Week 11 Science Methods 2

   1. What did you do in the lab?   

2. What was the big question? 

3. What did you learn in Thursday's discussion? 

4. Read the online textbook, Chapter 5 

        1. What did you learn? 

        2. What was most helpful? 

        3. What do you need more information on? 

5. What questions, concerns, and/or comments do you have?    

    This week in the lab, we talked about the assignment on the sweater article. We then moved into the layers of the earth and what layer is older and newer. The bottom layer of rock is going to be older than the top layer because more sediment is being added to the top layer. With this, we looked at different visuals and discussed what we thought was older/younger. However, there were different factors like faults and dykes. We talked about how these affected the different layers. We then moved into the characteristics of sand. Water creates polished, smooth, rounded sand grains. Glaciers create smooth, polished, but irregular in sized sand. Wind creates an opaque, frosted, pitted, and very fine-grained sand. We looked through a microscope to try to identify the type of sand for 11 different vials. We looked at the different characteristics of the sand to determine what we thought. It was so cool seeing the sand up close. I loved seeing the different characteristics of them. When we went over what they really were, my group was wrong over most of them. It was also interesting to find out where each of the 11 vials of sand was from.  

    In the discussion on Thursday, we did different activities. The first one was a buoyancy test with different pops. There was a tank full of water, and then guessed whether the pop would float or sink. The ones that float were Rootbeer, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew. The ones that sunk were Diet Coke, IPA, and a Pepsi that was half full. The ones that sunk were more dense than the others because of the sugar. We then moved into a book and the activity of gold vs. crown. We then did different tests to see if the crown was pure gold or had some silver in it. We did a test to see if it would float or sink. Then, we submerged the crown and then the gold to see if there was a difference in the water when it went up. The last one was to measure how much water spilled when it overflowed. We then switched this to geodes. We weighed it in the air and then in the water and used math to figure out if it was hollow or not.   

    From the reading this week, I learned about the different types of rock. Igneous rocks are formed when magma cools, and it was the first type of rock. Sedimentary rocks are formed when sediment is compacted together over a period of time, and fossils are always found in them. Metamorphic rock is formed when existing rocks undergo extreme pressure and heat. The most helpful in the reading was the rock cycle illustration. It helped me see what goes into the formation of each type of rock. I don't need anymore information, and I don't have any comments, concerns, or questions.