Science at Bangor & in the News
Science 9 started off the week talking about natural resources and the environment. Since fracking is something that is being currently debated in Michigan, we led off with an article about it. The students then chose resources that they were interested in and got into groups. This week the groups researched what types of energy their resource(s) represented, pros and cons of using the resource(s), and the environmental impacts from using the resource(s). Student presentations will be next week, and I am looking forward to learning from the expertise the students gained this week.
This week in chemistry we talked about entropy (disorder), energy, and spontaneous reactions. If your student claims that they can't clean their room because it violates the second law of thermodynamics, just tell them that they need to expend the energy needed to clean & everything will still obey the laws of thermodynamics. In case you were wondering, the second law of thermodynamics says that entropy, or disorder, always increases. The students had some great analogies of high entropy (Mr. Ward's desk) and low entropy (neatly organized desk) in their lives. The second part of the week was spent calculating free energy in reactions. I think today was probably a bit overwhelming since we ran through the calculation starting from data tables, but I know that as we practice solving those types of problems that the process will get easier and less confusing. Next week the juniors take the ACT. Juniors-make sure you are getting plenty of sleep, eating healthy food, and taking some time to relax. Breathe deep, don't panic...you're going to rock it! While the juniors are taking their tests, the seniors will spend Tuesday and Wednesday reviewing what we have done this semester and going over anything from last semester that still needs some polishing.
0 Comments
After a short week of classes, we made it to a well-deserved midwinter break. In chemistry, we focused on calculating energy changes in a reaction using Hess's law. We got of to a bit of a rocky start at the end of last week, but we battled through the confusion. Tuesday seemed like a light bulb day for many students. I was very impressed with the students' determination in trying to understand how to do the calculations. I spent a good amount of time with students during Academic Wednesday & after school on Monday & Tuesday working through the process in addition to time in class. In order to keep the momentum moving forward over the long weekend, I distributed a problem set on Wednesday. The set is extra credit (up to 10 points) & will be collected on Tuesday.
In Science 9 we wrapped up the rock cycle by presenting the group projects and doing a lab on Wednesday. I was very pleased with the quality of each group's presentation. The students really became experts on their component of the rock cycle and asked great questions of the other groups. We ended with a great discussion where the students were working to understand the differences between igneous and metamorphic rock. We compared & contrasted how the rock types are formed so that we could learn what makes each type unique. This was further enhanced by our lab activity on Wednesday. We used crayons, graters, books, clamps, & heated water to simulate the rock cycle. In addition to being a fun activity, I think it really helped the students understand what makes each rock type different & similar to the others. I'd also like to say a huge thank you to all of the parents & guardians I met with at conferences. I know the roads were horrible, and I appreciate that you were able to brave the weather to come in to school. I enjoyed getting to meet you and hope to continue working with you throughout the rest of the semester to make sure that each student is learning to his or her full potential. If you like to ski or snowboard, you've probably heard of the mountains using artificial snow when there is a lack of fresh powder. One key ingredient in the artificial snow is a purified protein from the bacterium Pseudomonas syringae. The protein provides a seed for water to crystallize around so that the snow makers make snow instead of spewing out cold water. Scientists discovered the protein about 40 years ago when studying how P. syringae causes disease in plants. They developed a method to purify & sterilize the protein to make artificial snow.
Scientists have also found this bacterium, and numerous others, in the center of hail stones, and in snow. Scientists think that the bacteria, fungi, & other microorganisms (microbes) get sucked up into the clouds during thunderstorms & then the bacteria can act to make an ice seed in the clouds. Since all rain starts as ice in clouds, scientists hypothesize that the more microbes that get sucked up into the clouds, the more intense future precipitation from the clouds will be. This is a pretty new hypothesis and scientists are just beginning to really study the idea. I think with all of the new DNA sequencing technologies that let us look at the make up of microbial populations, we could begin to see if (or how) microbes influence weather patterns. It should be interesting to see what comes of this hypothesis! Interested? Read the article from the New York Times. This week we wrapped up chapters 14-16 in chemistry and started in on kinetics and thermodynamics. Needless to say, we have been pretty busy. I'm guessing that heads are spinning, but I know as we get some more practice thinking about energy and working the problems that things will become more clear. I hope everyone can hang in there with me as we move through the confusion.
Monday was my first day taking over Science 9. We wrapped up a unit on minerals and started learning about the rock cycle. Currently, the students are working in groups to present the different components of the rock cycle, what feeds into each component, what happens to each component, and the environmental factors responsible for changing rock types. The groups have been working really hard for the past 2 days on research, and I am really excited to see the presentations on Tuesday. Wednesday will be a fun day for all of us-- we will be using crayons to model the rock cycle. Last week felt a little crazy for me in chemistry. Between the snow day, assembly, and Winterfest Spirit Week, I found myself feeling scrambled. We spent the week learning about solutions and how to measure concentration. This unit lent itself to many food analogies and examples, so I also ended up spending a lot of class being hungry! The end of the week came fast & furious, resulting in a test delay. Our test on chapters 14-16 will be on Wednesday, February 11. These chapters cover onion diagrams & effective nuclear charge (ENC) calculations, trends in the periodic table, chemical bonding, Lewis diagrams, VSEPR structures, solutions, and freezing point depression/boiling point elevation.
I enjoyed being at the school for the entirety of Spirit Week this time around. Due to my class schedule last semester, I had to miss part of the Homecoming Spirit Week. I had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for participating in the dress-up days & of course enjoyed my Saturday rolling in glitter with Ms. Van Dop. If you missed the BHVTV segment on our escapade, here is a link: http://vimeo.com/118708352 . In science news outside of the classroom, scientists at University of California-Irvine discovered a way to un-boil an egg. The scientists first cooked the egg, which makes the proteins in the egg whites unfold, or denature, and form clumps. Then they developed a process to untangle the proteins. If you're wondering why scientists would want to do this, there are many reasons: 1. Many diseases are caused by important proteins getting misfolded, so the scientists hope that they can adapt the method to unfold the proteins that don't fold properly & re-fold them to the correct shape so that the patient can be cured. 2. Some drug treatments, especially for cancer, involve proteins that have to be folded completely correctly. Currently those proteins are produced using a very expensive method, but being able to unfold & refold proteins would allow the drugs to be produced in a cheaper way. Producing the drugs for less money would make the drugs cheaper for patients to buy. 3. Various food industries could adapt the method to make tastier foods or make foods cheaper to produce. If you want to know more, check out the article here. Last week we spent our time working on Lewis dot structures and VSEPR models. I still struggle with these two ideas, so I was very impressed with how well everyone picked up on these ideas. I'm also glad I didn't get an eraser or dry erase marker chucked at me when we were working on some of the more difficult structures and frustration was setting in (thanks, everyone!). Even with the snow day, we were able to wrap-up chapter 15 on Friday. We are moving into solutions this week, which will wrap up the material for the first test of the semester. I anticipate that we will have the test on chapters 14-16 on Monday 2/9. If anyone is having troubles on these chapters (onion diagrams, ENC calculation, trends on the periodic table, hybrid orbitals, Lewis dot structures, VSEPR models), please come see me or Mr. Ward before or after school, or email me: [email protected] . I sit in the cafeteria after school, so stop by and ask a question!
|
Ms. Lyons
Science is amazing, check it out! Archives
May 2016
Categories |