Just to add to what Joanne said about the fieldtrip, we learnt about buttress roots and parasitic plants too. Moreover, we learnt about rosette structures. The buttress roots are huge and they ensure a firmer grip to the loose forest soil. Parasitic plants are like ferns and moss. They are dependent on other plants for their survival and the other plant dies when it survives after it gets all the nutrients from it. A rosette structure is arranged in circle, with all the leaves at a single height. Their main purpose is to protect the plant from getting destroyed as they are difficult to pluck from the ground. However, what people do not know is that they are also structured in this way to be able to capture the falling leaves to provide them with nutrients when they decompose. There are also drip-tips on leaves. These plants are usually found in tropical countries as there is more rainfall. They allow the water to "slide" down their surface so they can receive the maximum amount of sunlight. Plants also have waxy leaves to reduce their water loss. The temperature is quite high in tropical countries.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Temperature and The Wind Rose
Temperature: the degree of hotness and coldness in the air
How do we read a thermometer? Simple. According to
http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/agesubject/lessons/caps/thermometer.html it says that your eyes should be level with the top of the liquid in the tube to read it accurately. The reading is not the same when you look down or up onto the degree lines on the tube.
The formulas that help you find the mean temperatures of daily, monthly and annually can be found in our geography textbook. One question: How do they come up with these calculations? Is it because of some pattern the inventor of these formulas saw?
Wind rose was tested in the common test, but some of us weren't familiar with it and thus we wrote down wild guesses. I thought it was meant to tell people how strong the wind is due to the numbers on it. Little did I know or expect it was, according to a friend, the dates. Question: Who invented this and why? Was it because of some incident or because of curiosity? How is it different from the wind vane?
Can you answer them? :)
Maps, maps more maps!
Maps are used to locate a certain place in a particular location. Apart from that, maps are also used for creating a plan to organise a particular city. It creates structure. They are used by a few categories of people. They include: scientists, tourists, sailors, pilots and urban city planners. There are different types of maps which usually fall into two main categories: digital and physical maps. Can you think of an example of a digital map? One of the popular ones will be Google Earth. It is electronic which gives a three dimensional view of the whole Earth and enables us to zoom and focus into a certain state or city or even road. This will be what is called a satellite view. Next up, comes the physical maps. They include: Tourist maps, Information maps and lastly, Topographical maps. They give a bird's eye view of the certain place and is unable to zoom in or identify another location. In total, there are three types of perspectives: Satellite view, Aerial view and Landscape view(from your eye level).Miss J emphasised on topographical maps during our lessons. She went through the elements of this types of maps. A topographical map has grid patterns and grid references, which are numbers at the sides of the map. There is also a colour bar at the top of the map to check if a person is colour blind as the legends that are located at the bottom of the map require a person to identify certain colours to locate his or hers destination. There is a degree at the top of the map to identify the place showed by the map. There are lines on the map called Northings and Eastings. What do you think are they? They Northings are the lines that run vertically down on the map while the Eastings are the horizontal lines that run on the map. We also need scales to measure the actual distance in the real world using the scale on the map. Example, 1 cm in the map could mean 50000 cm in the real world.
Field Trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
On 28 July 2011, we, the Secondary 1 ACE Geography girls together with Ms J and Ms Lie, went on one of the most exciting event of the year: a field trip to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve! It certainly was a totally new experience for most (if not, all) of the Secondary 1 girls. It was both interesting and fun, the best combination for the perfect lesson! Through this field trip we learnt so much easier, with the use of 4 of our senses: seeing, hearing, touching and smelling.
We had to climb a steep slope in order to get to see the plants. We were encouraged to see all of the nature through a geographer's eye. Seeing it through that perspective helped us to learn and understand what we saw more easily. We saw, with our 'geographer's eyes', many different plants that look so much more appealing than those in our textbook. It helped us to come up with new questions that we have never thought of before. We saw lianas and buttress roots. They looked like as if they came out of the textbook, only in 3D!
Scaling was another thing we learnt too. For example, we compared the size of a broad leaf to a 50 cents coin. For things that are thick and big, we use the human body to compare it. For example, the big and thick tree was compared to Nicole and the thick lianas were compared to Matthea and Mildred. For the incredibly thin stems we used a pen.
Going there with a heart to learn is much more important than just going there to get good grades for that project (or for Geography, although that is also important). We share wonderful memories of not just learning more about the environment but also of a time forging not just new but good friends that we can go to for help and support. We will cherish that memory, that’s for sure!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Natural Vegetation 2: Temperate
This blogpost is on the lesson conducted on 27 July.
This is Ms Lie's last lesson with us, and she taught us on the Natural Vegetation Types: Temperate Deciduous Forests and Temperate Coniferous forests. Let's do a recap:
Difference between temperate and tropical:
- Temperature
- Temperate: Not so hot all year round, experiences the 4 seasons
- Tropical: High temperature all year round
2. Rainfall
- There is more rainfall in the tropical climate than the temperate climate.
Okay. Here we come to the temperate deciduous forest. They can be found in countries that experience all 4 seasons (duh, it's in the temperate climate!). Its characteristics are linked to the weather and climate, just like its name. Deciduous mean to fall off. I'm sure it is referring to its leaves. Its leaves fall off during autumn. Here are some photos of the trees during different seasons:
Autumn
Summer
Winter
Spring
Beautiful, aren't they? Okay, as I was saying,the deciduous trees drop their leaves to prevent transpiration ( to minimize water loss. During winter there isn't much water.) Thus, the trees are NOT evergreen, which means that their leaves fall off.
Next up, we have the coniferous forests. These forests are full of what we call 'Christmas Trees'. If you realize, whenever you put up your Christmas trees, they are full of needle-like leaves. This is to minimize water loss due to transpiration. They have supple (flexible) branches, too, so that any snow that is collected can just slide off without the branches snapping. This is also the reason why the trees are cone shaped. The trees are evergreen too. Some of the beautiful trees:
See you soon, Ms Lie!
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Natural Vegetation: Temperate forests
This blogpost is based on the lesson we had on the 27 July 2011.
Miss J went through the temperate forests with us as we have covered the tropical rainforest. There are basically two types of temperate forests: the coniferous forest and the deciduous forest. Now, lets see the differences between the tropical rainforests and the temperate deciduous forests. It is not so hot all-year round in temperate forests. They experiences the four seasons, has lesser rainfall and are located in the Northern hemisphere. They are widely found in Japan, China, Europe, North America and New Zealand. They are on the higher latitudes of 60 to 70 degrees North and South of the equator. Some examples of their leaves will be: the oak leaves, sycamore leaves and the maple leaves. However, the tropical rainforests have more rainfall, does not experience four seasons and are located in countries nearer to the equator, like Singapore. They are 23.5 degrees North and South of the equator. 
Deciduous leaves fall on in the seasons of winter and autumn. Do you know why? It is due to their adaptation to the climate where they shed their leaves to prevent water loss due to transpiration. They also have very large, broad leaves(large surface area) to get more sunlight in summer and spring. Moreover, we also learnt a new term called "evergreen". It denotes a plant that retains its green leaves throughout the year. Then, Miss J asked us for the meaning of density. It is about the amount of trees that are growing and how close they are from each other(packed). And when we talk about "diversity", the first thing that will most likely come to your mind will be types or variety. Next, we came to the difference between coniferous forests and tropical rainforests. They reach higher altitudes of 70 to 80 degrees North and South of the equator. It usually contains cone-shaped trees so that the snow will slide easily so it does not cover the trees. They also have needle-like leaves(small surface area)
and supple branches for flexibility so the pressure of the snow will not cause it to break or collapse. Furthemore, they are evergreen. They are only three or four varieties in an area.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Natural Vegetation
This blogpost is on the geography lesson on 21 July.
This lesson on Natural Vegetation was taught by Ms Lim. This was the first time teaching us. However, she was very clear in her teaching and we understood her every word.
The examples of natural vegetation in the world would be:
This lesson on Natural Vegetation was taught by Ms Lim. This was the first time teaching us. However, she was very clear in her teaching and we understood her every word.
The examples of natural vegetation in the world would be:
- The Amazon rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest is located in South America and (according to Wikipedia) encompasses seven million square kilometers (Singapore is 693 sq km!). This rainforest,which is located in South America, is also known as 'The Lungs Of Our Planet'. Why? It is quite obvious. Because the Amazon rainforest has a lot of trees, which create lots of oxygen for our planet. However, in one website, I found that they also consider the rainforests the 'heart' of our planet too. The website, http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/rainforests-lungs-and-heart-of-the-planet.php, contains why it is considered the heart. I've never thought of it before. Check it out!
- Chek Jawa
A mangrove in Singapore! This mangrove is not alone. There is also the more well-known 'Sungi Buloh Wetland Reserve'. According to http://www.sbwr.org.sg/,Sungi Buloh Wetland Reserve is located at 301 Neo Tiew CrescentSingapore 718925. I have been there before, but when I went there it started to pour so my class and I couldn't go for a tour there. However when my sister went there it was cool and windy, thus she and her class had a tour there. She said that it was incredible with so many animals to see. What a pity I could not see them for myself!
- Muir Woods
According to http://www.muirwoodsnationalpark.com/, Muir Woods is a scenic national park in USA. It was declared a national monument in 1908. It is home to many birds and other forms of wildlife. It is dense and dark, thus it is hard to spot animals, most of whcih are nocturnal. The pictures shown in the website shows of a serene park with so many kinds of plants that I have never seen before.
