Riccardo's Science Blog

Summary: Raising money for charity can really make you feel good. The Marine Mammal Foundation helps raise money to raise protection for endangered marine mammals. The charity saves and rescues marine mammals for many different reasons such as human activity: net and fishing line entanglements, gun shots, and more. To help raise money for this worthy charity, we sold cake pops at the charity fair. If we sell these items for $1 each, we would make $.75 per cake pop in profit. Transporting all the materials for the cake pops with the original materials creates 4317203302.5 g of CO2. If we could find a way to source our material all from California, that number would go down a bunch. I really liked the charity fair! Backward-Looking:  Have you done a similar kind of work in the past (earlier in the year or in a previous grade; in school or out of school)? I did the charity fair last year as well as this year. There were some differences and similarities. Last year, we did all

Image - Summary -  This week I learned about Soil. There are two types of soil treatments - plant and trench. Trench makes the soil shape like a staircase while plant keeps it as a firm,flat surface as the plant roots hold the figure of soil together. There are  also different soil types. A few types of soil are silt, sand, and a mixture of both. We used virtual explorations to learn about soil texture and type, and more. I also learned about carbon footprints. A carbon footprint is the amount of carbon and other compounds let out due to the utilization of fossil fuels. Soil has different layers called horizons. Topsoil is the top layer aka the A horizon, and is made up of decomposed materials. The next layer is the subsoil aka the B horizon, and it is  made up of clay, mineral deposits, and less decomposed materials. The layer below is the C horizon. It is made up of a little unbroken rock and very little decomposed materials is in this layer. SP5 - I used math when I tried t

Summary :  I learned that the safest city in America is believed to be Dayton, Ohio by me and some of my classmates. I learned that Dayton, Ohio is completely free or almost completely free of wildfires, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Earthquakes are the sudden shake of the Earth and they happen near or on fault lines. The ground is releasing some tension and releases it through fault lines because they are the weakest points in the Earth's crust. Dayton, Ohio is not near or on any fault line, therefore, is safe. One other deadly natural disaster is a wildfire. Wildfires happen in places with lots of dry vegetation because they form when the sun is so hot, dry vegetation catches on fire. Dayton has regular amounts of rain, not allowing the vegetation to become dry enough to catch fire. Dayton is free of one more thing, hurricanes. Hurricanes form over warm ocean waters. The ocean needs to be at least 80 °F or warmer for hurricanes to form. Dayton is not near any warm bodies of wa

The safest city in America is Dayton,Ohio. We think this because it is free of hurricanes. It is also free of earthquakes and wildfires. It is free of these things because the weather conditions do not permit them to happen. The New York times says that Corvallis,Oregon is the safest city,but we disagree. Dayton, Ohio is unable to have wildfires because of its weather and climate. The weather is normally cold (and so is the climate) and Dayton, as well as the rest of Ohio doesn’t have much dry vegetation to burn. It is also not in a drought so there is plenty of rain in Ohio. Dayton has an even smaller chance to experience wildfires because it is a city. Cities don’t have much vegetation, nevertheless dry vegetation. Wildfires are fueled by vegetation, and although even moist vegetation can catch fire, Dayton doesn’t have much vegetation, just like other cities. The only fire that can occur in Cleveland would be a man-made fire which can easily be put out by people including fire

en.wikipedia.org Image - Summary - The safest place in america is surely in Ohio. This is because Ohio is free from the following natural disasters :   Tsunamis :   Ohio's current and past earthquake average isn't enough to trigger a tsunami. Also, even the lowest leveled ground on Ohio is too high for a Tsunami to reach. Wildfires:  Because of Ohio's cold weather, wildfires don't occur in Ohio.  They also don't occur  because in Ohio  there are good amounts of rainfall which  keeps vegetation wet and not dry, which prevents from the fire from spreading.   Another thing is Ohio doesn't have dry, flat land for the fire to travel on.  Hurricanes:  Ohio doesn't have seas or oceans which a hurricane can form on. Hurricanes form on large bodies of water which are warm and have enough energy for a large amount of surface water evaporation.  Tornadoes:  Although Ohio is near tornado alley, the only tornadoes that occur in Ohio occur in rural or farm areas, and

