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Lithosphere
Activities I Did
Mini-Posters, BrainPop Video, Music Videos
Topics Included
Earth's Interior, Continental Drift, Plate Tectonic, Plate Boundaries, Faults, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Mountain Building
Summary
Earth contains several spheres: Lithosphere (land layer), Atmosphere (gas layer), and Hydrosphere (water layer). The layer we live on is Crust, and it's a part of lithosphere. Two types of crusts are Oceanic Crust and Continental Crust. Other layers of Earth includes Mantle (where Asthenosphere is at), Inner Core and Outer Core. Interestingly, the Crust seems to move, as pointed by the Theory of Plate Tectonic. The movement causes Faults and Plate Boundaries. Three types of faults are Normal Fault, Reverse/Thrust Fault, and Strike-slip Fault. Three types of plate boundaries are Divergent Boundary, Convergent Boundary, and Transform Boundary. Mountains, earthquakes (which are caused by transform boundaries) and volcanoes are sometimes also formed by the Crust's movement. Few types of mountains that could be built are Dome Mountain, Folded Mountain, and Fault-block Mountain, and few types of volcanoes are Shield, Cinder Cone, and Composite. Because of the Crust's movement, several scientists came with the theory that the lands on Earth that are separated by the oceans now were used to be one giant continent only. The theory is also known as Continental Drift.
Asthenosphere
Activities I Did
Foldables & Mini-Quiz, Demonstration Lab
Topics Included
Plate Boundaries, Faults, Convection Currents
Summary
Three types of faults are Normal Fault, Reverse/Thrust Fault, and Strike-slip Fault. Normal Fault happens when a crust falls. Reverse/Thrust Fault happens when the upper crust moves upward. Finally, Strike-Slip Fault happens when two fault crusts slip sideway. Three types of plate boundaries are Divergent Boundary, Convergent Boundary, and Transform Boundary. Divergent Boundary happens when two plates pull apart, and it has several effects including Sea-Floor Spreading, Magnetic Reverse, Mid-Ocean Ridge, and Rift Valleys. Convergent Boundary happens when two plates move toward each other, and it can create mountains, the Subduction Zone and Deep-Sea Trench. Last but not least, Transform Boundary happens when two plates slide sideway. On the other hand, the movement of Earth's crusts has somewhat something to do with the Convection Currents, the way how the heat moves in the mantle.
Mantle
Activities I Did
Evidence Paper, Narrative Video
Topics Included
Plate Tectonics, Volcanoes
Summary
Personally my favorite layer, Mantle Layer was a lot of fun for me. I was able to make a song about volcanoes with my friend Brandon. Although we didn't have enough time to make a complete song, we managed to pull out a one-minute product for this project. We put a tremendous amount of effort in it, as you can probably hear from the song. I also wrote an evidence paper supporting the Theory of Plate Tectonics using several evidences like the puzzle shapes of the continents, similar resources and fossils.
Our Volcano Song
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Vocabulary
Seasons/季节 - Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
Direct Sunlight/阳光直射 - When the sunlight hits Earth at a straight line.
Indirect Sunlight/阳光斜射 -When the sunlight hits Earth at an angle
Equator/赤道 - An imaginary line that equally divides Earth into half.
Axis/轴 - The imaginary line that goes through the middle of Earth
Tilt/倾斜 - Not straight; sloping
Elliptical/椭圆 - The shape of an orbit.
Orbit/轨道 - The path Earth takes around the Sun.
Hemisphere/半球 - Half of Earth
Summary
Seasons are the divisions of the year. There are 4 seasons in each year -- Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Seasons happen because of the Earth's axis, and the axis is tilted to the 23.5 degree angle, pointing straightly to the Northern Star -- Polaris. Seasons were also caused by the revolution of Earth around the Sun on an elliptical orbit. On Earth's orbit, there are two different equinoxes and solstices, and thus, they create 4 different kinds of climates. On the other hand, Earth is divided into two hemispheres by the equator. One receives the direct sunlight when the other one receives the indirect sunlight, and that's why the two hemispheres have opposite seasons.
Video
Critical Thinking Question
How is earth affected by movement (revolution)?
Earth is affected by the movement, or known as the revolution, of itself because its movement around the Sun caused the four different seasons -- Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter -- to happen. Earth has different seasons because Earth reaches different equinoxes or solstices as it revolves around the Sun. Each season has its own special weather conditions and qualities depending on whether the hemisphere receives direct sunlight or indirect sunlight in the mean time.
Reflection
1. What did you enjoy the most about this project and why?
The thing I enjoyed the most about this project is editing and perfecting the video because I got to learn more about using iMovie and editing and cutting clips, and I also enjoyed being creative when I edit it by exploring new editing techniques and make use of them when editing the video.
2. What was most challenging for you during this project and why?
The most challenging thing for me during this project is that I was not given too much time to edit my video. I felt that I didn't have enough time to add more exciting stuffs and improve the video even more, and I had to complete the whole editing in a small amount of time. In fact, I still feel like the video could've been a lot better.
3. What new skills did you enjoy learn from doing this project?
Through this project, I've learned many new iMovie skills I've never learned before, such as cutting the screen, putting the subtitles. I also got to experience iMovie a lot more than before, and I now find it a very handy and easy application to edit the videos.
