...What patterns to you see in the distribution of earthquakes across the continental United States? Most earthquakes occur in the United States along the coast of the Pacific, particularly the shoreline of California, Alaska and Japan in addition to earthquakes that occur in the mid-west and east coast states and along the border amid Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee. As noted, the highest levels of risk are in the west coast whereas the eastern central region is more moderate risk and insignificant risks are among northern and southern regions. Locate your home on this map and make a note of the relative risk to you by indicating the color where you live. Chicago, Illinois – has a very low hazard of occurrence. Magnitude: 2.5; Region: Mid-West. According to Earthquakes (2012), Illinois is at risk from two major seismic zones, the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone and the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ). The Wabash Valley Zone is located between southeastern Illinois and southwestern Indiana. The NMSZ is located in the Central Mississippi Valley and includes portions of the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and Tennessee. During any 50-year time span, there is a 25% to 40% chance of a magnitude 6.0 or greater earthquake in this seismic zone. Since 1974, the year network monitoring of seismic activity began, more than 3000 earthquakes have been recorded in the NMSZ. Fortunately, none of these earthquakes exceeded a magnitude...
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...Scenario 1: Ask a question: The scientific method is a cycle of observation, developing a hypothesis, experimentation based on the hypothesis, and identifying conclusions. Through successive rounds of the scientific method hypothesis are refined into theorems that can explain our observations. You reach for the switch and the light doesn't come on. What would you do next? Would you try the switch again? Did I flick it all the way first time? Then I would check to see if there was anything wrong with the electricity, by trying to turn on other lights in the house or looking to see if any electrical appliances were working. And so on and so forth until I found out why the light wasn't working. Do background research: The light doesn't come on the first time that I flick the switch. Based on experience I know a few potential causes of this observation, namely: faulty switch, no electricity, or burnt out light bulb. Using this background information I can then form a hypothesis as to why the light bulb didn't come on when I flicked the switch. Hypothesis: The light bulb didn't come on when I turned the switch because the light bulb has burnt out. Experiment: Take the old bulb and test it in a known working socket (at a neighbor's). Experiments should ideally have only two possible outcomes. Either they will support the hypothesis or disprove it. If the light doesn't work at my neighbor’s house then there is something wrong with the bulb. If it does then something else...
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...What types of measurements indicate that climate change is occurring? We can definitely measure the climate changes when change occurs in the temperature. This winter has been horrific and seeing the temperature drop drastically is definitely a sign of the climate change. More snow and precipitation is seen. Water levels rise. I live right near a river and the ice buildup caused flooding in the nearby neighborhoods where some residents needed to evacuate. In the spring, pollen counts rise which can indicate climate change. Droughts can occur which is an obvious climate change. How were these measurements collected? Technology has definitely progressed and collecting measurements in climate change is easier to record. Above just observation, satellites can collect data along with instruments like weather balloons. Comparing old data records can help us see the changes over time by comparing and analyzing data. What are some of the challenges associated with collecting data over large periods of time (i.e., hundreds of years)? Since technology wasn't as advanced as it is now, data collected over the years may not be as detailed and we can get now. Theories have been created and it’s not possible to go back in time to reevaluate what was written for that time. Scientists were limited in what they could test as compared to today’s abilities. How has technology enhanced our ability to collect the data necessary to understand climate change? Since the equipment...
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...Running Header: Unit 9 Final Project Unit 9: Final Project MT300-28 Big Ideas in Science: From Methods to Mutation Professor Atkins Submitted by Paula Ahl October 1, 2012 PART I: SCIENTIFIC METHOD Each and every day, we are faced with having to make split-second decisions, and the need to solve random problems that we encounter. To reach those decisions and work those problems out you are subconsciously using the scientific method. Apply the five steps of the Scientific Method to two situations that could occur in your everyday life. Use the scientific method in the first scenario provided below to solve the problem at hand. Please come up with a second detailed scenario on your own and follow the same steps in the scientific method to find a resolution. Scenario 1: You arrive home late at night. You walk up to the front door, unlock it, and reach in to turn on the light switch located just inside the front door. The light does not come on! Now what? 1. Name the problem or question you are trying to solve. One evening I came home late, my husband and children were out for the night, I unlocked the front door, reach in to turn the light on and it doesn’t come on. I go back to my car for the flashlight. I need to identify where the problem is generated from. Why doesn’t the light turn on when the switch is switched on? 2. What is your background research? Check the neighborhood to see if electricity is out. Check to see if breaker has flipped. ...
