Home Economics (HEC): Scones

Scones:

Ingredients: 

3 c Plain flour

6 t Baking Powder (level)

1/4 t Salt

75g Cold Butter

1 to 1 1/2 c Milk

The process taken for this has been quite simple yet magical, the first action taken for this to work is the 'mise en place'; putting everything in the right place ready to bake/cook with. The team--our team-- worked efficiently to collect the ingredients above, making sure to use all the members to manage the time that we have. In mixing and putting the 'Scones' together, several factors contributed to this, in the beginning of this progression is the rubbing of the butter cutted into several cubes in to the flour.
The flour, baking soda and salt, by this time, has been sifted, previous to the rubbing of the butter. Making sure that the what has been used are only the fingertips, as the using the palm of the hand, the butter will beginning to melt at a faster rate; whereas using fingertips, as they are not as warm as our palms, melt in a slower rate.

Butter is then, again, rubbed into the flour until it resembles 'fine breadcrumbs texture'; if making flavours or scones incorporated with other "side ingredients", the likes of cheese, etc.
When added with cheese similarly to what we have done, the next step is then tossed with the mixture.
Thereafter, milk is the added, another factor to have made this successful, the method in which the milk is added.
A well is formed with our flour mixture, which we then fill with most of the milk in our measuring cup; however a small, minimal amount of milk is left, about 1/8 c. Used as brush on top of the finished dough. Using a knife--a butter, bread knife-- mix it, taking the flour mixture of the edge up to the middle of the well; while doing so the bowl is also twisted along with mixing it with the knife. Soft dough, is what the outcome should be, after the soft dough is formed, take it out of the bowl and lightly knead the dough. Baking paper is then measured on an oven tray; the dough is cutted according to amount of pieces wanted (8-12) and placed onto the tray. Close together around the centre.
The tray is then inserted into an oven which has been preheated at 180oC, for approximately 10 min, until it fully cooks golden brown.

The teamwork throughout the process was consistantly on a good and for me high standard; however I would be more extremely delightful if we would be more efficient than what we have been. Although for the first practical lesson I enjoyed having the team; we have been cooperative in working with the ingredients and contributed into making the scones successful.

The next steps that I would like to achieve are, putting more cheese onto the scones as I feel that they have been a bit bland. Texture-wise I love how the texture came out as it was soft, chewy but not too much, almost as if it compresses in the tounge. The outside of the scones were a crispy dome, but as they have been baked closed together, where the other scones met, it wasn't crispy, again, it was soft. It can be closely compared to how we like brownies; having a mixture of having crispy texture as wel as soft.
I really enjoyed doing this practical and I'm excited for the following weeks in which we will be doing more practicals.

Here are some photos of our finished product:

Social Studies: Zombie Apocalypes

The past few sessions that we have been having on on social studies, we have been looking at disasters- -fictional, non-fictional-- we focused on a fictional world disaster that is very, very quite unlikely to occur which is, a "Zombie Apocalypse". Before our main tasks, we first look at some several rules and events that could take place if ever it does happen. A clip was also shown and we were asked what we would do differently to what the character of the clip did. After that, we moved on to the activities; I pick an activity that included making a poster to let someone in "the apocalypse" know about a rule to survive. Firstly again as mentioned we looked at the rules and made our top ten for those who picked the same activity subsequently we then proceeded to create our posters. In the poster that I made I have only placed on it one rule. Which is, in case of a "Zombie Apocalypse"; fighting off zombies, 'DON'T SWING LOW!'.
After doing this activity we will start now to move on, onto the next disasters and completing the activities that are given.

Kindness: Random Acts of Kindness

Taha Wairua-spiritual wellbeing- is a part of our whare tapa wha which is our wellbeing. The four dimensions; mental, physical, spiritual and social well being. All of the four dimensions are important as one another; the spiritual well being, however, is what we would be focusing on at this moment. What is spiritual well being? Taha Wairua, in my opinion, is the hardest to explain in the four; but, knowing now and being able to understand what it means as I do now, it became less challenging to explain. In this case, we are specifically talking about kindness, acts of kindness-being kind-, in general, is important, why so? Kindness helps us to communicate, to mingle with people; to be able to understand each other, to empathize with whom we interact with. Not only that but it helps us to bind relationships together, build, and create new connections with one another.

We were tasked with performing a random act of kindness for this session of "Health Hurumanu", I wrote to my grandmas who are way back in the Philippines and told them how much I appreciate and value the time that I was with them.

That is, for me, what I feel what Taha Wairua is, and how much we need to value it, much like kindness.

MIndfulness: Ways to Well Being

As we have been doing for the past 2 years that I have been in Hornby High School, in our class; we have been spending around 10-15min of our morning-this year and the year before-doing "Mindfulness Activities". This year is not an exception to that, mindfulness is a part of most of our mornings.
Mindfulness Activities put us into the brain-mind set of being calm, a state of the mind where we are in peace; where we are in the best state to learn. Where we are ready to study and not in our "fight or flight mode", doing mindfulness makes the students, in a tranquil condition where our mental well-being is being taken care of. Task such as; drawing, listening to music, connecting with people, learning something new, etc. They are some of the things that we do to put us at peace and get ready for learning.

