Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010||Stigmas and Stamens
Well, I was up at the elementary school up the hill from the school, and afterwards, I was looking at the azaleas. They show perfectly the stigma (the female part of the flower) and the stamens (the male part of the flower). The stigma catches pollen and transports it to the ovary of the flower, where the seeds grow. The stamens are actually the stems that the anthers are attached to. The anthers create pollen, which is either blown by the wind, transorted by bees, butterflies, and other insects, or by humans. When the pollen reaches the seeds, they become the seeds we know of. When the flower dies, the seed is left, and the cycle begins again!
Friday, May 28th, 2010||RAIN
Bah. I hate the rain. How does it rain anyway? The water cycle! The water in the sea is evaporated by the sun (the salt stays, since it isn't water), and it becomes clouds. When the temperature drops enough, the water vapor turns back into water and falls as rain - or snow or sleet or hail. Hey, did you know that you drink dinosaur pee? Yeah, except it doesn't have any of the other stuff; it's just the liquid, not the impurities.
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010||Worn Touchpad
After two years of use, my touchpad is worn smooth. Why? Friction. With the movement of my finger on the touchpad, atoms are worn away and the surface becomes smooth. The surface of the touchpad is 'weathered,' although not by the elements - by human hand. It's like a pebble in a stream - the constant movement of the water over the stone wears away anthing that protrudes, so that the stone is smooth and round.
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010||Helium Balloons
So why do helium balloons float? Helium is one of the lightest elements. The other is hydrogen. The helium in the balloon is lighter than the air outside the balloon, so it floats. But over time the balloons sink. Why? Because the helium leaks out and drifts away. It happens with all balloons. There are always miniscule holes from which gas can escape.
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010||Gas Giants
Did you know that there are four planets known as the Gas Giants? There are eight planets; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Pluto isn't considered a planet anymore, but anyway, see those four really big planets? Those are the gas giants; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They're made up entirely of gas, rocks, and other miscelaneous stuff. Jupiter is the biggest, and so it's name is very fitting; King of the Gods Zeus, or using the Roman name, Jupiter.
Friday, April 23rd, 2010||Water, Water!
Clouds are made up of water vapor. When the temperature is low enough, the water vapor will condense and fall as rain, or if the temperature drops enough, snow, hail, or sleet. The water cycle is an endless process; you can start anywhere in the cycle. If you drink a glass of water, you're drinking another animal's pee! Think about it; they drink water (which coincidentally is also someone else's pee), they pee, then the sun evaporates the water from the pee, leaving all the chemicals behind, and the water rejoins the cycle!
Thursday, April 15th, 2010||Up The Hill
Yesterday I rode the bus up the hill. The bus went much slower than any of the other cars that went by. I think this is because there were so many more people on the bus, giving it more mass and meaning that the engine had to work much harder to pull up the hill. Once the hill flattened out, we went much faster, and the engine stopped roaring loudly. I think this is because it had less strain now that the road was flat and not extremely steep. Friction, gravity, and mass stopped the bus from traveling fast.
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010||Rainbows!
This weekend, we were out and about when it began to rain. It was also sunny. My sister saw a rainbow - why? The water in the atmosphere causes the light from the sun to bend, much like when you shine light through a prism. The bent light no longer is traveling at the same speed, since the longer the wave, the slower the wave travels. Red, with the longest wavelength, bends the least. Violet, on the other hand, has the shortest wavelength, and bends the most. This is why rainbows can be seen when it rains and is sunny.
On another note, we only see colors because the sun provides us with white light, which, when it hits all the objects on earth, is absorbed and reflected. A red shirt, for example, absorbs the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet light that white light is composed of, and then it reflects only red light. White objects reflect all colors of light, and black objects absorb all colors of light and does not reflect any light.
Friday, April 2nd, 2010||Sick, sick, sick...
Well, this week I had a fever/headache/virus thing. I guess that it is because I didn't get enough sleep, so my body's immune system was weak. However, getting lots of sleep helped my body get healthy again. Why did I get sick? Because my white blood cells couldn't fight off the virus. They got used to fighting them eventually, especially when they didn't need to fight other bacteria from other people, since I was at home.
