South Powys Inter-Schools Literacy Olympiads

SILVER CHALLENGE BOOKLET– YEAR 8THE SOUTH POWYS INTER-SCHOOLS LITERACY

OLYMPIADS The Literacy Olympiads was launched in the academic year 2014-2015. It is an initiative which invites South Powys pupils across Key Stage Three to become Bronze, Silver or Gold Literacy Olympians by completing cross-curricular challenges that focus on reading, writing or speaking.

As a rough guide to KS3 Levels: The Bronze Award equates to Level 5/6 The Silver Award equates to Level 6/7 The Gold Award equates to Level 7/8.

HOW TO BECOME A LITERACY OLYMPIAN1. See the MATco in your respective school to sign up and receive an information

pack.2. Read through the challenges – and get excited about your plan of action!3. To qualify as a Literacy Olympian for your school you must fully complete at

least ONE challenge assigned to your year group. 4. You can complete as many challenges as you like. If you decide to complete

more than one challenge, keep them together in a folder – if a piece is too big to be put in a folder, submit a photograph of it and keep the real thing in a safe place.

5. You may want to discuss them with your respective subject teachers, MAT tutors (where applicable) or form tutors for advice.

6. Take pride in your work – it may well be displayed on your school website or around the school for others to see. Make it eye-catching and as ACCURATE as possible in terms of spelling, punctuation, grammar and expression.

7. When you are ready, hand in your work to the MATco. You then have to wait for the awards ceremony at the end of the year.

8. Remember, there is a competition between pupils both within your school and in the other five South Powys schools but you may wish to complete a challenge because you love the subject or just want to learn more.

If you need to borrow technology such as a data recorder or camera/video recorder, visit the respective IT/subject department. If you would like any further details about the Literacy Olympiads, do not hesitate to contact your respective MATco: Natalie Armitti (Crickhowell)Rebecca Carpenter (Brecon)Elin Ennis (Builth Wells)Matthew Morris (Llandod)Joe Taffurelli (Maes y Dderwen)Beth Walker (Gwernyfed)

Year 8 – Silver Challenge

Mathematics Code Cracking: Complete the Babington Plot code cracker challenge using the resources provided to help you. Challenges include deciphering the coded message sent by Queen Mary.

English Creative Writing: Write a short story of no more than three sides of A4 on one of the following themes. It can be written on the computer or handwritten. However, the standard of presentation must be excellent and there must be no more than three spelling, punctuation or grammar mistakes.

Friendship Memories Shadows Dreams Exploration

Science Research Investigation: To find the fastest average speed a human can talk. Accuracy will also be factored into the experiment.To plan the above projectPresent the data using a variety of formatsTo analyse/interpret the dataTo write a conclusion and an evaluationhttp://www.education.com/science-fair/article/how-fast-can-you-talk-with-accuracy/

Mamiaeth Tourist Brochure: to produce a tourist brochure in Welsh, detailing a tour of Wales. There must be at least 3 stops. Include information on the places to be visited, what you can do there, where you can stay. A map would be useful.

Welsh Poetry Writing: Write a poem about your group of friends.You should:

Describe your friends. Give opinions about them as well as reasons. Use techniques such as rhyme (though you don’t have to),

repetition and alliteration to create rhythm in your work. Spell and punctuate correctly.

Use Welsh a variety of Welsh sentence patterns consistently and correctly.

Geography Diary Entry: Write the diary from the perspective of a migrant leaving rural Mexico and migrating to urban USA. Describe and explain the reasons behind wanting to leave rural Mexico (push factors) and the attractions of the USA (pull factors). Describe and explain the difficulties associated with crossing international borders (legally/illegally)Describe and explain the realities of life in urban USAThe length of the diary entry should be 1 side of A4 minimum.

History Annotated Photograph: Annotate a photograph of an item that is important to your family History (e.g. a medal, a photograph, a diary). Describe what the item is; where it came from and explain why the item is important in your family History.

