California Historic Parks

The Governor just proposed the closing of over 220 State parks in California.  Your job is to learn about one of these parks and create a presentation about the park.

Go here to the California State Parks website,  go to the California Historic Sites page, and pick a park to focus on.

1. What park did you choose, and what is special about it?

2. Where is it and how do you get there from San Leandro (click the button that says Map of Location, click the red marker and find the directions)?  Put the directions and map in your document.

3-5. Find three photos of your park and explain what is shown in the photos.

6. Look at the Park Features Icons on the right side of the page and list everything the park has.

7. Go here and click the link that says "Proposed GF Reduction Closed Units" and find out if your park is scheduled to be closed.

Put your presentation in the California Historic Sites folder on the server.

Presentation or Comic

Create a presentation or comic for whatever park you did not do yesterday.

Lassen or Death Valley.

Put it in the Death Valley/Lassen Presentation folder along with your other one from yesterday.

Death Valley or Lassen Volcanic National Park Presentation

Use the questions and answers from the Death Valley or Lassen Volcanic National Park assignments to create a presentation or comic about one of the parks.  Include pictures for each slide.

Death Valley

Today you will study one of the lowest places on Earth, Death Valley.  Put your images and answers in an Appleworks document.

1. Start by finding the directions to Death Valley with Google Maps from San Leandro.  Take a screen shot (Apple-shift-4) of the route and directions and put it in your document.

2. Zoom in on Death Valley in Google Maps, Click the More button and turn on Photos, and click on a photo to make it bigger in the map.  (Apple-shift-4) to take a picture and put in your document.

3. Now go to the National Parks site and tell me what is special about Death Valley and what you will see there if you go.

4. Go to the Geology Page and tell me how far below sea level Badwater Basin is and how high Telescope Peak is.

5. Go to the Natural Features Page and Click on "Faults" on the left.  What does movement along faults allow in Death Valley?

6. Click on Weather and Climate and find out what Death Valley is famous as.

7. What are the extremes of temperature (highest and lowest) in Death Valley.

8. Go to the Sand Dunes page and list the three things needed for dunes to exist.

9. Go to the Salt Flats page and List the three things that cause salt flats.

10. Go to the Beautiful Places site, watch the Death Valley podcast.  Take a picture (Apple-shift-4) of the salt flats.  Put this picture in your document and explain why it is so dry in Death Valley.

Put your document in the Death Valley folder on the server.

Fumaroles and Mudpots

Today you will study Lassen Volcanic National Park.  Put everything in an Appleworks document.

1. Start by finding the directions to Lassen with Google Maps from San Leandro.  Take a screen shot (Apple-shift-4) of the route and directions and put it in your document.

2. Zoom in on Lassen in Google Maps, Click the More button and turn on Photos, and click on a photo to make it bigger in the map.  (Apple-shift-4) again and take a picture to put in your document.

3. Now go to the National Parks site and tell me if the main road through the park is open or closed.

4. When was the last eruption of Lassen Peak?

5. What are some of the "Hydrothermal Features" of Lassen National Park?

6. Click the "more..." link under "Explore the Hydrothermal Areas" on the main page and find out what water from rain and snow hits deep underground to produce hot water and steam.

7. Explain what a fumarole is and find a picture of one (use google).

8. Explain what a mud pot is and find a picture of one.

9. Watch the Lassen National Park: Bumpass Hell episode of Beautiful Places. What lies miles below Lassen NP?

10. The blue-green acidic waters of bumpass hell do what?

Mars Rover Images

Today you will create a presentation showing the images of the Mars Rovers.

You will get all your images here.

Slide 1: Title Slide

Slide 2-7: Pick a rover, Spirit or Opportunity and go to Press Release Images for that rover.  Find an image from each year the rover has been on mars.  Put it on your slide and explain what the image shows.  You can find what the image shows by reading the press release or the text around the image.

Slide 8: Find a color panorama taken by a rover and explain what is shown in it.

Slide 9: Find a Special-Effects Image and explain what it shows.

Slide 10: Find an image of one of the rovers.

Put the presentation in the Mars Rovers folder.

Mars Rovers

Today you will study the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Answer all questions in an Appleworks document.

