Water Cycle EXAM

The water cycle starts with evaporation, which is when the water from lakes, rivers, oceans or any other body of water turns into vapor or steam and rises into the air.  Ttranspiration also ends up putting more evaporated water into the air after the water comes up from the roots of the plants and to the surface where it evaporates.  Condensation is the opposite of evaporation.  When the water vapor becomes to heavy and the temperature drops the gas forms a liquid, water droplets.  Once the the temperature is right the water droplets become bigger and they fall to the earth, which is precipitation.  Precipitation brings the water back down to the earth where surface runoff begins.  Surface runoff happens when the precipitation hits earth and runs of the surface of the land toward body's of water that they were originally from.  If the water isn't going through surface runoff then it is going through infiltration which is when the rain water is absorbed into the ground.  From the ground the water will either stay there and become groundwater, our surface again creating springs in low downhill areas. 

A watershed is when water flows into a body of water, such as a lake, river, stream or ocean.  Our surface water features normally come directly from rain or from surface runoff.  The water flows into the body's of water that are close, and from there depending on the body type that it has flowed into it might continue to flow downstream.  Groundwater seeps into to ground and from there travels through different aquifers.  Aquifers can range from many different sizes under ground.

Rivers and Streams are classified by morphological similarity's, which can change over time.  When a river goes through erosion materials are moved along the bed of water and collides with other materials, which then breaks them down.  Flooding becomes a lot more likely when so many trees and forests are cut down, because run off water from precipitation can get to the water a lot quicker making it easier for the water to overflow, creating a flood.  A lot of floods take place because of decisions and actions made by humans.  On the other hand erosion is normally a natural process that happens.

Bibliography
1.  http://www.kidzone.ws/water/
-2009

2.  http://www.angelfire.com/nj/PflommScience/H20Cycle.htm
-1998
-The Evergreen Project

3.  http://www.state.nj.us/dep/watershedmgt/DOCS/shedbrochure.pdf
-NJDEP

The Earth in Space EXAM

Our solar system is located within the Milky Way galaxy.  Our galaxy has around 400 billion stars within it, with many clusters and nebulae.  Our Galaxy is 100,000 lightyears in diameter.  Becasue the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy it has what scientests call arms.  Our solar system is located in one of the arms, and it happens to be one of the smaller ones.  It is either refered to as the Local or the Orion Arm, which connects two other larger arms that make up our galaxy.  Being located within an arm of the galaxy we are toward the outer part of the Milky Way.  Our solar system is about 20 light years above the equatorial symmetry plane.  Our solar system is thought to be about 4.5 billion years old and we as humens have only been around for a few million of them.

The Big Bang is when astronimers said that there was a sudden explosion of all energy and matter that caused an expansion.  It is said that all space and even time began or started at this point.  13.7 years ago the big bang occoured.  600 million years after the big bang the forst atoms were formed which made it possible for galaxies and other features like our planets to form.  So after the big bang there was space, matter, energy and time for our universe to form and become in motion with eachother.

Observations of the cosmic microwave background have helped to determine the age of the universe, because it helped to discoever that sending a satalite into space to read the radiation that was emitted  into the universe coming back to the earth showing different cold and warm spots.  The size and heat of the spots that appear in the pictures helped scientists to discover how old our universe is.

Bibliography

1. http://seds.org/messier/more/mw.html

Augest 25, 2005

Hartmut Frommert, Christine Kronberg

2. http://www.timelineindex.com/content/view/536

Formation of the Universe

3.http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/55957/description/Ancient_dawns_early_light_refines_age_of_universe

Febuary 27, 2010

Ron Cowen

Connection of 2 Green Book Climate Labs

For Activity 1 we found out what heats faster and cools faster water, sand or dirt.  After conducting the lab we discovered that all the different substences heated to an extent and then cooled back to around the temperature that it started.  We found that the water heated the slowest and that the dirt and sand heated at the fastest rate.  They all slowly cooled down.  I expected that the sand would kinda heat up quickly just from expiriences from the beech, but i thought that water would heat a little faster.

