HUNBlog

After hurricanes come floodings

 
 

Like they say after rain comes sunshine, you know that after a hurricane major flooding is expected. We must be prepared for the issues that come along floods. How do we get through floods? What can floods contaminate? These are some flood related issues.

First of all, we must avoid driving in moving water; this is suggested even if you have a huge truck or what not. If you do decide to try and move across moving water the driver may unknowingly steer into a canal or pond. Another possible damage that can occur while driving through moving water is that you can be struck by a deadly shock, this shock comes from the electricity from streetlights and power poles may be active though standing water.

When an individual comes in contact with flood waters you must wash off with boiled/disinfected water that is cooled. It is important that we do not drink or eat anything that has been contaminated. Always wash your hands after everything you do, just to prevent getting sick or contaminated.

So what can floods contaminate?

Anything that flood waters came in contact with is contaminated; do not assume it is not or that the water is safe to drink. Undamaged, commercially canned foods can be saved if you remove the labels
thoroughly, wash the cans, and then disinfect them with a solution consisting of 1/4 cup of unscented household bleach per gallon of water for clean surfaces. Re-label your cans, including the expiration date, with a marker. Food containers with screw-caps, snap lids and home canned foods should be discarded if they have come in contact with floodwaters because they cannot be disinfected. Other items around the household that can become contaminated include:  pacifiers, baby bottle nipples, wooden cutting boards, plastic utensils, and brushes. You must wash all items with boiled water or immersing them for 15 minutes in a solution of 1/4 cup of household bleach per gallon of water.

To make sure your water is drinkable you can get it tested by your local health department.

Don’t just think that once the water goes down you are safe. Floods contribute too many infectious diseases. Make sure to check everything you consume, from the water you drink and the food you intake. Unfortunately hurricanes or large rainfalls cause floods. It is important we know what to do when this occurs. Make sure to be stocked up with water bottles and canned goods and also contact your local health department for any concerns.

 

"Pollution On Earth"

  

    Since the beginning of time and throughout the years people have increased the pollution on Earth. Without any questions or doubt human have really notice that the pollution has been affecting the Earth extremely dreadful. Animals, plants, air, water, and land has been impacted the most because we human don’t stop the production of manufactures. Every second we want more of something that contain usage of plastic, paper, glass, oil, metal, cotton, medicine, food, and etc. As we increase our needs of these things we are making the factories, harvest trackers, boats, science experiments, 18wheelers, airplanes, and more to work every day burning gas, chemical, plowing, capturing of animals to happen.

    If we continue polluting the Earth we are going to be living on our trash because there is going to be so many junk yards around that eventually the whole landscape of Earth is going to be cover with the trash and we are not going to have a chose to build homes over it. If we don’t start watching how much we use of things, recycle, and burn gas we are end up to die because we are going to be killing everything as we are starting this process. As the water moves along the river, ocean, lake, and creek died sea animals start to rise and float because of the chemical in the water.  With the slowing start of that we start to kill our food, then since the water is effected with chemical we have to work double hard in making sure the drinking water is safe to use. Also with the watch of trying to stop pollution we can save all plants and endanger species that could be used for varies things, like save human lives. A lot of medicine comes from plants and sometime very unique plants can save one’s life. And if the pollution kills those plants because they are not getting the photosynthesis, carbon dioxide, and clean water they won’t grow at all.

    We humans need to change the increase of pollution because we are just killing ourselves and the future species and generation that will really be affect it today’s society don’t start the change. Today action really does affect tomorrow’s action.

Composting

        So I am walking down the chip aisle in the grocery store and I reach for my favorite bag of chips; SunChips. I grab the bag and it is unusually louder than normal. “What is this?”, I asked myself.  As I read the bag (without try to be too loud), I discover that they are trying to use 100% compostable bags for their packaging. They have made their chips healthier for us, why not make it healthier for the planet? I think that this is a great idea and they have always been committed to improving the world around us. I did some research on this new bag and it is a great way to reduce waste.

