The Effects of Acid Rain

Today students collected data on their plants and then learned about the effects of acid rain on various things (people, man-made objects, the soil, trees and fish).

Homework: Write a three paragraph summary IN YOUR OWN WORDS on the effects of acid rain on the soil, lakes/rivers, fish, people and man-made objects. You should use the website from last night's homework as well as the notes from class today. Click on any of the images below to get to a larger version of the text. This is due tomorrow in class. You may type or hand write this assignment. The information below is from the Delaware Department of Resources & Environmental Control

Acid Rain Data Day 1

Today students collected data on their acid rain experiments and shared their global warming articles.

Homework: Read about acid rain here and take notes for a reading quiz.

Climate Change Experiment

Today we set up the climate change experiment. There are three groups, a control group with water, a 50/50 water/acid mix and a group is only using acid to water the plants.

Homework: Find an article on climate change or global warming and write a summary of the article. Your summary should be at least five sentences long. The article should be from 2009 to the present.

This is due when we return from Thanksgiving break.

Lab Report Due Today & Climate Change 1

Today you turned in your lab reports, and I am very pleased! Thank you for the hard work you have done and you should be very proud of yourselves :)

We started to talk about climate change and what that means. You will be the ones to inherit this planet, the state it is in is up to YOU!

Since you worked so hard on your lab reports, you do not have homework tonight.

Test Tomorrow & Homework Over the Weekend

Tomorrow you have a test. I will not be in class because I will be attending the ECIS conference in Nice. Ms. Brown is covering your class.

After you finish your test, you need to read the packet on Climate Change and answer the questions. These questions are due on Monday.

Writing a Lab Report - Using Excel

Today students worked independently on their lab reports. We also learned how to use excel to make a graph for our data.

Click through the PowerPoint below to see how to use excel to make a graph.

One last reminder: you have a test on Friday and your lab report is due on Monday.

How to graph in excel

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Writing a Lab Report

Today you learned how to write a lab report. Below are the guidelines that we talked about in class.

Homework: Start a rough draft of your lab report. Due tomorrow are the Title, Introduction and Methods & Materials sections.

A few things to remember:
Please do not use "I" or the word "prove" in your lab report.
Yes, spelling counts for this assignment.
Write in the past tense (was, were, --ed)

Writing a Lab Report

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Finishing up Molecules & Temperature

Tonight for homework you need to finish the analysis questions and averages for the molecules and temperature lab.

Make sure you proof read your work and write neatly! This assignment counts for two lab grades.

Seeing Molecules & Temperature Investigation 2

Today we started a more formal experiment to collect data and continue to see the effect that temperature has on the movement of molecules.

On Monday we will finish the experiment.

On Friday, November 19th you will have a test on The Air Unit. Things that will be on your test include: the composition of the atmosphere, layers of the atmosphere, what causes wind, how temperature affects the movement of molecules, how temperature is related to hurricanes, as well as some science skills like graphing and interpreting data.

Seeing Molecules & Temperature Investigation

On Wednesday we did a practice investigation to see how temperature affects the movement of molecules. Students had some good suggestions on ways to reduce the sources of error in the experiment. Taking what we learned, we'll do the experiment on Friday.

Homework: none.

Seeing Currents

We know that hot air rises, but we can't really see that happen. Today we were able to see that water functions like air, in that hot water rises and cool water sinks.

Homework: You will have an open notes quiz tomorrow.

First read the paragraphs below about convection. Then read about atmospheric circulation here.


The one way that heat is transferred from one place to another is convection. Convection takes place when heated molecules move from one place to another, taking the heat with them. Convection is common in both the atmosphere, as well as in the oceans.

Heated air in our atmosphere expands, becoming less dense. Because it is less dense, it rises upward. Cooler air rushes in to replace the air that lifted up. As warm air rises, and cool are falls, a giant circular pattern is created. Eventually the warmer air cools, and begins to fall again. [1]

"Convection" has several, related meanings in weather....but it always involves rising air. It usually refers to "moist convection", where the excess water vapor in rising air parcels condenses to form a cloud. The heat released through this condensation can help to sustain the convection by warming the air further and making it rise still higher, which causes more water vapor to condense, so the process feeds on itself. Convection can also be dry, as occurs on a sunny day over the desert. The sun warms the ground, and convective air currents help to remove the excess heat from the surface. Dry convection also occurs during the day even when clouds are forming...you just can't see it.

Interesting facts:

MAKING THE EARTH LIVEABLE: Convection (both dry and moist) help to make the Earth liveable by removing excess heat from the surface, and transporting it high into the atmosphere. It has been calculated that, without convection, the average surface air temperature on the earth would be about 125 deg. F, rather than the current 59 deg. F. [2]

Windy Weather

What causes a hurricane? Today students shared the information they learned from their articles on hurricanes, cyclones and tornadoes.

To learn more about how these storms are formed we watched and took notes on the video clip below.



Homework: Click the picture below to link to the animation we started to go through in class. Take notes, you will have an open notes quiz on this information tomorrow.

Weather & Wind

This post is for Friday November 5th. I hope you are all good for Ms. Blum while I am away at the volleyball tournament.

Below is your homework:

Find a news article from 2008 to the present one of the following topics:

Hurricanes
Tornadoes
Cyclones

There are many news sources out there, these are just a few suggestions :)

www.sciencedaily.com
www.bbc.co.uk
www.boston.com

For the article complete the following on a sheet of paper. If you type your answers, you MUST bring a printed copy to class.

1. What is the title of the article?

2. When was this article published?

3. What news source is this article from AND who is the author?

4. Write a 5 sentence summary of the article.

5. What is the most interesting thing you learned from this article?

6. List all of the words that you do not know.

This is due on Monday in class.

Layers of the Atmosphere

Today we made a scale model of the layers of the atmosphere. For homework you need to finish your model and include three facts about each layer of the atmosphere on your model.

Homework part 2: Watch the video clip below about the atmosphere from National Geographic.

New Unit: The Air

What is the sky? What is the air? What is the atmosphere? Are these the same things? Why do we have different climates in different parts of the world? Wait, what is a climate?

These are all questions we'll answer over the next few weeks. Today we learned how elements and compounds relate to the air. For homework: Read and take notes on the layers of the atmosphere. Click the picture to link to your homework assignment. You will have a reading quiz on this information on Tuesday.


Please bring the lid of a shoe box to class tomorrow for a mini-project.