Environmental Science Made a Website!

The amazing students in the environmental science class have been working on making a website designed to explain climate change. I think they've done an amazing job on it, and I'm proud to share it with all of you.

If you are local, check out the service project the students will be doing on April 11, and come down to the library to check it out!

The Changing Climate

Cheers!

Radioactivity by Keyper

Today we learned about gamma rays, and alpha particles. Gamma rays are high frequency electromagnetic rays. Alpha-particles are the stronger half of a split particle.

Limiting Reactants by Franz

A limiting reactant is an atom or chemical in an equation or reaction that prevents the reaction from happening more.

In the example above we’re are making grilled cheese sandwiches so in order to make one sandwich we have to have 2 pieces of bread and one cheese. Since the ratio of bread to cheese is 2:1 and we have 9 slices of bread and 5 slices of cheese the limiting reactant here would be the bread because now we have one slice of bread and cheese left over. Now lets try it with actual elements.

SO here we have H2O and for the reaction to occur we have once again a ratio of 2:1 but in the reaction there is a O2 molecule so we're going to have to have twice the amount of Hydrogen then oxygen. But in the picture we only have 10 H2 and 7 O2 and after the reaction we still have O2 left over and so the limiting reactant is H2. The term for the H2 left over is called a excess reactant.

Facts

-       Limiting reactants are used in your day to day life without you even really noticing

-       Involved in stoichiometry

Questions

-       If we have 8 cars and 40 tires and each car requires 4 tires what is the limiting reactant and how much will be left over? And how many cars will we have?

Torpedoes & Stoichiometry by Ally

This week, we were asked to take a pipette that holds 20 grams of a substance, then figure out the chemical equation of the reaction between vinegar and baking soda, balance it out, and then find the ratio of how many parts are needed of the vinegar and baking soda.

We were asked to create a concoction between baking soda and vinegar that will make the pipette torpedo fly the fastest and farthest. After several days of testing, we were assigned to write a report on what we found, what we would do different, and different questions about the experiment.

The lesson affiliated with this project is stoichiometry, limiting reactants, and excess reactants. Stoichiometry is when you are using and finding relationships between reactants in a chemical reaction to determine data. This is seen through the reaction between vinegar and baking soda. The limiting reactant is the reactant that limits the product that is created by the reaction. In this case, it is the baking soda. The excess reactant is what remains when a reaction stops when the limiting reactant is completely consumed. This was found to be the vinegar.

Interesting Facts -

1.     Stoichiometry is made out of two Greek words: stoicheion (meaning "element") and metron (meaning "measure")

2.    When dealing with stoichiometry, the measurement of grams can be changed into moles.

3.    When you are find the percent yield of stoichiometry, it is simply the actual amount of product made divided by the estimation.

Questions -

1.     What is the perfect amount of baking soda and vinegar?

2.    How could percent yield be used in this experiment?

3.    How easy would it be to change the container of the reaction?

*Note from Ms. Raino- the pictures shown are not from my own students. Stay tuned for an update about our torpedo launch!

Protists by Caleb

The protist kingdom is a kingdom made up from all of the leftover organisms that would not fit into the other kingdoms. Protists vary from multicellular to unicellular and are found in many different habitats.  Some Protists use photosynthesis, like plants, but they are not classified as plants because they can move on their own.

A popular example of a protist is Algae. 75% of the oxygen we breathe is created by the protists. Algae are found in almost all water. They are found in salt water, like seaweed, and fresh water, like pond scum. (Algae)

     Seaweed   

                                                           Seaweed Under a Microscope 

           

            Protists are very important to most living things. Protists that photosynthesis are important because they are in the food chain; producing 40% of the beginning energy in the food chain. Non-photosynthetic protists help with the decaying of dead organisms, keeping the world cleaner.

            I hope that this blog post helped you understand a little more on protists. Thank you for reading.

Protist Kingdom by Robey

The Protist Kingdom is made up of unicellular lifeforms that have a nucleus inside of them. Because they have a nucleus, is makes them more complex than another group called Monera. Many different Protists are plant and animal-like. They are like plants because they are green and have the ability to create their own food, but are like animals because they have moving body parts, which allow them to constantly move around their environment. Biologists think that Protists are actually the ancestors of plants and animals, that is why they seem to be similar to both of these different groups.

          Protists generally have similar parts that make them up. They have cilia to move around, a mouth pore to eat, an anal pore to dispose of their waste, and a food vacuole for food storage, as they move around. They store food just in case that they are not able to find food while they are moving, because they hold such little food and burn it up quickly, they need to have a storage to fill their constant need.

Bacteria (Bubonic Plague) by Javier

Summary: A bacteria in my words is a small, single-celled organism that can possible cause disease. It also can cause disease, but some do help your body. We have a symbiotic relationship with some bacterium on our skin or in our stomach. The Bacteria that I researched to find out what cause the Bubonic plague was Yersinia Pestis. It is a rod-shaped coccobacillus that was the cause three major epidemics. The bubonic plague was the one I talked about. Bacteria can be very dangerous but if you live clean sanitary lifestyle then you will stay bad-bacteria free.