RE Interview and Poster: Identify somebody practicing a religion you have decided to study e.g. Christianity; Judaism; Hinduism; Buddhism; Islam.... Interview them on their religion to find out about the history of the religion; the beliefs; key symbols; festivals/celebrations; laws etc. Use the information from your interview to produce an A3 annotated poster to present your interview findings.

MFL Film Review: Watch a film of your choosing and write a review of it in French (or German if you prefer). Summarise the film’s plot, describe the main characters and state your overall opinion of the film. The length of the review should be 1 side of A4 minimum.

Music Rap Writing: Write a rap on a theme of your choice. Your theme must be appropriate. You must consider style, rhyme, rhythm, tempo etc. Record your rap using software if possible.

DT Research into the culinary or fashion culture of a country of your choice.Either produce a dish from your chosen country. Include the recipe and photographs of the different stages of production and the research behind the dish. Evaluate the final product as an annotated photograph.Or produce an A3 poster collage of the fashion styles of your chosen country and annotate it with the research you have collected, explaining the influences.

PE Sports Report: Watch and write a report of minimum 1 side A4 on a major sporting event that occurs throughout the year. It could be:

a school based sporting event such as Sports day; an event you went to watch at a local sports club or stadium such

as a rugby or football game; a major event you watched on the television e.g. Grand National,

Tour de France, London Marathon, the Boat Race etc…Record yourself presenting the report if possible.

Art Sale Leaflet: Produce a leaflet advertising the sale of a famous Welsh artist’s work. You will need to describe and explain the work in your own words, providing alongside images.

ICT Techno-Travel Agent: Produce a PowerPoint Presentation detailing information on a holiday destination of your choice. Include information on the following:

Sites – what can tourists see if they visit? Events – what can tourists do if they visit? Include information on

the various attractions available Location – where is the holiday destination located (use maps)? Climate - what is the weather like (show using a climate graph)? Interesting Facts – what makes the area interesting (use images)? General F.A.Qs about the holiday you are offering Websites – where can tourists go to find out further details about

the destinationProduce a digital poster to advertise your holidayProduce a 5 day itinerary as a Word document.Use Excel to produce a spread sheet to cost the holiday.Make sure you use advanced formatting techniques in your Word and PPT document e.g. cropping; re-sizing; adding borders; backgrounds etc.

South Powys Inter-Schools Literacy Olympiads Please use the following proforma to track your progress

Subject Task Yr 7 BronzeChallenge

Yr 8 Silver Challenge

Yr 9 GoldChallenge

MATco Signature

Date

Maths

English

Science

Mamiaeth

Welsh

Geography

History

RE

MFL

Art

Music

DT

PE

ICT

Pupil Name………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

School …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Date of Award Submission ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Science Silver: How Fast Can You Talk With Accuracy?

Source: http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/how-fast-can-you-talk-with-accuracy/

Objective: To find the fastest average speed a human can talk. Accuracy will also be factored into the experiment

Research Questions: Who has the fastest recorded (& accurate) speech in the world? What part of our brain controls speech?

Some people are said to talk too fast. Have you or have you heard some people speak rapidly during a presentation? Or do they just speak very fast in daily life as well?It isn't good to speak too fast because our ears will not be able to recognize such fast speeds. But what is the fastest an average person can speak?

Materials: Test subjects (obviously don't pick little kids because they don't have their speech

down yet nor diagnosed speech-impaired individuals) Get as many as you can. A software that can slow down speech while still being audible such as these 2:

http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/ http://audacity.sourceforge.net (it's free!)

The same selected passage for everyone to read (controlled) – Hint: Pick one that is around 100-200 words long.

A timer/stopwatch Printer/Computer Pen and paper for notes

Experimental Procedure:1. Print out your chosen passage for your test subject to read. Do an accurate word

count and determine the number of words in the passage. (This can usually be done efficiently in a word processor, but you can count it yourself as well) Write down and remember this number.

2. Hand the passage to your test subject and instruct them to raise their hand when they are done reading the passage. This is so you will know when to press stop on the stopwatch.

