What a tiring day today,right? Well, for me it was. I just found out that my class will be learning about Forces and motion, this might not seem very interesting to you, but to me it is very exciting because we learned this in 4th grade in Munich International School. Forces and motion pretty much concentrate on gravitational forces and pressure also compared to motives for movement happening. What are somethings that I know? First of all, something you should know as well, are the 3 newton laws. Who the Heck is Newton? Sir Isaac Newton was born on 1642 in a manor house in Lincolnshire, England. He was interested in science and was known as a famous Mathematician and Scientist. He invented the 3 newtons laws of motion. These laws tell how objects move and the reason for these. The 3 laws are: 1.Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it. 2. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector. 3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. All of these laws connect to gravity and mass because those are the key things that tell you your force. What the first law is trying to explain is that an object will not start moving until it is pushed, pulled or touched by an external force. An external force is a force that is not caused by the object itself but something happening to it from the outside. External forces include the applied force, normal force, tension force, friction force, and air resistance force and the internal forces include the gravity forces, magnetic force, electrical force, and spring force. The second law is practically explaining how you can compare the mass, force and acceleration, forming a formula. Lastly, the 3rd law says how every action and thing happening to an object, so every force, will have a reaction of its own and may react equally or oppositely to different things. In my old school, we have done this unit in 4th grade, so I am informed about most stuff, but I would like to learn everything again because I don’t remember a lot of the things we did. Some activities we did were for example getting on the balcony in groups, and we would have different objects and mass units also including forces and we would try to give our own definition for every single law. The only thing I can really remember is that we would have some wood or cars on wheels, and push the objects against each other and see the reactions. So after all, I am eager to find out how this forces and motion will be compared to my old one and see all the differences. But most of all, I am excited to learn new things because this unit is one of the most exciting ones.
Hey there! Ever had to reflect on something you did in class?? It seems like something I have to do every month or so. This time, we were meant to do a bubble chart about everything we learned and also write a little reflection. On the graph above, the main topic says Earth's Inner Secrets and 5 topics coming out of it.This was an individual work so we had to work alone and every person had different answers. Once we finished this, we had to read a blog post from our teacher which said we should answer some questions, so here it goes:
Once we started this whole unit, we had one big question we had to keep in mind which was, How valuable is a rock?
Well, I think this depends on which rock we are talking about. The rocks which are more rare, this means that they are not as easy to find, might be pretty valuable. But most of all, to know if a rock is valuable or not, you have to find out what it is used for and if it is used often. If the rock is used in many different tools and objects, that means it's valuable because of all the things is can provide us with. For example Wolframite, this rock is used in : light bulbs, weapons,cars, tools and machines. But of course some rocks are more luckier than others because they are hard which makes them be able to resist other materials or for example also the melting point and boiling point might affect the uses. So to this specific questions there are many answers. Our area of interaction was based on environment, how does that fit you might be wondering? Well, environment is what determines which rock is found where and which minerals as well. If the environment we are talking about is the Ocean, you will fin many minerals there and the rocks as well because there is a lot of minerals for the rocks to be formed.The environment where the minerals and rocks are formed is also important. Some minerals are formed in magma and lava which is extremely hot and it also depends on where in the magma they where and how long the minerals got time to cool down.
During this unit, I learned a lot from the activities I took part in for example the discussions where everyone shared what they learned and we had to problem solve. Also, I think that taking the test from this unit, was something that helped me too because I really had to study because at first I was clueless about everything on the test even thought we did activities on those things. But not only in this unit, but for every unit, I think the activities helped a lot because our teacher knows which activities are the best for us. The part I enjoyed the most probably, were the presentations from people about different minerals and all the uses and facts. After all, I like everything in this last unit and learned tons of information, maybe even more than I was planning to learn. If the next year 6th graders were to do this, I would most probably do everything the same if I was the teacher, and continue giving excellent examples in real life and comparisons like my teacher does :D
Thank you for reading :D
Monday, April 18, 2011
On the18.4.11 my class was working on discussing. You may have read one of my previous posts which talks about my research and everything I found out about rights, and ocean mining. We then got together in groups of 3-4 in class and discussed our answers and answered some more questions with then adding an additional last paragraph telling what we thought is right and our last words. In my group there was Alfie,Maryam and Luka. Everyone had a job assigned, Luka was the time-keeper, Alfie was the "Discussion Leader", Maryam the presenter and I was the recorder. If I look back over it right now, I think our group was very talkative and worked very well together. These are the notes we took :
Why are minerals important?
