E3 Blog

                Over the last couple of weeks we have been doing the E3 unit.  This unit was very educational and I learned a lot from it.  Some of the new things I learned included: the difference between the 2 different types of light bulbs, where a lot of the energy is used in my house, and things that help you save money.  First we learned what used up most of the energy in your house.  The thing that took up the most energy was the heating and cooling systems.  This was not very surprising to me because I know that most people have their thermostat set too high or too low.  Also these things pretty much run all day and all night keeping your house the right temperature for the appropriate season.  The second most energy consuming thing was appliances.  Some appliances include: TV, Computer, Refrigerator, and chargers.  This was not surprising to me because I know most people keep their TV’s on when they are not watching.  Also people always leave all or most of these appliances plugged in all the time which uses energy as well.  The third most energy consuming thing is the water heater. This was surprising because I did not really know much about the water heater.  After this E3 unit I know what the water heater should be set on and other things that now I realize that the water heater works a lot, and uses a lot of energy.  The fourth most energy consuming thing is lighting.  This was surprising to me because I thought lighting would be number one or two.  Many people leave lights on most of the time, even when they are not in the room.  I know I sometimes forget to turn the lights off when I leave a room.  Another thing I learned from this unit was how CFLs are a lot better than IL.   I knew that CFLs cost more money when you buy them, and I knew that in the long run CFLs cost less.  After doing the lab with the comparing of the two types of bulbs, I learned that CFLs cost a lot less over a lifespan of the light bulb and plus they last longer.  I also learned that just by doing small things like having your thermostat set at the right temperature, having your refrigerator on the right temperature, and many other things you can save money on your energy bill.  Over the course of this unit I learned a lot.

            I am going to change many things in my life after learning all the things from this unit. I am going to start unplugging my phone charger and Xbox.  These us a lot of energy when not at use and plugged in, so by unplugging them that will save money.  Also I’m going to turn off the light when I leave a room.  This will save money in a couple ways.  First it will save money by not having lights on that are not in use, and if the lights are not on as much then they will last long. Then you won’t have to buy light bulbs as much.  I’m going to start buying CFLs since they are a lot more energy efficient and last longer.  The CFLs save a lot of money too.  Another thing I am going to try to do is make sure the thermostat is set on the right temperature.  My house won’t be using more energy than it should.  I am going to make sure there are good windows and good insulation in my house so when I do have my house heated up or cooled off the temperature will stay in.  This way the A/C or heater won’t run more than it needs to.

            After learning all these new things I think I will be an advocate for energy efficiency because it will help them save money.  Also it will help with pollution. For example: changing to CFLs will cause a lot less CO2 emissions in the air.  Also switching to these light bulbs will save them a lot of money.  I will tell them all the fact I learned and teach them how they can save energy just like I learned in this unit.  Then once they know they can tell their friends and family and slowly people will start to become aware of how to be energy efficient.  It will take some time but over time people should just keep passing on the information to other people and the cycle will just keep going.

            There are many things I liked from this unit.  I liked getting all the cool things that we put in our house and get to use.  I also liked how there was a lab that went along with each thing we got. It showed us how the object saved us money and how it helps save energy.  Off the top of my head there really isn’t anything that I can think of that I didn’t like. I don’t think I would change anything with this unit because it was fun and I enjoyed it. Maybe they could add like a couple more things for us to use but other than that I wouldn’t take out any of the labs.  This was a very fun unit and I liked it the way it was.            

Article write up

The topic of the articles I read was water pollution. Water pollution is a very big problem everywhere in the world.  The first article I read was water pollution in China. The water pollution is alarming. They just talk about how pollution happens everywhere and that is caused by nations trying to climb to power. For example, The USA in the 1800’s destroyed some of its natural resources trying to reach Manifest Destiny. China is one of the worst places for water pollution.  In these articles there are two different countries that are having problems with water pollution. One is China and the other is South Africa. In China the cause of the pollution is pretty much because they are a developing country while in South Africa it is pretty much because of Poor city planning and not having the funds to support water management and research, the lack of resources, and overcrowding. Both of these countries are having troubles with pollution but both have different reasons why.  In these 3 articles there were many interesting pieces of information. I thought that amount of pollution that is in China. The article said that 70 percent of China’s lakes and rivers are polluted. Also 90 percent of their underground water is polluted. This means that most of the  million Chinese people do not have clean water. The article also says that 75 percent of diseases in China come from water pollution according to World Health Organization (WHO). Water pollution doesn’t just affect the stuff in the water but it also affects the people around the water pollution. The WHO says that there is about 100,000 water pollution related deaths a year in China. The mortality rate could easily be prevented if the government took some action. In the article about pollution in South Africa I thought it was interesting that many places don’t have good sewage. Many places just dump the sewage right into bodies of water or rivers and that pollutes the rivers. Then the rivers flow into lakes or seas or oceans and pollute the bigger bodies of water. For example, sewage from the central business district of Dar es Salaam and Tanga just dump their sewage right into the Indian Ocean without treatment according to water expects.  These articles had kind of an impact on me. The problems in these articles aren’t in the USA but I know that pollution happens here too. These articles make me want to take action and do whatever I can to help pollution to be stopped and not just here but in Places like China and South Africa that really need help. All pollution can be cleaned up and stopped, it just takes a group of people that care and change what people do. It even said in the article about the pollution in China that the deaths due to water pollution can be changed if the government cared and did something about it.  I think the information in these articles is accurate. They had sources like in the South Africa article it uses things that the World Health Organization said. I think these articles are reliable because it is copyright in 2011 by the Pollution Prevention Guide.  

