Earth's Atmosphere

The Earth are different in many ways, like size, composition, and appearance. The reason the moon has co many craters and Earth doesn't, is because the moon has no atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere burns up meteorites before they can reach the surface, but the moon has no atmosphere, therefore there is nothing stopping the rogue meteorites that crash into the moon. Earth's atmosphere also traps heat from the sun in so that we can stay warm. The moon has nothing to regulate temperature, so the weather there is either very hot or very cold.

Space Exploration

Summaries

The Science of Rockets
A good example of the rocket is the Atlas rocket. Those types are used by NASA to launch probes into space and satellites into orbit. Atlas rockets have recently been used to launch satellites into space for commercial and governmental reasons.

The Space Program
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, began in 1958. Their job was simply to explore space. There have been many successful, yet some failed missions in NASA's history. Despite some of the tragic failures, we still landed on the moon and accomplished other great feats in the field of astronomy.

Exploring Space Today
A very new, technologically advanced robot was just recently created for the International Space Station. It floats next to an astronaut, and monitors temperature, pressure, and air quality. Obviously space travel and exploration has come a long way, and is becoming much more safe.

Using Space Science on Earth
NASA only receives 1% of the U.S. budget. The reason for this is that many people want their money to go to medicinal research or education. NASA says that learing more about space, in turn, will lead us to discover more about Earth. Maybe people will start to realize how important this knowledge is.

Moon, Eclipses, and Tides

Seasons

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Gizmo

The gizmo showed us how the seasons are caused.  They're caused by the Earth's tilt.  The way that works is that the Earth's axis is a 23.5  degree angle.  That means that as the Earth revolves around the sun, the Northern and Southern hemispheres get get different amounts of sunlight.  The hemisphere that gets the most direct sunlight is in the summer, but the hemisphere that gets the least amount of sun  light is in winter.  That's the way the seasons work.

Perspective

Mrs. Casey showed our class the book "Zoom."  There were no words in the book, so it was all pictures.  The first picture was of a rooster, and with the turn of each page came a new, further zoomed out picture.  It would jump from a billboard to a poster to a T.V.  It finally ended with a real life airplane and zoomed out after that until all we could see was the Earth.  This book deals with perspective because we all saw it a different way, and we all made inferences about what would come next.

I've seen something differently by using a new perspective.  That book was a great example because no one knew what would come next.  What helps me alter my perspective is broadening my thoughts.  I try to be less narrow-minded and see the big picture.  I don't ignore any of my gut feelings or ideas about the subject.

In Science, different data would interest different people.  For instance, zooming in would interest scientists who like to work wit small organisms or molecules.  Zooming out would interest astronomers and creative thinkers.  They think about how long the universe could go on for and don't just wonder about our planet.  When studying astronomy, one would need to think big and think bold, and use our perspectives.