Ions by Franz

Ions are when a molecule or atom has either an extra electron or missing electron. In some cases an atom could be missing or could have gained more than one electron. Also this will give the atom a negative or positive charge, if electrons are subtracted the atom becomes positive and if added they will become negative. Positive charged atoms are cations and negative atoms are anions. By adding or subtracting electrons this would only change the mass by a little bit. When writing an atom with an ion it would be written in superscript to the upper right hand corner as shown below.

Atoms become ions usually by radiation bombardment and it only affects the valence shell and this is because the inner electrons are too closely connected to the nucleus.

Characteristics:

●       Attracted to opposite charges like positive to negative.

●       Repelled by like charges.

●       When moving they travel in trajectories and are deflected by a magnetic field.

Common Ions

●       aluminum - Al³⁺ 

●       hydrogen - H⁺

●       bromide -  Br^-

●       fluoride - F^-

Questions

1.      How are ions formed?

2.      If you take an atom and take away two electrons what is its charge?

3.      If an ion is positive what would it be attracted to?

Cell Transportation by Javier

Summary- Cell transportation is when particles, molecules and other substances pass through cells through certain ways of transport. Like active transport which takes up energy for it to be passed through the cell membrane it requires energy because it is against the gradient. There is also passive transport and other ways of getting through the cell but active transport is my favorite (As shown Below). Don’t forget about endocytosis and exocytosis which is how an animal cell gets its energy. Endocytosis is when a cell surrounds a substance and passes it through its cell membrane and exocytosis is when it excretes its waste. Cells are interesting pieces of life and we all need to know what they are here for.

Facts

  Passive transport requires no energy since it is going with the gradient.

 

  A selectively permeable cell membrane lets particles pass in through it.

  Diffusion is when particles go through a selectively permeable membrane from a lower  concentration to a higher concentration

Questions

  How can you tell if diffusion is going on or not?

  What is the difference between active and passive transport?

  How many transportation processes are there? Name three of them.

 

  What is your favorite way a cell transports substances?

Atomic mass by Ally

Atomic mass is the average mass of atoms of an element. This is calculated by using the abundance of isotopes in an elements. Technically, the mass would equal out to be the sum of the protons, neutrons, and electrons in the certain atom. In retaliation to that, the mass of all electrons just happens to be less than any other particle, so the mass ends up to be just the nucleus.

The Atomic mass can be found on the periodic table with its certain element. It is found normally at the bottom of the designated box right under its element’s symbol.

INTERESTING FACTS

1.    Atomic mass showed on the first ever periodic table in 1869.

2.    The atomic mass is quite close to the atomic number from the protons and neutrons of an element’s nucleus having the same mass.

3.    A Dalton is a single unit of atomic mass.

QUESTIONS

1.    Why is the atomic mass not a whole number?

2.    What’s the difference between atomic mass and average atomic mass?

3.    Is atomic mass effected by transmutation?

Introduction to Cells: The Basic Units of Life By Caitlin

All living things, no matter how simple or complex, are made up of cells. They are the basic units of life. In 1665, a scientist named Robert Hooke became the first to look at a cell, and with this discovery, he was able to revolutionize science. There are many interesting facts about cells. Did you know that we have nearly 100 trillion cells in our body? Also, the Ostrich egg is considered to be the largest cell in the world, weighing up to 3 pounds. Did you know that we carry around more bacterial cells than normal cells? How do you think that the discovery of cells changed the way we view ourselves and other living things?

Types of Cells: There are many different types of cells, but they all fit under one of two categories: prokaryotic and eukaryotic. The distinction between these two types of cells is considered to be one of the most important among groups of organisms. Eukaryotic cells, like the one shown in the diagram below, contain membrane-bound organelles, while prokaryotic cells, also shown below, do not. Eukaryotes are more complex organisms like animals and plants. Prokaryotes are typically unicellular, but some can be multicellular.

                      

Basic Cell Structure:

Nucleus-The nucleus is the control center of the cell, and it houses all of the DNA.

Membrane-This is the outer boundary of the cell. It controls what is let in and out of the cell.

Mitochondria-This is where the cell gets its energy from. They turn the food you eat into ATP molecules.

Ribosomes-These organelles are like factories. They create proteins for the cell to use.

Cytoplasm-This is the gel-like substance that fills up the rest of the cell. It is mostly made of water.

Summary: Cells are an incredibly important part of life. I think it is most amazing that these tiny cells are able to operate and function like a city. Each and every organelle has a specific duty to carry out inside of the cell, and they all do it so smoothly and efficiently.  

Motion by Parker

So far in Physical Science we have learned about motion, force, and aerodynamics. The reason we learned all of these is to be able to build a self-propelled vehicle, to participate in the Derby. First we learned about motion, the way we did this is discuss Newton’s law of motion. The first law being   “Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.” This is saying that if you threw a ball it would keep moving at that same speed till it hit a fence or was somehow stopped. So if the ball hit the fence it would stay in rest, until it was acted by an unbalanced force.

Newton’s second law has to be one of the most important ones. The reason for this is because it shows the calculations of dynamics. Newton’s second law is F=ma. What this means is Force= Mass times Acceleration. So an acceleration is made when a force acts on a mass. The bigger the mass is the more amount of force you need to accelerate the object.

Newton’s third law simply states that “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” An example would be if you were pushing against a wall it would pushed back in the other direction just as hard. That’s how rockets work. You see what happens is that the rockets action is to push down against the ground, but the reactions causes the ground to push the rocket up.

These three laws are very important to us even today. Cars use Newton’s laws as well.

Questions for the class

• Have you ever thought that force affects the rides at the fair?

