Addy- Science Methods 1

To begin class, we looked at a formative assessment, and we talked about different things and whether they are rocks or not. We had to base this on what we thought. I said that I thought rocks were solid materials that were made up of different particles and minerals. We then looked at the grades and curves. We looked at "what grades make a better student," but I think that it is too difficult to decide that because there are so many different factors that play into it. It is not fair to say one student is better because of their grade percentage. There is so much to look at and so much more that comes into play than just a percentage. We talked about the layers of the earth, which are the core, mantle, and crust. We then created different types of rocks out of starbursts. We made a sedimentary rock, an igneous rock, and a metamorphic rock. It was interesting because I learned about how they look and how they are created which was cool.

To begin the lab, we got to work in our groups and look at SOW and what we will be teaching. We then went over some review things for our exam on Thursday. Then, we did an activity where we put a sticky note on a timeline to see when things happened. It was our preconceptions of the Earth and what came before the other. I learned that when the Earth was created, it was a hot ball of magma, and the Earth was created around the same time. The first life forms started in the oceans, which were different bacteria and plants. Then, we could see marine animals begin to form. Then, humans will form soon after that. I found this to be interesting because I knew it was in this order, but I did not know a lot of the little things that go along with it all. I found it very interesting. After looking at the interactive simulation, it was really interesting to look at how the Earth has changed over the past years. It was cool to see how much ocean there was when the earth began and then how land sl...

1: Life Cycles of Stars - Stars generate energy through nuclear fusion, not combustion. This was very interesting because this was something I was unaware of - There are a lot more steps to the life cycles of stars than I previously knew - Earth is a mixture of multiple stars instead of just one little thing - Stardust is the base for all things 2- Galaxies - Galaxies are not just made of stars; there is a lot of other things like gas, dust, dark matter, and supermassive black holes - Three different types of galaxies: spiral, elliptical, and irregular - We learned that there is a black hole in the center of the Milky Way 3- Origin of the Earth - Earth was not formed during the Big Bang - Earth is only 4.6 billion years old - An Iowa scientist determined the age of Earth in the 1950s 4- Black Holes - Black holes are actually pretty small in size - They form from the collision of stars - If you fell into a black hole, you would be stretched into human spaghetti 5- Past present, and futu...

In lab, we created a scale of the first four inner planets and the sun. We had to make the realistic size and distance in between the sun and the planets as well as the moon. We measured that we needed mercury 25m away from the sun. Venus is 46.6m away from the sun. Earth 64.5m from the sun, and Mars 98m from the sun. I did find it a little challenging to find the distance in between all the planets and make it realistic to a scale we could actually see. It was also crazy because we used our table as the sun and the rest of our plants were 5mm or less. It was crazy to me to see all of this in a real life scale. I found this very interesting and could potentially use an activity like this with my class.