The Puritans

Author's note: In this essay my goal was to write a well written informative essay about the Puritans, making sure my vocabulary was right for the subject and my understanding of the subject was clear. I also worked on organizing my thoughts before I started so that I didn't ramble and have no conclusion.

The idea of traveling to North America during the sixteen and seventeen hundreds appealed to a very wide variety of people in Europe. The new land caught the attention of people seeking a different government, freedom of religion or unlimited land to lead to a wealthy future. These people saw America as an opportunity to start over, and influence others to help lead to a future they desired. This concept of renewal was especially valued by the Puritans, one of the many groups of people that settled in America.

During the time of American colonization, the Puritans had become more and more in disagreement with the English churches. They thought the churches were straying too far from the concepts and traditions laid out in the Bible. The fact that there were still several similarities between the English and Roman churches did not settle well with the Puritans either. The other disagreement the Puritans had with England was the educational system. They believed in a system where all children should be required to learn how to read and write, so that they are well educated when reading the Bible, laws, and other important influencing literature of that time. The Puritans were outsiders in England, so they moved to America to start fresh, with people of similar beliefs.

The first group of Puritans, led by John Winthrop and containing about 1,000 people, that settled in New England left Europe in 1630. The group established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, creating a government that was strictly religion based, hoping that other colonies would model after their example of leadership. Only men involved in the church were able to vote for governor and representatives to the general court. The Puritans were also responsible for founding the first school in America. This school soon became known as Harvard, named after John Harvard, a member of the colony.

Many of the Puritan's thoughts and actions have had a huge impact on the way United States citizens think and act today. Although several of the concepts founded by the Puritans have diminished over time, the mindsets of people in America today reflect the mindset of the Puritans very well. The desire to challenge the government to be better, the desire to change religion, and the desire to be free to choose were all concepts initiated by the thoughts of some of America’s first settlers. Even views from individuals during that time are valued today. Roger Williams, an outcast in his society because of his thoughts and ideas, was the best known challenger of the relationship between religion and government. He believed that government should in no way be influenced by any religion. By looking at the first amendment we can tell that being told what religion to practice didn't settle well with the founders of this country.

Although America has been influenced by a lot of different cultures, some of the ideas contributed by the Puritans are still around today.  Even though society has grown with time, we still have government text proving that the Puritans had important and valid ideas. Our government was founded by people who disagreed with their own government and wanted fair and equal rights. This is very apparent in our country today, and is something that we're constantly looking at to make improvements. The puritan ideas and beliefs were very innovative due to their background of opposition to government, which made them extremely valued when creating a new system. Maybe the Puritan thoughts on society has diminished, and maybe their thoughts have long since been exposed, but a part of America was founded by this innovative way of thinking, and it will long remain in our minds as we continue to improve  our government and the laws laid out by the constitution. 

Shaping the Nation

Author’s note; In this piece my main goal was to demonstrate that I can write arguments about different conflicts in history. I also worked on using a different type of vocabulary than I usually write with for a historical document feel.

Of the many contributing factors to the building of our nation, the Civil War, ranks highly among all of them. Although it was a major conflict within the country, the outcome was one that unified us more as a single democracy than before. The basic understanding of the Civil War is to know that the Northern and the Southern states disagreed on the concept of slavery and how it should be handled, but the disagreement deals with more than just different opinions; it deals with conflicts in the constitution and how different laws are interpreted.

The Southern states argued that to own slaves was a state right that they, as citizens of the United States, should be granted. Although the argument of states rights is a valid argument, it fails to address the bigger problem. In no way can slavery be displayed as positive, so the diverting argument of states rights was their way of changing the spotlight to the constitution and the laws that followed in the bill of rights.

The Northern states didn't only disagree with slavery because they weren't in dire need for slaves, but they couldn't agree with the decision of slavery in the South because it displayed unequal rights, and couldn't be viewed as anything else but morally wrong. Battling politically led them to a compromise of counting slaves as three fifths of a person, the South demanding more representation, and the North arguing that they were becoming less and less important in government due to the sheer number of slaves in the south. However the compromise didn't settle much with the Northern states or the slaves, and they were still unhappy with everything occurring in the south. This string of events is what led up to the Civil War and eventually the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment.

From the bombing at Fort Sumter in 1861, and the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, to the final surrender by Ulysses S. Grant in 1865, the Civil War took a harsh toll on America. With over 800,000 deaths, the Civil War ranks higher in the death charts than both World Wars and Vietnam; but before any lives were lost at war, before the Southern States seceded from the union, before any legal protests were made, there was a free human being who by another man’s hand, undeservingly became a slave.

