Project Fifteen- Facts Of Italy

My Project Is About A Little Bit Of Everything- So I Am Gonna Be Reading Facts Of Italy

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built in 1173 and began to lean soon after, probably due to a poorly laid foundation. During WWII, the Nazi’s used it as a watch tower.

The world’s first operas were composed in Italy at the end of the sixteenth century. Opera reached the height of popularity in the nineteenth century.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian-born scientist. When he argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun, rather than the sun revolving around the earth, A Catholic Church imprisoned Galileo in his own house. The Church issued a formal apology in 1992, About 350 years later.

Influenced in part by the French flag, the Italian flag has evolved over several hundred years. The flag is vertically divided into three equal sections of green, white, and red, representing hope, faith, and charity. Another interpretation is that the green represents the Italian landscape, white represents the snow-capped Alps, and red represents the bloodshed that brought about the independence of Italy.  
The biggest holiday in Italy is Christmas. Many people celebrate Christmas Eve with a huge feast, often featuring seafood. The Christmas season lasts until January 6.

Italy’s birthrate is the second lowest in the Western world. Both political and church leaders have expressed concern and have offered rewards to couples who have more than one child.

In 1454, a real human chess game took place in Marostica, Italy. Rather than fight a bloody duel, the winner of the chess game would win the hand of a beautiful girl.

Over 50 million tourists a year visit Italy. Tourism is vital to Italy’s economy and provides nearly 63% of Italy’s national income.

The highest peak in Europe is in Italy. Monte Blanc (White Mountain) is 15,771 feet high and is part of the Alps.  White Mountain or Mount Blanc- (Below)

Rome was founded in 753 B.C.

The University of Rome is one of the world’s oldest universities and was founded by a Church in A.D. 1303. Often called La Sapienza (translates to knowledge), the University of Rome is also Europe’s largest university with 150,000 students. La Sapienza Logo (Below)

Parmesan cheese originated in the area around Parma, Italy. Italians also created many other cheeses, including gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone, and ricotta.

The author of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi (1826-1890), was Italian.

In 2007, a dog named Rocco discovered a truffle in Tuscany that weighed 3.3 pounds. It sold at auction for $333,000 (USD), a world record for a truffle.

A truffle a fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus Tuber. Some of the truffle species are highly prized as food.

Almost four-fifths of Italy is either mountainous or hilly.

The capital of Italy is Rome (also known as the Eternal City) and is almost 3,000 years old. It has been the capital since 1871 and is home to the Dome of St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, and the famous Trevi Fountain.

Nobody really knows where the name Italy came from, here is some theories.

The name Italy comes from the word Italia, meaning “calf land,” perhaps because the bull was a symbol of the Southern Italian tribes

Italy comes from a root word that means “land of young cattle”. Historians speculate that it might be named this because a bull was the symbol of early Southern Italian tribes but some believe that it comes from the name Italus, an early king of the region.

Originally Italy was spelt Vitalia, probably the same root at vitulus-one year old calf. Or land of the cattle.

The thermometer is an Italian invention.

Italy is home to the largest amount of world heritage sites, at 51!

Italy is the largest producer of wine in the world.

One third of Italians have never used the internet.

Italian traffic police have two Lamborghinis in there service. 

Galileo’s middle finger is in display in a museum in Florence Italy.

At age 10 Mussolini was expelled from a religious boarding school for stabbing a class mate in the hand. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling Italy from 1922-1943.

Poveglia is an Italian island that is so “Haunted” that public access is not permitted.

In Milan, Italy it is a legal requirement to smile at all times except at funerals or hospital visits.

In 2013 a man under house arrest asked to be taken to prison so he could escape his wife.

A cat in Italy inherited 13 million dollars from his late owner.

It is illegal to die in Falciano Del Massico because the cemetery is full.

A 14th century medieval tower rises out of Lake Reschensee, in Italy the only visible part of a submerged village.

There is a 200 foot long stuffed pink bunny on top of a hill in Italy.

Rome, Italy is home to hundreds of fountains the oldest being the Trevi Fountain build mid 1600s’

Around three thousand euros are thrown in the Trevi fountain each day which is collected and donated to charity. And foreign coins are donated to Red Cross.

