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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://

News Time LIVE’s //Adrenaline has millions rushing to play paintball// is about the game of paintball. It’s played like capture the flag except for instead of tagging, the defender would shoot a paintball projectile at the other team’s player. It’s mostly just played for fun, but there are also professional teams. If on a pro team, a team might be asked to flip over the other team’s flag or take over a bunker. A paintball is a great example of a projectile. It is like many other projectile guns: the shooter cannot change the velocity, how fast it is shot off. The person paintballing can angle it differently to have different effects though. In the article it says the paintballs go 280 feet per second, that's 191 miles per hour, about 3 times as fast as a car would go on the highway.

"Adrenaline has millions rushing to play paintball." __News Time Live Adrenaline has millions rushing to play paintball__. 2006. News Times Live. 26 Aug 2007 <[|http://www.newstimeslive.com/news/story.php?id=1186569725&source=tabbox>.]

//Comment 1:// I think it is a great entry. It shows exactly what she is thinking.She wrote in third person, but it doesnt look like 2 paragraphs long, and the vocabulary is such that she could easily have understood.She summerized and explaind the article very well. 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? . //Entry:// I think that the scientific method was necessary in this experiment. Since it was a group project a method helped us get organize, have people doing the same things, and not getting into arguments. I think having a specific, and accurate scientific method would have been better for us because we had to do a whole section at the last minute because we didn't realize that we were supposed to do it. This experiment wasn't exactly challenging to me. It was just a little bit time consuming when we didn't stay on track or when we had to fill in the chart in a short amount of time. Most of the online research was pretty basic, and we already knew how to make quantitative and qualitative observations. The density is very important in finding the identity of an unknown substance because sometimes what one person thinks is dark blue, another might think is black, but with the density it’s always pretty similar. It was also nice because a quick way to know what the cube was made out of was to look online at a chart of (for example) metals. Whatever densities matched up with the cube and the online chart was almost definitely the right.

-Meredith

//Comment 1:// Good job Meredith. You answered all the questions thoroughly. However, it is unclear if you used the scientific method or not in your first few sentences. You also didn’t focus very much on what about the experiment was challenging or not. It seemed like you focused more on actually doing the experiment and how that was challenging or not. Next time, try to talk more about the actual data in the experiment. Very good job on explaining density’s importance. You did excellent on grammar and writing. Sentence 2’s wording is a little strange; you might want to reword that. Overall, awesome entry!

-Megan Comment 2:

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:// Flame tests are the action of taking a clean piece of wire coated with a substance, putting it into a fire, and observing the color of the flame. This is done to find out how many metal ions are in a certain substance. Fireworks are very similar to flame tests, but they are taking it a step further. While flame tests are trying to figure out what color a certain substance will make, fireworks are made based on the information from flame tests and they use that information for a source of entertainment. They probably get scientists to make hypothesis about what color certain substances would make, and the makers of fireworks most likely test them to see which colors they would like. Fireworks before they are lit almost certainly, are an explosive whose gunpowder had whatever substance that was coloring the firework mixed in. Then when it lit on fire wherever the substance was, was that color.

Saunders, Nigel. "Flame Tests." __Creative Chemistry__. 02 June 2007. Creative Chemistry. 16 Oct 2007 .

Clark, Jim. "Flame Tests." __Flame Tests__. 2005. 16 Oct 2007 <[|http://www.chemguide.co.uk/inorganic/group1/flametests.html>.]

-Meredith Glaubach

//Comment 1://

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**11/1/2007 **
Go to this site: [|http://www.visionlearning.com/library/module_viewer.php?mid=55 .]Click on "Watch the Reaction with Sodium and Chlorine" In your own words and in third person, create a blog entry describing the reaction and explaining what is happening in terms of the bonding. Write a long paragraph. Explain in detail.