We come to the different types of natural vegetation. Let's see some of them...
- Tropical Rainforest
Tropical Rainforests are dense and have many varities of plants, for example, the Buttress Roots. Buttress Roots are very thick and big roots. Why? According to http://www.answers.com/topic/buttress-root, they are found in 'nutrient-poor rainforest soil and do not penetrate to deeper layers. They prevent the tree from falling over (hence the name buttress, which means any prop or support ) while also gathering more nutrients.' 'They can grow up to 15 feet tall and spread for 30 metres above the soil then for another 30 metres below. When the roots spread horizontally, they are able to cover a wider area for collecting nutrients. They stay near the upper soil layer because all the main nutrients are found there.'
- The desert
Guess what climate does this one fall under? Yup, Wikipedia teels us that it falls under the desert climate, also known as the arid climate. This is a climate that does not meet the criteria to be classified as a polar climate, and in which precipitation is too low to sustain any vegetation at all, or at most a very scanty scrub.
Yep, that sums up most of the interesting lesson. God bless and see you soon!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Term three week three
In term three week three, we only had a lesson with Miss J as our health check on Thursday interrupted our lessons. Miss J started with a brief revision on the previous lesson and then went on the four seasons. The four seasons associate with the weather, not the climate. Do you know why? It is because the climate associates with long term changes (over thirty to thirty-five years) but the weather associates with short term changes (daily). After that, she went through a brief explanation about tropical climate. Countries near the equator, like Singapore, always experience warmer temperatures. Do you also know its cause? The equator holds a latitude of zero degrees and it is the part where the Earth juts out most and hence, the distance and the time the sun rays need to take to travel to that particular part of the Earth is shorter. Thus, we can say that the heat there is more intense. Later, Miss J moved on to the factors influencing temperature:
>Altitude
>Latitude
>Cloud Cover
>Distance From The Sea
The last two terms I mentioned are new to me and Joanne. Cloud cover affects the temperature as clouds block solar radiation (heat) from reaching the ground surface. Sadly, Miss J did not explain the other factor affecting temperature: distance from the sea, as it was a bit too far-fetched from our syllabus. Though I did ask a bit more about the topic and she said that it was related to maritime and continental effect. I have done a little research and I found out that are more than four factors affecting temperature. They include: Ocean currents, Winds and Slope Of The Land. However, I will not be explaning all of them today. I will just talk about the distance from the sea. If you guys want to read up on these other factors, you could go to this website: kish-in/factors_affecting_temperature/
>Altitude
>Latitude
>Cloud Cover
>Distance From The Sea
The last two terms I mentioned are new to me and Joanne. Cloud cover affects the temperature as clouds block solar radiation (heat) from reaching the ground surface. Sadly, Miss J did not explain the other factor affecting temperature: distance from the sea, as it was a bit too far-fetched from our syllabus. Though I did ask a bit more about the topic and she said that it was related to maritime and continental effect. I have done a little research and I found out that are more than four factors affecting temperature. They include: Ocean currents, Winds and Slope Of The Land. However, I will not be explaning all of them today. I will just talk about the distance from the sea. If you guys want to read up on these other factors, you could go to this website: kish-in/factors_affecting_temperature/
Friday, July 8, 2011
Weather and Climate: Intro
Hello everybody!
On 7th July we had our very first Geography lesson in Term 3 (and what a great start!). It was about the weather and climate. So let’s start!
Basically, in Singapore, we have a tropical climate (which is, we experience mostly rainfall). While I was reflecting on the lesson, a question came to my mind- why does Singapore have a tropical climate? Is it because of where we are on this giant Earth? In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Singapore, it says:
‘Owing to its geographical location and maritime exposure, its climate is characterized by uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity and abundant rainfall.’
So it is because of its location on Earth. Singapore is 1 degree north of the Equator. Tropical climate, which is also known as ‘equatorial climate’, is usually found at the Equator. Interesting, huh? That means that Malaysia also has a tropical climate too, right? A big, red tick for that one!
Moving on, the question comes- what is weather? Right-o. It is the atmospheric conditions at a specific place over a short period of time. Climate? Long term trends and generalisations of the weather over a loooooooooooong period of time (which is, 30-35 years. WOW!). Then Ms J left us with a question: are the 4 seasons considered weather or climate? I tried to answer that myself before going onto the internet to check it out. I weighed the options:
On 7th July we had our very first Geography lesson in Term 3 (and what a great start!). It was about the weather and climate. So let’s start!
Basically, in Singapore, we have a tropical climate (which is, we experience mostly rainfall). While I was reflecting on the lesson, a question came to my mind- why does Singapore have a tropical climate? Is it because of where we are on this giant Earth? In http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Singapore, it says:
‘Owing to its geographical location and maritime exposure, its climate is characterized by uniform temperature and pressure, high humidity and abundant rainfall.’
So it is because of its location on Earth. Singapore is 1 degree north of the Equator. Tropical climate, which is also known as ‘equatorial climate’, is usually found at the Equator. Interesting, huh? That means that Malaysia also has a tropical climate too, right? A big, red tick for that one!
Moving on, the question comes- what is weather? Right-o. It is the atmospheric conditions at a specific place over a short period of time. Climate? Long term trends and generalisations of the weather over a loooooooooooong period of time (which is, 30-35 years. WOW!). Then Ms J left us with a question: are the 4 seasons considered weather or climate? I tried to answer that myself before going onto the internet to check it out. I weighed the options:
- If it is Weather...
A specific location over a short period of time. Yes, the weather does happen at a specific place (eg. Canada) but over a short period of time?Hmm. Winter usually lasts (according to Wikipedia) 200 days in Scandinavia and 61 days in New Zealand and South Africa. Which means that winter lasts, according to the information that I have found out, around 60 to 200 days, which is a very long time to us but compared to 30 years, it is very short.
- If it is Climate...
Long term trends and generalisations of the weather over a long period of time. Okay, you can say that 60 to 200 days is long, but 30-35 years? No way! 200 days is not even a year! So I think that the 4 seasons is the weather.
Do you agree with me? The bad news- I couldn't find the answer even after more than half an hour of research. So, I guess it is up to you to decide!Next question: Can climate changes fluctuate in the same way weather conditions very daily? Well, according to the dictionary, 'fluctuate' means: to change continually; shift back and forth; vary irregularly. According to http://www.suite101.com/content/the-difference-between-weather-and-climate-a184014, 'The main difference between weather and climate is that weather may fluctuate on a daily or even hourly basis, but climate remains relatively constant over decades, centuries or longer.' So there is the answer to the question, and the answer is no. Simple, eh?
On elements of weather, the next question is asked, 'Why do people need oxygen tanks when they climb mountains?' In other words, why isn't enough oxygen on top of the mountain? Well, the answer lies in http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_do_mountain_climbers_need_oxygen_tanks_when_climbing_great_heights. Basically the answer is because there is less oxygen up there because there is less air pressure.
While studying the elements of weather (temperature), we learnt that Singapore is warmer than the north pole because of the shape of the Earth (because the part with Singapore in it 'sticks out'). Then a question popped into my mind- which country is the warmest? Some say it's Singapore, others Arabia, but I'll put my bets on Libya, where the hottest temperature on Earth was ever recorded(57.7 degrees Celsius). The answer? Africa (according to http://www.buzzle.com/articles/hottest-country-in-the-world.html), or more specifically, Ethopia. Why not Libya? Because the temperature there flutuates. Interesting, eh?
What is the best place to put a thermometer? We all know the answer, and the answer is in the 'Stevenson Screen'. However, did you know that we can put many more instruments excluding the thermometer? Here are some of them, according to Wikipedia:
- A Hygrometer
A hygrometer is an instrument used for measuring the moisture content in the environmental air, or humidity.
2. A Barometer
A barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure.
3. A Thermo-hygrograph
A Thermo-hygrograph is a chart recorder that measures and records both temperature and humidity.
Whew. It has been a long blog post, hasn't it? Hope it was informative!
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
June Holidays
Before the June holidays, Miss J gave us an article and some notes related to some measure to adapt and respond to earthquakes. There are five components to these measures. They are, the planning the location of infrastructure, education, earthquake and monitoring systems, designing new infrastructure and strengthening the existing infrastructure. Moreover, the first measure that we are going to start with will be the planning location of infrastructure. One of the measures to be taken is to plan for buildings to be further away from areas that are prone to earthquakes. Next, we can implement guidelines on where buildings can be constructed. Lastly, we can access the risk of earthquakes using factors like population density and distribution, technological hazards and amount of expected ground shaking. These measures have advantages but they also have disadvantages. They are difficult to landuse, especially in developing nations where rural-urban migration and population growth is rapid and secondly, illegal houses or slums built in regions that are prone to earthquakes are difficult to manage.
Secondly, we need education measures to reduce chaos, injuries and deaths during earthquakes. We could do that by regulating drills, so that people will know and will be familliar with the safety measures to take when an earthquake occurs, and put up posters and signs to warn people of earthquake-prone areas like areas with soft soil or low-lying coastal areas where tsunamis occur. Furthermore, to inform people of steps to take when earthquake occurs, example: going to high ground or going inland, staying away from coastal areas. These measures are able to educate complacent people who may not see the importance of earthquake education which could be due to rare occurrences of earthquake in an area. For an example that Miss J gave us, Tokyo had not had a major earthquake since 80 years, hence they are less prepared for earthquakes compared to other parts of Japan.
