In class this week we focused on two topics.
Our first topic, sustainability, was wrapped up by analyzing The Lorax by Dr Seuss and the story of Easter Island and the Rapa-nui.
The second topic of the week kicked-off our semester long journey on all things water. We took an in depth look at the water molecule and all of its unique properties.
For your blog post choose one of these two topics to write about.
Use the same format as last week. (See last week's post for help and guidance when writing your post if needed).
Congratulations on finishing the first full week of school! It's going to be a great year.
Mr. Fox
I found this topic interesting because it tells us that water is important and is very unique. Water is a very unusual compound, it is a very common and is found in all three conditional states, solid as ice, liquid as water and gas as water vapor. Water is very unique because without water there's will be no food which means that we would not have nothing to eat or drink. Water has all the vitamins to keep a human walking and alive.Water keeps you hydrated and it is healthy for your body. The human body is primarily water which means you need water in order to live. In class i learn a lot about how water is very unique like for example water is a universal solvent which means it dissolves anything that is polar molecule and that's why water is considered to be a a polar molecule. In general for me water is everything because if you stop drinking water you will die. For me water is good and healthy. Unlike soda which has a lot of sugar and other ingredients that can harms your body, water has no sugar and nothing that can harm you. I drink about 12 cups of water a day so i can stay hydrated and healthy, and that should go for everyone that wants to stay healthy.
ReplyDelete~Marino A. Ventura (4th period class Environmental science)
Throughout this whole week we’ve been discussing the topic of water and what it involves. Water has specific elements such as High surface tension, High specific heat, Capillary action, Ice floats, and Universal solvent. These five elements are very interesting because it explain the way water works naturally and how it applies to our everyday life. High surface tension is the strength of hydrogen bond that allows water to form water and waves. High specific heat is a second element of water, which means that it takes a lot of energy for a specific heat to heat up. For example like our body, when we are active it takes time for the body to heat up. This brings up the word balance; the specific heat keeps the earth and our body a sustainable temperature. The third element of water is the capillary action that involves adhesion and cohesion. The difference between cohesion and adhesion is that cohesion allows water stick to things like spider web and adhesion allows water to stick to it’s self forming bigger drops of water. The capillary action combines those two actions to disobey gravity and let water rise. For example like when a straw is put into a soda can, you could see the water rise through the straw. This capillary action is important because it as well allows the plant’s sweat to rise up through evaporation giving water to the trees. Thanks to this property, our trees that provide us oxygen to live are maintained refreshed. A forth property of water is the reason ice floats. The ice is less dense than water and that’s how the ice is able to float. This would be important because if ice was less dense than water all animals under the sea would die frozen or their homes will be destroy with the ice. The final property of water is the universal solvent; this property allows water to dissolve other substances. For example, when sugar is placed in water the sugar dissolves. This applies to our every day life especially when we are cooking potato’s or plantain’s, the salt dissolves in water then is absorbed by the things your cooking making our food delicious.
ReplyDeleteThe properties of water help us understand that we live on earth because the water protects us in many ways. We should also keep in mind that about 72% of our body is made of water and that we should drink water daily more than 5 times. Without water we can’t live nor can our earth’s sustainability.
~ Nadia Manzueta (4th period class)
I found that the topic of sustainability was interesting because so much of sustainability is how much effort, attention, and importance human being put into it. Sustainability is important because it keeps our environment a save , healthy , productive place for living things to live in.
ReplyDeleteIn Dr. Seuss`s The Lorax a character called the Once-ler takes advantage of his environment by cutting down the " Truffula trees" and making "Theends" which are knitted by using the " Truffula tress" once the Once-ler sees that he has made a money making invention he proceeds to make a business out of it. The Once-ler than starts cutting more trees. While his business is booming a character called the Lorax tries to help the Once-ler realize the damage he is causing by taking advantage of his environment. The Once-ler, by this time in the book, is consumed with greed , wanting more and more money that is made by him cutting down the "Truffula trees". By the end of the story the Once-ler`s environment is barren, not one living thing in sight, the reason for this being that he cut all of the "Truffula trees" thus interrupting the environment from its natural cycle. The Once-ler than proceeds to feel guilt for the damage he has caused giving the last "Truffula seed" to a young boy and telling him that it is up to that young boy what happened with that last "Truffula seed".
This story is meant to show awareness on the damage we are causing our environment, I thing the moral of the story is that it is up to us how we treat our environment.
Like I said in my previous response comment , I thing that sustainability is something that a lot of people are unaware of , including myself. The topic of sustainability is interesting to me because it is something new to me , that I can learn and be less ignorant about. Now that I am a little more self aware about being aware, I have realized that my input on the environment does matter and that I should be more thoughtful and careful with my environment , which is something that environmental science will hopefully teach me how to do.
This week we began to learn about water and its unique properties. I was intrigued when learning about water because I was unaware of all of its distinct properties. Apart from its versatility water is still an essential component for life on Earth. Water has five distinct properties in addition to the three phases water comes in. Water is a polar molecule which means water is a molecule with partial a positive charge and a partial negative charge. This characteristic enables water to have some of its unique properties.
ReplyDeleteDespite water having various unique properties the one I find most appealing is capillary action. Capillary action is the result of cohesion and adhesion. Cohesion allows water to stick with itself and adhesion allows water to stick to other substances. These unique attributes seem to have opposite functions. When both are at work together a new ability emerges, capillary action. Thanks to capillary action water is able to reach to the top of trees. This is fascinating because this property of water breaks the laws of physics by not abiding to the principles of gravity. If water is capable of this are there other substances on Earth who can do the same? Are there more properties besides capillary action and ice floating that defy the laws of physics?
This has made me realize that water is not only vital for us but plays an important role for everything else in the planet. Water helps to dictate life and other processes on Earth. We have to embrace water and its characteristics. I would like to further learn about how people can use water and its unique properties to their advantage. Although water is found on Earth it is not native to this planet, having come from outer space and then accumulating over time, are the unique properties of water credited to its extraterrestrial origin?
When the terms “sustainability”, “The Lorax” and “Easter Island” are all used in one sentence, it’s easy to see how they connect, once you really look into it. In this case, these terms are related to the environment, particularly how it is treated and the negative effects of that treatment. As we have learned, sustainability is the capability to maintain current surroundings at a particular level that is balanced and conserved. Both The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and Easter Island are examples of sustainability gone wrong.
ReplyDeleteWithin The Lorax, Dr. Seuss gives the reader several examples of how greed and ignorance can lead to an unstable environment. The Once-ler, who becomes fixated with idea of gaining profit and making the rest of the Once-lers rich, is the main reason why the environment where “…the grass was still green and the pond was still wet and the clouds were still clean…” became a smog-ridden and polluted factory base for Thneeds. Resources such as the Truffula Trees that the Lorax tried so hard to protect from the Once-ler slowly became nonexistent, along with the creatures that lived there. In the Once-ler’s mind, profit was more important than the well being of those who lived in the society, which can definitely be seen today. This situation is slightly similar to the situation that occurred in Easter Island. Overconsumption was the main reason for the society’s downfall. For the Rapanui, the inhabitants of Easter Island, survival was key. However, their plan for survival within the small island proved to take a toll on their environment. Because they attempted everything in order to keep themselves alive, the amount of finite resources they had began to dwindle due to overconsumption. As fewer common crops became available for the Rapanui, the level of sustainability also declined. In the end, self-benefit became the reason for Easter Island’s collapse.
Although The Lorax is just a children’s book and the events that occurred in Easter Island happened several years ago, it doesn’t mean that the situations in both cases can’t happen in real life, or happen again in other societies. Several countries use so much of their resources and emit such heavy amounts of pollution into the air that the probability of sustainability going wrong today is very high. Even though it’s a reality that we all wouldn’t want to face, it’s the truth. The only logical way to get around it is by focusing more on what we do to our environment and reduce the amount of Once-lers roaming the world. When it comes to our own benefits (health and survival wise), we should still be mindful about how much we use on a daily basis so we don’t over consume anything to the point where it is no longer available.
This week we discussed The Lorax by Dr Seuss and Easter Island with the Rapa-nui. This topic is interesting because Dr Seuss uses a fictional scenario to describe a real one that is occurring in the world and also occurred in Easter Island. The Rapa-nui was a civilization that began to fall apart because of the consumption of trees, they used trees for almost everything. Trees were a source of food, and and a material used to create boats and clothing with as well. In The Lorax, Seuss illustrated a story where trees did no longer exist in the end because of the deforestation the Once-ler was creating just to keep his kneeds business open. This idea of writing a fictional story like The Lorax as an exaggeration of what actually can happen to the world and has occurred to the Rapa-nui, is interesting because it is a good way of getting the audience's attention on an issue that can affect everyone equally. This made me question the importance of trees and how they contribute to our environment. This has changed my way of thinking about my country because the United States is one where many tree products are used daily, the use of trees should be reduced in order to preserve the environment’s well being. I would also like to know is it possible for a certain type of tree to become extinct, and if so is there a way to bring it back. Are there any protections put in place to reserve trees from being used for human needs? Writing a fictional story and an article that describes past occurrences are a creative and effective way to get the public’s attention on an important issue that must be resolved, by doing so we would be living a more sustainable life.
