Ben's Reflection Post

Ben's Fourth Quarter Reflection Post

1. Over this past year, I feel that I have definitely improved as a blogger. I was looking back at older posts and saw that they didn't have too much information or scientific vocabulary. Also there was a lack of pictures and formatting skills. After that, I looked at my most recent post and saw improvement in almost every field of blogging.

2. The blog did help us learn new things about the current unit whether it was from youtube videos or diagrams. Also, the blog could be used as a study guide for an upcoming quiz or test. Also the blog helped me when I was sick one time, because whoever was scribing recounted the class and what new information we learned so I felt like I didn't even miss science class. I'm sure anyone else who missed class could say this as well.
3. Besides a science class blog, the concept of blogging could be used in other subjects. Another thing could be a personal journal recounting your day for anyone who you want to keep in touch with but one person is far away. From personal experience, another usage is a travel blog. A blog to tell about all of your travels and adventures to friends and family. Blogs could also be sued for sports or reviews on movies, TV shows, books, video games, and so on.

4. I wouldn't say that blogging has extremely improved my writing skills, but in some aspects it did. My scientific vocabulary has been enlightened and I've learned random words I didn't know before just from reading comments. Also, because blogger was on the Internet, I always had the urge to use shortened spellings of words like I would on social networking sites. I don't do that as much now because blogger is supposed to be formal, with sophisticated words instead of casual and slang.

5. Leaving comments to other people's posts have improved my ability to find something nice to say about the psot, even if there really was nothing, for example, the colors you used were vibrant and made the post come together. Also, at the beginning of blogging, I really only commented about the writing and grammar instead of taking in the pictures, links, and labels. It's good that I got this skill from blogging, because it will probably be useful later in life.

6. There are many important things I have learned from blogging so I will narrow it down to three things: 1) There is always something good to say about the post. 2) Even the littlest things in a post, like colors or the font could impact your grade and what people think about it. 3) If you plan on making a blog post on an Apple computer, there is a good chance everything will go completely wrong.

Ben's 4th Quarter Scribe Post

Science Class of Thursday, May 19

Hello everyone, in my scribe post I will be giving a summary of Thursday’s class. Enjoy reading and be sure to check out the links.

We started off the class with talking about some final details of the CERN trip to Geneva, Switzerland. After that, we reviewed the order of everything. Here is the order:

?-Quarks-Protons/Neutrons/Electrons-Atoms-Molecules-Elements-Compounds/Mixtures-DNA-Cells-Tissues-Organs-Systems-Organisms-Species-Genus-Families-Order-Class-Phyllum-Kingdoms-Biomes-Planets-Galaxies-Clusters of Galaxies-?

Here is a link to a game about the order of everything. It covers some things that we didn’t get to yet, but for the most part it is relevant. I find the order of everything pretty cool because it begins and ends with a question mark, probably to show that there is still much to discover. So back to the class, we finished with the order of everything, and then talked about cells. Here are some cell notes I took:

• 
  
  Cells are the basic units of structure and function
  


• 
  
  All cells are created by other living cells



• 
  
  All organisms are made up of cells



• 
  
  One square centimeter of skin holds 100,000 cells



• 
  
  Cells weren’t discovered until the late 1600’s



• 
  
  
  People couldn’t see them, but when microscopes were invented, it was possible to see cells



• There are two types of cells



• One type is Prokaryotes cells, they have a nucleus and are very small



• The other is Eukaryotes, they don’t have a nucleus and are much bigger than Prokaryotes

Later on in class, after we reviewed all the information about cells, we talked about microscopes and their history. Here are notes I took about Microscopes:

• 
  
  The first cells were discovered using microscopes



• The first microscope was a tube with a lens at each end



• The first light microscope was made in 1886 and magnified 1,000x



• Electron microscopes were created in 1933 and magnified 500,000x



• In 1981 the first tunneling microscope was made and magnifies 1,000,000x



• Tunneling microscopes go inside of a living thing



• Today only light and electron microscopes are used



• 
  
  A common lens used today is convex, which are in eyeglasses and magnifying glasses

Ms. D told us to get with a partner and then grab a microscope. She gave us some safety and usage tips about using microscopes, for example, hold the microscope by the base and the arm, or, make sure to start off with the lowest powered objective and put it back at that one too. She gave us slides with small things on them, like volcanic ash or blue wool, and then we got to look at them under microscopes. I think the best view was with the middle objective, which was 40x, because it wasn’t too far away or too close. We finished up using the microscopes and put them away. For the last few minutes of class, Ms. D reminded us of the last few critical details about the CERN trip. Then that was it for Thursday’s class.

