Category: Science 9

Climate in Canada

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Here is my Climate in Canada assignment. For this assignment i got the Canadian prairies

The changing climate has affected everyone in the world mostly for the worst but i’m not here to talk about everywhere in the world, I’m here to talk about the Canadian prairies and their causes and effects of the rapidly changing climate. some of the causes of climate change(this is not limited to the prairie) such as an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the prairie doesn’t really have a lot of factories so it doesn’t release a lot of carbon that way but there are lots of animals and plants which expel a lot of co2, there is also a lot of farming in the prairies and some of the livestock (cows) expel a lot of methane which can be very harmful to the atmosphere and ozone layer. some of the effects of the changing climate that affect the prairie are the loss of wetland habitats which could be damaging to the wildlife’s homes. Since the climate is warming up it will also result in shorter winters and reduced snowfall. Global warming will also lead to less rain which would have a very detrimental effect on the agricultural industry which is very present in the prairies because it will rain less and occasionally the crops will be wiped out due to floods.

 

Edible DNA model

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here is my edible DNA model

 

Part A

DNA is the building block of life, It contains the genetic code that makes every person different. it is also self-replicating

DNA has the instructions required for organisms to reproduce, develop, and thrive. DNA can split itself and replicate itself as much as it needs. the DNA sequences can also be used as messages which can be used to create proteins

As was said earlier, DNA can replicate itself very easily by splitting the strand down the middle which creates a template strand which connects with another side with the appropriate bases attached.

Part B

Why does DNA naturally take a spiral shape as opposed to a straight ladder shape?

I found out that DNA has a spiral shape because of an interaction that takes place between the molecules that make up DNA and water.

how do the DNA bases know to connect to each other

I found out that Adenine and Pyrimidine Thymine pair together and Pyrimidine Cytosine and Purine Guanine pair together because the two that pair together are the only combination of the 4 bases that will allow for hydrogen bonding to occur.

 

Connections based learning: building a better beehive proposal post

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On Feb. 2nd and Apr. 18th, 2023, we had a Zoom chat and a face-to-face visit from Saul Mwame of Tanzania (pictured right). We learned about his social bee-keeping company Haven Bees and some of the philanthropic endeavors in which he is involved. We learned about some of the challenges he has faced and we were inspired to help. We are now going to research plans to take action and share them on our digital portfolios.

Co-Design

When we met Saul, one of the things that interested me was the fact that he is able to make a living doing what he loves while also being a philanthropist and human rights activist and doing things like speaking at the United Nations. After having had this experience I felt enlightened and also thankful to have had this opportunity. for this assignment, we (Me, Sam Z, and Aiden W) are going to be addressing the problem of the changing climate and how to help bees adjust to it.

Co-operate

To get this project started we are going to need to do some research on what the ideal climate is for bees, some ways that we could do this is by using gale engage, google, and the school library to find information that will help us make a product. We can also ask Saul or Sam’s aunt for information as they are both beekeepers. Some of the steps that we will need to take in order to complete this project are 1. Research as much as we can about the subject so we can put out the best possible product 2. Decide how we are going to carry out the idea 3. Design our product 4. Create our product 5. Give our product to Mr. Robinson who will look at it and hopefully decide that it will be of use to Saul.

Co-create

We brainstormed and came up with the idea of making a beehive climate controlled but in doing this we also pondered the idea of maybe helping Saul advertise his company a bit better. After coming up with these ideas we decided to go with climate control for beehives.( photo of circuit prototype right) we also figured out that to make this project work we would need to know how to code, 3d design, and problem-solving. For this project, we will need a microbit and attachments, computers to code microbits and 3d design and we will also need a 3d printer and filament to make things for the project.

Commemorate

In this project, I think that the connections-based learning experience went well and I am very happy and thankful to have had this experience. I think that the post that I have made is of average to high quality because I believe that I was very clear as to what I was doing and I answered all of the questions asked. In this project, I think one of the things that we could have done better was making the most out of our time and spending more time making our project better rather than settling for “good enough”.

