Magic Show Tricks

         On the 14.11.10 the 6B science class had a magic show. Me and my partner,(Abby) preformed two tricks. One tricks was called the candle blow-off and the second one, we called, the scared pepper. For the first magic trick, we needed; candles, vinegar, baking soda, a jar, two plates and a lighter to light up the candles. We preformed this experiment on the left side of the table. We had the jar ready, the candles on the plates and the baking soda just next to us.First, we poured some vinegar into the jar and then some baking soda, when we did this, we had to place our hand gently on the openings so the carbon dioxide wouldn't come out since in the jar, both chemicals were "fighting against each other to get out." When we counted up to ten, we took our hands off and started getting closer to the candles until they eventually went off and no liquid came out. The kids that were watching were very amazed. So after all, the candles went off because all the carbon dioxide(gas) came out of the opening forcing the heat to get smaller and disappear. We practiced this experiment about 3 times before we performed it, but on two candles it didn't work for the last time we did it. But however, the kids still enjoyed it because they got to blow the candles. When we did this experiment, I think we did pretty well entertaining the kids because we would make them do everything with us, we would ask them questions, make them smell some things, make them guess some substances and so on. The candle blow-off experiment was successful.

       Our second magic trick, was to do with simply; water,pepper and soap. But before we could show the kids anything, in a separate big bowl we had to get some clean water with soap and towels so when they touch the pepper it wouldn't hurt them. What we did in this experiment, was that we had 4 bowls with fresh water on the front of the table, and 1 for me right next to me and my partner. We would pour some pepper into the first bowl and make he kids put their finger in to see if something would happen, and then we would ask them what they thought was the yellow liquid. Some kids though: lemon juice, olive oil or liquid from the sun! Well, then we put some soap on their fingers and they put their fingers in one at a time, and saw what happened. The disadvantage in this experiment though, was that we had to refill the jars with fresh water because we only had 4 and because some times it didn't work because there already was water, that took up a lot of time. But how ever, also here, we entertained the kids by showing them what would happen and why, and if they like pepper and stuff that was included.

   Some of the kids were very enthusiastic for example, some would look at us with a smile and always answer, or tell us some really cool stories. Some would enjoy just listening to us and doing the job their selves. On the other hand, some looked very bored, they would just nod with their head sometimes and just look away when they didn't feel like listening anymore. Either ways, all of them were very kind and tried their best to listen...

  If we should ever have this magic show again, I think we could preform one by one, so that everyone sees every ones.  I really though it was well-done however. Big thanx to Mrs.Medenica that organized this for us.

GAS

   In class, we were looking at different types of solid liquids or gases, and how energy(taking or adding heat) affects them. I specifically looked at Neon,Argon,Oxygen and Water. Water, as we all know is a liquid. Oxygen, is a gas(also something we breathe.) As I observed all different changes, I found similarities and some differences.

    When I tested the Neon, I first added heat and the particles went from together to spreading out and started moving. The movement was very different from the others, because the molecules started vibrating and then the edges started to flow off and suddenly everything.When I subcontracted heat, it looked as if the particles started joining and finally at 0 degrees it froze. Next was the Argon, when I added heat, the molecules moved much faster than in the Neon. Also, when I tested this one, first just some of the particles came of and the others traveled together but finally they went apart. On the other side, when I cooled the Argon, all the particles came together but slowly and formed a shape that again, froze at 0 degrees. Next, was the Oxygen. When I heated that, it took a longer while then others to let go of each other, but then they started moving really fays. ( The particles)When I cooled it, they would wiggle and as the others, stop. Last, was the Water. When water gets heated, it lets the particles go and they move around like crazy, really fast. Finally, by cooling water, the molecules get close and stop wiggling, this makes fro example ice.

After all, all the substance, froze when they were cooling at one point and all of them had free particles while they were heated. So, no matter if it is a solid, liquid or gas, they can be similar and help us learn.

