Solar and Lunar Eclipse Coming Soon. Get your plane ticket!

October 8 there will be a lunar eclipse for people living in most of North and South America, Australia and Eastern Europe and Asia.  A lunar eclipse happens on the full moon when the moon, Earth and sun are lined up just right. The Earth blocks the light of the sun from reaching the moon.  For more information and a nice graphic of places to see this eclipse click here.  

Drawings and models aren't to scale but they can help up to understand the alignment of the sun, earth and moon. Sometimes we have to sacrifice some part of the model to clearly show another part. 

As luck (or solar and lunar patterns) may have it, about a month later, parts of the Earth will experience a solar eclipse. The moon will partially block the light of the sun from reaching the Earth. For more info, click here.

It is easy to understand how solar and lunar eclipses have been the subject of legends in many different cultures. In our busy, industrial lives we don't depend upon the patterns of the sun and the moon the way our ancestors did. We have to learn the phases of the moon and the seasons as a part of school rather than learning about the sun and the moon because our lives depend upon knowing the patterns. Here is a brief article about different cultures' eclipse legends. 

We can be thankful to the internet because we can share these amazing events with people who will be lucky enough to actually witness them.

What are you?

Almost 300 years ago Carl von Linne published Systema Naturae. Does his system of classification still work today? That is our statement of inquiry for the grade 7 unit about classification. 

This article describes a new organism that doesn't fit into the categories we have previously defined. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29054889

What can be done to make them fit?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/05/deep-sea-mushrooms-defy-classification_n_5768708.html

Its name Dendrogramma enigmatic refers to the branching of it's digestive canals which look like a tree shaped diagram. Dendro refers to trees. The name enigmatica was given because this secies is a puzzle. So far it has been place in the animal kingdom and into the the phylum Incertae sedis which is Latin for uncertain placement. You can read more about Incertae sedis here.

What do you think?

What is happening to the bees?

One of the criteria for science is Reflecting on the impacts of science. For our classification unit we will reflect upon a problem humans have possibly cause for bees. Plants rely on bees to pollinate them so they can continue to grow generation after generation. Your task is to create a blog post about Colony collapse disorder or CCD. We will discuss this in class and I will help you set up the blogs. You will be responsible for writing the blog post. It can be on a new blog or on an existing blog.  Here is an description of the task.

Introduction: CCD (Colony collapse disorder) is a fairly new term. Define the term, and explain ways in which science is being used to solve this problem and the impacts that this is having on the wider world. You can also discuss ways in which technology and growth has caused this problem.

Goal: Write an essay discussing how science is applied to address CCD.

Content (also see Criteria D below):

-Describe how science is used to give solutions to deal with CCD.

-Include the strengths and limitations of the solutions.

-Describe how the solution interacts with (how it affects or is affected by) one factor

 (political, economical, social, cultural, environmental or ethical.

Due date:

Upload to blog and share link with m by Friday 10  October.

Essay instructions and hints:

-You are allowed to design your post as you like. 

-You are allowed to choose the length of your paragraphs. Remember that it is often easier for the reader if the

 paragraphs are not too long (or too short…).

-Include statistics, examples etc if you think that will increase the understanding for the reader.

-Use correct scientific language when needed.

-Document your sources using the MLA-format (in-text citation is not needed). Use http://www.easybib.com for help with this. 

Don't confuse bees with wasps. They share a lot of characteristics. In fact they are in the same kingdom, phylum, class and order.