Media Literacy Blog: 2007

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Save Harold!

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Try to click the button

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Whatever you do don't press the red button

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Mood Meter

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Sketch!

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Saturday, December 22, 2007

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanaka, and a Happy Kwanza to all and all a good night.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Here's a weird website

There's a weird website, the website is called Peter Answers. If you want to learn how to operate it, then you can go to http://www.pedroresponde.com.ar/EN/faq.htm

Saturday, December 15, 2007

What are the causes of global warming? If you think it's because of cars using fossil fuel, fires, and factories, then you're right. But have you ever considered the forests to be a cause of global warming? Or should I say the lack of forests. That's right, because of the lack of forests the conversion from carbon dioxide to oxygen is growing smaller and smaller for each tree that is gone. When a tree is burned or chopped down, all of the carbon dioxide it sucks and stores will be released. By the end of 2030 more than half of the Amazon forest would be cut down which would cause 20.5 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Click here to learn more.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Boy wins $10,000 for toy rollercoaster

Ian Culhane won $10,000 for creating a 7-foot tall roller coaster out of K'NEX pieces. Pretty cool for a ten year old, don't you think? The child's creation is on display at Toys "R" Us in Time Square. There, he accepted the prize from the president of K'NEX. Ian, who started playing with K'NEX when he was four, was one of thousands of children ages six to twelve who entered this anual contest. Ian started this project last summer. Using six thousand out of his fifteen thousand K'NEX pieces to assemble the roller coaster. While he was dissapointed he couldn't spend any of his prize money, his father gave him $100 to spend at a toy store. What will he buy? More plastic building parts.

If you want to learn more about this story then go to http://www6.comcast.net/news/articles/odd/2007/12/07/ODD.Prize.Toy/?cvqh=itn_toy

Monday, November 19, 2007

Mythbusters EXTRA CREDIT!

Mythbusters is a TV show on discovery channel. This show tests out various myths to see if they are busted, plausible, or confirmed. Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage are the co-hosts and they are also the ones who take on the bigger myths. Grant Imahara, Tory Belleci, and Kari Byron tackle the smaller myths. The episode that I saw was the superhero special. During this episode Jamie and Adam tested if it was possible to make a real working grappling hook. While they were doing that, Tory, Kari, and Grant were testing the myths if you could leave a mark on someones head by punching there with a ring, how long it takes for a superhero to change into his or her costume, and if it's possible to make a ninety degree turn with a cars grappling cannon. When testing the grappling hook myth, they made sure there was a safety line just in case if Adam or Jamie falls. When they tested out the grappling cannon, they shot it towards a mattress while behind safety glass. Throughout the whole show, they did not break any safety rules. The episode used science when they used the steps of the scientific method. You would need a science background for a career in special effects because the career requires knowing kinetic energy so that you know how much power to use, the scientific method to test out stunts, Newtons three laws that talked about energy, and etc.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

50 Blogs

Friday, November 9, 2007

The rules of Omega Meme

I’ve tagged students for the Omega Meme!

The rules are as follows:

Each player answers the six questions posted on this blog.

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those answers are listed.

At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their blog names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Then follow the instructions about adding a page element at omegascience.blogspot.com.

1. My favorite TV show is.......(explain why)

2. My favorite meal is...... (explain the meal in detail)

3. My favorite nonschool activity is...... (explain why but do not give specific names that can identify you)

4. Someone I look up to is....... (explain why)

5. My goal for the future is.....

6. In the first hour after school I usually do...... (explain why but do not give specific events or names that can identify you)

You may not tag someone who has already been tagged.

The Omega Meme

1.I have many favorite TV shows. For example, Myth Busters, the Amazing Race, and Dirty Jobs. But my favorite TV show is Supernatural. It's a show about two brothers who hunt down evil, supernatural monsters or beings.
2.I have a number of favorite meals. But, my most favorite is shrimp. Especially if the shrimp is spicy and/or crunchy.
3.My favorite non school activity is playing tennis. I like to play tennis because it keeps me active and it challenges my strategy and strength.
4.Someone I look up to is my father because as a child he was poor. But as he grew up, he became very successful.
5.My goal for the future is to go to one of the top ten colleges, get a great career with a good pay, while I live in a big house with a nice car.
6.In the first hour after school ends, I usually have a snack, watch TV, or do my homework.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

card trick 3

Supplies:
~a deck of cards

Preparation:
Remove and arrange 13 cards in the following setup, top card down: Three, Eight, Seven, Ace, Queen, Six, Four, Two, Jack, King, Ten, Nine, and Five. Put these on top of the deck.

A magic teacher named Harold wrote to share a little story he tells his students to help them remember the setup for this trick:
"Three hundred & eighty seven years ago there lived a Queen that was sixty four years old. She had two children. One named Jack, the other named King. Jack was ten years old and King was nine years old and the were both in the fifth grade."
3,8 7,A,Q,6,4,2,J,K,10,9 and 5
Thanks Harold!

Secret:
To start, pretend to shuffle the cards, leaving the top thirteen untouched (young children can skip the shuffling part and just begin with the 13 cards.

Remove the top thirteen cards as a group and arrange them like a fan, so that your audience can see their faces. Square up the cards, and hold them face down.

When you spell out each card, do it as follows: let's say you're spelling the word ACE. Spell A, remove the top card and place it on the bottom. Then spell C, and remove the top card and place that on the bottom. Next spell E, remove this top card and place it on the bottom. Flip the new top card and show that it's an Ace, and place it ON THE TABLE (not on the bottom of the deck).

