9PIC

Ancestry Inquiry report and reflection 1

Intro

In 1888 my Ancestor emigrated from Wales to New Zealand. He came to New Zealand in a large sailing boat with about 100 people on board including the crew and captain. He left England for a better life,for his Children and His Grandchildren.So this inquiry is me talking about why my Ancestor Chose New Zealand out of all the countries in the world, and the push and pull factors about New Zealand.So while this is my story, there are many families who have similar stories about their Ancestors and how they came to New Zealand, and these are the type of people to make up the traditional New Zealand population.

Push factor 1(crime rate)

One reason he decided to move to New Zealand was because the crime rate in England was way too high.The least amount of crimes done by the English in the 1800s was 4780 which was mostly made up from drunkenness, assault and robbery. But in New Zealand The first recorded crime was in 1842 on the 7 March, at Auckland, Maketū Wharetōtara (also known as Wiremu Kīngi Maketū), the son of a Bay of Island chief, Ruhe, became the first person to be executed by hanging in New Zealand. He had been found guilty of murdering two adults and three children at Motuarohia in November 1841. Following the treaty of waitangi in 1845 and the immigrant population into New Zealand increased, so did the New Zealand crime rate.

Push factor 2(Not safe living/Jack the Ripper)

When Herbert Mason left Wales, it was around the time Jack the Ripper was terrorising England with all the murders he committed and what he did with the bodies after he killed them. He easily striked fear though London and even all of England and wales. So when he killed Polly Nichols most of Wales and England though there would be Copycat killers running all around the contrary, so this was a huge push factor for Herbert Mason to come to New Zealand.

Discussion of push factors

So Herbert had heard of New Zealand and all of the land he could own, but then there were the problems of moving there, there were the Maori who were cannibals and savages to the English. But then there was all the crime, robbery, assault and serial killers in England. And like I said before most of the people in England and Wales thought there might be copycat killers who might be inspired by Jack the Ripper's actions.So there was New Zealand's natives called Maoris, who eat other humans,And England with Jack the ripper, robbers and murders. So after He thought about all of the risks in England and New Zealand, he finally decided to Move to New Zealand for a new life away from all the murders and crime in England.

Pull factor 1(higher wages)

In 1898,one of the main reasons Herbert moved to New Zealand for a new way of living,In New Zealand Herbert became a logger.He got paid way higher wages than he did in England, probably because he owned a small farm unlike the rich who owned big farms and had triple the livestock as he did.He also had to deal with all the troubles that came with being a not very wealthy farmer like low crop prices, high interest rates, high transportation costs, and growing debt.

Pull factor 2(Affordable land ownership)

Land was a very important thing in England,Because the more land you had the more crops you could grow,and the more crops meant more money you could make selling them. So when Herbert heard of New Zealand he thought it would be like paradise compared to his small farm and his small amount of livestock. When he arrived, he ended up becoming a logger instead of a farmer and he got paid double the amount he did for being a farmer in England.

Discussion of pull factors

So I’ve compared the cost for running a farm in England compared to New Zealand,and he would have easily gone to New Zealand. But like I said before there were the Maori who could take all his crops,belongings and maybe his life. But there were no low crop prices and the transportation cost wasn't nearly as high as the ones in England. So Herbert made that decision to move to New Zealand with the rewards being he could have his own farm,a nice house and afford to feed and support his family comfortably.So even though there was the risk of being eaten by the Maori, it was a risk he was willing to take.

Conclusion

So he arrived in Auckland in 1889, at the age of 27,then he got a job in the Waipoua forest as a logger in the northland region. And he met his future wife there, who was called Lilly Mary White and she was 26 when she arrived in Christchurch and started working in a milking factory. And as for Herbert, instead of getting eaten by the Maori, he became good friends with them. They had five Children the last one being my grandma who was called gwetha.

Pest inquiry 2

Introduction:

What is a Stoat?, A Stoat is a small mammal that is in the weasel family. It has white fur on its stomach and under its chin, While on the top it has a coat of dull orange. In this report I will be talking about the stoat and the main effects it has on New Zealand's animals that it preys on.The report will conclude with what measures have been taken to control the Stoats effects on our native birds.