//Entry:// This is an ionic bond. The sodium is an alkali metal, and alkali metals are metals, as the name suggests. Chlorine is a halogen, and halogens are non-metals. When a metal and a non-metal combine they make an ionic bond. That is because with those two one always has to give up an electron and one has to receive it, that’s the definition of ionic bonds. When sodium touches water, it reacts so violently that it makes flames. Chlorine is a poisonous gas, it is so effective it was used in World War I. Strangely enough, when combined these two very dangerous atoms make something used in most food items, table salt.



Revised Entry: Sodium Chlorine is an ionic bond. The sodium is an alkali metal, and alkali metals are metals, as the name suggests. Chlorine is a halogen and halogens are non-metals. A metal atom bonded to a non-metal atom creates an ionic bond. That is because with those two atoms (because one is a metal and one is a non-metal), one always has to give up an electron and one has to receive it, that's the definition of ionic bonds. After the two have bonded, Sodium has no electrons in its outer shell and Chlorine has eight. When sodium touches chlorine, the sodium reacts so violently that it makes flames. Chlorine is a poisonous gas, it is so deadly it was used in World War I. Strangely enough, when combined these two very dangerous atoms make something used in most food items, table salt.

//Comment 1://

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<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">11/08/2007
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">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 the projectile motion project. I really liked this because after doing the project I really understood about why certain things happened. I know understand about guns and how to shoot things most effectively. At first I was extremely scared of the snakes, after a while though watching other people hold them I really liked them. Now, I sometimes come in here during Morning Room and Break to hold them. I feel very different about snakes now then I ever had before. I think I excelled at understanding concepts after I did a project, like the podcasts, I also learned how to light a match (with the help of Elizabeth)! I think that I could have improved my performance in science this year by start working on long term homework earlier. This would make it easier for me to ask you or peers about it before the day it was due.

Comment 1: I appreciate Meredith participating in group projects this trimester. She is lots of fun to work with, and comes up with lots of good ideas that improve the final product.

Comment 2: I appreciate Meredith's MANY calls at night to ask about homework and MANY questions during class about whats going on. She is a hoot of fun! She makes good contributions to the class! :) -Rachel

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">12/18/2007
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">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 truly do not know much about electricity. I know that electricity can be made naturally or man-made. Wind-mills, dams, and other things that natural force is used for, creates energy that powers the electricity of some cities. I would like to know how those type of things work, how something moving could make something give light. Another question I have is how does electricity stay in the wires, why doesn't it all come spilling out, and if a wire broke, and the electicity spilled out, what would happen? A subject that includes electricity that I am interested in is is how computers, and TV's work. Is electricity just heat, that makes things move quickly so we can see them, or powers movement. Is it harder to make natural electricity than man-made electricty, or is it that we can just make in bigger 'batches.' So truly I'm very interested in how we create and use electricity.

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<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">1/3/2008
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">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) Over 50 years people are using all sources of electricity more, but one really stands out. Coal has increased the greatest amount over the 55 years shown in this graph. At the very beginning of the graph, in 1950, coal was just a little bit more than the others, but now it’s more than the next greatest by almost a whole trillion kilowatt-hour. It went from about 0.2 trillion kilowatt-hours to 2. That is 1,000% difference!

2) Global warming is a horrible thing that is causing the earth to become warmer, melting the poles. Coal puts tons of carbon dioxide in the air, in fact carbon dioxide is the main ingredient of coal. Carbon dioxide is also a main component of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases make a layer around the earth’s atmosphere making the earth warmer. Global warming is almost totally human’s fault, yet animals and greenery are the ones having to work much harder to survive now.

"Bright Ideas about coal." __Coal, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gases - National Geographic__. 1996-2007. National Geographic. 5 Jan 2008 <[|http://green.nationalgeographic.com/environment/enlarge/coalbulb.html>.] Hopwood, Nick. "Greenhouse Gases and Society." __Greenhouse Gases__. 5 Jan 2008 <http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/greenhouse.htm >. Than, Ker. "How Global Warming is changing the Wild Kingdom." __How global warming is changing the Wild Kingdom__. 21 June, 2005. Live Science. 5 Jan 2008 <http://www.livescience.com/environment/050621_warming_changes.html >.

3) The trends of the US’s electricity usage were almost always increasing from 1972 to 1985. The increase of coal was pretty steady; it went from about 0.8 to 1.4 trillion kilowatt-hours. Petroleum and Natural Gases wasn’t very stead at all, it started around 0.6 then dipped to 0.5, then went back up to 0.6, next it slowly decreased from 0.6 to 0.4 trillion kilowatt-hours. Hydroelectric power on the other hand stayed almost at the exact same place the whole time, it went down from 0.3 to 0.2 for about a year, and went up to 0.35 for about 3 years. Nuclear Electric Power went from about 0.1 and steadily increased for about 5 years, rising to 0.3, it stayed there for about 6 years, then it started slowly rising again.

Comment 1: Good Job! :) Meredith, you have 5 sentences and good information, however there are a few mistakes that would make the paragraph better if fixed. The first sentence had some grammar problems making it hard to understand - "trends...electricity usage were almost always increasing from 1972 to 1985", you should probably rephrase this. You should also take note that you did not provide units for some of the numbers which I have to only assume are the trillion kilowatt hours in sentences 2, 3, and 4. You also used the word 'it' a bunch which made it hard to understand what exactly you were referring to. There was a lack of reference to Graph 1, however you used plenty of supportive data (in the form of numbers) in your entry. This information helped support your claims and made the entry much better. Great job Meredith! -Rachel

Comment 2: Great blog! Overall i thought this was a very good blog entry, but you should probably cite the table somewhere in it. There are a few of mistakes that i think Rachel covered but just make sure that you do not have run on sentences. Overall you had some very good information in your paragraph. good job. -Jen

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">1/8/2008
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">"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:

Graph 1 shows the change in four main electricity sources between 2000 to 2005. The four are coal, petroleum and natural gases, nuclear electric power, and hydroelectric power. The most used electricity source of these four is coal. Coal stayed 2 trillion kilowatt-hours pretty much from 2000 to 2005, it dipped in 2001 about 0.1 to 1.9 and stayed there for about a year. After that it rose right back up to 2, this might be because in 2000 they produced so much already that ever since then we haven’t been able to produce significantly more. Nuclear Electric Power had a very close pattern to coal, it stayed at exactly 0.7 for the 5 years. Petroleum and Natural gases are a different story though, for the first three years it stayed 0.7 like Nuclear Electric Power, then it climbed up to 0.9 a big change compared to the others. Hydroelectric Power started at 0.25 trillion kilowatt-hours dropped for about a year (around 2001) to about 0.2 then went up again to 0.25. The electricity source usage stayed incredibly similar 2000 to 2005, the most any one changed was 0.2 trillion kilowatt-hours. -Meredith

Comment 1: Overall, a very good blog entry! You wrote in 3rd person, referred to the graph, quoted specific data, and wrote 5 sentences. However, there were some grammar errors that could be changed to improve it. In your second sentence, it would be more clear if you restated what four, because just saying four seems a bit vague. Also in the next sentence, you could improve it by saying "four sources". When you say "Coal stayed 2 trillion kilowatt-hours" in the next sentence, you forgot to write "at" after stayed. You could also improve this sentence by switching around the wording and saying "Coal stayed around 2 trillion kilowatt-hours from 2000-2005, and it dipped...". In the next sentence, repeat your unit after 2. In the next sentence you switched from saying "they" to "we". In the next sentence, reword by saying, "Nuclear electric power had a very similar pattern to coal..." Restate your unit after 0.7 in the next sentence. Continue to restate your units in the remaining sentences as well. Add a comma after 0.9. You did an excellent job answering the prompt. Good Job!!!! -Elizabeth

Comment 2:

