3rd Annual Self-Propelled Derby

Yesterday was the 3rd Annual Self-Propelled Derby, where the physical science students create a vehicle that is propelled based on potential mechanical energy. The Derby was a smashing success, with 15 vehicles and an entire school cheering the science students on. Here are a couple pictures from the event:

R and C giving an introduction about their car. They used a rat trap, and it did really well in the trials, but unfortunately broke an axle right before the derby .

Slingshot driven vehicles were very popular this year.

The audience watching. The excitement was palpable, giving the derby participants a boost of confidence.

More slingshots

This used multiple rubber bands to slingshot the car.

Winner of the best design and construction. This vehicle ran off the spring energy of the mousetrap.

P and K setting off their mousetrap car.

Some participants used the force from balloon propulsion.

Measuring the distance.

I loved how the students helped each other out.The project allowed the students to engage in teamwork and idea sharing.

Another balloon powered car. This one used rubber tubing to direct the air.

Biosphere Bottles by Jacob

Biosphere

·         the regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth (or analogous parts of other planets) occupied by living organisms.

Do we need all of these different spheres to live?  And what about other animals?

A biosphere has plants, animals, and water.  Biomes consist of water because all living plants and animals need water to exist.  It is a closed system.  There needs to be a balance for the organisms to survive.  Plants take carbon dioxide out of the air by a process called photosynthesis.  Plants release oxygen back into the air.

We are making biomes in class.  We made them out of bottles, plants, and soil.  You put the soil in the bottle and the plant as well.  You can put bugs in the bottle as well as a worm, or maybe even create one with fish.  In the dirt of my plant I found a centipede.  I left the bug in my bottle to be part of the biome.

What I found the most interesting is about the plant in the biome. What I found about the plant is the look itself and I think it is growing in the biome. I also don’t know what is causing the condensation on the side of the biome.

Now in class we take observations about our biomes to see if anything’s changed or not inside. Once you put everything inside and sealed it, the only thing that gets to the inside are heat and light. And the whole system should stay alive for a while.

Lipids by Mikayla

Lipids are fatty acids that can not be dissolved in water but can be dissolved in organic solvents. This includes things such as waxes, natural oils, and things such as unsaturated fats.

            Cholesterol is a very good example of a lipid. Cholesterol is hydrophobic which means it is water fearing and it is hydrophilic which means blood loving, those two don’t mix. This can help you in many ways, but can also harm you. It is very important because it helps your cell membranes function, it gives you vitamin D, helps make your hormones, and it also is helpful in digestion. This substance can also be very harmful to your body if you have too much intake. It is a very waxy substance so if you have more than you need, the waxy substance could clog your arteries. If this happens, which is called LDL, it can cause heart disease. However, HDL is good for you, it carries cholesterol from parts of your body into your liver.

            How do you think that you could keep yourself from getting LDL? I think this topic is so intriguing because it affects you drastically in both ways. You have to educate yourself to know how much and what kind is good. If you don’t do that cholesterol could be a bad thing for you. I find interesting that high cholesterol can be genetic, so even if you are educated in that area it could still be harmful to you. If you notice small bumps on your skin that could be a sign of high cholesterol, but this is more common with people that have medical conditions. High cholesterol is not good for you, but if it is too low it can also not be good for you. It could increase your risks for certain types of cancer etc.

Energy! by Connor S

Energy is the ability to do work or change things. Energy comes in a variety of forms such as thermal, electrical, kinetic, or potential(there’s more). Energy also can’t be destroyed or created, and the universe will have and has always had the same amount of energy. It can transform into different kinds of energy due to different kinds of reactions. Let’s say we have electrical energy in a light. It changes from electrical to thermal energy creating light, and the heat around the bulb is evidence of this change.

  Potential energy is kind of mind-boggling to me because I find it hard to believe that an object completely still has energy. Alas, they do because the energy that they have is stored in the objects. There are a couple of kinds of potential energy depending on what or where the object is. Gravitational potential energy is when energy is stored due to an object’s position above Earth’s surface, where there is more energy stored the higher the object is. Elastic potential energy is when energy is stored in something that compresses or stretches like a spring. The energy is the same as the work done to stretch the spring. One other kind of potential energy is chemical potential energy, and this is when energy is stored in the bonds of atoms, and then gets released through chemical reactions.

