HOME LEARNING ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE EARTH SPACE SCIENCE CLASS

This page accumulates all the Home Learning Assignments given since the beginning of the school year. Students are supposed to take notes of the Home Learning Assignments in class. If the student was absent, then he/she should call over the phone any of the 5 classmates contacts established at the beginning of the school year.

In order to properly identify, evaluate, and grade each piece of work you turn in, always remember to include the corresponding title, label, and due date of the Home Learning Assignments exactly as you find them in this page. This will help you to easily identify the respective grades online.

REVIEW FOR THE FINAL EXAM

DUE DATE: 05/25/11 and 05/26/11

Research and make a table listing all the possible safety precautions and measures to take in prevention of a radiation emergency and when it actually occurs. Visit the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the USA (www.cdc.gov) website, the Environmental Protection Agency (www.epa.gov), and the U.S. Energy Department (www.energy.gov)

DUE DATE: 05/17/11 and 05/18/11

Finish and bring the essay that you started in class.

 

Prompt for the 5-paragraph (minimum) Essay on "One Child per Couple" Law:

 

Imagine that the United States of America becomes overpopulated and, as a government measure to stop and reverse the problem, decides to implant the Law of “only one child per couple” exactly as China has done it in the past and is doing it now.

 

Think about all the arguments that you have against the place in practice of this law. Think about all the arguments you may have in support of this law.

 

Now, write to persuade the governors from implanting that law or to encourage people to support the law.

DUE DATE: 05/13/11 and 05/16/11

Finish the CAUSES-EFFECTS-SOLUTIONS Table that you started in class on the topic of Overpopulation. Prepare to debate on the topic of Overpopulation and Family Planning.

DUE DATE: 05/11/11 and 05/12/11

Make a survey among family members, friends, and neighbors. Ask them 3 questions:

1)  What do you think are the causes for famine in this world? (Please, provide you answer specifying the order of importance)

2)  What do you think are the consequences of famine in the world? (in order of importance)

3)  What do you think are the solutions to the problem of famine in the world?

Study the answers, make an analysis, and summarize the results of the survey. Specify the results in percentage. For example: 65% of the population interviewed thought that the main cause for famine is lack of money, 25% thought that it is due to political problems like dictatorial, totalitarian, and abusive governments, 8% thought it is due to natural disasters, and 2 % thought that it is due to lack of water. Try to explain why the people interviewed answered that way and what it means. For example: “the crowd showed ignorance about the main cause for famine worldwide, in fact, the main cause is …… and nobody directly appointed that cause”

DUE DATE: 05/05/11 and 05/06/11

Bring the Vocabulary Definitions of the entire Chapter 31

DUE DATE: 05/02/11 and 05/03/11

Bring the Research Project Paper on the International Space Station (ISS) and the Computer file with the Power Point Presentation on the ISS (in a travel Drive, or DVD, or CD). The guidelines are in this website under PROJECTS (http://teachers.dadeschools.net/spagani/ProjectsEarthSp.htm)

DUE DATE: 04/25/11 and 04/26/11

Bring the Vocabulary Definitions of the entire Chapter 29

DUE DATE: 04/15/11 and 04/18/11

Bring the definitions to the following terms:

albedo, apogee, barycenter, craters, eclipse, lunar eclipse, mare, moon, neap tide, penumbra, perigee, phases, regolith, ridges, rilles, satellite, solar eclipse, spring tide, tidal current, tidal oscillation, tidal range, tide, umbra, waning, waxing.

DUE DATE: 04/11/11 and 04/12/11

Bring a Research Paper on all the effects of the Moon on the Earth (physical, biological, etc.)