The third measure we are going to explain will be earthquake monitoring and warning systems. Chrystal personally thinks that this measure is most important as we are not able to escape if we do not know roughly when there will be an earthquake. This measure is to prevent deaths, prepare people and reduce damage. There is a seisometer and computers to measure movements of Earth's surface and determine earthquake occurrences.
A seisometer is an instrument measures motions of the ground, including those of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other seismic sources. Records of seismic waves allow seismologists to map the interior of the Earth, and locate and measure the size of these different sources. There are also different types os seismometers. Some are as of shown below:
We can also track the rise in water levels of seas and oceans before alerting relevant authorities. The authorities will then inform people of the necessary actions to take through media broadcasts or sirens, mass evacuation procedures. This measure is effective on a local scale. For example, in 1975, Haicheng, China, scientists detected tremors and informed authorities to warn people to evacuate the city. 90 000 people were saved but 90% of the buildings were destroyed. Some may choose to ignore the warnings given to avoid disruption to businesses or tourism and some may not trust the predictions of the scientists as they are not always accurate.
Fourthly, we come to designing new infrastructure. We could apply this measure by adding steel bars to the infrastructure to strengthen them or add shock absorbers in the building foundations to absorb the tremors of earthquakes. However, this makes the cost of the materials higher for building infrastructure.
Question time! Now, lets all think about two questions: Can poorer nations afford to adopt such a measure? Why or why not?
The poorer nations definitely cannot afford such measure. We think that the poorer nations are too busy themselves to afford for the rising prices of food and rising prices of houses that they are able to afford such measure.
Lastly, the strengthening of existing infrastructure is to reduce fire occurrences and collapsing of infrastructure. We are able to wrap steel frames around pillars of buildings and pillars or place steel rods in existing structures. Most importantly, using fireproof materials and the installation automatic shut-off valves into gas pipes and electricity supplies are able to minimise the risk of fire. These measures will achieve high cost and these strengthen infrastructure are not as strong as the new infrastructure which leads to them being prone to damage. For example, in 1994, the Northridge Earthquake in USA where strengthened buildings were still badly damaged.
Question time!
Hmmm...Can poor countries afford to strengthen their existing infrastructure? Do they have the financial resources to do so?
Hmmm...Can poor countries afford to strengthen their existing infrastructure? Do they have the financial resources to do so?
We all know that if the countries are poor, they cannot afford the fourth and the fifth measures we had explained. To sum it all up, the people need to heed the warnings of the scientists and involve themselves in regular drills.
Happy Holidays!@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Monday, June 20, 2011
More on the newspaper article
Hi! How are the holidays going? :)
The newspaper article that I was reffering to was the article titled ‘UN Urges Huge Aid Push For Pakistan Floods’Reffering to was the article titled ‘UN Urges Huge Aid Push For Pakistan Floods’. According to Wikipedia, the flood resulted from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions of Pakistan and affected the Indus River basin.
Ms J bracketed for us many sentences in the article, and I have done some research on them.
1. ‘The Pakistani Taliban, which has been fighting the military in the tribal belt, has called on the government to turn down all foreign aid for the victims.’
What is ‘The Pakistani Taliban’? well, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehrik-i-Taliban_Pakistan, it is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. It is also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Why have they called the government to turn down all foreign aid for the victims? If you continue to read on, at the later part, it says that they believe that ‘it will lead to subjugation.’ It also says that their ‘jihad against America will continue’. So many words.
· Subjugation: ‘to lead to complete control or subjection’
· Jihad: ‘a holy war against infidels undertaken by Muslims in defence of the Islamic faith’
Hope that answers questions!
2. ‘Government has admitted being unable to cope with the scale of the crisis’, ‘political opposition piles pressure on President Asif Ali Zardiri’
According to the newspaper article, 14 million people face direct or indirect harm (the internet says that the floods directly affected about 20 million people, mostly by destruction of property, livelihood and infrastructure, with a death toll of close to 2,000) and UN says that the children are the most vulnerable, and there are 1,243 people confirmed while UN believes that there will be 357 more people dead. According to Wikipedia, 10 million people were forced to drink unsafe water. No wonder the poor government was so stressed!
3. ‘What we need is substantial foreign aid and not peanuts’
This statement was made by the chief minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah and he was referring to the help given to the people in the provinces (although, according to him, that up to 3.5 million people could have been affected although there were few deaths), in terms of money, which they need real badly. He claims that they are not given enough money.
4. ‘Effort has been woefully slow.’
The whole sentence is ‘But critics say the official relief effort has been woefully slow.’ The word ‘but’ shows that there have been efforts, which is really, well, ‘big’. The ‘efforts’ is ‘US military helicopters had evacuated 2,305 people and supplied aid including water, rice, flour and meal packages. Wow, that is a lot but it was slow.
The end of the story isn’t exactly what you would call a happy one because of its long term effects on the country. For example, the floods submerged 17 million acres (69,000 km2) of Pakistan's most fertile crop land, killed 200,000 livestock and washed away massive amounts of grain. A major concern was that farmers would be unable to meet the fall deadline for planting new seeds in 2010, which implied a loss of food production in 2011, and potential long term food shortages. It is also estimated that 5000 schools have been affected. The aftermath was also thought likely that The floods' aftermath was thought likely contribute to public perception of inefficiency and to political unrest. What’s more, the floods cost more than 5.3 million jobs. I will continue to pray for them, and I hope you would too.
The newspaper article that I was reffering to was the article titled ‘UN Urges Huge Aid Push For Pakistan Floods’Reffering to was the article titled ‘UN Urges Huge Aid Push For Pakistan Floods’. According to Wikipedia, the flood resulted from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions of Pakistan and affected the Indus River basin.
Ms J bracketed for us many sentences in the article, and I have done some research on them.
1. ‘The Pakistani Taliban, which has been fighting the military in the tribal belt, has called on the government to turn down all foreign aid for the victims.’
What is ‘The Pakistani Taliban’? well, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tehrik-i-Taliban_Pakistan, it is an umbrella organization of various Islamist militant groups based in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan. It is also known as Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. Why have they called the government to turn down all foreign aid for the victims? If you continue to read on, at the later part, it says that they believe that ‘it will lead to subjugation.’ It also says that their ‘jihad against America will continue’. So many words.
· Subjugation: ‘to lead to complete control or subjection’
· Jihad: ‘a holy war against infidels undertaken by Muslims in defence of the Islamic faith’
Hope that answers questions!
2. ‘Government has admitted being unable to cope with the scale of the crisis’, ‘political opposition piles pressure on President Asif Ali Zardiri’
According to the newspaper article, 14 million people face direct or indirect harm (the internet says that the floods directly affected about 20 million people, mostly by destruction of property, livelihood and infrastructure, with a death toll of close to 2,000) and UN says that the children are the most vulnerable, and there are 1,243 people confirmed while UN believes that there will be 357 more people dead. According to Wikipedia, 10 million people were forced to drink unsafe water. No wonder the poor government was so stressed!
3. ‘What we need is substantial foreign aid and not peanuts’
This statement was made by the chief minister of Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah and he was referring to the help given to the people in the provinces (although, according to him, that up to 3.5 million people could have been affected although there were few deaths), in terms of money, which they need real badly. He claims that they are not given enough money.
4. ‘Effort has been woefully slow.’
The whole sentence is ‘But critics say the official relief effort has been woefully slow.’ The word ‘but’ shows that there have been efforts, which is really, well, ‘big’. The ‘efforts’ is ‘US military helicopters had evacuated 2,305 people and supplied aid including water, rice, flour and meal packages. Wow, that is a lot but it was slow.
The end of the story isn’t exactly what you would call a happy one because of its long term effects on the country. For example, the floods submerged 17 million acres (69,000 km2) of Pakistan's most fertile crop land, killed 200,000 livestock and washed away massive amounts of grain. A major concern was that farmers would be unable to meet the fall deadline for planting new seeds in 2010, which implied a loss of food production in 2011, and potential long term food shortages. It is also estimated that 5000 schools have been affected. The aftermath was also thought likely that The floods' aftermath was thought likely contribute to public perception of inefficiency and to political unrest. What’s more, the floods cost more than 5.3 million jobs. I will continue to pray for them, and I hope you would too.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Reflction
Basically, today we went through our common test papers. Although I have no idea how most of us did, Ms J said that on the whole we did really well, considering that we were graded on our blog posts, our presentations (when we became teachers) and many others.
I am very happy with my geography results, and I hope the rest of you also are satisfied with your results. If you are, congratulations! If you are not, åŠ æ²¹! Try again next term!
As I reflect on how I study and so on, I realized that I have learnt a lot through how I study and there are many things that I should improve on. Here are three of them.
1. We should start revising early. This applies to other subjects too. We should not squeeze everything at the last minute. Everyday revision also helps. My dad says that if we don’t revise what we have learnt on that day, we would have forgotten most of it the next day.
2. Sleeping too late is not a good thing to do. Your brain needs enough rest to get ready for the next day. If we are too tired, we will not be able to concentrate during the exam.
