I wrote this post some time ago during a sleepless night so... please ignore (or relish or be amused at) my grouchiness.
[beginning]
I may have a sadistic personality, but this schedule is just masochistic. Jet-lag is not fun at all. I also kinda brought this upon myself so...
22nd 2300 take off to London
23rd 0545 land in London, immediately rent car for 2 hr drive to Warwick university, arrive on campus before 11:30. Stay until 5pm. 2 hr drive back to London.
24th Morning sleep in. KCL 1:30pm-5pm.
25th NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM :D
26th Free time. 2220 London to HK
27th 0700 Land in HK. 1000 meet up at Ocean Park. Go home with friends after (sleepover). Unpack etc.
28th 0910 Elements. 1600 Interview at Mother's Choice. 1900 Dinner with Jo. Pack.
29th 1025 Elements. 1510 Hangout? 2355 Board plane to London.
30th UCL
And that's the end of a hectic week.
[end of post]
Sunday, July 9, 2017
London Natural History Museum
I found some notes and preliminary research from my trip to the NHS and just wanted to put them somewhere. I guess you'll be able to see what interests me most in terms of natural history, or something like that.
Illustrations of the Natural World
- scientific illustration. identify, classifying comparing.
- linnaen style = ecological style: nature as seen/experienced.
- bewick, naturalist, used wood block printing. Reason = detail, scale.
- Methods: electron microscope, micro CT scan, photograph, digital images, illustrations
- inaccuracy of paintings may mislead for long time. Even when corrected, the original is popular eg. dodo, the original showed a big fat bird when in reality it's not that big, but the fat version is more popular and used.
 |
| Peacock Ore |
Geology
- Bornite = peacock ore, sulfide mineral
- Malachite = copper ore
Mammals
- fossils used to find relatives. palaeontology
- family names
- boars both genders hv tusks
- -dactyl: digits (fingers and toes)
- tylopods, cushioned foot
- hyrax, not rodent
- perissodactyl: odd hoofed, one main weightbearing hoof
- artiodactyls: weight equally shared on 2 hooves
Darwin Centre - mostly about the museum collections and curators/scientists
- Edentates: Mammal lacking incisors/canine teeth eg. anteaters, armadillos
- Organism must be named. This is vital. Otherwise info is useless.
- Curators look after collections, and make them available for the scientific community
- Extinct species are sometimes found in collections
- NHS has a massive collection, millions of hours spent on it, 3km of cabinets
- Science is discovering natural world. Ask questions, gather data to learn about world
- Past famous collectors: Sloane, Cheesman, Banks, Darwin, Wallace
Friday, June 16, 2017
Geographical Enquiry
Practice for Controlled Assessment
- Questions - Purpose of Study
- Guiding Questions
- Hypotheisis = Prediction
- Theory
- Location Map, scribble map (basically an intro to the site) - Methodology
- Primary + Secondary Data (Internet, Geographic Information System eg. google maps) - Results Presentation (eg. GIS maps)
- Results Analysis + Conclusions
- Evaluate
Thursday, June 15, 2017
After reading that previous post, I realised it won't be good if someone found this and managed to trace it back to me. But it's my true opinion. My side of the story. I wanted to keep record of it, share it even. In the end, it's an important life experience.
I look forward to Year 12. I have a lot of ideas, a lot of activities and school events I want to participate in. I want to bring change in the school. I don't know what yet, but I want to leave an impact, or at least affect those around me. Did I mention that I'll be a Y8 camp prefect next year? I'm really looking forward to it. I'm kinda clumsy, have bad hearing and not enough confidence with adults, but I'm sure that I'll be fine. Hope the kids won't mind me or trample all over me :P
If you've read this post, please leave a comment below! It's nice when you can see that someone is reading these things after all.
I look forward to Year 12. I have a lot of ideas, a lot of activities and school events I want to participate in. I want to bring change in the school. I don't know what yet, but I want to leave an impact, or at least affect those around me. Did I mention that I'll be a Y8 camp prefect next year? I'm really looking forward to it. I'm kinda clumsy, have bad hearing and not enough confidence with adults, but I'm sure that I'll be fine. Hope the kids won't mind me or trample all over me :P
If you've read this post, please leave a comment below! It's nice when you can see that someone is reading these things after all.
Understandable Bullshit.
sooo.....
My school has this thing called E-class where students get to choose a course they like and attend it for a semester (half a year). This takes up 6 lessons a week (2 different A-classes). Y11s have exams. We are free from all other classes but A-classes, and are expected to attend them. No exceptions unless you have an exam during them. We were warned that if we don't attend them, our transcript would write our courses as "incomplete". We were allowed 3 lessons (not days!) of absence, including exams (which is bs and wasn't explained to us in writing, it was only when I asked later that she clarified it). Here's the problem.