Don't think it is over yet, we had a second part  to the experiment. In the second part, the bowl we worked with, had a thermometer, a finger holding down a lid, and a pump where you could add more molecules. I worked with the same substances. For Neon, I did a simple way, I didn't really work with the finger and the adder but I made the temperature be about 60 degrees and then I pushed the lid down, and the pressure was about 150. After, the lid blew up.When I cooled the Neon, I could push the lid as much as I wanted until I reached the substance and then eventually it blew up. When I tried this with Argon, i went to about 119 degrees and I could push the lid about 1/5 more than half.  Then, I made the temperature be 0degrees and I added about 31 particles and the temperature became about 8. In all of them though, when I started pushing, the particles started moving faster like they were in a hurry. Before last, I tried it out with Oxygen. The temperature was about 160 and the lid was able to go down about 1/5 of the cup. For the cold part, I added 5 pumps, and they molecules joined, they touched and then I touched it with the lid and finally BOM! Last, Water. my high temperature I choose was 392 degrees and I added about 3 pumps with particles. The water was the most resistant to the pressure. When I pushed the lid down. the particles went up and down until they went sailing up and the lid came off. For the cooling, my temperature was 0 degrees and I added 6 pumps of particles. It blew up when I touched it and so on....
So, now we are here, the end, I learned that pressure and gas can be pretty similar but have different potentials!

If you are interested, you can go visit:
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/states-of-matter

Night of the Living Ants

                                                                                                       Written:May,13,2009
     
Scientists from California,America, were investigating about animals and their daily life. They came across ants and found out that ants bury other ants that are dead. Also, that within one hour, the dead ants are taken away from the nest. Now scientists were asking them selves, how do ants know if the other ant is dead or not? It was one of the most interesting topics they had ever done. Dong-Hwan Choe, a biologist, lead the study.He studies about living things in the University of California, Riverside. The first thing he found out was that Argentine ants have a chemical on their bodies telling the other ants- "I'm dead." All the ants include this chemical. Some citizens think that the ants are like zombies since they can crawl around even if they are dead.  How do the ants know if the other is only unconscious or is actually dead?(Was the next question the scientist came across) Well, Choe found out that ants posses a chemical telling- "Wait-I'm not dead yet." That's how ants are sure if they are alive. If an ant is unconscious, they leave it until it wakes up and don't move it. Choe also predicts that once an ant dies, the chemical saying:  "I'm not dead yet" disappears.  To see if he was right, he tested it on the ants and yes it was true. The other thing that scientist discovered was that ants are pretty much like humans because once someone dies, we bury him and so do the ants in a way. After all, the purpose of the study, was to learn more about animals life and the cycle of ants.

As I read the article, the facts didn't really connect to what we are studying now in class, and even though  the article was posted in 2009, I though it would be a cool discovery to post and make others read about. I choose to read about this article because now, I found out that we as humans, are very much like ants which is amazing since they are animals. Also, as I was reading, I though that the article was very interesting because it had a lot of supporting details and gave me a clear mind of what is going on in an ants world. I never really enjoyed learning about ants because I think they can be disgusting, but reading about this, opened a new window in my mind. I am pretty sure that this article came from a reliable site because all my other current events are also from that site and it is made for kids. So, if I should recommend this article to any one, I would recommend it to all the animal lovers that are interested in learning about a life cycle and all adventures that an ants goes through.   

Word:
                        

Hypothesis: A tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem that can be tested by further investigation.

Chemical: A substance with a distinct molecular composition that is produced by or used in a chemical process.

Site:

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20090513/Note2.asp

                                                      

The Nerve Of One Animal

     On the 24th of November, I read an article about Tasmanian Devils and what is happening to them. I was pretty surprised when I found out that they could be extinct in about 30 years. The article was written very well and helped me understand something I never knew.

