Core competency reflection
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Category Archives: Science 9
Spheres field studies
What I think the objective of our field studies was to learn more about our rivers and ponds/lakes. It’s connected to our study of the 4 spheres because rivers and ponds/lakes are part of the hydrosphere.
Coquitlam river
Water quality:
The approximate water quality index score I got was 84.96 which means the water quality in the river good. Since the water quality is good it supports a high diversity of life and is suitable for all forms of recreation, that is if you don’t mind the water being freezing cold.
Invertebrate life:
We found a lot of mayflies, a few stoneflies, a lot of fingerling salmons, and 2 aquatic worms. The mayflies, stoneflies and fingerling salmons indicate that the water quality is good because they are pollution sensitive organisms.
Oxbow pond
Water quality:
The approximate water quality index score I got was 69.35 which means the water quality in the pond was average. Since the water quality was average the aquatic organisms were not as diverse and there was algae and oil in the water.
Invertebrate life:
We found a scud, a pond snail, and a dragonfly: suborder anisoptera. These organisms indicate the water quality is between average and good because the scud and dragonfly can be found in good or average quality water while the pond snail can be found in any quality water.
Comparison:
The water quality in the river looks a lot better than the pond but surprisingly the river is in the middle of good while the pond surprisingly close to being good. (The max score for average is 70 and the pond has a score of 69.35.) the invertebrate life in the river was a lot more diverse than the pond and we found a lot more invertebrates in the river. I think that the better the water quality the more diverse and more invertebrates there will be.
Reflection:
Going in the river was fun while going in the pond was just gross. The organisms in the river weren’t as gross looking as the ones in the pond except for the orange worm. I learned a lot about what’s in our rivers and ponds and now I’m not sure if I want to go swimming in the river this summer. I say we can make the activities more meaningful by letting more people wade in the water. But right now we can’t do that due to covid.
elemental infofluency – carbon fiber
Carbon fiber is a black material made of carbon atoms bonded together in a chain like pattern making it very strong and difficult to misshape.
Element name: carbon
Symbol: C
Atomic number: 6
Atomic mass: 12.011
Protons: 6
Neutrons: 6
Electrons: 6
common uses for carbon fiber include: Race car frames, bike frames and planes. (engineers started using carbon fiber instead of titanium and aluminum for the body of commercial airline planes.)
Joseph Wilson Swan discovered carbon fiber in 1860 and In 1879 Thomas Edison used carbon fiber filaments to make the first light bulbs heated by electricity.
something unique about carbon fiber is that its around 10 times stronger than steel and its SO much lighter. one cubic meter of steel is around 7900 kilograms and one cubic meter of carbon fiber is 0.3907982 kilograms. To me, that is an unbelievable difference.
Part 2:
1. what questions did you need to research in order to create your post?
when and who discovered carbon fiber?
what is carbon fiber made of?
what is carbon fiber used for?
what is something unique about carbon fiber?
2. what new or familiar digital tools did you try to use as you worked through this project?
I used google to research.
the sites I used:
(pictures)
(text)
www.findinfoonline.com
www.thoughtco.com
pur-carbon.com
www.madehow.com
en.wikipedia.org
element6composites.com
3. what was the process you used to investigate the topic?
the process I used to make this blog post was to ask 6 questions and answer them in my own words and then i put the answers along with a few pictures and my sources in a word document.
4. How did you verify and cite the information you found?
after finding some useful information I looked to see when it was added and I looked to see if there were any other websites saying something similar to what the first website said.
5. How did the process of completing this challenge go? what could you have done better?
at first I was confused on what to do because I couldn’t find the rubric and instructions but after I found it, it went well. After looking over my post I realize now that I could’ve added more longer sentences and more detail.