Knowledge Gained from Reading CK-12 Chapter 12

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After reading the CK-12 Chapter 12 sections 12:3, 12:5, 12:7, 12:11, and 12:13, I acquired a vast amount of new knowledge about Earth’s history. I had a little background knowledge on fossilization, but the articles made me realize that the best fossils are the ones you can extract DNA from, a kind of “blueprint” for life. It encodes everything, from traits to appearance, in the form of proteins, extremely beneficial to scientists for learning more about the planet’s past. Also, there were two types of fossilization, trace fossils and body fossils. Trace fossils are not fossils of an organism itself, but of the traces it left, like footprints or nests or eggs. Body fossils depict the actual body of an organism. Fossils are also the best clues to life on Earth before humans and dinosaurs, and index fossils helps determine the age of rocks.

Speaking of the age of rocks, the chapter also led me to contact an area I had not heard of before: relative dating. In early geology, geologists had no method of determining the exact age of geologic material. Thus, a principle called Stero’s principle allowed the relative ages of the rocks to be found, stating that older rock layers lie underneath newer ones. If we know the relative ages of 2 rock layers, we know if one is older and one is younger, but we do not know how old they are in years.

The age of rocks is also interrelated with the geologic time scale, which divides the whopping 4.6 billion year history of the Earth into smaller sections. From largest to smallest: Eons, eras, Periods, and Enochs. Divisions in Earth’s history are all recorded on this scale, and they usually signalled major events in life. For example, the end of the Cretaceous period marked the extinction of the dinosaurs. European geologists were the first to put together the geologic time scale. The Jurrasic period was named after the Jura mountains in France and Switzerland, to prove that point.

The act of putting together events in order requires the correlation of rock layers, or the relative age of rocks as mentioned previously. Early geologic time scales only depicted the order of the events, but the discovery of radioactivity allowed scientists to conduct radiometric dating and carbon dating to produce the age of rocks in years. Thus, dates were assigned to time scale divisions.

The geoligic time scale starts at the formation of the Earth, which was formed 4,600 million (or 4.6 billion) years ago and shares the same age as the rest of the solar system. The age was figured out by radiometric dating. The formation of the Earth occurred when materials at similar distances orbiting the new star, the sun, collided with each other. The collisions resulted in a large mass that increased drastically in temperature due to the increasing number of collisions, and rock and metal melted into layers. Gravity caused the denser materials to get pulled to the center, while the lighter ones rose up to the surface. This explains the composition of the inside of the Earth today: The inner and outer core is made of metal and iron, dense materials, while the mantle is made of rock and the crust is made of light materials like soil, aluminum, and other minerals low in density.

The formation of the moon is different than the formation of the Earth. During the early stages in the solar system, space debris was abundant, and an asteroid the size of Mars collided with the Earth. The impact melted most of the Earth along with the entire asteroid and the materials were sent into orbit. Over time, the materials collided with each other and formed the moon, which occured 70 million years after the Earth was formed.

This was all the new information that I gathered from reading CK-12 Chapter 12.

Champion! Project Reflection

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The Champion! Project has now come to a close, and the days of creating visuals, practicing speeches, and making presentations for a famous person end as well. However, the lingering experiences are mostly enjoyable, with the most prominent one the Gallery Presentation on March 9. It was an opportunity to show an audience all that I had learned about my famous person, and further deepen my understanding to a group of people. The Gallery presentation was a largely beneficial and memorable experience for me. Learning was another major component of the Champion! unit, and effective learning aids differed among my classmates. Personally, I believe that the act of creating visuals such as timelines, Facebook profiles and maps were the best of the tools for understanding my person and teaching skills to me. Critical thinking was a major assessment category in all of these visual’s rubrics, stimulating us to think thoughtfully. The visuals were also an opportunity to exercise our creativity, thus the “communication” section of our rubric. The act of creating visuals were the best learning tools I encountered in the project.

I had met many challenges throughout the course of the Champion’s project, and some of them had been extremely intimidating. First of all, acquiring all the information needed to complete journal entries, a nomination letter, a free choice, and countless other pieces was painstaking. There was a plethora of sources to choose from, and not all of them were reliable. Thus, I spent many hours cruising the internet, trying to gather necessary information. Also, acquiring a costume for the press conference and Gallery presentation was also challenging, as the attire available in stores required mixing and matching or was not available in my size. Finally, the preparation for the press conference required a lot of time devoted to practicing ALL questions, and not knowing which questions you will be asked. These challenges were all intimidating for me, but I overcame them.

If given the opportunity to complete this project again, I will remove the nomination letter and replace it with another free choice, as this could stimulate a greater amount of critical thinking, along with creativity. The teachers should also incorporate a higher standard for free choices, along with a greater selection of potential end products. This project taught four key concepts: creativity, collaboration, compassion, and resilience. These skills are greatly beneficial to an individual, and this project reinforced these concepts. We learned about a character who possessed at least a few of these traits, and I, and I’m sure I’m not the only one, acquired inspiration from these individuals. The necessity to not back down in the face of failure, the necessity to express compassion to others around you, the creativity required to become an innovator, and the ability to work well with a group of people to develop an outstanding end product. The Champion! project taught me to possess these four core values, an extremely beneficial experience.

