Blizzard Website

http://letitsnow120.webs.com/

Lit Poems

" Freedom Awaits"
Imprisonment
Fearful, Dreadful
Confining, Smothering, Yearning
Frightening, Daunting, Intrepid, Comforting,
Fleeing, Escaping, Awaiting
Unfettered, Prevailing
Freedom.


"Brown"
Black is the color of a young painted boy's skin
Red is streaks of harrowing whips sliced across those who have bled
Brown is coarse, fullfilling pieces
Of shredded bread.

White is the thinly draped sheet that hides a filthy,helpless Jew
Gray is the ashen smoke that swallows Himmel Street
Brown is the rubble
On which a surviving girl cries on in defeat.

Rainbow is the colorful vocabulary in which Mama's love is shown
Blue is the undulating waves that carries a lover to a book upstream;
Brown is the dirt that had once covered two energetic children
who wonder if that happiness had been a dream.

By: Cookiemonster1696

Recently, our unit went to the aquarium and encountered various marine species. There were a vast amount of exhibits that were so fun to look at. One of my favorite exhibits was the penguin exhibit. The penguins actually looked a bit odd from the first glance, but this is because they were African black footed penguins. I was told that they were able to endure the climate of New Jersey unlike the penguins in the antarctic. In addition to seeing penguins, I also saw sea turtles. They were was one that was so huge! The aquarium had many fish such as clown fish that live in anemones. These are the stringy tentacles that are home to all clown fish. The sea anemones can sting any other fish, however clown fish are the only fish that do not get stung by anemones because of the symbiotic relationship they share. In this symbiotic relationship, the clown fish benefits because the anemone provides the fish with a home, and food. Likewise, the anemone also benefits from the presence of the clown fish. So in addition to seeing fish, I also saw sting rays. The aquarium had many different types of sting rays that you had the opportunity to touch. Personally, I found that experience very enjoyable and entertaining. I saw many sharks in the shark tank that hovered above us as we walked through the tunnel and I also ended up seeing something called a shark ray. This fish dieted on mollusks and crustaceans and was also referred to as a Bowmouth Guitarfish. Although it looked like a shark and a ray, it came from a separate category known as Guitar fish. These fish could easily protect themselves against enemies with there rough ridges on the top side of there head. These were very odd looking animals, but still cool to look at. In summary, the field trip to the Camden Aquarium was quite enjoyable and I learned a lot. I loved the playful and absolutely adorable seals that swam all around and we got to see them through the glass when they went underwater. The cutest one though, was the fat one just relaxing on a rock. The aquarium is a great place to go to learn new facts about marine species, and I really don't think anyone is too old for it!

I found my information here

Science Extra Credit

After watching the live camera feed of a mother with her baby owlets and nursing them, I was so intrigued! It really is so beautiful to see nature in this new and creative way.These innovative ways of using technology to observe animals helps students and pretty much everyone anywhere learn about the habitat of an animal and the lifestyle it leads. Animals are very much like people and some find that hard to believe. However in the live camera feed provided of the mother owl and her owlets, one can really see how the mother owl cares for her babies and in the same way, humans care for their babies with just as much concern and love. This should definitely be allowed because the cameras provide insight on the lives of animals, however, we have to make sure that while doing so we do not disturb the lives of the creatures. People put these types of things up because they are just SO interesting and it really is great to share such things with the world. Some people can probably study the animals environments better with these live camera feeds, and this way no one has to disturb the animal's habitat. I looked online to find more links just like it and here are a couple.

Flamingo Cam This is a live camera feed of a flamingo in a zoo going about its daily routine. Sometime the flamingo cannot be seen because it wanders off and since this is a live camera feed there may be times u cannot see the flamingo.

Panda Cam
This live camera feed in of a panda bear that also lives in the same zoo as the flamingo. Likewise, the panda is shown going about it's daily routines. Its so cute!

I think that all three of the live camera feeds are very good links because they all are very informative while not intruding on the animal's life. I really enjoy watching these videos because I love animals and getting to see them like this is really amazing!

Current Event: "Cell Phones aren't making us dumb"

The human brain is an intricate part of our system that manages to store so much information. The brain manages to access these pieces of information at different speeds and stores the information in several different sections. Although, the stronger a memory is is based on how frequently the memory is used and how important the information is. On the other hand, computers are based on an adaptive software and is not affected by memories from the past like humans are. So, the question has arisen that will these fancy gizmos replace our memories? Bill Nye provided enlightenment on this topic and declared that it is good to have such devices to keep complicated pieces of information stored separately and this way space is freed up in in the brain. Bill Nye is basically saying that cell phones are not harmful to us and do not make us dumb, they are useful and allow us to free up space in our brains so we can store different information. I find this information to be comforting because I have heard so often that technology will be the death of us all and we need to rely on our natural abilities instead of fancy cords and buttons. It is good to know that having technology around technically makes it easier on our brains.We can successfully store information in iphones in addition to our brains without getting mixed up and going completely insane trying to remember things. Nevertheless, as humans we shouldn't doubt our brains and we should keep in mind that having technology is indeed helpful, however there are some things that even computers can't do. We must understand that "the quality of a computer memory is only as good as the instruments that are feeding it" while the subconscious aspect of the human brain makes it easier to access information. In conclusion it is imperative that we don't get caught up in the technology era and still utilize our brains, because they can store the information a computer can store just as well and whats the point of having a brain if you're not going to use it?

I found the article here

How Global Warming Relates to math

For the past few weeks I have been immersed in a research task. My, topic for this task was global warming. As i researched, I discovered just how much math and global warming were related. To begin with, scientists observe the earth each day, trying to examine the changes that global warming has inflicted upon the environment. Sea levels are observed and scientists believe that there is a 90 percent chance that sea levels will rise along the coast. In addition it is believed that the sea levels will rise around the world, rising 8.3 inches above the mean sea level because of human induced climate change. As scientists continue to make these calculations, they understand how much of a threat global warming can be to the earth. If the sea levels continue to rise, the oceans will engulf many nations in water, killing so many. Humans continue to ruin the environment with self generated gas emissions that will cause more disasters such as droughts and hurricanes. Inevitably, more people will be left homeless forcing more and more money will have to be contributed in order to pay and restore the losses. Many graphs were shown to provide people with insight on how global warming may continue to affect us, with line graphs displaying the increase of greenhouse gases and increase in sea levels. Over all, math and global warming are connected in many ways, and without math scientists would never have been able to comprehend just how much global warming was affecting us.

Class Response: Cnidarians and Sponges

In science class we have been learning about sponges and cnidarians. During this time, I learned quite a lot. To begin with, both cnidarians and sponges reproduce both asexually and sexually. Budding in how the two animals both reproduce asexually, which is when an organism duplicates itself. Sponges and cnidarians have two different cell types that allow them to trap food. Sponges have collar cells and cnidarians have stinging cells. The stinging cells paralyze a cnidarians prey, thus allowing them to eat they prey as their food source. Sponges and cnidarians aslo have two distinct body structures. Cnidarians have radial symmetry, tentacles with stinging cells and two basic body forms:vase shaped and bowl shaped Medusa. Sponges on the other hand, are like hollow bags with pores. They are invertebrate animals with spikes for defense. Based on all of this information I have gained, I ended up feeling satisfied with knowing so much about sponges and cnidarians. This was an interesting topic to learn about, and surprising to see that the 2 animals reproduce the same way. I don't think I can watch "Spongebob" again without remembering all of the facts I learned in class!