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.

New Unit

On Monday, we started a new unit on weather and climate. We will focus more on weather and only take a quiz to conserve our remaining time for part of the space unit. One thing I learned today that I did not know before is the difference between climate and weather. Weather is a description of the exact temperature and cloud cover at the moment but climate is calculated through patterns over a long span of time. We then went on to the different types of clouds and how hail forms. The typical clouds you would think of as being fluffy and white are classified as cumulus clouds. After doing a few slides of notes we worked on doing our vocab for unit 9. The one thing I need to improve on when doing vocab is reviewing it after I write them.

On Tuesday, we started class by doing four slides of notes. The first new thing I learned while doing notes was latent heat. Latent heat involves phase changes like condensation and evaporation. These phase changes involve a change in energy. Phase changes move from a low energy state to a high energy state. The energy released into the environment from phase changes are latent heat. Saturation was also a topic we reviewed from last year. The saturation we talked about involved condensation and evaporation. Saturation is when both condensation and evaporation occur at the same rates. Saturation can affect the moisture in the air  and is affected by temperature. After taking notes, we worked on creating a cloud viewer for making identifying clouds easier. This was a cool idea to help us learn the cloud types if we ever go cloud watching.

On Wednesday, we reviewed notes on dew point. The dew point is a saturation point. I never really thought about the dew found on my grass most mornings until this unit. After reviewing notes we worked on a weather stations lab mostly about pressure. While doing this lab I learned that better weather occurs at high pressure. A low pressure usually results in clouds or rain. The next time it rains I will know that it was a result of low pressure in our atmosphere.

On Thursday, we began class by taking more notes. We mainly focused on severe weather. One new thing I learned while taking notes is how lightning is formed. It is formed by wind direction from low to high causing winds to rotate. Ice particles that move up and down create static electricity forming lightning. I never knew that lightning was formed by winds. We also went over the ways to measure weather conditions. I knew of a barometer but I did not know of the rest. After that, we worked on the weather stations lab. This lab helped me understand changing pressure systems and how they impact life on Earth. One way air pressure affects humans is through the respiratory systems. Without atmospheric pressure, humans would not be able to breathe.

On Friday, we finished up the week by doing a review worksheet. This was a review for our upcoming quiz and the questions were mainly directly from the notes. This review took me the majority of class but I still had some I did not finish. One thing I can improve on for this week is studying for my quiz next week in advance. This new unit was okay and I learned a lot more about weather.

New Section

On Monday, we had IOWA testing so that resulted in our science class being shorter. To begin the class we did our normal science starter. Then after that, we reviewed notes about the atmosphere. We reviewed topics on global heating and winds, both global and local. An example of a local wind would be a lake wind or a sea breeze. One main factor of Earth's overall heating is the Earth's curvature. After reviewing notes, we worked on a new activity on the atmosphere. To start this activity, we did research on the different types of chemicals in the air and how they could harm humans. Carbon Monoxide is an example of one of these gases that could do great harm to human bodies.

On Tuesday, we did not have science class because of an abbreviated schedule due to IWOA testing.

On Wednesday, we had our quiz on section one. I thought this quiz was very hard and that we did not go over some of the topics as well as we usually do for most of our quizzes. I studied the way I normally do for all tests and quizzes, but for some reason, this was a lot harder than all the ones I have taken in the past. I had the most trouble on the multiple choice questions because I thought that they were worded in an odd way. The short answer questions made sense and I did not really have a problem answering it. Our next test will be open notes so hopefully, I will use that to my advantage when taking it.

On Thursday, we started class by reviewing our quiz. I have some material I need to improve on for next week's test. It will be open notes, so this week it is important that I add all of the side notes while reviewing them in class. This is something that I need to improve on so I can do well on the quiz. After reviewing for the quiz we did some new notes for section two. We started by learning the layers of the atmosphere, which was more like review because of the graph we did last week. The layers of the atmosphere change with density and temperature as the elevation changes.

On Friday, we worked on learning new material on the different layers of Earth's atmosphere for the test next week. The new information I learned about was about the thermopause and mesopause. These are transition layers in which the temperature usually remains constant. I added these layers to the graph we worked on last week to help me review for my test. We also learned about the ionosphere.  Most people often associate this layer of the atmosphere with the Aurora Borealis lights that occur at the poles. This happens when solar wind activity  interacts with the charged particles in the ionosphere. After doing notes we had the rest of the class time to review. Overall this week was a stressful week because we had a quiz in the middle of Iowa testing and shortened classes.

Seawater Lab

On Monday we continued with the seawater lab. Today we tested the viscosity of corn syrup, fresh water , and seawater. To test these we put 100ml of each liquid into a graduated cylinder. Then we took round copper pellets and dropped each one into the liquid separately to perform 10 tests in all. As we dropped the pellets in, at the 70 ml mark, time was recorded from that measurement to when they hit the bottom. For the corn syrup recording data was very easy but for the water test it was very difficult to get accurate results because they moved so quickly. After all the data was collected the average was taken and the velocity was calculated.

On Tuesday we started the class by taking notes. The notes were on the different physical features that exist in both deep ocean and shallow ocean areas. To help show the correlation we drew a diagram of the different physical features such as continental slope and continental shelf. After that we continued with our seawater lab viscosity lab tests. Today we made the graphs displaying the velocity of each sample. The velocity of the corn syrup sample was much higher than the other samples because it is more viscous. The best way to display this data would be in a bar graph because the bars would easily compare the data side by side.

On Wednesday I was not at school during science class because I was attending an awards ceremony for the Azalea Festival art competition.

On Thursday we started class by taking notes. Today the notes were mainly on the different shallow and deep water environments that marine life live in. Even with modern research, scientists still do not know all the marine life that live on the deepest part of the ocean floor. A large majority of the marine life that live down there have adapted due to the harsh environments.  Most organisms living in the deep rely on a food source called marine snow which is a shower of organic matter from the shallow water. Due to the deep ocean's lack of sunlight most photosynthesizing organisms cannot live there. Instead they occupy a shallow region called the photic zone in which sunlight is easily passed through. After taking notes we worked on our lab. Today we did the last test which was to test the pH of both seawater and freshwater. My hypothesis for this test was that fresh water would be able to regulate pH more efficiently but after the data was collected it showed that my hypothesis was incorrect. After collecting the pH for both samples we put the information on a graph to show the relationship between the two samples.

On Friday we spent the class working on work we needed to finish for science. I worked on my study guide for the test next Wednesday. I knew most of the questions but some of them were very challenging. The questions were on the unit 7 oceans. Most of the new material was on the different parts of the ocean such as the photic and aphotic zone. The photic zone has access to light and can sustain phytoplankton but the aphotic zone is so deep in the ocean it has no access to light. Overall the thing that I can most improve on is studying for the test next week by doing the study guide in advance.