Room 17 100 Word Challenge

The sky rumbles and darkens. The clouds fold over the earth like a blanket. Trees fall and break as a powerful gust blows making the dust and sand rise. The earth rumbles shakes and pools are created by rolling waves of water rising up and over islands. Animals are lifted up and around in giant craters by circular gusts of wind, picking them up and throwing them back down continuously until the crater broke. Then it ended. Everything went silent and every animal rose to face what was left of their weather ruined planet, hoping they will live to see the next sun rise.

How a Ballpoint Pen Works

Ballpoint Pen

Intro

Most people use computers and tablets, but most of us still use the ballpoint pen in our everyday lives. A ballpoint pen is a fascinating because of how simple it looks but how complex the creation of it was. 

What are pens used for?

Ballpoint pens are well-known all around the world. We all use them and they are all used for different purposes. The majority of people use pens for writing on a piece of paper, leather, wood or cloth. Some pens are thin and have a clip on the pen so they can be portable and can clip onto things. Other things pens are useful for is getting stuff out of small places. For example, if you have some dirt in your nails, you can use the small end of the reservoir (where the ink comes out) to reach under the nail and get the dirt. Same with earwax in earphones, etcetera.

Parts of a ballpoint pen

We all know that a pen has a “button” on the top of a pen along with and ink holder. But do you know the rest? In a normal pen, there are many different parts. On a retractable pen there are all the normal components plus a button and a spring. On a non-retractable pen, there is an ink reservoir which should be long and skinny. On the end of this reservoir, there is a tiny ball that helps the flow of the ink even. You don’t normally know it is there unless you look close enough. Next we have the tip of the pen. It should look like a funnel with a small hole on the bottom to support the ink reservoir so that it doesn’t wobble when you write. Everyone knows what the outer case of the pen is. It is the case of the pen and it is usually see through. There is a secret part inside a retractable pen that might not always be visible from the outside. Of you pull a retractable pen apart, there should be a small white plastic piece that should slot into the button and also hold the reservoir straight under the button. This is called a ratchet. It help the button reach that extra few millimetres so that the pen is correctly functioning.

The invention of the ballpoint pen

 The first ballpoint pen was created by John Loud in 1888. He was a leather tanner and wanted something to write on his leather with. So he created the first ballpoint pen. Unfortunately though, the pen leaked more than it should so they could not be sold to the public.

The next ballpoint pen to come along was created by Ladislas Biro and his brother Georg. Georg was a chemist so they could use the lab to help them formulate new inks and reservoirs to create the perfect pen. So (once they created the pen) they went on vacation and met an elderly man who just happened to be the president of Argentina. They showed him the pen and the president urged them to set up a factory in his country. Two years later World War Two broke out and they fled to Argentina only stopping in Paris to patent their pen. Once in Argentina, many investors wanted to help them produce their spectacular invention nick named “The Biro” after the Georg and Ladislas Biro. The Biro was a failure because the pen had to be held exactly vertical for the ink to come out of the pen. But even then it was hard for the ink with that thickness to come out evenly. But they kept working at it and devised a new model that focused on capillsry action instead of being gravity based. This meant that it could be held on an angle when used. They patented this one and started selling this one a year later. But this one wasn’t perfect either, so they ran out of money making lots of models. Later on a man named Milton Reynolds. He was a marketer and was very successful in his invention of the ballpoint pen and became the first man to ever sell a ballpoint pen successfully.

Conclusion

Pens are a useful tool to have that looks simple, but is very complex at the same time. Pens are handy, useful and portable and are easy to pull apart and reassemble.

By Jessica

Conservation

Today a couple of people came to our school and did a little mini show about conserving power. We have to write a little summary about what conservation is and what the main message of the show was.

Conservation ~ Summary
I think conservation means to preserve. Or in this case, save money by taking action and not giving away all your money to the government. Well... That is what I think anyway.

Conservation ~ The message
In the show, they talked a lot about this Mr Power character and how he wanted to buy 1 million pairs of underpants. So he went round every house and kept switching on all the appliances in the homes so that he could get more money. All the while having another character who wants to buy 12 roses for his true love. He came up with a catchy tune that goes something like this: "Switch, turn it off at the wall. Switch watch the power bill fall." So he did that and he saved enough to buy his 12 roses. And they lived happily ever after.

100 Word Challenge Week 12

He was shocked to find a living, breathing, Unisaurus. The horn, big as a human's arm was glowing a fierce blue. It’s pale green skin rose and fell to the pattern of its breathing. His back created a hump that many layers of pentagon-shaped scales stood upwards towards the dark sky. “Remove this monster from the face of this planet immediately!” Declared Lord Nulth, satisfaction filling his dark, evil eyes. Thunder rumbled and lightning cracked as the mechanical spiders slowly, but menacingly, crawled up to the colossal beast. But the Unisaurus roared, spread it’s wings, at flew into the distance.

