latimermville

Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand – a remarkable story of survival

latimermville — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 01:31:14 +0000

BackgroundIn 1986, his boat Virgin Atlantic Challenger II crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest ever recorded time. A year later he flew the Virgin

via Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand – a remarkable story of survival.

Fracking our Marcellus Shale

latimermville — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:25:48 +0000

The Marcellus shale formation has received a lot of attention recently in the state of Pennsylvania. This shale is a geologic formation of rocks that are buried under parts of New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Marcellus shale has the potential to contain large amounts of natural gas, and until recent attempts, retrieving this gas has been difficult and costly. New technological advancements in deep horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing techniques now make it possible to retrieve this gas but at an expense to our environment. This now has drawn numerous, large drilling firms to the Marcellus region and spurred the leasing of thousands of acres of mineral rights from private citizens.

The following is an interactive website that explains how gas companies use the technique called hydraulic fracturing to remove this gas from almost two miles below the earth’s surface. As a Pennsylvanian resident, it is important for you to realize how this process works because it is our environment that is going to be effected by hydraulic fracturing. Please click on “explore shale” below!

EXPLORE SHALE

Ice Cores + Climate Change

latimermville — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:46:44 +0000

ANCIENT ICE AND OUR PLANET’S FUTURE

Deep in the interior of Antarctica scientists unlock the secrets of our planet’s past.

Provided by the National Science Foundation

Runtime: 4:37

http://science360.gov/obj/tkn-video/36d4a057-7b5f-4a9a-9cdc-2f77457d19e1

How Do Ice Cores Allow Researchers To See Climate Change?

With support from the National Science Foundation, the U.S research community is conducting a deep ice coring project in West Antarctica for studies of climate, ice sheet history and cryobiology. This project is collecting a deep ice core from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) ice flow divide and integrating approximately 20 separate but synergistic projects to analyze the ice and interpret the records.

Provided by the University of Maine

Runtime: 4:54

Science360 – The Knowledge Network – How Do Ice Cores Allow Researchers To See Climate Change?.

One of the first birds that lived 150 million years ago – Archaeopteryx

latimermville — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:46:46 +0000

To stray away from weather a little, I thought I would share with you some information that I acquired on a special dinosaur. In my Historical Geology class, I needed to write a research paper on an ancient animal. I choose the Archaeopteryx. The following is some interesting excerpts that came out of my research paper. Enjoy

Archaeopteryx

The Archaeopteryx, is considered the earliest bird. All of the fossils of the Archaeopteryx are found in the Solnhofen limestone in Bravaria, which is now southern Germany. This tells us that the Archaeopteryx lived during the Jurassic period, 150 to 148 million years ago. Europe, at this time, was closer to the equator and was covered with shallow seas. The Archaeopteryx is thought to have lived on tropical islands, which experienced long durations of arid conditions.

The Archaeopteryx was a small animal. Its length was about 0.5 meters long and weighed 0.8 to 1 kilogram. It shared a lot of the same features of the theropod dinosaurs, especially the Dromaeosauridae, which consisted of jaws, with sharp teeth, and a long bony tail. What makes the Archaeopteryx important was that it was the first specimen to have feathered wings, which might have made it possible for flying or gliding. The Archaeopteryx had three fingers on the end of its wings, which contained claws that would have been used for protection and/or for help in capturing its prey.

The Archaeopteryx has been debated over its known existence on whether its wings were used for gliding or flying. Scientists thought that this early bird generated its avian features by gliding from tree to the ground similar to today’s flying squirrels. However, plant fossil evidence shows there were not any tall trees in this area for the Archaeopteryx to glide from. Therefore, it has been purposed that it used cliffs for gliding long distances. Due to the construction of the Archaeopteryx, it also appears that it was not particularly specialized for running on the ground or for roosting. In turn, the Archaeopteryx is predicted to have used its wings principally to escape predators by reaching safe, higher perches.

The Archaeopteryx was and still is important to science, and no one says it better than what Charles Darwin wrote in his book Origin of Species in 1866, “ a bird certainly lived during the deposition of the upper greensand; and still more recently, that strange bird, the Archeopteryx, with a long lizard-like tail, bearing a pair of feathers on each joint, and with its wings furnished with two free claws, has been discovered in the oolitic slates of Solenhofen. Hardly any recent discovery shows more forcibly than how little we as yet know of the former inhabitants of this world”.