3. Start memorising early. Geography has so much such to memorise. Sigh. So I realised that the best thing to do would be spread out all the things that we need to memorise and start early. If we try memorising all of it the night before, it would be very tough to squeeze it all into your brain. Besides, nobody guarantees that all of it would come back the next day! Plus, it might stay in our head for a long time, and we will need to revise it again to make sure that it stays in our head. We don’t study just for the exam itself but also for the next few years of our secondary school life.
Reflection on what have affected our results both positively and negatively might benefit us so that during the next time we study for the next exam, we know what to do and what not to do, what to change in terms of how we study. For Jimmy Dean once said, “I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” To me, in this case, the direction of the wind is the test, the sails mean the way we study and the destination is our results. So, I hope that all the points I have given to you will help you start on your revision.
God bless!
I am very happy with my geography results, and I hope the rest of you also are satisfied with your results. If you are, congratulations! If you are not, åŠ æ²¹! Try again next term!
As I reflect on how I study and so on, I realized that I have learnt a lot through how I study and there are many things that I should improve on. Here are three of them.
1. We should start revising early. This applies to other subjects too. We should not squeeze everything at the last minute. Everyday revision also helps. My dad says that if we don’t revise what we have learnt on that day, we would have forgotten most of it the next day.
2. Sleeping too late is not a good thing to do. Your brain needs enough rest to get ready for the next day. If we are too tired, we will not be able to concentrate during the exam.
3. Start memorising early. Geography has so much such to memorise. Sigh. So I realised that the best thing to do would be spread out all the things that we need to memorise and start early. If we try memorising all of it the night before, it would be very tough to squeeze it all into your brain. Besides, nobody guarantees that all of it would come back the next day! Plus, it might stay in our head for a long time, and we will need to revise it again to make sure that it stays in our head. We don’t study just for the exam itself but also for the next few years of our secondary school life.
Reflection on what have affected our results both positively and negatively might benefit us so that during the next time we study for the next exam, we know what to do and what not to do, what to change in terms of how we study. For Jimmy Dean once said, “I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” To me, in this case, the direction of the wind is the test, the sails mean the way we study and the destination is our results. So, I hope that all the points I have given to you will help you start on your revision.
God bless!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Yesterday, we started studying about a fascinating case study on the ‘River Nile’. I like to call it ‘Mission: Nile’, because of the word ‘case’ in ‘case study’ reminds me of detectives work. Which means that we are detectives in ‘Mission: Nile’ researching for clues and facts. And that is what I have done in the Internet.
Okay, let’s start with the positive impacts. After going through all the positive impacts, Chrystal came up with a question that was really quite mind blogging, and needed some research to find clues for the answer in the ‘crime scene’- the Internet. The question is ‘How do water theme parks waste water?’ Well, after research, I decided to use one water theme park- The Waveyard.
According to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21897687/, The Waveyard uses 50 million gallons of water at first to fill its artificial oceans and rivers. Replenishing water lost to evaporation and spillage requires another 60 to 100 million gallons per year, enough to support about 1,200 people in the Phoenix area. That is a lot. A LOT. The Phoenix area is the sixth most populated city in the United States, having 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data. Most of all, it is a desert. That is really using water for our own enjoyment but not thinking of the people. For your information, they opened in 2010. You can visit their website, http://www.waveyard.com/.
Another thing that came up during class was about white water rafting. Nobody knew how white water rafting really felt except for Nicole and Ms J, and you’ll never know until you watch this video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B66vSNnsaw
Now about the River Nile. More interesting clues taken from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/nile-river-facts.html!
· The Nile originates in Burundi, which is located South of the Equator and then flows across Northeastern Africa, finally crossing Egypt and then drains into the Mediterranean Sea.
· It is one of the longest rivers in the world; it used to be the longest but recent studies suggest that Amazon River can be longer than Nile. The length of the river is approximately 6695 km and the river has two tributaries.
· Only 22% of the river passes through Egypt, the other countries through which Nile passes are Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia, Zaire, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
· The cities that Nile flows past are Cairo, Khartoum, Gondokoro, Aswan, Karnak, Thebes and the town of Alexandria.
· River Nile has two tributaries namely the Blue Nile and the White Nile; the volume of water of Nile is mostly determined by the Blue Nile, which contributes more than 50% of the water of the Nile River but then fertility wise, both the tributaries contribute considerably. In fact White Nile is called so because it appears white due to the presence of silt. White Nile originates at Lake Victoria and then the Blue Nile, which originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia, joins in Sudan and proceeds northwards.
· The source of the river is debatable since it is commonly known that the source of the river is Lake Victoria, which is the biggest lake in Africa, but it is observed that on the northern side of the lake there is a waterfall called Ripon Falls, which has a small opening and seemingly that is where the water in the River Nile comes from but then this cannot be held as the ultimate truth since there are many rivers that flow into Lake Victoria therefore which one of these or if all of them are the sources of The Nile. Presently River Kagera and its tributary, which is called Ruvubu whose headwaters are in Burundi, are considered to be the source of the River Nile.
· Nile also played an important in the building if the famous Pyramids since the blocks of stone, which were used to make these pyramids, were actually transported from the source to the site with the help of Nile.
One of the positive impacts of rivers is transportation. The last point proves that rivers aren’t just used to transport humans from one place to another. They are also used to transport things for humans. Another example is using rivers to transport tree trunks from one place along a river to another place.
Well, I suppose that wasn’t a bad start to ‘Mission: Nile’!
Okay, let’s start with the positive impacts. After going through all the positive impacts, Chrystal came up with a question that was really quite mind blogging, and needed some research to find clues for the answer in the ‘crime scene’- the Internet. The question is ‘How do water theme parks waste water?’ Well, after research, I decided to use one water theme park- The Waveyard.
According to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21897687/, The Waveyard uses 50 million gallons of water at first to fill its artificial oceans and rivers. Replenishing water lost to evaporation and spillage requires another 60 to 100 million gallons per year, enough to support about 1,200 people in the Phoenix area. That is a lot. A LOT. The Phoenix area is the sixth most populated city in the United States, having 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data. Most of all, it is a desert. That is really using water for our own enjoyment but not thinking of the people. For your information, they opened in 2010. You can visit their website, http://www.waveyard.com/.
Another thing that came up during class was about white water rafting. Nobody knew how white water rafting really felt except for Nicole and Ms J, and you’ll never know until you watch this video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B66vSNnsaw
Now about the River Nile. More interesting clues taken from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/nile-river-facts.html!
· The Nile originates in Burundi, which is located South of the Equator and then flows across Northeastern Africa, finally crossing Egypt and then drains into the Mediterranean Sea.
· It is one of the longest rivers in the world; it used to be the longest but recent studies suggest that Amazon River can be longer than Nile. The length of the river is approximately 6695 km and the river has two tributaries.
· Only 22% of the river passes through Egypt, the other countries through which Nile passes are Sudan, Burundi, Ethiopia, Zaire, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
· The cities that Nile flows past are Cairo, Khartoum, Gondokoro, Aswan, Karnak, Thebes and the town of Alexandria.
· River Nile has two tributaries namely the Blue Nile and the White Nile; the volume of water of Nile is mostly determined by the Blue Nile, which contributes more than 50% of the water of the Nile River but then fertility wise, both the tributaries contribute considerably. In fact White Nile is called so because it appears white due to the presence of silt. White Nile originates at Lake Victoria and then the Blue Nile, which originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia, joins in Sudan and proceeds northwards.
· The source of the river is debatable since it is commonly known that the source of the river is Lake Victoria, which is the biggest lake in Africa, but it is observed that on the northern side of the lake there is a waterfall called Ripon Falls, which has a small opening and seemingly that is where the water in the River Nile comes from but then this cannot be held as the ultimate truth since there are many rivers that flow into Lake Victoria therefore which one of these or if all of them are the sources of The Nile. Presently River Kagera and its tributary, which is called Ruvubu whose headwaters are in Burundi, are considered to be the source of the River Nile.
· Nile also played an important in the building if the famous Pyramids since the blocks of stone, which were used to make these pyramids, were actually transported from the source to the site with the help of Nile.
One of the positive impacts of rivers is transportation. The last point proves that rivers aren’t just used to transport humans from one place to another. They are also used to transport things for humans. Another example is using rivers to transport tree trunks from one place along a river to another place.
Well, I suppose that wasn’t a bad start to ‘Mission: Nile’!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Week 6: Geography
On Friday of week 6, Miss J gave us some questions for us to answer to revise and recall what we have been taught so far. The following will be the questions given.
1. What is a drainage basin? How is it different from a watershed?
2. Explain the differences between the process of erosion and deposition.
3. Describe the characteristics of floodplains and explain its formation.
4. What are deltas?
Miss J pointed out some misinterpretations. Basically, a drainage basin is a land area on which a river flows, and a watershed will be an imaginary boundary separating one drainage basin from another. Next, the definition of erosion will be the wearing down of surfaces with the assistance of wind or water (etc.). Deposition will be the release or dropping off of sediments by water to attain river equilibrium. Moreover, a floodplain is a broad, low-lying land made from the accumulation of deposited sediments overtime. The river with a lot of energy will overflow its banks, the water spread will lose energy and hence, deposition takes place with the coarse and heavier sediments first, followed by the fine and lighter sediments. Furthermore, deltas are the accumulation of sediments at the river mouth near the distributaries.
REVISION!!!!!