Project Fourteen- Hashima Island

HASHIMA ISLAND

Hi my project is on Hashima Island also called Gunkanjima Japanese for Battleship Island. Hashima Island is a Japanese owned island 15 kilometers away from Japan. The sixteen acre island was known for its’ under sea coal mines.



HISTORY OF THE ISLAND

In 1810 coal was discovered in Hashima Island and fishermen started collecting the coal that lay on the ground by hand. In the later half of 1800’s several companies tried to mine the coal, but they couldn’t stay in operation because the severe environment around the island. In 1890 the Mitsubishi Mining Company bought the island, the company president at the time Yataro Iwasaki went to the US. and saw the modernity there and thought that coal would be an important part in modernization in Japan. Yataro’s decision had a big impact. Japanese modernization began in 1867 following the abandonment of an isolation policy that had shut off Japan from the rest of the world for more than two hundred years. As the demands for coal increased, the population of Hashima also increased.


At its peak in 1959 the population on Hashima was 5,259 people, with a population density of 216,264 people per square mile, 1 person per 1 and a half square meter. For comparison, 2011 Hong Kong has a population density of about 17,000 people per square mile. In 1974 the mines had no more coal in them so the mines were shut down and all the residents left in a hurry to get a new job, leaving it abandoned for 3 decades. In 2013 a google employee walked around the island with a google camera strapped to his back, so you can now look around Hashima Island on google maps. In 2009 the island was opened to tours and was named a world heritage site very recently in July 2015.

An Apartment Builing, Hashima Island 1930

                                                   Hashima Island Tourism

                                                       Above Hashima Island

                                                        

                                                       Where Hashima Island Is

Project Thirteen- Easter Island

EASTER ISLAND

Hi, my project is on the Easter Island. Easter Island has 887 statues called Moai, they are believed by the Rapa Nui people that they protect the island and they are gods. And they range from 7-33 feet tall. It is said that they were created by the early Rapa Nui people, The Rapa Nui are the native Polynesian inhabitants of Easter Island who moved to Easter Island 400-700 CE, the Rapa Nui people currently make up 60% of Easter Island's population. Deforestation led to the human population of Easter Island start dying out. By the time of the arrival of the European people in 1722 the islands population had dropped down to 2000-3000 from approximately 15,000. A century earlier diseases brought by European voyagers and Peruvian slave raiding brought the population to 111 in 1877.

FACTS:

1- Easter island is a world heritage site.

2- The largest Easter Island statue is 86 tons

3- It has recently been discovered that the Easter heads also have bodies buried in the ground

4- Easter Island is the most popular, yet least visited archaeological site.

5-Easter Island has three volcanoes, the tallest rising 1674 feet. It is called Terevaka.

6- The island has barely any trees.

7- A small number of the moai has hats or crowns on top of their heads made of red volcanic rock.

8- They are built of hard volcanic rock.

9- Easter island was discovered in 1722 by European people on Easter day. That is why it is called Easter Island.

10- Archaeologists’ found ruins hundreds of houses, and archaeologists’ also discover that the early Rapa Nui people fished and farmed.

11- The nearest inhabited place to Easter Island is and island called Pitcairn Island 2,075 Kilometers away

12- The Rapa Nui people came from Polynesia not Chile.

Some Large Easter Island Statues, Or Moai. (Above)

Where Easter Island Is. (Above)

Easter Island Flag. (Above)

