May 24, 2011

 Today my partner Diana and I presented what we discovered on the energy usage and transportation methods of Walgreens. Unfortunately, Mr.Wold was not able to attend the our speech but luckily a substitute was there to take his spot. I was a bit nervouse as I began to speak but started to relax once I really jumped into my energy topic. Overall, I think we did fairly well and hopefully we got our point across to the class clearly.

May 13, 2011

Ryan and Mrs. Anderson

 On Thursday I called Walgreens to set up an appointment for an interview for the project. I spoke with the assistant manager, Mrs. Anderson, and she told me to be at Walgreens today at 4:30. My partner and I met up with Mrs. Anderson in her office and began the interview. She began by telling us that she believed the company's energy use was decreasing but, when she checked the records it was staying the same. She then told us that the company has begun cutting down on a couple of things in order to reduce the amount of energy being wasted. Simple things like turning off lights when they are not being use, shutting the water off early, and using fluorescent bulbs for more efficiency. She also indicated she had a concern about using to much light but was trying her best to reduce the amount being used. Overall, the interview was partially successful although we didn't gather all the information we needed, we still received some useful information for our project.

 

May 12, 2011

Question To ask the company about energy:

1. About how much energy does your company use each year?
2. Has that number increased, decreased or stayed the same?
3. Are you aware that the more energy your company uses the more it pollutes the enviorment?
4. Have you considered doing something different to lower your energy usage?
5. If yes, what have you considered? If no, why not?
6. Do you know the difference between good energy and bad energy?
7. List some good energy and List some bad energy
8. Has this interview benefited you in any way? If yes, in what ways?
9. Do you plan to do anything different to save energy?

May 9,2011

Last week Mr.Wold assigned the class a Go Green Project. Our task is to do research on a local business to find out how much energy and transportation is used in that business. Our goal as a class is to discover better ways to help the environment we live in. Today me and my partner, Diana Sotelo have begun discussing our project and have split the tasks. I will be documenting on energy and Diana on transportation. We have chosen Walgreens as our business to do research on and plan to contact a Walgreens member some time this week.

Carbon Footprints

Our Country emits about 20% of the worlds carbon footprints each year. Sadly this is not an exact percentage because it increases each year. We as a nation can help decrease the amount of carbon footprints by making some changes to our daily lives. For one, we can start buying locally and organic that way the food is Eco-friendly and local instead of shipped from somewhere else. One thing to consider is riding a bike instead of a car to work, school, etc. If your only going a short distance why pollute the air if you don't need to. A huge step we could take is start unplugging any electronics that are not in use because even though the object is not turned on electricity is still running through the current. Start air drying clothes instead of using a dryer for only one item. For those who constantly buy batteries for toys, i pods, and any other electronics, buy rechargeable batteries it will defiantly help reduce carbon footprint. Also, we can start using reusable bags instead of plastic bags when we go shopping. Take a shower instead of a bath because a shower uses less energy than a bath does. WE can also stop printing newspaper and start reqading them online because we destroy about 43 trees to make a liftime of newspapers in the U.S. These are only a few of many ways to help reduce carbon footprints. Just remember the three "R's" Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

http://green.wikia.com/wiki/How_to_reduce_your_carbon_footprint

http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumed/tips.html

http://www.carbonfootprint.com/minimisecfp.html

http://www.squidoo.com/Carbon-Footprint-2

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/human-footprint-3224/Overview#tab-Photos/0

Chemical Synthesis

A Chemical Synthesis is the removal of chemical reaction to obtaian one or more products. This tends to occur in chemical and physical handlings involving a single reaction or several. reactions. Usually chemical synthesis are specifically for only one chemical reaction, a direct combination reaction, when two or more starters that bind together to form a single product.

Example:
A + B → AB
where A and B are elements or compounds, and AB is a compound consisting of A and B.
Examples of combination reactions include:
2Na + Cl2 → 2 NaCl (formation of table salt)
S + O2 → SO2 (formation of sulfur dioxide)
4 Fe + 3 O2 → 2 Fe2O3 (iron rusting)
CO2 + H2O → H2CO3 (carbon dioxide dissolving and reacting with water to form carbonic acid)
4 special synthesis rules:
metal-oxide + H2O → metal(OH)
non-metal-oxide + H2O → oxi-acid
metal-chloride + O2 → metal-chlorate
metal-oxide + CO2 → metal(CO3)
link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_synthesis

"Magic Show"

This morning my class met in the Little Theater because today we were going to present our experiments to a live audience. First thing was first every group got together with their scientist and helped set up for the demonstrations. The scientists put on their lab coats and goggles and were ready to perform. The Lab Techs helped the scientist prepare then watched patiently in the audience. The stage hands helped set up the lights and curtains and the reporters, like myself, also sat patiently in the audience ready to document the demonstrations with words, pictures, and videos. Each group went out and performed their experiments some were really interesting but some did not collaborate as planned. Then it was my groups turn, I was a little nervous on how well my group's scientist, Adalberto, was going to do speaking to the audience because yesterday we had no time to rehearse what he was going to say. I had nothing to worry about because he did great he spoke loudly for the audience to hear him and even mixed some Spanish in. Our experiment Colored Flames worked out great. Overall, every group did very well and what made it most interesting is that many of the groups presented their experiments in two languages!! Congratulations to all who performed today.

Adalberto setting up the Petri Dishes

Lighting the chemicals

The Scientists