Teaching About Meteors 5/23/18

Denison Olmsted, a physicist and astronomer, was the first to hold records of a meteor shower. Denison is said to have created meteor science in 1833. Meteors are little combinations of ice and rock that release from comets as the travel in their orbits along the sun. Meteor’s that make it to the point where they hit the ground are called meteorites.

Meteor's 5/20/18

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Denison Olmsted, a physicist and astronomer, was the first to hold records of a meteor shower. Denison is said to have created meteor science in 1833. Meteors are little combinations of ice and rock that release from comets as the travel in their orbits along the sun. Meteor’s that make it to the point where they hit the ground are called meteorites.

Moon's & Stars - 4/29/18

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A group of stars that take the form of an image kind of like a connect the dots game is called a constellation. A stars brightness is known as magnitude. They rate the magnitude of a star with bright stars being a low number and low light stars high numbers.

The color stars are indicate how hot it is. Gravity cause intense heat to spread creating fusion. Small stars spend more time in the main sequence while larger stars are in the main sequence for less time.

Sound Project Blog - 4/12/18

Summary
Our project consisted of us having to create a "One Man Band" worthy instrument. The instrument had to include a percussion, wind section and string instrument. Each different section on the instrument had to play 3 different notes. And the instrument had to be originally thought out and made from scratch using pieces from the maker lab or home. What I did for my string portion was stretch out rubber bands using thumbtacks on the side of a cardboard box. For the wind portion I got plastic straws and lined them up depending on height. And for the percussion part I used a wooden block to tap on the wind portion and different sides of the box for different noises.

Backward-Looking:
I knew a decent amount of things before this unit on sound started.Amplitude is the length from inside of the wave. Its a line that goes from the base line to the inside of the crest. A wavelength is the length in between crests from wave top to wave top. Sound waves are similar to ocean waves,radio waves and even microwaves. They are all waves of energy, traveling through solids or space.

Inward-Looking:
I feel proud about this piece of work expect for the fact that I completely left my percussion part to the last minute. So my only other option was a wooden block to hit the block in different places. And in my opinion thats pretty plain and boring. But one thing I enjoyed was that we got to use our creativity to make a instrument that we thought of.  I also liked the fact that we did multiple re touches to our instrument every time we learned something new about sound waves.

Outward-Looking:
Yes in a way I did because many other people used boxes and attached rubber bands for strings. Its the same when it comes to the little straws that you blow into. One thing I did differently is probably just using a wooden block as my "percussion". And tapping different places of my box with said wooden block. The process was similar because we had to revise the instrument every time we did a lab on sound waves to make it more legitimate and interesting.


Forward-Looking:
One thing I would definitely change is my percussion pieces. I would probably prefer to put 3 little glass jugs and fill them up with different amounts of water and hit them so it would make a different sound. Since my percussion part was completely gone I figured this would be better since it was part of one of our labs that we did on the sound wave unit. And since the amount of water inside of a jug changes the way it sounds, that would make it super easy to create the percussion section.

weekly blog 3/22/18

http://www.workingwithwaves.com/sound-waves/

Summary:
Amplitude is the length from inside of the wave. Its a line that goes from the base line to the inside of the crest. A wavelength is the length in between crests from wave top to wave top. Sound waves are similar to ocean waves,radio waves and even microwaves. They are all waves of energy, traveling through solids or space.

S&EP Analyzing & Interpreting Data:
We did a lab on sound waves in class. We had to tap these tuning forks on hard surfaces and see what tune it would be, we would have to see what type of pattern depending on the what the type of tune the running fork detects. We put the tuning forks in water and the vibrations would make the water splash out.

weekly blog 3/18/18

Frequency is how many 'cycles' of a wave occur in one second, the amplitude is how large a wave is from the middle to the crest and the wavelength is the measure from crest to crest. A sound wave that has a bigger wavelength will have a low frequency, low pitch, and low energy. Pitch is related to frequency because the higher the frequency the higher the pitch is. The electromagnetic spectrum is the whole range of electromagnetic waves that are in order based on increasing frequency. Pitch is the highness or lowness of the sound created where the volume is how loud or quiet a sound is. Electromagnetic waves are electric and magnetic fields that move through space extremely fast. Sound waves are mechanical waves or a vibration of molecules.

S&EP Analyzing & Interpreting Data:
We did a lab on sound waves in class. We had to tap these tuning forks on hard surfaces and see what tune it would be, we would have to see what type of pattern depending on the what the type of tune the running fork detects. We put the tuning forks in water and the vibrations would make the water splash out.

Music WAC 2/27/18

Why Music Should Be Used While Doing Work

Music has been around since 500 AD. Music can be found everywhere ... including classrooms. When you walk into a class of kids you will probably notice some students have earbuds in or headphones on. The on going debate of whether music should be used while studying is a strong debate. Some students claim that listening to music helps the think better while eliminating annoying background noise such as as a baby crying , a bird constantly chirping, kids screaming and laughing loudly etc. Some students counter argue that music affects their learning in a negative way, they say its too distracting. I'm about to prove why listening to music while studying DOES actually help you learn.

Endurance is something that many kids have trouble doing while studying . Endurance while doing homework is basically the ability to do ongoing homework with no distractions. Many kids have trouble staying on task. "Background music may improve focus on a task by providing motivation and improving mood. During long study sessions, music can aid endurance." This quote was said by Nicky Davis from the Article "Is it Good to Listen to Music While Studying?"

Music helps block out the multiple distractions in a study area such as a library or park. Listening to music isolates you to your own study space and it helps people feel calm and peaceful. It was scientifically proven that listening to music enhances studies when you're at a place with loud background noise.“ Subjects tested in environments with background music were found to get better results than those tested against background noise. Therefore, taking along an iPod and a set of headphones may come in handy if you’re looking to avoid being distracted by any ambient sounds.”

The arguments from the other side are that people shouldn't listen to music while doing work or studying. The say this because scientific studies show that people don’t remember certain tasks and bits of knowledge they need the most for learning. “When you hear something you like, it heightens your arousal and mood, which improves performance” 

In conclusion music does help people learn because it puts them into a calm quiet environment of their own. Music puts people in a calm state of mind which helps them stay focused on their work, music prevents distraction and the annoyance of background noises. But it really depends on the type of student the kids are because some would just prefer a quiet room with no music while some kids would prefer to be in a room with headphones on."Ultimately, the effects of music on study habits are dependent on the student and their style of learning. If easily distracted, students should most likely avoid music so they can keep their focus on their work. Conversely, students who function better as multi-taskers may find that music helps them to better concentrate."