On the hunt: Stoat hypnotizing methodskip to 1:27

When the Stoat hunts the main source of food which is rabbits .It uses a strange method of acting as if it were on steroids and it makes the rabbit really confused. And with this confusion, the Stoat gets closer and closer to the rabbit and by the time the Rabbit realizes what the stoat is doing, it's too late, It goes for the kill.

How did they get to New Zealand?

Stoats were introduced to New Zealand in 1884 to control rabbits and hares. Scientists and bird-lovers warned that they would be a danger to our native birds, but their warnings were ignored, and by 1885, Stoats were all around New Zealand because they were catching rides in ships and boats. They were killing native Birds left and right.

Impact on native NZ birds:

By 2019, 22 native Bird species had died from predators or pests, Like the Chatham bellbird, the South island Piopio, and the Huia. But the Stoats are not the only pest that’s still killing our native birds. Rats, possums, and mice are also all around New Zealand. eating the eggs from common and endangered Birds nests.

Over 25 native birds are killed in New Zealand each year due to the Stoat, According to Duncan Kay of Zero invasive Predators “they have really been driving the Native birds to extinction” like the Kiwi, Kea, Kakapo, and the weka.

What are we doing about the stoats?

The New Zealand government has made a plan to get rid of all pest life by 2050. So in about 30 years from now, with all the support we have from the public by people buying and placing traps to get rid of the pest in their backyard, helping the environment and saving New Zealand’s native bird species.All New Zealand pest should have been eliminated.

Conclusion

As you can see, Stoats have been a big problem here in New Zealand Historically.They could continue to be a problem for our native bird species,because they are really hard to catch and kill.However with the government stoat eradication plan it is hope with public support,we can eradicate Stoat to a less harming level.

Reflection

I am getting better at using bullet points and putting links in the page. I think I did a lot of research and put it to good use in my report. Also Putting my questions and answers in the right order, the questions match the timeline when everything happened like puting when did the stoat come to nz? Before what is a stoat?.With my self management I did all right ,I had a little bit of help from my dad when I was stuck.

No insects Inquiry 3

Thesis:

Life on earth could not be as it is without insects.

Intro:

So this inquiry explains what would or could happen if all the world's insects just disappeared, it answers what could happen to the human race, the animal kingdom, and the environment. Over half of the world's species are various different species of insects, so you would notice if they all just disappeared in one day. We will start off by talking about some of the annoying insects in the world, and how they impact the environment.

Paragraph #1:

So what would or could happen if all types of flies just disappeared in one day? Flies are composters but not all species compost equally. The most effective composters are the blowflies, flesh flies, bush flies, and soldier flies. Think of it this way: if we lived in a world without flies, our streets would have dead animals, rotting leaves and logs and human and animal waste. Even though they may seem annoying most of the time.They pollinate the food that goes on the shelves at the supermarket. In theory, we could live without them because we have microbes that clean up most of the world's waste but it would still be very messy.

Paragraph #2:

Ok so we talked about flies and what they do, now let's talk about cockroaches and how they help with the ocean and environment. Although most of us think cockroaches as vermin, they do have a useful ecological role. Cockroaches are professional recyclers, chowing just about anything, including dead plants, animals, and animal waste. In the wild, the waste of roaches nourishes growing plants, continuing the cycle. So even though we all think they are disgusting and have no good purpose in the world, they do have qualities that help us and the environment a lot. If they disappeared rubbish would overflow into the ocean.

Paragraph #3:

Like we said before, if cockroaches disappeared our waste would overflow into the ocean and that would kill all sea life. What about mosquitoes?, they pretty much just annoy and bite you in the middle of the night. You would think there's nothing good about them, well there is, they supply most swamp ecosystems food and if they disappeared, those animals would die of starvation. And the predators of the swamp animals would die from lack of food. And that would continue until mankind and all life would be wiped from the earth. This would be the case with most insect species disappearing.

