Extra Credit: Weather Poetry

To the Thawing Wind

Come with rain. O loud Southwester!

Bring the singer, bring the nester;

Give the buried flower a dream;

make the settled snowbank steam;

Find the brown beneath the white;

But whate'er you do tonight,

bath my window, make it flow,

Melt it as the ice will go;

Melt the glass and leave the sticks

Like a hermit's crucifix;

Burst into my narrow stall;

Swing the picture on the wall;

Run the rattling pages o'er;

Scatter poems on the floor;

Turn the poet out of door.

-Robert Frost

This poem, To The Thawing Wind by Robert Frost definitely connects with weather in many ways. In this piece of poetry, weather is used to describe the setting and action. The poet uses his knowledge of weather to, as I said before, describe the place of the action, in a very creative way. Within this poem, the kind of weather discussed it rain, wind, snow, and sun(heat). Without the mention of weather, this poem would be completely different, because all of the imagery would be missing, making this poem truly boring. The literary techniques used in this poem in regards to weather are imagery, rhyming, and metaphors. This poem doesn't really further my knowledge about weather, because in this poem, weather is being used as description, not as information or scientifically.

Social Studies: Culture and Technology

There have been many advancements in technology over the past thirty years. Each and every one of them has impacted our society in one way or another. The greatest advancement in technology that I believe has extremely impacted our society would be computers. Over the years, they have changed eminently. Thirty years ago, computers were mostly used for just word processing. The computers back then were small and as I would describe them, 'chunky'. Nothing like what we have now, with our flat screen Mac computers and Dells. Now, we use the computer for many more things, such as internet, paint, communication, along with word processing as well. Internet has caused computers to become a huge part of our modern day lives, because it is just another way to communicate, using email and chatting. Computers have changed so much over the years, improving to such an extent, that computers back then look like nothing compared to computers now. Computers really do come in handy nowadays. For example, they are used at almost every workplace. Teachers, doctors, businessmen and women, architects, etc. use computers all the time to get their job done. Without computers, the world would definitely be a mess. Thirty years ago, it wouldn't have mattered much. But now, computers are a major factor of life. Overall, I believe that computers are the one advancement in technology that have made the greatest impact on our society.

Class Response: Cork Popping Lab

In class, we did a very fun experiment using baking soda, vinegar, a cork, and a test tube. You may think, what fun can you have with those items? Well, our goal was to mix a specific measure of both baking soda and vinegar in the test tube, and cause the cork to pop off, and fly far. The further, the better. And if it managed to hit the window, even better. So we used a guess and check method, trying different measurements of both of those ingredients. It was fascinating. I had alot of fun with this lab. In the end, our group managed to make the cork fly 600+ cm. I found this lab very interactive and I liked it alot.

Extra Credit: Science Website

The website I chose is http://www.extremescience.com/

This site does not have any corporate sponsors. It is completely run and paid for by Elizabeth Keller, the creator, author and webmaster of the Extreme Science website. This website is about the various branches of science, A-Z. Extreme Science is the best place to find world records in natural science, including earth science and the plant and animal kingdom. The site tell you who holds the records, and also key science concepts are used to explain the story behind the record. Also, a huge collection of science and technology information and resources are available. Students doing research projects of reports will find this website a big help. The positive aspects of this site are that it gives you information for any science related topic or subject. The negative aspects of the site are that you never know if the given information is true or false, although usually, the information is correct. This site could be used for research projects, research reports, or just plain finding out facts for fun! Yes, I would recommend this site for future use because it has helped me in the past for many projects, and has really interesting information.

How high? Tiger attacks spark wall worries

“I could never imagine that a tiger could so effortlessly leap from the ground on to an adult elephant’s head, which is at least 12 feet above the ground,” Vivek Menon, executive director of Wildlife Trust of India. Recently in India, a rare attack occured. An average tiger managed to jump, sail through the air, and take a shot at a man sitting on an elephant’s back. The man ended up losing three fingers. The tiger was a Siberian tiger, weighing 350 pounds, or 160 kilograms. Zoologists along with many animal experts are completely bewildered at the tiger's leaping ability. “What animals normally do, and what they can do, are often very different things,” says Dale Miquelle, director of Wildlife Conservation Society’s program in Russia. Well all I know, is that zoos and animal conservatories need to now make sure the animals are completely sustained in their cages or indicated areas, to keep people safe. But, I did find this article very informative and interesting.

I found this article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22575549/

Class Response: Density

In class these days, we have been learning about matter, volume, mass, and the density of an object. Matter is anything that has mass and volume (solid, liquid, gas) and can be found almost everywhere. Did you know that light, electricity, and sound are not matter? Mass is the amount of matter in an object. Mass is usually measured in grams, or kilograms. Volume, on the other hand, is the amount of space an object takes up. Volume is usually measured in centimeters-cubed if the object is a solid, or milliliters (mL) if it is a liquid. Density is the measurement of how much mass is contained in a given volume of an object; mass per unit volume. The formula to find the density of an object is mass divided by the volume of the object. In class, we learned to draw a triangle to help us remember the formulas for finding the mass, volume, and density of an object. It is really helpful. Overall, this subject in science is pretty interesting, and I like learning about it.

My sources: Science Class with Treasure =]

Giant rat and tiny possum discovered in Indonesia jungle

As the article states, "Finding new species of mammals in the 21st century is considered very rare." Recently, in Jakarta, Indonesia, a giant rat and a tiny possum was discovered by a team of American and Indonesian scientists. The animals were found in the Foja Mountains rainforest in eastern Papua province. "The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," said Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip." The article also says that the possum was described as "one of the world's smallest marsupials." This discovery made me wonder whether or not there are even more new, exotic species of animals out there in the world. If there are, then our world has so many more magnificent creatures waiting to discover. My opinion on this article is that discovering more new animals is a fantastic thing, and this article really enlightened me.

I found my information at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22290101/