NASA's deep-space rocket

NASA unveils deep-space rocket to succeed the space shuttle
By Dan Vergano
USA Today
9/15/2011


NASA has made many advances in their technology. We have spent decades exploring the moon. We have learned so much about it and know we can learn about other planets. NASA might be able to launch a rocket to far off planets in 2025 but they have money cuts so the launch might be postponed until they get enough money. They might be able to explore the other planets. Maybe they will even find out if there is life on Mars.

I think that their advances in technology are outstanding. When you think about it, it is amazing. We may get to learn about other planets. Maybe NASA can continue their advances in this if they could get to the planet made of diamonds in the Milky Way Galaxy. I chose this article because it caught my attention. I think NASA is very interesting.

My Knowledge

I do know a fair amount about the living and the non living. Fist of all, I know a few things about cells, they have two main types, plants and animals, but then those cells are put into many subcategories. Also some of the things that animal cells have are, nucleus which controls the cell, a wall which keeps things out of the cell,  and a vacuole which stores things in it. Plant cells are mostly the same except for shape,     (plant cells are rectangular, and animal cells are round) and chloroplasts. With non living and the living I know that  the living has to have many different standards, like cells, responses, and cellular organization. If they are missing just one thing they are not living. What I do not know and what  I want to know is,  how many different types of categories cells can be sorted into, and how scientists knew what part of the cell does what.

Here is an animal cell

 

Here is a plant cell

My Science goals

Last year was a great year , but there is still more things I need to work on making longer and more descriptive current events. That is because, in seventh grade you have higher standards. I think to do that I need to get more descriptive information with a bigger story. Another thing that I want to do, is to get better in physics. To do that I need to take more notes when we get to that section. Lastly, I want to make better lab reports. The solution to that problem is to just work a bit harder on them.

Scientific Summer

Over my summer vacation I went to Ireland. It was really beautiful. One of the most scientific things we have done this summer was that we went to a poison garden. It was filled with many plants and an explanations. If you are in Ireland I would recommend going to the Blarney castle, because that is were the garden is and it was very interesting. The garden was filled with about 30 luscious but poisonous plants.

















The science of what I did was Botany . Botany is the study of plants.These were poisonous plants. Some were lethal, but others just made you sick. The American Mandrake is a plant that can kill you. The plant looks like an umbrella. It can grow to be about 18 inches. Another one of the plants in the garden was called Wolfsbane.  They sometimes used it to put on the tip of arrows for hunting and war. Wolfsbane is fatal. The cure for it is human fecal matter. I will also tell you about Rhubarb. The leaves are toxic but the roots are not. People actually eat Rhubarb (roots) and like it. They say that it is very good.

Public Service Announcements

I my science class everyone had to make a Public Service Announcement or P.S.A. on the safety of doing something and the science behind it. I did the safety of wearing proper gear while riding a motor cycle. A lot of people talked about inertia, force, momentum, and Newtons first law, and friction. From my classmates I learned that momentum is the force an object gets while it is in motion. Also I learned that friction is the rubbing between two different objects, force is a push or pull motion, and Newtons law is that whatever is at rest stays at rest unless acted on by an outside force and whatever is in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an outside force. Another thing I learned was how dangerous things are that we do in our everyday life. I think it is very important to know the science behind accidents. That is because if you don't know what happens when there is an accident you could think that it was the person who jumped out of the car window when they actually flew out of the window because they wanted to stay in motion. If they didn't know that force waspushing people oout of a window they might not have made seat-belts or air bags which saves lives. So, yes it is very important to know the science behind crashes.

Marble motion

In my science class we did a lab about motion. we were seeing how hard you had to blow on marbles for them to move. Me and my partner had no problem with that because they always moved.

Guiding question- Does the mass of the marble affect how it moves?
When given a force, what happens to it's motion?

Hypothesis- I think that the smaller and lighter ball will move easier and faster.

Materials

• small marble
• big marble
• tennis ball
• metal marble
• ping pong ball
• small foam ball

Data my partner and I got

Small marble- light breath- moved 10inches

Hard breath-40+inches

Big marble- light breath - 22in.

Hard breath-40+ in.

Metal marble- light breath- 22in.

