WHAT I THINK ABOUT SCIENCE Science is an important thing to learn because it could come in useful some day. Science could some day find the cure for lots of diseases like AIDS and CANCER. If used properly science could solve a lot of the problems in the world.
This year we're going to study Storms, Ecology, Food, Resources, Genetics, Shelter, Disease, Flight, Technolgy, Inventions and we're going to do projects.
You may email me c/o [email protected]
Links to other sites on the Web
Prospect Education Center
Exploratorium/San Francisco, CA
How Stuff Works
WHAT I'VE LEARNED!
Freshmen year
Orientation to Global Science--What is science?--I learned about lab safety--for example, always wear a lab apron and goggles when handling chemicals that could hurt your eyes or any part of your body. We also did an experiment on which is the best plastic wrap. We tested how well plastic wrap held in water by wrapping wet paper towels in plastic wrap and seeing which held in the most water. We also did an experiment on which would sink or float; regular Pepsi or diet Pepsi. We put a can of diet Pepsi and can of regular Pepsi in a big tub of water and saw which would float and which would sink. The regular Pepsi sank because it was heaver and had more calories in it. I think the diet Pepsi floated because it was lighter and had fewer calories. We also did an experiment on whether or not microorganisms are present in the air in which we boiled some hot chicken broth and put it in some test tubes. We put a cotton wad in one of them and left the other without one. We waited for about a week. The one we left out had mold growing in it. The one with cotton didn�t. So there were microorganisms in the air. We also learned about the process of science, which is OBSERVATION, QUESTION, HYPOTHESIS, EXPERIMENTATION and CONCLUSION.
Shelter, Foundations Materials credit period 7, I learned about foundations, falts, earthquakes, sinkholes, parasites, more about the international space station,and shelter.
Which material makes the strongest foundation?--We did an experiment to find out which material would make a bar of plaster the strongest. We mixed the plaster and when we poured the plaster into a forum, we lined up paper clips in the plaster to make it stronger. But when we tested it, we found that even thought we put paper clips in the plaster and let it dry for a whole day, ours wasn't the strongest material to use. The one that was the strongest was one with paperclips and wire all interwound. Even after lots of tests it never really broke.
THE UNIVERSE--We have been doing projects on the universe, like answering questions for chapter 18 of The Universe. I have been finding out things about the universe like star clusters, black holes, spiral galaxies, light speed, the inner planets, the outer planets, the formation of the solar system, and lots about Mars. Some of the things I�ve learned about Mars are that it has a lot of weird landscape formations like a face and a couple of other things. If you want to find out more just go in to a search engine and look up weird rock formations on mars. We also have been doing some solar system-based activities like our solar system, sky sphere, proportional planets, and our milky way.
sophomore year
GEOLOGY OF CALIFORNIA--This time we have been learning about the geology of California and it recourses, hazards, a journey through California (in this we went on an imaginary trip around California and wrote about it), Internet hop on the bus (in this we evaluated a website address on a fieldtrip. I it wasn�t that good it needs to be improved), and current science (this is where we find articles related to science in newspapers and magazines and write about them and present them to the class). My current science topics are MIR (the space station), EAGLE (an article about an eagle attack on a young girl), DINOSAUR BREATH (an article about how some dinosaurs may have been able to just breathe on you and just kill you) AND CLONING (is about how cloning works and how they may be able to bring back extinct species of animals.). Next time we will work on mater atoms and the periodic table.
ANIMAL STUDES--this year our class has a guniea pig. Different students take care of him and write in a log about him. We also have to write an on going story about the Adventures of Licorice the Guinea Pig.
When I took care of him he gave me and my partner trouble when we tried to clean his cage and refill his food and water dishes. He ran all around the cage and even knocked some of paper shreddings out of his cage. But most of the time he�s good, at least I think.
VITAL STATS-- In this activity I wrote down science website addresses and my logon names and passwords for those sites, some of which I had to redo, because it had been a long time since I�d been there.
� 2000 [email protected]
times since 12/21/2001.