For science, we were studying about asteroids in space. For a project, we had to make a poster with our opinion of whether we should mine asteroids or not. This idea was first proposed by DSI and Planetary Resources. My poster does not really look like a poster, with all of the writing in it. It looks more like a written essay. But, I am still quite happy with it, even though there is still room for improvement.
I think I researched my topic well, and I had set out my plan so that I could easily convert it from the plan to the final poster. I put sub-headings so that the information would be accessible and well organized. I have added quite a few reasons of whether to support or oppose asteroid mining (as we had to do in para. 3 and 4). For example, I had written that we should mine asteroids because the companies are planning to not only make money out of it, but to send the samples of the minerals found in asteroids to some researchers to examine and find out more about asteroids or where they come from. However, it also isn’t such a good idea because it wouldn’t be safe to even get to the asteroid belt, so it would take a lot of precautionary measures and preparation in order for the trip to the safe.
A weakness in this poster is that not all of the text is exactly concise and some parts may seem a bit odd and might not make sense. So if I were to do it again, I would proofread my poster to check if I had made any mistakes and then handed the poster in. Also, since this is supposed to a poster, I should make it look more like a poster than an essay. But if I had made my font any small, to make room for the pictures and decorations, it would be hard for the reader to read the text. So, I did not have that much space on my poster for any additional decorations.
For science class, we have been studying chemicals, such as elements (from the periodic table) and compounds. We are learning about how to tell the difference between a physical change and a chemical change by looking at the change of properties. For a summative assessment, we made a poster about one element we chose from the periodic table. We had to write about what it is, the benefits in society, the down sides it causes to society and has it been a helpful or harmful element discovered so far. I did my poster on an element called arsenic, which is generally used in insect repellant and poison, but extracted as a crystal.
I think I explained what it was quite clearly. I explained its chemical symbol, number, the two types of arsenic (inorganic and organic) and what happens when it is used in a compound. I have explained what it is used for and how it has benefited society. Organic arsenic has benefited society because, recently, it has been discovered that organic arsenic is found in rice based foods. Organic arsenic is not harmful for your body and passes through your body quickly. Inorganic arsenic is toxic and it is inorganic arsenic which is used in poisons and other harmful chemicals. Inorganic arsenic can contaminate water making it a big health concern for some people. I think I explained those things well.
If I were to do this project again, I would explain more about why it is bad that arsenic compounds form acids. The general answer is that arsenic, as an element, would be organic and arsenic, as a compound called arsenic trioxide (As2O3), would make it inorganic. Arsenic trioxide is made when organic arsenic (As) and arsenite (AsO3) come together. It would be two atoms of arsenic and three atoms of oxygen. I think I should have added that into my poster.
For science class, we did an experiment about how the heart rate rises when you exercise. We had to get into groups of two to three and measure our heart rates. First we had to attach a lot of gear to our computer and use an application called Logger Pro. First we just measured our standing heart rate. After 100 seconds (the program measured the time), we stepped up and down on a small pedestal for another 100 seconds. After that is done, we just go back to standing and measuring the standing heart rate. The purpose of that is to see how, when you exercise, you heart rate goes up, and how it goes down after you have finished your exercise and you are resting. The program recorded a graph of my heart rate and Johan’s heart rate. The red line is showing my heart rate and the blue line is showing Johan’s heart rate.
On this graph, it shows that my standing heart rate is 94 beats per minute (bpm). I never thought that my standing heart rate would be that high. That could be because I have always measured my heart rate while sitting down, whereas this time I was standing so that could be why my heart rate is so high. Then when I started exercising, my maximum heart rate turned to 176 bpm. I always thought when I play sports, the heart rate would be about 130 bpm. However, know I know how much my heart rate actually is.
For field studies this year (Sept. 15 to Sept. 19), we had to measure our heart rate while doing various activities. Such as mountain biking, sleeping or eating. After that, we put all the information in a bar chart. Here is the bar chart I made.
According to the graph, the activity that gave the fastest heart rate out of all of the other activities was rock climbing. For me, rock climbing is very tiring and it makes me quite nervous as well. But I think the main reason for that is because since I am pulling myself up with my arms and legs, they would need much more oxygen to keep going. Otherwise my arms and legs start to hurt, and that is what I felt. My arms and legs started to hurt so I took longer to climb up the wall, particularly my arms because I was using more of my arms than I was supposed to.
