Air Introductory Module

Dear Friends,

This introductory letter is from the entire Blue Angels 7th Grade Team at Bluffs Middle School in Scottsbluff Nebraska, USA. We are planning to have one class of students participate in the Air 96 project and another class of students participate in the Water 96 project. On Monday February 26 when our third trimester begins we will form the new student groups and shortly we will send you a list of the individuals in each project.

In computer class our students answered questions about their favorite hobbies, sports and foods. Out of 120 students who replied, the results were:

Hobbies Sports Foods
sports 40 basketball 28 Italian 40
sports cards 15 Football 16 Mexican 37
Music 13 Baseball 11 American 14
Friends 12 Skating 10 Oriental 12
Collecting 11 Swimming 9 Other 4
Video games 8 Hunting/Fishing 7
Other 11 Volleyball 6
Track 6
soccer 4
bowling 2
other 10

The students also listed special days that their families celebrated and special places of geographical, historical or popular interest found her in Nebraska.


Special Days Special Places
Octoberfest Scottsbluff National Monument
Oregon Trail Days Agate Fossil Beds
Sugar Valley Rally Chimney Rock
County Fair Doorly Zoo/Lied Rain Forest
Quincenaras State Capital-Lincoln
Cinco de mayo Husker Stadium
Pow-Wow Indian Dances Riverside Zoo
Cattle Baron's Ball Ft. Robinson
Old West Week End Inland Light House/Miniature
Carnivals Lake McConaughy
Family Reunions/Weddings Cabela's Sporting Goods
Mexican Dancing
Drug Free Walk
Independence Day Fireworks


You may have interest in and questions about the information we have gathered. If so, we welcome your students to send their responses to our e-mail address.



Air Introductory Module


Hi! Welcome to Year Five at St Agatha's Primary School, Pennant Hills, NSW. Mrs McKenzie is our class teacher. There are thirty five children in our class.
The following is some facts about our area, our school and us.


GEOGRAPHY
Pennant Hills is approx. 21 kilometres North West of Sydney. It is very hilly and though there are many houses there is still a great deal of bushland.
Pennant Hills is a large, quite old suburb situated in the Hornsby Shire and is a suburb of Sydney, capital of New South Wales.
There are 6 schools in our area, two are primary, two are high schools and two are pre-schools. Pennant Hills has approx. 6238 people living in it.


HISTORY OF PENNANT HILLS...........

Pennant Hills is a suburb in the North West part of Sydney, about 21 km from the city. It was named after the English zoologist Thomas Pennant who was a friend of Sir Joseph Banks who had visited Australia with Captain James Cook.
Before the white man came, the Aboriginal tribe called Wallumedegal lived in our area, Pennant Hills. Convict timber getters collected their wood in Pennant Hills until they ran out of wood.
With the coming of the railway in 1887 Pennant Hills was opened up for housing development. Recently businesses have begun to establish their offices in Pennant Hills and is becoming a commercial as well as a residential district.

SCHOOL LIFE...... For lunch we bring food or get food from the canteen such as pies, sausage rolls and chicken fillets. School starts at 8:50 and closes at 3:10. Our uniform is a blue shirt and grey shorts for boys in the summer and grey trousers, blue shirt and a tie. The girls wear a dress with a blue tie in the summer and in winter a beige long sleeve shirt and a blue dress.

We have a library at school and we go there once a week. On Wednesday we travel by bus to Pennant Hills oval for sport. Every couple of weeks we play a different sport, e.g baseball, basketball, soccer and tee-ball. We have 551 students and 30 staff members. There are 19 classes.



Air Module 1



We decided to do many different experiments as to why we needed air. Here are topics, experiments and results for each group in our class. We had great fun doing this and there was a great deal of noise too!!!



TOPIC: The temperature in Cape Town in February.

What we did. We took the temperature outside and also looked in the newspaper at the weather chart every day. We made graphs for temperature, humidity and windspeed for the month of February. We found we could also check the temperature on T.V. or from the radio. Sometimes they were right but often they were not!

What we discovered:

We discovered that the temperature can change very rapidly. The hottest day here in Cape Town in February was 34 degrees Celsius and the coolest day was 22 degrees Celsius. The highest humidity was 66% and the strongest wind record was 66 km per hour. There were 20 days where the temperature was between 20 and 30 degrees and 8 days where the temperature was over 30 degrees. It never went below 20 in the whole month of February.

TOPIC: CLIMATE IN THE WESTERN CAPE

We discovered that climate is the weather patterns that effect a particular area. Air over the sea or land masses effect the weather patterns each season and this gives us weather. Cape Town has got a Mediterranean Climate. This means that it has similar weather to countries like Italy and Spain (along the coast).

Our climate:

Spring: Flowers blossom, wind is not too strong, the temperature is not too high, not higher than 20 degrees.
Summer: Hot, does not rain, wind is a south easter and often very strong! If it is very strong it is called a Black South-easter.
Autumn: Leaves turn golden and fall off. The fynbos is still green as it is not deciduous.
Winter: Very wet and quite cold. Temperatures range from 0 degrees to 17 degrees. It can sometimes rain for about 10 days non-stop. We have a north wester wind that can howl.



