Reflection for Ultimate Survive

The thing that helped me to understand the big idea the most was the videos we watched about how humans have affected this planet and how many other species are extincted because of us. I think that videos helped me the most because unlike something we read, we get to see what happens with our eyes. If we had to read everything would just be numbers and letters. The unit question is similar to Ultimate Survival because our unit question is what we need to survive. And surviving in the wild is the ultimate survival. In the wild we need 4 main things to ensure our species survival. Nutrients, shelter/habitat, to be able to excrete waste, and to be able to reproduce. I think that this unit was a great unit and I think that the unit was great the way we did it. I think we answered the unit question very well by listening to stories, doing group projects about a certain environment and then presenting the most important facts so others could know how the environment we did functions and how we have effected it. Watching documentaries and taking notes helped because I think most people in class enjoy watching movies to doing quizzes. We also had a guest speaker who had actually been to the environment he was teaching us about so we could know more about the environment then things you can find on the internet.

Green Plastic

ChemMatters - Episode 2: Plastics Go Green from ACS Pressroom on Vimeo.

In this video we saw the comparison of the normal everyday plastic, to environmentally plastic. Or is that so. Everyday plastic like your average bottle will outlive for many years in landfills. Causing air and water pollution. These everyday plastics are made from crude oil. But crude oil pollutes the air and water. Crude oil is also a fossil fuel, which means it will soon run out. On the other hand, the "Green" plastic can be put in compost bins and it's made from corn, sugarcane, and sugarbeet. But is that really the "Green"? The facts are that planting these crops require fertilizer and many other chemicals It also requires lots of land.. It also need fuel to be harvested with tractors and shipped to factories. Then those factories use electricity, which usually comes from fossil fuels. Then, putting plastic in compost bins while they slowly break down. But while they are in compost bins they release carbon dioxide. And most countries don't have compost facilities. So bio-plastic is thrown in landfills and then they release methane. So bio-plastic pollute just as much as normal plastic does.

Food Inc

I think that after seeing food Inc, that there are many beneficial things in nature, and if we try to change those things to make it more efficient. It doesn't always work. For example, with mass food producing companies who have more power then the government, food producing companies don't have to care much if any law is made to stop using chemicals or to animal rights. Consumer choices can help though because even though food producing companies have mare power than the government, to stay there they would have to have lots of consumers. Therefore if the majority of their consumers want something changed, they'd have to change it or face the problem that no one will buy their products.

How the Earth is used will affect us because the 6 billion and something people all share only 1 world. If we deplete all our recourses and put chemicals in all our food, soon we would be in complete chaos. All means of transportation would stop working other than bicycles, roller scats, horses, and our own shoes. Most people in Earth would have diabetes or some other kind of low nutrient high calorie sickness. Mass food production companies are well aware of this problem, but all they ever try to solve the problems with is more technology, which sometimes might improve the problem but mostly just makes a new problem.

Natural farming is when you give the organism an environment which has all its needs, but it takes longer until you can harvest it and it will be more expensive and usually have less edible parts. It'll taste better, it'll be healthier, but most people can't afford it. Industrial farming is when you find the cheapest, fastest, way to get an organism to harvesting stage which will have more edible parts. All big food producing companies will use chemicals to achieve their goals but those chemicals are still a new invention and the faults haven't been fixed yet. This can cause sicknesses and will get some people allergic. But because its cheaper most people prefer it over natural farming products.

Current Events

Jet Lag Makes You Dumb

Laura Sanders

Nov 16. 2010

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65624/title/Jet_lag_makes_hamsters_dumb

Jet lag, most of you have experienced this when you go into a different time zone, it makes you tired and very easily annoyed. But most people forget about it after a good long sleep. But recent studies Erin Gibson of the University of California, Berkele, have shown that going into a new timezone can also lower your IQ. Studies have shown people who travel to different time zones have a bigger possibility of getting cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer.

