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.

CERES PRESENTATION DONE ON THURSDAY 21 APRIL

(Sorry about the size of the picture I couldn't figure out how to make it smaller.)

Discovery:

Ceres was the first thing to be discovered in the asteroid belt. Sicilian astronomer Father Giuseppe Piazzi first saw this dwarf planet in 1801. When more objects were discovered in the same area they were called asteroids or minor planets. Ceres was first called a planet but was then renamed as an asteroid. In recognition of its planet like aspects it was designated a dwarf planet in 2006 along with Pluto and Eris.

(Ceres' Symbol above)

Overview:

Ceres is described by scientist as the embryonic planet. Gravitational perturbations from Jupiter eons ago prevented it from becoming a normal sized planet. Ceres ended up among the debris left over from planetary formation in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The Hubble Space Telescope observed the planet and it demonstrated and orbit that suggests it has a nearly round body. Its diameter is larger at the equator than at the poles. This planet is around the size of Texas. Pluto is 24 times bigger than Ceres.

Composition:

Ceres does not have the same composition as the rest of its neighbors. It I made up of three layers the first being its dusty outer layer than the water ice inner layer and finally the stone core. Astronomers believe that there is water within Ceres because the density of the planet is less than that of the Earth’s crust. Another reason is that the surface of Ceres shows evidence of water bearing minerals.

Ceres' composition

The numbers:

Orbit size

Metric: 413,690,250 km

Scientific Notation: 4.1369025 x 10⁸ km (2.7653485 x 10⁰ A.U.)

Perihelion (closest)

Metric: 380,951,528 km

Scientific Notation: 3.80952 x 10⁸ km (2.547 x 10⁰ A.U.)

Aphelion (farthest)

Metric: 446,428,973 km

Scientific Notation: 4.46429 x 10⁸ km (2.984 x 10⁰ A.U.)

Mass

Metric: 947,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg

Scientific Notation: 9.47 x 10²⁰ kg

Density

Metric: 2.09 g/cm³

Surface area

Metric: 2,849,631 km²

Scientific Notation: 2.8496 x 10⁶ km²

Length of Day

0.378 Earth days

9.07417 hours

Length of Year

4.6 Earth years

Orbit Eccentricity(the shape of the orbit)

0.079138251

Orbit inclination (what its angle is from our perspective)

10.59

Links to Moodle

Calvin's reflection post

I read over the comments on my posts and they were long. I thought that they all had some good critism. I think that I should work on my grammer and learn to stick to one way of saying DNA. I also think that I should have used the pictures from that day when I had access to them. I also agree with what manny people said and that was I did not cover the class of that day. For my next posts I will take more definint notes and make sure I have included all the information I should. I also think that I should include more links and pictures, this is just a personal opinion no one said this. I also believe that I need to spell check all of my work before I post it. I will also make my post more formal in the future. I think that I have improved though. This time round my youtube link was correct and I also had less errors than last time. I have improved but I don't think that it was that signifigent a change. I hope that in the last quater that I will finaly have a perfect post. And I also went into more detail about the science. I think that there is a lot of room for improvement and I hope to fill it. I like using the blog because if you don't understand something you can usually refer to the blog for a more vivid description. It is also a great source of information. I also think that it could use some improvment. One idea I had was that people are not required to do a certain class but instead get to pick one and when they post it. And when I say this i imply that there is a time when a class can no longer be posted on. I also think that if we had a certain number of posts we have to do a quater and you get to pick which class you do and not have someone pick what class you are doing. Of course this is just my personal opinion.

SCIENCE DAY, february 9th

So science day was last thursday and was chuck full of information. Our class was doing genetics. We had three different stations one was building dna out of candy which attracted all of the children, dna extraction which by the time I got there was no longer able to be done, and last we had the Traits of AISZ lab. During the traits lab all of the kindergardeners I interviewed would walk off to the candy lab after the first few questions. So what I learned from that was that the candy station was by far the most popular. A link to a video about dna extraction is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p43UiNjytQQ . I don't think I need to link a video about the interview or candy Dna, but if you think I do tell me in the comments. Here are some pictures.

Now for the science behind the experiments. For the Dna extraction lab: So what happens is that the person will crush some strawberries in a bag then add the extraction buffer this is a mixture of soap and water. The soap helps remove grease and impurities. After that the person puts cheese cloth over the funnel placed on the test tube and pours the mixture in. Once this happens ethanol is added and small bubbles will begin to appear this is the dna. Traits of AISZ: This experiment is to see wether more people have the dominant or recessive traits such and hitchhiker's thumb(dominant) or do not have hitchhiker's thumb(recessive). And lastly the dna model building: dna is in the shape of a double helix and the sides are made up of dioxyribose and phosphates. There are four nitrogen bases within the dna Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine they pair up respectively. As I have previously said this lab has a tendency to attract the most people.

