Summer Learning Journey (Teaser week) Day 4 activity 2

Activity 2: Fighting for Freedom

Mahatma Gandhi was an activist best known for his role in helping India become an independent country in 1947. Prior to this, India was under British rule. During the fight to become free from England, Gandhi (and others) led peaceful protests, marches, and hunger strikes in India. His birthday (2nd October) is widely celebrated in India as the International Day of Nonviolence.

Gandhi originally studied to be a lawyer in London, England. When he completed his studies, he got a job in South Africa where he saw that people were treated differently because of their skin color. He thought this was unfair and wrong, and so he organized protests to highlight the rights of Indians living in South Africa.

Gandhi impacted the world by using non-violent protest to bring about change. Recently, school students around the world have followed his lead and participated in peaceful protests about climate change. These were started by a girl called Greta Thunberg who, like Gandhi, is using nonviolent protest to try and make a change.

For this activity, please think about an issue you would protest over (non-violently, of course!).

On your blog, explain the issue clearly and tell us why it is so important to you.

My issue will be about Gay and Bi marriage in Kenya (which is in Africa). I would consider protesting over the lack of sympathy in some people. I highly disagree on what the president of Kenya thinks because first of all, It's quite rude to ban LGBT marriage in a timeline where all of our problems should've been in the past, and second of all, we are all humans and us, humans should have what we deserve. 

Summer Learning Journey (Teaser week) Day 4 activity 1

DAY 4: POLITICS & ACTIVISM

Activity 1: Leading the Charge

Helen Clark was the first woman to be elected as the Prime Minister (PM) of New Zealand (NZ). She served as PM for nine years (1999 to 2008). During this time, she introduced a number of new policies and fought to ensure that New Zealand continued to be nuclear-free. In 2008, Helen Clark was defeated by Sir John Key in the national election. Mr. Key went on to serve as PM of New Zealand from 2008 - 2016.

Before entering politics, Helen Clark lived on a farm near Hamilton. She became interested in politics while she was a teenager, and went on to study politics at the University of Auckland. After completing a lengthy career in politics in New Zealand, Ms. Clark moved overseas to take on the job as Head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She was the first woman to ever lead this international organization. As the head of the UNDP, Helen made a number of important changes to the way things operated within the UNDP.

For this activity, let’s imagine that, like Helen, you are hired to lead an organization. In this case, you are hired to be the principal of your school for one week. How exciting?! What changes would you introduce? Would you make the school day longer? Would you introduce daily trips to the swimming pool?

On your blog, list five changes that you would make to your school if you were hired to be the principal for one week.

If I was a principal for a week, I would...

• I would hire a bus to pick students up from their houses
• I would allow More fun activities such as Physical education, Art and Music
• I would allow students to bring mufti to school
• I would allow more time in the swimming pool
• I would ban homework (because we already do enough at school!) 

Summer Learning Journey (Teaser week) Day 3, activity 3

Activity 3: The Columbian Exchange

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer born back in 1451. He started sailing when he was 14 years old and spent a lot of his life looking for a passageway from his home continent of Europe to Asia. He never found one. Instead, he spent much of his time in the Americas (North, Central and South).

Christopher Columbus was, and still is, a very controversial man. Some people would even call him ‘infamous’ (well-known for doing something bad) because he spent much of his life sailing around the world, enslaving innocent people, spreading diseases and taking natural resources from the countries that he visited. His actions had a significant impact on the lives of others.

Who has had a significant impact on your life?

For this activity, please think of someone who has had a positive impact on your life. Who is this person? What did they do that was positive?

On your blog, please tell us about this person.

My positive person is the amazing Jonah Lomu. Jonah Lomu was a rugby player and was super strong and fast!. Throughout his rugby days, He scored 37 tries, which made him the sixth-highest try scorer for New Zealand and the eighteenth highest on the all-time list. He was someone to look up to when I used to play rugby. I always wanted to play like him and I still do! Even my brothers look up to him. I used to watch the highlights of his matches to watch how he played. But when the news hit my family, we were all devastated, but me and my brothers still try and play like him. Jonah Lomu was and still is a rugby legend and he will be missed.

