i can't believe school is overrr. ),:<333.

the year went by muchhh faster than i wanted or expected. i miss everyone so much already. mostly my friends in seventh grade<3.

please don't forget me next year when you guys are eighth graders and you have a bunch of seventh grade friends. you'll realize how upsetting it is to leave both them and middle school behind, cause it really is extremely sad. it's sadder than i ever thought it would be. steven you know that cause you got a picture of me crying :P. hah.

so, yeah.

i just wanna say goodbye to all of my teachers and thank them for being awesome for the past two years in the omega unit. and i wanna say goodbye to my friends who i'm leaving behind for two whole years; you all made every day a little better(:<3

see you when i visit next year, which i'll be doing as much as i can, and see you in two years at the high school<333!

love you guys, always<3.

Class Response #2- Water Cycle Activity

Last week in class, a student from Rutgers did an activity with us in class to teach us about the water cycle and how humans interrupt it. First, we talked about the water cycle. Basically, water is evaporated into the air from lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water. The evaporated water travels up through the atmosphere and is stored in the clouds. Once the clouds are full, it rains and the water falls back into bodies of water. The cycle repeats itself over and over again. However, humans take water for ourselves and disrupt the water cycle. To learn how this works, students were all given an index card that said either " spoon (assigned tub of water goes here) " or " cup (dump into tub of water) " . The tubs of water were labelled Aquifer, Reservoir, Ocean, Industry, Plants & Animals, Rivers & Lakes, and Agriculture. If your card said spoon, you had to take a spoonful of water out of the assigned tub of water and dump it into a cup. The people who were cups, or clouds, collected the water and then dumped them into a tub. This showed how at the end of the first part of the activity, the water levels hadn't really changed much. That was because the water was distributed almost equally between all of the tubs. For the second part, though, " human (big cups) " were added to the activity. The people who had the big cups had to take water out of the Aquifer and dump them either into Agriculture or Industry (human-related tubs). At the end of this part, the Agriculture and Industry containers were nearly overflowing! This shows how much humans use of our Earth's water. This activity was great in showing the water cycle and how water travels and is used everywhere.

Class Response #1- Digging For Oil!

In class, a student from Rutgers University came and taught us about oil. Oil is found underneath the ground; powerful tools are needed to drill that deep into the solid earth. After we were taught about traps, reservoirs, and sources, we were given a packet of maps to trace on a single sheet of paper. We were instructed to mark the places on the paper where all three overlapped, and then we were told to go to a lab table. Once there, we received another sheet of paper with a blank chart on it. In the middle of the lab table was a container covered in tin foil. There was also the outlines of a grid that matched the grids from the packet. Together with our groups, we had to dig for oil by poking holes in the foil in the places we marked on our maps. When oil was found (which turned out to be syrup in kitty litter rather than kitty litter alone), we had to record our findings. We used special equations to figure out how much money was spent drilling holes, and how much was received from the oil found. Overall, the activity we did to help us learn about oil was a fun and easy way to develop an understanding about oil.(:

Extra Credit: A Weather Poem

A Wintry Sonnet
Christina Rossetti

A Robin said: The Spring will never come,
And I shall never care to build again.
A Rosebush said: These frosts are wearisome,
My sap will never stir for sun or rain.
The half Moon said: These nights are fogged and slow,
I neither care to wax nor care to wane.
The Ocean said: I thirst from long ago,
Because earth's rivers cannot fill the main.
When Springtime came, red Robin built a nest,
And trilled a lover's song in sheer delight.
Grey hoarfrost vanished, and the Rose with might
Clothed her in leaves and buds of crimson core.
The dim Moon brightened. Ocean sunned his crest,
Dimpled his blue, yet thirsted evermore.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Weather is used in this poem when it shows the changes that occurred when winter morphs into spring. Christina Rossetti explained what was altered when the seasons changed. For example, the Robin had said, "The Spring will never come, and I shall never care to build again." He had said that during the winter. However, when spring arrived, the Robin was once again able to build his nest. Rossetti's knowledge of weather helped enhance this poem because if she didn't know what happened to rosebushes, robins, the half moon, or the ocean when spring came around, the poem wouldn't be as great as it is. In this poem, the weather discussed is the cold, harsh weather of winter that eventually became the warm, inviting weather of spring. Since the poem is mainly about the weather changing, without the mention of weather the poem would be extremely different; in fact, it wouldn't be anything. Rossetti used personification and rhyme in her poem. She used personification creatively to write her poem, and she used rhyme to give the words a steady flow. Although this poem didn't teach me any new facts about weather, I still enjoyed reading this great sonnet by Christina Rossetti.

