1. My favorite TV show is American Idol!!! I love laughing at the horrible singers (not to be mean)! And I like voting with all my friends for the ones I love!


2. My favorite meal is pasta! Since my family is Italian, we have it for every gathering!

3. My favorite nonschool activity is travel lacrosse and hanging out with friends! They're both extremely fun!

4. Someone I look up to is my older cousin who was the second in his senior class and is going to Yale! I want to be like him!

5. My goal for the future is to become a journalist for a famous magazine or newspaper!

6. In the first hour after school I usually do homework so that I have the rest of the day free!

Ringtones: music or a trap?

Most of us teens have cell phones, right? Well, I don't know about you but picking a ringtone is my favorite part! In India, they figured out how to put the new animal ringtones to work. These ringtones make the noises of cows 'mooing', goats bleating and roosters crowing. They are using these to bring leopards toward them, since they are attracted to the animal noises. This is a safe way to attract the cats, rather than use real animals who would be in danger of getting hurt. By bringing leopards to them, they can trap them. Why would they want to do this, you ask? Because many of these leopards have been wandering from the forest towards the village in search of food, which could lead to people killed. In order for the leopards to really get trapped, they fixed the speakers behind a cage. Then, the leopard goes into the cage to look for food, and is trapped. Since this idea, five cats have been successfully trapped, and taken back to the forest and away from the village. I feel that Ahmedabad, India made the correct decision by putting these traps to work becuase they have saved many villagers as well as leopards.

info found from : http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/06/05/leopards.ringtones.reut/index.html

Roller Coaster Madness!!!

For the past week in Science, we have been working on building roller-coasters or skate-parks out of certain materials given, such as paper tubes, tape, straws, and paper cups. My group is creating a roller-coaster. The requirements are to have four hills and bends. We are doing this project to put Newton's laws to the test. By looking at the speed of the marble, we can figure out the highest points of kinetic and potential energy. For example, our highest point of potential energy, or energy that will be used for kinetic energy, is at the very beginning of the ride because it will be pushed down the ride, but it hasn't been yet. Our highest point of kinetic energy was in the middle of one of our fastest hills because it had the highest speed and the most energy.When I went online to find more information on Newton's Laws, I realized that all three are on seperate topics, but they relate in a certain way. They all relate to the world around us and they teach us about speed and velocity. I feel that this project is a fun and efficient way to have us learn about physics and Newton's Laws.
info found from: http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/02144/basics/newton.htm

Toy Cars Can Go Far!!

This week we have been working on the formulas of speed, and how they apply to real life. The last few days, we have been racing toy wind-up cars to calculate the average of their speed. All we had to do was divide the distance the car traveled by how many seconds it took to get there. For example, if it traveled 200 centimeters in 4 seconds, the speed would be 50 centimeters per second. We would do this in three trials, and in order to find the average speed, we added all of the distances and the speeds together and divided them. After that, we compared the speeds to different cars, and what effected the speed. My group found out that the farther back you pull the car, the farther forward it will go. Also, by applying a forced push to the car it makes the speed excel. Previously, we were also learning about the formula of velocity which I found out more information on the website ahead. Over all, I thought that having a hands on activity like the toy cars was a great way to learn and study speed formulas. I feel that we should do more activities like this one in the future.

I found info on speed and velocity formulas on... http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/GBSSCI/PHYS/CLASS/1DKin/U1L1d.html

Healty Food- Making its Way into Our Schools

We have been starting to notice it all over our cafeteria. Fat free ice cream. Vegetable pizza. 100-calorie Oreo cookies. Some of the food tastes good, but some we think is just going way too far. In an article I read on CNN, it talked about how healthier food and drinks are slowly taking over our school lunches. They have begun this process after the fact that 12 million kids between the ages of 2 and 19 are overweight. If they can change the way Americans eat in the school systems, maybe they can change the way Americans eat all the time. During this past January, Bravo! Brands Inc. started selling a 150-calorie, 8-ounce bottle of flavored milk in about 8,000 schools across the country. Some flavors of this new health-efficient drink are Starburst, or Milkyway. They are also going to start selling low-fat smoothies and yogurt in school cafeterias. In order to be able to sell in schools, company spokesman Charles Nicolas said, "Pepsi is reformulating its popular Doritos, Cheetos and Quaker products for the 2007-2008 school year..." This is proving that many main companies want to play a role in making America a healthier country. I think that all food industries should work their way into making their products- and the world- healthier for the new generations.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/04/13/schools.healthy.foods.reut/index.html

Lent Give-Aways & Their Result

What are you giving up for Lent? Chocolate? Candy? Soda? Surprisingly many kids have decided to give up all social networks such as AOL Instant Messenger, and any other form of e-mail or online chat. Most of these teens have said that it has been extremely difficult to stay away that long. Giving up these sites has helped many focus while doing homework and realize how much they relied on computers. MySpace alone attracted 64.4 million different visitors in just the month of February! This shows that this generation is way too attached to online chatting. ONe doctor even said, "this behavior results in a lack of sleep, missed meals, poor hygiene and, in some extreme situations, seizures." As you can see, this small habit can result into much more serious issues. Therefore, limiting online time is beneficial because it helps us realize how much more important school work is and human interaction instead of online chats. "People are realizing that reality involves people, not pixels." I feel that this will result in a better society, where it is not overpowered by technology. Although I am writing this on the computer as we speak, lessening online availability will improve the society, along with our own health.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/03/29/no.facebook.lent/index.html

Hi everybody! Testing this week! AHHHHHHHHHHH :) To all my "eighvies" GOOD LUCK!
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