Blog Post 3

Global Warming Silver Lining? 

By Richard. A . Lovett 

National Geographic News 

Written on Sept. 23 2011 

This article "Global warming silver lining?" is about how recent research shows that global warming may have some good effects on the arctic. Recently climate models have been showing that global warming increases the amount of annual rainfall. According to Timothy Garret, an atmospheric scientist, one of the best ways to get rid of pollutants in the air is rainfall. He explained that rainfall can carry the pollutants out of the air and onto the land. Pollutants have less effect on the environment if they are on land than if they are in the air. They think this method might be effective especially in the arctic since it receives so much of the pollutants from global warming. 

I chose this article because I think this is currently a very controversial argument and most think global warming is bad. This article shows that Global warming is not 100% bad and actually does some good for the environment. The title "Global Warming Silver Lining" is what caught my attention because it is bold and exotic. I learned in this article that things that are bad are not always completely bad and unhealthy. I can tell this article is valid because it is from National Geographic a website that is trustable. One good thing about this article is that the writer presented both sides of the argument. It is fair reporting so the reader can make his own judgements. One positive thing about this research is that it can affect scientific knowledge because we can use this information to look at global warming in a more positive way. However, this rainfall method does not apply to carbon monoxide. How can we study carbon monoxide which scientists seem to think affects global warming more than pollutants.

Current Events 9/20/11

Fanged Frog 

By:Rachel Kaufman 

National Geographic News 

Published on August 16 2011 

For my current science events report I picked an article called "Fanged Frog" on National Geographic 

News. Fanged Frog is an article about the discovery of nine new species of frogs on Sulawesi, an island in Indonesia. According to scientists these are not actually fangs but are bony jaw protrusions. The purpose of the "fangs" are not known yet but scientists think that they might help the frogs catch fast-swimming prey in ponds, lakes, and rivers. 

I chose this article because I thought it was unique and interesting. It is unique that these frogs have fang like jaw protrusions. This article caught my attention because of the title "Fanged Frog". I think this is kind of related to what we are talking about in science which is animal adaptations and how they survive. For example, these frogs probably grew "fangs" to help it catch more prey. I know this news article is valid because it is from a trusted website, National Geographic.com. I decided to look further into this article so I went to a website called The American Naturalist. I found out that there was also fanged frogs found in the Philippines. The ones in Indonesia have higher diversity. Scientists think this is so because there are less frogs which means there is less competition.

Science Current Events

Science Current Events: Nuclear Explosion France Sept. 2011

France nuclear: Marcoule site explosion kills one 

 BBC Europe 

Written on 12th of September 2011 

On the 12th of September 2011 a blast at the Marcoule Nuclear Site in France, killed one worker and seriously injured another. Officials said that the worker who died was killed from the initial blast not from radiation. The explosion was caused by a fire that started in a nuclear waste storage site. The fire started by a furnace in the nuclear waste storage site. According to the interior ministry spokesman there was no radiation leak of any kind. 

The author of this article decided not to put his opinion into his article. I think the author was trying to be respectful to everyone's opinions. I chose this article because nuclear energy is a very controversial argument. Many people disagree with having nuclear energy and think that we should shut down all nuclear power plants as soon and as safely possible. They think we should find a safer alternative energy. I found this article very interesting because there have been many nuclear explosions over the past few years and yet we are building more and more plants. I believe we should find an alternative energy that is safer and is not radioactive and/or very explosive. Nuclear energy started in the 1950's and since then we have been using it to supply our homes with energy. We have been building more and more nuclear power plants over the years and the more we build the more likely we are to have more accidents that end up killing innocent workers and civilians. This article reinforced my opinion about banning nuclear energy. I checked for validity of this BBC article and it is valid because CNN wrote a very similar article and both are major news corporations. 

  

Bibliography: 

 BBC Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14883521

CNN Article: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-09-12/world/france.nuclear_1_nuclear-waste-nuclear-site-nuclear-facilities?_s=PM:WORLD

My Goals for Science 7

Here are some of my goals and things I want to do/accomplish for seventh grade science this year. 

• Learn many new things in science class. I will do this by paying attention in class.
• Try my hardest on all assignments.
• Get good grades on my projects, by working hard.
• I would like to dissect something, like dissecting a frog
• I want to learn  something related to roller coaster physics, like building a model roller coaster. Of all of the science subtopics I find physics the most interesting because I think it is the subtopic in science that is used the most in every day situations.
• I wish I could do a chemistry experiment, like combining chemicals to see what happens.
• It would be fun to study biology, such as marine biology
• I want to go on a field trip, like going to the Tesla museum.
• It would be interesting to do many different projects, like researching an animal.
• I want to have fun!!!!!!

My Scientific Summer

My Summer
By Tyler Monestel

Over this past summer I went to a few amusement parks in Orlando, Florida. While I was in the amusement parks I went on several roller coasters and many thrill rides. Some of my favorites were Test Track, Manta Ray, and Mission: Space. Manta Ray is a unique roller coaster in which you are lying down facing the ground. Manta Ray has a top speed of 56 mph (90 kph) and a height of 140 feet (43 meters). Mission: Space is a centrifugal motion simulator in Disney Epcot, which exposes riders of forces up to 2.5 G-Forces. Test Track is an automobile evaluation simulator that reaches a top speed of 65mph (105 kph).

Roller Coaster Science

Roller Coaster science is mostly based on physics. Roller Coaster science is the study of how roller coasters work and function. There are a few physics of motion that affect roller coasters. The first is Kinetic and Potential Energy. Kinetic Energy is the energy the car has when moving. The faster the car is moving the more kinetic energy it has. Potential energy is how much energy the car has stored as it is moving up the chain lift hill. Acceleration is how great the train changes in speed. Deceleration is how great the train decreases in speed. I experienced this on Test Track because the car made a lot of quick starts and stops. G-Force is the force of earths gravitational pull exerted in one person. One G-Force is the normal amount of G-Forces exerted on a person. When you are riding Mission: Space 2.5 G-Forces is exerted on you. It makes you feel like you are being thrust up into the air, even though you are only spinning around in circles. The fastest of all of the roller coasters I rode was Test Track, so it has the most kinetic energy.

Lesson

Kinetic and Potential Energy

When going up hill it has potential energy. When going down it has kinetic.

Potential                         Kinetic

At the top of a hill it has a lot of potential energy and little, kinetic vice versa on a bottom of a hill

                              Little Kinetic
                              A lot of Potential

                                                                                                    Little Potential

                                                                                                    A lot of Kinetic

Acceleration

Acceleration is how great the train changes in speed. Zero acceleration occurs at the top of a hill. Centripetal acceleration is a result of resistance to change in direction.

G-Forces
The force of earth’s gravitational pull exerted on a person.