The Latest News from E222

I was a teenage rocket scientist...

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Technopolis/2414/cp15.jpg

We are now in the process of building our own rockets that we will be launching from the field behind the school in the upcoming weeks. Students will be customizing their rockets and working towards a launch, recovery and re-launch to determine their success on this assignment. They will also be reexamining Newton's 3rd Law of Motion that states for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is the basis for rocketry. Pictures and video to follow soon!

Upcoming events in class...

Understanding the Lunar cycle
Astronomy research project
Rocket Building Project

A special guest visit to E222...

The Story of Science

On Friday February 29th. Joy Hakim the award winning author of The Story of Science series visited our classes and discussed with students the importance of science and how she came about writing this series of books. Students got to ask Joy various question about science, why she wrote the books and they also were able to give feedback to Joy about her books! Check out the story on WBOC learning matters!

Mr. P's Class Blog

SciPod SMS!

Episode # 1

VIDEOCAST COMING SOON!

COOL SCIENCE STUFF!

Astronomy

After 30 years of traveling through space, voyager 2 moved through the waves of charged particles as it crossed what is known as termination shock, the first boundary of the outer solar system. It now joins it sister ship voyager 1 at the outskirts of the solar system. V1 in on a northerly route while V2 is heading south. Results from the spacecrafts, the solar system is squashed on the bottom, as a result of the movement of solar winds. Read more at www.SciAm.com

Chemistry/Physics

-For years physicists believed that the neutron was electrically neutral overall, but physicists thought it was actually carried a positive charge at the center and a negative charge near the outside allowing it to be neutral overall. New results suggests that the neutron is very complicated with negative charges both at the inner and outer edges with a positive charge in between. The findings could help understand more about the strong force and how it interacts with the nucleus of atoms.

Earth Science

-The smoking gun that resulted in the downfall of the dinosaurs may have been located. Looking at the data collected of objects in the asteroid belt which lies between Mars and Jupiter, researchers have found debris from an ancient collision. There in this debris lies a void that could be the result of this material projected towards the inner planets which include Earth. Researchers believe that the collision occurred 160 million years ago with the major impactor (asteroid) reaching the Earth about 95 million years ago. Read more at www.discovermagazine.com

Life Sciences

-New genetic evidence suggests that our species has continued to evolve over the past 100,000 years. Data collected on how much DNA mutates over generations, researchers have found that as much as 10% of the human genome may be linked to theses adaptive genetic changes. The study at Cornell analyzed over a million genetic variations in DNA form 24 individuals of various ethnic backgrounds (African, European and Chinese Americans. What was looked for was regions in the genome where a beneficial mutation is carried by all populations and the variability in the DNA surrounding the mutation, the researchers then could found out how long ago the mutation spread through the population. More than 100 sites in the genome show strong evidence of recent selection such as, muscle tissue, hearing, immune system function, skin pigmentation, smell and the bodies response to heat stress. See we are very much the same, but different at the same time!!! Read more at

Integrated Science 8

Mr.Pavlekovich's Class