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8/24/2007
Find an web article from a reputable news website that contains information about any type of projectile. The article must relate to some science topic this could include something having to do with the projectile of bullets or weapons but should not focus on killing! Write a short (1 paragraph) summary of the article and then describe how anything you have learned in the past week about projectile motion might relate to it (second short paragraph). Finish with a citation to the web article. Enter all of this under "Entry" below.

//Entry:// The people in Warwick Castle, England are installing a 22 ton wooden catapult into the historic Warwick Castle. The catapult is made up of 300 pieces of English Oak. This catapult is to be launched daily during the summer. The catapult can launch a projectile 82 feet high (vertical motion) and 328 yards long (horizontal motion). The catapult takes 30 minutes and eight men to load. The catapult will be ready for use in July.
 * Largest Catapult in the World**

This article relates to Projectile Motion. This is because, when they fire the catapult they need to find out where the projectile will land or how to calibrate the catapult to land on a target. They don't want it to land on a military transport carrying artillery ammunition or on a "petrol" truck on the M9. They might want a fleet of scientists to find out where the projectile will land and a fleet of lawyers for the lawsuits that may follow in the fan mail. This is why this article is related to Projectile Motion. Colin

"World's largest catapult planned." __BBC News__. 30 May 2005. 27 Aug 2007 &lt;[|http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/coventry_warwickshire/4593589.stm&gt;.]

//Comment 1:// I liked the way you described the catapult and when it was launched, but you didn't talk about how the catapult worked. The second paragraph was not about how it relates to projectile motion, but about how the scientists need to figure out where it lands, so you should change that. You didn't sign your name at the end of the entry, so you should do that. I liked the way you described the vertical and horizontal motion of the projectile, but i think that should go in the second paragraph. Comment 2:

9/24/2007
Reflect upon the mystery density cube experiment. You may write in first person. Create a long paragraph addressing these questions:

1.) Was the scientific method necessary in this experiment? If not, why? If so, why? 2.) What made this experiment difficult? or was it easy? 3.) Is density very important in finding the identity of an unknown substance? . There are several questions that need to be answered about this experiment. First off, the scientific method was necessary for the experiment. This is because, we went through every part of the scientific experiment. Second off, this experiment was difficult. This was because the densities of the materials we thought the cubes were made out of were very hard to find without using Wikipedia or other wikis. Finally, the density is very important in the identifying of an unknown substance. This is because, it could be anything from aluminum to acrylic so you can only go so far on qualitative properties. This is why the use of the density of a substance is important in finding the identity of the substance.

//Entry:// //Comment 1:// This is a great paragraph answering all of the questions. Something that you might want to change is in the third sentence the last two words should be scientific method not experiment. You might want to add a little more to the first questions answer. Maybe explaining what parts of the scientific method you used to figure out what the identities of the cubes are. Overall, great job I really enjoyed it but if you add a little more i think that it would be better. - Zack

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10/16/2007
What is a flame test in your own words? How does this relate to the use of chemicals in fireworks? Make sure to include your MLA citations you may not use Wikipedia! . //Entry://

//Comment 1://

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11/08/2007
What was your favorite project, experiment or topic this trimester and why? (projectile motion, density cube experiment, podcasts, chemical reactions, flame tests, etc.) You can also comment about the snakes. What do you think that you excelled at this trimester? How could you have improved your performance in Science 7? (Make sure to check your spelling and grammar).

Entry: My favorite project was probably the Chemical Reactions project. I like messing (under adult supervision) with chemicals. I also liked the snakes. They will be very nice to look at and breed. I think that I did well with the blog prompts and screen- and podcasts. I think that I could have improved on the tests and quizzes in this class. I noted that I did not do very well with my Chemistry First Assessment. Overall this was a very fun class. Colin

Comment 1: Colin excelled at performing the experiments and at drawing the atoms. I think he could improve his performance by looking over his work and trying to understand it. I really enjoyed his cheerfully altitude it made science class more enjoyable. Billy Comment 2:

12/18/2007
Our next unit is about electricity and electronics. In first person write a long paragraph about what you know about electricity and what questions you might like to have answered in our electricity unit. If you could investigate any subject area related to energy in the home, electricity, electronics, computers, etc. what would you like to research or investigate?

