Independent learning log 5

Apple voids warranty for those who smoke while using apple computers and are caught.

This is a really weird fact...

what I did: People said that there are many weird things in the terms and conditions of the apple products. Some are rather ridiculous and not applicable for apple products at all! Here is one of the ridiculous ones:
Open at own risk

You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, missiles, or chemical or biological weapons.

This is extremely weird!

What I learnt: I am not going to keep talking about the biological weapons, but more of voiding the warranty. Why is this even a rule! According to the apple legal, If you are caught smoking while using an apple computer, your warranty is no longer applicable and usable... I do not understand the logic to this. It probably is because apple wants people to stop smoking and they are doing their part to help people quit smoking. Even so, they should not be so cruel to take people's warranty away. This can cause people to stop buying apple products and choose Microsoft. People might also think that apple is being unreasonable. These facts are all taken from the terms and conditions of apple products, and it is not nice to make people read the many pages or rules and regulations.They should at least get their staff to inform people of these rules. (Plus+)The voiding of warranty is probably apple's way of taking advantage of people's weakness, smoking! So they could save money....

Summary: basically, do not smoke near apple products as all the warranties would be void...

Extras(if you have nothing better to do)
purely at your own risk, you have been warned

(spoiler...)

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credits to apple. www.apple.com #apple_fan

Independent learning log 4

Snails Have Teeth?

What I did: I researched on snails. 

What I learnt: We often think of snails as useless, slow and insignificant creatures. But if you observe them closely, you can find many more things and features about them. If you think snails are disgusting creatures, here is a fact to make you even more disgusted. Snails, not only do these tiny creatures have teeth, they have lots of teeth. By lots of teeth, I mean 14,000 teeth! 120x100 per row, tough and unbreakable, enough to kill humans. The teeth are mostly stuck to the tongue of the snail, used to eat the plants and fungi of the forest.

Summary: Snails actually have lots of teeth stuck to their tongue. Although unexpected, but it has much more teeth than most creatures!

independent learning log 3 By Lee Dominic

Internet addiction disorder? Facebook addiction disorder?

What I did?: I was looking on the internet for different types of disorders(just for knowledge). This one looked very interesting.

What I learnt: The Internet is a very useful tool for us, whether it for studying or for looking for news. Although it is very useful, it can drive you crazy too. This 'amazing' disorder is created along with the internet. This is not a joke, it actually exists and is proven by researchers and found to be a very big problem with young teenagers. There is not only one type of internet disorder, there are Facebook addiction, online shopping addiction, gaming addiction and excessive use of blogging and emails to name a few. As technology gets more advanced, the amount of people who get 'infected' with this problem rapidly increases. We should always be careful while using the internet and not get addicted. I also think that people of younger age 1-6 should not get to use devices such as smartphones. Even though you are using it to educate them, you are actually harming them. When they are younger, they get influenced by all these problems more easily and more easily get addicted to it. Imagine a scenario where a 4 year old child has been using an iPad(I am a fan of apple) since 2 years old. His/her parents think they are helping their child get smarter through technology, but no! It is causing them to get addicted. Then again, imagine the same child screaming and crying because his/her parents refuse to let him/her use the iPad. This is a sign of a severe case of...   addiction! DUN🌩🌩 DUN🌩🌩! It's no wonder why people now a days are less efficient than people of the past. Technology does not 100% help us, in fact, it is slowly destroying us and creating more and more problems. THE Internet sure is dangerous!

Summary: The internet is a very useful platform for us to study and get smarter, but a misuse of it can cause major problems, We need to be very careful!

Thanks to:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_addiction_disorder#Internet_Addiction_Test and http://www.thefactsite.com/2011/07/top-100-random-funny-facts.html

Independent Learning Log 5 by Chris

Independent Learning Log

Date: 20th of June 2016

Source: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/17/our-earliest-example-of-an-animal-moving-on-its-own/

What I did:

Read an article about the earliest example about locomotion of animals.

Summary (Includes what I learnt):

The article writes about the findings of an impression left by an ediacaran organism. These organisms can be flowerlike, some are like little plops of mud and some look like a palm leaf. They are the evidence of the earliest form of locomotion (the ability to move from one place to another). These traces have been fossilised by lava a million years ago.

A young paleobiologist went to the location where these fossilised impression were and noticed there was a slime trail that crossed the rock surface.  These traces left behind seemed that the ediacaran had a suction cup foot to cling on to the surface not swim in the water.

But the question everyone wanted to know the answer to was that," why bother to move?"

Some assume this to be a relentless behaviour to be passed down in generations or they just moved for comfort. No one really knows the reason why.

