Environmental Science classes will propose their own race track that identifies three environmentally troubling areas of a modern racetrack and proposes three solutions to bring much needed green technology to the world of high octane racing!
Fun day at Bristol Motor Speedway! We had a blast checking out the facility and massive structures that are in place to make racing happen! While we were imagining the sheer speed and momentum of the cars that frequent this popular track, it was easy to see the works of Physics all around us! My Physical science students will use the quick study of the specifications of Bristol Motor Speedway to deduce and propose the principles and science of the race track! Environmental Science classes will propose their own race track that identifies three environmentally troubling areas of a modern racetrack and proposes three solutions to bring much needed green technology to the world of high octane racing!
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Best Pairing: Environmental Science Runner Up: Earth Science A journey on the John Muir Trail along the Hiawassi River, is a journey back in time! Especially when you read his very own words of the journey written in his journals from the trip, "A Thousand mile walk to the gulf". This digital short is best sampled before a study on the adventures in conservation of the Sierra Club's VIP, John Muir. This is also a great entry point in a study of Hardin's favorite land management essay, "A Tragedy of the Commons". Chattanooga is a great place to compare and contrast federal and private land use and conservation organizations. We look at Wild Trails, represented by many of the runners in the run sections of the video. Southeastern Climbers Coalition have done some amazing land-access partnerships. Adventures in extended exposure!! We used a Canon G12 on manual setting and a 15-second exposure to take a series of class light-writing shots with only our imaginations and a cheap headlamp. Not a bad way to drive home the concepts of light waves, wave behavior and optics! Let it Glow! Every semester, Mrs. Davis' Holocaust Lit. class spearheads some type of outreach as a result of their studies on building human empathy in a society. Profiting the BuildACity campaign in Cambodia, this was both a local and global reaching event and I wanted in! Here is a quick edit from some of the race and then a bonus cut of just the setup time-lapse. (I left dead space in between and on the end so we can add a logo to promote for next year when the time comes! Oh, Yeah. Mountain music and macroinvertebrates! Yes, we have been wanting to test the waters of Aquaponics here at CHS(pun definitely intended!!) Our set up? NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) There are many amazing ways to pull off Aquaponics, but NFT was most natural to our space, purpose and given materials. This will allow for an amount of water to be pumped into our grow beds continuously, dumping back into the aquarium that holds the fish. We used some grow stands that had uv lights and modular tray holds built in. These towers gave us a great skeleton to work with a gravity fed system. We started with a donated 55 gallon aquarium from local science supporter Darlene Bailey and garnished with donated 4in PVC from a student in my Physical Science class. Now on to business! (Students in the pictures are CHS senior, David Peursaul and ChS freshman, David Donan) Step 1- Cap the PVC and drill planting holds with a 3.5in holesaw Step 2- Round up a small hobby strength fountain pump and plan your flow strategy. (Many plans use a tube flowing into a PVC pipe that is doubled over in a "U" shape with end caps. We split the intake flow into two tubes through a t-fixture so we could hang our NFT pipes closer than a "u" pipe adapter would allow. This also makes the whole system more customizable, as we can add more stands and NFT pipes while using the same amount of water flow) Step 3- Mount your fixtures of choice to attach your intake and outflow tubing to the main PVC NFT pipe. We drilled our intake higher than the water level and our outflow was placed in the center of the endcap. This is to avoid a total draining if the pump malfunctions or power is lost in the building. Note: We used black landscaping tubing to avoid algae build-up on the inside of out pipes! This may still be more of an issue in outdoor systems Step 4- Monitor levels! We tested for chlorine, pH and dissolved oxygen with our classes. We even compared with a local stream that holds fish. (We will test nitrate levels regularly when our fish make their appearance!) We are lucky enough to use some chem. probes that we have in the science department! -Step 5- Start your seeds! (Disclaimer: We decided to use peat-moss seed starting pucks to get our crops of Lettuce and Spinach going before we plant them in the cups. There are much better seed starter systems for hydro and aqua- ponics but these were the easiest to obtain. We will take great care to break the peat up before we drop them in the cups. Peat-based seed starters are risky because they may crumble and clog the system. We have an oversimplified demo model with one port for outflow so there is not much we are going to risk with a little sediment but more complex systems may want to stay with rockwool sponges.) Step 6- Time your lighting. If working with lamps, grab an automatic timer and try to recreate the optimum lighting for your chosen crop. |