Social Studies Blog One

Inauguration Celebration!

On January twentieth, almost every eye was glued on Barack Obama as he delivered the inaugural oath. "I Barack Hussein Obama...." were the beginning words of what will go down in history. His twenty minute speech was inspirational, as he delivered with such quality and dignity. His inspiration was Abraham Lincoln, and like Honest Abe, Obama will go down in history as the first ever African-American president. 

For  the first article, I looked at the New York Times. They absolutely positively  had great things to say about our 44th president. "He spoke to a sea of people... with just over a million covering the national mall." They didn't even mention the rest who were watching at home, work, or school. For those who don't know, the national mall is 300 acres stretching from the white house to the Washington memorial. Obama addressed himself as "...a man whose father not even sixty years ago might not have been served at a restaurant." Well look at where that father's son got today. After reciting the oath on Lincoln's bible, he had lunch with the continental congress and marched in the parade. The Inauguration was a day to remember.

The Washington Times sure did have a good word. They said than the The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association encouraged bringing the inauguration into classrooms. They said it was "Not only important the students understand we are watching and making history, but carrying out the wishes of Dr. King..." So this inaugural was in the will of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I believe that they are right, and that this inaugural stands for something bigger.

In my opinion, this inaugural was history. Personally, I saw it, I witnessed it, I saw history. Actually, We saw it, WE witnessed it, WE saw history. All in all, we should all be proud of our nation for making history come true.

Sources: NY Times- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/20web-inaug2.html?scp=1&sq=inauguration%202009&st=cse

Washington Times- http://www.washingtontimes.com/nes/2009/jan/12/teachers-bringing-inaugural-classroom

Science Blog 6

In class activity: stations.

In our science class, we have been learning about the exciting subject of defraction, waves, and reflection. After our quiz on this, we performed this interesting activity, a rotation of stations. In these stations I discovered many new things. I did stations that showed me how colors are defracted, and how light is reflected. For one, these stations showed me the colors in a bubble defracted, and how light can be reflected off of one surface onto another. This one station showed me how water is a box. The water reflects images off of the surface, but you can not see out of the box because the water also reflects inside the box too. Or when I saw the colors defracted from the white light on the bubble, I learned that light seperates colors. I also learned about the persistence of image. An image projected onto a surface is still there in the air. When a rod is waved, it almost looks like a wall. So the image is projected onto the "wall".

All in all, I think that these stations were very prominent in the learning of these subjects.

Science Blog 5

Internet Usage.... In China: And my opinion about what the government does with those users.

China's internet network center has reported that forty-two percent more people are using the internet. But, internet penetration has reached its highest ever global average. By the end of 2008, 298 million people were using the internet (about the same as the population of the USA), but ninety percent of those users use broadband connections. Internet penetration  has reached  twenty-two point six percent by the end of 2008 along with that. 

My opinion about all this is that they need to get out some more. With over 298 million internet users, it shows that many people are not getting the exercise they need. If the body is sitting in front of a computer for too long, the calories are not burned and people gain weight. Also, if staring at a screen for too long, eyesight can get bad. But what surprises me most is what the government does to these users. The Chinese government monitors the users activity and checks out any suspicious activities. They have been known to arrest blog writers for many different reasons. Overall, I personally do not approve of this habit.

Source: http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212900560&subSection=Browsers