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By: Symone McCollum & Bryanna Jones

By: Natalee Schiavoni & Kimberly Cayamcela
Website - Lessons and information about "Classify Rocks"

​http://teachmehowtoclassify.blogspot.com/

Breeanna Noi and Sabrina Stewart-McDonald

This PSSA topic is centered around the life cycle of stars. The star is born from the nebula is goes through a process in which the core changes, eventually running out of energy and collapsing on itself or becoming dimmer. The process depends on how big the star is. 

By Alex and Kam

Click Here for A Nice Slide Show

Here You Go!

My goal is to be able to be comfortable having a conversation with someone.

-Have a conversation with someone and ask them about what they did that day. If I can be comfortable and keep the conversation then I think I will be successful.

-I would talk to my Columbian friend who is fluent in spanish and will be able to tell me what I need to improve on.

​My goal for the conversations in general would be to speak a little more fluently and understand how a native speaker usually speaks and how to keep up with the conversation. I have a problem with pronunciation and that is also one of my goal. 

I have couple of spanish friends who speak spanish fluently and I'm going to have little chat with them. 

Environmental Impact

"Both natural processes and human activities are capable of changing the environment."-Study Island

Slow Changes to the environment include:

•Changing of the seasons

•Ecological succession

Rapid Changes to the environment include:

•Hurricanes

•Volcanic Eruptions

•Asteroid Impacts

Humans contribute to the environment in many ways, especially if they are treating the environment bad. 

•Habitat destruction

•Fossil fuels burning

•Genetically engineering organisms

•Pollution

•Greenhouse Gases

So we are going to focus on ecological succession and it's impact on the environment. Ecological succession is basically a process that a community undergoes and has a predictable change. Think of "I Am Legend" when you see the deers running around and trees growing in the streets. Basically that street has turned into a "forest" that's ecological succession.Example below:

                           

Over time as you can in 1840 it started out as a pond but ended up being a forest.  In 1870 you can that some of the plants are starting to get a little bigger and that the fish are still present. In 1900 algae are starting to fill up the pond. 1930 the pond is almost covered now with a tree on the side and algae almost filling the whole thing. In the last two years the trees are more present with the pond covered with algae and dirt.

Questions to think about:

What is ecological succession?

What is primary ecological succession?

Listed below is pictures of ecological succession which one shows it the most?

My goal is to talk in spanish slightly fluently. 
- To not use any english words in between. 
- Try not to stutter and space out a lot. 

I already talked to a telemarketer in spanish. He was laughing a little because I asked him if he could speak spanish to me for my school project. He was really nice though, he helped me a lot. 

Pick one of the following people (or someone else) and create a one-week nutritional plan for him/her. Choose to work on the plan for desayuno OR almuerzo OR cena. The person's name is the title of your post.

Michael Phelps who exercises 9 hours/day

Lindsay Lohan who needs to gain weight for a role

Angelina Jolie, a vegetarian with a voracious appetite

Dora la Exploradora who is vegan

            Nick Jonas who is diabetic

Be sure:            

- to indicate quantity (UNA manzana, DOS hamburguesas)

- to provide variety so they don’t get sick of it

- to recommend a drink (un vaso de = a glass of, una taza de = a mug of)

- to be creative (Peruvian Andes cuisine?)

You can use words that are not on the vocab sheet.

	Desayuno Almuerzo Cena
lunes
martes
miércoles
jueves
viernes
sábado
domingo

Conversation Goals


- Keep going with the conversation without stoping or saying "Umm" a lot. 

- Make the conversation flow better and not stumble over words I do not know how to pronounce. 

- Learn how to use conjugations better and make sure I am using them correctly.


I want to know more about the spanish speaking countries and I think it is better to learn from them instead of something read on the internet or text book.

What is normal day in your country?
What do you do for fun?
What type of music do you listen to?
How is the education in your country?
What do you dislike about your country?

Major Understanding:

The basic major understanding of atoms are that they composed virtually everything in the universe. Everything is composed of atoms, from your mom, to your dad and even something huge like the Sun is composed of atoms. Without the basic structure of atoms, mass, and objects with really large masses couldn't exist. Also with things such as ionic and covalent bonds give way to much more complex structure and organisms like humans, and the Sun. 

Simple Questions

Había una familia en las montañas de Virginia. Había un papá, una mamá, un hijo, y una hija. La familia vivía en una casa humilde, pero ellos gustaron el humildad de la casa. La familia tenía un perro. Era una perro especial, y era de ascendencia labordoodle. El perro era bastante importante. El perro tenía un secreto. El Perro estaba preocupadísima. El perro lloraba. El perro le sollozó al mamá, "El Mar, mamacocha, está furioso. Mamcocha va a destruir el mundo. Había un problema. Era un problema grave.

