Is it true? Our last weekly science article report?
As we discussed in class, your job this week is to find the most challenging article you have read so far this year and then to write the best report so far this year. (If you need help finding an article, check here)
In your reflection, try to focus on sharing about how you managed to make sense of difficult material. What worked (or not) in understanding the article you chose? What strategies were successful, or not? What did you learn through this process?
I really look forward to reading your work (as always).
90 responses so far ↓
1
mr.coolguy
// May 5, 2007 at 4:12 pm
What Happens in Jamestown Doesn’t Always stay in Jamestown
Mann, Charles C. “America Found & Lost.” National Geographic, May 2007, pg 32.
America as we know it today wasn’t always like this. When colonists came to Jamestown and to other colonies, they brought items such as domestic animals and tobacco. These can trigger events by their own. You have to cut down trees so the animals can graze and so you have room to grow crops. But, when the settlers set out, to keep the boat balanced, they put rocks and soil on the boat. Located in that soil where worms. In the 17th century, there were no native worms to that area. When the colonists dumped the rocks and soil when they landed, they let loose the worms. Since there were no worms at that time, there was an abundance of under brush which was the food supply of the trees. When the worms were there, they ate it up and some trees died.
Reflection 1: It is interesting how one group of people (the settlers) can have such a big impact on an ecosystem. For example, Europeans brought over from Europe the European Honeybee (a lot of Europe there). Without the bee, many trees here would not bloom. Another example of change was with farm land. Early settlers would always change where they planted their crops. This did not allow the soil to gain back its nutrients which did cause a bit of a famine.
European influence physically changed the landscape of America!
Reflection 2: After all my articles came from the Science Times, I decided to go to a more challenging source, National Geographic. Personally, I thought that this article was harder than any of the other articles I did reports about (wasn’t that the point). If I came across something I didn’t understand (which happens quite often), I first reread it, but slower. If that didn’t help, I closed my door and shut out all distractions so all my concentration would be on the article. And if that didn’t help, I would ask my parents if they understood it. And if they didn’t understand it, I would just continue reading and insert what I thought the passage meant based on what was around it. Usually I figure it out after I reread it.
Boo Hoo! It’s the last science article!
2
mr.coolguy
// May 5, 2007 at 4:13 pm
I beat Hero Kid for #1!!
3
Hero Kid
// May 6, 2007 at 8:55 am
Comment for mr.coolguys comment-
I blame myself for posting 2nd.
4
Svogthir
// May 6, 2007 at 9:04 am
Response to Hero KId’s response to Mr. Coolguy:
As you should, it is your fault you are not up to your usual standard for speed.
5
Svogthir
// May 6, 2007 at 9:16 am
A Split Emerges as Conservatives Discuss Darwin
by Patricia Cohen, New York Times Science section
This article is debating the political implications behind accepting either Darwinism or intelligent design as the acceptable explanation ro theory behind the history of the human race. This question was brought into the open more than ever afetr the ten Republican would-be presidential candidates were asked, in their interviews for the candidacy, which theory they preferred. It can be argued that Darwinism supports such things as infanticide, abortion and stem cell research in infants, which makes it less appealing to conservative minds. It can also be said that conservative views are directly challenged by the book of Genesis in the Bible (meaning intelligent design). Overall, this articel has a lot to say about politics and science, how the collide, and what it can mean when they do.
This article was interesting topic-wise, but not written very interestingly. The author gave many examples to support her views, but overall, i found the writing to be pretty uninteresting. Still, if you have the patience for it, this could be a very interesting thing to read.
The way i overcame the need for a higher difficulty factor in the article is reading a longer article with a topic I knew almost nothing about. I may have done too well, because I was confused when reading it, and because it was a little tedious, but it was readable, and therefore not tooo difficult for me.
6
Hero Kid
// May 6, 2007 at 9:26 am
Just Say No-To Bad Science
Author-Sharon Begley
Newsweek Magazine
Summary-The article starts off saying how scientists rush through there research and there study goes wrong, like when Doug Kirby did in 2001, when he had piles of studies that were poorly designed to include in his presentations for sex-education programs (he was using rigourous methods to evaluate whether a program met its goals of reducing teen pregnancy, cutting teen’s rates of sexually transmitted diseases and persuading them to practice abstinence). Then after they talk about how scientists research , the article goes into a different direction. It then talks about abstinence.In April 2007, scientists released the most thorough study of abstinence-only programs (abstinence in the dictionary means an abstaining from some pleasures, while in this case is sex), ever conducted. Ordered by the Congress (it says), the scientists should followed 2000 kids, starting in grades 3 to 8, who have been randomly assigned to an abstinence only program or not. The results where that the kids in abstinence only were no more likely to abstain from sex than their control group counterparts.
Reflection- I really just want to say that is good that this experiment, unlike Doug Kirbys, was a toatal sucess and helped us further our knowlegde about abstinence.
Reflectiion 2: I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I got what this article was saying. When I looked at it I saw a lot of big words and said “this looks like a hard article so I’ll take it” but when I read it I had to read it over again and I stopped rereading because I knew it would’nt sound different than when I read it the first 2 times. I really didn’t understand what the article was saying too, I understood most of it but for my summary, I copied some parts right out of the article. So I would say this was very challenging for me to do.
7
eyesticker03
// May 6, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Superheavy Element “Ununbium” Has Ordinary Chemistry
By JR Minkel
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=4EF14478-E7F2-99DF-3469FE186D093908&chanID=sa003
This article was about a team of chemists that went further in the research of the element 112 or ununbium. “’In principle, we are proving whether the good old basic systematics of chemistry—the periodic table—is a valid ordering principle also for transactinides,’” This means that the chemistry team is trying to find out weather the periodic table is a classification system that will include elements with atomic numbers greater than those of the actinides. “’There have been so many varying predictions about the chemical behavior [of] element 112. We wanted finally to know,’ said Eichler.” This was one of the purposes of researching further, because of all the predictions it made the scientists more interesting to find out the truth.