Real Life Example

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this recent debate in the USA and other parts of the world. It’s about stem cell research. To extract stem cells, embryos inside of people are killed. Embryos are vital for reproduction and many other things inside the body. There was a recent article about in the NY Times. This is another article from the University of Wisconsin about the history and more information relating to stem cells.

Here is a link to Moodle so you can check out reflection post tips or upcoming homework.

I hope you all liked reading my scribe post for this quarter.

THE NEXT SCRIBE IS………..NATHAN HUNTZ

Ben's Reflection post for the Third Quarter

Ben's Reflection Post

Hello Grade 7 and 8,

This quarter from the comments on my post, I had improved. I also feel that I did better, based on how I felt while making my scribe post. Although I improved, I still made some mistakes. Here is what I could do better:

• Add captions to pictures
• Put a link to a Youtube video
• Make "Scribe Post" a label in the labels section
• Give definitions for vocabulary words
• More specific notes
• Make sure text is the same size
• Figure out formatting issues
• Capitalzing days of the week

From what you guys comented and what I can say for myself, these are what made my post good this quarter:

• Grammar and spelling were almost perfect
• Pictures were helpful and relevant
• The link was helpful and interesting
• Thorough and informative
• Date in title
• Colors were legible and not distracting
• Link to Moodle
• Labels were correct
• Included name in the title
  
  
  I enjoyed blogging this quarter. Partially because we didn't have to do as many comments, which definitely took off some of the weight. Also, now I knew how to make my post good as a result of my post from last quarter, so I didn't have to worry about every detail. The class blog helped for when I was away for CEESA events and when I was sick. I must say, the blog is becoming a bit of a harassment with all the other things we have. One of the downsides to blogging as I said in my last reflection post, it doesn't have spell check and isn't as compatible on other computers. I would like to keep using blogger, but not for every class because sometimes we don't do much.

Ben's Scribe Post for Tuesday's Class

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Hello Grade 7 and 8,


The first thing we did on Tuesday's class was talk about what will happen over the next two weeks. Here is a link to moodle so you can plan ahead. Also, we have a quiz on tuesday (March 29) about work, power, the math for work and power, and all the simple machines. After that, we began the remaining presentations on simple machines.

First up was Nathan and Jakub. Their powerpoint was about the Wheel 
and Axle. I took some notes about the presentation so you can use this post 
as a study guide. Here they are:

• The wheel and axle is a simple machine made of a large wheel secured to a smaller wheel which is called an axle
• It is a rod attached to a wheel and their movements are the same when one of the parts is turned
• Some examples are: a doorknob, a steering wheel, fan, and a windmill
• It decreases distance and increases output force
• Mechanical Advantage= radius of wheel ÷ radius of axle

The next presentation was the pulley by Valentina and I. Here is some 
information about pulleys:

• There are three types of pulleys, Fixed, Movable, and Block and Tackle
• Mechanical advantage= length of input force/ length of output force
• Fixed pulley changes the direction of force
• Mechanical advantage=1
• Examples are fitness machines, flagpoles, and blinds
• Movable pulley decreases the amount of input force required
• Mechanical Advantage=2
• Common uses are in cranes or tow trucks
• Block and Tackle pulley is a combination of fixed and movable
• Its mechanical advantage=3
• Mechanical Advantage for this pulley relies on how many sections of rope there are
• Used to lift loads, fitness machines, and cable cars (gondolas)

The final presentation for Tuesday's class was the screw by Courtney 
and Tamara. They had a powerpoint as well. Here are my notes from the 
presentation:

• A screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder
• Inclined plane forms the threads on a screw
• Types are countersunk, round head, raised head, coach screw & twinfast
• Names of screw heads are slotted, philips, and crossed slot
• Shank is the space between the head and the threads of the screw
• Core is the rod inside of the screw
• Mechanical advantage= length around threads ÷ length of screw
• Examples - jar, faucet, swirly slide, drill bit, screwdriver, boat propeller
• Increases distance of output force

That's it Tuesday's class. Emilija & Maria Chiara started their presentation, but
we ran out of time shortly after they started. On Thursday they will present, 
along with David and Davide who haven't done their presentation yet. For 
those who are presenting, remember to practice beforehand, know your 
information, and be able to define it. I hope you enjoy reading my post.

