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.

Earth and Environmental Blog Week 1

Monday or August 24, 2015 C.E.:

Hello again! It has been a long break, but even that has come to an end. This is actually the second week of school, but we only start blogging in the second week. Today in class used some index cards to write down vocabulary words so we can learn, reference, and study them in the future. After this we talked about this lab we started last week and will finish this week: the cookie lab.

In the cookie lab we made cookie dough and altered one ingredient. Our group was supposed to be the control group, but we accidentally added one extra egg. One of my group members then took the cookies home and baked them. Today we saw everyone's cookies, and some of them don't look appetizing, but some of them look amazing. We were devastated when the class was over, so that we couldn't eat the cookies.

Tuesday or August 25, 2015 C.E.:

We started out the day by filling some index cards with information on the words Accuracy and Precision.
Accuracy is how close your results you are to the actual value, and precision is how close your results are to each other.  Then we did the experiment part of the cookie project. We tasted all of the cookies, of which only 1 tasted good, which was the x2 eggs cookie. We had to list their taste, color, and texture. We then weighed them and measured their volume, to calculate their density. This was a really fun lab... if only the cookies tasted better!

Wednesday or August 26, 2015 C.E.:

We handed in our cookie labs at the beginning of class so we start a new lab. This lab is an Oreo lab! No kidding. Another cookie related lab. In this lab we need to see if the double stuf Oreo really has double the stuff than traditional Oreos. We weighed the Oreos with all the different combinations. They include wafer, whole cookie, cookie with paper under it, filling, and single wafer. We found out that a double stuf cookie actually does contains double the filling that a original one has. However the wafer part is also larger, so the ratio between the filling and the wafer is not 1 : X and 1 : 2X, but it might be 1 : X and 1.2 : 2X. So in conclusion, the double stuf cookie seems to just be an oversized cookie with slightly more filling per amount of wafer.

Thursday or August 27, 2015 C.E.:

Today we continued our Oreo lab, and we started to graph them. Our teacher Mrs. Giacomelli, made a rather large table of almost all of the weights we measured yesterday, the weights of the other groups, and the class averages. We then graphed the regular cookie filling weight from our group and the class, and then the double stuf cookie filling weight of our group and our class.

Friday or August 28, 2015 C.E.:

Today we had our test. It was the test on Scientific method. It contained a bit of essential science vocabulary, a couple of lab safety questions, and obviously a multitude of scientific method questions. Right before taking the test, I was rather scared, but when I took the actual test, I found out that it was much easier than the study guide and textbook. Now I am confident that I have done well on it. After this, we finished our the graphs of our cookie lab, but I am not yet finished with the entire lab.
Summary: This week was a great week. We reviewed what we forgot, and are ready to learn in our new science course. I still need to work on efficiency, and focus while working.

Final Blog Reflection

2014-2015 C.E. School Year Reflection:

          Throughout this school year I was exposed to two broad areas in Science. I gained a basic knowledge in Chemistry and Physics. We learned how to identify general characteristics of elements using the placement of them on the Periodic Table and did not only learn the characteristics by memorizing them. In Physics we learned how to compute basic equations for a variety of different quantities.We can now switch basic equations as we please, to find a variable that is not already set equal to. We learned about how objects move, about energy, and force. 

          Many times over the course of the school year, we did hands-on activities to learn. Of the many that we did, my two favorite were the Flame Test lab and the Egg Drop lab. In the Flame Test lab we took samples of transition metals and burned them under a Bunsen burner. Different metals burned in different colors, for example Magnesium burned a brilliant white and Copper burned an emerald green. The Magnesium was so bright that we could not look at it directly. The Egg Drop lab was the lab where we had to protect our egg from impact after being dropped from high heights. We had to absorb shock from a variety of different heights and ultimately from a helicopter. We used shock absorbing materials like foam, but the foam was too hard so the egg broke after being dropped from the helicopter. In retrospect, I would have made the design our of egg "case" out of bubble wrap, foam pellets, and polyester fiberfill (stuffed animal stuffing).
          The Science final was a very fair test. It tested us on the key points that we had to know. I did not do well on my test partially because I forgot to study for one of the topics that was going to be tested on. Next time I will take a closer look at what I have to study.
           We went to Defy gravity. Defy Gravity is an extremely fun trampoline park and we had almost the entire place for ourselves. We could play dodge-ball in a place full of trampolines, and they had a foam pit that we could jump in. After two hours, we were really tired.

