Earth and Environmental Blog Week 4

Monday or September 21, 2015 C.E.:

Today we finished our timeline project. We had to label on the side, what period of time in the geologic timescale it was, and color in a specific color. For the Precambrian super-eon, we had a couple meters of orange to cover. By the way, I did not blog last week, because of our field trip. We took a 1 night field trip to the United States National Whitewater Center. There we went on rope courses, White water rafts, and we went zip lining. Some of the rope courses, were really challenging, yet really fun!

Tuesday or September 22, 2015 C.E.:

 Today we did a lab practicum for our Geologic Timeline lab. It was the first lab practicum that I have ever done. We had to answer questions based on what we learned while doing the lab. The good thing is, that we were able to use the timelines. We had to list the number of million years since something has happened. We also had to answer some questions like "What eon are we currently in?" and "In what period, did land plants emerge?". I think that I did good on the lab practicum.

Wednesday or September 23, 2015 C.E.:

Today we studied for our Unit 2 test tomorrow. We brain dumped, by putting anything that we need to know for the test. I put down something about the geologic timescale, and the three eons in the Precambrian super-eon.We also played a game for review. In this game we divided into 3 groups, and 1 person answered a question per round. If we answer the question, we can take 2 life from the other teams. We can also take a basketball shot, and if we make it, we can take 4 life from the other teams. We did not win, but it was still fun.

Thursday or September 24, 2015 C.E.:

Today we took our test for Unit 2. I think I did very well on it. There was one question on it though, that I don't know if I got right. We had to list what state of matter each layer of the Earth was. I was not so sure about the mantle. Is said that the mantle was a liquid-solid, or something like that. I hope that this is a good enough answer. I can't wait to see the result.

Friday or September 25, 2015 C.E.:

We reviewed our Unit 2 test, and I got a 100% on it! I was really happy. I got the question of the mantle right. We then also reviewed the test. It seemed that many people didn't do as well. This is probably a bad test to not do well, because it is worth so many points. We then looked at videos of coal mines, to preview our next unit.
Summary: This week was a great week. I did well on my quiz. I still need to increase efficiency while doing homework.
 

Earth and Environmental Blog Week 3

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Earth and Environmental Blog Week 2

Monday or August 31, 2015 C.E.:

At the beginning of this new week, we made some new vocab cards. We learned some rather bizarre words today, including: Asthenosphere, Catastrophism, and Uniformitarianism. By the way, Spell check doesn't even recognize a single one. Anyway, Asthenosphere is a layer of mantel about 150km deep, Catastrophism is the idea that the world is shaped by a series of massive, rapid events, and Uniformitarianism, is the idea that the world is shaped by slow processes, like weathering, or erosion. After creating our vocab cards, we worked on our oreo labs.  I was lucky that I already did most of it, because I was finished by the end of the period.

Seems to support Catastrophism, to me

Tuesday or September 1, 2015 C.E.:

Today we started the day by talking about what we would invent to make the world a better place. It was interesting what people said. One person talked about a container, that could dry the contents, and another talked about a container that was almost infinitely large yet small in real life and when you stuck your hand in it, you were presumably sticking your hand into a wormhole, and yet another talked about using an existing quantum theory as transportation to ultimately reduce carbon emissions. After this we filled out a couple more vocabulary cards of words that most of us had never heard of, and then the day was over.

Wednesday or September 2, 2015 C.E.:

We started out to-day's science class by finishing a diagram of the inside of the Earth. We did notes on history of of the universe, all the way up to Precambrian era of the Earth. We talked about how the universe is really old, at 13.7 billion years, and the Earth is also old at 4.5 billion years. We learned that in the early stages, the Earth was molten, and gradually heavier metals sunk to the core, like iron or nickel. Lighter elements, like magnesium, sodium, potassium, and oxygen rose to higher levels.

Thursday or September 3, 2015 C.E.:

Today we started a new lab, simulating carbon-dating. We took 100 pennies, and threw them on the table. This was supposed to represent one half-life. The pennies that ended up tails, represented the carbon-14 atoms that decayed. We then put all the heads back together and threw them on the table again, to simulate another half-life. This was repeated until every penny ended up tails, or every last Carbon-14 decayed into a stable Nitrogen isotope. We repeated the process 1 or 2 times, and then we recorded the number of remaining pennies after each throw into a table. Tomorrow, we will probably start graphing, doing the questions for the lab, and filling out additional information in the tables, like averages.

Each Flask represents one half-life

Friday or September 4, 2015 C.E.:

Today we finished our Radiometric Dating lab. We completed the table and filled out the averages. We then graphed the averages of our data. The X-axis was the number of years that had passed, and the Y-axis was the number of Carbon-14 or pennies left. The graph was very interesting, and made me think of the Zeno's ball paradox. If the top of the crests, were connected with a line, then the following graph, and our graph will look exactly the same.

Summary: The week was an extremely interesting week. I learned about the history of the Earth from a teacher for the first time, rather than a book, and I learned a lot. I can still complete my blog faster and more efficiently, and that is what I will do.