Two fun links for Christmas~

One with some beautiful ice sculptures that happen quite without any human help:


http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/




One with oil sculptures:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/12/17/167446885/this-should-be-a-hit-in-texas-puddle-of-oil-turns-into-a-christmas-tree

Both reflect an amazing God who rules and reigns with creativity.  The rules of science at work here are beautiful to behold, and aren't we fortunate that God made a lovely world?

Singing the Periodic Table

Here's the song Lena was talking about...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4yiERTZj8&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Just listen to it about 500 times and you will have memorized most of the periodic table of the elements.

Happy Christmas!

Atomic theory

Physical and chemical changes are very different.  I found this video of cute kids from Hong Kong explaining one very easy way to tell the difference.  And remember, if you find their accent or rapping a little different, let me hear your Mandarin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN2SqtyeLN0


We'll be hitting atomic theory just before the break. And here's a song (I know, but if you watch it once, you will forever know who was responsible for atomic theory.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUzTQWn-wfE


Just in case you have NOTHING else to do :)  here's one last interesting bit! And actually this may be the most important thing on the blog this week.  It is a video explaining how Rutherford proved the atom was a nucleus surrounded by  electrons.  Bonus!  Spanish subtitles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBqHkraf8iE

Polonium

 Chemistry is rarely boring, and sometimes it's the stuff of Agatha Christie novels...unless it's a true story.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/11/27/166028995/polonium-marie-curies-stepchild-discovery-now-in-spotlight-as-lethal-weapon


It's strange, terrible, but true. Potent stuff, polonium.   And thankfully, very rare.

Back in the good old days, we had HELIUM balloons...

  This is an article that will make you a little sad for your great grandkids...from Discover.com

Nobel Prize Winner Warns World: We’re Running Out of Helium

The United States currently holds around half of the world’s helium supply and we’re selling it, for cheap.

We’ve known this for a while. We started stockpiling the stuff near Amarillo, Texas in 1925, in part for dirigible use, and stepped up reserves in the 1960s as a Cold War asset. In 1996, Congress passed the Helium Privatization Act mandating that the United States sell the gas at artificially low prices to get rid of the stockpile by 2015. This February, the National Research Council published areport estimating that, given increasing consumption, the worldmay run out of helium in 40 years. That’s bad news given helium’s current applications in science, technology, and party decorations–and possible future applications in fusion energy.

Now physicist Robert Richardson, who won a 1996 Nobel Prize for work using helium-3 to make superfluids, has come forward to stress the folly of underselling our supply of the natural resource. He suggested in several interviews that the gas’s price should mirror its actual demand and scarcity. He estimates that typical party balloons should cost $100 a pop.

“They couldn’t sell it fast enough and the world price for helium gas is ridiculously cheap,” Professor Richardson told a summer meeting of Nobel laureates…. “Once helium is released into the atmosphere in the form of party balloons or boiling helium it is lost to the Earth forever, lost to the Earth forever,” he emphasised. [The Independent]

If we don’t heed Richardson’s warning, here are some sources the United States might have to tap when we run out:

The Air

The current U.S. helium supply formed from billions of years worth of radioactive decay and accrued near uranium and thorium deposits. Though it’s possible to separate helium out of the air, Richardson warns that it will cost a lot more. He told New Scientist:

“There is no chemical means to make helium. The supplies we have on Earth come from radioactive alpha decay in rocks. Right now it’s not commercially viable to recover helium from the air, so we have to rely on extracting it from rocks. But if we do run out altogether, we will have to recover helium from the air and it will cost 10,000 times what it does today.” [New Scientist]

Other Countries

If we sell off all of our helium that means we’ll likely have to import it later–and c0mpetition could be fierce. China and India’s developing science and tech industries will also likely want a piece of the He pie.

Emerging powers such as China and India are ramping up helium-hungry activities like chipset fabrication, space programs, and cryogenic research…. Now, the NRC report warns, if the US does not soon cease selling off its reserves, within 10 to 15 years the country will be forced to import most of its helium from the only other near-term sources, gas fields in the Middle East and Russia. [Seed]

Other Planets

Another place where helium occurs naturally is, of course, in the gas balls we call stars. Researchers think that the solar wind from our sun may have deposited some helium-3 on the moon’s surface. If we use that up too, we could look a little further, say Uranus or Neptune, which have helium-rich atmospheres. We’re guessing that the party balloon prices will suffer accordingly.

“The moon is the El Dorado of helium-3,” says [futurist Marshall] Savage, and he’s right: Every star, including our sun, emits helium constantly. Implanted in the lunar soil by the solar wind, the all-important gas can be found on the moon by the bucketful. Associate professor Tim Swindle and his colleagues at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona have already begun prospecting. Swindle has mapped likely helium-3 deposits on the moon by charting the parts of the lunar landscape most exposed to solar wind against the locations of mineral deposits that best trap the element. [Wired]

Plasma Video

This is a little long, but it has a really good demonstration and explanation.