By “reliable”, I will be talking about “correct”. I think my answers to the field studies heart rate is not completely reliable because I only measured my heart rate for ten seconds and then just multiply the number by six to measure beats per minute. That way, I cannot track if some sudden changes happen like if my heart goes up a bit right after I check my heart beat, then my measurements will be wrong. As for the line graph, I would say the readings are very reliable because the computer is measuring my heart rate very accurately. It is also constantly measuring my heart rate and not just for ten seconds. I barely have to do any extra work trying to measure my heart rate and the computer does not lose its count so that is why I would say those reading are pretty accurate.
For the first chart, it is a line graph because it measures units or one whole subject or experiment over time. On the graph, it shows how the heart rate changed over time. It shows hot the heart rate was normal for 100 seconds, then it goes up for another 100 seconds, then it drops down for another 100 seconds, and for the last 100 seconds, it stays how it was for the first hundred seconds. As for the field studies heart rate graph, it is a bar graph because it shows how much of something for each individual subject or experiment. For example, it shows how high the heart rate is for only drinking water on one bar. Then on another bar, it shows the heart rate for mountain biking.
If I were fitter, My maximum heart rate and my standing heart rate would probably be lower and my heart rate would go down much quicker after exercising. I would also have had lower heart rates for each of the other activities, especially those physically tiring activities.
For science class, we are learning about the respiratory system. To experience the actual organ, we got to cut up and examine a pig’s heart (don’t vomit all over your device). We were given the choice to wear gloves or to just do it with your bare hands. I did it with my bare hands. Unfortunately, the heart was already cut enough for us to examine it without using any tools since it came from the butcher’s store. While we cut up the heart, we had to answer some questions written on the board. Then we had to make a VoiceThread answering some of the questions. Here is the VoiceThread I created:
For science, we made a presentation about what a particular type of food contains. We had to pick any food to research about. I chose to research about bananas. Here is my final presentation.
We worked on this for about 2 weeks of class time and the rest for homework. I had to use all of my class time and have it as homework. I think I could have used my time more effectively so that I could have finished it in class. Then I could have finished my other things and then improve on the presentation and the planning sheet.
The thing I learned from this assessment is that our body needs lots of different nutrients like carbohydrates, fat, protein, etc., for different purposes. You would need the protein to repair your muscles. If we don’t have the nutrients, then we will not have a balance in our diet. If we don’t have that balance we won’t get strong.
Overall, the thing I liked most for this project is making the presentation. I also looked at the teacher’s demonstration presentation to understand where to write the information in which page. The part I did not do so well is the investigating sheet. I should have added more information I collected by researching on the internet.
If we do this presentation again, I would like to use the instructions more effectively to make the presentation.
At May 8th 2012, we went on a field trip to Ueno zoo and the Tokyo National Museum. The field trip was unexpected so I don’t really know what the field trip was for. We went to the zoo by train and it took about one hour to go to the keno station. After we finished our trip to the zoo, we went to the Tokyo national museum by walk since it was quite close to the zoo. When we were coming back we went back to Ueno station and took the train from there which took us another hour.
At the Ueno zoo we split up into groups chosen by the teachers. In my group there were Mimi, Lucy, Tomoka and Kosuke. At the zoo we saw the Tiger, Seals, Polar Bears, Monkeys, Peacocks (which was extremely beautiful), Penguins, Dholes, Bats, and Okapis. To go to the eastern side of the zoo from the central part of the zoo, we took a monorail which only costed 80¥ (about US $1) so all together we only needed to spend 400¥. When we were coming back we just walked which was not that far. When we were at the eastern side of the zoo looking at the animals, we stopped by at a food store and bought some things we wanted to eat. Mimi and Kosuke had ice cream, Tomoka and Lucy had shaved ice and I had a melon soda float (which is just a big spoonful of ice cream floating on melon soda). Around the end we went to the souvenir store and just looked around at the things that were there. Mimi was the only one who bought something there which was a stuffed seal.
After that we went to the Toyko National Museum by walk since it was really close by. This is the important part of the blog post. The museum was quite big and they had more than one building. The building with foreign artifacts was closed so there were not so many foreign items placed there.
