Aerosols

Aerosols are fine airborne particles. The main sources of aerosols in the atmosphere would be industrial pollution ( sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, organic carbon, elemental carbon ), wind-blown dust ( mineral dust),  the ocean ( sea salt), and volcanic eruptions ( soot).  Aerosols have a few impacts on the climate changes.  Certain aerosols themselves can reflect or absorb sunlight. Sea salt particles reflect sunlight back out into space. Black carbon particles from burning of wood or fossil fuels absorb most of the sunlight that hits them. Aerosols also help clouds form. The millions of little droplets of water that make up a cloud each need a little particle, like an aerosol, to condense upon. More aerosols can create more clouds. Clouds reflect incoming solar radiation back out to space. Aerosols are also harmful to our health. The most obvious harm to us would be in respiratory problem since they are in the air we breathe every day. This is the main reason we are trying to get rid of aerosol contributing sources. Getting rid of aerosols helps our health, but accelerates the rate of global warming.

http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~geerts/cwx/notes/chap02/aerosol&climate.html

http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/climate/cli_aerosols.html

ozone

There is ozone found in two areas. One is in the upper regions of the atmosphere and the other area is the ground level. They are both made up of O3, but the ground level is made from chemical reactions of nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC). Both of these chemicals mostly come from the burning and evaporation of fossil fuels like gasoline, natural gas, and coal.The ozone in the upper regions of the atmosphere protects us from the harmful rays from the sun, but the ground level ozone is the main reason for smog. The ground level ozone is very harmful to elderly people, young people, and people with respiratory problems. It can also contribute to producing a respiratory problem. The ground level ozone is also harmful to sensitive vegetation and ecosystems, including forests, parks, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas.

http://www.epa.gov/glo/basic.html

http://www.airinfonow.org/html/ed_ozone.html
http://www.ccme.ca/assets/pdf/pn_1257_e.pdf

Group Evaluation

1. got everything finished
2. everyone contributed in some way
3. no arguing

this was a project that was easy to work together on and we all worked on it greatly. there are no problems.

scientific method

We all use the scientific method on a regular basis and do not really notice it. It is basically our brains using common sense to make decisions. Some simple decision and others thoughtful decisions. It could vary from a simple choice you make, like what kind of cereal you like the most, or some big science experiment that could find the cure to some deathly disease.

One specific time that I have used the scientific method would be when I'm standing in Walmart trying to decide what cereal I want.

Problem/Question   What type of cereal should I get?

Observation/Research   There are quite a few cereals to choose from and I like so many of them, but the best few would be rice krispies, fruit loops, and honey bunches of oats.

Formulate hypothesis   I will probably choose honey bunches of oats

Collect and analyze results   The best cereal out of my three choices is honey bunches of oats because they are tasty and have some good nutrients.

Conclusion   I walk out of Walmart choosing honey bunches of oats as the cereal I want.

Communicate the results   I share the cereal with my family and they start to see the greatness of honey bunches of oats.

first few days of school

Well, I was actually kind of dreading coming back to school. I thought I was going to hate every single class I had and everyone was going to annoy me.

I was actually wrong, and that shocked me. All of my classes other than spanish seem like they are going to be great. I have always hated spanish classes though so that is no different at all. Spanish classes always seem to be humongous and have a whole bunch of annoying, loud, and rude people. 

So far outside of spanish class I love all my other classes. I feel like the teachers are going to be awesome and out of all of my classmates it only seems like there are maybe 1-2 people who have the potential to get annoying.

All in all I believe I am going to like at least this semester of school.