PSA Response

I think that all the PSA's were very good. A couple of them just really caught my eye but Danial Wax`s groups PSA. The pictures and music just caught your attention and made the PSA really good.  Right from the beginning it caught my attention because of the voice kinda seemed like a sad tone and the music was sad. I think there were some down parts of the PSA like a lot of reading but overall it was a good PSA. I also think that the rap PSA was a good one too. They put a lot of time and effort into it. The rap was very good too. There was a lot of rhymes. It was very interesting and it kept my attention so im pretty sure it did for other people. All the PSA`s were very good and showed exactly what was wrong and what needed to be fixed.

 I dont think these PSA`s will have much of a chance to impact on society. I think this because i know it is very hard to get people to change the way they live. I think the one about unplugging your phone charger will change people because that is very easy to do. Plus Many people already do this and its not really that hard to unplug it after you use it. I think if these PSA`s were made by older people or college students then they would have a better chance of impacting society but since it was just high schoolers then i dont think they will do much but whole knows maybe they will. I would like to see these PSA`s do something and changes peoples minds because we really need to change the way we live so the Earth lasts as long as it can. We need to worry about all the things that were in the PSA`s and change how we do those things.

Response to Human Footpringt video

a)      The video we watched really shocked me and made me realize just how much of an impact each of us have on the earth in our lifetime. It just made me made me realize that we do a lot of bad things to the earth and its things i didnt even realize did much. It made me feel scared because we are slowly killing the earth and after some time there will not be an earth left because of what we do to it. It also made me feel bad because i know i contribute tp harming the earth and a lot of the things i could avoid. 

b) There many things that shocked me but there are 3 that really stand out. One thing was that in one babies lifetime of wearing diapers they wear around 3,796 diapers. In a year there are 18 million diapers used. That is a lot of diapers and the worse part is that we dont evenm know exactly how long it takes for them to actually disintegrate. It probably out lives the babies that wear them. Another stat that i thought was crazy was that we eat about 47 million hamburgers each year. One hamburgers are not the greastest for you and thats a lot of cows that are killed for that many hamburgers. The third stat that i thought was crazy was that we chop down about 20 million christmas trees a year.

c) We should just try and make our footprint we make as small as possible. We should try and turn all lights off if we arent in the room and unplug things that we are not using. We can try and carpool if we can. Doing these things will make our human footprint smaller then what is now and make the earth can last longer. All these things should be done because if we continue to live the way we are then the earth will not last that long. It is very important to make the earth last as long as it can so humans and everything else can survive too.

Introduction to Jacob McGinnis

My name is Jacob McGinnis. I am 16 about to turn 17 in October. I am a Junior. I was born on October 5th 1994 to the parents Kimberly McGinnis and Steven McGinnis. I have a sister that is 12 and is in 6th grade at Gahanna Middle School South. Her name is Kayla. I have a dog named Ginger that is about to turn 5 and a cat named Shadow that around 15 years old. I lived in Whitehall until i was in the 3rd grade then we moved to Gahanna when i entered into the 3rd grade. I have played soccer since i was like 5 years old and still play now. I play for the JV gold team. I also played basketball in the 7th and 8th grade for south. I enjoy watching football especially Ohio State football. I’m excited for this season because i want to see how they overcome the problems. I love watching Ohio State basketball too. I like going camping and doing things outside. I love dogs a lot. I have had a dog my whole life. From the day i was born to the today. I really love math and i do really well in math at school. I really like to eat food. I eat a lot but i don’t gain any weight. I am really excited about this school year and i am ready to learn a lot this year. I am looking forward to learning a lot about the environment and stuff like that.  

response

http://butihaveasthma.blogspot.com/2011/05/behind-inhaler-pt-28.html?showComment=1305948174822#c683884553478845444

Me and Orson Welles

In english this week we read Me and Orsen Welles. So far this book is interesting and i really like it. Richard is a character that many guys can relate to. He makes the book way more interesting. All teen guys for the most part only want girls and thats all they care about. This book is very funny and i like how orsen talks. It is very funny how he yells at like everyone and how he talks to them.

After reading this book i hope we watch the movie. I really like watching movies and i really like watching the movie after reading the book. It is fun to compare the book with the movie and how things are different and the same. Many times the movie is a little different then the book.  Movies are just fun to watch and i like being able to see what happens. Here are some clips from the movie.

This movie looks really good and i hope we watch it. I just really love watching movies for some reason. I am really surprised that i actually like this book. I dont normally  like many books but this one is alright. It is just interesting to me and i havent fallen asleep yet. So that means it isnt boring. Most books put me to sleep but not this one. Well we will see how the end of the book is. i have to go read now