10th grade registration

Mr. Voight pointed out that tenth grade registration is coming up. I think i heard its like this week or next week or something. Either way, i still don't know what classes i want to take. Of course i want classes that will give me a good education, and are fun. But i want classes that will help get me into a good college. But the thing is, i don't know what i want to do as a career, so its really hard for me to decide what classes to take. [Well, i wanna be an actor, but the way i see it, there are many opportunities to make a good living just acting, so i figure a back-up plan is in order.]

Being the oldest in my family, i don't have an older sibling in high school i can ask for advice. i don't even know what classes there are to take. I only have a vague idea of what is offered.

I don't think i'm the only one who has this problem [not knowing what classes to take.]

I'm sure we'll get a lot of information when registration comes, but in the meantime: anyone have any advice?

Change/Models

believe it or not, its really hard to find a good news article about using models. i found this. it's definatley not the greatest. actually it just briefly talks about the atom models we discussed earlier in the year. but it shows how models can be used to show ideas and how they work. i definately wouldn't have understood the evolution of the atomic theory as well without models. They show you how something works along with describing it, so you're not left to your imagination. because no matter how creative you are, some scientific ideas are hard to grasp. Plus models are 3-D and you don't have to, again, "imagine" what the rest of the picture/model is like.

make sense?

Melissa used an excellent example with Michaelangelo. Many of his sculpture he made a model of so that other people could replicate them later, in a larger format. Many of his works wouldn't be around now, because, as melissa said: the immense number of statues Michaelangelo was credited with carving would have been impossible for one person to carve in one lifetime." 

Also. Madelyn found an excellent article about spaceships. Many things our scientists and researchers come up with are often incredibly expensive. I'm going to go ahead and assume that putting a man in space isn't something you can pay for with babysitting money. :) 

If we didn't make models of things like spaceships, or even the new stadium Minneapolis is building, we might not know how everything will work. It would be bad if we blew billions of dollars on a spaceship that failed to leave the ground, or if we paid for a stadium and found out that it just won't fit in the land they were planning on building it on.

My own personal experience in our science class has taught me that models are valuable things. as i stated earlier, the models of atoms helped me understand how they were made up - what they looked like. Orbitals, while they still confuse me a tad, became a lot clearer when Mr. Voight used balloons to show us how they worked/looked.

Why Do We Learn Science?

I used to always ask the question "why do we need to learn this?" whenever i would get frustrated with something i was being taught. But no matter what answer my mom or dad provided, my little 2nd grade mind was determined teachers just wanted to waste our time with useless junk. [sorry mr. voight....]

But over the years i figured that there is a reason out there to learn what we're learning. Seriously, who would want to spend time teaching "useless junk," much less pay for someone to teach it? [referring to whoever it is that pays the teachers..]

Science occurs in our everyday life. How many of you turn on a fireplace when you get sick of the subzero temperatures? What about all the technology we use daily? We breathe don't we? There's some form of science behind everything we do. Learning how it works often comes in handy. 

For example: learning chemical reactions. Learning what will cause something to combust would be pretty useful don't ya think? Picture this: You have a gas stove. You are boiling water for your lunch of those oh-so delicious boxes of macaroni you've been living off of since you're mom got a job. You, being the stereotypical teenage girl you are, are a little worried about your hair. It just won't stay where you want it. You run upstairs and grab a can of hairspray, but you've always been taught never to leave something unattended on the stove. You bring your hairspray down and spray it near the flame. KABOOM! you are now a ball of fire and are forced to go to formal with 3rd degree burns, which is the least of your worries. [oh the stereotypes and lack of common sense.......]

Anyway, lots of accidents can be avoided by learning science.

Also, many careers are science based. What is school but preparation for " the real life". [i hate that, the real life... but thats another topic. ] Anyway, how many of you freak out about your grades? are worried about college? are trying to figure out what you want to do when you "grow up?"  It's hard to know what you want to do with the remaining decades of your life when your in 9th grade. If we aquire basic knowledge of several topics than we'll be that much more prepared. Plus, you never know what will be on the sats/acts/whatever college-y test is it we should be worried about.

Just a friendly blogging warning.

For all the people who read, or plan on reading, my blog, i'd like to post a little warning. I can't talk.

 For those of you who talk to me at school you know i am constantly repeating myself or losing words, or i end up saying things that work out in my head but something gets lost in translation. [At least i'm not constantly putting my foot in my mouth. :) ]

Anyway, since blogging is simply me typing up what i have to say, its pretty much the same story. For my first couple or three [or four maybe?] blogs i've just sort of typed up what i had to say, adding things along the way, maybe changing my opinion a little bit. I haven't really gotten my thoughts together, or sometimes even knew what i was going to say.

