Category Archives: Science 9

Principles of Learning – First Peoples

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The media that I chose for the First Peoples Principles of Learning, is the song ‘Colors of the Wind’ from the movie Pocahontas. The movie surrounds the idea of the importance of First Nations and how important their relations with the land are. Pocahontas tries to convince the people that are taking her land, on how important it is to the species, and the people in the nation.

For interconnectedness, everything and everyone is connected. Whatever happens to one thing, it affects everything around it. Pocahontas sings about how every rock, every tree, and every creature has a name, and they’re all big one family. Every place has a story. In spheres, we learned about the cycles, and how if one organism doesn’t get the nutrients it needs, everything around it will get affected. It is important to keep everything intact, because you don’t know its worth, and how important it is for us.

For sustainability, everything should remain the same, with no drastic change. Pocahontas sings about how ‘we [the nature] are all connected together, in a circle in a hoop that never ends’. She’s trying to explain how everything is in a cycle, and it’s been that way for the longest time. Everything and everyone remains in peace, and nothing harmful is going on. She also says ‘how high does the sycamore grow, if you cut it down then you’ll never know’. This relates to what we’re learning in science because it is best to keep things, especially the climate and this earth, the way it is. When things change too quickly, or too drastically (like the climate), things will change for the worst.

Pocahontas sang about the importance of nature, and how every land, and every tree, rock, etc had a story to tell. Everything and everyone is connected and if one gets ruined, the others get ruined. She also sang about the cycle that nature goes through, and how its been like that forever. Once you change a habit, that’s not sustained anymore, the world will change, but not for the better.

SMART Goals Reflection

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SMART Goal Reflection – Kalen

My goal was originally to take the bus to school for one week, but since that wasn’t amicable for my family schedule, my new goal was to not eat meat for one week.

I did achieve my goal. Since chinese food it part of my diet, there is a lot of meat intake. But at the same time, there are a wide variety of vegetables that I love to eat. Although the rest of my family ate meat, I asked my mom to prepare some of my favorite non-meat meals everyday to help me sustain my goal; like tofu and potatoes.

The most challenging part of achieving my goal was my family. I asked to not go out to any restaurant, since I couldn’t resist ordering something I’d like, and my family agreed. But, my family decided to cook my favorite meats every day of the week. It was a traumatizing experience, but I fought through and decided to eat my dinner/lunch facing away from them, in a different room.

If I were to do this goal again, I would make sure to search on how to make (or purchase) some alternatives to meat, that don’t have meat in them. Since the smell of meat is horribly strong (in a good way), it’s very difficult to stay away from it. But if you have a substitute, it might be easier to stay away from meat.

Although this goal was really interesting, I would not continue this goal. I’ve always thought of become a vegetarian, mainly because of the harm of animals, meat is still too precious to me. Living in a chinese cuisine based house makes it almost impossible to stay away from meat. I wish I could continue with this goal, one week is well enough, but my whole life? That’s too much

Letter to Trump about Paris Accord

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Hello Mr. Trump,

I understand what you’re trying to say, but I disagree. But I know that you are entitled to you wrong opinion, and I hope this letter persuades you to do the right thing.

First of all, temperature, and sea levels have risen severely in the past decade, and yet you decide to call global warming a hoax created by the Chinese to ruin your economy? Even China has decided to to develop wind and solar powered projects and power plants, and they’re the #1 source of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. But, your country is right behind them and is the second biggest provider of greenhouse gas emissions, and you decide to leave the Paris Accord that could singlehandedly save your country. The fact that almost 200 countries around the world have signed this agreement, should open your eyes and make you realize that America is in trouble.

Secondly, do you have any idea about the impact this is making on the citizens of your country? When their ‘leader’ decides to bail out of a monumental worldwide agreement for saving the world, your citizens will have the same mindset as you. When their leader thinks that global warming isn’t an issue, neither will they. Climate change is mainly from the people, and when they aren’t motivated to start lowering their power, water, gas, and heat usage, then you’ve really done something wrong. Even your staff, and your own daughter advise you to stay in this agreement. You need to be a good role model and prove to the people of your country, that climate change is worth fighting for. Your children, and their children could possibly live in an overheated, water risen country, on the verge of disaster, thanks to you and your ignorant decision.

And lastly, the impact you’re doing for the world. If you think that you backing out of the agreement wouldn’t do any harm, think again. Since you’re the world’s second largest producer of greenhouse gases, right behind the country that you thought made up global warming, (who also is combatting against climate change, learn something from them) billions, and billions of carbon dioxide would be produced just because of your ‘harmless action’. Ice will melt, water will rise, and the world will be damaged, piece by piece, faster than ever before.

So Mr. Trump, I hope you realize that you’ve made an unacceptable decision for your country. But you know what, I could have been wrong this whole time! The economy is way more important than half of your population needing to flee your country, the produce industry being ruined, and your country falling apart. Maybe I was wrong! Learn something from this, your tiny decision that ‘couldn’t make an impact’, is more drastic than you think.