What other plagues or epidemics did Yersinia Pestis cause?

How deadly was the Bubonic Plague?

What do you do if you get the Black Death (Bubonic Plague)?

Do you know how many deaths the Black Death caused?

What would you do if you found yersinia pestis lurking inside of you?

Interesting Facts:

The most interesting thing about the bubonic plague is that it killed 25 million people. That was one-third of Europe's population at the time.

If you were to line up the bacteria end-to-end they would stretch for 10 billion light years, so from here to the edge of the visible universe.

There are ten times the bacteria cells as there are human cells in our body.

Climate Change by Caitlin

            Earth’s climate has been fluctuating throughout history. For example, in just the last 650,000 years there has been nearly seven glacial advances and retreats. However recently, carbon dioxide levels have skyrocketed past any previous levels. This carbon dioxide and other harmful gases are having an extreme impact on our climate. 

The cause of the current global warming trend is believed by most climate scientists to be because of human action. Basically, we have been adding so much pollution to our air, that now, our atmosphere is releasing less of the sun's heat back into space. Industrial activities are adding gases like water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, and CFCs into the air, and these gases are especially good at trapping heat. The effects of this will increase over time. Global warming will lead to a longer frost-free season, a change in precipitation patterns, an increased number of droughts and heat waves, and a higher global sea level.

However, there are some things we can do about it on both the governmental level and on a personal level. There are many government organizations that are committed to helping stop global warming. One example is the Environmental Protection Agency. By changing small day-to-day activities, you can also help stop global warming. Things like taking a shorter shower or even walking to the store instead of driving can all eventually add up to make a difference. Taking action now is the only thing that will stop global warming.

Question:

What can you do personally to help stop climate change?

Interesting Facts

1.    Only 25 of the original 105 glaciers in the Montana Glacier National Park are left.

2.    The U.S. produces the second largest amount of carbon dioxide in the world.

3.    The average global sea level is estimated to rise 7-23 inches before the end of this century.

Limiting Reactants by Abbey

            “ The reactant in a chemical reaction that limits the amount of product that can be formed.  The reaction will stop when all of the limiting reactant is consumed” (Stoichiometry). 

You can think of this as a recipe. Say you are making cookies and want to double the batch, if you have enough of all the ingredients except flour, flour would be the limiting reactant.

            Earlier this week, the chemistry class learned about limiting reactants by making s’mores. We had extra of every ingredient except for chocolate. This was considered the limiting reactant.

            Some things to think about when learning about limiting reactants: How does this relate to the real world? Why are limiting reactants important to chemical equations? How do excess reactants relate to limiting reactants?

I find this topic interesting because it is a complicated topic but it can be shown in simple examples (such as this cheeseburger picture). I was able to understand it better because of the s’mores example.

Interesting Facts!

1.    There are no restrictions on the starting amounts of reactants in any reaction

2.    Many reactions are carried out using an excess of one reactant

3.    The other reactants that are left over are called excess reactants 

Update from Ms Raino

Chemistry

What do torpedoes have to do with chemistry? Students are using their knowledge of limiting reactants and stoichiometry to build little torpedoes using the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar as the propellant. Be sure to check for pictures next week when we do the final testing!

Quote of the day: That there is 100% how NASA works.

Torpedo testing 2015

 Biology

With a unit on viruses, prions, and bacteria, disease is soon to follow. Students have been researching a disease (or two) of their choosing. Today and tomorrow they are sharing their insight into the world of infectious diseases.

Advanced Biology

Moving along the 6 kingdoms of life, advanced biology has been hunting for protists in water sources collected from around the school. It is amazing what they are finding under the ‘scope!

Environmental Science

Since global climate change is going to be an issue people need to come together to help solve, I have the students working together on a website and a service project. Every day at the start of class they hold a meeting, and determine what has gotten done, what they need to work on, and who is doing what tasks. I have been blown away by the high level of collaboration the class has displayed. Keep checking in for a link to the website, and information about the service project.

Panamint Valley 2011

Kitchen Biology

We just started a unit on nutrition in this class. Students will learn about how the body uses macro and micronutrients, and then they will be creating a personalized recipe and nutrition book, based on family history, personal goals, and health concerns.

Physical Science

Students are diving headfirst into the world of the atomic and the subatomic. In the next couple weeks they will find out why bananas are radioactive, how we use isotopes, and how to use the periodic table to predict all sorts of characteristics.

Quarter is ending in 3 weeks- ask your student if they have their labs and observations finished.

Flowers from Death Valley 2011. 

In outside science news- check out the super-bloom happening in Death Valley right now!

Superbloom- NPR

Superbloom- Las Vegas Sun