Renewable Energy Presentation

This week students will be responsible for explaining to others how one of these renewable energy sources works.  Students will need to make a hand out to share and be ready to present on Monday.

Biomass
Geothermal
Wind
Solar
Hydro
Tidal


You are going to become an expert on one of these energy sources and present to the class on Monday.  You will need to create a handout that answer the following questions:

1. Where does it come from? How does this source create energy? (40-60 words). Be prepared to diagram on the board how your energy is produced.
2. What are the advantages of this energy source? (40-60 words)
3. What are the disadvantages of this energy source? (40-60 words)
4. Do you think this energy source is a good choice for the United State over the next 50 years?  Is it a good source of energy for Maine? Why or why not? (40-60 words)
5. Citations: Include a list of the websites where you got your information.

Here are some sites to get you started:
Children's University: How do we make electricity? 
Oracle ThinkQuest: Energy Sources
Chewonki Renewable Energy Poster
Energy Kids: US EIA
Efficiency Maine

Electricity Source Notes

The four biggest sources of electricity in the US are Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear, and Hydropower.

Link to Notes

Coal 50%

Natural Gas 23%

Nuclear 20%

Hydropower 7%

video

Inservice Day

Enjoy the four day weekend

Interactive Energy

I will be out of the classroom but in the building on Thursdays and Friday.

Thursday
Read the "Sources of Energy" passage and answer the questions.  Then complete the Energy Webquest using the links on this page.  Hand it in at the end of class.

How do we make Energy

Advantages and Disadvantages

Wind Power Interactive




On Friday we will watch a video
Earth Operators manual 

Students Survey

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y2FYXQL

Potential and Kinetic

Potential Energy - Stored energy (stretched rubber band)
Kinetic Energy - Energy from movement (Shot rubber band)

Potential Energy

Energy and Oil

 Energy Notes


Oil formation animation

Human Foot Print Response

The focus of the Human Footprint video is on the consumption by the average US citizen.  You will write a response to the video that will be a minimum of 250 words.

Part 1 Consumption:

·      What does it mean to be a consumer? 

·      How are you a global consumer?  Use two items from the video that are made from global resources.

·      What does it mean to be a responsible consumer?

Part 2:  Big Resources

·      Compare US vs. World consumption of goods/resources

o    Use CO₂ production and two other facts from the video

o    How does the average US person compare to similar countries like Canada or England.

o     How do we compare to countries that are less similar?

Part 3: Your Choices

·      Write about some things you can do as a teenage consumer that can lessen your global footprint.

Human Foot Print Reflection

 PART 2
Use the sites below to compare the US consumption of resources with other countries.


Are we the biggest consumer of the resource per person?
Are we the biggest consumer of resourcs by country?

Beef

Water Use

Tons of Coal
Coal per Country

Liters of Gasoline

Cell phone per person


Cars per person

Maine Energy

Maine Energy Use

Comparative Energy Ese

Oil Facts Link

Use of oil by country.  The darker the color the more oil use.

Land Resources

Earth: Apple of My Eye

We used an apple to represent our planet

Habitable = Livable
Arable = Where we can grow food

3/4 covered in water

1/4 Land

1/8 Uninhabitable and Non-Arable Land

1/8 Habitable

3/32 Habitable, but Non-Arable Land

1/32 Arable

1/32 Peel Topsoil

Energy Resources

Our last unit will be on resources and energy.

Here is a run down of where the USA gets its energy

Energy

40% Petroleum (oil)

24% Coal

23% Natural Gas

8.4% Nuclear

7.3% renewable sources
Electricity and Transportation is are the biggest uses of energy in the US

Electricity
50% Coal
20% Nuclear
7% Hydroelectric
4% Natural Gas
1.3% Biomass
0.7% Wind
0.1% Solar

Rock Cycle

Use this website to complete the worksheet
Rock Cycle

Current Event: April 11, 2011

Here are the current event articles for this week.  Your Summary and response is due on Thursday.

Greener Diet
Scientists Plan to Drill to the Mantel
Pepsi Eco-friendly Bottle

Designs for height and strength

Here are some building ideas

Yearbook Dedication

Complete this survey in Advisory for your yearbook dedication.  Think about those people who have made the biggest impact on your 3 years of middle school.