   

     Tasmanian Devils have a hard time surviving cancer. 70 % of them have already died of which 30% didn't catch cancer. Scientist predict that they might be extinct in the wild in about 30-50 years. Scientist Elizabeth Murchinson, led the study of how to save them. She comes from Tasmania, Australia, and she has been amused by the beauty of the creatures. That is the only place in the world you can find them now. Those mini bears, weigh up to 26 pounds and eat a dead animal every day. The poor creatures, bite each other once a new one has come into the territory. Some might have cancer in the blood cells and they give it to the other Devil. The Tumor is usually found around the mouth which gets bigger and bigger, at one point they cant eat and they starve. To stop this, Scientist are trying to make a vaccine so the animals can be safe. The tumor starts in the Schwann cells that surround nerve fibers. With only this information, you cant understand where the whole cancer comes from. To understand more, scientist looked at healthy and unhealthy cells. The team studied 25 tumors and they had the same genome. To conclude, they said that it all started when one Devil had cancer over 10 years ago. Now they are trying to make a vaccine but that will take about 10 years. Hopefully they can do something about it.

    This story amused me because I think that animals should not die because of a sickness and that we should do something about it. 

If you are interested, you can visit:

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100120/Note3.asp

Some words I found were interesting: 

gene A hereditary unit that determines a particular characteristic in an organism.

genome The total genetic content of an organism; an organism's genetic material.

cancer Any of various diseases with malignant cells, which tend to invade surrounding tissue and spread to new body sites.

axon (or nerve fiber) A threadlike part of a neuron that generally conducts impulses away from the body of the nerve cell.

neuron Any of the impulse-conducting cells that constitute the brain, spinal column and nerves, consisting of a cell body with a nucleus, one or more dendrites (branches that conduct impulses toward the cell body) and a single axon.

myelin A white fatty material that encloses certain axons and nerve fibers. 

Written at: 21:29 24.11.10

Working with Corn

   Science class in ISB is always fun but this time it was awesome. The class was working with corn but not as a solid, it was powder. First, we filled a cup with water and then put some of the corn powder in a bucket and mixed it with water. As I was mixing it, I noticed it was like clay and hard. When it mixed just enough, I tried to pick it up but it didn't work, it became a liquid. I discussed that with my mate and our teacher, she said that this is one of the rare materials that is a solid and a liquid depending of what the pressure is like. So now that we succeeded in the task, we started experimenting and we put some more powder and more water, eventually we put a bit to much water and then it was mostly liquid.Working with this material, was a new experience for me because I never knew that something can be a liquid just as much as a solid. When we finished the experiment, we had to clean up. I took some of the left overs with me and this is how it looks like:

It is in a bag so it wont leak out. The color is the same as when we made it,white. The smell of the corn powder is not the best smell I have ever smelled, it smells like old powder or old cheese. If I touch it, there is a bit of liquid but some of it has became solid. During the next days, I will try to freeze it and will see what happens.

Liquid Experiment

On the 17th of November, 6b started making a small project and used 3 different types of tempered water. The first cup contained ice cold water at the temperature of 5degrees Celsius, the molecules in this water where the closest ones to a solid molecules. This water had the least energy. In the middle was the cup with the room temperatures, 23 degrees Celsius. Last, on the right side was the warm water which was at 56 degrees Celsius. Something I learned was that, density is all about space and mass and temperature is the measurement of kinetic energy. As we had everything prepared, we put food coloring into all 3 cups and observed. In the warm one, the food coloring diffused very fast and everywhere. In the normal water, some of the coloring stayed in the top and some in the bottom, last it started compressing against each other and joined which caused the whole cup to be covered with the coloring. When we did it for the cold one, all the food coloring instantly dropped down to the bottom. What happen during the process was evaporation and condensation. The most important thing we were looking for was the density and how it effects what is going on. Once you put the food coloring into water it will became the same temperature as the water. After all, looking at different conclusions for different types of water and temperature was fun and made me think as a scientist.

Deet of the sea

                                                       by Rachel Ehrenberg
                                                   Written by Alexandra Lysicanova
                                                   Published post at 20:26. 17.11.

