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: