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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 article about which this review is written is titled 'Space camp teaches teachers.' The article explains how the Space Academy at Hunstville, Alabama, teaches school teachers about space and the projects on which NASA is currently working. One activity which the teachers/students participate in is called the "Vomit" Comet, a shuttle similar to the ones which NASA uses to train astronauts to live in zero-gravity conditions. Although the shuttle never leaves the atmosphere, zero-gravity is still achieved for at least 20 seconds. The shuttle travels in a parabolic motion, resulting in a short period of zero-gravity at the top of the shuttle's trajectory. The "Vomit Comet" is just one of the lessons taught at the Space Academy, though it is probably the most real-life lesson which is taught there. Although the details and some other areas of projectile motion have not been taught in class, there are a few points which would relate to the article titled 'Space camp teaches teachers.' One of the above-mentioned points is that, although the horizontal motion remains the same throughout a projectile's motion, the vertical motion does change. When a projectile reaches the top of its trajectory/path, the vertical motion decreases until the projectile has passed the very top of its trajectory. This relates to the article because it is during that period when the vertical motion decreases that the shuttle effectively has no gravity.

The Honolulu Advertiser, "Space camp teaches teachers." __The Honolulu Advertiser__. 27 Aug 2007. 27 Aug 2007 <[|http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070802/NEWS07/708020309/1012/NEWS07>.]

//Comment 1:// These two paragraphs are well written, with only minimal spelling and grammar errors. Motion, taught, and Huntsville is spelled wrong. Also, your two paragraphs are in first person, and it needs to be in third person. Remember, no "I"s allowed! You might want to add "so" in this sentence:"This relates to the article because it is during that period when the vertical motino decreases //so// that the shuttle effectively has no gravity. You might want to delete: "This sentence concludes my blog entry about the article titled 'Space camp teaches teachers.'" It sounds a little Elementary School-ish. Nice job on the first paragraph. You might want to explain how projectile motion relates to the article a little bit more in the second paragraph. It's a little unclear. You just state some facts, without explaining how it relates to the article. Overall, nice job. ~Christina K. 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:// The scientific method was necessary in the Density Cube experiment because, since the hypothesis and the observations of the experiment needed to be added to the group's wiki, the observations, etc. needed to be completed, therefore resulting in following the scientific method. Also, following the scientific method made completing and recording the experiment much easier. If the experiment did not follow the scientific method, it would be rather difficult, especially the final guesses and the hypothesese, because the quantitative observations of the cubesscientific method would be very out of order and confusing. The quantitative data was not exact, therefore making it much harder to decide the identities of the cubes because many cubes/possible identities had //about// the same density; more defined quantitative data would have made the experiment easier. Density is very important in finding the identity of an unknown substance because qualitative data on its own can not prove the identity of a substance; many substances look and feel very similar (i.e. copper and bronze, tin and zinc). Once the qualitative data has narrowed the possibilities to a handful (or two), comparing the density of the unknown substance with each of the possible identities will usually narrow the possibilites to one or two (after all, there are very few, if not none, substances with the //exact// same density), after which a little educated guessing produces the final guess.

//Comment 1: Overall your blog was very good! You don't have a beginning and conclusion sentence though; it would make your blog sound smoother if you did. There are no spelling or grammar errors, but your second sentence was very long and just kept going, you might be able to make that into 2 sentences. You have a lot of supporting information and a lot of detail. The content of the paragraph was great; I don't think you really need to elaborate anywhere. It was great! Awesome job overall! -Courtney//

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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://

A flame test is when you burn a substance to find out what it is. Every element emits a different color. This relates to the use of fireworks by, when you want a firework to look a certain color, all you have to do is add a certain element that when burned, emits the color you want the firework to be. This is helpful if you have shaped charge fireworks. You can make those fire work stars look like rainbows by putting the elements of different colors into different shaped charges. This will create a nice crowd pleasing effect. I wonder if anyone has tried to do this.

A flame test is a method used to figure out what compound/element a substance is by burning it. To find out which element/compound the substance is, you must take a non-contaminated nichrome wire (decontaminate the wire by placing it in hydrochloric acid and then checking if it emits a color when placed in the fire; it shouldn't), dip it in the substance, and stick the wire with the substance on it into a flame. You can usually tell what element/compound it is by the color which the wire emits because each element emits a different color depending on the amount of electrons. This relates to the use of chemicals in fireworks because you can use certain elements/compounds, based on which color it emits, to create firework shaped charges which, when ignited, will create a certain image using the elements/compounds in the charge. For example, igniting a firework shaped charge that just has the element Lithium in it will result in a red firework, and a charge that contains the element Barium will result in a pale green firework!