   The world we know of is a peaceful under water world. But it's not. Just as there are enemies on Earth there are little blood-sucking mosquitoes down there. These mosquitoes are called isopods.Scientist also found out that to protect them selves, the coral reef fish wrap into mucus before going to sleep. Some reasons that they cover in mucus are that they want to be safe, not attract the moray eels and the isopods. To have more clues of what is happening, scientist from the University of Queensland in Austria have done some work and experiments. First of all, they gathered some of the coral reef fish and put them in a tube. They waited until midnight so the fish could make their cocoons. After all the fish were sleeping the scientists removed the cocoon from some of the fish and left the other ones alone. Finally they placed some isopods into the tubes and 94 percent of the fish without the cocoon got bitten. 10 percent of the fish weren't bitten because they were covered in cocoon and that was the challenge for the enemies.The fish produce the cocoon from their mouth and it takes one hour to make it go on their whole body. This process take up 2.5 of their body energy. Once the fish have started this cycle they will be more safe and will have a better underwater life.

 I choose to write about this article because I like to know about what is new about animals. I also thought it was interesting reading this article because I never knew that there existed underwater mosquitoes and that fish have to protect their selves.

Some interesting words that I found were:
Snot: mucus from the nose
Isopods: marine mosquitoes

This is how a coral reef fish looks once it's covered in mucus.
If you would like to discover more go on to:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/65567/title/DEET_of_the_sea

Reflection about glog

As i made m glog and researched about glaciers, I learned about new things. I was trying to answer: what are glaciers? How are they formed? Where do they form? What would happen if glaciers would melt? What do they help us with? What are the effects? By listening to my class mates and making my glog, I finally had an answer to all of my questions. You can find all of my answer on my glog post if you scroll down. Studying about glacier helped me get a clearer idea about what our world is about. I learned how much of the world's atmosphere is covered in ice, this can help me also with geography. I think that if someone was about to write about glacier they should be ready for a lot of information and make sure they know everything because it might help in the future. After all, studying about glacier made my learning skills a bit better and now i know a lot of facts that i didn't before.

Mixtures

     I have been trying to research about mixtures for quite a long time now I should say. My two main questions I was asking myself were, what are the main types of mixtures? What makes them different? I learned a lot of new things and i hope you will as well.
  
     Mixtures are substances held together by physical forces. Anything you can combine is a mixture and that should be pretty clear because of the word "mix". There are heterogeneous and homogeneous. You might not know what the difference is what they are, so here I go.
HOMOGENEOUS:
used to describe substances that look the same throughout. For example when you make Tang which is a powder which you mix with water, if you mix it very well it will be a homogeneous which means you wont be able to see the particles so simply you couldn't separate them. The mixture got its name from: "homo" which mean sameness.Here is a site that might help you visualize it more: 
http://www.elmhurst.edu/~chm/vchembook/106Amixture.html

HETEROGENEOUS:
used to describe substances in which you can see more than one color or type of matter.For example, if you read my mixture which is the post under, mixing cereals with milk is a heterogeneous because you can separate the cereals from the milk. Also if you put a raisin in water it will not dissolve and you can always separate them.The world heterogeneous come from "hetero" which mean different.On the site which is under homogeneous you can find a picture of heterogeneous mixtures and how you can see the difference.
 
      Now that you know those two types of mixtures there are eve smaller mixtures that are mixture of either homogeneous or heterogeneous. These are:

• Solutions
• Emulsions
• Suspensions
• Colloidal Dispersions

SOLUTIONS:
  
   are mixtures by mixing a solute and a solvent. Solute is the substance that dissolves, solvent is the substance that does the dissolving. Solutions are homogeneous. An example of a solution mixture is water and salt. The water is the solvent and the salt is the solute.This is a site for solutions: 
http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_solution.html

SUSPENSIONS:
     are heterogeneous mixtures of a solid and a liquid in which the solid does not dissolve. This is like the cereals and milk. The solid which in that case are the cereals don't dissolve.

EMULSIONS:
  this mixture consists of two liquids that do not mix. Emulsions will settle into layers when they are left standing undisturbed. For example oil and water is an emulsion.

COLLOIDAL DISPERSIONS:
  mixtures with characteristics between a solution and a suspension.They are heterogeneous. They do not settle.


These are the major mixtures. It may be hard to remember but after all once you make some food and someone asks you what type of mixture it is you say: "It is ..."  