Definately not the best move.

I'm just going to say: i'll work on this. Hopefully my future posts will be a little more organized. 

Oh ho the joys of talking. 

With that being said: happy reading! 

[pretty sure this post is riddled with examples. Oh the irony. :) ]

Global Warming Oops..

Ahahahaha. Apparently i said "eating organic people." I definately meant to say food. Eating organic FOOD. Sorry about that!

Global Warming

I'm back. And the first thing i would say is: Global Warming confuses me. I think this blog may be split into two parts. This post will most likely be my opinion, and the next will probably based on the facts. Probably. I looked over the sites, but parts of them confused me. I plan to go back and read them more thoroughly and update this post. You know, incase anyone was wondering..

Just a little disclaimer before we begin.

So: Global Warming. Fact or Fiction? Well, I can't really answer that question with 100% certainty, but what i can say is that there is nothing political about it. What you think about global warming has nothing to do with whether your liberal or republican, democratic or republican, blah blah blah etc etc etc. I agree with Mr. Voight: There are no sides in Science. 

Now that that's done with. My thoughts about global warming: Well, i'm not going to tell you i believe in it. But I'm not going to tell i don't believe in it. Personally, global warming isn't something you "believe in". Its not like believing in magic, or santa claus, or fairies. People can believe in something for the fun of it, despite what the facts tell you. [Hello? I totally enjoy the presents i recieve from santa when he decides to make his way down my chimney!] 

Anyway, my point is, along with science not being political, its not something you "believe in" either. 

There has to be something to this global warming thing. Unfortunately i don't think people [scientist, journalists, just, people.] decided "Oh. Let's declare the world is heating up and that if we don't stop it than we're all in serious trouble." I'm pretty sure thats not how issues like this arise. I think that some scientist somewhere discovered that the world was heating up. I think once the public got hold of this issue it became a whole different story.

The world is warming up. From videos we've watched and articles i've read, one thing seems to be certain. The world is warming up. But i've also heard that the world HAS been heating up and that nothing is different "now" that it was "back then." 

The amount of air pollution we contribute IS an issue. The environment seriously does suffer from all the crap we contribute. i do think that everyone, myself included, could do better to keep our world clean. Now, i don't think we all need to stop driving cars, eat organic people, blah blah. Let's get real people. 

BUT: Does the amount of air pollution we create help in heating up the world?

Basically what i think:  I DO think global warming is an issue. I DON'T think its as big of an issue as everybody else makes it. I DO think that we pollute the environment with some things we use. I DO think that a little extra recycling and such would be good. I DON'T think that we are causing the world to dramatically heat up. Global warming is there. But whether or not its natural or something humans are doing remains to be seen.

So. Recap: In this post i have confused MYSELF beyond belief. Seriously. I'm not sure every sentance of my post is readable. But, i think i got my main point through, even if i did you a tad too many words.

Oh. and for those of you wondering from my last post: My dinner was delicious, thank you. :)

Change And The Electromagnetic Force

Electromagnetic force, aside from being the answer mr.voight told us to put on tests if we didn't know the right answer, is the rule that opposites attract. Of course that would mean the converse of this statement is true: alike things repel. 

I'll use positive and negative charges as an example: 

A negative charge and a positive charge would attract each other. [ + & - ]

A positive  and a positive or a negative and a negative would repel each other. [ + & +] / [ - & - ]

Some real life examples are magnets of course. [big magnets, little magnets, in-between magnets, those amazing plastic refrigerator magnets that are in the shape of the letters in the alphabet, the cool magnets that come with your twin brothers "magnet lab" that he got for christmas a bajillion or ten years ago in kindergarten, etc.]

Of course everyone's heard of the phrase opposites attract when it pertains to relationships. The theory is that two people totally different in every way [you know, opposites...] would like be incredibly compatible and make a great couple. I believe that has some truth, and that it works with friendships too. I've had some friends that fit that example. There's  a friend who's personality was the polar opposite of mine but we agree on everything, there's a friend who's personality is the same but our opinions are totally opposite, theres a friend that's just the opposite of me entirely. All of those friendships worked. I'm not so sure if the converse [similar things repel] is true with this example though, cause i've seen friends and couples [and i have friends] who are very much similar to each other and those relationships worked out too. 

