Test

Hi this is a test

Year 8 exam format

The year 8 exam will be in the style of the SATs paper that you will sit next year and so questions will be phrased as questions are in those papers and the layout will be of a similar style to the SATs.

SATs are a test you take at the end of year 9 to test everything that you´ve learnt.

Therefore, it is highly recommended that you take a look at some past SATs papers and try to do the questions relevant to the topics you should be studying, which are Rocks and Weathering and Heating and Cooling.

Past official SATs papers can be found on http://www.satspapers.co.uk/

Year 10 - Physics end of year Exam

Year 10 you should ensure that you study the following subjects in detail:

• Chapter 4 - Forces and Energy - Pages 71-88


• Chapter 5 - Thermal Effects - Pages 97-115


• Chapter 6 - Waves, Sounds and Vibrations - Pages 123-137

You may find it useful to make a copy of the checklists at the end of each chapter and tick the items that you know, as well as taking the examination questions at the end of each chapter if you haven't already done so. Feel free to write the answers in your physics exercise books.

If you need to gain a little more confidence and get some more practice of real exam papers, try the past exam papers on the Cambridge IGCSE site. Questions you will get will be taken from Paper 1 (Multiple Choice), Paper 2 (Core longer answer), Paper 3 (Extended longer answer) and Paper 6 (Alternative to practical) so you may want to download the relevant papers from 2005 on the CIE site and familiarise yourself with what they look like.

Another good resource for you to use is the Cambridge Student site, which has some further past papers and tips, along with model answers, games and checklists. The Checklist is actually very good, so well worth downloading and printing out

BBC Bitesize is perhaps not detailed enough at your level but has some good tests and some easily accesible revision notes, so you may want to check that out too

Another site I haven't looked too closely at is crampuppy, that has a few past papers on it and some revision notes and for past GCSE papers (not IGCSE papers) try the paper bank

Remember, that if you do the work and see many past papers and do the questions, the chances are that the questions will come up. There are only a limited number of questions that you can be asked, so the more you do the more likely you are to be able to do well! Practice makes perfect!

Year 9 - End of Year SAT exam

Year 9

You will be tested on everything that you have learnt in science up to now.

You will have started practice papers in class to help you to get more confident in these types of papers. There is a lot of material to get in.

To ensure that you gain more confidence in these papers I would strongly recommend that you download the past SAT Science papers from this site. On this site they have genuine past papers that you can download for free and practice for yourself. They also include the markschemes so that you can see what the examiner will give you marks for.

I would also recommend BBC Bitesize to help you revise.

The SATS Paper site also has past papers in English and Maths, so if you need to get more practice at these then get these papers too.

Practice makes perfect!

Year 8 - End of Year exam - topics to be studied

As mentioned in class, the topics you need to study year 8 are as follows:

• 8G - Rocks and Weathering - Pages 75-86


• 8I - Heating and Cooling - Pages 97-112

Recommended revision sites are BBC Bitesize and Science Pages

Also I have reset the 2 online quizzes you have taken and may add another, so you can log on to quizstar and do these to help you revise.

Year 7 - End of Year exam - topics to be studied

As I mentioned in class the topics to be studied by year 7 for the end of year exams are as follows

• 7I - Energy Resources - Pages 99-110


• 7J - Electrical Circuits - Pages 111-124

Suggested resources for revision include the excellent BBC Bitesize website and also I have reset all the online quizzes that I wrote for 3 of the topics covered, so you ay take these any time, in school or at home with the login names that you were given.

To get to quizzes click here

Year 10 Computer quiz lesson

Year 10 - today you will be taking an online quiz on Waves, Sound and Vibration in preparation for your forthcoming test.

To take the test >>>click here to go to Quizstar<<< and log in with the username and password you were given last time.

Just as a reminder, your username will be in the form temsyr1000_ _ where the last 2 numbers are your individual login number according to where you are in the register. You should have this written down somewhere.

Once you have logged in take the test entitled Year 10 - Waves Sounds and Vibrations

You will have 2 attempts with 25 minutes each time.

Good luck!

When you have finished, you are still here to revise, so you will be expected to continue with your revision, using online resources. One resource you can use is BBC Bitesize, which has some excellent online tests you can take to prepare yourself.

Youtube is NOT an option for revision, and as usual, if you decide that you can't revise using a computer, then your computer will be switched off and you will be expected to revise using your books.

Ripple Tank - Year 10

Year 10 - I would strongly recommend that you read up and look at ripple tank experiments on the web before the test on Wednesday as you have been unable to see the results yourself in class. One I can recommend is the Wikipedia entry on ripple tanks

Year 9 - When you've finished

You are here to revise so if you finish early go to the BBC's Bitesize website and try their tests. All preparation is good preparation!

Games about Electricity

Well done Javier for finding this site

Year 7 - End of test

Once you've finished try taking the quiz on the BBC Bitesize website

Year 7 Computer lesson

Year 7 - you are in the computer labs today to revise for Mondays test on Electrical circuits. You are not here to play and waste time

To take the online test go to the Quizstar site and log in using the password and username given to you

Year 10 test

Year 10 test on Sound and soundwaves will be on Wednesday 30th May

Year 9 test on Pressure

Year 9 test on Pressure will be first lesson next week, 9P Monday 28th May, 9S on Tuesday 29th May

Year 7 Test next Monday

I've already mentioned in class, year 7 test on unit 7J next Monday, the 28th of May, both classes

Real science questions and answers

The New Scientist magazine is a great magazine for reading about real life advances in science and every issue it has a section called "The Last Word" in which people ask questions that are science related but a litle puzzling, like "Does anything eat wasps" and the next month someone writes in with the answer.

You can find the latest questions and answers on their site here

Some pictures for Biology students taken with a Scanning Electron Microscope

Check out this site for pics of small creatures taken with a very powerful microscope.

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/7649/index.htm

For year 10, the reason that this microscope is so powerful is that the microscope uses electrons which have a very short wavelength (high frequency) and so they don't difract until the gaps between the objects being scanned become very very small.

Year 8 Books due in last lesson this week

Year 8 books will be taken in for marking at the end of this week, that means Thursday for 8P, Friday for 8C

Year 10 - The mosquito ringtone

I mentioned in class about a ringtone that you can download that has such a high frequency that I think only the girls will hear it.

Check it out here on http://www.freemosquitoringtone.org/about.php

All sound are waves and different frequencies (pitch) give different sounds. The theory is that as you get older your hearing decreases and you hear less frequencies of sound.

So they invented a ringtone that has a really high frequency and in theory older people (i.e. your parents) would not be able to hear the phone if you have a really high frequency!

Try out the ringtones on http://www.freemosquitoringtone.org/

Year 8 Flying object project

Don't forget to bring in your materials for creating your flying objects next lesson. Remember that the main fuel will be a piece of cotton wool dipped in alcohol. You only get one chance to make it take off so a good design is vital

Year 7 books due in - reminder

Year 7 books will be collected in last lesson this week as you have been told in class.

Year 10 Quizstar lesson

Today you will be taking an online quiz, which has been designed to show you how much you know about the topic you have been studying, which is Thermal physics.

To take the quiz, click through to quizstar and choose the Year 10 quiz on Thermal physics.

Before you begin, make sure you READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!

Good luck...

Particle model year 10

Thought you year 10 might appreciate this http://www.chm.davidson.edu/ronutt/che115/PistCyl/PistCyl.htm

Finished the quiz year 9?