DUE DATE: 04/07/11 and 04/08/11

Bring the definitions to the following terms:

1.  auroras,

2.  chromosphere,

3.  convection zone,

4.  corona,

5.  geomagnetic storms,

6.  granulation,

7.  nuclear fission,

8.  nuclear fusion,

9.  photosphere,

10.              prominence,

11.              radiative zone,

12.              solar flare,

13.              solar wind,

14.              spectrum,

15.              spectrograph,

16.              sunspots

DUE DATE: 04/01/11 and 04/05/11

Answer the questions of the Chapter 29 Section Assessment 1

Bring DUE DATE: 03/30/11 and 3/31/11

Bring the definitions of each one of the following terms:

1.  Big Bang Theory

2.  Cosmic Background Radiation

3.  Cosmology

4.  Dark Energy

5.  Dark Matter

6.  Nebular Hypothesis

7.  Planetesimals

8.  Protoplanets

9.  Red Shift

10.              Solar Nebula

11.              Solar System

DUE DATE: 03/25/11 and 3/28/11

Bring a Research Paper about the contribution of scientist Stephen Hawking to Modern Astronomy

DUE DATE: 03/23/11 and 3/24/11

Do the Gizmos on Orbital Motion - Kepler’s Laws at www.explorelearning.com

DUE DATE: 03/10/11 and 3/11/11

Bring all the Vocabulary Definitions from the entire Chapter 23 

DUE DATE: 03/08/11 and 3/09/11

Bring an opinion paper. You will express your own point of view about the geological and biological evolution theories. What sounds logical/possible/credible and what sounds illogical/impossible/incredible to you? Why? Do not forget to list all the arguments that you have to sustain your position.

DUE DATE: 03/04/11 and 3/07/11

Bring all the Vocabulary Definitions from the entire Chapter 22 

DUE DATE: 03/02/11 and 3/03/11

Research and bring scientific arguments against the geological evolution of the Earth and the biological evolution of organisms

DUE DATE: 2/28/11 and 3/01/11

Answer all the questions of the Section Assessment 21.2

DUE DATE: 2/24/11 and 2/25/11

Do the Gizmos on Half Life

DUE DATE: 2/22/11 and 2/23/11

Prepare a brochure with all the tips that you would give to home buyers in Florida to avoid being the victim of one of the peculiar geologic features in this State.

DUE DATE: 2/16/11 and 2/17/11

Read the article “Frozen Mammoth” in the Science in the News section, at the end of Chapter 21, and bring a 30-second News Report on the topic.

DUE DATE: 2/14/11 and 2/15/11

Bring the answers to the Geo Digest Assessment on page 549

DUE DATE: 2/10/11 and 2/11/11

Read “Mapping Mount Everest” on pages 865-869.

List and describe the steps involved in mapping an area.

Do some research and explain why the Himalayan Mountains are still growing.

DUE DATE: 2/08/11 and 2/09/11

Bring the Answers to the Chapter 20 Section Assessment 20.1

DUE DATE: 2/04/11 and 2/07/11

Bring the Vocabulary definitions for the entire chapter 7

DUE DATE: 2/02/11 and 2/03/11

Research Paper on the Erosion of the Miami Beach Shoreline

DUE DATE: 1/31/11 and 2/01/11

Bring the answers to the Chapter 7 Section Assessment 7.1

DUE DATE: 1/27/11 and 1/28/11

Do the Internet Geo-Lab on page 488 (Chapter 18) and bring the results. Support your work with additional data from the NOAA (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/volcano.shtml)

DUE DATE: 1/20/11 and 1/24/11

Three different assignments:

 

1)  Section assessments 19.1 & 19.2

2)  All the interactive online activity on Earthquakes at this website:

http://www.sciencecourseware.org/eec/Earthquake/

3)  Gizmos available on Earthquakes

DUE DATE: 1/14/11 and 1/18/11

Read Section 17.2 and bring the Answers to the Section Assessments 17.2

DUE DATES: 01/11/11- 01/12/11

Answer the Gizmos available online on Rock Cycle and Rock Classification.

DUE DATES: 01/05/11-01/06/11

Define the following terms:

 

1.  Asthenosphere

2.  Continental Crust

3.  Core

4.  Crust

5.  Inner Core

6.  Lithosphere

7.  Magnetic Field

8.  Mantle

9.  Mesosphere

10.              Mohorovicic discontinuity

11.              Moho

12.              Oceanic crust

13.              Outer Core

14.              Plasticity

15.              Seismic Waves

DUE DATES: 12/13/10-12/16/10

Review and practice for the Midterm Exams. Use:

1) the list of chapters sent to you by e-mail and disregard the chapters not covered in class yet.