ReplyDelete~Karina Tavarez 4th period
In this weeks class we focused on reading The lorax b Dr Seuss, it is a tale about a man that decides to cut down all the truffilla trees to create very soft sweaters but in doing so the man started polluting the air and contaminating the water causing the animals to have to leave. Throughout all this the lorax kept begging the man to stop. But the man never listen, at the end the man or as they call him the onceler felt horrible for destroying the trees and decide that he wants someone to do the right thing and choose the fate of the truffila tree seed. We also read the Easter Island disaster, which was about how the natives of that land started burning through the islands resources; it was believed that the tragedy on Easter Island is small prediction of what will happen to the earth if we don’t start protecting our ecosystem or else our world will end up like Easter Island, a barren waste land were the human population has depleted so far we will regret ever not taking warning from hippies and other eco-friendly people, they will be saying “hahahaha, I told you so good luck protecting yourself from natures rath im going to get a burger”. We need to protect our earth so we can live on a more sustainable life and leave the earth a stable place for our future generation and beyond.
ReplyDeleteWater is a source that we ALL need to survive. Without water, planet Earth will become unsustainable for any living creature or species. However, to avoid all of that, water has unique properties that help maintain the planet sustainable for all that live in it.
ReplyDeleteI learned that Water, or H2O, is composed up of one part (partially negative) oxygen and two part (partially positive) hydrogen. Because both the oxygen and hydrogen have charges, this makes water a polar molecule. Polarity within water is crucial for its unique properties. Also, the polarity of the water makes water a universal solvent. Basically, water is able bond to anything with a charge. That is why making chocolate milk with Nesquik powder is so easy. The water dissolves the powder creating chocolate milk! However, without polarity, surface tension would not be possible. Ever wonder why water sticks together on the surface; maybe on the surface of a cup or a bowl? Well, the water’s hydrogen bonds causes for water to create surface tension. This makes the water cohesive because it sticks to itself, but it also makes water adhesive because the edges are sticking to something else. That is why, in science, a meniscus is made possible. Thanks to cohesion and adhesion, capillary action is also made possible. The unique property of capillary action allows for water to disobey the laws of gravity. Water uses the help of adhesion and cohesion to travel. Therefore, if water sticks together in the middle, but sticks to other surfaces on the outside, it can, for example, move upwards in a tree. But, there is always a point where water DOES comply with the laws of gravity. Water also has a high specific heat. Ever wonder why it takes longer for a pot of water to boil than it does oil in a pan? Well, that has a simple solution! It is because water uses more energy to heat up and cool down. Because of this property, water is able to stabilize its temperature on the planet; making it not too hot neither too cold. The last property of water, by far, has to be the most intriguing one. With any substance, its solid form is always going to me denser that its liquid form. Water is a law breaker of density! The solid form of water (ice) is less dense than the liquid form of water (water). That is why ice floats! Without floating ice, people would be grumpy when they have no cold water, cuts and scrapes would have to do without the cold tingly sensation, and polar bears would have to live somewhere else. All of these properties of water keep the world “goin’ round.”
The fact that water plays a huge role in the planet is so interesting to me. I feel like mankind does not value the source of water the way we’re using it today. We take it for granted without actually appreciating the fact that without it, we would die. Of course, there have been actions done to try to preserve water, but the ratio of people trying to help the planet’s sustainability compared to the people that are harming it is appalling. My family and I try to use as little water as possible, but we are not perfect. I love to take nice long hot baths and my mother likes to keep the water running before getting her filtered water. It’s these little things, that when multiplied by millions, will drive the world to its death. People should take care of their home more and appreciate everything that water does for us. Even the most wonky of its properties benefit each and every one of us.
- Amber Sepulveda
Water is what is needed to live. Water is found everywhere. Beaches, lakes, oceans and even underground! We understand that we need to drink water to survive, but what makes water so cool? First, water, as a molecule is polar. When a molecule is polar it means that the molecule has both a positive and negative charge. Since water molecules are polar, the molecules join together. This joining of molecules is called hydrogen bonding. The bonding occurs by connecting a positive side of one molecule with a negative side with another molecule. Vice versa. This hydrogen bond is made stronger when the top layer of a body of water meets the air. The water molecules join together in a strong bond to create a “skin” called surface tension. Have you ever noticed that water sticks to itself sometimes? This is called cohesion. Similar to this, adhesion is when water sticks to other things, such as if you don’t dry yourself off after a shower. When adhesion and cohesion work together, they created something called capillary action. Capillary action is when water “disobeys” gravity. An example is when you place a straw in a glass of water and the water “climbs” up the straw. Water is found in 3 phases, which is rare in any other substance found on our planet Earth. Another rare thing that has only been seen in water is that ice can float! Ice is less dense than water because the water molecules are spread apart in ice instead of stuck together like in water. If ice didn’t float, then our sea floors will be drastically different, and living on Earth itself will be dangerous because of high sea levels. Water also has a specific heat. Having a specific heat for water means that it takes a specific amount of energy for the substance to heat up. Last but not least, and also what I think makes water interesting is that water is a universal solvent. This means that water can dissolve ANYTHING! We were taught as little kids that water is needed to grow plants and needed to keep our bodies healthy, but little did we know at that time that water is the main component to almost everything.
ReplyDeleteFor the past week we have learned about water molecules. We wrapped up the discussion on sustainability. For now, even though it still relates to water and any other topic that we are going to cover this year. The introduction to water is that water molecules contain three atoms creating H2O; one oxygen and two hydrogen's. Water molecules cling together causing strong surface tension. Water is considered to be a polar molecule because a polar molecule contains two charges, a positive known as protons and a negative charge known as electrons. Hydrogen has a positive charge and oxygen has a negative charge. A hydrogen bond connects to water molecules. Hydrogen sticks to oxygen and oxygen sticks to hydrogen. They are important to water molecules because they make a large body of water. Hydrogen bonds at the surface are stronger than those down below, creating a “skin” at the surface. The Importance of water is that it gives you life. Water warms up our planet every single day and night. We humans are made up of approximately 70 percent of water. Water also participates as a solid, liquid, and gas on earth. Those phases of matter is the cycle to the water process. There are five unique properties that pertains to the process of water. The properties are, surface tension, high specific heat, capillary action (adhesion, cohesion), solid water (ice) floats, and universal solvent. Surface tension causes the water molecules to cling to each other and not the air above. Water has a high specific heat. It keeps the earth's temperature just right. Global warming has something to do with that. It also helps living organisms regulate their body. The more energy it takes up to heat something up, the higher specific heat. Cohesion is when water sticks to itself forming drops. While, adhesion is when water sticks to other stuff. In relations to this property capillary action is the affect of adhesion and cohesion, water disobeys gravity it can climb things. An example is when you are drinking a can of soda with a straw you can see a little bit of the soda at the top of the straw it works its way up the straw. A weird thing about water is that solid water (ice) floats. In actuality ice is less dense than water because ice has more space in the atom while water is full. Finally, universal solvent makes water dissolve any polar molecule. Water's covalent bonds break apart other polar molecules ionic bonds. Over all, water makes a great impact on our everyday lives. It surrounds us every where. Water is life.
ReplyDeleteFor Environmental science class this week, we put our focus and attention to the things about water. About waters unique properties and to as small as its molecular structure, Before getting into that we has a class had to understand that water is a essential consumption for us humans because we need to keep our bodies hydrated and also because most of our body is made out of water(75%). Water is necessary for most organisms on planet earth not only for humans. We had to learn this because if we as a class are going to learn about water we should at least know about how water effects organisms. Water or as known as H2O, molecularly is made out of two Hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, because the atoms that make up H2O have chargers and bond together they make H2O as a polar molecule. This polar bond is why water has very distinct properties from other liquids. For example three of its properties are adhesion, cohesion and capillary action. Adhesion is when water is able to stick to its self, it is able to because two and more water molecules are polar so they bong together very easy and fast. Then Cohesion is when water sticks to other things. And lastly Capillary cation is made possible when Cohesion and Adhesion is put together, that is when water is able to move upward and disregard the laws of gravity. These properties are very important especially capillary action, it lets water travel up through roots of plants to acquire water. All these things make water vital also its high specific heat level. Water heats up very slow so it needs a lot of energy to do so. is is very useful to the planet because if it were any other liquid with a lower specific heat that would mean that it would heat up faster and every water in the world would be too hot for organism consumption. Nut it doesn't stop there water even changes form from solid to quid and from liquid to gas. As a solid its ice and as a gas its water vapor. I cannot stress how important it is for everyday use. Because everyone uses it and cannot live without it, I believe everyone should know about these properties like my peers and I have learned with our teacher Mr.Fox.