Here is a link to a website on simple machines, it has a small quiz on it, so 
you can prepare for next Tuesday's quiz, click here.

THE SECOND TO LAST SCRIBE OF THE QUARTER IS......... DAVID!

Ben's Reflection Post for Scribing

1-17-10

Hey Everybody!

For my first scribe post, most of the comments were overall good, but the people who commented did have very good suggestions that would've made my post even better. One of the suggestions that came up most was that I needed more pictures and that the one I used should be bigger. I agree with them about that because now that I look back, the picture is small and its text is hardly visible. Another popular suggestion, was that I needed to Hyperlink my links so people didn't have to copy and paste into their address bar. I also needed to put the date of the classes I was scribing for, instead of just listing them as "Thursday and Friday's science class". Another thing I could've improved, was making the post more original instead of just sticking with one color the entire post which made it uninteresting. Besides those, I believe I did good, but not great on my first scribe post. Some of the things I did well were:

• Have a lot of scientific vocabulary and lots of information about what we did in class
• Post the answers to our homework assignment
• Not make any spelling or grammar mistakes
• Use of links (even though they weren't Hyperlinked I still had a lot)
• Homework assignment for that class
• Legible font
• Being organized and having the post split into sections

Next quarter I can guarantee that I will have a better scribe post because after seeing everyone else's posts and their comments to mine, I know exactly what to do and how to do it in some cases. I am looking forward to blogging next quarter because the 6 graders will be joining us in Blogging(if I remember correctly) and getting to see what new things people will do. Blogging is good to have in a class because it is easy to know what happened if you were absent, and if you aren't too sure on a subject we learned about, it will most probably be on the post of whoever is scribing for our class. There are only two things I don't like about Blogger. The first is that there is no spell checker so you have to be sure about what you're typing. Second, not everything on Blogger is compatible with a Mac such as importing a photo and then you have to drag it in and you can't change its size. Other than that, I had a great time using Blogger and look forward to having the first post of the third quarter!

Thursday and Friday's Science Class

Hey Everyone!

On Thursday's class we began by Ms. D checking over our Homework which was Acceleration Practice 2. It consisted of 8 math problems where we had to find either acceleration, velocity, or the time. Here is the link to Moodle for Acceleration Practice 2 for anybody who was absent:

http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188

The answers for Acceleration Practice 2 are as follows:

1. A= 0.02 m/s/s

2. A= -67 m/min/min

3. A= 1.56 cm/s/s

4. A= -38,733.33 km/h/h

5. A= 156,250 km/h/h

6. T= 1.43 s

7. Vf= -2.21 km/min

8. s=7.57 m/s, T= 2.05 s

After checking the homework, we began working on our Acceleration lab with the three different balls. We could choose to either put all three ball's data on one graph, or three individual graphs. Remember if you're doing only one graph to make three different colors for the balls. This is what an acceleration graph would look like:

This graph is showing acceleration of an object free-falling. For more information on acceleration, check out this website with additional information on acceleration and other types of motion we've been working on. http://www.historyforkids.org/scienceforkids/physics/movement/acceleration.htm

Our only homework for Thursday was to study for the quiz we had last science class (Friday). Here is a link to a video on almost everything that we covered in motion. http://www.kidsknowit.com/interactive-educational-movies/free-online-movies.php?movie=Acceleration

Friday's Class

During Friday's science class we didn't do too much because we were taking the quiz on everything we learned on motion. The quiz grades should be on Powerschool for you to check your grade. After finishing the quiz our only task was to work on the graph(s) for the Acceleration lab with the ping pong ball, soccer ball, and the tennis ball.

Homework

1. Finish plotting all the data on your graph(s). Don't connect the dots because we will be doing that during Tuesday's class.

2. Our fourth blog comment is due on Friday, December 10, by 16:00. Remember that we have to have 3 comments on the eighth grade blog and 4 on our seventh grade blog minimum.

We watched some videos in class on Thursday. The songs are by "They Might Be Giants". The first one is more about motion and the second video is kind of relative, its about the elements.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRb5PSxJerM

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0zION8xjbM&feature=related

The next scriber is....... DAVIDE!