Teréz's Reflection Post

Hi everyone!

I think my blogging has improved a lot over the past year. This is also thank to my improved language skills. I got more used to writing in blog form and in easy sentences.
Blogging helps the person, who is blogging or the one who is reading it maybe not memorize, but remember the things we did in class.
A blog can be used for people to discuss a topic or one person writing about a topic which gets updated a lot.

Blogging helped my overall writing a lot because I had to write about a lot of different topics and use a lot of different words.
Commenting made me look at things more critical and can look and read things more easily.
The most important thing I learned by blogging is including everything and not forgetting anything.

Dan's Reflection Post

There are several things I have improved on in my blog posts, comparing my first post and the posts of the 4th and 3rd quarters. The biggest thing I've improved on that's also helped my in my non-blog writing is being able to summarize a large amount of information (e.g. a class) concisely and clearly. Comparing from the start of the year I also have many more relevant and labelled pictures than the none I had at the start of the year. I need to improve, however, on not only inserting more pictures but also more multimedia and links rather than linking solely to Moodle.

I think the blog helped us more with writing and being able to express long and complex class discussions in concise summaries than in our science, as we were only reviewing what had happened in class. However, it was (and will be) a valuable studying and review tool to use when catching up on homework or preparing for a test.

The most important thing I learned from blogging, as mentioned above, is being able to summarize long and complex things in concise paragraphs while being able to pick out and emphasize the important and relevant information.

Gio's reflection post

- As a blogger, I have improved a lot throughout these two years of blogging
- I think blogging helps students listen more in class, since they would have to write a scribe post about the class. Also, students can check the blog to understand what was done during class if they were absent.
- I think a blog for science could be also used to share interesting extra facts about what we're studying.
- Blogging has helped my overall writing because I am more careful about spelling and sentence structure.
- Blogging has helped me understand more how to grade others in their writing by making me more critical, but also always see a positive side about their writing.
- The most important thing I have learned by blogging is organize better my ideas and explain more clearly subjects I have to talk about.

Sophie's Reflection Post

I have improved as a blogger in many ways. For one, I actually now know how to blog. I also add more pictures, try to describe them and put in more hyperlinks than I did before. Blogging contributes to learning for a class in school because whenever we have to do a scribe post, we pay attention more than usual. Another good reason is if someone is gone that day, they can just look at the blog and see what we learned in class, what we talked about, and what the homework is. A blog could also be used to post, for example, poetry or anything else. During my poets alive project in English, I was looking for poems by my poet and came across many blogs with poems of the day, etc.. Blogging has helped my writing a little bit. It has for sure taught me how to get to the point with my idea and how to write in chronological order better. This blog has also helped my commenting immensely because before I didn't even know how to comment. I can tell people criticisms without being mean and add a bit of everything into the comment, to make it well rounded. The most important thing I've leaned from blogging is how to actually use blogger and write a decent scribe post.

Vals Reflection Post Q4

1.) My skills as a blogger generally got better, obviously since I have never done a Blog before.

2.) I personally don't think that it is that much of a help, because I never used it, and the argument that if you are sick it helps is not really true because you can just ask someone and probably get a better answer.

3.) Well outside school a Blog could be used as a Vlog, just without a video, or if someone just has something to tell he can use it. Most companies have a Blog on which they release news. My favorite Blog is one of a video-gamer who reviews games after playing them through 100%, and gives them usable ratings.

4.) Overall, I do really believe that my writing got much better through blogging, not really the grammar but it helped a lot writing science, which obviously is a very common topic.

5.) The commenting helped a lot to get a more critical point of view, and to write more serious comments than e.g. on YouTube.

6.) To read through articles with more detail and to be more critical and accurate at some statements, and challenge their source.

Viktor's Reflection Post

Over the past two years, I feel that I have improved as a blogger a lot. I have learned to add and caption pictures, add more links, write more creatively, and make the post more interesting. According to me, my posts have just gotten better and better; in my first scribe post ever, I did not include everything that I have now; I didn't have captioned pictures, had no links, and my post was very brief and not very scientific. In my second post, I included some links and stuff like that, but I again wasn't very scientific and didn't explain why what we did happened. The last 7th grade post wasn't much better, and neither was the first 8th grade one. In my second 8th grade post, I feel that I made a huge improvement. I had big titles for all the sections, I included a lot of science, captioned pictures, and much more. I included vocabulary and a nice video (which was embedded). In my last post for this year, I think that I did pretty much the same things as in the 3rd quarter, but I added a few more videos and I my multimedia was better.