Air Module 2

Hello from Van Vleck!

Module 2 - What's Happening to Our Air?

AIR QUALITY
We talked about things that can affect the quality of our air. We have chemical plants nearby and cause a foul odor. Our bus ramp area smells terrible in the afternoons due to the fumes coming from the bus exhausts. Our class decided residents and tourist alike enjoy our local beaches because of the fresh smelling salt air there!

Since spring has arrived and all of our trees are budding and wildflowers are in bloom, the air is filled with pollen. Many of us have allergies to pollen and are experiencing sneezing and watery eyes due to high pollen counts. The pollen count is reported on TV weather reports each day.

CHECKING OUR AIR QUALITY:
We divided into groups and placed coffee filters smeared with petroleum jelly in several locations on our campus. After 24 hours we collected the filters and examined them with a magnifying glass.

Our first observation was that all of the samples turned a dark yellowish color except for the one placed in our classroom. It remained the same color. We decided exposure to something in the outside air must have caused the color change in the samples placed outdoors. The dirtiest filter was located behind our school building near the road followed by the filter that was placed on the patio near the bus ramp. The cleanest filter was the one placed in the classroom followed by one placed on a tree in front of our building. We decided that the one in our room and the one near the front door of our building were protected from the wind and did not pick up as much debris. The dirtier filters were located near heavy traffic areas. All of the filters were placed at a height of 3 ft. from the ground. One filter placed on a tree on our front lawn was not examined as it was destroyed by an animal or a mischievous student.

ACID RAIN
We conducted an acid rain experiment by placing two marigold plants in gallon jars filled with potting soil. We misted one with vinegar and the other one with water. After only several days we noticed changes in the plant misted with vinegar. The leaves and flowers turned brown on the edges. As time progressed the effects of the acid rain became more evident as the plant misted with vinegar got browner and the blooms appeared to shrivel up. Soon the plant misted with vinegar looked dead. The other plant misted with water appeared to be thriving.

Next we added seeds. The seeds in the jar misted with water sprouted; the jar with vinegar mist did not. We will continue to monitor this week to see if any ever sprout.

We determined that acid rain has a destructive effect on plant life. Areas affected by acid rain will have trouble producing crops. Acid rain runoff can also pollute waterways like lakes, rivers, and creeks. Fish kills can occur as a result of this type of pollution.



Air Module 3

Dear friends,

We have made toys and done experiments that use air. I made a parachute using a plastic bag, a shoelace, and a plastic bottle. It doesn't work great, but it works O.K. It works by throwing it up in the air.

Dear Air Project Friends,

For the past two weeks, we have been exploring some commercial & recreational uses of air. We made music using long plastic tubes with a funnel on the end. We played TAPS. The faster you swing the tube, the higher pitched the notes get. We found out how to play 4 different notes. (D, G, B, and high D.)

I made a pinwheel using g a wooden dowel, a nail, some scissors, and a piece of paper board. It (the pinwheel) was successful. I also played TAPS on the recorder.

We found some small straws and blew through the ends. This resulted in a high pitched noise similar to the sound a whistle makes only softer. This is not as useful as the tubes described in paragraph 1, because we can only play one note. However, this may be a useful tool in training dogs since it is softer than a whistle. (Dogs hearing is more acute than ours, so the harsh, loud noise of a whistle may harm a dog's sensitive ears.

Please tell us about any ideas you have about using our air!



Dear Friends,

For the past few weeks we have been conducting some projects with air. Our group has been working on a C.B. (Citizens Band) radio. We have learned the way that the waves go through the air. We have also learned about many internal components of the C.B. The waves are sent and an in-range C.B. can pick them up. Then the C.B. translates the waves into a voice or sound. We have picked up truck driver's signals and other people. A truck driver even said "This guy is young," after hearing Jacob's voice.



Air Module 4

For module 4 we did an air poster campaign. We did 15 posters. These were about:

1. Don't use fire - use electricity.
2. Do not litter.
3. Recycle more, do not burn waste.
4. Don't use steam trains use electric trains.
5. Instead of driving a car you can walk.
6. Save the atmosphere:
7. Don't burn rubbish- fumes can be poisonous
8. Don't use spray cans they pollute the air.
9. If you use spray cans make sure they have the Ozone friendly sign.
10. Make sure your car runs properly.
11. Do not smoke because it pollutes the air, and harms those around you.
12. Do not kill plants because animals and people need them to breathe.
13. Instead of driving many cars form a lift club.
14. You must clean the factory's' chimneys.
15. Use less fuel to fly.


We put them up in the foyer of the school and the rest of the school voted for them.

On the voting slip they could vote for the following:

a) The most creative poster.
b) The most eye-catching poster.
c) The poster that taught me something.
d) The poster with the most important message about air.

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