Eric Gibson and his team of researchers tested this on a group of hamsters, by changing their sleeping and eating times by 6 hours every 3 days, which is like going from Serbia to China every 3 days. The hamsters amount of sleep didn't change, but their sleeping and eating patterns were a mess.

Soon, the hamsters were showing memory loss, like not remembering where their food was or which of the 2 chambers they lived in had wood shaving to sleep in. The hamsters also had a harder time figuring out what a wheel does even though a few days ago they were using it easily. These problems were most likely caused because after their "jet lag," due to cell death or stress, they only used 50% of their brain. Even 28 days after they stopped changing time zones they were still confused and still had a lower IQ then usual. Gary Gibson says he will do more tests to find out the exact cause and effect of Jet lag.

I chose this article because it really caught my eye. I often travel to different time zones even though I'm not effected that bad cause I'm younger. My parents looked like they'd just ran a marathon. And I also chose this article because everything else I could find was a bit boring.

Analysis of Owl Prey

Answers to Students Guide Questions:

1. Based on the class data the animal found most in an owls diet is the vole, which makes up 30.46% of their monthly consumption.

3. It would be much more energy efficient to catch 1 vole instead of 35 insects because even though there would be the same amount of food but to catch 35 insects would take 35 trips to catch and the vole would take only 1 trip.

5. If all the shrew in one area left or died it would not affect the owl population at all because according to the classes data shrews only make up 1.068% of the owls diet and if their not there the owls would either go get something else to hunt or just leave 1.068% of their stomach hungrier then usual.

Current Events

Glowing Trees

Nov 11. 2010

Darren Quick

Gizmag

http://www.gizmag.com/glowing-trees-using-gold-nanoparticles/16917/

As soon as post-doctor Yen-Hsun Su of the Research Center for Applied Science (RCAS), Academia Sinica, Taiwan, finds out that nano particles of gold when injected into trees make the leaves luminescent. He thinks about replacing lamps we have now with glowing trees. LED lights use phosphor powder to run and the powder is highly toxic, is extremely expensive, and pollutes. But if we took trees and made all their leaves luminescent and replace the LED lights with trees, it would help CO2 emissions go down and we wouldn't have to harm humans with toxic phosphor powder and trees would last longer.

Basically when you inject gold nano particles into trees, their leaves the gold nanoparticles can produce a blue-violet fluorescence that triggers a red emission of the surrounding chlorophyll and makes a sort of purplish light. post doctor Yen-Hsun Su tested this new development on the Bacopa Caroliniana and it made a purple light that made the tree look purple. I chose this article because I gave gizmag my school gmail adress so every day it sends me a new article about some interesting technology. This time it sent me a article that really caught my eye. I mean, who's heard of glowing trees that would replace street lamps? So I decided to do my current events on it.

Human Footprint Reflection

In class we finished watching the Human Footprint, which is a documentary about what we do to the world when we are alive. How much food we throw away, how much plastic and paper we don’t recycle, and how much electricity and fossil fuels we waste. It tells us how many species of animals will be gone soon and how it will affect the food chain. It also told us about how easy it is o stop it all, that if everyone did a small thing it would make a big difference. Right now, if everyone lived like I lived we would need 1.9 Earths

Sustainability is to support or to keep going, the world supports us but we're using its resources too fast so it will not be able to provide humans and animals with the needed things like shelter and nutrients, all the things we take for granted could soon no longer exist on planet Earth. A human footprint is how much of an impact to the world we make while we are alive, whether its good or bad. There are many ways to make your human footprint a good one. By limiting the food, drinks, water, etc. you need every day over a lifetime you could save tons. By carpooling you could save the world from another car and help a friend. There are so many easy ways to help save what places man and technology haven't touched, which would stop global warming and pollution.