Friday, March 26th, 2010||Magnetic North
Yesterday at karate, we were practicing using compasses for camp this weekend. The needle floats in a clear liquid, and always points magnetic north-south. Compasses use science, because magnetic forces are what are behind a lot of things in our world, like electromagnetism. If a compass needle were to be exposed to a powerful magnet, however, would it still point north? Or would the magnetic field around the magnet be enough to disrupt the needle's path?
Thursday, March 18th, 2010||Sticky!
Yesterday, I was cutting laminated cards. The extra laminate gathered on the table, and when I went to sweep it off, it stuck to the table and my hand! This is because laminate is plastic, which likes to give away electrons, making them static. They then stick to the things that have more electrons than they do. Sticky, yet not sticky! It also becomes very annoying, since laminate is clear!
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010||Melting!
Today, there was bumpy frost on the glass of the car. When we turned on the car, the frost began to melt, and the bumps melted slower than the rest. These were raindrops that fell overnight that were frozen as raindrops on the car. The sun also melted the frost. The sun is radiating heat, and the car convecting and conducting heat.
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010||E-Lec-Tri-City!
ELECTRICITY! WHEE! Well, today we were messing around with batteries, wires, and lightbulbs. Electricity is actually electrons traveling, and conductors are like their cars, buses, and trains! Insulators are like gorges and cliffs; they stop their movement. A battery has stored up electrons, which move through a wire if you touch the copper wire to the metal end of the battery. Then if you take another wire and attach it to the other end, and add a lightbulb in between, you have a circut! Lightbulbs need both positive and negative energy to light up.
Monday, February 22nd, 2010||Melting
Today, the ground was very frosty in the morning. The football field in particular, was white and frosty. When the sun came up and warmed the earth, it heated the water molecules that made up the frost, and melted them; they became liquid again, and were warmer and moved faster than their icy form. Then they mixed with earth particles and made mud - ew!
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010||Running
Today we did the pacer in PE. Energy transfers in order to let us run; without food, we can't run as fast. Why? The sun gives plants energy, and the plants in turn transfer that energy to animals when they eat the plants. When we eat plants and animals, we take the energy they have stored in their body, and take it for our own. This is the energy that we use when we move. Walking, running, jumping, skipping; these all require energy, and if we don't eat, we can't move as fast or as much.
One of my friends didn't eat breakfast this morning before PE, and she did rather badly compared to her first score. Because she didn't eat, she didn't have quite as much energy to run as the rest of us who ate breakfast.
Monday, February 8th, 2010||Chemical Changes
When I cooked rice for dinner this evening, I noticed that before the rice was cooked, it was hard and dry. After it was cooked, it was soft, fluffy, and moist. Before I turned the rice cooker on, I had to pour in water to make sure that it wouldn't boil down to rice crispies - something a friend did when they cooked rice the first time! Electric energy caused a chemical reaction, and now the rice can't be uncooked, which makes it a chemical change.
Monday, February 1st, 2010||Macaroni and Cheese
This weekend I made macaroni and cheese for dinner, out of a box. I witnessed chemical changes, as well as physical changes. When the pasta cooked in boiling water, the water underwent a physical change and transformed from liquid to gas. The pasta itself underwent a chemical change when it was cooked, because you can't un-cook pasta. When I cut up ham to put into the cheese, it underwent a physical change, because I only cut it up.
Monday, January 25th, 2010||Transformation of Energy
At karate, I was very tired because I'd been to a karate sleepover on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and I realized that because my body hadn't had enough time to recuperate and build up strength from nutrients that I consumed through food, I wasn't very energetic. What little energy I had all went into training, and now I am, shall we put it, drained. I have no more energy, and will need to eat and sleep a bit more than usual to be fully functional. Here's the energy 'food' chain;
Sun provides warmth (energy) to plants.
Plants provide energy to animals (herbivores or omnivores)
Animals provide energy to other animals (omnivores or carnivores)
etc.
*yawn*
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010||Force and Motion
Well, isn't science class the perfect place to find science? Today we were doing our skateparks, and I watched the marble roll around the course, unfortunately skipping the better part of one floor. The marble's inertia took it off the catcher and past the street spine, pyramid, and full pipe and right into the chute to the next floor. Then gravity pulled it down along the chute until it hit the bottom and could travel down no more. We need to figure out a way to control the marble skater's inertia before the end of class on Thursday! OMG! Anyway, I also had an x-ray done at the dentist's office, and that's science too. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but x-rays can see right through your skin, and only the densest things can block it, meaning that bone and stone and metal show up opaque, while the flesh and clothing, hair, etc. become transparent.