        What does this mean? Compostable means that it can be decomposed in a composting system within one composting cycle. With the proper mix of leaves, food wastes, and manures, you are left with a humus mixture which has a soil like earthy smell. What is left are minerals and nutrients that can help condition soil and nourish plants. Composting helps eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers, helps promote higher yields of agricultural crops, and is cost effective. 

        Since they started using the compostable material packaging, the company has received positive feedback regarding their attempts to improve the planet. The company is currently working to improving the compostable packaging that is less noisy. I think that what SunChips is doing is a good step to help our planet and I am looking forward to see the new and improved packaging.

 

Young Scientists

How early is too early to introduce the scientific method to students? This semester I participated in a pilot program with other student teachers and had to work with pre-k, kindergarten and first grade students on a science project. The theme for the project was microbiology and the students had to use the scientific method to carry out the project. I was really nervous because I did not think this task was possible. Kindergarteners developing a hypothesis? Pre-k students learning about organisms? To my surprise the project was a success. The students were very interested in science at this very young age. They were extremely curious about learning about things they could not see like microbes. They learned about the different types of bacteria and even cultivated it in agar plates themselves. The enjoyed doing the observation of the bacteria on the petri dishes and recorded their results on their journal and logs. The projects were hands-on and they learned the process of analyzing and researching to perform their experiments. I had thought at first that this experiment was too advanced and the vocabulary was going to be difficult for 5-6 year olds but it became a natural language when we worked on the project. This experience has opened up my eyes to what students are capable of learning at a young age.

Recycling in Europe vs. the USA

We always hear how it’s so important to recycle, but for most of us, it goes in through one ear and out the other! We know that we should do it, but we just don’t seem to have the time or energy to actually do it.  At least that’s the case for me!  Just recently, I was at Brock Elementary, the school where I do my student teaching, when I overheard a teacher talking about the importance of helping our planet by recycling.  To be completely honest, I was not very interested in the conversation, but yet I continued listening.  Suddenly, she said something that caught my attention.  It was very interesting to find out that she was recently traveling around Europe, which just happens to be a continent where they strongly push recycling by making it more accessible for its citizens.  She was amazed to see that Europeans recycle everything and that they see it as a way of life, instead of a burden!  Some of the things she mentioned were that they have many different colored bins for different materials all over most public places in Europe, which makes it much easier for everyone to recycle.  I’ve never traveled to that part of the world and I was curious to find out more, so I did a little research comparing our American ways when it comes to recycling with those of the Europeans.

In most European countries, glass and paper are just some of the things the average European refuses to throw away.  At most supermarkets, beaches, and other public places there are bottle banks with separate slots for clear, green and brown glass.  Europeans also recycle hard and soft plastics, as well as newspaper or papers and cardboard.  Most towns in countries throughout Europe have a free paper collection once a month and most people recycle everything made of cardboard or paper, from cereal boxes to old telephone bills.  In addition, there are recycling plants or recycling centers all through out Europe which totally facilitates and promotes their recycling effort.  Green waste, such as garden trimmings, is put out on the street in a neat bundle and they are collected every two weeks.  If that’s not enough, aluminum and tin cans be taken to local depots, old batteries taken to the local supermarket, and old oil or other chemicals taken to special sites.

On the other hand, in the USA most of the recycling of paper and plastic takes place at schools, universities and/or offices.  Most of the time people don’t recycle simply because they have to go out of their way to take the materials to a recycling center.  For the most part, we see apartment complexes and houses with just one trash container where all the garbage is tossed.  It’s rare when we see houses or apartment complexes that actually have one or two recycling bins. Can you imagine how much people would actually recycle if the different recycling bins were conveniently placed at their house or even near their house in public places such as parks?  I believe that the amount of actual waste would be tremendously reduced if that was possible.  Everything could be recycled and we could actually commit to it and make it our way of life.  We could start teaching it to kids at a very early age and eventually they would look at recycling as a part of their life too. 