As for now, my opinion to "Mindfulness" has not changed, I think that it might not be essential to learning, but it is what makes learning to be at the best quality. We-students-learn better and are set better, an important part in which learning will be fun and engaging.






Courtesy: https://time.com/5254381/listening-to-music-health-benefits/
https://qz.com/quartzy/1381916/drawing-is-the-best-way-to-learn-even-if-youre-no-leonardo-da-vinci/

Eperiments- Dissolving: Hurrumanu 4

Template for a scientific report 

In Science, whenever we do an experiment we will blog it. The way that we blog an experiment is in the form of a scientific report.

Aim: To find out and see if salt or baking soda dissolve more.

Hypothesis: My hypothesis is that baking soda will dissolve less and will saturate the water much quicker as it is more finely that the salt, therefore, the salt will dissolve more on a faster rate.

Equipment: The equipment that we will be using for this experiment are: 250ml beaker,  100ml measuring cylinder, salt, baking soda, a stirring road, a teaspoon and a ruler.

Method: The following steps are what we will take for this experiment to work:

1. We fill our beaker with 100ml of tap water.
2. After the beaker has been filled, we then add a level teaspoon of our baking soda. A level teaspoon can be achieved by taking a teaspoon of the baking soda and a ruler is then run across its edge.
3. The solution that we have mixed is then stirred, keep the rotation going until all of the baking soda has vanished and dissolved.
4. Steps 2 and 3 are then repeated, it is only after that our solution has saturated and no more baking soda can be added.
5. The number of teaspoons of baking soda is then recorded.
6. The process that we have taken is then repeated for the salt as well.

Results: What did you observe? Either a picture or table of data.

Solute:	Salt	Baking Soda
Number of scoops (science spatula) till saturated:	20	11

Discussion: What do your results mean? Explain your results.

The number of scoops that we incorporated with our water and our solutes; saturating the water with salt was our first experiment and the first observation. The following was the Baking soda which dissolved less and saturated our liquid much slower. The number of scoops of salt that we were able to dissolve in our liquid was 20 scoops--science spatula--instead of a teaspoon; the number of scoops again with the same spatula was much less--11. In the experiment, we have observed that salt was much less fine than the baking soda; which is more chalky and more of a powder texture. It caused the water molecules to be filled up at a much faster rate, and that is why it requires less baking soda for the water to be saturated rather than the salt.

Conclusion: Did your experiment work? Was your hypothesis correct?

In conclusion, salt which somehow dissolves at a faster rate has a better or is better at solubility, it dissolves better than baking soda. We observed and conclude from this experiment that salt dissolves better than baking soda, making our hypothesis correct. Which stated that baking soda will dissolve less.

Conclusion:

I thought it would be a black crystal but it was bright blue and needed a couple of days to form but a very successful experiment!

Goal Setting: My Goals for this Year - Year 9

Last year, at the end of last year; I have achieved goals that have set at the beginning of that year. Since then wanted and craved for more goals to set; in the beginning weeks of this term, we were tasked with setting our goals towards now being a year 10. The goals that I've set were not only academic or at school but also my personal goal that I want to subjugate by the end of the year. Starting with my academic goals; I've set myself in trying the best that I can to get the "General Excellence" award, trophies-- Junior Chess Champion--. Not only, yet also being able to seize and be able to be the first in my subjects; as well as surpassing my standards and aiming higher for the following year.
Relating to my academic goals, I also have my work-ons, goals that I need to have achieved before being a year 10. Which are:

• I am an outstander - I choose to help others who are having a difficult time.

• I feel confident sharing my work

• I can set goals, self-assess and make learning connections.

• I can think outside the square

• I communicate thoughts and ideas so that others can understand.

On a different topic, as mentioned I also have my personal goals; one of my bigger personal goals is being able to master calculus, quantum physics and relativity. I have long been interested in those topics; I have been fascinated and have questioned myself about those ideas. Not only that but I also want to learn more about psychology--purposeful--when it comes to working with other people. I have started a move towards psychology and have discovered what called the "Troxler Effect" a sometimes scary "brain glitch" that explains why we sometimes "see" on the sides of our eyes; why when we stare at our selves for several periods of time we start to perceive "monsters"...

 

Being better at my hobbies per se is another goal that I have; chess, arts, literature, music and even politics. But ultimately the goal that I would love to achieve again this year is being happier, thinking optimistically and being more positive than I already am.

Business Entreprising: Business people - John D Rockeffeller

In our Business Enterprise class we started to look at different entrepreneurs throughout time.  We searched for and looked at several entrepreneurs and started to write about them. I chose to write about John D Rockefeller; the wealthiest American ever, I wrote why he was an entrepreneur, and how he became one. What qualities that he had to be an entrepreneur; here is what I wrote about him.

My Bio-Poem

This week for teachers to learn more about us, we were tasked to make a Bio-Poe which is simply a poem introducing and giving information about ourselves. We had to make a poem at first which would be a draft for the final work that we later do. We were given guidelines on which topic we should be putting in our poem. After the guidelines were followed and 'answered'; which meant the completion of our first draft. The first draft was then reviewed by our supervisor-- a teacher-- and we then progressed into making our final draft or our final work.

Here it is!: