Tamara's Reflection Post 4th Quarter

Hello everyone! Here is my reflection post for the fourth quarter!

I think that I improved as a writer because I started putting hyper linked links and more pictures. Blog helps people to understand what people did in class better, for example for parents to know what we are doing for science class, or for the people who are sick and were not in school. Blogging helped me with making my post look nice and interesting to read. Well, blogging also helped me by commenting on other people's walls, looking at their writting style, and pictures that they took in science class. The most important thing I learned from blogging was about science. 

I hope that blogging will continue next year! 

Tamara's Scribe Post 4th Quarter

   Hi everyone! I am going to talk about ''The Evil Elves'' group, during our Tuesday's science class. I hope you enjoy reading my blog. 

   We (The Evil Elves) did not do many things our Tuesday's Class. What we did at the start of the class, was people working on the details of the compound machine. So, for example, me and Emilija were building a long black connector (the chain), while Nathan Davide and Eric attached the parts that were already made, to the entire compound machine; Ghazaleh and Ben made another part that we were missing.

   At about 9:45 Vale''s and Davide's mom, and also David's mom came to see our compound machine which (at that time) was almost built. And then, I would say - SUDDENLY, 2nd, 3d, 4th graders came to see how our compound machine was working. While the elementary school looked at the work we did for this month, the room became crowded, loud and somehow reminded me of the Science Day. Still, everything went well, children were polite, and some of them, even wanted to help us build the machine. 

   But unfortunately, when at the end of the class Ms.D and The Evil Elves and The Cookie Monsters tested their two enormous compound machines, The Cookie Monster's machine worked perfectly, so of course they they got 4/4, unlike us, who got 3/4 .... :(

   At the end of the class me and Ghazaleh, Emilija cleaned up, and our teammates helped us. If people want to know how we built simple machines, I would recommend them to see the older posts by other people: Ghazaleh, Emilija, Courtney, Chiara, Karin, David etc.  

   Like I mentioned before, we did a compound K'nex machine and here is a link about simple machines: http://www.mikids.com/Smachins.htm 

   And here is a link to K'nex website: http://www.knex.com/About_KNEX/ 

   If people want to check what's for homework, or for some reason they need moodle, here is a link: http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188 

   REAL LIFE EXAMPLE OF SIMPLE MACHINES IN A CAR: wheels- wheel axle; gear shift- lever; pedal- inclined plane; seat belt- pulley. 

                                                                    THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!  

 

Tamara's Reflection Post

I think that my blog post was okay. It was easy to read, it had nice colors, a few pictures and some (hyper linked) links about the topic I wrote about. However, as I looked through other people's comments on my post, I found out that next time I can improve by: putting more pictures, which are related to the topic, and more links (like the one Ghazaleh suggested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvcOYOO0Fvw&feature=related). I also should put more information (because some people said that my post was too short).
What I like about the blog is that you can improve yourself as a writer and it's also a fun thing to do. But there are some things that I don't like about this project. For example, sometimes there are some computer or internet issues, so sometimes I can't really write the blog or the comment, and it is due... Lets say today! So, what am I supposed to do now? Well, just get my internet/computer fixed and sometimes my parents don't have time to make my computer/internet work. So then, I have to stay at lunch time in the computer lab, doing my science homework, instead of being outside and hanging out with my friends. Well, work is work and school is school.

Tuesday's Science Class

Hi everyone who reads my post now!!!

   Our Tueday's Science Class we started our classfrom talking about our "Design a Supehero" project. Just to let everyone know, it is due this Friday, March, 2011. To see more about this project I recommend everyone to look at Chiara's post, because it has a lot of information about the "Superhero Project"; or you can also see http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188 , which is Moodle.

   Today we basically read p. 108-113 in our "Science Explorer" book and made some math problems that are on page 112. After that, we took notes about work, power, joule. And here is what we were supposed to take notes on:

• Work-is when you exert a force on an object that causes the object to move some distance.   You can also explain work as-   a force exerted on an object that causes to move.
• The object moves in the same direction in which the force is exerted.
• Force in the same direction: to do work on an object, the force you exert must be in the same direction as the object's motion.
• NO WORK WITHOUT MOTION!
• Calculating work: is the amount of work done on an object. Can be determined by: work= force x distance
• Here is a website that can help you learn more about work: http://www.school-for-champions.com/science/work.htm
• Joule- the unit for joule is (J). Joule is the amount of work you do when you exert a force of 1 Newton to move an object a distance of 1 meter.
• Joule is a SI unit of work.  
• The amount of work you do on an object is not affected by the time it takes to do the work. 
• Here is the website about jouls: http://www.diracdelta.co.uk/science/source/j/o/joule/source.html 
• Power- is the rate at which the work is done. 
• Power equals the amount of work done on an abject in a unit of time. 
• Power= work/ time  (I can't find symbols here, so, power= work divided by time)
• Power units: 1KW = 1,000 W ( one Killowatt equals 1,000 Watts). 
• One Watt is very small. 
• Engines use horsepower, not Watts!!! 
• One horsepower= 746 Watts

   And this is it! I tried to make my post as short as possible and easy to read! I hope you liked it!

For homewrok we have to do the math sheet, which is due on Thursday.   

THE NEXT SCRIBE IS... (COOL MUSIC) DAVIDE!!! 

    

Tamara's Refelction post for 2nd Quarter

   After I did my blog post (on Thrusday, December 9, 2010), I understood that I made some mistakes, I understood that also by reading other people's comments on my post. Here are some of them:

• I need to include more pictures, like a picture of a spring scale.
• I need spacing between the paragraphs.
• I shouldn't use yellow as my color, since it's hard to read.
• I also should of explained what "SI" means. 
• I should explain what the links are about. Plus, one of them did not work.
• I have one gremmatical mistake.
• I need to give the defenitions for the words we studied in class.

   In my post for the third quarter, I will definitely put more pictures and will not use the color yellow! And I will also try a bit harder. But I still think that my post was colorful, I tried to use some scientific vocabulary and my post turned out very detailed. The benefit of doing a blog is to remind yourself of what happened in class today, one week ago or even a month ago. It is also, like moodle, helps you with your homework. And if you were sick you can read blog and see what happened during science class. I liked doing blogging, because there are many options for doing it - you can use pictures, different colors and things like that.       

                                                                                                    By TamarA

Thursday's Science Class

Hello everyone who reads my post!!!                

Today in our science class we talked about force, different types of force, gravity, spring scales, a little bit about friction, and that’s mostly it!

So, first, we watched three short videos about the things I listed (force, gravity). The first video was a man driving a car, this video showed us a few graphs and talked about acceleration. The second video was about a brave person, jumping from a very big height, from the top of the bridge. This video talks about the gravity. And the third video showed us some bicyclist, this video talked about the friction. 

  After that, we talked about the spring scales: what they are measuring, how do they look like and which one is better to use (we had several kinds of spring scales: brown, white, green, yellow, and red). So we (as a whole class) took one object, measured it with the spring scales that were different colors. And these are the results:
1.Green spring scale: 5N
2.Yellow spring scale: 50N
3.White spring scale: 30N
4.Red spring scale: 20N
5.Brown spring scale: 10N
  So, as you can see, the green one was the most accurate. We also had to write, in our notebooks, what we know about Force. These are the things I would like you to know about force:
• A force is a push or pull. When one object pushes or pulls another object, you can say that the first object exerts a force on the second object. 
• Like velocity and acceleration, a force is described by its strength and by the direction in which it acts. (Just a quick reminder: velocity is speed in a given direction; and acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes). 
• Force is measured in the SI unit called the Newton (N). (SI is the abbreviation for the International System of Units, also known as the metric system).
• There are several types of forces: a net forces, unbalanced forces, balanced forces. A net force is the combination of all forces acting on an object. The unbalanced force can cause an object to start moving, stop moving, or change direction. Unbalanced forces acting on an object result in a net force and cause the change in the object’s motion. And balanced forces are the equal forces acting on one object in opposite directions. Balanced forces acting on an object do not change the object’s motion. 
  For homework, we have to read pages 42-50 in our textbooks. Also, some people have to comment for blog. And write the definitions (they are in your textbooks) for the following scientific terms:
• Friction-The rubbing of one object or surface against another. 
• Static Friction- The force that resists the initiation of sliding motion of one object over the other with which it is in contact
• Sliding Friction- rubbing of objects in sliding contact.                        
• Rolling Friction- A force which opposes the motion of any object which is rolling over the surface of another.
• Fluid Friction- Conversion of mechanical energy in fluid flow into heat energy.       
• Gravity- Gravity, or gravitation, is the force of attraction that exists between any two particles of matter (or any two objects). It is the force that holds planets in their orbits around the Sun, or the Moon in its orbit around Earth.                                                    
• Mass- A unified body of matter with no specific shape
• Weight- A measure of the heaviness of an object.
• Free Fall- The fall of an object within the atmosphere without a drag-producing device such as a parachute.
• Air Resistance- Wind drag giving rise to forces and wear on buildings and other structures.
• Terminal Velocity- The velocity with which an object moves relative to a fluid when the resultant force acting on it (due to friction, gravity) is zero.
• Projectile- A fired, thrown, or otherwise propelled object, such as a bullet, having no capacity for self-propulsion.
  At the end of our science class we gave our notebooks, because the Acceleration/ Deceleration Testing Lab was due today. “Have a nice day”, was the last phrase Ms.D said to us today. 
   

The links that might help you learn:
http://www.brightstorm.com/science/physics/newtons-laws-of-motion/law-of-force-and-acceleration-newtons-second-law-of-motion 
http://www.edinformatics.com/math_science/force.htm 
http://www.asknumbers.com/WhatisForce.aspx 
http://www.racemath.info/motionandenergy/What_is_Acceleration.htm 
http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/patricia/gravtop.html 
http://zagreb.ceesa.net/course/view.php?id=188 

I HOPE YOU LIKED MY POST! ! ! AND THE NEXT SCRIBE IS… (NO DRUM ROLL) MARIA CHIARA!