ACE Project on Static Electricity

Since young I have been wondering, what that that zap that I would be receiving from the person next to me, so from the metal pole bar when I made contact to it. I've heard of the term before, so I decided to do a detailed experiment regarding static electricity and how it works. All this is known as static electricity. And, as the name goes, it is electricity that is charged up in part of our body, and it can get transferred easily through a point of contact. I remember in the past, on television shows, people would show tricks using balloons and one of them would be using it to make hair stand. After doing this ace, I've realized the 'magic' or rather science behind it. The balloon actually picks up electrons from the hair, and thus makes it overall negatively charged. This at the same time makes the hair lose electrons, and makes it overall positively charged. And unlike poles attract. When placed back on top of the hair again, the hair, being positive, would attract the balloon, which is negative, making it seem like it is attracted to the balloon. Rubbing the balloon just speeds up the electrons transfer process. I went on further to experiment which materials would gain static electricity the fastest. And my results are shown in my power point below.

http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y10hci0041/abcd.swf



Through this ACE presentation, I've realized how science is really all around us. We just need to slow down and observe and if interested, do a little research and it would really make life more interesting in a way.

Through this ACE presentation, I've realized how science is really all around us. We just need to slow down and observe and if interested, do a little research and it would really make life more interesting in a way.

Diamonds Lose Mass in Sunlight

I was surfing the net about contemporary science issues and this particular article caught my attention. I was surprised how 'weak' this strong element, made up of carbon atoms, actually was. And this element is a diamond. According to the article, physicists have discovered that diamond would react in the sunlight, by losing atoms, at a very slow rate. From this article, only have I realized how useful diamond was. Not only can it be used for creating expensive jewelry, it can also be used to emit laser light and for quantum communication and computing. This is because of the structure of the diamond, which is made up of carbon atoms, which allows reactions when the atoms are burnt. Because of the unique structure of the diamond, the researchers decided to try to explore further with the diamond, trying to emit UV (Ultra Violet) light out of it. Well, it worked, but only for a short 10 minutes. It was after this accidental experiment that they tried which led them to this diamond discovery, because they were desorbing carbon atoms. The article continues to explain how this process actually works.

This article can be found at the website stated below:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=diamonds-lose-mass-in-sunlight

Through this article, I've roughly understood how the carbon atom works, as well as the properties of diamond. Also, I've found this video which explains how light is produced from diamonds. :D

Gray Whales Likely Survived the Ice Ages by Changing Their Diets

I happened to chance upon this article, which really caught my attention. This article is titled "Grey Whales Likely Survived the Ice Ages by Changing Their Diets" This article is about talking about paleontologists, who are scientists who studies prehistoric life, including organisms' evolution and interactions with one another and with their environment, who are investigating the species of the grey whales. Grey whales are now a conserved species, protected by the government. The paleontologists, have studied the California grey whale species and have found out that their population was estimated to be two to four times more than the present. From this information, the scientists began to wonder how the grey whales survived the Ice Age in the past, where food would become more scarce. They hypothesized that grey whales in the past managed to adapt and utilized a larger variety of food sources. Not only do they feed on "suctioning seafloor sediment and filtering out worms and amphipods -- so called benthic organisms" but they also feed on "herring and krill as well" Through these research, the paleontologists, are beginning to admire the way how grey whales adapt to climate change so easily.

From this article, I've learnt that adaptation skills are very important for us, living things to survive. Different animals have different adaptation skills, for example, the grey whales are adapted to change their diet in times of climate change. Also, I've learnt that our human impact on the environment not only threatens our survival, but also largely threatens the animal kingdom's survival. Climate change would indeed bring a lot of harm to everyone, and if this continues, all of nature's beauty would be engulfed within the ocean.

In conclusion, I would like to illustrate the food chain of the grey whales, from the information in this article.

The article can be found at this link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110706195758.htm

ACE Project (Term 2)

This term, since we touched on the topic of acids, alkalies and bases, I decided to do an experiment about natural indicators. I got this idea from the textbook, as I saw that there was actually somethings in the world that could measure the acidity of mixtures. So, I researched a little on the topic of natural indicators and I found one which really interested me. I remember seeing that vegetable somewhere before, but I was not sure if I could still find it. The fruit was purple cabbage. So, I went for a hunt for purple cabbage. And after searching many supermarkets, I finally found it, and was very excited on starting this experiment.