If I had a better understanding of the general topic, periodic tables and elements, I most likely would have comprehended this article much easier. It was a difficult article but the quotes from the scientists helped me understand more of their research.
This article was difficult for me to understand because it mentioned the periodic table, which is a subject I know very little about. To help me comprehend this article I kept a dictionary and thesaurus with me. When there was a word I didn’t understand I either replaced it with a simpler word or defined it with the dictionary. This article mentioned a lot of different elements and since I had very little knowledge of these I looked them up online (http://www.webelements.com/). When there was a complicated sentence I read it aloud to myself multiple, or how ever many were necessary, times until it made sense.
8
rosie13
// May 6, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Title: Scientists Identify Gene That Boosts Lifespan, Quality of Life
Author: Marlowe Hood
URL: http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/05/scientists_identify_gene_that.php?page=1
This article was about a gene that has just been discovered, which is thought to prolong life. Scientists have been doing tests with worms, which have a gene similar to humans. Their theory is that by restricting your diet by about 30%, a human would be able to live 15-20 years longer. Obviously, the results of the experiments will vary from human to worm, but scientists cannot test their theory on humans.
I thought that this article was very interesting. Humans have always had a concept of immortality, and this theory brings us a step closer. I think it is remarkable that humans and worms have homologous genes. I know that I for one do not connect myself with worms in any way. I will be interested to see where this new research takes scientists.
I had to read this article several times before any of it actually penetrated my brain. I think that this article was definitely the hardest I’ve read all year. I managed to comprehend the article by telling myself that what it was talking about really mattered to me. Once I managed to spark my interest in the subject, it was much easier to understand.
9
eyesticker03
// May 6, 2007 at 12:56 pm
This comment is for rosie13.
I also had to reread the article to myself and had to convince myself to stay concentrated on it. I had to try to keep distractions limited so I could fully understand the article I was reading.
10
eyesticker03
// May 6, 2007 at 12:57 pm
This comment is for mr.coolguy.
I also closed my door in order to have no distractions from concentrating on the article. For me that helped but I didn’t think of asking my for help with sentences I did not understand, but instead I looked up the meaning of words and such to help me figure it out.
11
eyesticker03
// May 6, 2007 at 12:57 pm
This comment is for Hero Kid.
I reread my article multiple times aswell, but I found it was easier to read the allowd to myself when there was a sentence I found too difficult. I also thought my article was confusing and I quoted sentences from my article to help myself understand it better.
12
bmw x5 girl
// May 6, 2007 at 3:01 pm
Final Report
S Pacific to Stop Bottom Trawling
BBC NEWS Science
This article is about how they are going to restrict bottom trawling. They don’t like how it is disrupting the oceans bottom. They will make sure no ship or other vessel gets to close to they endangered area. The south pacific is one of the only oceans where there still are untouched habitats and they don’t want anyone ruining it. They have made agreements saying that you can’t in a certain radius of the restricted areas. Bottom trawling is when a net or something that will touch the bottom or get in the way disrupts the area. For example fishing they throw large nets down that will ruin the habitat.
I chose to write about this article as my final report because I didn’t know a thing about. I didn’t know anything about bottom trawling and had no clue what it meant. To find out I asked my brother and he helped me understand what it meant. I also wasn’t quite sure where this was taking place and what it would affect. I looked it up on a Google map to get a better understanding of what habitats they were saving. There were some terms I didn’t understand but I asked my family for help. I liked doing this article because of the fact that I didn’t know anything about it. It made me learn something new and I will definitely look for more articles that I have no knowledge on.
bmw x5 girl
13
rosie13
// May 6, 2007 at 3:03 pm
This comment is for bmw x5 girl.
While I was looking for an article, I read the same one as you! I also didn’t know anything about the topic that my article discussed. I like your idea of looking the location up on GoogleMaps.
14
rosie13
// May 6, 2007 at 3:06 pm
This comment is for eyesticker03.
Your article sounds really confusing, so props to you for sticking with it! I also liked your idea of replacing the difficult words with simpler ones that you understood.
15
rosie13
// May 6, 2007 at 3:09 pm
This comment is for hero kid.
I also read my article multiple times, but I found that after the second or third time, I understood more of what the article was talking about.
16
brooklynmavis22
// May 6, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Improving our Understanding of Immune System Development in Foals
(yes, another horse article, shush up)
Peter Moore and Brian Stacey
Journal of Equine Veterinary Science
This article is in relation to the little known knowledge about a horse’s immune system, and the fact that scientists are expanding their knowledge on this subject.
They have concluded that horses are susceptible to various diseases during the first few months of life. These neonatal diseases are a major cause of financial loss in the equine industry because of mortality, medical care, and diminished performance later in life. A mature and functional immune system is essential in the defense against common infectious diseases.
Humoral immunity, which consists of an antibody (antibodies must be produced to make the immune system fully functional), response to an antigen, is the least known aspect of the equine immune system. Humoral immunity it is an important element in many significant diseases that affect foals. An improved understanding of the basic processes behind the development of these antibodies with regard to age will provide scientists with new insight to the development and knowledge of immune defense.
I thought this article was intriguing. With all the advanced knowledge of medicines and technology, I would never have suspected that the knowledge of the equine immune system would be so minimal, as the immune system is a vital component of the health and welfare of all living things.
As this article was written for people who are equine veterinarians, some of the text was a little difficult to understand. (Even though I aspire to be an equine veterinarian, so I guess it wasn’t that complicated). For example, they had mentioned some of the discoveries they had made in their studies, (i.e. Diversification of IgH V sequences, spectacular B-cell follicles, single IgH Variables, and so on). But, since this is relative to the profession I aspire to become, I managed to understand most of the article, with interest.
