Hello to everybody!
I am going to talk about Friday's and Tuesday's Science classes! On Tuesday our main topic was based on Simple Machines, we were each working in partners to do a presentation on one of the following simple machines;
- Pulley-
- Wheel and Axel-
- Lever-
- Inclined Plane-
- Screw-
- Wedge-
So as I was saying before, we each picked one of these simple machines, and the groups were the following, in case you forgot;
- Pulley- Ben and Valentina
- Wheel and Axel- Nathan and Jakub
- Lever- Karin and Ghazaleh
- Plane- Emilija and Chiara
- Screw- Tamara and Courtney
- Wedge- David and Ben
We read the direction sheet, which you can find on moodle here. We then went to the computer lab to find more information on each of our topics. Karin and Gahzaleh have to remember that they have to do 3 levers because they have to be sure to explain each one, as do Ben and Valentina, being there 3 types of Pulleys. We than had to make a visual presentation which could be; Power Point, Poster or Prezi. You can find the link to prezi's login page here. Ms.D also told us to be sure to REMEBER to include in our presentations the mechanical advantage of each simple machine. If some of the groups have not yet been able to find a good resource accept for the book, here are some website links;
- Pulley
- Wheel and Axel
- Lever
- Plane- and some exercises
- Screw
- Wedge
- All the Simple Machines and Work
The class then ended and we went to our next class.
Tuesday's class was a bit different our class was based around to the events that happened in Japan. Ms.D had had a lot of visits coming in throughout the days, and had decided to discuss about it. We spoke about the Atomic power plants that where in the water and the effects of the tsunami and earthquake on them.
We learned that the three water containers that kept one of the atomic power plants steady all broke down and stopped functioning because they were shut down or the power stopped making them work. The scientist found a way to keep on adding water to the atomic plant by using the sea as the water source, because if the temperature there isn't about 250 degrees Celsius they containers of the atomic steam would explode. If all the atomic capsules break, and the container cracks, there would be a consequence as if an atomic bomb had hit Japan. Unfortunately, the water level and temperature are for now not enough to sustain the atomic fuel rods, and one exploded at the start. Ms.D then showed an elaborate diagram of the inside situation, and explained that the second fuel rod had been opened the tiniest bit to let some radiation out, but giving some power also. The third fuel rod was luckily still in place, but it would be trouble if something else happened.
We then went to the computer lab to begin finishing the simple machinse presentations and other tried playing with audacity to see what to do in the real commercial. Audacity is the program that we will use to make our anti- smoking commercials.
When we were finished we all packed up and went to the science room, were a sad surprise was awaiting us. The third fuel rod had exploded, letting out a lot of radiation into the atomic power plant, and the power plant might have had a crack. Ms.D then explained to us that if the power plant had a crack, the radiation might go into the soil underneath and the earth, and all the soil would be contaminated and would cause a lot of deaths due to the water and soil pollution that the humans or animals would then eat, killing them. The atomic power plant might also give out to the water some radiation, which would then evaporate into the sea, were fish and other sea creatures would eat it, as well as on top of all the cities the wind brought the atomic clouds to. Japan is in serious trouble, and the worst is, that unless the fuel rods finish and no more radiation can be given, this fight against the atomic radiation will continue, and Japan does not want to give up Atomic power plants, therefore, this occasion might occur again and again, until they decide that they will stop atomic radiation, and therefore the fuel rods' use will be the last. Unfortunately, the fuel rods are known to last over a hundred years each, and by the time the Japanese will have decided to give up, the fuel rods might need to last a lot longer than the Japanese will.
Here is a website to know more about the earthquake in Japan.
The class was then dismissed and proceeded in continuing the daily activity.
I hope you enjoyed my blog post, and the next scribe is........ Courtney!!!
