Welcome Back!

Okay, I know we're already well into the first six weeks of school...but welcome back!! We're doing lots of new things this year, and a lot of those new things have to do with the Three Rivers Foundation, who just happens to have a new blog, so I want to put a link to it here.

And of course, I can't leave out my new class website, where students can access all of the lessons they see in class, and get caught up if they miss a day. Once we get all of our new computers at school and other technological equipment, I hope to eventually have podcasts and videos and lots more student work there too, so keep an eye out and watch us evolve! :)

SHS is already signed up to take a bus load of kids to 3RF in November to watch the Leonid meteor shower from one of the darkest places around. Bring a blanket!

Also, we're getting closer and closer to starting our turtle habitat. Meet our first turtle (sorry, he's not named yet!)

The Garden that We Built

April 22 was Earth Day, and boy, did you guys do it up right! Thanks to the Three Rivers Foundation, you guys used your own hands to make SHS's very first butterfly garden! I am so proud of your attention to detail, the way you got in there and worked hard in the sun, and helped each other to do something good for your school. Now we have completed what is the first step to all kinds of cool projects - like tracking butterfly and hummingbird migrations, an eventual bigger garden, and even building a box turtle habitat. Good job!!!

And here's the result of your hard work! (Drumroll......)

Great work, guys!!

Chemistry: What Are Fossil Fuels?

This week in Chemistry, we are taking a little trip away from your text book and are going to study something out of ~Chapter X~.....

What's Chapter X, you ask? It's a chapter that I built myself so that you can learn a little more about hydrocarbons - how we get them, how we use them, and how they affect us. By the end of the chapter, you will know more about alternatives to using hydrocarbons also.

To start off, go to this link: What are fossil fuels?

Use the website that comes up to answer the questions on your class handout.

Do Something

The last few chapters in our Biology book have made us very aware of some of the difficult issues (like acid rain, ozone depletion, global warming, chemical pollution, loss of resources and population growth) we face on our planet that will have to be addressed if we are going to be able to keep Earth so that it can sustain our growing population.

Believe it or not, as big as these issues are, there are actually a lot of things you can do to start working toward our new goals of protecting our life on this planet. If you will look over to the right hand menu over there, you will see a new "widget" called the "Act Now Matrix." This cool little tool is from DoSomething.org and lets you pick from a list of lots of pressing issues we have, and see lists of things you can do about your issue, all organized by the size of the group of people you are working with and where you want to work on your issue.

Here's what I want you to do:

1. Pick one of these issues that we learned about in class:

• Acid Rain
• Ozone
• Global Temperature
• Chemical Pollution
• Loss of Resources
• Population Growth

2. Use the widget from dosomething.org to find something reasonable that you can do, today, to do something about your issue. There are a lot to choose from.

3. Start a new page in your science journal ("Ch. 18 The Issues") and describe your issue - what has caused it, what is the overall goal we need to reach to resolve this issue and then tell me something that you can realistically do (for example, if acid rain is my issue, then my overall goal might be to cut down on putting chemicals in the air, and what I can do is something more specific that will help achieve that goal. And no, you can't use what I just said for your entry! :) ). Don't forget to draw a picture!

Biology Links - Material Cycles

Hey guys! For today's lesson about how materials get cycled through both living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem, check out these links:

Water Cycle

Carbon Cycle

Nitrogen Cycle

For your daily grade today, post a comment on how you think people could influence the water, carbon, and nitrogen cycles. Is that impact good, bad, or both (explain why)? Do these cycles need protecting in any way? Why? What can you do to help maintain a healthy ecosystem?