My Science Homework

Day 147: Stream Table Lab - Day 2

Mr. G — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:44:44 +0000

Yesterday’s lab was designed mainly to get students accustomed to working with the stream tables and simply observing the flow of water over the Earth’s surface. Today’s lab involved more detailed concepts, including observing closely where erosion and deposition will occur in a meandering river, where the best places would be to construct buildings as to avoid flooding and erosion, and other principles of watershed dynamics.

Homework: Complete Part II of the stream table lab prior to Monday’s class period.

Day 146: Stream Table Lab - Day 1

Mr. G — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:33:18 +0000

After gaining a solid understanding of the terminology used to describe watersheds, students worked in pairs to complete the first part of a two-day lab on riverbed erosion.

Today’s lab focused on simply observing a river channel, blocking the river channel with a dam or levee, and observing how such structures break down with time. Tomorrow we will more closely examine the changes that rivers make over time, including meandering rivers, oxbow lakes, and others. The complete lab (Parts I & II) are due at the end of class tomorrow (Friday). Remember, the geology test is on Tuesday of next week (April 15th).

Homework: Complete Part I of the stream table lab prior to tomorrow’s class period.

Day 145: Rivers & Streams Pre-Lab

Mr. G — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:26:47 +0000

As a means of getting ready for tomorrow’s stream table lab on the development and evolution of streams and rivers, students worked individually to read section 15.2 from the Earth Science text on watersheds. The secdtion review (#1-7, 9) was completed in class and is due at the start of tomorrow’s class period.

Homework: Complete the section review for Section 15.2 prior to tomorrow’s class period.

Day 144: Continental Drift Lab

Mr. G — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:12:03 +0000

What evidence exists that the continents of the Earth have drifted around on the globe over the past several million years? Today, we examined three main pieces of evidence: the fossil record, rock & climate records, and glaciers.

All three of these objects leave significant evidence that the continents were once connected and have since drifted apart. Today’s class was largely spent on the continental drift puzzle activity as we close out the geology unit. Next week we’ll spend most of the time completing a lab utilizing the stream tables to explore how water flows over the Earth’s surface. We’ll also tackle the test over the second half of the geology unit.

Homework: Complete the Continental Drift lab prior to the start of class on Monday.

Day 143: Earthquake Lab

Mr. G — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:05:51 +0000

Today’s objective: To learn how geologists determine the epicenter of an earthquake. The process is remarkably easy and after viewing some of the specifics in a brief, 7-minute video clip, students then worked in cooperative pairs to complete a lab utilizing data from various cities seismograph records to determine the epicenter of an earthquake. Specifically, students worked to determine how far the earthquake occurred from each of three cities utilizing seismograph records. After determining the distance, circles were scribed around each of the three cities. The location in which the three circles intersected is defined as the epicenter.

The earthquake lab was largely completed in class with most groups turning it in prior to the end of the hour. For those who have not turned it in, it is due at the start of tomorrow’s class period.

Homework: Earthquake lab due at the start of tomorrow’s class.

Day 142: The Fossil Record

Mr. G — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:23:52 +0000

As we aim to complete our work on the geology unit over the coming week, students worked in cooperative pairs of their choosing to complete the “The Fossil Record” guide with help from the text. We also discussed the importance and differences between several types of fossil specimens that were passed around the room.

Next week we’ll tackle several days of labs utilizing the steam tables, exploring erosion and deposition, river sediment, deltas, meandering streams, oxbow lakes, flood control methods, etc…

Homework: Complete the fossil record guided notes prior to next week.

Day 141: Absolute Aging Review + Quiz

Mr. G — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:03:27 +0000

We began today’s class by reviewing the absolute aging concepts covered in yesterday’s class period. We did this by going through the solutions for each of the four assigned problems that were part of last night’s homework. Students were allowed to keep the practice problem set and were encouraged to reference it for review prior to the geology test in a couple of weeks.

Following the absolute aging review, students completed a quick, 10-minute quiz over the theories related to the Earth’s changes over time as well as the specifics of the relative aging processes we’ve covered over the last week.

Homework: None.

Day 140: Absolute Aging

Mr. G — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:59:47 +0000

After wrapping up work on determining the relative age of rock layers using the principle of superposition and recreating cross sections of rock layers, students were introduced today to the concept of absolute aging: determining the quantitative age of a rock layer or fossil.

These methods incorporate the principles of radiometric dating: the use of quantitative methods regarding the radioactive decay of such elements as uranium, potassium, and carbon-14. At the end of the hour, students began working on the Absolute Aging problem set - due at the start of tomorrow’s class period.

Homework: Complete the “Absolute Aging Problem Set” prior to the start of class tomorrow.

Day 138: Relative Aging Puzzles

Mr. G — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:15:05 +0000

The reaction essay to the National Geographic Tsunami video was due at the start of today’s class. We briefly discussed their reaction to the video before moving on to today’s topic: relative aging puzzles.

We began by finishing up the guided notes on relative aging that we had started back on Thursday of last week. Today’s focus was on unconformities: ways in which rock layers can get partially or completely eliminated from the geologic column. These include the disconformity, erosional surface, and angular unconformity. After diagramming each of these, students were introduced to the relative aging puzzles: describing a series of events in chronological order based on a diagram of rock layers and their irregularities. Students worked to complete the practice problem set before tackling the Relative Aging Puzzles: The Big One. This puzzle is due tomorrow at the start of class.

Homework: Complete “The Big One” relative aging puzzle - due at the start of tomorrow’s class.

Image Source

Day 137: The Tsunami of 2004

Mr. G — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:03:21 +0000

Today was a break from the lecture and notes format that we’ve followed much of this week as students watched the National Geographic special presentation: Tsunami: Killer Wave. This special covers all angles of the tsunami of 2004: the causes, how the event played out, and how the event impacted the lives of millions of people around the world.

Students were assigned a two-paragraph reaction essay to the film. The format of the essay is fairly loose: A one-paragraph summary of the film, including the important details (who/what/when/where/why) of the tsunami event, followed by a one paragraph reaction to the film: what did this film make the student think? What questions remain following their viewing? What could have or should have been explained differently or better? This essay is due at the start of class on Monday.

Homework: Complete the debate poster and tsunami essay, both due at the start of class on Monday (03/31).