Our term two common tests are approaching. So let us revise what we had learnt so far. Let’s start with the continents. There are a total of seven continents: North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. Next up, there are five main oceans. They are the Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Now, there are some plates we need to remember. They are the Pacific Plate, North American Plate, South American Plate, Nazca Plate, Caribbean Plate, Antarctic Plate, European Plate, Arabian Plate, Indo-Australian Plate and the Philippine plate. Okay, now let’s locate where some fold mountains are in the world. The Andes Mountains are located in South America, the Appalachian Mountains are located in North America, the Himalayan Mountains are located in Asia and the Alps are located in Europe. Moreover, the Great Dividing Range is located in Australia. Does anyone remember how do Fold Mountains form? They are formed from the collision of two plates which links back to plate movement and the formation of volcanoes as well. When two plates collide, they may result in being forced upwards and hence series of folds form. Hence we have our fold mountains! Nevertheless, we have vulcanicity. What is it? It is the process in which magma and other materials reach the Earth’s surface. A volcano eruption is a release pressure, never an explosion! It releases into the air magma and gases. What are the parts of a volcano? They are the magma chamber, the main vent, side vent, the crater, the whole pipe that leads to the opening and the summit. Volcanoes are formed overtime when layers of magma accumulate and harden. They are mainly found on plate boundaries. They can also be formed from subductions. Now, the MAIN components to the physical environment will be the weather and climate, rivers, lakes and oceans, natural vegetation and rocks and landforms.
Now let’s revise on the recent topic rivers and environments. There are three main parts to the river system. The upper course, middle course and the lower course. All rivers start at the river source and end at the river mouth. Tributaries are lakes and streams that join the main river channel and distributaries are like tubes that lead the main flow of water into the oceans. Meanders are formed when the river erodes sideways and deposits its sediments it is carrying in the opposite direction. A valley is a low area between hills and mountains. The main thing for this chapter will be ENERGY. As long as the river has energy, it will flow. Even from lowland to highland, it can still flow. The river always tries to achieve river equilibrium. When the river does not have enough energy, it will go through the process deposition. If the river has too much energy, it will find ways to get rid of some of its energy. A river with energy can chiefly do three things. Erosion, Transportation and Deposition. A waterfall is a vertical flow of fast-moving water falling from a great height. It is also part of the river system. It is made from erosions. The waterfall will have a bigger plunge pool every time erosion takes place.
1. What is a drainage basin? How is it different from a watershed?
2. Explain the differences between the process of erosion and deposition.
3. Describe the characteristics of floodplains and explain its formation.
4. What are deltas?
Miss J pointed out some misinterpretations. Basically, a drainage basin is a land area on which a river flows, and a watershed will be an imaginary boundary separating one drainage basin from another. Next, the definition of erosion will be the wearing down of surfaces with the assistance of wind or water (etc.). Deposition will be the release or dropping off of sediments by water to attain river equilibrium. Moreover, a floodplain is a broad, low-lying land made from the accumulation of deposited sediments overtime. The river with a lot of energy will overflow its banks, the water spread will lose energy and hence, deposition takes place with the coarse and heavier sediments first, followed by the fine and lighter sediments. Furthermore, deltas are the accumulation of sediments at the river mouth near the distributaries.
REVISION!!!!!
Our term two common tests are approaching. So let us revise what we had learnt so far. Let’s start with the continents. There are a total of seven continents: North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia. Next up, there are five main oceans. They are the Pacific Ocean, Southern Ocean, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Now, there are some plates we need to remember. They are the Pacific Plate, North American Plate, South American Plate, Nazca Plate, Caribbean Plate, Antarctic Plate, European Plate, Arabian Plate, Indo-Australian Plate and the Philippine plate. Okay, now let’s locate where some fold mountains are in the world. The Andes Mountains are located in South America, the Appalachian Mountains are located in North America, the Himalayan Mountains are located in Asia and the Alps are located in Europe. Moreover, the Great Dividing Range is located in Australia. Does anyone remember how do Fold Mountains form? They are formed from the collision of two plates which links back to plate movement and the formation of volcanoes as well. When two plates collide, they may result in being forced upwards and hence series of folds form. Hence we have our fold mountains! Nevertheless, we have vulcanicity. What is it? It is the process in which magma and other materials reach the Earth’s surface. A volcano eruption is a release pressure, never an explosion! It releases into the air magma and gases. What are the parts of a volcano? They are the magma chamber, the main vent, side vent, the crater, the whole pipe that leads to the opening and the summit. Volcanoes are formed overtime when layers of magma accumulate and harden. They are mainly found on plate boundaries. They can also be formed from subductions. Now, the MAIN components to the physical environment will be the weather and climate, rivers, lakes and oceans, natural vegetation and rocks and landforms.
Now let’s revise on the recent topic rivers and environments. There are three main parts to the river system. The upper course, middle course and the lower course. All rivers start at the river source and end at the river mouth. Tributaries are lakes and streams that join the main river channel and distributaries are like tubes that lead the main flow of water into the oceans. Meanders are formed when the river erodes sideways and deposits its sediments it is carrying in the opposite direction. A valley is a low area between hills and mountains. The main thing for this chapter will be ENERGY. As long as the river has energy, it will flow. Even from lowland to highland, it can still flow. The river always tries to achieve river equilibrium. When the river does not have enough energy, it will go through the process deposition. If the river has too much energy, it will find ways to get rid of some of its energy. A river with energy can chiefly do three things. Erosion, Transportation and Deposition. A waterfall is a vertical flow of fast-moving water falling from a great height. It is also part of the river system. It is made from erosions. The waterfall will have a bigger plunge pool every time erosion takes place.
Friday, April 22, 2011
River Landforms
We have moved on from rivers to river landforms!
We started the lesson (21 April 2011) with a recap of what we have learnt the previous lesson,
which is, what is erosion (a process of wearing down), transportation and deposition (the dropping of sediments in order to regain back energy). Among all theses processes, erosion takes up the most energy. We then went on to answer the question Ms J asked us in the previous lesson, 'How do you think waterfalls, valleys, floodplains, deltas, distributaries and meanders are formed?' We started with waterfalls first. Ms J told us to try and see if we knew how they were formed. After a while, Chrystal, Nicole and I came up with an answer. We knew it has something got to do with erosion. Our explanation- it was a slope at first, then as the water flowed down, the water erodes the sides. To help you understand what we had in mind, check out a drawing I 'drew':
Blue-water, brown- original slope, purple to yellow- process, green- now
I thought it was quite an explanation. However, like always, geography isn't easy and clear-cut. It turns out that the correct explanation is:
We started the lesson (21 April 2011) with a recap of what we have learnt the previous lesson,
which is, what is erosion (a process of wearing down), transportation and deposition (the dropping of sediments in order to regain back energy). Among all theses processes, erosion takes up the most energy. We then went on to answer the question Ms J asked us in the previous lesson, 'How do you think waterfalls, valleys, floodplains, deltas, distributaries and meanders are formed?' We started with waterfalls first. Ms J told us to try and see if we knew how they were formed. After a while, Chrystal, Nicole and I came up with an answer. We knew it has something got to do with erosion. Our explanation- it was a slope at first, then as the water flowed down, the water erodes the sides. To help you understand what we had in mind, check out a drawing I 'drew':
Blue-water, brown- original slope, purple to yellow- process, green- nowI thought it was quite an explanation. However, like always, geography isn't easy and clear-cut. It turns out that the correct explanation is:
Okay, so it's like this- believe it or not, it is actually a rock at first. Not just any rock, though. It has to be a rock with different layers, soft and hard. Yes, there is such a thing. Anyway, the water erodes the rock. Obviously the easiest to erode is on the soft rock layers. so it erodes and creates what you see in the diagram. There are some parts that are missing, though. Do you know where is the plunge pool, overhang and notch are? Yes, the plunge pool is the place where there is what looks like a swimming pool under, in the diagram, the place labeled soft rock layer. The overhang is the point which the watyer flows down, and the notch is the place where, in the diagram, seems 'untouched' by the falling water.Cool, right?
I found interesting websites while doing my research, and they are relevant to geography. Check them out!
