Earth and Environmental Blog Week 19

Monday or March 7, 2016 C.E.:

Today we continued writing our research paper. I am almost done with my Controlling N and P factors paragraphs. I am writing about how to decrease Phosphorus in aquatic environments. We also started to take notes on the next and last section of this unit. This unit has two large sections instead of five or six small sections. We talked about the ocean floor. The ocean floor is divided into two regions, shallow and deep. In the shallow ocean, there are continental slopes, shelves, and rises. In the deep ocean, there are mid-ocean ridges, trenches, and rift valleys.

Tuesday or March 8, 2016 C.E.:

Today we continued our notes. We talked about the ocean floor. We talked about the continental shelf. We also talked about how the continental slope marks the boundary between continental and oceanic crust. In the deep ocean floor, there are really interesting land forms. The first is the mid-ocean ridge. It is usually at the center of the ocean and is a massive 80k kilometer mountain range. There are also extremely deep trenches and underwater volcanoes called seamounts.The most boring type of seafloor is the abyssal plain. It is just your average, flat, and sandy seafloor except that it is 4,000 meters under the sea. I also finished the N and P factors paragraph today.

Wednesday or March 9, 2016 C.E.:

Today we talked about the two main depth zones in our oceans. They are the Photic and the Aphotic zones.The Photic zone receives a lot of sunlight and the Aphotic receives less than 1 percent of the sunlight at the surface. Photosynthesis only occurs in the Photic zone. This zone is plentiful in food. The zone near the shore is the Neritic zone. This is also plentiful in food and biodiversity. The Benthic zone is the ocean floor and the Pelagic zone is the water above the floor. We also discussed the characteristics of each zone. I also started my last paragraph for the research project. Soon we will wrap up our writing.

Thursday or March 10, 2016 C.E.:

Today we finished Unit Seven's notes and I finished the writing for the research project. In notes today, we expanded upon the notes of yesterday, but we did learn that the zone between the Photic and the Aphotic zone was the transition zone. After notes, I finished my last paragraph for the project. I am still not close to done, however, because I still need to format it so it looks formal. I also need to edit it which will not be easy since it is over 1,000 words. The hardest part, however, will be the citations. We have around twenty sites and I am going to have to cite them all.

Friday or March 11, 2016 C.E.: 

Today many people were not at school because the Science Olympiad state competition is tomorrow. Thus, the class period was really fun and we had a lot of room. We had almost no instruction so I could spend most of class editing our paper. Andrei wrote much more than I did, but I found and cited our images. The editing process will take forever because Andrei tends to write in fragments and because Google Documents, the program which we wrote in doesn't catch mistakes very well. I might have to get a Grammarly free trial just in case I forget things.
Summary: This week was good. We finished notes for Unit 7 and I finished the writing for my project. I finished my blog with greater efficiency than last week's blog, but I can still improve.

Earth and Environmental Blog Week 18

Monday or February 29, 2016 C.E.: 

Today we researched extensively for our project during class. We will try to use fifteen to twenty sources. For each sources we will paste in important paragraphs and take notes. Once we have done enough research, we will analyze what we have accumulated. We will then write a research paper. After writing the paper we will create a PowerPoint to suggest ways to improve the situation. I have already started research on the Nitrogen and Phosphorus factors that cause Eutrophication and the harmful effects of Cyanobacteria. This project is really exciting and it is really fun to find and read interesting articles.

Tuesday or March 1, 2016 C.E.:

Today Andrei and I continued doing research at an even faster rate. We have already found many sources and have two whole pages of useful material. While Andrei researches the Biology aspects of the project, I research the Chemistry aspects. We both do what we are best at. One example, is that Andrei is researching the types of Cyanobacteria and their anatomy and I am researching the conditions they flourish in and their environmental impact. The project is going along well. We are also collecting pictures and figures to include in our presentation or paper.
A planetarium also came to our school

Wednesday or March 2, 2016 C.E.:

We declared today the last day of research for our project. We might still do a little research here and there, but we have already accumulated 5 pages of really good stuff. The only problem with our research is that my friend, Andrei researches too broadly. When you are making a paper, you should research broadly at first and start to narrow down your topic. While Andrei is hardworking and smart, he keeps branching out farther as the project progresses. He doesn't seem to like to not include information he reads. He keeps writing all these paragraphs about Cyanobacteria that don't have anything to do with Eutrophication and CyanoHABs. I guess I shouldn't complain because it can be easily corrected, but it is still funny how he works very different from me. Now we are both quite knowledgeable about the subject and ready to write the paper.

