current event 6

Study: Sudden sea level surges threaten 1 billion. Nearly one quarter of the world's population live below 100 feet above sea level. The tsunami that happened in 2004 pulverized villages along the Indian Ocean and killed 230,000 people. A team led by E. Lynn Usery found out that a 100-foot rise of the sea level would cause 3.7 million square miles of land worldwide to be under water. Just a rise of 16 feet can affect 669 million people and 2 million square miles of land would be lost. As of now, there is no threat. The sea levels are only rising about 0.04 to 0.08 inches per year. If you want to learn more about this issue, you can go to http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/04/20/sea.levels.reut/index.html

class response 4

Skate Park or Roller Coaster? The group I was in chose to create a roller coaster out of commonly found household materials. These materials had to be brought to class and then bought with fake money. The roller coaster had to have at least four hills and another roller coaster aspect. Our group's roller coaster's name is Triple Threat. Our roller coaster had four hills and a long bend. We also had to label where was the highest potential and kinetic energy. The highest potential energy was located at the beginning of the roller coaster. The kinetic energy wasn't quite located. We also had to make sure we integrate the three Newton laws into our roller coaster. When we launched the marble into our roller coaster, it was suppose to end at a certain point. But, it couldn't go through the last hill because it didn't have enough momentum to go over it and the hill was sort of impossible. There was also a second part to this assignment. We had to make math problems, advertise and write an essay on this. Anyways, you can go on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_laws_of_motion to learn more about the three laws of motion.

class Response 3

Today in Treasurer's class, we were doing several activities. These activities have to do with four terms that I learned from the activities. They are reflection, refraction, convection, and conduction. The activities are blowing bubbles, finding a cup in oil, playing with rubber bands, using a prism to see a rainbow, reflection and their angles, a broken pencil and refracting penny, reflecting rainbows and regular reflections, and seeing the colors of the rainbow. Reflection is the returning of heat, light, or sound. Refraction is the bending of light. Conduction is the transfer of heat between two mediums. Convection is the transfer of heat by the movement of a fluid. if you want to learn more about this kind of stuff, you can go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convection
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_conduction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflection_%28physics%29

Current Event 5

Ocean life in hot water. Right now, global warming is killing all of the fish living in the sea. Global warning isn't just taking a toll on fish, but it also is allowing the jellyfish to rule. Jellyfish actually thrive in warmer water. Biologist Martin Attrill of the University of Plymouth in England analyzed 50 years worth of data about the North Sea and found out that jellyfish are more prevalent in warm-water years. This is also trouble for the commercial fish. Jellyfish not only out compete fish larvae for food but they eat them too. With the help of satellite data, scientists believe that because of the rising ocean temperature, more phytoplankton are dieing. Phytoplankton forms the base for oceanic food webs. This plant takes in carbon dioxide and breathes out oxygen as much as land plants. If you want to learn more about this, you can go to http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/04/04/warming.oceans/index.html for more information.