Super Moon

 While watching the  news   the  meteorologist  said  to  look  for the  moon  tomorrow  because  it  will  be  a  super moon .  This    sparked  my interest  in  what  the  super  moon  was  and   why  it  will  look  so  different from any  other night. So  i  looked up  some  information   to  help  me  figure it out. I  think  it  is  funny  how  it  worked out  that  we  have to  do the  moon phase journal  , its perfect timing  for  an event that we  might  have other wise  missed .

March 19 is the undoubtedly the best night to take your dear ones out for a moonlight dinner as the white orb will be 15% brighter 10% larger than normal. And if you miss it, the incident will repeat in 18 years.

Termed supermoon, experts say the full moon will occur at the same time as perigee (when the moon is at the nearest earth orbital point). The moon, otherwise at a distance of 3,84,400 km from earth, gradually comes 20,000 km closer and then moves away.

“There is no scientific significance to this. It is a non-event for astronomers. It is just that the two events are occurring together. News about earthquakes and other things are all rumors. One can only enjoy it as being bigger and brighter compared to average full-moon days,” said Piyush Pandey, director Nehru Planetarium.

Pandey added, “After 29.5 days, we have a full or new moon. Perigee and apogee occur after every 27.3 days when moon is closest and farthest. The day when both happen at the same time is termed as supermoon. This takes a lot of time as after the incident, the gap increases by 2.2 to 4.4 days and so on. They come together again only after 18 years.”

Commenting on the local weather, RV Sharma, deputy director, Indian Meteorological Department (western region), said, “There is no change in weather. Moon affects tides, which is a common incident.”

Jet stream

So, this morning  i was watching the  the news and   the weather  came on .  While giving the forecast the  weather man  said  that  we  will  be  having unusually warm temperatures due to the changes in the  jet stream. This made  me  wonder  what causes  changes in the jet stream so   I have  some  information I  found  on  what  causes these changes.
Jet streams are caused by a combination of a planet's rotation on its axis and atmospheric heating (by solar radiation and, on some planets other than Earth, internal heat). The Coriolis effect describes how a planet's surface and atmosphere rotate fastest relative to each other at the planet's equatorwhile virtually not rotating at all at the poles. Jet streams form near boundaries of adjacent air masses with significant differences in temperature, such as the polar region and the warmer air towards the equator.^[2]

In general, winds are strongest under the tropopause (except during tornadoes, hurricanes or other anomalous situations). If two air masses of different temperatures or densities meet, the resulting pressure difference caused by the density difference (which causes wind) is highest within the transition zone. The wind does not flow directly from the hot to the cold area, but is deflected by the Coriolis effect and flows along the boundary of the two air masses.^[22]

All these facts are consequences of the thermal wind relation. The balance of forces on an atmospheric parcel in the vertical direction is primarily between the pressure gradient and the force of gravity, a balance referred to as hydrostatic. In the horizontal, the dominant balance outside of the tropics is between the Coriolis effect and the pressure gradient, a balance referred to as geostrophic. Given both hydrostatic and geostrophic balance, one can derive the thermal wind relation: the vertical derivative of the horizontal wind is proportional to the horizontal temperature gradient. The sense of the relation is such that temperatures decreasing polewards implies that winds develop a larger eastward component as one moves upwards. Therefore, the strong eastward moving jet streams are in part a simple consequence of the fact that the equator is warmer than the north and south poles.^[22]

The thermal wind relation does not immediately provide an explanation for why the winds are organized in tight jets, rather than distributed more broadly over the hemisphere. There are two factors that contribute to this sharpness of the jets. The first factor is the tendency for developing cyclonic disturbances in midlatitudes to form fronts — sharp localized gradients in temperature. The polar front jet stream can be thought of as the result of thisfrontogenesis process in midlatitudes, as the storms concentrate the north-south temperature contrast into relatively narrow regions.^[15]