ReplyDeleteFor the past few days in class we have learned about water and it's properties.Water is made up of two atoms which are hydrogen and oxygen. It is a polar molecule because part of it is more positive (hydrogen) and part of it is more negative (oxygen). Polar molecules can form a hydrogen bond. A hydrogen bond forms between a negatively charged oxygen atom and a positively charged hydrogen atom. Hydrogen bonds are important because they allow water molecules to bond.There is cohesion and adhesion.Cohesion is when water sticks to itself and adhesion is when water sticks to something else.Adhesion+cohesion=capillary action. Water has 6 properties which are high surface tension, high specific heat, capillary action, ice floats, and universal solvent. Something interesting about water is that it has a high specific heat. This interests me because i learned that water takes a long time to heat up and a long time to cool down. This is why the earth is at a stable temperature. If there was no water there would probably be no earth. It would be difficult to live in other planet because there is no water. Water makes up 70% of our body. I wonder what would happen if water would cool down right away. The temperature would probably not be stable and we would die. If it didn't take long to heat up it would also be dangerous. Water has a higher specific heat than oil. We experimented heating up oil and water and oil heat up quicker. It is important that water takes longer than other substances. Another example is that sand is always really hot and water is cool. We can tell that even though water is heated up by the sun it doesn't get really hot. This has changed the way I think about life because I never really thought about how important water is.I learned that water is not only important for us but also for the earth. Without water there is no life on earth.
ReplyDeleteThis week, I found the topic of water to be most interesting. Not only are we spending a whole semester on it, but we get to research it in depth as well! It’s interesting to learn that water is not just that clear tasteless liquid we drink. Water is everything! Our bodies are made up of around 70% water. And of course, without iced water, polar bears could be in danger. However, within the broad idea of water, what I found most interesting is the fact that our bodies are made up of around 70% water. I found this most interesting because it seems contradictory to me that our bodies are made up of around 70% water, yet we cannot live without drinking water for more than a couple of days. I wonder if there is a way to prove that we can live for more than just a couple of days (maybe a week or two) without drinking water. I also wonder what would happen to one’s body if one were to only drink juice or soda and not drink water or eat for a couple of days. This has not really changed my thinking about life, but it has however, made me ask a lot more questions. For example, I want to know why when I’m in the field playing soccer, I seem to get thirsty, and if I drink a lot of water and go back to running I suddenly get this pain in my stomach. And I know I’m not the only “weird” one, because other girls get it too. I also wonder why we can drink a lot more warm water, than cold water because at least for me it’s hard to swallow fast a lot of really cold water, where as regular room temperature water I wouldn’t have an issue swallowing fast.
ReplyDeleteFor the past few days in class we have learned about water and how water is very important and very unique. Water is a very unusual compound, it is a very common and is found in all three conditional states, solid as ice, liquid as water and gas as water vapor. Water is very unique because without water there's will be no food which means that we would not have nothing to eat or drink. Water has all the vitamins to keep a human walking and alive.Water keeps you hydrated and it is healthy for your body. The human body is primarily water which means you need water in order to live. Water has a very high surface tension.Water is sticky and elastic, and tends to clump together in drops rather than spread out. Surface tension is responsible for capillary action, which allows water to dissolve substances and to move through the roots of plants and through the tiny blood vessels in our bodies.For the past two days we learn a lot about how water is very unique,for example water is a universal solvent which means it dissolves anything that is polar molecule and that's why water is considered to be a a polar molecule.In general for me water is everything because if you stop drinking water you will die. For me water is good and healthy. Unlike soda which has a lot of sugar and other ingredients that can harms your body, water has no sugar and nothing that can harm you. Humans drink about 13 cups of water a day so they can stay hydrated and healthy. This didn't change the way i think about life because we know that without water the plants will die and people and animals will die of thirst. Water is an important piece of our life.
ReplyDeleteFor the past few days in class we have learned about water and how water is very important and very unique. Water is a very unusual compound, it is a very common and is found in all three conditional states, solid as ice, liquid as water and gas as water vapor. Water is very unique because without water there's will be no food which means that we would not have nothing to eat or drink. Water has all the vitamins to keep a human walking and alive.Water keeps you hydrated and it is healthy for your body. The human body is primarily water which means you need water in order to live. Water has a very high surface tension.Water is sticky and elastic, and tends to clump together in drops rather than spread out. Surface tension is responsible for capillary action, which allows water to dissolve substances and to move through the roots of plants and through the tiny blood vessels in our bodies.For the past two days we learn a lot about how water is very unique,for example water is a universal solvent which means it dissolves anything that is polar molecule and that's why water is considered to be a a polar molecule.In general for me water is everything because if you stop drinking water you will die. For me water is good and healthy. Unlike soda which has a lot of sugar and other ingredients that can harms your body, water has no sugar and nothing that can harm you. Humans drink about 13 cups of water a day so they can stay hydrated and healthy. This didn't change the way i think about life because we know that without water the plants will die and people and animals will die of thirst. Water is an important piece of our life.
ReplyDelete~ Marino A. Ventura(4th period class Environmental science
I found the topic of sustainability very unique and good to learn about because this word is everywhere in life and has a different kind of meaning in life based on the way u look at the word. But this week in class i found the lesson very intresting in how the world is made up of 75% of water. Every organism in this planet needs or live in water. The question that really had me thinking this week was what if ice never floated i couldnt help myself but to imagine that in my head but i came up with a simple solution in the point of view of a polar bear he wouldnt be able to stand on water , or catch any fishes he would obiously be tire of being in the water and i guesa die. Little things that has to do with water and properties that exist now cant work any different because the world would be way different then how it is right now for sure. Something i would always wonder is why people sweat differently like for example se people sweat alot that there shirt is all cover im sweat while other people just sweat in there forehead. I also wonder why i get cramps when i run in track races after i drink water isnt water suppose to be refreshing and pain free ? Any ways im excited for next week's lesson i wouldnt be surprise if next week lesson surprise me.
ReplyDeleteThis week in class, we finished our exploring of sustainability and how it relates to writing such as The Lorax and even real societies like the Rapa-nui. However, this week was majorly focused on the most valuable component to life, water. Water is essential to the survival of plants, animals and humans. Water makes up about 70% of Earth and 70% of the human body. Water is the main source of heat for Earth and keeps all life living on it warm. In other words, water sustains all life. It’s incredible to even think about how something as seemingly simple as water, found in vast locations is vital to our very existence. Interestingly, a water molecule is made up of 3 small atoms, one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms.
ReplyDeleteAside from its molecular make-up, water possesses several properties varying from its high specific heat, its function as a universal solvent, ability of ice to float, to its function in capillary action. The property of water that I found the most interesting was its surface tension. Surface tension, caused by strong bonds formed by hydrogen bonds among water molecules, allows water to stick together and form a “film” when it comes in contact with air. I found it pretty amazing how something like water has the ability to support the weight of a bug without letting it sink in. Also, I found it interesting how the idea of water being “sticky” is what causes the formation of drops on leaves. It’s strange to think of water as “sticky” (also known as cohesive) since we usually perceive water to be a resourceful aid in cleaning up any messes. However, it did allow me to view water from a new perspective. I was intrigued by water’s “strength” and abilities compared to other substances. For example, you would think that water would have a lower surface tension than a thicker substance like oil. However, that is not the case. Water is greater than what we give it credit for.
Because of this week, I have looked at the idea of water through a new lens. Water, which I used to look at as plain, bland, and tasteless now seems like the opposite. Water has a greater influence on me than I have recognized; it has a great influence on all of us. It seems that everyone around me, myself included, take advantage of our resources of water to an extreme. We humans have wasted water like it will always be around. Whether we let the faucet run too long, or throw our garbage into an ocean or river, we are abusing our privileges, and need to become educated in order to benefit and preserve this resource for as long as possible. I know there is much to learn about this complex necessity. Yet, I do wonder how we can use water in our attempts to become “eco-friendly?” Will we ever run out of water, if so, how long will it take? Are there any more properties of water? Why does availability of clean water vary from location? How much water do we use in New York and in the United States? What can I do to help stop this epidemic?
This week in Environmental Science, Water is not just something you use to take a shower, it is a molecule with many properties. Water consists of two positive hydrogen atoms and one negative oxygen atom. Because of waters specific charges, water is considered to be a polar molecule; an unequal distribution of charges. I never knew what was a polar molecule, let alone that water was a polar molecule. Afterwords, I learned that because of polarity, water is connected through hydrogen bonds and because of this, it creates to surface tension in water. All this information surprised me. Typically you think of water as just plain old water, something that covers more than half of the earth, but I like that I am learning more than what it actually is. " You learn something new everyday ". I really liked the activity we did last week on surface tension, I was really amazed on how much the surface of water can hold without actually bursting and spilling after the 28th drop. On day 2, I learned about waters specific heat, adhesion, cohesion, and capillary action. At the end of the day, water is not just a molecule, it is something that is needed in life, for our bodies, our animals, and our plants.
ReplyDelete-Carolyne Rodriguez 6th period
At the beginning of this week we wrapped up our conversation on sustainability in order to transition into an in depth study of water. However, I am still very interested in sustainability. The Lorax, by Dr.Seuss as well as the story of Easter Island highlighted how humans need to live sustainably for the general welfare of the human race. I find the topic of sustainability interesting because these texts showed me that I play a crucial role in the life of future generations, so it is imperative that I make eco-friendly decisions. In The Lorax, Dr.Seuss introduces the ambitious Once-ler who cuts down the Truffula trees to create Thneeds that he can sell for profit. In this story it is clear that Dr.Seuss wants to illuminate the idea that ambition, especially in business, often leads to unsustainable living. Even though this fictional story was very nice, the story of Easter Island is a real-life account of the dangers of unsustainable living.