When you've finished, what you need to do is write a summary of the unit with any possible questions that you think may come up in the forum. This way you all prepare yourselves together!

To do that click HERE, sign in and post your revision tips on the year 9 forum

Argh I forgot to hand my book in - can you mark it even though it's a day late?

No

The simple answer to that question is no.

If the book is not in on the day it is due in you get zero because as you can see from the last set of announcements, I have to mark a set of books a day. That means I set aside more than 2 hours to mark a set of books. If they are there they get marked.

If they're not then you get zero.

I simply DO NOT HAVE THE TIME to mark any books that are in late.

You know this already.

So don't try to get me to mark books late. I just physically cannot do it. There are not enough hours in the day.

No book, no marks.

Year 10 books in Wednesday

I mentioned this in class on Monday. Books in tomorrow, Wednesday to mark ready for test coming Monday. Hand it in or lose the marks.

Year 10 - Test on Monday (23rd April)

Probably best make sure you understand Conduction, convection and radiation in terms of particle then...

Year 9 - Test next Thursday (26th April)

Probably best start revising now then...

Year 9 - I will be taking your books in on Thursday

Year 9 I need to mark your books before you take the test for this unit so ensure you hand your book in THIS THURSDAY. If you have started a new book recently make sure your old book comes in too.

Remember if the book does not come in you get NO MARKS.

Year 7 and Year 8 Quiz update

After the last 2 days of quizzes online on quizstar I have reset the quizzes so that you may take the quizzes again before the test to help you revise.

If you wish to take the quiz again just click the quizstar link in the side bar or above and log in as you did in class.

One reminder though..

DON'T USE THE BACK BUTTON ON THE BROWSER OR THE QUIZ BREAKS!!!!

Year 10 - books in Wednesday reminder

All work to be in on wednesday for marking. No excuses.

Test for year 10 next Monday.

Year 7 Quizstar lesson

Today you will be taking an online quiz, which has been designed for you to see how much work you need to do before the test at the end of the week.

To access the quiz you need to go to the quizstar site, http://quizstar.4teachers.org/ and log into the student area with your username and password.

Once in take the quiz entitled "Year 7 test on Energy" - Further instructions will be given to you when you log in.

Once you have finished I want to see you revising for your test properly.

Some sites you may want to look at include BBC Bitesize, Doc Browns revision site, Squashed Frogs and CGP Online

There are so many revision sites in fact that I expect to see you on one and if you can't revise using computers, you will be asked to switch your computer off and revise from your books.

Good luck with the quiz and the test, which will be at the end of the week!

Year 8 Quiz on Rocks and Weathering

To take todays quiz on Rocks and Weathering go to http://quizstar.4teachers.org/ and log in with the username and password you used last time.

Take the quiz on Rocks and Weathering. Same drill as last time.

20 multiple choice questions, 20 minutes, 2 attempts.

First time no books, Second time books allowed and after the test is over you will be given the answers and your mark.

After you have finished, go to the forum http://physics7.proboards77.com/ and post a song on rocks (A "Rock song") on the year 8 forum.

And no after the quiz is over you can't just mess around. I will be reading all the songs when they go up and I expect everyone to have a go.

Quizstar quiz this week years 7, 8 and 9

Year 7 and 8 are coming up to end-of-unit tests this week.

As usual I have prepared a computer quiz which we will be having some time this week before the test so make sure you start revising early.

Year 7 tests (7I-Energy Resources) on Thursday (7A) and Friday (7J)

Year 8 tests on Thursday (8P) and Friday (8C)

Year 9 tests start of next week and quizstar online quiz on Friday (both classes)

Diary of... a y9 SCIENCE class - March 22nd 2007

Hello,
Today wasn't one of most fun lessons but... all lessons can't be fun and this way enjoy more the better ones so...
Well, we continued with the topic about reactivity and Andy tried a demo but... it didn't work. He was trying to evaporate water and transport it through a tube to a test tube with magnesium in it, so that it reacted, and then transport the hydrogen given off to an upside down test tube full with water so that we could after do the hydrogen test. Well, we would have like to see it but... we are not gonna die, no? Something went wrong so nothing hapenned.
That's all folks.
See you.

Planning ahead - Year 7 - books due in on the Tuesday after you return

Year 7, as I mentioned today in class, your books will be collected in on the Tuesday after we return from the Easter break.

As I have said for year 8 below, MAKE SURE YOUR BOOK COMES IN by the end of the day at the latest. No book no mark, and the grades go towards next terms grade.

Planning ahead - Year 8 - books due in Next Tuesday

Year 8, as I mentioned in class today, I will be collecting your books in for marking next Tuesday, so make sure that your book is with me by the end of Tuesday at the very latest and all the work is complete.

The marks from that marking will go towards your grade next term, so if you can't get your book to me on Tuesday get it to me earlier, but whatever you do don't just NOT hand a book in.

You've been warned

Caesium and rubidium

well you asked for it...

Genes in America

Hi its me Naika from NY! Im here to tell you what another school is doing while your with your experiments. We're studing genes over here, and we've seen dominant and recessive genes and punnet squares and how to use them and figure out what genes the offspring could have. We're going to watch a national geografic video on sexual reproduction (after the school finishes editing it!).

Diary of... a y9 SCIENCE class - March 16th & 19th 2007

Hello,
Sorry for delaying my post about last class on Friday. But I'll talk about them in one post.

FRIDAY:
We started talking about metals reacting in water and did some exercises. We also did four experiments: reacting calcium powder in cold water, reacting magnesium strip with cold water, reacting calcium powder with hot water & reacting magnesium strip with hot water. The reactions with magnesium were a bit boring, almost nothing happened. But with calcium.... it actually blew up when it reacted. But thinking about this: in a previous experiment Andy didn't give us powdered magnesium because it was dangerous, and now: he gives us powdered calcium which is really more reactive than magnesium. We could accidentally have thrown some in the Bunsen burners (some people maybe not accidentally - not me, I'm not that stupid)!!!!!
Andy?????

Well, let's continue with today's class (MONDAY):
Today we talked about the reactivity series. And Andy, to demonstrate the order in the RS, did some amazing demos: he first reacted calcium with lots of water with universal indicator, it wasn't a very entertaining reaction, but... We still had to see the next ones. Secondly, he reacted sodium with water and universal indicator, wow! it gave lots of hydrogen. But the next one was, without any wonder, the big winner: He reacted potassium with water and universal indicator: it immediately exploded and went on fire, burning all the huge amount of hydrogen which was being produced. With the last one, Andy didn't need to do the hydrogen test, it was already taking place. The universal indicator was added to prove that an alkaline product was given off: the metal hydroxide. That's why these metals and the ones in the same group in the periodic table (group 1) are called: alkaline metals.
Well: that was all.

Don't forget that we need to do at least half a page about properties of the metals in group two (alkaline earth metals).

See you next time.

Want to know what happens when you burn calcium?

Wow! It melted the test tube!

And how could these children have seen this without getting blind?

Andy: now you know without doing it. Although... it doesn't look very dangerous.

The Adventures of Mini-Andy: Always wanted to take mini-Andy out but can't be bothered to apply?

The Adventures of Mini-Andy: Always wanted to take mini-Andy out but can't be bothered to apply?

Practice makes perfect

I was looking today for an old book that I used when I was studying GCSE - it was a great book just FULL of questions that was perfect for studying and practising and I found it - it's this one.



I suggest that, especially if you're in year 10 you get your hands on a copy of this - it's a great thing to own and to practice.