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

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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: The two reactants in this chemical reaction are sodium, which is a silver-colored metal, and chlorine, which is a green-colored toxic gas. When the sodium is dropped into the chlorine gas, the sodium catches on fire. When the sodium atoms make contact with the chlorine atoms, each sodium atom gives one electron to one chlorine atom. Since the sodium atoms have a -1 charge and the chlorine atoms have a +1 charge, they are attracted to each other and create an ionic bond. The product of this chemical reaction is NaCl, also known as Sodium Chloride.//

//Comment 1:// Positive: you did a great job describing the way the reaction looks as well as the describing the compound they made. Negative: It was a great paper with few mistakes one thing I think you could do would be to describe the NaCl but that is optional, you completed everything necessary. ~Billy BC. Comment 2: This was a great blog very well written! i think that you could tell what NaCl is, but other than that great job.

//Entry 2: The two reactants in this chemical reaction are sodium, which is a silver-colored metal, and chlorine, which is a green-colored toxic gas. When the sodium is dropped into the chlorine gas, the sodium catches on fire. When the sodium atoms make contact with the chlorine atoms, each sodium atom gives one electron to one chlorine atom. Since the sodium atoms have a -1 charge and the chlorine atoms have a +1 charge, they are attracted to each other and create an ionic bond. The product of this chemical reaction is NaCl, also known as Sodium Chloride, which is a white solid and is edible.//

//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). After finishing, find a peer in class to comment and tell you what they appreciate about your participation in Science class this trimester.

Entry:// My favorite experiment by far was the chemical/physical reactions experiment because (not surprisingly) it had the greatest amount of miniature explosions, fire, and other 'exciting' reactions. My least favorite experiment/project was the density cube project, mostly because I already knew a great deal about density from last year and it was sort-of boring. I think that I excelled in science this trimester because I worked hard and I studied for all of the tests. I can't really think of any ways that I could greatly improve my performance in Science 7, but there are bound to be small things which I cannot think of.

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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 Benjamin Franklin found that lightning is basically electricity. I also know that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Also, most metals are good conductors of electricity. I am not really sure how electricity travels or anything about that, but it is somehow related to electrons (that is just a guess, by the way). I would like to research how electricity travels, how it powers things, and how those alternate sources of energy actually work. I am also interested in how electricity can be harmful (a.k.a. being electrocuted). I am basically interested in electricity in general (as stated above).

Comment 1: You might want to get rid of some of the parenthesis. It gets redundant after a while. You seem to have a nice grasp on the basic knowledge of electricity. However, you forgot to write about what part of the house you'd like to research. Nice job, Joseph! ~Christina

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1/3/2008
Our next unit is about electricity and electronics. Observe the following graph, Graph 1 and write an analytical paragraph describing what it means. Make sure to address what trends are observed; how things change over time, etc. Write at least five sentences for 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.]

Entry:

1) The electricity source in the US that has increased the greatest amount over the time period shown in Graph1 is Coal. This is probably because it is easier (and usually cheaper) to use to produce energy than other possible sources. For example, wind turbines take up a lot of space, nuclear power can cause toxic spills, and hydroelectric plants can change the flow of rivers and kill a lot of fish. However, coal is a non-renewable source of energy which takes millions of years to create, and coal contributes a lot to greenhouse gases and global warming (details in paragraph 2). Hopefully, coal and natural gas productions will eventually go down, because the future of our world might depend on it.

2) The sources listed above in Graph1 that directly contribute [a lot] to global warming are Coal and Petroleum/Natural Gas. This is because the above-mentioned sources contain carbon, as well as other fossil fuels (such as plants and peat). When these sources are burned, the carbon atoms combine with the oxygen atoms to create carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide is then released into the air, where it envelopes the Earth's atmosphere and traps heat in the atmosphere, therefore raising global warming. Basically, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, the sun's rays come through the layer of greenhouse gases and reflect off of the ground, where most of the heat is kept from leaving the atmosphere by the gases, and end up raising the Earth's temperature.

3) There were many interesting trends from 1972 to 1985 shown in Graph1. The U.S.'s use of coal gradually rose from 600 billion killowatthours to 1.5 trillion killowatthours, and nuclear electric power rose from less than 100 billion killowatthours in 1972 to approximately 400 billion killowatthorus in 1985. On the other hand, Petroleum and Natural Gas went from approximately 700 billion killowatthours in 1972 to around 300 billion killowatthours in 1985. Usage of Hydroelectric Power never really changed from 1972 to 1985 (it stayed around 400-500 billion killowatthours), which is surprising.

Citation: Hopwood, Nick and Jordan Cohen. "Greenhouse Gases and Society." __University of Michigan__. 06 Jan 2008. 6 Jan 2008 <[|http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/greenhouse.htm>.]