Matter

 The  junk  materials  lab was  a really  cool  was  to  help  us  think about  matter and  classification. I liked this activity  because  something  that  sounded  so easy  became  hard. The  first  classification   of  composure was  easy to  do   but  then  when  it   came  toe  the  usage classification  it  was  hard  because  some of the  materials  were  thing  that are  not  commonly used or  didn't  exactly  fit  into  the  groups.I  also  liked the  part  with  the  baking soda  because   in  the  beginning  we  knew  exactly  what  the  materials were but  after  adding water  to the baking soda  it  was hard to  classify  what  type of  matter it  was  even though we  know  the  definitions  of  what each type of matter is. This  made  me  think  about  how  hard  a  concept  like this  would be for  elementary children.  When  looking  up the definitions  for children  some  of the  definitions were so  complex that   some  adults might  not  understand.

Science Teaching Strategies

  For the science article assignment  I decided to  read about  a  strategy  used to  help students learn science. This  sparked  my  interest in other strategies. So  I  found a couple that  I thought  would be  useful for an elementary  classroom. One of the strategies was the  five E’s . The first step  of the  five  E strategy  is to  engage  the  children. Next  invite the children to  explore  a  little. Then  have the children explain what they have learned and  elaborate on it . The  final step  is  to  evaluate student work .  this  strategy   seems  to  be  the  most  commonly  used  in   the  classroom. Another  strategy  is to have students  make  plays  of what they learned . This  strategy  is  great  because  it  gives the  children a chance to  teach what they have learned  to  others  and  this   is  one of the  best  ways  children learn.  Another strategy  is the POE Strategy. The  P  in the strategy stands  for  Prediction in this  step  students predict what  is  going to happen. Next the  children Observe what  happens . The  final  step  is to  explain  children  explain  if their  prediction was  correct , what they  observed and  why they  think  the  outcome  happened. 

 Some other ideas  for  helping to teach science  are  by  doing case studies, role playing,  making  board games, web quests , virtual field trips, cyber guides , concept maps , Vee diagrams and  multimedia presentations.

 All  of these  strategies and ideas  seem  like  they  would  be  great  to  impliment in the  class room .

The Ice Build Up

 Through out the winter the  ice has  been  building up  in  my  drive way . I  live in an  apartment building and  its very hard  to  get  the  drive way cleaned good because there are  many cars that  get packed in a  tiny space  .  So  from   all of the cars  driving over the  snow  it  had  become a thick  sheet  of  ice . Since the temperature was nice for a  few  days we decided to finally try to break it  down some. Little did we know the ice was  about four inches thick .  I could   not  believe ho thick the  ice  got. The drive way  has  no drain and there are many  dips  so when the  snow  melted any  it  just kept  building puddles under the snow which in return   built up more ice.

Frost

 Today as I was driving to  School  I passed a  lake that is  turning into a swamp.   The  trees and plants that are growing in and  around the water  were  covered in  frost . The way  the sun shined on them  was beautiful.   The  sun   made the ice reflect and  shimmer .  The  sight  was amazing. It  made me wonder  how exactly  and  why  this  happens  in this area  but  not  others. It  was interesting to learn a little about why  this  happens.
Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air as well as below the freezing point of water.^[1] Frost crystals' size differ depending on time and water vapour available. Frost is also usually translucent in appearance. There are many types of frost, such as radiation and window frost. Frost causes economic damage when it destroys plants or hanging fruits
http://www.enotes.com/science-fact-finder/weather-climate/when-does-frost-form

Scientific Self

   One thing that  sparked  my  scientific  self  was   that  I was  woken up  by   birds this morning!!!  This reminded me  of elementary school and being taught  that all  birds fly  south   during the winter.  I  always  thought  of the  birds  flying to warmer  weather  places like Florida . It  helped  me to realize that  what is  south  for some birds is not  the same  south  for all birds .  It also  made  me  reflect  on what the  birds  could  be  eating ,  since   most  of the  plants are  dead or  covered in  snow . I   was thinking  of  how  cold  it  is and  how  small the  birds are . It  made  me wonder  how they  stay  warm  in this weather because if humans  are out in the cold  our body  temperature  decreases and  causes many problems. Those poor little  birds!!!!!!