Play For Science

Who: Daniel Kunkle and Jonathan Schaeffer

What: The games that we play like checkers and the Rubiks Cube are also related to math.

When: October 3, 2007

Where: Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts

Why: The reason that the scientists researched the Rubik's cube among other games is because there is a math and science part to them. When we play these games we don't even realize that we're doing math and having fun at the same time. The scientists Kunkle and Cooperman tested the Rubik's cube on how many steps it would take to solve it. They realized that there was a pattern to this Rubik's cube and that if you turn it in the right pattern it will be solved. The scientists found out that there are over 80 million ways to figure out the cube.

My Opinion: My opinion on these interesting games is that they're a lot of fun. I do believe that if children thought it was for math that the games would be used much less. I have a Rubik's cube, but I play with it when I'm bored for fun as do some of my other friends. The games are pretty addicting though. Once you start messing with the cube you want to keep going because you want to figure it out so badly. I think it's amazing that so many people struggle to solve the Rubik's cube when there's over 80 million ways to figure it out. Other games like chess and checkers also relate to math. I actually didn't know that they did I just moved a piece and hope no one would take it from me. The games, chess and checkers, have a lot to do with probability or chance (almost like gambling).




http://www.sciencenewsforkids.com/articles/20071003/Feature1.asp

Omega Meme

1. My favorite TV show is Scrubs because on the show, the character JD is just like me (that rhymes!!!). He's dorky, goofy, and funny :D.

2. My favorite meal is some form of Thai food because it's SPICYYYY....I LOOOVEE SPICYYY.

3. My favorite nonschool activity is basketball because I just like to play it and reading hahaa just kidding about the reading :D.

4. Someone I look up to is Oprah......no I'm just playing...Someone I look up to is my cousin Carmen because she just finished college after 6 years and has a realllllyy high paying job.

5. My goal for the future is to learn how to salsa dance and ofcourse go to college and make so much money I don't know what to do with it.

6. In the first hour after school I usually sleep, do my homework, and then study like crazy for a certain class that was once my favorite subject, but isn't so much anymore.

Look Into My Eyes

Who: Ko Nishino. Shree Nayar, a computer scientist at Columbia University in New York City.

What: It is possible to pin-point exactly what a person is looking at with a computer program developed by Shree Nayar.

When: March 7th, 2007

Where: Columbia University, New York City.

Why: With a computer program it is possible to view exactly what a person is looking at. This could help historians learn more about history because old photographs that were taken can be looked upon and see the reflecting light off of the people in the photo's eyes. By viewing the people's eyes you find out more about what the setting looked like because when the light reflects off of the person's eyes it shows exactly what they are looking at.

My Opinion:

My opinion about this topic is that it's interesting and cool. If there were such thing as computers that could give you a warning by giving you a beep if your looking away or making a noise just by scanning your eyes, it would be cool. Video games could also get better which many people would be excited about. Shree Nayar said that there could be even better exsisting games if the video game could scan your eyes to see where exactly where you're looking. I didn't know that our eyes were like small round mirrors, that sounds interesting to me. Being able to tell where someone's looking can also help to see whether someone is telling the truth or not. When someone tells a lie they tend to look in another direction or there body reacts in a different way. If I could ask my friends a question and be able to tell exactly when they are lying, all my troubles would be over! I hope that the program Nayar developed will one day be able to be viewed by the public.


http://www.sciencenewsforkids.com/articles/20070307/Feature1.asp

A New Basketball Gets Slick

Who: The NBA, and the scientists in Texas.

What: A new synthetic basketball has been developed that may be better than the leather basketballs used in the NBA.

When: November 8, 2006

Where: Texas

Why: The NBA and scientists from Texas tested the new platic like basketball compared to the old leather ball to see which one was better.

My Opinion:

In my opinion, I think that the NBA should just stick with the old leather ball because when the leather balls gets all sweaty when the basketball players play the game, it gets much stickier and bouncier. But when the leather ball is dry it is not as sticky or as bouncy as the synthetic basketball. The NBA doesn't know whether they should try a new basketball or keep the old one because they both have some negative effects but complaints have started to come up from the leather basketball. I think they should still keep the leather basketball until the entire NBA starts complaining.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.com/articles/20061108/Note3.asp

Chewing For Health

Who: Ron Ream, a food scientist in Plano, Ill.

What: Gum can be healthy for you so teachers and schools may start to change their minds about the gum chewing rule.

When: April 4, 2007

Where: Florida

Why: If we chew gum after meals the gum stimulates saliva and helps fight cavities and bacteria.