Summer Learning Journey (Teaser week) Day 3, activity 2

Activity 2: When the Rubber Hits the Road

The Amazon rainforest is the world’s largest tropical rainforest. It is located in South America and is home to an incredibly special and unique environment. Unfortunately, the long-term health of the forest is at risk with hundreds of people entering the rainforest and cutting down trees without permission. Activists, like Marina Silva, are fighting back against this illegal logging and, in some cases, they are winning.

Marina actually spent her childhood working in the Amazon rainforest as a rubber tapper. She did not attend a school or learn how to read or write until the age of sixteen. In fact, she was the first person in her family to ever go to school and the first one to earn a university degree. Her family must have been so proud of her accomplishments.

For this activity, please interview three friends and ask them what they are most proud of. It could be something that they, or someone in their family, have accomplished.

On your blog, please share who these people were (first names only) and what they were proud of.

• My friend AJ is proud of his family for working hard to pay the bills, putting food on the table and for providing everything he needs to attend school

• My friend Ezekiel is also proud of his parents for providing everything he needed and wanted in life.

Summer Learning Journey (Teaser week) Day 3, activity 1

DAY3: ENVIRONMENT&EXPLORATION

Activity 1: The Rainman of Rajasthan

Arguably, the most important resource that we have on this planet is water. Without water, we simply would not survive. Here in New Zealand, almost everyone has access to free, clean drinking water but this is not the case in other parts of the world (e.g. Rajasthan, India; sub-Saharan Africa, etc.).

In fact, almost 1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. People like Peter Chasse have set up organizations like The Water Project to help address this issue and bring drinkable water to communities that do not currently have access to it.

For this activity, please watch this short introductory video from The Water Project.

On your blog, share what you have learned about The Water Project with us. What is the goal of the organization? Where do they work? What have they achieved?

I have learned that The Water Project is a charity that is helping Africa by providing water for those in need. The goal of the organization is to help African children by providing water for them. They work all around Africa. The Water Project is currently working in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Summer Learning Journey (Teaser week) Day 2, activity 3

Activity 3: The Greatest of All Time

While there are thousands of talented athletes in the world, there are a small number of individuals who rise to the top of their game and earn the title of G.O.A.T - The Greatest of All Time. One of these is a Grandmaster chess player, Garry Kasparov. Garry was the top-ranked chess player in the world for fifteen straight years (1985 - 2000). He started playing chess when he was just seven years old.

To become an expert, he practiced for hours every day. According to some scientists, you have to practice a skill for 10 000 hours (about 9 years) in order to become an expert. Wow, that is a lot of practice!

For Garry, this meant training to play chess every day at a special school with special coaches. He was not able to attend regular school and did not have much ‘free’ time to spend with family and friends.

For this activity, please imagine that you are Garry Kasparov and that you were the best chess player in the world.

On your blog, list three pros (advantages) and three cons (disadvantages) of being the GOAT of the chess world.

Pro & cons

Pros

• You will be super famous
• You will earn lots of money at competitions
• Lots of opportunities will open 

Cons

• People will crowd around you in public
• Your life will be at risk every time you step outside
• People will show hate towards you

Summer Learning Journey (Teaser week) Day 2, activity 2

Activity 2: Equal Pay for Equal Work?

Fiao’o Fa’amausili was the captain of the New Zealand (NZ) Black Ferns, our national women’s rugby team, until 2018. The Black Ferns have been a very successful team, winning the Women’s Rugby World Cup a record five times. Wow!

Despite this success, the Black Ferns have only recently become ‘professional’ rugby players who are paid to play rugby. Although they are paid, the Black Ferns make less money than members of the men’s professional rugby team - the All Blacks. This difference in pay is often called the ‘gender pay gap’ and it is not uncommon in sports.

What do you think about this? Is it fair? Should female athletes, like the Black Ferns, be paid the same amount as male athletes who play the same sport?

For this activity, please think about this issue of the gender pay gap carefully. It is quite controversial (some people agree with it and some people disagree with it).

On your blog, tell us what you think. Is it fair? Why or why not? Be sure to explain exactly why you feel the way that you do.

I highly disagree with the "gender pay gap" because it isn't fair to females that work they're hardest during sports, to have less money than their supposed to have, at the end of the day. Is there a specific reason why people are giving less money to females? or are people just sexist?. I suggest that our world should just stop with what they're doing and treat everybody equally, and with respect.