One of the foreign artifacts that I found interesting was a 2D lotus and a peacock’s feather matching the the width of the lotus surrounded by a wreath. On the peacock feather there was a symbol representing an ancient sanskrit religion. The whole artifact was of gilt bronze. I think that artifact was to share the ancient religion to the world, or it could have just been a really valuable decoration for a festival. However, this artifact expresses an ancient religion whatsoever. But we do not use that religion that was printed on the artifact. I think the artifact was used by the followers of the religion, mainly the priest (if they had one) or the most religious person. I chose this artifact because it had an obvious connection with my country. In humanities class, we are learning about the silk road. I think this artifact spread over the silk road thus increasing the followers of this religion.
There were Kosode’s in the museum. They are like kimono’s except Kosode’s have short sleeves. Kosode’s were active during the Edo period in japan. The material could have been made of either Chinese silk or a Japanese cotton. I think the design comes from China and the colour selection too. However the actual Kosode could have been invented in Japan. For Edo, a Kosode could be just a half-sleeve shirt. I think the Kosode had not so much relationship with the silk-road. However, it spread throughout all of Japan and might still be active but if it is, then there would only be only a couple of them. I think it is likely to not have any Kosodes in modern Japan.
Finally there was a statue of a god called Senju Kannon (also known as Saharasrabhuja Avalokitesvera) who has one thousand hands with weapons on some of them. They believed in this God since the Heian period in Japan. I guess only Japan believed in this God, but this God also looks like the Goddess Durga who has ten hands with a weapon in each hand. I guess they both were created for different reasons. Like the sanskrit artifact, I think this statue was to represent a religion and share it to the world. However now I don’t really think this god is too active at the moment.
I think that most of the artifacts in Japan could not be spread out so much in other countries because it could have been very hard to get to Japan since Japan is more of an island so you needed a boat to cross the ocean to Japan. And also during the Edo period, Only people around the Mongolian area can go in and out of Japan, so I think that could have also stopped many of the Japanese trade. After the Meiji period, where anyone could come In and go out, people could have set out in search of other artifacts. However it seemed that they were too late to have anything foreign active in Japan. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more.
Today in science class, we were making many weird animals for our biology unit on a program called Switcherizoo. After we made a few, we voted for who's was the most original, most realistic, most unrealistic, most funny, and best overall. However, I could not win. Instead, the winners were Juulia, Sungwon, Yudai, Eddie and Johan. Here are my most realistic and unrealistic animals I created.
For science class, we are learning about forces. We recently did an experiment on cushioning where we had to put the egg in a box and add as much cushioning as you can, and then drop the egg from our roof. The winner would be the one whose egg did not crack. We had to split up into groups and do the experiment as a team. The rule was that the box had to be the same volume as assigned and we had t drop the egg from the same height. I grouped up with Eddie and Johan. Our first boxes had to be 20cm x 20cm x 20cm which was quite big. We had our egg in a small box, then wrapped that box with styrofoam that you find wrapped around a mango in the store. Then we wrapped that box with bubble wrap, and then with the other box, we covered the inner walls of the box with sheets of cotton and then put the small box into the bigger box. The box that we had was made out of cardboard, so it was quite sturdy. The second day, we had to open the box and check if the egg was all right. One group was generous enough to give us their share of cotton which they brought that day. We added all that in and then we were ready to go. The other contestants were ready as well. One group had a parachute with it, one of them had a huge wad of bubble wrap and taped it all together, and one group had the same materials as our group but with no box but had marshmallows for cushioning. When our turn came to drop the box, the height was so high that the hands of the person who was dropping the egg were trembling.The box landed on its face, sound of the box when it hit the ground was so nasty that we thought the egg was a goner. Even so, we slightly prayed that the egg was safe. When every group finished dropping their eggs, we went down to the place where the boxes were dropped and opened the box. When it was our turn, we opened the box to see the egg completely undamaged with no external marks on the egg that was not there before. All of the other eggs were safe except for one of them who used a parachute. The members of that group were Daiki, Yudai and Kousuke So, the experiment was a success. Since the previous experiment was a success, Mr. Duffield brought us to a new challenge, which was to do the same experiment but with a smaller box with was 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. This time, we cut the box into half and took out the smaller box inside because it did not fit. Then we covered the walls with cotton, wrapped the egg in a wad of bubble wrap so big, that we could only put the egg in with difficulty. When we were ready, we went to the same place, only at a higher level of hight, and then dropped the box. The box hit its corner this time and did not make such a large sound. This time though, one of the team whose teammates were Tobi, Sungwon and Sean were disqualified because their group’s box was too big. When everyone finished dropping them, we went back to our classroom and opened the box. We saw that even this time the egg survived the drop. We were very happy when the egg survived. This time, only two group’s eggs survived. Our group, and another group whose members were Helen, Aruna and Mihaela. Then, Mr. Duffield took a picture of everyone with there eggs and sent the picture to us.
