For this task, we found a word and created an image based off of the word. I chose the word abstract. In the art sense, abstract means an image that conveys a picture using just shapes, colours or textures.

Who invented the bicycle

Who Invented the Bicycle?

For most people, the bicycle is the vehicle of choice if you can’t drive a car. Many people don’t know who invented this marvellous machine, though.

Most historians trace its origin back to 1817, when a German aristocrat called Karl von Drais invented a two-wheeled wooden machine that propelled riders with their feet. This invention became popular in England and France and became known as the velocipede. Unfortunately, the machine was soon banned as it became a hazard to pedestrians and was rarely seen after the early 1820s.

Things were quiet for decades, but the bicycle pedals were eventually introduced in 1963 in Paris by Pierre Michaux. It is unclear whether he or his employee, Pierre Lallement should be given credit for the innovation. Lallement moved to the United States, where he patented the idea in 1866. The machines started to be called bicycles by 1869, but many people referred to them as “bone shakers”, which described their clunky movement due to the fact that they had a heavy wooden frame and steel wheels.

In the 1870s brought about the new “ordinary” bicycles, with one big wheel at the front and a small one at the back. The main flaw with these was that they had bad breaking, as the rider could fly off the front with the momentum. Eventually, the English inventor John Kemp Starley designed a "safety bicycle" with two small wheels of equal size, a chain drive, and a set of gears. With the added in pneumatic tyres and better braking system, the bicycle sales and production skyrocketed. Over one million bicycles were created by 1899.

Scamming: it's bad!

We were tasked to create a poster which could teach someone about a certain area of net-safety. I chose scamming.

Sir Peter Buck, The Maori Hero

This week, we had to research a Māori hero. I chose Peter Buck, who was a doctor, soldier, politician, museum director, and anthropologist.

Matariki Slide: Our Matariki Knowledge All in One Slide.

This is my Matariki Word Art.
Our task was to create a piece of word art about Matariki containing at least 20 words. Mine contains 26.

To create your own go to https://wordart.com/

Should Universities be Free to Attend?

Universities have a reason they’re expensive. Another ‘pre-uni’ school will cost you money, so why would a university be different? If universities were free, then schools would get crowded, teachers would barely get paid and students wouldn’t take it as seriously.

If universities were free, then there would not be enough space to fit all of the students. This could push schools into having a waiting list or broadening the one they already had. In the classes, the student cap will most likely be exceeded. This can put a lot of stress on the teachers, who would have to help students with  and discuss an assignment to such a large crowd. The student to teacher ratio would be vastly out of proportion compared to what it is now with universities costing money.

To add on to this, teachers wouldn’t get paid as much as they do now. When a student pays their fees, the money goes towards the government and the school, which goes towards the teachers. Only a small portion of money comes from other places. This can make teachers want to quit their job, thus making the teacher to student ratio even worse. The schools wouldn’t get as much money for learning, either. They wouldn’t be able to sell books because they would barely have enough money to buy them. Of course, they would be able to get some books.

The students in the universities would probably find the free schooling as an easy pass for education. This could make the students not value their education as it would come so easily. The students who do become something like a doctor wouldn’t get as much credit because of the fact that the amount of people who could get into the profession would vastly increase. On the other side of the spectrum, there will be a lower percent of students who graduate. This is due to students not valuing their education and dropping out of university.

So in conclusion, universities should not be free to attend because the schools would get crowded, the teachers wouldn’t get paid as much and students wouldn’t take university as seriously.