OK. I realize there are only 2 examples, and that their pretty weak, AND that basically everyone used them, but i'm in a pretty uncreative mood. Someone remind me and i'll add more when i think of them k?

I have some questions: 

I looked up the definition of electromagnetic force and it said:

" The fundamental force associated with electric and magnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is carried by the photon and is responsible for atomic structure, chemical reactions, the attractive and repulsive forces associated with electrical charge and magnetism, and all other electromagnetic phenomena. Like gravity, the electromagnetic force has in infinite range and obeys the inverse-square law. The electromagnetic force is weaker than the strong nuclear force but stronger than the weak force and gravity.  Some scientists believe that the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear force are both aspects of a single force called the electroweak force."

First of all, in the middle of typing that my little brother began his mission from mom and was questioning me about what i wanted for dinner, so if it seems like i left something out, let me know. Cause i very well might have.

Second of all, i would like to respond to that definition with a big fat resounding What? I didn't quite understand that.... 

Dang it. I forgot my other two questions. If i remember them i'll post them again. [Definately not my best blog.]

Well, whaddaya know. That dinner i was being questioned about is ready, so i think i'll wrap this blog up!

What Causes Change [add-on]

I read the comments on my last post  and I would like to re-answer the question. Mr. Voight said [and Becca agreed with...] "Isn't  time just our way of quantifying existence? Does time really cause change? Over time, people grow, but is it the time that causes this or is it some force that you mentioned?" I want to take back the point i made about time, because i now agree with Becca and Mr. Voight. Time is something that humans created to "quantify existence." [Again... linking to comments?] I think that the force i mentioned before causes change. Like with my example of a person growing: I don't think its time that makes a person grow, but that outside force. 

So: I don't think time really causes changes. I think it is that force. I'm still not sure about whether or not the force is the same or different for all changes, i'll have to think about that a little longer. 

Why couldn't i just say that to begin with? Well, that wouldn't make much of a blog post would it? :)

What Causes Change?

Ok. I started to type this blog when i realized: There are so many things that cause change. I didn't know where to start! I decided to read a few other blogs, and all of them were excellent, but a point that really stuck out for me was from  Chelsey's blog. She said change was caused by time. That got me thinking: many changes are inevitable, like birthday's and physical changes. [Not like dying your hair, but something you can't control, like growing.] I think time is a factor for sure. I know there have been movies and books, and possibly even songs, about the ability to change time. There's the idea to stop time, or turn back time, go forward into the future or return to your past. All of these are fun ideas, but as far as i know, they can't be done. I'm getting off topic though. Anyway, what i was saying was: if nothing else, time changes. You will never again experience 9:31 pm on Tuesday, January 8th, in the year 2008. And that is a change. 

But, i also read many people's comments. [Can you link to comments? i'll have to work on that..] When someone said that time is the cause of change, many people made points like: if you just let time go by, would anything else change besides the age? [Becca]. Or Troy made an excellent point: "Take a diamond for example. Put it in a sector of space without radiation, light, solar wind, or anything. Also, where there's not gravity pulling it or heat pushing it. It would do nothing. It would not move, expand, contract, erode, reflect light, or anything. [ I tried to put a link, but its not working... These comments are on Chelsey's blog, which i linked earlier. They're the comments on her answer to what causes change.] 

I think that while time does change things, that there are other forces at work. I think personal changes are triggered by a want. [Like you WANT to dye your hair.] I think wants are triggered by new ideas.[You saw the color on someone in a magazine.] New ideas are formed by gaining knowledge. [Who knew you could change your hair color?] etc. Each time i read someone's blog i read the comments. And in many comments people offered other ideas to the bloggers answer. My ideas would change each time i read something new. I think that you could take every reason something changes, every idea a person has, and find something bigger. Take time for example, because that seemed to be a popular answer. Time changes. You knew that by the time you were in kindergarten, probably before. But WHY does time change? I think that you can take an idea and keep asking the question why. My idea is that eventually you will get to a force that causes all things to change. I don't have the slightest idea what its even similar to, much less what it actually is, but i think that some force causes all change.

So, to answer Mr. Voight's question: I don't have a definate answer to your question. All i can say is that I think that there is a force out there, bigger than time, bigger than new ideas, or gaining knowledge, that causes all things to change.

There it is. My first science related blog post. As i was typing this new ideas kept popping into my head and i just went with them. In all honesty that probably wasn't the best way to go about typing a blog, but hopefully for the moment you'll forgive me. If you have no clue what i'm saying just ask and i'll do my best to explain it to you. Thanks. 

Welcome

Welcome. This is my blog for science. So, yes.