Aquatic Ecosystems

   The biospere is broken down into three sections; the lithosphere which is land ecosystems, the hydrosphere which is the aquatic ecosystems, and the atmoshere which is in the air.  The health of aquatic ecosystems are slowing starting to get worse an worse. The population of many marine third level consumers on the energy pyramid, like sharks, are decreasing and the water is getting more polluted.
   In these aquatic ecosystems, currently, the is over-fishing, pollution, and symbiotic relationships going on.  One reason why certain species population size is decreasing is because of our impact.  Humans may not know it, but they can majorly affect aquatic ecosystems.  When scuba divers and boaters destroy an ecosystem, it is basicly like secondary succession.  The marine plants, like coral, are destroyed and must regrow.  Scuaba divers can also destroy the consumer's resources.  Another thing that can hurt aquatic ecosystems, like other ecosystems, are limiting factors, such as competition, predation, parasitism, and diseases.
   Humans are starting to get more aware on there impact of the lithospheric and atmospheric ecosystems, but not so much the hydrospheric.  The see that they arecreating more biotic factors by immigrating into land ecosystems and  creating abiotic factors by polluting the atmosphere.  They need to start being more aware of aquatic ecosystems too.  They are not just polluting the water, but also disturbing their habitat.
  

Power Balance Bands Are A Scam

Dear Mr. Whipp,

    After watching the two videos you gave, some other videos, looking at the webite, and doing some of my own reasearch I have came to an opinion that the Power Balance Bands are a scam.  I believed they were a scam to start with and your second link just backed up my opinion.  When the guy didn't know who had the band-card in their pocket, he couldn't tell by the tests who had it.
    I believe that the Power Balance Bands dont work and it is all in your head.  When you are wearing a Power Balance product you think you will have better balance and agility, but you really dont.  If you secretly put a Power Balance product in someones pocket, their balance will be the same as if they didn't have it at all.  When you do some of the tests shown in the videos, you cant tell if the person is appling the same amount of pressure and if the person who is getting tested on is tring harder or not.
    Before forming a hypothesis you need to look at both sides of the situation because the other side might give you information to help you or to bring down some of your information.   If you say something isn't supported by evience, but when you look at the other side and see it is, people won't believe most of your information.  When you look at the other see you can also information that is false that you could use against the opposing issue and for your sake.  It will also help you create a better experiment.

Friday, August 27th

Q1. What did you enjoy most about your summer break?


A1. During the summer I enjoyed going boating at Norris Lake the most.  I went tubing, water-skiing, kneeboarding and wakeboarding.  I also jumped off a bridge.


Q2. What do you like about coming back to school?

A2. I like that I get to see all of my friends that I didn't hang out with over the summer.

Q3. After the first three days, what do you like about being an 8th grader?
 
A3. I like that there are not teams and we get highschool credits.  I like that there aren't teams because then you can be in more of your friends classes.  Getting highschool credits is cool because then you can go into highschool already done with some classes