Easter Island Crowns

THE DOWNFALL OF EASTER ISLAND
Sometime in the history of Easter Island some of the statues were pulled down. This broke the statues and the platforms which the heads were on were also razed. Also the quarry where the statues were built was abandoned around the 1600’s. It seemed for some strange reason the people of Easter Island had turned against their gods. Scientists’ tried to find out about what happened by asking local Rapa Nui tribe people but all they got were legends of terror hardship and even cannibalism. But nobody could tell them what actually happened. While searching for answers they found something that they hadn’t before, spear tips. The spear tips were made the same time as the quarry was abandoned. For some reason the Easter Islanders were making weapons. Then Scientist’s found what the weapons were being used for. Doug Owsley studied 600 of the Easter islanders’ skeleton from the same period, He found signs on all of them that they died from injuries. Lots of the skulls were caved in fractured or broken in some other way. He realized that he was looking at evidence that the Islander were at war with themselves. But a mystery remained… Why? It was Dave Stetlin who found the first clue. He is an expert on the Islanders diet. By studying the bones of the Islanders meals’ he found that the islanders’ it seems that when the Easter Islander first arrived the Island was the biggest bird home in the world. And that meant the Rapa Nui people had a large amount of food to eat. Around the 1600’s when the quarry was abandoned, all those birds had disappeared. Almost all of the 30 bird species Dave Stetlin had identified that the Islanders were eating were gone. And the same story went with fish once the diet of the islanders’ were full of tuna maceral and even porpoises, but they too vanished. The Islanders’ were starved. Wood carvings’ showed starved people with their ribs showing. Any little incident like people stealing others food because they were hungry led to revenge, which let to war. Cannibalism grew to be a necessity. It looks as if the outbreak of war was caused by starvation. But now there is a new mystery how had an Island so full of food become a place so short of food. At first Scientists thought that it might just be the result of over population of humans. But then they found beneath a lake in the island mixed up in mud palm tree pollen. They realized that once the Island was completely covered in palm trees’. The reason the island full of trees changed into an island with barely any trees? The reason was because the statues themselves. Imagine every time you move a statue you cut down trees to make a path and you cut down more trees to make wooden beams to slide the moai statues on. Also scientist realized that the newer the statue the more detailed it was and also the statues got larger. It seemed that the separate tribes of Easter Island were competing against each other. Hundreds of statues were made and then meant thousands of trees were cut down. And eventually all the trees of Easter Island were cut down. Without trees to protect the soil from rain all soil were the farms were was washed away. There was no more wood for canoes so that meant no more fish. But that also meant no leaving the island. And with no trees the birds left. Although the document of a European sailor said that when they came to Easter Island in 1722 they saw potato fields, and sugar cane growing out of the ground. And the people looked healthy. So that means by the time the Dutch appeared the crisis was over. But if the islanders survived that, what caused the population to die out? After the discovery of Easter Island more and more ships sailed to Easter Island, not only bringing fear but diseases. A disease called Syphilis killed off most of the population. In 1862 slavers from Peru kidnaped one and a half thousand about 1/3 of the population. All most all of the kidnapped people died within a year. The ones who lived returned to Easter Island only 15 of them survived, but when they came back they brought another disease called small pox. And in 1877 the population was at 111. The Islanders called it the great death. And by this time records say that the island was littered with human bones where ever you looked.

HOW THE EARLY RAPA NUI PEOPLE MOVED THE STATUE FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER

In the early 1980s, researchers tried to recreate some of the statues and move them using only tools that the people in the island had to their disposal. They found this almost impossible to do. Then in 1987, an archaeologist named Charles Love managed to move a ten ton replica. He put it on a makeshift vehicle consisting of two sledges, and he and 25 men rolled the statue 150 feet in just two minutes.

Ten years after this discovery a Norwegian explorer recreated another moai statue, and tied one rope to its head and another around its base, with the help of 16 other people they rocked the statue from one side to another, moving it forwards. But they had to stop early because this was damaging the statue.

HOW THE STATUES WERE CARVED

One of the biggest mysteries of Easter Island was how the statues were carved. The answer was found in Rano Raraku. A large crater used as a stone quarry were the statues were carved from about 500 years until around the 1600’s. There are more than 300 statues left in their left in many different stages of carving. And there are hundreds of rectangular shaped holes in the cliffs where the statues were removed. The Rapa Nui people only had stone chisels and other stone tools, carving the statues must have taken years. But this was the easy part, next they had to be moved from the quarry to somewhere else.

                                             Rano Raraku, The Quarry For Moai

THE STATUES EYES

Local Easter Islander Sergio Rapu discovered that that the Easter heads also used to have eyes. One day he found bits of coral and when he put them together it shaped an oval with a small hole in it. Nobody knew what it was for a long time but then Sergio realized that the coral oval fit the eyes of an Easter Head.

                                                                    The Coral Eyes

Project Twelve- Sri Lanka's Sports

SRI LANKA’S SPORTS: Hi, my project is on the sports of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s national sport is volley ball. The most popular sports’ are Cricket and Rugby, and in my mind the weirdest sport is elephant polo.

VOLLEYBALL: Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by getting the ball on the ground of on the other team's half of the court.

Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation is the main governing body of Volleyball in Sri Lanka….. The game of volleyball was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1916 by Robert Walker Camack.

