Vanessa Vihnanek

 Lab: This week, in the lab, we learned the difference between climate and weather. Weather is what we see day to day, while climate is the average of weather over a 30-year period. Changes in climate affect plants and animals. For example, the change in temperature and precipitation affect Iowa's goldfinches. If it continues to change, the goldfinches will either move to another location or go extinct. At the end of lab, we continued our investigation on climate change. All of our groups had similar takeaways and results that all point in the direction of climate change. Some of my notes from class are pictured below: Lecture: In lecture this week, we continued our discussion about climate change. Although most people believe in climate change, many still don't. We also learned why some regions have specific climates (some have to be hot and some have to be cold).  Pressbook: The pressbook explains that the Earth's atmosphere, even though it's thin, blocks the harmful ...

 Lab:  This week, in the lab, we researched climate change in Iowa. Because of climate change, Iowa has seen humidity, rainfall, and temperature increases. The increase in temperature at night affects crops, animals, and pets. It also can lead to loss of life. We worked with our groups on designated areas of Iowa to find the climate change effects in each zone.          Pressbook:  In this week's reading, I learned that a weather event cannot be blamed on climate change. A claim like this confuses weather and climate change. Climate change has to be a trending change measured over 30 years instead of a weather event only lasting a few days. It was so interesting to learn that the Stanely Art Museum which just opened two years ago was rebuilt after the 2008 flood. It really puts into perspective the effects of natural disasters. 

 Lab:  This week in the lab, we worked with our groups to examine samples with the microscope. We looked at eleven different samples to decide if they were developed through water, glacier, or wind. For some of the samples, it was hard to decide how they were developed. We thought most of the samples were developed by glaciers, but after analyzing the correct answers, we realized our results were very different.  Lecture:  I learned that something more dense than water will sink. The diet coke has less sugar than the other pops so it floated. Water displacement can help collect accurate measurements. The container needs to be completely full and you need to measure how much water is displaced from the container to get accurate results.  Pressbook: In the pressbook reading I learned if the specific gravity formula equals 2.7, it's likely the geode is solid quartz. Like the experiment we did in lecture, if the formula is less than 2.7 the geode is probably more ho...