17
iheartj&js
// May 6, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Eat Less, Live Longer? Gene Links Calorie Restriction To Longevity
Salk Institute
May 2nd, 2007
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070502143834.htm
Summary- This article was mostly about how scientists have been researching how under some circumstances, the less food organisms eat, the better chance they have a of living longer. This is only true for some organisms, not all living things. Even thought this theory seems impossible, it has been proven that by cutting their diet to 60% can really extend their life . This only works if the organisms continue to eat vitamins, minerals, and healthy foods. If they do this, it will give them a longer life, and reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Besides genetic manipulation, this is the only known way of achieving these things. No one has found out if this works on humans, but people have been interested in exploring it.
Reflection- When I saw this article, I thought more than twice about choosing it to do my report on. Mr. Ardito told us to pick an article that seemed almost too difficult. This was definitely along those lines for me. I had to re-read the article about 3 times before it actually started to make sense to me. The reason which I decided to stay with this article was because the topic was so interesting to me. This is a strategy that I use to help me comprehend difficult pieces of writing. If the topic is very interesting to me, I am determined to not give up on it. I used this strategy for this article, and it worked out for me. After spending a couple of days of re-reading it, I made sense of it. I feel like I am more able to understand things when I look at them more than once.
18
Hungry Man
// May 6, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Weekly Science Report
Martian Water: New Mapping Tool Heats Up Quest For Icy Gold
http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/05/martian_water_new_mapping_tool.php
May 6, 2007
The I read was about NASA and their heat-seeking device that detected maybe some ice underground on Mars. So they say that a million years ago Mars was once covered in water. The heat-seeking device which is known as THEMIS can detect the hot and cold spots from 100 yards across. There is only patches of ice around which is what the device got but NASA wants to find more of these patches of ice. That’s why in August of this coming summer NASA is going to launch a more high-tech heat-seeking device to find more ice if they can. This device is called Phoenix but unlike the first one this one is going to not land it is just going to hover over the land and find the ice.
This article that I had picked was quite an interesting article due to the difficulty of it. When I read it twice I really got to figure out why NASA was doing this and that really made me think that if they find ice on Mars what they would do. As a matter of fact the article wasn’t so difficult because I was very interested in it that I was determined to know what they were saying and what they were going to do. The main words I had trouble with were the gadgets and devices which the had weird names to. The rereading strategy really worked for me for this article because of trying to understand the words. For some words I used some other online resources like google to find the definition of a particular word. Once I found the meaning of the word I would plug it in and keep reading. That is what really worked for me.
19
n00b51ay3r
// May 6, 2007 at 9:00 pm
BBC Science
S Pacific to Stop Bottom Trawling
Bottom trawling is when something big, like fishing net, is dragged on the bottom of the ocean. Doing this destroys coral and stuff like that and also creates big clouds of dirt and sand that kill the animals that live there. This article is about banning bottom trawling. People do not like how it destroys the coral and bottom of the ocean. They have made agreements to not go near ontouched places like the South Pacific. Now they have monitors that make sure that fishing boats don’t go near the spots that are in danger.
I liked this article because it is something I wouldn’t normaly do and I had no clur what bottom trawling was. I had to type it in on google and look at things about bottom trawling. Some of the words were big, long and confusing, so I had to use a dictionary. I also looked at an atlas to see where in the world this was happening. This article taught me somehting that I didn’t know, and that is why I liked it so much.
20
n00b51ay3r
// May 6, 2007 at 9:04 pm
This is for Rosie13
Rereading is a really good strategy for things that are tough to read. Mabey I should try that some time. It might help a lot. You did a really good job.
21
n00b51ay3r
// May 6, 2007 at 9:10 pm
This is for Hero Kid
Wow, a lot of people reread, I really should try it. Your topic is really cool, “Just Say No-To Bad Science”. What n00bs, just rushing through work. Great job.
22
dancingintherain102
// May 6, 2007 at 9:12 pm
The article When the Levee Breaks, written by Nikhil Swawinathan, on the http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?SID=mail&articleID=556C8247-E7F2-99DF-3CBFC21650622519&chanID=sa003 website, on May 3, 2007.
This article focus on metabolic diseases, and more specifically type two diabetes. Type two diabetes is caused be cells not responding correctly to insulin. This emerging research mentioned is saying that one of the reasons cells are not responding to insulin is because of inflamation, and that inflamation may be caused by obesity. They are also saying that their research shows that three or four genes, in particular one gene that codes for the protein STAMP2, may help prevent nutrients from causing inflamation. When the protein STAMP2 was lowered in mice inflamation increased. When inflamation happens it can cause cells to not respond correctly to insulin. Which then can lead to metabolic diseases such as diabetes.
In order to get through and understand this article I had to read it over several times. After reading it over several times I discussed it with my Dad to make sure I understood the material correctly.
I really did not like how the article was written. The way the article was written made it very difficult to understand the point of the sentence, or a paragraph. Also, a lot of the information in the article is stated as fact, when it is only a theory that they don’t have any data to back it up with yet. And there was a lot of jargon used in the article that they did not explain, so it was easy to get very confused.
Even though the way the article is really bad, the study itself is good and could eventually lead to helping to find a cure for type two diabetes. They are doing very complex works with a lot of different variables. They have to do different experiments for different variables in the mice. The findings of this research and experiments are important and interesting. I enjoyed learning about the study.
23
n00b51ay3r
// May 6, 2007 at 9:15 pm
This is for eyesticker03
Your article confuses me. You use too many big words with your element 112 and Ununbium. No, i’m just playing. You did a really good job. I also used a dictionary, it helps a lot.
24
Dusty Schmidt
// May 6, 2007 at 9:16 pm
http://www.firstscience.com/home/articles/nature/lion-mane-myths_1365.html
Lion Mane Myths
This article was about the function of male lions having manes, and what they do. Scientists have found out that they are for attracting females, instead of protection, becuase most lions attack eachother at the neck.