I feel that blogs contribute to learning in school because the posts are written by students, for students, which according to me makes it easier to understand, because it is less complicated and more self-explanatory. It is also easier to incorporate multimedia such as pictures, videos from YouTube, and much more. Blogs are a way in which we can learn and be creative at the same time!

I think that a blog could be used for many other things; for example, an 8th grade blog for all subjects where one person writes all the homework for the next day and what we learned. That would be better than having an individual blog for each subject, and the teachers could take turns grading them. Blogging could also be used instead of the School-to-Home news that the school makes.



Blogging has helped my overall writing a lot, by helping me make it more creative and more interesting. I have learned to check my spelling, make sure the color of the post is good, and more. I have also learned to make sure my grammar makes sense, because sometimes I write things without knowing that I'm writing them (making mistakes without realizing). I think that blogging is a good exercise for being creative, and it also helps in English class!

My commenting to others has gotten better and better. I think that I have learned how to be critical without being mean, and I have also learned to find mistakes that aren't visible to the naked eye. I have learned to talk more about the science and not just the multimedia, which I do a lot. Blogging has contributed to all of this. Even when I proofread something in for example English for someone, I have learned how to be a little more critical and what needs to be done and what doesn't.

The most important thing I have learned from blogging is to review. I have learned to have someone else proofread my work, because what makes sense to me might not make sense to other people. I have also learned to be more exciting and to use technology better.

All in all, I think that this year's blogging has been really good and I hope we will continue with this in the future!

Antonia's Reflection Post

Over the past years, I think that I have improved as a blogger. I used to make many mistakes involving both technology and the written parts. Now, I know how to do things and as a result, I proofread my work before I publish it. Although, my bog posts are not perfect, they have become better during the years. I still have to focus on putting in enough scientific facts sometimes, but that is getting better over the time too.
A blog is very good for a class in school, because it can show the people that were absent on a day, what happened. It can also explain something that you might have not understood during the lesson. Another thing that the blog can do is showing us what the other classes are doing. From that we can also learn a few new things that we did not cover in class.
I think that a blog could be used for many different things. For example it could be kept as a diary, or a way to share information with your friends. There are also many different ways in which a blog could be used for school. The students could share information in a sort of journal, so that the other group members know what they have to do.
Blogging has helped me a lot in writing. I used to make stupid mistakes that I learned to correct when using blogger. It has also developed my scientific writing with the help of the comments.
Before blogging, I never really knew how to comment on someones writing before, but after we used blogger I really learned how to be both critical and serious, without being mean.
The most important thing that I have learned from blogging is being more scientifically. I was never good at that, but I think blogging has helped me improve my work.

Fabi's Reflection Post

Over the last few years I feel I've improved as a blogger because I've learned the importance of checking the rubric before posting. I've also learned that it isn't enough just to add the links we talked about during class.
I think blogging contributes to learning because if we ever have to study for a test we can always go back to the blog. Also, I learn better when I review and write things down, and blogging is a great way to do both. Finally, having all the information we learned in class taught to us by our friends, who write and think in a way similar to the way I do, sometimes helps me understand things I didn't before better.
The blog could be used by the teacher to see whether or not we are understanding and applying the things we learn in class. It is also good practice for us because our blog posts are like summaries of what we did in class.
I think that blogging has helped with my overall writing because I've learned how to make my posts understandable and organized. I also learned to check rubrics and how to make my posts appealing and interesting.
My commenting has also improved this year because I've learned how to include science in my comments as well as compliments.
The most important thing I learned from this blogging experience is to always check the rubric before posting, and how to make my blogs organized and well-written. Also, by writing my blog posts and commenting on people's posts, I learned a lot. I think overall the blog is really good.