I truly think that the appropriate authorities in this case, should do more to help us become more aware of recycling and most importantly facilitate the ways in which we can help the recycling effort more efficiently.  I understand that money might be an issue in this case, since it would actually take large amounts of money to actually initiate the process of making, distributing, and placing large quantities of recycling bins/banks all around the USA.  However, I feel that they should take a serious look into possibly starting it, even if it’s done at a small scale because the rewards for our Earth would be huge since recycling reduces greenhouse gas emissions, conserves natural resources, and saves landfill space.  Europeans are definitely helping to save our planet with their huge recycling efforts and therefore helping to slow global warming.  So why is it that we can’t we do the same for our planet? After all, we just have one planet Earth and we should take care of it! Don’t you think?

Is time precious?

Recent studies have gone underway with regards to an early alert system for earthquakes. Imagine...the ground begins to shake, everyting is crashing down around you, buildings and houses collapsing. Why? An earthquake has happened. Every year, earthquakes destroy many homes and buildings and in some cases entire cities collapse as a result. Many are killed, mamed...if only there was an early warning system in effect that gives you enough time to take cover, protect yourself and loved ones. It is even scarier because we cannot accurately predict when the next earthquake will occur. But acording to a system of detectors in Los Angeles, we might be able to warn that an earthquake is coming. Even if it only comesa few seconds before the actual hit, we can then at least have a few seconds to get out of a potentially dangerous situation. So how would a few seconds really save? DO you think it will really make any difference in this new early warning system?

A Pre-Service Teacher’s First CAST

    My initial reaction to the 2010 Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching was “WOW!” The participants, presenters, and exhibitors were enthusiastic and approachable, ready to explore, learn, and share. I spent a bit of time exploring the exhibits, in which I was very pleased to see a considerable variety of resources available to science teachers in Texas. What I was truly excited about, however, were workshops.  

    The first workshop I attended was Planetary Systems presented by Jody Harkrider. Participants worked in groups to sequence the formation of a planetary system using captioned picture cards. The presenter then led us through the correct sequence. This was a more in-depth examination of system formation than I have previously studied and I was intimidated at first. The straightforward approach demonstrated in this workshop, however, makes this topic feasible in the classroom.

    Next, on Friday, I attended The Private Eye:  Hands-On Inquiry for an Interdisciplinary Mind presented by Kerry Ruef. The Private Eye learning process involves using a jeweler’s loupe (pronounced “loop;” a small 5X magnifying glass contained in a tube) to see ordinary objects in a new way. The purpose is to use critical thinking and thinking by analogy to interest and challenge students to think out of the loupe (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Participants were given two loupes, materials (a sea urchin test, seeds, leaves, plastic netting), and information about the program to take home.

    Also on Friday I attended Geoblox Models Cover the New Earth TEKS. My first encounter with GeoBlox was in Dr. Brad Hoge’s Earth and Environmental Science Studies course (NS3311) at the University of Houston-Downtown. I was eager to revisit them, especially with John Koonz, their creator!  Koonz gave a short presentation on how and why he created GeoBlox.  He also discussed the recent improvement in scale of his models. Participants completed two models (a convergent continent-continent plate boundary and a disappearing stream) and received clean copies for use in class.

    On Saturday, I joined an unexpectedly small number of participants for Xtreem Biology: Explore the Cell Cycle Including DNA Replication and Mitosis presented by Pamela Harrell. In this workshop, we extracted the DNA of a strawberry and participated in multiple hands-on ways to explore DNA structure. The presenters supplied us with packets of the procedures and models for all the activities, which utilized the 5E Model of Constructivism. Participants in this workshop were eager to come up to the front to role play as a ribosome, t-RNA, and other characters in translation and transcription, and even form DNA chains! This was a very fun workshop.