Also, if you're having trouble with any of the topics we are studying I would suggest CGP revision guides and practice questions.

You can find these on www.cgpbooks.co.uk

Diary of... a y9 SCIENCE class - March 15th 2007

Hye guys,
Today we didn't do alot: we did some exercises about metals reacting in water and we talked about The Bread. Have any of you smelt it? Disgusting! And it is not even green! The expiry date was the 27th of January!
Anyway...
bye.

P.s.: Andy, if we did today the exercises of metals reacting with water, are we going to do next lesson the famous amazing explosion?

haha! Nice try year 10

To those of you retaking the test tomorrow, just a quick note to say that it will be completely different to the one that you sat last time, but still on the topic of energy and force.

The reason?

Someone decided to leave the room with one of the test papers at the end of the lesson, so I've had to write another one. Just so that whoever took the test doesn't revise the answers.

I know who it is.

So a completely different test, all on the same topic and you will be expected to get over 50%.

Good luck!

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - March 12th 2007

Hello,
Today Andy gave us back our tests corrected. I hope everybody got a good grade.
After that, we started the new topic. We also did an amazing experiment: we got a little piece of sodium and threw it a big glass bottle with some water in it. It started fizzing. Andy, then, covered the bottle so that the hydrogen produced didn't escape. We then litted it with a match. A flat flame appeared going downwards inside the bottle and it made a very strange squeak which longed for more than a second. It longed much more than the hydrogen we did reacting a metal with an acid as we produced much more hydrogen.
Bye.

Next units

Pretty much all my classes had tests this week so you will now be moving on to the next units. These are as follows:

Year 7: 7I: Energy Resources, from page 99
Year 8: 8G: Rocks and Weathering, from page 75
Year 9: 9F: Patterns of Reactivity, from page 67
Year 10: Thermal Effects, from page 97

It is unlikely that I will be able to get another test in before the reports are due, which means it is even more important when studying these units that you do good classwork, homework and experiment write-ups and pay attention to the deadlines, because this is the only way you will be able to improve your report grade.

Remember, books not handed in by the deadline for whatever reason will not be marked and attract an automatic zero.

Reminder - year 11 books in on Wednesday

That means YOU!

Girls in science site

I just got sent a link to a science girls site thing. It's called Girls go Tech and you can reach it by clicking here

Lighting a match with steam

Useful for showing that steam has a higher temperature than 100 Celsius and also that steam has kinetic energy.

andy, i don't really understand a question from the quiz.

andy, when it said on the question... if the cat was dropped from the 6th floor, when would it hace half of its kinetic energy, is that just halving the number of the floor?, or is it a trick question?
and another one. the question about the men lifting bricks. how would you know which one does more power, because they don't give you any magnitudes to have you calculate...
meli

Want to learn stuff but can't be bothered to read?

I was just trawling the website of my old university and found some really interesting podcasts by leading academics. They talk about really interesting issues that may be very relevant to any subject you are studying in school and the people that record these are world-renowned professionals in many cases.

You can check out the podcasts by going to http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/audio/

Year 10 you may find the one about the nuclear energy debate useful - especially Melissa after our chat.

I think that a lot of the boys will appreciate the one on football management decisions and people into Terry Pratchet books will appreciate the one on the Science of Discworld

And the best thing about it? No reading - you just put it on your MP3 player and listen!

Energy Resources Yr10

You can see on the BBC website, Renewable Energy is a big issue in todays society

Yr 7 and Yr8 tests also reset

As with yr 10 yr8 and yr7 tests have been reset to allow you to do them again over the weekend at home.

http://quizstar.4teachers.org/

Year 10 - quizzes reactivated

I've reset the quiz that you took today in class to allow you to use it for revision at home.

This means that now you can retake the quiz again, twice as before. At the end of taking it twice you will be given the answers.

Just an idea but I suggest that you change your password in the profile bit and also I suggest you take this on perhaps Saturday night and Sunday night after some revision to see how much you know after all that revision.

And yes the exam on Monday will be as hard as this and maybe even harder. It's a test to see how much you know. No trick questions just good solid physics questions.

Good luck!

To get to that test go to http://quizstar.4teachers.org/

Oh yeah I've also added a test I made for year 8 once about forces to help you revise what a force is - Thought it may be of some use.

science games can be found in this webpage

Year 10 Revision Quiz lesson

In this lesson you will be taking a quiz to help you to revise for the test on Monday.

To take the quiz, click here to go to the Quizstar site and log in with the details that Andy has given you.

You will be asked to take the quiz up to two times. The first time you can't use your books at all and this will show you how much you know at the moment and how much you need to revise. When you complete the quiz you will be given a grade immediately.

The second time you may use your books.

In each case you are permitted to use a calculator.

If you manage to finish early then I want you to research only ONE piece of information on James Joule and post it on the Forum. You MUST post a different piece of information than everyone else! THis way we'll slowly build up a profile of this man piece by piece. So no wholesale copy and paste, just a single sentence on him.

Good luck!

Year 7 - Milk

Year 7 - Can we stop making the mistake of saying that milk is a solvent - it is a mixture of lots of different things in solution!

Thanks I just wanted to get that off my chest...

Year 10 - Various tests

I've just found this link to lots of online quizzes you can take in preparation for the test on Monday and the quiz tomorrow. Why not try them by clicking HERE

Year 7 Solubility revision test

If you want to take a quiz in preparation for the test on Monday, try the one on the BBC website, found by Ariadna

Just click here to take this quiz!

More quizzes on the same topic can be found here

This topic is ALSO relevant for the year 9 test tomorrow!

Year 7 Computer lesson

Today you will be taking an online quiz in preparation for your test on Monday.

To access the test you need to go to the Quizstar site and log on using the login name and password I have given you.

The quiz is multiple choice and you will be asked to click the correct answer for 20 questions.

At the end of the quiz you will be given your mark straight away.

You will be expected to take the quiz twice. The first time I expect you to take the quiz with no books open and without talking to anyone else about it.

Once you have taken it once, return to the start and take it again, to try and improve your grade. The second time you may have all your books open and you may discuss.

Once you have finished the quiz, I expect to see you revising for your test on Monday not wasting time.

To get started on the quiz >>>CLICK HERE<<<

Test reminders

Most of my classes have tests coming up.

Here are the days:

Year 7 - Monday
Year 8
8C - Monday
8P - Tuesday
Year 9 - This Friday
Year 10 - Monday

You have already been warned in class more than a week in advance.

Good luck!

Genetics

Y10-Look forward to lovely homework questions tomorrow! Genetics calculations...

K

Chemical Reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that results in the interconversion of chemical substances . The substance or substances initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants. Chemical reactions are characterized by a chemical change, and they yield one or more products which are, in general, different from the reactants. Classically, chemical reactions encompass changes that strictly involve the motion of electrons in the forming and breaking of chemical bonds, although the general concept of a chemical reaction, in particular the notion of a chemical equation, is applicable to transformations of elementary particles, as well as nuclear reactions. On the classical definition, therefore, there are only two types of chemical reaction: redox reactions and acid-base reactions. The former involve the motion of lone electrons and the latter of an electron pair.

Different chemical reactions are used in combinations in chemical synthesis in order to get a desired product. In biochemistry, series of chemical reactions form metabolic pathways, since straight synthesis of a product would be energetically impossible in conditions within a cell. Chemical reactions are also divided into organic reactions and inorganic reactions.

