Water quality!

Temperature in water is very important.  It regulates living conditions for animals and plants living in water.  Example: a body of water with a cold temperature will have a lower amount of aquatic life, compared to a body of water with warmer temperatures all year round.  Warmer water is the potential living condition for animals, because most animals spawn in warmer temperatures/warmer weather seasons.  Temperature also helps scientists measure other things.


pH is the measure of how acidic the water is. The scale is (0.0 - 14.0) And 7.0 is the neutral state of pH in water where a creature could live in it.
Like the pH balance of a pool!



Dissolved oxygen measures the amount of molecular oxygen in water.  It does not measure the amount of oxygen in water, but only dissolved water.  Basically, this is to tell how much oxygen is in water to determine if plant and animal life can live there. If the levels are low, animals can die.


Nitrates are the most important form of nitrogen in water because it promotes growth and reproduction of many pants and algae.  It's pretty limited, considering plants use most of them for growth. 

Conductivity measures the water's ability for an electrical current.  It measures by a total of dissolved solids.
Pure water is a poor conductor.   Phosphates are a major source of eutrophication, and is used in fertilizers and detergents. 
Turbidity is the measure of how clear water is. Large amounts of sediment suspended in the water causes an increase in turbidity, creating a foggy water atmosphere.
E coli is an indicator species in water, found in intestines of warm blooded organisms.  E coli is generally not good for humans and animals. E coli is poop.

Against Mountaintop Removal!

Mountaintop Removal is slowly destroying homes, habitats, and health.

• Mountaintop Removal destroys natural habitats. The tops of mountains are cut completely off, leaving a big whole in something that was naturally made!
• It can cause sludge or coal slurry. That can destroy houses and neighborhoods.
• Rocks and dirt and dust go everywhere after/while this is being done. It can make the surrounding areas dirty and gross. 
• The excess rocks can kill animals around it and even people if they're too close.
• It makes streams of water or surrounding rivers disgusting and harmful to fish and other sea creatures!

IT'S ALL AROUND BAD! MOSTLY EVERYONE AGREES.






:(



http://mountainjustice.org/kentucky/water.php

Favoring Mountaintop Removal Mining

There are some reasons that mountain top removal isn't exactly 100% terrible.

Safety wise, removing coal this way can prevent many injuries around the area, and it is a lot safer than doing it underground.


There is pretty much no chance of gas or roof falls that would kill any miners.


It is a LOT cheaper than doing it the traditional way.


It's easier for everyone all around




http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/rand-paul-mountain-top-removal-mining-enhances-the-land.php

3 methods of surface mining (5th six weeks)

Open-pit mining, strip mining, and mountaintop removal mining

Open-pit mining is when coal miners extract rock from the earth by an open pit or burrow.


Strip mining is something that involves removing a thin layer of material known as overburden to access buried coal.


Mountaintop removal is when miners literally chop off the top of a mountain to gain access to the coal inside

Bishop, WV (Coal camp 5th six weeks)

Bishop Coal camp was one of the last coal camps to be built in Pocahontas Coalfield in 1930. Half of the camp is in McDowell, WV and the other half is in Tazwell County, VA. They mined a seven-foot of Pocahontas area.


You could tell this was a huge mining camp


This is the remains of the coal camp



You can find out a little more information here : http://www.coalcampusa.com/sowv/flattop/bishop/bishop.htm

Underground Coal (5th six weeks)

Underground mining is when you go underground to mine for coal. (Whoa!)

Underground mining can be denied when companies try to get permission to do so. People always have to ask permission.

Drift mining is used when coal seams intersect the surface. They have to go into the mountain sideways to get the coal


Shaft mining is a vertical passageway made in the earth for dinging ore.


Room and Pillar mining is a mining system where the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane.

Continuous mining is done by a machine. It's basically a machine that makes it easier to mine coal a lot faster

Longwall mining is when an entire long wall of coal is mined in a single slice. Pretty cool.

