It was dark and stormy. The wind was blowing seventy miles per hour. It was raining hard too.
I peeked out the window. There was a tornado coming towards the house. It was huge! I went down to the cellar of the house. I set up my bed and turned on my alarm to go off at eight o’clock in the morning.
“Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding,” only two hours had past and my alarm went off.
“Huh?” I moaned.
“This is your worse nightmare,” said a mysterious voice. “Welcome to the midnight realm.”
The wallpaper started disintegrating. I went into the other room even though it was pitch black.
I felt something grab my leg. I found the light switch on the wall and turned on the light. On the floor was a man grabbing my leg.
“Get off!” I yelled.
“Shhh!” he whispered pointing to the darkness of the other room.
Suddenly a humungous hand came out of the room he was pointing to. It grabbed him and pulled him into the room.
I was terrified. I ran for the door, but the door turned into a mouth. I ran and grabbed a chair and stabbed the mouth. As I expected, the mouth yelled in pain. As the mouth was open, I ran through it and out of the house.
I got into my car and drove as fast as I could away.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
What Science Means to Me by Brandon
Science is the ultimate attempt at discovery. From discovering what makes soda explode, to discovering how to plant hundreds of thousands of trees in a day. From discovering how to create stable environments for experimentation, to discovering what make the body work. This is what science is to me.
Discovering what is true by making a hypothesis and then testing the hypothesis through repeatable and verifiable experiments. For example, last year my friend and I saw a You Tube video on Mentos and Diet Coke explosions. We didn’t believe that simply putting Mentos in Diet Coke could create the soda to explode. We decided we wanted to do it, so we asked our parents if we could test it and we did. But coming to the conclusion that it would work wasn’t good enough...we wanted to find out why it happens and would it work on other sodas.
Discovering and increasing knowledge based on facts about how the world works. Science is watching Discovery channel on topics like global warming and effects of Hurricane Katrina on the coastal shores of Louisiana. Did you know that there is an island 30 miles out at sea that lost all of its mangroves due to the hurricane? Did you know that it takes two men and two full days to plan 20 mangroves? However, a regular person came up with a creative idea - let go of mangrove seeds from a helicopter in order to plant 150,000 mangroves over the whole coastal shelf in one day.
Discovering how to conduct experiments including creating stable environments where you can do your discovery and document your findings. I love the network show Dexter. While I know it is only a TV show, it also tells the importance of having the right environment to completing experiments. Things like temperature, humidity, moods can alter the results of an experiment. Science is creating an environment where you can feel confident in the results of your experiment.
Discovering how to research and collect data in order to learn how different things work. While I have never dissected any living thing, I do enjoy learning through hands on application. For example, taking apart a computer or learning to play golf and improving my swing by better understanding how my body moves.
Discovering what is true, discovering and increasing knowledge, discovering how to conduct experiments, and discovering how to research, are the biggest parts of science to me. To me knowledge is gained through discovery and you have to do something first hand to really understand it.
Discovering what is true by making a hypothesis and then testing the hypothesis through repeatable and verifiable experiments. For example, last year my friend and I saw a You Tube video on Mentos and Diet Coke explosions. We didn’t believe that simply putting Mentos in Diet Coke could create the soda to explode. We decided we wanted to do it, so we asked our parents if we could test it and we did. But coming to the conclusion that it would work wasn’t good enough...we wanted to find out why it happens and would it work on other sodas.
Discovering and increasing knowledge based on facts about how the world works. Science is watching Discovery channel on topics like global warming and effects of Hurricane Katrina on the coastal shores of Louisiana. Did you know that there is an island 30 miles out at sea that lost all of its mangroves due to the hurricane? Did you know that it takes two men and two full days to plan 20 mangroves? However, a regular person came up with a creative idea - let go of mangrove seeds from a helicopter in order to plant 150,000 mangroves over the whole coastal shelf in one day.
Discovering how to conduct experiments including creating stable environments where you can do your discovery and document your findings. I love the network show Dexter. While I know it is only a TV show, it also tells the importance of having the right environment to completing experiments. Things like temperature, humidity, moods can alter the results of an experiment. Science is creating an environment where you can feel confident in the results of your experiment.
Discovering how to research and collect data in order to learn how different things work. While I have never dissected any living thing, I do enjoy learning through hands on application. For example, taking apart a computer or learning to play golf and improving my swing by better understanding how my body moves.
Discovering what is true, discovering and increasing knowledge, discovering how to conduct experiments, and discovering how to research, are the biggest parts of science to me. To me knowledge is gained through discovery and you have to do something first hand to really understand it.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
The Rope Rocket by Brandon
Awesome and scary too, I was the third one to jump. Actually it wasn’t really a jump, a fall maybe, but it didn’t really matter. What I’m talking about is a ride at the Alliance Redwoods Science Camp, called the Rope Rocket. It’s so hard to describe, but I’ll do my best.
As soon as I saw it I wanted to go, but I wasn’t fast enough. It was excruciating watching the others going and having so much fun, and then it was my turn. When I went up into the tree I was nervous and excited. There was a lady waiting for me at the top of the tree. She put the harness and cords on, and told me to sit on the edge of the tree. Then I panicked.
I started telling her I wanted to get off and standing up, but she just reassured me and told me to sit down every time I did so. “These cables can hold up a bus, now I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure you don’t weigh as much as a bus,” She said. “And I was scared the first time I went too, but in the end it’s all worth it.” So I calmed myself down and told her if I hit the 30lb cables she had strapped onto me, 3 times, she could let go.
1.....2........3! I started falling down faster, the air was escaping me. I couldn’t breathe. Then I went up, hitting a few trees in the process. Back and forth, again and again as if I were on a giant swing it felt so good, the wind rushing against my face. I had lost myself, falling and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. That’s what it’s like to go on the Rope Rocket; awesome, and scary too.
As soon as I saw it I wanted to go, but I wasn’t fast enough. It was excruciating watching the others going and having so much fun, and then it was my turn. When I went up into the tree I was nervous and excited. There was a lady waiting for me at the top of the tree. She put the harness and cords on, and told me to sit on the edge of the tree. Then I panicked.
I started telling her I wanted to get off and standing up, but she just reassured me and told me to sit down every time I did so. “These cables can hold up a bus, now I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure you don’t weigh as much as a bus,” She said. “And I was scared the first time I went too, but in the end it’s all worth it.” So I calmed myself down and told her if I hit the 30lb cables she had strapped onto me, 3 times, she could let go.
1.....2........3! I started falling down faster, the air was escaping me. I couldn’t breathe. Then I went up, hitting a few trees in the process. Back and forth, again and again as if I were on a giant swing it felt so good, the wind rushing against my face. I had lost myself, falling and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. That’s what it’s like to go on the Rope Rocket; awesome, and scary too.
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