Quarter 4

Over the course of the year, I have learned a great, great many things in science. I have learned what atoms are and the bonds that they can make. I have learned about solutions and chemical reactions. I have learned about the mammalian eye. I have learned about the brain and the nervous system and I am without a doubt that I have learned much more only I cannot recall them.

We learned about the structure of atoms and the 112 elements. These elements are the basic building blocks of all matter in the universe. All elements naturally exist as one atom, though there are some exceptions for the element oxygen, exists naturally only as two atoms together. The atoms are made up of the neutrons, the protons an the electrons. The neutrons and the protons make the center of the atom which is called the nucleus. The nucleus is the biggest part of the atom and contains most of the mass of the whole atom. The electrons travel around the nucleus in unimaginable speeds and they travel in a scattered formation. The neutrons contain a neutral charge while the protons contain a positive charge whereas the electrons contain a negative charge.
Along with the structures of atoms, we learned that atoms are able to bond woth one another using ionic bonds, covalent bonds and metallic bonds.

In the next few quarters we learned about the neurons and the structures of the eye. We learned about the brain and it's cerebrum which contains the four lobes, the cerebellum, which is under the cerebrum and the brainstem which comes out of the brain to form the spinal cord. If you were to damage the spinal cord towards the top, everything from above will be paralyzed, if you were to damage the spinal cord from below, everything from below would be paralyzed and so on. We also learned about the neurons in the human body which carry and transport electro-chemical messages from the PNS to the CNS.

During this year, I have learned thousands of things in science and I feel confident that I shall not forget them because I know that we are going to be using every bit of this knowledge in high school, college and in our future. I feel that My understanding of science and it's branches have enhanced their abilities to the point where I start to find it amusing that there was once a time that I knew nothing about the neurons or the atoms. The SMYLE Journal have also allowed my curiosity to flourish because I am able to research about the different things in this world and there is a driving force behind me: my grades. I have done very well and I am almost at the end of my goal of enhancing my knowledge of science but I also know that that goal is almost impossible to reach because there is so much to learn. That is the reason I strive to accomplish this goal.

Quarter 3

The activity that I will be doing this quarter 3 reflection on for science is going to be the Friendship Walk and Helen Keller. The friendship walk was an activity that we did in class that provided us with an insight on what being blind and having no eye sight would be like. We would partner up and one of the pair would put on blindfolds that would cover there eyes, the other person would help guide the blindfolded person outside the classroom without touching them. After completing this, they then would switch roles and do the same thing, only they would go back inside the classroom. Helen Keller is a girl that, when she was young, had a strange fever that had left her blind and deaf. When she lost these two key senses she started to wonder why she was different because when she would feel her parents' faces, they would be vibrating. Soon a teacher of hers taught her many things that soon made her succeed in life.

I think that the purpose of the friendship walk was for us to develop a new understanding on what it would be like to be unable to see. This not only provided us with a new understanding, but it also provided us with a real "hands-on" experience on what its really like to be blind like that. The purpose of learning about Helen Keller is, I think, to understand more about her life and what she and her amazing teacher, Anne Sullivan who has guided her through her life, teaching her how to spell, read and write brail, resulting in Helen getting honors.

I have learned many things from these two activities. From the friendship walk I have learned that your eye sight is one of the greatest and most useful organs in your body. I learned this because when I had my blindfolds on, I felt like I was in an endless void. I didn't what were going on around me and I didn't know what was around me. I had no way of knowing whether there's a wall in front of me or when its just open road. The only thing that I had to guide me, was my partner's voice. Only without my eye sight I had felt like I was lost and alone in this vast world, now I wonder what it would have been like for Helen Keller when she not only lost her eye sight, but she also lost her ability to hear. When Helen Keller came down with the fever that had soon changed her whole life, she had no idea about what being able to see or hear was like because she was very young. However, she still had a hard time during her early life because her parents would be talking while she would be feeling there neck to get an idea of what they look like, but when she feels these strange new vibrations, she starts to realize that she is different from all the others. Sometimes this would lead her to her screaming and shouting while the parents just didn't know what to do or how to go about doing it. When Anne Sullivan, her teacher, finally came to the rescue of the parents, she started to hold objects in one hand and spell the letters out for her in the other hand. After a long time, Helen started to realize that the words that were being spelled in one hand meant the object in her other and so she started to learn the names of all the objects, people and everything from then on. Using that method, she went to high school and also graduated college with honors. She learned to read and write brail, which is like the writing language for the blind, and Helen wrote many books on being blind and deaf.