Coal Formation (5th six weeks)

Coal is called a fossil fuel because it was formed from the remains of vegetation that grew as long as 400 million years ago. The plants which formed coal captured energy from the sun through photosynthesis to create the compounds that make up plant tissues.The plant material is made out of carbon. Most of our coal was made 300 million years ago.  Coal is also made out of peat, which is dried up mucky plants that sat on top of the water's surface in swamps.


http://www.ket.org/trips/coal/agsmm/agsmmhow.html

Chart (5th six weeks)

In chart 2, the November data in our project, there are many things happening.   The AOT (Aerosol Optical Thickness) is going down.  This means that the amount of aerosols in the air is decreasing. This allows more sunlight to come through the atmosphere.  That is why the Percent Transmission is going up very quickly. As the dates get closer and closer to December, the temperatures of the Practice Football Field and the Student Parking Lot get lower. This is happening because when more sunlight is entering into the Earth’s atmosphere more water is evaporating. This makes the AOT go up slightly, so there are more clouds to insulate our area. This makes the temperatures go down.

Aerosols conclusion (5th six weeks)

Aerosols are tiny solids and liquids that are suspended in the air. These form clouds and help the water cycle, but can also be harmful to the environment. Most aerosols are formed naturally from volcanoes, forest fires, sea spray, etc. but some of them are created by humans. These are made by burning fossil fuels and altering earth’s surface. Large cities create the most aerosols since there are more cars and buildings that burn fossil fuels. Aerosols have a direct cooling effect. When there are more aerosols in the atmosphere, more clouds are formed. This means more sunlight is reflected back into space and the earth cools down.

Aerosols can be bad, too. The bad: human made aerosols contribute to the urban heat island effect (UHI). The urban heat island effect is defined as the increase in urban temperatures as compared to surrounding suburban and rural temperatures. This happens because of the dark building materials used in cities (asphalt, buildings, and cars) and the lack of grass and vegetation. Since the temperatures are higher in the urban areas, this also means the people must use more air conditioners, creating more aerosols. The more cities built in the world means the earth’s temperature will raise more, creating global climate change.

Earth Day at Marshall University

Project wild was a visual and hands on representation of different animals. They had two rabbits, a snake, an bearded dragon, a squirrel, three puppies, and a ferret. All of the animals were up for adoption, and even some of them were free.

Birds of Prey was an event where there were birds and they just sat there while you viewed them. The people talking would explain various things about them. A lot of them were wild, and rescued after being injured.

THIS IS NOT FINISHED

Post on Coal Formation

Coal is formed when peat is altered physically and chemically. The process is called 'coalification.'
Coal is especially important to West Virginia, because it is what its known for.Dead plans like ferns, would die and fall into a swamp, and bury itself under the marsh, causing it to be smothered. With no oxygen, this is how peat is made!

For peat to actually turn INTO coal, it must be buried by sediment. When being buried, it is completely squeezed of all the moisture in it, then, it compacts itself and becomes really hard and dried out, and that's how it turns into coal.  All the elements are dispersed from this rock. 

 It is estimated that it took 10 vertical feet of original peat material to produce 1 vertical foot of bituminous coal in eastern and western Kentucky.

Predict what effect aerosols may have on climate change

Aerosols do good and bad contributions to global warming.
Aerosols can cool the surface of the Earth, because it reflects sunlight, which is good for Earth. Aerosols don't mean to do it though; it's an indirect thing that happens to be a positive thing for us!

Aerosols are such tiny particles, but such a big impact.
Aerosols are widely known for being extremely harmful, which is true, but only if there's an increase in carbon dioxide. Most of the time, this is caused from humans.





http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/SmokeClouds/smoke_clouds2.php

Atmosphere notes

The Earth's atmosphere is 99% of atmospheric gasses, with water vapor being the largest in green house gasses. Other gasses in the atmosphere are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and other gasses. These gasses are invisible, unlike smog, the greenhouse effect is very important to the atmosphere, even more so of the ozone. Infared radiation is emitted to Earth's surface due to the warming of the atmosphere. The main gasses responsible for this are water vapor and carbon dioxide. Aerosols are also with the greenhouse effect. Pressure is important with the atmosphere pulling gasses towards the Earth. The higher the pressure, air is thinner, making it hard to breathe. 

Aerosols Conclusion (5th six weeks)

What effect do aerosols have on climate change?


It has a big role in climate balance. Studies suggest that increased aerosol loading may have changed the energy balance in the atmosphere and at the Earth's surface, and altered the global water cycle in ways that make the climate system more prone to precipitation.

 Aerosol effects on clouds can make large changes in precipitation patterns. It can change the regional and global circulation systems.

Aerosols suppress precipitation. Aerosols decrease the amount of solar radiation that reaches the land surface. That makes less heat available for evaporating water. It mostly shuts off precipitation almost completely. 