Calvin's Reflection Post

Over the year I believe that I have become a better writer as far as blogs are concerned. I am finding that I am not making the same mistakes all the time, and I have been making fewer as the year has progressed. I have made fewer punctuation mistakes and less typos have been popping up within my writing. I have also gotten better at putting science in the writing. The blog is important because it shows us what we have done in the past in case we need to look back on it (hint hint Finals). It is also a good way for us to find out more about the topic we are learning about because the writer includes some videos and more in depth explanations about the subject. A great example of this is the post Davide did on Kinects. I think this is a great teaching tool and I have more or less liked using it this year. A blog could be used to show what we need to do for the future. For example, Ms. D could post a short blog saying that we need to study this and that. The blog has helped me to find the good and the bad in the writing of others and it has helped me to check my own work more thoroughly. The most important thing I have learned from blogging is it has also allowed me to become aware of the fact that I need to do more research before I say things about them because sometimes I am completely wrong about what I say.

Noam's Reflection Post

I believe that I have improved over the years of blogging because from now one, I will proofread my work before I post it. Blogging is good for classrooms because when people are sick and/or missed a class, they can check the blog to see how they can get up to date. Also, if a student did not understand what the teacher said in class but understands it better when a student explains it, the student can then get a lot more done.A blog can also be used for sharing pictures, art, music and many more different things. Blogging helped my overall writing in the way that I try to spell words i don't know by trying to listen to how the word sounds. Blogging helped me comment about peoples writing because I try to read carefully and understand what the person wrote.The most important thing I learned from blogging is that if some people don't understand your work or they see it differently, you just have to think "why not" and try not to get angry.

Bryce relection post

I feel that I have improved in blogging over the past two years because spelling errors in my work are less frequent than they were when I started blogging. I feel I also improved in explaining what was happening in class. Blogs contribute to class learning because it tells people who were absent what happened n class and people learn more about the topic by following the links in the post. A blog would also be useful in posting ideas to benefit the school so there would be a written documentation of of requests. Blogging has helped me learn to explain situations better and make errors less frequent. Commenting on the blog has helped me to always be able to think of a complement or a criticism for the writing. The most important lesson I have learned from blogging is that the internet still has problems with some websites.

Over the time we have been blogging as a class, I believe that I have gotten much better at revising my work and at including everything that is required. Blogging contributes to our learning at school be letting us review what he have gone over in class and is a helpful study guide. Blogging has helped my overall writing be making me rethink how I express ideas and make them more understandable to others. Blogging has helped me comment on others posts by making me analyze their work more carefully in order to understand it more thoroughly so I can comment on it. The most important thing I learned from blogging was that no matter how great I think it is, every time I write I make mistakes and that it is important to go back and check my work. Finally, the other use of a blog is it could be used as a diary or a way to keep in contact with friends.

Ciprian's Reflection Post

I felt I have improved as a blogger in many different ways over the past few years considering the fact that I had no knowledge of blogs before we started it as a Science project. I learned how to add pictures and videos, change fonts and the colors of fonts, furthermore I learned how to add links and organize my post in a manner that is not only easy to read but also appealing to the eye and last but not least I improved the quality of my writing. I think blogs are really helpful in classrooms because sick students can check up on it and catch up with what they missed in class that day or that week. It is also helpful because this way students can review what they have done in class simply by checking the blog. A blog can also be used for studying for upcoming tests by seeing a summarized version of what the students learned in class. Blogging has helped my overall writing in a way that is hard to describe. Apart from the obvious grammar/spelling improvement it has taught me to get straight to the point rather than just add words to make it sound good. It has also taught me that when I am writing for science the writing isn't supposed to focus on being as flowery as possible it is supposed to talk about the science. Blogging helped me when commenting to other people's writing because the countless comments I wrote taught me that I shouldn't point out only the negative things about their writing but I should also talk about what they did very well. The most important thing I learned from blogging is that a picture is worth a thousand words. Meaning that visual effects not only greatly help me getting my point trough but also support what I am saying.

Iva's Reflection Post

Over the last two years I have definitely improved in blogging. I am not saying that I think I am a great blooger, but I have gotten better. I feel that my posts are more organized, and neater. They are clearer, and easier to understand. I have also discovered some of the 'secrets' to blogging, and it has made blogging for me easier!
In my opinion, blogging can be used to do many different things, like sharing things you write, or maybe sharing recipes, or making a public blog to ask people questions about various topics. Blogging could also be used to summarize books read in classes in school, and to discuss the book, for example. But I also feel that blogs contribute to learning in a class. They can help students when they are sick and when they need help they can just look at the class blog, and everything we covered during class is there! A blog also can contribute to learning for a class because people sometimes post helpfull and interesting videos, and maybe those help others more. And of course, if your mind wonders off during class, you can look at the scribe post, and figure out what you missed! :D
Overall, blogging has helped my writing because I can write in a way that is more understandable and less confusing, and I can now write about class, and include scientific vocabulary well, with less problems! But not only has blogging helped me improve n my writing but also in my commenting to others. I can now comment to others in a nicer manner, and I have learned to be more critical(in a good way) and I have learned to comment more on the Science in the blog post, rather than the way it looks.
All in all, blogging has helped me realize that Blogger actually isn't such a bad thing in the end (even though it still gives me problems), but that it is actually helpful and I have learned that you should never copy a large amount of text into Blogger, because that causes unwanted problems. =D