Social Studies - Advancements In Technology

When asked to choose one advancement in technology that I believe has made the greatest impact on society, the choice came right to mind. The cell phone. Although many families across the globe own a phone for the whole household, cell phones are also very important to have. Even though there are still pay phones for people to use in public, it is much more convenient to have a cell phone on you to use. When in an emergency, sometimes a call for help is needed. If you don't have a cell phone, more than likely you will have to go somewhere else before making the call that can save someone's life. Also, the communication that came with the invention of cell phones makes the world a smaller place. These pocket sized devices can call any phone number of your choice anywhere on the globe. Without a cell phone, I couldn't talk to my friends as much as I am able to, which is very important to me and many other teenagers that I know. =]. This is why I believe that cell phones have a great impact on society.

[Math EC Blog] Stereotypes: Turn Girls Off To Math.

Who: Girls from about kindergarten to high school.

What: This article explains 5 myths that are proved wrong when it comes to girls and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math). The one myth that caught my attention was Myth #3. It stated that science and math teachers aren't biased towards their male students. But because this is a myth, apparently it isn't true. This is the real reason. [Taken directly from the article:] "In fact, biases are persistent, and teachers often interact more with boys than with girls in science and math. A teacher will often help a boy do an experiment by explaining how to do it, while when a girl asks for assistance the teacher will often simply do the experiment, leaving the girl to watch rather than do. Research shows that when teachers are deliberate about taking steps to involve the female students, everyone winds up benefiting. This may mean making sure everyone in the class is called on over the course of a particular lesson, or asking a question and waiting 10 seconds before calling on anyone. Good math and science teachers also recognize that when instruction is inquiry-based and hands-on, and students engage in problem solving as cooperative teams, both boys and girls are motivated to pursue STEM activities, education and careers."

Where: Everywhere.

When: I'm not positive when these tests were taken, but it's pretty recent.

Why: People just felt like proving myths about girls and education wrong, I guess.

My Opinion: I know for a fact that when my math teacher helps me with problems, and my science teacher too (even though she's female), they help me the same as they do for boys. Still, all teachers will have favorites, even if they don't show it. But both male and female students do not seem to be helped any different from each other. Besides, statistics can't tell how all teachers help their students, and not every teacher is the same. There may be some teachers out there that help boys more than girls in math, science, and other topics, but mine don't.

Click here for the article.

[Math EC Blog] Monkeys Can Do Mental Math! =O

Who: Monkeys!

What: Researchers from Duke University looked farther into the earlier findings of Japanese researchers. These findings stated that young chimps could perform better than human adults at memory games. They can also match numbers of objects, compare numbers, and choose the larger set of two groups of objects. Tests resulted in finding out that these monkeys performed nearly as well as college students when it came to mental math. To further test this, 14 Duke students were put up against two female rhesus macaques (monkeys) named Boxer and Feinstein. The humans were told that they could not verbalize or count. Generally, both the animals and the students answered each question in less than a second. When the students worsened, so did the primates. When something was more difficult to determine, it took a toll on all test takers. The ratio effect also made a difference in their ability to answer the questions as quickly. So if the ratio was smaller in difference, it would be tougher to answer. At the end, results showed that the humans correctly answered 94% of the questions correctly, while the monkeys were right about 76% of the time. This goes to prove how similar the human race is with this remarkable species and how important language is to every topic, even mental math.

When: The article was posted today, February 17th, at 8:50 p.m.

Where: Duke University was the place where everything was held and observed.

Why: American researchers wanted to continue the previous studies of some Japanese researchers.

My Opinion: It's cool how close we are in educational skills with monkeys. This article showed how both species will work better or worse at the same times and when the same changes took place. I would actually enjoy being able to look further into this study, as did the students at Duke University!

Article here.

Why do Chimps Eat Dirt?

Who: Chimpanzees.

What: Researchers studied chimps to find out why they eat dirt. Apparently, these animals have a good reason for eating dirt; it improves their health. According to research team led by Sabrina Krief, chimps eat dirt because "eating soil with their meals boosts the anti-malarial properties of plants the chimps eat." This means that the chance of a chimp getting a disease, like malaria, through a plant that they eat is slimmer than it usually would be. In other words, eating soil and plants one after the other will help boost a chimpanzee's health. So while devouring dirt as part of a meal may seem disgusting to us, to chimps it is a very healthy way of life.
When: The article was posted on the website below today, January 11th, 2008. However, the story will be published on an online journal sometime next week.

Where: Soil samples were taken and chimps' eating habits were studied at the Kibale National Park in Uganda.

Why: Scientists and researchers were interested and fascinated by the fact that chimpanzees eat soil either right before or after eating their normal meal of plants.

My Opinion: I thought this article was cool. First of all, I didn't even know that chimps ate soil in the first place. Second of all, I found it an odd and sort of random topic. Maybe that's why I chose to post a response about it on my blog! And third of all, chimpanzees are adorable and I love animals. =]

I found the article here.