An example of the Urban Heat Island Effect is like how a city is a lot hotter in temperature than the urban areas around it. 

Aerosols

Aerosols are substances packaged under pressure with a gaseous propellant for release as a spray of fine particles.
Aerosols in the ozone layer come from products like hairspray, cans of paint, and other things like air conditioners.  Dust and sea salt are mainly the only two natural aerosols and they are the most abundant in the atmosphere, leaving man made aerosols with a smaller percentage in the atmosphere.  

Aerosols affect climate and weather because it does chemical changes in the atmosphere.  The particles mixed in with the ozone particles get hot from the sun and harmful rays, causing the aerosol particles to burn the ozone.  The burning of the ozone lead to a warmer climate because of allowing more UVB rays into the Earth’s atmosphere.  Aerosols is a leading factor to the harm of humans.  Aerosols is of the leading causes for the depletion of the ozone. 

Why Surface Ozone Should Be Studied

Surface Ozone Stuff

Surface Ozone affects every human, animal, and living organism on Earth. Ozone is very important. No oganism could survive on Earth without the ozone; there would be no oxygen and the huge amounts of UVB rays. Surface Ozone can threaten and enable life on Earth.
Without ozone, life on Earth would not be the way it is now. The man-made ozone that forms in the atmosphere is extremely toxic and corrosive.

The Ozone is a layer of different chemicals and oxygen in the stratosphere.

Surface Ozone affects health.
Surface Ozone can affect the way you breath and your respiratory region as a whole; it can make you cough, or have an itchy/uncomfortable throat.


Paints, cleaning supplies, photo copiers, and permanent markers contain VOCs. That is a big part that contributes harm to the atmosphere.

The ozone layer is made out of various gasses, most of which is created of various types of oxygen.  O₂ and O₃ are a large part to the ozone.  VOCs are also included.
Factors to protect the ozone are quite easy. The cut down of Fossil Fuels (like gasoline) and aerosols (like cans of hair spray) can save the deterioration of the ozone layer.

 

Group project evaluation

I thought working in groups was okay, but I much rather do independent work.
I feel like I did most of the work, and I think our group needed more communication.

3 things that went well

• We got the work done
• We all got along
• We worked together somewhat

3 things that could be improved

• more communication between group members
• equal work distributed among each person
• working together more

Measurements Procedure

• Found out what area we wanted to measure the trees in
• Taped off the area
• Went outside, and numbered the trees
• Then measured the trees in kilometers
• Figured out what types of trees they were
• Wrote down all our information on sheets
• Mr. Sharpe gave the circumferences of the trees
• Doing calculations 
• Measured forest area
• Finished calculating data

Scientific Method in Everyday life

~Revised


For one of my classes, I had to make a poster board for a project we were doing. I waited until the very last minute, the night before it was due, and I didn't have time to go and get a poster board, so I looked around my house for stuff I could use to make one.

1. Problem:
 I desperately needed a poster board for my project. As said above, I didn't have time since it was the night before to actually go out and buy one, so I had to find out how to make one.

2. Observation/Research:
I looked online to see what would be the best alternative to make paper thicker, without using cardboard. (I didn't have any of that, either.)

3. Hypothesis:
I told myself to try it out. I know it won't be perfect, but at least it would be something.

4. Experiment:
I found some old placemats that used to be on my dining room table that were not in use anymore, and they were pretty sturdy. I began by taking a couple of them, and taking a hot glue gun to make them stick together. They were pretty thick, so it was easy for the glue to work. Then, after letting them dry and making sure they wouldn't easily fall apart, I began gluing all the paper on. I had to do it in layers, so I put about four or five layers on each placemat.

5. Collect/Analyze Results:
It actually worked better than I thought it would! After it all dried, I could draw and write the appropriate stuff on it for my project.

6. Conclusion:
The next morning, I guess after it had COMPLETELY dried, there was still some dry glue on the sides. After scraping and peeling it off, I was very pleased with the outcome.

7. Communicating the Results:
I ended up doing it for class and got an A on the project! Just as I thought I was going to fail, I ended up doing great on it.
So, next time instead of freaking out because I couldn't go buy something, I realized maybe I should just look at my surroundings and see what I can make out of that.

Mr. Sharpe is really cool. I think I will like Earth Science.

I like to draw and I like my dog. I like him more than most people. He's probably my best friend. We like to eat lunchables together and watch The Office.

His name is Pik. He's awesome.