Ecosystems of Wisconsin

Authors note: I am writing about geography and ecosystems and I thought this would be interesting to work on Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is our home, our happiness, and our life.  We protect it, but we don't really bother to learn much about it. Why is this? If we knew more, we would have more pride to live here because we would be able to say, "Oh, that is in the Northern Highlands."

The Southeast Glacial Plains are where the school is and most of our homes are located. It was created from glacier deposit. It has rich soil for farming and has some small forest patches due to fire suppression. Ten percent of the 4.9 million acres is forest or wooded area. It is the largest area without a coastline.

The Western Coulee and Ridges area is the largest area with a coastline. It borders the Mississippi river. This area of Wisconsin is classified as highly eroded. In this region there is 6.2 million acres but only 3% is publicly owned. 38% is woodland.

Lastly the North Central Forest is the smallest of the three regions I am discussing. It has 6.1 million acres of land, 80% of which is woodland and 44% is publicly owned. It connects to Upper Michigan.
Also in this region there are a variety of wetlands.

These were only three of the sixteen regions of this state. I enjoyed working on this and if you want more information then go to this website: http://dnr.wi.gov/landscapes/.

Sources:

"Ecological Landscapes of Wisconsin - WDNR." Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2011. <http://dnr.wi.gov/landscapes/>.

Comets

Author's note: I was one day wondering when Halley's comet will return so I decided to write about comets.

When you look up at the sky on a clear night what do you see? Stars and the occasional comet. I wonder how they get that streak behind them and how they move through space. I think they are very interesting things because they are constantly moving and they never stop.

Comets are made up of Space Dust and Ice which is weird because if an astronaut took off a helmet in space his blood would boil not freeze. Then the center (or Nucleolus) of the comet releases gases that trail off behind it. And to move they have to use the gravity of other planets and stars to slingshot around and launch back.

Halley's comet is a famous comet causing bad things to happen. Like in 1066 when the comet passed the Norman took over England. Some other things also happened when the comet passed at different times.

Comets are very strange. I really like how comets can keep going forever. In the future I hope to see Halley's comet. It only comes every 76 years and it will next come in 2061.

Sources:

"Curious About Astronomy: When will Halley's Comet return?." Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2011. <http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=605>.

 century, the middle of the twentieth, this model suffered from a number of shortcomings: in particular, and Fred Lawrence Whipple. "Comet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 June 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet>.

My Spring Break

Author's note: I couldn't think of anything to write about so I decided to write about my spring break.

My spring break was not spent sitting around on the couch. I went to Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and Illinois.  We saw the Gateway Arch, Mammoth Cave, the St.Louis City Museum, and the Lincoln Museum. The City museum, was the most awesome museum EVER! 


If the school had a field trip to the City Museum that would be awesome. People would say “OH MY GOSH,THIS IS SWEET!” We would all climb around in the tubes and stuff. But we really wouldn’t learn much. So we first went outside and ran around in this area with poles and little thin platforms that were kind of dangerous. Then, we went inside ate and then played around inside in some other area. My dad said two things while we were there that stood out to me: One, This should be called the “City Playground”. Two, What if the safety inspector came here.


The Gateway Arch is taller than the statue of liberty at 635 ft. tall. They have to pump air to the top because of the altitude. We went up in little pods that held five people each, and we rode to the top. The pods had to shift every once in a while to keep them level, so every 10 seconds the pod would turn. We saw some great views from the top, and we could see our hotel that was about seven blocks down the road. It was amazing.

Mammoth Cave really is mammoth size. The main room in the cave is about 100 ft or something like that. There were two funny parts you went through. They where Tall Mans Misery and Fat Mans Misery. Tall Mans Misery was a section you had to go through and it was only 2.5 ft tall! Fat mans misery was an area that was only 1 ft wide and it went on for about 50 ft. It is a good thing that it only went up to my waist.


Lastly I went to the Lincoln Museum. It was a pretty interesting place they had Abe Lincoln’s gloves that he was wearing when he was shot. We also saw this one play were these ghost-looking people would appear on stage and then they would disappear without smoke or anything they would just fade. It was the most interesting play I’ve ever seen.