Onion Cell Experiment

Author's note; This is a PHEOC on the affects of different mixtures on plant cells. 

Problem: What affects will different combinations of substances and blue dye have on the cells of an onion?
Hypothesis: I think that the thicker the substance, the smaller the cell membrane will get. I think this will happen due to previous research on the traveling of water molecules through the membrane. While the water molecules freely float in and out of the cell, the bigger molecules will not be able to enter, staying on the outside of the membrane.


Experimental Design:
Materials:
1. Microscope
2. Slides/slide covers
3. Onion
4. Tweezers
5. Beakers
6. Pipette
7. Water
8. Blue Dye
9. Hydrochloric acid
10. Sugar
11. Cornstarch
12. Baby Powder
13. Baking powder
14. Baking Soda
15. Salt


Variables:
CV: The layer of the onion used, the slides and slide covers used.
IV: The mixtures used on the piece of onion.
DV: The effect of the mixture on the onion.


Procedure:
We will consistently draw the same part of the onion, the epidermis, a layer that is exactly one cell in thickness. We will then place the epidermis on a slide and add around two or three drops of the mixture, and finally place the slide cover on top, attempting to eliminate all air bubbles. The onion will then sit, reacting to the mixture, while at least two more are made with the same mix to produce an accurate observation. We will then collect information about the reactions and provide a conclusion.


Observations:
Following the application of simple combinations such as sugar or salt water, we observed the membrane shrinking into the cell, whereas the cell wall remained the same. With thicker substances with larger molecules we didn't see results we were expecting. Although we could see the nucleus, the cell wall and membrane seemed unchanged.


Conclusion and Analysis:
Kendall and I hypothesized that because of the small size of the sugar and salt molecules, they were allowed to flow freely in and out of the membrane along with the water. We believe the process of diffusion evened the concentrations out, causing the cell to lose water, and shape. The appearance of the nucleus threw us off for awhile until we realized that it was simply the blue dye that had soaked into it, making it visible. We concluded that we did not have a high enough concentration of blue dye in the other mixtures. Although there were several variables that weren't consistent and our overall observation did not provide one conclusion, we did see some things we were expecting to happen to the cell and our previous research helped a lot with the understanding of the experiment.

Cell Rap

Author's note: This is the product of my cell project with Kendall. It is a rap about the parts of a cell and what they do. Even thought the screen says no thumbnail it still works. Click play and enjoy. 

Government

Author's note: This is a voice thread I did with Sydney Wager, Kendall and Tien about the three branches of government and the bill of rights. We each took a section to understand and taught each other. This is our presentation on the three branches of government. 

A Victim of Plastic Littering

Author's note; I recently posted the product concluding the impacts on the environment. This is my follow up piece for that project. My goal before I started was to write a different kind of piece than I usually write. My focus was learning a new organization as well as a focus on making it persuasive. 

I sit in the sand, helpless as I watch the damages of plastic waste. The sea turtle's breathing slows as the plastic has already been digested; its intestines have given up. The marine veterinarian's van pulls up a minute later, but at that point it's too late. The turtle has become another statistic, a victim of plastic littering. Poor decisions made by careless humans have cost this innocent creature so much, and at this point where is the blame placed? How can this scenario be prevented in the future? These questions can't sit any longer. They need to be addressed, acted upon, before more animals fall victim to plastic litter.

In oceans or in landfills, plastic never truly decomposes. Although plastic seems to break down over time, the reality is that it's just breaking into smaller and smaller pieces, the small pieces being just as hazardous as the large pieces. Unless plastic is specifically engineered to be biodegradable, it can cause serious problems to wildlife and their habitats. When animals get caught up in large quantities of plastic, their swimming capabilities are limited, and unless the problem is addressed quickly, the animal will drown. On the other hand, the smaller pieces are more easily swallowed by marine life, and most times it will clog up the digestive system, making it impossible to survive.

In other instances, when animals low on the food chain ingest the plastic and survive, it can still create just as much of a problem as when the animals don't survive. When these smaller creatures are then eaten by predators, the infected animal is then inside the predators systems. In extreme cases in which the level of plastic litter in the ocean is higher, the ingested plastic will work its way up the food chain until the point where humans are then eating their own litter. Just one split-second decision to not throw away a piece of plastic can make a difference to hundreds of animals as well as a regular person going out for Friday Fish Fry.