All the best for the upcoming Common Tests!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
More About The Water Cycle
In term 2 week four, Miss J explained a bit more about the Hydrologic cycle. Before that, I will point out the processes that get involved in the Hydrologic cycle. First, Evaporation, Transpiration, Condensation, Precipitation, Interception, Infiltration, Surface Run Off and then Ground Water Flow. Interception, Infiltration, Surface Run Off and Ground Water Flow are new terms to us. Moreover, we will explain more about them. For Interception, it is the flow of water down the leaves, trees, branches, trunks or even houses and it is actually the process in which an obstacle prevents the water to flow directly down to Earth. For Infiltration, it is the process in which water permeates through the ground. This also has a link to the next term we have been introduced to, Surface Run Off. Surface Run Off is where the water flow on the surface of the ground. The speed of the flow can be determined by the steepness of the slope. If the slope is steep, the Surface Run Off will be faster, therefore leaving lesser time for the water to infiltrate into the ground, hence, the plants are unable to absorb much water. If the slope is quite gentle, the result will be vice versa. However, the rate of the infiltration is also affected by the permeability of the soil. How about Ground Water Flow then? It is the process where water flows under ground. The MAIN thing that keeps a river flowing will be ENERGY. As long as the river has energy, it will still continue to flow. One main misconception that Miss J had told us about will be that students always think that rivers MUST AND ONLY flow from highland when a river can also flow from lowland as it has energy. The speed of liquid is called vilocity. To compare a relationship, we must have at least two variables. To have a direct relationship, if the volume of the river increases, the energy will also increase. However, if the volume of the river increases but the energy decreases it is called an inverse relationship. All rivers try to achieve a process called EQUILIBRIUM. It is a process in which a river tries to have just enough energy to flow. If it has too much energy, it will find ways to get rid of it. If it has a weak flow, it will try to deposit the sediments it contains so that it has more energy to flow. Three main factors that affect the river's amount of energy will be firstly, the gradient of the slope, obstacles, (e.g. trees, rocks) or the amount and size of sediments. The amount of river energy allows it to cause EROSION, TRANSPORTATION AND DEPOSITION. Moreover, water shape landforms as well, which links back to our previous topic, Landforms. Did you know? Waterfalls are also part of the river system. In fact, it is quite big. Some examples will be the Victoria falls, Nigera falls. The path the river flows through is called the river channel. There are parts to a river system. There is the beginning, where it is known as the upper course, then there will be the middle course, lastly there will be the end, which is also known as the lower course. Other parts to the river system will be the tributaries, confluence and the river mouth. They are also new terms introduced to us. The tributaries are lakes or rapids. They all meet up at the confluence, the point where they meet. Then, they will all flow through the main river channel. After the lower course, the channel will end at the river mouth, where the river opens into the ocean. To sum it up, the river system is a body of water. Next, we learnt about the drainage basin, it is the land area that the river system lies in. And the watershed is an imaginary boundary that separates one drainage basin from the other. Did you know? River can flow from lowland to uphill as well. However, we still cannot find which river is it that has this amazing feature. Can anyone tell us?
Sunday, April 10, 2011
In the third week
I just want to add on to what to the previous post that we learnt some things new in the third week. Miss J had done a short revision with us about landforms to round up this topic and we covered the basic topic of physical environment again. There four components to the physical environment. Do you know what are they? They are landforms and rocks, rivers and lakes, weather and climate, and natural vegetation. We need to understand that there are interrelationships between these components. She revised that other than creating volcanoes, when plates converge, they can also create fold mountains. A fold mountain is formed when ssome of the layer of rock which make up the Earth's crust buckle and form folds. They are found in the Himalayas, the Appalachhian Mountains in North America, the Andes in South America and the Alps in Europe. Talking about mountains, we all know that they are part of landforms, but do we know the others? The others include:
A Hill, an area of high ground, usually less than 600 metres high. It is typically rounded in shape and has gentle slopes.
A Valley, also known as a depresion, is a low area of land between hills or mountains.
A Plain, a broad flat and low area of land.
Plateau is a generally raised area of land with a fairly flat, braod top and steep slopes.
Furthermore, Miss J also introduced briefly on our next topic. Riverss and Environments. Do you know? 97% of the water on the Earth's surface is salt water and the rest will be fresh water. She also introduced the term HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE to us. The cycle consists of several processes.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
The next 2 weeks...
This blog post is summarising what we have done for the last 2 weeks' lessons. Basically, Ms J told us that we were to become little teachers- we had to teach the class one topic that Ms J gave us. Here is the list:
- Alison and Corrine- Internal and External Forces
They taught us using a powerpoint. I have summarised all that they have taught us (or at least what I have written down!), the magma forms under the volcano, then goes up the main vent. The magma pushes towards the crust and goes up the volcano (I guess this is where the 'internal forces' come in), and as I goes up, it becomes hotter. As it is rising, it becomes lava too. The lava can come out of the volcano slowly (as in flow down) or very fast. As the lava cools at an intense heat, it becomes Igneous rocks. That was all that I took down, and it isn't little either! I think they did a great job!
2. Us, Chrystal and Joanne- Distribution of Volcanoes
We also taught using powerpoint slides. If anyone wants the slides, please do not hesitate to tell me, and I'll email you ASAP. Anyway, here is the summarised version of our 'lesson'. Volcanoes are located at the margin of tectonic plates especially in subduction zones. They can be located at hotspots too. Tectonic plates are massive, irregularly shaped slabs of solid rock. Hotspots? They are fixed places within the mantle or oceanic lithosphere. Indonesia has the most number of volcanoes as Indonesia sits on the Ring of Fire. Did you learn anything special that day? :)
3. Esther and Jessica, Nicole and Cherie- Effects and Impacts
I decided that if I summarised these 2 groups together, it would be easier. Esther and Jessica used powerpoint slides while Nicole and Cherie used the board. So, in volcanic eruptions there are long and short term effects. There are positive and negative effects too. Long term effects are hazardous, because they can cause trouble such as lahars, which is mud mixed with lava. They can cause floods, if I am not wrong. For the positive effects, the lava and ash breaks down into sediments which are nutrition to make the soil fertile. However, there are negative effects, too, such as the ash the was erupted could cover the sun, making it dark and causing breathing difficulties for the people. All these link to the factors of an eruption. The factors are:
- quantities of lava, ashand tephra (volcanic materials) released
- how loud the eruption is
- amount of gas released
- the viscosity (Ms J compared water to honey. High- slower, like honey, low- fast, like water. It really worked. Honey is thicker and more concentrate than water. The level of viscosity shows the ability of the materials, and it measures a material's resistance to flow.)
4. Matthea, Natalie and Mildred- Types of volcanoes
They used the white board, and they were so thoughtful to print out the notes for us. It helped a lot. How come never I've thought of itt before? Anyway, the summary. The parts of a volcano are the pipe (conduit), the vent (the opening that the pipe leads to). There is also the crater ( the depression, a bowl-shaped opening), the magma chamber/reservoir (where the magma is stored), the flanks (which is the sides of a volcano), summit (the highest part of the volcano), the ash cloud (made up of powdered rock and lava), and, of course, the lava (magma that has reash=ched the Eatrh's surface). There are 3 different types of volcanoes- Shield volcano, Composite volcano and Cinder Cone volcano. They all have different characteristics.
After everyone has presented, Ms J recapped and then went on to the next topic, whch is rivers. I'll bet this is going to have to do with a little bit of History (because the Cradle of Civilisation is always beside rivers. Wait, have I gotten my facts wrong?). Ms J said that it might clash with what we have learnt in science. I am all prepared to take up the challenge, though, and see what does Geography have to say about rivers!
Past three weeks
In the first week of term one, Joanne and I presented our powerpoint on the distribution of volcanoes. The following will be what we had said in the presentation.
Well, what is the distribution of volcanoes then? It is volcano activity that happens to be concentrated in specific locations. Where do we usually find volcanoes? They are most likely located at plate boundaries(also intepreted as the edges of tectonic plates), especially at subduction 
zones. Moreover, volcanoes can also be present at hotspots(also intepreted as mantle plumes). Talking about hotspots, do you know, although Hawaii is not near any plates, it still has quite a number of volcanoes on the island. It is because the hotspots that occur below will cause volcanoes to form when the plate that Hawaii is part of moves past the hotspots below. However, the largest and most lethal volcanoes usually form at plate boundaries. What about Tectonic plates and hotspots?
zones. Moreover, volcanoes can also be present at hotspots(also intepreted as mantle plumes). Talking about hotspots, do you know, although Hawaii is not near any plates, it still has quite a number of volcanoes on the island. It is because the hotspots that occur below will cause volcanoes to form when the plate that Hawaii is part of moves past the hotspots below. However, the largest and most lethal volcanoes usually form at plate boundaries. What about Tectonic plates and hotspots? Tectonic plates(also called lithopheric plates) are massive, irregularly shaped rocks. They are generally composed of both continental and oceanic lithospheres. The plates' sizes may vary greatly, from a few hundred to thousands of kilometres across; the Pacific and Antartic plates are among the largest. Most of the boundaries between individual plates can
not be seen as they are hidden beneath the oceans. Hotspots are far from the edges of the tectonic plates. They are fixed places within the mantle or oceanic lithosphere. They are then broken up into plates, where rocks melt to generate magma. When hotspots are situated in the oceanic lithosphere
not be seen as they are hidden beneath the oceans. Hotspots are far from the edges of the tectonic plates. They are fixed places within the mantle or oceanic lithosphere. They are then broken up into plates, where rocks melt to generate magma. When hotspots are situated in the oceanic lithosphere a class of volcanoes known as shield volcanoes is built. These are constructed on the deep ocean floor and may be built high enough to rise above sea levels as volcanic islands. The definition of the LITHOSPHERE is the outer shell of the Earth which is made of the Earth's crust and the outermost layer of the mantle.
Indonesia has the most number of volcanoes. It has more than 160 active volcanoes. Why? Indonesia sits on what we call the Ring of Fire and the Ring of Fire is a zone of frequent seismic (relating to volcanic activity) and volcanic activity around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. Lets see the picture below that shows a volcanic map of Indonesia.
Friday, March 11, 2011
The World Today
News recently have been talking about volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunami and I realised that all that is happening really is connected to geography.
Take the volcanic eruption that took place in Hawaii on March 8 . Watch a video at http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20110307/video/vwl-volcano-erupts-in-hawaii-15af341.html. In http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110309/ap_on_re_us/us_hawaii_volcano_eruption, it says that Kamoamoa (the valcano), which is located in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park cracked open Saturday, and it continued to spew out loads of 2,000-degree glowing, red-orange lava that shot 65 feet high. Volcanoes are made up of rocks, as a volcano is a landform. Landforms are... part of geography.