ReplyDeleteI found the story of Easter Island to be the most interesting aspect of class this week because the Rapa-nui were so concerned about building Moai that they disregarded the environment, thus leading to their own demise. They quickly exhausted all of the resources on the island and did not focus on renewing them. In the film we watched in class about Easter Island a historian said that Easter Island is a microcosm of the planet Earth. This means that we, like the Rapa-nui, are so concerned about fulfilling our own needs that we forget that we rely on this planet to survive. I find it amazing that we know of a real-life example where unsustainable living had negative consequences and we still disrespect the environment despite knowing this. We clearly aren't learning from our mistakes and it saddens me that children yet to be born will inherit a planet too damaged to be fixed. We can make a change if we live sustainably, but until everyone cooperates and begins renewing items instead of wasting them the future looks grim. The Rapa-nui did not maintain a balanced relationship with Easter Island, so we should do whatever possible to maintain a balanced relationship with planet Earth.
Before learning about Easter Island I thought that we didn't know what to expect in the future. However, that story changed my perspective of how I should treat the environment because now I know that wasting water, and other resources is just going to lead to the end of the human race. I waste water and electricity, but I need to change my habits for the good of this planet. I must respect nature, but I also need to teach others to respect it as well. Caring for planet Earth is a group effort and will only be effective if everyone contributes to the cause. I want to know of more sustainable practices I can follow to minimize my wasting. How can humans band together to conserve water? Is it too late for us to avoid the same fate as the Rapa-nui?
(Please excuse the fact that the blog does not allow me to underline titles)
The topic of this week was well...... water! Initially when I heard that we were going to be studying water my first thought was "this is probably going to be boring" mainly since I was sure I knew everything about water. But boy was I wrong, I never knew how strange water could be from having so many different properties to having 4 forms I was really shocked to find this out. What caught my interest the most was the different properties that water has, from having the highest specific heat, to floating in its ice form, it was just so interesting to learn. From what we learned in class water picks up minerals and other things through what they go through. This got me thinking about one of the essential questions that we're eventually going to go over. Is my water safe? I started to wonder this because since water absorbs any minerals and tastes it passes through then couldn't I be drinking poison and think that it's healthy? We're taught that water is one of the healthiest drinks on this planet but is it? How could we be so sure that it's so heathy if we don't know where it comes from? This questions made my initial reaction of "this is probably gonna be boring" take a complete 180 degrees turn and now I'm very excited to see how this semester unfolds!
ReplyDelete-Moises Burbano
This week we wrapped up the subject of sustainability by analyzing The Lorax by Dr Seuss and the article on Easter Island and the Rapa-nui. I found these two pieces interesting because they were different, but at the same time they both showed the same idea. The Lorax by Dr Seuss, a fiction story talked about the extinction off truffula tress due to the over production of sweater like snuggies. Ending with a spark of hope with a seed given to a child to replant the only truffula seed left. This book represented hope and made it clear that in every problem there can be a positive solution. While the article on Easter Island and the Rapa-nui was a fiction article showing how a natural habitat for natives to the island was destroyed due to over carving of statutes by different tribes in carving competitions. This article showed how when things aren’t taken care of there can be consequences. All though both these pieces have differences they both represent what happens to a natural habitat when it is not taken care of the way it should be. I find this interesting because these pieces of text make me think of ways and things that I can do to get the word out there that everyone should follow a sustainable lifestyle. A question that The Lorax by Dr Seuss especially brought to my attention was that if authors of children books go out of their way and write stories so in detail about topics that correspond to our life’s today, why are parents not sitting down and explaining these topics? Do the parents know how to connect these stories to our daily lives? As a member of the “next generation “to come I am growing up knowing about these well talked about topics and I will make sure that I spread the word out about conserving our living space because I actually want to be able to live all the years I am able to live without getting to a point where my life feels threatened because the environment we live in is not safe. The real question is how many other teenagers and people are viewing the future like this? I enjoyed talking about the topic of sustainability because it triggered a lot of thoughts and ideas in my mind.
ReplyDelete-Yesica Frias (second period)
This week we’ve learned about water itself, and its unique properties. Water’s unique properties are surface tension, specific heat, adhesion/cohesion, and capillary action, ice floating and universal solvent. I found this topic interesting because water is something that we drink, use and need every day of our lives to survive. The property of water that makes water the most unique is adhesion and cohesion because in adhesion water sticks to other things and because of this water can stick to things like spider webs and in cohesion, water sticks to itself. During class, what I found most interesting is that water is a molecule which is why water is considered to be a polar molecule in other words it’s the distribution of partial charges in the water molecule. I really liked going over this because it reminded me of some topics we covered in chemistry last year. This has changed the thinking about my life because before I did not understand some of the things that related to water but I am glad we are going to look in to water throughout this semester. I want to know where water goes after we’ve used sink. How is water distributed?
ReplyDeleteI found the topic of these week very interesting i learn that here the world needs and lives in water. water is very special because with out it we wont be able to eat or drink.Also the water molecules they cling together causing strong surface tension. Water is a polar molecule, because a polar molecule contains two charges a positive that is a protons and a negative that is a electrons this two things are very important. Hydrogen they are very strong and responsible for water unique properties. Also learn something i never knew like adhesion it makes water stick to water web, and cohesion water sticks to itself. i know that if ice no longer float this will be bad for examples for animals they wont be able to live no more with out it. I learn that i have to drink water always humans need that to survive we could only go 3 days with out drinking water.
ReplyDelete~Felix Guzman
Sustainability is the balance of nature. We as humans need water to survive our body is 70 % water without it we’ll die our bodies wont last more than 3 days without water. We live in a world revolved water we live it drink it and breath it. But what people don’t know is that water is actually a very cool molecule it has very weird characteristics phases and properties. Water has 5 main properties high surface tension , High specific heat, capillary action , ice floats and universal solvent. Water is a polar molecule because it has positive charges and negative charges. The positive charges come from the hydrogen the negative charges come from the oxygen. Water has more negative charges then positive charges. Water contains hydrogen bonds. A hydrogen bond is when the negative and positive charges attract it is responsible for the way water clings together and stays together.The oxygen and hydrogen stick together.Water can also cause cool things to happen like a bug standing on water. The reason a bug can stand on water is because of high surface tension because the water molecules cling to one another and not the air , it causes the water to get sticky causing the bug to stand. Another amazing thing I learned about water had to do with ice floats. Ice is less dense then water because the water molecules in ice are spread apart, unlike liquid water in which the molecules stick together. For example in Antarctica ice floats. But the most unique thing about water is it is universal solvent meaning it dissolves everything unlike other liquids. For example when you pour sugar in water and mix it up it dissolves in the water. Capillary action is when water disobeys gravity and climbs up such as straws or trees. Water has many interesting characteristics so its pretty amazing that something so important in our lives carry's out so many cool features. Water is the reason for life but its also a great topic to discuss in science because you learn many new interesting facts.
ReplyDeleteTrue out this whole week we been discosing the live of water and were it comes from or were it gose we also us sustanability by reading the book the lorax by Dr.suess. Water hase many interesting things like water hits slower then the earh does and also is use capiilarty we still need to lear more from this water unit we also learn about heating oil and other stuff wish it was really intresting
ReplyDeleteThe topic I will be discussing about is the properties of water. I found this topic interesting because I never payed attention to water deeply. I always thought that water was just clear, didn’t taste like anything and it was just healthy and refreshing but didn’t have any reasons to why. Water has five unique properties and they are high surface tension, specific heat, adhesion/cohesion, capillary action, solid water and water is universal solvent. The unique property that I found most interesting was the high surface tension. Water has high surface tension because of other qualities of water such as hydrogen bonds, polar molecule and adhesion/cohesion. Water is a polar molecule because it has negative and positive atoms which are hydrogen and oxygen. Since opposites attract it creates hydrogen bonds which leads to high surface tension because of cohesion. Water is able to stick to itself to serve as a “skin” for the molecules down below. An example of this is raindrops. I still have thoughts about what is the “skin” protecting the other molecules down below from? This connects to my life because now I see water differently. Water is very important to earth since it protects us from the sun’s heat also is important to our bodies because our bodies is approximately 70% of water. Furthermore, I want to know where does water goes after we finish using it in the sink, toilet and bathtub?
ReplyDeleteThis week topic that i was most interested most on this week was on sustainability.I was interested in this topic because i saw how the book of the lorax by Dr. Seuss connected to the story of Easter island. Although both story's had different ways of explaining the occurring of whats happening in the world today they both connect to the same idea which is the destruction of the environments. What also pulled my attention was the topic of the extinct of animals being spoken in Easter island which all connects to the occurring of global warming.The reason i was interested in this topic because i saw how the past connected to the present and how this have been occurring for a long time. This is a topic that makes me wanna help work on with the society that revolves around me so that we all can work together to help improve the environment we live in. Most of the people in our society say that there gonna take action towards this situation but really don't. Are people just gonna wait till last minute to actually take action towards this problem ? Or are they gonna start now and find ways to help out in the community? What are other people that actually are involved doing? What can we do ?