Comment 1: Joseph, you have written your required five sentences. You didn't put any "I" or "you"s in your blog and you referenced back to the data extremely well. Overall you did a great job on your blog entry.- Alex

Comment 2: Overall, this is a precisely and well written entry.You directly referenced to the data and the graph. However, some things did not need to be capitalized. Good job! ~CK

Reentry: According to Graph 1, there were four different major sources of electricity used in the U.S. between 2000 and 2005: Coal, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Nuclear Electric Power, and Hydroelectric Power. Even though the U.S. had experienced a major increase in electricity use from 1950 to 2000 (every source of electricity shown on Graph 1 had a major increase in usage; Coal alone went from 0.2 kilowatthours in 1950 to over 2 trillion kilowatthours in 2000), the U.S. had little or no increase in electricity usage between 2000 and 2005. If we compare only the usage of these four sources in 2000 to the usage in 2005, we receive the following data from Graph 1: coal, nuclear electric power and hydroelectric power gained (and sometimes even lost) less than .1 trillion kilowatthours. Petroleum and Natural Gas was the only source of U.S. electricity that had a notable increase in usage in 2005 than in 2000: it was at about .6 trillion kilowatthours at the year 2000 and rose to nearly 1 trillion kilowatthours by 2005. Overall, the U.S.'s use of the four major sources of electricity shown in Graph 1 remained roughly the same between the years 2000 and 2005. GREAT JOB, JOSEPH. -JT

Comment 1: You did a good job, but there are still a few things that need fixing. for instance, in the 2nd sentence you stated that 'coal alone went from 0.2 kilowatthours in 1950 to over 2 trillion kilowatthours in 2000'. You said .2 kilowathours. Do you mean .2 trillion, or just .2? that was kind of confusing. Also, are you going to mention hydroelectricity or nuclear electricity? If so, then you should mention the fact that Petroleum and Natural Gas finally passed nuclear electricity after almost 20 years of lagging behind. -Victor Walker

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 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 the unit of measurement of //power//, which is the rate at which an appliance transforms electricity into a usable form. The formula used for calculating the amount of electrical power used in a circuit is: power=voltage * current. If a lamp with a 200 watt lightbulb in it burned for 24 hours straight, it would use 4.8 kilowatt hours. The formula which was used to determine the answer was: kilowatt hours = power / 1000 * # of hours. Since the light bulb used 200 watts, and 200 divided by 1000 equals 0.2, then the kilowatt hours used would be equal to 0.2 * 24 (which is the number of hours), which is 4.8 kilowatt hours..

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:

Comment 1:

Comment 2:

Comment 1: Joseph, your blog was very good, you explained everything clearly and you used excellent grammar. One thing is, at the end of your last sentence, you added two periods which should be changed. Besides that minor mistake, your whole blog was clear, accurate, and nicely written! -Myra

Comment 2:

Rewrite: A watt is the unt of measurement for power, which is the rate at which an appliance transforms electricity into a usable form. To calculate the amount of electrical power that is used in a circuit, one must multiply the overall voltage in the circuit (which is measured in volts) by the overall current in the circuit (which is measured in amps). If a lamp with a 200 watt lightbulb in it burned for 24 hours straight, it would use 4.8 kilowatt hours. The formula which was used to determine the answer was: kilowatt hours = power / 1000 * the number of hours. Since the light bulb used 200 watts, and 200 divided by 1000 equals 0.2, then the kilowatt hours used would be equal to 0.2 * 24 (which is the number of hours), which is 4.8 kilowatt hours.

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: This trimester, I had a lot of fun in science class. Playing with the snakes was always fun, and I really enjoyed the abundance of work which we did with technology and electricity, especially building the circuits with the Radio Shack breadboard. I would like to improve on my blog-writing skills next trimester. I would also like to improve on my scientific writing skills. In conclusion, I have learned a lot this trimester in science class and had a lot of fun doing it, and I look forward to accomplishing my goals for this class next trimester!

Comment 1: joseph u have been a great partner! you worked really hard on all of the breadboard projects and you have been an excellent part of our class

Comment 2:

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: I think that, in this future where robots can reason, are self-aware and have feelings, there will not be much that separates a human being from a robot. However, there will be one major difference: the fact that only humans have the ability to come up with new ideas. A robot knows only what humans tell it; having robots that start thinking in ways that mankind did not program it to think exists only in science fiction movies. Also, I think that robots should only be built for helpful purposes. Using robots to fight in the military may appear to be a good thing because humans will no longer have to risk their lives on the battlefield, but using robots for this purpose will only make the consequences of war worse. More human citizens will die, and wars will become more frequent because governments will think that war is alright if no human soldiers die. They will not take into account the other bad aspects of war, and so this is why I would not like to see any robots created with the purpose of using them to fight in the place of humans.

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