Paragraph #4:

So do insects positively affect our environment? Yes, they do. Insects are critical components of many ecosystems, where they perform many important functions. They aerate the soil, pollinate blossoms, and control plant pests. As decomposers, insects create topsoil, the good-rich layer of soil that helps plants grow. So if we didn’t have insects, the soil all around the world wouldn’t be very good to grow plants and food in. So that would lead to a lot of empty shelves at supermarkets.

Paragraph #5:

Could mankind survive without insects? To be honest, it would be very difficult, insect species pollinate ⅓ of the world's crops, useful predators of non-insect pests would be gone, we would have to resort to wind pollination and lots of ecosystems would collapse. No insects mean small birds and frogs die off, the animals that eat them die, etc. Maybe we start leading a vegetarian lifestyle? No. No insects means next to no pollinated plants.

Paragraph #6:

What would happen to mankind if insects disappeared? As it turns out, humans would be in big trouble. It is estimated within 50 years, all mankind would die off. Sometimes the wind and other animals are able to assist with pollination, but the majority is done by insects. Without these pollinators, most plant life on earth would disappear. And with it goes a lot of the ecosystems that have been slowly developing. No plants equals no food for a lot of ecosystems which causes other ecosystems to collapse and them more ecosystems collapse etc. So when you think about it, we really need insects, like really badly.

Paragraph #7:

Does air pollution affect insects?. It actually affects most types of insects that are affected by Pollution in cities that damage the ecosystems. Results from studies show insects have been feeding off of plants that have been growing poorly which is due to air pollution. Which suggests high levels of air pollution may be cascading on the community of herbivore creatures. Although ever since lockdown, ocean, air, and environmental pollutants have gone down by a lot. There have been sightings of dolphins in the rivers of Venice which has never happened before, reports of fin whales being spotted off the coast of southern France and there have been articles that people in north India could see the Himalayas for the first time in decades due to less air pollution. And even there in New Zealand, it has helped a lot, scientists have estimated that during lockdown, air pollution went down by 75% on average, at least a third of Aucklanders reduced their exposure to traffic pollution by 90% during lockdown.

Paragraph #8:

Insect populations are going down,but why? Insect populations are going down due to a multitude of reasons like habit change wrought by humans turning forests into farmland, a decline of small family farms known for open pastures, hedges, small weedy plants like wildflowers which are all perfect for insects. Here is some evidence of their decline: in 2015 the insect population all together was 10 quintillion(10,000,000,000,000,000,000), the number of different species was 91,000, but over the course of 5 years, the number of species has come down to 73,000, so around about 16.38% (18,000)insect species have gone extinct. This is bad.

Conclusion:

So we have talked about all the disgusting and annoying insects and their purposes in helping us and the environment. We also covered the question: do insects positively affect the environment and how?. And we have concluded what would happen to mankind if insects disappeared, why are insect populations going down and is the pollution of the world causing it. So now we have talked about insects and their purposes in helping the environment we hope that next time you find a bee drowning you will save it or you will look where you are putting your feet just in case you are about to stand on an insect or even invest in a worm farm or composter to dispose of you food scraps and also supply some food for insects because we all need to do our bit to try and keep insects species from plummeting because we need them desperately to survive because otherwise this world is screwed.

Reflection

Te Arai and Dominic do you think that you used your time wisely? Have you completed all of the Inquiry process and tasks?

Where is your numerical data? Weekly reflections? Reflection sheet? Timesheet? Expert contact? No CRAP, PMI or search strategy completed?

This is three weeks worth of work and minimal notes were taken.

A good report, informative. Paragraphs were not too long. Begin each paragraph with what that paragraph is about, not what the last paragraph is about.

Thus inquiry was more of an information report than an inquiry.

How should we stop the decline of insects in the world? Would have been a fertile question.

You have obviously included a lot of facts from sources. These needed to be referenced. Footnoted and a bibliography done. These weren't done.

Next time use your reflection tool and refer to your marking criteria to check that you are on track and have completed everything.

