Room 3: Classwork

Information About Grasshoppers

Some types of grasshoppers form large groups and move from place to place together. Some of the groups can have one million members or more. They are known as migratory locusts. When they first meet, they will take short flights together each day. After practicing, they embark on a journey that can last up to three days. They stay together and fly to locations as a group. They will only come down when they are extremely hungry, or it is very cold.

(On a side note, some people believe that locust and grasshoppers are different insects. However, locusts are actually a type of grasshopper.)

Grasshoppers can jump very high.

Some grasshoppers will jump 200 times their length in one jump. That is nearly the equivalent of a child jumping about 180 feet!

You can determine the temperature based on the chirping of grasshoppers.

If you hear a grasshopper chirping, count how many times he chirps in 15 seconds. Add 39 to that number. That is the temperature in Fahrenheit degrees. However, grasshoppers will usually stop chirping when the weather is below 55 degrees or so.

Young grasshoppers can eat twice its own body weight in day.

Young grasshoppers are known as nymphs. Nymphs can eat twice their body weight in a single day. If you weigh 15kg, that's the equivalent of eating 30kg of food a day. That is a lot of food!

Grasshoppers are usually active during the day and calm and quiet at night.

Like all insects, grasshoppers must be warm in order for them to be active. When it is cold at night, grasshoppers will lay on plants and be very still. They start waking up and moving around once the sun comes up.

Some grasshoppers destroy crops.

There are many types of grasshoppers that do not cause damage to animals or plant life. However, there are some grasshoppers that can give farmers lots of headaches and stress. Groups of them can destroy acres and acres of crops. Because insecticides (chemicals that kill bugs) have been developed, it is rare for grasshoppers to cause lots of damage today. In the 1800s, migratory locusts caused serious crop damage in the US.

Grasshoppers will consume almost any plant when hungry.

Grasshoppers are very hungry and have been known to eat almost any kind of plant when they need to. However their favourites seem to be grass and the stems of flowering plants.

Most grasshoppers live in grassy areas.

The majority of grasshoppers reside in grasslands. However, they do live throughout the world. Some live in rocky areas. There are even a few that live in deserts in India, Pakistan and other countries.

Grasshoppers have numerous enemies.

Grasshoppers have several natural enemies. They include birds, spiders, mice, lizards, and snakes. Monkeys even hunt grasshoppers. Also, there are many creatures that eat grasshopper eggs includes beetles. Man is the biggest enemy of grasshoppers.

The smallest grasshoppers are called pygmy locusts.

The smallest grasshoppers are about 1.25 centimetres long. They are called pygmy locusts. They will usually live near bodies of water, such as bonds and streams.

Grasshoppers clean themselves frequently.

Grasshoppers (and also crickets) will clean themselves often. They will even pull their antennae through their mouths.

People have eaten grasshoppers for thousands of years.

Some people cook and eat grasshoppers. Some will fry them in butter, boil them, or dehydrate them and eat them dry. Some will even dip them in chocolate.

Andy Grammer - Keep Your Head Up

Drums

The drum kit is a member of the percussion family of instruments.
The drum kit is made up of many drums and cymbals used together.
Drum kits are the most important instrument in most rock bands for keeping time.
Drummers have to use their all four limbs to play different things.
The drum kit is usually played with drum sticks, made out of wood.
Drum kit's were first created in the 1700's.
Normally a drum kit will include: bass drum, snare drum, hi tim-tom, lo tom-tom, floor tom, hi-hat cymbal, ride cymbal, crash cymbal.
Nowadays electronic drum kits are quite popular.
The snare drum has a metal 'snare' on the underside, which is a chain-like ribbon which gives the drum that crisp, rattly sound.
Drum depth, diameter, and shell thickness are all important for the sound produced.

Famous Drummers

History of the Drums

Maths review

Reading group

PIANO

Size:

Upright Pianos

Cost New: $3,000 - $11,000

Cost second-hand: $300 approximately

Grand Pianos

Cost New: $15,000 - $70,000

Cost second-hand: ?

Genres most commonly used: Classical, Jazz, Blues, Rock and Roll, some Rock

Piano information: The Piano can be a member of the orchestra or a solo instrument. The piano player is referred to as a pianist.

