Happy new year

Happy new year all!! See you in a few days!!! Hope 2012 brings you much health and happiness along with many joys and blessings! God be with you!

Aver pens + Bohr models

Bohr model cookies!

We made some Bohr model cookies today!

October News...Sunspots galore and more

Hello all!

I hope you have had a great start to the school year so far! I know that I have enjoyed working with you guys so far this year! I hope you were able to check out my posting of the rainbow and praying mantis that I saw at our school last week! Both were spotted at the same time!! That was pretty cool!

Let's start off with some space news...

First of all, tonight is the peak of the Orionid Meteor Shower. If you look outside (best viewing time is between 1-3am) up at the constellation Orion (*hint look

for the three stars that form "Orion's Belt"), with fairly clear conditions, you should be able to see about 15-20 meteors per hour. Tonight, the moon won't be full, which is in your favor (it will be about 25% illuminated). It is, however, supposed to be partly cloudy, so sky conditions may be hit or miss. If you are having trouble finding Orion, it should be overhead around 2am. Below is a picture of the constellation, so you can see what it looks like.

Sunspots

As of right now, there are several active regions on the sun, including several sunspots. Remember (8th grade...) that a sunspot is a dark area of cooler gas (as compared to the gasses surrounding it). Sunspots are often related to things such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. If you remember, the sun is on an 11 year cycle, each cycle with a solar minimum(where solar activity is low) and a solar maximum (where solar activity is high). Right now, we are currently climbing towards solar maximum (expected between 2012 and 2013). As we move towards solar maximum, the activity on the sun will increase, which also increases the chances of solar storms. Who knows what some impacts of solar storms are? If you write it down on a note card and bring it to me in school, you can get an extra point on your lowest test score!

Below is a picture of what the sun looks like (as on October 22, 2011), notice the sunspots. The photo was taken from SpaceWeather (www.spaceweather.com)

Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 Landing Sites on the Moon

NASA has proposed guidelines to protect and preserve both the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 landing sites on the lunar surface. If you remember, Apollo 11 was the mission that carried Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon, allowing for Armstrong and Aldrin to be the first people to ever set foot on the surface of the moon. Apollo 17 was NASA's final Apollo mission. Obviously, these missions, along with all of the Apollo missions are a very important piece, not just for American History, but for World History as well. When Neil Armstrong took that first step off of the Lunar Landing Module's ladder, he did not just represent the United States, but the entire world. When he first stepped off of the ladder, he said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." What do you think that he meant by this? Anyway, you can see why NASA would want to protect such an important piece of history. If NASA did not prepare those guidelines, than the landing sites could be damaged by future missions to the moon. This article was found on Yahoo! News (www.news.yahoo.com). Below is a brief video from YouTube about the Apollo 11 mission.

Anyway, that's all for now. Hope you guys enjoyed this post.

See you in school!
Keep an eye to the sky,

Ms. T

Thanks to StumbleUpon.com...I thought I would share some of these cool pictures that I came across...

Rainbow and a praying mantis in the same day!!

Rainbow over our school!

Welcome to the New School Year!

Hello all!

Welcome back to a GREAT school year! What have you all done over the summer? This summer, I worked at a summer camp, went to my cousin's wedding in New York, and went to the Outer Banks, North Carolina! Well, now that we all had a great summer, we have to start looking towards the new school year. For those of you who are new (both to the school, or to my classes), I use this blog to alert you to different things that are going on, dealing with the realm of science. Remember, I have the "Science in the News" board in my classroom where you can bring in different science news articles that you find in the newspaper or on the internet! Just remember to put the summary on an index card for us to hang up with it. Also, please remember that you are free to comment on these blogs (they are not posted, however, until I approve them), but I want you to remember that since this is a public blog, I do not want you to use your name. If you would like to sing your comment, please just use your initials.

OK, NOW to the science...

Well, as I am sure you all know by now...space is my FAVORITE branch of science! I love it all! So, I think it is probably best to start with that. Over the summer, in July (July 8, 2011) the Space Shuttle Program came to an end. The three shuttles (Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavor) have been officially retired. The Shuttle Program has had many significant achievements over it's 30+ year history. Some important events have been the launch/deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope and of course the building of the International Space Station. There have also been some tragedies as well. In 1986, Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into the flight. There was a problem with the solid rocket booster, and unfortunately all 7 crew members died. In 2003, Columbia burned up during re-entry. This was due to damage of the thermal protection system (heat shield) during lift off. Sadly, all of these crew members died.

Below is a video of the final lift off of Space Shuttle Atlantis, which brings the shuttle program to an end. The video was taken from youtube.com, which was taken from Nasa.gov.

International Space Station Flyby
On Monday, September 5, 2011, the International Space Station will be flying over our area. If you want to go see it, here is what you need to know!
Look to the SSW at 7:42:06pm on Monday night. You should see something that looks like a star that is moving across the sky. You might think that it is an airplane. but it does NOT have any green or red lights, or it does NOT have blinking lights. It will reach a max elevation of 35 degrees.
So, if you get a chance, go outside, look up, and wave at the astronauts!

I found this picture via stumbleupon.com. It is such a great picture! The Milky Way over the Himalayas. Photo was found via Stumbleupon.com from Anton Jankovoy. Great Picture!!

Jankovoy (jankovoy)) on 500px.com" border="0" style="margin: 0 0 5px 0;"> Milky Way above the Himalayas by Anton Jankovoy

Well, that's all for now. We will look at some other things through out the year.

Keep and eye to the sky,

Ms. T

STS-134

This morning is the final flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour. The launch is slated to be at 8:56am. We'll keep an eye on it. More to come later!