Wednesday, December 11, 2013

All About Coral Reefs - BP7

gorgonian soft coral - from NOAA web site
Coral Reefs are so very important to the coastal ocean ecosystems because they support a great variety of life, meaning the biodiversity is out of this world!

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, lists an abundance of life associated with coral reefs, including, but not limited to, "fish, corals, lobsters, clams, seahorses, sponges, sharks, and sea turtles are only a few of the hundreds of thousands of creatures that rely on reefs for their survival."

NOAA also tells us that coral reefs give us protection for coastal lands, places to research medicines, and places where humans go for food.

In general, coral reefs are important to us and should be protected and preserved.

Coral Reefs are in Danger
This web site has a bunch of information on how coral reefs are endangered.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Is Climate Change a Hoax?

There are many people who deny that humans are causing climate change, or global warming, today.

I have done research on some of the  claims by climate change denialists, and I find their arguments unbelievable.

One of their claims is: "scientist only measure temperature in hot places, like cities.

Well, according to this video (http://goo.gl/nIjuv6), that claim is not supported by the science because...

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Earth Energy Budget


Earth's Energy Budget

Created by Danny Blas
1. What’s the definition of energy?
2. What are the 7 types of energy?
3. The 3 sources of Earth’s energy are?
4. What is the major source of Earth’s energy?
5. What’s the primary source of energy for humans?
6. What happens to the Sun’s energy coming to Earth?
7. What parts of Earth absorb the most & least energy?
8. What % do OCEANS and RAINFORESTS absorb?
9. What % do DESERTS and POLES absorb?

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Composition of Coastal Ecosystems

Estuary: is a body of water that is partially open to the ocean's coast. It has a source of fresh water, from a stream or a river, which interacts with salty ocean water and the mix is called "brackish".
Estuarine environments are among the most productive on earth, creating more organic matter each year than comparably-sized areas of forest, grassland, or agricultural land. The tidal, sheltered waters of estuaries also support unique communities of plants and animals especially adapted for life at the margin of the sea. 

Many different habitat types are found in and around estuaries, including shallow open waters, freshwater and salt marshes, swamps, sandy beaches, mud and sand flats, rocky shores, oyster reefs, mangrove forests, river deltas, tidal pools, and seagrasses.

http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/nep/about.cfm
 An example of an estuary is the Amazon River

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Life on Earth Began... {BP2}

"When the earth formed some 4.6 billion years ago,
it was a lifeless, inhospitable place" http://www.eddieting.com/eng/originoflife/orgel.html
Many scientists believe that life on Earth began by accident in something called primordial soup, a "liquid rich in organic compounds and providing favorable conditions for the emergence and growth of life forms." In this theory, there had to be certain "life ingredients," which contained food, water, energy, methane, hydrogen, water, and a electrical spark to kick-start life on Earth.

Another theory was that life came from outer space in an asteroid or comet that struck Earth.

Life on Earth, scientists believe, must have began in the oceans. The reasons why the oceans were where life began was because the surface of the Earth was inhospitable, making the conditions difficult or impossible for harboring life. Because of asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions, and deadly solar radiation, life beginning on earth's surface would make it difficult to sustain. The oceans, on the other hand, protected potential life from all of those deadly forces. Because of the oceans, life is possible. Without the oceans, it's improbable life as we know it would exist on Earth.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Galaxies Newspaper Article

This is a spiral galaxy, shaped
like a flat pinwheel

Galaxies are like thugs. Thugs run the show; they come into wherever they go, and say "I run this." But seriously, galaxies are a collection of stars, gas, dust, planets, rocks, life, pretty much everything we can touch and see. Galaxies come in three different shapes: irregular, elliptical, and spiral. Galaxies are gigantic, kinda like my bank account; they are measured in light years. Yes, I'm a baller/shot-caller. Most galaxies have billions of stars, while some of the largest galaxies have trillions of stars, kinda like my bank account; I'm a trillionaire.

