Oceans and Your Community

Today we started a new unit called Earth's Fluid Spheres. In Chapter 1 "Oceans and Your Community" we'll be doing our first Chapter Challenge (group project). In this challenge your will be creating a report to advise the state on whether or not they should hold a conference on how to prepare for an El Nino event. Your investigation will examine the causes of ocean circulation currents, the effects El Nino on these currents, food chains, and weather, and lastly what impacts this might have on Florida.

Chapter Challenges are long term projects, approximately 3 weeks. A single report will be produced per table and all students will share in the grade (some variation in grade may occur based on student contribution evaluations). During the 3 weeks classwork will supply the needed information for the report, however the report itself will be done as homework.

Rain Water Collection

As part of our studies on the hydrosphere we're trying to determine the amount (volume) of rain water that could be collected from the roof of our classroom building. So far students determined the average annual rainfall received in Winter Garden and the dimensions of the 400 building (see the gallery for pictures).

The challenge that remains is how to convert those measurements into typical units of volume (gallons or liters). Of course this might be complicated by having a mix of metric and standard measures (i.e. rainfall in inches and building dimensions in meters).

Looking for some extra credit? Then take this exercise one step further.

If the rate of rainfall is 1.5 inches per hour and it rains for 1/2 hour, how many 220 liter rain barrels will be required to collect all the run-off from the 400 building roof.

Submit your answer on a separate sheet of paper, showing all your calculations. Be sure to have your name (first and last), the date and period at the top of your paper and underline your answer. Turn in no later than Wednesday 9/26.

Earth Systems Science

So what is Earth Systems and what are those "spheres" I keep talking about? You know those things I ask you to write about on the left side of your notebook. How do they interact?

While looking for different ways to show you the concepts and I came across this short video at Teachers' Domain. Click on the image to view.

Water Resources and Your Community

When we started this activity we set 4 goals:

• To develop an understanding of the distribution of salt and fresh water on the earth (how it's spread out or separated)
• To learn what sources of water we use in Winter Garden
• To create a model of how water moves between reservoirs (places that hold water) within the water cycle
• And to create a method of calculating the amount of fresh water that could be collected from the roof of our classroom building.

We have finished the first 2 and are now going to move on to the hydrologic or water cycle. Here's a short movie clip showing the cycle in motion.



Follow this link for more information. This site will require registration if you have not already done so. Give it a try!

Another Website to Study Hurricanes

Storm surge is one of the affects of hurricanes that can result in a lot of damage. Click on the image above to learn more.

Seems to happen on weekends

Tropical storm activity increased again this weekend so we'll be adding another named storm to our tracking maps on Monday. Interestingly, Monday is also the peak date for hurricane season and there are now 3 tropical disturbances developing that we should monitor. Click on the image below to see the most recent activity.



I want to give you a heads up that you have a test on hurricanes coming up. Of course all of you are going to want to do some additional studying and I've made it easy. Here's a link to a great site that I think you'll enjoy and also learn from. Try it out and let me know what you think.

When you go to the site you'll see an image like that below. You will have to register in order to view the activities. Clicking on the image below will also take you to the site.







Here's another way you can study for the test -- read pages 9 and 11 in your notebooks and view the videos listed below. These are the same videos we watched in class.

• The Science Behind Hurricanes
• El Nino And La Nina Weather Patterns
• Lessons Learned From Previous Hurricane Seasons
• What To Do When A Storm Hits
• Behind The Scenes Tour Of Hurricane Hunter Plane
  

Introduction to Earth Science

Over the past couple of days we completed a brief overview of your Earth Science course. You should have a general idea of:

• what Earth Science is
  
• some of the specific fields of study in Earth Science
  
• topics we'll be covering
  
• some careers related to Earth Science.

In addition we took a look at our EarthComm textbook. This is a very different way to study science which incorporates community issues as the focus of your study. The real life situations modeled in this course will require critical thinking, teamwork, problem solving, research and an understanding of Earth system to successfully complete the tasks assigned.

We do not assign textbooks for every student to take home. However students may go to the Media Center and check out a textbook as needed. Also if you go to the Home Study page, look in the right hand sidebar and you'll see a link to the EarthComm textbook site. This is not an online text but is a resource related to the textbook. Take some time now to review this site.

Hurricane Felix

Here we go again. Friday Felix formed just North of South American as a Tropical Depression with winds of 35 mph and a barometric pressure of 1008 mBar. By today, Sunday, it's pressure dropped to 980 mBar with sustained winds of 105 mph and is rated as a category 2 hurricane.


Look at the global sea surface temperatures. What are they telling you? What does the blue color off the western coast of South America mean? Click on the image and explore Weather Underground, a great site for weather information. Look at the projected path for Felix, find where the jet stream is, and look at the paths of other hurricanes.

You can begin tracking hurricane Felix on your tracking maps (page 9 in your interactive notebook). Also monitor tropical disturbance 98 over the next few days and look for further development.