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