Galaxies are interesting because they are home to stars, and that's interesting because if there were no galaxies there would be no carne asada burritos with salsa ala Mexicana. There are also three different types, and that's interesting because it's like having seven different girlfriends--you have a different experience each day. Galaxies are interesting because they come in different shapes and sizes, kinda like people because each person is unique in their own way (some are cute and some are really ugly). Galaxies are large. One of the largest galaxies is said to measure six million light years wide.

The Earth and our solar system are part of the Milky Way galaxy. Our solar system is located in one of the outer "arms." The Milky Way galaxy is estimated to be 100,000 light years wide.


This is an elliptical galaxy. It's
shaped like a sphere.
This is an irregular galaxy. The
shape is anything but spiral or
elliptical

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Is Earth Unique?

The name of Earth's galaxy is called the Milky Way. There are billions and billions of stars in the Milky Way, including our Sun, which is also a star.

In a New York Time article, Eric Petigura is a graduate student at University of California at Berkley. He also is a astronomer who is involved with NASA's Kepler mission.

Kepler is a telescope based in space that was launched by NASA on March 2009. The areas Kepler is watching is home to 10,000 stars like our Sun.

Eric discovered a hella lot of earth-like planets circling around their stars. In the article, Eric claimed that planets, in order to have life, have to be at the perfect distance from its star in order to have liquid water, which enables life.

Eric's findings are credible because many other scientists have reviewed his work and many expert scientists found his work to be credible. One such scientist, Sara Seager, was quoted as saying Eric's research was rigorous and believable.

Eric designed a computer program that can detect fake planets. Eric setup an experiment that can see if a planet is real or fake, and the program was able to detect the fake planets.

An exoplanet is an earth-like planet outside of our solar system. Scientists are able to detect distant exoplanets using telescopes. Though scientists are unable to literally see these exoplanets, they cause a drop in brightness when passing their star.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Stars and Sun Word Search

Your task is to find the word in the image to the left, and complete the sentences below.

1. We are all made from __________________.
2. Our sun will eventually die and become a white __________.
3. Our sun is considered an __________-sized star.
4. Stars like our sun use ____________ for fuel.
5. Only __________-sized stars end their life in a supernovas.

Stars and our Sun

1. Are we really made from stardust? Explain.
2. List 5 facts about the Sun
3. What fuel does the Sun use?
4. What are the 5 stages in the life of our Sun?
5. How much more life does the Sun have?
6. What size stars end in a Supernova? Why?


Some people say we are all made from "stardust." It's true. All heavy elements, like carbon, which is the foundational element of all life on Earth, come from the end of life process of a massive-size star, or supernova. A supernova is an explosion of a massive star, and the heavy elements are spread throughout the universe, which formed the Earth and the life on it.

Our sun is: (a.) a star; (b.) is an average size star; (c.) uses hydrogen to fuel it's nuclear fusion; (d.) has about 5 billion years yet to live; (e.) will eventually die in what is called a white dwarf.

The sun uses hydrogen for fuel in a process called nuclear fusion

The five stages in the life cycle of a star are:

Friday, November 1, 2013

Predictions 2013 - 2014

My measurable predictions for 2013 - 2014

Your family or friends
1. I will have 900 friends on Facebook by June 2014

2. My family will move to a new home by June 2014

3. My bff and I will get tatted by December 2013
The United States
4. The U.S. will have a lower unemployment rate in June 2014 compared to 2013

5.

6.
The World
7. Syria will no longer have a civil war by June 2014

8.

9.
Television & Movies
10.

11.

12.
Music
13. Drake will be a father by June 2014

14.

15.
Sports
16. The Chargers will win the Super Bowl in 2014

17.

18.
Kearny High School
19. I will earn an A in marine science

20

21.

Monday, October 28, 2013

My First Science Blog Post

I love fried chicken. Here goes the introduction my partner wrote about me.