My mixture

   As my classmates and I have studied about the topic of mixtures we were assigned an assignment which was to make our own mixture. The mixture had to be something we liked to eat or drink. I chose to do my mixture with cereals and milk. I eat it every morning and it is delicious. The ingredients you need are: milk and cereals, and the objects are a bowl and a spoon or what ever you eat it with. The procedure i followed was: I find my cereals and my bowl followed with the milk. 2) I put some cereals into the bowl.3) I pour the milk in.4) I mix the cereals with my spoon so they taste better. Last i eat. It is that easy and you will love it. As I was making it, my observations were that as I mixed the milk with the cereals I noticed that the cereals stayed on top and didn't disappear. But after a while, they were getting more squished and probably if i didn't eat it for a long time the cereals might disappear. This mixture is a suspension because in the mixture was a liquid and a solid, and the solid did not dissolve. After all, you should also test if it really is a suspension or not and the benefit is that you will get delicious food to eat.

                                        Mini-machines that move without batteries

By: Stephen Ornes
Visited on: 10.11.10


          A new invention has been created, one that every one is talking about. In a laboratory at John Hopking University scientist have created a new machine. You might be wondering why is that news? Well it is simply because of two main facts. First of all, the machines work without batteries and second of all, they are smaller than mosquitoes. The leader of this project was David Gracias. He is known as a scientist that works on miniaturization which are small objects which in this case is the machine.This new invention can be useful for medicine and for removing parts of the tissue. Also for helping cancer. Last but not least, they can give small amount of drugs to disease parts in the human body. So as i said before, the machine doesn't work on batteries but on biology. The machine can be inspired by nature but of course you will not find any machines growing there.
         How is the machine made?
        First of all, the machine has a base layer of silicon- also used for computer chips. On top of that, are placed 3 different types of metal: Chromium, nickel and gold. The last thing they add are layers of polymers which are big molecules of many atoms. The machines have tiny fingers made to grab things and once it has something it looks like a palm. 
       While making the machine, Gracias tested different polymers: one is from collagen which keeps the human body together and the second one is from cellulose found in the cell walls of plant cells.Before even exhibiting the invention the scientist tested the machine in various ways until now the whole world knows. The goal of this invention, is that one day hopefully the machine can fight against cancer. “In nature, and in us, these [machines] respond to chemistry,” Gracias told Science News.
    Sometimes when I think about this discovery, i really hope it will work with saving people from cancer because connected for me my grandfather has cancer so this is something that could have helped him if it would have been invented a bit before.
    I choose to write and study about this topic because it is something that is related to me in a way and because it is an interesting topic.
 If you are interested the web is:
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/64362/title/FOR_KIDS_Minimachines_that_move_without_batteries
Some words are:

enzyme Any of numerous proteins produced by living organisms and that help with chemical reactions.
polymer Any of numerous natural and synthetic compounds of high molecular weight consisting of up to millions of repeated linked units, each a relatively light and simple molecule.
collagen The fibrous protein constituent of bone, cartilage, tendon and other connective tissue. It is converted into gelatin by boiling.
cellulose A complex carbohydrate that forms the main part of the cell wall in most plants. It is also important in the manufacture of numerous products, such as paper, textiles, pharmaceuticals and explosives.

Glacier glogster

Obesity and the common cold:

W"hen you sneeze or couch people may say that you caught a cold but what you actually caught is a small virus which your body is getting rid of. This topic covers obesity which is when an adult or a child is overweight, this is very dangerous for everyone. Scientist consider childhood obesity epidemic because the majority of children are obese. Studies show that if a child is obese he has bigger chances in having health problems when he or she is a grown-up. It is proven that if you have a a virus called adenovirus 36 you will became overweight.

