Reasons for The Seasons Lab

Reasons for The Seasons Lab  

In science class we did a lab in which we examined the shadow and sunlight difference from season to season. We made a model earth and shone a light on it to examine. Here is what we had to do: 

1. Take a foam sphere and put a stick right through the middle of it 

2. Take a protractor and position the stick so it has a tilt of 23.5 degrees 

3. For simplicity, tape the stick to the protractor at the 23.5 angle 

4. Shine a flashlight and place the protractor-attached sphere so the protractor's bottom is flat 

5. To show summer, place it so the earth is closer to the flashlight 

6. To show winter, place it so the earth is farther from the flashlight 

7. Place a toothpick between the equator and the north pole 

8. Shine the light and examine the shadow 

9. Record Data 

Here is my recorded data:

Summer

• ·       During the summer there is more light shining
• ·       During the summer there is more of a shadow, probably because there is more light shining on the surface during the summer
• ·       On the surface the grid is stretched in the north pole area because it is in a different position and is partially blocked by other parts of the surface but it gets more sun in the summer than in the winter
• ·       The south pole is the opposite of north pole more sun in winter and less than summer

Winter  

• ·       During the winter there is less light because the planet is farther away from the sun
• ·       During the winter there is less of a shadow, the sun light does not hit as much as it does in the summer, creating a smaller shadow
• ·       The north pole is colder during winter because the surface is partially blocking the north pole   
•  The south pole gets more sun during winter because it is angled toward the sun 

I learned many things from this lab. I learned that the north pole is colder in the winter and hotter in the summer while the south pole is the exact opposite. From what I observed the shadow of the sticking out toothpick was bigger during the summer. This means that buildings and other objects might have a slightly bigger shadow during the summer. After the lab I looked up further info and found out that the regions in the arctic circle have a day that is very dark in the winter and one that is very bright in the summer. 

 

Current Events 12/6/11

Earthlike Planet Found Orbiting at Right Distance for Life 

Article by Ker Than 

On National Geographic News 

I found this article very exciting because it is breaking news. NASA announced that an earthlike planet had been found. But it isn't just a normal planet; This planet is in the middle of the habitable zone of a solar system. The habitable zone of a solar system is the area in which any planets within that distance, could possibly sustain life. This new, earthlike planet is called Kepler-22B. This is exciting news because there are only two other known planets found that are in a habitable zone (not including earth). Both of them are at the very edge and have cooler stars, meaning they probably don't have life. NASA said that Kepler-22B is 2.4 times bigger than the size of earth. They are desperately trying to find out the mass of Kepler-22B. The mass of a planet can determine if it is a rocky world or a water world. NASA is planning to use a new high tech instrument in the Spanish Canary Islands to find out the mass of Kepler-22B. This new mass-measuring telescope is called HARPS North. It measures the planets doppler velocity very accurately.  

I think this article the most interesting of all the articles I read for current events. It's amazing how with new technology we are able to see things hundreds of light years away. I chose this article because I had looked one day before and I did not see it. Today I looked and saw it found out it was a breaking news article. This article also looked fascinating from the title. I know this article is valid because it is on National Geographic, which is a trusted website. This article was also on Reuters, the NY Times and MSNBC as breaking news, which are all major news corporations. I found it inspiring how somewhere, trillions of light years, there might be other living things. These living things are probably completely different and probably will appear to us as being weird and odd if we ever see them.  

This is a sketch of Keppler-22B

Komodo Dragon

KOMODO DRAGON 

On the outside he might look like a scaly oversized lizard. But on the inside he is one of the most deadly creatures on this planet. The komodo dragon is known for killing it's prey in one bite. It's not the teeth, it's not the power of the jaw, it's the bacteria. The mouth of a komodo dragon is one of the most bacteria-filled places on this planet. When the komodo dragon bites another animal and that animal runs away, it will most likely die within a few days. After the komodo dragon bites its prey, the open vulnerable wound gets filled with bacteria from the komodo dragon. Over a few hours, it gets infected. In a few days it will die if left untreated. 

A komodo dragon 

A national geographic vide on Komodo dragons.

"Zombie" Ants Bite at High Noon, Then Die 

By Ker Than 

On National Geographic 

This was a very creepy article. This article is about how a fungus parasite can take control over an ants brain. This fungus only lives in the forests of Thailand. For these "zombified" ants to survive they need to be in conditions of 95 percent humidity and temperatures between 20 and 30 degrees celsius. I will explain the "zombification" process of these ants. 

The spore of the fungus goes on to the head of an ant. Then it slowly grows. In this stage it is technically half fungi half ant. After nine days the ant becomes fully "zombified" and the fungus takes over the nervous system. For the next few days the ant will seem to have very random and insignificant behavior. After a few days the fungus tells the ant to clamp down on a leaf. The fungus cells in the ant cause fibers to detach. This causes the ants jaws to be virtually unlockable. After this stage the fungus then kills the ant using poison. According to the research, they tend to commonly kill the ant at high noon. Why this time, is still unclear. The spores of the fungus spread down off the head and on the leaf, for other ants to "find"....