Yearbook Survey

Sell me a building

These site will help you get started

CIA Factbook
Earthquake Prone Countries
USGS Earthquakes
Faultline Engineering
Building Big

Careers in Geology

Today we will investigate different careers in the science of geology.
Each person at your table will choose a job and learn what it takes to work in this career.
Answer the following questions about each career:
What do they do?
How do they do it?
Who would you work for?  What type of specialization could you focus on? 
Where would you work?

Marine Geologist
Mining Geophysicist
Seismologist
Petroleum Geophysicist
Environmental Geophysicist

Current Event Articles: March 21

Here are the articles for this week.

Whats up with Earth's Rotation
Spring is Here
Ipad 2 Supply Issues

Earthquake Prone Countries

• Afghanistan
• Albania
• Algeria
• Argentina
• Armenia
• Austria
• Bosnia
• Brunei
• Bulgaria
• Burma
• Cape Verde
• Chile
• China
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Djibouti
• East Timor
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Ethiopia
• Georgia
• Greece
• Guatemala
• Haiti
• Honduras
• Iceland
• India
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Israel
• Italy
• Japan
• Jordan
• Kazakhtan
• South Korea
• Macedonia
• Mexico
• Morocco
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua
• Pakistan
• Papua New Guinea
• Peru
• Philippines
• Portugal
• Romania
• Russia
• Serbia and Montenegro
• Slovenia
• Tajikistan
• Tonga
• Turkey
• United States
• Vanuatu

Earthquake Proof Building

Before we can build an earthquake proof building we must learn ways to protect the building. You must submit a building plan that shows your knowledge of several ways to protect your building.

E-how


ABC: Designing Earthquake Proof Buildings

Housing Types 

 Earthquake Design

Tracking Earthquakes

How do we locate the epicenter of an earthquake?

What are P-waves and S-waves?

P-waves are the first waves to arrive at the surface after and earthquake.  They travel like compression waves.
S-waves arrive after P-waves and travel like transverse waves.

Current Event Articles: March 14

Here are the articles for the week of March 14th.  Choose one of the articles to read.
Remember each current event should contain the following
Heading: Name, block, date
Citation: Author (last name, first name), Title (in quotes), name of journal/newspaper/publication (underlined), and date the article was written
Summary: 60-100 word summary, summarize key points found in the article
Response: Add your opinion on the article.  What did you find interesting or not interesting?  Did the information in the article impact your life?
4 Questions:  Write questions that came up for you while you read the article.  These are not questions answered in the article and you do not need to answer them.

Choose one article:
Japan Tsunami
Sea Change
Moonquake March 16th
Google Person Finder

Earthquakes and Tectonic Plates

How do different Tectonic Plate Boundaries effect earthquakes.
Use these link
Exploring Earth

Forces of Nature

Evidence of Plate Tectonics

Seafloor Spreading

Today we will create a model to represent a seafloor that is expanding as new rock is being pushed up from the mantle.

If you missed class watch this video: Seafloor Spreading
Answer the questions on the back of the activity sheet.

Fossils, and Glaciers 
Glaciers once covered areas that today are very warm.  These large sheets of ice carved out the landscape on these continents.

 

Fossils of prehistoric plants and animals  have been found on continents that today are separated by oceans.

 

Pangaea

About 200 million years ago scientist believe that all the continents where conected and formed a super continent called Pangaea, greek for "all lands."  As the Lithosphere cracks and moves over the weaker Asthenosphere, the continents have shifted.

Current Event Articles: March 7,2011

Here are this weeks current event articles.  Choose one to read, summarize, and respond to.   Come up with four questions that you think about while reading the article.  Not questions that are answered in the article.  Hand in your current event at the beginning of class on Thursday.

Plants to Plastic
Arkansas Earthquake
Cell Phones and Your Health
Earth Rocks On

Types of Plate Boundaries

Plate Boundaries occur where two Lithospheric Plates meet.  The theory that describes the movement of these plates is known as Plate Tectonics.  These boundaries are called Diverging, Converging, and Sliding boundaries.
When  two plates can be moving away from each it is called a Divergent Boundary.  When two plates move toward each other it is called Convergent Boundaries.