We use them in everyday life
We use them in thing that are needed
They are used in technology and everything we use
Minerals give us food and electronics
Weaponry and give us more opportunities in Science
They give us transport
Used in Jewelry
What minerals are found in the Ocean?
Salt
Magnesium
Potassium
Sand and Gravel
Sulfur
Pumice
Who should have the right to get the minerals?
Any country that owns the Ocean-Alfie
If a country is landlocked and it has wealth and a country right next to the Ocean is developing, they should make some business- Luka
Every country should get a bit of the Ocean because the Earth has to be fair. If they are a developing country, they shouldn’t pay with money, but exchange goods-Maryam
Everyone should get an equal amount
What are problems from mining the Ocean?
Mining pollutes the Ocean which kills animals, and interrupts the food chain.
It takes a lot of money from us for the technology
We use up some non-renewable resources
Who Owns the Ocean minerals?
Everyone but nobody
The Ocean is of no one
-the world is trying to be a bit fair
What are the rights?
The rights are that if the land has enough money and can afford everything for example the extracting and exporting of the minerals, it can work in the place
But also, some governments say that no one has the Ocean
Everyone talked so it wasn't just one person leading, but everyone talking. There was only one part where our group discussed more than other times. The question was this one: who should have the right to have the oceans minerals? We had a little conversation about this one because some of the people in our group where more kind of business people so they care for business and thought that should come first, but on the other hand, the others where more the fairness people who want the world to be fair. But at the end, we all combined our ideas and we agreed.
Our final statement was this:
The Oceans are for everyone and the main minerals from the Oceans are salt. Any country that is neighbored by the sea should get a profit from it. But also, every country has to have some sort of resource and not everyone needs to have water even thought its essential. Trading is the main point that will give these countries their water and they can benefit from, other natural resources and trade those. In our opinion, there should be mining happening because it is one of the jobs that keeps humans alive and like there is the: if you kill one tree you seed 2 more, and if u mine a place, you have to plant other trees and once you finish mining you have to bri9ng the place to the original look. Bring the animals in and make sure everything is the same as before.
Over these discussions and presentations from people showing their knowledge and understanding, I learned and saw how what others thought kind of matched up and how if you have a disagreement you can solve it in an easy way. I also think that because our group worked very well together, it might also depend on our calmness and if we are willing to work with the group on how we concentrate. In my opinion, this group was good working and we were all willing to give ideas out and communicate which made the whole project easier. If we should ever do something like this again, I would be very happy to actually, because this also tests your listening skills and which ever other skill you have been assigned to.
Hey, how are you? Ready to learn about Italian minerals? You might be wondering: Why the heck is this person writing about Italian minerals? Honestly, this is not the most fun thing I could be doing right now, but this was an assignment for me and for my class from science. We were meant to write about the minerals found in our country. You might not know, but I am half Italian so I would like to share the information I found with you.
First of all, you might know about the volcano VESUVIUS, Italy. This Volcano is well known because of its beauty but also for its knowing for killing. Vesuvius destroyed the whole of Pompey and killed about 3,000 people by its first explosion. Eruptions of volcanoes have advantages and disadvantages. Of course the death is a huge disadvantage, but on the other hand, lava, which is the basic element that flows out of the volcano, contains a lot of minerals. Well, the lava from this specific volcano gave the Italians: tenorite, anorite, spinel, nefelina and vesuviana. Vesuviana was first found in Italy, from this volcano. This volcano itself is already a great use to Italy.
Italy doesn't have that many natural resources, but from what it has, it is able to make business well. Cement is something that provided Italy with a lot of money, it was the 2nd biggest cement producer and deliverer after Germany. Gypsum and natural gases where also well made, and provided enough money for Italy to buy other things they needed. In Italy there is a mine for many minerals and more than one mine of course, plus, there is a mine for each ores, led, silver and zinc. Italy depended on other cities for energy resources because it is not the best land for that.
In Italy, as in other places, the people get the minerals by mining and use them in many different ways. Exporting is also a big thing that brings Italy money, and not to forget, that Italy is borders by an Ocean which is another place where it gets its minerals from. So as you can see, Italy is not the richest place on Earth, but is surrounded by some very good areas and knows how to manage business.
Peace and war are both acts that happen in life. Ocean floor mining is a topic that pretty much falls under both categories. Sorry for not introducing myself, I am Alex, which you probably know by now :D I am not the biggest fan of mining, I very much prefer Math over it, but during the last month my class was meant to write a little summary about this topic. So the first thing you should know, is that there are two main ways of mining minerals,crystals and rocks. There is surface mining and subsurface mining. Surface mining: The process of mining that happens on the surface of the Earth Subsurface mining: The process of mining mostly happening under the Earth or deeper than you can dig with your hand.
