For my math topic i choose mean. Mean is the average number so if i shot an arrow at the point 5.4, 3.5, 5.5,6.5,5.4 , and 5.4. Can you guess which number is the mean. (hint:the mean is when you add up all the numbers then divide them by how many numbers there are..) If you guessed 5.28. Then you are correct my shooting average was 5.28 inches from (0,0). - 7th grade girl
This week, we applied the Pythagorean theorem to archery to measure our accuracy. We did this by first charting one arrow that we shot. We made right triangles with it as a point. The other two points would be the bull’s eye and one of the coordinates on the chart that we made to cover the target. Then, we would square the two points that were known. Those known points would be the two grid coordinates. Then we would add the results together, and that would come out with the unknown point distance squared. This will help us keep track of our improvement and accuracy.(Unless we are not improving. Then it will keep track of our non-improvement.) - 7th Grade Girl This week students devised a way to overlay the coordinate grid on their targets to map shots according to their (x,y) coordinates and then look for patterns for improvement. Some students even applied the Pythagorean theorem in finding the distance from their arrow to the bullseye. Students are getting great with only a few shots off the target each round. Brian Stevenson (school resource officer) dropped in to learn from the students and talk about the dedication required to develop marksmanship.
This week we read about the importance of focus in Archery and how Archery can, in turn, help us focus. Students journaled about this topic:
Focus: journal sample #1 A couple days ago at project challenge, we learned how to focus in both archery, and real life as well. We also learned the distractions that keep us away from focusing. Some things that distract me from shooting are the noises around me, like people talking or other people's bows hitting the target. Also, another factor that distracts me in archery is getting my arrows on, because I always have a hard time with that. Along with that, I have distractions in real life too, like when things don’t go my way. In archery and life, I try to deal with my distractions. One way to do that is to breath or count to ten. Also, you could try to like those distractions, and get comfortable with them. Finally, I think that archery is improving my focus in numerous ways. One way that it is improving it is because I have to really concentrate on my shot, which takes a lot of focus. Focus: Journal sample #2 When I am shooting, many things distract me. For example, whenever I am standing next to many people with my bow drawn, I sometimes feel claustrophobic because of all the arrows whizzing by me and the many people lined up next to me on the shooting line. My strategy to avoiding getting distracted is to tune out the sounds of people shooting, celebratory shouts of victory, and the clatter of arrows hitting the ground by focusing on the target in front of me. I then dislodge the image of me shooting and missing drastically, and replacing it with an image of my orange-tipped arrow hitting the center of the bull’s eye. In life, I am a highly distractible and irritable person, though I seldom show my distracted and agitated feelings. I can control my focus extremely easily, and seconds after, the distracted thought passes. I control this by breathing slowly, and thinking about what I am supposed to be doing. I turn my attention back to the task at hand, and usually end up finishing it quickly. I think that archery is improving my focus immensely. It is good practice for focusing, because to aim and shoot, you must keep a steady breath, and focus on the target. Focus practice is incredibly important in life. Studies show that with the increasing amount of people using electronic technology such as cell phones and computers, the average amount of focusing ability in humans is steadily decreasing. Focus is necessary and important, and without it, we cannot accomplish anything. Students read non-fiction from BETTER SHOOTING, Meiten, Patrick and summarized in their Journals (see this example from a 7th grade girl): Breath Control While Shooting When you are shooting a bow most people tend to hold their breath or take really short little breaths, however that is not at all what you want to be doing. When you are shooting a bow you want to take deep breaths. Before you start to shoot you want to breathe really deep, diaphragm breathing, in through your nose and out your mouth. Then, when you are going to shoot you want to take a deep breath before you draw and once you’ve drawn you let about half of it out. Lastly, once you’ve aimed you want to shoot so you let out the last half of your breath while you let go of the arrow and let it fly. Don’t forget to breathe! Even if sometimes you have to remind yourself to, you shoot better when you breathe because you are more focused and focus helped aim. This week we worked on shelter building. When we were assigned teams we all new immediately we would work well. In shelter building we had to think about a lot of different aspects, like which way the wind is blowing is it going to snow how could will it get how many people are in your group. We tried our best to focus on all these aspects but some we clearly focused on a little more than others. Our group built our shelter against two giant snow banks to help ups with the wind factor, also so that we would really only have to worry about building two of the others sides and conserving wood and branches. We also built our fort a little bigger since we had five people in our group. One of the comments from the other group was to lower our fort just a little height wise that way we would be able to trap more heat inside out shelter. Next we built a snow wall along one side to prevent using all our wood and to make a third wall. After that we laid six branches across the snow wall and the bank to form a roof, then we had to tie the branches down. Final we laid down the clippings of christmas trees all across our roof, finally we ripped a trash bag up and put it where the most holes were on our fort/shelter, then packing snow on the tarp to further insulate it. I had a great time in this class especially with shelter building because our team worked so well together and it was so much fun and i looked forward to it at the end of everyday.
This week in project challenge the project that we did was archery. For archery this week Kris taught us which of our eye is our dominant eye. Kris also taught us how to aim and what the olympic archers do to help them get a bullseye. Some thing Kris taught us to do is imagine what the smallest fragment of the yellow in the middle would look like. He told us that that is what most olympic archers say they do to get bullseyes. The thing that I thought helped me and everyone else the most is when Kris would watch everyone shoot their arrows and then when they were done or when they were almost finished he would tell you what you’re doing wrong. He would help you by just telling you little bits of thing a time to work on until you’ve fixed your mistakes. But the thing that I thought was the most important thing he taught us was to lose with grace and win with humility. I think that this is the most important thing he could have taught us because you see how good someone is at a sport by the way they play but you see what kind of person they are when you’re done playing the game. What Kris taught us to do is if we lose something to congratulate the winner and stay in a positive mood. He also taught us that if we won we shouldn’t rub it in his face but we should tell them how good they played and congratulate them on how they did and raise their spirits. - 7th Grade Boy During archery,project challenge we had learned I how to focus while we shooting at the targets.When it came to focusing we had to keep concentration on the target or will mess up and the arrow would not go where we wanted to.Archery was a great thing because it help me learn how to focus more.
-7th Grade Girl Hey guys! What’s up! It’s you're favorite kids from project challenge and this week we were focusing on the Archery Challenge. Now the Archery Challenge is where you have to choose if you want to shoot an Elk, a deer, or a rabbit and then would have run an obstacle course. Each animal had a different amount of meat that you would get per kill and a different area of the target that they needed to hit in order to score a kill. Then you had to convert the amount of meat into calories. The amount of calories that you got would determine if you would have to crawl, slow walk, walk, speed walk, or run. Each animal had different amount of shots you could take. Unfortunately there were penalties. For example, if you were to get over 200 lbs of meat you would have to take of 80 lbs. For this challenge, we were split up into groups. Each group was given the choice to choose what animal to hunt. Two groups chose deer and one chose rabbit. We were then asked to figure out how the max of meat we could score without going over 200lbs. After finding the max, we converted it into calories to see how fast we run the course. The next class, we actually got to do the challenge. One group got to run, and the other two got to speed walk. The groups then had do the course in the harsh wind a cold snow. Aside from the ice and snow, the groups did have a joyous time shooting, laughing, and running!
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This Blog is Student led. Each week a different student poses a reflection based on our challenges. Classmates comment here.Archives
October 2017
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