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...Understanding Science For many people, science is something to be dreaded – boring math problems and pointless information. Science, however, plays an important part in the world around us. Not only does science rule every part of the human life, from the inner workings of the body to DNA, but it also explains the world that we live in. Even though, many times, science is looked at as an annoying extension of math and, therefore, something to be despised, understanding it can be extremely helpful in understanding our own lives. Science allows us to understand and answer the big questions that cause many people to turn to religion and their beliefs. Science is a way of understanding the world through examination and testing. It can be defined “as the process of observing and questioning the world around us. We also sometimes call the things that we learn through experimentation science” (Red Orbit). As such, science is the process of studying and testing theories to create a hypothesis. It is a very broad subject matter and encompasses many branches, most ending with the –ology suffix, meaning the study of. Biology, for example, is the study of the life where Geology is the study of the earth. People that study biology and geology are scientists because they follow the scientific method, “the most powerful method ever invented by humans to obtain relevant and reliable knowledge about nature. In fact, it is really the only method we have for discovering reliable knowledge –...
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...Year Nine English AEP Frankenstein/Science Fiction Essay (Reading and Writing Task) Topic: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the Science Fiction text that allowed all other examples of the sub-genre to follow. Discuss this proposition with specific reference to the Drama Script and Film versions of the novel, along with any other relevant Science Fiction texts you have read or viewed. * Your essay should especially consider Shelley’s context and that of other writers you refer to, as well as your own context as a reader. * You should make specific reference to the texts you are discussing via both direct (quotations) and indirect (explanations) evidence. * Be sure to plan your response so that each paragraph has its own unified idea. A sample paragraph structure might look like the following: 1. Introduction – Thesis: e.g.: “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the first text which uses scientific experimentation as the basis of its plot. In doing this, it paved the way for all Science Fiction which followed…” 2. Body P1 – Author context + sub-genre features – what changes have occurred over time as a result of context? Consider Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury 3. Body P2 – Discussion of Frankenstein 4. Body P3 – Discussion of other text e.g.: War of the Worlds (make some reference to Frankenstein as well) 5. Body P4 - Discussion of other text e.g.: There Will Come Soft Rains (make some reference to Frankenstein as well) ...
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...TEACHING METHODOLOGY AND PRACTICUM 3B (SUBJECT METHODOLOGY FET LIFE SCIENCES 3B) Dear Life Sciences Methodology student, In the week of 31 August to 04 September 2015 you are expected to attend compulsory work related learning as explained to you by the WIL coordinator. During this period ALL Life Sciences students are expected to develop a teaching portfolio (resource file) based on their experience. This portfolio must be submitted to the lecturer on the September 11, 2015; no late submissions will be accepted. Your portfolio (A4 lever arch file or similar) must be divided into the following section, using appropriate file dividers. Section 1: Introduction [25 marks] Include in your Section 1 the following, each starting on a new page. Cover page The cover page must provide your full details, including name, surname, student number, contact details, module name, the subject that you are teaching, mentor teacher’s details and mentor lecturer’s details. Also indicate the WIL session (i.e. First semester, 2 nd semester, etc. with specific dates) School details Name and contact details of the school, details of school principal, number of learners in the school, type of the school etc. School timetable Copy of the Life Sciences Caps document Outline of personal teaching philosophy (maximum two pages) A teaching philosophy statement is a narrative that includes: your conception of teaching and learning a description of how you teach justification...