Oceanic Divergent Boundaries

 

Continental Divergent Boundaries

Convergent Boundaries, oceanic/continental 

 

Convergent Boundaries, Oceanic/Oceanic

Convergent Boundaries, Continental/Continental

Plate Tectonics

Plate Tectonic Vocabulary

In the following days well define each of the following terms:

Lithospheric Plate
Plate Tectonics
Continental Drift
Seafloor Spreading
Diverging Boundaries
Sliding Boundaries
Converging Boundaries 

The Earth's crust is rigid and when it moves cracks and fissures are formed.  Much like when you crack a hard boiled egg shell.  The pieces of the crust fit together like a giant puzzle.  There are 8 major lithospheric plates and several smaller plates.  We are going to put the pieces of the puzzle together and label the major plates.  The directions these plates are moving create many of the landscape feature that we see all around us.


Use this image to label the 8 major plates

Welcome back

We are going to start a weekly homework assignment.  On Mondays you will choose a current events article relating to the topic we are studying and write a short summary that will be due on Thursdays.


We will practice with this article:
New Zealand Earth Quake

Here are the expectations for each weeks current events:
Current Events Outline

Trivia

Poll Everywhere

Space Race Challenge 1

Today we will build and launch balloon rockets. First, we must know the lingo and parts of a rocket.  Even a balloon can become a rocket.

Use the rocket lingo link to help define thrust and drag.
Rocket lingo

Use Newton's laws link to find out about his 3rd law.
Newton's laws

Entry 31

Sunrise: 6:40 AM
Sunset: 5:03 PM
Daylight: 10h 14m

Lunar Eclipse
The next lunar eclipse will be on June 15th.

Draw a picture of a lunar eclipse

Entry 30

Sunrise: 6:51 AM
Sunset: 5:00 PM
Daylight: 10h 09m

(Keep your journals out for class)

The moon is 400 times smaller then the sun.  The sun is 400 times farther away from Earth than the moon. So they appear about the same size from Earth.

Draw a solar eclipse. Label the Earth, Moon, and Sun.

We will use this Astrobiology link in class: Astrobiology

Electromagnetic Radiation

Today we are going to become more familiar with electromagnetic radiation.  These types of energy waves effect many aspects of our lives including; medicine, cell phones, and how we see the world.

Use the NASA website to complete the work sheet.  Hand it in at the end of class!! 

NASA Electromagnetic Radiation

Tuesday

We are looking for your input for your promotion night. After testing you will return to your block 2 and take this survey.

Promotion Night Survey

Constellation Project

Today we will start our research for our constellation project.  This project is due Feb 16th!!  You will complete a data collection sheet and create two graphs before you start you Keynote Presentation.

Project Description

Here are some helpful websites to get us started.

Constellation List
Northern Hemisphere Constellations
3D New World Atlas
Spectral Classes

Thursday

I will be out of class today at a meeting.  This activity will be handed in at the end of class.

Where are we is our galaxy?  How many planets have we found so far.  How do we find new planets? What is so exciting about the newest planet discovered?

We will use several websites to find the answers.  Please mute your laptops or use ear phones, there is "music/noise" on some sites that is distracting.

Part A
Our Galaxy

Part B
Planet Finding

Part C
Kepler

Part D
Newest Planet

Entry 29

Next set of Vocab Flash Cards due Fri (planet-solar system).  Check the Universe Vocab Quizlet link. 

Sunrise: 7:05 AM
Sunset: 4:41 PM
Daylight: 9h 35m

Check out this article: Betelgeuse

1.  What stage in a star's life do you think Betelgeuse is in? Is this a young star or an older star?
2. Star must maintain a balance between the forces of gas pressure and gravity. If Betelgeuse is going to explode, what force is stronger?
3. When scientists use the term "soon" when talking about stars, what time frame do you think they are talking about?

Wednesday

Quiz on Big Bang Model and 9 vocabulary terms.

Hand in Plant, Star, Galaxy sheet.

We will watch the first two part of The Secrets of the Sun
Part 1
Part 2

You can get a head start on the next set of vocabulary.  Make flash cards for each term.  These will be due on Monday 1/24.  Find vocab here and on Universe Quizlet link on the right.  You will have a total of 21 flashcards.