Thursday or March 3, 2016 C.E.:

Sadly we were not able to work on the research project today. We have to review for the quiz tomorrow. We had a also had a substitute, Mrs. Trainor. We talked about ocean currents and plankton. We also reviewed dissolved gases and Thermohaline Circulation. We also discussed the Coriolis effect and the global conveyor belt. I think we covered the material well and the quiz shouldn't be hard at all.

Friday or March 4, 2016 C.E.:

Today we took the Unit 7 Section 1 quiz on the Hydrosphere.  The quiz isn't too many points which makes sense because it is rather easy. I think I will do good. The only problem is that I kept day dreaming while doing the assessment. I hope I didn't make any stupid mistakes because of this.
Summary: This week was productive. The project is going along well and the paper is about a third way done. I need to get some more sleep in order to stop day dreaming during class. I will start to achieve this by doing my blog faster. I need to write my blog every day to make it as fast as possible.

Earth and Environmental Blog Week 17

Monday or February 22, 2015 C.E.:

Today we were introduced into a new unit and a new project. We have started the notes on Unit 7 Section 1 which talks about sea water. We also learned more about a really cool project that were would do today. We will carry a trash bag for 24 hours and put in all the waste that we use. When we return to class, we will all weigh our trash and graph all our weights. Already I have used five tissues. It will be interesting who uses the most trash from our class.

Tuesday or February 23, 2015 C.E.: 

Today we all compared our trash bag weight. One person had no trash and we all thought he cheated and threw away his trash somewhere else. Our Math teacher, Mr. Simon had the most trash. This is understandable because he has 2 small children. I was toward the bottom, but some people beat me. We also did a lot of notes. We also discussed ocean gases. Oceans contain mostly Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Carbon Dioxide. The amount of dissolved gases is based on the temperature of the water. Colder water can hold more dissolved gas.

Wednesday or February 24, 2015 C.E.:

Today we took a lot of notes about salt in ocean water. Salinity is the measure of dissolved solids in ocean water. It includes, but is not limited to salt. The elements present in the salts in ocean water are not just sodium and chloride, but also phosphorus and iron. We also learned about thermocline which is amount of the sun's energy on a region of the ocean. We also started an interest-a-lizer. It is essentially a study about what each of us likes to do. Apparently, there is a project coming up where we can choose what we want to study.

Thursday or February 25, 2015 C.E.:

Today our teacher gave us four large papers titled Land, River, Sand and Ocean. We had to brainstorm as many things as possible in them. We wrote so many things that each paper was almost completely full. Then we were told to go to the group that we liked best. I went to the Land group because I like breathing air. We then had to come up with something environmental that could affect what we like to do. I though smog could affect that. We still don't know what the project is, but it should be pretty big and good.

Friday or February 26, 2016 C.E.:

Today we did a lot of notes. We learned about the difference between deep ocean and surface currents. Deep ocean currents are slower and colder. Surface currents are warm and faster. We also learned about the global conveyor belt. In this, deep ocean currents move from the equator to the poles and back. When they reach the equator, they rise and cause upwellings. They then also bring nutrients to the surface. We also learned about what the project was about. We could either choose to do a lab in class about seawater or something of our choice. I decided to be in the same group with Andrei. We will research the effect of Eutrification on coastal ecosystems. We will research algal blooms and the overfertilization involved.

Algal Bloom

Summary: This week was a good week. We took part in an eye-opening trash project and started a really cool lab about oceans. I still need to work on finishing my blog fast and not last minute.

Earth and Environmental Blog Week 16

Monday or February 1, 2016 C.E.:

Last week we dug up soil from our yards. We then put it in a bag and brought it to class. Today we started a soil profiling lab. We need to examine our soil and its properties. Today we did the soil observation visually. We looked at it with a hand magnifier and a weak microscope. The microscope was really cool. Even though it wasn't that strong, I was able to see so much more than I could before. I saw little rock fragments and sand bits. I was amazed. Tomorrow we will continue on this lab.
















Tuesday or February 2, 2016 C.E.:

Today we continued the cool lab in science class. I started out the class with a test of my soil for texture. I had to make a soil worm by rolling it into a ribbon. If I was unable to do so, my soil was predominantly sand. Silt is seen with a short ribbon and clay with a long one. My soil had silt. Then I found the amount of free carbonates in the soil by dumping vinegar on it. This was really easy because nothing happened. This means I have zero. At the end of class I started a long experiment. I put soil and water in a graduated cylinder and shook it up. Tomorrow when the soil settles, I will see how the layers settle.