In Activity 4 we tested and measured how well the 3 different matirials water, light soil and dark soil reflected the heat given off by a light.  We found that it didn't matter which matirial it was that if it had the painted cloud over it that it reflected the heat a whole lot better than the ones without.  I thought that would be what happend, just because we expirience the same thing here on earth.

The small scale labs that we do help represent our climate on earth, becasue the same things apply.  It all explains why we have cold days and warm days.  With this information i could help to explain why when it rains it tends to cool off, but when it stops raining it warms up a little bit and becomes humid.  It would help to explain the tempereture that we expirience rain.

Space Project (Galaxies)

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AVcL3_-qYsGaZGh0dnhwbm1fMTBqMnBodDRqOQ&hl=en

Bad Astronomy Post

     A comet has a tail behind it that could contain sand, ice, and rock.  I was right by writing this down as a true fact, becasue that's really what follows behind a comet while orbiting in space.  Another fact that I put down underneathe the true facts was that the astronot was blinded and that his skin was so badly burned by the suns light.  I was right for the fact that the suns rays can damage your eyes, and if your close enough u can be burned by it, but being that far away from the sun in the movie he should not have been injured that badly.
     In the movie there were also things that were false, one was that you wouldn't be able to hear any noise on the comet, becasue there isn't any air in space.  So i was right about that one.  Another thind that was false in the movie was that you can't walk on an astroid like you would do on earth, because of the gravity difference, so i was right also when saying that was wrong.
     A misconception that people think about stars at night are that all stars emit just white light, and honestly I head heard that they didn't, but I still thought that they just let off white light.  That was wrong because it turns out that all stars give off all the colors of the rainbow.

Climate Inquiry

1.  Climate is like the average temperature of weather of an area or location over a long period of time.  Some people think that weather and climate are the same thing, but really they aren't.  weather is the events that happen in an area, and climate helps to explain the weather that we experience.  For example if you were to look out the window and  examine what it's like outside for one day you would know the weather, but if you were to look out the window for many weeks or months in a row and examine the weather then you would have the climate of the location.

Weather vs. Climate
Weather Eye
http://weathereye.kgan.com/cadet/climate/climate_vs.html
2007

2. Climate change is the seasonals changes that take place in an area over a long period of time.  Ecosystems are essentially created by the climate changes that take place in an area.  Also humen economies and cultures depend on the climate changes that take place in an area.  Because so many things like the way that we live our lives is linked and related to climate, what we do depends on the climate change that takes place.

What is climate change?
Department of Ecology
 http://www.ecy.wa.gov/climatechange/whatis.htm
2010

Sewer Treatment Blog

At the sewer treatment plant yesterday the man walked us through the process of treating the water.  He told us how the water entered the plant, and that the first biuling it goes through is the first biulding you see when you enter the area.  Then from there it goes to an area where it is treated.  The water goes through a very long cycle before it is entered into the river.  The water sewer treatment plant in our town has a secondary cleaning system, which isn't how it was origanally biult, but was added on.  Also i learned that the big tank that they have will fill up in about twelve ours if it needs to be used.  He also showed us the lab that they use to test the water, and do any other tests that need to be ran at the plant.
 I thought that it was cool that we all got to go and recycle things.  For me it wasn't the first time, because my family recycles plastic, aluminum, glass, paper and stirofoam.  On top of that we also have our own compost bin at our house, so we're pretty much an eco-friendly family.

City Discussion

    Mrs. Byerly came to talk to us about the cities plan for the way that all of the water is going to systematically work.  She told us about what the city was doing to the storm water, which was that they were making big well like things in a couple of different parts of the city that all of the water will collect in and the the city will have to go and empty every once and a while.  The city made it so that the storm water wouldn't build up in the street and made it so that it was less likely to flood the island.  This move by the city will improve the overall water quality of the river water by keeping less rail water from running into the water that has already been through the town.  This will improve the quality of the test that my group is doing by giving us cleaner water to test intern giving us a better BOD, meaning that there will be more oxygen in the water.  I learned from the talk that although main street was being opened back up that they were now going to close us some of hall street, because they need to tear that up and do work on it.  My bio bottle that i am working on is doing really good, i have three different sunflowers growing really quickly, and that look really healthy also.  For my groups action project i am getting the materials to build a compost bin and then we're going to do a two week trial in the cafeteria's for composting.  We have made it pretty far in our power point i think, with help of the action plan paper.

Water Testing Connection

    Our group chose to focus on composting.  Our plan is to create a compost bin at school that people can throw there leftover food in after lunch.  Assentially there will be smaller bins in the lunch room, and at the end of the day we (Josie and I) could take them to the bigger compost bin that is outside somewhere around the school.  After a period of time the composst will turn to dirt that the school can use to plant flowers around the school.
   In our bio. bottle we will be testing a sunchip bag.  With our bio. bottles we will also be focusing on composting.  We will see how fast a sunchip bag breaks down compared to the other brush likes leaves and things that we use.  We will have one bio. bottle that will have just the already excisting dirt along with leaves and grass, and in the other bio. bottle will be the sunchip bag with the other leaves and brush.
   When we do the river testing tom. we will be testing for BOD (biological oxygen demand).  This relates to our action project dealing with composting, because when we compost we keep less waist from going into the river where we are testing the water.  The water will essentially be cleaner the more we compost.  Also the amount of oxygen could increase once we use the dirt from composting to plant more flowers and things, because they give off oxygen.

Eaton Rapids Water Treatment Plant

At the water treatment center yesterday we learned about how water is treated to be drinkable.  A long process is followed to treat the water.  In our city are thirty eight miles of pipeline that moves the water around to where it is needed.  they code the inside of the pipes with phosphite, which is meant to help cleanse the water.  Also they use floride and chlorine in the water.  The floride is meant to help make the bones in our body strong.  We get our water from wells, we pump the water out of the ground and then it goes through the long treatment process.  Our town also has many generators that we have, so that if something happens to the system they are kicked on and keep it running.  They also have a lab at the treatment center which they use when they are testing the water.  They test the water for e coli and other harmful bacteria.  They visit every school in the district and the hospital once a month and take the water back to the lab to test.  They also have never had any problems with e coli in the past.

Lexis Link

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AX-47DhenpMmZGNndGZ3ZmhfMGdtZ21iN2Yz&authkey=CK_KoI4L&hl=en

Water Treatment Blog

1.  What happens towater to be made drinkable in cities?
      The U.S. Enviormental Protection Agency defines whether water is "safe", to meet those requerments it can't contain any harmful bacteria, or other desease causeing toxins.  Treating water so that it is drinkable is put into five different steps. The first is Aeration, during that they mix all the water together to liberate dissolved gasses.  The second is Flocculation, where they add compounds to the water so that any clay or other natural particals stick to the compound and create a big clup easy to remove.  The third, sedimentation, is when the water is left undisturbed so that the particals and compound that clumped together can settle.  The fourth Filtration, this is when the water is run through several filters to remove any particals still excisting in the water.  The last is Disenfection, which is when they treat the water so that any desease causing things still in the water can be killed.  After those five steps the water can be drank.

2.  What happens to water when it is flushed, how is it treated?
      After we flush the sewage regularly goes to a sewage tank in a persons back yard or to a sewage treatment plant, where it will be treated.  In 1995  data was gathered about how 26% of the sewage leaving your house either evaporates or is transpired from your yard and the other 74% is sent to the plant.  At the plant it is cleaned and used for other purposes like watering a golf course.

Footprint Blog

1. http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/


2. I think that it was a good sight to use it was really easy, and i think that it would be easy for younger kids also.

3. 14 tons

4. a. eat less meat

b. recycle my paper

c. use less water

5. I can help the watershed in our town by recycling, using less water and eating more organic foods.  Recyling will help the watershed in our town by not polutting the water that drains into the grand river.  By using less water i will help the water shed by creating less water that will run into the river.  By eating more organic foods less chemicals from the waiste will be entered into the river that runs through our town.