I think it’s kind of weird how this is the last weekly report, becuase I’m so used to doing them every week. I didn’t use science news for kids, which is a start. I remember one week we had to pick a difficult article like this week. This article was long, and had a lot of information. I always thought that lions never needed to protect themselves aside from their teeth, because they are sharp and big. I also didn’t know much about lions until reading this article. Biologist Peyton West says that lions developed manes overtime to protect themselves from neck attacks, but I think they don’t need manes, unless there isn’t another way to attract females.
25
HiMan
// May 6, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Science Article Report
The name of this article is “Mercury’s Molten Core Makes It Spin like a Raw Egg” and it was written by Agence France-Presse on May 4, 2007. I found it at http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2007/05/mercurys_molten_core_makes_it.php.
This article was about the resent discovery that Mercury’s core contains molten iron and possibly sulfur. They discovered this by using basically the same technique as a cook does to figure out if an egg is raw or hard-boiled. A planet or egg spins in a certain way depending on if its core is solid or not. Scientists sent a powerful radar signal up to Mercury and then picked up the echoes of the signals on two telescopes 2,000 miles apart. Through these signals they were able to measure the twists and turns of the planet. These twists showed that the planets core wasn’t forced to rotate with the planets crust, which only happens when a planets core is liquid and not solid. They suspect the presence of sulfur in the core because sulfur would help the core stay liquid for as long as it has. The article also says that they hope to have other questions answered in 2011 when a NASA spacecraft begins orbiting the planet.
This article was more difficult than usual because I found that the author worded it in such a way that it was confusing to read. The way I was able to overcome this confusion was by reading the article out loud and by reading it more than once. Overall, despite the confusion I thought that this was a well written article and I liked how the author compared a planet to an egg.
26
HiMan
// May 6, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Sorry about spacing at the beginning of my article. I dont know what did that cause thats not there in my other copy.
27
a is for awesome
// May 6, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Global warming is a big issue in the world today, and is becoming severe. Greenhouse gasses, mainly carbon dioxide, caused by lots of cars, are contributing an enormous and unnecessary amount to this issue. I got my article at http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=5828B2A1-E7F2-99DF-30C2168D6482516A&pageNumber=1&catID=1. It was published on May 4, 2007 by David Biello. The article told all about how cars and the greenhouse gasses are contributing to global warming, how it’s getting severe, and why and how we need to stop it. Because of all these factors the climate is changing. Humans rely on so much on cars and other sources of energy that contribute to global warming that it’s hard to stop it. We should try and not use as much energy little by little.
I had a hard time finding a good article for me. Most of the articles that I found, were either too easy, or too hard for me to read. I thought this one would be pretty good. It wasn’t too hard. I understood most of it, but there were certain words or phrases that i didn’t really understand well. When I found something that I didn’t understand, I used a couple of different strategies. If it was a phrase that I didn’t understand, I would break it down and try to figure out exactly which part wasn’t making sense to me. Then I would figure out what that one part was and make the phrase make sense. If it was a word that I didn’t know, first I would try to use the text around it to make sense of it. If that didn’t work I would look it up in the dictionary. If I found multiple meanings for the word, I would apply each one to the sentence and figure out which one made most sense with the topic. Using these strategies, I was able to read this article with a good understandment of it.
28
Brown eyed girl
// May 6, 2007 at 10:08 pm
From China To Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine
May 6, 2007
Walt Bogdanich
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/americas/06poison.html?pagewanted=6&ei=5087%0A&em&en=d12451fe38bc7c0c&ex=1178596800
This article was about a poison called diethylene glycol. This poison has been injected into drugs, such as cough medicine, all over the world. There have been at least eight mass poisonings in the past two decades. Most people do not realize this is poison. It is used as a substitute for glycerin because it is much cheaper. Glycerin is an expensive syrup found in medicine, toothpaste and other products. In Panama government officials mixed this poison into cold medicine which resulted in 365 reported deaths. China is the country that makes and exports the poison. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) warned U.S. drug makers that they should keep and eye out for diethylene glycol. This has become a global problem. China has said that they are going to clean up their pharmaceutical industry. Wang Guiping was one of the people who came up with this idea in hopes to save money. This syrup is not approved for human use. Guiping forged licenses and lab reports so he could trick pharmaceutical buyers. If you have this syrup in your body, your kidneys will fail, then the nervous system “misfires” paralysis spread though the body and face and you have a difficult time breathing. Most people die in the end. This poison has effected many people all over the world. Reading this article I realized how much we, americans, trust the medicine we take. It also made me realize how much responsibility pharmaceutical companies have.
This article was extremely difficult to read. It was seven pages long and when I got to the third page I realized I probably should have picked an easier article. It took me a really long time to read it, mostly because i kept getting distracted. I eventually had to put earplugs in my ears to keep myself from getting even more distracted. When I am having difficulty with something I usually look at it in chunks. I don’t think about the entire article I just focus in on the paragraph I am reading. I keep going paragraph by paragraph and stopping along the way to make sure I really understand what is going on. I have to do it all in one sitting because if I get up, I will have to go back to the beginning and skim through the part of the article I have already read. If I find a work I don’t know, I try to use context clues to figure it out.
29
kenny24
// May 6, 2007 at 10:42 pm
No Sex for 40 Million Years? No Problem
March 20, 2007 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070320090458.htm
Summary: This article is about a microscopic water species know as the bdelloid rotifers. This species has lived for over 40 million years and never sexually reproduced. There are no male bdelloid rotifers; the way they reproduce is by asexually cloning. The bdelloid rotifers have eggs that are genetically identical to the mothers. The big question scientist have are how is this species evolving. The bdelloid rotifers have actually evolved into different species through out the years. Scientists think this is because of natural selection and mutations during the cloning process. There are two different species that live very close to each other. They both live on the body of a water louse. One species lives around its legs, the other by its chest. The amazing thing about the bdelloid rotifers is that they are a species that reproduces asexually and yet they have been around for so long. Most asexually species do not live very long. The key to this species living so long is that they found a way to evolve.
