Becca’s Blog

Title: Raising Dragons

Author: Bryan Davis

Genre: fantasy

Review by Becca6H 5/31/07

4. Story problem: Thousands of years ago, in the decline of the Middle Ages, dragons and their slayers were still widely roaming through Europe. In a last attempt to preserve what’s left of the dragon’s race the remaining 13 dragons gather with Merlin and King Arthur to transform into human form. There was one flaw in their plan, the 13th dragon did not trust humans and flew away before the transformation could be complete. The slayers soon found him and tortured him until he admitted the dragon’s transformation. Now instead of the slayers ceasing their hunt for the dragons they search for humans, displaying dragon like attributes. They continue to train their heirs to fight them until the last of the dragons have been slain. Eventually, there is only one dragon left. He now goes by the name of Jared and now has a family of his own but lives in fear of the slayers finding him. He places his family in jeopardy when he is discovered in their houses burned down. He flees in their small plane. And though after their transformation many years ago, Merlin predicted that one day the remaining dragons would be transformed back into their original state. In this way they are able to defeat the slayers inform a new plan.

5. Main character beliefs: The main character Billy, who is Jared’s son was told of Merlin’s prophecy before he are small plane crashed in the mountains, and his father was believed to be dead. And though he has a steadfast belief in the prophecy and refuses to give up search parties when even his mother has lost all hope. And even when he cannot find him his father knows he was still searching for him and leaves rubies on his doorstep every night so his family will not starve. When he finally realizes this is his father he travels back to the mountains and faces the remaining slayers with his father. They are able to tell many of the minions put their heads later escapes into the forest. They now must wait till he returns and hope to vanquish him.

6. Most important part of the story: I think the most important part of the story was when Billy met Bonnie Conner who was another child of one of the fallen dragons. She helps them fool the slayers by flying above the clouds making them believe that Billy was dead. She also manages to steal that head slayers sword. So he would not kill Jared when he had the candle stone. The candle stone is a magical object that steals the power from dragons. If Jared had been killed, while would be lost and the prophecy unfulfilled.

7. This book is similar to Harry Potter, because Billy and Bonnie are similar to Harry and Hermione because Bonnie is like Hermione, because she is the smart one and gets Billy out of messes. Jared is similar to Dumbledore who was the wise old man that always knows what to do. It also involves a missing father, although in Billy’s case. His father is not permanently gone. These two books also involves a hero confronting evil person who only one power for themselves.

Title: Leon And The Spitting Image

Author: Allen Kurzweil

Genre: Fantasy

Review by Becca6h 5-31-2007

4 Story Problem: Leon is a fourth grade student who is in a class whose teacher is very methodical. Her class motto is “There is a place for everything, and everything in its place.” She forces the students to hone their motor skills by sewing “animiles” (animals). For the classical school’s motto “nimble fingers make for nimble minds”. This spells trouble for Leon who wages a war by trying to tie his shoelaces much less than sew the sevens stitches of virtue. Things get even worse when Miss Hagemeyer informs the class that if you do not finish the right amount of animiles you will have to repeat the fourth grade. As the year goes on he gets farther behind on sewing the animiles. By the end of the year, though he improves with he help of Maria, a family friend who happens to be a seamstress, he is becoming desperate and needs to make his last animiles spectacular so finally he decides to make Miss Hagemeyer’s spitting image as his final project their ”master pieces”. According to the medieval curriculum spit has magic properties. This proves to be true when the class bully, Lumpkin, accidentally on purpose spills their gym teacher’s spit on Leon’s animile. Now, Leon is in control because this doll makes Miss Hagemeyer go into a trance and controls her movements. Leon has not only mastered the seven stitches of virtue, but he has mastered Miss Hagemeyer. By the day of finale inspection Leon has forced Miss Hagemeyer to hange grades, start food fights, do various double dutch moves, and even tear off her own wig. He is about to turn over his doll for the finale inspection when Lumpkin rips the seam of his master piece. Leon is forced to do some last minute repair. This eventually makes his animile even better. Once all the animiles are handed in Miss Hagemeyer reveals what she has been doing with their projects all year. She had been giving them to a charity that gives them to needy children around the world. Leon now does not loathe Miss Hagemeyer, but he realizes she is a nice teacher.