Independent Learning Log 4 by Chris

Independent Learning Log

Date: 17th June 2016

Source: http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/12/how-to-track-a-brutal-cereal-killer-extreme-weather/

What I did:

Wanted to know more about how climate change is impacting us today. So I read this article about droughts that are affecting the crops.

Summary:
California's droughts have cost the agricultural sector a lot of money in 2015 alone and we may be seeing more of this in the future. This causes more food security problems.

A team of researchers gathered data to find out more whether how bad this really is. After analysing the chunks of data, they have finally come to a conclusion. They discovered that droughts and extreme heat reduce cereal production by 9 to 10 percent in countries they strike. By contrast, they couldn't find much of an effect from floods or extreme cold.

Independent Learning Log 3 by Chris

Independent Learning Log

Date: 17th June 2016

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/what-happened-day-dinosaurs-died-chicxulub-drilling-asteroid-science/

What I did:

Wanted to know more about what had happened when dinosaurs became extinct. Apart knowing that it was a meteorite that killed them.

Summary: 

It turns out that it was not a meteorite. Instead, it was an asteroid that hit the Earth that had an explosive yield estimated at over one hundred trillion tonnes of TNT. This created an impact that penetrated the Earth's crust and vaporised thousands of cubic miles of rock. This wiped out eight percent of life on Earth. A team of British scientists had recently obtained the first-ever core samples from the "peak ring" of the Chicxulub Crater. Researchers hope that this could help them gain a better understanding the phenomenal forces unleashed that day.

The researchers would describe what would happen if we were still there that day when it happened. I found out that we most likely would all have died as natural disasters such as tsunamis would start to happen, and the trees would get set on fire. And the carbon footprint left behind is massive. Lots of carbon dioxide and monoxide, along with other deadly gases, would linger in the atmosphere. This would make it hard for plants to photosynthesize, the air would be unhealthy and the rain would be acidic. These conditions would make living on Earth impossible. But this is only a part of what would happen.

These first-ever core samples are what researchers hope that will fill in the gaps of this theory.

Independent Learning Log 2 by Chris

Independent Learning Log 2

Date: 14th June 2016 (12 35p.m.-1.00p.m.)

Source: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160601-is-cancer-inevitable

What I did:

Wanted to know more about Cancer. So I read this long article on BBC, Science.

Summary:

Cancer is inevitable. Cancer is a lost of control of our cells; they do not carry out what they are supposed to do and harm us. They can evolve just like any living organism, they mutate and become more resistant to drugs. A tumour is just like a tree, that one cancer cells would divide itself into more cells that have mutated, branching into more mutated cells. Scientist tried to find ways to cure cancer by taking out the cell that started the cell division but it was not promising. They have tried another way, which was to fight cancer with cancer. They "cloned" these cancer cells and put them against the original cancer cells and hence a fight would start. There would only be one victorious and by then these cancer cells would have been weakened and the drugs would take action to wipe them out. But the bottom line is that prevention is better than cure. Tobacco is the main leading cause of cancer and it is a problem that we can solve. Despite preventing ourselves from these causes of cancer, we eventually would start to have mutations in our cells which would cause cancer. Thankfully, or body is able to respond to it and fight back before it can advance on. That is why cancer is inevitable.

Words I've Learnt:

- Proliferation

- Pervasive

Independent Learning Log 1 by Chris

Independent Learning Log 1

Date: 14th June 2016 (11.40 a.m-12.10p.m.)

Source: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2016/06/brian-skerry-sharks

What I did:

Wanted to learn more about great white sharks through a photographer's/person who got up close to a shark's perspective. So I heard this article written by the photographer himself on National Geographic.

Summary:

The photographer and his team had a hard time trying to capture photos of the sharks. I've learnt from the article that these sharks are greatly endangered as they have been hunted and due to our actions that have caused them to move from their natural habitats. Their role in the ecosystem is important and people are now trying their best to protect these sharks. When the photographer got up close to a great white shark, he felt that the shark was rather "polite" it didn't seem like it meant any harm to him. This is very different from what we hear and see in the news and on television. The photographer learnt that these sharks need the care and love of human beings, what we know and heard about them is not enitrely true. We need to take action and help them.

New words I've learnt:

- Galvanzng

- Elusive

- Apex

- Daunting

- Donning

- Welded

- Analogous

- Congregate

Independent learning log 2 by lee dominic

Hippos can produce natural sunscreen.

What I did:I was looking for random facts on the internet.

