Colorado State University

This is a painting of a southern black rhino. The southern black rhinos are being poached for their horns, causing their population to dwindle. The minimalist painting style shows how an animal might just seem like an animal and doesn’t have much impact. The loss of southern black rhinos will and do have an impact on the balance in their ecosystem. These animals may seem like a little piece in a big puzzle but they are still an important piece in the big puzzle. Many animals have gone extinct and the ecosystem had to react and change but that doesn’t happen overnight. We need to learn how to stop poachers from killing innocent animals for their own prosperity. These animals are at our mercy and they were here before us and we need to protect them. The southern black rhinos are just another animal at the edge of extinction that humans have caused but they deserve to live.

Sources:

I used an image form https://fossilrim.org/animals/southern-black-rhinoceros/ to create an accurate image of a southern black rhino.

Climate change informs us about the different changes in the average conditions, Such as rainfall and temperatures. Over a long period, NASA scientists have been observing the Earth’s surface for warming. The wave I chose to focus on is heatwaves, So I chose climate change, which is when the sun/heatwaves warm up the Earth’s surface, then the Earth radiates energy back to the atmosphere into space. Some of the greenhouse gases trap and absorb some of the radiation off of the Earth’s surface. Which is why there is heat in all directions even towards the ground. Climate change was first discovered in the 19th century, by a guy named Guy Callendar who is an amateur scientist who not only discovered climate change 80 years ago. But also built the first climate change model to predict it as well. Global temperatures have increased by 1° Celsius in the past century. Climate change is not only global warming driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases but is also sadly resulting in large-scale changes in weather patterns. I chose to draw this to promote awareness of greenhouse gasses because rainfall is getting trapped and our Earth is getting dry.

Sources:

1. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-climate-change-what-you-need-know
2. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/06/heat-waves-and-climate-change-is-there-a-connection/ https://spunout.ie/life/article/10-facts-about-climate-change

Scientists say that there are two big things that could wipe out mankind, one, a meteor, big enough to kill people like the dinosaurs, two, a pandemic. A pandemic is an outbreak of a disease, that usually spreads throughout the world. We have had many pandemics and one of the more deadly pandemics was the Black Plague, 1347 to 1351. The Black Plague alone wiped out half of Europe. And today we also have a pandemic, the Covid-19 outbreak. Covid-19, or Coronavirus, started out in China and has spread throughout the world. But unlike the Black Plague outbreak, now we have soap, medicine, and many doctors working hard to make a vaccine. And that’s why I’ve chosen to make a drawing about Covid-19. In my drawing, you’ll see a Plague Doctor from the Black Plague pandemic, you’ll notice that they are carrying a staff with the Coronavirus on top, they are walking through a town that Covid-19 is effecting. As though the Plague Doctor was brought from the past to help with the disease. That’s why my drawing is titled, ‘Covid Doctor’.

Sources:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/

We spend one-third of our lives sleeping, so why is it so important? How does it help our brains grow and develop? One concept is that it lets our brains remove toxins, and keep important information. This can improve your memory, and keep you healthier overall. Dreaming while we sleep is also important in restoring memories. When our brain replays information while we are dreaming then it establishes what we may remember later on. During REM sleep, Memory Consolidation can occur which is when new knowledge of something can turn into long-term memories. For my work I drew a person sleeping, and I colored in the brain showing it’s active, although the brain is actually grey. There is a “dream” displayed above the head with a few different common dreams. So how many memories could we lose if we didn’t dream, what effects would it have on the brain if we never got any sleep?

Sources:

1. https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/10-unsolved-mysteries-of-the-brain
2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/memory-consolidation

The Cells Family: A Short Story (pdf)

My analogy was a cell is like a family. I think this because there is a boss of a cell and boss of a family, someone who stores food and waste, someone who transports everybody in the family. I also think that a cell is like a family because everything in the cell is so close, just like a family.

Cell Membrane- The mother. A mother is in charge of supporting the family and making sure that no bad information goes into the kids and only good information like how the cell membrane protects and supports the cell.

Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER)- Older brother. The older brother is in charge of transporting the younger siblings, especially when the parents can not like how the ER transports materials.

Lysosome- The family dog. The dog chews up everything, so he is getting rid of (and making) waste! He also likes to use the indoor plants as trees like how the Lysosome disposes of the waste in the cell.

Mitochondria- The younger brother. He is always encouraging and makes everyone excited for little activities like cleaning the house like how the mitochondria provides the cell with energy! Nucleus- The father. He does the directions on road trips and always knows how to fix an issue like how the nucleus has the “instructions” for the cell.
Ribosome- The sister. She is always playing with dolls, which creates (in her mind) new members of the family. Just like how the ribosome makes proteins!

Vacuole- That one weird cousin. We all know them, they take all the food at family gatherings. They will stock their plate up with food and water and hide in the bathroom. Just how the vacuole stores water, food, and waste for the cell.

My name is Sofia Rodriguez. The name of my composition is “At Play”, because of it’s mischievous nature and child-like attitude. The song is entirely written in pizzicato, or plucking strings. This simulates the idea of children hopping around, and adds an aura of lightness and playful fun. I wrote it using the app GarageBand (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id408709785). I studied sound waves in string instruments, and composed this. Sound waves vibrate when you pluck the strings, and these vibrations create waves, which create sound. The sound is more high pitched the thinner the string is because this shortens the wavelength. The volume is also changed by how hard you pluck or press, which causes a higher amplitude in the waves and therefore a louder volume. Although I used an online app, this still simulates the way an actual instrument sounds even if not the way it works. String instrument have been around sense Ancient Mesopotamia, and to this day we are still inventing ways of making music. From classical string instruments to electronic apps like this one, I have no doubt music will continue to find new ways of using sound waves. The following are websites I used to research sound waves in string instruments:

Sources

1. https://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/strings.html
2. https://www.theinstrumentplace.com/history-of-the-violin/
3. https://www.britannica.com/art/stringed-instrument

In my science class we are learning about cells by doing analogies. Mine is, a cell is like a beehive. I also have different analogies and illustrations for the different parts of the cell on the board.