Thursday, May 2, 2013

My Sample Blog

This is it. Look at this picture
dfadsjkfadsfja;sdlkfj
dklfjds;lkkjfds;lafkjd
lkdjflkdsajfldsjfdl


Friday, April 12, 2013

"The Help" and the Struggle for African-American Equality

In the movie "The Help," African-American maids told their stories to a writer of a book because they wanted to let the world know how they were being treated.

"The Help is a 2011 American drama film adaptation of the novel of the same name (2009) by Kathryn Stockett, adapted for the screen and directed by Tate Taylor. " (http://goo.gl/7otE8)

In one incident, ...... (see your page 110)

In another incident... (see your page 110).

In a third incident.... (see your page 110)

The significance of "The Help," in the struggle for African-American equality... (what is your opinion on the book? Did it help to establish more African-American equality?)

Friday, April 5, 2013

The Big Meteor / Asteroid Strike - Feb. 2013

The large cosmic strike over Russia last February caught everybody by surprise. There was no warning, and luckily, the impact and angle of entry was friendly to us Earthlings.
What's the difference between a meteor and an asteroid?

According to NBC News,
"Astronomers use different terms to describe cosmic objects of different sizes: When the rock is no wider than a meter (3.3 feet), it's known as a meteoroid. But once you start getting into the 1- to 10-meter range, the term "asteroid" applies. Earlier estimates suggested the Chelyabinsk object was a meteoroid, but the latest assessment would put it in the class of a small asteroid." (http://goo.gl/3vSnL)


Watch Meteor Strike on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Surface Water & Global Temperatures (Page 90)

Why would San Francisco--compared with Norfolk, Virginia--have warmer winters and cooler summer even though both of the cities are located at the same latitude?
http://goo.gl/mjsqu
The temperatures of water and land, and their abilities to hold and release energy from the sun, are very different.
Water can absorb a lot of heat energy from the sun with little change in temperature, whereas land is just the opposite (absorbs heat energy relatively quickly, and releases heat energy relatively quickly).
Wind tends to travel from West to East at the latitudes of SF and Norfolk. The wind that flows through SF tends to be warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, thus allowing the two cities to have different types of climates during winter and summer.
This is phenomenon is known as thermal inertia.

Temperatures on earth are moderated in different ways. Sea ice for example is a temperature moderator. Ice is more effective at moderating temperatures than certain rocks like granite. Ocean currents are waters that carry and hold much heat energy from the sun.

Waters from the equator flows towards the poles, which allows the oceans near the poles to remain ice free.

More powerful than ocean currents are heat transfers that occur via water vapor in the atmosphere. This movement of water vapor in the atmosphere travels to different places across the earth and moves heat around to help moderate the temperatures on the planet.

Without moderate temperatures, the earth would be too cold or too hot for life to exist as we know it.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Thermal Characteristics of Water

http://goo.gl/hjpSy
Thermal Characteristics of Water
Heat and temperature

Monday, March 18, 2013

The Chemistry of Water

http://goo.gl/ktSTT
Water is interesting and intriguing. Without water there is no life as we know it. We humans take water for granted.

(1. Describe how water molecules are bonded) Water's molecular structure is bonded together via covalent chemical bond, in which "each hydrogen nucleus is bound to the central oxygen atom by a pair of electrons that are shared between them." (http://goo.gl/ktSTT)

(2. Describe how the positive and negative charges of water are distributed.) Water is considered electrically neutral. The charges--positive and negative--of water are not uniformly distributed.
http://goo.gl/ktSTT
The negative charge of water is located towards the oxygen side of the molecule, while the positive charge is located towards the hydrogen side.

(3. Describe the chemistry of water that allows an insect to walk on water.) The surface of water acts like a layer of elasticity when a small weight is placed upon it. This phenomenon is called the surface tension of water.

(4. What is unique about water and its density?) Typically most substances when they changes phases from liquid to a solid, the substance increases its mass. Not water. When water turns into a solid (ice), its mass decreases, and that's why ice floats on top of water.

