Plasticity Lab

Hey there folks, Bigdog here with a fun lab on the topic of Plasticity. Now, some of you may think that the labs I blog about are a little too "Bill Nye the science Guy", but this lab is totally different. This lab shows a hidden trait in the earths mantle called "Plasticity." Now, for this experiment our supplies contained water, food coloring, and cornstarch. This concoction mixed together makes a colorful liquid/solid mix. Now, you get to touch it and feel it but what you really need to realize is that when you add heat and pressure to this mixture, it becomes a solid. Then, when you let up it becomes a liquid. So, this is just like the plasticity in the mantle of our earth's crust.

October Sky Response Blog

Hey kids. Bigdog here with a movie review on the movie October Sky. Of course what would this be without educational fun facts and reasoning. To summarize this movie, it takes place in a town called Coalwood, West Virginia. Now, the main character Homer is trying to find his way in the world. His brother is a hotshot football player, his mom has a loving support group, and his Dad is the leader of the Coal workers, which is the main export in their town. Many people revere Homer's dad, and many people in Coalwood end up going into coal when they grow up. Many Coal mines back in that time frame had their own communities and own money. But, coal was a very important asset to the United States and to many people their lives revolved around it. Anyway, Homer doesn't have anything to himself. Then at the same moment in time, the Russians have launched Sputnik into outer space as the first successful satellite. And every, October it flies over the night sky where Homer lives. So, when Homer saw it he became mesmerized, and the next day wanted to build a rocket. So he and his friends tried to make one but failed numerous amounts of times. They then friended the "class nerd" Quentin and got help from the school science teacher that had faith in them to go to college with their experiment. Now, if you're wondering how they can go to college I will tell you. Every year even today, their is a national science fair held in Indianapolis, and the winners can get into any college they want. before I get to what happened their, I forgot to tell you that when they were starting to get good a shooting rockets, they were accused of starting a fire in a town called Welch from a rocket shooting. Now, for a long half-of-a-year they didn't do any rocket shooting, but then Homer breaks out a book her teacher gave her on rocket angles and trajectory. They then found out that it wasn't their rocket, but a flare from a plane. They then won the regional science fair and the national science fair. All boys the went to college and Homer got a job at N.A.S.A. Sadly, Homer's father died of black lung disease, not from smoking, but from being in the coal mines too long. The teacher also died of Hodgekins disease. As you can see, there were many science and math connections to this movie.
Lastly, I thought that I should connect this movie yo some of our character Ed traits. So, the boys showed much cooperation with each other when they had to keep building rockets, even if they failed. Homer showed much assertion when he sood up to his Dad when he told him he didn't want to be a coal miner. Many people throughout the town had much respect for Homer's father for being head coal miner. The boys showed much empathy for their teacher when she said she was diagnosed with Hodekins disease. Lastly, Homer showed much self-control when his rockets kept on failing and blowing up. As you can see, many character traits existed throughout the movie October Sky.

Response to MetFan20's blog

When I, Bigdog, paid a visit to my good friend Metfan20 and I read a blog that he posted about Cri-du-chat Syndrome. This article gave such impeccable information on this genetic disorder, and it gave me such an emotional feeling. It made me feel sympathetic for those that have this disorder and it made me wonder what life must be like for these people. It also made me feel lucky that I was not born with this disorder. I now feel like it is my mission to do something about it, to help these children.

Genetic Disorders: Cystic Fibrosis

Hi. Bigdog here with some not so pleasant news. I recently learned and did multiple sessions of research on the genetic disorder Cystic Fibrosis. Cystic Fibrosis was first discovered in the 1950’s when it was reported inside of two students in school. Although the symptoms make themselves pretty clear. Symptoms of Cystic Fibrosis include persistent coughing at times with phlegm. Frequent lung infections, wheezing or shortness of breath, poor growth and weight gain in spite of good appetite. Sadly, Cystic Fibrosis gets even worse from there. Some complications of CF include that it clogs the lungs and leads to life threatening lung infections. It also obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down and absorb food. All in all death is a major complication. In fact, the average and median life span for people living with Cystic Fibrosis is 37 years old! That's not even that old! Even worse, is that there is no cure, currently, for living with Cystic Fibrosis. But, there are numerous treatments that a patient must go through. Most citizens living with CF must maintain regular treatments that help their lungs function. They must perform many cough exercises. They also have to attend many therapies. Sadly, even with the numerous number of treatments the mortality of this disorder is 37 years old. It also kills 30,000 people in the U.S. every year, and 70,000 worldwide. It targets mostly Caucasians and is caused by defective proteins and clogged enzymes in the lungs. All in all, Cystic Fibrosis is a terrible disorder that will make you think differently about life.

The coolest roller coaster ever built is.....

Xy Turtle Blazer, and for those of you that guessed King Da Ka, you're all wrong. You see, in science class we made rollercoasters out of home materials(paper towel rolls, shoe boxes, plastic bottles, wrapping paper rolls, etc.). Anyway, how does this connect to science? Well, it actually relates to frictions, forces and Newton's laws. You see, Newton's first law states that an objectat rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion at a constant velocity unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. So, the marble is still at the beginning, but then when we push it it will start to roll and will remain at a constant velocity until it goes down a hill to gain greater speed. Newton's second law states that Force=Mass x Acceleration. So, for the weight of the marble to go faster our rollercoaster will need to give the marble a greater force to act upon, for example maybe a really steep hill. Finally, Newton's last law states that for every action there is and opposite action. So, there isn't much in this project, but when I push the marble my hand goes back one way while the marble goes forward. So, this is a really fun,hand's on learning project that maybe you should ask your teacher about. Until next time, this is Bigdog, and stay in school!!

