7th – Audrey's Blog

This week we watched a documentary on plastic in the ocean. Every day, 13,000 to 15,000 pieces of plastic are dumped into the ocean worldwide. Yearly, 8 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans, on top of the 150 million that are already there. This film was very informative, it also allowed us to really better understand the problem we have in this world. The information given was very interesting and was very far from boring. We are also learning about microplastics in math, so I am very happy that we get to learn more about these things in class. We just had one of Serby’s friends zoom with us to talk about microplastics and her job.

We also started making rockets, which is super exciting. I was in a group with Alisha and Josie. We worked really well as a team and we finished our rocket pretty fast. I think we were all super chill about it, and we thought about the most efficient ways of doing things. We still need to decorate it, but I think we can do that quickly too because we already have an idea of what we want it to look like. We only have about a month left of school, so I am very excited to see what these next few weeks are going to look like.

Questions:

Is there such thing as luck? Do we make our own decisions to determine our future, or is it just fate?

Does nature or nurture form a person’s personality?

How do we know if our universe is real?

 

Our Pathfinder annual science expo is coming up soon, and the 7th grade class was asked to learn and research about a certain topic that interests them. We can also do an experiment to get data and learn more about our topic.

I chose to learn about how music effects our brains and moods. Here is my paper:

My science project will be about how music can affect the brain. Music has the ability to change our moods, like a positive song can give confidence, or influence you to be happier. A slower speed from the song can result in relaxation and allow stress to dissipate. Music not only changes your emotions or the way you feel, but it can also change the way you see things around you, your perception. Listening to music can also give your brain a total workout and reduce pain, anxiety, and blood pressure. It can also help with sleep quality, alertness and memory.

 

Three participants will be given three songs to listen to. Before the song starts, the participant will fill out a few questions on a sheet of paper about how they feel, what emotions they feel, or what they are thinking. After each song has finished, the participant will fill out the same questions, to see if the answers are different because the song has influenced or affected them. Some of these songs are nothing alike, so it will be interesting to see what the results are and what emotions can be triggered. 

 

I will also be taking the participant’s pulse before and after the song, to see if music has an effect on heart rate, too.

 

My hypothesis: Listening to certain music can help people in a certain emotional or physical state, shift into a better state of mind and help their well being. The experiment will show that music can change the way we feel.

Pulse will decrease/increase slightly, depending on the song.

 

Music is something we can all relate to, especially when it connects deeply with something tough or wonderful that is happening in our lives. We can all have a good cry listening to music, have an accomplished workout, dance around your living room by yourself without an explanation, become a confidence filled superhero, or fill yourself with love and fly. You can get any emotion from listening to music, when you allow yourself to connect with it. 

 

Music is a great source of comfort and a fantastic thing to turn to when life gives you lemons. Musical Therapy is the usage of music to help shift or change a person’s emotional or physical state. Musical Therapy involves listening to music, playing music, writing music, etc. 

 

Songs:

Say Hey (I love you); Michael Franti and Spearhead

 

So What (radio edit); P!nk

 

when the party’s over; Billie Eilish

 

These songs are very different from each other, because I want to see if different genres of music have different effects on different people. 

 

Sources:

https://www.lifehack.org/518404/the-songs-you-listen-to-can-change-the-way-you-see-the-world-a-study-finds

 

https://www.nammfoundation.org/why-musi

 

https://www.hopkinsme

Questions:

What will the results be? 😛

Why do certain people prefer certain genres of music compared to others?

Why do we, as people, care so much of what others or society thinks of us?

This week we did a lab, learning about blood types. Here is my check for understanding response.

The transfusion test helped me better understand and learn more about blood types, and which blood can and can’t be transfused. Certain people have different blood types, and that determines what blood you can put into your own body to help you after a surgery, accident, etc. I learned that type O blood is the most common blood found in humans, it is the universal donor, but only O’s can get type O blood. There are four main types of blood: type A, B, AB, and O. Type AB has both A and B antibodies, which means it can get all blood types, and it is the universal recipient. Type A can only get type A and O, and B can only get type B and O. 

 

Questions:

Does anyone else think it’s cool that goat babies are called kids, like how human children are called kids, too?

What comes to mind when you think of the word “fidget”?

Why can’t any human tell me where the spleen in located (not after you look it up)?

