Sarika’s blog

Bye 5-6s! Hope you all have a great Christmas, a Happy New Year and a wonderful December holiday especially you Miss Stilwell! Bye good friends and fellow classmates!

Love Sarika!

Cheese, sugar or Nescafe instant coffee powder? Which of these foods do ants like best? Well this investigation answers your question, so take a  look at it..

Hypothesis: I think that the ants will love the sugar because it is the sweetest of the three. Maybe they will not like the cheese a lot because cheese is made of milk and ants dislike milk. I think that they will totally be disgusted by the Nescafe instant coffee powder.

For this experiment, we need the following indredients:

• Sugar
• Cheese
• Nescafe instant coffee powder

Method:

1. Lay some sugar, some cheese and some Nescafe instant coffee powder in different piles outside in the garden.  Note that each food should be in equal amounts.
2. Wait till ants come and soon enough they will surround the foods.
3. Work out which eatable was the most popular.

 Note: Do this for only one day.

Result: Cheese was the most popular. I think this happened because cheese had quite a lot of aroma and it attracted the ants first. Nescafe instant coffee powder was next probably because of the smell whereas the sugar had hardly any scent and thus came last in line.

Here are some photos that I took during my investigation…  

 

 

  This picture shows the different piles I kept the eatables in.

Bye bye!

Hi all. Below is my powerpoint project. Hope you enjoy it!

vietnam1

 

This project is on the topic… water usage! This interesting essay is all about how to use our dear, transparent fluid in an efficient, smart way.

 

So say hello to some extra fascinating facts! Listed down below are some very motivating little bits and pieces of information that will introduce you to the world of… water usage!

 

• Greater Sydney uses 70% of water.
• Sydney Water Company is spending $100000000 per year to reduce leaks.
• A tap left running can waste up to 17 litres of water a minute.
• A leaking toilet can waste more than 16,000 litres of water per year.
• Australia used about 18,767 gigalitres in 2004 – 2005, ¾ of which was returned back to the environment.  This is about 14% less usage from 2001-02.

 

How can we save water?  Here are some tips…

 

• Keep a container of drinking water in the fridge so you don’t waste water by waiting for tap water to cool.
• Thaw frozen foods by microwaving them rather than placing them under warm running water.
• Wait for a full load of washing before putting them in. it saves lot’s of detergent and water.
• Take shorter showers. Every minute wastes 1 bucket of water.
• Use the half flush in the toilet rather than the full flush. It saves 4 buckets of water per day.
• Repair leaks in the toilets.
• Installing rainwater tanks helps saving water
• Use watering cans or trigger nozzles on hoses so you water only those areas that need it.
• Applying a layer of mulch up to 7 – 10cm around plants will reduce water evaporation by up to 70%.
• Add water to soil to enhance water retention by up to 40%.
• Cover pools and spas to avoid evaporation.
• Collect rainwater in a reservoir to utilize instead of making use of water that is paid for.

 

Sydney Water has placed the following restrictions on water usage by Sydney siders to reduce wastage.  Remember to follow these restrictions!  Fines apply for breach.

 

• Hand held hosing of lawns, gardens and drip irrigation is allowed on Wednesday and Sunday before 10am and after 4pm.
• No hosing of hard premises such as paths and driveways at any time.
• No other watering systems or sprinklers are to be used at any time.
• A permit from Sydney Water Company is required to fill new or renovated pools which hold more than 10000l.
• No hoses or taps to be left running unattended at any time except when filling pools or containers.

 

Below are the trends in Melbourne’s water usage (daily litres per person):

2008: 180 litres

2007: 277 litres (figure may include non-residential usage)

2006/07: 303 litres

2005/06: 330 litres

1990s: 422 litres

1945/46: 300 litres

 

As you see, Melbourne residents have done very well cutting their water usage by more than half from 1990’s to 2008.  According to Australian Bureau of Statistics, daily per capita water use in Sydney has fallen from 506 L in 1990-91 to 342 L in 2004-05.  So we have done quite well in keeping our water usage down.

 

Reducing water usage and wastage is a responsibility of all of us towards our environment.  I believe we can do better following all the water restrictions and water saving tips.