           The Boat Regatta was the last big Science event we had. We had to race our cardboard boats from one side of the Echo farms pool to the other and back. My group consisted of Ben, Andrei, John Stewart, and me, of course. Our boat may not have been that good, but Ben and I practiced paddling, watched different boat regattas, and developed a strategy. In the end we got the second place time.

          Although we were able to participate in the Boat Regatta, I still liked Chemistry more than Physics while studying them, for the sole reason that I am better at it than Physics. This just made it more enjoyable for me because I would understand it faster, and be able to apply it more.
          My thoughts on Science changed drastically throughout the year. Because I have almost completely taught all of my prior knowledge of Science to myself, I really loved being taught it in person. Normally if I didn't understand a topic, I would just move to another paragraph in the book, but now I can understand a lot more. This caused me to enjoy learning Science even more because I didn't have all these gaps in my knowledge. During the second semester I also grew less intimidated by Physics.
          Now that this year is over, I am looking ahead to next year's topic: Earth and Environmental. We will learn about Geology, the oceans, the atmosphere, and about Astronomy. Of these 4 sub-topics, I am looking forward to Astronomy and Geology the most. It will be interesting to learn about the cosmos.
          Among the things I look forward to doing in the next year is improving efficiency. I need to work on focusing for prolonged period to get work done faster. This will drastically increase my efficiency. I also need to adopt better studying techniques, and studying everything that could be on the assessment. Including increasing my efficiency, I also want to get all A+'s on my next Science grade. I didn't achieve that this year.
         All in all, this year was a great year to learn and grow. I learned a lot about Physics and Chemistry, and filled in the numerous gaps in my former knowledge. See you next year!

Science Week 34

Monday or May 11, 2015 A.D.: 

Today we took our Waves quiz. I think I did a good job on it. Did you know that a waves velocity can only be changed with the wave traveling into a different medium. I learned that waves that need a medium to travel through are called Mechanical waves. I am starting to get worried about the final and I better start studying. The waves test is also coming as well.

Tuesday or May 12, 2015 A.D.:

Today we started the last topic we will learn about this year. It is reflection and refraction. We put Pyrex stirring rods into a beaker of water. We saw how the light was refracted because it was "bent". We also used a special brand of oil that has the almost the same angle of refraction as the Pyrex stirrer this caused it to be almost invisible from far away. In the beakers we also put oil and water and we watched the refraction between the separated water and oil. It was really cool and I enjoyed it.

Wednesday or May 13, 2015 A.D.:

We took our Unit 4 test today. It was all about waves. It was not a grade because we are behind and did not have enough time to do it. I got all of the questions right when we went over it. This test was very similar to the quiz we had on Monday. One of the questions was exactly the same! It was good preparation for finals. I was really glad that we were able to take it even though it was not going to be a grade.

Thursday or May 14, 2015 A.D.:

We reviewed for the final with Kahoot. Kahoot is a website where you can make quizzes for a large group of people. It is really cool. If you get the answer right, you get points. The faster you get them done the more points you get on the leader board. We then reviewed in the traditional style on the whiteboard. What we reviewed most was force, but we also reviewed energy and waves. I think I am ready for the final now.

Friday or May 15, 2015 A.D.:

Today the NHD students were not at school to play paintball with Mrs. Ovacz. This caused a lack of people in the class and Mrs. Giacomelli is in Pennsylvania. We reiewed for all of our finals during this period. I studied a little bit of science and a little bit of Social Studies.

Summary: This week was a good week that involved lots of studying. I still need to work on efficiency especially while studying.

Can't wait 'till the end of the exams!

Science Week 33

Monday or May 4, 2015 A.D.:

May the fourth be with you. Today we did a waves lab with slinkies. We took a slinky on both sides and stretched it our 5 meters. We then flicked our wrists to represent a transverse wave or a wave that oscillates perpendicular to the direction it travels. We timed the time for one wave to make it from one side to the other and then we calculated the velocity of the wave.

The Transverse wave we imitated.

Tuesday or May 5, 2015 A.D.:

Today we imitated a new type of wave with our slinkies. We imitated a longitudinal wave by taking a couple slinky rings and letting them go. A longitudinal wave oscillates parallel to the direction it is traveling. After doing this we did the wave questions.
Q: What do physicists enjoy most in sporting events?
A: The Wave


Wednesday or May 6, 2015 A.D.:

No Class We participated in an all day field trip for final review of social studies

Thursday or May 7, 2015 A.D.:

No Class Clyde Egderton visit.

Friday or May 8, 2015 A.D.:



No class We played paintball as celebration for MathCounts and Science Olympiad participants.

Summary: Although this week's class was short, I learned a lot about waves. I still need to work on focusing and getting work done faster.