Properties:  www.thinglink.com Summary:  Natural Disasters are not something to joke about. Natural disasters can cause millions in dollars in damage. Some types of natural disasters are tornadoes,wildfires,hurricanes,tsunamis,blizzards, thunderstorms, and earthquakes. I will explain some of them now. Wildfires - Wildfires are known as forest fires, wild-land fire, bush fire, etc, are big unconstrained/uncontrolled fires that are fueled by vegetation. Wild fires mostly occur in areas with a lot of vegetation, and are very likely to start in areas with dry vegetation. Wildfires normally happen in dry, hot areas which have conditions such as droughts(droughts can help because if it's a place with vegetation (green or dry) (such as California) the fire has lots of brush to burn through). Wild fires form when the air pressure is high which causes sunny days. The reason it can't form when the air pressure is low is because the air is moist and it is most likely raining. Wildf

Image credits:  1000awesomethings.com Summary: Wind is caused by the rotation and changing temperatures of the Earth. Wind is cool air rushing towards the ground to replace the warm air that has just risen. Warm air expands as it rises. Cool air contracts, therefore taking up less space. Air pressure is also an ingredient to wind. It can make wind blow in different directions. A barometer is used to measure the air pressure. When there is high pressure in the atmosphere, it is sunny. When there is low pressure in the atmosphere, there are rainy days. Wind helps create weather. SP8: Obtain, evaluate and communicate information: This week we started on our next project. For this project, we needed to research about the different types of severe weather. One of the most important things that we had to figure out was what type of conditions the type of weather needed to be created. This will help us figure out where the type of weather is likely to occur, leading to to figuring out

en.wikipedia.org Summary For this unit of volcanoes,plate tectonics,etc. we ended with a project this project involved us making a ignite presentation on a volcano/mountain of our choosing. Not only did we have to make/present an ignite presentation but we had to build a model of the mountain/volcano of our choosing. For my choice I did mt. Shasta. (the picture is a picture of mt. Shasta). Backward-Looking: To produce this piece of work I needed a bit of things. For the ignite presentation obliviously I needed to do internet research. For the model on the other hand it needed a bit more work than using just the internet. First what we did is we took a miniature plastic cup and placed it in the middle. Then we added some sort of paper to make it a cone shape. After that we covered it in wet newspaper. As soon as it dried we covered it in clay and the painted over it. Inward-Looking: Throughout this project I had my fair share of frustrating moments. I shall

www.blastr.com Summary :  In this science unit, we (the class) are learning about volcanoes. Volcanoes are usually formed from "hot spots" in the Earth's continental or oceanic crust(s). Those spots begin to grow and form. The magma inside the volcano has actually come from mostly parts of the Earth's mantle. There are four main types of volcanoes. There is Cinder cone volcanoes,Shield volcanoes,composite volcanoes and Dome volcanoes. As they are all volcanoes they all look different and erupt differently. Like a Dome volcano is one of the interesting ones (in my opinion) because  Dome volcanoes function in which their magma is pushing out of the volcano. That is because hardened magma is staying above the magma. Once the magma and other gases push hard enough, that pressure destroys most of the rock bits and flings them into the air. With the magma traveling upward, the volcano will seem to have erupted. Science And Engineering Practice: SP2: Developing and

                                                                                        Summary Viscosity, different types of boundaries, shield volcanoes and models made from sugar are just some of things that I did. I had the opportunity to make a model of tectonic plates that range from continental plates to oceanic plates. I know that viscosity means how thick something is and that the thing that makes something more viscous are the composition and the heat. Shield volcanoes are volcanoes that are usually made of magma that is not explosive and then looks like a dome, which gives the name shield volcano. Shield volcanoes are effusive volcanoes and they are one of the things that I learned this week.  SP2: Developing and using models I actually did three models. I made them all out of candy and sugar. I used frosting as the asthenosphere for my model and my  oceanic  and continental were  fruit  roll-ups and graham

http://goo.gl/huAWzb Summary This week we continued our research on plate tectonics. At the beginning of this week we had to create a clay model of the earths layers. But since it's clay we could use it for experiments right away we had to let it dry a bit. So in the middle of the week we learned about a man named Alfred Wegener. We learned that he was the first person to ever believe that the earths continents were once all bunched up together,but no one believed him and said he was crazy. Then near the end of the week we used our model that we had made and pushed them just a bit uneven so it would be what it looks like when their is an earthquake. Then we went around measuring all the gaps between where it was before and where it is now. S&EP I built my model as I learned about plate tectonics. Plate tectonics are a very interesting and important thing to know about.  Plate tectonics  is the theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several  plates  that g