Milton Hershey Champion Person Project

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This is a project about Milton Snavely Hershey, the creator of the famous Hershey’s Chocolate Company. This project focuses on four properties present within him: resilience, compassion, creativity, and collaboration. When Hershey first contacted the business world, his first two business failed miserably, losing the trust of both banks and relatives financially. However, Hershey scraped up enough cash by himself to start his first successful company: The Lancaster Caramel Company. Also, Hershey’s compassion toward his employees led to the construction of a town called Hershey, Pennsylvania, which included houses for Hershey’s employees to live in. Furthermore, it also had parks, recreational facilities, and even a sports stadium, along with a trolley system for transportation. Similarly, the blueprints for the various buildings and factories were drawn by none other than Milton Hershey himself, showing great amounts of creativity. Finally, countless treats were developed through Milton Hershey conferring with candy experts, treats such as the world-famous Hershey Kiss and Milk Chocolate with almonds treat. Milton Hershey possesses all four core values this project focuses on.

 

 

 

Free Choice Video Link:

 

 

  Posted in LA SS

Mid-Unit Reflection

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Currently, I think I have mastered the consequences and challenges of a growing population, due to my studying of the textbook. I also gained knowledge about numerous population control methods, such as educating women, the one-child policy of China, and the providing of cleaner resources. For this unit, I am aiming once again at the Neil Armstrong badge, as I did last unit.To achieve this, I will finish all homework on time and be thoroughly prepared for each class. I will also study hard to master the content for use on the summative.

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Furthermore, I will seek assistance when I have a question, and ask clarifying questions when I don’t understand instructions. My goal for this unit was to “turn in all work on time”. I am currently living up to it, as I have completed all assignments and turned it in in the best quality that I can manage. I am also getting help when I require it to ensure that there are no mistakes due to misunderstanding instructions on my assignments.

Last week for parent conferences, Mr. Pierce told my parents that a response I wrote in the previous unit went “above and beyond expectations.” He informed us on how I was performing in class, and asked that I continue to maintain my work habits. He also illustrated how I should control my energy during class games, as I sometimes get overexcited. Overall, the parent conferences went smoothly and I learned what to improve and maintain.

My TCI textbook for this unit:

http://student.teachtci.com/shared/home

Hong Kong Protests

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Early in September, thousands of Hong Kong civilians occupied key streets in the Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok, and Central districts of Hong Kong as part of the protest movement for democracy. They demanded that they expose their own candidate for the 2017 elections instead of Beijing-appointed ones. C.Y Leung, the current Hong Kong governor, has been demanded to step down from his post. Recently, these protests grew violent in several occasions as protesters clashed with riot police armed with tear gas and pepper spray on the second night of the protest, and opposers of the protest in Mong Kok on the seventh and eighth days.

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Police holding back protesters on October 2                  One of the violent clashes in Mong Kok

The protest has long lost its reputation as a “great movement” among the residents. They claim that they are “obstructing daily life” and that they “have to leave.” These demands should be heeded, as the protesters have caused congestions and traffic inconveniences all over Hong Kong Island. Last Sunday, a group of 30 frustrated taxi drivers, along with 10 members of Hong Kong’s intricate bus system created a rebellion of its own against the protesters. Although they ultimately failed, this has inspired similar movements all over Hong Kong. These protesters should leave, since they have already made a very strong point and have caused inconveniences to nearly all of Hong Kong Island.

 

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Night falls over the protest in Wan Chai     Yellow ribbons were tied to the fences of government buildings

 

Some points I am confused about is that the police used force on the protesters on the second night of the protest, but only watched the violence unfold in Mong Kok. Why would the police do that? Also, China has around 6,000 troops in Hong Kong. Why aren’t they doing anything to stop the protests? I plan to find the answer to these questions by interviewing my parents and neighbours and conducting more research on the Internet. I also want to obtain more knowledge on how this movement got started and who is leading it currently. This I will also accomplish through conducting research on the Internet.

Links:

Talks scheduled as crowds shrink and frustration rise (CNN)

C.Y Leung urges protesters to leave (BBC)

Unit 1 Reflection

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In Unit 1 in Mr. Pierce’s Social Studies class, I obtained a lot of information involving maps and geography. I learned the basic composition of maps, and also gathered information about physical features of the planet we live on. I also had a chance to express opinions and research the answer. In a particular question in the survey about the activities, I said that the activities were fun and effective. The games such as charades and taboo let me understand the key terms while I was having lots of fun.

After the summative assessment, I was awarded the Neil Armstrong badge, which meant that a went “above and beyond” the expectations and had great work habits.

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I agree with this award, because after the stunning and disappointing grade in the formative assessment I studied hard. I also attended an after-school study session to practice my skills and have my questions answered. I also kept turning in homework on time and was well-organised.

A failure in teaching tactics was the note packets on TCI Chapters 1 and 2. These were a major distraction from reading the textbook, and enforces too oppressive guidelines for taking notes. I would rather take notes by myself than complete packets by a deadline. A successful teaching tactic was the different activities that Mr. Pierce comes up with. Mentioned earlier, they have a significant positive impact on my understanding of key terms and definitions.

A goal for the upcoming unit (The Challenges of a Growing Population) will be to turn in all work on time, unlike the small mishap in a group activity. I will continue to strive to achieve exceeding expectation on my future tests and work. Unit 1 benefited me greatly, from improving my study schedules to enforcing my work habits.

My Internet Textbook:

http://student.teachtci.com/shared/home