Meteors

To begin with, meteors are found all over the solar system. They are any body (typically rocky) that is too small to be a comet or an asteroid. There are three types of asteroids, stone, iron and stony-iron. Any meteor that manages to catch on fire as it passes through the atmosphere and makes it through is called a fire ball. Technically, for something to be called a fire ball, it has to be generating its own light and that light must be brighter than Venus. Fireball over utah

Types and a little bit about them

• Meteoroid is any amount of matter revolving around the sun or any object in space that is too small to be classified as an asteroid of comet.
• could have originally been comets that broke into pieces
• meteoroids ,meteors and meteoroids are all made of rock, ice and other metals such as nickel and iron
• meteors are meteoroids that burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere
• a meteorite is a meteoroid that reaches the earth’s surface without being completely vaporized
• a meteoroid is any piece of matter too small to be a comet or asteroid that is revolving around the sun or any body

Normal meteor in space

How are they formed?

• Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites all formed the same way
• Could be parts of planets, comets or asteroids that had previously broken up
• Thought by scientists to be around 4,500,000,000 years old

fireball after it has entered the atmosphere

Types

o stony iron, rarest meteors, only 2% or all meteors are stony-iron

o stone, most meteors are stone, formed the outer crust of a planet or asteroid/comet

o iron, 90%-95% iron, besides iron mostly nickel, formed the iron core of a planet or asteroid/comet, most craters on earth were caused by iron meteors, about 5% of meteors that fall to earth are iron meteors,

Meteor craters

o Meteor craters are caused when a meteor hits earth (duh)

o 2 types of craters simple and complex

o Collision with earth causes further fracturing of the meteor

o Atmosphere protects Earth from meteors by burning them to a size where they cannot do much damage besides initial impact

o Complex crater caused when Earth rebounds against the force of the meteor

Facts

o About 9 meteor showers per year

o Even a piece of dust that enters the atmosphere can be considered a meteor

o Most meteors are found in the south pole because they stand out against the natural landscape, many are also found in the desert for the same reason

-Meteors can act as a "boost" for radio signals sending them further

-Meteors can be knocked off their course by a nuclear weapon, this is called an X-ray slap

-You are more likely to win the lottery than be hit by a meteor, people are hit by meteors about every 189 years

Meteor showers

o More meteors than normal (normal being 1 per hour)

o Named after the closest consolation

o A common cause is when a comet breaks up and all of its pieces enter the atmosphere

Fireballs

o A meteor that is large enough to cast a shadow on earth

o Must also be generating its own light (on fire, hence the name fireball)

o Must be at least as bright as Venus

o Smaller fireballs travel fast enough to create a sonic boom

o Generally fireballs travel faster than normal meteors

Example

o Name: The Willamette Meteorite

o Found in: The Willamette valley, Oregon, 1906

o weight: 15.5 tones

o Type: iron meteor

o Mass: 3 meters * 1.9 meters * 1.9 meters

Example 2

o K-T Extinction is believed to have caused the Extinction of the dinosaurs and 80% of all species

o Only 13% of flora and fauna survived

o Meteor hit what is now the gulf of Mexico and created it

o In 2002 another crater was found in Boltysh, Ukraine from around the same time as the K-T meteor and it is now believed that the mass extinction was caused by multiple meteors

Example 3

o Allende meteorite

o One of the largest recorded fireballs

o Exploded about 547 KM south of El Paso Texas

o Caused no crater

o Caused a meteor shower

o Contains some of the oldest matter in our solar system

o When it exploded over Mexico it caused a meteor shower of all of its fragments and did not all hit earth in one spot

Exosolar Planets

An Exosolar planet is a planet that is not in orbit around our star.

