Science, Nature and Tech, Toys and Games

Why DO Kids Want to Play Minecraft?

Sitting back, ready for another interesting and rather aggressive night on COD (Call of Duty), I launch my dashboard to see the usual suspects all gathered playing the latest shoot ’em ups.

Except one.  Looking again, I notice my 13-year-old brother Jimbob is playing a game I’ve never seen – MINECRAFT.

After much persuasion and explanation “COME ON BRO, BUY IT PLEASE, YOU BUILD STUFF”,  I decide to purchase it, in order to support him in our mum’s campaign to play online more responsibly.

The game launches and all I see is blocks. Have I got the right game? Where are the graphics?

Wandering mindlessly around, past trees, rivers and spiders, until Harvey Jimbob asks me to come to his house. Here’s the strangest part: he built it.

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Written By You

History of South Africa – Written by Bruntville Primary School

The pupils of Bruntville Primary School have written a short article about the history of South Africa, and an explanation of Apartheid.

What Was Apartheid?

 

 

Apartheid was a system that existed in South Africa that separated people based on their ethnicity and skin colour. It became law after the National Party won the election in 1948. They declared many areas as only for white people, and discriminated against people of colour (POC).

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Home, Health & Style

What Makes a Family?

What does the word ‘family’ mean to you?  It can mean many things in our society. Some define family as a mother, a father and one or more children.  For others, there don’t need to be children in the home for there to be a family.  Where there are children, about three quarters of the parents will be married to each other.

In 2013 the Office of National Statistics, which is a government body which takes surveys on all manner of topics to help the government make policy (rules under which we all live), found that there were 18.2 million people living in this type of family.  Many more of us have families which have a different make-up.  For the purpose of the survey, a family is defined as people living in the same household.   

However, as many of you will know, there are other ways in which we describe our family.  There are children who have two parents of the same gender, there are children who have only one parent with whom they live, other children have guardians and live with aunts, uncles or grandparents. 

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Art & History

Great Women You Should Know… Hedy Lamar

You probably do not know who the actor Hedy Lamarr was as her last film credit was in 1958. If you ask your parents they may have a vague recollection or at least know her name.
What they probably don’t realize is that she wasn’t only an actor. She was a philosopher and, most importantly this month as we remember the World Wars and the sacrifices made during those wars, she was an inventor. She and avant-garde composer George Antheil worked together to create the first broad-spectrum frequency hopping wireless communications.
“What on earth is that?”, you’re probably thinking!

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