Last Blog

I am in eighth grade this year so this will be my last year of blogging and science class with Mrs.G. Next year I will start high school but I do not think the classes will be that difficult because I have been taking high school science for three years. Earth and Environmental science can be challenging, but I worked through it the whole year. Even if I had not studied for the final I think I still would have done well. Any final exam is just the basic concepts and topic taught throughout the year. In my opinion, it is almost like every single day of the school year is preparation for the final. While taking the final, I understood all the topics and processes involved with picking the right answer choice. This final made me have to apply my knowledge of the topic to the questions. After taking the final I felt good and this class will be adequate preparation if I choose to take this class again in high school.

It is hard to physically do a lab pertaining to some of the topics taught this year. It is not possible for us to just go through the Earth's layers to see the order or take a field trip to the mid-ocean ridge.  A lot of labs we did this year only simulated the processes that occurred on or in the Earth. The lab that most prepared me in the sense of lab analyzation was the soil sample lab. This lab helped me not only understand the components that make up soil but also the proper way to organize and set up a lab analysis. Before this lab, I had some prior knowledge but this lab helped me actually learn how to create data tables, charts, and written conclusions in a more hands-on way.

The other activity I enjoyed doing was much more recent. In our unit about space, one concept that was important to master was the order of the moon phases. Before doing the Oreo cookie moon phase lab, I did not really grasp the concept. Seeing the phases all laid out helped me visualize how it actually might look on Earth. This activity also helped me on the final because it helped me once again see it more clearly in my head.

Earth and Environmental Science was not my favorite science class I have taken at WAAS. It was not as hands on as some of the other classes such as Biology and Chemistry. I also feel as though there was more information being covered this year compared to past years. I have acquired knowledge on a broader range of topics that have to do with daily life and the past. I have learned now how my actions can affect the environment in both positive and negative ways.

My thoughts on science have changed in the way I felt while taking the class. At the beginning of the year, I was excited. I wanted to learn about the world around me. I loved science and the school I attended. As the year went on though, my opinion of science as a whole changed in a negative way as well as the respect I had for it and the respect I had for the school I attended. I was no longer excited to learn  when I walked in the doors. The same joy for learning I had in sixth grade disappeared. Not because of the changing topics but the changing attitudes of the person teaching these topics. So much can change in two years which is one of the most important life lessons I learned while taking this class.

Science next year will hopefully allow me to enjoy learning again and this is what I am most looking forward to. To be honest I do not know what I need to improve on for next year. Each week I have worked on something to improve on and it seems to be working. The main goals I have for next year is to do my possible best and rekindle the love for learning I lost this year. I am not considering pursuing a career in science but hopefully, next year I will have a better grasp on some of the topics that could not be taught at WAAS.

My advice to the future classes taking Earth and Environmental is to study hard and stay on top of things. This is important in this class because there is more information this year than any other year. Another important piece of advice I took back from this year is to enjoy a subject if you truly love it no matter how a teacher may negatively affect your opinion of it.  I am glad this is my last blog because it represents my time at WAAS being finished.

Quiz

On Monday we started class by viewing Mercury as it made its transit across the sun. We did this by looking through a telescope with a lens that would diffuse most of the sun's rays. When I looked into the telescope, I did not really see much except for a small white dot. This dot was supposedly Mercury. After viewing Mercury, we moved onto notes. Today in notes we learned the basic vocabulary to help us with understanding the different phases of the moon. One of the important words I learned was the difference between waxing and waning. Waxing is when something gets bigger but waning is when something gets smaller. After reviewing notes we did the tech book questions for this unit on space.

On Tuesday we started class with our usual science starter. After doing this, we did an activity involving Oreos and moon phases. We used the cookies to create the moon phases by shaping the filling. We did this on a sheet of paper and laid the cookies out. After making each one we labeled them. This helped me learn the moon's phases in relation to the sun and Earth. After doing this activity, we did a review worksheet with questions about the moon's phases.

On Wednesday we used all of class to study for both our quiz and and our final. I took most of the class time to study for the quiz. I prepared for the quiz by doing the tech book questions and making note of all the questions that I got wrong. By doing this, I targeted the areas in which I needed to focus more on. I need to focus on the phases of the moon and their relation to Earth and the sun. After the quiz, I will spend lots of time to review for the final so that I do not have to study all at once.

