Volcanic Research: Mount Ruapehu

A volcano is an opening on the surface of a planet that allows material warmer than its surroundings to escape from its interior. When this material escapes, it causes an eruption. An eruption can be explosive, sending material high into the sky. Or it can be calmer, with gentle flows of material. However, volcanoes are just an opening usually on a mountain in the Earth surface from which gas, hot magma, and ash can escape but volcanoes are formed because of the movement of plates (convergent boundary to be exact).

Mount Ruapehu

Mount Ruapehu is one of the world's most active volcanoes. Recent major eruptions occurred in 1895, 1945, 1995, 1996 and 2006.

The 1945 eruption had far-reaching effects, resulting in the loss of 151 lives on December 24^th, 1953. When the eruption occurred the crater lake was emptied, and the outlet dammed. Over time the crater refilled and the dam collapsed causing a lahar (mudflow and water) in the Whangaehu River. The lahar undermined the Tangiwai railway bridge piers, and the bridge collapsed when an express train crossed it.

Through 1995 and 1996 Mount Ruapehu erupted several times closing the ski fields and occasionally the airports. The possibility of a major lahar occurring again was recognised as the crater lake outlet became blocked once more in 1996 by volcanic ash. Authorities are constantly monitoring the volcano and determining measures of safely controlling the situation, should the dam brake again.

Corrosion: Investigating Rusting

Aim: To investigate the factors that cause in iron.
Equipment: Six test tubes, test tube rack, a bung, four iron nails, boiled water, tap water, salty water, cooking oil, calcium chloride.
Method: 

1. Label four  test tubes A-F and place in a test tube
2. Test tube contents: 

• A - Tap water
• B - Saltwater
• C - Water + oil
• D - Mg (magnesium) ribbon wrapped around it.
• E - Water, calcium chloride, bung
• F - Nail polish

      3. Leave the test tube undisturbed for at least three days.

Nail + Tapwater

Nail + Salt water

Nail + Water + Oil

Nail +  Water + Magnesium

Nail + Water + Calcium chloride + Bung

Nail + Water + Nail polish

Then, we left these nails for three days.

As we can see in the picture, the nail rusted with tap water.
H2O, Oxygen, and Chlorine were the factors why the nail rusted.

 These pictures show what happened to the nails. We observed that some of them rusted and some did not. (I added captions or explanations for each photo).

Because we left it for three days, the salt was probably already
dissolved. However, the nail rusted.
We can't see it clearly in the picture but it did rusted.
H2O, Oxygen, and Sodium chloride were the factors why the nail rusted

With this nail. We've added oil and water to see what could happen.
After three days, what happened was some of the oil formed a bubble
in the test tube and covered the top part of the nail, and because of  this,
the top part didn't corrode. But overall, for the whole body of the nail,
corrosion didn't occurred. However, on the other side of the test tube,
there was marks/stain of rusting.

With this nail, we ribbon wrapped around a small strip
of magnesium. What happened with this nail was, the top part
of the nail rusted but for the part that was covered with the
magnesium, there was no rusting. For instance, the magnesium
stopped the rusting.

Drypoint Printmaking

Year 10 Art

Name: Alyana

Drypoint printmaking reflection

Use the following questions to prompt your written reflection. When you have written your reflection, post it on your blog. Use the notes I shared with you, “Drypoint Worksheet” and research “Drypoint” to help write your reflection.