Over 100,000 marine mammals and one million seabirds die each year from ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic that doesn't degrade. An average American contributes 185 lbs of plastic each year to that statistic. Each and every one of those pounds takes at least 500 years to decompose. By the time current plastic waste is degraded, there will be far too much plastic in landfills, and the amount of landfills will increase substantially. This can lead to huge problems with pollution caused by landfills as well, which affects not only the wildlife, but the contributors to the original problem as well.

The first step towards changing to biodegradable is being currently activated in grocery stores across the country. Rewarding green friendly customers that reuse grocery bags with discounts is a small part to a healthy future. There are also organizations and companies trying to get plastic bags replaced with biodegradable bags in places such as grocery stores. Besides thinning plastic products like garbage bags and tupperware, and replacing bags in grocery stores, not much has been put in place for this cause.

The concept of biodegradable bags has not been progressing fast enough for the drastic change that's needed, but every small step helps. As the centuries go by and regular plastic is still degrading, biodegradable bags popularity will hopefully increase, and the health of wildlife and their habitats will improve as well. This vision can only be achieved if the protection of wildlife goes up in the list of priorities throughout the world, and the setting up of a strong foundation will take a lot of effort. Now the only question left to answer is: who’s up for the challenge?

Impacts on the Environment

Author's note; This is a project I did with Tien to help understand human impact on the environment and extreme weather impact on the environment. This voicethread includes information on forest habitats, natural disasters as well as a debate for a grant featuring Tien and I debating for a grant to help either oil spills or sewer drainage. I will have a writing piece following this post in the next week and this product is also on my project page. 

New Page

Check out my new page on my blog called March 11. It is a collaborative piece I did with Tien. Please read the author's note to understand the goal of the piece.

5 Themes of Australia

Author's note: This is my five themes project on Australia. There are six hyperlinks with each picture. The stars (top left one) are location, the music notes (eighth notes) are place, the kangaroo is human-environment interaction, the canoe is movement, the tree is region and the moon is my bibliography.

The Science of Sound

Author's note: This piece is a writing piece showing all  of the  information I wasn't able to express in my video about sound in music and is also a rap up of my project. In this piece I focused on organization and having a better sentence length average.

The gentle hum of a computer, the loud honk of a car horn and the ringing of a phone are all examples of sounds heard in a typical day. However, the scientific reasoning behind how sound is made is a complex concept to grasp. To have an understanding of the concepts of sound is a very difficult task, especially because experimenting is difficult due to the fact that sound isn't visible. Knowing how elements such as refraction, diffraction and ultrasonic technology affect the world is knowledge that is important to have.

Sound is created by the vibrations of different objects such as a guitar string or a drum head. These vibrations then vibrate the air around it, sending sound waves which disturb matter or space, carrying just enough energy to produce a sound, yet not bring matter along with it. Each and every one of these vibrations has a different frequency. Frequency is measured in the unit hertz which expresses the number of times something vibrates in one second, so that a string vibrating five times in one second will have a rate of five hertz.

When a sound wave is interrupted by an object such as a wooden door, the sound must bend around to get to any point beyond the door. This motion is referred to as diffraction. Since there is little space for sound to escape, most of the sound is muted. However, some sound does make it through the door, but this only works for frequencies that have wide enough waves to not get scattered by the particles in the wood. This is why, when listening to music from a separate room, the bass line seems to be the more dominant sound. Because the density of solids and liquids is higher than in gas, sound waves travel faster in these mediums. When a sound wave changes mediums, the speed in which it's traveling is changed. This process is referred to as refraction.

Like dynamics in music, decibels are the measurement in which the volume of a sound is measured. A normal conversation would be marked at roughly twenty decibels, a phone ringing at seventy and an electric guitar at approximately ninety decibels. This scale helps scientists communicate more accurately about volume levels in theories that they may have. One of the many painfully loud sounds on the decibel scale is the sonic boom, which is the explosion sound heard when something, or someone, breaks the sound barrier. The sonic boom is the sound created when someone travels faster than the speed of sound, which is 740 miles per hour.

The human ear is only capable of hearing within a certain frequency range. This range goes down to roughly twenty hertz and up to approximately twenty thousand hertz. There are several animals and machines that can make noises that are beyond our capability of hearing such as the majority of a dolphin or bats speaking range. When a sound is above our hearing range, it is labeled as an ultrasonic sound and when it is below our hearing range it is labeled as an infrasonic sound. An elephants hearing and speaking range is mostly infrasonic, which means they typically communicate with sounds that we are unable to hear without technology. This ability helps elephants sense threatening predators nearby and communicate without being heard by other species.