What I learnt:I learnt that hippos can produce a pigment which is red-orange in colour. Some people call it sweat but it is actually not. Like humans, hippos can also get sunburns. They require this pigment to protect them from the sun. not only is it able to protect them from sunburns, it can also kill bacteria from their bodies like pathogens. It is because of these pigments, the hippos appear red sometimes. After some time, the orange will blend with the red and turn into the brown colour of the hippo. This special pigment helps to also allow the hippo's wounds to heal quicker.

Summary:The hippos get their colour from the pigment and it can also serve as a sunscreen to prevent them from getting sunburns. These pigments can also help speed up the recovery of the hippo's wounds.

independent learning Log 1 by Lee Dominic

link: https://youtu.be/9f_ztTlZV58

what I did: I was very bored at night and did not feel like sleeping. I then started to notice something that not many people would pay much attention to. That was the cicadas. I began to wonder how they make a sound even louder than the sound that humans could make. While I was looking through YouTube, I happened to find a video on it by National Geographic.

What I learnt: I learnt that the cicadas are able to make such a loud sound due to their hollow abdomens. They have a tymbal which rapidly contracts about 300-400 times a second while their hollow abdomen amplifies the sound like how a guitar works. They create these loud sounds to attract a mate before they die.

Summary: cicadas are able to create such loud noises due to their hollow abdomen and use it to attract a mate.


New word: Tymbal- a corrugated exoskeletal structure used to produce sounds in insects.

end

Independent Learning Log 5 by Keith Tan (24)

Date: 9/6/2016

Source: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150707-the-whales-that-never-forget

What I did:

Looking through BBC, I found an article that caught my eye, thus I decided to read up on it

What I learnt:
-Sperm whales have specific preferences for others, in the same way we might have a favourite cousin or aunt.
-The whales remember their distant friends and relatives despite spending most of their lives apart.

-Sperm whales have extremely powerful sonar systems, used for hunting prey, which can be heard from 1km down.

Summary:
This article elaborates more on sperm whales, specifically, that they do not forget their friends and family even after a long period of time

Independent Learning Log 4 by Keith Tan

Date: 9/6/2016

Source:http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160511-almost-all-snakes-have-the-same-mindboggling-superpower

What I did: While looking through the "discoveries" segment of BBC, I found this article that caught my attention, so I decided to read it and enquire more about snakes

What I learnt:
-The western diamondback rattlesnake can go on for two years without feeding
-If a human moved as fast as a snake could, they would lose consciousness
-The human body contains between 700 to 800 muscles while a snake has between 10000 to 15000 muscles
-A snake can absorb the impact of a strike easier because of its incredibly kinetic and mobile skull

Summary:
This article elaborates more on the snakes "superpower" that is not their size or strength, but rather its speed

Independent Learning Log 3 by Keith Tan

Date: 9/6/2016

Source:http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160314-the-worlds-largest-spider-is-the-size-of-a-dinner-plate

What I did:
While looking through articles, I found one that seemed interesting so I decided to read up on it

What I learnt:
-The Desertas wolf spider is one of the world's largest spiders with a body length of 4cm
-Wolf spiders are named for their active hunting style
-One of Asia's largest spiders is the giant huntsman spider with a leg span of up to 30cm
-The Hysterocrates hercules spider was less than a third of the size of Goliath bird eater spider
-The Goliath bird eater spider is second to the giant huntsman spider by leg span, but the largest by mass

Summary:
This article elaborates about some of the world's largest spiders and why their numbers are dwindling.

Independent Learning Log 2 by Keith Tan (24)

Date: 8/6/2016

Source: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160222-severe-droughts-explain-the-mysterious-fall-of-the-maya

What I did: While looking for articles, I found this one that caught my eye so I decided to take a look at it.

What I learnt:
-The first Maya sites were built during the first millennium BC
-The civilisation reached its height at around AD600
-Archaeologists uncovered thousands of ancient Maya cities
-The Maya were master craftspeople, proven by their distinctive art and architecture
-Around AD850, the Maya began to abandon their great cities, one after another

Summary:
This article is about the fall of the Maya, which was a mystery for a long time. Scientists discovered possible downfalls of the Maya like droughts.

Independent Learning Log 1 by Keith Tan (24)

Date: 8/6/2016

Source: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160606-there-are-weird-bursts-of-energy-coming-from-deep-space

What I did: While looking through BBC, I found this article that caught my eye so I began to read it and learn more about this topic

What I learnt:
-Astronomers have been able to find around 20 mysterious flashes in the sky (that are called fast radio bursts) since 2007 when they were first discovered
-They shine for only a few milliseconds, however, releases about a million times more energy than the Sun

-Astronomers have some theories, for example, neutron stars, exploding black holes and snapping cosmic strings

Summary:
This article is about mysterious bursts that astronomers have discovered since 2007. It also suggests some reasons for why these bursts have been occurring.