This week, we only had three days, so we had three science classes. We are starting on learning about the Endocrine system, which controls and holds hormones, and –in the voice and words of Shane– PUBERTY! We are also learning about the brain. Shane showed us this really weird and funny video that her previous students made, about a fictional character named Joe, and what happens after he becomes drunk at a party, and what happens to your brain.

We are learning about the adolescent brain, and how weird and awesomely interesting it is. Your brain does this really cool thing called pruning, where it gets rid of all the memories it doesn’t use anymore. Example: if you knew one creation of origami when you were 8, but now when you’re 13, the brain is gonna be like “no, we don’t need that anymore.” So, it goes along and erases it from your memory.

(Those paragraphs were from 2 weeks ago, so now i’m going to write about this week.)

This week in science we made pear hearts. What’s a pear heart you ask? Well, to better understand and to learn more about the hearts inside our bodies, we were assigned a project to make a heart out of a super ripe pear, jell-o powder, and life savers. We first had to cut the pear in half (we had partners) and then scoop out the four chambers of the heart. We stuck little tubes inside it for the veins, too, and we used the life savers for the valves. This was a really fun project.

Questions:

Why do we call the heart “heart”?

What 3 words would you use to describe yourself?

What is your favorite animated movie?

 

 

 

These past couple of weeks we have been finishing up our addiction projects, and our other project called “Coming to our senses.” I was in a group with Savannah, Selam, and Lars. We were assigned to learn about neurons and make a model. We then had to teach about our projects to the class, and we chose to teach with a game we called “The Crumple Paper Game.” This was a lot of fun for both us, and the players of the game. I had a lot of fun giving people directions, and acting like I was on a game show.

Our other project we had to do independently, and it was about how addictions on drugs, alcohol, and social media effect us, our brains, our surroundings, and our environments. I chose to learn about marijuana, and I learned lots I didn’t know. Here is some information I learned:

Being high or “stoned” from marijuana can have different effects on different people. You can feel happy or relaxed when you consume marijuana, others may feel like laughing, or have altered time and sensory perception. 

When consuming marijuana, people usually smoke or vape it, but you can also find pot in oils and tea. If you eat it, it’s called edibles. If you smoke or vape it, the drug will go into your lungs and into your bloodstream, and eventually into organs and brain. If you choose to consume edibles, the effects will take longer to kick in. 

Before you smoke pot, you are acting like a normal, civilized human being. This is because the neurotransmitters are stopping dopamine from being released. After you smoke pot, the dopamine is released, which makes you happy. You can also feel many different emotions. Some effects are:

Feeling relaxed, happy, euphoric, and laughing more than usual. 

Marijuana is now legal in 36 states. IN 2018, more than 11.8 million young adults used marijuana. THC is the ingredient in marijuana that causes you to be high, and the rate of teens and middle schoolers that vape THC is increasing. “Nearly 4% of 12th graders say they vape THC daily.” —National Institute on Drug Abuse. 

Questions:

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you go?

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “marijuana”?

Do you think you have a social media addiction?

 

 

Back from break! This week we started a project on addictions and how they effects our brains, bodies, and more. We chose an addiction from a list Shane created, things like drugs and alcohol, and even social media, because that is definitely an addiction to many people. I chose to learn about marijuana, and to be honest, I think I chose it because of all the weird names it has. I’ve learned that marijuana has some of the craziest names, including Nuggets, Mary Jane, Dope, Weed, Pot, etc.

I also learned addictions are a serious problem in the world. They have the ability to take over our minds and become something we think we can not live without. I learned that anyone can easily be pressured into taking drugs or drinking. It is extremely hard to quit being addicted to something, and with that comes a withdrawal stage, which can make you feel anxious, nauseous, and more. I learned that we, as a society have stereotypes for people who get addicted to drugs. Anyone, due to peer pressure and other reasons, can get seriously addicted to drugs, etc. I think it is a good thing we are learning about what addictions can do to us, so that when we are pressured and tempted, we understand what the consequences are.

-When did people decide to make a minute 60 seconds?

-Are there different types of bananas?

-What is the average number of people that get addicted to drugs every day?

 

–For anyone that it might be interesting to: There are different types of bananas:)

 

 

This week we finished doing the urinary system. I wasn’t at school last Monday, so I missed a bit.

