Plastiki

I know once you hear the word Plastiki you think of plastic. Maybe you don't but I do and yes it has to do with Plastic. The plastiki is a Boat (but looks more like a raft) and its made out of 12,000 plastic bottles. The man that thought of this innovative idea is called David de Rothschild. This boat has set sail on a 100 day voyage all the way to Sydney from San Fransisco! The reason why he made this boat was firstly, he wanted to show people what AMAZING things you can make with recycled items and he also wanted to show us what would happen if we didn't reuse. He has succeeded in both of what he wanted to do and I think that the voyage from San Fransisco to Sydney will be a success! :)

History of Haiti

1. Haiti was found by Christopher Columbus in 1492.

2. When the french introduced coffee to the Haitians, It soon became a important drink in Haiti.

3. Haiti is a place with a lot of mountains Hayti is the Indian name for the country and it means 'Land of the mountains'.

4. The country lies in the path of a lot of hurricanes and tropical storms and in 2008Haiti had to face 4 tropical storms which left destruction in Haiti.

5. When Columbus discovered Haiti, Haiti became part of the Spanish colony and the Spanish killed of all of the Haitians and started to import African slaves into Haiti.

6.Right after the Spanish took over, the french came and took over Haiti and they increased the produce of sugar, coffee, cotton and sugarcane but the Haitians started to revolt against the french and Haiti gained Independence on January 1804.

7. The Haitians have been suffering without alot of food since alot of the food prices have gone up 50% in a half of a year. Even if you worked for a whole day, the minimum amount of money given would be 70 goud (goud is their currency) and with 70 goud, you cannot even buy a gallon of gas!

8. In Haiti, 80% of the Haitians are in poverty.

9. Only 30% children go to school and in that 30% only 2% continue school.

2. 10. Haiti also used to be a very rich country but brcuase of all of the food amount increase, the country became poor.

Haiti update!

Whne the 7.0 earthquaek shook the city of earthquake, ALOT of people were killed in the horrible earthquake. Luckily, the american president promieses to help donate tons and tons of water to help supply Haiti with water as some of the other countries around the world as well have not only donated water but food, aid care, and definately money to help Haiti. They have started this thing that if you do something on faceook, or blackberry message somebody, the money that you are actually paying to BBM someone, half of that omunt is going to Haiti. I think that is a very productive system because ALOT of people have blackberry's and since Alot of people I know like to BBM, I think that they will earn ALOT of money!

Haiti Earthquake

The tragic haiti earthquake happend two days ago. This earthquake was suppose to be the most powerful earthquake in that region from 200 years ago. this earthquaek seemes to practically wipe out the whole place. I think that there were only 200 survivors left in Haiti. This was a really storng earthquake adn even the palace of Haiti fell! I feel really sad for Haiti because firstly, Haiti was not exactly the richest place in the world and adding this horrible earthquake... This picture is the before and after of the earthuake. Sadly, the palace is damaged very badly.

Social studies questiton

1. List the main reasons for water scarcity

• Water Pollution
• Population growth
• Land degradation
• Variations in climate like drought.

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 city like Ethiopia?

• Drought is a long period oftime when it does'nt rain at a place.
• If I lived in somewhere in Ethiopia during the drought, I would get sick because there is no water that could reach me.

3. How does land degradation affect the supply of fresh water?

• Land degradation is when the soil cannot hold anymore water, so it just becomes run-off and flows back down into the sea or lake and that is where the whole water cycle occurs again!

4.
a) What is El Nino?

• EL nino is when a big gust of wind makes all teh miost air reverse direction.

b) Why does El Nino usually cause drought in Australia?

• becuase it prevents tropical air masses reaching Australia for long periods of time.

5. Observe the map showing the global effects of El Nino in 1982-83

a) What effects dies El Nino have when it comes to availability of fresh water?

• 
  

b) Name the countries and describe the problems that arose from decreased rainfall by El Nino?

• 
  

Bintaro lama field trip

The Grade 6th recently just visited the Kampung in Bintaro. The first thing I noticed was how the pavements at one part were dirty.

Well, we went there to learn from a huge water plant how they can mke water in a household scale.We were divided in groups and had a project about it. We also were divided into 3 stations. I got station 1,3 and 5.

At the 1st station we went to see how and what they used to filter the water. First of course they had to dig a well, the well is deep and it is also dug with hand made tools, in other words it is dug manually. Tehn they have this huge big, blue bucket to hold the water and the sand to filter it. Since the water is so dirty, they have to wash the sand 1 time a week. The water when it is filtered is used for bathing.

