Monday, May 21, 2012

MINERAL ID Lab


Mineral Properties
Streak- The color of a mineral when its rubbed agaisnt a streak plate.
Luster- The surface of the mineral, it can be metallic, which looks like metal. or non metallic.
Hardness- How hard the mineral is
Cleavage & Fracture- the way the mineral breaks, either in straight lines, or uneven. 

Video








Reflection

1. What did you enjoy most about this project and why?
I enjoy using the different tools on the minerals and record the data because it was hands on, I tested the minerals. I found that interesting.

2. What was most challenging for you during this project and why?
Making a guess of what mineral is it just by looking at it.

3. What new skills did you learn from doing this project?
I learned how to use data and come up with an correct final answer. Also using tools to help me find the correct answer.
4. Is there anything that you could have done to improve any of your work? Explain
I think this project was well planned and quick, I would improve anything on my behalf.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Shaking Our World Reflection

Lithosphere
The outer part of the earth interior. this includes the oceanic and continental crust. in this layer is where the continental drift happens, where the plates actually move.
-Activities for this layer
3 mini posters (Faults, Continental drift, & Volcanoes)
2 brain pops (Earth interior, & Earthquakes)
2 Music videos ( Layers of earth, & Plate techtonics)
for these activities i was required to take notes and use information to form mini posters.


Asthenosphere
 The layer just beneath the lithosphere, under the both type of crust. This layer is hot and pressured but still solid. Because its less dense then the crust, the plates float of this layer. This is where the plate techtonic takes place.
-Activities for this layer
Prediction Map - Labeling where eathquakes, mountains, ridges, hot spots and trenches are formed on eath's map
Demostration Lab- use cold and hot water to show movement similar to the convention currents that happen on upper part and lower parts of the mantle by using food coloring.

Mantle
Thickest layer on the earths interior. Is made of very hot rocks. the layer where the convention currents take place. Magma rises and sinks causing movement that make the plates in the upper layers move.
-Activities for this layer
Exploration Labs
-Density lab: measuring how dense continental and oceanic rocks are to determine which one is more dense.
- Ring of fire lab: locating earthquakes, volcanoes, and hot spots using latitude and longitude. Then after locating the points , based on what you see. find the ring of fire.

Critical Thinking
Do you agree with the theory of plate tectonics? why or why not?
I agree with the theory because as the earth map today looks like a big puzzle, there a smaller pieces that move different directions on earth. Evidence of this is that earthquakes are formed in the transform plates boundaries, mountains are made when two plates crash into each other on two continental crust, also know as divergent boundaries. Trenches made on oceanic divergent boundaries.  The ring of fire shows a whole lot of edvidence, that there is a big plate surounded by others moving different directions causing changes on the enviroment.

Reflection
What did you enjoy most about this project and why?
 I enjoyed collecting information and using my knowledge to complete labs and create posters or other activities for presentation because I worked independently for most of the project which made me save much time and made me focus more on the topics.

What was most challenging for you during this project and why?
The most challenging part of this project was finding latitude and longitude of points on the Ring of fire lab because there was some mistakes made on the point which force me to redo and see if I made mistakes. But the mistakes where in the points given.

What new skills did you learn from this project?
I learned to double check carefully on my work on this project, there was some mistakes made and I was able to come back and fix them.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Seasons

Vocabulary
Seasons-(Temporadas) Divisions of earth that are marked by changes of climate, daylight,and ecology.
Axis-(Eje) An imaginary line that goes through earth which earth spins on.
Tilt-(Inclinar) A angle that earth have on its axis. 23.3 degrees.
Orbit-(Orbita) The path earth takes around the sun.
Revolution-(Revolucion) The movement of earth around the sun.
Ellipse-(Elipse) An oval shape orbit.
Direct Sunlight-(Luz del sol directa) When the sun rays hit earth straight in a line.
Indirect Sunlight-(Luz del sol indirecta) When the sun rays are hitting earth in an angle.
Equator-(Ecuador) The imaginary line in the middle that divides earth into 2 parts.
Hemispheres-(Hemisferio) The two parts of earth, Northern Hemisphere, and Southern Hemisphere.
Summer-(Verano) When the sun rays hit earth directly.
Fall-(Otono) When earth reaches one of the equinoxes, equal night and equal day. Tree leaves fall.
Winter-(Invierno) When the sun hits earth in a angle, causing less sunlight time.
Spring-( Primavera)When earth reaches the other equinox, 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. Tree leaves begin to grow.

Summary
Seasons are 4 divisions of the year which are Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. They  happen for various reasons. The earth axis is tilted in a 23.5 degree angle. Also because the revolution of earth is an elliptical orbit. As the earth moves around the sun, the sunlight hits the hemisphere in different angles. The 2 hemisphere receive opposite sunlight. When there is direct sunlight in the northern hemisphere, in the south there is indirect sunlight. That means opposite seasons too. In the equator there is no seasons because it always gets direct sunlight.