FACTS:

1.) The game of volleyball, originally called Mintonette, was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan four years after the invention of basketball. Morgan, designed the game to be a combination of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball.

2.) In 1991, Sri Lanka officially declared Volleyball as its National Sport.

3.) A Rally is the number of hits to the ball before a foul or score.

 

A Volleyball

A Volleyball Dig

CRICKET:

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players each on a field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. Each team takes its turn to bat, attempting to score runs, while the other team fields. (Fielding in cricket is the action of the fielders collecting the ball after it was hit by the batsman, and the fielders try to get the batter out by catching the ball in flight or tagging the batter with the retrieved ball).

FACTS:

1.) Cricket is a 165 years old sport in India, it was first played in India in 1848

2.) Cricket was first played in southern England in the 16th century.

3.) The only difference between Cricket and Baseball other than the clothing and equipment is that the Cricketers run in straight lines instead of a circle.

4.) The longest Cricket game ever was played from March 5, 1939 to March 14, nine days’ in total. South Africa vs. England. On the ninth day the match was called a draw because the England team were going to miss the boat back to England.



5 Animals That Have Disrupted a Cricket Match

1. 1889- A Pig stops play when it runs across the pitch

2. 1936- A Sparrow stops play when a ball hit it in midflight, and killed it. The Sparrow is currently on display at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.

3. 1957- A Hedgehog stops play when it runs onto the field. The fielding wicketkeeper carries it off the pitch.

4. 1957- A Mouse stops play. And the owner runs onto the field to retrieve it with his hat.

5. 1962- Bees stop play. Players evacuate the pitch and flee to the pavilion.

A Cricket ball

                                                             A Cricket Batter

RUGBY: 

The game is played with two teams, each consisting of fifteen players. Each team can carry, pass or kick the ball to the end zone to score as many points as possible. You can score by running with the ball or passing the ball to the opposite end.

ELEPHANT POLO:

The game is played by four players on each team, with a standard sized polo ball.

RULES

The Elephants may not step on the ball

There is no restrictions to the height, weight, or size of the Elephants

No Elephants are allowed to lie in the goal mouth if they do it is called a foul and the other team gets a free shot 20 meters away

An elephant is not allowed to pick up the ball with its trunk. If it does the other team gets a free shot from where the ball was picked up.

Project Eleven- World Heritage Sites Of South Africa

                WORLD HERITAGE SITES OF SOUTH AFRICA

Hi, my project is on the eight world heritage sites of South Africa. A world heritage site is natural or manmade site, area, or structure of great importance and is a protected area, such as a forest, mountain, lake, island, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as of special cultural or physical significance

As of 2014, 1007 sites are listed: 779 cultural, 197 natural, and 31 mixed properties

Globally, UNESCO's World Heritage sites include places such as the Egyptian Pyramids, Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the Great Wall of China. There are 17 World Heritage sites located in Canada and there are another seven sites on Canada's Tentative List of World Heritage sites. The Rideau Canal is our most well-known world heritage site.

1: Fossil hominid sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdaai, Environs: This site contains a bunch of limestone caves, including the Sterkfontein Caves, where the 2.3-million year-old fossil was found.

2: Vredefort dome: The crater, (190) kilometer across, is the largest and oldest Astrobleme, (a remnant of a large crater made by the impact of a meteorite or comet,) on earth dating back 2 billion years.

3: Mapungubwe cultural Landscape: This open Savanna biome lays at the joining of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers. It was the place of the Mapungubwe Kingdom until the 14th century, when the area was abandoned, leaving untouched remains of palaces and settlements.

4: Robben island: Between the 17th and 20th century, the island was used as a prison, including for political prisoners, a hospital for socially unacceptable groups, and a military base.

5: Cape floral region protected areas: The site consists of eight protected areas that are among the richest in plant life worldwide, containing nearly 20% of Africa's total flora, (the plants of a particular region, habitat, or geological period)

6: Isimangaliso wetland park: The park features a variety of landforms, including coral reefs (a ridge of rock in the sea formed by the growth and deposit of coral), long sandy beaches, coastal dunes, lake systems, swamps, and reed and papyrus wetland.

7: Richtersveld cultural and botanical landscape: This desert is full of rocky mountains, plants and boulders larger than some trees.