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010||Make Some Noise
Several people today were pounding on the table today. The sound energy created by the potential and heat energy of the person moved through the atoms in the air to my eardrum, which vibrated and formed the sound. There were also lots of people talking, which makes more sound energy. The vibrations made in our throats travel through the atoms of the air and reach our eardrums, which vibrate to form the sounds.
Sunday, January 10th, 2010||Plants
Houseplants! Delightful little buggers that require constant care. These are natural scientific factories; they convert energy from the heat of the sun to food for themselves so they can grow. Photosynthesis and other aspects of a plant are what help them survive. We also use a little science when we water them, so that we do not over water them, scientists study how much water they need in their home environment and put them on little labels. Cacti have evolved to adapt to their harsh, water-deprived environment; needles protect them from predators and give out less water than traditional leaves. Deep roots draw water from deep underground, and their fleshy stems store plenty of water.
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009||Scientific Cars
Little do I think that cars are science, but once I think about it, they are. Without the knowledge of how things work, and how to use fossil fuels to power cars and other vehicles, cars would not exist. Even now, they are designing a car that can be powered solely by electricity. What a great way to stop polluting the earth, and stop using up the fossil fuels! But what if nobody but the richest people could afford one? That would still really be a waste, for the majority of the population cannot afford an expensive car, and the rich are only but a minority. It is a matter of allowing most people to purchase or obtain an electric-powered car to cut down the pollution that we are producing. What will happen now?
Thursday, December 9th, 2009||Frosted Windows
Today, when I went out to go to the dentist's, our car had slivers of ice stuck to the windows and top. Since the temperature had dropped during the night, all the moisture in the air, however little it was, froze and became solid. It stuck to whatever surface was convenient; the roof, the grass, the front of the car, the tops of the mirrors, and the ivy out front. The water molecules in the air lost so much energy that they changed from gas into solid overnight, forming pretty crystals that also stuck tight to the window, blocking our view. I had to scrape off the ice from the window. It was quite hard, probably because it was only 16°F outside.
Well, I was up at the elementary school up the hill from the school, and afterwards, I was looking at the azaleas. They show perfectly the stigma (the female part of the flower) and the stamens (the male part of the flower). The stigma catches pollen and transports it to the ovary of the flower, where the seeds grow. The stamens are actually the stems that the anthers are attached to. The anthers create pollen, which is either blown by the wind, transorted by bees, butterflies, and other insects, or by humans. When the pollen reaches the seeds, they become the seeds we know of. When the flower dies, the seed is left, and the cycle begins again!
Friday, May 28th, 2010||RAIN
Bah. I hate the rain. How does it rain anyway? The water cycle! The water in the sea is evaporated by the sun (the salt stays, since it isn't water), and it becomes clouds. When the temperature drops enough, the water vapor turns back into water and falls as rain - or snow or sleet or hail. Hey, did you know that you drink dinosaur pee? Yeah, except it doesn't have any of the other stuff; it's just the liquid, not the impurities.
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010||Worn Touchpad
After two years of use, my touchpad is worn smooth. Why? Friction. With the movement of my finger on the touchpad, atoms are worn away and the surface becomes smooth. The surface of the touchpad is 'weathered,' although not by the elements - by human hand. It's like a pebble in a stream - the constant movement of the water over the stone wears away anthing that protrudes, so that the stone is smooth and round.
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010||Helium Balloons
So why do helium balloons float? Helium is one of the lightest elements. The other is hydrogen. The helium in the balloon is lighter than the air outside the balloon, so it floats. But over time the balloons sink. Why? Because the helium leaks out and drifts away. It happens with all balloons. There are always miniscule holes from which gas can escape.
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010||Gas Giants
Did you know that there are four planets known as the Gas Giants? There are eight planets; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
http://www.ducksters.com/science/solarsystem.php
Pluto isn't considered a planet anymore, but anyway, see those four really big planets? Those are the gas giants; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They're made up entirely of gas, rocks, and other miscelaneous stuff. Jupiter is the biggest, and so it's name is very fitting; King of the Gods Zeus, or using the Roman name, Jupiter.
Friday, April 23rd, 2010||Water, Water!
