NMY Math Science

Reebop babies are here!
Coming off our study of the human development and sexuality, the seventh graders have jumped right into genetics. A pair of Reebops creatures, caught in the “wild,” were used to help the class see up close and personal the impact of DNA and how genes are expressed.  The class was given the genetic information for each of the parents, and they chose the genotypes for each characteristic. They gave “birth” to a new generation of 14 reebops. We will be studying them and looking for patterns and trends amongst the different phenotypes, and exploring the implications of genetic traits.

If you get a chance to stop by the studio, you should visit with the newest members of NMY7!

Do you know more about science and technology than the average American?

Take this 13-questions quiz to see how you stack up….only 7% of participants answered all 13 questions correctly.

Since we are talking about human body systems, I thought this would be appropriate and a great review. Enjoy!

thekidshouldseethis:

The digestive system! What happens to your food while you’re chewing it, when you swallow it, when it’s in your stomach? How does all of the digested nutrients travel around your body? (Hint.) And where does it go after that??? (Hint.)

Green Team

I feel fortunate to work with the Green Team at TCS. They are passionate and action-oriented group of students who are eager to make change on campus and in the world. This year, we have record number of students participating. The Green Team had to divide up the team into focus groups so that we could maximize our energy and our efforts.  The four groups are: oceans and sea life group, compost group, litter group, and the trees and plants group. Each group set goals and have made a contribution to the school and greater community.

Pictured above is the trees and plants group. They are hard at work to create signage for many of the wonderful trees and plants around campus. They identified the trees/plants and areas they wanted to create signage for, designed the signs, cut the wood, painted the signs, and are putting the signs together. Be on the look out for their handiwork around campus.

I am inspired by their commitment and passion for the environment and their community.  Thank you, Green Team!

Carbon cycle videos

The Class of 2015 just completed their study of the carbon cycle. Each group had to produce a video to demonstrate their understanding of the carbon cycle, knowledge of the vocabulary associated with the cycle, and the reason greenhouse gases are increasing in the Earth’s atmosphere.

You can check out the rest of the videos below:

Fox 5 - Carbon Cycle

The Carbon Cycle with K & C

Carbon Cycle

Carbon Cycle - Substitute teacher

We are not studying physics this year, but I had to share this cool video. 

There is something about how the iPhone captures images, that allows us to see the oscillations of the guitar strings. You can see how the different frequencies produce different pitches.

Guitar Oscillations Captured with iPhone 4 (by Kyle Jones)

jtotheizzoe:

Using nothing but soap and a macro lens, Janet Waters photographs mesmerizing patterns on colored backdrops.

But she hasn’t stopped there, she’s using her Flickr to create a “visual library” for all of her University students. Packed with experimental photo projects galore, her stream is well worth a look. 

Macro Photography Series of Colorful Bubbles and Foam

via Zeutch 

Bubbles are funny things. And they do especially funny things in threes.

When they roll solo, their natural tendency is to form a sphere. But it turns out that when bubbles are squished together, they prefer to be in trios. When three bubbles come together, they are snug as bugs in rugs.

Take a 360˚ round bubble and divide it into threes. What do you get? You get three 120˚ angles. Now look at those pictures up there again …

Most of those intersections are pretty close to 120˚!! Check out this image from Robert Krulwich:

(Source: photojojo)

As we, the sixth grade, watched the Inconvenient Truth last week, we saw several graphs that showed temperature change over time. I found this neat website that has taken that concept one step further. You can move the marker anywhere in the world, a city, an island, a portion of an ocean or sea, and it will graph the temperature change over at least the last 5 years, sometimes even more.

Pretty cool.

Thanks to RadioLab’s Robert Krulwich for bringing this to my attention.

jtotheizzoe:

You are my density.

(via Steve Spangler)

tcsfilm:

January 10 - Field Trip to Grocery Store

I enjoyed this time out and about with the seventh grade and learning more about your incredible experiment.  Thanks for inviting me to be a part of this.  Lighting in grocery stores? Not too flattering (directly overhead, florescent and slightly green).

Thank you Laure for joining us on our excursion. The seventh grade are researching and answering the question, “Is California minimum wage a living wage?” The shopping trip was to calculate their grocery and toiletry needs for the year. They had to find an apartment, calculate other expenses such as cell phone and internet. It has been an eye-opening experience!