Star Life Cycle

We can compare a star's life to a person's.  Just like a person, a star is born, ages, and eventually dies.  Huge cosmic clouds of gas and dust are where stars are born.  These are called Nebula.  Inside a Nebula a protostar is created.  Some protostars go on to be stars that live a long luminous life while other never make it to a star.

• If a protostar does not get big and hot enough it become a brown dwarf.  
• If it reaches a balance of gas burning (pressure out) and gravity (pressure in) it becomes a star.

Star Life Cycle Notes

Life cycle of a star video

Tuesday

There is a quiz on Wed!  Study the notes on the Big Bang and the first 9 vocabulary terms.

We will take a practice quiz in class.
Practice quiz

Wednesday

Today we will investigate the objects in our universe.  What are these objects made of?  How big are they?

Use the website and the text book to fill in the chart.


What is a planet?
What is a star?
How many planets are in the Milky Way?
How many stars are in the Milky Way?
What are planets made of?
What are stars made of?
What is a galaxy?
Galaxy Shapes 
Types of Galaxies
Planet Quest

Use the book and websites to the answer questions.
Life cycle of a star
Nebula formation
Protostar

Origin of the Universe

Today we are going to watch the National Geographic Naked Science episode on the Big Bang.  The Big Bang Model is a theory of how the universe originated from a single point and expanded to everything that we know today. There are other theories for the origin of the universe and still many unanswered question to exploring.  But the Big Bang Theory has several pieces of strong evidence that support this model and is widely accepted by the scientific community.  Many other ideas can be taken into consideration when we look at the origin of the universe including; cultural, religious, and societal views.

If you are not in class you can stream most of it on youtube:

NG Part 1
NG Part 2
NG Part 3
NG Part 4
NG Part 5

Big Bang Model

The Big Bang Model is a theory scientists use to explain the formation of the universe.  Over the past 80 years scientists have found strong evidence that supports this model.

If you missed class, below is a link to the notes for the Big Bang. (note: presentation is missing picture)
Big Bang Notes

Entry 28

Sunrise: 7:14 AM
Sunset: 4:20 PM
Daylight: 9h 06m

Due to Earth's gravity, objects on Earth fall at a constant rate of acceleration 9.8 m/s squared.

1. Would objects fall faster or slower on the moon?

2. Would objects fall faster or slower on the sun?

3. What does Earth have that can effect the speed at which objects fall?  (think about dropping paper)

Galileo

Moon's Gravity video

Big Bang

What do we know that supports the Big Bang Theory?

Just like the Theory of Gravity no one has yet been able to prove that the universe was formed by the Big Bang.  But scientists do have 4 main points that support the Big Bang Theory.

1. Galaxies are moving away from each other, the universe is expanding.
2. The universe is "bathed" in microwave radiation that is left over from a huge explosion.
3. The universe is abundant in hydrogen and helium.
4. We have found no stars older than 13.7 billion years.

Gravity Everywhere

Gravity Pulls and Pushes on everything in the Universe.

Sit Isaac Newton showed us that two things effect the amount of gravitational force an objects has. Mass        Distance
Around the 1650's Newton explained that the same force that caused an apple to fall to the Earth's surface is the same force that keeps the moon orbiting the Earth.
But Newton did not know how gravity worked.

In the early 1900's Albert Einstein started to think about gravity.  He wanted to connect Newton's theory of gravity with his theory of space and time.  He theorized that gravity travels at the same speed as light and gravity can bend and flex space and time.

The Elegant Universe: Gravity video

Entry 27

Sunrise: 7:15 AM
Sunset: 4:17 PM
Daylight: 9h 02m

Gravity: That force or pull that holds everything together.

1. Does all matter have a gravitational pull?

2. What two things do you think effect how strong or weak a gravitational force can be?

The Universe

Today we start our space exploration unit.  We will investigate the Universe, our galaxy, and our solar system. What is out there in space? Can humans live on other planets?  Is there life on other planets?

If you have not handed in your atmosphere model, make sure it is in by Wednesday 1/05.  If it is handed in after you will lose points.

Science Fact or Science Fiction: True or False Intro
Planet Quest

Key Questions to the Universe:  We will look at the the key questions for our universe unit. 
- What do we already know about the universe? 
- What do we want to know? 
- What are questions scientists are still wondering about?
Keep this paper in your binder or in-class folder.  We will use it throughout the unit.