Kandula the very smart baby elephant!

Kandula is a young Asian elephant that lives at the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park in Washington D.C. He is very clever! Scientists have been watching Kandula solve a problem in a way never before seen in elephants. Scientists have attached pieces of fruit to a branch of a tree that is out of reach for the little elephant. Kandula did something different from other elephants he instead, rolled a plastic box so that is sat underneath the branch. He then stood on the box and lifted his trunk and easily pulled the branch down and ate a yummy piece of fruit. Elephants have very good memory and they can use simple tools. Insight is the ability to solve the problem in a flash. In previous tests elephants showed no signs of insight. Preston Foerder a comparative psychologist at the City University of New York was a part of a team who were looking for elephant insights. He designed some very tricky problems for Kandula and to other elephants at the zoo. These elephants usually live in tropical rainforests so they solve regular problems in their lived. The challenge for scientist was seeing whether the animals complete tasks by trial and error, by watching animals or by quickly realizing the solution on their own. First the scientists placed trays of fruit outside the animals enclose. The food was just out of reach. But they also placed some sticks nearby. The elephants tried but they failed they never used sticks to draw the food closer. But the elephants did use the sticks for beating the against the walls, floor, and also there toys. Then they put the fruit on the trees and brought out a box and a stick. Kandula tried 7 times to get the fruit but then failed. But then it stuck him that he could move the box and stand on it. So he did that and solved the puzzle. But other elephants where not able to do what Kandula did. So maybe elephant’s brains are able to make easier connections amount bits of information.

Again I wanted to do a topic about what I am learning about in class. But I decided to go to a different website this time. I went to "Science news for Kids". And I found the article about Kandula the smart little elephant. What grabbed my attention is first I just really love elephants it is my favorite animal. Also I had connection with it when I went to the zoo in Berlin Germany first it was snowing and at the elephants enclosure the big pool of water was all frozen and the elephants where braking int and then sucking on the ice and it made me think how smart they are. So I agree with this thing of elephants having insight because its true a small baby elephant was able to fix a problem that not many other elephants can do I do believe that is is true. So this is my current event for this week.

Bibliography

"An Elephant’s “aha!” Moment | Science News for Kids." Science News for Kids | Publication of the Society for Science & the Public. Web. 28 Sept. 2011. .

By Stephen Ornes / September 7, 2011

I am Afraid of Shark attacks! So how can I prevent that?

The biggest thing that surfers and swimmers fear when they head out in the ocean is being attacked by a shark. A new study released by Australian scientists have discovered that sharks may be colour blind. This can make waters safer for people in the ocean and it also might prevent animals form accidentally getting entangled inside fishing nets. Using a technique called microspectrophyotometry, scientists examined the cells of seventeen species of sharks, caught of the shores of New Zealand and Australia. The retina(a delicate, multilayered light sensitive membrane lining the inner eyeball and connected by the optic nerve to the brain) of a normal living creature is made up of two kinds of light receiving cells. Which light sensitive and help measure brightness, allowing normal eyesight day and night out. Scientists were able to find many Rod cells in the different species of 10 of the seventeen sharks but the other seven did have some Cone cells. But only of a single type, sensitive to colour wavelengths of about 530 nanometer, which is the wave length of the colour green. This means while fish are able to distinguish between shades of grey and in some cases even blue/green, they cannot see any other colours. This research is also similar to other research for other sea animals like whales, dolphins, and seals that all have the green Come cells. So scientists believe that bright colours are not important to these sea creature because colours are quit useless in the dark waters they live in. Instead they seek their prey on how much contrasts stand out compared to the surrounding waters. So since there are over 400 different types of sharks, more studies must be done to see if the colour blindness extends to all of them. So if swimmers and surfers change their colours of clothing to darker they might not get attacked by any sharks in the ocean.




Again this time I wanted to do research on an article about animals but for a change a type of sea animal. So again I went to DOGO news because I really liked the articles they have there. And I cam across an article and it was the title that just got me interested in it. It was called,"Afraid of Sharks? Wear dark colours!" so of course I clicked on it. I learned a lot from this article because for a start I didn't even know that sharks had this problem with dark colours. And I agree with scientists because well for a start this can save more people and more sharks.