1. What kind of printmaking is drypoint?
1. Relief (Woodblock and Lino-block)
2. Stencil (Silkscreen)
3. Lithography
4. Intaglio
2. How is the drypoint line created? - It is created using sharp tools—except knives—but in school, we use these really long and sharpened nails
3. What kind of lines does it produce? Are they all the same? - It depends on how hard you push or rub the sharp tools onto your plexiglass, for instance, it produces fine lines.
4. How do you hold the needle? - I think there is no rule or the exact thing to do when you're using it. But personally, I hold it like a pen or pencil.
5. What does the angle of the needle determine? - It determines the burr, larger on opposite side.
6. The greater the pressure the deeper the deeper the lines.
7. Will all marks on the surface of the plexiglass print? - Yes.
8. How do you create different tones (gradations of light and dark?) - I personally did it by not wiping all the ink on the plate and doing lines in different directions.
9. What do we wipe the ink off the plate with? - We use a rightful amount of cooking oil and rub it to the plate using paper towels or rugs.
10. What do we use to put ink onto the plate? - We use hard cardboard that is cut into pieces to spread the ink within the plate.
11. What pressure do we use when applying the ink - We should use a right amount of pressure when applying ink because too much pressure might damage the burr.
12. Compare and Contrast the two different kinds of printmaking: lino-block printmaking or drypoint. Which did you prefer? Why? - Lino printing is a relief kind of printmaking then drypoint is an intaglio. But the most noticeable difference between lino and drypoint is the materials that we use, for example, the way we cut the plates and such. In lino printing, we use a lino-block, it's a hard material. However, in drypoint we use plexiglass—soft and smooth—the lines and burr are very fragile too. Personally, I prefer doing drypoints. I felt confident doing them compared to lino, because if you made a mistake in drypoint, you could find a way to get around it and fix it unlike in lino prints. You also need some skill if you're applying ink on lino.

The right amount of ink

Over-inked

Under-inked

Observing Convection I and II

Aim: To observe convection in a liquid.

Equipment: 200mL beaker, water, tweezers, a crystal of potassium permanganate, drinking straws, Bunsen burner, heat mat, tripod, and gauze mat.

Method:

1. Set up a bunsen burner on a heatproof mat. Put the gauze mat on the tripod but leave it just to one side of the Bunsen Burner.

2. Fill a 200 mL beaker with 150 mL of cold water.

3. Place the beaker on top of the tripod and gauze and allow it to settle for a few minutes.

4. Carefully insert a drinking straw down one side of the beaker, ensuring the straw is touching the bottom of the beaker. Be careful as you do not want to disturb the water too much.

5. Using tweezers, drop a crystal of potassium permanganate down the inside of the straw. Wait for the crystal to settle on the bottom of the beaker.

6. Very gently, so to not disturb the water, remove the straw.

7. Light the Bunsen and slide it under the tripod so that you are only hearing the outside of the beaker were the crystal is. Observe.

Observation: The potassium permanganate the colour of it—which is purple—spread out faster to the hot part where the Bunsen burner was put on below the beaker. Lastly, the potassium permanganate went to a spiral direction when we've put it in the beaker and heated

Explanation/Conclusion:

When the water particles rise, space increases. Which makes this part of the water inside the beaker becomes less dense. For instance, cold water—and denser—comes in or flows in order to replace the water particles that rose; or what we call convection current.

Observing Convection II

Aim: To observe convection in Gas.

Equipment: Scissors, paper spiral pattern, string, a source of heat (boiling water, radiator, etc.)

Method: 

1. Cut out the spiral pattern.
2. Punch a hole in the middle.
3. Add string.
4. Ready a source of heat to use.

Observation:
The spiral pattern that we cut out, moved to a spiral direction when we put it 30cm above the fire.

Explanation:
Heating air causes the air molecules to travel farther apart, thereby making the air less dense. Less dense air will always rise above dense air.  As the warm, lighter, air rises upwards the paper spiral begins to spin. This process keeps working because the cooler air surrounding air keeps coming towards the fire and warms up.

Persuasive Writing (Essay writing as a class)

What did I learn?

- I learned different persuasive language features. I also learned how to write a better essay by not repeating words but instead, we could use the synonyms of words. Mr Aitken also taught us to use the Catch 'em, Thesis and List of points.

Why did we do it as a class?

- To get from opinions and perspective. If we did it individually it would take us days or even a week.

What will I do better next time?

- I would add more persuasive language features in my writing to make it enjoyable and presentable to read.

What questions do I still have?

- How do we choose our own topic—if ever we ran out of topics in the slides that Mr provided us. A topic that everyone would love to read about.