a bit about them. You must tell us their name of the person, and provide a description of the work they do/have done along with an explanation of how they/their work has had an impact on the lives of others. Post your work on your blog.

Leonardo DiCaprio

The person I chose is the famous Leonardo DiCaprio. Mr DiCaprio may only look like an actor, but He does a lot more than act. He is a environmentalist. Mr DiCaprio is really concerned about climate change and the future of our planet! Mr DiCaprio is doing everything in his power to help climate change or help convince others to help with climate change. Mr DiCaprio has also made a Foundation and named it "The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation". 

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation is dedicated to the long-term health and well being of all Earth's creatures. Through collaborative partnerships, we support innovative projects that protect vulnerable wildlife from extinction, while restoring balance to threatened ecosystems and communities. Mr DiCaprio has also donated 5 million dollars to help with climate change!. What I think Mr DiCaprio is doing is a really brave and convincing thing to do, and if it keeps up, leaders from different countries might get convince and maybe help with his foundation!