2) The practice questions posted for you. The link was sent to you through the school webmail.

3) Prepare yourself with all kinds of arguments in favor and against the theory of global warming as the result of human activity. Also be well versed on the natural causes for global warming.

DUE DATE: 12/10/10 and 12/13/10

Bring the Vocabulary Definitions of the entire Chapter 16

Review and Practice for the Midterm Exams.

DUE DATE: 12/08/10 and 12/09/10

Solve the Gizmos on Ocean Mapping

DUE DATE: 12/06/10 and 12/07/10

Bring the Vocabulary definitions of the entire Chapter 15

DUE DATE: 12/02/10 and 12/03/10

In preparation for the Chapter on Oceans, bring an outlined summary of Chapter 15.1

DUE DATE: 11/30/10 and 12/01/10

Bring the Answers to the Section Assessments 27.1

DUE DATE: 11/18/10 and 11/19/10

Bring a Research Paper on environmentally friendly alternative energy resources. Introduce the topic and center the paper on the particular energy resource assigned to you in class. You may visit your grades online and under the “assignment” called Project Topic you will find the number corresponding to only one type of energy in the list provided below. Among the information that you are going to provide about that type of energy try to include: a) History of that type of energy, b) Devices used to obtain, process, and deliver that type of energy, c) Usage or applications of that type of energy, d) percentage of the total energy consumed in the USA coming from that type of energy, e) Cost and effectiveness, f) your opinion, and g) bibliography.

Prepare for presenting to the class the results of your research. Be ready to answers questions related to the type of energy assigned to you. A Power Point Presentation would be a plus to support your presentation. Bring the file for it in an USB drive. Please, do not write paragraphs on the slides, just outlined short text in big fonts. Center the Power Point Presentation on pictures, graphs, tables with data, diagrams, and all sorts of visual and graphic stuff that will support your presentation.

TOPICS FOR THE ENERGY RESOURCES PROJECT/PRESENTATION

1.  Solar energy

2.  Hydroelectric energy

3.  Geothermal energy

4.  Wind energy

5.  Nuclear energy

6.  Biogas as fuels

7.  Ethanol & Methanol as fuels

DUE DATE: 11/16/10 and 11/17/10

Bring a research paper on the arguments against the Theory of Global Warming which sustains that we, human beings, are causing the increase in temperature of our atmosphere with our emissions of gases like CO2

DUE DATE: 11/10/10 and 11/12/10

Bring the Answers to the Section Assessments 14.1 & and 14.2

DUE DATE: 11/08/10 and 11/09/10

Bring the Vocabulary Definitions of the entire Chapter 14

DUE DATE: 11/04/10 and 11/05/10

Bring the answers to the Understanding Main Ideas and Standardized Test Practice of chapter 13.

Complete the Tracking the Hurricane map with the tools given in class and also sent by e-mail.

DUE DATE: 10/28/10 and 10/29/10

Bring the answers to the questions of the Section Assessment 12.4

Complete the National Weather Forecast Narrative for 10/26/10 or 10/27/10 based on the Graphical Forecasts, National Maps, and Warnings and Forecasts, at the Weather National Service (http://www.nws.noaa.gov/). Make sure that you specify Temperature, Chances of Precipitation, Amount of Precipitation, Percentage of Sky Coverage, Winds Speed and Direction, and other important weather phenomena like snow, storms, etc. You may be called to the front of the class and have to present your work as if you were the weather person at the Weather Channel.

DUE DATE: 10/26/10 and 10/27/10

Gizmos on Relative Humidity and Hurricane Motion.

DUE DATE: 10/22/10 and 10/25/10

Bring the answers to the questions of the Section Assessments 1 and 2 of chapter 12.

DUE DATE: 10/20/10 and 10/21/10

Bring the Vocabulary definitions of the entire Chapter 12.

Bring the full Lab report on relative Humidity at School.