Lots of things are in the blood, and not all good things. Cells die and are in the blood, and other gross things that are considered waste are in the blood, too. So, the kidneys come into play. When the blood is brought into the kidneys by the renal artery, it gets filtered by the nephrons which are in the kidneys. They take out all the bad and gross things – this is called urine. The renal vein then takes the healthy things and returns them to the body. Excess water and waste is urine. They kidneys recycle the good things back into the blood, including vitamins, amino acids, glucose, etc.

Questions:

Why is there more than one language in the world?

Do chipmunks give other chipmunks hugs?

Why are oranges called oranges?

 

In this blog I read, it talks about little moss balls that are nicknamed Glacier Mice. These moss balls roll on glaciers in Alaska and Iceland. The crazy thing about them is they roll in herds. Scientists are trying to find out why and how they move together on ice, and how they survive living on a glacier. Scientists think the moss “forms when airborne moss spores gain a foothold on a small rock or similar debris.” After that, the moss grows and shape into an oval-like ball of green. Tiny communities of creatures are created inside the balls and develop and thrive. The scientists decided they wanted to know more about these glacier mice, and started tagging them. They called it “mark and recapture.” They tagged 30 balls, and the scientists ended up returning 6 summers to check with the tagged moss balls, and they also put markers on the glaciers to track where the balls were going and coming from. They found 18 out of the 30 balls they tracked.

They discovered that moss balls can live for six years or longer, and that the balls move because of the sun. When the sun melts the glacier, the ball shades only the spot of the glacier that it is under. That part of the glacier doesn’t melt, so eventually, the ball ends up being on top of an ice tower about 2 or 3 inches tall. Then, the ball rolls off the tower. The moss ball continues to do this in order to survive, and move. But, what is amazing, is the balls don’t roll on their own, they move with the other moss balls, and they even change direction together.

Questions:

How many scientists study these amazing creatures?

Why do they travel together? How do they communicate?

What insects live inside them?

Here is the blog I used:

On an Alaskan glacier, little green moss balls roll in herds

This week we learned about the digestive system. We watched this creepy video of this dude, Slim Goodbody, and we were assigned a project. Our job is to take a “journey” through someone’s digestive system. We are supposed to write postcards about where we are at in the body, our “destinations”. I am going into Shane’s body. I think this is a little strange, but also really cool, seeing how there are all different ways to learn.

Our assignment for homework is to write 5 paragraphs about a disease or health issue, like bulimia or celiac disease. We got to choose which disease we would like to research, and I chose celiac disease because I thought it would be cool to learn more about, and I know people who have it, like my uncle.

Anyway, away from assignments, we did this really gross but amazing experiment in class on Thursday. We were put into two person groups, and one of us had to chew a saltine cracker for three minutes straight, and spit it into a cup. The other person had to crush a cracker and put it into another cup. Next, we put water into it, and then, iodine. The chewed cracker was a light purple color from the iodine, and mixed very well, but the crushed cracker did not mix very nicely. This is called chemical reaction, and it was very cool to witness.

Picture: Dylann and me stirring and staring 🙂

Questions: Will we have to go back virtual? Who invented the cello? Who decided to call the color red, red?

The title of the article I wrote about is called “Microplastics are blowing in the wind” written by Carolyn Gramling.

This article talks about tiny micro plastics that carry in the wind, from cities, to remote areas. They can travel 59 miles away, at least. New studies show, plastics are not just staying in one polluted area, they travel very quickly, and lots of new plastic drops from the wind every day. It is not a little bit of plastic, but lots. To find out how much plastic can be dropped into a location, the researchers put two big containers in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain, and visited it around every month for five months. They took that plastic when they visited, and counted all of the plastic at the end of the five months, and there was lots of it, “plenty” the article says. “An average 365 micro plastic particles per square meter (10.7 square feet) per day landed at the sight.”

These plastics came from regular things we use in our lives, like Styrofoam. Things like Styrofoam can easily be lifted into the air.

This is a very serious thing to talk about in this generation, because our lives are surrounded with plastic that is devouring our planet. Micro plastics are everywhere in our world, and we need to make a change, if we truly care what happens to ourselves, the next generation, and our earth. Hopefully we can change things before it is too late. I have hope that we can.

Why is plastic ubiquitous?

How long until single use plastics are banned anywhere in the United States?

Why aren’t plastic bags banned in Michigan?