The Safest Place In America Essay 11/20

https://goo.gl/MFLCKy

Position Statement:

     The Safest Place In America (SPIA), is Bismarck, North Dakota. My team and I chose this location for a couple of reasons. One reason is that it isn't prone to that much natural disasters. Another reason I chose Bismarck as my location is why it isn't prone to these earthquakes. Some reasons are because of its locations, its natural features, events in the atmosphere, and more! There are several reasons why Bismarck is the safest place in America

Wildfires:  

    Wildfires are caused in many places in America, but not Bismarck. The reason behind this? Well, a few reasons. One reason is that Bismarck is really cold, which makes it really hard for wildfires to start, and if it does, it might die out in a few moments. Another reason why wildfires aren't really in Bismarck is because it has low vegetation, which makes it hard for a wildfire to start and grow. Other reasons include events in the atmosphere. If a wildfire is small enough, wind in the air can blow it away, and thunderstorms aren't really that sever, which makes wildfires even less common. One last factor is that the Santa Ana winds are nowhere near Bismarck, so a wildfire cannot spread fast enough or be dangerous.

Earthquakes:

   Earthquakes are caused usually near the margin of America, but not in Bismarck. This is because Bismarck is in the center of the North American Plate. That causes that city to be safe from earthquakes, because it isn't near any other plate. In addition to that, Bismarck does not have any faults or strike-slips, which makes earthquakes not really prone in Bismarck. So Bismarck isn't a place for earthquakes, because there is no plate activity nearby.

Hurricanes:

   Hurricanes happen in the east coast of America. There are plenty of reasons why it isn't in Bismarck is not prone to hurricanes. There, the weather is cold, but hurricanes also need warm water to form, but the cold weather makes the water cold as well. It also isn't near the ocean, which is where some hurricanes form. There is also no warm air or water, which is needed for formation of a hurricane. Other reasons include the Coriolis Effect. Also, since there is cold weather, there is little evaporation, let alone having warm water, which makes the chance of a hurricane impossible. The Coriolis effect is low in Bismarck, which makes the chance of a hurricane in Bismarck, again, impossible. 

Conclusion:

    In conclusion, Bismarck is in fact the Safest Place In America, due to the low severity in Natural Disasters, because of its natural features. Because of its natural features, it is only prone to Tornadoes, Blizzards, and Thunderstorms, but they are not severe enough. According to the NY times, Corvallis, Oregon, is the Safest Place In America, but I don't believe this, because Oregon has a few natural disasters, two in which are very severe, while in North Dakota, the Natural Disasters weren't that severe.

The SPIA Decision - Weekly Blog 11/9 - 11/15

Image Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Bismark,_ND_Capitol.jpg

Summary: 

In America, every state is prone to at least three or more natural disasters. The area in the US mostly prone to Natural Disasters in in the East Coast. Everywhere beyond that is not really prone to Natural Disasters. North Dakota is the state that has three natural disasters. But those three natural disasters weren't that severe, and no state was similar to the information found about North Dakota on natural disasters. That is why North Dakota is one of the safest states in America.

SP8: Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information:

This week, my team and I obtained information of  where the Safest Place In America (SPIA) is by looking at our maps that we made for our research and used it for our decision of the Safest Place in America. My team and I evaluated validity of our data by checking and looking at the maps and seeing which state had the least, prone to the least, or had the least prone natural disasters. We crossed out every state prone to four our more natural disasters, and found out that every state that we didn't cross out was prone to 3 natural disasters. But the state that was less prone to natural disasters was North Dakota, which had 3 natural disasters, but those three natural disasters it was prone to weren't very severe. We searched deeper into which city in North Dakota was safe, and we searched in the center of North Dakota. There, we found the city of Bismarck, and my team and I finally decided on the safest place in America: Bismarck, ND. I was the one who noticed that North Dakota was least prone to three natural disasters, and I communicated that information with my team and decided on the Safest City In America.

Natural Disasters Research - Weekly Blog - 11/2 - 11/8

Image Source: https://goo.gl/YkRhdu

Summary:

A Natural Disaster is a disaster that is from nature. They can occur in the atmosphere (air), or on the ground. Storms in the U.S usually occur in places where warm, moist air and cold air meet. This is because that a lot of the storms in the U.S (Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards, etc.) form by warm, moist air, meeting cold air. The Western part of the U.S is not prone to these storms, since there are a lot of mountains there, which makes it difficult for the storms to form. The places prone to storms (East Coast to the Midwestern States) do not have mountains, which allows the storm to form. 

Other disasters, such as earthquakes and wildfires, usually occur in the West states of the U.S These states are prone to wildfires because there is a lot of vegetation which makes the wildfires easier to spread, hot climate, which provides heat to the wildfire and helps it grow, and human-environment interaction. These states are also prone to earthquakes, because the West has a lot of  faults, which is one source of the earthquakes, and the West Part of the North American Plate is pushing against the Pacific Plate, which can also create an earthquake if the two plates release.

SP8: Obtain, Evaluate and Communicate Information:

This week, I obtained data for my research by going on provided resources for natural disasters and going on the internet. I also obtained some data from using background knowledge I had from the Plate Tectonics Unit. I communicated obtained information by discussing the data of the research with my team and changing some of the answers as we were discussing our data. We evaluated the validity of our research by discussing it, checking the answers with the teacher, and going on a few sites (last updated 2013-2015) to see if they were all the same answer.