Continue in this manner until all the cards are face up on the table. (eh: You spell the cards in order: Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K) Your audience may realize that the cards must have been set up beforehand, but this only adds to the mystery - and you can treat it as a puzzle for them to try to figure out.

Card trick 2

Supplies:
11 cards from a regular deck of 52. Take 1 joker, an ace and all the numbers up to 10.

Secret:
Lay out the cards face down in this order: 6 5 4 3 2 A J 10 9 8 7 (A is Ace and J is Joker).

Then have someone move the cards one at a time from right to left.

Say they moved three cards (the magician wouldn't know it though) the position of the cards would now be

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 A J 10

Then wave your hand over the cards and silently count 7 cards over from left to right. Turn the 7th card over. It's the three!!!

It doesn't matter how many cards they move over, this will always work.

Always count 7 cards over (starting with the setup above) and it'll be the number of cards they moved.

If they decide not to move any at all the card will be a Joker and this tells you they didn't move any at all.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Card trick

Supplies:
21 cards, all different

Secret:
First lay out the cards, 3 across and 7 down.

Have someone think of a card and tell you what row its in.

Pick up all the rows, row by row, making sure to pick up the row that the card is in 2nd. do this three times. on the third time, pick up the the 4th one down in the row the person said the card was in

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Great Roller Coaster Reviews

If you want great roller coaster reviews, then go to http://www.freewebs.com/kl1001/index.htm

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

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

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

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.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Current Event 4

Stomach problems led to whale shark's death. Ralph, a whale shark, died on January 12 because of stomach pains. Ralph's problems started last year when he started to lose his appetite after a series of treatments used to suppress a parasitic leech. After several treatments, the appetite of Ralph declined, and he eventually stopped eating. The whale shark was given therapeutic food, liquids and medicine, their water was monitered, and how they treated the leeches was changed. Ralph's death was the second of a popular exhibit at an aquarium. If you want to learn more about this, go to http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/03/28/whale.shark.death.ap/index.html

Saturday, February 3, 2007

current event 3

A probe to Pluto swings by Jupiter. Because the probe came so close to this big red giant, it gained more speed when it propelled itself using Jupiter's own gravity. As a result, the probe gained enough speed to get to our dwarf planet in nine years instead of the expected twelve years. Galileo (the satellite) was able to take pictures of Europa. Europa is a large moon that is apart of Jupiter. This Jovian moon has strong proof of underground salt water. But because of antennae problems, the satellite wasn't able to get some images of the moon. Because there is water on this moon, it gives us more reason to believe that there is life on the moon. When the satellite is it will be too fast to stop and enter Pluto's orbit. Instead, it will study Pluto and it's moons. If you want more information about this topic, you can go to http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/02/28/new.horizons.jupiter.reut/index.html.

Class Response 2

In treasurer's class we did a superhero project. This project was supposed to help us learn about mutations. We were supposed to pick two superheroes(a boy and a girl) from a site called Marvel heroes. These two heroes will have a baby. The information we gather from the hero will determine the characteristics of the heroes baby. Then, we wrote down some of their traits and super powers on two separate sheets of paper. Next we decided if these genes were dominant or recessive. After that, we put the traits on the punnet squares. we flipped a coin to see which traits did the parents passed down to the baby. Additionally to that, we had to figure out the sex of the baby. We had to draw pieces of paper out of a bag. If it was blue, then it would be a boy, if pink, then it would be a girl. This had to be an 8:2 ratio.This is how we came up with our superhero babes. My child is the offspring of Spiderman and Black Cat. He has brown hair, hazel eyes, white skin, he is 5 foot 10, he is 120 lbs, has super strength, psychic alignment with the environment, flexibility, long extensible singers, the ability to manipulate the luck of his opponents, can shot webs from his wrist, night vision, skin adhesive properties, and infrared vision. During this project, I learned two new terms. They are spontaneous mutation and induced mutation. Spontaneous mutation is when someone is born with the mutation. Induced mutation is when a mutagen gives someone physical changes or powers.

current event 2

Are there exotic creatures hiding in the ice of Antarctica? New species of animals are being revealed. This is because where these new species are, there were ice shelves. The ice shelves are melting now because of global warming. None of this melted ice is expected to cause the sea level to rise. There are now new species of animals. For example, scientists categorized about fifteen different species of shrimp like animals. If you want to learn more about this subject, you can go to http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/25/antarctica.icecreatures.reut/index.html

Thursday, February 1, 2007

current event 1

Did chimpanzees use hammers a long time ago? Researchers believe that the chimpanzees had used stone hammers 4,300 years ago. The researchers found the hammer in the West Africa country Ivory Coast. The hammer was probably the earliest tools used by the chimpanzee. The stones found in West Africa were the size of cantaloupes. The rock was too big for a humans hand. But not too big for the larger and stronger hand of a chimpanzee. The stones also had a pattern. This pattern means that the stones were used to crack nuts. I believe that this is possible. All of the facts state that this could have really happened. If you want to learn more about this subject, then go to http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/12/chimps.with.hammers.ap/index.html.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Class Response 1

Today in class, we did a lab that has to do with DNA. DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. In this lab, we tried to make DNA visible. We had three different solutions that contained either peas, onions, and strawberries. The rest of the ingredients were the same. The key ingredient was most likely the ethanol (alcohol). It caused the material to be less dense. As an effect, it caused the DNA to float up the test tube. The DNA was only visible in the strawberry solution. Everything has DNA except for some viruses with RNA genomes. DNA storages information for the cell. If you want some more information about DNA, then go to this website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA.