Journal # 6

If the U.S. is the scientific light of the world and if we are so responsible for making new discoveries, then we should give out more scholarships to students that progress will in science.  Also schools should try to get students more interested in science at an early age so that they will think about making a career out of science.  But the schools have to make it pertain to the students or else we will lose interest and not care.  Show more experiments and demos, this way students will actually appreciate it and think about going into a doctoral field. 

I can truly say that someone that always makes a difference in my life are my science teachers.  Each year since middle school my science teachers have sparked my knowledge on science.  Although I have been taking science since middle school, I think that I started taking science seriously in high school.  Last year in biology I got excited to learn something new; my favorite was learning about GMOs and how it is a very debatable topic.  That’s another thing I love about science you get to use your debating skills sometimes since not everyone in the science industry have the same viewpoint.  This year in chemistry so far I love it and I can say that this is so far the most interesting course I have taken in high school.  I get excited when I walk through the doors of chemistry because I know that it won’t be boring.

Journal #5

During this quarter I made really good progress.  I was always on time with my notebook open and ready to learn.  One thing I was good at was posting on my blog and handing in my quizlets.  So far I haven't missed a homework assignment and I don't plan on it because I want to maintain my A in this class.  One thing that I struggle with though is when we have to do quiz's on the clickers because sometimes I will click in the wrong answer and then it makes my grade lower.

Journal #4- Schools, Beware the e-book Bandwagon

In my opinion I find that switching to  online textbooks would be a terrible thing to do because it is difficult to concentrate if it is online because I will get distracted by other things. For example I will open up my Facebook or surf the web instead of reading the required. "There's always the temptation to click on a link, check email.." That is one of the downfalls about reading e-books. Another thing that makes reading e-books harder is being able to flip between a gap of pages. Also I hate the fact that sometimes it can freeze on you. If you were to lose Internet connection while using the e-book online then you would not only lose your place but unable to finish your assignments.   One thing that stuck out to me in the article is "E-readers sacrifice many of these navigational cues, and that's another reason why so many students end up frustrated with the devices." If this is true (which for me it is) then why would we want to use these device? Another thing that doesn't make sense to me at all is that in Augusta, Maine, they are planning on giving in coming kindergartners iPads. To me it makes no sense to start students at an early stage using these devices because it will make their lives a lot harder; also what if one of the kindergartners happen to drop it? At the University of Washington researchers said that students "retain and recall textual information more effectively" in textbooks, then why would they want us to switch all textbooks to ones online. In my opinion that makes absolute no sense because then grades would drop for the students that have trouble retaining information.

   Although, it does have its benefits but I don't think that online textbooks should be replaced by textbooks all together.  In general I do find that using online textbooks are beneficial because if I forget my textbook in my locker, then I have the pages at my fingertips.  Another thing that I like is that with it being online is that you can print out the pages and then write all over the pages, which is something that we can't do in the textbooks provided by the school.

Natural Hazards: Densities for Mysterious Substances

Natural Hazards: Densities for Mysterious Substances