Summary The rock cycle is one of the more interesting cycles. For our assignment this week we had to recreate the rock cycle but in cartoon form. So for us to make a rock cycle cartoon of course we have to learn a bit about the rock cycle, but I'll explain that later. Before we made our cartoon the class did an activity were we acted like rocks and went through the rock cycle.  By doing this activity it really helped us understand how the rock cycle is preformed and what affect it has on the rocks. I think that this little activity was a big help in the understanding of the rock cycle S&EP     I built my model ( Well I made a cartoon, but you get the gist.) as I learned about the rock cycle. Like I said before the rock cycle is a very interesting cycle. It is the cycle on how one specific type of rock can turn it to another one just like that. Just like all that needed to happen for a metamorphic rock  to change into an igneous r

Summary My assignment for this week (and part of last week) was to create a cartoon on the scientific method. We had to draw our own little people or characters using the scientific method to figure out their problem. For this assignment I decided that my characters question was going to be what dissolves faster in water M & Ms or Skittles. After my characters experiment he found out that skittles dissolved faster in room temperature water. Backward-Looking This week while I was doing my scientific method cartoon I had a few struggles. While drawing I was very stressed out because I wanted to maker it look the best it could be and I couldn't get work done because every time I did something I thought it could be better so I erased it and got nothing done. I fixed it by calming down and saying to my self I shouldn't care what other people thing as long I think I'm doing a good job. Inward-Looking Something that I found out about myself during

                                                                                    Summary Image source:  www.texample.net The scientific method always starts with a question. There are many different orders in which it could be. The scientific method can help people figure out a question by following  many steps. It starts of with a question but then you must make a hypothesis, run an experiment, write down all of you data, write your conclusion, and then share your data. The scientific method has many steps but my favorite is the experiment I think it's the best because once you have your problem,question,and hypothesis you get to figure out how to solve the problem. SP8: Obtain, evaluate and communicate information T his week I completed the new scientific method paper.Then we thought about the order of the new scientific method. I also completed the scientific method refresher. While doing the scientific method refresher we had to "relearn" all the steps o

One goal for the school year is to be able to get to know everyone new like the new kids and the 5th graders.

Surprise  One thing that surprised me is that sloths can move their heads almost 360 degrees.I was reading the article and I read it and thought it was super gross but then I realized lots of animals can turn their heads almost all the way around and I thought it was pretty cool. Summary The article talked about where sloths lived and about their habitats.The article also talks about how there are two different types of sloths two toed and three toed and what the difference is. It talks about how sloths defend themselves and why they are so slow. Citation : "Sloth."  Sloth . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2015. Backward The only thing I knew about sloths is that they're slow and there are three toed ones and two toed ones. Now I know that they can almost turn there head all the way around and when a predator is near " sloths turn from sluggish to slugger, biting fiercely, hissing, slashing with their claws, and shrieking." Inward I chose this artic

Surprise: It surprised me when I found out that these glass frogs have see through stomachs. I was reading the article when I found out that they have see through stomachs!  Uhhh! Summary: The article talks about how these see through frogs, one have see through stomachs (which is creepy). Another things is that these frogs are fighting a battle against fungus, people are trying to get rid of the fungus so the glass frogs can live. Complete citation: New Real-Life Frog Looks Like Kermit." New Real-Life Frog Looks Like Kermit . N.p., n.d. Web. 21 May 2015. Backward-Looking:   I never knew there were frogs that have skin that's clear where there stomach is. Now I know that they need help against the a deadly fungus called chytrid. Inward-Looking:  At first I thought frogs were really cool and I still do but I never knew all the different things that frogs can do like spit poison far or have see through stomachs. Now I'm intere

Surprise I was surprised when I was reading the article and found out that there even was a possibility of recreating dinosaurs. I knew it couldn't be done but I never thought how it would have worked if we could bring dinosaurs back to life. Summary What I learned by reading this article was that dinosaurs can not be recreated the way they have it in Jurassic Park or World, even though yes we could transfer all the DNA and all that but it's just too complex. We do have one chance though "The answer though does lie in genetic modification of our only living dinosaurs, the birds." Even it would still be hard, there is a chance of being able to bring back dinosaurs through birds. Here is the citation the article I read: "Creating Dinosaurs: Why Jurassic World Could Never Work."  The Conversation . N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2015 Backward Looking I never even thought about dinosaurs being able to come back to life but know I know now that it might

Summary This week during my research in geothermal energy I found out some very interesting things: One thing I found out is that direct use of geothermal heat pumps have almost no negative impact on the environment. Another thing I learned is that geothermal power plants do not burn fuel to generate electricity, so the levels of air pollutants they release are low. And another thing that I find very fascinating is that because geothermal energy has no negative impact, geothermal heat pumps can actually have a positive effect because they may reduce the use of other types of energy that may have greater negative impacts on the environment. One final thing is that it does not require purchase of fuel, and because it is a base load resource, geothermal power is reliable, helping to stabilize prices. The average cost of geothermal plant over its lifetime is dramatically lower than that of traditional sources of power. So over all geothermal energy is very useful and does