Some reaction are:

• Isomerisation, in which a chemical compound undergoes a structural rearrangement without any change in its net atomic composition; see stereoisomerism
• Direct combination or synthesis, in which two or more chemical elements or compounds unite to form a more complex product:

N₂ + 3H₂ → 2NH₃

• Chemical decomposition or analysis, in which a compound is decomposed into smaller compounds or elements:

2H₂O → 2H₂ + O₂

• Single displacement or substitution, characterized by an element being displaced out of a compound by a more reactive element:

2Na + 2HCl → 2NaCl + H₂

• Double displacement or coupling substitution , in which two compounds in aqueous solution (usually ionic) exchange elements or ions to form different compounds:

NaCl + AgNO₃ → NaNO₃ + AgCl

• Combustion, in which any combustible substance combines with an oxidizing element, usually oxygen, to generate heat and form oxidized products. The term combustion is used usually only large-scale oxidation of whole molecules, i.e. a controlled oxidation of a single functional group is not combustion.

C₁₀H₈+ 12O₂ → 10CO₂ + 4H₂O

CH₂S + 6F₂ → CF₄ + 2 HF + SF₆

The cork in bottle

The Cork OFF The Bottle Trick - The best video clips are here

I told you it could be done! And well done to year 9 for doing it too, although this guy makes it look a lot easier doesn't he!

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - March 5th 2007

Hello guys,
Today we started revising the properties of metals and non-metals and ways of separating a metal from its ore (Electrolysis, displacement & smelting) because in the quiz we did on quizstar we were asked about them and some went: "¡UH?!" (We haven't done yet, so...).
Andy explained us how electrolysis work with a little experiment: having electricity go through a solution of salt in water. Chlorine gas and sodium were produced, but sodium reacted very quickly with the water producing sodium hydroxide. We couldn't smell the chlorine because it is a poisonous gas (the nazis used it in concentration camps), so be careful if you do it at home!
We also did something that isn't related to the topic: Who to get the cork out of an empty wine bottle? We used a plastic bag. We stuck it inside the bottle except for the mouth, we blew the bag up and then took the bag out and... the cork went out with it!
Today's was a fun class indeed.
See ya'.

DNA

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions for the development and functioning of living organisms. All living things contain DNA genomes. A possible exception is a group of viruses that have RNA genomes, but viruses are not normally considered living organisms. The main role of DNA in the cell is the long-term storage of information. The genome is often compared to a set of blueprints, since it contains the instructions to construct other components of the cell, such as proteins and RNA molecules. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the expression of genetic information.

In eukaryotes such as animals and plants, DNA is stored inside the cell nucleus, while in prokaryotes such as bacteria, the DNA is in the cell's cytoplasm. Unlike enzymes, DNA does not participate directly in most of the biochemical reactions it controls; rather, various enzymes act on DNA and copy its information into either more DNA, in DNA replication, or transcribe and translate it into protein. In chromosomes, chromatin proteins such as histones compact and organize DNA, which helps control its interactions with other proteins in the nucleus.

DNA is a long polymer of simple units called nucleotides, which are held together by a backbone made of sugars and phosphate groups. This backbone carries four types of molecules called bases, and it is the sequence of these four bases that encodes information. The major function of DNA is to encode the sequence of amino acid residues in proteins, using the genetic code. To read the genetic code, cells make a copy of a stretch of DNA in the nucleic acid RNA. Some RNA copies are used to direct protein biosynthesis, but others are used directly as parts of ribosomes or spliceosomes.

Animal Cell

An animal cell is a form of eukaryotic cell which make up many tissues in animals. The animal cell is distinct from other eukaryotes, most notably plant cells, as they lack cell walls and chloroplasts, and they have smaller vacuoles. Due to the lack of a rigid cell wall, animal cells appear to be circular (though are often deformed by surrounding cells) under microscopes - in three dimensions the cells are normally spherical. Human cells are biologically categorized as animal cells.

Cytoplasm
All cells consist of a jelly-like substance called Cytoplasm.The cytoplasm allows substances such as food and oxygen to move around within the cell take place in a cytoplasm .

Cell membrane
Surrounding the cytoplasm is a soft and thin cell membrane.The cell membrane holds the cytoplasm inside it. It also controls substances that go in or out of the cell.

Nucleus
In both plant and animal cells, there is a nucleus found in the cytoplasm. The nucleus is a very important part of a cell. It controls everything that happens inside the cell.

Year 8 computer lesson

I presume everyone saw the lunar eclipse on Saturday night - magnificent huh!

Anyway in todays lesson you will be doing a multiple choice quiz online to help you to revise for the end of unit test.

Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, the test cannot be held on Thursday (you'll see why) but, will have to be held first lesson next week for each class, i.e. Monday 8C and Tuesday 8P.

This does mean that this week will be rather dull revision I'm afraid but this is beyond my control.

In todays lesson you will take an online quiz using a site called quizstar

I have written the test by looking at the chapter you have just studied, but not the test paper, as this would influence the questions I write. The questions I present here give a broad idea of the type of information you need to know, but I can't say if it has any resemblance to how the final test will look.

You will have 2 goes to complete the test and a maximum of 20 minutes each time.

Initially, I want you to do it with no book to see what you get.

At the end of the test, the computer will work out your grade straight away and you will be told what you got.

After your result comes back, you may do it again one time with your book open.

In each case you must not talk to anyone about it, as this is under test conditions to help you to practice.

Because this is under test conditions usual test rules apply. These include:

No talking
No using msn or email to communicate. If anyone is caught with any other windows open during the session they will be taken off the computer immediately no argument heard and will not be allowed to take the practice test.

You have been warned.

At the end of the test when you finish you need to go to the Science Heaven Forum Year 9 Page

On there, I want you to write a limerick about ANYTHING YOU HAVE STUDIED SO FAR.

Limericks are 5 line verses where the first and second line rhyme with the fifth line and the second and third line rhyme with each other.

An example of a limerick would be

There was a young man from Dealing
Who caught the bus for Ealing.
It said on the door
Don't spit on the floor
So he jumped up and spat on the ceiling

or

A mosquito was heard to complain,
'A chemist has poisoned my brain!'
The cause of his sorrow
was paradichloro-
triphenyldichloroethane.

or

The soil had so much uranium
It killed my prize geranium.
It would have won shows
But now it just glows
Enough to light up a stadium

You may have noticed, that limericks have a certain pattern to them that looks a bit like this

d'DAH-dah d'DAH-dah d'DAH (dah)
d'DAH-dah d'DAH-dah d'DAH (dah)
d'DAH-dah d'DAH
d'DAH-dah d'DAH
d'DAH-dah d'DAH-dah d'DAH

So I'd like to see at least one limerick from everyone by the end of the session. You will need to join the forum before you can post, and the link to join is up the top of the forum somewhere.

I shouldn't see any other windows open other than this one www.scienceheaven.com, quizstar, and the forum

Enjoy!

Comets

A comet is a small body in the solar system that orbits the Sun and (at least occasionally) exhibits a coma (or atmosphere) and/or a tail — both primarily from the effects of solar radiation upon the comet's nucleus, which itself is a minor body composed of rock, dust, and ice. Comets' orbits are constantly changing: their origins are in the outer solar system, and they have a propensity to be highly affected (or perturbed) by relatively close approaches to the major planets. Some are moved into sungrazing orbits that destroy the comets when they near the Sun, while others are thrown out of the solar system forever.

Comets are usually discovered visually or photographically using a wide-field telescope or other optical means of magnification, such as binoculars. However, even without access to optical equipment, it is still possible to discover a sungrazing comet online with a computer and an Internet connection.