Bibliography
"Afraid Of Sharks? Wear Dark Colors! - Kids News Article." DOGO News - Kids News Articles! Kids Current Events; plus Kids News on Science, Sports, and More! Web. 22 Sept. 2011. .

Person who wrote this
Meera Dolasia on 01/28/2011

Luna the Galloping Cow

For my first current events post I decided to do something about biology so I went on to DOGO news and I searched up animals. And one of the things that came up was Luna the Galloping Cow.
We are so programmed to think that animals can do only what we believe they are capable of. So whenever a animal does something out of the ordinary we are surprised and stunned. For example who would believe that a pig can be trained like a dog, or like this a cow can gallop almost as well as a horse. Luna is a two year old bovine who lives Germany. Regina Mayer is the owner of Luna. She first started of slowly by taking the young calf on long walks across the countryside. Once Luna was comfortable with it she began taking her through more populated areas, so Luna could get use to more humans around he, and also fitted her with riding equipment. About six months into this, Regina decided to mount Luna and see how the cow would react. After a few minutes she could see that Luna was starting to show signs of being nervous and excitement. Turns out that the sweet loving cow had a very stubborn side to her, making training a little harder at times. To get through the issues, Regina called Anne Wiltafsky, a cow trainer in Zurich, Switzerland for some tips. Even though Regina still hopes to have a horse she loves riding Luna very much. She says no matter what she and Luna will always stay the best of friends!



First why I chose to write about this event is because first I wanted it to do something with biology because we are learning it at the moment. So as I said before I went onto DOGO news and I searched animals. There were some interesting things but nothing really made me feel interested and amazed. But then I saw the an article that was just very interesting and I just never thought that type of animal could do. that. So I learned many things from this article and the first thing was that animals cannot just do what we think they can do. Like I said before pigs can be trained like a dog and that though never even crossed my mind! I also learned that really animals do have many things in common. I agree that animals can do more things then we expect them to because its true! Pigs can be like dogs, Birds can make sounds like humans, and cows can gallop and jump like horses!
Bibliography

"Luna The Galloping . . . . . Cow? - Kids News Article." DOGO News - Kids News Articles! Kids Current Events; plus Kids News on Science, Sports, and More! Web. 18 Sept. 2011. .

My Goals for 7th grade

Here are some of my goals that I would like to achieve this year. First I would like to listen better to instructions because I am usually talking or I do not listen so this year I am going to listen better. I would also like to raise my hand more often even if I don't think my answer might be right. Because if I do I will learn more by trying to answer the question that has been given. The next thing that I will also like to achieve is also ask questions during break or lunch and instead of going and not being sure I will go and ask the teacher so I will be able to understand something better. I also really really want to try super hard for tests. I am going to study worksheets and facts and I will try and make myself some flash cards. And I will try and study every single day until the test.

My Scientific Summer

This summer I did many things but the best part of my summer was probably going to camp Allenghany in West Virgina. 2 two fun things that I did at camp this year was canoeing and rifle. Do do rifle we first need to put on a safety jacket and safety glasses and gloves. We also need to get targets, bullets, and most important the gun. We need to be very careful with the gun so we don't hurt anyone. In canoeing the things we need is a life jacket and a paddle. Usually we have four people in a canoe.

First in rifle there are many positions for shooting you gun. But for beginners you need to lie down on your belly. You have to hold the gun in a certain way, your hands and elbows are supporting the gun but the weight of the gun is on your shoulder. Then with the eye you choose to aim, you line up the rear and the front sight lining up to the target, and then you shoot. The two keys of science in rifle shooting is Gravity and Momentum. Gravity is the force that pulls the object to the ground at 9.8m per second. But you see the bullet has Momentum (force), so the bullet has a lot of speed and it is in motion so it takes the bullet longer to hit the ground. And the momentum is mass x velocity.











