Reasons for Seasons

Lab Report- Reasons for the Seasons

Guiding Question- How does the tilt of Earth’s axis affect the light received by Earth as it revolves around the sun?

Materials:

    Flashlight

    Paper

    Shish Kabob

    Protractor

    Toothpick

    Acetate Sheet with Grid

    Plastic Foam Ball

Procedure:

       I.            Push shish kabob into foam ball at the South Pole.

     II.            Use protractor to measure 23.5 degrees tilt of the axis away from the flashlight.

  III.            Hold the stick so that the Earth is steady and 23.5 degrees.

  IV.            Use the flashlight to light the side of the Earth.

    V.            Carefully stick the toothpick straight into the model about halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Observe and record the length of the shadow.

  VI.            Turn the model once on its axis. Observe and record the length of the shadow.

VII.            Tilt toward the flashlight. Repeat previous steps.

Observations:

Winter:

·        The sunlight is more direct at the equator and below it, and the grid is stretched at the edges.

·        The shadow of the toothpick is short.

Summer:

·        The sunlight is more direct at the equator and above it.

·        The shadow of the toothpick is longer

Conclusion:

The 7 questions to be written on blog:

1.     When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere, the north gets the least sun and the south by the equator gets the most sun. In the summer the North gets the most concentrated sun and the south has average sun.

2.     The light is stronger at the equator and the squares are smaller and closer together at the poles, the squares are bigger and more spread out.

3.     The heat in each square is less when they become larger.

4.     The warmest place is the equator it always receives light, at the poles it is the coolest but it also depends on the season, in summer the North Pole gets lots of light.

5.     In the winter the shadow of the toothpick will be the shortest and in the summer it will be the longest.

6.     When the squares are longer the area is cooler, when they are smaller

7.      The tilt, the revolution around the sun, and the revolving causes the axis to tilt near or far from the sun.  Near is summer and far is winter.  The hemispheres are opposite seasons (ex: northern is summer southern is winter at the same time). The sun hits the earth at an angle because of the axis this creates direct and indirect areas of sunlight. The more direct the sunlight the warmer it is.

Current Event Jan. 25, 2012

Hubble Catches Jupiter's Largest Moon Going to the Dark Side
NASA
Hubble Space Telescope
Dec. 20, 2008


       This article has some interesting information about Jupiter, the Hubble, and Ganymede (Jupiter's largest moon). Due to Jupiter's huge size you can only see part of its southern hemisphere. Ganymede is larger than Mercury, but looks like a pebble next to the massive Jupiter. You can see Jupiter's red spot which is a storm that has been blowing for more than 300 years, it is twice the size of Earth. You can also see some clouds and their shape. Ganymede has a 7 day revolution and travels around the giant. It is made of rock and ice and is the biggest moon in our solar system (even though it looks like a marble next to Jupiter).

         This article was great for my project and it is amazing how sharp the planets are even though they are so far away. I wonder which gases make up Jupiter's atmosphere, it says they know a few because light reflected off of Ganymede can show different gases. This is full of facts needed for my project and an overall interesting piece of information. I wonder how the Hubble telescope works. Anyhow this was a great article.

Bibliography
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). "Hubble Catches Jupiter's Largest Moon Going To The 'Dark Side'." ScienceDaily, 20 Dec. 2008. Web. 25 Jan. 2012. 

Interactions Between Living Things; My Choice: Canis Lupus (the grey wolf)

The Gray Wolf 

Scientific Name: Canis Lupus

       The gray wolf is usually a misrepresented animal, but in spite of everything bad that is said about them, what is interesting to me is the symbiotic relationship they share with ravens. The ravens provide a sort of alarm system (thanks to their always hovering around wolves), if there is notable danger the ravens fall silent or fly away. The wolves have learned to interpret this as a threat so they are known to take shelter and protect their pups. The ravens also help the wolves find prey. The ravens need the sharp teeth of the wolves to tear open the carcass of carcasses, this is why they can't just find previously dead animals and eat them (the wolves tear open the carcasses of carrion and the ravens get the leftovers). Wolves are predators, they hunt prey ranging to smaller than them to much bigger than them. In the North (From Northern USA to various parts of the Arctic circle) they eat mainly dall sheep, caribou, deer, elk, and moose. They regergitate food for their young (primarily when in the first few months of life).

