Forces + motion KWL

   I know a little about forces, the only thing is gravity I know about. Gravity is the force that makes things rise and fall. Some examples of gravity are people, if there wasn't gravity we would not be able to return to the ground when jump. Another example where gravity is kind of mean, when we drop things on accident that drop to the ground and breaks, and when that happens parents yell at us. It would be more peace on this world if gravity would keep these objects in the air and we could put hem back on place.
    Motion is the way things move. Sometimes motion can go crazy, and we get dizzy. For example on some crazy rides we get sick of the speed and the direction the ride is taking us. But, motion is important for the world because if it wouldn't exist nothing would be able to move.
      

Things that I want to learn is mostly related to forces.
1: Without gravity would we excist?
2: What are other forces?
3: Is punching a force?
I have only one question about motion
Is motion controlling space too?

How valuable is a rock reflection

   During this unit we learned mostly about minerals. This is related to our unit question because minerals are a type of rock. This topic fits in our area of interaction because minerals are being mined in mines, and they are on the Earth's crust. For this unit I mostly understood everything. I think that because when we did projects and labs I understood everything that was asked.  I would like to know more about a topic we did only a bit and that is the rock cycle.
   Throughout this unit I think I did well. I think that, because all my assignments I did with lots of effort. The only thing I could improve is to add details to my Mighty Minerals for giving the properties of my chosen mineral. In this unit we did activities which I found interesting. The only new thing which I learned to do is making GoAnimate and Bubbl.us.
    For me the Mighty Minerals project was amusing because it's exciting learning everything about a certain mineral. The least favorite activity for me was when we had to answer all different questions while our teacher Mrs. Medenica was absent.
       If I could add something for the next year's 6 graders it would be maybe a movie about the minerals.  

Reflection on Debate

          SCIENCE

• Magnesium, salt, copper, nickel, titanium, tin and iron ore.
• They are used to make crude oil and very rare.
• The countries closest to the oceans and the countries that have the biggest needs. The countries closest to the minerals should export them to countries in need if those countries are far away from the ocean.
• That in mining in the ocean they use oil and so they pollute the ocean and kill marine life. Also when fish get diseases they might be caught by people and then eaten, so the diseases might get on land.
• Mostly the neighbouring countries of the ocean
• They have the rights to mine in the ocean but only with permission of the leaders.
• Elena does because we need them for a daily life. Stefan does because we need them and are beautiful. Sofia does not agree because we are polluting the ocean and can get some of the minerals not out of the ocean. `Sofia believes that just because there are places in the world that are not polluted doesn't mean we have to pollute them.

We think that people should use less pollutable materials when extracting minerals from the ocean. Try to cover up the holes they dug and be a lot more careful when extracting the minerals.

During this debate, I found out what I already have written on the blog post about Who Owns the ocean's minerals. Our group didn't have many disagreements or conflicts. We discussed calmly our opinions on questions.  In my group I was the discussion director, Elena was the writer and the reporter and Sofia was the time keeper. Although, we all discussed our opinions.   

Who Owns the World's Oceans

WHO OWNS THE WORLD'S OCEANS AND ITS RESOURCES?



There are many resources which are not renewable and which we are going to spent completely and be left without them. So, there is a constant effort to find new sources. The scientists found out that the bottom of oceans are rich with useful deposits of minerals, oil, gas and other resources that humans need in their everyday life. This is how the exploitation of under-ocean wealth started.


However, who owns the oceans and their resources? The international law says that coastal countries, which have borders with oceans, have the right to exploit everything from the ocean 12 miles from their coast. In some cases, these countries have the right to use resources from the continental shelf which stretches from their territory under the ocean. However, this is only a narrow part of the ocean floor. What about the huge; mid-ocean floor which does not belong to any country's territory? The law says that the oceans belong to everybody and that we can all take benefit from them, if we are able to do that and if we know how to do it.