Reflection: I thought this article was very interesting. I had no idea organisms could still evolve even though they reproduce asexually. It is amazing that a species that reproduces asexually can be around for 40 million years. That shows how important it is to evolve. This article was defiantly one of the more difficult articles I read this year. It took me a few tries to totally get what I was reading but once I got what it was I found it easy to understand. I think the best way to read and understand more complicated articles is to break them down. I read the article by paragraph, and than tried to make sense of it paragraph by paragraph. Once I broke down each paragraph it was a lot easier to understand. It also helps to read the article more than once. Some things that would not work for me would be to only read the article once. I need to read an article at lest twice. This way I am familiar with the material. I need read it at lest three times. It also is hard for me to read the article and than write the report without referring back to the article. I think it is possible to read any article as long as you break it down and fully understand what you are reading.
30
twinkle toes
// May 7, 2007 at 6:43 am
Weekly Science Report
“Scientists Identify Gene that Boosts Lifespan, Quality of Life”
http://www.seedmagazine.com
This article was about scientists in Paris that found out that a gene, known as PHA-4, is in control of how long a person lives naturally. One of the things that they found which prolonged life were eating 70% of your regular meal, which can make a person live up to 30% longer, or 20 years more in a human. The scientists, led by Andrew Dillin, did experiments on worms to test their theories. They fed the worms bacteria that had a trace of genetic material which turned off the PHA-4. Their theory had been correct; the worms didn’t enjoy the elongated lifespan when they were placed on the diet.
I found this article very interesting. I have always been wondering if there is a possibility for eternal life, and this article showed me that humans are one step closer to finding the solution for that. I always thought that eternal life was something that only happened in fantasy books, or in futuristic books, but maybe humans are closer to achieving eternal life than I thought.
This article I read was definitely the hardest one I’ve read all year. I had to read each paragraph over at least two times each. Not only was it hard to understand, but it was also long. The article itself was two pages long on the computer. I usually just choose an article that is about one page on the computer. This article really challenged me. It showed me I can do more and that I can do better than just one page on sciencenewsforkids.com. But since it’s the end of the year, I can’t really use it again this year. I feel like this was also my best writing I did all year. It may not be the longest, but I don’t think I’ve ever put this much effort into the weekly science reports before this.
31
kenny24
// May 7, 2007 at 7:39 am
comment for twinkle toes
I really liked your summary. I totally understood what the article was about and i didn’t even read it. I also need to re-read paragraphs. it makes it a lot easier.
really nice job
32
kenny24
// May 7, 2007 at 7:43 am
comment for brown eyed girl
Wow it sounds like the article you picked was very hard. I think the best thing you can do is re-reread it. thats what works for me. the earplugs thing was new, maybe i should try it. i always get distracted. Good job.
33
kenny24
// May 7, 2007 at 7:46 am
comment for Svogthir
Its is good that you had overcame your article with ease. Mine what strategies did you use to read this article.
34
mr.coolguy
// May 7, 2007 at 11:19 am
This comment is for twinkle toes;
It does sound like that article was hard, especially since it has a lot of hard scientific terms. I think my article was the longest ever!! (I only read about half of it!).
35
mr.coolguy
// May 7, 2007 at 11:22 am
This comment is for Svogthir’s comment on Hero Kid’s comment on me;
I’m sorry I made you blame yourself. I was just extra fast this time!
36
Polaroid Gangsta
// May 7, 2007 at 11:26 am
Black Carbon Transported from Asia Plays Role in Pacific Ocean Climate from Nation Science Foundation (nsf.org), March 15, 2007, no author stated
Climate is a massive issue in today’s scientific media and global warming is a common fear. Global warming is an increase in the earth’s temperature, and this increase can cause the extinction of many plans and animals, whose extinctions can dramatically alter food chains and ecosystems. The ocean’s climate also has a huge affect on the earth’s temperature and species, and if the water temperature gets too high, many aquatic species will die out.
Many scientific studies show that a large portion of global warming and climate change is caused my human activities and interactions with the environment. Things like pollution, fuel burning, and greenhouse gasses deplete the ozone layer, which filters out ultraviolet (UV) rays. These studies and tests prove that we need to be careful about how we use our resources and how much energy we’re using, because in using it, we’re harming the atmosphere.
Scientists have found that a large portion of the pollutant Black Carbon has been emitting from Asia. The Black Carbon affects the climate of Asia and of the Pacific Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean’s climate affects a large portion of the earth. The pollution emitting from Asia affects about 8,000 kilometers of the northern area of the Pacific Ocean, which affects many other regions. The black carbon concentration lessens as it distances away from its source, though the high concentration amounts over the ocean are enough to warm the upper atmosphere.
The relationship between this issue and global warming is as follows: the soot particles contained in Black Carbon, due to excessive burning and fuel usage, dim the ocean’s surface and block out sunlight. This creates an increase in Carbon Dioxide. Black Carbon on its own is believed to have “a huge impact on regional climate,” according to Guido Franco, a technical lead for climate change research at the California Energy Commission. The recent studies only found this issue happening in springtime, and the scientists need to figure out if this goes on all year, which would produce are larger scale problem.
The article was in an in-between range of articles I was finding. There were various instances where I had to read portions of the article over again to understand what was going on, but it didn’t give me enough trouble as to make me need to spend more time finding another article.
My problem with finding a difficult article was that the article’s I found were either too easy and too simple or extremely difficult and I couldn’t get through the first paragraph after excessive rereading. I found this article to be challenging, but not so that I felt stressed and frustrated over it. The one problem I did have with the article I chose was that it was difficult to reflect on it without directly copying it, but overall I found it interesting, challenging, and informative.
37
polaroid gangsta
// May 7, 2007 at 11:29 am
Comment is for Svogthir:
The topic you chose was really interesting! I love contreversal topics, and I though your report was really well written.
