Author: Aaron James

Every year every school in Scotland has an option to participate in the Scottish math challenge spread across the months there is three sets of questions some being harder than others. There are three rewards: Bronze, Silver and Gold. to earn these rewards you need points. Points are collected by getting correct answers and good working out.

In Port Ellen the previous record in the school was one point of gold (set by my sister) but this year I bet that record with getting a gold then i got to go away to get the award.

That means this year had to go away to Glasgow university, we got lost a few times in the car park finding the university and any where else we went.

The awards where great they would pull up a schools name on the board then the students from the school came down but of course there was a math challenge it was pretty easy though. The presenter also pulled up on the board funny answers to the questions that included people who drew or wrote funny things. He even had a little segment where you had to guess where Islay was. I went up got my award got a envelope holding all the bronzes from my school got my mug and sat down.

It was a fun experience and I enjoyed it mostly.

 

 

On Wednesday 13th March, All the P7’s from Islay went to the High-School for a science day. There were three classes split up between all the P7’s. Mr Harrison’s class: chemistry. Mrs Moran: biology. Mr kitchen: Science.

In chemistry we had flasks with acid water stuff and different liquids and mixed them, we timed them the more high concentrated liquid the faster it changed colour. At the end there was a big glass vase with water and when we mix it it changed colour.

In Science we used Bunson Burners we connected them to a pipe then turned on the gas and fire came out. We got cabbage and water and put them on top of the Bunson Burners and got the dye and added it to other colours to mix.

In Biology we got taught about algae and made little green balls of algae  and put them in the dark and the light. where they grew the ones in the light grew and the ones in the dark didn’t

over all we all enjoyed it and can’t wait to go to highschool.

Holes by Louis Sachar is a book based about unfair punishments. A boy called Stanley Yelnats is framed for stealing a pair of sneakers he did not steal. He got sent to camp green lake where he gets up to trouble.  I enjoyed very much because of the different types of characters from innocent Stanley Yelnats to the aggressive Warden.

The way the author wrote it it was like two different sides of the book; There was the joking funny sneaky boys then there was the dark side of the Warden and Mr Sir. A easy way to show this is when the boys stole a sack of seeds and Stanley took the blame. Mr Sir got angry and took him to the Warden. The Warden wears venomous nail polish; it wasn’t dry and she scratched Mr Sirs face for wasting her time.

The genre of this book I feel is adventure because Stanley and his freind Zero escape from Camp Green Lake. They have to climb to the top of a mountain. Stanley had to carry Zero to the top. The reason why they climbed to the top is because they believed there was water source at the top. I feel like it is also about freindships, because Stanley has to make freinds with the boys and they all have nicknames: Caveman-Stanley Yelnats, Zero-Hector Zeroni, Xray, Magnet, Twitch, Zigzag, Armpit and Squid they even called Mr Pendanski Mom.

Louis Sachar wrote very weirdly because there was a poem that he repeated over and over in the book.

“If only if only the woodpecker sighs,

The bark on the trees is as soft as the skies.

While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,

Crying to the moo-00-oon,

If only if only.”

But he changes the poem each time. He can make the book really tense. Like when the author made Stanley and Hector starving in the desert.

 

Nuclear is a non renewable energy source.

Nuclear doesn’t release any gasses or fuels but if a tsunami happens or a terrorist attacks it,  it will release a lot of bad chemical that can cause global warming it can also kill people and it wont go away for thousands years.

The chemical reaction will cause radiation the parts of it will have to be hidden in a special rock because its the only rock that can hold it with out letting it go this rock has no cracks so it can hold it. This rock is on Islay!

Nuclear is from Radioactive minerals which are uranium they are found by mining. When the minerals are spilt they split in Nuclear reactors.

Nuclear only needs a tiny bit to create a lot of energy, It doesn’t release gasses or fuels.

They are expensive to run, if they leak they can have a massive effect on people.