The problem is that mining minerals from the ocean's floor is very complicated and it requires new, expensive technologies which most of the countries can not afford and don't have. This means that only the richest and the most developed countries can get to the ocean's resources and use the ocean's minerals, oil and gas. This is not right, because everybody should have the right to use them. Undeveloped, poor countries would like to use part of these resources, as well, and they say that the rich countries should share this ocean's wealth with them! Of course, wealthy countries which invest  lot of money in these projects don't see why should they share the profit, if they did all the work and spent all the money. This is a big international problem these days.




I think that I have an idea how to solve this dispute. I think that United Nations, as independent organization of all the countries should be in charge of all the Ocean's floor mining and exploitation. Each country would invest as much as it can and in this way a lot of money would be collected. All that money would be given to one, independent UN company which would develop necessary technology and which would be the only one to mine the ocean floor. Everything which would be collected from the Ocean's floor would be distributed evenly to all the countries of the World. This seems fair to me and I hope that the World will be able to agree how to use the Ocean's resources.

Mining in my home country

   My home country is Serbia, and it's not very rich in mining, It has only two mines,Rudna Glava and Senjski Rudnik.  Rudna Glava ( ore head) is located in eastern part of Serbia.  It is one of the first evidence of European copper mining.  It belongs to Vinca culture, which was an ancient culture.
 Senjski Rudnik is a village which has a mine in it. It is a coal mine which was established in 1853. In 2010, it turned into an open-air museum.
     The most mined mineral in Serbia is Bentonite, it is a type of clay, and it has many uses such as for making sculptures. We mine it with ashes, or a special machine for digging.
     Another popular mineral that is mined in Serbia is copper ore. It is a popular in the whole world. In Serbia, the miners mine it with with a large machine in a shape of a capsule.
       
      
     

Mineral lab report

TITLE: Mineral density lab

I. GUIDING QUESTION/S Does the density of a mineral depend on the size of the mineral sample?

II.HYPOTHESIS Yes. Because, the bigger the mineral it’s more dense.

III. Materials : Water, graduated cylinder, botic mica, sulfur, crystalline quartz, balance scale.
      Procedure:
     1: We pick different minerals.
     2: We fill the graduated cylinder with water
     3: We measure each mineral with the balance scale and measure
     4. We put each mineral in the water and observe how much the water rises.


IV. RECORD & ANALYZE ( We observe carefully and write down, or record, everything that happens.)
When we finish collecting data, we may need to do some calculations with it.)

Table of collected data:

Line Graph of collected  data:

V ANALYZES OF DATA  :
Most minerals have different density. Only the crystalline quartzes 1 and 2, both, had the same density. However, density of minerals does not depend on the mass and volume of the samples. For example, our smallest sample was mica 2, but it has the highest density. On the other hand, our biggest sample was of sulfur 2 which was the least dense.

VI. Concept Acquisition (CONCLUSION):
My hypothesis that "the bigger the mineral, the more dense mineral " was wrong. We used different sizes of samples, but their density does not depend of their size. I was rather surprised by the results of this lab.

VII. Concept Application (FURTHER INQUIRY):

• Since I was surprised by the results, I would like to know what makes one mineral dense and the other less dense. I assume that it has to do something with the chemical composition of each mineral. 
• I think that the lab went well. My cooperation with the partner was good and we worked together well. The only error is that the final work was finished  kind of late.

Crystal garden

At the end of January we got an assignment to make a crystal garden. First step was to decide how would we like our garden to look like, what type of the garden we prefer and  to make design and a model of our garden.

I decided to make a Japanese garden because I like how colorful they are, they always have a lot of water, ponds or streams and they usually have some small temples or shrines.

To make my Japanese garden, I used the following material:

• big cardboard shoe box
• a piece of green carpet for the grass
• broken ceramic tiles for the rocks and path
• small glass dishes for ponds
• glass tube to make a small river
• wooden sticks to make a shrine
• sponge to make trees
• plastic toy elements to make a bridge and bushes
• a pink cloth to make a water flower
• some artificial decorating flowers to make bamboo trees
• plastic cups as holders for my trees

It was fun creating the garden and I really liked how it looked. I hoped that the crystals will grow nicely and that my Japanese garden will be even nicer with them.