Most comets are believed to originate in a cloud (the Oort cloud) at large distances from the Sun consisting of debris left over from the condensation of the solar nebula; the outer edges of such nebulae are cool enough that water exists in a solid (rather than gaseous) state. Asteroids originate via a different process, but very old comets which have lost all their volatile materials may come to resemble asteroids.

Year 9 Test dates next week - Friday test NOT Thursday

Unfortunately (for me) I can't set the test on Thursday so year 9 I had a choice to either do it Wednesday or Friday.

I realise that some of you have a French test that day, but the alternative is Wednesday and I'm sure that you won't mind the extra day study.

Good luck for FRIDAY'S test and don't forget you can use quizstar to help you revise too

Year 10 Homework - Due Wednesday

Your task is to summarise the works done in class on energy.

By Wednesday, I expect you to hand in an interesting summary of AT LEAST 2 A4 sides on the energy resources researched by your class in Fridays lesson.

Remember that you can still add to this information now. Make sure also that EVERYONE in your group has added SOMETHING - as I will also be checking to see that you have contributed to the research when I assign marks.

On top of this I expect to see the Brake Test worksheet done as I will be marking that and also I asked for the questions on Page 87, which after all that research, should be remarkably easy.

Looking forward to recieving your books, complete with your full names on them.

Electron Microscopes

Electron microscopes, which use beams of electrons instead of light, are designed for very high magnification usage. Electrons, which have a much smaller wavelength than visible light, allow a much higher resolution. The main limitation of the electron beam is that it must pass through a vacuum as air molecules would otherwise scatter the beam.
Instead of relying on refraction, lenses for electron microscopes are specially designed electromagnets which generates magnetic fields that are approximately parallel to the direction that electrons travel. The electrons are typically detected by a phosphor screen, photographic film or a CCD.

Two major variants of electron microscopes exist:

Scanning electron microscope: looks at the surface of bulk objects by scanning the surface with a fine electron beam and measuring reflection. May also be used for spectroscopy.
Transmission electron microscope: passes electrons completely through the sample, analogous to basic optical microscopy. This requires careful sample preparation, since electrons are scattered so strongly by most materials. It can also obtain detailed information on the sample's crystallography through selected area diffraction.

Virtual Lab

NASA has done a program which can be downloaded by clicking here. This program is called Virtual Lab, and consists of downloadable images taken with powerfull microscopes. There are alot of strange images you can download, as a water beetle.

Year 9 Computer room lesson 02 March 2007

In todays lesson you will be taking an online test using a site called Quizstar.

It is a multiple choice test and is just a practice test to warm you up for your test next week, which is next Thursday, the 8th of March. The test is not for me to judge you, but for you to judge yourself and to assess how much work you will need to put in to get a great mark next week.

I have written the test by looking at the chapter you have just studied, but not the test paper, as this would influence the questions I write. The questions I present here give a broad idea of the type of information you need to know, but I can't say if it has any resemblance to how the final test will look.

You will have 2 goes to complete the test and a maximum of 20 minutes each time.

Initially, I want you to do it with no book to see what you get.

At the end of the test, the computer will work out your grade straight away and you will be told what you got.

After your result comes back, you may do it again one time with your book open.

In each case you must not talk to anyone about it, as this is under test conditions to help you to practice.

Because this is under test conditions usual test rules apply. These include:

No talking
No using msn or email to communicate. If anyone is caught with any other windows open during the session they will be taken off the computer immediately no argument heard and will not be allowed to take the practice test.

You have been warned.

At the end of the test when you finish you need to go to the Science Heaven Forum Year 9 Page

On there, I want you to write a limerick about ANYTHING RELATED TO CHEMISTRY.

Limericks are 5 line verses where the first and second line rhyme with the fifth line and the second and third line rhyme with each other.

An example of a limerick would be

There was a young man from Dealing
Who caught the bus for Ealing.
It said on the door
Don't spit on the floor
So he jumped up and spat on the ceiling

or

A mosquito was heard to complain,
'A chemist has poisoned my brain!'
The cause of his sorrow
was paradichloro-
triphenyldichloroethane.

or

The soil had so much uranium
It killed my prize geranium.
It would have won shows
But now it just glows
Enough to light up a stadium

You may have noticed, that limericks have a certain pattern to them that looks a bit like this

d'DAH-dah d'DAH-dah d'DAH (dah)
d'DAH-dah d'DAH-dah d'DAH (dah)
d'DAH-dah d'DAH
d'DAH-dah d'DAH
d'DAH-dah d'DAH-dah d'DAH

So I'd like to see at least one limerick from everyone by the end of the session. You will need to join the forum before you can post, and the link to join is up the top of the forum somewhere.

I shouldn't see any other windows open other than this one www.scienceheaven.com, quizstar, and the forum

Enjoy!

2nd March - Year 10 Group Research Exercise

As I mentioned yesterday, you will be doing your work today entirely online on the science forum, and hence you SHOULD have created yourself a profile so that you can post on there already.

If you haven't, you will need to do that before you begin, which will take about 5 minutes. You were told to do this yesterday, so if you haven't done so, and you don't know how, you will need to ask someone else in your group to help you.

Each group will be researching 2 different topics. The topics are:

Hydroelectric power

Tidal Energy

Wind Energy

Wave Energy

Geothermal Energy

Solar Energy

Biofuels

Saving energy

Fossil Fuels

Nuclear Fuels

There will be five groups that I assign (no you're not working with whoever you like) and each group will have 2 headings to research between them.

In your books, on pages 86-89, you have the bare minimum of information on these topics, but your task is to scour the internet and find out relevant information about all of these topics and present them to the class on the forum in a form that they can understand.

When you present information on the internet you must be aware of how it is set out and may need to consider a number of factors, like layout and structure of your information so that when you all post your information it doesn't turn into a big jumbled mess.

All of these topics are MUCH more indepth than the book lets on. For example you may want to look at the present state of each type of energy resource, how efficient it is, examples of where they are being used in the world at the moment, the history and development of each type of resource or the profits that can be made by each type.

This is not simply a cut and paste exercise, as every pupil can post on every other site and ask questions and the chances are I will be posting on the group sites and asking questions to see if you REALLY know what you're talking about or not.

So the task is pretty complex.

1 - you look up a good amount of information in your group on the subjects I set you

2 - you go and check out the other groups sites and test that they know their stuff too

3 - H/W - For homework you will be writing summaries in your books of each of the different types of energy resources, using the information gathered by the all of the groups. It must be at least 2 pages long.

So now it's up to you to get collecting and to start posting on the forum.

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - March 1st 2007

Hello,
Today was the day our books had to be given to Andy to be corrected, so, if you haven't give it... TOUGH!
We continued with the topic and did an experiment: reacting copper oxide and zinc oxide with sulphuric acid (not all in one test tube). It wasn't very "exciting" but it was OK because it is related with reactions.
That's all we did.
REMEMBER: next Thursday 8th we have the test about chapter E of our textbook and what we did in our notebook about reactions.
See you tomorrow.

homework from cesar serrano escudero

WHAT IS A CHEMICAL REACTION?

