Mile run

Yesterday, I did a mile run and it was crazy.
I was pretty scared before I ran because I had to beat my score to get A and I thought my last score, 8:24, was high for me to beat. But there was a good news. Mr.Macmullen, my PE teacher, was running with us and he said that he would run a mile in exactly 8 minutes. So I decided to just follow Mr.Macmullen and get 8 minutes. I made the first lap and the second lap with Mr.Macmullen but I was too tired when I was half way of my third lap. So I walked for a few seconds and ran again. But I got tired again and walked again. When I repeated this 5 times, I decided to give up to get higher score than 8:24 because I didn't rest when I ran last time. By the time Mr.Macmullen finished, I needed to go halfway more. This was my last chance and I sprinted as fast as I could until I thought I was really going to die. I had to go 100m more and I sprinted and I thought I would collapse but I wasn't. After I crossed the finish line, I collapsed and lied down on the field. Another PE teacher read my time. I didn't expect to get higher than 8:24 and I was wrong. My score was 8:23. I improved by just one second. I was very delighted and I was less tired than before.

Water Purification Movie

Geoactive Questions and Answers

Activities:
1. List the main reasons for water scarcity.
A: The main reasons for water scarcity is that many places such as deserts, have low rainfall, variations in climate, land degradation, population growth and water pollution.
2. What is a drought? What type of hardships do you think that a drought could cause if you were living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia?
A: A drought is a period of below average precipitation. Dehydration, illnesses such as Cholera and death could be the hardships I would face when living in a village in a poor country such as Ethiopia.
3. How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water?
A: When land has being used excessively for overgrazing and farming, the soil is not able to store water. When there are heavy rains, the water is lost into rivers and the sea.
4.(a) What is El Nino?
A: El Nino is a warming that happens every three to five years in the Pacific ocean off the coast of Peru. So this causes the air pressure to reverse and go over most of Australia. These prevent moist tropical air masses reaching Australia for a long periods and causes serious drought.
(b) Why does El Nino often cause drought in Australia?
A: Because of the warming the air pressure reverses and stops moist tropical air masses reaching Australia.
5. Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-83
(a) What effects does El Nino have on the availability of fresh water?
A: Due to El Nino, there can be period of heavy rain along the west coast of South America and this causes severe flooding. Water becomes heavily polluted and little clean water is available.
(b) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall caused by El Nino.
A: - Dry - Too much rainfall
Australia- Wheat exports threatened by drought conditions.
Philippines- Lower rice harvest due to drought.
China- Agricultural land under threat from drought in northern regions and flooding in southern regions.
Papua New Guinea- Due to drought, they are not able to grow crops. This causes famine conditions.
Indonesia- Dryness causes forest fires making air very polluted.
Africa- Less corn crops due to dryness.
United States- Too much rainfall.
Colombia- Fishing is affected.
Peru- Flooding and fishing is affected.

The Falcon's Malteser

I finished reading a book called 'The Falcon's Malteser' by Anthony Horowitz. I decided to read this book because lots of people enjoy reading his books. And indeed, it was a really good mystery story.

This book is about two detectives, Tim Diamond and Nick Diamond. They are not actually detectives but they preferred to be called that way.
One day, a dwarf came into their office and asked them to keep his package and said that he would give 500 dollars for keeping them for a week and he would take it back. He emphasized that they are not to open the package. Tim thought the dwarf was crazy but Nick knew there was something mystery and dangerous about keeping the package. And he was exactly right.
One morning, Nick got a letter from the Fat Man, the biggest crime in England and told them to give the package. They didn't gave it to him and later, they found out that the package contained only a box of Malteser which was just a plain chocolate. But after a few weeks, they also found out that this Malteser box meant 5 million dollars from Falcon, who was the biggest crime on earth, and he wanted to keep his 5 million dollars safely after he was dead and he made a riddle to get 5 million dollars and this Malteser box was a clue. Many great crimes try to get this Malteser box but Nick's witness was good enough to protect the Malteser. After chasing each other for a long time, Nick figured out the answer of the riddle. It was a bar code on the Malteser's box. Nick reflected a sunlight on the bar code to the eagle's eye and there was a beep sound. The eagle monument should be cracked and open but it didn't work. Later, Nick found out that his friend, Lauren, had stole the Malteser box's barcode and replaced the false bar code. But still Lauren gave some money to Nick with a letter and he spent the summer holiday with his money.
My best part of this book is the time when Nick had injured two famous crimes, Hommel and William. Lauren and Nick were both captured by them and they tied their (Lauren and Nick) bodies with some ropes. Hommel and William had gone to the bank where Nick mentioned where he kept the Malteser box which actually was a lie. Lauren had learned how to escape from tying by ropes and escaped. She also helped Nick and Nick planned something brilliant. Even though they escaped from tying by rope, the door was locked. Nick was very sure that the crimes would kill him by telling them a lie. He was locked at the 5th floor of a strange building and there was a big piano at the centre of a room. When Nick watched they parked at a parking lot, he pushed the piano and it crashed on their car. Everyone was astounded and one man had found out Nick and called the key fixer. The key fixer came and unlocked the door. And then Nick and Lauren escaped. Fortunately to Hommel and William, they were not killed and just injured a bit.

I was in this book and didn't know that the time had passed. I would really like to try one of his books maybe the continue book after this book. I would seriously like to recommend this book to everyone.