Surprise Today during science class Abram and I were making our projects and we had a problem. We reported our problem and we found out that for our project it was better if we used C battery's not the D kind. I was surprised because most of the time the D battery's will have a higher voltage on the light but in this case the C battery's worked better ( plus they fit in the battery holder). I learned that most of time even though one battery is bigger and looks better the smaller battery can be stronger and even if it provides less voltage it provides the same amount.

Surprise This week when we where doing the worksheet in class I was surprised when I found out that in a series circuit electricity just flows from one light bulb in the picture.( I was the only one surprised by this because I was not here the day before). I was surprised by this because it's strange how the electricity is able to go from one light to the other to light up both bulbs. One thing this tells me is that electricity is a very interesting topic and I'm excited to learn more about it

I would make  “the most powerful electromagnet” with a copper magnet. I would not just use  a plain copper magnet though I would have to have the electromagnet at 100 volts, it would have to also be 100 winds. It would have to have a DC current and the wire would have to be thick. The reason I want the magnet to be these exact things is because in this website we used if you do all those things the electromagnet will pick up all 500 iron filings.

Summary This week I learned somethings about magnetism.I learned that pretty much nothing can break the magnetic field.EXAMPLE: we could make the paperclip drop by putting something in between the paperclip and the magnet. Surprise This week I was surprised when I saw how the we made our own magnets ought of the materials we could use in our everyday lives.I was surprised by this because I did not think that we could make very good working magnets with everyday materials.( I thought we would have needed really weird and complex things). Backward I did not know much or not one bit about magnetism, but know I know how to make your own magnet, I know a little about the earths magnetic field now, and I know about the magnetic field. Inward This week I feel good about what I put down on my answer sheet and the papers I did. I feel good about my answers because I think I really understood what Mrs. Garcia was teaching me and what I put I really truly felt sure. Outward My work thi

Summary This week we had an assignment where we had to chose a mineral and we had to learn about it and find the d escription,p hysical features ,w hat varieties exist,w here is it abundantly found,how it's formed,if it's mined or not, and unique features. Surprise  This week I was surprised when I was doing  research  on my mineral ( graphite) and I found out that graphite is related to diamond ( same chemical formula) but they are they couldn't be more alike. Example: diamond is the hardest of minerals, graphite one of the softest; diamond is transparent, graphite opaque; and diamond is almost twice as dense as graphite.   Backward I knew things about other minerals before we started, like I knew that diamond was the hardest mineral and I knew that quartz is the second most abundant mineral on earths crust. One thing I learned, however, is that uses for graphite include refractories, batteries  steel making and brake linings . Inward I felt good about my

Summary This week where doing an assignment called master mines it is a website where we find minerals and we had find out what the unknown mineral was by doing different tests on the mineral. While we did the tests it told us what each of the test do and what they are for and we took that information and transferred it ( in our own words) onto our Google doc. Surprise This week while we where doing our master mines we had to find out what the unknown mineral was by doing different tests on the mineral and when I found out that color was one of the tests I was surprised. I did not think that the color could help you find out what type of mineral it is. Backward I knew somethings about minerals like what the mohs scale is and how to test streak.I also knew how to test hardness and streak.Now I know what  color,luster,streak,hardness,structure,density,cleavage,and conductivity are and how to test them. Inward I feel good about my work this week because I had finished my m

To see my friend's baby books click here:  http://mariana68.wix.com/matterthatmatter#!baby-books/c236b

Surprise This week while I was doing the boxes reasearch questions I had fiquered out the answer to that question it was sodium chloride but when I typed that password in it said I was wrong so then when Ms. Garcia and Miles R. told me that sodium chloride was another name for salt,I was very surprised becuase I did not know that but now I do. Summary This week in class we had to finish the boxes reasearch paper and the copmounds reasearch paper,and while I was finishing those I had learned that it is a mixture is when  it contains two (or more) substances that are not chemically joined together and it is a  molecule when  t he substances in a mixture can often be easily separated from one another. Backward Before we did this topic in science class I did not know very much about atoms or molecules or mixtures the only thing I knew before was that atoms where made of neutron,proptons and electrons. Now I know that m olecules are when two elements bond together and mixtu