International News: Tailand

On the day of February 20, 2009 an Austrailian author was released from jail. Now, before we get into the fun detail letme tell youa little bit about Tailand. Tailand is a big country located near the south of China. It is a communism with a prime minister/dictator. Now, recently many of Tailand's citizens have been peacefully protesting for a general vote. Anyway, about the author. In 2005, Harry Nicolaides, an Austrailian author was finally released from prison. What was weird is that he's an Austrailian guy, and he wrote the book in 2005. Anyway, the book he wrote was called "Verismilitude." Obviously in this book it talked about Tailand and madevery crass statements about the KIng and to be crowned prince. WEll, I guess that shows that there is no freedom of speech in Tailand. I'm just glad they letthe author out. I really think it's quite crazy. Well, until next time see ya later.

XY Turtle Blazer

Footbal and Friction:The 2 F's

Football and friction are the two F's and for those of you wondering, no this is not boring. So I recently learned that the highly favored game of football is related to science in many ways. But, the main thing that really interested me is how much friction plays a roll in throwing the football. Personally, I don't like it when they run the football. I actually find it quite dull. But, when they throw the football it is so exciting!!!! Now what's interesting about friction is that if it wasn't around in the air, also known as fluid friction, that ball would just keep going. So there would never be any touchdowns. But the friction pushes the thrown ball down so the wide reciever can catch it. So that is the interesting thing I learned. And soon, baseball will be here!!!!!!!!!!

An earthquake in New Jersey??????

On Monday February 2, 2009 an earthquake hit the town of Denville, New Jersey. Thankfully it was a very small earthquake, seeing it only got a 3.0 on the Richter scale. Scientist, Won-Young Kim, says that this earthquake couldn't and didn't injure anyone, but it does show us that we can even have earthquakes up here in New Jersey and that we should be more prepared for an event like this. One of the local residents was so shocked that he didn't even belive an earthquake had happend. Instead he had thought a tree fell on his neighbors car and blew up. Well, this should all teach us to be more prepared for natural disasters.

Cite:
http://www.news12.com/NJ/article?id=225148

Barack Obama: The 44th President of the U.S.A

"This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed--why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificentmall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath."-Barack Obama

In this article this line means so many things in such little words. These words came out of the mouth of the newly inaugurated president Barack Obama. It's so amazing to think that only a while ago we would drink from seperate watering fountains or eat at different restaurants because we thought that because someone looked different that there must be something wrong with them. It's amazing that only a while ago we would hose these people down because they were protesting for their rights as AMERICAN CITIZENS!!! It is amazing to see that even though the Emancipation Proclimation was written in the 1800's today, yes even today, there are still much hatred, and deep feelings toward each other and different races. But, after looking at all that it is amazing to see that we finally have an African-American president. It is really fun to think that when you have kids and grandkids that they'll be asking you about what happened on that day. The day when one American made history as the first African-American president. And when I answer I will say that when he finished those last words it felt as if the whole country forgot about hate, war, what's mine and what's his and that there was a feeling of brotherhood and love. I hope that this feeling will carry on forever even after President Obama leaves office. In another article they quoted Obama saying.."For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across the vast ocean in search of a new life. For us they worked in sweatshops and setteled in the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe San."- Barack Obama
Yet another powerfule quote, in fact the writer of the article said it was "...one of Obama's best moments in a speech that was as workman like as it was soaring;.."And for the next generation we have led them into an age where they never again have to questionwhy all the president's have the same skin or how come none of them look different. For at the bottom of every poster in a social studies class will be the picture of the 44th president of the U.S.A: Barack Obama. Congratulations Mr.President

For those of you wanting to read these two articles, I got them off of
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2009/01/obamas_inauguration_speech_fir.html

Flying Cars: Soaring into our world

For those of you that read the titles of peoples articles, my answer is "Yes" that this is about flying cars. It is truly amazing that after many years of dreaming about being able to fly from the comfort of your own car. Well, finally in 2010 that dream is going to become reality when flying cars will be put out on the market. However, these fine pieces of soon to be machinery are not cheap. You will be able to buy one for the price of $194,000. So, it's about the size of a small house. But, this year a Boston-area company is planning to begin flight tests of a two-seater airplane that moonlights as a car. This aptly named Transition takes a chance at bridging the gap between automobiles and airplanes. Even right now as we speak, Terrafugia, a group founded in 2006 in MIT, has taken deposits for more than 40 Transitions, and plan to make deliveries in 2010. One other thing this "roadable aircraft" is good for is that it will also create an easing of government regulations on private aircraft and pilot licensing. So who knows? Maybe someday, all car companies will be changed to flying car companies. but, until then we'll still have to keep dreaming.

When boy mosquitoes and girl mosquitoes really love each other... they buzz their wings?

Something wierd odd and great has come upon the researchers at Cornell University. They have discovered that Aedes aegypti misquitoes-the ones that spread diseases like yellow and dengue fever- alter their wing vibrations in a mating signal. So for those of you that are still reading this, if you weren't too grossed out by the title are probably wondering what good comes from knowing this and how does it benefit us? According to Ronald R. Hoy, an authorof the report, the good news is that we may be able to control mosquitoes better.For example, releasing sterile male mosquitoes is one way to reduce reproduction. Observing their mating signals could also provide a wayto determine if the sterile males can carry out courtship with females. So, as you can see much good can come out of just a small little detail. And if you're not into science you can still go into school tomarrow and see if your science teacher knows if mosquitoes buzz their wings when they mate. If they don't you can let them know everyday of the school year until june. This is Bigdog and thanks for reading. Igot all my information off of:
http://www.msnbc.com/id/28562468/