A few bad things happened over the break, one was that on the way home I got a stomach ache that lasted until Wednesday that week. Then finally on Thursday I came to school and I caught up with some work and eventually I was fine. Another bad thing was that spring break was over.

Duct Tape Battle 2- Cardboard Attack

Author's note: Some people wanted to know who this "enemy" was and they had requested that I make a second story, so here you go I hope you enjoy it.

It was a year since the last time that Niko’s enemy attacked. He had for gotten about them and was prepared for another attack he stocked up on cardboard boxes and tape and had made a set of cardboard armor. He was prepared for anything, or so he thought.


It was June and the birds where chirping but strangely no one was outside. He was about to go in and call his friend to see if he wanted to come over when he saw his enemy walking down the street, they where wearing jeans with a strangely bulky dress shirt with blue and white stripes. they where also wearing what looked like a cardboard roman helmet they also where carrying a vibrant red flag which happens to be a sign of war in Rome. He came up to the driveway and stopped. 


“Hey --” Niko paused. He forgot his enemy’s name. He Felt like a fool. Who forgets their enemy’s name! He walked down to the driveway and asked “What are you doing here.” “I am here to prove that I am better than you.” “Ha, Yeah right!” Niko replied. With that his enemy left and went down the street. Now to find out who this enemy of his was.


Niko went up to his room and looked in his year book and it turns out that his name is Stewart Pid. (Ha ha, Stew Pid). He looked out his window and saw Stewart out at his driveway again. What does he want now.


Niko went outside again and asked him and he said that he was going to “destroy” Niko. Niko said try. Stew pulled off his shirt and under it he was wearing a cardboard armor vest. He pulled out a cardboard sword and swung it. Niko sidestepped and the attack missed. Niko used a new move he made up. He spun so his back was facing his side, put his right leg behind Stew’s and elbowed Stew in the chest. Stew then tripped over Niko’s foot and fell on his butt. Stew, filled with rage jumped up and ran at Niko. Niko was tackled and fell over. Niko pushed Stew aside and grabbed his cardboard sword.



Niko started swinging at Stew. (Just close enough that he would flinch back.) Eventualy stew was at the end of the drive way. Stew tripped over the curb and fell into the street. Stew got up and ran home saying: “I’ll be back!”. But Stew Pid (Ha ha Stew Pid) never bothered Niko for the rest of the summer.

the burning prairie

Authors note: This is for the prairie "mini field trip" and I am focusing on thesis and introductions.

If you where in 5th hour A day Academy you may have seen it. It raged with power and awe. It ravaged the land. The thing I am speaking of is the prairie burn. I think it is one of the most interesting things I have seen.

I used to wonder why the would burn a prairie. Now I realize that it is for the environment. To help the prairie, and to feed it.

The proses is fairly simple. First you need a permit. Then they take a prairie and set up a firebreak around it, this is an area where the fire has a hard time burning. This will slow or stop the fire from burning too far. Then you set both ends on fire so they burn out in the middle.

When the burn is over the fire will have burned all of the plants to the ground and it will be all black. It also destroyed small trees that aren't supposed to be there. Then when the plants grow back they will almost have a kind of fertilizer. Now they will grow back better than before.

Sources:

"Burn your own prairie safely." ???. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <www.newsc.org/custom-2/Burn%20Your%20Prairie%20Safely.pdf>.

"Garden Web." Garden Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <forums.gardenweb.com/.../prairie/msg1117001921096.html>.
 

Duct Tape Battle

Authors note: I was assigned to write a paper so I wrote this.

When Niko was walking down the road, he noticed a truck tipped over next to the road. He rushed over and noticed a man on his cell phone next to the truck. "What happened?" Niko asked. The man replied " my truck's breaks got jammed and so I crashed into this ditch.". That stinks Niko said. Then the man said that Niko could have all of the things in the truck because he said that the company he works for says that we will deliver the product in a certain time or we give it away. Niko was in for a big surprise.

When Niko opened the back of the truck there was about 1000 roles of duct tape 10 panes of bullet prof glass, 10, 6 inch thick sheets of metal and 2 go-carts. Niko was confused, he said "What kind of company are you?". The man replied "We make almost everything". "Well that explains it"Niko said in a sarcastic voice. "So do I get every thing then?". "Yep". Niko was so excited that he almost peed his pants. he couldn't wait to get home.