Well this is a simple explanation of what a chemical reaction is:
A chemical reaction is a proces in wich two chemical substances join together and react.The substances that react are called REACTANTS.What they make is called a product.
this is an invented example:1 plus 2 equals 3
so 1 and 2 are the reactants
and 3 is the product


NUCLEAR REACTIONS

I was very interested in the nuclear reaction but it was very dificult so i only wrote a little about it.
A nuclear reaction is when two nuclear particles collide to produce different products.
tomorow I will show you some photos and videos of reactions in the web today I can t

Cesar serrano escudero y8c

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - February 26th 2007

Hello guys,
Today we had to finish all the experiments reports we haven't done as Andy is collecting them on next class (Thursday); he had already said this and he has posted it on the web so... we don't have an excuse (not at least that he didn't told it to us or any of us were not here: ¡We all came today!).
We also have to finish the acids handout's exercises (all except for number two).
Bye.

Need a bit more revision?

If you're finding that you're a little behind or want to read a little more in an easy and fun way try CGP books which are a great way to revise.

You can also buy them second hand on Amazon by typing CGP in the link below.



Years 7-9 you will need Science KS3 for the course we are on.

Year 9 - Books due in Thursday

Like I said at the end of last term and as Javi mentioned I will be taking year 9 books in for marking. I will do this on Thursday, and the main focus as I mentioned is on the Experiment you were writing up in the last week as well as some questions you will be set this week.

Remember your book MUST be with me by Thursday or you will simply get zero.

Marking grades

I will give most calculation exercises a numerical mark and anyone achieving less than 50% will be asked to redo their work.

The same applies to tests, and if you get less than 50% in a test you will be asked to resit the test on the next days lunchbreak and get more than 60%.

With other homework or experiments I will give you a grade that consists of a quality mark from A to E, A being Excellent quality and E being unacceptably poor work.

If you get a poor quality grade there's no point complaining about it, just make your work better.

You will also get an effort grade which goes from 5 to 1 where 5 is a lot of effort and 1 shows that a lot more effort could have been made.

So an A5 is a superb grade and an E1 is very very poor.

Simple

Marking books

Just so you know about book marking.

When I ask for your books in that is the day I want them in. I have a responsiblity to mark your books occasionally, but you as pupils have the responsibility to get your books to me when I ask for them.

If you are not capable of getting your books at the time I request them you will be given zero automatically for not handing in work.

If I get a string of zeros you will be asked to come in over a convenient lunchbreak to make up all the work missed.

I will NOT chase you for work if it is not in on time. You will simply get zero.

I give you ample time in advance to know that your books will be in and you need to learn that deadlines are given for a reason. Failure to make deadlines in life and in school will always have consequences so learn now to save you trouble in future.

If you're away on the day that work is due in, be it through illness or any other reason, then it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that your book is with me on that day.

Also if your WHOLE proper name is not on the book you are very likely to get zero as well - it saves me having to give someone the wrong mark by mistake. So FULL NAMES on your books with class please. If you make my life easier I will make yours easier.

You have been warned.

Now THAT'S what I call a lesson

A big thank you to the boys and girls of year 10 and 8 and anyone I've forgotten who helped me tidy up my lab on Tuesday.

Here's a pic of us all just about to start eating those 4 pizzas that we got delivered by telepizza.

Yummy!

ANDY WE'RE ALMOST DONE WITH YOUR CLASSROOM!!!

andy, we are starting to see the end of michael's mess in your classroom! we'll still have to work on it, but the worst part is over...and what a wonderful luch we had. it will have to be repeated...

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - February 16th 2007

Hello,
Today we had to write up the report of the experiment we did yesterday (comparing the reactions of two metals - iron & magnesium). We talked a lot about the conclusion looking the periodic table and the elements' place in it. The last people did their project presentations to Andy, so all the class has already done it. The books will be collected to be corrected next mid-term (after ski-week).
Bye.

Magnesium explosion!

150207 Y8C

Hello lads,
today in Y8C's class we needed to finish our last experiments and some questions on the Science Framework book. Tomorrow we need to give in books!

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - February 15th 2007

Hello,
Today we did the same experiments that the year 8s did yesterday plus three more (Yes! We really did five experiments). Another exp. was to add sulphuric acid to magnesium, holding the gas given off with our finger and then letting it go out into the flame and POP! We did the same with powdered iron, and more or less, the same happened but at a different speed.
Finally (although we did it first but it was the best), Andy mixed magnesium powder with a substance he didn't want to tell us what it was so that we didn't do it ourselves because it is very dangerous inside an empty and opened up beer can. We took this out, and Andy added glicerine to the mixture, and some while after, it exploded with a very bright white flame. It was AMAZING!!!!! After several minutes it was still burning!
And he said that this explosion is quite not big compared to another we will do in some weeks from now. I can't wait to this the next one!
Well,
see you.

Burning for learning

Year 8 burnt a few materials to compare them

They started with magnesium strip



..and they compared the reaction with iron by burning iron filings.

Web team league

With a month gone since I set the website up and web teams in every class the current posting league looks like this:

1. Obviously I have posted more than any team out there on my own


2. 7J with the mighty Isabel who never misses a summary


3. 9P - Javi is notably holding the team up there


4. 8P - Hugo making sure to tag all his posts


5. Yr11 - a single post on transformers


6. ...and still trailing behind with no posts at all 7A and Year 10 with no posts at all

Come on year 10 what's going on! So much to say in class but you lose your tongues when it comes to saying something useful huh...

Don't forget to tag your posts teams so that I can track what class tops the league every now and again!

magnesium burning

Magnesium burning

120207 Y8C

Today lads,
we did many experiments. The first one was outside...
We needed to do an explosion mixing some elements and comnpounds. it was great, nobody died unfortunately.
The next ones was mixing hydrochloric acid with magnesium and with iron. In all these experiments, some fire came out. It was fantastic.
This class has been one of my best Science classes I've ever had before. Simply marvellously perfect!!

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - February 12th 2007

Hello guys,
today we really didn't do anything except for presenting our projects about SPACE to Andy and hanging them up, and some didn't even do this! Surely, in our next lesson we'll do something more interesting. Until then:
See you.

Extra Spanish lessons

I know that you lot don't need them but I have just found this great site with podcasts and Spanish lessons for beginners at Coffee Break Spanish. This is what I'll have on my ipod for the next few months!

Easier to remember website name!

You can now reach physics heaven by just typing in the following...

www.scienceheaven.com

Year 8 - books to be marked next week

Year 8 - I will be taking your books in for marking at the end of the last lesson of next week.

For 8C this means Friday's lesson, and for 8O this is Thursdays lesson. Don't let me forget.

I will be marking the exercises I set you this week/next week and the practical write-up that you will be doing this week. All the practicals you have done so far have been practice write-ups. If you need any help with writing up practicals drop by my lab any time.

Year 7 tests marked - moving to next topic

Year 7 tests showed good general understanding mainly but many of your longer answers (question 9) were far too short to get you the marks.

You'll get those back on Monday, we'll check books over and move onto chapter 7H - Solutions, so if you want to read up about them then feel free.

Y8C class

Today in science class we stuck the posters to the wall. We are making a giantic periodic table.


Andy wasn t in class today he went with the y9 to the space center. He sent us some work and of course we did it. Some of us didn t finish so we took it as homework.

By the way Andy how are you doing with the spanish classes.

A question

My father has ask me a question.What happens whith the wood when you burn it where has the wood went?

Y8C science class 090207

Today, Andy went to an excursion to the space center I think.
What we did was to do what Andy told us to do, which was to paste the poster on the great periodic table, on Andy's white wall.
Then we did the Science Question that we are suppossed to do.

Pics from todays space centre trip

All the other pics I uploaded are now on the school computers. Here are the ones without faces...



Hope you all had a great time!

