Earth and Environmental Blog Week 15

Monday or January 25, 2016 C.E.:

Today we started our review for the quiz. We went on our Discovery Education Techbook to do some assignments. I am quite confident about the quiz. I got a 100% on the first assessment and 85% on the second. The reason I did not do as well on the second one was because I wasn't paying attention and didn't read carefully. I think I can do really well on this quiz and that it will not be too hard. After the assessments, we put flowers in our soil erosion experiment. I am not going to explain this lab yet because I have no idea what it is about.

Tuesday or January 26, 2016 C.E.:

Today we took the our Unit 6 quiz. I think I did well on it, but I might not get a 100 %. It was about the different types of erosion and weathering. It was also about the different things that can affect these processes. I also now know what the lab that I talked about yesterday is. We will be comparing the erosion that occurs in three different scenarios. We will be seeing how much better soil stays in place with plants in it as opposed to loose soil or soil with large particles on top. It is hard to explain this so I will show a picture.

The eroded soil should go into the bottle halves below

Wednesday or January 27,  2016 C.E.: 

Today we reviewed the quiz. I didn't do as well as I had hoped, but I still got an A. I missed two multiple choice questions and each could have been prevented. I read the problems too quickly and made mistakes. On one I thought it said erosion, but it really said weathering. I need to make sure to check my work and to work carefully and thoroughly. We also saw how much erosion was happening in the only soil bottle and how little was occurring in the plant bottles. I didn't think there would be such a large difference.
 

Thursday or January 28, 2016 C.E.:

Today was fun. We took part in a really cool and yummy soil layer experiment. We put delicious foods in layers in a cup to represent the layers of the soil. The foods included animal crackers, pudding, cake, and whipped cream. Soil has multiple layers. The top layer or O horizon contains humus, the most fertile soil. The next layer, the A horizon is the top soil which is also quite fertile. Next comes the E horizon which doesn't have many nutrients. All of its nutrients have made their way to the next layer or the B horizon. This is the sub soil. It is still a bit fertile. Next comes the C horizon it is not fertile and contains large chunks of bedrock. Lastly comes the R horizon, the bedrock. 

Yum!

Friday or January 29, 2016 C.E.:  

No Class!
Summary: This week was a good week as it reminded me to remember to check my work after taking a quiz. I had recently stopped doing that so now I know what happens. I need to work on this.

Earth and Environmental Blog Week 14

Monday or January 18, 2016 C.E.:

M.L.K. weekend... No School :)

Tuesday or January 19, 2016 C.E.:

Today we came back from a three-day weekend to start a new unit. It is Unit 6 which goes into detail about Weathering and Erosion which is something we covered in the past unit as well. We took notes about the first section. It talked about the two types of weathering. The first is mechanical and the second is chemical. Mechanical happens by scraping and other mechanical things. Chemical weathering changes the chemical composition of the material it is weathering. One example of Mechanical weathering is rock scraping on another rock. An example of chemical weathering is the rusting of iron in rock causing them to crumble.  We also did a cool skittles lab today. We each took a skittle and dropped water on them with a pipette.We saw how the water shaped the skittle and how the runoff was colored. It was quite a cool lab.


Wednesday or January 20, 2016 C.E.: 

Today we started a Weathering and Erosion lab. It has seven stations and each one represents a type of weathering. It was really cool. Today I did the first four stations. The stations included frost action which is the freezing and expanding of ice and carbonation, a chemical reaction. It was cool to see erosion hands on. Tomorrow I will do sections 5, 6, and 7. They are about water's erosion and abrasion (scraping) among other things. I can't wait to keep doing this lab.

Thursday or January 21, 2016 C.E.:

Today I did the last three sections of the lab. I had to make a description of a picture of natural eroded coastline. I also had to explain how it formed. On it were cliffs and caves, but my favorite phenomenon is the cliff blow hole. Water is pressed into the cliff over time. Eventually the water bores a hole through the cliff all the way to the top. It then spews out the top of the cliff in a "blowhole". It is really cool and I have always wanted to see one in real life. We finished our labs and turned them in today. 

Friday or January 22, 2016 C.E.:

Today we worked a little more on another lab. It is the Seeds to Shoreline project in which we cultivate marsh grass in class and replant it in wetlands. Since the 15th we have been waiting for our seeds to germinate. Today we counted and we had 2 germinated seeds. We also made a cover page for our lab. It has a drawing of Spartina Alterniflora, the name of the grass and a wetland on it. We wanted to make the cover page nice looking. In the coming weeks we will see how the seeds germinate and grow. It will be a cool multi-month lab.
Summary: This week was good. We came back from our 3-day weekend refreshed and ready to learn. We learned more about weathering and erosion from our new unit and we took part in interesting labs. I need to work on finishing my blog swifter, like always and I need to work faster in general.