• What would happen if we never found motion?

• Which law do you think is the most important?

Isotopes by Abbey

Have you ever wondered how an atom works? There are many parts of an atom making it all work. One part we have been focusing on this week is an isotope. Atoms that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons are called “isotopes.” Every element from the periodic table has some type of isotopic form.Carbon 12 and 14 would be good examples to describe an isotope. They both have 6 protons, Carbon 12 has 6 neutrons and Carbon 14 has 8 neutrons. So, what’s the difference between ions and isotopes? These are similar to ions which have the same protons but different electrons. I found it interesting how an atom can be so different because of one less electron/neutron. In chemistry we recently did an experiment using m&m’s to find the average atomic mass of a “new element.” In my head i compared how the m&m’s related to an isotope. Although there were different colors and numbers of m&m’s, they are all the same element. This represents the neutrons in an isotope well.

Interesting Facts

●     There are 254 known stable isotopes and 80 elements which have at least one stable isotope

●     Twenty-six elements only have one stable isotope. These elements are called monoisotopic.

●     All non-natural or man-made elements are radioactive isotopes.

Biodiversity by Lydia

Biodiversity is the variety of every living thing that is found on earth. No matter how big or small it all has the same importance. It has to do with every aspect of life. 

        

                                           

            The thing that I think is the most interesting is that “it boosts ecosystems productivity with each species, no matter how small, they all have a role to play.” ("What Is Biodiversity?") For example spiders are one of those things that you don’t understand why they are here, but they play a bigger role than you might think. They eat and kill the flies and other bugs that we see. The spiders keep them from overpopulating. This is extremely helpful because flies and other bugs can spread harmful diseases to humans.

         

Questions for the Class

1)   What do you think is cool about biodiversity?

2)   Has this helped you understand biodiversity more?

3)   Can you think of an example of biodiversity?

Three Interesting Facts

1)   Everything we do in our daily routine has to do with biodiversity.

2)   Biodiversity has declined about ¼ in the last 40 years.

3)   We wouldn’t have the food that we eat today without biodiversity.

 

Leaveners by Iesha

Leaveners

What are leaveners? Well they’re the things in baking that causes the baked goods to rise. Some of them you may already know about.

Eggs, baking soda, baking powder, yeast, etc. these things are leaveners. They all basically cause the air trapped in the batter to expand. Many do this with the use of heat. Leaveners affect the taste, volume and texture of foods.

Eggs

Eggs not only moisten baked goods they also cause them to rise. By whipping eggs you trap air bubbles in the batter which with heat causes foods to rise.

Baking soda

Baking soda is used for lots of things like brushing your teeth and removing smells out of your carpet. Also it’s used as a leavener. The thing with this one is that it needs acidic foods to activate it. This is used quite often in foods.

Baking powder

Baking powder is double acting.  This means there are two stages in which it causes the food to rise. The first is caused by moisture the second is heat. This is a quite common leavener and is used often.

So when you’re baking think about what causes you food to turn out the way it does. Is it because of leaveners?

  

Neutrons, protons and electrons “Oh my”! “Oh my”! by Nat

A atom consists of neutrons, protons and electrons, this is because atoms are composed of matter and make up all the substances in the universe. Atoms that are different elements have different compositions of electrons, neutrons and protons. These are small particles that make up an atom. Electrons, being the smallest, circles around the atom as a shell. There is 118 elements currently on the periodic table, all which represent the atomic mass and structures of those atoms.

          What i find interesting is that atoms are found everywhere. They function electrical forces within. Some of the numerous questions I ask myself are: How fast do they move?, Can you combine them, if so how? How small are they? These are some of the questions i hope to answer in Chemistry.

            Fun Facts

1.    Did you know that an atom force that binds it together can be 1028 times greater than gravity itself 9.8m/s^2

2.    Did you know that your body has 7*10^27 and that 98% of them get replaced each year.

3.    Atoms can not be weighed individually, nor have they ever been seen.

Carrying Capacity by Luke

In biology we are learning about how animals affect and interact with the ecosystem. We are learning about carrying capacity and how the ecosystems keep the carrying capacity in check. The earth has a carrying capacity and we are slowly getting there. But we keep finding ways to expand the carrying capacity of the earth. When animals exceed the carrying capacity the earth kind of has it’s own way of reducing the population. We have overcome some of these thing like floods, diseases, and just everyday accidents. Unlike animals we have hospitals, doctors and lots of other things that help us increase the carrying capacity of the earth. Our natural resources however are not going up in quantity. We are slowly running out of the thing we rely on most like fresh water.

Overall the carrying capacity matters a lot and we are approaching it quickly soon we might be out of the natural resources we depend on every day.

Cool Facts:

The earth's carrying capacity is believed to be between 9 billion and 10 billion.

The number of births is decreasing.

Humans are still growing in numbers because of new technology and treatments of diseases and better sanitation.  

Questions:

How much longer will we have certain natural resources like freshwater and oil?

When will we reach the earth’s carrying capacity?

Newton's Laws by Santi

Right now we are learning about force and motion in Physical Science. I have learned about all 3 of Newton's laws. Then first law states that an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will stay in motion with the same speed unless it is being acted by an unbalancing force.

            Newton's Second Law states that the acceleration of something as made by a net force is directly corresponding to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction, and inversely corresponding with the mass.

            Newton's 3rd law basically says for every action there is an equal and opposing reaction.

            My question for everybody is have you ever thought about the way things move and how?

            Right now we are also working on our cars and have a derby on Thursday October 1st at 3:15 pm in the multipurpose rooms.