My Celebration

A couple years ago on a snowy February day, I went hiking with my boyfriend down a trail unfamiliar to us. Out of curiosity we ventured the short trail looking for deer tracks. We found a tree holding one of the most elegant predators of the North. Six feet above the ground was a frozen barn owl hanging lifeless from a large maple tree. The foot was wedged into the tree restraining the owl from escaping. I observed the owl contently to unravel the story that led to his death. I have hypothesized that the owl flew into the crack of the tree to obtain food such as a mouse or tiny bird. He hit the crack with enough momentum at the right angle to attach him to the tree. The sad but amazing observation was a prime example of natural death. Since then I have encountered owls four times. I am happy to see these creatures unexpectedly and dedicate that day to the owl whose fate turned against him.

8th Grade Biology Test

I was confident about the test before I started it. Once I went through the questions I remembered how slow of a test taker I am. I did not have time to fix the answers I was unsure about. I started out at NMU as a biology major and should have passed this test with flying colors, instead I bombed it. I had forgotten what type of animal a seahorse was. A penguin is not a mammal and a shark is not a fish. I know this, duh! The question about what takes LESS energy stumped me because I was simply thinking about the human making beer and not all of the energy used to make the grains that go into the beer. I definitely need to brush up on my animal groups and need to remember my first instinct when taking a test is usually right, don't second guess myself.

Pizza!

A piece of pizza can represent the earth's layers.

Cheese is the oceanic crust, the sauce is the asthenosphere, the toppings are the continental lithosphere, and the crust is the earth's crust.

Water

Big overpopulated cities are that way because of their location. Water plays a large part historically because of trade between US and the British via ship. If I had a  hundred dollars to represent the amount of water on the earth most of it would be in the oceans. About 9 cents would be rivers and lakes. about 6 dollars would be in glaciers.

Answer:

Story of Phyllite

I am going to tell the story about phyllite. Phyllite started as an igneous rock. It was most likely turned into a sedimentary rock such as mud by weathering and deposition. It was compressed into shale. The shale went to metamorphism with heat and pressure turning it into the metamorphic rock slate. Slate was metamorphed into phyllite with various amounts of biotite minerals.

Simulations, Analogues, and Models

All three types of rocks can be made using food items as models and analogues.

Igneous rocks can be modeled using peanut brittle. The shiny butter part shows that the rock went through heat. A hard candy such as a candy can can be used to show metamorphic rock because all the stuff is melted together to look like one. Sedimentary rock can be modeled using rice krispies because the krispies are still chunky and held together by compacted rock (marshmellow) and you can still tell what the krispies are.

Elements

Elements are a pure form of atoms that originated from hydrogen and helium bonding in the universe. The bonds led to new elements such as carbon and oxygen. There are also man made elements with the symbols UUU. Elements are a pure substance that contains atoms of the same amount of protons. Elements bond with their valence electrons. Ionic bonding is when to oppositely charged atoms bonds. I am unsure what metallic bonding consists of. Hydrogen bonding is a bond consisting of hydrogen and oxygen molecules.