Article Blog 5/21/17 - Stars

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Summary

When huge clouds of dust and gas get so big they start to cave in, the center heats up and becomes a core that will one day become a star. Stars come in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. The larger the star, the quicker it will burn out. Most stars live for billions of years. When giant stars die, a huge explosion called a supernova is created. If the supernova is big enough, a black hole can be created. 

Citation

"How Do Stars Form and Evolve?" Newsela | How Do Stars Form and Evolve? N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2017.

SP4: Analyzing and interpreting data

The author of this article analyzed and interpreted data to learn more about stars and write an informational article communicating what he or she learned. In order to find out all of this information, he or she had to read, watch, and talk to experts about stars, supernovas, black holes, and more. 

Weekly Blog 5/13/17 - The Environmental Accords

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Summary

Humans impact the earth in many different ways both negative and positive. However, most of it is negative. Things like clearcutting, overfishing, polluting the air and more are happening. The Urban Environmental Accords is a document with a list of goals that will get us to an "ecologically sustainable, economically dynamic, and socially equitable" future, as stated by sfenviornment.org. There are 21 "actions" or goals in the environmental accords all under 7 categories. The categories include energy, waste reduction, urban design, urban nature, transportation, environmental health, and water. The environmental accords are important because they protect the earth and make it more sustainable for the future. 

SP6: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

I constructed explanations when I rephrased and summarized parts of the Urban Environmental Accords to better understand what they were saying. I explained and discussed the meaning of the accords with a partner. I thought of solutions to problems while playing legends of learning. Some puzzle games required thinking about the solution to get to the next level.

XCC: Cause and Effect

Everything happens because of cause and effect. For example, if we plant more trees around a sidewalk, there will be more shade on the sidewalk, this will make the air cooler not only preventing things like global warming but saving energy. Since the air is cooler, fewer people will use their A/C and fans. Simply making more shade outside (the cause) has many positive effects. Creating more shade is once of the environmental accords. 

Article Blog 5/7/17 - Stone Age dentists treated cavities with tar

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Summary

Long before dentists existed, during the stone age, humans cleaned their cavities differently. They used sharp stones to scrape and chip out their decayed teeth and coated the damaged tooth with bitumen, a tarry type of crude oil. They also used toothpicks (pieces of sticks). About 20 years ago in a site in Italy called Riparo Fredian, some researchers excavated six teeth human teeth. The teeth were found to have scratch marks in the decayed part and after a chemical and microscopic analysis of the teeth, the researchers found out the dark parts of the cavity walls were actually bitumen as well as plant fibers and some hairs. Benazzai, a researcher believes that by coating the teeth with bitumen, it protected the teeth from further infection.

Citation

Bower, Bruce. "Stone Age Dentists Treated Cavities with Tar." Science News for Students. Science for Students, 05 May 2017. Web. 07 May 2017. <https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/stone-age-dentists-treated-cavities-tar>.

SP4: Analyzing and interpreting data

The author of this article, Bruce Bower, analyzed and interpreted data to learn more about this topic and write an article communicating what he learned. In order to find out all of this information on studies and what other scientists and researchers have learned about old dentistry, Bower had to do lots of research and analyze what information he found to verify its credibility. 

Weekly Blog 4/30/17 - Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions

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Summary

Nearly all chemical reactions involve a change in energy. Endothermic reactions occur when energy is absorbed from its surroundings. Exothermic is the opposite of endothermic reactions. It is when energy gets released during the chemical reaction. In an endothermic reaction, energy is absorbed from the surrounding environment. This means the container, for example, that the reaction occurred in would feel cold. The products have more energy than the reactants. In an exothermic reaction, energy gets released into the surroundings making it warmer or glow (like in glowsticks). The products have less energy than the reactants.

SP5: Using Mathematics

This week I used mathematics when I balanced chemical equations while playing games from legends of learning. To balance equations we had to add in coefficients to the beginning of each compound until there was the same amount of elements on each side. To do this, we used addition as well as multiplication.

XCC: Energy and Matter

In endothermic and exothermic reactions, energy is absorbed and released. It is moved around and never destroyed. The same is for matter. In chemical reactions, the amount of mass in the reactants is the same as the amount in the products. That is why we balance equations. Both energy and matter are never destroyed. 

Article Blog 4/16/17 : Using Diamonds to Protect Smartphone Screens

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Summary

One company known as AKHAN semiconductor is working on using one of the worlds strongest minerals to coat smartphone screens. They want to use man made diamonds grown in labs to develop a stronger and more shatterproof screen. They are experimenting with ways to heat, cool, and re-arrange the bonds of the diamonds. Creating the diamonds are also proving to be challenge due to how they need to be at very specific temperatures. Changes in temperature can easily occur. Though the founder of AKHAN semiconductors, Adam Khan claims he can create a synthetic diamond film, other people are still skeptical due to all the problems making and heating diamonds is causing.

Citation

"Diamond in the Lab: Man-made Coating May Protect Smartphone Screens." Newsela | Diamond in the Lab: Man-made Coating May Protect Smartphone Screens. Newsela, 12 Apr. 2017. Web. 17 Apr. 2017.

SP8: Communicating Information

The author of this article communicated information by writing an informational article and publishing it online. By publishing the article he or she wrote, he or she made information on new and developing smartphone technology available to all readers online. The author helped take a step forward in understanding the world by sharing information on technology with others. Without communicating information and informing others, no science would be advanced.

Article Blog: Experiment proves that foxes can be tamed the same way as dogs

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Summary

Foxes are usually considered wild animals, whether tame or not. However, a Russian biologist named Dimitri Belyaev was interested in how dogs became domesticated. He wanted to simulate the early days of domestication in dogs. In order to simulate and see what the domestication process looked like, he used foxes due to their similarities with dogs.  He and his team picked the tamest wild foxes they could find, spent time around and bred them. They recorded and analyzed data and slowly the foxes began to change. Nowadays, there is a large population of domesticated foxes. The tamest foxes are called the elite. Over time, as the elite had children and the children had children the number of elite foxes being born began to increase. The foxes also showed physical traits that weren't found in wild foxes. They developed spots, curly tails, and floppy ears. When the Soviet Union (where the experiment took place) fell, the scientists had to stop their research due to a lack of money to fund it. Now, the facility sells the domesticated foxes. 

Citation

"Experiment Proves That Foxes Can Be Tamed the Same Way as Dogs." Newsela | Experiment Proves That Foxes Can Be Tamed the Same Way as Dogs. Newsela, 5 Apr. 2017. Web. 09 Apr. 2017. <https://newsela.com/articles/domesticated-foxes/id/28741/>.

S&EP: SP4: Analyzing and interpreting data

The author analyzed data on the domestic fox experiment to write about and communicate information on what the experiment was. In order to put together an article, the author/s had to do lots of research and reading on the experiment and the scientists. Once the data was gathered they would have to go over and summarize it to create a short and informational article on the topic.

Weekly Blog 3/31/17 - Chemical Reactions

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Summary

During chemical reactions, atom molecules get rearranged to become new things. Sings that a chemical reaction has occurred includes color change, a seemingly random change in temperature or state and more.