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.