Thursday, April 22, 2010

Astronomy











Today, in science class, April 22nd, 2010, we continued our forum discussion in connection with the planet packet. However, we first focused on a very important event which is happening today, the 40th anniversary of Earth day. Earth day was started in the US in 1970 but the UN celebrates international Earth Day on March 20th/ 21st. On this special day they also ring a peace bell.

In connection with Earth Day, we will also be planting plants tomorrow and take them home as a way to give back to the environment.


In our discussion about Earth day we brought up some important things such as one major problem at the moment: global warming. It is referred to as the extremes in climate which have drastically changed in the past years. The causes of global warming are being discussed and there are many theories; but, Ms. D pointed out that since carbon emissions have increased in the past years there have been extreme changes in weather patterns. If this process continues we may even end up resembling Venus; The hottest planet which melts metal on its surface, which would not be a pleasant thought!

Lastly, we watched videos and a slideshow in connection with Earth Day. The links to the videos are just below:

Wombat- http://www.global-mindshift.org/memes/wombat.swf

Chips - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu5J5HQk6VY

Photography - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8IozVfph7I

During class, Ms. D also gave us corn starch Styrofoam which indeed is very edible. (:

As we moved on to the Forum we mainly focused on Exosolar planets and Daniel explained his topic during class. Extra notes you missed if you were not in class today or just didn’t pay attention:

- The smallest exosolar planet they have found is Jupiter size

- The 4 spacecrafts with the sole mission of leaving this solar system are called Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, and Pioneer 11. These all went in different directions in our solar system!

- Further explanation of 3 ways to find Exosolar planets:

1) Radical Velocity Method

-It is Earth based

- They find rays from the Parent star (Star which Exosolar planets orbits around) and measure the wavelength. If this wave length is abnormal or weird they suspect that they have found an Exosolar planet.

-The top of a wavelength is called a crest and the bottom a trough.

2) Astrometry Method

-Space based

- Looks at the wobbling of a star

- Star wobbles because gravity affects it

3) Transit method

- Most surefire method

- Both Earth and solar system based

- Watches the changing brightness of a star

We also had a very cute visitor from 3rd grade named Alice. She came to observe our astronomy forum class for the last 20 minutes. The class introduced themselves and their planets to Alice while we continued the forum.


Homework & Upcoming events

April 23rd : second blogger comment for the 4th quarter is due!

April 27th at 8 AM: The fifth APOD for this unit any date from 2000-2010 may be used! Also, next week is the last APOD that will be due for science this year!

April 28th : Celestial Body test study session at lunch

April 29th : open note Celestial Body Test

April 30th : third blogger comment due

May 4th or 7th: A friend of Mrs. Sprljan may come in to talk to us about astromomy. He specializes in wormholes and Black holes.

May 11th : Chemistry unit starts

May 14th : Extra credit due. Each picture next to a planet is worth 2 points. The planets which count as extra credit are Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Email these pictures to dani.dipietro@aisz.hr or ddipietro.aisz@gmail.com for extra credit. Good luck!

Here are the maps for the extra credit assignment: http://www.phy.hr/~mpozek/planeti/

Hebrew: Ohevet otchem kulam (Love ya guys) and good luck (:

Next scribe is Emma

10 comments:

  1. Good job ines!. You were very percise on the homework you also mentioned the upcoming things. You had a amazing 1st picture and the links are very helpfull. The text is very easy to read and it is very in depth. i also belive you took alot of notes because i doubt any normal human could take so much information in and remember it :) Good job!

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  2. Great post. :) You used appropriate colors, and managed to note and remind topics we discussed and all the assignments given out recently. You included lots of information and kept the scribe post easy to read and bright, but I would recommend to add some pictures. An example, you could include a picture of Exosolar planets.

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  3. I really liked this post! I liked the use of different colors and I really liked the links. You told the history of Earth Day, which was really cool! I think that you could've made the "next scribe" part a bit bigger and in a different color.
    Great job Ines!
    P.S. I really like the Hebrew part!

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  4. Nice one, Inez. I love the effort you put into posts that I would never have near the patience or, more importantly, attention span to do. Colors are nice and keep it organized, and thanks for the Links as well. The wombat is awesome :). Anyway, your post is overall very awesome but you have some very minor errors in your post. First, it is worth 3 points each for a grand total of 12 points if you do all four planets in extra credit. And Ms. D said that the man cannot come on the 4th of May due to our field trip.

    Thanks.

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  5. Quite a commendable post, Ines. Your portrayal of the Earth in the first photograph is classy, and I admire your incorporation of different pigmentation in your text. The due dates were indeed efficacious as was the links to the wombat and Sun chips. My only negative appraisal is the lack of pictures, which ceased to make it as riveting as it could have been. All in all, a swell job.

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  6. Great job on your post! Thanks a bunch for being very precise about our homework. I also like the choice of the colors you used for the post. It is cool that you posted the links, they were awesome! But my suggestion is to post a little bit more pictures to your post to get the idea of the topic you are discussing about. But overall, your post was great! Keep it up!

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  7. Dear Ines :)

    This Scribe Post shows me that you have really put effort into this. It is the most organized post I've seen so far for Grade 8! The point that proves my opinion is the whole simplicity of your post. It is so simple with a few things that make it kind of a smarty simple :) Just using a few colors for the interface made your post look very colorful and interesting. So, good job on the simpe part for it. Another fact, your English is always perfect :) Personally, I haven't found any mistakes. Although, the Earth in a shape of heart is very lovely, I would have included a few more pictures. The "helping" side of your post is very good too. You have included links to some videos on Youtube, and the most important, made a very colorful and easy understaning list of the upcoming events, which makes it kind of easier for the reader. In total, I can say that this is well organized post and is very colorful, which makes the readers want to read it even more! Keep it up :)

    Severyn

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  8. Great scribe post! I liked the fact that you wrote about Earth Day, gave links, and mentioned homework asssignments.I also think it was great that everything was so neat and nicely classified. Sometimes the writing was a bit bright and hard to read, but other then that super post! - Fabi

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  9. Awesome job Inez.
    The appearance of your blog is quite staggering as you have supported it with both catchy pictures and insightful web pages such as the literate Wombat. It was also helpful, as you went into detail with your paragraphs and what we had specifically gone though in class that very day.
    The colors brought up in your post were organized and neat, and I give you much praise for adding dates. Like Aidan said, however, the gentleman will not be coming in on Tuesday, May 4th as the Croatian classes will be having their field trip. All in all, I commend you on a job well done!

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  10. Ines - nice use of different colors to separate different topics we discussed in class. You have hyperlinked well for the Earth Day information, but the Planet Extra Credit Maps could have been hyperlinked as well. Good Earth Day picture, but more pictures could have been included for the other parts of the discussion today. Your spelling, grammar and sentence structure are smooth and clear. Be careful with your posting about Exosolar Planets - there is some weird formatting in the text. Make sure to preview before posting your final version. Overall, good job on your scribe post :) Ms. D.

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