My Opinion:

My opinion about these positive effects of gum chewing is that I'm really happy they figured it out. When the scientists did the study on the gum when people took a test and the people who chewed the gum did mostly better than the people who didn't chew gum while taking the test. If teachers and schools would allow students to be chewing gum while taking standardized tests or tests given out by the teachers the school could probably do better by a huge percent. The gum helps your scores by how it cant boost you flow of blood. Blood carries oxygen which fuels brain cells which is probably why 40% of participants who took a test did better than the participants who didn't chew gum. Since whatever you put into gum can go through your cheeks into you bloodstream. If you put an allergy medicine in gum for example you would probably feel better sooner because the medicine can go through your cheeks to the bloodstream better than the stomach can. I hope that by the time I'm in highschool I will be able to chew gum during the SATs.

http://www.sciencenewsforkids.com/articles/20070404/Feature1.asp

Greek Cruise Ship Sinking

Who: The Sea Diamond cruise ship.

What: The Greek cruise ship, Sea Diamond, sinks off the island of Santorini, Greece.

When: April 6th, 2007

Where: Santorini, Greece

Why: The cruise ship hit a volcanic reef that was formed 3,500 years ago and needed to evacuate the cruisers immediately. Two people were not found.

My Opinion:

My Opinion on this story is that it's sad. The cruise ship called the Sea Diamond hit a volcanic reef formed over 3,500 years ago and sank. Approximately 1600 passengers were rescued, but two poor souls were never found. I highly doubt that they escaped because how would they? In the room the passengers who were never found were staying in, water filled up quicker. This cruise ship sinking wasn't as bad as the Titanic, but why are cruise ships still sinking? It was said that the crew member didn't even know what to do when they ship was sinking. With that said I think that more safety precautions should be taken because how could a captain hit a crater and not know when it was also said that the cruise had the latest technology? The crater had also been there for over 3,500 years. How could you miss it?


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17980169/

Food Web Woes

Who: Charles H. Peterson, Ransom Myers,

What: If sharks are extinct, that won't be good for the animals below the shark on the food web.

When: March 31, 2007

Where: The East Coast of the United States, Nova Scotia

Why: Researchers are studying this because they have noticed a large decrease in the eleven species of sharks and have noticed a large increase in other sea creatures

My Opinion:

My opinion about this is that it's interesting because when the biggest predator would die out the fish underneath them in the food web would suffer. That's so weird because you'd think since the big bad wolf is gone you'd be better off when in reality you suffer not having them around. Since the strongest animals isn't there to get rid of your predator, there are more predators that will be around to attack your species. I also wonder why when they were doing the study where the scientists put the shellfish in a place where there were poles protecting them from sting rays, I wanted to know why the sting ray didn't decide to just swim sideways through the poles and grab the fish. The researchers said that they didnt normally do that.

Extra Credit: Heroes

I watched the show, "Heroes", for extra credit and it really did relate to what we're learning in science. Dr. Mohinder Surresh referred to Cyler as a parasite because he fed off of the heroes to gain their powers. Also, he asked Cyler to give him a DNA sample thinking he was someone else and he took a Q-tip and put it in the dead guy's mouth. Mohinder would test the DNA sample to learn more about the, I guess he calls them, mutations.

Barn Owls

Class response #2: Barn Owls



Topic:

My topic is about barn owls. I wanted to learn more about them since in class I heard that they were different from most owls. They seemed interesting to learn about.

Interesting Facts:

~ Female barn owls are usually bigger than male barn owls.

~ The barn owl is located in many places such as North, Central and South America; Britain and Western Europe to the Black Sea; North, Central and Southern Africa, Madagascar, India, Burma, many islands of the East Indies, Australia and Tasmania.

~ Only some northern birds may move south in winter.

~ Barn owls eat certain types of birds, bats, lizards frogs, insects, and fish.

~ They locate their prey by sight or sound and strike the animal with their talons. They take off very quickly with their food firmly in their beak.

~ They are known to have, probably, the best sense of hearing of all owls and can locate prey in total darkness.

~ The owls communicate by hissing, screeching, and beak snapping, which indicates anger.

My opinion:

My opinion on the barn owls is that they are a lot like the other owls, but better. I think it's really cool how they can catch their prey so easily in pitch, black darkness. I am also amazed that they eat birds because they are birds, aswell. That's like a human eating another human (YUCK!). The owls communicate pretty much the same as humans do anger wise. Whenever my mom gets mad her teeth chatter, which is kind of like how the owls snap their beaks. Overall, the barn owls were fun to learn about. They are kind of weird, but they're pretty much normal compared to other animals like snakes (YIKES!).

Site: http://www.oregonzoo.org/Cards/BirdsOfPrey/barn_owl.htm

Gregor Mendel: The Father of Genetics

Class Response: Gregor Mendel


Topic:

My topic is Gregor Mendel. We learned about him in class briefly and I wanted to find out about more of his discoveries, experiments and more.

Interesting Facts:

~ Gregor Mendel took a qualifying examination for teacher certification at a secondary school in the city of Znaim at for teaching and failed.

~ In 1851 he entered the University of Vienna to train to be a teacher of
Mathematics and Biology. It was there where he developed skills as a
researcher. He studied physics, chemistry, mathematics, zoology and
botany from 1851 to 1853.

~ He studied for two years at the Philosophical Institute at Olmutz Czechoslovakia.