 

Había un gato. El perro le dijo al gato, "Hay un problema. El mar, Mamacocha está furioso! El Mar va a destruir el mundo. Sube la montaña más alta con nosotros." El gato comprendeó perfectamente. El gato se escapó con el grupo.

 

Había un cerdo. El perro le exclamó al cerdo, "Hay un problema. El mar está enojadísimo! El mar va a destruir el mundo. Escala la montaña más alta con nosotros, por favor!" El perro era muy preocupadísima. El cerdo comprendío bien, pero no caminaba con el grupo. El cerdo saltó.

 

Había un delfín. El perro le dijo a la delfín y hablé la problema. El delfín entendío, y se fue con el grupo. Pero, él necesitó a nadar. Entonces él buscó un río.

 

Había un espantapájaros. El perro explicó al espantapájaros, "Hay un problema. El mar, Mamacocha, está furioso. El mar va a destruir el mundo. Escala la montaña más alta con nosotros." El espantapájaros comprendió, pero no se fue con el grupo. El espantapájaros montó en el cerdo.

 

Había un unicornio. El perro le dijo, "Hay una problema! El, Mar, Mamacocha, está furioso. El mar va a destruir el mundo. Sube la montaña más alta con nosotros." El unicornio no les hizo caso. El unicornio no se fue con el grupo y era demasiado perezoso.

 

El grupo subió la montaña más alta. La familia, el perro, y el gato subieron Huillcacoto, la montaña más alta. El cerdo y el espantapájaros saltaban. Y el delfín nadaba.

 

El mar subió. El mar subió con furia. Había un problema. Era un problema grave. El unicornio no estaba con el grupo. El unicornio corrio. El unicornio no caminó. El unicornio no voló. El unicornio corrió muy rápido. El unicornio subió la montaña más alta, pero se cayó.

 

Por fin el mar, Mamacocha, estaba contento y no subió más. El mar bajó. La familia bajó. El perro bajó. Los otros animales bajaron. Y todos estaban felices. Y ya no había problemas.

 

 

 

Genetics explains why we are the way we are. It explains how our parents effect our lives, and the traits that we inherit, and generally how our body works. Genetics also explains what can effect our lives, for example how our environment changes how we act or look. It could impact our future greatly, depending on what happens with cloning. Cloning people could provide endless organs, which would save a lot of lives but it is very controversial whether this is morally correct to do or not.

We have both a creative source of information, and a traditional presentation format. Please enjoy both, and happy PSSA testing! 

​This blog post will basically touch the simple facts, the history of genetics, etc.

 

 

1886: Gregor Mendel discovered that traits of offspring depend on the parents traits, which may be dominant or recessive. ( but this was somehow lost)

1902: Theodore Boveri & Walter Sutton used color to observe chromosomes 

1905: Nettle Stevens found out that all homologous chromosomes are the same except the ones that determines sex (X,Y)

1909: Thomas H Morgan made many important researches in fly genetics and linked analysis that apply to all diploid organisms

1941: Beadle and Tatum discovered that each gene encodes one protein

1944: Oswald Avery identified DNA as genetic material

1953: Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins showed that the DNA is a double helix, Thomas Watson and Frances Crick figured out that the base of the double helix enabled replication 

1970: Tamin and Baltimore found a enzyme used to clone genes 

1981: First transgenic mammals are made

1996: Iam Wilmut cloned the lamb Dolly from adult mammary gland tissue  

Genetics is the features and characteristics that make up an organism. 

 

 Your genetics decipher what you will look like, and your features.

 

There are many things you can learn about your genetics like your DNA and what factors are inside of it to make it important, also your genotype/phenotype, and what a recessive gene and dominant gene is.

 

Lets start simple:

 

DNA stands for Deoxyribonucleic acid. Your DNA is a molecule that carries all of your genetic information

 

Genotype describes what certain alleles are on a certain chromosome

 

Alleles are a form of a gene that play part on a specific chromosome, which controls a certain trait.

 

There are dominant and recessive alleles

 

Dominant alleles are upper case and usually the trait that comes out the most

 

Recessive is usually shown with an lower case letter, and in this allele it is usually the trait that does not show unless the organism is homozygous.