Bintaro Kampung Field Trip

On the 12th November, I visited the kampung for the field trip. We went to this field trip so that we could learn about the different ways to purify the water. There are 6 stations in total to purify water but we didn't have enough time to watch all of them so our group saw stations 1,3 and 5.
In station 1, we saw the water was purified in a big blue drum which worked as a sand filter. It contains rough rocks 10cm high, fine rocks 5cm high and fine sand 45cm high. The fine sand helps trapping the microorganisms and dirt. But still, it's not suitable for drinking and is used for showering.
In station 3, we saw that this method depends on the sun to purify the water. What we have to do is, finding any bottle and wash it properly. After that, we fill the bottle with water and left it out in the sun. It takes 6 to 7 hours to make it drinkable on sunny days but on cloudy days, it takes about 2 days to make it drinkable. The bottles we can use has to have smooth, thin and the labels should be removed.
In station 5, we saw how to check if the water is safe or not. There are two ways to check it. First, we used ph meter. If the number in the ph meter shows between 6 to 8, it means the water is safe (But not for drinking). The other way to check it is to use a turbidity meter. It has a number from 5 to 500 and at the bottom of it, it has a cross sign and if we can see it at the higher place, it means the water is more clearer. To see if there is a microorganisms or dirt, they use a machine called equalizer. It shows the microorganisms level so we can know how much dirt are there in the water.
It was pretty more specific than the water treatment because the guides in Kampung explained longer and clearer than the water treatment guides so I could learn lots of things I didn't know before.

Turtles

GeoActive Questions and Answers

Activities:
1. What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?
A: Water covers 71 percent of the earth and 2.5 percent of all the water is fresh water which means there are only 1.775 percent of fresh water on earth.
2. Where is the world's supply of fresh water found?
A: Above 1.775 percent of fresh water, 1.42 percent is found in the form of ice on land, 0.3479 percent is found in groundwater and the soil and 0.0071 percent is found in the rivers and lakes.
3. Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant it is still a problem. Why?
A: Because the fresh water and people are not evenly given. What happens is that for example, in country 1, there are more fresh water than in country 2. But the problem is, country 2 demands more fresh water because of greater population. So this shows the fresh were unevenly distributed.
4. Observe the map of world average annual precipitation (opposite).
(a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the southern to the northern tip of Africa.
A: As we move from the southern of Africa to the northern tip of Africa, we can find out that the rainfall is getting higher until the place between the equator and the Tropic of Cancer. From then on, the average annual rainfall goes under 250mm which is extremely low.
(b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western to the eastern tip of Australia along the Topic of Capricorn.
A: As we move from the western to the eastern tip of Australia along the Tropic of Capricorn, we can find out that the rainfall is slightly getting higher and finally reaches over 2000mm, starting from under 250mm.
5. Observe the map above of water availability per person.
(a) Which parts of the world appear to have a large amount of water available per person?
A: South America seems to have a large amount of water available per person.
(b) Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person?
A: Europe seems to have a small amount of water per person.
6. Observe the diagram of water use.
(a) What are the main uses of water?
A: The main uses of water is agriculturing.
(b) Which uses have increased the most over the last century?
A: Reservoir losses from evaporation and seepage has increased the most over the last century.

Water Treatment Plant Field Trip

Last Thursday, I went to the Water Treatment Plant Field Trip to see how dirty water is purified. There are 6 stages in total to purify water.
Firstly, there is a big iron window bar to percolate a big pieces of garbage and they (The water treatment guiders) clean it every hour to make the water cleaner.
Then, the second stage is, "Adding mineral and oxygenate" to get water aeration.
In the next stage, a chemical called 'Alum' is added in the water and surprisingly because of it, the dirt gathers and make a big dirt floc and we call this step coagulation.
But then in a stage 4, big flocs change into small flocs and the flocs will sediment to the bottom of the water which is a step called, sedimentation.
Then finally, there is a step called filtration which is a very important stage. In filtration, the clorn is added and it is used as a disinfection and it makes water really clear.
For the last stage, they check the purified water if it's safe or not.
I was pretty surprised that it was this complicated to purify water and I got a better knowledge about water.

Clara Cleech

This is a movie about a poem called, 'Clara Cleech'. It is quite funny at the last part and I'm sure you would like it. HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!

Water Cycle

1.Evaporation- As you can see in this picture, the water is heated by the sun and becomes water vapour and flys into the sky. We call this process, 'Evaporation'. If there is higher temperature, less humid and stronger wind, then the evaporation occurs actively. This is the first step of the water cycle.

2.Condensation- If we look at this picture, we can find out that water droplets are formed outside the glass when water vapour in the air condenses on the cold glass. When the air cools down, the water vapours that are floating in the air becomes water droplets. We call this process, 'Condensation'. This is the second step of water cycle.

3.Precipitation- When we look at this picture, we can figure out that precipitation occurs when the heavy water droplets then fall back to the ground as rain, snow, hail or freezing rain. This is the third step of water cycle.

4. Infiltration- By looking at this picture, we can find out that water soaks into the soil from the ground level. We call this process, 'Infiltration'. However some water remains on the ground because there is not enough space to soak into the ground. When the sun shines, the evaporation begins with a new water cycle and ends again with infiltration.