~ He was a well loved monk and abbot who became famous after he passed away on January 6, 1884.

~ Gregor Mendel's theorys about genetics were ignored by the academic world and were not understood because hes discoveries were ahead of his time.

~ He spent over eight years growing over thirty-thousand pea plants studying genetics in the garden in his monestary.


My Opinion:

In my opinion, Gregor Mendel is interesting to study because he was the first person who figured out why people looked the way they did. He figured out that people got vertain traits from their parents. The theory that people had in his time period was that you features were mixed, but the truth of the matter was that you got some features from your mother and some from your father. I cant believe he actually spent eight years of his life growing over thrity-thousand pea plants to learn about this unknown topic which was more of a twentieth century study (much more ahead of his own time). While studying him, I read that he was a quiet person. This was believable because I read that his fame wasn't recognized until after he passed away. I'm glad he discovered this because if he didn't, we wouldn't know as much as we do about the human body, for example, diseases. THANK YOU GREGOR MENDEL!

Sites:

1. http://www.lycos.com/info/gregor-mendel.html
2. http://712educators.about.com/cs/biographies/p/mendel.htm
3. http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/klmno/mendel_gregor.html

A Dead Star's Dusty Ring

Who: Marc J. Kuchner

What: Scientists looked through the Spitzer Space Telescope at a dead star far away.

When: February 21, 2007

Where: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Why:
To see what will happen to our sun and planet Earth in five billion
years and discovered something different from what they originally
thought.

My opinion:

My opinion on this article is to
expect the unexpected because the scientists thought that what they
were going to see while looking at the dead star through the Spitzer
Space Telescope was a bunch of extra dust that got pushed away from the
Helix nebula. Instead of it getting pushed away, the dust surrounded
the Helix nebula. Scientists found even older white dwarfs with dust
surrounding them, too. The scientists think that this is what will happen to our
star in five billion years when it breaks down because the dust
consisted of the same thing comets consist of. Our sun has comets that
orbit it just like the dust that is orbitting that white dwarf. This
article made me curious about what was going to happen to our solar
system once it dies out. I wondered if in five billion years there would even be an Earth because of the way we treat it. I also wondered if those other dead stars once had an Earth and solar system like ours. There could be a whole different kind
of life out there somewhere in space that we haven't discovered yet.

Site: href="http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20070221/Note2.asp">http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20070221/Note2.asp

A Meal Plan for Birds

Who: Researchers from the University of Cambridge in England

What: Testing scrub jays with food

When: February 28, 2007

Where: The University of Cambridge in England

Why: To learn about animal planning

My opinion:

My
opinion on this article was that these birds, scrub jays, and other
animals are just like humans. They plan out what to do with their food
to save it up for later. The experiment that was done by the
researchers from the University of Cambridge in England was to see what
the birds would do when in each room there was a different story food
wise. The researchers put these birds in chambers with two side rooms.
In the first part of the experiment, the researches grounded up the
bird's food so that they couldn't store it. On some days, the birds
were put into one of the rooms for up to two hours with no breakfast
and other days were put into the other room with ground up food. This
taught the birds that there was food in one room, but not the other.
The birds were given a surprise one day and got to eat as many pine
nuts as they wanted and stash away extras where ever they wanted for
later. I thought the birds were smart because they put most of the food
in the room where they knew the food never was. In the second
experiment, the researchers put peanuts in one room and food pellets in
the other. The birds learned which room was which and when they were
given a session to do whatever they wished with the food, they put more
peanuts in the food pellet room and more food pellets in the peanut
room. To me, these birds were very clever with planning what to do with
their food.


Site: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20070228/Note3.asp

A Fix For Injured Knees

Who: Cato T. Laurencin

What: Doctors may be able to grow cells into human ligaments to fix torn ligaments.

When: February 28, 2007

Where: University of Virginia in Charlottesville

Why: To help atheletes get back in the game and to fix torn ligaments.

My opinion:

My opinion on this topic is that it's a good idea to create ligaments from cells. What the doctors do when you tear your ligament (usually the ACL which stands for anterior cruciate ligament) is replace it with a healthy ligament from another part of your leg. This procedure takes a long recovery and is painful. Instead of doing this, scientists are trying to discover a way on how to make this a "not so painful" experience by using a fake ligament. Cato T. Laurencin, and other scientists from the University of Virginia, took cells from rabbits and put them with artificial materials and made an artificial ligament. They tested the artificial ligament in rabbits. The cells grew slowly and turned into a natural ligament. The artificial materials were dissolved. In my opinion, if I tore my own ACL, I would NOT want to go through the pain of having the original idea of replacing the it with a healthy ligament because I hate pain. I would rather have something simple and painless done.

site: http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20070228/Note2.asp

HIIII

HIIII GUYYSS.....wasapppp.....finally blogged after like having a month of doing this....teehee....im a procrastinator like tht.....dont no wat it means....m-w.com my friend!.....:).....



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~smarterkid