The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses and cars. Earthquake is caused by the plates crashing into each other, and for Japan, unfortunately, is a very strong tsunami. This earthquake not only caused a tsunami, but also cause the whole Pacific basin to be in danger of tsunami. This also shows that when there is a cause, there is an effect. Cause-Earthquake, Effect-Tsunami.
Wow, this really shows that geography is so relevant in life. We don't just learn how to find locations on the map, we learn how to see how everything that happens to us in our daily lives piece together.
Take the volcanic eruption that took place in Hawaii on March 8 . Watch a video at http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20110307/video/vwl-volcano-erupts-in-hawaii-15af341.html. In http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110309/ap_on_re_us/us_hawaii_volcano_eruption, it says that Kamoamoa (the valcano), which is located in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park cracked open Saturday, and it continued to spew out loads of 2,000-degree glowing, red-orange lava that shot 65 feet high. Volcanoes are made up of rocks, as a volcano is a landform. Landforms are... part of geography.
The biggest earthquake to hit Japan in 140 years struck the northeast coast on Friday, triggering a 10-metre tsunami that swept away everything in its path, including houses and cars. Earthquake is caused by the plates crashing into each other, and for Japan, unfortunately, is a very strong tsunami. This earthquake not only caused a tsunami, but also cause the whole Pacific basin to be in danger of tsunami. This also shows that when there is a cause, there is an effect. Cause-Earthquake, Effect-Tsunami.
Wow, this really shows that geography is so relevant in life. We don't just learn how to find locations on the map, we learn how to see how everything that happens to us in our daily lives piece together.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Life beyond Earth?
Hmmm....there had been a debate going on recently about life beyond Earth. When I first read about this, I thought that there had been a discovery that humans had saw aliens or something, but I realized that there had been a discovery of Earth bacteria in a meteorite. The picture below is the minute filament scientists which they think is a kind of bacteria that occurs on Earth called cyanobacteria.
Amazing right? I wonder if there are such thing as aliens orr martians. We all thought that no life could exist on other planets as they were either to far from the Sun so there is lack of heat or too near to the Sun so there is just too much heat. However, the findings above show that there might be a chance that life existed outer space. Were we wrong?
Friday, March 4, 2011
ACE On and Over with Rocks
Today’s lesson is the very last lesson with the topic of rocks.
We started with a recap on what we have recently learnt. Then, we went on to the size of the Sediments. Turns out gravel are the biggest, then sand, silt and lastly, clay, which is so teeny weeny small that we can’t see them with our naked eye. As we spent only a little time on this part, I did some research and I found a website that states all these. Here is a paragraph below, taken from
Sediment and Sedimentation - Sediment Size :
“Sediments come in all shapes and sizes. Sediment sizes are classified by separating them into a number of groups, based on metric measurements, and naming them using common terms and size modifiers. The terms, in order of decreasing size, are boulder (> 256 mm), cobble (256-64 mm), pebble (64-2 mm), sand (2-1/16 mm), silt (1/16-1/256 mm), and clay (< 1/256 mm). The modifiers in decreasing size order, are very coarse, coarse, medium, fine, and very fine. For example, sand is sediment that ranges in size from 2 millimeters to 1/16 mm. Very coarse sand ranges from 2 mm to 1 mm; coarse from 1 mm to 1/2 mm; medium from 1/2 mm to 1/4 mm; fine from 1/4 mm to 1/8 mm; and very fine from 1/8 mm to 1/16 mm. Unfortunately, the entire classification is not as consistent as the terminology for sand—not every group includes size modifiers.”
So the sediments, according to the website, are (biggest to smallest) boulder, cobble, pebble, sand silt, and clay. Okay, we know sand, silt and clay, but where did boulder, cobble and pebble come from? Where is gravel? Probably gravel is the same as pebble. I did little more research to clear up this confusion. Here is the definition of gravel related to this topic from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gravel: small stones and pebbles, or a mixture of these with sand. So it is small pebbles! And here is the extra knowledge, there are sediments bigger than gravel- boulder and cobble.
Then we did more on sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks. Sedimentary rocks we are familiar with, but metamorphic rocks are quite new to us. Metamorphic rocks are formed from Igneous and Sedimentary rocks. These rocks come under contact with intense heat and pressure, and the product is a metamorphic rock. Intense heat? Okay, what temperature exactly? That was the first question that came into my mind. A little research answered that question. The answer lies in http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10g.html : 600 to 1200° Celsius for the complete melting of the rock. WOW! Of course it’s cooler than the Mantle, but it is still very hot. It is so hot that it can melt rocks! Can you imagine that? Here is how melted rocks look like, taken from Google:
I guess it was liquid, because it looks like it was dripping before it hardened!
This is the end of our journey with rocks, at least for now. After all those lessons on rocks, the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions ‘rocks’ is ‘What kind of rock?’ When I see rocks, I try to find out for myself if I can identify what kind of rock that is (I hope that we will eventually learn how to identify rocks lying on the road!). I don’t see them as ordinary things that lie on the ground for no purpose anymore, because rocks are what scientists use to find out about the past. They are things that people wrote on long before paper came out. Rocks are not useless meaningless things. They are objects that are the ground that we are standing on. I guess everything in this world is also like that, put into this world for a purpose.
We started with a recap on what we have recently learnt. Then, we went on to the size of the Sediments. Turns out gravel are the biggest, then sand, silt and lastly, clay, which is so teeny weeny small that we can’t see them with our naked eye. As we spent only a little time on this part, I did some research and I found a website that states all these. Here is a paragraph below, taken from
Sediment and Sedimentation - Sediment Size :
“Sediments come in all shapes and sizes. Sediment sizes are classified by separating them into a number of groups, based on metric measurements, and naming them using common terms and size modifiers. The terms, in order of decreasing size, are boulder (> 256 mm), cobble (256-64 mm), pebble (64-2 mm), sand (2-1/16 mm), silt (1/16-1/256 mm), and clay (< 1/256 mm). The modifiers in decreasing size order, are very coarse, coarse, medium, fine, and very fine. For example, sand is sediment that ranges in size from 2 millimeters to 1/16 mm. Very coarse sand ranges from 2 mm to 1 mm; coarse from 1 mm to 1/2 mm; medium from 1/2 mm to 1/4 mm; fine from 1/4 mm to 1/8 mm; and very fine from 1/8 mm to 1/16 mm. Unfortunately, the entire classification is not as consistent as the terminology for sand—not every group includes size modifiers.”
So the sediments, according to the website, are (biggest to smallest) boulder, cobble, pebble, sand silt, and clay. Okay, we know sand, silt and clay, but where did boulder, cobble and pebble come from? Where is gravel? Probably gravel is the same as pebble. I did little more research to clear up this confusion. Here is the definition of gravel related to this topic from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gravel: small stones and pebbles, or a mixture of these with sand. So it is small pebbles! And here is the extra knowledge, there are sediments bigger than gravel- boulder and cobble.
Then we did more on sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks. Sedimentary rocks we are familiar with, but metamorphic rocks are quite new to us. Metamorphic rocks are formed from Igneous and Sedimentary rocks. These rocks come under contact with intense heat and pressure, and the product is a metamorphic rock. Intense heat? Okay, what temperature exactly? That was the first question that came into my mind. A little research answered that question. The answer lies in http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10g.html : 600 to 1200° Celsius for the complete melting of the rock. WOW! Of course it’s cooler than the Mantle, but it is still very hot. It is so hot that it can melt rocks! Can you imagine that? Here is how melted rocks look like, taken from Google:
I guess it was liquid, because it looks like it was dripping before it hardened!
This is the end of our journey with rocks, at least for now. After all those lessons on rocks, the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions ‘rocks’ is ‘What kind of rock?’ When I see rocks, I try to find out for myself if I can identify what kind of rock that is (I hope that we will eventually learn how to identify rocks lying on the road!). I don’t see them as ordinary things that lie on the ground for no purpose anymore, because rocks are what scientists use to find out about the past. They are things that people wrote on long before paper came out. Rocks are not useless meaningless things. They are objects that are the ground that we are standing on. I guess everything in this world is also like that, put into this world for a purpose.
Friday, February 25, 2011
ACE All about Rocks
This blog post is for 25/2/2011 ACE Geography lesson.
My notes are full of scribbles! Anyways, we started with the crust today. We learnt something new, and that is the land part of the crust is the continental crust, while the water part is the oceanic crust. Interestingly, they are both solid. Just then a lot of questions popped into my head. I thought the water was… well, water. Why solid? Well, the solid part would be the crust itself. The water was, well, on top of the crust, like:
I know it’s not really nice, because I drew it free hand on the computer, but I hope it helps.
My notes are full of scribbles! Anyways, we started with the crust today. We learnt something new, and that is the land part of the crust is the continental crust, while the water part is the oceanic crust. Interestingly, they are both solid. Just then a lot of questions popped into my head. I thought the water was… well, water. Why solid? Well, the solid part would be the crust itself. The water was, well, on top of the crust, like:
I know it’s not really nice, because I drew it free hand on the computer, but I hope it helps.
Okay, just as I promised, here is the answer to “What happens if the plates hit each other?” Volcanoes and mountains form. Can you imagine that? They hit, and then they form these cool big landforms. However, that is not all. Earthquakes can occur too. Strong earthquakes, just like the one that happened in New Zealand.