Period 2 - Results for Relative Humidity Lab

 

Temperature Outside

Temperature Hallway

Temperature Classroom

Group

Dry B (oC)

Wet B (oC)

Dry B (oC)

Wet B (oC)

Dry B (oC)

Wet B (oC)

1

31

27

24

20

25

22

2

32

28

23

18

24

20

3

29

27

27

17

23

19

4

31

22

22

20

23

20

5

27

25

23

18

27

25

6

30

29

22

19

24

20

7

 

 

 

 

 

 

Average

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relative Humidity

 

 

 

 

DUE DATE: 10/18/10 and 10/19/10

Bring the answers to the Chapter 11 Assessment Questions 16-23 (Applying Main Ideas & Thinking Critically) and 1-4 of the Standardized Test Practice.

DUE DATE: 10/14/10 and 10/15/10

Bring a Lab Report on the Lab Activity performed in class. One Lab Report for the whole group. Make sure that all your names are on the report. Include the following sections:

·       Title

·       Objective

·       Hypothesis

·       Materials and Procedures (just write as stated by Mr. Pagani in class)

·       Results including table(s) with the results and the corresponding graph(s)

·       Analysis of the results. This the longest and most important section of the Lab report.

·       Conclusion

No background information or bibliography needed

Take advantage of the guidelines posted in the Lab Report Format of Mr. Pagani’s website (http://teachers.dadeschools.net/spagani/Labreport.htm)

DUE DATE: 10/07/10 and 10/08/10

1.  Answer the questions of the Section Assessment  of Chapter 3 Section 3.3

2.  Do the Vocabulary Definitions of the entire Chapter 11

Bring them as two separate assignments

DUE DATE: 10/05/10 and 10/06/10

Do a research paper on Petroleum Possibly Not Coming from Fossils. Alexander Goncharov and his colleagues from the Carnegie Institute sustain that theory. Include the following information: 1) who are the people that came out with this theory, 2) Where did they do those studies, 3) what are their evidences and their arguments to sustain that theory, 4) If it is true, what consequences will that have for us? 5) What is your opinion? 6) Bibliography used.

DUE DATE: 10/01/10 and 10/04/10

Do some research and bring an essay explaining why fossil fuels cannot be easily replaced.

DUE DATE: 9/29/10 and 9/30/10

Summit the answers to the two Gizmos activities on pH available for you at www.explorelearning.com

BE AWARE THAT YOUR CHILD RECEIVED THE INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT LAST WEEK (09/24/10). PARENTS, YOU SHOULD CHECK IT, SIGN IT, AND SEND IT BACK TO THE TEACHER THAT GAVE IT TO YOUR CHILD.

On 09/27/10 and 09/28/10 your child received a Notice of Unsatisfactory Progress if the average grade of your child is currently lower than a C. Please, ask your child for it, read it, sign it, and send it back to Mr. Pagani. Thanks a lot.

Here is the link to the Alien Periodic Table: AlienPeriodicTable.pdf

DUE DATE: 9/24/10 and 9/27/10

Bring the answers to the Section Assessments 3.1 and 3.2

DUE DATE: 9/22/10 and 9/23/10

Bring the answers to the Understanding Main Ideas and Standardized Test Practice of chapter 3.

DUE DATE: 9/17/10 and 9/20/10

Read and review Chapter 3

DUE DATE: 9/15/10 and 9/16/10

Bring a mini-research paper on THE LARGE HADRON COLLIDER (LHC) which started on 09/10/08 in the Swiss border with France. This paper should have a minimum of 2 pages long (single spaced), font size 12, margins (top, bottom, left, right) not bigger than 1 inch). The pictures, diagrams, graphs, tables, do not count as part of the 2 pages of text, but you are encouraged to include them. Make sure that those are properly labeled and cited in the text. This paper should answer the following questions:

1)  What is the LHC?,

2)  What happens inside it in matter of nuclear physics?

3)  What is the purpose of this project?

4)  What was the purpose of their first experiment that started on 09/10/08?

5)  What were they exactly doing in that first experiment?

6)  How many countries are participating?

7)  How many scientists? From where?

8)  How much did this project cost?

9)  What is CERN?

10)              What is anti-matter?

11)              What is a black hole?

12)              What do anti-matter and black holes have to do with this project?

13)              What does the Big Bang theory have to do with this project?

14)              What does the World Wide Web (internet communications) have to do with this project?

15)              Complete the paper by stating what do you think is going to be discovered in this project and why.