Giant Pinguin Plumed In Earth Tones

           Just looking around you can discover any type of fossils and scientists discovered a penguins one. But it was not a normal one. As they studied the fossil they found out that when the penguin stretched it was about 1.5 meters long. The beak was about 23 centimeters and it weighed from 55-60kg. The amazing thing about this bird was that his feathers stayed in the right order and scientist are now trying to find out more. Estimating, the fossil is about 36 million years old. What makes the penguin different is also the color. Usual penguins are black and white, this one was gray and brown. Scientist named this penguin Inkayacu. You might also want to read about it more, well then go to:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/63919/title/A_giant_penguin_plumed_in_earth_tones
by Susan Milius published on Thursday,September 30th,2010

Voyage of plastic

              If you go around the sea and see some sparkling pink stuff it is probably plastic.Scientists have been looking at this fact and are trying to find out how it is being cause and how it affects the environment. One of the damages it might be accusing is killing fish or making it hard for marine life. Dr.Law and some helpers looked at the amount of plastic over 22 years and it is still the same even though people are throwing away more plastic now. The reason why is because the plastic might be breaking into smaller parts and the nets that these people use to fish are to big to catch all the small particles. So after all, something you can help with is to recycle paper and don't throw it in the sea or in water.

Magnificent Article Writing

Spray on fashion:

In science class and in my free time I watched a movie about clothing and also read an article. This article started out very well because it grabbed my attention immediately. First of all, it asked me a question which I will also ask you; Do you or do you not think it would be a good idea to just have one    t-shirt for everyday and just put all type of different designs on it? That might be good for some occasions but for others not. The person who created this spray in a Spanish designer called Manel Torres.

            While I read the small paragraphs I found some words which I thought would help me study. These words were:

Fabricant: A person that makes or creates cloth or more.

 Collaboration: The act or process of people working together.

  Versatile: Variable or changeable as in feeling or purpose.

            In the small story there were a lot of interesting facts. For example, the spray on sprays are washable and there are various types of colors  of the spray or that when it stays on longer on someone it sticks together so you can’t rip it. The sprays will come out as soon as possible but not yet. They are also made for any type of weather.

            I choose this topic because I like to know about new fashion and how it is done. I also thought that it might be useful to know what is going on in the world which not only I care for but for example the stars. I personally think that it is not such a good idea mostly because you would have to take up a lot of time from your day and you would have to always change it and wash it and you never know when it might break.

            After all, reading about this topic was interesting and I learned a lot of new things. If I would have to suggest this to someone I would say yes because it is interesting with a lot of facts and it grabs your mind immediately.

Matches of the 3 states of matter

As i looked at the post i posted i saw that all 3 states of matter have the same mass which is definite. I thought that might depend on the fact if it is pourable or flying or fix.

State of Matter	Volume	Mass	Shape	Compressibility	Heating	Example
Gas	An indefinite volume	Has a definite mass	An indefinite shape	Easily compressible	Expands real large	Cloud, o2, co2
Liquid	A definite volume	Has a definite mass	An indefinite shape	Low compressibility	Expands real low	Fanta Juice, Water, River,h2o
Solid	An indefinite volume	Has a definite mass	A definite shape	No compressibility	Real low	Stones, Chair, Pencil case

The States Of Matter

I watched a video on you tube and learned different states of matter. First there is solid which is something that you can not pour nor go throw. Liquid is something like water which is pourable. And gas is something like clouds.

Or some songs:
                                                                       
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO9OGeHgtBY&feature=relat 
             

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btGu9FWSPtc 

What is matter part 2

After reading a small book about matter i found out that everything we can see around us has matter.Also that there are more than 2 tipes of matter.Some words i learned about where: Atoms=the parts of an object that can only be seen with a microscope, Molecule= the combination of more atoms joining, Elements= substances that can not be broken in more parts. After all i learned that mass is all around us and has to do with the 5 senses

By Alexy

Matter

What is matter?
I have to say that i have never heard the word matter and i honestly don't know what it is. It might have some connections with science or be something we do in science. It might include experiments or reasons of doing things. It might be something i haven't mentioned yet because it is something i want to learn. Through the help of teachers and dictionaries i want to learn what new words mean.

By Alexy

My goals

For this year my goals are to be on time for things and make sure to have everything I need with me for every class. One of my goals is also to learn about things that i don't know yet in every subject and learn things that can help me develop life