I'm going to University open days which take place before the school term ends. It's one year earlier but that's because I'll be busy during summer next year. At the beginning of the course, I told my teachers I'll be leaving early. I decided to register it as "early leave". I asked my mum to hand write a letter. Told my Senior Head of House (he said he'll talk to Ms C). I went into Ms C's office and told her my reason of early leave. She didn't accept it. She said that University tours can be booked any time, and is not a valid reason for leaving school early, and so, my transcript would be marked as "incomplete". I felt frustrated. I loved those two courses. I don't want them to be the ones that are "incomplete". I also put a lot of effort into them, even during exam time. I felt like all that effort was wasted. I could have just not gone to any of my lessons and studied/played instead. Through those thoughts, the pipes leaked (for which I'm sorta glad, cos if they didn't, she could have treated me a little harsher, she's kinda terrifying after all, for both students and teachers, but she's pretty amazing at times... in her stubbornness and efficiency).
It's not Ms C's fault really. If she does that for me, she'll have to do it for everyone. It had to be black and white. I understand that. A part of me is saying "A-class doesn't matter, no one would actually look at that thing anyway, they don't even know what A-class is! only our school has it!", which I believe is what a large part of the year is saying. It's also partially my fault, I didn't explain it properly to my parents, I just assumed that having guardian's permission and reason was enough. Oh yea, my parents are also kinda mad at me for it, rightfully so, but nothing we can do about it, everything's already organised and Ms C is like a rock.
Or I can take the next course of action. Through force. I'd hate to do this, but getting my parents there is an option. Then I can also get my teachers to vouch for my hard work, and my SHOH to vouch for my personality or something, and try to move her through numbers. But if it doesn't work out in the end... it's not worth it. It'll leave a lasting impression, which I don't want. I'll just once again, look down on A-class. Pretend that I don't care about it. Be like all the others who say it's shit and a waste of time, even though I kept defending it, even saying that the exhibition (which took place before our exams) had a point and was worth it.
Oh well, let's just treat this as a lesson, to not look at things optimistically and always make sure of the rules. If you don't know the rules, you can't play. The world isn't always fair to the passionate.
Other news, I think Ms C is retiring next year and the principal for next year was in the room when I was talking with Ms C, so I might have left an impression on him/her (positive hopefully, though not necessarily in the correct way).
It's such a shame.
My school has this thing called E-class where students get to choose a course they like and attend it for a semester (half a year). This takes up 6 lessons a week (2 different A-classes). Y11s have exams. We are free from all other classes but A-classes, and are expected to attend them. No exceptions unless you have an exam during them. We were warned that if we don't attend them, our transcript would write our courses as "incomplete". We were allowed 3 lessons (not days!) of absence, including exams (which is bs and wasn't explained to us in writing, it was only when I asked later that she clarified it). Here's the problem.
I'm going to University open days which take place before the school term ends. It's one year earlier but that's because I'll be busy during summer next year. At the beginning of the course, I told my teachers I'll be leaving early. I decided to register it as "early leave". I asked my mum to hand write a letter. Told my Senior Head of House (he said he'll talk to Ms C). I went into Ms C's office and told her my reason of early leave. She didn't accept it. She said that University tours can be booked any time, and is not a valid reason for leaving school early, and so, my transcript would be marked as "incomplete". I felt frustrated. I loved those two courses. I don't want them to be the ones that are "incomplete". I also put a lot of effort into them, even during exam time. I felt like all that effort was wasted. I could have just not gone to any of my lessons and studied/played instead. Through those thoughts, the pipes leaked (for which I'm sorta glad, cos if they didn't, she could have treated me a little harsher, she's kinda terrifying after all, for both students and teachers, but she's pretty amazing at times... in her stubbornness and efficiency).
It's not Ms C's fault really. If she does that for me, she'll have to do it for everyone. It had to be black and white. I understand that. A part of me is saying "A-class doesn't matter, no one would actually look at that thing anyway, they don't even know what A-class is! only our school has it!", which I believe is what a large part of the year is saying. It's also partially my fault, I didn't explain it properly to my parents, I just assumed that having guardian's permission and reason was enough. Oh yea, my parents are also kinda mad at me for it, rightfully so, but nothing we can do about it, everything's already organised and Ms C is like a rock.
Or I can take the next course of action. Through force. I'd hate to do this, but getting my parents there is an option. Then I can also get my teachers to vouch for my hard work, and my SHOH to vouch for my personality or something, and try to move her through numbers. But if it doesn't work out in the end... it's not worth it. It'll leave a lasting impression, which I don't want. I'll just once again, look down on A-class. Pretend that I don't care about it. Be like all the others who say it's shit and a waste of time, even though I kept defending it, even saying that the exhibition (which took place before our exams) had a point and was worth it.
Oh well, let's just treat this as a lesson, to not look at things optimistically and always make sure of the rules. If you don't know the rules, you can't play. The world isn't always fair to the passionate.
Other news, I think Ms C is retiring next year and the principal for next year was in the room when I was talking with Ms C, so I might have left an impression on him/her (positive hopefully, though not necessarily in the correct way).
It's such a shame.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Just wondering...
Comment if you're following my blog or have read my posts :)
It's nice to know if someone's reading them.
It's nice to know if someone's reading them.
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