 

 

 

Science 9 core competency reflection

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For this reflection I chose the critical thinking core competency and the project I chose that I think helped me improve on that core competency was my Beekeeping information fluency post titled”Does the type of materials used in beehives affect bee quality of life?” you can see the presentation here:

 

I think that this assignment reflects growth in this competancy because I had to take something that i new very little about and research the topic until i had enough information to answer a question (that I came up with) and during this research period i had to use my critical thinking skills to weed out all the incorrect things and make sure that all my information was proven to be true. for these reasons I think that I improved on my understanding of this competancy.

some ways that I will continue to to learn and develop this competancy is by continuing to question everything I see, and not take everything that I am told at face value and not believing in everything that is told to me

Currents from the kitchen lab

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Purpose: Which fruit will produce the most voltage

Hypothesis: A lemon will produce the most voltage when tested

Materials: 1 voltmeter, 2 ires, 1copper strip, at least 3 fruits/vegetables

Procedure: 1. Take fruit  2. Put copper strip and galvanized nail into fruit  3. Attach one wire to the nail and one to the copper  4. Attach to voltmeter  5. take reading  6. Repeat

Reasoning(why): I think that the lemon will give off the greatest charge because it has a lot of citrus in it and citrus has lots of electrolytes

Setup photo and results:

Large orange: 0.3 volts

Small orange: 0.4 volts

Lemon: 0.8 volts

Pickle: 0.9 volts

Pear: 0.5 volts

Potato: 0.5 volts

mixed fruit/ vegetable juice: 0.4 volts

Observations: Voltmeter gauge didn’t stay at one number(bounced around), more fruits = more volts, fruits with more citrus produced more volts, LEDs are very difficult to light with fruit, my hypothesis was wrong in that lemons were not the highest voltage fruit/vegetable(in fact it was a pickle for us).

 

Prompted questions:

  • What is causing electrons to flow in this experiment?

When the citric acid in the fruit reacts with the zinc in the galvanized nail draws electrons toward the copper and                  the copper is conductive so the electrons travel from the fruit to the copper and through the wire into the voltmeter              or whatever you have hooked up to the other end of the wires (motor,LED, etc)

  • what are the independent, dependent, and controlled variables in this experiment?

The independent variable: This is the fruit that we use in the experiment.

The dependent variable: We are measuring the voltage outputted by certain fruit.

The controlled variable: We always used the same wires, copper sheet, and galvanized nail. We were also measuring the voltage the same way for all fruits.

  • How could we modify the experiment to improve our results?

You could add more fruits to make a fruit circuit, therefore, outputting more voltage.

  • What could be sources of error or uncertainty in our experiment?

Some sources of error are that you might not connect the wires to the right parts on the voltmeter which makes it appear like the fruit has no charge when that is not the case. Some sources of uncertainty could be not factoring in the size of the fruit, and how worn out the other materials were.

  • How can you use this in your everyday life?

You could, in theory, make a big enough circuit out of lemons you could make enough voltage to power a lightbulb.

Additional questions that I have after doing the experiment

What would happen if we used a battery to charge up the fruit beforehand?

What would happen if we used dried versions of the fruits(dried apple, dried banana, dried mango, etc)?

If I recreated this experiment on a bigger scale, could it be a clean sustainable source of energy?

how big of a lemon would I need to (in theory) power a house, a village, a town, or a city with this same setup?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Periodic Table Kahoot Reflection

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I have learned a lot about the periodic table so here is what I have to report so far. Things I know well are what the periods and families are, which family of elements contains a solid a liquid, and a gas at room temp. I also know what atoms are, why the periodic table is organized the way that it is, and who made it. Some things I still need to work on are what metalloids are, how elements can be decomposed, and what alkaline earth metals are. A couple of things I wonder about the periodic table is how they discovered certain elements and how these people who lived in a time when safety equipment wasn’t as advanced stayed safe when handling hazardous chemicals and elements. Some ways that I am going to improve and expand my knowledge for this is using Kahoot to study the answers I got wrong, I will also make sure to listen extra carefully in case Mr Robinson says something that will help me better understand what I don’t already   