Re-Entry: Graph 1 shows the change in four main electricity sources between 2000 to 2005. The four are coal, the most used, petroleum and natural gases, the second most used, nuclear electric power, the third most used, and hydroelectric power, the least used. Coal stayed around 2 trillion kilowatt-hours from 2000 to 2005, it dipped in 2001 about 0.1 UNITS to 1.9 UNITS and stayed there for about a year. After that it rose right back up to 2 trillion kilowatt-hours, this might be because in 2000 they produced so much already that ever since then the world hasn’t been able to produce significantly more HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS?. Nuclear Electric Power had a very similar pattern to coal; it stayed at exactly 0.7 UNITS for the 5 years. Petroleum and Natural gases are a different story SW though, for the first three years it stayed 0.7 trillion kilowatt-hours like Nuclear Electric Power, then it climbed up to 0.9, a big change compared to the others. Hydroelectric Power started at 0.25 trillion kilowatt-hours dropped for about a year (around 2001) to about 0.2 then went up again to 0.25 trillion kilowatt-hours. The electricity source usage stayed incredibly similar 2000 to 2005, the most any one changed was 0.2 trillion kilowatt-hours. SEE MY COMMENTS IN CAPITALS WITHIN. PRETTY GOOD BUT MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE UNITS AND BACK UP STATEMENTS. -JT -Meredith

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">2/05/2008
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">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 in it burned for 24 hours straight (you forgot and left it turned on), how many kilowatt hours would it use? Make sure to writein 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 a unit of measurement for power. To calculate the amount of electrical power that is used in a circuit you multiply the amount of current and voltage. If a 200 watt lamp was on for 24 hours and you needed to know how many kilowatt hours it was burning, a simple equation needs to be solved. A kilowatt hour is 100 watt hours, this means that to convert from watt hours to kilowatt hours you would multiply by 100. So there were 20,000 kilowatt hours, but that is only for 1 hour. This states it was on for 24 hours, so 20,000 (the kilowatt hours) times (the amount of hours it was burning) 24 = 480,000. Therefore 480,000 kilowatt hours were used in the time that, that single lamp was on. -Meredith

Comment 1: Overall, I like your blog entry a lot. Your wording was overall very good. Don't forget to write in third person! Other than that, the wording was very good. However, I think there are a few ways you could improve it. You made a few errors when calculating the kilowatt hours. To calculate kilowatt hours, you should start by calculating watt hours. Multiply how many watts the bulb has by the number of hours that it burned. Then divide it by 1,000 to make it into kilowatt hours. You explained the way you worked this out very well, even if the calculations were off. The only other improvement would be in the last sentence where you repeat "that". The second time you could have used "the" instead, and deleted the comma. I liked your entry a lot! Great job! -Elizabeth S.

Comment 2: Overall, your blog entry was well written. There are a few things that you could have done better though. First, there are 1000 watt hours in a kilowatt hour.

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">2/28/2008
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">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 truly enjoyed Science this trimester. The electronics unit was tons of fun. Not kidding, I think that's been the most fun thing I have done at school this trimester. The tests were a challenge for me, as hard as I studied I just couldn't get a good grade. I think that's what really brought down my grade. The snakes, as always, are really cool. They have shown me that as scary as something can sound, when you really get to know one, it's not that bad. I've really liked Science this trimester, and I'm sad that we're not doing Electronics next trimester too.

Comment 1: Meredith, you always bring a fun & bubbly personality to the classroom and a dedication to working hard. Along with being a great student, you are also a great friend. You commented that the tests were a challenge, and thats okay as long has you have a grasp for the concepts and an overall understanding. Asking plenty of questions and participating in group efforts can help improve your ability to do well on assessments. You are always involved in collaborative activities inside the classroom and out! Great job this trimester Meredith!!! :) -Rachel

Comment 2:

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">4/22/2008
<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">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: <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Many people think different things based on their thoughts and connections to spirit and the making of robots. There is not a clear answer, but the thoughts of this writer are that humans have creativity and have spiritual knowledge and faith; these are things a robot could never exhibit. In other words robots can think, but not for themselves they think what their creator programmed them to think. Again many people believe different things about if robots could ever be bad, and the writer of this believes that the robot should be able to give ideas to society, if they ever are able to, but not put them into play. They definitely should not kill. They should pretty much be an always good human. The only thing is that humans might get jealous, but if the robot can’t destroy humans can just take him apart.

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia, serif">Comment 1:

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