TPS Year 6 2008

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AIM HIGH!

BtN  Carbon Emissions Trading

                                    By Matthew

 

We all know by now that the earth is getting warmer and warmer. So the Australian Government has decided it needs to take action on climate change. But its idea has brought a lot of controversy.

 

The Australian people were told to expect a big jump in their energy bills when Professor Ross Garnaut released his green paper. The message wasn’t good. In order to save the planet we have to drastically cut our carbon emissions by 2020 and Australian households will have to pay a lot more for their energy bills. Professor Garnaut wants Australians to pay more for their energy bills so they realise they have to do something in order to save the planet.

 

But not everyone’s happy with the scheme. Some of those people are the unions. The unions aren’t happy with the scheme because big power companies will have to cut their carbon emissions and they may have no choice but to sack workers. Some green groups say it doesn’t go far enough and some big industries say the big cuts will affect households.

 

My opinion is that we have to save the world from climate change. In order to do so we may have to do some things we don’t want to do, but for the planet’s sake we should pay higher energy bills.  

GIRLS IN AFL by Harry

Sexism is not a matter to be taken lightly. Most Women in the 1960’s started to get shorter hair and started to wear pants and shorter skirts. Women have fought gallantly for their independence and most women now have careers including Hilary Clinton who has just dropped out of the race for president in the US of A. Some men still treat women like lower class of the human race and say that men are usually smarter and stronger and women are used for lower class jobs kind of like my mum who cooks, cleans, irons, packs my lunch, gives me money for the tuck shop and basically all the housework. In fact in some countries in the Middle East women have little to no rights; they can’t show their body and must be accompanied by a man pretty much everywhere or they will be arrested. This still goes around today and is heavily protested against.

It’s not just in the Middle East where sexism is used it happens in Australia too. This brings me to the main point of the story two girls have been victims of sexism in junior league footy. The two girls who played footy for the under 14’s were given a note from the AFL that hey can’t play even though they were some of the best players on the team. In the same note the AFL offered a compromise for them to play in the under 13’s but the girls rejected. The parents are heartbroken and are complaining to the AFL and are trying to change the rules. Why can’t the girls play anyway? Well the AFL hasn’t given me a good enough reason for them not to play which is physical attributes.

I think girls should play footy over the age of 14, they have been discriminated and it’s not right they are just as good maybe even better then players in their team. The AFL needs to get with the times and start seeing that women are just as good as men. It’s pretty bad reasoning from the AFL of letting them play in the under13’s and I don’t see a good enough reason behind females playing footy. Let’s hope that the AFL sees the light. And maybe someday we’ll see women in the AFL.

 

PHOENIX PROBE  by Darcy

Recently, a $430 000 000 probe landed on Mars. It was called the Phoenix. It’s mission was to find out if the frozen water on the northern and the southern poles once sustained life. It does that by getting ice samples from the ground, super-heating them, checking for the chemicals given out by life and sending the data back to NASA via satellite.

   Scientists were very nervous, mostly about the landing, simply because six of the last eleven probes crashed and were burnt to a crisp. But this landing, using a giant parachute and rockets, went without a hitch. They even got pictures from a passing satellite. The seven minutes it took to land were known as the seven minutes of terror. In the past, landings were tough because the probes travelled at around 40 000 kilometres an hour, and it was very difficult to slow the probes down.

   The probe sent back pictures of Mars, which showed a barren, rugged land, though scientists believe it could have been covered with earth-like life that is long gone. Scientists think that it is important to find out the history of Mars because it could turn out to be our future.              

   The probe is unlikely to return because it ejected it’s parachute, so NASA might just have to stall their other projects until they raise enough funds.

   Personally, I believe that this mission is worth $430 000 000, simply to see if there is or was life on other planets, but if anyone disagrees, they can post a comment with their opinion.

PHOENIX PROBE by Emily

NASA has been really excited lately because Phoenix their space probe has landed on Mars successfully, and has already sent back some pictures from its surroundings.

The images looked blank and dull, with the rocky vast land stretching on forever, but it’s still really amazing and exciting for them. Imagine! Pictures from another planet! The mission of the Phoenix was to get to Mars and find out whether the large amounts of frozen water beneath Mars’s polar regions ever carried life.  

