Vanessa Vihnanek

 Lab:  We started lab by completing some formative assessments. It was so interesting and honestly scary to take a fifth-grade practice standardized science test. It emphasized the lack of priorities in our education system because these tests are unrealistic. They expect students to learn and understand complicated questions that cover content they might have never been taught. Also, continuing our discussion on climate change, we learned that it's possible to reverse the effects of climate change. We know this is a possibility because data shows a decrease in CO2 levels during the pandemic. Since the world was in quarantine and a lockdown was issued, there was a decreased use of cars and other pollutants.  Lecture: 

 Lab: In lab this week, we continued our discussion on climate change. We looked at a lot of different graphs about climate change to analyze any common trends. The graphs all showed that temperatures and CO2 levels are rising. One takeaway from these graphs was the future predictions they showed. The data continues to skyrocket in the next 50 years. If we don't work to prevent further damage to our planet, pollution, natural disasters (droughts, storms, etc.), and more will only continue to get worse and more common. We also learned that CO2 levels naturally rise in the winter when there aren't plants to take it out of the air. This natural rise between seasons was manageable but humans are causing this rise to happen in every season without the steady decline in the warmer seasons.  Lecture: In lecture this week we learned that the planet naturally decreased the amount of CO2 before any life began. The sun and volcanoes are two natural contributors to climate change. However...