The first piano was built as early as 1694 and was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy. The three pianos built by Cristofori that survive today date from the 1720s. It was named the pianoforte because it allowed the player to control the degree of loudness and softness of a note by the way he/she would strike a key.

A Steinway Concert Grand can weigh up to 449kg (that's almost half a ton). The largest piano built, the Fazioli F308, weighs in at a whopping 690kg!

Playing the piano often involves the use of all ten fingers and sometimes both of your feet. To make a sound, simply press a key down. The softer or harder and slower or faster the pianist presses a key will determine the sound quality of the note. The three pedals, controlled by the pianists feet, also change the tone of the piano. They include the damper pedal, the soft pedal, and the sostenuto pedal. The damper pedal is the most used pedal by far, serving to sustain the notes that have been played. The soft pedal, which may be locked in place during a performance, serves to lighten the intensity of the notes. The last pedal, the sostenuto pedal, makes it possible to sustain some notes while allowing the player to play detached sounds on another part of the keyboard.

Piano playing is sometimes referred to as "tickling the ivories". Have you tickled a piano lately?

A "Grand" Piano

An "Upright" Piano

How A Grand Piano Is Made

KEYBOARD

Size (large sized keys): 80-130cm

Cost (large size): $129-$500. The more features a keyboard has, the more expensive it is to buy. Generally speaking, the heavier a keyboard is, the better the quality it is. Keyboards made from stronger materials like thicker plastic would be more expensive and complicated to make. Some keyboards have a pitch shifter, USB port, Midi capabilities and a large coloured screen as flash as an iPod. All these features will cost you more when you buy your keyboard.

Genres used: (answer below)

Keyboard information: The keyboard has to be the most versatile instrument. It's large selection of sounds (sometimes referred to as "voices") and sound-effects make it suitable for almost any genre. From classical to country to rock, the keyboard can be used. Even some heavy metal bands include a keyboard. Obviously, classical music is usually played on a piano but today's expensive keyboards feel almost exactly the same to play. Cheaper keyboards have light keys made from plastic which doesn't feel realistic like a piano at all.

Parts to label: keys, on/off switch, screen, volume, number pad, speakers, headphone output, pitch bender.

Piano/Keyboard Made famous by:

Classical musicians such as: Beethoven, Brahms, Gershwin, Mozart, Ravel and Tchaikovsky.

The video below features Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin (in that order).

Also modern day musicians like:

Stevie Wonder

Ray Charles

Billy Joel

Elton John

Ben Folds

NYLON STRING GUITAR

Paintings of fruit by Anita Blanchett

What has she done to make the fruit look 3D?

Which direction is the light coming from?

What do you notice about how she painted the reflections?

What does adding shadow to your fruit do?

Which are the brightest part of the capsicums?

How can you tell this fruit is on a table?

How can you tell some lemons are in front of others

Can you guess what the apple bowl is made out of?

Which fruit is the most in the foreground?

Which fruit is most in the background?

Judging from the light, what time of day do you think this painting was done?

How did she get the pumpkin to look so 3D?

Why is the middle fruit half in shadow?

Look closely at the leaf. Do you think this would have been hard to make look 3D?

Why does the orange have a shadow on it?

Painting fruit cut open is quite a skill. What would you have to keep in mind?

The two kiwifruit halves are different greens. Why is that?

Matterhorn Facts

Elevation: 14,692 feet (4,478 meters)
Location: Valais Alps. Also called Penninie Alps. Border of Switzerland and Italy.
First Ascent: First ascent on July 14, 1865 by Edward Whymper, Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, Douglas Robert Hadow, guide Michel Croz, and the father and son guides Peter and Peter Taugwalder.

Here are some way cool facts about the Matterhorn

It was first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper and four of the seven men died during the descent

The mountain had four sides that each face one of the four compass points

There is a bobsled ride at Disneyland that was constructed to look and feel like the Matterhorn, which opened in 1959

A cow was flown up to the summit of the Matterhorn as a publicity stunt!