    These four workshops were a tiny fraction of what was offered. In a few instances, I was torn between two (and even three) workshops offered at the same day and time! CAST was a gold mine for a pre-service teacher: I am more excited and equipped to teach than ever.

Teleportation

Teleportation is a very interesting subject in world of science. Science is always looking for anything new and/or exciting. Since teleportation is already possible already I think with time is going to be a more popular subject than it is now. Teleportation can either be good or bad. Where do you stand? I think teleportation will be more bad than good for many reasons. First of all there's gonna many bad people in the world that are going to get ahold of it. Like killers, robbers, pedafiles and many other bad poeple. Lets say you're getting mugged or someone has you on gun point and then the cops are almost and he's about to get caught when Bam! he's gone and who knows where he went. Another bad thing about teleportation is that there would be way too much traffic while you're teleporting in the air. Just think about how many people per minute would be using the wonderful use of teleportation.  Although there are bad ideas to this there are also good qualities to teleportation. One good thing would be being able to escape yourself from being robbed and killed. Also, we all have family emergencies one day or another. Teleportation would be great if you have to travel long distances for an emergency. If you're a very forgetful person this will definitely help you. It will be very convenient to go back home and pick up your book that oyu need or your wallet. I honestly hope that teleportaion is not fully developed for the use of humans because we will lose the beauty of being humans and getting to places as regular people. There will be so many people taking advantage of this and not think about others as teleportation evolves. An awful thing that can happen is some one not being able to be whole again after teleporting from some where. Humans have been able to manage their lives perfectly up to today. I think science sometimes can be bad because most people do not know how to handle it.

Global Warming and Energy

There are many issues facing our nation today, the economy crisis, the war in Afghanistan, and finally last but not least our environment crisis. Even though the United States has been criticized for being over dependent on fossil fuels I am glad to find out we still have a chance. During my Natural Science class, I learned about many concepts that I had never been introduced to before like sustainability and everything that has to do with it. One thing that caught my attention is the ongoing process of developing alternative sources of energy, which to my knowledge will help alleviate some of those harmful emissions we release out into the environment when we process our energy with fossil fuels, such as coal, fuel oil, or natural gas. Global warming is definitely an energy problem, and we cannot have both an increase in conventional fossil fuel use and a habitable planet. Yet the United States is projected to consume 35 percent more oil, coal, and gas combined in 2030 than in 2004.

So, what is alternative energy? Alternative energy refers to energy sources that have undesired consequences such for example fossil fuels or nuclear energy. Alternative energy sources are renewable and are thought to be "free" energy sources. They all have lower carbon emissions, compared to conventional energy sources. These include Biomass Energy, Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydroelectric Energy sources. I really think that it is our duty to demand our politicians to quit avoiding the issue and act quick.

I have read lots of reports where politicians deny and question what is in fact happening. I recently viewed a commercial here in Houston of some person claiming that global warming is not real and the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere is beneficial to our planet. I was shocked, of course at the end of the commercial there was an ad or a sign that stated he was in the oil business. I am sure that there are many people who think like him, but look at it like this. Just because tobacco companies advertise their product in a positive way, does it mean that is healthy? No, not really smoking has been found to be one of the main reasons for lung, and other types of cancer. Yet people still smoke, and go on with their life as if nothing is happening.

There are many reasons for us to take part in the future development of renewable energy sources, the main one is the future of our precious planet, there is also the economic factor, the government incentives, and last but not least, our ethical duty to do what is right.

By: Evelyn Martinez

the nba finals

    For our presentation, we found out the ratings, salaries, and information for the NBA finals and the all - star game. We came to the conclusion that there is no relationship between the ratings and the years of the nba finals.

We learned that the popularity of the players in the past affected the ratings of the NBA finals. We also learned a lot of information about NBA star's salaries and how the nba finals works.

From other presentations we learned about the history of football and amusement parks. We also learned things like how tall is the tallest rollercoaster is to how many touchdowns the Chargers made last season. 

                                                                                                 -Wilson Chiu, Otney Crawford