In the upcoming derby, we are using potential energy that is transforming into kinetic energy. The object at rest has the potential to create kinetic energy by whatever is propelling that car. Some examples are the rubber band on a launch ramp of an airplane, or the rat trap base of a car, or balloons on the back of a car. These are some examples that could be in the derby, and they all have potential energy transforming into kinetic energy. One question to take away from this might be how do you use energy everyday?

Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells by Caitlin

The tree in your backyard, the fish living in your pond, and the birds in the sky are all made of the cells. Cells are what all living organisms are composed of. Despite how small they are, cells can vary greatly. There are two different types of cells called prokaryotic and eukaryotic.

Prokaryotic:

These cells are much simpler than eukaryotic cells. Imagine an apartment compared to a mansion. The two major types of prokaryotic cells are bacteria and archaebacteria. The four main structures shared by all prokaryotes include a plasma membrane, cytoplasm, ribosomes, and DNA/RNA. Scientists believe that eukaryotes actually came from prokaryotes.

Eukaryotic:

The defining characteristic of a eukaryotic cell is its nucleus. The name actually means true nucleus. Eukaryotic cells have membrane bound organelles like mitochondria, golgi apparatus, and ribosomes. Humans are made of eukaryotic cells.

Interesting Facts:

●     Each human being carries 20 times more bacterial (prokaryotic) cells than human cells (eukaryotic).

●     The majority of cells on Earth are actually prokaryotic.

●     Cells can commit suicide by the way of a process called apoptosis.

Question:

●     What do you think would happen if there were more eukaryotic cells than prokaryotic cells on Earth?

Density by Caleb

            Density is a fraction which is used across the science community as helpful information. It shows what will float in what, and shows how hard an object or material is. Density is found by taking the mass of an object, and dividing it by the object’s volume. Before you can find density, you’ll need to find both the mass and volume.

            A popular method for finding volume is by using water displacement (Shown above). To do this, fill a beaker with water to a point at which the object can be submerged. Remember what volume the water is at, and then drop the object in the water. Find water level and subtract the initial water volume from the current water volume. This will give you the volume of the object. Water displacement is an accurate method, but it can’t be used in all situations. For example, if you wanted to find the volume of an ice cube, you would have to measure its dimensions and multiply them by each other (Length X Width X Height). Then you convert your measurements to centimeters cubed, which in turn turns into milliliters in a conversion of 1 to 1. Determining volume by measuring dimensions is not the most accurate, but sometimes it’s the only option.

            Mass is relatively easy to find. It is found by using a multitude of different scales. The different scales give more or less accurate masses. When using a scale, you’ll need to zero the scale, and then place the object on the scale. Convert the mass to grams, and then follow through with the density equation.

            Density is an important thing for all scientists to know. I’m glad I could teach you, and I hope you have a full grasp on density now.

Lipids by Sophia

Lipids - What a strange word. Before this week I had no idea what it was. If you don’t, I’m here to tell you.

            Lipids are a group of molecules that naturally occur. These molecules consist of hydrocarbons and are highly reduced forms of carbon. A few examples of lipids include oils, waxes, fats, and even certain vitamins. Lipids are very useful to living organisms. Lipids happen to dissolve in only alcohol, but not in water.

            What makes lipids so vital to living organisms is the fact that they serve as a provider of fuel and a component in the structure of cells.

            We use lipids almost everyday, and they’re very common in households. Whether it is a bottle of coconut oil or a jar of mayonnaise, they’re all around us. Lipids can easily be stored inside of a body. Lipids are found in both plants and animals. 

Biosphere in a Bottle by Sophia

When it comes down to living things and organisms, everything on Earth happen to be related in some way. But there is not only living things, but along with that comes nonliving things. Although they’re nonliving, they have a role that they play on this Earth. Both living and nonliving things come together as a team and create a system that is used to strengthen life. The common term for this system is an ecosystem.

