Weekly Blog 12/7 - 12/11

Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Sand_from_Gobi_Desert.jpg

Summary: Erosion works best when there are no plants with only trenches, when the rain comes down hard, the incline is high and when the soil type is sand. It can't work well with plants because the roots hold most of the soil down so erosion can't carry them away that well. It also has to be when a light shower of rain comes so when the rain comes it doesn't have much force to carry much soil away. Next it has to be low incline so the water does have much speed to force soil to be carried away. Finally it needs silt/sand mixture so it could hold on more easier than just silt or sand by itself.

SP5: Using mathematics and computational thinking

This week I filled out a worksheet using the computer in class. This is Using mathematics and computational thinking because I used a computer to fill out a work sheet.

Weekly Blog 11/30 - 12/4

Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/KharazaArch.jpg

Summary: Erosion is the moving of broken down rock particles moving form one place to another. If rock particles are moving that is erosion. If they aren't moving that is considered weathering. Between the two of them it seems that water is the most biggest agent of both weathering and erosion. Usually weathering and erosion take a while to form something similar to the picture above.

SP6: Constructing explanations and designing solutions

This week I worked with my partner to work on our background research sheet for our new unit for erosion and soil. This is Constructing explanations and designing solutions because I used info to explain and show answers to questions about soil.

Safest Place in America Blog

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2013/07/12/14/11/america-147939_640.png

   The safest place in America is Albuquerque, New Mexico. We think this because it isn't prone to freezing Blizzards. It also isn't prone to wet tsunamis to destroy and wet the dry landscape. And it isn't prone to the powerful hurricane to blow houses away. These are some of the things that we will prove that Albuquerque is not prone to in this blog.

   Tsunamis are very powerful waves of water that can sweep away even very smartly built houses. Albuquerque is free of these waves of disaster. It is free of these insane waves because Albuquerque isn't really near any major bodies of water for these waves to form. It also is in a low earthquake risk zone so they can't form because they need earthquakes (Or anything else) to form. Finally it is quite far into New Mexico so no tsunamis can reach it.

   Blizzards are very powerful winter storms with some wind added on to it. Albuquerque is free of these freezing storms of death. It is free of these because high pressure,  low pressure and wind don't meet together in Albuquerque so blizzards can't form. It also can't form because they need landscape as flat as possible so that the blizzard can pick up speed for it to go over Albuquerque. So that is why blizzards can't form in Albuquerque.

   Hurricanes are crazy storms of wind that can hurl cars, trees, etc around to any place. Albuquerque is free of hurricanes because it needs very moist humidity in the lower and middle levels of it. It also needs wind shear low facing all the same direction. It also needs 26.5 C of sea temperature for it to form. Albuquerque doesn't have these conditions so hurricanes can't form.

   Albuquerque is the safest place in America. It is the safest because it's not prone to almost any natural disasters that we had to work on. But New York Times says that West Virginia is the safest place in America. This is not true because our info says that West Virginia has a higher risk in tsunamis, tornados and hurricanes than Albuquerque. So Albuquerque is the safest place in America.

Weekly Blog 11/9 - 11/13

Image Source: http://www.reasons.org/Media/Default/RTB101Page/natural-disasters-header-600x200.png

Summary: One dangerous disaster are blizzards which could trap you in your home or someone else's for a long period of time. Another dangerous one is tsunamis which can sweep away buildings or cars. No state or place is safe from natural disasters. If you want to find the safest place for you to live in free of natural disasters then you will have to find a place with the least risk of natural disasters. So there is no place to be safe from any natural disaster.

SP6: Constructing explanations and designing solutions

This week me and my teammate looked at websites to make our worksheets to support our choice of the safest place in America. This is constructing explanations and designing solutions we constructed explanations.

Weekly Article Blog 11/2-11/6

Citation: Sumner, Thomas. "News Brief: Rare Gem May Hold Earliest Sign of Life." Student Science. Thomas Sumner, 1 Nov. 2015. Web. 7 Nov. 2015.

Summary: This article is about a find of a rare gem that may contain the earliest sign of life on this old earth. It says that this gem is rare because there is something called carbon impurity in it. It is also rare because the gem has a sign that may contain the earliest sign of life on it and isolated cells can't stay in rock too long. Very ancient zircons with carbon inclusions are super rare. They had to look through 10,000 crystals before they managed to find just one of these rare gems.

• How much did you know about the topic before you read the article? What do you now know about the topic that you did not know before?

When I first started to read the article I didn't know much about gems. Gems were just shiny things found in our earth just for jewelry and decorations with nothing special at all on them. Now I read the article I now know that gems can have special stuff on them. And that gems like this are very very rare to come across.If you come across one of these you could make a lot of money for a gem like that.

• Why did you choose this article?

I chose this article because out of all the other articles I thought this one was the most interesting. As I was looking at all the articles I wasn't very interested because it wasn't in my interest to look at them. I kept looking and looking for an interesting article to read and blog about until I found this article. I thought is was interesting because I never really got a chance to read or learn about gems at all. So I thought this was a good chance for me to learn about them.

• How does the information provided in this article affect the future?

This info from this article affects the future in many ways just to name a few. One way is if someone were to learn more about gems then they would go to the article and get info for the project, learning, etc. Another way is if someone finds a gem like this and they want to learn about it. The final way I am going to list is if they want to find a gem like that and if they want to see what it looks like and stuff then they can go into the article. So these are some of the many ways that this article could affect the future.

• One question you have after reading the article. How would you go about answering that question.

Why are these gems so rare? These gems are rare because only a couple are found in the world. They are also rare because they could contain signs of the first life on earth. And these cells and carbon are very very hard to find on gems. And cells from the first life on earth are very very hard to find because they can't last long in rock. So that answers the question.

Weekly Blog 10/26-10/30

Image Source: https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6185/6097388146_06c3d88f49.jpg

Summary:
Wildfires are a type of fire where they start in wild in areas like forests or hills. These fires which can get wild usually are caused by human carelessness. Tornados are just cylinders of fast air going round and round at low, average, or high speeds. These twisters usually happen in flat ares where there is room for it to start, they also happen when warm and cool pressure meet. These twisters also usually happen in the east of the U.S. This area is known as tornado alley.

SP2: Developing and using models
This week I worked on our wildfires and tornados sheets for our project on the safest place in America. This is Developing and using models because I helped and colored a picture. I also pictured how wildfires and tornados would form in my mind. This is Developing and using models because I pictured models inside my head to understand more about tornados and wildfires.

Project Blog

Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Mt._McKinley,_Denali_National_Park.jpg

Summary: During the project I learned that this mountain above named Mt. Denali is also called Mt. McKinley. I also learned that you could expect lots of earthquakes there since it is in between the Pacific plate and the North American plate. Finally I also learned that it is growing, This year Denali is 20,310 feet tall and in 2013 it was 20,237.

How much did you know about the subject before we started?

I didn't know about any mountains before I started this. Before I started this I never learned anything about mountain at my old school and my school right now. So this shows how much I knew about this topic before we started this topic.

What did/do you find frustrating about it?

What I found frustrating and annoying was when we chose Pompeii and found out it was really a city buried in ash right now. Another thing that was really annoying was when we had to miss a day of science when the other 6th grade class took a field trip. So those are the 2 main thing that were really annoying during the project.

What grade would you give it? Why?

I would give it a A-. I would give it this because it could use more work on it and our presentation wasn't that good. So that is what grade I would give it.

One thing I would like to improve upon is ...

One thing I would like to improve upon is our presentation. I would like to improve this because we didn't get to really finish it and put the final touches on it. So this is what I would like to improve on.