Future Humans: Climate Change & Pollution

On Friday you all seemed to name Climate Change & Pollution as two major concerns for Future Humans.

We will continue the film tomorrow.  But for now:


Understand Climate change
Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye (video)

OR
Sci Show (Hank Green) (video)


Watch this Sass-Machine Mic Drop Climate Deniers  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhdymoRTz6M (video)



Why Don't People Believe in Climate Change Science?
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2euBvdP28c


Look at some 'Before' and 'Now' images taken by NASA satellites 
Stat of Flux Before and Now Images 


NASA: Frequently Asked Questions about Climate Change
http://climate.nasa.gov/faq/


NASA: Visualizations of Sea Ice, Sea Level, Carbon Dioxide and Global Temperature
http://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resource_center/interactives


GAME: Greenhouse Attack! (Flash based)
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/greenhouse-gas-attack/en/#/review/greenhouse-gas-attack/game.swf


QUESTION to CONSIDER:
1. Why don't people accept Climate Science?
2. What are barriers to people taking action on reducing their CO2
3. What do you still find confusing or challenging about this?
4. What are 5 key things you got out of exploring the links above?

Major Inquiry

Expectations: You are to produce   Either an: Experiment: A full Scientific Report including Introduction, Method, Results (graph and table) & Discussion  (approx. 1000 words) Or a... Report: 1,250 words in essay form (introduction, paragraphs, conclusion).  Talk to McWhirter to get advice on how to structure it. And Formally present your findings to the class in a verbal presentation. Lessons allocated: Thursday 11 November - Friday 18th November .  Presentations:  Tuesday 22nd and  Wednesday 23. Verbal presentations will be peer and student assessed.

Links: EXPERIMENTS
Step-by-Step Self Assessment Guide (for experiments) A guide on how each section is awarded, and some things to look out for

Experiment Rubric: A short guide to the differences in each section at, above and approaching the grade standard

How to Write a Killed Above GS Discussion Paragraph by paragraph guide to writing a good discussion.  Bear in mind, simply following the guide without strong reflection or research into your own experiment, won't give you an Above GS mark!

How to Write an Introduction (Science Report):
- Start by explaining the broad ideas of your experiment (ie if your experiment is about memory do a bit of general research about how memory works)

- Move into more specific ideas to do with your experiment (ie if your experiment is comparing memory to gender, just reflect on whether studies have looked into this before)

- Move into your aim and hypothesis: There is no need to repeat this in other sections - but you may wish to put this in a separate section. 
Here's an example of a good introduction to do with bacteria
Links: REPORTS
How to Write a Sick-As Science Report
Report Rubric : Be aware there is no need for a title page, although a thesis statement would be good.  To get Above Standard on bibliography you should be using 5+ references of excellent quality (ie. .gov, .edu, or from science websites or similar) and they should be referenced with citethisforme.com 

Microbes: Interpreting Your Plates

Monday 7 November
To Do:
1. Conduct microbes experiment & incubate
2,Collect some references from the internet which relate to your study area,
3. Take some notes (in your own words) ready for a discussion.

Finished?
Have a look at:
The Nikon Photomicrography Competition: This is an international award for outstanding photos using microscopes.
Cells Alive Animation: Which gives you some perspective on how small the microbial world is

To learn how to interpret your results read from the following website
Science Buddies: Interpreting Agar Plates

A Good Discussion Reads regarding Soap & Sanitisers 
ABC News: Do alcohol  based hand sanitisers really work?
Show me the Science: Hand Sanitisers
Dr Karl: Hot Water & Hand Washing
Dr Karl: On Soap & Hand Washing

Endocrine System: Diagnosing your patients

Diagnosing your Patients

Image from http://humanbiologylab.pbworks.com/

What's this funny smell?
A funny smell in urine can be an indication of ketones being present. 
Ketone bodies are acids made when your body begins using fat instead of carbohydrates for energy. When there is not enough insulin to get sugar from the blood and into the cells, the body turns to fat for energy.  A well known ketone is acetone (used in nail polish remover) and it smells bad! Read more about ketones here

Possible Diagnosis: Renal Tubular Acidosis 
Is a form of kidney disease where the kidneys fail to sufficiently acidify the urine.  Urine normally should be around pH 5-7 - but patients experiencing RTA will have a more alkaline urine. Causes for this can be an deficiency of the hormone aldosterone, produced by adrenal glands.  As the urine is not being sufficiently acidic, the H+ ions are passed into the blood, causing an intense burning pain near the kidneys.  Associated with this can be protein in the urine, which are broken down during the acidifying process. Read a bit more about it here


Possible Diagnosis: Ketacidosis:
This is caused when the body exhausts its stores of glycogen (glucose) and starts burning fat for energy.  This leads to a build up of ketones, which are a waste product of fat breakdown. 
Ketones are acidic in nature which then causes acidic urine.  Three main causes of ketacidois is excess alcohol consumption, diabetes and starvation. Read a bit more about it here


Possible Diagnosis: Diabetes:
Diabetes is caused when the pancreas does not produce sufficient amounts of the hormone insulin to regulate blood sugar levels.  This causes excess sugar to build up in your blood.  As a result your kidneys are put into overtime, as they normally send all glucose back into the bloodstream.  The kidneys begin sending glucose into the urine.  The excess glucose in the blood stream also dehydrates the cells - which normally are higher in glucose levels than the blood.  This dehydration causes the patient to feel thirsty but also urinate more frequently.  Ketones in the urine are also a symptom of diabetes, when blood sugar crashes and the body begins synthesizing fats for energy.  Read more about it here


Possible Diagnosis: Kidney Infection from Yeast Infection:
Yeast infections commonly occur when a patient is taking antibiotics.  Antibiotics,while killing 'bad' bacteria also can kill off 'good' bacteria.  Antibiotics do not act on yeast (which is a fungi), and yeast growth is usually kept in check by good bacteria.  Hence, when the good bacteria die, yeast proliferates.  Kept unchecked a simple yeast infection can travel up the urinary tract into the kidneys and cause kidney infection.  This is dangerous, as an infected kidney can easily infect the blood. 
Kidney infections are not likely to be caused by hormones: Read more about it kidney infection

The Brain

OPTION 1: BRAIN GENERAL

MAKE: 
A brain model (out of plasticine or similar) which details 5 main parts of the brain and their function.


LISTEN: 
To one of the podcasts from the Radio National program "All in The Mind". Learn about the history of insanity, mind-reading and other fascinating topics here:  All in the Mind Podcast

To Do: 
1) Record the title of the talk you listened to.
2) Record some notes which detail:
      a) An overview of what was covered in the program
      b) Some key points made in the program
      c) Some parts you found interesting or challenging


WATCH: 
One of the TED talks on the brain.  Browse through the list to find a topic that interests you.  TED Talk Brain Playlists

To Do:
1) Record the title of the  TED talk you listened to.
2) Record some notes which detail:
      a) An overview of what was covered in the talk
      b) Some key points made in the talk
      c) Some parts you found interesting or challenging

OPTION 2: HEAD INJURIES IN SPORT 

To Do:

1. Go over the resources below to create a definition for concussion - don't just use Google definitions!

2. Pull out some key facts about concussions from the studies (in the links below, dot point fine)

3. What are some of the key issues involved with concussions and young people (dot point fine)?

4. How are attitudes to concussions changing?  What advancements have led to this change in attitude?

5. How have advances in technology allowed for concussion prevention and management?

6. Given what you've read, what is your personal opinion about the number of concussions a high school athlete could 'get away with' before being sidelined from their sport permanently?

Suggested Links

Scientific Study: Traumatic Brain Injury in Victorian Hospitals 
 https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2013/198/8/increasing-incidence-hospitalisation-sport-related-concussion-victoria-australia Focus specifically on the 'Results' section to find some interesting facts

TED Talk: Kim Gorgens on protecting the brain against concussion

http://youtu.be/VC0taBVUF2o

  

Hack Interview: Ian Roberts and Dr. Ian McDougall (audio podcast)

https://storify.com/triplejHack/ian-roberts-interview

Significant Advances in Technology Being Made in Concussion Technology (video)

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8311371/significant-advances-being-made-concussion-research-universities-nationwide  

 Interactive Image: Head Injuries of a 21 year NFL player

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/02/big-idea/concussions-interactive

    

Concussion: Symptoms, Causes, Risk Factors & Treatment

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/concussion/basics/definition/con-20019272

OPTION 3: INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY or ILLNESS

EITHER: Answer all 4 questions 

1. Describe the condition that you are studying: How is it contracted?  How does it effect individuals (bear in mind there is often a 'spectrum' of effects so ensure you cover this)

2. How has opinions and understanding of this condition changed over time?  What were some milestones in advancing our understanding and treatment of this condition?

3.  Write a case study of a person that is affected by your intellectual disability.  This could be either someone in your life, or find a case study on the internet (Mrs. McW can help with this).  The purpose of the case study is to give a real life example of how someone is effected by their intellectual disability/illness.  Think carefully about 

4. Use the 'Google News' tab (in Google) to find some current advances or news in the particular condition you are studying.  Summarise one recent (and relevant) article. Make sure you cite it.

OR 
Answer questions 1 & 4 (only) and
Summarize a TED talk on the topic of your choice TED Talk Brain Playlists or a All in the Mind Podcast

Your Assessment

Have you communicated that....

1. You understood the topic and could communicate your understanding clearly and with adequate depth and detail expected by a Year 9 student


Through this you should show that you understand: 

1.   The values and needs of contemporary society can influence the focus of scientific research

2.  Advances in science and emerging sciences and technologies can significantly affect people’s lives

3.  People can use scientific knowledge to evaluate whether they should accept claims, explanations or predictions

4.  Scientific understanding, including models and theories, are contestable and are refined over time through a process of review by the scientific community

Visual Illusions

Interpretation of Images

Spinning Girl Illusion

The Science behind The Dress

The Corner House

10 of the Greatest Optical Illusions

We human's have pretty good vision - but what don't we see?

We don't see things outside our attention, 

.....but this can be improved through practice *sign in with your facebook account*

We don't see things outside our periphery, 

..... but this can also be improved through practice

We don't see the entire colour spectrum, unlike the mantis shrimp.

Some of us don't see many colours at all: Try the colour-blindness simulator

We don't see UV light, unlike birds

We only see at a certain speed, unlike dragonflies

We don't see the very small: How small is the smallest thing to see with a naked eye?  

We don't see objects without certain cues.... like the spinning girl.  Find the explanation here.

How does our vision shape up compared to different animals?

But how do we know what colour is?  Vsauce - colour is an illusion

The Brain

Your Task:  Friday & Assess on Monday

Here are two videos on the brain:
Crash Course: The Brain
or if you don't like Crash Course try
Bozeman Science: The brain

You will be allocated one of the following:

Parietal Lobe

Temporal Lobe

Olfactory Bulb

Occipital Lobe

Cerebellum

Brain Stem

Hippocampus

Amygdala

Frontal Lobe

Corpus Callosum

You will leave a short summary of your brain part on our group padlet:

GIRLS GROUP PADLET https://padlet.com/wall/qn3ob05eci
BOYS GROUP PADLET https://padlet.com/wall/g1g5wx7tsbcg

 In which you will:

- Attach a picture on the internet that clearly states where this part is located.

- Discuss the exact spot in the brain where this part is found 

-Discuss the function of this part of the brain and describe a dysfunction that may occur in this part.

-Give an example of an activity, that the reader could participate in, which is utilizing this part of the brain particularly.  Ask McWhirter for help if unsure!

Successful Students will:

1. Research their part of the brain thoroughly and understand this to a point where they write confidently and clearly in their own words and avoid jargon terms   /5

2. Communicate clearly the  location and function of this part of the brain, and an example of a dysfunction.    /5

3. Select an interesting, relevant and clearly explained activity which highlights clearly the link between action and brain function.   /5

TOTAL out of 15.

Good Resources... ok just one. Find the rest yourself.
Interactive Brain Map