Some of the facts on the video surprised me a whole lot. I mean, who knew how many materials diapers took to make? Who knew that by eating so little every day, turn it into how much you eat in a lifetime and the numbers are so big? From this video I learned that every small thing has an impact, and doing one little thing like taking out a plug to the TV when you’re not using it can save up to so much electricity being used and Carbon Dioxide going into the air. But if that’s the case why don't manufacturer make machines that electronically disconnects itself when not in use and have a small battery to start it up again? There are so many thing you can do to make a difference. Get a better human footprint and help the world.

Current Events

I'm doing my Current Events on Big Dog, as Dr.G introduced in DT class. Big Dog is the 2nd most advanced rough terrain robot in the world made in Boston Dynamics with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Achieving up to11 kph and going 20.5 km without recharging, breaking world records for longest distances traveled by machines with legs. It weighs 109 kg but can carry a payload of 170 kg . Its 1 meters long, .3 meters wide, and 1.1 meters high. It's main purpose it to go anywhere and everywhere. It is called the Big Dog because it's shape is meant to resemble a dog. It has human like stability which is helped by its 4 legs.

The motivation came from the fact that less than half of the earth is accessible by any means of transport with wheels. But animals can go almost anywhere. Over the past 40 years the idea of a locomotive with legs has been embraced by scientists. But only now after 1986 have scientists really had the technology to pursue the idea and make it fact. We have been making machines that can hop and run on 2 legs as well as 4, achieving a world record of 21 kph. Big Dog is the newest invention with it's own censors that tells it's on board computer how to navigate rough terrain. The Big Dog also has on board communications and controls. The 0n board computer receives information from 50 censors from around the body telling it what is happening and what to do next.

Newer versions of the Big Dog a planning to be made, some for military purposes. The newer versions are going to have a new feature of being able to right itself if it ever falls down.

Current Events

Doing the Wet Dog Wiggle

Oct 22, 2010

Alexandra Witze

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64593/title/Doing_the_wet-dog_wiggle

How many times have you had to dry yourself with a towel of a hair dryer? Many times I think, but the furry animals I have in mind can just shake and be dry in the matter of seconds. I you have a furry pet like mice or dogs, whenever they get wet you can see them shaking about. But is it really that simple? Or is there a secret to it? To find out the engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta did tests to find out.

First they got 40 animals and 7 different species from lab rats to the engineers pet cats and dogs to lions and bears from the zoo.(No animal was harmed in this experiment), they then got slow motion cameras to film what the animals where doing. Then they just poured water on each animal and observed what they saw. They found that above the furry animals spine there is a lot of loose skin that flaps around when they shake their body and helps them get rid of any water in their fur. Because the furry animals can do this their body heat is 25% lower than a humans ans if the don't get rid of water in their fur they would easily get hypothermia and die.

Current Events

Dreaming makes perfect

Stephen Ornes

May 12, 2010

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100512/Note2.asp

A new study has shown scientist a reason why people dream, why people have adventures in their sleep. Because lets say you drive a car for a long time and all you think about is driving that car. That will be your dream and you can improve the skill in your dream! Scientists tested this by getting a bunch of volunteers, they all did a very difficult maze but every time they finished they would do it again from a different position. After doing the maze half of them went to take a quick nap. After they woke up the people who slept and the people who didn't did the same maze again, and those who dreamed about the maze were much better than other because after working on the maze the picture was already in their head and while unconscious their brains took over and searched for possible solutions for them.

I choose this article because I always wanted to believe that if a test was coming and I'd studied, I would dream about it and while sleeping I'd study even more. Or that if I wanted to learn a new sport imagining it would help me play it. I think in the future if scientists could control what someone dreams it will help the average person learn something much faster.

Current Events

People Blind from Birth use Visual Brain area to Improve Other Senses

October 6, 2010

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101006131203.htm

Author Unknown

People who have been blind since birth have the ability to use the part of their brain that isn't being used to improve their hearing and their touch, therefore being able to navigate roads like a normal person with a walking stick. Scientists found that the certain modules used for sight in the brain have gone with the modules that control touch and hearing therefore enhancing them. Scientist got 12 blind and not blind volunteers and put them in a room, where the made soft noises from different directions and asked them to tell the scientists where the sound was coming from. Then they put little vibrators on their fingers and asked them which ones were vibrating. At the end of the test scientists proved that blind people can feel and hear much better than the average person.

