Earth's crust/Caves

   On the 11-13.1.11, the class of Mrs.M ( science teacher) was watching two very in interesting videos. The first one was about Earth's crust. Even before starting to watch the movie though, the students were asked to dram a diagram of the inside and the outside of the Earth. In my diagram, I drew 6 layers inside the Earth, and it was wrong.Some questions our teacher asked us were: What do you know about the structure of Earth? How does the land,water and air all interact with each other? And what is "liner Earth? Some of our answers were:

Round/Different layers/ 75% water/3 dimensional/has magma/ physical features/ natural resources/ natural resources(tornadoes,floods etc.) forces/ tides/ natural disasters etc.
 
  So while watching the movie from Bill Nye, I found out that, the inside of the Earth is made of 4 main layers. The layers are called: the crust(on the outside) the mantle(closest to the crust) the outer core(surrounding the core) and the core(the center).Here is a picture:

The core is about 1,5000 degrees Celsius
The Outer core is iron mixed with metals
The Mantle is 1,200 degrees celsius

I also learned what a hot spring is, it is similar to a volcano except that it releases liquids not as warm. Also, I knew that plates move every year, but I had no idea that North America was moving 2cm away from Europe every day. For this, I predict that in maybe a zillion years or more, North America might appear on the other side of the Earth and and bump into Europe which might make a mountain. The last thing I learned, was that when ever there is an earthquake on one side of the Earth, you can feel it on the other side as well.

The second movie we watched, was about caves. They can be almost anywhere and in many different shapes. 2 facts that amazed me, were that the temperature in a cave is always the same, and that things in caves change very slowly. I find it amazing about the temperature because I have no idea how a cave can not freeze in the winter if it is really cold and how the temperature NEVER changes. I learned 2 new words: Stalactite and stalagmite. Both of those objects are located in the Earth. Stalactites are sculptures hanging from the top and stalagmites are sculptures from the button. They grow because of the minerals in the water.

I also learned that the animals that live in the caves, or somehow are connected to caves, have a different names. There are trogloxenes: animals that visit the caves for example bats or bears. Then there are troglyphiles: cave lovers for example worms and last, troglodytes: cave creatures and are mostly blind like fish. Bats are the main creatures that bring life to a cave. So as you can see, I learned a lot about animals, shapes and a lot more.



What I want to learn:
We were also asked to say what we want to learn. We could choose from: rocks, the rocks cycle, earth's structure, minerals, mining etc. I choose rocks and minerals. I though learning about rocks would be interesting because it involves a lot of history and there isn't just one type of rock. Also knowing how all the rocks came to be and why they aren't all the same and most of all, what makes them different. I would also like to know how rocks help us and when they where discovered. I heard about a rock cycle and it sounds really cool so I will try to find out how it works. I think learning about minerals can be exiting because you can learn what they are made of, why they help us, what they are made of and a lot more. I would of course like to learn about the other facts as well but I will mostly concentrate on those two things.