Friday, March 15, 2013

The Great Depression - Hardships & Suffering (Pg. 104)

The Great Depression (TGD) was an incredibly difficult economic time for many Americans. The citizens had a lot of problems to deal with, one in particular was the Dust Bowl.
http://goo.gl/a4EoQ
(1.) The Dust Bowl took place in the middle of the United States, and it occurred when farmers over-planted crops that eventually failed because of a drought that lasted for seven years. Because of the drought, the land and dirt was exposed to the wind, which blew the dirt into the air, causing an environmental disaster, causing a lot of people to get sick and/or die because of the dirty air. Instead of planting just a portion of the land, the greedy farmers chose to plant cash crops and remove the prairie grasses, which had the ability to survive droughts, and hold the dirt down.

(2.) (a.) TGD affected children because they were malnourished--not enough to eat--and contracted diseases related to diet. They also couldn't go to school because the state did not have enough to keep schools open.
(b.) Families were affected by TGD because daily living was a struggle with little or no money to buy the most basic of needs.
(c.) Women had to get job, and they faced sexism because many people at the time felt that with husbands unemployed, moms should not be out of the house at work.
(d.) Men were affected by TGD because they couldn't support their families. There were very little jobs, and if a dad couldn't support his family, he would feel useless. Many left home to become hoboes.
(e.) People of color (Mexicans and African-Americans) experienced racism from whites.

http://goo.gl/BGC24


(3.) Hoboes were men who wandered around the country, jobless. They got around on train boxcars.

(4.) An enduring effect of TGD was that people saved, saved, saved. They didn't every want to be poor again.