38
polaroid gangsta
// May 7, 2007 at 11:31 am
This comment is for Twinkle Toes:
That’s so awesome! I wonder what the future of that technology and research could be, it could really create some interesting results, like medicine to live longer. Great article choice!
39
room217
// May 7, 2007 at 11:37 am
this article is about the ten things we hate about apple. i got this article at http://www.washingtonpost.com. the article give you ten reasons why the authors (narasu and alan) hate apple. They said that apple presured web sites to post their products. One of the websites the presured was ISPs. for most of the article they just give reasons why they hate apple products.
I found this article very interesting because i would have never thought that anyone could hate apple products. Personaly I think that apple computers and their i pods are really good. For example the ipod can hold up to twice as more songs then an regular mp3 player and some can play videos on it which i think is very cool.
This article was the most hard article to read through out the entire year becuase i mostly read articles from science news for kids and their articles are really easy to read.
40
room217
// May 7, 2007 at 11:40 am
what i do to read hard articles is that i read it more than once and i find the definition to the words i do not know. Or i ask my cousin to read it for me and tell me what the article is about. Or i can stay up all night tring to figure out waht the article is about.
41
mr.coolguy
// May 7, 2007 at 11:41 am
This comment is for Brown eyed girl;
My article was really long too, but not all of it was on the topic I was writing about so I skipped some of it. Did you try that or was it all on topic?
42
room217
// May 7, 2007 at 11:43 am
this comment is for Polaroid Gangsta
i thought that your topic was really interesting to read and i think that you did a good job writing your report.
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mr.coolguy`
// May 7, 2007 at 11:46 am
This comment is for room217;
My article was very challenging too (mine was from National Geographic). I never took articles from Science News for Kids . ‘
Note: I have a zen v plus instead of an ipod!!
44
room217
// May 7, 2007 at 11:46 am
this comment if for himan.
i thought that your article was very interesting. i thought that you did a good job writing the article. the article you wrote about looks really hard to read.
45
coolchic
// May 7, 2007 at 11:48 am
Weekly science Article Report
Climate Change is Happening, Effects will be Severe, Now What Will it Cost to Fix?
By David Biello
Published: May 04, 2007
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=5828B2A1-E7F2-99DF-30C2168D6482516A&pageNumber=2&catID=1
This article is about how the world’s greenhouse gases are being emitted into the atmosphere. This is changing the climate and it is predicted that the average temperature will rise three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit). It talks about the main reasons that the atmosphere is getting warmer. There are a lot of cars polluting the air and there is also a large portion of carbon dioxide getting into the atmosphere. This article also talks a bout what is being done to fix it. For example an idea is increasing the use of low carbon sources of energy such as nuclear and solar power. This will reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere annually.
Reflection1- I thought this article was interesting because you hear a lot of thing about the climate changing, but you usually don’t hear what is being done to fix it. It took me some time to fully understand this article but once I did then I realized that the article was in depth and I got a slightly better concept of this topic.
Reflection 2- At first this article was difficult for me to understand. I didn’t know what some of the sentences meant so I asked a friend to help me out. I also did read the article over and over again to see if I skipped over something or to see if I could understand the article better the second or third time. I find it helpful to do something that you don’t understand with a partner so that you can get a better understanding of it.
46
opac1
// May 7, 2007 at 12:58 pm
When The Levee Breaks: Protein Overwhelmed by Overeating Leads To Metabolic Disease.
Nikhil Swaminathan
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=556C8247-E7F2-99DF-3CBFC21650622519&ref=rss
The article is reporting that obesity puts you a risk for certain metabolic diseases, such as improperly induced inflammation to healthy tissue. When this reaches fat cells, they become resistant to insulin, which diabetics cannot produce. When an experiment was conducted on mice, it was found that the mice that under produced the protein STAMP2, which is found in the heart, lung, liver, and prostate of humans, but it is unknown if it is located in fat cells, developed inflammation. STAMP2 is meant to transport nutrients to a location to either be stored or broken down, and also tells the immune system not to attack incoming food. Now, STAMP2 is usually low in mice, except when nutrients enter the body. If it can be found, as to what activates this rise, obesity could be cured. This is expected to develop a few years from now.
The article itself was difficult to understand, and I will later explain how I overcame this in order to understand it and to write this very report about it. Aside from the difficulty, the article was very detailed and obviously targeted for experts, which I am not. It had quotes, which I believe are essential for any science article, from the person who was in charge of the experiment. That really enhanced the quality of the article. The author also did a good job explaining how the protein works, how the experiment was conducted, and what problems could be solved by it. I predict that within the next few years, this treatment will be available to all of the public and obesity will be cured. It is just up to the public how they will chose to use it, whether it is for better or for worse. Now, I was able to understand the article by reading it three times. I read it once on the computer screen, once at my house, and once at school. By doing this, I really started to understand the article and what the message was that it was trying to convey to the reader. Additionally, I was able to figure out some of the terminology in the article by looking at the text around it, and thus determining the terminology based on how it fit in to the rest of the surrounding text. It was defiantly a challenge, but I feel that I gained something, both as a student and as a person, from challenging myself to the extent that I did.
Overall, I thought that the article was very high quality, but very difficult at the same time.
47
opac1
// May 7, 2007 at 1:07 pm
Hero Kid:
You should have read the article again, but more slowly than you read it the first time. I said the same thing after my first two reads, but once I read it slowly the third time; I was really able to understand the article. While I did not understand the article completely, I did have a basic understanding of it. That basic understanding was enough for me to write my report on it. However, I did like your honesty in your reflection, and it was very well written and to the point. By the way, it is all right if you do not post first. You should give yourself more time to write your report so it can be the best it can be.
48
Jamie
// May 7, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Liquid mercury
http://www.sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20070509/Note3.asp
article by Emily Sohn
Summery:
There has been talk since 1974 about what the core of Mercury is made of. Mercury is the closest to the sun, so many people say that the insides should have solidified. Others say that the insides should be magnetic because it’s the closest to the sun. A theory on the topic of magnetic fields was that Mercury’s magnetic core was frozen in place.