Where you can buy books if you've lost your own

Next week I will be checking on books so make sure you bring YOUR OWN textbook to every lesson (which you should be doing anyway).

Remember that it is YOUR responsibility to look after your own books. If you do not have the book you were issued with at the end of the year you will be charged for it.

If however you have lost your book, don't despair.

You can still buy yourself a new one (which will be handed in at the end of the year in place of the one that has been lost) by clicking the links below and asking your parents to get it sent over. This is the quickest, cheapest and by far the easiest way to replace missing books.

Year 7
Framework Science: Students' Book Year 7

Year 8
Framework Science: Student's Book Yr.8 (Framework Science)

Year 9
Framework Science: Student's Book Year 9

Year 10 and 11
Complete Physics

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - february 8th 2007

Hello,
Today we started doing the presentations we started to prepare on the last class, well, we also had some time to prepare them more today also. Then we talked about the projects (which are due on Monday) and Andy solved all the doubts about it. Then we decided to go to the ICT room to get some information about the project but there was a class. So we went downstairs to the library instead.
¡Remember: tomorrow we have the excursion to the SPACE CENTRE!
Note: the ones who didn't have the permission slips for the trip today, remember to bring them tomorrow or... you will not go.
See you.

080207 y8c

HELLO PEOPLE,
TODAY WE WENT TO THE LIBRARY TO LOOK UP FOR INFORMATION ABOUT OUR ELEMENTS.
LAST EXPERIMENT ON MONDAY WAS GREAT AND WAS AMAZING TOO.
WE MIXED UP CHALK PIECES WITH HYDROCHLORIC ACID.
IT WAS TREMENDOUSLY FANTASTIC.
I PUT PINK CHALK ON MY TEST TUBE AND SOME PINK BUBBLES STARTED TO COME OUT OF THE TEST TUBE!!!

year 8c class on monday

in monday s class we where investigating acids.We learned that all acids

1Are liquids
2Have reactiva hydrogen particles in them
3React to form SALTS


we also learned about ELEMENTS AND COMPOUNDS
Elements contain particles or elements of only one type.Compounds contain atoms of two or more elements chemically joined together.to separate a compound into it s elements you have to carry out a chemical reaction.

Essay Reminder: Borja Zubiaga

This is a message for Borja Zubiaga in year 10.

I notice that you have forgotten your sheet of paper with your essay title in your book today. That's the essay that I set you in class for talking over me.

Now before you try to use this as an excuse to NOT hand me in your essay by 9am tomorrow, remember that it is NOT an excuse for these reasons:

1 - I didn't ask you to write the essay in your book I asked you to write it on paper so handing in your book is not a valid excuse

2 - If you've forgotten the title it is HERE:

"The Grammatical structure of the past tense in Spanish"

And in case you've forgotten what it's for, it's 1 side for talking over me and 1 side for arguing with me.

Due 9am tomorrow in my classroom.

If it's not in by 9am tomorrow, you will be in with me for the whole of lunch completing 3 sides on the same subject.

Don't forget, 10 words per line, and a random count will be done to ensure that no line contains less than 10 words. If it does you do the whole essay again.

Oh and as further incentive, if your essay is not in by 9am (or 3 sides by the end of lunch) it's 4 sides the next day and I ring your mother too.

Enjoy!

P.S. If anyone has his number give him a call please to make sure he doesn't end up trying to use this as an excuse. Thanks!

Andy

Math multiplication

Look at this Video of multiplications with only lines.It works!

Web teams: Added to web area of the forum

Anyone who is a confirmed member of the web teams and is writing for this site now has exclusive access to the web teams area of the forum.

In here you can discuss any areas that you think can be improved with regards to the design and use of the web for learning science.

You will notice when you log in to the forum that you have a "web teams" area in the bottom of the forum, which no-one else has access to.

Good work Hugo on the new banner at the top of this site!

Web team members - joining the web team - deadline

I have sent out the invites one final time to those of your who submitted requests to join the web teams for your class.

You should have an email from phoenix in your inbox. You need to click through the link and join up.

At the moment 29 of you have still not joined despite putting your names up to join the web teams. We already have 24 webwriters so if you don´t join by the end of the week I will take delete your invitation and you are no longer qualified to be part of the web teams.

This is the final time I will send these invitations out.

New pics and vids added in school

This link cunningly only works in the school computers.

Copy and paste the following into your browser address line for the latest pics and videos of your science classes.

My Network Places\\Npc10\shareddocs\Science Photos and Videos from Andys class\

(I haven´t figured out how to make it work directly by clicking yet - Hugo?)

Web teams, remember you can take pics and vids and put them in this folder yourself, as they are only on the school network, so faces etc are allowed. As usual, for anything on this site though, as it is external and anyone can see it, usual rules apply as you know.

Some pics from class

Chalk reaction with acid using coloured chalk



Lime Water - for testing carbon dioxide



Using Lime water and a delivery tube to test for CO2

Classic Engineering Disaster: THe Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse

The last post I put up was about a chemistry-related disaster: Here's a physics/engineering related disaster, and a good reason why you need to make sure that you do your calculations correctly!

At a mile long, the Tacoma Narrows bridge was the third longest bridge in the world at the time it was built.

The first version of the bridge, nicknamed Galloping Gertie, was designed by Clark Eldridge and altered by Leon Moisseiff. In 1940, it became famous for a dramatic wind-induced structural collapse, an event that was caught on motion picture film. The replacement bridge opened in 1950.

The guy who designed this first bridge asked for $11 million but only recieved $6 million so he had to cut a few corners. And in the video that you're about to see you can see what happens when you do that (physics is not only about getting the questions right in the exam - if you get them wrong in real life then THIS could happen. Seriously.)



The wind-induced collapse occurred on November 7, 1940, due to a physical phenomenon known as mechanical resonance. From the account of Leonard Coatsworth, a driver stranded on the bridge during this event:

" Just as I drove past the towers, the bridge began to sway violently from side to side. Before I realized it, the tilt became so violent that I lost control of the car… I jammed on the brakes and got out, only to be thrown onto my face against the curb… Around me I could hear concrete cracking… The car itself began to slide from side to side of the roadway.

On hands and knees most of the time, I crawled 500 yards [450 m] or more to the towers… My breath was coming in gasps; my knees were raw and bleeding, my hands bruised and swollen from gripping the concrete curb… Toward the last, I risked rising to my feet and running a few yards at a time… Safely back at the toll plaza, I saw the bridge in its final collapse and saw my car plunge into the Narrows. "

The final destruction of the bridge was recorded on film by Barney Elliott, owner of a local camera shop. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse (1940) is preserved in the U.S. National Film Registry, and is still shown to engineering, architecture, and physics students as a cautionary tale.

No human life was lost in the collapse of the bridge. Theodore von Karman reported that the State of Washington was unable to collect on one of the insurance policies for the bridge, because its insurance agent fraudulently pocketed the insurance premiums. The agent, Hallett R. French who represented the Merchant's Fire Assurance Company, was charged with grand larceny for withholding the premiums for $800,000 worth of insurance. The bridge, however, was insured by many other policies that covered 80% of the $5.2–million structure's value. Most of these were collected without incident

On November 28, 1940, the U. S. Navy's Hydrographic Office reported that the remains of the bridge were located at geographical coordinates 47°16′00″N, 122°33′00″W, at a depth of 180 feet (55 m).

More on the Tacoma Narrows collapse can be found on Wikipedia

The Hinderberg Disaster

The following video is real footage of the disaster that Santiago mentioned in his earlier post

The Hindenberg was a very efficient airship invented by the Germans in the 1930s.