I also drew a map of my garden with the legend and I marked the spots where the crystal solutions will be applied.

When we brought our gardens to school, our teacher  prepared different kinds of solutions for crystals, and  we poured the solutions to the spots in our gardens where we wanted the crystals to grow. While we were doing this, I was not sure how much solution should I put and I was quite afraid that I may use too much and spill the solutions. I thought that the best place to put the solutions would be the sponge trees, because I hoped that the sponge will be easily soaked, that the solution will go through whole sponge trees and that the crystals will grow all over them.  My idea was that less dense material will grow crystals better because the solution will penetrate them  quickly. However, I decided to put some of the solutions in my glass ponds also, especially the one with the golden fish and the water flower.

So, I put salt solution on two spots, one with the sponge tree and the other in  the cup with cloth bamboo trees.

Borax solution went in the glass pond with the water flower.

The sugar solution I poured into the cup with the other sponge tree.

It was Friday when I poured solutions and I could not wait till Monday, to see if the crystals started growing. However, unfortunately, I got sick and had to stay at home for two long weeks. I was so sad that I could not observe my crystal garden and the growth of the crystals. Thus, I was not able to take care of them or maybe to pour some more solutions, if the growth was not progressing. From time to time, I asked my teacher Mrs. Medenica or some of my friends to take a look at my garden and to let me know what is happening.  They told me that the crystals have appeared, especially those of the salt solution.

At home, I imagined how beautiful my garden might look. I imagined that all the trees and bushes are full of  shiny crystals of different colors. Finally, after the two weeks, I was able to see my Japanese crystal garden. And to be honest, I was rather surprised.

 

It’s nice, but it doesn’t look as I hoped it will. The crystals are there, but they are not too big and do not cover whole surface of the trees and ponds.

It is obvious that the salt solution was the most efficient and the salt crystals are the biggest.  It is surprising that the crystals have formed at the bottom of the trees and around the glass and plastic holders much better that on the sponge and cloth trees. This is completely opposite to what I expected. It seems that my idea with the sponge was not so good. The crystals have grown in the little holes within the sponge and are not very visible on the outer surface. But they made the sponge  become very hard.  The solid holders made of glass and plastic, have been actually much better place for the crystals to grow. I like very much the salt crystals which were formed on the glass dish. It is totally covered with pinkish salt crystals. The crystal particles are very tiny, but there’s million of them. The same case is with the plastic holder where I put cloth bamboo trees. The trees don’t have crystals, but at their bottom, there are white salt crystals, which look like the snow covered the ground. That’s also nice.

 
 

The glass pond with the water flower, in which I put the borax solution, looks very nice, but not because there is a lot of borax crystals, but because the crystals are of a beautiful blue color and they also caused the flower to change its color from pink into many different shades of blue and violet. The solution made the cloth flower stiff and hard. The borax crystals can be seen on the walls of the glass dish which I used as a pond. But there are only few of the crystals, which is a pity, because if there were more of these beautiful blue crystals, it would have looked exactly like a clean, deep water in the pond. I like these borax crystals the most, because their particles are larger  and they are also shiny.

The least successful part of my crystal garden is the sponge tree where I poured sugar solution.  It is probably again because of the wrong choice of the material I used for the tree. Sponge soaked all the solution and crystals grew only at the bottom of the tree.  Only few of the crystals managed to form in the upper part of the tree. I think that these sugar crystals would have been also nice, if it were more of them. They are also shiny and have nice, green color.

Well, what should  I conclude about this project? First of all, I enjoyed doing it and this is why I am surprised that it did not turn out to be more successful. I hoped that the crystals will be bigger and better distributed. There are several possible reasons for this.

·        choice of materials I used

·        not enough solutions put on the spots where I wanted the crystals to grow

·        my absence during their growth, so I was not able to add more solutions

However, I still like my crystal garden and I am happy that at least some of the crystals were formed.