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Week 14

  What did you do in lab today? In lab this week, we explored the concept of greenhouse gases and how they contribute to a greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is essentially when solar radiation enters our atmosphere and either gets absorbed or reflected by the Earth. When this solar radiation is reflected, it will reflect off of the Earth, and go back into space. Other times, this solar radiation will be absorbed by the darked colored surfaces on Earth. The solar radiation is then transformed into infrared radiation and released. But, this infrared radiation cannot escape the atmosphere easily and can get caught in our atmosphere which then warms the Earth up. There are certain gas molecules that trap the infrared light and heat in our atmosphere, these are called greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases include Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Water Vapor, and Nitrous Oxide. The more greenhouse gases, the more the atmosphere will warm because that means that infrared radiation can stay in...
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Week 13

  What did you do in lab today? In lab, we looked at various graphs of different climate change. We found from the measurement of different variables that climate is overall warming in our area. These graphs showcased a longer growing season, wetter spring, more summer precipitation, wetter springs and summers, higher humidity, and drier autumns. We also looked at how climate change has affected the growth locations of different plant species.  What was the big question? How is climate change specifically happening in Iowa? What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? In lecture, I learned why some regions have a hot climate while others have cold. I learned that one of the factors that plays a role is latitude and that places closer to the North and South poles will have colder temperatures while places near the equator will have warmer temperatures. As well as this, the temperature of an ocean current will affect the temperature of the air that passes over it. Elevation also...
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Week 12

  What did you do in lab today? This week in lab, we looked at weather and climate. I was able to learn the difference between these. Climate is a 30 year average of weather, while weather is the daily stuff we see. We found that climate change is happening and 99.99% of scientists agree that this is human caused. We looked at how climate change is happening by looking at NASA images of change. Following this, each group chose a different section of Iowa and picked three cities to gather data for. We looked at how heavy rainfall has changed over time. Our group did the region that was labeled Iowa State University. We found that there was an increase in heavy rainfall in each of these regions. This is directly caused by climate change. As temperature increases, humidity increases (water in the air), as humidity increases, precipitation increases. We concluded that the Goldfinch could be in danger due to these changes. It is possible that floods could increase and because of this th...
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Week 11

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What did you do in lab today? In lab, we first looked at the law of superposition. I learned that this law says that rock layers closer to the surface are younger than rock layers at the bottom. This is the way geologists find the relative dates and ages of different rocks around the globe. We looked at several visuals that showed the law of superposition and determined the oldest to youngest order of the rocks. Through this, I learned that an intrusion or igneous dyke, which was showed in many of the visuals, has to be younger than all the things it's going through. This is because the rocks had to be there before the intrusion went through them. We also reviewed erosion and sand. We had the opportunity to view several different sands under a microscope and learned where each was form.  What was the big question? What is the Law of Superposition? What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? In lab, we examined water displacement/buoyancy. I learned that buoyancy is the ability...
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Week 10

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  What did you do in lab today? In lab, we first looked at what a rock is and found that a rock is any solid mass of mineral or mineral-like matter that occurs naturally as part of our planet.  These will not be human-made materials.  We then explored rock cycles through an activity with Starbursts. We created two different sedimentary rocks, igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks. We learned that a sedimentary rock is one that is cemented and compacted together, an igneous rock is melted and then cooled, and a metamorphic rock is heat (not enough to melt) and pressure. The top two rocks represent igneous rocks, the middle two represent metamorphic rocks, and the bottom two represent sedimentary rocks. We created our igneous and metamorphic rocks by using heat and created the sedimentary rocks by compacting them together and changing our pressure and color.  What was the big question? It it a rock? What are the differences between sedimentary, igneous, and me...
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Week 9

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What did you do in lab today? In lab, we looked at geological time using an earthviewer. We learned how geology can have an affect on many events such as the 2008 presidential election. We then hypothesized where these events fell on a timeline of earth: humans appeared, dinosaurs ruled the earth, first land plants, first land animals, and moon was created. We then placed these on a timeline. After this, we explored significant events in the history of earth using an earthviewer. Each team worked in the range of a billion years and placed these on our timeline as well. We found that humans have not been around very long compared to the other events of earth.  In order, here are some of the highlights of Earth's history:     1. Earth and moon formed ~4.5 billion years ago (bya)   2. Oxygen begins to persist in the atmosphere (2.4 bya)   3. Origin of Chloroplast (1.6 bya)   4. Cambrian explosion, huge diversity in types of life on Earth, not land animals like...
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Week 8

1. What did you do in lab today? In lab, each group presented on their chosen concept such as origin of the universe, life cycles of stars, origin of the earth, galaxies, space travel, and black holes. My group did origin of the earth. These presentations included preconceptions, current science understanding, and other information. It was interesting to hear all of the preconceptions. I found that a lot of understandings come from religious or cultural beliefs. While these are known beliefs, they are not proven by science. It was also interesting to hear how we are continually learning more and these theories continue to change each day.  2. What was the big question? What are the preconceptions and current science understanding of various space topics? 3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? In lecture, I learned more about the origin of the universe. The current theory is the Big Bang Theory. We looked at how subatomic particles inflated to unimaginably huge size in a fr...
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