ReplyDeleteThroughout the week, we have learned about the properties of water, and what makes water unique. Some of the properties of water include polarity, hydrogen bonding, surface tension, high specific heat, capillary action, cohesion, adhesion, ice floats, and universal solvent. Water is considered to be a polar molecule because it has unequal charges. It contains two positive hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Because of the charges of the hydrogen atoms, water molecules at the surface of water create a strong bond because the hydrogen bonds have no other atoms to bond to, so they bond even stronger to adjacent hydrogen bonds. A “skin” is created; this is called high surface tension. Because of high surface tension, things such as an equally weighted bug may “stand” in water. Unlike oil, water requires more energy to heat up, that is why it has a high specific heat. It takes longer for water to heat up than oil because water has a high specific heat. Another unique feature of water is its capability to go against gravity, this is called capillary action. Adhesion and cohesion help water go against gravity, adhesion is when water sticks to other things, and cohesion is when water sticks to itself. When you’re drinking out of a straw and you pull it out, you can see that there are water drops inside the straw; this is adhesion picking up water. Similarly while staring at a graduated cylinder and noticing the meniscus. When water is in solid form, or ice, it contains less dense molecules than water. Because of this density, ice floats in water, just like when you’re drinking a glass of water with ice, the ice floats. Universal solvent is when a liquid, gas or solid dissolves another liquid, gas or solid. For example, nail polish remover will dissolve nail polish, or sugar will dissolve in water. I learned things about water that I never even knew existed; I though water was just… water. All of these interesting facts about water surely make water unique. I wonder if oil or different liquids have interesting properties that make them unique.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Prenza
This week it seems that it just flew by. But during that time we have learned new facts about water that are interesting. The topic of water seems like pointless to someone else views but in reality, water is a topic that everyone should be asking to learn more about. Water had many properties that seemed it was unique and that no other liquid could have the same property. There were few properties that seemed familiar with some other liquids. But these properties make water what it is, a refreshing healthy liquid that everyone in the world uses for may purpose. Even though the properties of water might be familiar to other liquids, all those properties make water what it is now. Water has a high surface tension which is includes only 2 elements, oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen bonding is making all the force because of hydrogen bonding. Without hydrogen bond, then no hydrogen would gather up together and would only make the water surface week and less dense. The capillary action, it might sound complicated with the adhesion and cohesion but capillary action just ignores the law of gravity and goes up for example it goes up to the trees to feed each part of the tree. Universal solvent is just saying that water dissolves salt and some other solids that can be dissolved by other liquids. Except for oil because oil has some other elements that unable to dissolve salt. But there were two things that got my attention. One was the high specific heat which water has a specific heating than oil. Water has a specific heating and cooling. The second one is an ice float. I just though ice floats because is part of the water and ice would only sink. But it turns out that ice floats because instead of all the hydrogen molecules gather up together as a whole, the molecules has there own space and are separated. These categories are useful to know and everyone should to have some interest of water. Because water isn’t only for drinking its’ also knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion this topic was interesting about water because it made it understandable how water works even in rain drops. This was interesting because water has 5 different stages and also 3 different forms of water.One form of water is liquid, another form is solid, and the last form is gas, but theres a special form thats called plasma. A water molecule has 2 negativley charged atoms and 1 positive.
ReplyDeleteSomething i found really interesting to me was how water creates its own thin surface with opssite attracting atom from water molecules. This connects to my life because then i have a better understanding about water and how important it is to our lifes. Water helps out planet stay at just the right temperture in oder for us to survive. Something i want to know more about water is how is water creatd in cloud that causes it to rain outside and how water can over the time can damage almost anything?? Also i found this intersting because it can explain alot of how we alove or even how we live in this planet. Water is important because its an important thing of our life; if we last a couples of days without water then we can die unlike with food we can last weeks with out it. Further more one question i have is why is water so important to humans and what does it have that is so important to humans lives?
The subject of sustainability was very interesting because we were able to find out ways that are able to keep the earth a much healthier place but some people don't do this mainly because of greed and those are the people that are causing air pollution and water decapitation since all they think about is money. This was a subject that allowed everyone learn something new for example I learned that is illegal not to recycle. This week was also interesting because we learned the unique properties of water and how a human can last weeks without eating but about 3 days without drinking water because without water then we will not survive (all living organism need water to survive). water is created of oxygen which negative and two hydrogen atoms which are positive which is why it’s also known as (H2O)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSustainability, the property of being sustainable. I found the topic of sustainability interesting because without it we can use our important resource. Without our resource we can go hungry. Hungry can cuz conflict between people in many different areas. If we don't have sustainability our environment won't be safe and healthy. " The Lorax "and " The Fate Of Easter Island " didn't have sustainability so the environment and people suffer. In the book "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss show the readers how one company can affect the environment. In the book " The Lorax " greed and ignorance pay a important part in the book. Greed and ignorance lead a man to affected the land in a negative way and he didn't notice until it was to late. The man was cutting now every tree to make money but he didn't know that for every tree he cut animals were been affect as well. Animals in the land, ocean, and sky were getting affect. The Lorax represented a symbol of someone who takes care of the environment or/and looks after the livings things living there. In " The Fate Of Easter Island " the rapanui didn't have sustainability so they over use the resource and end up going hungry. The rapanui didn't take care of their materials so they turn cannibalism. They started to eat each other because they didn't have other food to eat. Disease cause the rapanui population decrease. In both books show good examples of what could happen if we don't take care of our important resource. We need to take care of our environment if we don't Want to end up in conflict with each other.
ReplyDelete-Pedro Guzman
The most interesting thing I have learn this week was how unique water is and the properties it has that makes it unique.I found this the most interesting because no one ever really thinks about the minerals it may contain and how important they are in water which is important in the world.Some things i have learned is that water is a polar molecule, which means it contains atoms with positive and negative charges.These negative charges are what attracted hydrogen atoms causing hydrogen bonds. I also learn that because of capillarity action is the way tall trees get their water all the way up the tree.Also water covers up 70 % of the earths surface. Without water living things wouldn't survive.I didn't believe water was this unique until we had these lessons. This changes the way I think about life and it’s role in our life because we should take some time out and clean our community since all the discards go to the ocean causing more pollution.
ReplyDeleteThis week we finished the topic of sustainability in order to understand how we need resources in order to survive and thrive in society. The Story of The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss helped me understand that humanity is depleting of the Earth’s resources, as well as how much we are causing more harm than good. This topic fascinates me to learn because I’ve gained a small fact that is engraved into my mind that the Earth doesn’t need us, but we need the Earth. This small fact caused me to be aware that humanity is in the role to slowly deplete the planets of its life sources. Dr. Seuss demonstrates this by representing and introducing small ominous creature named Once-ler, whom has ordered to cut down countless Truffula trees. This order was commanded as the Once-ler wanted to create Thneeds in order to create a large industrialist empire to gain large amounts of profit from the consumer. This short summary reminded me of how the industrialist revolution impacted the environment, as supply and demand for products skyrocketed and in order to meet such demand, large factories were constructed in order to provide the products, which many acres were destroyed to pave way for the infrastructure. Dr. Seuss foreshadowed the future that we humans were to blame for breaking the balance to live a sustainable life, many theorize that global warming is a large impact based on this broken equilibrium of life.
ReplyDeleteAdding on to what I have learned, this short family rated book is related to the true based event that happened in Easter Island and the native tribe of Rapa-Nui. The Rapa Nui is the native Polynesian inhabitants that lived/live on the small island. This part of the class interested me the most as the inhabitants were so concerned over the fierce competition to build the better monument for their families that they took all the resources of the island. This shows me the idea that humans only care about themselves without any regards to their surroundings. This ideology happened to the natives, as their desire for the best statues called Moai caused them to kill themselves by cannibalism and killing to live under the small resources. This relates to Dr. Seuss’ theory that once all resources all depleted, the only thing to do is to look to ourselves and we will be our cause for extinction.
Overall the importance of maintain sustainability is to create the equilibrium to have a healthy society along with well distributed resources to share. Because of this this is why my family recycles, and re-uses any material that is still beneficial. My idea of sustainable changed from being just living, to having an equal amount of balance to life, the environment and society.
During this week of class we have learned about sustainability and how it affects the world. I found this topic interesting because it has to do with the amount of resources we use in this world and by seeing problems of sustainability we read and analyze The Lorax and Easter Island a story about the Rapa-nui. During class i learned that Sustainability is a major part of the world which and it also has to do with recycling i also learn that if we use to much of our supply's there could be a huge consequence in life such as in the story of The Lorax and of the Rapa-nui. In the Lorax the onceler cuts down the trees with out noticing that he is hurting the environment until everything is destroy and there is no more resources just like the Rapa-nui they didn't pay attention to their resources and they ended up turning into cannibalism in order to survive. I found this topic interesting because i wanted to know what would happen if our supplies in the world would start to run out and these two text showed me how sustainability plays a big part in the world and the story of The Lorax and the Rapa-nui shows a big example to the world well at least the people that have read the both story's. Are there still Rapa-nuis alive?. This change my life because i noticed that i used to much water and other supplies and just throw them out and when i read these story's it made me realize that the things that happen in both story's could happen in the real world. I also what to know about this topic is how many people are worried about sustainability in the world. I also want to learn more about sustainability and about other events.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting topic for me was water properties. I learned that water is able to hold different kinds of bugs due to the density of the bug for example a water strider. This was called surface tension. surface tension is when the water sticks together to make a strong surface and hold a water strider. This property is caused by cohesion. I also learned that water molecules are made out of negative energy on one side and positive energy on the other. another thing I learned in class about capillary action. capillary action is when water is able to get into narrow spaces, for example a graduated cylinder, you can see the water stick up and water sticking on the edges. All of this new learning makes me realize that water is not only to drink and shower, there is more to it about how it works. also my question is what else is there to learn about water.