Your peers enjoyed your presentation and wrote that you spoke clearly, had good eye contact, that your presentation slides were engaging and your presentation was informative.

Thanks for your report, some interesting facts about insects included.

Inquiry 4

Introduction:

So today we will be talking about the legalisation of cannabis in NZ, what are the effects of cannabis and some of the pros and cons of cannabis. We will also be talking about the appropriate age for purchasing cannabis( if it does become legal ) and the countries that already have cannabis legal for all reasons. Our thesis is that Cannabis should only be legal for medical uses. We hope you enjoy

Cannabis has many names like marijuana, weed, pot and many more. But most people know it as marijuana or weed. Cannabis can be taken many ways like smoking, vaping, drinking it or consuming it. Some of the main effects of cannabis in you get a fuzzy head and become really mellow.The main problem with cannabis is the age group that's taking it, The government has said that the appropriate age to take cannabis would be 18 to 25. But there are teens who are between the ages 12 to 16 who are taking cannabis weekly and sometimes daily. Cannabis is made out of three plants that are dried and that makes cannabis. When you eat, smoke and all the different ways you use cannabis it goes into your bloodstream and goes to your brain then goes to the receptors in your brain. If you take too much your receptors will get affected and you will act funny and you will become stoned.

So we have talked about the effects of cannabis, and how old you need to be to take it and what it is. Cannabis can be used as a really good pain reliever but it isn’t good if it is used in the wrong hands. In most countries its illegal like NZ but it can somethings be allowed for medical purposes,

So if New Zealand makes cannabis legal, there's gonna have to be some rules about the age, the amount of cannabis, ect….So you are going to have to be over the age of 20, you can only buy 14 grams of dried cannabis per day from licenced outlets. You have to be in an licenced area to where cannabis is sold or consumed and if you get a note from the government, you can grow 2-4 plants maximum per household. If it is legal, more parents will start using it and their kids will think it's fine to do the same and more kids will start smoking.

So what are some of the pros and cons of legalizing cannabis?

, let me tell you some of the pros. Legalizing cannabis would put the amount of underaged cannabis users down, driving while on drugs will hopefully go down by a lot. And if you are buying cannabis from a licenced seller and not a gang or an illegal seller, your safety will be good because most gangs spike their products with stuff to get you really addicted and you will end up buying from that group until you have no money left in their bank. It helps Lower the Chances of Getting Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes.

You can also become depressed, anxious and a lot of other things from taking cannabis.

If cannabis becomes legal would more people die from drug overdose?

All drug use has a risk of harm, which can include death. Some people ask how often does death by cannabis occur?In the last couple of years the average of people dieing to cannabis has been 32 to 34 per year, And these have all been illegal drug users. So if NZ made cannabis legal, the amount of deaths would have a good chance of going down because you would need a note or something from your doctor to access cannabis if you were underaged.

Should cannabis be legal for people who need pain relief?

New Zealand already allows medical cannabis, not many people know that and no one actually has sign-off to use it, but technically, cannabis can already be prescribed as a medicine. The catch, and reason why no one is legally using it, is that the application process is extremely complex and it needs sign-off from the Minister of Health.

We think that cannabis should only be legal for people that need it for pain relief because then it has a good cause, and not a bad one.

So there are certain places in the world where you can use cannabis legally like Canada, Georgia, South Africa and Uruguay. In Canada the legalization of cannabis has backfired on themselves. Because the crime rate went up by a really big amount in the first year of cannabis being legalised.

Lots of young people use cannabis in australia which is quite bad, but not that many older people use it in australia. In Canada the common age to use cannabis would be around 25-34.and that is quite concerning and older people don’t use it as much. So that means that Australia uses a lot more cannabis than Canada.