16)              Literature Cited following official APA style citation rules (http://www.citationmachine.net/ and use the APA Style). If you use any search engine like Google and look for “citation rules” or “citation styles” you will get plenty of websites with the information you need. Here is another one: http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm

DUE DATE: 09/13/10 and 09/14/10

1)  Go to Gizmos and click on “enroll in a class”. Enter the class code given to you in class. Follow instructions to finish your enrollment. Use your full name to register (no nicknames, no screen names). Get into your class and launch the Gizmos available, one at a time. Practice, study, and analyze well what is going on. Then:

·       Submit the answers to the Gizmo on Density

·       Submit the answers to the Gizmo on Triple Beam Balance

2)  Bring a Lab Report on the Lab Activity performed in class. Include the following sections:

·       Title

·       Objective

·       Hypothesis

·       Materials and Procedures (just write as stated by Mr. Pagani in class)

·       Results including a table with the results and a graph

·       Analysis of the results

·       Conclusion

No background information or bibliography needed

DUE DATE: 09/08/10 and 09/10/10

Read and Review Chapter 2

DUE DATE: 09/03/10 and 09/07/10

Bring the following conversions showing all the steps possible to get the resulting units:

 

1)  Convert 2 Hm into cm

2)  Convert 38,000 mm into Km

3)  Convert 26 Dg into dg

4)  Convert 367,900 g into Dg

5)  Convert 97,246 Hl into Kl

6)  Convert 478 cl into Dl

7)  Convert 4 m2 into cm2

8)  Convert 12 dm2 into Km2

9)  Convert 25 Dm3 into mm3

10)               Convert 1,000 m3 into Hm3

11)               Convert 2,000,877 mm3 into Dl

12)               Convert 44 Dl into Dm3

 

DUE ON 09/01/10 (periods 3 & 5) and 09/02/10 (period 2)

 

Complete the Scientific Report. Make sure that you include in it:

 

1)    Results including Table (completed) and Graph with labels according to the Lab report Format in my webpage.

2)    Analysis following the Lab report Format in my webpage. (http://teachers.dadeschools.net/spagani/Labreport.htm) on

3)    Conclusion following the Lab report Format in my webpage

4)    Bibliography following APA Style of Citation

 

Vm

25 ml Grad. Cyl.

50 ml Grad. Cyl.

100 ml Grad. Cyl.

250 ml Grad. Cyl.

1000 ml Grad. Cyl.

 

Time (s)

Time (s)

Time (s)

Time (s)

Time (s)

Trial 1

3

7

15

29

116

Trial 2

4

6

13

29

117

Trial 3

3

8

13

29

119

Trial 4

3

7

15

29

119

Trial 5

7

7

22

29

120

Trial 6

3

6

21

30

120

Average Time

(s)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vx (ml)

8

13

21

40

213

Vcandle (ml)

6

6

6

6

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Volume of Air

Available (ml)

(Vm+Vx-Vcandle)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DUE ON 08/30/10 (periods 3 & 5) and 08/31/10 (period 2)

 

Bring a Lab Report following the Lab Report Format suggested in this website (http://teachers.dadeschools.net/spagani/Labreport.htm) on the Combustion Time vs. amount of Air available that we worked on in class. Include:

 

Title

Objective

Hypothesis

Materials

Procedure

 

DUE ON 08/26/10 (periods 3 & 5) and 08/27/10 (period 2)

 

Bring a 3 paragraph essay. Each paragraph should be answering the following questions:

 

1)  Which of the Earth/Space Science related fields do you prefer?

2)  Which will be the particular types of studies that you will make, the investigations that you will conduct, and the skills that you will develop that will attract you the most? And why?

3)  What is it that you would like to accomplish, discover, or meliorate in this world/universe being an expert in that field? Which particular contribution to the scientific world and the world in general would you like to make in order to be recognized worldwide?

 

DUE ON 08/24/10

 

Bring the Student-Parent-Teacher Contract signed for one "A".

Bring the Safety Lab Contract signed to gain permission to participate in Labs

Bring all other forms completed if you could not fill them in when you were in class: Personal Information form and College Planning Profile form

 

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