I chose this article because it was very similar to my other current event about a cyclops shark. I know this article is valid because it is on national geographic which is a widely used website to find out about current events. Also this article is on livescience.com. I found this article interesting because I thought it was creepy how fungi could take control of an animals brain. While I was reading this article I was wondering if this fungi could take control of other animal brains. I was also wondering if it could take control of us! Something that I wish to hear more information about is why they tend to kill at high noon. I think this is a well written because it goes into depth about how and why this mysterious fungus takes control of Thai ants.   

Current Events 11/22/11

Giant, Dinosaur-Age Islands Found in Deep Sea? 

by Richard Lovett 

on National Geographic 

I read a mind-blowing article about how some scientist have found a dinosaur-age island. This "island" is actually two microcontinents. These two microcontinents are 1,000 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia and is about the size of West Virginia.   Scientists think that these micro-continents actually were part of India and Australia when they were connected to Gondwana. Gondwana was a super continent during the time of the dinosaurs. Something interesting that scientists and researchers found on these microcontinents was that it was not covered in basalt rock. Basalt rock is what is usually found on the seabed, instead they found granite, gneiss, and sandstone. All three of these are found on land, not in water. In the chunks of these materials they pulled up, they found several fossils in them. They found a few fossil fragments of bivalves. Bivalves are mollusks, this was important to researchers because they know bivalves live in shallow water not deep water, or land. These findings are some of the little evidence of Gondwana's existence. Gondwana's breaking apart is still a big mystery.  

I chose this article because in Humanities we have been talking about prehistoric times and I thought it would be a cool mix of science and humanities. I know this article is valid because it is on National Geographic which is a trusted website. It was also on digg.com, which I have read good articles on before. I found it very interesting how big land masses or microcontinents can be completely submerged over time. It is also kind of frightening because  our modern day continents might experience this. I am also intrigued by the fact that the we know so little about stuff like Godwana despite our fancy and complex technology that we have. Personally I think it is fascinating how fossils can tell us about something so long ago. Fossils can help us also make inferences. For example, they said that they found bivalves. This tells them that maybe these microcontinents had shallow waters.

Current Events 11/15/11

"Lost" Fortresses of Sahara Revealed by Satellites 

By James Owen 

On National Geographic News 

This very intriguing article is about how we have been able to take more satellite pictures of a super advanced ancient African tribe called the Garamantes. They were around the time 1 A.D. to about 500 A.D and lived in the Sahara Desert in Libya. This tribe had walled farms, towns, and villages. They also had a very intricate irrigation system that would be able to make desert areas, like the Sahara Desert, have green oases in the desert. Since it was hard to grow crops in the Sahara Desert they used these irrigation systems to be able to grow more and wider range of crops and plants. They had a very good writing system and metallurgy. They were also very advanced in architecture and engineering and were able to build bigger walls and buildings. Even though we think we know a lot about them we actually don't. We have no idea how they suddenly disappeared. Scientists think that they ran out of water supply and all of them died. 

I chose this article because from the title it looked very interesting since it was about a very mysterious civilization. I know this article is valid because it is from a very trusted website. Also it was on other websites like the "Heritage Daily" and other news corporation websites.  It is fascinating how ancient civilizations can be very advanced in technology for certain reasons. I thought it was intriguing how they used the irrigation systems to grow grass in desert areas to use for crops. They built underground canals so the water would not evaporate since they were in a desert. It must have been difficult to build this because it took an estimated 77,000 man-years to build this. This proves how smart civilizations can come up with very odd ways to do stuff that is hard to do, like plant crops in a desert. It was difficult to discover these sites because the researchers ran out of money, the sites were in the middle of the Sahara Desert and the war in Libya stopped the researchers for a while.

Current Events 11/7/11

Cyclops Shark Joins Ranks of Cryptic Creatures 

By Stephanie Pappas

On Scientific American 

In this very unique article I found out a lot of interesting and wild facts. This article is about how a fisherman on the coast of California found a shark in it's mother's womb. But this was no ordinary baby. Instead of having two eyes it had one big eye in the middle of it's head.This find was proven authentic because shark researchers examined the shark and was able to prove its authenticity. Other scientific finds like this have been found like a girl that had no nose and one eye in the middle and also a cat that had a similar condition. In the article the author also talked about other acclaimed finds like a kraken's lair and yeti hair and tracks. Over time a lot of finds have been proven a hoax, but some finds that have been proven may be behind the old myths and tales.

I chose this article because the title popped out and made me very interested, you usually do not here about cycloptic sharks. Scientific American is atrusted website. I also know this article is valid because the same story was also on National Geographic. I think this article proves that many myths and legends about creatures could be actually based on a real abnormal creature. This proves that even though these myths and legends are exaggerated, they might actually have a scientific side to them. A good example of this is the rare giant squid. These very rare squids might of attacked a ship and caused people to tell the story of a giant man-eating squid. I learned quite a lot from this article. I found this article very interesting and different. I thought it was kind of creepy that animals could actually have one eye and other deformed body parts. I learned that all of these myth and legends from all over different places and time, could possibly be true.