 

two gray wolf pups observed by Helen and Bill Thayer

Charlie (Helen and Bill's) husky mix interacting with a wolf (possibly the one they nicknamed Mother)

A typical successful hunt ending with a young elk, notice the ravens

Rabbit Bean Populatin Results

                                                                        
This graph shows how the rabbit population grows over the years. The population doubles yearly so the rise in population becomes more dramatic the longer the rabbits reproduce as you can see from 1 to 15 years the change is size of the population is little noticed, but 16 to 20 years the population dramatically rises.


This is a closer view on years 1 to 10. You can see that the population was changing with similar results.

These are the calculated results.

Current Event

     

Predators Drive the Evolution of Poison Dart Frogs' Skin Patterns

American Naturalist by University of Montreal biologist Mathieu Chouteau.

November 21, 2011

       Poison dart frogs develop different patterns in different areas to ward off predators. A scientist make little models of frogs of different patterns including that of the local frogs. The birds pecked primarily the strange patterns. They even pecked the pattern of frogs about 10 kilometers away. This was surprising for scientist Choteau. 

       I was surprised to learn that the frogs adapted differently from the frogs just 10 kilometers away. This goes to show you how amazing animals are. I notice that we seem to know less than we think about frogs, I see new discoveries all the time about frogs. There seems to be more to some animals than what we think. The frog's adaptation saves itself and any unlucky bird who would have otherwise ate it. That makes one lucky frog and several lucky birds.

Bibliography:

University of Montreal. "Predators drive the evolution of poison dart frogs' skin patterns."ScienceDaily, 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 23 Nov. 2011.

Current Event

Whiskers Mark Milestone in Evolution of Mammals From Reptiles 
by: University of Sheffield
written November 10, 2011


       Whiskers appeared on the first mammals to help them use touch to  sense things in their environment event in the dark. This is an advantage to reptiles who are whisker-less. Even though not all mammals today have whiskers most of us have evolved from the early mammals with whiskers. This is interesting to see how we adapted to our environments, we were unable to see in the dark so somewhere along the way we mammals grew whiskers, It is neat how animals adapt to survive. It made me wonder if the maggots/flies in my project will have different behaviors in the different environments.


Bibliography:University of Sheffield. "Whiskers marked milestone in evolution of mammals from reptiles." ScienceDaily, 10 Nov. 2011. Web. 16 Nov. 2011

Russian and US Veterinarians Collaborate to Solve Mysterious Wild Tiger Deaths
September 30, 2011
Wildlife Conservation Society




Distemper (a virus that affects dogs and some wild animals) is a growing threat to Siberian Tigers. Distemper in these tigers seems to cause them to wander into cities and villages. The reports of tigers being spotted in areas highly populated by humans started around 2000, this behavior was not recorded before previously. Distemper may be being spread by wild dogs or another wild animal who has a large population of infected organisms. One or both may be acting as some sort of reservoir for the virus to reproduce and spread. Attempts will be made to lower the rise in tiger mortality rate due to the virus.

The tigers are already endangered with dwindling numbers so distemper is causing a lot of concern from all sorts of scientists. I am also concerned about the tigers some main causes of their rarity are poaching are habitat destruction. I think the tiger being endangered because humans not thinking about their actions is a bunch of crap. I think that things like tiger fur coats and rugs are worthless and pathetic.




Bibliography:

Wildlife Conservation Society. "Russian and US veterinarians collaborate to solve mysterious wild tiger deaths." ScienceDaily, 30 Sep. 2011. Web. 2 Nov. 2011.