After an hour and a half we went to normal classes. After two periods we got back to science day, but instead of doing the presentations we went to see other peoples. First we saw the 11-12th grade. The two I went to were the wave length one which before they got the machine working was gravity hammer, and the equilibrium lab. The gravity hammer was a hammer being held up by a piece of wood and string. The wave length lab was a piece of string moving back and forth very fast and it showed a wave. The equilibrium lab was three popsicle sticks holding each other up. this could happen because all the forces on the sticks were equal. Other labs I didn't see were light refraction and lemon power. After 11-12th grade presentations we went to the tenth grade presentations. The tenth grade did theirs on nuclear power. They tried to convince people that it was a good thing and that a nuclear power plant does not make bombs. They convinced me and made me believe it is good.

Once we were done there we moved on to SK and the second graders. The second graders I saw were doing a lab about colors within colors. Such as in black there is all colors. I didn't get to see what the rest of the second grade was doing so please tell me in the comments so I can add it in. Back to science day. When we went to SK they showed us what floats and sinks, the other children did what rolls and stacks. After these exciting presentations we had to go back and do ours again for the parents. When it was all over and done we cleaned up and went home.

The next scribe is Vance.

Calvin's Reflection Post

So when I posted my blog I did not realize that the type of respiration that we had gone over in class was cellular respiration so my link for that part was to the respiratory system. It should have been to the process in which cells allow energy and waste to come in or out. Other than this mess up, my links were fine. In the future I plan to pay more attention and not take so many notes and also to ensure that my links are correct and as Ms. D said I should have put a link to moodle which I will do from now on.

A lot of people also mentioned that I should have split up my blog so that it was easier to read. I am sorry for that and I will try to split the blog up where it is appropriate in the future. People also said that I needed more pictures for my blog. I plan on getting more in the future and also putting captions under them to explain what they are. I did have some grammatical mistakes and I think that it was just me not catching them so I will have my father read it over the next time I do one just to be sure. My labels and title were wrong so I will from now on put the title as the date of the class and have the labels be my name what it is and whatever else I am told is needed.

What I did well was my notes, my information, and the lab. People said that my information and notes were good and I hope they were because I spent half the class taking them. I had also included the lab we did that day which was good but as Ms. D pointed out I did not explain the lab which was my mistake.

I think that in doing the blogs we help those who were absent that day or need a refresher for a test or quiz. I like doing the blog and I think it is very affective. I am sure that almost every one learns a thing or two from the links and that we all help each other in our writing threw our comments. So the blogs are a great thing.

Science Class December 3/Stomata lab/ Respiration chp.

Today in class we finished up the stomata lab. To watch a video about stomata go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlmgFYmbAUg . Stomata picture to the right. To recap this lab before I move on, the lab was about the number of stomata on a pansy and mum leaf. The purpose question was, "which plant leaf has more stomata the pansy or the mum?" Now to continue with the day we discussed question number 5 which was, "Why is there more stomata on the bottom of a leaf than there is on the top of the leaf?" We agreed that the answer was, "Because if more were on the top of the leaf then it would dry the plant out due to the fact that the direct sunlight would dehydrate the leafs. So more are on the bottom because indirect sunlight is better than direct."

After we discussed that we moved on to talk about transpiration. To sum it up it is the way a plant breathes and sweats. Picture down and to the left. Video is in the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4rzLhz4HHk . The things that move in and out of a plant are carbon dioxide(in), water(out/in), and oxygen(out). Then we talked about photosynthesis which is the process in which a plant uses carbon dioxide and the sun to make energy.

After we had finished talking about the lab we went on to talk about respiration, which is in the respiration chapter. The formula for this is C6H12O6=6CO2+6H2O+energy. If you would like a detailed discription of this process then read it in your book on pages 50 and 51. A video about respiration is in the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiT621PrrO0 .

We then did an experiment on respiration with yeast and sugar water. The lab took longer than was anticipated but was cool. The supplies for this lab were goggles, two test tubes, one funnel, one test tube rack, yeast, sugar, water, and a graduated cylinder. That was the lesson summary for today tune into the blog next when Terez writes it.