            Now, if we were to combine a biosphere with a couple of 2 liter bottles, what would I get? A bottle biome. Let me explain.

            As you can see there is both a terrestrial and an aquatic layer. In order to keep this ecosystem alive you need plants. Plants need something all living things need, water and some sunshine. These sources are necessary because plants need to grow to support the rest of the ecosystem. In the aquatic section of the biome, we need to leave a little space for carbon dioxide, and I’ll tell you why.

            The plant we will be growing from the top, like I said, takes in sunlight and water. But one thing I neglected to mention was that they will also be taking in the carbon dioxide from the aquatic section. This process is called photosynthesis. A bottle biome would work best with a fish, that way the fish can inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. The plant takes in the carbon dioxide, and the cycle goes on and on, all over again. 

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion By Benjamin

Newton’s Three Laws of Motion are simple rules that show us how parts of our world work. Newton was sitting under an apple thinking on the forces of nature. An apple fell out of the tree and hit him on his head. Due to this it caused him to ask why the apple fell instead of floating away. He realized that if the apple fell, then something must be pulling it down. He called this force Gravity. This is very important for his laws of motion.

The above  is a depiction of how Einstein theorized that gravity worked. It has become the most prevalent theory on how gravity works. He theorized that gravity is caused when a object with huge amounts of mass caused space itself to fold in on itself. Not space like room in between objects but the actual fundamental element of our universe.

Now onto Newton’s Three Laws themselves.

Newton’s first law states, an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force and an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force.

Quite often this outside force is gravity which will cause moving objects to be pulled on to a surface where they cannot move. It will also cause objects at rest to be forced into motion by causing it to shift and fall.

Newton’s second law states, Force equals Mass times Acceleration. He put this in a mathematical formula Force=Mass*Acceleration. Gravity effects this because the force is ended when  gravity wins the battle and whatever object runs out of momentum. Drag plays a big part in Newton’s second law as well, drag slows the object bleeding the momentum from it causing it to stop instead of continuing in the way Newton’s first law states.

If Superman is flying forward by constantly  exerting 500  Newtons behind him and the hulk jumps at him with 400 Newtons of force,  right before they meet hulk punches Superman with a punch that accelerates at 89 meters a second. Assuming Hulk’s fist weighs 2 kg that means that the punch produced 178 Newtons on Impact. Who was moved by the punch?

Hulk would be repelled because Superman was constantly exerting force to fly while after his initial jump his large mass caused rapid deceleration meaning he would have less force upon impact.

Newton’s third law of motion says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if you drop something it should hit the ground and bounce back to where it started before stopping. Gravity makes it appear as if this law does not work. Gravity constantly pulls an object down while the equal and opposite reaction does not have enough energy to resist the gravity unless the object is accelerated at the ground.

Newton’s Three Laws are good guidelines for scientist and even regular people to study the world around them. However Newton’s laws don’t work as well when they are applied to objects with small amounts of mass, large amounts of mass, or objects traveling a significant fraction of the speed of light. When these conditions are applied other laws take effect and change the way objects behave.

                My parting questions to you are if gravity is a force that attracts all matter together how is an atom made mostly of empty space and why don’t they collapse into themselves?

First Experiment by Lydia

Do Pancakes Taste Better With Bacon in Them?

    

     For my blog post I will be talking about the experiments we did in class this week. We worked on creating our own experiments. Everyone got to create their own experiments, they had to have everything included in them. Things like procedure, and materials. After this process we got to vote on who's experiment we wanted to do. We picked the bacon pancakes. The question was, do pancakes taste better with bacon in them or without bacon in them?

     There were a lot of things that could change the outcome of the experiment. You had to have the same butter, syrup, pancake mix, and bacon. Having anything be different could change how you think the pancakes taste.

●     What do you think could also change the outcome of the pancakes taste?

     Something I find most interesting about this topic is that there are so many different variables to this experiment. I also find it interesting that I liked the ones with bacon in them more too. I think this is interesting because I do not like bacon on its own, but with the pancakes I think it is good.

Three Neat Facts

●     The bacon pancakes took longer to cook than the ones without bacon.