At the 3rd station, we went to see how they killed teh bacteria adn this is how they did it. Forst they washed a big aqua bottle,, (it is best if there is not scraches) and wash it, bioth the outside and inside adn the cap. After you washed it with soap then, you rinse it and fill it up with water all up untill you cannot see and gaps that air can seep in. then you put it in the sun for a while!

Ata teh 5th station, we watched how they tested water fo rthe turbidity. To test that, You hav ethis long cylinder tube and there is an 'X' at the bottom. You fill it up with water and look through the top. Can you see the "X"? If you cannot that means the water is still dirty.

Through this feild trip, i understood much better.

questions from geoactive book

1. What percentage of the world's supply of water is fresh water?

• The worlds supply of water's percentage is 2.5
  

1. Where is the worlds supply of fresh water found?

• The world's supply of fresh water is found in soil, ground water, rivers, lakes and in the form of ice.
  

1. Even though the supply of fresh water is abundant is it still is a problem. Why?

• Because some places, people demand for more People and so they get more water and then the people who don't complaint but still really need it more then the demanding people, their amount of water distributed to them gets less and less.
  

1. Observe the map of world average annual precipitation (opposite)

a) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western to the eastern tip of Africa.

• The rainfall gets less and less.

b) Describe the changes in rainfall that occur as you move from the western to the eastern tip of Australia along the tropic of Capricorn.

• It is like africa but more sutained. as in its rains alot then slowly it becomes less.

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

• South America, half of north America, half of Asia, a little bit of africa and some of Europe.

b) Which parts of the world appear to have a small amount of water per person.

• Africa and Asia

6. Observe the diagram of water used.

a) What are the main uses of water

• Agircultural

b) which uses have increased the most over the last century

• industrial
  

Water Plant field trip.

On our field trip we went to a water plant, At the water plant, we saw how dirty river water was made into clean water.

The first step they did was they infiltrated the water from big pieces of garbage. Like plastic bags and leaves but mostly things that are created by humans. Then they went to a smaller filter that would filter the smaller bits.

The second step that was really interesting it was when alum was put into the water. there was a part when there was a mixer to mix the alum into the water.

The third step was for the alum to react. What the alum really did was that it made all the small sediments, and dirt to rise to the surface and clump together. An interesting fact about the left over clumps of dirt floating on top of the water, is that instead of getting rid of it and throwing it into the trash dump, they give it to these people that makes bricks so maybe one of the bricks in the house may be made out of dirt.. :P

The fourth step was when the filtered the water even more smaller to get all the tiny sediments filtered out.

The fifth step is when they send the water to the water tower .

The final step is when water is tested in the lab to see whether it is drinkable.

Water Cycle

This picture shows infiltaration.

Infiltaration is when the rain water 

flows into the ground and right back

 into the sky.

This picture shows percipitation.

Percipitation is how the condensed 

water in the sky or i could say clouds

travel back down to the ground.

This picture shows clouds or 

in other words Condensation

Condensation is when the evaporated 

water groups up and forms a cloud

                                                     This picture shows that evaporation                                                     

 is when water turns into tiny droplets

  evaporates into the sky

Earthquake-Indonesia

On Wednesday 2nd of September 2009, there was an Earthquake in Indonesia. HOW was this caused?

Since Indonesia is in the ring of fire, there is actually a very high possibility for an earthquake.This also connects to animals like snakes.when we were at lunch today, there was a snake slithering back into its hole before the earthquake. This is because animals have 6 senses and they could sense that there could be a natural disaster.Now, near the sea there was a Tsunami warning because, Indonesia is a country that's really close to sea and that's why.

The only reason why earthquakes are dangerous is because of all the buildings and tall apartments we build. People only get hurt when buildings come crashing down. So if there were NO buildings, earthquakes would not be as dangerous as they could be with buildings.

I think this was one of the biggest earthquakes I have ever experienced and I really did not know that there was a earthquake until my mom called me and my friend felt it and told me. Luckily this was not a major earthquake but it was really big to me.

Typhoon Morakot-Taiwan

This is the famous picture of a red hotel falling into the water. Most people has seen this on the news, google or other places. people think this hotel fell down because the water messed the foundation of the building and the hotel collapsed.Luckily, everyone got out of the building before it collapsed.

The environment people live in can affect their ways they live. For an example, Taiwan is not that close to the equator. the further the country is from the equator, the more the country is most likely to get a typhoon. Countries like China and Japan, they could mostly get typhoons. Another thing that caused the flood is that since Taiwan is full of Mountains, the water fills up in between the mountains from the rain water that keeps pouring down and that causes it to get to full and come rushing out with no control. Also there are landslides, since their was alot of rain water falling, all that water went into the soil and it filled and filled until the stickiness that kept the earth from rushing down off the mountain goes soft and... all of the earth, tree's bushes all come rushing down and burying people... Yikes!