Page Count

Hygiene

Hygiene

Hygiene is very important in human society today. It keeps some colds and illnesses at bay and shows people how having perfect hygiene is good for you and the people around you. It keeps you looking beautiful and sparkly clean, your self-esteem won’t be bugging you too much. You will also have a decreased chance of any sort of disease.

Showering and Bathing

Showering and bathing can do magic to what people think of you. When you shower, it is important to wash your hair with shampoo and conditioner, a comb. This gets rid of most knots in your hair. Soap is used in the shower and the bath. It gives you a fragrance specific to what brand/ kind of soap you have. Bathing is important because . Except for the fact that you are sitting in the same water the whole time.

Teeth

Teeth. White little joys in our mouth. They move around and fall out. You must take ABSOLUTE care of them. To look after your teeth, you need to put in some effort. Firstly, you must brush with toothpaste and a toothbrush twice a day, sometimes even three. When cleaning your teeth, you must clean each tooth separately as well as your tongue and gums. Spend two minutes minimum cleaning and brushing your mouth clean.

Cleaning

Cleaning under your nails is very important. It keeps the tops of your nails a nice pearly white colour instead of a light green or brown and the possible scrap of colourful nail polish. Even the smallest things make you look dirty. Having clean feet and hands are important because they are usually the main port of any sweat. Especially if your hands start getting clammy. Keeping your hands and feet dirty may lower your self-esteem if you have noticed that you are dirty.

Self-Esteem

Self- esteem is usually an emotional subject for some people. Self-esteem can approach you about anything. It can destroy any good things you can think about yourself and take them away and replace them with ideas that will make you become really emotional and self-conscious. To keep your self-esteem at bay, you just have to clean and wash correctly and do that a suitable amount of times in a week.

Clothing

When you get dressed in the morning, you should stop and think about what the day is going to be like. I you do this, there is more chance that you will use the clothes as they are supposed to be used. Clothes were first invented because they needed protection from the weather and (if they needed it) protection if someone decided to throw a punch. This is why clothes are used even now. Except we have a bit more fashion sense than the old cavemen.

Overview

Hygiene has dated all the way back to when humans were created. Some may say that this means that hygiene is ancient, used, second-hand or previously owned. This is all true but the methods have changed when new generation and thinks better.

Extra Facts

-          Brushing your teeth can reduce the severity of the any mouth/gum disease (If you get any diseases).

-          In many cultures, poor personal hygiene is considered offensive or a sign of illness.

100 word challenge ...as it shivered, they...

The Eiffel Tower stood in its normal place, towering above everything else in existence. Golden lights and carefully placed black and white lights cover the majority of the French icon. A family walk under the Eiffel Tower for their daily walk at night. A strong breeze past through the city, leaving the family cold. A furry, grey rat ran quickly along the pavement, slightly pausing in the middle and slightly wavered, showing it was cold. As it shivered, they started walking home seeing as there was no hope of staying warm and dry. The family walked slowly home shivering frantically.

Alexandra

100 Word Challenge Week #4

Mum, dad and I had booked a cabin in the forest in Tennessee. It looked almost exotic. A crocodile was resting in the piranha pool. The orange cabin wood had faded and was almost a dark brown colour. The lush, soft ground was padded with layers of grass. The roof is pepper black with small hints of grey coming through. Once we got out of our daze of amazement, we got our bags out of the car and unpacked them we went back out to the car and it was gone. “Did you check if the gear stick is working?”

Edited Photos

 

 Aimee and I went around the school taking photos. After we chose the photos we would use we had to edit them in Pic Monkey. Here are two of the before and after photos.

Enjoy!

This Block

This block I have been working on the highway man and have almost achieved full completion.

Block 1 Evaluation

This block I have been working on my 100 word challenge and have finished it and have posted this on my blog. I have also been brainstorming a piece of writing about a picture of a tiger stuck in a cage with no freedom. I have also been working on a tiger piece of writing based on a picture with a tiger in the middle of a forest with freedom. I also still need to finish my diversity pictures. I need to take four pictures that show diversity and choose the best one. I then need to tell the story behind it.

100 Word Challenge Week #2

Jane and Yato walk silently through the moon-lit street. Any lights that were on are now off. The traffic lights show green and they walk on. Jane is a young lady of 13. She is fair-haired and her face is flawless, with the exception of a birth mark on her lower cheek. It is brown, but it is yellow from a distance. Yato, on the other hand, is someone you wouldn’t call handsome. He has a face with many freckles and wears glasses that have never suited him. His brown hair sits in a bowl cut. Silently, they walk on.

Diversity

This shows diversity because these two people have very different hair types.

The one on the left has blonde curly hair. The one on the right has a shiny brown hair colour and is slightly wavy.