Fictional Science Safety Story

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One day in science class we were reviewing our WHMIS  and household safety signs to prepare for the lab that we were going to do the following day. they had mostly gone over household safety symbols such as explosive Consumer Chemicals and Containers Regulations, 2001 - Canada.ca and corrosive Consumer Chemicals and Containers Regulations, 2001 - Canada.ca  and were starting to go over WHMIS symbols starting with compressed gas.WHMIS 2015 - Pictograms : OSH Answers  Mr. Robinson asked the class what the symbol for flammable was, Jimmy pointed at this one.CCOHS: Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Mr. Robinson commended Jimmy for getting the answer right however bobby thought that the symbol that Mr. Robinson pointed to meant it was an irritant because if your skin gets irritated it can get inflamed. The next thing to do was prep for the lab that was going to happen the following day “Tomorrow we are going to be experimenting to see what happens when you heat hydrochloric acid with a bunsen burner at various heats and remember that next month we will be dissecting a sheep’s eye to kick off our unit on light and vision” said Mr. Robinson. Sandy didn’t like this, Sandy has always loved animals and hated the thought of animals being hurt for any purpose, because of this sandy is a vegetarian and will do everything in her power to avoid causing animals pain. So when she heard that they were going to dissect the eyes of sheep she became queasy at the thought. But she was excited because she was looking forward to eating her salad at lunch so she forgot about it.

The next day everyone was in the lab getting ready to start the experiment, because of the fumes of the acid they did the experiment under the fume hood in room 201. The experiment was started by taking the acid and pouring it from a funnel into a test tube, the test tube would be placed in a test tube stand over a bunsen burner. Everything was going well until Bobby grabs isopropyl alcohol instead of hydrochloric acid because he neglected to look at the WHMIS symbol on the bottle. He proceeded to pour it into the test tube (which is now about 750 degrees Fahrenheit) as soon as he did there was a perfect column of flame that rose from the test tube and caught Bobby’s lab coat sleeve on fire, Bobby wasn’t there on the safety day so he didn’t know what to do if he caught on fire so he proceeded to run around the lab waving his arms in the air and screaming. Luckily Jimmy knew exactly what to do, first, he said to Mr.Robinson very casually “Hey Mr. Robinson, bobby is on fire and so is his test tube, I think he put rubbing alcohol in it instead of acid.”  Then he got the fire blanket and jumped at bobby with his arms outstretched with the blanket in both hands. Jimmy wrapped the blanket around Bobby while Mr. Robinson extinguished the flame and other than bobby’s eyebrows getting singed off which made him a lot less motivated to ask that girl that he liked out on a date everything was fine and the day went on as planned.

The next day Sandy was having a good day until she remembered that she was going to have to dissect a sheep’s eye next Friday and so she asked her friend Jesse for some advice “Why don’t you just tell Mr. Robinson?” Jesse said Sandy thought it was a great idea and so she had gone by the classroom after school to tell Mr. Robinson how she felt ” I totally understand where you’re coming from Sandy, I have prepared for this scenario by making a backup assignment for anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable participating in the dissection, so if you don’t want to participate you will have to write me a 600-word essay on the importance of each part of the human eye” Sandy winced at the thought of having to write a 600-word essay and briefly considered changing her personal philosophy so she could avoid writing an essay but quickly snapped out of it and thanked Mr. Robinson for understanding. Once Sandy had left, Mr. Robinson sighed and reclined in his chair, closing his eyes for a brief second he said “I love my job”   

 

The End

Does the type of materials used in beehives affect bee quality of life? – explore the field

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Part 1

Here is my explore the field sway where i asked the wonder question”Does the type of materials used in a beehive effect bee quality of life?’

Part 2

My sub questions

What materials are used to make a beehive in the wild?

What materials are used in man made beehives?

What is the preferred environment for bees to live in?

What environments might stimulate bee reproduction

What does the best possible life for a bee look like

Digital tools

I used…

  • Gale engage
  • Pexels
  • Creative commons
  • Citation machine 
  • Google

Citing and verifying

I cited my sources by using Citation Machine.

For verification I used gale engage and for the websites that i found without gale engage I just made sure that I wasn’t getting my information from wikipedia and made sure that the sources were credible.

Process

  1. Formed wonder question
  2. Formed sub questions to answer wonder question
  3. researched sub questions
  4. compiled information into sway
  5. did post

One thing I wish had done better is using my time better so that I wasn’t still researching when i should have been working on my sway.