Class Response: Mining for Oil

This class assignment required good tracing skills and ability to identify different colors. I learned that to obtain oil, you need to find a reservoir. To have a reservoir, you need a source, trap, and a container. Ms. Nightsky (not sure about spelling) worked in an area where she needed to find oil reservoirs for her intern. She collected three sheets of information; one sheet for the source, one for containers, and one for traps. A reservoir for oil can only be formed if all three components for a reservoir are present in the same location. To find this, I traced all three sheets, each with another color, to find a sweetspot. These sweetspots were the places where oil can be most likely found. Then we were faced with a real life representation. We were given a budget and we had to dig for oil considering the sweetspots and the expenses. We found the coordinates of the sweetspots and "dug for oil''. My group was only successful in finding oil 2 out of 4 times. This class amused me because it showed me the difficulty in finding oil.

Class Response: Water Cycle

This class period was riveting, entertaining, and at the same time, educational. Our assignment was to follow the directions given on our designated index card. My index card told me that I was a spoon (evaporation) providing water to clouds. The reservoir I was evaporating from was the ocean. All the other students also had roles. After about ten minutes, everyone was forced to stop whatever they were doing. Then, we compared the amount of water in the reservoirs in the starting to how much the reservoirs contained after ten minutes. The reservoirs had only a minute difference. Next, we added artificial reservoirs that were human made. This made the previously balanced water cycle into a haywire cycle. Finally, we added food coloring to the artificial reservoir of industry. The food coloring represented pollution which quickly spread throughout all of the reservoirs. This represented the affect that humans have on the water cycle. All in all, this class of science was one to remember.