8: uKhahlamba (Drakensberge): This heritage site has two names one is a Zulu name (uKhahlamba- barrier of spears) or the Afrikaans way (Drakensburge- Dragon Mountains). It contains mountains, waterfalls and other bodies of water.

Project Ten- Panama Rain Forests

                                                    THE RAINFORESTS OF PANAMA

Hi, my project is on the rain forests of Panama. A rain forest is a very dense forest found in tropical areas, with very large amounts of rainfall. Panama rainforest had been affected by the Panama Canal construction at the beginning of the 1900s. Large amounts of the rainforest had been flooded for the purpose of the canal’s construction, and as a result, trees plants and other life was damaged.

FACTS: (1) Currently, the forest covers around 58% of the total land area of Panama.

(2) The rain forest contains mammals like armadillos, anteaters, sloths, deer, tapirs and jaguars. There are also 93 frog and 650 bird species.

(3) Panama loses more than 1 percent of its forest cover every year.

(4) Only 9.6 per cent of the panama rain forest is open to public. For zip lining, tours and other things, but 90.4 per cent of the rain forest is closed to public.

(5) A single tree in the Panama rain forest contained 950 beetle species.

(6) Did you know that a range of hill in the panama rain forest looks like a lady in El Valle it is called the sleeping Indian girl

(7) In  the rain forest of panama there is 6 or 7 tribes.                                                                                  

                                                                      

There are hundred of frog and bird species in the Panamanian Jungles

Sleeping Indian Girl Mountain Range.

Kuna woman displaying fabric



There are in reality seven indigenous peoples or nations living in the Republic of Panama: the Ngäbe, the Kuna, the Emberá, the Wounaan, the Buglé, the Naso Tjerdi and the Bri Bri. According to the May 2010 census, they represent 12.7% (417,559) of the total population of 3,405,813.

Project Nine- States of Matter

STATES OF MATTER

Matter is what is around you. The earth for example is made up of different types of matter. Even though different types of matter are found all over the universe, on earth there are five different types.

The states of matter are gas, such as steam, carbon dioxide and other fumes. Liquid such as water, milk and so on. Solids are dirt, trees, rock and everything that is stable and has a definite form. Plasmas are a lot like gases, but the atoms are different. Plasmas are found in lightning, flames and auroras. And BEC (Bose-Einstein Condensate) was just recently discovered in 1995.




STEAM

When you get liquids hot thing the molecules start moving faster than usual. So when you get something VERY hot like boiling water in this case, makes all the molecules move so fast they can’t even hold on to each other! So that’s why it makes steam.

ICE

When you get liquid below 0 O C its freezes. But why? It is pretty much the opposite reason of steam, when you get liquid cold the molecules slow down and when you get below 0 degrees Celsius the molecules are only vibrating a little and that makes a solid!



ATOMS: The smallest part of a substance which can exist and still retain the properties of the substance. Atoms are extremely small, having a radius of about -1010 (-100 billion) millimeters


The Three Main States of Matter

GAS: a state in which a substance has no definite volume or shape. It is either a vapor or gas. A vapor can be change into a liquid by applying pressure. A gas must first be turned into a vapor by reducing its temperature below a temperature below a level called gases critical temperature

SOLID: A state in which a substance has a definite volume and shape

LIQUID: a state in which a substance has a definite volume, but can change shape

PLASMA

 What is a plasma? Well, it’s not what is running along your veins that is a different type of plasma. The type of plasma that I am talking about is an actual state of matter. We start with the first three states of matter, solid the least amount of energy liquid the 2^nd least amount of energy and gas the 2^nd most amount of energy. So we start with a solid piece of ice and we add energy, it becomes a liquid (water), add more energy (heat it up) we get steam (which is a gas). Add LOTS more energy in and what’ll happen is the atom start to break apart. An atom is nothing more than a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons, and if you put enough energy into that. The electrons gain so much energy they actually break free of the atom. Then what you are left with is a free electron, which is a negative charge and an ion which is an atom or molecule with an electric charge due to the loss or gain of one or more electrons. 