Go here to the NASA website for the Rover Mission

1. Go to the Overview page.  When did the rovers land on Mars?

2. Name the Science Instruments on the rovers.

3. Go to the Science page and list the four science  goals of the rovers.

4. Go to The Mission page and look at Where Are The Rovers Now.  How far has each rover traveled since landing?

5. Go to the Multimedia page, open the images tab on the bottom left of the page, and find an image taken by Spirit.  Drag the image into your document.

6. Find a panorama taken by Opportunity and drag it into your document.

Save the document with your name in the title and put it in the Mars Rover folder on the server.

Make Up Day!

Check all folders on the server and make sure you have turned in all assignments.

Do the assignment if you have to.

Robots

Go here to learn about robots

Answer the following questions as you read.  Put your questions and answers in the Robots folder on the server or on paper and turn it in.

1. What do robots do for us?

2. What is a robot?

3. What do robots build the most?

4. Name a combat game that pits robot against robot?

5. Name the robot soccer competition.

6. What's so special about AIBO?

7. What robots have explored Mars?

8. What robot explored the Titanic. and why didn't people explore it?

9. Watch the video about Asimo (on moving page) and explain why Asimo is special.

10. Watch the video of Hans Moravec and explain what action was more difficult to program then proving all of Euclid's geometry theorems.

11. Explain what a neural net can do.

12. What does Cog do that is so human-like? (watch the video)

13. What question can the Turing Test answer?

14. Name four movies that depict robots taking over.

Yosemite Valley Landmarks

Today you will create a presentation or comic about Yosemite Valley's Landmarks.

Here are the landmarks you need to find an image of and a short description of.

Yosemite Valley

Half Dome

Yosemite Falls

El Capitan

Mirror Lake

Bridalveil Falls

Merced River

Vernal Falls

Nevada Falls

Glacier Point

Mirror Lake Hike

Start by watching the Mirror Lake podcast here.

Go to the Yosemite site and do the first activity, which is a simulated hike to Mirror Lake.

For each question, write one sentence that has both the question and answer in it.  No copy and pasting.  Put your statements in an Appleworks document or on a sheet of paper.

Turn it in to the Mirror Lake folder on the server or turn the paper in to me.

Yosemite Field Journal

Do the Yosemite Field Journal on this page

Make every question and answer into a statement and put ten of the statements in a Comic Life comic or a presentation.  Remember to add images that have to do with the statement.

Turn the comic into the Yosemite Comic Here folder on the server.

SLAM SOPHS B Lesson

1. Go to server and get the ObiWan folder out of the Sent from Farley folder.  Be sure to download it to your computer.

2. Open After Effects and drag the three files into the project window.

3. Drag the files to the timeline and put obiwan on top, grievous in the middle, and interior on the bottom..

4. Use the pen tool to draw a mask around Obiwan.  Use only 6 points around Obiwan, don't try to get too close.  Draw the mask big enough so it surrounds Obiwan for the entire clip.

5. Save this as Obiw_001, export it as a prores422 quicktime,  and put it in the Obiw_001 here folder.

Yosemite

Today you will learn about Yosemite.  Go here and read the Overview.

Answer the following questions in an Appleworks document or on a sheet of paper.  Turn the Appleworks document into the server or turn the paper into the substitute teacher.

1. What kind of plate movement happened 200 million years ago to form the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range?

2. What happened 5 million years later?

3. What happened 65 million years ago?

4. What happened 60 million years ago?

5. What happened 2.5 million year ago?

6. What happened 1.2 million years ago?

7. What kind of rock is granite?

8. What is a field of underground rock called?

9. What minerals are in granite rock?

10. Fast flowing streams carved what in the landscape?

11. 1.2 million years ago, what cut the U-Shaped  valleys in Yosemite?

Muir Woods

Today we start the study of California Geology and Natural Resources.  We begin with Muir Woods, a National Monument very close to San Leandro.  Put your answers on an Appleworks document, a comic, a presentation, or a piece of paper.

Go here to the Muir Woods website.

Click on the Nature and Science link and answer the following questions:

1. Name two species of birds that live in Muir Woods.

2. Explain why there are not many types of birds living in Muir Woods.

3. Name the two types of fish found in Redwood Creek in Muir Woods.

4. Name two invertibrates found in Muir Woods.

Go here and watch the Muir Woods podcast. 

Answer the following questions:

5. Where is Muir Woods?

6. What types of plant and animal life can be found at Muir Woods?

7. What is the one special tree that grows at Muir Woods?

8. What is special about the Coastal Redwood?

9. What are the three limiting factors to how high a Coastal Redwood can grow?