Hard breath- 40+ inches

Ping pong- ball light breath- 40+ in.

Hard breath-40+ in.

Small foam ball- light-40+ in.

Hard breath-40+ in.

Tennis ball- light breath- 6 in.

Hard breath- 16 in.

Data analysis

I can tell from the data I got that  the weight is a big factor in how far and fast the ball will move.  Also all the balls moved left and right they did not go in a straight line. It was not so much how big it was if it was light. The one that moved the least was the tennis ball because it was heavy and big, but it did move. One that was not that small was the ping pong ball, and it moved the farthest. It was hollow and very light.

 Conclusion

From my data I can tell that my hypothesis was incorrect. Actually it does not really matter on a balls size when it is moving unless it is really big of really small. It really only matter on it's mass. If it is light it will move far and fast, but heavy it will move a bit and slowly.  I also noticed that the balls almost never went in a straight line they would always be going to the left and the right. When you give the balls a  lot of force they move much faster, easier, and slower. If you do not really give to much force it will not move too much unless it is really light.

Further inquiry

If I were to do this project again I would use a bigger variety of balls. Another thing that  I would do is to make a track so it could not curve too much. Also I would weigh each of them to get a better answer. All in all I am happy with how I worked with my partner and did in general. If I did this again though I know there are ways I could do better.



           

From Feet to Fathoms Lab Activity

Guiding Question:

How accurate are old measurements using body parts? What is the importance of having an International measuring system?

 Hypothesis

I think that the old way of measuring was not correct and is a bit harder to use. It was not correct because everyone is different is size so when measuring things like a fathom, pace, or English yard they can be the same, small, or really big difference in length.

Materials:

·         A white board

·         A space book

·         A desk

·         A hallway

·         A peep

·         A ruler

·         A calculator

·         Pace: legs outstretched =1 yard approximately or 1 meter

Egyptian cubit= elbow to tip of the middle finger= 18 inches or 45 cm

Fathom = middle finger to middle finger across the body = 6 feet, 180 cm, 1.8m

Palm = across the palm of the hand = 3 inches or 8 cm

Hand including thumb = 4 inches or 10 cm

Span = from tip of thumb to tip of little finger= 3 palms or 9 inches or 24 cm

English yard = from fingertip of arm to nose = 36 inches or about 1 meter

Foot = 12 “or 30 cm approximately

Fingernail = tip of pinky =1/2 inch = 1 cm.

Procedure:

1.       Make a data table with 7 rows and 7 columns.

2.       Choose six items to measure.

3.       Decide which unit of measurement you will use.

4.       Now measure it three times then calculate the average.

5.       Next you measure the actual length with a ruler.

6.       Repeat the steps 3-5 with the rest of the items.

7.       Now compare the answers you got.

This is what the table should look like

Item	Type of measurement	Try 1	Try 2	Try 3	Average	Real measurement
White board
book
desk
hallway
peep

Record & Analyze 

Data Analysis:

I know that the data we got is right because there is not really any way to make a mistake in this. Half of the time the lengths were the same or really close. They were the same or really close on the space book, crayon box, and the peep. I think the measurements of the bigger objects were off.  Because  on bigger objects you would use fathoms(6 feet) to measure it quicker and when both of your arms are stretched out it is your height, so not everyone is different height so it does not really equal six feet.

Conclusion:

In this project to measure everything we used a meter stick and we measured in inches. It is important to have an international measuring system because when there is something important and you need to measure something and you do not have any way to measure it, but with the international measuring system you can.  The answer to the guiding question is that it is not very accurate but the measuring system can work for some people and you already know why it is important to have an international measuring system. It is the easiest to measure smaller items like the peep, space book, and the crayon box. Those were also the most accurate. When we were measuring were mostly used fathoms and inches. With the peep we used inches, and with the hallway we used fathoms.. For the forms of measurement they used a long time ago I think was good then but now we have an even better way of measuring.

Further inquiry:

If I had done this lab again I would change how I did a few things. I would have used other measurements to just try them. Something we did that was wrong was that the first time we did the measuring we only measured each thing once, but we went back and fixed it. The only question that I have is, were there any other measurements they used.