~ Kalen

Collaboration Fluency – Pop Can Race

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In our grade 9 science class (and apart of our COL), we conducted a pop can race. Our goal was to make a pop can move, without touching it. We were given many materials for this to happen, but, my group chose a balloon, and fur/hair. At the end, we decided to use a team member’s hair. We rubbed the balloon against the hair, thus, creating static. We placed the balloon close enough to the pop can, (without touching it), so that the static could ‘push’ the pop can and make it move forward. It worked, just as we planned, the pop can moved from the ‘power’ of the static that the balloon and the hair created. But, we did not go that far, since there was a bump in the pop can that made it difficult for it to move any far distance.

The collaboration for this ‘experiment’ went very well. When we felt comfortable with what we were doing, all 3 of us imputed different ideas, and experimented with all of them. We listened to each other, and in the end, we were able to make a pop can move without touching it.

 

More information in the document above.

-Kalen

How Things Work – Electric Eel

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One of the main problems that the eel faces is finding food. Although it might be easy for it to hunt prey (by just electrocuting them), it takes around 15-20 seconds to generate the electricity needed to kill prey. While the eel is generating all that voltage, the prey can easily escape and realize that it’s about to get eaten. Also, another problem that the eels face are bigger predators, like alligators. Although the eel can easily kill the prey, the amount of effort that it takes to generate all the voltage to shock it, can be enough to tire our, and kill the eel in the process.

The electric eel has 3 main organs. The main organ, the hunter’s organ, and the sach’s organ. The organs make up 4/5 of the eels body, and gives it the ability to generate 2 types of electric organ discharges; low voltage, and high voltage. These organs are made up of electrolytes, in a ‘series circuit’ formation, so a current of ions can flow through and stacked, so each one adds to a potential difference. In the electric eel, some 5,000 to 6,000 stacked electroplaques can make a shock up to 860 volts and 1 ampere of current (860 watts) for two milliseconds. The Sach’s organ is associated with electrolocation. Inside the organ are many muscle-like cells, called electrocytes. Each cell can only produce 0.15 V, though the organ can transmit a signal of nearly 10 V overall in amplitude at around 25 Hz in frequency. These signals are emitted by the main organ; the Hunter’s organ can emit signals at rates of several hundred hertz. On one side of the eel is where the positive charges are located, and negative charges are located on the opposite side. They travel in a circle in the Sach organ, before transferring into the main organ for the electrons to exit.

Electric eels rarely harm people, but, when necessary, electric eels can generate enough voltage to shock a human, and possibly kill, or harm them. But, as always, the eel needs enough time to generate the right amount of electricity in order to do enough damage. But, they can also be a necessity for third world countries that don’t have enough electricity. The shock from a single eel, can generate enough electricity to power a whole village of around 1300 people for a few hours. Imagine how much they can generate with multiple shocks, and multiple eels. It might be inhumane to force the voltage out of the eel, because it is possible that when it’s finished producing all the electricity, it will die in the process. Also, it is very difficult for marine biologists to examine the eel, due to the high possibility of being shocked.

Electric eels don’t cause much harm on the natural world. But, for each electric voltage, and shock that it delivers to a certain organism in the water, it is possible that a bit of pollution is able to generate from the voltage, and also, it can harm the other living organisms around it.

It is very possible that the volts from the shock can transfer onto other organisms and possibly damaging them.

The electric eel has no known weaknesses, for protecting themselves. They generate enough electricity to shock an alligator, until it dies. It can protect itself from any animal, and anything that comes in it’s path. But, many things are able to devour the eel, and sometimes, the electric eel doesn’t have enough time to generate enough voltage in order to kill whatever is harming it.

 

Model of the electric eel & it’s main organs & functions:

 

Science App Review – Science 9

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Science App Review – Science 9

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Problem: You are in science class, and no matter what the teacher says or what methods they’re using, you still don’t understand the lesson! You’ve been searching all over the internet, in your textbook, and asking all your friends for some help, but you still have no clue what’s going on!

Dream: I wish that there could be an app, or some type of website, that could easily explain to me the things that I am learning in science. Ways that aren’t too complex, and methods of learning that cater to my type of learning.

Deliver: I am very fond of the app/website ‘Khan Academy’. It specializes in science and math departments. They make short 5-15 minute videos, explaining PERFECTLY almost every unit in science. There’s not much going around in those videos so you can concentrate, the voice in the video is clear and very understandable. Also, the narrator in the video uses very easy to understand terms, and put the lesson in a relatable way so that you can understand. Delivering personal experiences, and adding some humor, and ‘fun’ bits into the video, really help enhance my learning.

Debrief: ‘Khan Academy’ is an amazing app that you can download on your phone, but, it is also a website that you can access whenever you want. You can find basically any subject of science that you are struggling with, and the videos that they post to help you learn are very useful. I would recommend this app/website to anyone that is struggling in understanding and dealing with certain areas of science.

Science 9 – Hypothesis

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For the experiment, I predict that,

If we changed the order of the ingredients, the reaction would not be the same. I think that although the reaction would not be the same, it is possible that a different type of reaction would occur. Since the cacium iodide helps the soap and the hydrogen peroxide’s reactions, it needs to be at the end to have that effect. So, if we change the order of the ingredients, the reaction would not be exactly the same, but, it might result in a different type of reaction.

~ Kalen