4. Is there anything that you could have done to improve any of your work? Explain.
There are definitely a lot of things I could've add to the video to improve the quality of the video. If I had more time provided, I would adjust the volume of the background music a little more, make Roger dub the clips to increase the quality of the voice, and definitely make the transitions a little smoother.
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Description
The Permian Period was the last period of the Paleozoic Era, and it's known for the great extinctions of many organisms existed during that time. The main kind of animals that extinct during that timme was the marine ones. The extinction of these animals led to the chances for other organisms to dominate. During the Permian Period, the huge single continent Pangea was formed; therefore, the ocean water could not benefit the massive land, and it cause Pangea to get extremely dry.
Video
Glog
Reflection
1. What did you enjoy most about this project?
I enjoyed the most about this project when we were researching the pictures of the organisms living during Permian Period because it's fun to discover these ancient organisms that were once alive in this world. It's crazy to think about how much the organisms on Earth had evolved since then.
2. What was most challenging about this project? Why?
The most challenging part of this project was that we had to make sure we included every sources that we had used because we could miss a single source because of the carelessness and get a zero for the whole reference assignment. Also, it's hard to collaborate on research since each of us had a different idea. Fortunately, Albana was so helpful, and working with her was pretty fun and fast.
3. What would you change about this project and why?
4. What are 3 things that you learned from this project?
Latest Stories
What is a star?
Every nights when you are getting ready to sleep, you often see many shiny objects in the dark sky when you look out the window, and they are called stars. A star can be cool or burning hot, and it can also be dim or very bright depending on the star's luminosity.
A star is a massive ball made of a giant cloud of gases and dusts called Stellar Nebula. The star shines because of its energy in the center of itself known as the core. The star makes its own power by going through the nuclear fusion, and thus the power would be made and served for the star to continue shining at night.
What are some different types of a star?
There many different characteristics of different stars. The stars have different temperatures that make them cool, average, or burning hot. The coolest temperature of a star is 2,000; the hottest temperature of a star is 50,000. The stars have different luminosities that decide how dim or bright they are. The highest luminosity of a star would be 1,000,000, and the lowest luminosity of a star would be 0.001. Also, the size of a star increases when its luminosity gets higher.
There are many types of stars which are in their different stages, such as main sequence, giants, supergiants, and white dwarfs. The major type of the stars is called the main sequence in which the stars are in their early stages. It includes any temperature, luminosity, color, and spectral type. The other type of the stars is giant, and it includes temperature from 3000 to 10,000 and luminosity from 50 to 1000. Its color can be white-yellow, yellow, orange, and red; its spectral type can be F, G, K, or M. The bigger type of the stars is supergiant. Supergiant includes temperature from 4000 to 40,000 and luminosity from 30,000 to 1,000,000. Like the main sequence, supergiant also contains any colors and spectral types. Last but not least, the white dwarf which is the old stage of the stars includes only the temperatures under 50,000 and the luminosities under 0.01. Its spectral type is D which is different from all the other stars'.
What is a H-R Diagram?
H-R Diagram stands for Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. It is a kind of graph that shows the statistics of different stars according to their luminosities, temperatures, names, types, sizes, colors, and spectral types by plotting the points, similar to the scatter plot graph.
What is nuclear fusion?
Nuclear fusion is the process in which the two hydrogen molecules combine and transform into one helium molecule, and thus the energy is made. This process is important for a star to form because it required the energy made by the nuclear fusion once the shrunk cloud is hot enough.
What is the life cycle of a star like?
There are three major types of stars that have their own unique life cycles: the sun-like star, huge star, and giant star. However, they all begin with the stellar nebula, a giant cloud of gases and dusts.
Once the stellar nebula gets hot enough and the nuclear reaction takes place, a star is made. After going through the main sequence stage, a sun-like star would then go through the red giant period which the star would get much bigger. After that, the star would explode, and the explosion of the sun-like star is called planetary nebula. Finally, the remains of the star which is called the black dwarf would cool down and become the white dwarf. For the huge star and giant star, they would also become much bigger but called the red supergiant. Similar to the sun-like star, they also explode, and the great explosion is called supernova. Finally, the huge star remains would become the neutron star, and the giant star remains would become the scary black hole.
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PLANET: Mars
(Doesn't it look so similar to Earth?)
Planet Order: 4th from the SunDistance From the Sun: 227.9 millions km
Mass: 6.42 x 10^23 kg
Diameter: 6,792 km
Rotation: 1 day, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds
Revolution: 686.98 days
# of Moons: 2 (Phobos and Deimos)
Type of Planet: Terrestrial
What is Mars like?
Mars is a planet with similar features compared to Earth, including clouds in the atmosphere, seasonal weather changes, volcanos. However, the land and sky on Mars are different from the ones on Earth; they are both in a color that's close to red and pink. Also, there are two moons on Mars, and they are called Phobos and Deimos. The average temperature on Mars is -81° F, which is very cold for human to live on.
2 Interesting Facts You Should Know About Mars!
- Mars is named after the Roman god of wars, Mars.
- Mars has the largest volcanos out of all the terrestrial planets.
