End Of Unit Reflection 

By Ayla Styles

This term our focus was on Ahurea/Culture. My first impression on this led me to think that it was going to be an easy assignment. Culture just means culture, there’s nothing else to it. I then realised that culture means so many different things, and there is really no telling what it could mean to someone else compared to you.

Our first task for this unit was to choose a European country and pick two subjects related to things that could mean culture and explain the differences and similarities between those things in the European country and New Zealand. For our European country we picked France, then for our subjects we chose food and sports. Now we had to think of cultural food and sporting activities from both countries to compare. 

France SSC -Hope, Ayla and Ella

Then for the second part of the Unit we picked an Asian country, India. But the assignment was a bit different, we were to pick one or two subjects to base it on and research into those things to find out how to properly understand them. We chose to research Indian dance and their hand movement in their dances that they use to tell their stories. We learnt alot about how they use eye contact and feet, leg and hand movements to tell their very special stories. We even learned how to tell a story ourselves, called ‘The tales of the Lion and the Mouse’ . 

Indian dance movements -Ayla Styles

In conclusion the whole Ahurea/Culture Unit was very interesting and I definitely think that I learnt alot about how different the simple word culture can mean to so many people. I was very surprised to learn what it meant to lots of cultures and it helped me to understand what my take on the entire Unit was and my opinion.

Exploring Chlorophyll Fluorescence

To start our experiment we first needed to gather our equipment.

We needed a Conical flask, test tube, funnel, mortar, pestle, iso-propyl-alcohol, UV light, filter paper and three leaves.

The first step of the experiment was extracting the chlorophyll from the leaves. We took our leaves and cut them up into small pieces and put them in Mortar after we had cut up all three of the leaves, Matua then came around with the Iso-propyl-alcohol and poured some into our Mortar with the leaves. Next we used our Pestle to mash up the leaves with the Iso-propyl-alcohol to extract the chlorophyll, and the mixture turned green.

Then you take your filter paper and put it in the funnel then drain out your Chlorophyll (Leaves and Iso-propyl-alcohol mixture) into your Conical flask and wait until all of the mixture has drained. Now you are going to pour it into a test tube.

Then go to a dark area where nothing can be reflected, for this we closed all of the curtains inside our classroom. Then Matua took the UV light and shined it on the test tube with the Chlorophyll inside it. It glowed pink.

The reason why the Chlorophyll glows pink/red is because the Chlorophyll absorbs all of the other colours that are getting reflected into it and the only colour that come out is the red, and that’s the colour that is getting reflected into your eyes.

To conclude I learnt about how to extract Chlorophyll from leaves and using a Mortar and pestle with Iso-propyl-alcohol then how to drain the Chlorophyll using the funnel and filter paper putting it in a Conical flask then transferring it into a test tube, going into a dark place and shining the UV light onto it to make it glow pink. I learnt heaps about ROY-G-BIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet) and how the chlorophyll absorbed all of the other colours and reflected the red.

Culture/Ahurea

1. Describe what ahurea/culture means in your own words

-Culture can mean many different things everywhere In the world. In countries like India one of their many cultural traditions is that before you step into a temple you have to have a shower or a bath or at least wash your hands or feet to cleanse yourself of negative thoughts or evil influence. In Japan they celebrate Culture day by holding festivals around the country and appreciating traditional Japanese art. But that’s not the only way that you can celebrate your culture, some cultures honor theirs with food. Truffle hunting is very cultural to Italy, Thailand’s most known food is probably ‘Pad Thai’ which consists of noodle, vegetables and meat, And Germany with their ‘Sauerbraten’ which is a German roast of heavily marinated meat. 

 2. Identify the aspects of Culture

-Some aspects of culture could be languages: Spanish, French, Dutch, without countries having languages they would not be able to communicate with each other. Clothing: The way people dress. In Iran and Afghanistan females wear hijabs and even some have to cover their entire body from head to toe to not show any skin because it’s disrespectful. Other aspects could be people’s interests and what they do in their free time. Most people like to cook, bake, relax, rest, and spend time with family and friends, though some have special tradition.

3. Explain the relationship between tuakiri and ahurea

-Tuakiri means your Personality and the way you act and the way you are in general, whereas ahurea means culture: your beliefs and religion, art, music, dance and rituals. They are similar because it could mean your personal cultural tradition.