University of Maryland

roller coasters

 We will be building marble roller coasters in class on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.   Some of your kids are planning to build an alternate machine on their own.  (God bless you!)   This will wrap up our studies on matter in motion and then we will be exploring chemistry for next quarter.

Shout-out to Hannah M's dad who has graciously offered to supply the pipe insulation to build our marble roller coaster and to Mr. Roller who is letting us make a mess in his classroom for a few days. I will post pictures and hopefully video of our creations!

Science Tests Aren't Spooky!

Our unit 4 science test is tomorrow, November 1, 2012.  I realize that tonight is very busy for many of you, so we have had three days of review in class culminating in a game of (revised) Jeopardy.  While the ladies' team was victorious (go, girls!)  I was impressed by the breadth of knowledge from the guys' side as well.

Students have been given a review sheet  to work on over the past few days.  They will be allowed to use it on the test tomorrow for the application phase.  (There is a multiple choice section of 20 questions which is fairly simple, then a longer portion where formulas might come in handy along with specific vocabulary).   It might be a good idea to check that sheet and review a bit tonight before bed.  

I apologize for not updating the blog sooner-it's my intention to keep things posted weekly and not have things bump up unexpectedly for parents.  I appreciate patience  as I try to keep the technology helpful!

Blessings!  Mrs. Steele

Work it out, middle schoolers!

Vocab for this week's quiz:
energy
work
potential energy
kinetic energy
joule
f=ma
a= vf-vi
     tf-ti
w=fd

Bernoulli Effect

Bernoulli tricks... try at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-xNXrELCmU

Assignment for 10/5

So, velocity is a lovely thing, no?  I particularly like the thought of escape velocity.  This is the speed in an upward direction you need to achieve to escape a planet's gravitational field.

To escape Earth, you need to be going over 25, 000 mph.  Yowza.

Can you put the following escape velocities in the order of the nine eight planets starting with Mercury?    Good luck.  Do a little thinking, you will do fine.  Hint: Size is a factor.  Due Friday 10/5 with your quiz.  You gotta get one easily-- the third one is done for you. :)  Happy rocket science to you!

23, 175 MPH                          1.
52,702 MPH                           2.
9, 507 MPH                            3.  Earth  25, 031  MPH
47, 826 MPH                          4.        
11, 252 MPH                          5.
134, 664 MPH                        6.
25, 031 MPH                          7.
80, 731 MPH                          8.

Slinkies, terminal velocity, and Bernoulli, oh my!

Terminal velocity sounds like deadly force, but it's actually another cool point to consider about how marvelously our world works.  My crazy thank-you  about it?   I keep imagining anything like hailstorms or even raindrops would be somewhat more...painful without those air molecules and low pressure/high pressure influences creating drag to slow things down.   Here's the video that LV suggested.  Disclaimer: obviously a very secular Youtube channel.  I have no control over the ads or suggested videos that pop up.  Yeah, robot weirdos, I am talking about you! Disregard and hit the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0IZsfzDS4s     (again, cut and paste in your browser if it doesn't highlight the link. )

and here's the levitating slinky.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/09/11/160933582/the-miracle-of-the-levitating-slinky

Hopefully I can get out our own levitating slinky shots up soon!


Next up:  Bernoulli and fluid forces! Can you hover a ping-pong ball over a hairdryer?

Khan Link to Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

Take a little while to watch this excellent primer on balanced and unbalanced forces.   I would be much obliged if you would take the opportunity to write down three things you learned or three questions (no such thing as a dumb question) or a combo of these things after watching the video and thinking about what you viewed.
  If the link doesn't activate (appear in blue), then copy and paste it into your web browser.

http://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/mechanics/v/balanced-and-unbalanced-forces

Enjoy your weekend!  See you in the morning.

Assignment One

Here's your first assignment.

Answer the following questions and turn them in at the beginning of class on Friday morning.

1.  Was it pretty easy to find this blog?

2. Tell me the difference between a theory and a law. (A complete sentence apiece will suffice.)

3.  What is your honest opinion about science class? Choose from the following answers the one that is the best fit:
a. I LOVE IT!        b. IT"S HARD!       c.  I DON"T LIKE IT!     d. I  LIKE IT!

 4.  Explain why you picked what you did in two sentences.

5.  Look at the list for our concepts spring and fall and tell me which ones you like.  (The answer "none" will get you that many points for this question.  So will the answer "all of them.")

6.  Look at it again.  Is there any expert in any of these areas that you know who would like to come play with us?

7.  Do you understand the difference between exploring and goofing off?  Explain in one good sentence.

8.  What's your favorite candy bar?

9.  When is your birthday?

10.  How many chromosomes do people normally have in their cells? Dig a little. 

welcome to science 78

'78...I was 7 years old.
The moon landing wasn't even 10 years old in history.
DNA had been discovered, kind of.
There were still elements to be added to the periodic table.
No internet.
NO email.
Definitely no text messages. (notes on paper and left in lockers, cars, notebooks, shoes, lunchboxes-- all the time. )
Mount St. Helens had NOT erupted.
What will the world look like for you in 34 years?