3. Give your test subject 3 counts (ready..set...go or 1,2,3) and instruct them to start reading the passage as fast and as accurate as they can. Stop the watch when your test subject raises his/her hand. Record this time.

4. Using an audio software (such as Audacity), press the option to slow down or play back speech so you can hear word-for-word what the test subject has said....just in slow-mo.

5. Count out any words that still sound inaudible, slurred, skipped, or incorrect. Take this number and divide by the number of total words in the passage and multiply by 100. This number will determine the percent accuracy. Record this.

6. Repeat steps 2-5 for all of your test subjects.7. After you have tested all your subjects you should record your results in a reasonable

manner and come up with a conclusion.

Suggested Chart

Speed Accuracy NotesTest Subject #1Test Subject #2Test Subject #3

MFL: Silver - Film Review Helpful Hints

Express yourself!Je pense que…… I think that… A mon avis…. in my opinion…Je trouve le film…..

I find the film… Je crois que…….. I believe that…

Ce n’est pas…… it isn’t…. C’est…. it’s…Mon personnage préfére est… My favourite character is……..

Wow words!Intéressant Interesting Formidable GreatGénial Excellent Chouette FabulousInformatif Informative Ennuyeux BoringDivertissant Entertaining Compliqué ComplicatedEmotif Emotional Amusant FunnyMignon Sweet

Intensify!!Très Very Vraiment ReallyAssez Quite Parce que Because

Link Words!Et… And Mais… But Assez….. Quite

Mathematics Silver: Mary Queen of Scots and the Babbington Plot

Overview: Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned by her cousin Queen Elizabeth. Mary was a threat to Elizabeth and the only way Mary could communicate with her loyal followers was by sending secret, coded messages.

The code Mary used was a type of substitution cypher that replaced letters with symbols. Each letter had a unique symbol and would be unreadable by anyone who did not know the code – or so they thought.

In 1586, a plot was uncovered showing that Mary was planning an escape and her approval of the assassination of Elizabeth. A coded message was intercepted and

Elizabeth’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham, cracked the code by using a technique called frequency analysis.

Frequency analysis involves studying how often each symbol appears in the cipher text and comparing it to how often letter appears in the English language. The letter E appears most often and Z the least. With this information and knowledge of common words (such as ‘and’, ‘the’, ‘a’ and ‘I’) it is possible to break any message encrypted this way.

The story of the Babington plot is a good example of cryptanalysis (code breaking) in history. Babington and Mary used the cipher to communicate in secret. However Sir Francis Walsingham was able to employ Thomas Phelippes, a professional cipher breaker, who managed to work out the substitution that Mary had been using.

They then added the postscript to a letter sent by Mary asking Babington to name all the conspirators. With all the notes they intercepted, Walsingham gathered enough evidence to convict Mary and the conspirators of trying to assassinate Elizabeth I, and this led to the conspirators being Hanged, drawn and quartered, whilst Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded.

Your Challenge: To decipher the intercepted letter and work out what the letter that each symbol represents.

You will need: the intercepted letter the Frequency Distribution of Letters graph the Frequency Distribution of Symbols table

Table Showing Frequency of Letters in the English Language

Frequency of letter (in decimal)

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:English_letter_frequency_(alphabetic).svg)

LetterThe following note has been coded using the cipher actually used by Mary Queen of Scots. Can you crack it? Carry out an analysis of the frequency of each character. De-code the message

Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:English_letter_frequency_(alphabetic).svg

Frequency Distribution Symbols in the Intercepted Letter

Create your own Substitution Cipher using your own symbols and encode two paragraphs of text. Describe how you can break the substitution cipher

How many possible combinations of cipher are there with a substitution cipher?Write a brief description of the advantages and disadvantages of the substitution

cipher.source: http://crypto.interactive-maths.com/uploads/1/1/3/4/11345755/babington_plot.pdf)

The Babington Plot Frequency Tables

Some hints to help with this one: What are the most common

symbols? What are the most common letters

in English? What 1 letter words are there? Who might it be to and from?

Postscript to Letter