Scientists studied the rotation and orbit of mercury to learn more about the magnetic pull. Mercury’s year consists of 88 earth days. But Mercury only has three days every two years. The scientists bounced radio waves off Mercury, confirming that there was definitely water in the core of Mercury.
Spacecraft’s have been sent to Mercury by NASA and will begin to orbit in 2011. Another spacecraft should be arriving from a Japanesse-European mission in 2019.
Reflection 1:
This article was interesting because it asks a lot of open-ended questions. Like, you could almost think of your own answers to what the scientists were trying to figure out. It also explained things in a scientific way, and then in a way that was easier to understand.
Reflection 2:
This article was difficult for me because I really don’t like studying space. learning about the solar system really scares me.
49
acex2inurface
// May 8, 2007 at 12:13 am
Climate Change Is Happening, Effects Will Be Severe, and Now What Will It Cost to Fix It?
By David Biello
Scientific American.com
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=5828B2A1-E7F2-99DF-30C2168D6482516A&pageNumber=1&catID=1
This article was about how air pollution and the increase of the release of Greenhouse gases are causing different damages and effects in the environment. Some of the things were
• Temperature will rise by 5.4 degrees on average
• Natural Disasters (floods, pest outbreaks)
• Melting of the glaciers
Worldwide, there are countries that use up fuel energy and automobiles were the biggest reason. Bangkok, Thailand is where there is so much traffic on the streets that the car drives half a mile per hour. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is trying to prevent all the damage that we are doing and trying to fix it.
This is one of my favorite strategies that I use to look through a hard article and to evaluate it. I print out a copy of the article, and then read it out loud so you can listen to yourself and to remember. I will sometimes take side notes or highlight the main ideas for each subject. I liked this article because it made logical sense to me. I think it is true that even though you can cause a problem easily, it’s hard to fix it. In the article, they said that it will cost a lot to fix or to upgrade, because it is so expensive. I think its right for the IPCC to take a step forward to do something right.
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opac1
// May 9, 2007 at 11:32 am
Rosie13:
I loved the amazing strategy that you used. You basically did what I did, except you went one step further. You took the article and thought how it would affect your life, which made you think a lot more about it. If I had done that, I am sure I would have had a deeper comprehension of my article, and probably would have written a better report as a result.
51
opac1
// May 9, 2007 at 11:42 am
N00b51ay3r:
It is good that you were able to learn something about your article’s topic. You might be able to use that information in the future. You never know. I also like that you used an atlas instead of just guessing where bottom trawling is occurring. I would not have thought to do that, whatsoever. Keep up the good work.
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opac1
// May 9, 2007 at 11:49 am
N00b51ay3r:
Don’t forget to keep 51ay1ng n00bs.
53
Brown eyed girl
// May 9, 2007 at 9:24 pm
This comment is for twinkle toes
That was a really cool article choice! We both use a lot of the same stratagies when doing something difficult. I agree about never putting as much effort into a scince article untill this one. Those few extra days really helped!
54
Brown eyed girl
// May 9, 2007 at 9:29 pm
This comment is for a is for awesome
I thought you did a really good job with explianing how you choose your article. I also liked how you break the phrases up. I do that too and it really works for me!
55
Brown eyed girl
// May 9, 2007 at 9:31 pm
This comment is foe acex2inyourface.
That’s a really good idea to print out the article and read it outloud. I would have never thought of it. I also liked how you bulleted information in your report.
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Svogthir
// May 10, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Brown eyed girl:
taking the article a paragraph at a time seems very simple, but sometimes you do have to consciously remind yourself to do this. it really does help to understand the article.
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Svogthir
// May 10, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Jamie:
I think you might have the wrong class :0
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Svogthir
// May 10, 2007 at 3:12 pm
n00b51ay3r:
“Googling” the topic is a good idea. It is not something i would have thought of. Also, a dictionary can be very helpful when you don’t understand something.
59
a is for awesome
// May 10, 2007 at 8:28 pm
bmw x5 girl:
I like how you chose an article about something interesting and actually very important, yet nobody cares about it. I had never heard of bottom trawling, and I had never thought about it. I think it’s really great that they’re stopping bottom trawling. I also like your idea of google maps.
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a is for awesome
// May 10, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Dusty Schmidt:
I never really thought about why lions would need manes. I never realized that it was for protection, that’s pretty interesting.
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a is for awesome
// May 10, 2007 at 8:39 pm
room 217:
I think that’s so weird that there are people who hate apple products. I have never met anybody who hates apple. I think apple products are good, I like them alot.
62
Hungry Man
// May 10, 2007 at 8:47 pm
This comment is for kenny24
I looked at your article that you read and it was a hard article. The words were quite hard. Rereading does work and I agree with you that it helps you understand the article better. I never break the article down into pieces because I easily get distracted by that. Good response. Great job.
63
acex2inurface
// May 10, 2007 at 9:00 pm
This comment is for Svogthir:
I can understand how an article title can be interesting, but then again, when you read it, it can get boring. I like how the article you read was not only about science, but it included politics too. I like your idea of reading a long article that you know nothing about, except i might get confused so wouldn’t you usually read a easier topic? I think thats where we read a hard article differently.
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Hungry Man
// May 10, 2007 at 9:01 pm
This comment is for n00b51ay3r
Wow you didn’t reread your article that works so good. Bottom Trawling is pretty interesting but in a bad way. That is terrible that it kills animals and it should be banned. Googling things on your article is a pretty good idea to do and so is looking at an atlas. I might have to try that the next time I read an article like that. Great job.
65
Hungry Man
// May 10, 2007 at 9:08 pm
This comment is for iheartj&js
I was going to read that article but I new more people were going to do that and I wanted one that nobody did. Anyway you did the same thing I did and it was that you reread your article like 3 times. I think that it is cool that if you eat really healthy food you will live a longer life and who wouldn’t want that. It also reduces your risk of getting sick which is good too. Good response. Great job.