Music is typically the most common sound that people think of, but the squeak of a shoe hitting the gym floor, or the sound of fingers hitting a keyboard are sounds too. Silence isn't just people not talking, but having everyone and everything completely still. Sound is constantly making its appearance, although it's maybe just too high, too low, or too normal to hear. 

Sound in Music

Author's note: This video is the product of my project about sound in music. This video is also on my project page for when it gets pushed off of the home page. 

Down the River

Author's Note: After brainstorming for my first writing piece of the eighth grade year, I finally came to the conclusion of writing about one of my experiences from the summer, particularly because it's fresh in my mind right now. In this piece I will be working on better vocabulary, using techniques such as alliteration and personification, and having better transitions .

I'm coasting through the water, effortlessly gliding with the current of the Wisconsin River. I paddle with a consistent gentle stroke in the water which creates an even balance between the front and back of the canoe. Luckily the weather threatening to postpone our trip earlier has ceased to exist. I'm about to call this day perfect when I look back and see that one of the other canoes can't manage to stay straight. The two girls in the canoe are yelling at each other over who is supposed to steer, and they're about to run into a tree. Our camp counselor tells us to hold up and stop at a sand bar to let them catch up.

Once the rest of the group is gathered we decide that a different arrangement is needed. Unfortunately that means my canoe gets mixed with the clueless canoe, and me getting a new paddling partner. As we set off again, I quickly realize why the other canoe was having trouble before. My partner puts no strength whatsoever into each stroke, and constantly stops paddling for no apparent reason leaving me to make up for the slack on both sides of the canoe. However, as the day goes on I start to get into a rhythm of making sure we don't suddenly veer to the left causing us to crash into a fallen log or tree. 

As the sun sets, the group comes to a consensus to stop to set up camp. We explore the limited island of sand and trees, finding interesting footprints of different species that live here. Once we head back to the canoes, the counselors make dinner while we set up our "three" person tents for the night. Then after our delicious dinner, we decide to go swimming to wash off all of the sunscreen and bug spray. I'm barely in the water when I start to notice the difference. The feeling of swimming in a major river is different from anything I've ever experienced. The strong current threatens to sweep us down the river so we must pay a lot of attention to the land around us. What may feel like standing still is really the river slowly nudging me down the river. I constantly have to resist the current to make sure I don’t drift out of standing ability. As the sun makes its last appearance for the day, we head into shore to prepare ourselves for the day ahead.

The next day is long, as in thirteen miles long. At the end I'm thankful to finally lie down, and let my arms dangle at my side after a grueling day of paddling. Twenty-one miles down, nine to go for tomorrow's adventure. We make a nice meal of spaghetti on our cook stove and jolly ranchers for dessert. Unfortunately s'mores won't work now because of the burn ban, but jolly ranchers will due. After cleaning up I can say we all fell asleep pretty quick from the exhausting day. The temperature is perfect when we fall asleep and cool in the morning with a heavy fog. Camping on a river sure does give you a lot of moisture in the air.

Thankfully this is the last time we will have to go through the long process of packing up our belongings, and because we've done it so many times, we're pros. I think we set a record time. The sun continues to rise in the sky and in temperature and I can feel it burning my skin. Sunscreen isn't always the most reliable protector to use when you're constantly getting wet.  We set off for the last nine miles with a renewed energy. The feeling of the finish line is drawing near. When we stop for a snack nobody wastes time. The canoes are off of the sand bar before the food bin is even completely closed. Approximately two miles left according to our counselors.

My paddle seems to hit the water more often now, and so does my partners. The unfortunate part is her strokes are less powerful. We start to turn so I have to lighten up on my side of the canoe which sadly slows us down. Luckily we're not the last canoe though so we have some room for error. Once I set back into a stride, I paddle constantly for approximately one and a half miles. Then I see the bridge off in the distance, and know that we've almost reached our destination. Everybody's spirit lifts after the first spotting of the bridge. We move with more drive, especially when compared to day one. When the opening comes, we must fight the current to get off the river. I paddle so hard I feel like my arms are about to fall off. We make it in the small side creek with such speed, that the second the current is no longer a problem we crash into a wall of rocks. Luckily there's no damage to the canoe, it is a rental after all. The feeling of accomplishment spreads its way through the group until we're all grinning from ear to ear.

When we pull into shore we pack the van with our belongings, leaving the canoes and paddles for the rental company. Driving away today I don't know which emotion is stronger; pride, accomplishment, or relief.