Ferny Creek- Australia

For this unit we were observing the clouds and seeing how they are related to the weather. Theres four main different types of clouds nimbus, stratus, cumulus and cirrus. To relate clouds and weather, we had to do an investigation. For the investigation I choose Ferny Creek, Kings Lake in a town named Victoria, Australia. For the final product we had to create a power point about statistics about Ferny Creek and the climate. Through out this investigation I learned how to convert Fahrenheit into Celsius. One thing that i am proud of are my citations and my line plot.

Help The Christmas Heliconia

For this unit, I investigated an issue that applies to MDG 7 -  ensure environmental sustainability. The issue I chose was endangered species, specifically, a plant called Heliconia angusta, which we know as Christmas heliconia. After researching the plant, I wrote a poem and created a drawing to inspire others to take action on the issue. One thing that I learned throughout this project was to appreciate plants and the environment. I am proud of my poem because I didn't know how to make it at first but I learned in the end.

KIS. Christmas Heliconia/Paraguay. (2013)

There are different colors of heliconia, but the red one is best known and most dominant. The heliconia is a tropical plant which grows best in shade, prefers warm or humid weather, and dies in the cold. However, the Christmas heliconia is vulnerable because shade is more and more rare as its native habitat - southeastern Brazil - is deforested (Wikipedia). Loggers cut down 575,114 sq. km of forest between 1990 and 2011 (World Bank). Please read my poem below which tells you about the plant and how you can help save it from extinction. 

The Christmas Heliconia

Christmas…
A happy and curious holiday
Presents get unwrapped and new things come into your life
A happy moment to remember

The opposite of happiness is happening to the christmas heliconia
A rare plant
Only relates to christmas because of its color
Only grows in warm and shady places
Needs tress and their shade to live

Without trees the heliconias can't survive
They are sensitive and are alive

A challenge for this year;
To give this plant as a gift to somebody you care about
Or by giving a financial gift to the U.S Botanic Garden,
A group who teaches about the importance and values of ecosystems
Such gifts help the environment
Plastic toys only create more carbon dioxide
You can help Heliconias survive this Christmas

References:

" Forest Area (sq. km)." The World Bank. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

"Heliconia Information." http://members.iinet.net.au, n.p. Thur. 10 Oct. 2013.

"Heliconia." www.heliconia.org, heliconia society international. Thur. 10 Oct. 2013.

"Heliconia angusta" www.wikipedia.com. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.

Knust, Barbara. Personal Interview. 16 Oct. 2013.

"United States Botanic Garden." www.usbg.gov, government. Thur. 10 Oct. 2013.

Salvar Las Vidas De Las Mamas

In this unit we were told to investigate on an MDG, then choose an issue that follows under the goal. I choose MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health, the goal was to reduce by three quarters,between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio, and my issue was to investigate on maternal mortality ratio for the US and for another country. The reason for choosing a country was that the US can learn from that country on the issue. In this case I used Spain as an example because they have less maternal mortality then the US. After comparing information for both countries we wrote a letter to a senator or a representative that serves our country. For this I decided to write to Kay Hagan, she is a senator of north carolina and an attorney. I choose Hagan for the reason that she can understand what i'm writing and see it from the women perspective. I am proud of the information that I found (with some help) and the citations. One thing that I learned during this unit or investigation was that how many women die from childbirth, I thought that we didn't have that much deaths due to the resources and technology that the US haves. Im glad that I learned this because as a women I informed my self for the future.

KIS. USA and Spain maternal morality rate. (2013)

Sen. Kay Hagan
512 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Hagan,

I am a high school student at the Global Citizenship Experience (GCE) High School in Chicago. I write to ask for your support in lowering the rate for maternal mortality in the U.S. As a member of the attorney committee in Congress, you have a voice to speak for mothers’ health rights. The United States has 8 deaths out of every 100,000 births. That rate is good enough for 48th place in the world rankings, but it’s not good enough. I think we can lower our number.