Clouds are made up of water vapor. When the temperature is low enough, the water vapor will condense and fall as rain, or if the temperature drops enough, snow, hail, or sleet. The water cycle is an endless process; you can start anywhere in the cycle. If you drink a glass of water, you're drinking another animal's pee! Think about it; they drink water (which coincidentally is also someone else's pee), they pee, then the sun evaporates the water from the pee, leaving all the chemicals behind, and the water rejoins the cycle!
Thursday, April 15th, 2010||Up The Hill
Yesterday I rode the bus up the hill. The bus went much slower than any of the other cars that went by. I think this is because there were so many more people on the bus, giving it more mass and meaning that the engine had to work much harder to pull up the hill. Once the hill flattened out, we went much faster, and the engine stopped roaring loudly. I think this is because it had less strain now that the road was flat and not extremely steep. Friction, gravity, and mass stopped the bus from traveling fast.
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010||Rainbows!
This weekend, we were out and about when it began to rain. It was also sunny. My sister saw a rainbow - why? The water in the atmosphere causes the light from the sun to bend, much like when you shine light through a prism. The bent light no longer is traveling at the same speed, since the longer the wave, the slower the wave travels. Red, with the longest wavelength, bends the least. Violet, on the other hand, has the shortest wavelength, and bends the most. This is why rainbows can be seen when it rains and is sunny.
On another note, we only see colors because the sun provides us with white light, which, when it hits all the objects on earth, is absorbed and reflected. A red shirt, for example, absorbs the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet light that white light is composed of, and then it reflects only red light. White objects reflect all colors of light, and black objects absorb all colors of light and does not reflect any light.
Friday, April 2nd, 2010||Sick, sick, sick...
Well, this week I had a fever/headache/virus thing. I guess that it is because I didn't get enough sleep, so my body's immune system was weak. However, getting lots of sleep helped my body get healthy again. Why did I get sick? Because my white blood cells couldn't fight off the virus. They got used to fighting them eventually, especially when they didn't need to fight other bacteria from other people, since I was at home.
Friday, March 26th, 2010||Magnetic North
Yesterday at karate, we were practicing using compasses for camp this weekend. The needle floats in a clear liquid, and always points magnetic north-south. Compasses use science, because magnetic forces are what are behind a lot of things in our world, like electromagnetism. If a compass needle were to be exposed to a powerful magnet, however, would it still point north? Or would the magnetic field around the magnet be enough to disrupt the needle's path?
Thursday, March 18th, 2010||Sticky!
Yesterday, I was cutting laminated cards. The extra laminate gathered on the table, and when I went to sweep it off, it stuck to the table and my hand! This is because laminate is plastic, which likes to give away electrons, making them static. They then stick to the things that have more electrons than they do. Sticky, yet not sticky! It also becomes very annoying, since laminate is clear!
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010||Melting!
Today, there was bumpy frost on the glass of the car. When we turned on the car, the frost began to melt, and the bumps melted slower than the rest. These were raindrops that fell overnight that were frozen as raindrops on the car. The sun also melted the frost. The sun is radiating heat, and the car convecting and conducting heat.
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010||E-Lec-Tri-City!
ELECTRICITY! WHEE! Well, today we were messing around with batteries, wires, and lightbulbs. Electricity is actually electrons traveling, and conductors are like their cars, buses, and trains! Insulators are like gorges and cliffs; they stop their movement. A battery has stored up electrons, which move through a wire if you touch the copper wire to the metal end of the battery. Then if you take another wire and attach it to the other end, and add a lightbulb in between, you have a circut! Lightbulbs need both positive and negative energy to light up.
Monday, February 22nd, 2010||Melting
Today, the ground was very frosty in the morning. The football field in particular, was white and frosty. When the sun came up and warmed the earth, it heated the water molecules that made up the frost, and melted them; they became liquid again, and were warmer and moved faster than their icy form. Then they mixed with earth particles and made mud - ew!
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010||Running
Today we did the pacer in PE. Energy transfers in order to let us run; without food, we can't run as fast. Why? The sun gives plants energy, and the plants in turn transfer that energy to animals when they eat the plants. When we eat plants and animals, we take the energy they have stored in their body, and take it for our own. This is the energy that we use when we move. Walking, running, jumping, skipping; these all require energy, and if we don't eat, we can't move as fast or as much.