Hi Vale,
ReplyDeleteYour second blog post this quarter is pretty good! I liked your diagrams, hyperlinks, pictures, and more. The few things you could have improved are using more color (unless you were having trouble with it), add some more pictures in the bottom of the post, since it is all pretty much full with only text. You also need to have the date in your title. Other than that, I really like this post, just like the one you did at the beginning of the quarter!
Valentina - Nice work on this post, it's a good improvement from your first. Your spelling, punctuation and labels look good. Your grammar, especially in the information about the nuclear reactors in Japan, is a bit off and I am not sure why you have only used one color, as nothing really stands out from anything else as important. Your hyperlinks are excellent, and I hope your classmates use the ones for their presentations. At times though you need to be careful of the age of the information, as some of it is too old (college level) and too difficult to understand. I also like that you have a picture for each Simple Machine. The one area you had a bit of difficulty explaining is the nuclear reactor information. You cover the fuel rods and how they are used, but your explanation is not completely correct. Also keep in mind that reactors 1 & 3 have had their outside buildings explode, but none of them (1, 2, 3, or 4) have had the containment facility break. Overall, nice work on this post and good for you for following all the requirements on the rubric! ~Ms. D.
ReplyDeleteHey Valentina! First off, your pictures and hyperlinks were great and vey helpful. On the other hand, your description of the situation in Japan was a little off. I'm pretty sure it was a nuclear power plant with nuclear reactors, not atomic. Also, you could have simply explained what a pulley, wheel, lever, etc. does, in case others reading the blog don't know. Another thing, maybe you should have put more colors and organized the info better (more bullets). Other than that, I really liked your scribe post. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteHey Vale,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post! It was clear and easy to read, though you could make some changes for next time. Make sure to use more than one color next time because if not then it seems boring (not saying that yours is). I liked the fact that you put pictures of all the different simple machines we studied, but you could have explained them, and what they do. The writing part of Japan and all of the radiation was a bit confusing, and as Sophie said it was nuclear reactors, not an atomic power plant. Next time when you use hyperlinks in the text you should make them stand out a bit more, because it was hard for me to read it.
Other than these suggestions, nice work!
Court :D
Hello Vale! Wow! That's a very good post! I really liked it! You have many pictures and in this post you talked about everything we did in class. I like green, but may be next time you should use some other colors, because like Courtney already said, your post looks a bit boring. I also really liked that you included in your post something very important like the explosion in Japan! But it actualy was a nuclear reaction and not an atomic power plant, like Sophie said.
ReplyDeleteStill, that's a very good post!
Hey Valentina,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your scribe post. I enjoyed a lot all the pictures and links related to the simple machines you guys are studying. Also, you linked Moodle and used hyper-links pretty often. You also gave a very accurate description of the class, which is very good. Although, I think you could have split the paragraphs more, not write all the news about Japan in one big paragraph. One more thing, there are some punctuation and grammar mistakes throughout the scribe post, and to avoid that you could have used spell check. One last thing, is that you could have used different font colours to 'high-light' key words of the paragraphs. It was good that you labelled the post correctly. I think you also went pretty far with the science, even though you concentrated more on Japan's earthquake and tsunami rather than the simple machines you guys are studying. Overall, though, really good job on this scribe post!
Gio.
Hi there Vale,
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic post! You covered what we did in class, your links worked, and you had great pictures. Though, your post only had one color, so it looked a bit boring. The picures are many and helpful, but they were badly organized- I could barely recognize which caption was for which picture- but overall they made sense. You could have placed them better or added new ones on the second part of your post, since it is just big chincks of writing, which make it harder to follow and make your post less interesting. You could also have added a bit of more excitement in the second part. Also, for when yhen you said the partners for the presentation, you made a mistake- David worked with me, not with Ben... But I still thought it was great that you at least gave a general background of who was working with who. It was great that you talked about the disasters that happened in Japan and how we talked about them. A video showing or explaining a bit more what happened would have been helpful. I also liked that you included the temperature at which the nuslear bars had to be in, because it was extra information. Overall, great improvement from last time ;)!
Davide