5 Main Character Beliefs Leon believes Miss Hagemeyer is a mean person. Therefore, when Leon discovers that his dolls can control Miss Hagemeyer, he uses it to take advantage of her in every way possible. Miss Hagemeyer had even threatened him that he would have to repeat the fourth grade and having to leave his friends behind. So he experiments with different ways to torture her, including making her do double dutch and tearing her wig off in front of the entire class. He could not be more wrong about Mrs. Hagemeyer. She is really a charitable woman who only wantsto share her class’ creations with the deprived world.

6.I think the most important part of the book was when Miss Hagemeyer revealed what she did with the animiles which is, she sent them to needy children around the world. When Leon learned this, he was finally able to accept that she was not a horrible teacher. He had learned a lot from her and really applied himself. After reflecting, he decided redonethat when he was given the choice to either keep him or send his animile to a needy child. He decided to give it to Miss Hagemyer. He then passes fourth-grade achieving his goal.

7.This is similar to and Eldest, because in each book the main character meets someone and gets the total wrong idea about them. In Eldest, Eragon had met Murtagh and thought he was his friend. But when Murtagh disappears he betrays Eragon and joins Galbatorix’s side. Leon also thinks that Miss Hagemeyer is an evil woman and hates him, but she is actually a kind woman who helps children all around the world. Both of these characters are able to accept this new twist to each persons personality.

Title The Hobbit

Author J.R.R. Tolkein

Genre: Fantasy

Review by Becca6h 5-27-07

4 Story Problem Bilbo Baggins was a thoroughly quiet well respected hobbit. Until one day an old man ventured ”over the hill and under the hill and across the water” to the small street of  Bag End in Hobbiton. This old man also happened to be Gandalf the Gray, the wandering wizard.  But in in these parts he was regarded as a disturber of the peace and had not been here for many years.  In fact, he had come for a very specific reason, to take the unsuspecting Bilbo Baggins on an adventure with 13 dwarves.  The dwarves quest was to go over the Misty Mountains, through Mirkwood Forest and finally the Lonely Mountain to fight the Dragon Smaug and to regain the lost treasure of Thrain.  The dragon had many years ago driven the dwarves from their halls and stolen their treasures.  Bilbo was to be the expeditions expert burglar.  After a long treacherous journey where Bilbo gains the respect of his dwarf companions by aiding in many ways while fighting goblins, trolls, giant spiders, wood elves, and Smaug they reach the Lonely mountain. They arouse the dragon and cause him to reek havoc on the nearby lake town which he believes they are from. While he is busy terrorizing villagers and atempting to burn Lake Town to ashes a skilled warrior named Bard shot Smaug in the left breast the oe spot not encrusted with jewels. The dwarves hear of Smaug’s slaying and sadly think they have the treasure all to themselves but the people of Long Lake, the wood elves and the goblins were all determined to get their share of the treasure.  After the Battle of the Five Armies , in which the dwarfs elves, men joined together to defeat the wargs and goblins.  After this battle, only 10 companions remained.  So, after many councils, it was decided the treasure should be given to both the elves and the people of Lake town though the dwarves kept the bulk of the treasure. 

5 Main Character Beliefs Bilbo Baggins  thinks that a person only really needs three things plentiful meals, a comfy hobbit hole, and a pipe of smoking tobacco. Though along his journey he finds his main desire becomes an obsessive need for the respect of the dwarves. Once he gained it after escaping the goblins in the Misty Mountains he is very determined to keep it. He also becomes fond of them so he shows by risking much more than his life for them on several occasions. For instance when he fought the giant spiders in Merkwood to save them from being dinner. For the good of the dwarves he even lost their friendship by handing over the heart of the mountain the dwarves most prized possession to save them from a siege.  

6 I think the most important part of the story was in the Misty Mountains he found a magic ring that made him invisible when he slipped it on his finger.  He found this in the cavemof a creature known as Gollum.  Gollum is a creature that lives on a small island in an underground lake and preys on lost goblins and fish.  SO when he discovers Bilbo he challenges him to a game of riddles the bet being if Gollum wins he gets to eat Bilbo, and if Bilbo wins he is to be shown out of the cave by Gollum.  Gollum has no intention of keeping the bargain, so when Bilbo wins he returns to his island to get his ring so he can sneak up on Bilbo.  Though Bilbo slips on the ring and fools Gollum into showing him to the door of the cave.  When Bilbo leaves the cave with out any help he gains the respect of the, and we see how clever Bilbo can be when needed and Bilbo begins to believe in himself.

