My Science Homework

Day 171: The Global Warming Debate

Mr. G — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:49:33 +0000

Today, we took a short quiz over the final units of the meteorology section of our class. These quizzes will be graded over the weekend and grades updated my early next week.

We then watched another 15 minutes or so of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. Students were again encouraged to jot down notes regarding the thesis of the film as well as the supporting evidence that is discussed. We then took a few minutes to discuss the main points covered in the film. With this information, students are able to finish writing the second of four portions of their climate change paper.

To finish out the week, we began watching the second film: The Great Global Warming Swindle. To watch the first 10 minutes of this film (which includes a very concisely-stated thesis), press “play” below or click here. This is the portion of the film we viewed in class today.

To watch more sections of the film, click the links below. We will finish watching this film on Monday of next week. Your best strategy to successfully complete this paper is to work on it in small pieces - don’t wait until Tuesday night to write the entire paper! It is due on Wednesday, 05/21/08. Have a great weekend!

View all chapters of The Great Global Warming Swindle:

Day 133: The Story of the Earth: Part I

Mr. G — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:29:42 +0000

On our first day back from Spring Break, we began by reviewing the scores on the geology test that was completed the day before break. The average scores were higher than on the previous test (average among all freshman: 71%) but many students did poorly on the “phases of the moon” portion of the test. All students are being given a chance to retake this portion of the test to make up lost points. The make-up must be completed tomorrow either before school (7:55-8:10) or after school (3:10-3:25).

We then discussed the theories of uniformitarianism and catastrophism today in class. These differing theories on how the Earth’s landforms have been shaped over time were up for much debate in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Today, scientific evidence clearly indicates that uniformitarianism is the overriding theme of the geologic environment - that is, that most geologic change occurs very gradually over long periods of time. That does not exclude catastrophes from taking place, however. Earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis still cause rare, sudden, and dramatic changes in the landscape around the world.

Tomorrow we’ll continue this discussion by bringing another scientist into the mix: Charles Lyell. Following the conclusion of those notes, we’ll begin discussing the debate poster project that will continue through Wednesday (due on Monday).

Day 123: The Rock Cycle

Mr. G — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:23:45 +0000

Today we began a discussion of the rock cycle: the transition from one rock type to another. We started by discussing the formation of sedimentary rocks from sand. This portion of the rock cycle includes processes such as weathering and erosion. We will continue the rock cycle grpahic organizer in class tomorrow.

For a great view of weathering and erosion, we watched a 30-second video clip advertisement for the Motorola PEBL phone. The video clip features the time-lapse weathering and erosion of a meteorite morphing into a smooth, soft ‘pebble’. If you missed class, Watch the video again via Google Videos by clicking play below or clicking here and check out the great representation of weathering and erosion!

Watch for erosion (movement of rocks, gravel, and sediment) as well as weathering (the breaking down of rocks into smaller pieces) as you watch the clip.

Tomorrow: Quiz over mineral characteristics - study the guided notes!

Day 105: The Inner Planets

Mr. G — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:25:05 +0000

After wrapping up work on the stellar life cycle projects in class yesterday, today students began constructing a set of flash cards about the planets. We started class by watching a 2-minute video clip about the formation of a solar system. The video focused on how the dust and gas of a nebula combine and are brought together by gravity to first form a start at the center. As the star evolves, the remaining dust and gas are brought together to form planets that travel around the star.

The flashcards that were constructed in class today were just for the first four planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. These flashcards must include an image on one side and then on the back, 8 pieces of information must be documented. See the Planet Flashcards handout for more information:

Name
Order from Sun (Mercury = 1, Venus = 2, etc…)
Weight of a person that is 100lbs on Earth
Size (diameter in Kilometers)
How many Earths would fit across this planet in a row?
How long is “one day” (rotation on its axis)?
How long is “one year” (revolution around the sun)?
List at least two unique characteristics of this planet

On Monday, we’ll wrap up the planets with flash cards for the four outer planets.

Day 99: Black Holes

Mr. G — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:44:21 +0000

What would travelling into a black hole be like? Today’s lesson had us focusing on the implications of the massive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. We watched about 25 minutes of the great NOVA presentation Monster of the Milky Way. Tomorrow we’ll watch the rest. Since it is a PBS presentation, they have offered up free video clips online - you can view each chapter in its entirety on PBS’ Monster of the Milky Way: Watch Online page.

As noted in one description of the program, NOVA has done a superb job of explaining the seemingly inexplicable:

If ever there was “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”—Winston Churchill’s inimitable phrase—it is a black hole. In this spirited exchange, one man struggles to explain these deeply weird outer space entities while his interlocutor struggles just as hard to understand them.

Homework: A 1-page reaction essay is due on Tuesday, January 29th. The reaction essay may take whatever form you wish, but one possible template to follow would be as follows:

Paragraph 1: A summary of the film. What was the main point? Give me some DETAILS on the issues explored in the film - just just a brief overview.
Paragraph 2: Your analysis/reaction to the film. What did it make you think about? Did it make any topics more understandable to you? This reaction portion should be the bulk of your essay - this is the portion where you can earn the most points.
Paragraph 3: Closing/Conclusion: What questions were left unanswered? What other issues should be researched further?

Next up: Tomorrow we’ll finish the film. The stellar life cycle projects will be our objective for Monday and Tuesday. Remember the list of options we discussed: you can write a children’s book, create an educational video, construct a poster or PowerPoint, or you can write an autobiography of a star. We will begin these projects next week and they’ll be due the following week. Eventually we’ll continue our journey into our solar system by studying our sun. We will continue inward, focusing next on planets and moons before moving on to the Earth more specifically in our Geology unit beginning in February.

Day 89: Powers of 10 Video Clip

Mr. G — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:01:05 +0000

How big is the Universe? Admittedly, a tough question to wrap our heads around. How about starting smaller: how large is our solar system? How about our galaxy, the Milky Way? The scale of the universe is a tough concept envison. It’s simply too large for us to use any readily-identifiable scale as a reference. The objective for today’s class is to better undersand the scale of various objects in our universe - particularly the very large and very small - as they relate to objects of sizes that we can more readily conceptualize. The tool used to gain this understanding is the well-known short film titled Powers of 10 by Charles and Ray Eames. Click the “play” button below to view the entire film directly from this webpage.

Summary of the film: The video takes the viewer on an amazing trip through the largest and smallest known aspects of the world around us. The film begins by showing us a man enjoying a casual picnic in a park along the lakeshore in Chicago. The film then expands outward (as though the camera is travelling vertically away from the man) by a factor of ten (known as one “order of magnitude) every second. From the man on the lakeshore, we pan out to view the entire park, the city of chicago, the geography of the central US, outward to viewing the entire earth and beyond. The film continues (more…)

Day 72: The Hubble Telescope

Mr. G — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 01:05:18 +0000

The universe is a huge place. Telescopes help us visualize this space but are admittedly limited. In 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit around the earth and it has given us a much more impressive of the universe, to say nothing of our place within it. The Hubble space telescope is often credited as having taken some of the most important photographs ever taken by humankind:

It is worth watching a couple of times, as it gives us an amazing glimpse into the vastness of space and of our place within it.

Following the video, students worked in pairs to write a quiz about the Hubble telescope. Using a couple of news articles supplied in class (NASA Hubble Telescope Summary, Hubble Captures a Comet), students wrote 5 multiple-choice questions, two true-false questions, and three short answer questions. All quizzes should include the answers, including full sentences for the short answer questions. These quizzes were due at the end of the hour today.

Homework: Bring a protractor to class for tomorrow’s lab.