WAC - Dams - Should China Build more Hydro Electric Dams?

          After 18 long years of hard work, on July 4, 2012, the construction Three Gorges Dam was completed. This dam was built to provide a clean source of renewable energy, to reduce the risk of flooding, and to boost the economy by increasing the amount of shipping along the Yangtze River. China now plans to construct four more hydroelectric dams along the Jinsa river; a river flowing into the Yangtze River. Although the Three Gorges Dam has proven to be successful in it's three purposes, it has caused more trouble than good. China should not build four more hydroelectric dams due to three main reasons. Hundreds of thousands of people living along the river had to be relocated, actions of logging and construction have been causing severe erosion problems leading to landslides, and flooding problems concerning the rivers wildlife and ancient culture have been created.
         
        

01/17/16 Rivers

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Scioto_River_2.jpg

Summary

Rivers are a very important part of our ecosystem. For example, the San Joaquin River Delta provides fresh drinking water for approximately 25 millions people in California. Water in motion can create electricity with turbines, move large objects, and even take you rafting. They even helped us find gold! When rivers are steep and have a high incline, the water is usually clear with a rock bottom. In these types of rivers, the water is moving really fast with more force. When the river is flat, the water is cloudy with a muddy/slimy/planty bottom. Because rivers can often erode the land around it, I can infer that the fast moving clear rivers are deeper since they erode the ground faster.

SP4: Analyzing and interpreting data

I analyzed data when I read an article about the San Joaquin River Delta. I read and analyzed the article in order to learn about why the Deta is an important part of our environment as well as to learn about our river vocabulary. I also analyzed and interpreted data when I completed two different worksheets. The first worksheet was more specifically into the river vocabulary. In that worksheet, we had to analyze the data given about the meaning of the word and interpret where to annotate the picture turning the picture into a sort of diagram. On the second sheet, we had to analyze data when we kept on re-reading the San Joaquin River Delta article (we read it 3 times in total). After we read the article, we had to answer questions using the ACE strategy and match words with their definition.

Soil and Erosion - Project Blog

                              This was our Ignite Presentation.

Summary

Erosion is the movement of weather rocks. The main forces in erosion are water. Water can cause lots of types of erosion like landslides. The Laguna Beach Landslide occurred on June 2, 2005, at Laguna Beach, California. The landslide started on a steep hill. As it traveled down, the landslide destroyed the homes at the bottom of the hill. 11 houses were destroyed. So, what caused the landslide? A landslide needs three components... Water, soil, and incline. First, it rains and the water accumulates in the soil. Accumulate means gradually build up. Second, because the soil is not permeable, the water starts to become too much for the soil to soak through fast enough. Because of this, the two just mix together. This creates a super runny hill of liquid soil. The third step of this process is where the incline comes in. Because the hill is so steep, the liquid soil runs down into the houses loosening the friction between the two. Finally, the soil and homes are sliding down a hill creating a landslide.

Backward-Looking

Before I started to study this topic, I already knew a bit about erosion. This is because last year in Science we studied weathering and erosion. However, I only knew a little bit about weathering and erosion and not much detail about landslides specifically. My group's case study was on the Laguna Beach landslide. I have never heard of this landslide before. I also didn't know what causes a landslide. The only thing I did know was that a landslide is when a large amount of dirt, rock, and basically anything that gets pulled down and slides down a steep hill or mountain.

Inward-Looking

During this project, I was proud of the work my group and I presented. I feel like my presentation was interesting as well as informative and that my group and I did a good job. The reason why I believe this is because we included lots of facts as well as even made a diagram to put on our slides. Our script even had a joke to keep the audience entertained. One thing that I disliked was that we were still dependent on the script while presenting even though we still tried to keep eye contact. Overall, I enjoyed presenting and had fun.

Outward-Looking

I think that our presentation and work was different than other projects. This is because we really tried to keep our script entertaining by adding jokes and funny parts. Most of the other scripts and presentations were very simple and full of only facts. Also, we didn't worry about the timing on our sides. Some groups had to pause and wait for their slides to change because their scripting was too short. I also noticed when I looked at other groups script that theirs was a lot shorter than ours. Our script was basically 2.2 pages while theirs was only 1. We were also the only group with a diagram.

Forward-Looking

The main thing I would like to improve on is being able to present without a script in my hands. This is because without having to look at a script, you can look at the audience and engage them more with eye contact. When I watched the other presenters, I noticed that when they had a script they tended to not have eye contact. Also, I would like to have practiced presenting with my group more. This is because sometimes while we would practice, one of us would stumble on some words or space out. If we just practiced more in general, our presentation would have been a lot better.