7 The Hobbit is similar to the many books involving heroes, but particularly Eragon in both books there is a old mentor that is a sorcerer in the Hobbit Gandalf and in Eragon Brom. In both tales the mentor is either killed or separated from the hero who is forced to fend for themselves. The heroes Bilbo and Eragon then fight in a great battle and become independent.

Today in science we graded our final human body test. Then we watched a narrated slide show on the human body. This was partially about the senses and how people with sense impairment live their daily lives. The slide show also showed new technologies that can regenerate sight and hearing. Here are the five main senses.

Sight

Visible light enters our eyes through the pupil and goes through the cornea and is focused by the lens onto the retina which is like a screen in the back of our eye. The optic nerve takes this information transmits it to the occipital lobe where the viusal cortex is.

Hearing

Sound vibrations are focused into the ear canal and vibrate the ear drum which vibrates the three bones the hammer anvil and stirrup, which vibrates the fluid in the cochlea, which sends impulses to the temporal lobe.
Smell

Smells enter the nasal cavity and are taken by olfactory receptors to the temporal lobe.

Touch

There are touch receptors for  pressure, pain, temperature, vibration. These are transmitted to the parietal lobe.

Taste

Matter enters the oral cavity and is met by the tongue. On the tongue there are taste buds for  sweet, salt, bitter, sour  and are sent  by nerves to   the parietal lobe.

Today we took our final unit ttest on the human body. The test had 68 matching questions representing all the body systems. Studying the systems helped with the tests. There were no trick questions. In my last post, I discussed the facts about the systems. I hope everyone did well.

So here they are our favorite systems. We start our new unit on Friday.

Test Review: Systems of the human body

Tomorrow we have our final human body test. Here is some information you should know about each system.

Skeletal system:

• Makes blood cells, shapes and supports our body, protects organs, stores fat cells, calcium, and minerals

• there are 206 bones, each is made of protein, water, minerals and living matter,

• the bones have 4 layers, periosteum, compact bone, spongy bone, and marrow,

• bone shapes shapes flat, long, short, and irregular,

• joint types are fixed, gliding, pivoting, hinge, ball and socket, joints are where bones meet .

• Ligaments are stretchy connective tissues that connect bone to bone.

• Cartilage is a flexible tissue tht protects bones. shapes bones and provides flexibility.

Muscular sytem:

• Gives the body its final shape,
• moves body parts,
• smooth muscles and cardiac muscles are involuntary , they create peristaltic movements,
• skeletal muscle are striated and are voluntary ,
• tendons are stretchy connective tissues that connect muscles to bones,

Circulatory system

• blood is made of plasma, platelets and white and red blood cells.

• The right side of your heart carries oxygen poor blood and the left side carries oxygen rich blood,
• arteries carry blood away from the heart and
• veins carry blood toward the heart,
• capillaries carry blood to the tissues

Respiratoy system:

• The nasal cavities warm moisten and filter the air

• The larynx vibrate to make sound, the epiglottis prevents food from going into thr trachea,
• the bronchus connects to the bronchioles and the alveoli, the alveoli transfer CO2 and O2,
• the diaphragm contracts to inhale and relaxes to exhale

• Respiration takes place in the body cells

Digestive system

• The mouth has teeth and salivary glands, the esophagus creates peristaltic movements, stomach has enzymes to create chyme,
• the gall bladder releases bile into the duodenum, secretes pancreatin, small intestines have villi that absorb nutrients, and then release into the blood
• excretory system the large intestine absorbs water to form solid wastes, respiratory system gets rid of gaseous waste and Co2

The Excretory system

• has kidneys, ureter, bladder, and urethra to release liquid wastes in the kidneys
• nephrons filter blood
• the skin has sweat glands to release liquid wastes

The endocrine system

• The thyroid secretes thyroxin to regulate metabolism

• parathyroid secretes pth which regulate calcium and phosphorus levels in the blood

• adrenal glands release adrenalin sudden bursts of energy

• pancreas releases insulin to balance glucose in the blood

• pituitary gland releases hgh for growth

Lymph and immune system

• system fight disease and infection
• the spleen tonssils adenoids lymph nodes filter lymph and make lympocytes
• white blood cells are lymphocytes, macrophages, and leukocytes

• thymus recognizes certain pathogens and fights diseases with antibodies

The nervous system

• controls the other systems to maintain homeostasis
• central nervous system is the brain and spinal cord

• automonomic nervous system which controls involuntary muscles

• the peripheral nervous system is the cranial nerves spinal nerves and peripheral nerves.