So now that you have listened to our presentation, we hope you have learned Something about cannabis and what it could bring to NZ if we legalise it. And if you do end up trying cannabis, make sure you get it from a safe source like your doctor or licenced seller. Thank you for listening

Reflection

Sam and Te Arai, well done on your inquiry and a well done presentation on a very current topic. For this inquiry you both had detailed timesheets, your thesis came across strong and your questions were well structured to allow you to produce a good report. A few work ons for your next inquiry are:- You both need to take more time and reflect. When this is done well you work more productively moving forward. Your numerical data was good but your inference needed more. Reference specifics figures from your data in your inference and explain them further. Make your numerical data part of your report once completed. Your report had good explanations, facts and footnotes as evidence but this was written as a speech not as a report. Aim to produce a published report and practice using a simple version of this for your presentation.

Inquiry 5

Natural disasters are extreme natural events that can have a very negative effect on the environment & humans, Other natural disasters, such as tornadoes, can only happen in specific areas. And some disasters need climatic conditions to occur, for example tropical storms or volcanic eruptions.

Natural disasters cause destruction of property, loss of financial resources, and personal injury or illness. Most types of transport would be destroyed, like driving, airports and anything that has anything to do with a road. And tornadoes or earthquakes damage the houses and property of many people, so the amount of money used to remake the city or place the disaster struck would be well over millions of dollars. If you were a tourist and you wanted to go somewhere you would look at the places history and what has happened there. And if you see and earthquake or tornado has gone through that place recently, you might not want to go, because of the past that place has had.So in conclusion the would be another negative effect, the places

So what could we do to be more prepared for natural disasters in the future, firstly we would introduce better flood warning systems.Modify homes and businesses to help them withstand floods and Protect wetlands and introduce plant trees strategically. There are many more ways to try and prepare for future natural disasters but those were some of the main ones I would recommend.

There are alot of causes for natural disasters like global warming, deforestation, mining and activity under the earth's crust. The main cause right now is global warming. It has been affecting the ice caps and affecting polar bears and many other animals that live in cold temperatures.

Earthquakes induced by human activity have been documented at many locations in the United States and in many other countries around the world. Earthquakes can be caused by a wide range of things like impoundment of reservoirs, surface and underground mining, withdrawal of fluids and gas from the surface, and injection of fluids into underground formations. While most “baby” earthquakes are small and present little hazard, larger and potentially damaging man made earthquakes have occurred in the past.

The hazard posed by man made earthquakes can be mitigated by minimizing or in some cases stopping the activity that is causing the earthquakes to occur. For example, earthquakes linked to wastewater disposal in deep wells in Colorado, Ohio and Arkansas stopped occurring after injection was halted.

We cannot prevent natural earthquakes from occurring but we can significantly mitigate their effects by identifying hazards, building safer structures, and providing education on earthquake safety. By preparing for natural earthquakes we can also reduce the risk from human induced earthquakes.

Floods are New Zealand's most frequent natural disaster. In nz we have had quite a lot of floods, most of them damaging properties and land. One of these floods in talking about is a flood that took place in the south island on the 27th of march, 2019 destroying 7 roads and 1 bridge. The police weren't sure but the flood might have taken the life of one person.

Looking at what natural disaster has taken the most lives, it would be the earthquake. The biggest recorded earthquake to take place would be the Haiti earthquake which took 300,000 lives on 12 January 2010 at 16:53. It lasted 30 seconds and it was rated one of the worst earthquakes ever. The next non-earthquake disaster is the Indian ocean tsunami which was caused by an earthquake that is thought to have had the energy of 23,000 atomic bombs. ... Within hours of the earthquake, killer waves slammed into the coastlines of 11 countries, damaging countries from east Africa to Thailand.

The one natural disaster that killed the most people in New Zealand was the earthquake that took place in hawkes bay in 1931, it took 285 people lives. Then there was the south island tsunami that came in the early 1820s and killed 200+ lives. And then there was a more recent one which was the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 and killed 185 people and also destroyed lots of buildings and roads.

Reflection

Te Arai well done on your last inquiry this year. Your movie you created was well structured and followed through your different questions well. What was also good was how you explained your thesis. Your notes, and PMI were done well. Your numerical data even though this was included somewhat in your movie could have been done a lot better in the movie or as a separate task on this inquiry. Finally, yes you had regular reflection in the table but your write up at the bottom needs to be a lot better next year. Your final grade is a 4M