Wednesday or February 3, 2016 C.E.:

Surprisingly, my soil has the majority of sand in it. It was really hard to see the layers in my soil because everything is extremely dark. After a lot of observation, I finally came up what it was 56% sand, 19% silt, and 25% clay. After, I had to check the phosphorus content of the soil. It seems my soil is depleted of phosphorus. We also did a little review for the test tomorrow. It talk about weathering, erosion, and deposition, or the things on the quiz. It will also talk about new things such as soil horizons, soil types, and soil formation. I think the test will be easier than the quiz because many of the questions on the test will probably also be from the quiz. I am hoping for an A+ which would be awesome.

Thursday or February 4, 2016 C.E.:

Today we took the big test. It had questions about the rate of weathering and what affects it. There were questions about the interaction of different soil horizons and their names. We also had to explain how soil is formed and in which condition it forms the fastest. I definitely think I will do good on this one. It had so many questions that were on the quiz that I doubt I will get anything lower than a high A. One reason why I am so confident is because of my studying. I studied my vocabulary and soil layers which really paid off.

Friday or February 5, 2016 C.E.: 

I got a 98% on my test!!! I am thrilled. I got one multiple choice question wrong about the biosphere. I defined the biosphere wrong, but that is ok. We reviewed the quiz quickly and it seems other people around me did well too. After this we worked a little on our Seeds to Shoreline project. We didn't have much to work on since we didn't have any seeds germinate. This means we have officially the least germinated seeds. We have three. Another group had over twenty. :( The rest of class we just took it easy and learned a little bit about the ocean to prepare for our new unit on Monday.
Summary: This week was a good week. I did better on my assessments than last week and I finished my blog faster. I can still work on efficiency and speed in other areas though.

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.

Earth and Environmental Blog Week 13

Monday or December 7, 2015 C.E.: 

Today we reviewed for the quiz both as a group and independently. We discussed all the topics of the first, second, and third sections as a class. Then we studied independently or in small groups. I studied independently first, but then I joined a small group using Kahoot. We did several of its quizzes talking about Rock Identification and the characteristics of the three types of rocks. Kahoot ranks you against you friends, and I did quite well so I think I will do well on the quiz tomorrow. I cannot wait to see how it affects my overall grade. 

Tuesday or December 8, 2015 C.E.: 

Today we took the quiz on the first three sections of Unit 5. It contained a variety of information like what Felsic and Mafic rocks are, what they look like, and their density. It also had questions about Igneous intrusions such as dikes, sills, lacoliths, and stocks. There were also questions about the texture of different types of rocks based on their origins and questions about Metamorphism and the construction of the types of Sedimentary rock. I think I knew all the topics and I will get a good grade. It will definitely help my overall grade. 

Wednesday or December 9, 2015 C.E.: 

Today we reviewed the quiz and I got a 99%. This sure is good news for my grade! After reviewing it, we took notes to start the rest of the Unit. We learned about Section 4, the rock cycle. We learned how each rock becomes the other and why. We also talked about how Plate Tectonics helps drive the rock cycle though two processes, Subduction and Uplift. Subduction helps rock melt and Uplift exposes them to Weathering and erosion. We also drew a diagram of the rock cycle similar to the one below.

The Rock Cycle

Thursday or December 10, 2015 C.E.:

Today I started the Sedimentary Rock Lab. I had to identify seven rocks, Rock Gypsum, Limestone, Tufa, Conglomerate, Dolostone, Shale, and Sandstone. Dolostone was the hardest to classify. Rock Gypsum and Limestone were Chemical Sedimentary rocks. Limestone was also an Organic Sedimentary rock. The other rocks were all Clastic Sedimentary rocks. I also did reflection questions concerning Evaporites which are Chemical and Sedimentary "Veneers" which are coverings of Sedimentary rocks. I completed the lab in one day and I hope I will get a good grade. 

Friday or December 11, 2015 C.E.: 

Today we did our Rock Identification Practical. We spent the beginning of class studying for it, so not everyone was in the testing area at once. We had to identify 15 rocks. There were 13 mandatory rocks and 2 bonus rocks. The 13 mandatory rocks were quite easy. The 2 bonus rocks were not so easily recognized. They were Rhyolite and Tufa. I got Rhyolite, but got Tufa mixed up with an Igneous rock called Tuff. This is ok though because my final score with the bonus was 102% which is awesome.    
Summary: This week was great. I did very well on two major assessments and was very efficient. However, I can still do my blog faster and more efficiently and I will do so in the next blog post.