Today at Enrich I did another session of science talent development with Eddie, Jordan and Darryn. Today we had to contact an expert on our animal. I am contacting the North Island Doc center to ask questions about the Kaimanua wild horses. I have sent them an email and I have told them who I am what I am doing and of course, the questions. I can't wait to find out more about wild horses! It will be awesome! Also, it will help my keynote, as I need to put more facts about wild horses onto my keynote! I am so excited! We will have to contact an expert in our passion projects too, so this is good practice. But then, that's what talent development is all about - practicing for our passion projects!
As you know, for my talent development I am doing nature science. We are studying animal adaptations, and now we are up to doing a keynote about our animal. Mine is a wild horse. I have about two slides to go, and I hope I will be able to finish them before the end of term, because next term is when we start our passion projects. I have a wee bit more to do, as I have not yet contacted an expert on wild horses. I am using the skills that I learnt in the keynote ICT workshop to do my keynote about animal adaptations, adding on pictures and stuff. When I'm finished, I might put a snapshot of the title page on one of my blogs. But for now, here is one of the pictures I used in my keynote above on the right.
For me, being gifted means you are above average in different areas. A big part of being gifted means going to Enrich every Thursday. At school, people think I'm the smartest person EVER but only in a few different subjects - writing, mainly, and sometimes my reading. I am not that talented in maths, but that is okay! Going to Enrich really helps me, as they don't do the regular school curriculum. They have different challenges, and it is really fun. Also, they don't just do reading, writing, maths at set times. The teachers incorporate it in all areas. For example, Katie sends us an email every morning, and that is reading because we have to read it to see what's going on. Also, our blog posts are kind of like writing. Enrich really helps me. Being gifted is a very special thing to me.
At Enrich we have a leaderboard for chess. Our names are laminated and separately blue-tacked on to one of the pillars at the back of the room. If your name is at the top of all the other names on the pillar then you are at the top of the leaderboard and you are the leader. If your name is below all the others, then that means you're either not much of a champion at chess, or you haven't been playing enough chess. When you play someone above you on the leader board and win, then you get to go higher on the leader board. The leader board is a fun way to improve your chess skills and is kind of like a contest but it isn't too tense, you just want to have fun.
In the nature science talent development group, we are studying animal adaptations. A few weeks ago we went to Queen's Park to look at the animals and the museum to look at the tuataras. Now an example of a good animal adaptation we are looking at is the great white shark's adaptation. The great white shark has the ability to stick it's head out of the water and look around. A great white's main diet is a seal, because seals are full of fat. The fat then turns into energy to keep the shark pumped up. Although it is a fish, the great white has adapted [changed over time], to be like a warm-blooded animal. It's mind is developed better than most fish.