That brings me to how the plates move. As the mantle moves (conventional current), the plates move in three directions, as they are floating on the Mantle, the example Ms J gave us, just like the yummy-looking, lip-smaking, stomach-worth-growling-for treat, S’more (sorry, I’m hungry!):
The cracker: Plate on Earth's crust
The melted marshmellow: Mantle
These are the three kinds of plate movement: (Once again, the diagrams are not exactly pleasant to the eyes… )
Diverge (pull away) :
Diverge (pull away) :
Converge (move towards each other):
And lastly,
Side-by-side:
Side-by-side:
Cool right? One more thing: the plate movement leads to plate boundaries.
Then we went on to Igneous rocks. They are made of magma.
1. Granite:
It is course-grained as the magma, which takes a long time to cool, has time to ‘grow’ bigger. Why does the magma take a long time to cool? The magma cools inside the Earth and the inside of the Earth is hot.
1. Granite:
It is course-grained as the magma, which takes a long time to cool, has time to ‘grow’ bigger. Why does the magma take a long time to cool? The magma cools inside the Earth and the inside of the Earth is hot.
2. Basalt:
Yes, we all know it is, obviously, fine-grained. Why? For this case, the magma hardens quickly outside the Earth, because outside the Earth is cooler than inside the Earth.
Now we move on to to Sedimentary rocks. Rocks are broken down to smaller pieces through weathering and erosion. Small pieces of sediments get carried into rivers by water and wind. They are then piled up and, under tremendous pressure, are camented together and hardened. The result? Beautiful breathtaking Sedimentary rocks. Sedimentary rocks are my favourite kind. So, here are some pictures that I think are so cool.
Then we skipped a few parts and went all the way to Metemorphic rocks. How are they formed? When the plates move, one plate can slide underneath another plate. Metemorphic rocks are formed inside of the Earth.And that was the end of the lesson.
This time, the lesson was overflowing with lots of different types of question, so many that Ms J had to stop all the overflowing questions to move on with the lesson. I have certainly learnt a lot of interesting things today, and I hope to be able to be as smart as Ms J one day!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
ACE
Today's lesson started with a recap on the key points that we have studied on rocks. Then, Ms J told us about fieldwork, when you go out to find evidence. Ms J told us about what we will be doing when we upgrade to upper secondary (regarding fieldwork). She reminded us that Geography is not just about what the teacher says in class, it is, most importantly, about skills, interest and all. How true!
Then Ms J started lesson proper. We learnt one new topic about Geography, and that is the Layers of the Earth. A little summary:
Crust- Solid outermost layer, separate pieces called plate
floats on
Mantle- Liquid/ Molten
How to remember? Just remember the F
errero Rocher : ( picture from Wikipedia)The small circle in the chocolate: Inner Core
The circle surrounding the small one: Outer Core
The thick darker brown big circle: Mantle
The outer layer: Crust
Cool, right?
The mantle is >200 degrees C (that's super hot!) and the core is 5000 degrees C (that's super super super hot!). The core is interestingly the hottest thing on Earth! Can't imagine how hot it is? Maybe knowing that the Sun is 5000 degrees C might help you!
Here is a website regarding the temperature of the middle of the Earth: http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/PhillipChan.shtml
Then one of us asked Ms J how do scientists find out about the three layers. It was then Ms J gave us our first assignment, to find out for ourselves . We have researched, and here is the answer, taken from http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080413155742AAz6Egs :
"I'm guessing your talking about the inner core, outer core, etc...Earthquakes produce two different waved pressure waves (P waves) and shake waves (S waves), these waves are picked up all over the world after an earth quake.When an earthquake happens there would be shadow zones where no waves where picked up or only P waves where picked up... the face that S-waves where completely blocked by the core meant that there needs to be liquid... the fact that there is P wave shadow zones proved that the core is not completely liquid and there is a inner core which is solid.The shape of these shadow zones tell us the size of the inner and outer cores and in part their densities."
Understand? :)
And then the next big question came out, Why is the solid centre (Core) solid? To research was our next assignment, and to prove that we have done our homework, here is the short but direct results of "Why is the earths inner core solid?" from http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070620064611AAsJULg:
"The incredible pressure does it despite the great heat down there. ~Heat liquefies, pressure solidifies."
Then Ms J tells us something cool and interesting- there are earthquakes everyday (because of the moving crust), it is just a matter of how strong the earthquake is. Bet you'll only know that if you study Geography!
The crust is like the jigsaw puzzle on the Earth's surface. The plate boundary is where major natural disasters occur, such as flooding. Since Singapore does not experience any, does that mean we are not living near the plate boundary?
Anyways, another question popped out: What happens if plates hit each other? To know the answer, just stay tuned to the next lesson!
This lesson was great, as many interesting questions came out and thus we were able to learn more interesting stuff. It would be great if the lessons would forever be like that, with many smart questions being asked and answered. Geography is indeed one of the most interesting subject anyone can ever learn!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
She has returned! ACE (based on the lesson on 18 Feb 2011)
Ms J's back! Of course, she has also brought with her an interesting lesson, as always...
Today we learnt more about rocks (yep, they are not just stuff that form the outer crust of the Earth...), to be specific, the different types of rocks- Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic rocks (You can refer to the recent blogpost for more information about them). Ms J wanted us to present what we have written on the worksheet she has given us the day before. She split us into groups, and we had to say what we have written out, although there were some stuff that we did not understand.
Ms J showed us some pictures of the rocks, and, as you know, they were magnificent! Different rocks of different colours, shapes and sizes. Oh yes, and different types. Then she started to explain in detail what exactly are 'grain size' and 'sediments' so that we can 'understand' rocks better.
Basically, grains are the 'small scale', and rocks are the 'large scale' (remember that many grains make up a rock and many rocks make up a land form!). So, that means that 'grain size' refers to the size of the grains that make up the rock. Sedmentary is defined as, in Dictionary.com, mineral or organic matter deposited by water, air, or ice. That tells us much more about the sedimentary rocks, eh?
We believe that there is so much more exciting stuff to learn about rocks. Geography is indeed one of the best and interesting subjects that we learn in Secondary school, especially when you get such a nice and approchable teacher and such a great class, and especially in ACE Geography!
The Rock Cycle
http://www.ontariogeoscience.net/keyconceptitems/rockcycle.html
Today we learnt more about rocks (yep, they are not just stuff that form the outer crust of the Earth...), to be specific, the different types of rocks- Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic rocks (You can refer to the recent blogpost for more information about them). Ms J wanted us to present what we have written on the worksheet she has given us the day before. She split us into groups, and we had to say what we have written out, although there were some stuff that we did not understand.
Ms J showed us some pictures of the rocks, and, as you know, they were magnificent! Different rocks of different colours, shapes and sizes. Oh yes, and different types. Then she started to explain in detail what exactly are 'grain size' and 'sediments' so that we can 'understand' rocks better.
Basically, grains are the 'small scale', and rocks are the 'large scale' (remember that many grains make up a rock and many rocks make up a land form!). So, that means that 'grain size' refers to the size of the grains that make up the rock. Sedmentary is defined as, in Dictionary.com, mineral or organic matter deposited by water, air, or ice. That tells us much more about the sedimentary rocks, eh?
We believe that there is so much more exciting stuff to learn about rocks. Geography is indeed one of the best and interesting subjects that we learn in Secondary school, especially when you get such a nice and approchable teacher and such a great class, and especially in ACE Geography!
The Rock Cycle
http://www.ontariogeoscience.net/keyconceptitems/rockcycle.html
Saturday, February 19, 2011
In her absence...ACE
Hmmm...Miss J did not come on this Thursday. Joanne and I were wondering what had happened to her. However, in her absence, she left us an assignment to do. It was about rocks. We had to fill in the characteristics of the examples of the rocks provided. In the process, we learnt about the three types of rocks and the examples of each type of rock. The three main types of rocks are the igneous, the sedimentary and the metamorphic. Two examples of the igneous rock will be granite and basalt. Granite is coarse-grained while basalt is fine-grained. So, what comes to your mind when we mention coarse or fine grained? Big rice and small rice grains? NO...When it is coarse-grained, we meant that it was big and visible, while fine-grained refers to small. These two types of igneous rocks are made up of layers of magma or what we call, lava. Their textures are rough while their physical strengths are hard.
Now lets come to sedimentary rocks. We can very easily differentiate these rocks from the others as we can see the distinctive layers made by the minerals when the pressure caused to form them into rocks. Moreover, different minerals make different rocks. Usually, sedimentary rocks are softer than igneous and metamorphic rocks and when we say that, it does not mean pillow soft, but the soft that can be easily damaged by soil erosion or storms. Three examples of the sedimentary rocks will be the conglomerate, the limestone and shale. The conglomerate and the shale sedimenary rocks are fine-grained and is made by sediments. However, limestones are made by hardened remains of animals and plants. Some of the sedimentary rocks' textures are smooth while others are rough. The pictures below will give everyone a clearer idea of what is the information about.
As we can see, the layers of sedimentary rocks are very clear and concise. Beautiful aren't they?
Let us now go to metamorphic rocks. There are two examples of metamorphic rocks I would like to introduce everybody. They are marble and gnesis rocks. They are fine-grained and made up of bands. Furthermore, they have a foilated texture. Hmmm... can anyone guess what is the meaning of foilated? Chrystal came across a term called moon rocks on the web when she was doing some research. Is moon rock just a rock collected form the moon or there is something more to just a rock on the moon?
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