So as I said before in canoeing the things we need is a life jacket, a paddle and the we get into the canoe. In a canoe the back of the canoe is the spot where you steer the canoe. The Science is canoeing is that when we do the action when we put the paddle in the water and pull it through the water it is makes a impact on our bodies. Because our upper body is pulling the paddle through the water so that is why our arms and upper body sometimes hurts and feels tired. Also when we go to pick out a paddle the paddle usually has to be around the same height as you because if it is to big then it will be hard for you to paddle. And if you pick to small then it will also be hard because you would have to bend a bit for when you go to put the paddle into the water.This is Newton's third law : For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Also when the canoe is in the water it is dragging that is why it is slow when you try to paddle.

The motion of different marbles

What we had to do in class was we had to pick different size balls. And then at a table with a straw we had to blow the ball and see the direction it went. These are the materials I used.

Materials:

* Little foam ball
* Big foam ball
* small marble
* Big marble
* ping pong ball
* tennis ball

So as you can see I used 6 different weight and sized balls. Here are my observations of each test.

For the first one I used the little foam ball. It was very easy to blow you did not need to blow very hard at all. And because it was blown so fast it went far but near the end it went rolling to the left. The second one we did was the big foam ball. This time we felt like we had to blow harder but of course it was not very hard to blow at all. The big foam ball went strait forward and went to the left. So it is almost like the little foam ball it goes strait and then it goes left near the end but instead the big foam ball goes a little more strait and not as fast as the small foam ball.

The third test that we did was with the small marble. So it was very easy to blow it went fairly strait but it curled a little to the right. Then we did a test on the bigger marble. But the bigger marble was heavier so we had to blow harder. When we blow on the marble it didn't go far at all and curled strait to the right. I think it went strait to the right because maybe the marble was heavy and hard to blow. So the small and big marble both had something in common they both curled to the right.

The fifth one I did was the ping pong ball. This was super easy to blow I did not had to blow hard one bit. The ping pong went really fast and it went fairly strait and a tad bit to the left but mostly all strait. And then the last one I did was the tennis ball. I first tried to blow the ball but it didn't move so that shows how weak I am at blowing. So then Adjela helped me but the ball would not move. And we think it didn't really move because we were both blowing on both sides. Then Andjela tried by herself and she blew it and it moved but it only went half way. But she still did a way better job then me.

What do I know about force and motion

Well first I know a little but really not that much and by looking at videos and listening to information, I would like to learn about it.

Some things that I do know is like in the video when I saw Toni Hawk and he was skate boarding on a loop type thing. And he had to go up in the air. For him to do a loop he would have to go very fast. Also the same with a roller coaster it would need to go very fast going down and go in loops or else the people would just fall out of the roller coaster. The same thing with the people ridding bikes upside down they would need to go very fast to be able to go on walls and the ceiling.

One thing that I also learned is when gravity in pulling you down very fast things will go up. Like if an elevator was just falling very fast and you were in it. You would go smack! onto the ceiling. So sometimes if you are in an elevator and going down you sometimes feel like your body is going up. And that is the force of motion. So that is why elevators are slow. At amusement parks they usually have the ride where you sit on a seat your feet dangle you go up and then it just drops. Well if you didn't have a seat belt you would be in big trouble. Because you would fly up then fall back down to earth. So the seat belt holds you back down. And again same with the roller coaster you have to have seat belts because when you are going down you can like fly up. Sometimes I hold onto the seat belt because I feel as if I am going to fly out.

So I would really like to learn about force and motion I really think it will be a fun and interesting thing to learn about.

Some of the things that I would like to learn is the definition of force and motion? I would also like to know who discovered force and motion? What forces will affect the earth? Can you over come the forces of gravity? And I would also like to learn about it by watching a Bill Nye. Difference between forces and motion? What does gravity depend on?Do forces and motion matter in life? Why do things react to force and motion? Do forces and motion have something in common?

These are some of the questions I would like to know.Then I did some research

The definition of force is the capacity to do work or cause physical change; energy, strength, or active power. The definition of motion is the ability or power to move.