And then I started the experiment:

Firstly I sliced up the purple cabbage

Next, I boiled some hot water and placed the the purple cabbage into the hot water, to extract te juice out of it. Here is my own video on the process of extracting the purple natural indicator out of the cabbage.

Thereafter, I used the natural indicator to measure the acidity of 5 different mixtures found at home. Here is another of my own video:

Here are the pictures I took:

Finally, this is the powerpoint for my ACE:

http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y10hci0041/abc.swf

Term 2 LSS Reflection

This term, we learnt on writing chemical equations, about the human reproductive system as well as on ecology.

I faced many difficulties understanding the topic of chemical equations, and applying it in the questions in the worksheets. This was not because I could not memorize the symbols of the elements that were in the syllabus, but was because I could not understand the the basics of the topic, which is on how to write out a compound. I forgot the need to balance the number of protons and electrons so that the compound would have no charge. However, after doing some online research, and watching some tutorials, introduced by the teacher, I finally understood. And from there, I managed to balance equations more easily. From this, I've learnt that independent learning is very useful and important in learning. Because, we have to learn even outside classroom, by ourselves, as we cannot always depend on the teacher. I would like to share this useful video link in this blog post.

The other topic which did not interest me as much as the previous one, was on human reproductive system and ecology, the biology part. At first, I thought that this topic would be only based on pure memorization, thus the lesson itself would be boring and uninteresting. However, after going through this term, I was wrong. The trick that I've learnt while tackling biology topics is to understand the topic by looking at visual representations and understand the topic fully so that we can memorize the information more easily. For example, on the topic of human reproductive system, I did not get how the menstruation system works, but after online research, I found a graph which illustrates it very well. And here it is:

Reflection for Term 1 LSS

In term 1, we started on the topics of periodic table, atomic structure, chemical bonding. This term revolved around chemistry and this is my favorite aspect among the three different sciences, thus I paid close attention in class, so that I could learn as much as I could out of these chemistry subjects. And I indeed learnt many interesting things that I did not understand before, such as the properties of the first twenty elements of the periodic table, and the structures of each element in terms of the number of protons, neutrons and electrons, the way the elements bond chemically, through ionic bonding or covalent bonding. Through these topics of elements, I've understood that science is really everywhere around us and it is just so amazing to discover the mysteries behind many things that we cannot see with our naked eyes, such as atoms. When we just do an experiment by chemically bonding two elements together, we see a interesting reaction, but it is, to me, more interesting to find out the science behind how these elements combine to form this reaction. I enjoyed my term 1 lower secondary science, look forward to a new term of science, where I discover more things that hopefully interests me.

Reflection of Sabbatical in Term 2 (Learning Trial @ MacRitchie)

Last term, I attended a sabbatical which caught my attention because of the title and the sabbatical description. Basically, what we did there was the trial around Macritchie, to learn about the nature of the place, the history of how it became a vital place for Singapore to get our water from. We were guided by a trainer who was very experienced in talking about the biodiversity there. She took us around the trial and showed us much wildlife there. I was very amazed at how graceful those animals were, and how beautiful the plants were. Before this trial, I did not know how to appreciate nature, and missed out many things out there. Because, whenever I saw something there, I would just rush out there to catch a closer glance, however what I did not realise was that the animal would be threatened and would run away.

At the end of it all, we had a sharing of the pictures that we took along the trial, and we identified and examined each of the species that we took of. They were mostly insects and plants, however what interest me the most was the animal pictures that were taken there and some of them were: monkeys, mud skipper, fishes, turtles, etc... I also learnt the difference between a changeable lizard and a chameleon, and I would like the share this in this post.

A Changeable lizard looks like this:

A Chameleon looks like this:

Both of the species have the ability to change colour, therefore, many people mistaken the changeable lizard for chameleon. There is a difference between the two. Firstly, the changeable lizard is a local species, while the chameleon is not. Also, they have very different physical features. The chameleon has eyes that are more protruded and each eye is capable of rotating and focusing separately to observe different objects simultaneously, giving them a 360 degree vision around the body. Their feet, on first glance, look like there were only two toes. But a closer look shows that each foot has five toes with sharp claws that are fused into a group of two and a group of three, allowing Chameleons to grip tightly to narrow branches. Their long tongues can be extended out of the mouth rapidly for their insect prey. While, the changeable lizard has none of these features.