●     Everyone liked the ones with bacon in them more than the ones without bacon.*

●     The bacon pancakes were very hard to make because the bacon would separate the batter. 

*Note from Ms. Raino: This is not actually true. The majority of students liked the ones with bacon more, but there were a couple students who very definitely did not like the ones with bacon.

Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion by Michael

Isaac Newton is responsible for the 3 Laws of Motion. He was considered part of the scientific revolution of the 17th century. Everyone knows the story of the apple hitting him on the head and making come to a realization. That realization was gravity. He noticed that everything that was in the air would eventually come down. This helped him start his research on motion and force.

THE LAWS

1.    First Law:

a.    An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by another force and an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by another force.

2.    Second Law:

a.    Acceleration occurs when a force is applied to a mass, the greater the mass, the more force that is needed to push it.

3.    Third Law:

a.    For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,

Now all of this sounds like a lot to take in for someone that is not trained on the laws of motion, but they are as simple as they sound. Here are some examples.

1)    A ball on a flat surface will stay put because there is no other force pushing on it, but a ball on a decline will roll downhill because of the force of gravity.

2)    If you want to move a box, you push the box. The speed in which it moves is the acceleration. If the box weighs the same  and two people push it with different amounts of force, the person using more force would push it faster.

3)    Take a rocket, the force being pushed out by the engines is the action. The reaction is the force the ground is asserting on the rocket, causing it to fly upwards.

CELL THEORY by Michael

The Cell Theory is composed of three different properties, all three of which describe what cells are. If you delve deeper into the three properties, you will even see how and why they are this way.

1.    All cells come from different cells

a.    This means that a cell is replicated to double the amount every time it occurs. I.e. 2-4-8-16-32 etc… This is how living things grow

2.    A cell is the basic unit of life

a.    Anything less that a cell is not considered to be alive, but when all the parts are combined, then life happens. I.e. A puzzle is a puzzle until it gets solved, then it becomes a picture.

3.    All living things are made of cells

a.    Anything that has cells is considered living. This ranges from single celled organisms to flowers to human beings. We are all composed of these microscopic building blocks known as cells.

Many scientists were in a sort of competition to find out more about cells. Many theories were disproved or reinforced and the advancement of technology made it easier and easier to make new discoveries. The idea of cell theory came about after the invention of the microscope. There were many different variations, and all proved effective in finding out more about our microscopic world. This is what led to the discovery of cells.

A Note For Followers

When I set up this blog, I set it up with my personal email account. Recently I figured out how to share editing properties with my school email address (it makes posting student content a lot easier for me), so for those of you following this blog via this gmail account, you might want to check out the other "editor" aka Ms Raino.

Newton's Laws by Demetri

Newton's three laws are laws that apply to everything in the universe at all times with absolutely no exceptions. They are very simple, and since they apply and have applied for all of our lives and then some, they aren't anything new and are just a way to classify what you already know. That being said, they are still important to know because they help us calculate the specifics.

Newton’s First Law or the Law of Inertia

            Newton's first law, sometimes called the Law of Inertia, states that an object in motion stays in motion until disrupted by an outside force, and an object at rest stays at rest until disrupted by an outside force. This means that if i threw something it wouldn't fly off into space, gravity for something. It also means that you won't just float off the end of the earth anytime soon. Its pretty easy to understand, but it is essential you take into account all the outside forces.

Newton’s Second Law

            Newton’s second law states that the greater the mass of an object the more force is required to accelerate it. This means that it is harder to accelerate bigger objects than smaller objects. Notice i said accelerate and not move. This means that a greater initial force is required, but once in motion the object with a larger mass will create a greater opposing force.

Newton's Third Law

            Newton's third law states that for every reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if you push against a wall, the wall is going to push back. If the wall did not, then it would have just fallen over and wouldn't be contributing at all. The wall doesn't actually do anything, but the forces acting on the wall that keep it in place are able to push back to a certain extent, and when something pushes the wall hard enough it will just break or topple while still adhering to these laws.

These laws have always been in place, but only when Newton came around did they become a thing. This I think is the most amazing part of Newton's laws; how no one came up with them beforehand. They apply and have applied to us forever, and all Newton did was put them to words.

