Future scientists at work! I wonder if that is true.

So what did you learn by doing this? What was the purpose of this experiment and why do you have to complete the formal write-up? Did this answer your key question? Was this all about determining if higher SPF levels block or absorb more UV rays? Did it create more questions than it answered?

I’ve heard that some of you are struggling with making a graph. Use software to help you like Create-A-Graph; scientists don’t do graphs by hand they use computers! Here’s a simple graph I created:

I’ve been sitting at my computer watching live feed from the Cape. The sun is setting and Discovery’s on the launch pad bathed in light, vapor coming off the external fuel tank. Really a beautiful site.

I am a little concerned about the weather both at the coast and here. There maybe some rain and concerns about lightning near the launch site and here we might have cloud cover to obscure the site.

I’ll be watching the forecast tonight before I set my alarm. Hmmm 1:30 am or 6:30 am?

About an hour later we were standing on the beach in New Smyrna. Waves were running 5-8 feet and breaking far from the waters edge. A few people played near shore where one minute you were in ankle deep water and the next almost to your waist. The pull of the water as it ran back out to sea was amazing!

Unfortunately later that day the power of the waves took the life of a body surfer in New Smyrna and today waves from the same storm may have claimed more lives in Maine.

From christopher P4 on The Sky This Week, 2009 January 23 – 30
when a shuttle goes into space would the speed of the shuttle be the same as its speed flying on earth?

Just a couple of comments from students who are looking back into space (or maybe they never stopped).

Unfortunately tonight’s launch of the space shuttle was scrubbed due to a hydrogen fuel leak, next earliest date for launch will be Sunday. SO how fast do these space craft go?

Remember how we said that earthquake activity can signal a possible volcanic eruption? Well scientist have recently noticed an increase in seismic activity around Mt Reboubt in Alaska.

A little hard to read but here is an image from the seismograph. Click on the image to get a larger view.

I’m sure many of you do not know where Mt Redoubt is located so here’s a map. 

So I wonder. Do you?

What is the inside of the Earth made of? How hot does it get? I wonder…..

It is an exciting time at the 23rd Annual Consortium of Geologists! Below is the Consortium presentation for your review.

My thanks to Jim Cronin a teacher at Sky Vista Middle School who developed this idea and published it in the NSTA magazine Science Scope.

Then we combined ideas from all the classes, asked a few questions of each other to clarify thinking and selected what we (students) thought were the top 5 most significant factors causing water to move through the oceans. Here’s the list (6 listed because of variations between classes):

• Wind
• Temperature
• Earth’s rotation
• Moon’s gravity
• Plate tectonics
• Water Cycle

This is a great list! It shows your ability to apply prior knowledge to new situations, think logically, evaluate various options and engage in debate. I am proud of how well you did.

Lastly you had to do some textbook research into these and present your findings to the class. This had mixed results some very good and others not so good. Textbook research doesn’t seem to be a mastered skill yet, but we’ll work on it. If you were perfect at everything what would you need me for?

Now let’s have some more fun — “scientific messing around”. Let’s play with water!