The town of Zermatt is surrounded by many other mountains that make this region so beautiful

The Matterhorn:

was first climbed by the famous mountain climber Matt Rustuf.

it got its name from Matt Rustuf from MATTerhorn.

it has the least snow on top of its mountain compared to every other mountain in the world.

One spot of the mountain gold was found but only a small amount.

has claimed the lives of 49 guides.

One side the mountain is very steep and almost impossible to climb, sometimes refferred to as the fortress.

The great Ronald Mcneil is the only person to ski from the top of the matterhorn after being dropped from a helicopter. His body was never found and therefore he was also the last person to do that.

You can fit 1,230,000,000 rolls of toilet paper in the volume of the matterhorn.

Fast Facts:

Matterhorn, the German name, is from the wordsMatte meaning “meadow” and horn meaning “peak.” Cervino, the Italian name, and Cervin, the French name, derive from the Latin words cervus and -inus meaning “place of Cervus.” Cervus is a genus of deer that includes elk.
The Matterhorn is the tenth highest mountain in Switzerland, and one of 48 Swiss peaks above 4,000 meters in height.
The four faces of the Matterhorn face the four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west.
First ascent on July 14, 1865 by Edward Whymper, Charles Hudson, Lord Francis Douglas, Douglas Robert Hadow, guide Michel Croz, and the father and son guides Peter and Peter Taugwalder via the Hörnli Ridge, the most common route of ascent today. Just below the summit on the descent, Hadow slipped, knocking Croz off. The rope came tight and pulled Hudson and Douglas and the four climbers fell down the north face. The elder Taugwalder was belaying with the rope over a rock spike, but the impact broke the rope thereby saving the Taugwalders and Whymper from certain death. The ascent and accident is recounted in Whymper’s classic book Scrambles Among the Alps.
The second ascent came three days after the first, on July 17, 1865, from the Italian side. The party was led by guides Jean-Antoine Carrel and Jean-Baptiste Bich.
The dreaded North Face, one of the great north face climbs in the Alps, was first climbed on July 31 and August 1, 1931 by Franz and Toni Schmid.
The usual climbing route is up the Hörnli ridge on the northeast, which is the central ridge seen from Zermatt. The route, graded 5.4, involves 4,000 feet of climbing, mostly on rock (4th Class) but with some snow depending on conditions, and takes 10 hours round-trip. Some of the climbing is very exposed and climbers need to be skilled at climbing rock with crampons on their boots. The route, often guided, is difficult but not for adept alpinists. Fixed ropes are left on difficult sections. Routefinding is tricky in places, especially on the lower section which is usually climbed in the dark. The descent, when most accidents occur, takes as long as the ascent. Most climbers begin their ascent by 3:30 in the morning to avoid summer thunderstorms and lightning.
On September 6, 2007 Zermatt guides Simon Anthamatten and Michael Lerjen ascended and descended the Hörnli Ridge in a record time of 2 hours 33 minutes. Their ascent time was 1 hour 40 minutes and the descent 53 minutes. Compare that to the usual seven to nine hours required by fit climbers. The previous record of three hours was set in 1953 by guide Alfons Lerjen and Hermann Biner, 15-year-old Zermatt boy.
Over 500 people have died climbing the Matterhorn since 1865’s tragic accident, many on the descent. Deaths average now about 12 annually. Deaths are due to falls, inexperience, underestimating the mountain, bad weather, and falling rocks. Many of the mountain’s victims, including three from the first ascent disaster, are buried in Zermatt’s downtown cemetery.
Disneyland in Anaheim, California features a 1/100 scale replica of the Matterhorn that is 147 feet high. Matterhorn Bobsleds is a popular ride on the peak. Disneyland’s website says, “Scale the snowy summit in your racing toboggan and then speed, screaming down the slopes, to a sensational splashdown.” Also Mickey Mouse and friends, climbers in disguise, sometimes climb it.
The Matterhorn figures in two Warner Brothers cartoons. In Pikes Peaker, a 1957 cartoon, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam race each other to the summit of the Schmatterhorn. In A Scent of the Matterhorn, a 1961 cartoon, the skunk Pepe Le Pew pursues a female cat, who he thinks is a fellow skunk, past the Matterhorn.