Global Warming by Clarisse

What is Global Warming?

Global Warming is a theory created by a Swedish scientist in 1896. Scientist predicted that it was carbon dioxide thickening the Earth's atmosphere, having more of the sun rays kept in the Earth, thus heating it up. They call this the “Greenhouse Effect” for that cause. This video by NASA has a better explanation on how the “Greenhouse Effect” is affecting us and our world.

Link: Greenhouse Effect

 How are humans creating Global Warming? 

Some of the activities we humans have been doing have been affecting our environment, which had caused the “Greenhouse Effect” to happen. For example: burning up fossil fuels such as coal emits carbon dioxide into the air. We don’t use coal that often anymore, but we do use car oil. Car oil is also a fossil fuel. That is one way we are emitting carbon dioxide into the air.

 How are human affected by Global Warming?

As that video said, the Earth heats up. Vegetation will shrivel up in heat, more droughts occur, and many countries are being hit by more tropical storms. An example by one of those storms can be the typhoon that hit Philippines (September 27, 2011). The hot air, when mixed with cold air, usually creates more wind.

How can we stop Global Warming?

For now, all we can do is to do what our school is encouraging: be eco-friendly. Walk to school or ride a bike, and if you live far away. Finds ways to get around without having more carbon dioxide released into the air. It’s only one world; we have to take care of it.

Bibliography

http://www.aip.org/history/climate/summary.htm - Last visited: 12/12/11

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15070550 - Last visited: 12/12/11

December 1st - POTW

Click here for this week's problem of the week from The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo. Please hand in by next Wednesday or email to: daniel(dot)donovan(at)tcdsb(dot)org

Happy Movember

Wired Math

This website - Wired Math - is especially designed for Grades 7 to 9 and it's made by the same people who put together Math Frog - The University of Waterloo's Mathematics Department.

Dino Dig and Math Frog

Here's a link to the game Dino Dig I was talking about at school today.  This should help you with practicing plotting coordinates. There are also lots of games available at Math Frog - don't worry that it says Grade 4 to 6. I think Grade 7's can have fun playing them too.

Math Manipulatives

Are you looking for some math manipulatives to help you with your homework? Check out the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. While you're there you can explore Pascal's Triangle.

What makes a "good" youtube video?

Use these criteria when choosing a video to share with the class:
- interesting - something to hook the audience
- generally it should be shorter than four minutes
- on topic
- content is appropriate for school
- copy the link so you can access it quickly later

Gizmos

Don't forget to go to explore learning and try out he Gizmos for mean, median and mode. While you're there, complete the multiple-choice assessments that appear below the gizmo.

Wordle

I hope you had fun using wordle. If you want to make some more wordles, you can access the website at this link.

Life After People

Here's a link to the youtube video Henry found about food decomposing on the show Life After People.

Corn Mazes

I thought you might find this article from the New York Times about corn mazes interesting.

How many nets are there for a cube?

Try the activity at this link to find out.

Bitstrips

Make sure you are working on your comic at bitstrips.

New X-Ray

You can see all 9 screws in this one.

Doodling video

Some doodling tips...

Update on Mr. Donovan

Well I guess I'll have lots of time to add things here as I had a fall just before Christmas that has put me on crutches for the last two weeks and now eight more weeks.

The story so far...
On December 23rd, after my second yoga class of the week, I was carrying Grace down the stairs using both arms and I slipped about five or six steps from the bottom. Grace seemed fine, but the impact and the deformed ankle I came face-to-face with let me immediately know that I was not fine. I pulled myself over to where the phone is, taught the kids some new expletives and got Liam to hand me the phone. I called 911 and soon an ambulance crew (4 people - the regular crew, a student, and a paramedic on her first day back after mat leave) and 2 police officers were in my holiday decorated living room. My brother came over to look after the kids and I was on my way to the hospital.

Since I had eaten breakfast, they couldn't knock me out to reduce (undislocate) the ankle, so they gave me a huge dose of narcotics (with an antidote at the ready in case I stopped breathing) reduced it a little and put a temporary cast on it. Though it was x-rayed immediately, it took the orthopedic resident about 5 or 6 hours to come down and decide that it needed to be aligned better. This time they knocked me out with a drug similar to the one I'd had 10 years earlier when I dislocated my shoulder. A couple of hours later it was time for surgery. I opted for the general anesthetic over the spinal block as I wasn't too interested in hearing or feeling anything. I woke up with yet another cast on and some serious hardware. I went home on the 24th and spent Christmas on the couch with my leg raised. Luckily we were ready so I don't think the holiday was too impacted for the kids. Of course, we didn't make it to the cottage as we planned.
In the hospital they told me that I'd be non-weight bearing (on crutches) for four weeks after my follow-up appointment. I had that appointment 2 days ago and they told me that because of a long screw connecting my tibia and fibula, it was going to be 8 more weeks non-weight bearing!

That means I'll be home - work would be a little hazardous on crutches: I couldn't get there without catching rides from people, and snow complicates things. I did get a much lighter fiberglass cast at that follow-up appointment, and the cast technician suggested getting a hands-free crutch. Today I got the crutch from a medical supply rental company. Hopefully I'll be able to get used to it so I can be a little more useful around the house.