Independent Learning Log #5 by Kinjal Agarwal (02)

Date:

7 June 2016

Source:

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/underwater-world-to-close-its-doors-on-june-26

What I did:

I was listening to the news on 6 June and I was very shocked when I realised the Underwater World in Singapore was closing. So the following day, I went up the internet to read up about the closure and then came across this article.

What I learned:

Words I did not understand:

Premises - a house or building occupied by a business or considered in an official context.

Oceanarium - a large seawater aquarium in which marine animals are kept for study and public entertainment.

Nostalgia - a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past

Summary:

This article is about the closure of the Underwater World in Singapore, after 25 years. They have managed to  find a new home for it's vulnerable or endangered marine animals. They will be moved to China’s one of the largest marine parks in the world, on Sunday. Mr Philip Chan, the senior supervisor of divers at Underwater World, was also sad about the closure. According to the article,  the attraction has 2,500 marine creatures across 250 species. A month of charitable activities will be conducted in the aquarium to mark its closure.

Independent Learning Log #4 by Kinjal Agarwal (02)

Date:

7 June 2016

Source:

http://leekuanyew.straitstimes.com/ST/index.html

What I did:

I decided to look up the internet about one of our founding fathers, late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and came across this website.

What I learned:

Words I did not understand:

Diplomat - an official representing a country abroad.

Monuments - a statue, building, or other structure erected to commemorate a notable person Aggrandising - increase the power, status, or wealth of

Summary:

This article is about Lee Kuan Yew and what he had done for Singapore before he had passed away. The article tells us about all his contributions and sacrifices he had for the country. It focuses on all the time he had spent on devoting his whole life for his beloved country, Singapore. His had even turned Singapore from an obscure fishing village to a very developed country.

Independent Learning Log #3 by Kinjal Agarwal (02)

Date:

7 June 2016

Source:

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/learning-to-have-fun-making-do

What I did:

I was bored so I went up to the internet to search how to be fun and then suddenly came across this article, which made me wonder a bit if i really was a fun person.

What I learned:

Words I did not understand:

Bickering - argue about petty and trivial matters.

Touted - tempt to sell (something), typically by a direct or persistent approach.

Discernment - the ability to judge well.

Carping - difficult to please; critical.

Summary:

This article is about Tee Hun Ching. Her motto for the holidays is that ‘Go with the flow’. She also wants to do something different this holidays. She describes herself as fine and lazy, during the school holidays. She believes that children should be constantly engaged. She said that this time, she would plan in advance to free up more time for herself. She even registered her own daughter for an overnight camp held by her kindergarten, which her daughter had been looking forward to. A sweet friend of hers had brightened up her day by delivering a few small cups of ice cream. Her kids have even managed to be able to amuse themselves without her venturing out or spending a cent.

Independent Learning Log #2 by Kinjal Agarwal (02)

Date:

7 June 2016

Source:

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/in-memory-of-sabah-quake-victims

What I did:

I went up online to research about the recent news that is going on about the Mount Kinabalu trek and came across this article, which took me by surprise.

What I learned:

Words I did not understand:

Scaling - climb up or over (something high and steep).

Hymns - a religious song or poem of praise to God

Summary:

This article was about friends and families of whom had passed away during Tanjong Katong Primary School (TKPS)’s school expedition, whom had gone to scale Mount Kinabalu to complete what their loved ones could not. This was in remembrance of those who had unfortunately lost their valuable lives.

Independent Learning Log #1 by Kinjal Agarwal (02)

Date:

7 June 2016, 11:30am - 12pm

Source:

http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/reading-comics-in-class-its-just-a-way-to-learn-maths

What I did:

I wanted to get in touched with the recent news, so I decided to read some news from The Straits Times. I read some articles that I would be interested in. I found this article eye-catching.

What I learned:

Words I did not understand:

deputy - a person who is appointed to undertake the duties of a superior in the superior's absence

discourse - written or spoken communication or debate

Summary:

This article is about the fact that reading comics based on daily ways to apply Mathematics can definitely improve children’s Mathematics. The article also told me that using methods drawn from story-telling or comics is quite new. Since it was hard to engage low-achieving students in Mathematics, this project should make a difference in teaching from before.The method has even shown signs of effectiveness in early stages. It has been proven that students relate better to familiar scenarios found in comic strips, such as calculating discounts.