ReplyDeletekenneth Rufino (4th period environmental science class)
Over the course of the first few days of Environmental Science, the main topic was sustainability. For us humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of responsibility, which has social, economic and environmental alliances. While becoming familiar with the idea of sustainability, we read The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss and “The Fate of Easter Island- A real world story of the Lorax?” In both texts, the idea of sustainability was prominent. In The Lorax, issues were deforestation, followed by air and water pollution. The deforestation of the Truffula trees was caused by the Once-ler who chopped down many trees to start a Thneed-making business, which brings up the topic of greed. Many tree-cutters now-in-day do not see the harm that cutting off trees does to the world- loss of oxygen, and extinction of wildlife, and in some cases, human deaths. This leads us to the issue on Easter Island and the Rapa-nui civilization. The ancient Rapa-nui civilization depended on trees as a source of food until the consumption of trees was over excessively used which led to cannibalism. The loss of these trees meant that those who lived on the island had to intensively hunt for food. Another issue the Rapa-nui faced were rats. The rats in Easter Island were also held accountable for participating in the deforestation of trees and their overpopulation made it even more difficult for the Rapa-nui to find valid sources of food. I found this interesting, because it’s a little crazy how such a small rodent can lead to the extinction of a civilization. Referring to The Lorax, it’s amazing how Dr. Seuss addresses environmental problems from 40 years ago, which we are now dealing with. The selfishness of humans in the world plays a large role in environmental problems. For example, those who keep cutting trees for paper are probably not too aware of the amount of Oxygen that is vanishing.
ReplyDelete-Karla Arroyo, 2nd period
Last week in Earth Science, we finally started on our semester-long journey about water. We began by discussing some of water’s unique properties, which seemed weird to me because water has always been a normal thing to me. I had never before given much thought to how water works or how important water is. Some unique water properties are that water is a universal solvent, is more dense than ice, has high surface tension, a high specific heat, and capillary action. The one that stood out the most to me was the unique property of capillary action, which is when water is able to travel upwards by sticking together (cohesion) and sticking to other things (adhesion). An example of capillary action is when you stick a straw into a can of soda and you notice the soda traveling up the straw. I thought this was really freaky because it allows water to defy gravity. Even though water is supposed to travel downwards, here, it’s traveling upwards! Immediately I thought of the Nile River in Egypt. This is one of the few rivers that flows North even though most rivers flow South. I wondered if this was because of capillary action. That’s something I’d really like to know because I always knew that it was strange for rivers to flow North, but now I learned that water itself is pretty strange too. So I thought maybe this was the reason behind the strange flow of rivers like the Nile. Capillary action doesn’t really affect me in my personal life, but some of the other properties do. For example, I always wondered why it seems to be so much colder near beaches or rivers, but now I know it’s because water takes a long time to heat up, so when the wind blows by the water, it gives off a cold-ish breeze. At the beach, this is called a sea breeze. I don’t live anywhere near the beach, but the soccer team often has practice right by the Hudson River and I can tell that it’s a lot cooler around there. This week has made me realize that water truly is the most important aspect of life on Earth and I feel bad that I take water for granted by taking extremely long showers and leaving the water running. The unique properties of water are something I’m starting to notice more and more in my everyday life, so I think they will remind me to be more aware of the water I use so I can learn to control my water usage and maintain a sustainable lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteI like how you tried to connect capillary action to the Nile flowing north.
DeleteIn reality though the Nile (and all rivers for that matter) flow the way they do because of varying degrees in elevation (think... pouring water down a hill).
For example, the land in the southern part of the Nile is at a higher elevation than the land to the north. As a result the Nile flows North.
The Lorax was my favorite book as a child but I never really understood the message behind it. Actually, I used to be scared of it a little because I always saw the Once-ler as a very creepy man. Before we read The Lorax in class though, I had seen the movie. It brought back a lot of memories and I was finally able to understand the message behind the story with more depth. Analyzing it in class only further helped me understand the story. I never knew that The Lorax was connected to the topic of sustainability. The story of Easter Island and the Rapa-nui also caught my interest since it was so similar to The Lorax. I never knew that story and it amazed me that something like The Lorax had actually happened. The Once-ler closely resembles the Rapa-nuis’ since they focused too much on material things. The Once-ler was focused on making his thneed’s famous so he could sell them and in turn make a lot of money. The Rapa-nuis’ were focused on making the best looking moai on the island. Both the Once-ler and the Rapa-nui were more interested in being the best than in the environment they were killing around them.
ReplyDeleteIt astounds me how something such as greed and overconsumption can ruin a society. I thought people would put their salvation-the environment-before anything because that’s what gives everyone life. Sustainability keeps everyone alive but people don’t keep that in mind. The Once-ler only cared about making thneeds and making money which was why he didn’t notice how much damage he was doing to the environment until the last truffula tree was cut down. The Rapa-nui on the other hand focused on making moai and then over consumed all their supplies and didn’t use them in moderation. They left nothing for their future generations which is something that is necessary for sustainability. How can people survive knowing that they’re damaging the environment around them? Can people really be so oblivious to the things right in front of him? Can self-interest really win over survival or all?
Reading about The Lorax and the Rapa-nui on Easter Island and how I connects to sustainability has really changed how I see things. I know now that I have to be more aware of the environment around me or else it’ll be ruined right under my nose and I won’t even know about it. I also look at how the people around and look at the news to see how people treat the environment. There are people who work to protect the environment but there are others who take what they have for granted and it saddens me. I want to learn how badly the environment is treated so that I can find out what I could possibly do in order to protect the environment? I don’t want what happened to the Rapa-nui and in The Lorax to happen to the whole world. I want to do something to help because I know we are already in that process. I want to know, what can I do to help?
This week in class we discussed the wacky molecule that is water. Water is wacky because of its five unique properties: high surface tension(hydrogen bonds at surface provide a film), high specific heat(more energy needed to warm up water),Capillary action(cohesion and adhesion), ice flotation(water in solid from is less dense than it's liquid form), and universal solvent.(everything dissolves in water) I h ave reviewed and now I can recall this information at anytime. this information was fairly easy to memorize because of my previous background knowledge from Chemistry. The one property I have questions about is water being a universal solvent. Does it[water] being a universal solvent mean that anything in water dissolves or that anything can be dissolved will dissolve in water?. besides that i understand all we have covered in class so far.
ReplyDelete-Elmis Rodriguez 6th Period Environmental Science
Elmis,
DeleteThis is a good review of what we learned in class, although this is not the task of your blog posts. Instead you should try to be more reflective; connecting what you have learned to your own thoughts, new ideas, and connections to your life.
This week in environmental science we discussed water and learned about all its different properties. Well first of all water is a substance that all organisms need to survive, waters molecular is made up from one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms. That makes water a polar molecule because the oxygen atoms have a mostly negative charge, while the hydrogen atoms have a mostly positive charge. Allowing some of waters special properties to occur, for example strong hydrogen bonds are made by the opposite attractions of oxygen and hydrogen atoms. Creating strong hydrogen bond that allows high surface tension to be created by these molecules. That is the reason for water drops and the fact small animals can walk on water.
ReplyDeleteThis property of water interests me the most because I just learned it and always wonder where water drops came from. This is also shows the strength of water it’s strong because it won’t mix with air and other substances like oil. This makes me wonder about how algae forms on top of water, is it because of the waters surface tension. This affects many species of under water plants and animals, because they need the sunlight to grow. That affects small Eco-systems, like ponds in central park which have high amounts of algae on top that prevent the animals and plants in the bottom to grow. Then knowing more about surface tension could help stop the spread of algae to protect these small Eco-systems. Overall learning about these different properties about water this week had allowed me to realize how crucial water is not just only for us but for every living thing on the plant being that its around 70% water.
In this week of environmental science we learned about the different properties of water which I found fascinating because I didn’t even know what half of them were. The first 5 properties of water we talked about were high surface tension, high specific heat, capillary action, ice floats, and universal solvent. High surface tension is just water sticking to itself due to cohesion creating a film preventing water from leaving the surface. High specific heat means that it takes more energy for water to heat up or cool down, which turns out is beneficial for regulating not only the Earths temperatures but ours as well. Capillary action I think is the coolest of waters properties. It involves both adhesion and cohesion which makes water defy gravity and for example go up trees and provide their whole body with water. Ice float might be the weirdest of waters properties because when at freezing temperatures water turns to ice and because of that ice molecular structure separates making it less than water. The last property of water we learned this week is that water is a universal solvent. Since water is a polar molecule meaning it has a slightly positive and slightly negative charge it can dissolve any mixture that is non polar.