I choose this article because when I was little my dad showed me a kind of book the had bumps where the letters were and he said that it was for blind people to read. I tried and I tried but i couldn't make out the letters without looking at them but then I saw a blind person do it and I thought that he wasn't actually blind and it was a prank until i saw him looking away and reading out loud.

Antarctic Food Web

Antarctic Presentation Reflection

I think Mr. Watts thought me a lot about Antarctica and how animals need each other like in the whale poo story. I also learned many interesting facts like how cows are the 2nd most successful animal on the planet because we like our burgers. I also learned that Polar bears don't exist in Antarctica and that there are many more kinds of penguins than I ever knew. I think the only drawback is we had to do this reflection.

Survival Video Reflection

I think to survive you need shelter, a food source(animals, crops) a water source(river, stream, or now days tap.) You need to know what to stay away form or you'll be like a Dodo bird, not encountering predators and forgetting their survival skills and how to fly so they were extincted within months after they were discovered by humans who they treated as friends. Dogs at all their eggs with were lying around in the open and that was that. You need to know how to treat wounds or stay hygienic(dog walk around on 3 legs if one is injured looking for help from humans and cats lick their fur.) All in all if you have all these things you could survive alone.

Current Events

The Memory of a Material

March 31, 2010

www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100331/Note1.asp

Author Unknown

Nafion is a material that has been around since the sixties, and don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it or you would have a bigger vocabulary than Microsoft Word 2007.It was creates by a chemist at DuPont and it is commonly used in fuel cells. And now, half a century after it was made, a scientist in Michigan has discovered a new quality, its Nafion’s memory. You see Tao Xie, the scientist behind the experiment has found that if you heat Nafion up, it will stay exactly the same size and shape. But if you heat it up again and this time twist it into a weird shape and you let it cool until it’s the shape you started with, then heat it up to the temperature of the last try it will become the shape that you twisted the last time. You can make shapes at different temperatures, heat it up, and as you let it cool down and it reaches each temperature, it will bend into the exact some shape that you made last time at that temperature. This shows that Nafion is a smart material which have special properties like generating electricity when pressure is applied or changing color according to the pressure of the room. Nafion isn’t the first of its kind, but is special because it’s the first of its kind that hasn’t been specially made for this unlike the other of its kind.

Current Events

Charged Cars that Would Charge

March 10, 2010

www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100310/Note2.asp

Author Unknown

The title is pretty confusing, isn’t it? Well, the idea came from both the demand for electric cars and the problem from not being able to send enough electricity to a household fast enough. The problems were that one day we are going to run out of petrol, and when we do we’ll have to resort to electric cars, and since more and more people have more and more electric devices in their house they need electricity faster. So AC Propulsion (a company that works on electric cars) came up with a solution that could solve both problems. Basically, this electric car was like most electric cars, you plug it in to a power supply and when it’s got enough electricity, you take it for a drive. But that’s not very convenient since gas stations aren’t called electricity stations for a reason, so the only place you could refuel was your own house, limiting the places you could go. But with this version you could just plug it into the nearest pole that hold power cables and while you’re doing your shopping or watching a movie your car would recharge, for FREE! Now you might not believe in free electricity, you might not see how this explains the title, and you might not see how this helps other households. So here is how, while you’re charging your car, a part of the electricity that goes into your car goes out of it again, giving the power cables a boost and sending electricity faster, so it helps you, the environment, and the guy who need more electricity for his computer and plasma TV.

The only thing different from human survival and animal survival is animals adapt to the environment, humans make the environment adapt to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCZ8MSg9FrI

Goals For Science

1. Do a good Current Event
2. Do good on our first project