Entry: I know that electricity is the use of moving electrons through a closed circuit of something that pools it's electrons (like a metal). I know that Ben Franklin discovered electricity. I also know that Thomas Edison created the light bulb. Also, I know that mostly all of our appliances run on electricity. This makes us highly susceptible to EMP or strategically placed nuclear bomb. These would cause an overload of all electric appliances inside the blast radius. I would like to investigate how the Government powers the country. I would also like to learn about alternate sources of energy other than burning Coal or Natural Gas. Colin

Comment 1: You have some capitalization and spelling mistakes, but that can be overlooked. Your entry is well written and you seem to have a broad range of interests and knowledge in the field of electricity. However, you forgot to say where in the house you'd like to research about electricity. Nice job, Colin! ~Christina

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1/3/2008
Our next unit is about electricity and electronics. Observe the following graph, Graph 1. Write at least five sentences for each of the following questions. Write in third person. Directly cite data and identify the graph (1). 1.) Which electricity source in the US has increased the greatest amount over the time period shown in the graph? 2.) Which of the sources listed below directly contribute to global warming? Provide evidence and explain using the Internet (MLA citation). 3.) Describe the overall trends from 1972 to 1985 regarding the US's sources of electricity.

[|This graph can also be seen at this LINK.]

Here is an example statement: "Graph 1 shows that from 1960-1965 there was a steady increase in the use of coal as a source of electricity. It rose from roughly 0.2 trillion killwatthours to 0.5 kilowatthours.

Entry: 1) The use of coal to make energy in the US has grown the most out of all the uses. This is because coal has an advantage over all the other uses. It's either cheaper than sed use, or more abundant than sed use. Coal is a miracle to power plant owners because they can buy coal for cheap, and still reach their quota, while maximizing profits. This is why the use of coal to produce electricity grew so much in the US. "Coal- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia. 20:51, 2 January, 2008. 4 Jan 2008 <[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coal#uses_today>.]

2) The use of Coal, Petrolium, and Natural Gas to produce electricity produce the Greenhouse Gas CO2. Petrolium, Coal, and Natural Gas are all fossil fuels, and contain carbon. Since power plants burn these fossil fuels to create electricity, they mix the carbon in the fossil fuels with the air, creating Carbon Dioxide. Carbon Dioxide is a major greenhouse gas and continues to make our planet warmer. This is how the use of Petrolium, Coal, and Natural Gas to create electricity contributes to global warming. (All info obtained from a previous date mainly through the reading of __An Incovienent Truth__)

3) There are many trends in this graph. The most obvious one is the rising use of Coal. It also seems that Natural Gas was begining to follow in Coals path around 1970-1980, but it drops down from being used to produce .6 trillion kilowathours to .3 trillion kilowathours. Another trend is that the use of Nuclear Electric power increases from almost no trillion kilowathours in 1970 to about .7 trillion kilowathours in 2005. These are the major trends in this graph. By Major Sources, 1949-2006 Colin Godwin 

Comment 1: Good job Colin! You talked about all the required information. But, you didn’t really refer to the graph. You said “in this graph” but not the name of the graph specifically, like “in graph 1”. You also had a few spelling errors and you put your last name at the bottom. You had the required amount of sentences, but I think you could write a little more. Great job overall! -Courtney K.

Comment 2:

1/8/2008
Please read the paragraph below about energy use to create electricity from 1972-1985 in the US. Observe that the graph is referred to, there is an introductory statement, supporting statements are backed up with data, and that their is a concluding sentence. This would have been a well written paragraph for question 3 in our previous blog entry.

"As seen in Graph 1, there were four sources of electricity production in the US from 1972-1985. These sources were coal, petroleum/natural gas, nuclear electric power, and hydroelectric power. From 1972-1985, the US needed greater and greater production of electricity from these combined resources. This best example of this is that during these years, coal increased from 0.5 trillion kilowatthours to roughly 1.5 trillion kilowatthours. During this same time period hydroelectric sources remained approximately the same at 0.3 trillion kilowatthours. There was a slight increase in nuclear electric power sources from 0.1 trillion kilowatthours to 0.3 trillion kilowatthours during this same time period. Finally, petroleum and natural gas showed the greatest amount of fluctuation during this time period staying about the same from 1972-1980 at 0.4 trillion kilowatthours but then deceasing to 0.3 trillion kilowattthours by 1985. Thus, although greater and greater amounts of resources were needed to produce electricity during this time period, coal accounted for the greatest increase in use." - JT

Using the above paragraph as a model, describe the changes in electricity production sources from 2000-2005. Make sure that you reference the graph (Graph 1). Make sure all statements are backed up with data. Make sure you have an introductory sentence and a concluding sentence that provide an overall summary/statement.