Monday, March 4, 2013

The Roaring 1920’s: People, Places and Events



1. THE NEW URBAN SCENE   People from farms all over the United States were moving to cities because that’s where all the new work was. Life in these booming cities was far different from the slow-paced, everybody-knows-your-business type of life in America's smaller, rural towns. Chicago, for instance, was an industrial powerhouse, home to native-born whites and African Americans, immigrant Polish, Irish, Russians, Italians, Swedes, Arabs, French, and Chinese. Each day, an estimated 300,000 workers, 150,000 cars and buses, and 20,000 trolleys filled the vibrant downtown. At night people crowded into incredible-looking movie theaters and vaudeville houses offering live variety shows.
2. For small-town migrants, adapting to the city demanded changes in thinking as well as in everyday living. The city was a world of competition and constant change. City dwellers read and argued about current scientific and social ideas. They judged one another by accomplishment more often than by someone’s background. City dwellers also tolerated drinking, gambling, and casual dating and sex—behaviors considered shocking and sinful in small towns.
For all its color and challenge, the city could be impersonal and scary. Streets were filled with strangers, not friends and neighbors. Life was fast-paced, not leisurely. The city demanded endurance.
Science and Religion Clash Another bitter controversy highlighted the growing rift between traditional and modern ideas during the 1920s. This battle raged between fundamentalist religious groups and secular (non-religious, separate from religion) thinkers over the validity of certain scientific discoveries.
AMERICAN FUNDAMENTALISM    The Protestant movement grounded in a literal (word-for-word) interpretation of the Bible was known as fundamentalism. Fundamentalists were skeptical of scientific knowledge; they argued that all important knowledge could be found in the Bible. They believed that the Bible was inspired by God, and that therefore its stories in all their details were true.
   Their beliefs led fundamentalists to reject the theory of evolution advanced by Charles Darwin in the 19th century—a theory stating that plant and animal species had developed and changed over millions of years. The claim they found most unbelievable was that humans had evolved from apes. They pointed instead to the Bible's account of creation, in which God made the world and all its life forms, including humans, in six days.
THE SCOPES TRIAL     In March 1925, Tennessee passed the nation's first law that made it a crime to teach evolution. Immediately, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU, is a group of attorneys that protect free speech rights) promised to defend any teacher who would challenge the law. John T. Scopes, a young biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, accepted the challenge. In his biology class, Scopes read this passage from Civic Biology: “We have now learned that animal forms may be arranged so as to begin with the simple one-celled forms and culminate with a group which includes man himself.” Scopes was promptly arrested, and his trial was set for July.
The ACLU hired Clarence Darrow, the most famous trial lawyer of the day, to defend Scopes. William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic candidate for president and a devout fundamentalist, served as a special prosecutor. There was no real question of guilt or innocence: Scopes was honest about his action. The Scopes trial was a fight over evolution and the role of science and religion in public schools and in American society.
This clash over evolution, the Prohibition experiment, and the emerging urban scene all were evidence of the changes and conflicts occurring during the 1920s. During that period, women also experienced conflict as they redefined their roles and pursued new lifestyles.
THE FLAPPER    During the twenties, a new ideal emerged for some women: the flapper, a young woman who embraced freedom and the new fashions and urban attitudes of the day. Tight-fitting felt hats, bright waist-less dresses an inch above the knees, skin-toned silk stockings, sleek pumps, and strings of beads replaced the dark and prim ankle-length dresses, whalebone corsets, and petticoats of Victorian days. Young women clipped their long hair into boyish bobs and dyed it jet black.
Many young women became more assertive. In their quest for equal status with men, some began smoking cigarettes, drinking in public, and talking openly about sex—actions that would have ruined their reputations not many years before. They danced the fox trot, camel walk, tango, Charleston, and shimmy with abandon.
   Attitudes toward marriage changed as well. Many middle-class men and women began to view marriage as more of an equal partnership, although both agreed that housework and child-rearing remained a woman's job.
THE DOUBLE STANDARD    Magazines, newspapers, and advertisements promoted the image of the flapper, and young people openly discussed dating and relationships in ways that scandalized their elders. Although many young women donned the new fashions and disregarded tradition, the flapper was more an image of rebellious youth than a widespread reality; it did not reflect the attitudes and values of many young people. During the 1920s, morals loosened only so far. Traditionalists in churches and schools protested the new casual dances and women's acceptance of smoking and drinking.
   In the years before World War I, when men “courted” women, they pursued only women they intended to marry. In the 1920s, however, casual dating became increasingly accepted. Even so, a double standard —a set of principles granting greater sexual freedom to men than to women—required women to observe stricter standards of behavior than men did. As a result, many women were pulled back and forth between the old standards and the new.
LINDBERGH'S FLIGHT   America's most beloved hero of the time wasn't an athlete but a small-town pilot named Charles A. Lindbergh, who made the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic. A handsome, modest man from Minnesota, Lindbergh decided to go after a $25,000 prize offered for the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight. On May 20, 1927, he took off near New York City in the Spirit of St. Louis. After 33 hours and 29 minutes, Lindbergh set down at Le Bourget airfield outside of Paris, France, amid beacons, searchlights, and mobs of enthusiastic people.
   Paris threw a huge party. On his return to the U.S., New York showered Lindbergh with ticker tape, the president received him at the White House, and America made him its idol. In an age of sensationalism, excess, and crime, Lindbergh stood for the honesty and bravery the nation seemed to have lost.
The Harlem Renaissance Flowers in New York Many African Americans who migrated north moved to Harlem, a neighborhood on the Upper West Side of New York's Manhattan Island. In the 1920s, Harlem became the world's largest black urban community, with residents from the South, the West Indies, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Haiti. James Weldon Johnson described Harlem as the capital of black America.
Like many other urban neighborhoods, Harlem suffered from overcrowding, unemployment, and poverty. But its problems in the 1920s were eclipsed by a flowering of creativity called the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and artistic movement celebrating African-American culture.
AFRICAN AMERICANS AND JAZZ   Jazz was born in the early 20th century in New Orleans, where musicians blended instrumental ragtime and vocal blues into an exuberant new sound. In 1918, Joe “King” Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band traveled north to Chicago, carrying jazz with them. In 1922, a young trumpet player named Louis Armstrong joined Oliver's group, which became known as the Creole Jazz Band. His talent rocketed him to stardom in the jazz world.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Labor Unions during the 1920's

The Labor Movement in the 1920's by Danny Blas on GoAnimate

Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

Deep Ocean Trenches and Island Arcs

Deep ocean trenches occur at convergent plate boundaries, where an oceanic plate subducts, or sinks below, another plate, causing a deep valley at the point where the two plates meet.

