How old is the earth?

Births are usually happy events -- attended by families and doctors and accompanied by baby showers and the like. For the Earth, however, it must have been rather lonely. We humans don't really know, however, because there were none of us around when the Earth was born. Scientists all over the world have data that indicates that the approximate age of the Earth is 4.5 billion years. That's 4,500,000,000 years! Considering her age, she's looking pretty good (aside from a few wrinkles the size of the Grand Canyon....ha....haha....).

Scientists have divided up this time into eras and epochs and periods to make studying such a vast time more manageable. The group of scientists who are responsible for setting up this time scale are called the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Stratigraphy is the study of the layers of rock on the earth, and how they can tell us about the past. Information is gained through the study of fossils, when and where they appear, the types of rocks found, and many other factors.

Here is a link to their current version, although a new one is due out soon:

Geologic Time Scale

If you like, you can also check your Earth Science Reference Tables for a great view of the history of the Earth. In the event that you have misplaced yours or don't keep them with you at all times (like you should!), here's a link where you can get your very own copy.

Earth Science Reference Tables

I keep a very small version in my wallet (with one of those little magnifying glasses) at all times...just in case. They're great at parties.

Diffuse-a-riffic!

We just finished up a rather spiffy lab in which we discovered exactly why cells can't get very big. We used blocks of agar with phenolphthalein (a pH indicator) in them to see how far a liquid (NaOH solution) could diffuse in 10 minutes. Turns out that if you're a sizable cell, it's not far enough. Check out the pictures, though!

Mr. Syracuse's Fossil-collecting Field Trip

We went all over this part of New York on Saturday collecting fossils. I have some that I brought back to show, and here are some pictures of where we went. I'll have more soon. We saw mainly brachiopods (which are clam-like creatures), clams, and crinoids (commonly called sea lillies, they are animals that lived at the bottom of ancient seas and were filter feeders). Exciting stuff! We were looking at rocks that were about 359 million years old, which dates back to the end of the Devonian. Back then, most of the continents were in the southern hemisphere. There was a mass extinction at the end of the Devonian, and we were looking at the possible causes and effects of that. Good times!

HUGE Wolf (?) Spider

This little bugger was hanging around outside the Bio lab, and naturally we had to go out and investigate. The ever-intrepid Mike got in close to get a picture. The never-intrepid Mr. Syracuse stayed far back with his camera to take the pictures and video above. Don't worry, we put the spider outside after we photographed it so it wouldn't get trampled during passing time!

The Dehydration of Sucrose!

Our Frivolity this Friday involved dehydrating sucrose -- standard table sugar. We took about 400 cm^3 of sugar and added about 250 mL of concentrated sulfuric acid. The results are what you see above! The acid dehydrated the sucrose, taking out all the hydrogen and oxygen (water). All we were left with was the black carbon! The column of carbon rose out of the beaker due to the pressure of the water that was vaporised to steam by the heat of the reaction. Nifty business! We did it in the hood so that the sulfuric acid fumes wouldn't make us all dead and stuff.

IT'S NATIONAL METRIC WEEK!

Happy National Metric Week! NMW is celebrated every year during the week that contains the tenth day of the tenth month -- 10/10 -- to honor the simplicity and whimsy of the metric system! Check out the link below for more ways to celebrate and spread the joy and wonder of the metric system!

National Metric Week

The USMA -- US Metric Association!

Spheres-O-Mystery!

Today we discovered some interesting properties of our Spheres-O-Mystery! Check out what happened in Tiffany's Petri dish...can you explain it?

Period 4 Bio Lab!

Period 4 obviously had a lot of fun with their molecular model kits. Do you love science as much as they do?Sami is very proud of her glucose molecule!
Mike and "Erkel" are obviously pleased with their glucose...
Sami wishes for peace...and for glucoese?

Ozzy!

Here's Ozzy, our beloved class pet. He's a bearded dragon (Pogono barbata), and he's about 5 years old. He's fairly large compared to many others. He eats veggies (green beans are his favorite), as well as crickets and other small insects.

Meeting Pictures

Just to prove to you that I was actually at a meeting, and not out doing some other nerdly bio-teacher thing, I present you some pictures. There was a fire drill, and a man on the roof and juggling by Mr. Filzen and Dr. Dove...oh man, very exciting.

Meeting...all day

So, while you kids are all happily learning, taking quizzes, and generally having fun, Mr. Syracuse is slaving away learning about all sorts of new technology that we can use in our classroom. It's actually pretty fun! We'll be getting a document projector soon, something like the one to port, and we'll have lots of fun with that. Remember to practice talking like a pirate for tomorrow!

Ozzy's Return and Pictures, Perhaps?

We open the second week of school with the return of Ozzy! He's our class pet, a bearded dragon. His scientific name is Pogono barbata. He's probably about 6 years old, and pretty big as bearded dragons go. Make sure you say "hi" to him. As soon as I remember to bring my camera to school, I'll have some pictures of him on the blog for you to see.

First Day!

We all made it! Our first day of class went very well, I think. We had a bit of fire, a bit of Strauss, a bit of (well...a lot of) bad jokes from Mr. Syracuse, and hopefully you all had fun. Remember to check out the website frequently for updates, and please do take the welcome survey that's up there. I'm looking forward to a great year!