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...| The Big Bang | The Origin and Evolution of the Universe | | [Type the author name] | 4/11/2013 | Astronomy with Lab DeVry University This paper looks at the Big Bang Theory. It examines the history of the theory and the scientific ideas on which it is based. It also examines some of the evidence proving the Big Bang and addresses some of the more common arguments against it. | Contents The Search for Creation 3 The Big Bang Theory 3 Supporting Observations 4 Objections 5 Conclusion 5 References 7 The Search for Creation Man seems, by nature, to be a curious creature. We are always looking for explanations for natural phenomena. We have attributed the sound of thunder and lightning in the sky to Thor. When crops died and people were struck ill, ancient man (and modern in some cases) knew the obvious cause was spells cast by witches. We even have myths about the creation of the world; from the Chinese Phan Ku who "emerged from an egg and proceeded to create the world by using a chisel" (Singh, 2004, p. 4) to the Judeo-Christian story of the seven day creation. These creation stories were our first attempts to explain not only our origins but the origins of everything. These stories satisfied many, especially in a time when the ability to test their validity was very limited, but as we have advanced so has our ability to analyze the universe around us and come up with testable ideas to explain the origin of the universe and its evolution. ...
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...389: Science of Origins Research paper : The weakness of the big bang Theory Submitted By Nyasha Deredza Id Number: 2012050156 Instructor: Ps. C. Thebe Date: 29 June 2015 Introduction Philosophers and General people have come up with many theories, in an attempt to explain the origins of the earth. They have tried to come up with models which try to explain how the earth came into being, and its future. One of the popularly known theory is the Big Bang theory, which presupposes that for the universe to originate ,all matter that we know was contained in a tiny speck which went on to explode. The theory continues to develop and evolve from the time it was conceptualized. Scientists have taken part in contribution to this. For a long time now people have upheld various ideas of what the universe is like, from the Aristotelian to the Copernican universe among other ideas. Soon after the inventions of physics by Isaac Newton, philosophers began to think that there was a time when planets and perhaps stars did not exist but only a cloud of matter. Shortly after that it is believed that gravity pulled the matter into clumps, forming stars and planets. This sounds absurd of course, at least in my opinion because it is not possible that the universe and its complexity were as a result of a coincidental mistake .The big bang theory has some advantages and disadvantages as well, however he aim of this research paper is to examine the weaknesses of the Big bang...
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...Modern Cosmology Cosmology, or modern astronomy, has deep roots in the Big Bang theory, which seeks to explain the beginning of the universe, the structure of the objects within it, and the laws that govern it. The Big Bang and string theory are two highly respected theories in science for the universe. In the history of astronomy, very little discoveries have been more important than the introduction of the new heliocentric cosmology. It was common belief up until the 1500s that the Earth was the center of the universe-- with everything else orbiting around it. With the 1500s, however; a new idea came to light. Nicholas Copernicus suggested in his book “On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres,” that the Sun was the center of the solar system. Later, into the early 1600s, Johannes Kepler was an advocate Copernicus’ heliocentric universe. Kepler is responsible for discovering that planets revolve around the Sun in elliptical orbits—which is the first of his three laws of planetary motion. His second law, according to "Johannes Kepler: The Laws of Planetary Motion" (n.d.), is “the line joining the planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times as the planet travels around the ellipse,” (para. 14). "Johannes Kepler: The Laws of Planetary Motion" (n.d.), also states that the third of Kepler’s laws is “the ratio of the squares of the revolutionary periods for two planets is equal to the ratio of the cubes of their semi-major axes,” (para. 15). Kepler also proposed that...
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...One would say that the love of inventing things ran in the family. Page's parents, Gloria and Carl Page, were two highly talented and intelligent computer science professors at the University of Michigan. While other six years olds were off playing sports and collecting baseball cards, Page took great interest in dismantling items in his house to "see how it worked". When asked about his childhood, Page commented "(there were) computers and Popular Science magazines everywhere". From this quote, it is quite evident that there was something unusual about Page from a very young age. Page moved on to become the first kid at his school to turn in an assignment from a word processor. One of his first inventions was an inkject printer made entirely from LEGO bricks. As Page grew older, he decided not to put his talent of inventing items to waste, and became interested in the world of business. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from the University of State Michigan and a Master of Science in computer science from Stanford University. He graduated from both schools with honours. Page's success didn't stop here. He then met fellow PhD student, Sergey Brin. The two shared a visionary involving the number and and nature of backlinks and how they could be valuable to the information on a page. These ideas blossomed into a webpage prototype called BackRub, comprised of 10 million documents, with an untold number of links in between. After a year of extensive research...
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...Life of Galileo- from the perspective of Science, Technology and Society The intertwining of Science and society complies with the double-helical DNA structure which defines the complexity and simplicity of the relation between them. Where scientific discoveries set the path for paradigm shifts and drastic changes in which the society functions, they also raise questions to the existing norms of the society during the inception of these theories. The centuries-long debate of Science being the basis of societal formation or societal needs leading to genesis of new ways of living has not found an answer yet. While some discoveries conform to the existing belief system of the world, some developments cause major uproar and leave a mark on the timeline of evolution setting a before and after of human existence. It is these discoveries which brush the dust off the antediluvian school of thought and bring about paradigm shifts in the system with a fresh way of thinking and living. Life of Galileo by Bertolt Bretch is a play which describes a similar situation and revolves around the time when Galileo popped the idea of a heliocentric universe to the world causing widespread uproar. Galileo was a man of realistic thoughts who believed logic runs the world. While explaining the Copernican theory to his house boy, Andrea, Galileo encourages him to breathe logic and not comply with the existing beliefs that are prevalent in the society. Mrs. Sarti, his house maid, discourages Galileo...
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...Spotlight on Big Data Spotlight Artwork Tamar Cohen, Andrew J Buboltz 2011, silk screen on a page from a high school yearbook, 8.5" x 12" Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century Meet the people who can coax treasure out of messy, unstructured data. by Thomas H. Davenport and D.J. Patil 70 Harvard Business Review October 2012 hen Jonathan Goldman arrived for work in June 2006 at LinkedIn, the business networking site, the place still felt like a start-up. The company had just under 8 million accounts, and the number was growing quickly as existing members invited their friends and colleagues to join. But users weren’t seeking out connections with the people who were already on the site at the rate executives had expected. Something was apparently missing in the social experience. As one LinkedIn manager put it, “It was like arriving at a conference reception and realizing you don’t know anyone. So you just stand in the corner sipping your drink—and you probably leave early.” SPOTLIGHT ON BIG DATA Goldman, a PhD in physics from Stanford, was intrigued by the linking he did see going on and by the richness of the user profiles. It all made for messy data and unwieldy analysis, but as he began exploring people’s connections, he started to see possibilities. He began forming theories, testing hunches, and finding patterns that allowed him to predict whose networks a given profile would land in. He could imagine that new...
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...There are many concepts that are associated with the true meaning of being human. This is a topic that that is very susceptible to debate because most people will have their own opinions on what it means, to them, to be human. When asked this question I try to think of universal concepts or factors in which everyone can agree on. It is hard not to involve religion and science when determining an answer for this topic but, in my opinion, there are mutual concepts that can be used to describe humanity from a religious or scientific point of view. The Bible tells of how God created Adam and Eve and that they were the first humans on Earth. The Bible basically states that God created humans and that humans are simply a product of God. At least, that’s the religious aspect of humanity. Then there is science which explains how humans evolved from ape-like creatures which was all part of evolution that was caused by the “Big Bang” 13.7 billion years ago. Whatever the case may be, the Bible or the “Big Bang”, there are still many concepts that can be used to define humans. Being born from your human mother does not mean you are in fact human. One concept cannot explain humanity because being human is more complex than just one simple notion. I believe the three most important concepts that define what it means to be human are knowledge, ethics, and history. Knowledge is an essential characteristic of the human race because it is the reason why humanity is advanced as it is...
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...was made. Students everywhere also ask, “How did the human originate?” This is a huge controversy that has been fought for many years. Although there are many ideas, people mainly argue over two of them. The first theory is that people was created by God during his creation of the world; this is the idea of creationism. It is backed up by many religious people and religion itself. There is much turmoil on the broad topic of creationism and its place in American society. The big controversy of creationism versus evolutionism is a very large topic, something that has been made increasingly evident by the numerous books printed on the subject. Most evolutionist and creationist spend their time attempting to prove the other’s theory wrong; in one way or another, prove that theirs is the correct answer to the origins of life as we know it. I have no intent of diving into that raging battle, but would rather take a very different approach. Being raised in a religious household, I naturally have assumed the Christian faith and taken great interest in what creationists have to say. Readers who want a short, quick, straightforward account of the evidence may find that Coyne (who focuses on evidence for evolution, not refutation of creationism) suits them better; those who prefer their science served with more anecdotes, a chattier style, and...
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