Science Class Reflection

For the past four months, we have been doing many interesting things in science class. My favorite was when we learned about how animals camouflage themselves to avoid being hunted by "hunting" various colored toothpicks outside. By doing this, we learned how different animals camouflage differently to adapt to their environment. The colors of the toothpicks were green, yellow, red, blue, and wood. Because green blended in with the grass, it was the hardest to find out of all of them. Wood was the easiest because it stood out. By doing this, we got a chance to see how a predator- prey relationship works. It gave us a visualization of what an organism needs to do to survive and showed us an example of adaptation.

In nature, animals camouflage in order to survive. This gives them a chance to get food, find shelter, and mate. This is an example of adaptation. Adaptation is when an animal adapts to their environment and or habitat. This also includes using physical traits to adapt to an environment (camouflage). Physical traits can be the spikes on a hedgehog, which protects it from predators, or the humps on a camel, which are used for storing water.

Overall, this was a fun and educational experiment. It taught us about adaptation and how animals camouflage because of it. This is one of the best experiences I have had this year.

http://www.uen.org/utahlink/activities/view_activity.cgi?activity_id=4750

http://www.howstuffworks.com/animal-camouflage.htm

Science Current Event 2

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/50200/title/Loneliness_is_contagious,_study_suggests
This article is about the theory that loneliness is contagious. Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School and James Fowler of the University of California have been conducting studies to see how a persons feelings move through social networks. This new study ,which is led by John Cacioppo, found that loneliness is contagious because they do not trust their connections and foster their mistrust into other people. It has been proven easier to catch from friends vs. family and is most contagious between neighbors who live about a mile by each other. It is spread by three degrees of separation: One lonely friend can cause you to be 45-60% lonely, a lonely friend of a friend makes you 14-36% lonely, and a friend of a friend of a friend makes you 6-26% lonely. Although the evidence supports this, some scientists think other wise. Jason Fletcher of Yale thinks that the studies control is not good enough to eliminate the other explanations. Jason, along with other scientists think that there is not enough evidence to prove this theory true. Nicholas and James decided to conduct an experiment in Framingham, Mass., a small town where everyone practialy knows everyone. This study followed people over 60 years while keeping track of mental healths, habits and diets, and physical health. After the test was conducted, the results showed that lonely people used social networking, but first transmit feelings of isolation to friends and neighbors. According to John, when you are lonely you are more alert to social threats and tend to engage in self protective behavior. Loneliness can also be caused by diseases, such as Alzheimer, and reconnecting with them can be important for their public health.
My opinion on this article is that feeling lonely can be considered "contagious", but not literally. I think it is "contagious" because you tend to be more like the people you are around most of the time. If you are around lonely people, I believe there is a chance that you will be lonely, since lonely people do not socialize often. On the other hand, if you are around happy and social people, you have a chance of being of a more social person. Although opposing scientists make a good point, I believe that John's theory is correct. This is why I think that loneliness can be considered "contagious".