OIL RUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today, Ms Nietzki conducted an activity relating to oil companys around the world. At the bottom of the ocean, is our major source of energy- crude petroleum oil. As you know, petroleum is converted into good'ol gasoline(coming to a gar tank near you), plastics(another essencial thing), and ointments(Find it in the closest medicine counter near you). Her directions were: first, take the three given maps, and trace them on the same sheet of paper. Second, we were split up into teams and third, used the map to find the oil using the grid map and the "Oil rig" to find the "oil". We then had to calculate how much money we spent and how many percent of the "oil" we got out of the hole. Did you know that the word Petroleum literally means rock oil? Well, it's true, as is the fact that most of the objects we have are actually made from petroleum. You can find a complete list of petroleum products at the following site:

http://www.beloit.edu/~SEPM/Geology_and_the_enviro/Petroleum_need.html

Ye Olde Water Cycle

Last Thursday, before Omega left for the End-of-the-year Field trip to Frog Bridge Day Camp, Mrs. Rousseau had us do an activity showing how much the humans affect the water cycle. It went like this: before the humans, water from the aquafers, oceans, streams and rivers, and reservoirs evaporated into clouds, which then released the water back in to the above systems. But, when the Industry and Agriculture, most of the water got polluted with pesticides and waste from the factories. The animals would drink the polluted water from the rivers and streams, and in turn, get poisoned. The aquatic creatures also get harmed. The pollution would gum up the fishes gills, and in turn, the fish will suffocate. The pesticides will not only harm animals relying on the streams and rivers to survive, but it also over stimulates algea growth, which blocks the sunlight from getting to the bottom of the insert body of water here , and then fish and other aquatic creatures will die. I got this information from the following site:

http://www.umich.edu/~gs265/society/waterpollution.htm

To the Thawing Wind: by Robert Frost

The Poem To the Thawing Wind By Robert Frost relates to weather in many ways. The first line states a type of precipitation; Come with rain. O loud Southwester! Rain, in many ways is revered by many ancient communities, and this type of precipitation is often both helpful and harmful. Without the precipitating word, the poem doesn't lose its meaning. After all, the poem only mentions weather once. The poet's knowledge about weather, as I said, does not enhance the poem in any way. You could replace rain with the stream, and the poem would still make sense, so weather does not, has not, and will not (maybe it will, if Frost is still alive) enhance the poem.
Robert Frost has a sense of rhythm, as do most other poets. In this specific poem, Frost used a common literary technique used in many other poems. The last words of each line rhymed. The last words of the first two lines rhymed, as did the last words of the next two. The pattern was: A
A
B
B
C
C... and so on. Since this poem only mentions weather once, to emphasize the first line, I personally did not find my knowledge of weather furthered.