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__Glaciers__
Twisting and turning their way through the land, moving as though they have a life of their own. Slowly but surely they proceed, the sheer beauty of them causing people to have no option but to stop and stare in awe. Glaciers have fashioned mountains and cut out valleys, and still do, never ceasing to amaze.

Accumulated snow, rock debris and re-crystallized ice is the recipe for these beautiful sculptures. Each year, a new layer of snow will fall, burying and compressing the previous layer. The compression will eventually cause the snow to re-crystallize, developing into grains similar to sugar. Little by little, the grains grow larger and the air pockets between the grains grow smaller, which causes the snow to slowly compact and increase in density.

After a couple of winters the snow turns into firn, an immediate state between snow and the ice of a glacier. During this state, the snow is about half as dense as water. Over time, the larger ice crystals will become so compressed that, if there are any air pockets left, they are miniscule. In extremely old glaciers, the crystals can be several inches long. This process will take over a hundred years. But a glacier isn’t officially a glacier until it begins to move. Although a glacier is widely known as a ‘river of ice’, it doesn’t exactly move in the same manner as a river. Sometimes the ice will surge, moving a hundred feet in just a day. Other days it will only move the unnoticeable length of one or two inches. Different parts of a glacier move faster than others. For example: the middle of the glacier moves faster than the sides, and the top of the glacier moves faster than the bottom.

Most of the worlds glaciers are found near the Poles, though glaciers exist on every continent in the world, even Africa. They are beautiful masterpieces, that evoke both curiosity and admiration.

By Sophie Adams

__Sir Peter Blake__
Recently my reading group did a research project on a New Zealand hero. I chose the life and death of Sir Peter Blake as my topic. I really enjoyed learning about how much he had achieved in his life, and think he is a real hero. We in New Zealand are lucky to have him as one of our icons.

__Martin Luther King Jr__
Martin Luther King Jr. was just an ordinary black American treated differently by many, but that was not what he was set to become. King grew up in Atlanta and he graduated college at 15. He worked as a clergyman in his father’s church before heading of to lead his life. At 35 King became the youngest person to receive a nobel peace prize. King married and had four children, two boys and two girls.

Born on the 15th of January, 1929, King was the son of Reverend Martin Luther King Sr and Alberta Williams King. Originally he and his father were born Michael King, until their family visited Germany in 1934 and his father changed both their names to Martin Luther King in honor of a German protest leader, Martin Luther.

King was born during the area of Jim Crow Laws. These laws were made to separate black people from white people. The King family did not like that white people were given the comfiest chairs. They did not like that black people were not allowed into many restaurants and shops, and had to use different drinking fountains, because they looked different. Black people were cursed, excluded, threatened and sometimes even killed just because of their skin colour. The King family, Martin especially, wanted to be friends with the white people, not enemies.

Martin Luther King had many great achievements. He graduated from college when he was only 15, became a clergyman by the time he was 18, and was the youngest person to get a noble peace prize at the age of 35. These where all big achievements but King set his sight higher he wanted to conquer his dream and make black people equal to white. This was the greatest of all Martin’s achievements he made people realize that all people where equal.

King was staying at the Lorraine Motel when he was shot by escaped convict James Earl Ray. The bullet entered through his right check, smashing his jaw before traveling down his spinal cord and lodging itself in his shoulder. He was rushed to St. Joeseph’s Hospital for emergency surgery, but was announced dead at 7:05 pm.

While fighting for equality between races, Martin Luther King made Americans aware of their intolerance and narrow-mindedness. He devoted his life to bringing peace and fairness to the world. King was an ambassador for the black people and his short life will be remembered forever.

Rainforests
A group of students, including me, researched rainforests and presented our information on a Wikispace. Here is a link to the work: http://room13rainforest.wikispaces.com/

Titanic
Dubbed practically unsinkable, the RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship of her time. She was capable of holding over 3,500 people, could reach a speed of 22 knots and was as long as the Empire State Building is tall. On the tenth of April, 1912, the Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage. She was travelling from Southampton to New York. Soon after leaving, there was a potential disaster. The Titanic nearly collided with another ship, a steamer called New York. As the New York was much smaller than the Titanic, she was sucked into the Titanic’s trail caused by it’s three huge propellers. The Titanic then sailed to France and Ireland to pick up further passengers. After it’s near accident earlier, the next few days of her journey were uneventful. The captain, Edward John Smith, was making good time. On the night of April the fourteenth, the seas were calm and the temperature was near freezing. Captain Smith had received warnings of icebergs, and in response had changed the course of the Titanic slightly to the south. Later warnings about icebergs still in the path of the Titanic failed to reach the bridge. At twenty to twelve, when the sky was clear, two lookouts recognized an iceberg in the path of the ship. ‘Iceberg, right ahead!’ they cried. One lookout rang the ships bell three times. Even though a collision was inevitable, the First Officer ordered a sudden turn to the left and for the engines to be put in reverse. The iceberg hit the right side of the ship, splitting the hull. As seawater flowed into the ship, the crew shut the watertight doors. While the ship could stay afloat with four flooded compartments, five were being filled. Alerted by the sudden jolt, the captain ordered a full stop of the Titanic. Just after midnight, he instructed that lifeboats be prepared and for distress calls to be sent out. Several ships were alerted by the distress calls, but none were close enough to respond in time. Initially, the passengers of the Titanic did nothing. They all believed the ship to be ‘unsinkable’, so the worry of sinking didn’t even cross their minds. They carried on with their activities, such as playing cards and singing along to songs. By ten past twelve in the morning, water had flooded the F Deck. The first of the lifeboats were being lowered, but it was clear that, even when filled, they could only carry just over 1,000 people. There were over 2,000 people on board. Due to the women-and-children-first policy they boarded the lifeboats first. By now Mr Andrews, the designer of the ship, estimated that the Titanic had just over one hour left. At five past two, the last lifeboat was lowered. It was then Captain Smith realized that nothing more could be done. ‘Men you have done your duty. You can do no more. Now it’s every man to himself’, he told his crew. By twenty past two, the whole of titanic was underwater. There were 2,223 people aboard the Titanic. Only 706 survived. 1,517 people’s lives were lost, mainly men, on that tragic night. In 1985, the greatest ship ever lost was found. Dr Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic, broken in two parts, at the bottom of the ocean. The Titanic is one disaster that will never be forgotten. By Sophie Adams

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

www.titanichistory.com