Dear Crazy 8 Class of 2015,

I want to thank you for a great school year. Can you believe it's over? We just got done with our Minute-to-Win-It Contest, and soon we will be eating pizza, watching the slideshow, and signing yearbooks. Time goes faster than you think it will.
Last night I was reading your responses in the Google Form you filled out to end the year. It was great. Many of you had such a unique, honest take on what our class has been. It was overwhelmingly positive, and that made me feel good. It also reaffirmed my belief that you all have a voice that should be heard frequently, and that our science blog is a place for it. You are all invited back to the blog (and this school) anytime. It was, and is, yours.

Hopefully you're looking forward, at least in some degree, to the summer break. It won't be long at all until you complete your transition to high school. You will face many challenges there. Please meet those challenges with all you've got. That is what it takes. My belief that "Hard work cannot be replaced mere talent/ability" is strengthened by everything I read about research on learning and success. So much of what you can and will accomplish depends on this GRIT factor. The amazing things that all of you can do will be awesome to see. I will be there as your fan, whether that is in the classroom, court, field, or concert hall.

Sincerely,
Mr. Hoegh

End-of-the-Year Essay and Form

The essay: Choose one activity from this year and identify the steps of the scientific method that were included in the activity. Be sure to include an activity that involved all of the steps.
Answer this in a comment, and you won't have to complete the same science essay tomorrow.

Check out a couple more things while you're on the blog while you're here. The results of the GPS Contest are posted below. Also, sign in to Classmarker to see some feedback from your severe weather project.

GPS Contest 2011

That was pretty fun wasn't it? I enjoyed watching each team in action on Monday. The weather was awesome, which was a contrast from last year. So many of the groups did very well, and every one of the film canisters was found...... eventually. Here are the results from the 2011 GPS Contest: GPS Final Standings 2011
Period 3: Team "GAH" was victorious by a huge margin. What a dominant performance.
Period 4: Team "Monkey" wins by two points over the PowderPuff Girls. It turned out that this team needed to sprint back from a half mile away to prevent a more costly late penalty.
Period 6: Team "The Floor" takes down the rest, beating Team "Global Gym Purple Cobras" by one point.
Period 8: Team "Geocachers" and Team "BCC" tie for the lead in points. I've never seen a closer battle, as 5 of the 8 teams were within three points of winning it all.
Feel free to leave comments that you have about the GPS contest. How was your experience? Were there any waypoints that you just couldn't seem to find? What was the best strategy? If you had to do the contest again, what would you change?

Severe Weather Form and Q4 Review

We will take the Quarter 4 Post-test next Tuesday. The rest of today will be reviewing for it. Here are some ways in which you can do this:

1. Ediscio: Sign in and go through the cardboxes having to do with meteorology and oceanography. Those include “Fronts and Air Masses”, “Greenhouse Effect”, “Humidity”, “Layers of the Atmosphere”, “Ocean Currents”, “Pressure”, and “Wind”.



2. Weather Jeopardy: Go to the student shared folder --> “8th Grade Science”. Open up the “Weather Jeopardy” powerpoint and try your best to become victorious.



3. Study Island: Sign in to Study Island (username = tie2011; password = trial). Scroll down to find the link that says “Science Middle”. Select two concepts for your online review session – “The Water Cycle, The Atmosphere, and Currents” and “Weather and Climate”.

Severe Weather Research

Severe weather can be fascinating. But what causes each form of severe weather? What makes it so fascinating? What can people do to protect themselves? It will be your job to figure out the answers to these questions, and then present on this in the form of a VoiceThread, Prezi, or Fakebook page. With your group, you will be researching your specific type of severe weather. By the end of Wednesday you will have prepared a Prezi, Fakebook Page, or a PowerPoint that will be uploaded to VoiceThread. Here is a list of websites where you might possibly find information on severe weather. They will be posted on the science blog. I'm sure you could find others as well.

ALL: Atmospheric Science Resources
Ask the Experts
NOAA home
How Stuff Works
Natural Disaster Sites

Blizzards: Blizzard of Oz sites

Floods: Floods before and after

Tornadoes: Best Tornado sites Severe Weather Slideshow from April 17

Airplanes and Weather: USA Today: Airplanes and Weather What Causes Turbulence? Hurricane Pilots Planes and Ice Aviation Weather

Tibetan Rain Shadow

The picture above is a satellite view of the Tibetan plateau, found north of the Himalayas. The green land to the south of the Himalayan mountains is India, which receives enough precipitation to support a tropical rainforest. North of the mountain range you can see a great plains region and the Gobi Desert; areas that receive very little rainfall. How can we account for such a change in the amount of precipitation each place receives? The short answer is "rain shadow", and it happens in the United States as well. It is largely the reason that Western South Dakota receives approximately 5 less inches of rain per year than we do here in Sioux Falls.
In this blog response, explain what happens to the air mass that initially forms over the Indian Ocean as it travels north. Why does this process leave so much precipitation on the south (windward) side of the Himalayas, and hardly any to the north of them?
Note: You may answer this question here, or on Classmarker. It will be worth 4 points.