Sustainable Fishing - Social Studies

Is sustainable fishing even possible?
People won't be able to control what other people do in the ocean when people aren't watching what they are doing and punishing the people who break the law. In the ocean, the law can't be promised for when over 4600000 commercial boats go out and fish while killing all this bycatch because no one is going to go around and stop all of them. 

How is commercial fishing a threat to dolphins and birds in bycatch?
Over 300,000 small whales, dolphins, and porpoises dying from bycatch each year from these commercial fishing boats. There are also 300,000 sea birds being drowned, thrown around, and killed from bycatch with these horrible people on those commercial boats. They are endangering so many marine animals and the rest of us are doing nothing but then again there is not much we can do while staying on the land.

 

Shark Finning - Social Studies

What is Shark Finning?
Shark finning is a gruesome practice that involves cutting LIVE shark's fins off and then sometimes throwing the de-finned sharks back into the ocean to die slowly and painfully. The fins are mostly used in china and hong kong as a key ingredient in the shark-fin soup. 

Why is it a delicacy?
The fin-shark soup played an important role as an indicator of social standing. It has the consistency close to noodles but it has no flavor of nutritional value so people add chicken broth to make it taste like something. It was first created by an Emporer in the sun dynasty during the Chinese golden era. The dish was made to represent the wealth, power, and generosity of the Emporer. 

How is Shak Finning impacting our oceans?
Sharks are the top predator in the ocean so if they get whipped out then the spices below them with overpopulating which will cause the next preorder on the list to die off until there is no more which will kill the spices below the sharks. This would continue until there would be no marine life in the ocean.

 

The Star Fish Poem - Social Studies

THE  STARFISH  POEM

Once upon a time, there was a wise man 

who used to go to the ocean 

to do his writing. 

He had a habit of walking 

on the beach 

before he began his work. 

One day he was walking along 

the shore. 

As he looked down the beach, 

he saw a human 

figure moving like a dancer. 

He smiled to himself to think 

of someone who would 

dance to the day. 

So he began to walk faster 

to catch up. 

As he got closer, he saw 

that it was a young man 

and the young man wasn't dancing, 

but instead, he was reaching 

down to the shore, 

picking up something 

and very gently throwing it 

into the ocean. 

As he got closer he called out, 

"Good morning! What are you doing?" 

The young man paused, 

looked up, and replied, 

"Throwing starfish in the ocean." 

"I guess I should have asked, 

why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?" 

"The sun is up and the tide is going out. 

And if I don't throw them in they'll die." 

"But, young man, don't you realize that 

there are miles and miles of beach 

and starfish all along it. 

You can't possibly make a difference!" 

The young man listened politely. 

Then bent down, picked up another starfish 

and threw it into the sea, 

past the breaking waves and said- 

"It made a difference for that one."

What is the meaning of this poem?
This poem is saying that we can make a difference even though what we do may be small. We may be able to change what we do but we can't always change what others do. Every little thing we do to help a problem can sometimes change the problem because every little thing helps. "It made a difference for that one," the young man said after the man on the beach asked why he was doing it. He knew that he wouldn't be able to save all of the starfish but he still said as he threw another out to sea "It made a difference for that one". What the young boy did may not have saved all of the starfish and solved the problem of them dying, but he was able to help some of them and he saved as many as he could. That is what really matters.

Testing For Hydrogen Gas - Science

 AIM: To show that hydrogen gas is produced when a metal reacts with acid.

Equipment:
1. Test Tube
2. Boiling Tube
3. Bunsen Burner
4. Wooden splint
5. Bottle of acid
6. Piece of metal
7. Saftey Glasses

Method:
1. Light your bunsen burner
2. Add your sample of metal to your test tube. Add 3ml of acid
3. Carefully invert the boiling tube above the test tube containing the metal and acid.
4. Hold the test tubes together for a few minutes, allowing time for the inverted boiling tube to fill with gas.
5. When you think the tube if full, your lab partner should light a wooden splint.
6. Carefully, but quickly, tilt the boiling tube full of gas upwards and insert the burning splint into the mouth of the test tube.

Observation:
The tube with the gas in it made a POP sound when the burning splint was put into the mouth of the tube. It worked better when we waited for 1 minute and 20 seconds. The gas turned to smoke after the POP sound. We could tell that a chemical reaction was happening because when the metal hit the acid it started bubbling/ boiling. You could also tell when we added the splint because of the big POP sound.

Trash Of The Deep - Social Studies

The North Pacific Gyre, created when the current moves against itself to the point where the water stays in the same place. We are using lots of plastic in our everyday life and most of that rubbish ends up in our oceans. These plastic things and fragments get called pollutants because of how we pollute the ocean with this dangerous chemical product.  Adamantly, we are continuing to add trash into these gyres which are causing them to create these huge garbage patches that are accumulating more and more each day. The plastic we put in our oceans breaks off into plastic fragments/particles which marine life mistakes for food. A 15-foot killer whale, stranded on a beach near Lincolnshire, was examined and was found to have a “Large fragment of plastic material in its fist stomach”. Further north, in Scotland, a juvenile male sperm whale was found on Luskentyre beach filled with 220 pounds worth of plastic products swimming in the stomachs of the whale. While we are sitting here using tons and tons of plastic, these marine animals are dying because of our horrible treatment to the oceans. Stop using plastic. Stop harming the sea.

Resilience - Form

 Growth Mindset - The Power Of Yet

Carole Dweck, Jo Boaler, Robert Crosnoe, Jen Sincero. All of these people encourage growth mindset through their work. Carole Dweck is an American Psychologist. She is the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Standford University. She is widely known for her work on growth mindset. When she talks about growth mindset she uses the term 'The Power Of Yet'. Carole Dweck found that we all have different beliefs about what we are capable of doing. She thinks children (And adults) with a growth mindset believe that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, persistence, trying different things, and learning from mistakes. She makes videos and performs to live audiences, talking about the growth mindset, and helping people to realize the power of yet.