In this video animation, two characters discuss island arcs and ocean trenches, which tend to form adjacent, or next to, each other. 



Ocean Trenches & Island Arcs by Danny Blas and Adanna Knox-luli on GoAnimate

Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Pahoehoe Lava Flows

Here's a video from Russia, showing a low-viscosity lava flow: http://www.utsandiego.com/video/play/51542/



Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Bathymetry

GoAnimate.com: Bathymetry by Danny Blas


Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!


  1. Bathymetry: what is it (define the word)? What’s the difference between a bathymetric map and a topographic map
  2. How did Oceanographers map the ocean floor in the past, and what were the results?
  3. How do oceanographers map the oceans now, and how accurate and effective is this method?
  4. Why are multibeam echo sounders so effective?
  5. What’s an example of an underwater discovery that was made possible by multibeam echo sounders?
  6. Why do oceanographers map the oceans below the surface? Why is this important to society?

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Education has Changed. A little or A Lot?

Song or Rap or Rhyming Poem
http://goo.gl/Lp9Xw



Back in the day, when the kids were stinky 
They went to school, with rings on their pinkys.
The school doors were closed to the brown kids
Because the white folks didn't ever eat no ribs

But today it's a whole bunch different
There are bunch less students absent
And the kids are dressing all fresh and funky
Back then, they smelled all skunky

Look at the picture, the girls in the dresses
I play basketball, and full-court presses
What student was Derek Rose back then?
When the teachers smack them.





Thursday, January 10, 2013

Coming to the United States 1870's

1. Immigrants coming to the United States had a difficult journey. If you came from Europe, the trip took about a week; from Asia nearly three weeks. No airplanes. All steamships, which were a lot slower than the ships we have today.
http://goo.gl/Zv9w0

I would not have liked the trip if I were an immigrant at the time. No doubt about it.
Most of the travelers traveled in the cheapest possible way--the rooms were where the luggage and cargo were stored! Hell no! No windows, no fresh air. It probably smelled like butt. Nasty.
There were thousands of people in the same situation, and there were bugs, diseases, and many people died before they arrived to their destination.

2. Back in the late 1800's, before entering the United States as an immigrant, you had to prove to the immigration people you had at least $25, which is $625 in 2012 dollars (according to http://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php).
The two immigration processing stations in San Francisco and New York were Angel Island in San Francisco and Ellis Island in New York.
The immigrant experience at these places were long and intense. The process would take about five hours, and everyone had to prove they weren't locked up at one time, and they had to pass a medical exam. Today we don't have to that, and I'm glad because I would hate to go through that for just visiting Tijuana.
http://goo.gl/PoiMK
3. Denis Kearney of the Workingmen's Party in California tried to ban Chinese people from entering the United States because he thought they were taking jobs away from the native-born Americans. He was an important person in the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act law in 1882, which forbade ALL Chinese people from coming into the country except for students, teachers, businessmen, and government people.
That would have sucked to have been Chinese at the time because why did it have to be Chinese only? Weren't there other people taking jobs, too? It's racist, and I hate that crap. Plus, if I could do a better job at a cheaper rate, isn't that what all people want?
4. The Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907-08 was with the United States and Japan due to the racism that was occurring on the west coast at the time. The agreement provided that (1) Japan would severely limit the amount of non-professional Japanese immigrants coming to the U.S., and that the (2) U.S. would de-segregate the schools in which all the Japanese children were placed.