ReplyDeleteI feel that after learning more about water this week has just proved to me how unique water really is. I though water was beneficial for survival of certain species but it is more than that. It helps the world keep balance and in a way sustainable. Without water we wouldn’t be here right now and if we keep polluting water that rich source could soon be gone quickly not counting all the people in the world that rely on water. I know we will learn more about water this week and I look forward to being more knowledgeable of the subject.
This week I learned about water as a molecule and the five different properties of water. I found this topic interesting because I never really thought of water having properties or being a molecule. Instead I always thought water is a liquid that is refreshing and essential to life. I also thought that water had different states such as liquid, solid, and gas and that it contained tasteless chemicals but never have I taken the time to actually find out the chemicals in water or if that is even true. However, this week I finally broadened my thoughts with the lessons presented in class. First of all, I learned that water is a molecule that consists of both two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. This is why the chemical name for water is H2O. It is also important that the hydrogen atoms are connected to the oxygen atoms because they form hydrogen bonds affecting the properties in water. Also water is a polar molecule that has an unequal distribution of charge since it has partial negative and partial positive charges. In addition to this water has five unique properties. These properties are high surface tension, high specific heat, capillary action, ice floats, and universal solvent. After learning about each of these properties I felt that the most interesting property was high surface tension. I found that this property is the most interesting because it has hydrogen bonds that stick to each other due to water’s defiance of gravity and the force of cohesion/adhesion. Another reason why I find surface tension interesting is because when I think of surface tension I think of a glass jar filled with cookies as the hydrogen bonds cohesively together covered by a lid that cannot be broken or torn apart. This property of water has changed my thinking about the United States because it demonstrates how if Americans weren’t always fighting over ideals we would all be united but since we are not we always have tension and the surface of that tension are the ideas that are constantly being fought about such as who is wealthier and who has more power based on their social status. Additionally, based on this topic and this specific property of water I would like to know how surface tension affects hydrogen bonds and the action of the bonds once this layer is formed. I think this would be important for me to know because it will help enforce my knowledge on the elements I learned about in chemistry. Overall, I feel that learning about water as a molecule and focusing on high surface tension out of the five properties was interesting because water is essential and humans don’t pay attention to topics like these but my only wondering left is does/can high surface tension alter with temperature change?
ReplyDeleteTemperature does effect surface tension.
DeleteThe higher the temperature, the lower the surface tension (or easier it is to break the "film")
This week what we have been learning in class is about water. I learned that water is a polar molecule because when hydrogen and oxygen combine they create a polar molecule. When h2o is combined with other h2o molecules it makes a surface tension. A surface tension is when the top of the water is sticky and hard for an example a bug to go threw. I found this interesting because i never knew that the surface of the water was like a wall together that doesn't let most stuff go in easy. I also learned that water has five unique property which is high surface tension, high specific heat , capillary action, ice floats, and universal solvent. All are these are really important for nature or humans because one of these occur to us. This is similar to my life because most of these happen to us every day. For example capillary action happens to us everyday like when we wake up and we have like dry water or sweet in our eyes that's capillary action because water disobeys gravity. I want to learn where does run off water go ? or after it rains and the water goes to the swer where does it go from there.
ReplyDelete-jesus guzman 4 period
Jesus. We;ll be learning all about water runoff later in the semester. Good question.
DeleteWe all know that there are different locations where water is reserved. What we don’t know is whether or not the water is healthy and safe to drink. This week, we learned various topics that had to do with the water’s safety and why water is actually water. This topic is really interesting to learn about because not only will we be able to save our lives from drinking unhealthy water, but we were able to learn why water is actually water and why water has different reactions towards different things. For example, water has a high specific heat, meaning that the more energy it takes to heat up, it has a high specific heat. On the other hand, oil has a low specific heat, meaning the less energy it takes to heat up, it has a low specific heat. Another fact that was taught to the class was the capillary action. Capillary action is the combination between adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion is when water sticks to other stuff and cohesion is when water sticks to itself and forms drops. An example of capillary action is when water goes to the top of the trees. The one idea I found interesting was the capillary action because it made me understand why we pour water to plants, flowers, and trees at the bottom and not through the top. One of my thoughts about this topic was why water had to be poured in the soil and not in the top of the plant, flower, or tree. After I learned about adhesion, cohesion, and capillary action, the lesson definitely cleared my thought and made me understand why things happen the way it does. This lesson about water changed the thinking about my life most importantly. Now, I will view water as a very healthy, helpful, and important item in everyone’s lives. I will definitely convince my family to not only view water as an important liquid in their lives, but that water has various ways to be used and be helpful to us.
ReplyDeleteThis week we learned about sustainability and how is related to the Lorax and Rapa-nuis in Easter Island. The Lorax was a story based on how resources can be abused up to the point where no life can live in that place any longer. The once ler in the Lorax cut down the trees as a resource and material for his money making business. That eventually lead to the end of all life or actually just animals and the end of all the trees. In connection to the Lorax the rapanuis abused all of there resources a swell up to the point where they went from a couple of thousand people living on the island to 111 people. That' shows to know that f they were able to eventually run out of resources then our generation or future generations can eventually experience the same thing. Big companies and industries today abuse natural resouces of our planet like oil, trees, water ways etc. I believe people have to live a more suatainable life in order for the human race to survive for years to come.
ReplyDeleteWater is unique to our world. Water plays an important role in our lives. Water makes up about 70% of our body and the world. Aside from this water keeps Earth’s temperature just right and helps living organism regulate their bodies temperature. This weeks topic of water was very interesting because I was unaware of water's unique properties. This week I learned five different water properties which are polar molecules, Specific heat, adhesion/cohesion, capillary action, and universal solvent. Water can be found as a solid, gas and liquid on earth. Water (H2O) is made up of one oxygen and two hydrogens. Water is considered a polar molecule because its part negative and positive. Hydrogen bonds are formed when water molecules bond with each other due to the negative and positive charge between the hydrogen and oxygen. Why does water take so long to heat up? Waters specific heat makes water unique because it takes water longer to heat up and cool down. The higher the specific heat the longer it takes to heat up, and the Lower the specific heat the faster it heats up. One example of a low specific heat is oil. The higher the specific heat the more energy it take to heat it up. Another unique property of Water is adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion is when water sticks to other stuff. For example bandaid stick to our skin. Cohesion is when water sticks to water. When water stick to itself it forms water drops due to cohesion. Water disobeys gravity due to Cohesion and Adhesion which forms Capillary action. Both cohesion and adhesion created Surface Tension which then form a meniscus (curve) in wetting liquids. Surface tension also makes the hydrogen bonds at the surface stronger than the the ones down below due to waters stickiness. Also because of surface tension water is sticky, forms drops, and forms waves. Ever wondered why ice floats , if ice is frozen water? Thats because ice is a solid which makes its density lower than any liquid. Water is a “Universal dissolvent”. This means that water dissolves any solid such as salt, and sugar. Once these solids are dissolved they divide into smaller molecules which are attracted to either a positive or negative poles of the water molecule. I think the property that makes water the most unique is Universal solvent. I think this property makes water the most unique because its amazing how water can dissolve any solid. I believe learning about water's unique properties was very important because water is an essential element to our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteIn my junior year of high school I took a class in chemistry where we learned multiple things like the periodic table and what everything in it means. At one point we focused on the types of ways that atoms can link/bond with each other and how water can help identify that type of bond. Some bonds could be dissolved by water while others couldn’t. The easiest bonds to get dissolved are the ionic compounds which don’t have a strong link between each atom. I guess this would go with one of water’s special properties which would be that it’s a universal dissolvent, though it can’t really dissolve everything. Another property I found interesting is that it has a high surface tension which can become higher when its density increases. I found this interesting because I now know why certain insects are called water walkers (though the name is pretty much a given) and the logic behind it. Though it would be could be extraordinary if humans could also do the same, which I found out they can at the one place where the water is most dense, the Dead Sea. Although you can’t really “walk” on water it’s still pretty awesome that floating is really effortless making it a great place for beginning swimmers. These many properties that water possesses are extremely unique to water, and it because of its uniqueness that live can be as stable as it is today. If water did not float when it solidifies into ice, then marine life at the bottom of the oceans or lakes would most like either die and go extinct, or evolve to live with then ice. Without water’s high specific heat the Earth’s temperature wouldn’t have the Goldilocks effect. Same with capillary action, without it plants would have a hard time gathering water to survive, especially desert plants. Without these unique properties, life on this planet would not be the same as it is today, life could most likely be more tougher and harsher.
ReplyDeleteThe Lorax story by dr.seus is basically a tale about a character name the once-ler who kept cutting down trees in order to keep making Thneeds. After a while the air started to become polluted and dark because of the lack of oxygen cause buy the cutting down of all the trees. The once-ler soon began to feel bad for his wrong doings and decided to give away the last Truffala tree seed. I found this Topic interesting because it relates to whats been going on since the industrial revolution basically. We as a country are emitting gasses into the air from the thousands and thousands of factories we have all over the world and the billions of cars we drive around each day. So basically our world will soon end up polluted and dark which is what the Lorax story was describing. The story of the Lorax has sort of made me think more about what really goes on in the world that will harm future generations. I never really took time to think about how more cars on the street , how factories , tree cutting etc. will affect future life.