There is not much that I could have changed differently in my learning about Helen Keller, since we had learned from the book and had not yet seen the movie, but there is one little thing that I could have changed during the friendship walk. I could have talked more clearly when I was guiding my partner outside of the classroom because he was getting agitated about not hearing my voice when I was telling him if there was anything in front of him. At first I didn't realize how this would agitate him but then when it was my turn to become blind, I started to not hear him because of the noise around us as other partners did the same thing. This really worried me because I had felt lost in an endless void with no return at that point.

My goal in science this year is to enhance my understanding of science. These two activities have helped my so much in getting closer to achieving this goal since they have provided me with a "hands-on" experience as I have said before. This helped to learn better what it is like to be blind. Also, I understood a little better how the mind works without the use of eye sight and the emotions that you start to feel which has helped me greatly when it came to relating my experiences to what happened to Helen Keller.

Quarter 2

The Things that I have Learned during the Experimental Process:

• I have learned that the qualitative value is simply saying the change in words, not with numbers or statistics, for example: The plant has grown faster with sunlight than the plant that has no sunlight.
• I have learned that the quantitative value uses numbers and statistics for example: The plant has grown 7 cm in 2 months with sunlight and the plant with no sunlight has only grown 2 cm in 2 months. Using quantitative experiments, you can compare the results with more accuracy and you can prove it with better evidence.
• I have learned that the hypothesis is the statement or prediction you make before you conduct the experiment. In the hypothesis, you would write it in the form: If ....... then ........ because. This form of writing the hypothesis explains what you're independent variable is, what your dependent variable is and the reason why it will be affected or how. After the 'if' is the independent variable, then after the 'then' is the dependent variable, and after the 'because' is the reason for its change.
• The independent variable is what the scientist conducting the experiment changes. There is always one independent variable in the experiment. When you change the independent variable, the dependent variable is affected forming a sort of 'Cause and Effect' situation where the cause is the independent variable.
• The dependent variable is the variable that gets affected when changing the independent variable. The dependent variable is what you measure in an experiment and the results that you record. When you change the independent variable, the dependent variable is affected forming a 'Cause and Effect' situation where the effect is the dependent variable.
• Constants are the part of the experiment that must stay the same and never change, for example: The constants to see how much the plant grows in the sunlight would be the amount of sunlight, time with sunlight, environment, amount of water, type of plant, height of plant at beginning, type of soil etc. The constants never change.
• The experimental group is identifying the independent variable, for example: The plant in dark soil with 12 hours of sunlight. It also identifies some of the constants around the independent variable like the soil in this case and the 12 hours.
• The control group is what you do not affect with the independent variable and you use it to compare the results of the experimental groups with, for example: The plant in dark soil with no sunlight. You would compare the results of the experimental group and the control group where the control group is the stable one and you are seeing what will happen if I add this or take that away etc.
• The conclusion is where you explain your results of the experiment and state if your hypothesis was correct of it was not correct. You would then add why the dependent variable was affected in this way and summarize the experiment. You would also provide the proof if you are using a quantitative experiment by showing the numbers and statistics on what happened to further prove that your hypothesis was correct or not.
• The procedure is where you list step by step what you do to conduct the experiment. In the first sentence of each step there is a verb like put, take, give and so on ... It tells you how to do and what to do to achieve the experiment therefore making it repeatable by other scientists who want to perform the same experiment.
• During the experiment, you record the results as observations and observe what is happening in the experiment. When you observe, you see all the things that are going on like the change in the appearance or the change in size etc. You also record what is happening to the dependent variable and observing it.
• The operational definition is where you decide if you are going to measure the results in a qualitative manner or in a quantitative manner. If you are using quantitative then you would say what the dependent variable is and how you are going to measure it (cm, ml, kg etc.).

Quarter 1

It feels really good to give and help people in need. Doing the bake sale was not only fun but it was the right thing to do, the people in need really need help and we may have just given them homes, food, shelters, and other things needed to survive. No matter by how much you help them, I feel and believe that you will always get 10 times as much as you have helped and given to the ones in need. Since this flood, 14 million are now homeless and have lost there jobs. Shop owners who have devoted their whole life to their shop and the generations before them have devoted theirs too, are now destroyed because of the flood. I've learned that cooperating with others can help millions and most important to me, myself. I've also learned that we can do anything as a team and help anyone, even if they are half way across the world.

I've learned baking is a chemical reaction and that cotton candy contracts in heat. I also learnt that knowing how to do mental math really fast is a really useful skill and you can use it where ever you are, for example: 10 - 4 = 6 sr.