Science Eureka !

Hi everyone! Today, I will be talking about the Science sabbatical that I attended 2 terms ago - Science Eureka.



* The word - Eureka was supposedly shouted by Archimedes when he stepped into a bathtub and the water level rose, thus discovering that volumes of irregular objects could be measured with precision.

The sabbatical aimed to teach students more about Science. The whole course was split into 3 modules - Chemistry, Physics and Biology.

On the first day, we had the Biology module. Our trainers were 2 secondary 4 students . We conducted many interesting experiments such as cooking a piece of liver and testing it. Also, the trainers were very friendly and provided help to us whenever we called for them.

On the second day and third day, we had the chemistry module. The chemistry module took 2 days because we had a lot more experiments. My personal favourite was using a type of chemical that could adsorb water to make "ice kacang". The chemical absorbed the water and turned into a slushy mix. We then added colouring to make it look even more real!

On the fourth day, we had physics. Physics was my personal favourite module. We tried many experiments. The most interesting one was using an orb charged with 1000 volts of electricity and causing a person's hair to stand. It was an interesting sight seeing other people "turning" into Albert Einstein.

On the last day, we had to do a presentation on artificial enzymes. My group, consisting of Ethan, Aloysius and Javier, split up the work and worked efficiently to get the research done. Unfortunately, we could not find the right information and we got into a rather big mess. Fortunately, the trainers were rather kind and forgave us for the bad research.

In conclusion, the sabbatical was rather interesting completed with kind trainers. Also, the experiments and lesson packages were interesting and the sabbatical was the right amount of time. I hope to be able to participate in this sabbatical some day again.

Tossing, Turning and Forgetting

In a news article on www.sciencenews.org, researchers found that continuous bouts of sleep was critical for a person to have a good memory. If a person were to have interrupted periods of sleep, he was more unlikely to forget things more easily.

This news article is rather significant because it can help a person know more about why he is forgetting things more often.

An example would be my grandmother. She told me that she was forgetting things more recently in this days. Then, she told me that she had not been sleeping properly in the past few days. After I read this article, I understood what had happened and I was able to understand why her memory was not as good.

This news article will help students a lot because they will know that instead of studying the whole night, they will instead spend the time sleeping and hoping to get a good night's, so that they can remember what they memorize.


Original Link-http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/332712/title/Tossing%2C_turning%2C_forgetting

Reflections for Science Lessons after 1 1/2 years in Hwa Chong

1 and a half years of Science lessons has passed and I have learnt much, and gained brilliant insights about Science.

Before learning about Science in Hwa Chong Institution, I had always thought that Science was a very "slack" subject, and that it did not require much practice or learning. Also, I thought that it was a rather boring subject. Neither did my so-so results in Science pursuade me to do better. As a result, I went on from a Science lesson to another, not bothering to do anything.

During my PSLE, I did considerably well, getting an A. However, I did not really care much getting into Hwa Chong.

Once I got into Hwa CHong, and I went through my first ever Science Lesson and my SCience education totally changed. Before in primary school, I rarely had the chance to go to the Science labs to do experiments. Now, in Hwa Chong, I have the chance to go to the world-class Science labs to do experiments.

With that, my knowledge of Science has changed forever and ever, and I have finally come to appreciate the beauty of Science and its difference from other subjects.

Just a short reflection of my life in Hwa Chong that I wanted to share with everyone

=D

Interesting News - Rare Earths

Rare earth elements plentiful in ocean sediments

Here is the link - http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/332099/title/Rare_earth_elements_plentiful_in_ocean_sediments

Hi everyone, today I will be commenting on an article about Rare Earths being found in the ocean floor.

So, basically what is a rare earth? Essentially, it is a group of 17 chemical elements found in the periodic table. Contrary to their name, rare earths are no that rare. Ironically, they are rather abundant, with cerium (one of the rare earths) having the same volume as copper.



However, rare earths are not found concentrated together and in economically-exploitable forms. As a result, they are given the name - Rare Earths.

Now, enough of the description and on to the present crisis surrounding rare earths. We might remember the epic saga caused by China last year when it decided to clamp down on rare-earths exports, possibly to conserve the rare earths and also to be enviromentally-friendly.

As a result of this, other countries began to look worldwide for other sources of rare earths. This includes countries such as America, India and Vietnam. However, the mines in these places were shut down when China became extremely competitive in the 1990s and slashed rare earth prices, causing the rest of the companies to close down.

As a result, reopening the mines now would cost time and money, and would most probably take a few years to reopen.

The news of rare earths being found in the seabed gives nations, such as Japan, a chance to mine their own rare earths and not rely on any country to import it's rare earths from.

This would in turn make the economy better and would also create new jobs for people. The ocean, being a relatively un-explored area of the Earth, if opened up through new technology, would allow humans to make entirely new careers out there.

But there is for the future, and when new tachnology comes we do not know. Until then, the world has to rely on a single country to mine rare earths for them.