The probe has been finding out by using a special shovel to take samples of the ice and test it for chemicals normally found in living things. It has also been sending all the information back by beam.

It was so nerve-racking for the people at NASA because after all those months of waiting, the Phoenix would land on Mars. But whether it would survive was another thing. ‘The seven minutes of terror’ described how everyone was feeling just before the landing or crash.

You see, it was such a relief to see that the Phoenix had safely reached Mars because the big flaw with the probe was how it stopped. When it hit Mars’s atmosphere it was travelling at over 20000 kms an hour! Luckily they had installed a gigantic parachute and rockets to help!

This is so important to the NASA scientists, and to us. What if those strange aliens we see on movies and in our minds once existed? It’s going to be the first proper time we’ve examined what’s on (and been on) Mars.  

All the millions of funding money I think have been spent well for this research. Especially if it turns out that there was some sort of life on it. There has been a lot of wonderful effort, creativity, and technological planing put into this expedition, and I think it all will be very worthwhile.

It is unlikely that the Phoenix will return to earth I think since the outer part of the Phoenix broke away as planned on the trip to Mars. It must have needed that bit to help it or they wouldn’t have put it on. Also they might decide to make the Phoenix travel to another part of Mars and that could take ages.  All we can do for now is wait and see!

The Earthquake in China by Henry

On the 12^th of May 2008 a devastating earthquake hit china apparently hitting around 7.9 in magnitude and destroying roads, toppling buildings and burying people in their own homes and cutting off electricity and communication. The disaster happened in the province of Sichuan near Chengdu in China yet could be felt within a radius of 3000 kilometres. Rescue workers have been using sniffer dogs and have also sticking small video cameras through the cracks of rubble to see if there is anyone their and see if they can help pull them out. The problem is that broken roads and no electricity or communications makes it awfully hard to reach the injured and near dead. At the end of the big earthquake their were a number of smaller ones called aftershocks, even though they are smaller they still cause a lot of damage by knocking over the buildings that were just left standing.
What they do to make the houses stronger is they put steel in the concrete to reinforce it and in places like Australia they have laws about how you can build your house and how earthquake and other natural disaster proof it really is, but the thing with these laws in Australia is that we are not exactly earthquake prone because it is right in the middle of a tectonic plate on the earths crust so while the plate moves Australia isn’t harmed because it moves with it but China’s not so lucky because it is right on the crack between two plates which rub together to make earthquakes.
Australia has offered to help China by sending in rescue workers to help clear the rubble but the victims of the earthquake and the people who have lost family, friends or even a home are going to really suffer because they have to go through all the emotional pain or having to rebuild their home after the destruction of the earthquake.

Cyclone in Burma by CiCi

A few days ago Burma in South east Asia was hit by a devastating cyclone which has wiped out many whole villages. The Burmese government is controlled by the Milatary. Many people have drowned from the water which has covered the ground of Burma. The water level that they can drink is very low,because much of the water has been highly contaiminated by dead animals so there is a high risk that if people drink that water they may be hit by some very dangerous diseases. The government doesn’t want as much help as other countries may have wanted if they were in this situation. So many people are sufering from the lack of medical attention that they need because some small cuts can become easily infected, they are also lacking in food because many roads have been blocked from the damage that the Cyclone caused. Many countries are trying to get food and first aid things across but the government is only letting a small amount through to the public

 

 

 

WOMEN TRUCKIES by Brooke

The truck driving industry is trying to get more female drivers because there is a shortage of drivers and not many drivers means that our food and mail and clothes etc. don’t get to the shops.

Hayley was inspired by her father to become a truckie because her father was a truckie. Hayley mostly enjoys the freedom and the adventures across the country.

Trucks have changed inside with the new facilities. Also, they are safer because they have power steering.

I think that there is a shortage of drivers because most people think that truck drivers are normally people without a good education and aren’t smart enough to do any other jobs, therefore people might think they are too smart to be a truckie. It is such a problem not having enough truck drivers because without truck drivers and trucks there isn’t any other way our groceries and supplies will get into the shopping centres. The industry is encouraging younger people to become truck drivers at schools and education centres. Younger people might think that truckies are uneducated because some truckies are old and scary looking.

How much they would earn, and how hard the job is and working conditions are some things that influence people about occupations.

I think a doctor would have the reputation of a kind, smart person who loves to care for others.