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acex2inurface
// May 10, 2007 at 9:08 pm
This comment is for opac1:
Your article was a topic about a common problem in America, but you updated about it, or you gave us new information about obesity. I like how you have three different places to read the article. Its…i don’t know, but its creative and it sounds like it will work. Reading the same article in a different environment might do the trick. Nice Job!
67
acex2inurface
// May 10, 2007 at 9:31 pm
This comment is for rosie13:
I like your article and I think it can help every one of us in the future:] I like how you make sure you get interested about the article to write a weekly science article about it. You convinced yourself that the article was important, which it is, so the tequnique you use must work really well!
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bmw x5 girl
// May 10, 2007 at 9:52 pm
This comment is for Rosie13.
I really was interested in your report. I hope I can get to live longer!!!! I also have to read things oer and over so I understand it and get it in my brain. Good Job!!
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bmw x5 girl
// May 10, 2007 at 9:57 pm
This is for acex2inurface.
I liked how you worte your report. I agree with your ways of understanding an article. I have never highlighted the article but now that I think about it it seems very smart. Nice Job!
70
iheartj&js
// May 10, 2007 at 10:23 pm
This comment is for Hungry Man:
Great job on your article, I found that we have many similar ways of understanding difficult information. I also re-read things when they are not clear to me, and I am more determined when the topic is interesting to me, just like you.
71
iheartj&js
// May 10, 2007 at 10:28 pm
This comment is or a is for awesome:
Your article seemed interesting, global warming is such a big topic to write about. I never thought of using the strategy of looking up the word and substituting it into the sentence for science. I always used it for English. That is a great idea; I will try it next time I read a difficult word. Great job!
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iheartj&js
// May 10, 2007 at 10:33 pm
This comment is for Svogthir:
Nice job! Your article seemed very interesting; it is awesome how science and politics could collide. I don’t know what I would say if I was asked that question. I’m sure they didn’t ask the president, in hopes to not humiliate him. Your strategies were similar to mine; they seem to work for both of us.
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dancingintherain102
// May 11, 2007 at 8:55 am
This comment is for bmw x5 girl.
The article you picked seemed like it was really dificult to understand. I asked my family for help understanding the article i was reading too. Good Job!
74
dancingintherain102
// May 11, 2007 at 9:03 am
This comment is for coolchic.
I think it is really cool that you got through your article with a partner, and it helped you understand better. I also read the article over several times to try to fully understadnd it. Good Job!
75
dancingintherain102
// May 11, 2007 at 9:09 am
This comment is for HiMan.
I think that reading out loud is a good strategy for understanding an article. A lot of people seemed to have read their article more then once, so it is a very helpful strategy to use. Good Job!
76
Hero-Kid
// May 11, 2007 at 11:32 am
Comment for Opac1
Like always you keep on surprising me. I disagree with the quote thing you said in your reflection. Quotes usually confuse to the beyond.
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HiMan
// May 11, 2007 at 11:41 am
This comment is for acex2inurface:
I also try and read the article out loud inorder to understand it better. I think it’s a good idea that you take notes on the article.
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Hero-kid
// May 11, 2007 at 11:41 am
Comment for Svogthir
Not alot of science articles that are challenging tend to be interresting, like mine. Mine was really boring, my cat jumped up to look at the article, she hissed and ran away. It must have not been very interesting.
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HiMan
// May 11, 2007 at 11:44 am
This comment is for rosie13:
I think that it’s a good idea that you read the article more than once. I agree that it’s easier to read an article that you are interested in.
80
room217
// May 11, 2007 at 11:44 am
acex2inurface
i do that too but an easier way of reading a hard article is to ask someone older
81
HiMan
// May 11, 2007 at 11:47 am
This comment is for bmw x5 girl:
I think that it was a good idea for you to ask someone older and smarter than you for help (I wish i had thought of that).
82
Hero-kid
// May 11, 2007 at 11:48 am
Comment for room217
I agree with you, HOW CAN PEOPLE DISLIKE APPLE PRODUCTS? You really summed up your difficulty reading this article. Good Job!
:p
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room217
// May 11, 2007 at 11:50 am
coolchi: yea i got to try what you did to read a hard article
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twinkletoes
// May 11, 2007 at 9:30 pm
acex2inurface:
the article that you read sounded really interesting. I also liked the strategies that you used. I think I might try some of them. Well done.
85
twinkletoes
// May 11, 2007 at 9:34 pm
rosie13:
Woah! We got the same article :O
I know what you mean by that you had to read it several times before it actually registered. I went through the same thing. But all in all it was a good article and I am also interested in the concept of immortality.
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twinkletoes
// May 11, 2007 at 9:41 pm
room217:
I agree with you!!!! Apple products are amazing. They are really small and work really well. How else could you watch movies or shows anywhere? And Apple puts pressure on other companies to advertize their products? So does every other company!
87
brooklynmavis22
// May 14, 2007 at 9:15 pm
this is for rosie13
I thought your article was interesting.
I like your strategy of making sure you’re interested in the article before writing about it. Also, the fact that you convince yourself that the article is important, is also a good technique.
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brooklynmavis22
// May 14, 2007 at 9:19 pm
opac1
I liked your article, I thought the topic was pretty interesting. I also like your strategy of reading the article three times, and in different locations each time.
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brooklynmavis22
// May 14, 2007 at 9:24 pm
svogthir
I liked your strategy of reading a longer article with a topic you knew almost nothing about. I thought that was an intelligent thing to do. Nice job!
Your article seemed very interesting; it’s fascinating how science and politics could collide.
90
Jessie
// Jan 27, 2008 at 6:00 am
Jessie…
Thanks, I’m looking for cheap flights to Thailand, we’ll be heading there in February….
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