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These were my favorite parts of Mrs. Casey's earth science this year. In astronomy at the end of the year we had Mr. Steve Getty come in and teach us about orbits in space. This was my favorite because he gave us the opportunity to use our prior knowledge as well as our resources. It was great working with people to solve the problems in space and watching how stars exploded. We all really appreciated him coming in and watching him lose a bet and had to to 50 push ups that was the bomb.

The next subject we jumped into was Earth's atmosphere. My favorite activity in this subject had to be drawing a picture of it get this, ON THE COMPUTER. Crazy as that sounds it was a great experience and I enjoyed it tremendously. I use this all the time now and was a skill i will never forget and one that i love more everytime I use it. This subject proved that this year would be fun after all.


Another subject we studied this year was Geology. My favorite activity in this subject would have to be the project me and my friend Jason bombed badly. We had to make a project on the earths moon and stuff like that. Him and i could have gotten a lot better grade but we are 13 year old guys and got distracted, oh well. We didn't fail but it wasn't to good.

The next subject we did was Weathering and Erosion. In this subject we had to do a presentation in which Jason and I again didn't do so well. I changed my voice from normal to southern and back. It was really confusing after a while but us two had a blast with it and I wouldn't trade that in for the world. Though the grade wasn't what most people expected it was still a funsized blast.


As the end of the year reared its promising head we got an odd assignment. We had to communicate with people from a state on the other side of the continent. We did a collaborative project with people from North Carolina. Ours was on the earth's water and the way that our oceans were so polluted. I was put with the job of the hardest subject to research which was man made pollution. However we got a good grade and learned a lot about other parts of the United States. As you can see this year was great and I look forward to next year.

Manitou/ Colorado springs Drinking Water Comparison

Manitou Springs drinking water comes from snow melt and natural spring water on pikes peak. There is a reservoir on the peak that holds the water imaginatively called the Manitou Springs Reservoir. The water exceeds state and federal water regulations. There is a watershed on the peak and takes up 30 acres of National Forest and the reservoir takes up 720 acre feet of land. Colorado Springs gets 3/4 of its water from mountain springs in Aspen, Leadville, and Breckenridge. This water is taken to the Rampart and Catamount reservoirs by pipes. The other fourth of the water comes from ground water supplies such as the Northern and Southern slopes, and other river resources. However both places exceed state and federal water regulations.

Comic

Water Cycle

The water cycle is the continuous process in which water moves through the environment. The water cycle does not have a beginning or end because it is a continuous process. Water can go from a simple puddle to rain like this. First the puddle evaporates putting moisture in the air. Then it condensates and makes clouds full of water. When the water in the cloud gets to heavy the water will fall in the form of rain (depending on the season.) this is called precipitation.

Anutated Bibliography

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/ocean_pollution.htm
http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/pollution/
http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00116/mainpageashley.htm
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090320-robot-fish-video.html

These four websites are sites that explain the many different view points on man made ocean pollution. The first one explains the different types of toxic wastes that can be released by the boats in the ocean. The next one explains how the fish and the rest of the marine life is dieing off due to pollution. The next one gives a list of recently searched topics on the subject and everyday solutions that even the average people can do. The last one has a video of the reaccuring pollution that we have done nothing to stop the spread of pollution.

Ocean Pollution

4 Essential Questions- Cody

What, specifically about your topic, are you going to research?
1. I will research the man made causes to ocean pollution

1. What conclusions did you come to? What do you recommend average citizens do to make a difference? Be specific. This is the main part of your assignment.

2. Over 80% of ocean pollution come from human activity. Garbage dumping is the most common form of ocean pollution and is getting worse every year. This cause the extirpation of deep sea plants and animals. Garbage from as long as 20 years ago still floats around in the waters and the longer it is in the water the more things get infected. This trash is getting into fish and choking them. Toxic wastes are poisoning the plants and animals. However there are ways for seamen to stop this phenomenon from spreading into to big of a problem. First don't turn your engine on fully unless you need it. Also buy a new marine engine every year. Now i know people hear this all the time but riding a bike can help our waters because the co2 won't get in and contaminate the water. Another thing that can cut down on pollution is recycling. The recyclable plastics are choking fish.So are the paper particals in the water.

What would happen if, worst-case scenario, nobody listened to your recommendations?

3.If no one listens to my suggestions it will only get worse and may lead to more severe consequences. Including the extinction of marine life.

What would happen if, best-case scenario, everybody listened to your recommendations?

4.If everyone followed these guidelines then we can save the ocean and prevent other damages to our eco system. It will mostly help earths waters and will save the marine life around the globe.

Penny Lab

What is going to happen is I am going to try to see how many drops of water ca fit on a penny. I predicted that only 7 to 10 drops of water will fit on the penny. However i was able to fit 26 drops of water on the penny until the water washed off of it. I believe that 26 drops fit on the penny due to the process of capillary action.

The Mariana Trench

Welcome to the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the Earth's surface at an astounding 11 kilometers deep WOW! We are located just south of Asia right next to Guam and the Mariana Islands. Oceanographers form around the world come to see this giant water based wonder.At 11 kilometers deep no one has every made the journey due to the freezing water temperatures and the ridiculously high water pressure. There is not much to see because the lower you go the darker it gets and about 2 kilometers down it turns pitch black enabling sight by the naked eye. There are very few animals and plants live that way because of the conditions.However the ones that do live down there caught scientists by surprise because of the theory that nothing could live i such a cold place. The Mariana Trench show that even at the very bottom of the trench life still exists. Scientists are finding more about the trench every day and one of the most astounding discoveries was that there are heat vents at the bottom of the trench. As you can see this is a very interesting part of Earth's waters.

Earthquakes

Generally earthquakes tend to happen on the worlds coast lines, but the place that is most commonly hit is right outside Japan which measures a 5 on the rector scale. I think this because the faults move the techtonic plates causing a transform boundary that happens to collide making a disturbance in the plates causing a sudden swerve of vibrations. This area is called a fault which is where the two plate boundries collide and in the case of an earthquake they rub on each other. The most recent earthquake around these parts was the one in northern Colorado which measured a 2 on the rictor scale. People were not able to fell it because we are used to its vibrations but it was there. It had 100 times the ground shaking and 1024 times the energy released than a 1 on the rector scale. This earthquake that i researched happened in an uncommon place in Arkansas it had a magnitude of 2.9 and affected Tennessee and Missouri as well as Arkansas. The way to protect yourself from earthquakes is to get to high grounds.