Pancakes by Connor

What we learned in Ms. Raino’s Classroom? Well let me explain.

            We’ve learned how to make a lab procedure and the importance of graphing correctly as well as not screwing it up.

Those aren’t failed graphs; those are failed economics!

            Anyway, having learned how to make graphs and make our own lab procedure properly we’re doing an experiment on pancakes. Yet to be decided, my lab procedure was written on pancakes, and was written like this.

            What if beating more air into pancake batter made them fluffier??!

**Step 1 This will make 4 pancakes per recipe and 6 beating times from 1 minute to 5 with a control of 0, so we need 24 pancakes worth of mix. The recipe is as follows. 3 ½ cups of Bisquick, 2 ¼ cups of Skim Milk, 1 ¾ egg

**Step 2 For the control mix until blended and pour ¼ of a cup (4 times). Then for the other ones, Mix the pancake batter for 1 minute, then pour ¼ of a cup 4 times (for 4 pancakes). Then mix for another minute then pour ¼ of a cup 4 times, so on and so forth until you’ve done this 5 times.

**Step 3 Take the pancakes and flip them when the top bubbles pop, then wait until the sides are not batter anymore, then pull them off (if there is still batter in the middle try cooking for a bit longer)

**Step 4 Cut each pancake down the middle, measure the outside part of the pancake, and see how many air pockets there are in one CM squared. Once done write it down, do this for each pancake you made (if you had extra batter then make s’more pancakes)

Did you know that pancakes weren't always called pancakes? They were called Alita Dolcia in Rome and were just another Roman sweet? Pancakes aren’t an English tradition as well, the Dutch were the pioneers to the road we see of pancakes nowadays, and Pancakes were found to be around in the prehistoric era as one of the earliest prehistoric meals?

This was what we learned to do, and out of curiosity how would you do this for yourself, and what kind of questions would you ask? (doesn’t have to be about pancakes)

*Motion* by Wrenlie

This week we learned about Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. The first law is the law of inertia, which states that an object at rest stays at rest. The second law is F=M x A (Force=Mass x Acceleration. The Third law states that for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction.

                There are many other words explaining a movement like force. The definition of force is being made to move. Motion is the action or process of moving or being moved, and something that won’t stop unless stopped. Rest is an object that is motionless. What I found most interesting about this topic is that everything we do has something to do with Newton’s Three Laws.

Facts-

1.       Newton first published his findings in the book “Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis” in 1687 explaining his three laws of motion.

2.       There are many types of motions, the two most common forces we all have experienced is gravity and magnetic forces.

3.       When going in a rollercoaster and you go upside down, a force called “Centripetal Force” is what keeps you from coming out of your seat.

Question-

How many types of forces are there?

Cool Science by Emma V.

On Monday, 08-29-2016, we’ve done some interesting things in cool science. We’ve read an article about the creation of a new kind of milk. It’s about roach milk. We are used to milk from cows, goats, sheep and even oat milk and rice milk. Milk from a cockroach would be something totally new in our culture, where insects don’t belong to our general meal. Those milk should be a few times more nutritious than the milk we’re used to drink. It includes sugar with a fatty acid fastened to it. Furthermore, the protein in the milk contains essential amino acids, building blocks for proteins which our body can’t build. On the other hand, it takes a whole lot of roaches to produce a bit of milk. That means that we have to kill a lot of them for a meager gain. According to me, it’s a step further for the science and for the food industry, but I’m not sure if it’s that efficient. Would you think it’s worth a try?

Source drawing: http://www.unexco.com/roach1.html

During the other part of the class, we’ve observed objects on the fields beside the school building. You could choose yourself which aspect satisfied you the most. I’ve observed a flower, others looked at a feather or even the environment in general. It’s surprising how you can see more than a quarter long new things on one small flower. You see things you won’t see when just passing by. The colors of the flower I observed are way more variable than you see after one look. You learn to really watch to something and to link different elements from just inside the object, but also from the relation from the object to the surroundings. Objects are mostly more curious and complicated than you think at the first sight, even if it’s about something that you pass daily.