For an example of a country we can learn from, look to Spain, in 14th place. Spain is smaller than the U.S. in terms of geographic size, population, and resources. Yet, it has lower maternal mortality than the U.S. How has Spain done this? Spain has looked at the many reasons why women die during and after childbirth. Reasons include lack of access to a health care, haemorrhage, sepsis, hypertensive disorders, a unsafe abortion, and pregnancies too close together. (Unicef, 2008)

As a result, the strategies and priorities of Spain are designed to address the challenges above. The Spanish government has increased family planning and sex education by building a family planning centers network. According to a United Nations report on Spanish health, “The Government believes that instruction, information and assistance should be made accessible to the entire population so that couples may decide the number and spacing of their children.” (UN Report on Spanish Health)

Spain has managed to achieve a low maternal mortality rate of only 6 deaths out of 100,000 births. This means that in Spain, even with good health measures, 946 mothers still die every year as a result of complications from pregnancy and childbirth. This is a tragedy. However, if the United States could reach the same percentage Spain has, losing 6 mothers rather than 8 for every 100,000 births, our country would be better for having saved the lives of 6,269 American mothers annually.

[Call to action] We have many resources and connections we can use to improve maternal mortality rate in our country. One way that we can improv is by checking in on the women that are pregnant and help them with any complication that they have or my have.

I am trying to spread the word by posting this letter on my blog. I look forward to hearing from you with what actions you can or have already taken to support this cause.

Thank you for your time in reading this letter.

Sincerely,

K.S



Sources:

Population Statistics,

"Spain Population." www.google.com, n.p. Tue. 8 Oct. 2013

United States Population -www.google.com, n.p. Tue. 8 oct. 2013

"UN Health Report on Spain" http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/abortion/doc/spain.doc

"Unicef." www.unicef.org, unicef. Tue. 8 Oct. 2013

pH Lab Report

In this project we had to gather five different resources of water. The reason why we gather different types of waters was to measure the pH (partial hydrogen) of them. After we measured, the unit asked me to build a water filter to clean dirty water. The unit was based on how I can help people when they have a flood in their country and all the clean water resorces got contaminated. Now I can offer them a resource that they can use to clean their water and not get sick from the dirty water. I learned how to make my own filter in case anything happens to my water. Im proud of my success in building the filter and almost making it drinkable.

                                                            KIS. Water Filter. (2013)   

                                                     KIS. pH measurements. (2013)

The materials that I used to build this water filter was a container (from my house), half of an empty soda container, cotton balls (at the bottom and at the very top), sand (from the beach), gravel (from Home Depot), grass (from my backyard), activated carbon (teacher provided for us), and finally dirty water (from lake Michigan).

Please see the picture for a clear visual of my filter.

The process that I took to build my filter was. First I cut the soda container in half, second I take of the cap of the soda (I was suppose to poke a hole through the cap but it was to hard). Third I put a layer of cotton balls in the bottom, Fourth I put a layer of sand. Fifth I put a layer of gravel, Sixth I put a layer of grass. Finally I put a thin layer of cotton balls and I poor lake water into the filter. In order for my filter to work I had to be careful with how much I put of one thing and in which order will be best for the filtration. My filtration example is similar to the actual filtration that happens under ground and that cleans the water that we drink today.

The pH of the lake water was 6.5, after I filtered it once it was 6 and when I added activated carbon to make it a little more cleaner it still had a pH of 6. When I first filtered it it came out yellow probably because I put to much sand. In my second filtration it came out much better it was more clear and it still had a pH of 6 so even if it looks clean preferable not to drink it until your sure. The pH after i mix the activated carbon increase and it was a pH of 7 so now its more neutral.  For this project I had a choice to drink the water but I decided not to for safety reasons. Also during my experiment I noticed that you have to filter the water couple times before it gets clean and you to be able to try drinking it.



Reference-

"Survival Skills." www.wilderness-survival-skills.com, n.p. Fri. 27 Sep. 2013
"Practical Primitive." www.practicalprimitive.com, Feral Human Productions. Fri 27 Sep.2013
"Water Filter." www.wikihow.com, Media wiki. Fri 27 Sep. 2013