Bailie Kroll- Science Methods

    Week 12: Climate Change Learning in Lab : This week in lab we started learning about climate and weather and how that is impacting our Earth. We started by discussing the documentary we watched, "Before the Flood." This was an interesting documentary since it covers many aspects of the world that are contributing to climate change and why there needs to be an adjustment in our everyday lives to save the Earth. Then, we looked at NASA images of how different parts of the world have been affected by fossil fuels, flooding, natural disasters, etc. I looked at how the durecho impacted crops in Iowa, the images were astonishing at how many crops across the state were affected that year. We then moved onto looking at precipitation fluctuations across the state of Iowa from the 1890's until now. We looked at the Southeast region of Iowa and found a 5.8% increase in precipitation over the past couple centuries. Finally, we researched how the change in temperature and rainfall...

       Week 11: Erosion Learning in Lab : This week in lab we discovered more about weathering and erosion through a sand experiment. We started by talking about the Law of Superposition and how scientists tell which fossils or rocks have been there the longest. The Law of Superposition says that sedimentary rocks form layers that become buried under more layers over time, and the layers towards the top are younger than the layers below. Then, we moved onto our discover of sand and determining how they were made through water, wind, or glaciers. Sand created through water is polished, smooth, and generally similar in size. Sand created through glaciers is polished, smooth, and irregular in size. Lastly, sand created through wind is opaque, frosted, pitted, and very finely grained. Through our investigation, we found that a majority of the sand that we observed came from water, and only 1 was created by wind, and 1 was created by a glacier. I thought it was interestin...

      Week 10: Rock Cycle Learning in Lab : This week in lab we looked closer at what constitutes as a rock and how the three different rock types are created. We started with a formative assessment where we were given a list of items and had to determine if they were considered a rock, and why we thought that. After completing the assessment, we learned that a rock is naturally made, therefore items like a gravestone or marble statue are not considered rocks since they were make by humans. Limestone, cooled lava, and sediments are considered rocks because they are made through natural processes. We then experimented with the rock cycle by creating the three different types of rock, sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. Sedimentary is when materials are cemented and tightly packed together. We created this by cheese grating three different colors of starburst, then compacting them together into a little ball to represent the small minerals combined together. For our igne...