Plasma  is made by putting gas under influence of radiation or electrical charge

Where you can find plasma in nature: Lightening, northern lights (auroras borealis), Flames, Stars and Solar wind

Where you can find human-made plasma: florescent light-bulbs, Neon signs, and in plasma TV’s

               BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATE                

We know that space is cold. In between the vast gulf of stars and galaxy’s in drops to 3 Kelvin or minus 273 degrees C, but it is about to get colder. When you get near absolute zero, atoms begin to clump, and stop moving completely. Since there is no more energy to transfer as in the other states all of the atoms have the exact same levels. The result of this clumping is Bose-Einstein Condensates. There are no longer thousands of separate atoms they all become one big one.

                                                                    

                                                        HOW IT IS MADE    

Scientists often use sodium atom. They first put in the atoms in to an oven at 700 degrees Celsius. Then they put it into a large metal container with glass to look in and shine lasers on the atoms. Now we know that lasers are hot but in this case it actually cools down the atoms down to a Millikelvin or a thousandths of 0 degrees kelvin but they need it down to Nanokelvin (a billionth of a degree kelvin) so like a hot drink in a cup it cools slowly but when you blow on it cools quicker, so instead of a cup it is a cup of radio waves and its radiation blowing on, the result of this is all the hot atoms fly out of the cup and then it is a Nanokelvin (a billionth of a degree kelvin) and the atoms start to clump!

Project Eight- The Chernobyle Disaster

THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER

Hi, my project is on the Chernobyl disaster. It happened April 26, 1986, in Pripyat. a nuclear reactor is a structure in which steam becomes energy/electricity and later in a cooling tower the steam becomes water again and used over and over.

 Four reactors had been completed on a site in Ukraine, and reactors #5 and 6 were under construction. Reactor #4 had been operating for two years and was undergoing maintenance checks and monitoring of the process to be used in case of emergency. The monitoring process was incorrect and in the process of testing, there was an explosion at reactor #4 that sent out over 200 times the amount of radiation released at the accidents at Herosheema and Naga-saki. (Both exploded by nuclear in japan at the end of WW11)

FACTS: 600,000 to 800,000 firefighters and emergency workers came from all over the Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus to put out the fire. These people stayed for over two years to put it out!

Over 63,000 square miles of land were affected.

Three years after the accident residents over the age of 48 were allowed to go back and live in Pripyat!

Over 7 million people were affected. The most heavily affected areas were in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.

Two Chernobyl plant workers died on the night of the accident, and another 28 people died within a few weeks as a result of radiation poisoning.

Pripyat now

Fission

Fission is a way of splitting an atom into two smaller atoms. The two smaller atoms don't need as much energy to hold them together as the larger atom, so the extra energy is released as heat and radiation.

Nuclear power plants use fission to make electricity. By splitting uranium atoms into two smaller atoms, the extra energy is released as heat. Uranium is a mineral rock, a very dense metal, that is found in the ground and is non-renewable, that means we can't make more. It is a cheap and plentiful fuel source. Power plants use the heat given off during fission as fuel to make electricity.

Fission creates heat which is used to boil water into steam inside a reactor. The steam then turns huge turbines that drive generators that make electricity. The steam is then changed back into water and cooled down in a cooling tower. The water can then be used over and over again.

Project Seven- St. Olaf's Castle

St. Olaf’s Castle

WHAT: St. Olaf’s castle is a 15th-century three-tower castle located in Savonlinna, Finland. It is the northernmost medieval stone fortress still standing.


WHEN: The St. Olaf’s Castle construction started in 1475


WHERE: Savonlinna, Finland


WHY: The castle was supposed to repel Russian attacks


WHO: Olaf II Haraldsson, later known as St. Olaf, was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028.




History,

St. Olaf’s Castle withstood several attacks by the Russians during the First and Second Russian-Swedish wars. A successful trade developed under the protection of the castle towards the end of the 16th century, leading to the development of the town of Savonlinna, which was chartered in 1639.

                

                History of St. Olaf

Olaf Haraldsson the second, later known as St. Olaf was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028.


Medieval Olavinlinna (St. Olaf's Castle) is the city's symbol and main attraction. Built in 1475 by Danish knight Erik Axelsson to protect the eastern border of the Swedish-Danish Kalmar Union, it was named after the patron saint of knights, St. Olaf.

Project Six- Australian Mining

                                   AUSTRALIAN   MINING

Fact one: up to 95% of the world’s opals come from Australia, opal’s are soft rocks that shimmer’s in light, and is used to make jewelry the Colber Pedy mine is famous for its light colored opal’s and the lightning Ridge mine is famous for its black opal’s.

Fact two: in Australian mine’s you can find nickel to make stainless steel, opals to make jewelry,   And also diamonds to make jewelry.

Fact three: Australia was the second biggest gold producer next to china.

Fact four: Australia was the biggest aluminum producer in the world (2011)

Fact five: Australia is responsible for 11% rocks metals and minerals of the world's production and was the world's third largest producer in 2010 after Kazakhstan and Canada.

Fact six: Australia produces 10% of the world’s Gold.

____________________________________________________

Gold, the only yellow metal, has the chemical symbol Au, which is derived from the Latin word for gold - aurum. It has a density nearly twice that of lead is a good conductor of electricity and heat and is so malleable that it can be rolled thin enough to allow light to pass through.






Facts of The First Australian Gold Rush


 In January 1851, before Hargraves' find of gold in February 1851 at Summerhill near Bathurst in New South Wales which started the first Australian gold rush



            Because the miners worked for long hours their clothes got really worn out.

v  the miners really only wore White shirts, straw hats, frock coats, gloves, underpants, hard wearing pants, rain protection. Some wore boots some wore shoes but most of them could not afford shoes or boots so they had to go barefoot.

v  The Chinese miners wore baggy pants and large coolie hats.

v  There was little medical help on the goldfields so the health of the diggers wasn’t very good.

v  Diggers didn’t shower or bathe very often especially in summer because the water was very dirty and in short use.

v  People became alcoholics very easily and spent a lot of money on rum, bourbon and whisky. The miners, diggers and planners   got the alcoholics from a sly grog dealer. Alcohol was a big problem on the goldfields.

v  Some of the people on the goldfields had biscuits. Cakes, scones and puddings were popular desserts.

v  The diggers ate any type of meat that they could find on the goldfields.

v  The bread back then was 50 cents and a meal was 40 cents The diggers kept their food fresh by either salting the food in short time of killing. 

WHAT – opal mining and gold mining

WHEN – when did the two types of mining begin in Australia?

WHERE – locations of mines

WHY – how much are the two industries worth?? Every year

HOW – how is the opal brought out of the ground?? How do opals grow? How is gold mined out of the earth? T        

Project Five- Greenlandic Food

      Greenlandic      food

 The main food Greenlandic Inuit’s eat is mostly walrus, ringed seal, beluga whale, polar bear, caribou, bearded seal, muskoxen, birds (including their eggs), berries and plants that grow in warm weather.

To get the food Inuit’s eat they need to do things like:

Go fishing for fish,

Go hunting for meat such as polar bear, caribou and muskoxen.

Go searching for plants to eat in the warm weather.

And go to the markets to buy food and other things like furs and hunting equipment.

                             PRICES FOR FOOD

The prices in Greenland are much higher than what we pay mostly because the food has to come from so far away so I made a list of some prices of random food products.

1 KG of chicken breasts (skinless and boneless)… ($45.00 to $60.00)

One dozen eggs…  ($30.00 to $36.00)

1 KG of potatoes…  ($25.00 to $30.00)

Lettuce 1 head   ($30.00 to $35.00)

Local cheese (60.00 to 80.00)

Loaf of fresh white bread (500 grams) ($20.00 to $25.00)

WHAT GREENLANDIC INUITS GROW FOR FOOD. 

Blueberries and crowberries, harvested in the autumn, often garnish cakes and other desserts. Berry compotes accompany meat dishes. Seaweed is stored as a reserve food for winter. During the summer, roseroot, fireweed leaves, and Greenland lousewort are gathered. Green vegetables are scarce but the global climate has changed slightly and extended the growing season, so Greenlandic farmers are experimenting with new crops, such as broccoli.______________________________________________


Crowberries: the reason the name is called (crowberries) is because Crows eat he plant along with curlews, doves, pheasants and gulls, like to eat the berries of this plant.


Fireweed: a plant that springs up on burned land. The pink-flowered plant also grows in meadows and forests.


Roseroot: Rhodiola rosea is a plant in the Crassulaceae family that grows in cold regions of the world. Though little known as a medicinal plant, rose root has been used in traditional European medicine for over three thousand years, mainly as a tonic. _____________________________________________

                                                 CROWBERRIES

                                                 ROSEROOT

FIREWEED