I think one of the main reasons that our egg survived was because we had several different types of cushioning and they were in layers, so the reaction force only reached the egg with only not enough power to crack the egg. Another reason is because we had a hard outer surface made of cardboard, which made the more protected because with a hard surface, it indents less than having a soft outer surface thus creating less pressure towards the egg making the egg safer. In addition, if the outer surface is hard, then the box won’t bounce up. And if it bounces up, then it makes the drop almost start over again. Thus, making the egg even more unsafe. Another reason was the egg was a hard boiled egg which makes the shell of the egg slightly sturdier. The type of the egg was different as well. The egg was a type which was dark brown and is made to eat with alcohol.
I liked the time we were putting all the cushioning into the box because we were putting in whatever we wanted almost randomly. I also liked using the cardboard knife to cut the cardboard because it made me feel like a professional cardboard cutter. I felt uneasy the first time we dropped the egg because we thought the egg was very fragile and that the egg would break. After our egg survived, we came to discover that the egg was less fragile than we thought. The easiest part of the experiment was deciding the types of cushioning to use because we just used all of the types of cushioning professionals use. The hardest part was making the box the exact right size to have Mr. Duffield be able to accept the size. Thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more.
This is our group AJE (Arunansu, Johan and Eddie) and our egg.
At science class, we are learning about water getting displaced. If you put in something in a container of water, the level of water rises. That is what I mean by displaced water. Our science teacher sent us a question to answer: Kate and Sophia are out rowing in a boat on a small lake. To their surprise, on their boat they find a big stone. Since they don’t want to pull the stone with them, they throw it into the lake, and it sinks to the bottom. When they throw the rock into the lake, will the water level rise or fall?
I think the water level will rise a little bit, even so little that it can’t be recognized by the bare human eye. Whenever an object floats, the water level will rise according to the weight of the object. Kate and Sophia’s boat would be floating, so the water displaces according to the weight of the boat, Kate, Sophia and the rock all put together. If they throw the rock out of the boat, the rock would obviously sink. When an object is immersed, suspended or sunk in water, the water level rises according to the volume of the rock. A rock would most likely have more volume than weight. So when the rock will be immersed in water, the water level would rise. However, since they threw the rock in a lake, the water level would only rise a little bit because the volume of the lake is so big that it would hardly make any difference if the rock is thrown outside.
At the 8th of December we did an experiment that I have never done. We looked at cells of living things using a microscope. We looked at onion cells and cells from our cheeks. But we had to follow a number of safety rules in order to do the experiment.
First we used iodine and blue methyl to stain the cells from the living things. If the stain gets on your skin or your shirt (especially on your shirt) it will take a long time to get it off. We used cover slips which is made of thin glass so if you crack the glass, the glass will go inside your skin and you will be needing to take the glass out with a pin or something with a sharp point. The microscopes we used were bought with a lot of money, so we needed to take extremely good care of it. We had to hold the microscope where the circles are in
If you don’t follow these rules, the microscope might break and you do not want to hear the consequences for that. I think I covered most of the safety rules so lets get to what we did. First we had to pair up with another classmate. I paired up with Sungwon for this experiment. Then we started with some onion cells. We had to peel of the thinnest layer an onion has which Sungwon was capable of doing that. Then we put the layer on to the slip, stained it with one drop of iodine, and put the cover slip on the stained onion layer and we were ready to go. We put the slip on to the stage of the microscope and set it to the highest point it can go to. It was hard to get to see the onion cells but we were able to see it when we had set the objective (The lens) to make it see 40 times than normal size. We had to record what the cells looked like which was like a bunch of hexagons stuck together and a circle in each hexagon. Then we moved on to the cheek cells. Again we had to do the same process except this time we used blue methyl to stain the cells. I was able to see my cells at only 10 times bigger than normal. Again we had to record what we saw. It looked like a Giant circle with a blue wavy object. I wasn’t exactly sure if those were my cells but judging by the color of the object and the ingredient we used to stain the cells in made it likely to be my cells.
I really enjoyed this experience of looking at cells because now I can see what shape some of the cells are. Thank you for listening and stay tuned for more!