Book Title Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone

Author J.K. Rowling

Genre Fantasy

Reviewed by Becca6H 4-8-07

4 Story Problem The dark wizard Voldemort, though he has no physical body, tries to control the magical world while Harry Potter goes to Hogwarts to learn the skills he will need to confront him. The Sorcerer’s Stone is a legendary magical stone that will grant he who has it immortality. Voldemort desires this stone so he can regain his body. The schools headmaster Dumbledore hides the stone in the mirror of Erised (Desire spelled backwards). You can only take the stone out of the mirror if you do not want its properties for yourself. Harry does not want to become immortal himself, but does not wish Voldemort to possess it, so he is able to exrtract the stone from the mirror. He then defeats Voldemort, and Dumbledore destroys the stone, so Voldemort cannot resurrect his body in this manner ever again.

5 Main Character Beliefs The main character Harry Potter’s parents were murdered when he was a baby by Lord Voldemort. He is a sorcerer as his parents were. Harry is not aware of this until he is eleven after his parents die he is sent to live with his Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley Dursely. These relatives are nonmagical humans and despise Harry for his (in their opinion) abnormality. So they keep his powers a secret as well as his parents cause of death. Instead they tell him they had died in a car crash. After what seemed like an eternity to Harry, on his eleventh birthday he receives a letter from Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry inviting him to become a student. Once there, he is informed of his haunted past. Rumors of Voldemort echo down the school halls. Everyone there hates or fears him except for his followers’ children. Harry loathes Voldemort and his ways. He becomes close to the Headmaster Professor Dumbledore who is the only person Voldemort ever feared. He tells Harry about the school and certain parts of magic. For example, the fact that you can not reawaken the dead. Later in the year Harry and Voldemort face each other once again. In this duel Voldemort tries to win Harry over to his side. Voldemort promised him they could re awaken the Potters, though Harry refused because he knew that was impossible, and because he hated Voldemort so much that he would never join him despite what he could gain.

6 I think the most important part of the book is when on the 3rd floor corridor, on the right hand side, Voldemort attempts to kill Harry once again. There, during their duel, Voldemort offers Harry a chance to join him. He even tries to bribe him by saying he could reawaken his dead parents. This reveals that Voldemort is a liar to Harry because Harry knows that would be impossible. So Harry refuses him, which sets Harry against Voldemort for the rest of the series. Harry now sees what a manipulative desperate man Voldemort is and from now on will be on guard.

7 Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone is similar to the other books in the Harry Potter series. Because in each book, he encounters and battles Voldemort in some form, but each time he narrowly escapes . For instance in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets Harry fights the memory of the teenage Voldemort (then he was Tom Riddle). Harry would not have lived to see be in Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban if not for Faulkes the Phoenix, crying on his poisoned basilisk bite. This book also reminds me of Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini because they both feature young students trying to learn how to stop evil forces that have abused their magical abilities. In each of these books, the mentor dies trying to save the life student (Dumbledore in the Potter books and Brom in the Inheritance Trilogy). For example, Brom jumped in front of a knife that was thrown at Eragon by the Ra’zac which eventually killed him. In the Potter series, Dumbledore paralyzed Harry under the Invisibility cloak, instead of using those seconds to defend himself against Severus Snape, who killed him.