Entry: As seen in Graph 1, there are 4 sources used from 2000-2005 to produce electricity in the US. These sources are coal, petroleum and natural gas, hydroelectric power, and nuclear energy. There has been a slight increase of about .1 trillion kilowatthours (about .2 UNITS for petroleum and natural gas) per use suggesting that there was an increase of energy used in the US of about .5 trillion kilowatthours. The use of coal in the US is suggesting gradual growth within the next few years. It's currently being used to produce 2 trillion kilowatthours. Nuclear energy is holding strong WORDING at .8 trillion kilowatthours. Petroleum and natural gas is also holding strong at .9 trillion kilowatthours. Hydroelectric power is bouncing all over WORDING, SW the place, but is currently producing .3 trillion kilowatthours. These are the many ways to make electricity in the US from 2000-2005 and their traits. PRETTY GOOD BUT WORK ON MAKING A STRONGER SUMMARY SENTENCE AT THE END. ALSO USE SCIENTIFIC WORDING (SW) AS DENOTED ABOVE. - JT

Comment 1: Your blog entry is great. It is written in 3rd person. Petroleum is spelled with an e not an i. In your concluding sentence, you didn't really conclude your paragraph. You could make it a little bit more informative. In your second to last sentence, you wrote hydroelectric as two words. Overall, your blog entry is very informative and you reffered directly to the graph. Great Job!

**2/05/2008**
What is a watt? How do you calculate the amount of electrical power that is used in a circuit? Finally, if a lamp with a 200 watt lightbulb burned for 24 hours straight (you forgot and left it turned on), how many kilowatt hours would it use? Make sure to write in complete sentences and in third person. Explain how you calculated the amount of kilowatt hours that would be used in the question above.

Entry: A watt is how much power something consumes. You calculate the amount of electrical power by multiplying the voltage received by the item and the current (amps) used by the item. To calculate the kilowatt hours used by this light bulb, you multiply the amount of electricity used by the light bulb by how long it ran for. Then, divide it by 1000 to put it into kilowatt hours. So you get the equation: (200*24)/1000. The answer comes out to be 4.8 kilowatt hours.

Comment 1: //Nice job on answering the questions. There are no spelling errors which makes it easy to read. I don't think that there is anything you have to improve on so great blog.// ~//Adit//

Comment 2: This is a very good blog entry, Colin. There are no grammatical errors or spelling errors which I could see, and the entire paragraph is written in third person. However, your description of how to calculate the kilowatt hours used by the light bulb was rather confusing (as was mine; I better change it soon!). I would recommend writing the //exact// formula for kilowatt hours (which should be easy to find on the web), and then explaining it briefly so that the reader can understand what the formula means. Then you can just plug the numbers into the equation and then solving it just like you did in the original entry. This way, the reader should be able to understand more clearly how you calculated the amount of kilowatt hours used (it would be easier for me anyway). Besides this one thing, your entry was excellent! //-Joseph C.//

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2/28/2008
This trimester we started by finishing up our chemistry unit by doing an acid/base experiment. After this, we started our electricity/electronics unit in which we first made basic series and parallel circuits with buzzers, speakers, motors, and lights. We applied ohm's law to these experiments. Following this, we started working on the Radioshack Electronics Kits where we made complex circuits that had a variety of functions- blinking LEDs, screeching speakers, analog to digital converters, etc. The technology we used this trimester included the pH probes that we connected to our computers to get the pH of household chemicals, using the wiki to create an class test review sheet, the Radioshack Electronic Kits, and creating collaborative lab reports in the wiki for our electronics unit (instead of a formal lab report).

__In this blog prompt, please write a paragraph long entry (5-6 sentences with a intro and concluding sentence) that addresses what you enjoyed during this trimester and what you have learned. You can also comment on what you would like to improve upon for next trimester or what was difficult for you. Feel free to comment on our snakes- Peppermint and Diablo if you would like to as well as the technology that you enjoyed this trimester. Please check your spelling and grammar as this blog entry may appear in your end of trimester comment. You may want to write it in Microsoft Word to check the spelling, etc. and then copy it in the blog.__

Entry: I enjoyed a lot of things in this trimester. I enjoyed messing around with chemicals and electricity. That was fun. I also liked playing with the snakes during break. They have grown a lot. I have learned not to put Alkali Metals into water. I have also learned not to connect 4 batteries up to one lightbulb. I have also learned many other things about electricity and chemicals. There is nothing that I would like to improve on in this class for next trimester. I feel that I did great in this class. I

Comment 1: colin i agree with the snakes, chemicals, and electricity. and thank you fo rthe help understanding the electrisity notes and helping me catch up when i was absent

Comment 2:

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4/22/2008
Go to: The Tech Museum: Robotics. Spend 10 minutes browsing the information and museum. Answer the following blog prompt in complete sentences and in third person. Create a full paragraph. If in the future machines have the ability to reason, be self-aware and have feelings, then what makes a human being a human being, and a robot a robot? Explain. Are there any kind of robots that shouldn't be created? Or that you wouldn't want to see created? Why?

Entry: There are many differences between future robots and humans. One difference would be the difference in materials. We are carbon based, liquid filled, and our skeleton is made out of calcium/phosphorus. The robots would be made out of some sort of plexiglass, not liquid filled, and their skeletons would be made out of some sort of alloy. Also, the robots would be stronger than the normal human. I don't think these robots should be created. One faulty wire, and the robot realizes that humans are inferior to it, and it exterminates us. That would be bad.

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