When Niko got home he ran out back and started to work on an ultimate tree house fortress. he first found a good tree and then got one metal sheet ( that where surprisingly light). He set it into the tree on two strong branches. then he got a power saw and drilled two together.

when he finished the fort he got the duct tape and sealed up the holes on the top and sides were water could get in. then he got the duct tape and made some armor that is about 1 inch thick. Then he armored the go-carts with the remaining metal, duct tape, and glass.

many days went by and he enjoyed his creations. Then he saw his enemy. They had a paint ball gun and they were coming. Niko ran inside and grabbed his paint ball gun and two more clips. He ran back out side. He was too late. they had gotten into his fort. he heard "BANG BANG BANG" and three paint balls flew past him. Niko ran towards his go-carts and drove around the yard firing back. the enemy came out of the fort and got in the other go-cart.

They drove around until the ran out of gas then they got out and started shooting again. The enemy ran out of ammo and then Niko had a chance .Niko chased him away and thee enemy never bothered him again.

Top 5 Tallest Buildings

Authors note: In tech ed I watched a video on sky scrapers so I decided to make this post.

Starting with the 5th we will work our way down.

5. Petronas Towers in Malaysia are 451m tall built in 1998

4. International commerce center in Hong Kong China built in 2010, 484m tall

3. Shanghai world finance center built in 2008, 492m tall

2. Taipei 101 in Taiwan built in 2004, 508m tall

1. Burj Khalifa in United Arab Emirates built in 2010, 828m tall.

Sources:

"World's 10 Tallest Buildings - SkyscraperPage.com." SkyscraperPage.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Apr. 2011. <http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=203>.

Comparison

I would choose the UK over Afghanistan and Japan because in the UK I won't have to learn a new language and I think life would be mostly the same but in Afghanistan you would die when you were 40 and that isn't a very long life. Also in Japan the place was trashed by the earthquake and tsunami.

Earthquake in Japan

Authors note: At first I thought that I should do a project on the earthquake in Japan but I already had a project that I was working on so I decided to do a content essay on it instead. In this post I am focused in transitions (again) because in my last one on one, Mr.Roehl said that I had some advanced transitions and I didn't even know that they where advanced so I decided to try to do mostly all advanced transitions.

In Japan we know about the earthquake that devastated Japan. The earthquake and tsunami has killed thousands of people. We have started to help them already with clean up but we can't use to much money because the U.S.A. is already about 15 trillion dollars in debt and that number is steadily going up.With the debt and destruction the Japan earthquake and tsunami is the worst natural disaster of the century.

If the debt reaches a certain point we won't be able to do anything. We need to help but we need to in a very cheap (not costly) way. If we can do this we may be able to rebuild Japan in a year or three.

If we rebuild Japan we may be able to rebuild it ready for earthquake and tsunami. The two combined devastated Japan, leaving 2,000 dead in one city alone, and hundreds missing in another city. There are 100,000 ground troops searching for bodies and rescuing people.

So many people died in this horrific disaster that they ran out of body bags and coffins, so now other country's are bringing them. With the coffins tens of thousands of soldiers and people to help are pouring into Japan every day to dig in the debris and to find survivors.

Also for people who survived, life isn't much better. Over 1.4 million people don't have safe water to drink because of the radiation from the reactor that exploded. in affected areas people can't buy fruit, veggies and dairy products. There are also 2 million without electricity. This was horrible!

This is the most severe crisis since the WWII bombing. We need to help and now that I have risen awareness of exactly happened there you should tell people and get them to tell other people. If you want to see a video of what happened this is a link to it(the video is on bbc.com): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12786619

sources:

"BBC News - Japan tsunami footage to help predict future waves." BBC - Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. .

"aisa-pacific." rfi. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. .

"baltimore sun." baltimore sun. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. .

"earthquake statistics." Japan 9.0 earthquake statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2011. .

Spring

Authors note: I am continuing “Autumn” and “Winter” (two previous posts that are in like an order. Like a series of books. I am again focusing on transitions.