The typical American creates 8 pounds of solid waste a day. Most of this every day waste is paper. Every year our country wastes more plastic. In total our country produces 209 million tons of trash a year and 80% of this turns our so called “amber waves of grain” into massive mountains of still growing landfills. Having our number of landfills creates a whole host of problems. Such as underground water sources becoming contaminated and flammable gaseous waste leakage. Though it is much better than our other option dumping the garbage into the ocean. Not to say we don’t still do this. Plastic waste such as six pack rings do not only strangle our marine life, but it alters the entire ecosystem. Miles of unused fish nets strangle thousands of dolphins, seals, and sea lions a year. Marine creatures have even mistaken old cigarette lighters as fish and then attempted to regurgitate them to their young. It’s hard to believe this occurrence is shockingly normal compared to the accidental dumping of 80,000 Nike Running Shoes in 1990. In 1997 an oceanographic research team skimmed the Pacific Oceans surface and found roughly a million pieces a plastic trash per square mile.

Healthy Sea Turtle vs. Garbage Consuming Turtle

Garbage isn’t only in the tropics folks.

Struggling Sea Turtle fights a ghost net.

A landfill in Pennsylvania

Our country has a trash problem. It is about time we admit it. This is the first step of correction. America also has trouble recycling Styrofoam. This type of garbage is particularly hard to recycle. Due to the cost of reprocessing it. Though Americans such as Mr. H. don’t have that excuse anymore. With the new technology that dissolves Styrofoam to dispose of it. So I hope this post has enlightened you on how we have to clean up our oceans and our act. This Earth Day should mark a new and better direction for our countries trash future.

Their are many interesting topics on India. Two main ones are Hinduism and India’s rapid economy growth which is at it’s record high second only to China who’s economic growth rate is 1o years ahead of India. China exports 7% of the global trade. India only produces 1% the global trade. It is unstable for India to growing at high rate because of their economic position. One reason why India can’t export the amount needed is their roads are not in well enough condition to transport goods. Because of this, 40% of farm produce is spoiled before it hits the market. Many orders of goods are left at ports for weeks since their is not enough personnel and loading space to ship out. Unlike this rapidly changing side of India , there is one thing that has been the around in India for thousands of years which is Hinduism.

This is the Economic Growth Chart of India.

This ancient religion has thrived in India since 1500 B.C.E. In that year the Aryans brought the religion to present day Pakistan. This polytheistic religion had gods used gods to explain their world. For instance Brahma is the creator, Vishnu is the preserver, and Shiva is the destroyer, but he recreates things to replace he destroys. These are just a few of the many Hindu gods/goddesses. We know many of their epics from Vedas and Upanishads. Hinduism has many sacred scriptures. The oldest of which are the Vedas. According to the Hindu belief they are gods revelations. The Vedas are written in Sanskrit a language that is no longer in daily use. The Upanishads too, are old, but they are not as old as the Vedas. The Hindus believe the Upanishads contain information about death. Many Hindus are vegetarians, because they believe life is sacred. They honor the cow as a sacred animal, and let it wander freely on the Indian streets. These are a few important beliefs of Hinduism.

Today we used this information gathered from two articles to make and perform a group presentation about Hinduism or India’s economy.

Bibliography

Hinduism The Book of World Religions for Kids- J. Gbossop

Trouble With India

Digestion:

Enzyme: A protein that enhances chemical reactions. They play a big part in breaking down foods to be digested.

pH: The measure of how acid or basic a solution is. Water is neutral and is graded 7. Less than 7 is an acid for example lemonade is acidic and is graded 2.3. Anything over 7 is a basic for example bleach is 12.5. The pH scale is 0-14.

• Today we saw the aftermath of our experiment where we put one test tube with hydrochloric acid and water and a chopped up egg.
• Another test tube with water and a chopped up egg.
• The third had a strong base with a chopped up egg.

Then we shook them up to simulate the atmosphere of the stomach. Test tubes two and three did not change to much but test tube one had barely any egg left.

Conclusion: Hydrochloric acid plus shaking best matches the atmosphere of the stomach.

We also talked about the gall bladder. It stores bile which is necessary for digestion. Bile is produced in theliver and is stored in the gall bladder until we eat fats. Gall bladder releases bile which helps break down fats and also balances the pH in the small intestine from the acidic food from the stomach. The stomach is protected from acid by mucus. So, bile is a base. We do not need our gall bladder to live, but if you have it removed you have to be careful of how much fat you eat because you cannot store bile.

The pancreas produces a juice (pancreatin) full of enzymes that are released into the duodenum, which is the first part of the small intestine, including:

• amylase which breaks down starch into simple sugars and is also in saliva
• trypsinogen which breaks down proteins
• lipase breaks down fats