Notes on Abiotic Factors

Water:

1. All living thing need water to survive.
2. water makes up most of our body.
3. Our body is 65% water.
4. Plants and algae need water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight.
5. They use those components in a process to make their own food called photosynthesis.
6. Other living thing depend on plants and algae for food.

Sunlight:

1. sunlight is needed for most living things and for photosynthesis
2. were it is dark plants and algae cant grow.
3. only a few organisms can live in a cave.

Oxygen:

1. Most living thing need air to live.
2. You can live only a few minutes without air.
3. Organisms that live on land obtain oxygen in air, which is about 20% oxygen.
4. Fish obtain oxygen that dissolves in the water around them.

Temperature:

1. Some animals alter their enviroments so that they can survive in very hot, or very cold climates.
2. Like a prairie Dog.
3. The temperature determines the organisms that live in the surroundings.

Soil:

1. Soil is: rock fragments, nutrients, air, water, and the decaying remains of living things.
2. The type of soil depends on the type of plant that grow there.
3. Billions of little organisms live in soil.

How do speakers recreate sound?

BY: Jane McGrath

Site: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/articles/speakers-recreate-sound.html

Date: June 22, 2011

In this article that read on the Mythbusters website, it was about speakers and how they recreate sound. In the article they talked about how sound is just the disturbance of the air molecules, that travel in waves. They also said that like in a guitar, when you strum a string against the air molecules around it, which disturb the molecules around them and so on and so on until it travels across the entire area. The 2 most important parts to making sound out of the speakers are the voice coils that the cones connect to and the permanent magnet that attaches to the voice coil. When the electrical current flow through it, the coil turns into an electromagnet.

Reflection:

I chose this article because it thought it would be interesting to learn about how electromagnetic waves work.What grabbed my attention was the picture of the waves comming from the picture. I thought to myself, why are there waves coming out of the speaker. Well, I was so interested in it that I decided to read the article and find out. I found it while looking at the MythBusters site and was just skimming through the articles when I came to this one that seamed interesting and was screaming, READ ME, READ ME, READ ME!!!

Notes on the Movie: Dirt

1. 1. Dirt might be more alive than we are.

   2. Life began in water.

   3. Dirt transformed the earth.

   4. Dirt helps up live and stay alive.

   5. Dirt its self is not living, but all of the organisms in it are living.

   6. Dirt is made up of bare rock + all of the organisms in it.

   7. Horse manure and dirt is better insulator and is better than cement.

   8. Nearly 200,000 farmers killed themselves by drinking the pest asides because they had nothing else left in their lives that brought them joy.

   9. 100,000,000 trees were cut down to make 200,000 mail catalogues.

   10.They made cookies out of white dry dirt.

   11. In Maine they use fish for compost.

   Message:

   Everyone should help. Dirt is dying and the world is polluting. It shows how much dirt is important.

   3 supporting details:

   1. Dirt is the main material for farming and agriculture.

   2. If people continue to cut down trees, everyone will die because there will be less and less oxygen.

   3. We should stop shipping paint or ship it more carefully so it doesn't spill and pollute the marine life but not jelly fish. Also the toxins go in the dirt.

   Summary:

   Today in science class, we watched a movie about dirt. That movie, changed my perspective about dirt. Before I watched this video I thought of dirt as one of the things that is nothing special or important to survive. But now that I know that people who don’t have food, or people that are in need of help and food, make cookies out of white dry dirt to survive because dir has nutrients. Dirt is also the main material for farming and agriculture, if it is not usable, then farmers can’t grow their crops. Nearly 200,000 farmers killed themselves by drinking the pesticides because they had nothing else left in their lives that brought them joy. Imagine how much dirt was left behind when cement is put over the top to build cities. All of the tiny organisms die in the dirt and the nutrients can’t be used. So many people don’t care and never will think about dirt and what it does for them, they just forget.

   A lot of people are trying to make a change. People are coming out trying to rebuild what we have destroyed. I think that we should make a change as well. Organize something with your school, with your family, with your naborhood to help rebuild what we have destroyed. Take action in what you believe in. Make a change in the world.

Monkeys' brain waves offer paraplegics hope

By Matt McGrath

Site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15197124

Time Written: 6 October 2011

Summary:

To sum up this article, it talked about how monkeys can transmit electromagnetic waves from their brain to control a virtual arm. This technology could help quadriplegic patients not only regain movement but a sense of touch as well. The monkeys were able to touch and feel objects on the screen to. This is what the Prof Miguel Nicolelis from Duke University said: "It provides us with the demonstration that we can establish a bi-directional link between the brain and an artificial device without any interference from the subject's body," The researchers trained the monkeys to play a video game were they had a joystick to move the arm with and brake a box open. In each box there was a vibration. A lot of electrodes were implanted in the brains of the monkeys and connected to the computer screen. The joystick was removed and motor signals from the monkey's brains then controlled the arm. At the same time the things that they touched with the virtual hand on the computer transmits to the brain.

Reflection:

I chose this article because it was unusual to me. What grabbed my attention was the picture of the monkey. I thought to myself, why are there things coming out of his brain going to his hands? Well, I was so interested in it that I decided to read it and find out. I found it while looking at the National Geographic site and was just skimming through the articles when I came to this one that seamed interesting. I kind of connected with what we are doing in DT, we are doing brain control so I thought that it would be fun to do something that we are doing in DT.