I am in the woods (again) and I look up and see the sun shining through the trees. As I walk along the path in the woods I now realize how much things have changed since I was out in the woods last. There are no more icicles hanging from trees and the snow is starting to melt. I continue walking and I see the small stream again. It has many little pieces of ice floating down it as it continues on. I walked through the tunnel lined with crystals shining in the dim light. I slowly climbed down the narrow path to the bottom of the cliff.

When I got to the bottom I looked around and thought about how it would be if I had never found this place. Probably boring. I brought a saw a hoe, a shovel, and a
wagon of bricks. I was going to make a brick path to the cabin I found.

I started hoeing to the cabin. It was hard work and it went till noon then I ate a lunch and started sawing off the tree branches that I could walk through the path without hitting my head. Then I shoveled into the ground where I wanted to put the bricks I placed them in and filled in the cracks with dirt then I used the hoe to scrape the excess dirt off of the top of the bricks. I was finally done.

I was tired so I went to the cabin that I found with the flag fluttering in the breeze. When I got in I turned on the heating and took off my coat. In about five minutes I was surrounded in warmth and was asleep.

My dream was one of the worst I ever had.

I saw one of my close friends. Then a giant tree fell down and hit them. They were struggling at trying to hold the tree up. I tried to run towards them and help but when I ran… I never got closer. Then the worst thing happened… they couldn’t hold it. Crash! The tree squished them. I woke up and looked around. I was still in the cabin. I was fine.

I looked at the clock and it said it was 6:07 AM. I decided to get up and watch some TV to get my mind off of the dream I had. I eventually left and went home. I walked along the path I made and thought that it was pretty smooth. When I arrived at home I told my mom about my dream.

I continued hanging out in the woods whenever I could. And after a few weeks I had completely forgotten about my dream. I had better things to think about, like summer break which was coming up in a few weeks.

My Birthday

Authors note: I am focusing on using transitions.

          My birthday was just like any other day, I got up went to school and worked. The day was good over all. I wish it could happen again. the whole thing starts with me waking up.

          In the morning on the announcements they said it was my birthday and that is pretty cool. As the day went on I went to computer pub, and lunch. I told people it was my birthday and they where like "No way" and I said "Yeah" I went to gym and got really tired so I was happy when it was over Then I went back to the academy and had my one on one.

          After I got new tasks I eventually went home. We went to Moe's to sign Josh up for Baseball. then we went to noodles and got some food. When I got home I ate chocolate moose pie. I then opened a present. and went to bed.

It was a very interesting day but at school it was mostly normal. I enjoyed it more at home though (because of the pie and the presents).

Snowboarding

Authors Note: needed to finish this for one of my tasks also I thought it would be interesting to write this with ski club and stuff.

You are at the top of a hill with the sun reflecting off the new layer of snow. While strapping in your boot you plan out the rout to follow. When you are finished you stand up with your board parallel to the bottom of the hill. You jump and twist so you start down the hill. While you go down the hill you notice that you are rapidly gaining speed so you simply turn 90 degrees and lead back (to slow down). As you continue down the hill you slow down again you catch a bump of snow and you fly forward. You tumble down the hill and slide to the bottom.

When you get back to the top of the hill you move downward again but you are being careful not to fall. You avoid the area were you fell down before and then speed down the hill just to see how fast you can go. As you are speeding down the hill the sun is setting and many vibrant colors are filling the sky.You noticed something you didn't before... A Ramp.

There is not enough time to turn so you fly up in the air. Everything slows down. Your heart races. As you hit the ground you balance yourself.

You made it! You feel a sense of accomplishment come over you. When you get to the bottom you jump with joy and shout.

The next times you go down you feel like nothing can stop you-you are invincible. You go into the lodge to tell your friends. You didn't see them. You checked the time and noticed that the bus leaves in 5 minuets! You ran to the locker area, took of your snow stuff and ran to the bus. You have just made it. When you got on the bus you sit next to your friend and tell them your story. You will never forget this day.

Made up word of the Week(1-5-11)

IOK
noun

Meening: I
partaining to yourself

Iok went went snowboarding and Iok wiped epicly wiped out and Iok twisted my arm.