Now I will tell you about my family’s average water usage…

 

 Whole family’s average water usage – 500L

Per person’s water usage – 125L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were my readings for this experiment without the glass jar:

• 5:10 – 29 degrees
• 5:20 – 30 degrees
• 5:30 – 30 degrees
• 5:40 – 30 degrees
• 5:50 – 30 degrees
• 6:00 – 30 degrees
• 6:10 – 30 degrees
• 6:20 – 30 degrees
• 6:30 – 31.5 degrees
• 6:40 – 31.5 degrees
• 6:50 – 31.5 degrees
• 7:00 – 31.5 degrees

These were my readings for this experiment with the glass jar:

• 5:10 – 29 degrees
• 5:20 – 30 degrees
• 5:30 – 30 degrees
• 5:40 – 30 degrees
• 5:50 – 30 degrees
• 6:00 – 30 degrees
• 6:10 – 31 degrees
• 6:20 – 31 degrees
• 6:30 – 32 degrees
• 6:40 – 32 degrees
• 6:50 – 32 degrees
• 7:00 – 32.5 degrees

This experiment was very simple. This is what I understand from it.

The atmosphere is an invisible blanket of air which surrounds the earth. The hot sun gives off powerful rays of heat which is also known as radiation. Radiation travels to earth to heat it up. Then some of the heat is absorbed back by the atmosphere. This keeps the earth at the right temprature. If the atmosphere wasn’t reabsorbing the heat, earth’s temprature could have reached up to 60 degrees which is too hot.

Unseeable gases stop some heat from travelling back to space. These gases are called Greenhouse Gases.  The amount of Greenhouse gases is increasing because of human activities such as burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  Cutting down and burning trees also produces lots of carbon dioxide.  Because of this, more heat is trapped and earth is getting warmer.  This is called global warming.

In our experiment, the earth is the thermometer and the Greenhouse Gases is the glass jar. We see that the temperature is much more hotter than outside. This is because the heat inside the glass jar is not escaping back into the outside air. This is exactly what is happening to our dear earth.

What should we do to stop earth from getting hotter due to Greenhouse Gases? We should stop polluting the atmosphere by using fewer cars, less electricity and preserving our forests. We should invent things that can be run by solar energy.

This experiment made it loads more simpler and I could understand global warming and green house gas effect very easily. 

Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton was born on the 15th of Febuary 1874 in an Irish family. He was the second of ten chidren in a wonderful family. Ernest’s father and mother names were Abraham and Henrietta Shackleton. This amazing boy was born in Kilkea House in County Kildare in the pretty area of Ireland. 6 years later, Ernest and his family moved to 35 Marlborough Road, Dublin.

In 1903, Ernest went on a terrific expedition to Antarctica.  It was called the ‘Discovery’, after the ship ‘Discovery’. Ernest travelled to the frozen continent along with Robert Falcon Scott with a party of other people from all around the world.

After Shackleton retured with his team, he went on another expedition called the’Nimrod’. While on the way to the truly amazing and famous South Pole, Ernest Shackleton and his team (which included Eric Marshall, Wild and Jameson Adams) discovered Beardmore Glacier. This wonderful natural creation was named after Shackleton’s patron.

Ernest went on a 3rd expedition in 1914 when their beloved ship sank helplessly into the cold waters of the icy continent, Antarctica on 21st November 1915.

On the 5th January 1922 a tragic incident occurred. At 2:50am Sir Ernest Shackleton had lost his heroic life from a severe, fatal heart attack.

Robert Falcon Scott

On June 1st 1910, Robert set off for another expedition to Antarctica. This time he took the fantastic ship ‘Terra Nova’. Along with his party he reached Ross Island on January 4th 1911. On November 1st 1911, Robert and his team reached the South Pole using dog sleds, ponies and amazing motorized vehicles. But unfortunatly, they were utterly dissapointed to find Roald Amumdsen’s Norweignen flag fluttering high in the cold, icy winds of the land of the Antarctic. Sadly, on thier way back home they died from a huge blizzard on the 29th of March 1912. On November 12th 1912, the group was found by a search party.

The comparisions between Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton are that they:

• Both travelled on the same ship in their 1st expedition

1 contrast of the 2 incredible explorers was that Ernest Shackleton had died of natural causes while Robert Falcon Scott died of a humongous blizzard.     

Hi everyone,

Welcome to my blog.  This is my first post for 2009.  This is also my second last year in Dalmeny Public School (thank goodness – I like this school!).  Hope you like the new design of my blog.

Bye….