Along with its sister-ship LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II, it was the largest aircraft ever built. It was 245 m long (804 ft) and 41 m in diameter (135 ft), longer than three Boeing 747s placed end to end and 78 feet (23.8m) shorter than the Titanic.

The Hindenburg was originally intended to be filled with helium, but a United States military embargo on helium led the Germans to modify the design of the ship to use flammable hydrogen as the lift gas.

As Santiago mentions in his post, Hydrogen is a HIGHLY flammable gas, so this modification was ultimately to prove fatal.

Germany had much scientific and technical experience with hydrogen, and hydrogen-related fire accidents had never occurred on civil zeppelins, therefore, the switch from helium to hydrogen did not cause much alarm. It also gave the craft about 8% more lift capacity. Knowing the risks of hydrogen gas, the engineers used various safety measures, including treating the airship's coating to prevent electric sparks. Such was their confidence that the airship carried a smoking room, pressurized to keep hydrogen out.

Harold Dick reported in his first hand account of his experiences as Goodyear Zeppelin representative during construction and operation of the Hindenburg, "The only entrance to the smoking room, which was pressurized to prevent the admission of any leaking hydrogen, was via the bar, which had a swiveling air-lock door, and all departing passengers were scrutinized by the bar steward to make sure they were not carrying out a lighted cigarette or pipe.

On May 6, 1937, while under tow to dock at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in Manchester, New Jersey, the Hindenburg met its demise in a surprise flash fire that downed and destroyed the airship and killed 36 passengers, crew and ground crewmen. The incident goes down in the annals of history as one of the most devastating accidents to be witnessed in modern time. There has never been derived an absolute cause for the disaster, which has left history open to a number of unresolved theories.



More information can be found on Wikipedia or on the web about this disaster, and Akira, you may be interested in looking up the technical details of the Hindenberg and other Zepellins and putting them up on your airplane board

But for now pupils, sit back and witness for yourself one of the great explosions of the 20th century...

Digitally coloured version

class 6/2/2007

In todays class we had to do 2 presentations about various themes about space. We got 10 mins. to plan each one they were:

1. day and night
2. seasons
3. lunar eclipse
4. solar eclipse
5. phases of the moon
6. how satellites mantain in orbit
7. were the moon came from
8. story of the sun
   

Proyect about Hydrogen

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol H and an atomic number of 1. At standard temperature and pressure it is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas (H2). With an atomic mass of 1.00794 g/mol, hydrogen is the lightest element.
Hydrogen is the most abundant of the chemical elements, constituting roughly 75% of the universe's elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly composed of hydrogen in its plasma state. Elemental hydrogen is relatively rare on Earth, and is industrially produced from hydrocarbons such as methane, after which most elemental hydrogen is used "captively" (meaning locally at the production site), with the largest markets about equally divided between fossil fuel upgrading.

History

Discovery of H2
Hydrogen gas, H2, was first artificially produced and formally described by T. Von Hohenheim (also known as Paracelsus, 1493–1541) via the mixing of metals with strong acids. He was unaware that the flammable gas produced by this chemical reaction was a new chemical element. In 1671, Robert Boyle rediscovered and described the reaction between iron filings and dilute acids, which results in the production of hydrogen gas. In 1766, Henry Cavendish was the first to recognize hydrogen gas as a discrete substance, by identifying the gas from a metal-acid reaction as "inflammable air", and further finding that the gas produces water when burned. Cavendish had stumbled on hydrogen when experimenting with acids and mercury. Although he wrongly assumed that hydrogen was a liberated component of the mercury rather than the acid, he was still able to accurately describe several key properties of hydrogen. He is usually given credit for its discovery as an element. In 1783, Antoine Lavoisier gave the element the name of hydrogen when he (with Laplace) reproduced Cavendish's finding that water is produced when hydrogen is burned. Lavoisier's name for the gas won out.
One of the first uses of H2 was for balloons. The H2 was obtained by reacting sulphuric acid and metallic iron. Infamously, H2 was used in the Hindenburg airship that was destroyed in a midair fire.

Combustion


Hydrogen can combust rapidly in air. It burned rapidly in the Hindenburg disaster on May 6, 1937
Hydrogen gas is highly flammable and will burn at concentrations as low as 4% H2 in air. The enthalpy of combustion for hydrogen is –286 kJ/mol; it combusts according to the following balanced equation.
2 H2(g) + O2(g) → 2 H2O(l) + 572 kJ
When mixed with oxygen across a wide range of proportions, hydrogen explodes upon ignition. Hydrogen burns violently in air. Pure hydrogen-oxygen flames are nearly invisible to the naked eye, as illustrated by the faintness of flame from the main Space Shuttle engines (as opposed to the easily visible flames from the shuttle boosters). Thus it is difficult to visually detect if a hydrogen leak is burning. The Hindenburg zeppelin flames seen in the adjacent picture are hydrogen flames colored with material from the covering skin of the zeppelin which contained carbon and pyrophoric aluminium powder. (Regardless of the cause of this fire, this was clearly primarily a hydrogen fire since skin of the Zeppelin alone would have taken many hours to burn). Another characteristic of hydrogen fires is that the flames tend to ascend rapidly with the gas in air, as illustrated by the Hindenberg flames, causing less damage than hydrocarbon fires. For example, two-thirds of the Hindenburg passengers survived that hydrogen fire, and many of the deaths which occurred were from falling or from gasoline burns.
H2 reacts directly with other oxidizing elements. A violent and spontaneous reaction can occur at room temperature with chlorine and fluorine, forming the corresponding hydrogen halides: hydrogen chloride and hydrogen fluoride

This is my work on Hydrogen

Mentos+coca-cola=explosion

When you drop the Mentos into the coca-cola, the gelatin and gum arabic from the dissolving candy break the surface tension. This disrupts the water mesh, so that it takes less work to expand and form new bubbles.

Diary of... a Y9 SCIENCE class - february 5th 2007

Hellos,
Today we started talking about the Earth and Space. Why did we change of topic suddenly? 'cause we are going this Friday to the SPACE CENTRE and we have to remember and revise what we did some years before. First, we did some presentations about Night and Day, the Seasons and Eclipses. Then we had to prepare another presentation about the Moon's Origin and Why does the moon stay in orbit?. But, we didn't have time to present them because Andy had to talk to us about the excursion (and its permission slips: ¡the photocopier has broken again!) and a project we have to do for next Monday about the Earth and Space.

Bye.

Did you know?

ph really means "power of hydrogen". This is used to measure acidity or alkalinity( I suppose you already know this part). There is two ways of calculating the ph of a substance:

1. With a complicated equation:

or

2. With universal indicators like: red cabbage, litmus paper, phenolphthalein, methyl orange, phenol red, bromothymol blue, and bromocresol purple.

Another example of universal indicator is the plant Hydrangea macrophylla, which flowers change of colour depending of the pH of the soil (acid soil=blue flowers, alkaline soil=pink flowers)

(All links go to Wikipedia)

See you!

Science Y9R

Hello,

Today in class we've been talking about how to made an experiment report. Andy told us that it need to have an aim, an apparatus, a method, some observations, an explanation and a conclusion. After we started to discuss what we were going to do in the excursion to the space centre and we brought up the subject about gravity. So we did an experiment about it and after we did another one in which we cooked an egg with burning alcohol. It was amazing!!!!!

Until next time,

Alejandro