Video



Critical Thinking
How is earth affected by movement?
The revolution of earth affects the world by changing of climate, daylight and ecology. Seasons happen which affects life in earth. In every season the earth changes which means life such as humans, animals and plants need to adapt those changes. In summer, the temperature is hot, trees are full with green leaves. Animals and humans are out enjoying the weather. At fall, tree leaves begin to fall and animals prepare to hibernate. At winter, the temperature is cold. Trees have no leaves, animals are in shelter and humans avoid the cold temperature as much as possible. At spring the leaves begging to grow again. Animals start to leave their shelter and go out. Lots of precipitation which might cause problems on earth. This cycle happens every year, the movement of year have many ways of affecting earth.

Reflection
What did you enjoy most about this project and why?
I enjoy coming up with creative ideas with group members and putting our work together to have an unique project. I enjoy it because it showed how a group collaborates together, it was nice to experience different type of members come up with a well done video

What was most challenging for you during the project and why?
The most challenging part of this project was the recording because my group ran short on time to record this video. we kind of rushed throw the recording. Leaving out some qualities such as the voice and placement of props.

What new skills did learn from doing this project?
I learned the skill of leadership, making some decisions of the best ideas that will construct the video. Also what it takes to record a video using props.

Is there anything you could have done to improve any of your work?
I would of finish other paper work that was required aside from the video. I spent to much time working on props and story board. Not finishing those papers might affect my grade or even my group members. I would of done those papers to improve our work.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Geologic Time Scale Project

My blog is about the Jurassic Period, In the Jurassic period the
earths continents were just beginning to separate. It was still a Pangaea. Many volcanic eruptions took place. The dinosaurs roam the land and lots of creatures swam the oceans. In this period many new species were formed.(gigantic, small, birds, fishes,dinosaurs). Also a lot of species were also extinct, most of them in the oceans, for a Unknown reason.


Reflection
What did you enjoy most about this project?
I enjoyed designing my blog , finding and editing the pictures to have a good layout.


What was most challenging about this this project? Why ?
The project was not very difficult but the hardest part was the research because it took the most time and I had to look in many different websites for information.


What you change about about this project and why?
I like the project the way it is. I wouldnt change anything about it.


What are 3 things you learned from this project?
I learned that in the Jurassic period

  • many species formed and many went extinct
  • The earth was still a pangaea and it was just beginning to separate
  • volcanic eruptions formed many mountains and continent border rifts

Monday, November 14, 2011

The Stars

Stars
A star is a big ball of energy that glows which is made out of gas and dust.
The closest star to us is the sun. With out stars, humans would not be able live, the energy of stars fuels life.
There are billions and billions of starts, and they still counting.

Type Of Stars
Stars have many characteristics.( Color, Size, Luminosity, Temperature , Spectral Class, Age.)
Color defines what color of the star. It can be (White,Red,Blue,Yellow,Orange.)
Size shows how big a star is. Luminosity is how bright or dim is a star. Temperature is how hot or cold is a star. Spectral class indicates color and temperature of a star by a letter. Age is how young or old a star is.
The types of stars are White Dwarfs, Main sequence, Giants, and Super Giants. White dwarfs are small and old, they're also dim. Main sequence are young/middle age and there size,temperature,and color varies, our sun is a main sequence. Giant stars are middle age and big. There colors are orange and red, they are bright and cool. Super giants are huge. middle age/old, very bright and varieties of temperatures.

H-R Diagram 
 The Hertzsprung- Russell Diagram is a graph that astronomers use to classify stars based on their Color, Size, Luminosity, Temperature , Spectral Class, Age.
This graph is very useful in identifying stars, a good tool to find stars.
Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear fusion is the fuel of the stars. Nuclear reactions happen inside the star, the change of two gas molecules. Hydrogen gas into helium molecule. When the star runs out of this gases the stars have no more energy. Its like a fireplace, it will make fire intill it runs out of wood to burn.

Life of a Star
All stars live and die. They all start will stella nubula which is a cloud of gas and dust.
Sun like stars start with stella nebula like all others. It forms a star like the sun, then it becomes a red giant and it later explode making a planetary nebula. After it becomes a white dwarf which later forms into a black dwarf. Huge stars start like all the others. Huge stars as they age become Red Super Giants. The enormous star explode. This is called Supernova, which later forms a neutron star.
Lastly giant stars form from stella nebula. a giant stars get bigger as time go transforming into a Red Super Giant. Like huge stars it explodes.(Super Nova). Then it leaves a Black Hole in the universe.