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.

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

Reza's Reflection Post Quarter 4

During the two years that I have been part of our science class blogs I feel that I learned a few things about blogging. One thing that I feel that I have improved my skills to make my post more reader friendly. I did this by changing fonts and making the fonts bigger. I have also learned to use hyper links instead of just putting the link. I think that in ways blogging can contribute to learning in a class. One way that blogging does this is that the students can add extra information by putting in videos to their post. They also can help their fellow classmates who were sick or away by telling them the homework. We could also use our class blog to share ideas on how to study for tests and things like that. My overall writing has also been affected by these two years of blogging. I now feel that I should write on a more personal note when I write on the internet. I think that this is necessary because people will read the post if it sounds interesting. I think that by commenting on peoples work every week in week out has helped how I look at other peoples work. I feel that I can look at work from different perspectives. I look at the science of their post. I look at how their pictures, videos, and captions cover what was covered in class. I look at what extra information they have added. Overall I think that the most thing that I have learned from blogging is that you should always write in detail and slowly to make sure that the reader understands what you are trying to say.

Asteroids

Main Asteroid Belt
Asteroids are rocky minor planets that orbit the Sun, distinguished from comets by their lack of a tail (comet tails are composed of ice and frozen gases that melt when near the Sun, producing the tail we see, asteroids lack these).

The belt was formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago, along with the Sun and other planets.

• It's located between Mars and Jupiter.



• It hasn't condensed into a single planet because of the competing gravitational pull of Jupiter and the Sun.



• Asteroids inside the belt range in size from 1 km across to 959 km (dwarf planet Ceres).\



• There are ~440,000 documented asteroids within the belt, though the belt contains millions of others.



• The total mass of asteroids in the belt is estimated to be less than the Earth's Moon.



• 92.8% of asteroids within the belt are composed of stony materials (olivine, pyroxene, etc), and 5.7% are mainly iron and nickel.



• The first named dwarf planet, Ceres, was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi in 1801.

Ida 243:
Ida is an asteroid in the Main Asteroid Belt, discovered by the Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa in 1884. It is the first asteroid to be discovered to have a natural satellite (Dactyl), and the second asteroid to be observed by a satellite.

• 
  
  Ida and its satellite, Dactyl
  
  Ida was named for a nymph who tended the god Jupiter (Greek Zeus) when he was young, it's also the name of a mountain on Crete where Jupiter was raised.



• Ida is a member of the Koronis family of asteroids, meaning it originated from a single large asteroid impact.
  


• Ida has a mass of 1334 kg.



• It's 428,000,000 km from the Sun.



• One day is 4 hours and 39 minutes.



• Its average diameter is 31.4 km.


• Ida has a temperature of -73 C.


• Ida is a chrondrite asteroid, meaning that it's made mainly of dust from the early Solar System, composed of olivine, pyroxene, etc.



• Ida is covered with 50-100 m of regolith (pulverized rock from other asteroid impacts) over all of its surface.


• Observed by the Galileo spacecraft in August 28, 1993, the second asteroid to have been observed at such a close distance (only 10,760 km away from Ida and 10,870 km from Dactyl)




• Dactyl is named for the Dactyli, which were mythical residents of Mount Ida.



• Dactyl orbits Ida at 90 km/h, has a size of 2.688 km3, and has the same temperature as Ida.

Vesta:

Vesta is a 'minor planet' in the main belt, it has a c0mposition similar to Mars or Earth, and has differentiated, or undergone the process where dense materials sink to the core and lighter materials rise to the top.

• Vesta was discovered by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers on March 29h, 1807.



• It is composed of 86% rocky materials (olivine, pyroxene, feldspar) and 14% iron.



• Has a diameter or 525 km.



• Its day is 5 hours and 20.5 minutes.



• Vesta has a mass of 78,800,000 kg, which is 279 times smaller than the Earth's Moon.

Near Vesta's South Pole, there is a 20-30 km wide and 20-30 km deep crater, which is the source of Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite (HED) meteorites on Earth.

Vesta is visible to the naked eye from Earth.

Vesta's symbol is

99942 Apophis:

Apophis is one of the few asteroids that have been discovered on a collision course with Earth, and one of the even fewer that could cause total extinction on Earth.

Discovered on June 19th, 2004, at the Kitt Peak Observatory.

• It was then determined to have a 2.7% chance of impact with Earth in 2029.



• Apophis is 210-330 km in diameter.



• It was detected at 27 - 40 million km from the Earth.



• It was later determined that Apophis posed only a 1/45,000 chance of impact on April 13th, 2036.

Dawn Program:

The Dawn Program is dedicated to learning more about the origins of the Solar System and how planets and other objects were created. Dawn itself is a satellite that is exploring objects in the main asteroid belt, namely Vesta and Ceres. It has nearly arrived, and will begin its observations of Vesta on August 5-7th of this year.

Kuiper Belt:

The Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt, w/ Relative Scale

The Kuiper Belt is a vast, disc-shaped region beyond the orbit of Neptune that produces short-period comets, or comets that take less than 200 years to orbit around the Sun.

• Contains hundreds of thousands of icy bodies larger than 100 km across, and approximately a trillion comets.



• Extends from 30-55 AU from the Sun.

The Oort Cloud:

The Oort Cloud is a region of space proposed by Jan Oort in 1950, it is supposedly a vast outer shell of icy bodies and comets, and marks the edge of the Solar System and the Sun's gravitational influence.

• Contains 100,000,000,000 to 2,000,000,000,000 icy bodies.



• Extends 5,000 to 100,000 AU from the Sun.



• The Oort Cloud produces long-period comets, 0r comets that take more than 200 years to orbit. Gravitational interaction with the Milky Way dislodges these into the inner Solar System.

All note sheets and the Moodle instructions can be found here.