Ms. Hyche’s Class Blog

Today is the Autumnal Equinox! We are only graced with an equinox twice a year, so I get very excited about this special day!

If you are in my science classes I am sure (or really hope) that you know the defintion of an equinox. However, for those of you who are reading this that aren’t in my class, I will do my best to make it short and sweet. During an equinox the sun is directly over the equator and the Northern and Southern Hemispheres will have equal amounts of daylight and equal amounts of nighttime. This always occurs around the 22nd of September (Autumnal) and the 20th or March (Vernal or Spring). This is basically the changing of seasons for both hemispheres. As we are beginning to tilt away from the sun and lose some of the sun’s radiation, the southern hemisphere is slowly tilting more towards the sun and is simultaneously heating up.

There has always been a MYTH that you can balance an egg on the equinoxes of each year because of gravitational alignment. Just for fun, our science class balanced an egg…..and did it successfully! However, I did test this experiment this summer and found with some patience (lots of patience) you could get the egg to balance and stand straight up.

It’s really a cool site to see an egg sitting straight up and look like it is barely touching the surface. The egg we balanced is still standing proudly on my desk. I will post pics of my classes with the egg for you to see. Don’t be fooled by my egg-clock, Bob. he is also in the picture.

I hope you guys go home and try this out yourselves. Please ask your parents permission first because I don’t want to be to blame if you have a gooey mess!!

Happy Autumnal Equinox everyone!

We have officially started our Storms unit!

We started by investigating vortices in a bottle and discussing how storms form.  We found that in the Northern Hemisphere storms with a vortex always rotate counter-clockwise and heat is needed to get storms brewing! We used beads and glitter to represent debris so we could see how heavier and lighter objects would move inside or outside of a storm’s vortex.

 In other investigations we studied different surfaces of earth and how those surfaces effected the temperature of air. We learned that the sun gives off radiation and directly heats earth’s surfaces; mostly water absorbs the sun’s heat. The remainder of the radiation is reflected. Students, do you remember why the sun’s radiation is reflected? Where do the radiation rays go when they are reflected? 

We also had an in-depth discussion about earth’s atmosphere and layered cake! Wait, what?! Yes! Layered cake. Our earth is like a yummy layered cake in that our atmosphere has many different layers, each with different characteristics and a variety of purposes. Students, in which layer do satellites and space craft fly? Which layer consists of our ozone layer? If I asked you to explain the Greenhouse Effect and talk about greenhouse gases, would you be able to do so? I sure hope so. You might see that on a test. Hint Hint.  

In our latest investigation we used punk sticks as a smoke source so we could visually see how air moves when it is cold and when it is hot. We used ice and boiling water for this inquiry and put each of these items inside a convection tube. From there we added our smoke source, the punk stick, placing it through a funnel. We then turned out the lights, turned on the flashlight, and watched our smoke billow and swirl! We even saw a few vortices! Students, go back and reflect how the cold air moved. How did the hot air move? Where did the cold/hot air come out in the convection tube? The top or bottom? Think of how this relates to the air around you!

I am posting pictures of the past few investigations we have conducted. Enjoy and feel free to leave comments. See you guys on Monday. I have missed you all and hated to be out sick!

As we all know a fragment is a broken off or detached piece of something, it is basically an incomplete part. Everyday on earth, we have fragments of asteroids hit our earth! Did you know that?? They are TINY pieces of asteroids, but you can find them in any crevice or crack on the sidewalk. If you are interested in how, just ask me in class. Back to fragments…..SENTENCE FRAGMENTS! A sentence fragment is basically an incomplete thought and was the topic in last week’s English classes.

We found that fragments are everywhere in today’s advertisements. However, this piece-y information can cause some confusion and relay inaccurate information to readers. So, in English we decided to look at some of these advertisements and create sentences from the fragments we found within the ads. We were hoping to assist readers in understanding the full meaning of the ads we observed.

In groups of two, the students were handed an advertisement that had anywhere from 1-4 sentence fragments.  The students were asked to identify the fragments, then turn the fragment into a sentence that supported whatever the advertisement was marketing.  For example, in an advertisement for Oatmeal, it simply stated Banana Bread. I got some really crafty sentences from students on this one. Parents, how would you perceive this simple message? How would you put it into a complete sentence to make the ad more clear to readers?

The students had about three minutes per ad, then were given a new ad to look at. Fellas, I must apologize again for the excessive amount of makeup/beauty product advertisements I had! Apparently, it is very common for makeup companies to use fragments in their marketing techniques. You guys look at the bright side! You learned a lot mascara and lip gloss! HA.

We had a good time making fragments into sentences, but also learned that incomplete thoughts or sentences may make it difficult for a reader to understand. Writers, please make sure all of your sentences have a complete subject and predicate. Remember to ask questions if you are unsure if a sentence is complete.

• Who or what did something? (missing the subject)
• What happened? (missing the verb)
• If you have to ask both sets of questions, you are missing the subject and the verb!

 Also, remember not to be fooled by imperative sentences. Even if they are just one word, they still have the understood subject of you.  Ex: Giggle. Is this complete?

Good work today guys and gals! I think that some of you may have a future in advertising. I have posted some pictures for you to enjoy!