How they are formed
Planets are formed from the protoplanetary disk surrounding a star soon after its formation. The disk is mainly composed of dust particles. Over time the these particles attract each other and the dust to clump together creating planetesimals( a planet-like form to small to be considered a dwarf planet or a planet). Eventually (time can vary for different planets) the planetesimals can form into full planets.

The image shows the evolution of planets from dust to planets.

Types of planets

Terrestrial

Examples
all the inner planets(Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars)

Composition
Core and Mantles of molten metals
Crust of metals and rock
Atmosphere of Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen, Oxygen

Gas Giant
Examples
Jupiter, Saturn

Composition
Core of Ice
Mantle of Metallic Hydrogen (caused by pressure)
Envelope of gasses (Hydrogen & Helium)


Examples
Uranus, Neptune

Composition
Core of rock and ice
Mantle of water, methane, and ammonia
Envelope of gasses (helium, methane)

Note: most data on water worlds and gas giants is theoretical only

If you want to find out more follow the links at the end to watch a National Geographic episode on the formation of our solar system and why the planets are what they are and where they are.
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

Detection

Doppler Shift (Stellar Wobble)

When the star is moving closer to the observer the light given off turns red, but when it goes away from the star it turns blue. By the amount of wobble scientists can determine the size and mass of the planet and its distance from the star. Based on this the type of planet can be determined

A real life example of this is if you are standing on a sidewalk as an ambulance goes past. When the ambulance is approaching you the sound you hear is a different pitch than it is when it is moving away from you. This example uses sound instead of light but the principal is the same.

Land based telescopes are used for this method

This image shows a land based telescope picking up the light wave from a star as it orbits a central point in space.

Transit Method

If a planet moves directly between the observer and a star the stars brightness dims.Scientists then determine the mass, size and distance from the star by how large the dip was and how long it lasted.

You can see this anytime if you hod an object that is smaller than the light between you and a light source.

Telescopes in space use this method

In the image you can see the stars usual brightness the planet entering the observation line and the planet directly in front of the star.

Corona Graphing (Direct Detection)

By putting a physical mass to block a stars sunlight we can see the corona of that star. Then without the stars light in the way planets orbiting that star are illuminated by the corona and we can directly see them.

This was originally invented for the purpose of studying our stars corona without he need to wait for a solar eclipse. One of these could be tried at any time the sun is shining.

Both land and space telescopes use this method.

In the image there is a physical mass blocking the stars light and the corona is illuminating the planet that the scientist is looking at.

If you want to learn more or need a better explanation go to either of these two links.
Text
Video

Missions

Kepler -current

• Uses Transit Method
• Launcehed March 6 2009
• one meter diameter telescope
• monitor approximately of sky covered by an hand held at arms length( two big dipper scoops)
• NASA funded

Hubble-current

• uses transit method
• Launched April 1990
• monitors amount of sky covered by a grain of sand at arms length
• NASA, ESA CSA funded
• Extreamly famous for pictures of nebule

James Webb-future

• infa red imaging
• can observe atmospheric composition
• gathers data on planets
• planed launch 2013
• NASA, ESA, CSA developed
• 6.5 meter telescope

Naming process

The name of the star -(letter in order of discover starting with b)(-a is the star)

Because of order of discovery naming it can you can end up where e is closer to the star than b

Examples

Gliese 581g

Located 20 light years

Announced by NASA on September 29th 2010

Terrestrial planet that may support water

11 years of observation was put into the discovery and analysis effort An artist rendition

has multiple other planets in the system

Most likely discovered planet to support life

Fomalhaut b

Located 20 light years away in the southern fish

Gas giant

Announced by NASA November 13th 2008

First exosolar planet to be photographed

one year on Fomalhaut b is equivalent to 872 earth years

Still a protoplanetary disk in around the star

The first real image taken of an exosolar planet the actual image is in the little box, its those bright red dots.

Kepler 10b

560 light years away

Terrestrial and first that is most defiantly rocky

only 40% larger than earth

orbit distance is 1/20 of Mercuries

called a scorched planet

Artist rendition of Kepler 10b

Interesting facts

main reason for interest is to see if we are alone in the universe

PSR 1257+12 B was the first exosolar planet ever discovered

PSR 1257+12 B orbits a pulasar

Over 530 exosolar planets have been found

Most planets are huge (many times the size of Jupiter)

Check moodle for homework

ExoSolar Planet Notes