 

Homozygous just means that both of the alleles are either dominant or recessive

 

Heterozygous means that one of the alleles are dominant and one is recessive  

 

Phenotype is the physical characteristics of the gene

There are many ways that you can determine what exactly an offspring’s traits will be by using genotype. One way is to look at the alleles of the two organisms. Also if you really wanted to be accurate you will put them in a punnet square.

 

Punnet squares is just a fancy word to describe the separation of alleles to figure out what an offspring may look like, also to fish out the chances of having a certain child.

 

For example a mother and father are about to have a child they want a child with blue eyes. The mother has two alleles bb, which are homozygous. The father also has two alleles Gb, which are heterozygous. Knowing that the father has green eyes, because greens allele is dominant and blue is recessive you can figure out what is the chance of the child having blue eyes.  

By looking at this you can see that the child has a 50% chance of having green eyes or having blue eyes. But what if the father was also homozygous?

There would be no chance at the child being born with blue eyes. 

In the PSSA I do not know exactly what kind of questions will be asked, but make sure you do the study island and also look up a few things to make sure you understand such as:

Where your DNA gets its information from and what it is made up of and how its held together

How many chromosomes a human has (46)

Different types of gene disorders and also different types oh names for each type of gene

What kind of diseases are gene orientated

 


http://www.learner.org/interactives/dna/genetics.html
http://www.dnai.org/
http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/dna/
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/dna/builddna/

http://dnaandrna.com/RNA.html

Here is our own Biome map of the U.S. This is here to help refresh our minds on some of the world's biomes.

Everything on pdf

Topic	Key Points	Important Diagrams
Theory of Evolution	Animals Evolved  to adapt during different weather conditions. Many theories of evolution are just hypothesis.	The monkey to man diagram
	What I learned	Questions
	How humans and other species have evolved to adapt in their environment.	What would happen if the land disappear? Would humans adapt and grow fins.

RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTS:

Through research we encountered a variety of experiments to gain knowledge of our topic, Energy Transformations. We gathered that there is Potential, Kinetic, and Elastic energy. In one simple experiment of dropping a ball both factors of Potential and Kinetic was shown. When the ball is in the air Potential (gravity) is stored, once released the ball's energy transforms from potential to kinetic as kinetic energy becomes greater as the stored (potential) energy is transferred. Another experiment done was of a catapult launching an object through the air. Depending on the structure of the catapult there is Elastic energy within a spring-like material to then launch the object, the transfer of energy is from Elastic to Kinetic but may be dissipation where some of the energy is wasted due to friction.

HOW TO SHOW THROUGH QUALITATIVE DATA:

There are several ways to express Energy Transformations through visuals such as LOL diagrams and pie charts. LOL diagrams are diagrams showing Initial Energy, The Flow of Energy, and Final Energy. Pie Charts represent qualitative and/or quantitative of how the energy is being transferred.

Example 1: (LOL diagram)
Scenario: Free Fall of a Ball = Potential (gravitational) to Kinetic (before the ball comes in contact with another force)



Example 2: (Pie Chart)
Scenario: Catapult Launching an Object = Elastic energy becomes kinetic over time



GENERAL UNDERSTANDING:

Overall, Energy Transformation "is the process of changing energy from one form to another." Energy Transformation is in everyday life from dropping a ball to sliding down a playground slide. Energy can be potential (stored), kinetic (moving)
elastic (spring constant), dissipation (lost), and radiation(waves). Throughout the process of energies changing there can be more than one in existence. For example you may have a dart shoot into a ceiling and then remain in place due to initially the dart had kinetic energy then one hits the ceiling dissipated energy but also has some potential (gravitational) energy.

4. An example of the types of questions (multiple choice) related to your topic that might appear on the PSSA with an explanation of how you can decide on the correct answer.

A child kicked a soccer ball. How is energy being transferred?

A) Potential (Gravitational)
B) Kinetic
C) Dissipation
D) Radiation

Explanation: Since the ball is in motion the only logical answer is Kinetic.

What units is energy measured in?

A) Newtons
B) Kilograms
C) Joules
D) Pounds

Explanation: With process of elimination; Newtons measures force, kilograms measures mass, and pounds measures weight with the only option left is "Joules".

Which energy transformation is used to cook food in a microwave?

A) Radiation
B) Dissipation
C) Friction
D) Gravity

Explanation: Radiation travels in waves which cooks food in a microwave its a type of heat. Choices B,C, and D are irrelevant.

Sound is _______ energy?

A) Heated
B) Dissipated
C) Cold
D) Kinetic

Explanation: When sound is distributed it transforms into nothing more than just rhythms or syllables to our ears. When energy is not transferred than it is lost; dissipated.