Ocean mining pretty much belongs to subsurface mining because you have to get to the bottom to get the minerals. So first of all, if I was to summarize the controversy of ocean mineral rights, which means the issues that have been happening and arguments, the first issue would be choosing which land is the one possessing the ocean floors with the minerals. What can countries do to prevent conflicts over mining the ocean floor? Well, they might want to arrange a compromise. Also wealthy nations could contribute part of their profits to help developing countries. What a lot of citizens think, is that which ever country or city is the closest to the ocean, or is surrounded by any water body, should obtain part of the profits from the minerals. But here is an other question, what if there is a wealthy city, that could afford all the machines and everything needed to obtain ocean floor mining, but it is no where close to a water body? That's just bad luck right?
Wealthiness is very important and affects everything if we are talking about ocean floor mining. The country had to be most likely somewhere in the point of being wealthy because of all the equipment and tools needed to be able to start. All the machines needed to dig up Earth, and all the safety equipment will cost a fortune. Developing countries have to take the fact in consideration that if they do pay what they can, and start mining, will it be worth it? Governments play a huge role nowadays with these issues. They are the people who help us make decisions and give us reasons why to or why not to go for what we are aiming. Developing countries might want to make a deal with the wealthy countries but maybe not be the ones to exactly extract the minerals from the Oceans because that takes much more money than just making a deal. If a developing city or state is surrounded by a body of water, they most probably might share the profits with other cities by allowing them to work in the water, but they have to share with you what they get. So after all, a lot of the achievements of a country, depend on if it is wealthy and can afford everything, or if it is a developing country. Sometimes the country might be a poor country in general, but its minerals and mines make it rich.
Every Ocean has its own issues and places it "belongs" to. Let's start with the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean is the second biggest Ocean in the world and covers about 20%of the Earths atmosphere. Since the ocean is divided into North and South from the equator, it borders with Eurasia, Africa and America. It would be most common for these places to have some issues like who does the ocean belong to? Well, a good way of solving this would be to split the ocean into 3 parts and every plate gets a bit. These countries would have a lot of resources and could be able to produce money by trading. But as the government says, the ocean is for everyone or for no one. I think this should be taken in consideration because it's true, everyone in the world is trying to teach us how to make peace and how sharing is caring, if it is caring, why aren't the Oceans shared with developing countries? Some minerals that are found in the Atlantic are salt, bromine and magnesium. Oceans and seas are the largest solar collectors. The Atlantic gives us a lot of resources, just as the other Oceans.
The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on Earth. Pretty much everything I said for the previous ocean, also goes with this one. The Pacific borders with California, Hawaii, Washington, so mostly America and also part of Australia. These are a lot of places, but also places that are not close to the shore, I think should be able to have some of the Ocean. Since there is more Ocean than land, every piece of land should have some part of Oceans. The Pacific, mostly provides us with metals. Sand and gravel also comes from all oceans. With all these minerals and elements, we can produce more useful tools and create beaches for tourism.
The last ocean I will talk about now, is the Arctic Ocean. This ocean is the smallest ocean on Earth and is located in the Arctic north polar region. It is pretty much surrounded by Eurasia and North America and lastly seas. Nowadays, a lot of the ice on the Arctic Ocean is melting which gives us, people, a great opportunity to get more minerals. Some of these may include salt,natural gases, hydrocarbons, and more. This specific ocean is located in the Arctic Ocean, and all the countries or parts of countries that are in it, have the biggest chance of having the benefits from the melting. Some places like South America, which has nothing to do with the Arctic Ocean, also want some of the material, so now there is an issue. They still haven't found an answer to this. Even thought this is the smallest ocean, it is the one that probably gives us the most because of the weather change.The answer to this problem, will also depend on how developed the place is, does it have enough money to afford everything for extracting the minerals out of water or what ever substance they are found in? So after all, all ocean give us something, and everything they give us, we should treasure of ages.
In my opinion, what the world is doing, and its decisions, for example the one that the wealthy countries have a better chance for everything, might be a bit unfair but it is kind of working out. Also, it is interesting researching about everything that is going on in the world, and which minerals are found where because it fills you with more information and helps you be able to answer questions if anyone asks you. Learning about this topic was pretty interesting, even thought it did take a bit more time than others do. If you are interested more in finding out about Earths processes and what is going on, you can research by yourself, or you can comment under :D