ReplyDeleteThis week we covered water and about its unique properties. Water is unique because of its surface tension, high specific heat, its capillary action, and its lower density in its solid form. The ones I find interesting were the high specific and capillary action. I find High specific heat interesting because this causes it to take so long to heat up and cool down. This property of water helps to regulate temperature on earth and in the human body since they are both mainly composed of water. Capillary action is interesting because of the two properties of water that are responsible for it, which are cohesion and adhesion. Cohesion makes water stick to itself because of its hydrogen bond and adhesion makes water stick to solid surfaces. The combination of the two allows water to defy gravity. By the continuous cycle of sticking to itself and other solid surfaces reach molecule can climb upwards there by defying gravity. This is how water is able to go up the roots of plants. I wonder how why capillary action doesn’t while in the bathroom or when I walk into a puddle or doesn’t it working but it isn’t so noticeable. I can connect high specific heat to why we use cooking oil instead of water to make some food and why it takes so long to make ice in the fridge. I can connection capillary action to why the soda in the straw sticks out above the rest of the soda. All these unique characteristics of water, makes me think how such a common thing such as water can be so unique. But I am guessing since it sustains life on earth it has to be. I want to know how much of these properties are damaged or changed because of water pollution.
ReplyDeleteIn this week what I've learned in environmental science was about water . The importance of water is that without water , there is no life , water is the reason we have a warm planet , there are 4 types of water which is solid , liquid , gas , and plasma . A water molecule is made up of a oxygen atom and 2 hydrogen atoms connected which is considered to be a polar molecule because some is positive and the others are negative . Hydrogen bonds are what makes water molecules bond and make a surface tension which is a wall that is separated by air . Water has a high specific heat because it needs a lot of energy for the temperature to change in the water . Adhesion is when water sticks to something else like for example after putting water in a cylinder that yu see certain drops on the side , cohesion is when water sticks to each other like in a surface tension but also because of adhesion the water does not obey gravity when sticking to something else which is capillary action . The way water gets to the top of trees is because of adhesion , cohesion , capillary action , and xylum . The reason ice floats on water is because its not strong enough to break the surface tension and maybe because its density is less than one
ReplyDeleteIn this first full week of class, we have been learning about water and all it's properties. There are many things about water that I did not know which are quite interesting. For example, water helps to heat up the planet and keeps it habitable. Also, I learned that water can even defy gravity in some circumstances due to cohesion and adhesion. One particular topic I found interesting was the uniqueness of water. I was not aware that the ability to exist as a liquid, solid and gas was rare. I wonder why water is able to do that and not other substances. What gives water this rare ability? Learning about water has made me realize how weird water actually is but has not changed anything. I actually would like to know if hydrogen and oxygen atoms can make other things besides water.
ReplyDeleteDuring this week in class we began to learn about the properties of water and the very basic information of water, which was very interesting to me and grabbed my attention very quickly. Properties of water seemed so interesting to me because I didn’t think that water would be so scientific and complicated, to me water was just water, something you drink and use. I had no idea hydrogen bonding, surface tension, and cohesion/adhesion even existed. Once it was taught to us in class I began to relate it to other things in our lives and how one property of water can relate to another using the concept map Mr. Fox introduced to us. Due to what we learned in class today I noticed how important water and its properties are to life as we know it and now I realize the importance of water, not only scientifically but environmentally. If ice was not able to float on water, then many habitats that exist today would have never been around. Also, many polar animals would have been long extinct by now. Furthermore, is it possible to see one water molecule? How many water molecules are in an average sized cup of water? How many in the Hudson River?
ReplyDeleteWilson Ortiz
Hi Wilson,
DeleteIt is impossible (as far as I know) to see just one water molecule.
The number of molecules in a cup and the Hudson river are most likely too many to count.
During this week in class, we had just started to learn about how water works in some different ways and different information on water. The properties of water was very interesting. The properties of water are high surface tension, high specific heat, capillary action, ice floats, and universal solvent. Between all the properties of water the one that kept me interested was the high surface tension. High surface tension is when the water molecules start to cling to each other, this is when the water is sticky and the air is sticky. The hydrogen bonds become much stronger at the surface. Then the surface of when the water molecules cling to each other which makes the surface sticky and strong. This kept me interested because it kept me wondering on how water is sticky and how how they make a sticky surface.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey De La Cruz 4th Period
In this week we learned of 2 topics and which was the similarity between The Lorax and the Rapa-nui from Easter Island and the unique properties of water. All I had ever seen water was as something that we needed in order to sustain ecological and human life. But this week I learned that water has 5 unique properties. High surface tension, specific heat, capillary action, only element to be in 4 different elements, and cohesion/adhesion. The one property of water that interested me the most was that it has high surface tension. When we performed the little ”experiment” in class the surface tension it has is a lot because it took up so many drops of water, 32 drops in my group. What also got me was the fact that the soapy water had so much less surface tension; I expected it to be close after we performed regular water’s surface tension. What I hope we learn this making period is how much drinking water do we have and will we not have any time soon? I know there’s a difference between the 70% water covering the world and the part of water that’s actually drinkable for humans.
ReplyDelete-Paul Garcia (4th Period)
This week to start off the year in environmental science we talk about the properties of water. I never actually discuss the properties of water until now.Before this week I dint know water had 5 different properties. High surface tension, high specific heat, capillary action, ice floating, and that its a universal solvent. All of these properties is what make water so special.we also learn what exactly is water or what is it made of. water is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. We as humans need to really take care of our water due to the fact that we need water in order to survive.Us humans are made up of mostly water, so with out water we wont survive. we could go weeks with out eating but not with out drinking water.This also relates to the topic of sustainability because when we don't live a sustainable life that also affects the water because water is a very huge part of our environment. If we don't take care of our environment then that means the water we have to drink is going to be too dirty to drink and that would leave us waterless. we only count with a certain amount of water and even if it looks like a lot not all water is drinkable.
ReplyDelete( Jvany Mitzi Period 4)
In this first full week of class, we were learning about the uniqueness to water and why was it unique. To break it down, there are five properties of water that make it....well water. The properties are: Surface Tension, High Specific Heat, Capillary Action, The ability to make ice float, and it being a universal solvent. Surface tension is basically the "film" or thin "skin" on top of the water that is made through cohesion/adhesion. The water molecules that are in the water and close to other water molecules tend to bunch up together, while the molecules on top, next to air, have to create a stronger bond, creating the surface tension. High specific heat basically means that at a certain temperature , water boils. Specifically for water(hence the specific in Specific heat),it has a high specific heat because it takes more energy to heat it up. Through Capillary action, water is able to climb up tall trees and reach the top of leaves and keep tree's nice and healthy. This Capillary Action is also caused by cohesion and adhesion. Ice floats, although it's a solid, because it's less dense than water. And finally, anything can be dissolved in water.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this past full week of school, we have learned so much. One learning experience was learning about water which to me seemed oddly to learn about but then once the first few teachings of Mr.Fox my mind was ready to learn beyond the point. Water is a huge quantity of compound on the Earth's surface,a huge importance covering about 70% of the planet and our bodies as well. In nature water exists through liquid , solid , and gas states and is very essential for all life on Earth. We live out of water, which keeps our body's running up and actively without having trouble in breaking our system down regardless. Water includes unique properties that makes it interesting. The important properties are Universal solvent which i would call the main title for water used by both nature and humans and also having the ability to dissolves a majority of substances, the approximate properties were also used , High specific Heat, Ice Floats, Capillary Action, and Surface Tension. The hydrogen atoms in a water molecule carry a positive charge. Hydrogen is happy being a proton and the oxygen atom is negative because oxygen is basically electronegative, this leads to Hydrogen bonding. i also found the Surface tension property unique, why i found it unique was because of the bug that was shown in class that could actually walk in water, it was a huge question in my head, whether if the bug was less dense than the water or the water had a different formulated density. The surface tension was unable to be broken for this bug which led it to glide through water, cohesive force had the development to hold the bug in its surface. Water is a godly gift sent to Earth. Imagine our self's without the consent of water, we would most definitely die of thirst, retaliate on the most difficult situations. Water is the beginning of our planet and our survival.
ReplyDeleteIn this week that has past, we have learned about what makes water so special. Properties such as cohesion and adhesion, created by the hydrogen bonds in the surface tension, causing the capillary action, making water a stick substance. We also learned about water's polarity, and how its molecules of two positive hydrogen atoms bonded to one negative oxygen atom, create the substance water. Water also dissolves most materials making it a solvent, and has a high specific heat, making it cooler than most substances, this was tested when we heated water and oil in at the same time, for the same amount of time, resulting in oil being 16 degrees hotter after 4 minutes. In all, we learned what makes water weird, its surface tension which creates the capillary action, making it defy gravity makes water a unique resource to our world.
ReplyDeleteThis week topic was about the water sample for pH,salinity,temperature,and disolve oxygen.Something I found intresting was the type of animals that had to live in specific water and what the temperture needed to be for they could live.One topic I found intresting was how the water temperture needed to be between 10 and 25 for clam could live.This changed my life because this made me realize that animals could live in water human drink they need fresh water from the river to live or salt water or brackish water.
ReplyDeleteFrankely Rosado