Any questions or comments on the Archaeopteryx?

Flying through the eye of a Hurricane

latimermville — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:06:55 +0000

Have you ever flew on a plane that experienced some bad weather? Well image flying into the middle of a hurricane……Watch as professor Hugh Willoughby of Florida International University describes what it was like to fly through a hurricane eye. Willoughby is a research professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at FIU, where he teaches meteorology in the atmospheric sciences course of study. His hurricane-research interests include analysis of aircraft observations, formulation of theoretical models of motion and intensification, and analysis of economic and human impacts.

Runtime: 2:42

http://content.screencast.com/users/latimer.mville/folders/Jing/media/a80ca0cc-dd57-4674-8f1a-f02c6c7863a7/00000063.png

Provided by Florida International University

Creative Expressions Demo

latimermville — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 21:20:20 +0000

For a project in one my Educational classes, I created a Voicethread.

My sample Voicethread is about canyons. Check it out click on Canyons or http://voicethread.com/book.swf?b=2412012

If you would like, create a Voicethread about yourself or an interesting topic that we are covering in class. You could also ask to share your Voicethread or other project in class. The class would love to see it.

Leave you projects web address bellow as a comment or Email it at me at Latimer.mville@gmail.com

Weather Balloon

latimermville — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:20:24 +0000

This last past week at Millersville University the Meteorology department, which is well-known throughout the United States, released a weather balloon. I was privileged enough to be a part of this launching and had the opportunity to get its data as it traveled up into our atmosphere. I found it extremely interesting to learn that today’s meteorologists still rely on information that is collected from weather balloons. I thought that with all of today’s amazing technology, the weather balloon would be sort of an ancient tool that is only used for educational purposes. However, to my surprise, all across the globe weather balloons are released at a particular time, twice a day. In fact, it is still the most accurate way of figuring out what our atmosphere is doing above us.

The balloon purpose is to carry a device that measures temperature, humidity, pressure, altitude and location high up into the atmosphere. As you learned, pressure gets lower the higher you go up into the atmosphere. So, as the balloon travels upward, the amount of air inside the balloon stays the same, while the pressure outside decreases. This causes the balloon to continuously expand until it breaks. After the balloon pops, the device that collects data falls back to Earth.

Most weather balloon devices use radio signals to send the atmosphere’s data back to the weather station on the ground while its ascending. However, in the ascending process, the weather balloon travels too fast for the instruments to get an accurate reading. To fix this problem, meteorologists attach a roll of very light string to the balloon and the measuring device. By doing so, the string helps to slow down the ascending process, enabling the instrument to obtain better readings. I found this to be very interesting and exciting.

THE WEATHER BALLOON’S RESULTS

What is really cool is that from the results above we see that our weather balloon reached 16 km before popping. You can see that as the balloon went up the temperature decreased. At 16 km above the earth’s surface, the instrument on the weather balloon recorded a temperature of -59.8 degrees Celsius. That is crazy cold!

Weather Folklore

latimermville — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:52:28 +0000

As a way to introduce our weather unit, I found a great Voicethread that goes over many different weather folklores. With this Voicethread, you will be able to see how these folklores were accurate but the reasons for their accuracy can be explained scientifically rather than just being strange.

Check it out!

www.voicethread.com/#q+weather.b279231.i1466444

Climate Intro

latimermville — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 23:48:46 +0000

In my college Environmental Meteorology class, my professor asked me to do this module and I found it extremely helpful and interesting. This module should be very beneficial for you as an introduction to our weather and climate unit.

To get to this module:

Go to www.meted.ucar.edu

Next, you can access this module by clicking on “Sign In”

Username = Earthscience

Password = sciencerocks Note: You can create your own account, or if you are under the age of 13, you can get your parents to create you an account for you to use.

Now, in the search box, type “Climate Change Fitting the Pieces Together“

To navigate this module, your Internet preferences for allowing pop-ups needs to be turned on.

Enjoy!

Answers to Water Cycle Game

latimermville — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:25:21 +0000

Water Cycle Worksheet

Remember the Water Cycle Game you did in class? Well, above is a link to all the answers. Knowing how the water moves through our environment is very important to understand, and this knowledge will come in handy in other courses you take in the future. I promise…

Any questions/concerns? Email me at Latimer.mville@gmail.com