Natural Disasters - Weekly Blog 10/26 - 11/01

Image Source: https://goo.gl/lJ8ZNK

Summary:

   Natural disasters are disasters that come from nature itself. These include: Tsunamis, wildfires, hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, floods, etc. These occur due to climate, climate changes, vegetation, environment, weather, landscape, and human-environment interaction. They can also happen because of things in the atmosphere/air, and from space. For example, tsunamis can form from a meteoroid hitting the ocean, These are the reasons why some states in America are prone to these natural disasters and some aren't. Some states have these conditions while others don't. 

SP8: Obtain, Evaluate, and Communicate Information:

   This week, I obtained data from my research on Natural Disasters for my Presentation on the Safest Place in America Project. My research included: Describing the Natural Disaster, Where they occurred geographically, and on what conditions does this natural disaster form and why they form. The last thing I put on my research is filling in and coloring which states are prone to these natural disasters. I evaluated the validity of my work by checking two sites that had the same information, and both were last updated just recently and getting my research sheets approved by the teacher which means that my research is valid. Then, I communicated my work by sharing my data that I found with my team, and discussing the information each of us found. 

Plate Tectonics Project - Project Blog - 10/18 - 10/25

Image Source: https://goo.gl/YB4aAO

Summary:

          The Cascade Range, also known as the Cascade Volcanoes, or the Cascade Mountains, was formed over 35 million years ago due to the subduction of the Juan De Fuca Plate and the North American Plate. This subduction formed the 18 volcanoes of the Cascade Range. These 18 volcanoes are either Strato, Shield, Lava Dome, or Cinder Cone Volcanoes. The Cascade Range is currently a convergent boundary. The Cascade Range stretches as far as 700 miles length and has a width of 80 miles. It is located at the North American Plate, but more specifically, between Northern California and British Columbia in Canada. The Cascade Range is the part of the Ring Of Fire, which borders the pacific plate, and is home to a lot of volcanoes that are resting, extinct, or active. The highest point of the Cascade Range is the peak of Mount Rainier, at 14,000 feet above sea level.

Backward Looking:

     In what ways do you think you need to improve? There were a couple of things I think I could have worked on better. One thing was the planning, since during the project, a lot of things weren't planned, and me and my team completed the work out of the recommended schedule, so a few things were rushed. One last thing i'd like to improve is the presentation. I'd like to improve on this section of the project since it wasn't rehearsed, some of our statements and data didn't seem clear to the audience, and we put very little text to each slide, so it took a long time for the slides to transition.

Inward looking:

     How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work? Although there were many ups and downs to this project, I really did enjoy working on the project. My most favorite part of the project was making a model of the Cascade Range, since I really like making models. It also looked good, and was easy to make.. The part I really dislike was working on the presentation, since it was finished after the recommended schedule, and it was pretty hard gathering data. 

Outward Looking:

     If someone else were looking at the piece, what might they learn about who you are? If someone were to look at my project, they may learn that I work hard at projects, I take them really seriously, and I add a lot of quality to my projects. This applies mostly to my model, since I worked really, really hard at it, but some of it applies to the presentation slides that I made.

Forward Looking:

      As you look at this piece, what's one thing that you would like to try to improve upon? There are some things I would really like to improve on. One thing is the scheduling. During the project, I was behind the recommended schedule, so I had to basically multitask. Since I was behind the recommended schedule, the presentation was not as good as I planned it to be. One thing I planned was for the presentation to have a lot of information. One last thing I planned for the presentation was for the script and the presentation slide transitions to sync. What I mean by that is when I was done talking for that particular slide, it would move. But it wasn't that easy, so I really want to improve on that part.

The Cascade Range - Weekly Blog 10/12 -10/18

Image Source: https://goo.gl/nr5vQq

Summary:

       The Cascade Range is also called the Cascade Mountains, or the Cascade Volcanoes. It starts at North California, stretches up North, and ends at British Columbia. It has a total of 18 Mountains. The Cascade Range was formed by subduction of the Pacific Plate (under the) and the North American Plate. It's highest peak (Mount Rainier) is at 14,409 feet above sea level. 

SP2: Develop and Using Models:

    I constructed a physical model to represent a few of the many mountains of the Cascade Range with my team. I made Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and Glacier Peak, and added a compass rose. I first molded my mountains with aluminum foil, then I painted it, stuck it onto cardboard, labeled the mountains, and added finishing touches. I can see that I have improved on this practice based on the quality of my model, and how I improved on other things like the labels.

By Joshua Santos 2026-6B SCIENCE 

Earth's Development & Mountains - Weekly Blog - 10/5 - 10/11

Image Source: https://goo.gl/nTezW5

Summary:

The Earth was created from debris from the sun. When Earth was created, nickel and rock formed the mantle. It is believed that we got our water on Earth from asteroids that had water in them. The Earth wasn't stable until it was 4.4 million years old. Speaking of Earth, Stratigraphy is the drawing of graphs from mountains and layers underground.

SP 2: Develop and Using Models: 

Me and my table used a drawing of the inside of Mount everest to understand what happened and is happening inside the mountain. We cut sections of papers (that looked like it had layers ad had a legend) that were numbered, put lined up together in order vertically, then taped them together. We looked at the now taped together papers, and saw that rocks from the oceanic crust were at the top of Mount Everest. This was because Mount Everest was underwater before emerging onto land. There were sea creature fossils at the top of mount everest to prove it.