On Thursday we took our quiz on space. While taking this quiz, I overthought most of the multiple choice questions and changed my original answer. This is one thing I need to improve on especially for the final. Overall I thought this quiz was very hard, but I managed to do my best. In preparation for this quiz I focused on studying the tech book questions and reviewing the notes I took. One thing that helped me was making note of the questions I got wrong and taking the practice quiz again. Next week will be filled with lots of studying for finals.

Space Model

On Monday, we started class by taking notes. One thing that I have never realized about the sky is that it is slightly curved. This invisible body in the sky is called the celestial sphere. This sphere represents the fact that all objects are not located the same distance away from the Earth. One thing that affects our lives is the fact that on Earth there are 365.25 days in a year. This results in a leap year every four years. After taking notes we worked on a new activity. This activity involved using scale factor to make our own model of the solar system. We did this by first filling in the distance from the sun to all the planets then determining what it would be on our model.

On Tuesday, we started class by doing a Kahoot. This Kahoot was mainly on space. There were some questions that were in our notes and some that were general questions about space that were more difficult but still fun to answer. After the Kahoot, we took notes. Today one of the topics that we were sure to review moving on was longitude and latitude. This can be very confusing and after reviewing which one was which I understood a little bit more. After taking notes we worked on our lab. Today, we started on the basic outline for our model. We rolled out 3 meters of paper to draw the rough sketch of the model on. We spaced out each planet in accordance to the sun and the scale factor which we calculated yesterday. Tomorrow we will finish the model.

On Wednesday, we started class by doing another Kahoot. This one was mainly about space and the planets and was a little less broad. I do not know the order of the planets very well but that is something I need to improve on before the quiz. After the Kahoot, we took more notes. These notes were on the Kepler laws. The first one describes how planets do not orbit in a circle, they orbit in an ellipse. The second one describes the fact that things closer to the object they are orbiting move faster than when they are farther away. After taking notes we worked on our lab from yesterday. We used the drawing we did the previous day and used objects that would correspond to the planets size scaled down. After doing that we worked on questions we will do tomorrow.

On Thursday, we started class by doing a Star Wars Kahoot.  I do not know how this relates to anything we were doing in science but we did it anyways. After the Kahoot ,we took more notes. In the notes, we went over what an equinox is. An equinox is when the day is equal to the night approximately.  It happens twice a year and it is a result of the Earth's equator passing through the center of the sun. After taking notes we worked on finishing our lab. One of the questions was open ended which made it somewhat hard for some people to come up with an answer. Tomorrow we will not be at school because of a field trip in which we see pelicans nesting.

Quiz

On Monday, we played a review game for our quiz on Wednesday. This review game mainly focused on winds and did not fully pertain to the information that was actually going to be on the quiz. I could not answer most of the questions because most of them were not on things we had actually gone over in class. The one thing however that I did take back from the review game was that winds move from high to low pressure. The homework consisted of studying for the quiz on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Mrs. G was not at school. The substitute reviewed the worksheet we completed last Friday when we had another substitute. This was a review of section one and mainly was about weather. It helped me focus more on the information on the quiz. After reviewing this worksheet we worked on the textbook questions. There were 57 questions which made it hard to concentrate on the questions that would actually pertain to what was going to be on the quiz. Overall, I do not feel very prepared for the quiz tomorrow but I will prepare to the best of my ability with the materials that I have been given.

On Wednesday, we had our quiz. I felt overall better about the quiz once we took some time to review in the first part of the class. The quiz was much shorter than usual but that also means that the mistakes, if any were made, would count as a higher percentage. There was only one short answer question and I felt okay about it. I studied latent heat and phase changes very well before I took the quiz so that part was somewhat easier. We will move onto the next unit and skip the climate section so we will have time to prepare for finals.
One thing I may need to improve on this week is to start maybe reviewing for finals. It seems like it is far away but it is in fact very close.

On Thursday, we started class by reviewing the quiz we took. I did better than I thought. After reviewing the quiz, we took notes. These notes were on unit 10 which will be our last unit in science. This unit is on space. Currently, my knowledge of space is very limited but after this unit I hope I will know more about space. One thing that was slightly introduced was parallax which I hope we go into more. This week was stressful and I wish I could have just skipped school and just gone to the beach.

On Friday we did not have school due to there being a teacher workday.