One of my friends didn't eat breakfast this morning before PE, and she did rather badly compared to her first score. Because she didn't eat, she didn't have quite as much energy to run as the rest of us who ate breakfast.
Monday, February 8th, 2010||Chemical Changes
When I cooked rice for dinner this evening, I noticed that before the rice was cooked, it was hard and dry. After it was cooked, it was soft, fluffy, and moist. Before I turned the rice cooker on, I had to pour in water to make sure that it wouldn't boil down to rice crispies - something a friend did when they cooked rice the first time! Electric energy caused a chemical reaction, and now the rice can't be uncooked, which makes it a chemical change.
Monday, February 1st, 2010||Macaroni and Cheese
This weekend I made macaroni and cheese for dinner, out of a box. I witnessed chemical changes, as well as physical changes. When the pasta cooked in boiling water, the water underwent a physical change and transformed from liquid to gas. The pasta itself underwent a chemical change when it was cooked, because you can't un-cook pasta. When I cut up ham to put into the cheese, it underwent a physical change, because I only cut it up.
Monday, January 25th, 2010||Transformation of Energy
At karate, I was very tired because I'd been to a karate sleepover on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and I realized that because my body hadn't had enough time to recuperate and build up strength from nutrients that I consumed through food, I wasn't very energetic. What little energy I had all went into training, and now I am, shall we put it, drained. I have no more energy, and will need to eat and sleep a bit more than usual to be fully functional. Here's the energy 'food' chain;
Sun provides warmth (energy) to plants.
Plants provide energy to animals (herbivores or omnivores)
Animals provide energy to other animals (omnivores or carnivores)
etc.
*yawn*
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010||Force and Motion
Well, isn't science class the perfect place to find science? Today we were doing our skateparks, and I watched the marble roll around the course, unfortunately skipping the better part of one floor. The marble's inertia took it off the catcher and past the street spine, pyramid, and full pipe and right into the chute to the next floor. Then gravity pulled it down along the chute until it hit the bottom and could travel down no more. We need to figure out a way to control the marble skater's inertia before the end of class on Thursday! OMG! Anyway, I also had an x-ray done at the dentist's office, and that's science too. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but x-rays can see right through your skin, and only the densest things can block it, meaning that bone and stone and metal show up opaque, while the flesh and clothing, hair, etc. become transparent.
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010||Make Some Noise
Several people today were pounding on the table today. The sound energy created by the potential and heat energy of the person moved through the atoms in the air to my eardrum, which vibrated and formed the sound. There were also lots of people talking, which makes more sound energy. The vibrations made in our throats travel through the atoms of the air and reach our eardrums, which vibrate to form the sounds.
Sunday, January 10th, 2010||Plants
Houseplants! Delightful little buggers that require constant care. These are natural scientific factories; they convert energy from the heat of the sun to food for themselves so they can grow. Photosynthesis and other aspects of a plant are what help them survive. We also use a little science when we water them, so that we do not over water them, scientists study how much water they need in their home environment and put them on little labels. Cacti have evolved to adapt to their harsh, water-deprived environment; needles protect them from predators and give out less water than traditional leaves. Deep roots draw water from deep underground, and their fleshy stems store plenty of water.
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009||Scientific Cars
Little do I think that cars are science, but once I think about it, they are. Without the knowledge of how things work, and how to use fossil fuels to power cars and other vehicles, cars would not exist. Even now, they are designing a car that can be powered solely by electricity. What a great way to stop polluting the earth, and stop using up the fossil fuels! But what if nobody but the richest people could afford one? That would still really be a waste, for the majority of the population cannot afford an expensive car, and the rich are only but a minority. It is a matter of allowing most people to purchase or obtain an electric-powered car to cut down the pollution that we are producing. What will happen now?
Thursday, December 9th, 2009||Frosted Windows
Today, when I went out to go to the dentist's, our car had slivers of ice stuck to the windows and top. Since the temperature had dropped during the night, all the moisture in the air, however little it was, froze and became solid. It stuck to whatever surface was convenient; the roof, the grass, the front of the car, the tops of the mirrors, and the ivy out front. The water molecules in the air lost so much energy that they changed from gas into solid overnight, forming pretty crystals that also stuck tight to the window, blocking our view. I had to scrape off the ice from the window. It was quite hard, probably because it was only 16°F outside.