New continent to be named: The great pacific garbage patch!

Our oceans are facing a big problem, standing waste is one of the biggest problems in our oceans, literally, there is a garbage patch the size of Texas. If you don’t think that that is a problem you're a nincompoop. If you wonder how the garbage got there, ask yourself because humans were careless and just tossed the garbage into the ocean and the way that the currents travel the garbage goes to the ocean gyres and creates a land like mass of stinking rotten garbage.

          Because of humans, our oceans are flooded with trash, but some of it wasn't put directly there, it went into rivers and streams from sewage treatment plants and storm sewers and then it goes into the oceans creating very hazardous habitat for marine life and giving humans a bad reputation.

        If you simply recycle, you will help fix this problem and restore our oceans to there former glory, our beaches will be filled with sand instead of trash, and sea animals will flourish and live an unrestricted natural life

          Water pollution is when something gets in the water that is not natural, whether it's plastic in our oceans or an oil spill, it's not good if it's not natural. If we can find teddybears in tires along with other stuff, we know we have a problem.

       You may have heard of the three R's, reduce, reuse and recycle, but have you ever heard of the five R's? According to "The Greening of Westford," Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle are the things we need to do to make a cleaner, fresher, easier to live in earth. If humans just did those R's the world would be a much better place for everyone.

      The water cycle is a very delicate part of nature, it depends on everything going according to plan. However, humans have built power plants and factories that destroy that delicate balance by throwing cafeteria waste and oil into streams and then that turns into acid rain which causes the nutrients in the soil to dissolve before plants can get to them.

           I have chosen to study suspended matter in our oceans. Suspended matter is little bits of floating plastic or trash that gets into creeks and rivers and streams and then works its way into the ocean where it floats into the ocean and collects into little islands or a marine creature tries to eat it and chokes to death

If we eventually destroy the oceans, that means that we destroy the creeks and rivers and the whole water cycle. Then where do we get our water?

Here is where I got my information.

Rowland, Geraint. “Beauty in the Pollution.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 2 July 2012, www.flickr.com/photos/33909206@N04/7488578958/.

“The 5 R's - Refuse Reduce Reuse Repurpose Recycle.” The Greening of Westford, 5 Apr. 2014, thegreeningofwestford.com/2014/04/5-rs-refuse-reduce-reuse-repurpose-recycle.html.

“National Science Foundation - Where Discoveries Begin.” Human Water Cycle | NSF - National Science Foundation, National Science Foundation, www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/human_water_cycle/index.jsp

Written by Reid

Your Air is Bad, Fix It

This video shows our robot testing air quality it does not actually have the sensors we need but it represents what the robot will be like. Our robot will test sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide levels which both contribute to acid rain and algae growths. By detecting the high levels early are robot can alert people to fix and take care of the leak or problem.

 In this picture, you can see pollutants and other stuff come out of a production plant as you can see pollutants are a very big problem if a lot comes out it can contribute to poisonous algae blooms and acid rain. Acid rain hurts the forests and helps deforestation. Nitrogen dioxide also hurts people. When these pollutants mix with rivers and lakes they not only harm the water but also the animals that live in them and need it to survive.

As you can see below algae covers a lot of this lake. When algae cover lakes and ponds it is gross and can sometimes be dangerous to swim in. Some lake generates antitoxin algae the algae can make you sick and can even kill animals and humans. Nitrogen dioxide and sulfur oxide contribute to the growth of algae and can even make it so there is a algae bloom. Algae bloom is where there is a huge amount of algae the number of algae can go anywhere from a thin coating to an almost mattress of algae.

The way that we can stop this is to make sure that power plants are clean and re regularly checked for leaks. Nitrogen dioxide comes from car exhaust if we use clean fuels and try to use electric cars or not drive so often we can cut down on the rate of nitrogen dioxide in the air.

Basic Information about NO2.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, 8 Sept. 2016,
 www.epa.gov/no2-pollution/basic-information-about-no2#What%20is%20NO2.

Sulfur Oxides. July 1998, www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/5cb16d8048855c248b24db6a6515bb18/HandbookSulfurOxides.pdf?MOD=AJPERES.

Essick, Peter. “Air Pollution Causes, Effects, and Solutions.” Causes, Effects, and Solutions, 17 Oct. 2017,www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/pollution/

     Toxtown national library of medicine.
https://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=29

By Garrett

Chimacum Middle School March 14 Walkout

Chimacum Middle School Students Gathering

The March 14, 2018, speech:
"Today we are here to honor life’s lost in the unspeakable tragedies happening all over the country. The latest in Parkland Florida.  

Our voices as students, teachers, and members of the community need to be heard. Our voices need to create change. Our voices need to inspire others to do the same. 

I'm asking you to put aside your political views for 17 minutes. I'm asking you actually recognize what is happening around the U.S.  I’m asking you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.

This is our lives! Their lives were taken away from them, so yes I am asking you to do something. I am begging every single one of you. We cannot choose to ignore or tune out these events because they do not affect us. Because when we let it go untested it gets worse.

This is how a Wednesday went from a normal day to a movement like this

I walked out of the gym at 4:30 I checked my phone looking for a text message from my mom instead I found a shooting. I remember looking at the screen looking at the article, looking at the death count, looking around at my fellow teammates, my fellow classmates. Girls I had grown up with for ten years. I then imagined seventeen of them gone. How could this keep happening? Why is it that seventeen people need to die for us to start taking something like this seriously?

Us as students should feel safe going to school every day. But we don’t. And how could we? How can any of us after this?

It has been a month! The time to change is now. Something needs to come of this! 

17 minutes of silence isn’t enough to remember the souls taken from us due to senseless acts of shooting. It will take us coming together to stand for what is right. I’ll let each one of you decide for yourself what you truly think ‘right’ is. But I can tell you this 17 people had their life’s cut off all too soon in Parkland Florida Feb 14th, 2018. 

A sample of the middle school gathering.


It’s one thing to remember the victims and speak out. It’s another thing to take action.

If you see something say something! 

Whether it’s from social media, school, text message, home, anywhere if you witness or hear something that could be a red flag report it!

Don’t be the person to stand by and let something like this happen.

I don’t care if that person is your friend, your relative, a total stranger‍. Do something tell someone. You can speak to a trusted adult. For example a teacher, principal, counselor, parent or law enforcement. Not only could you be helping to prevent a death, but you could also help change someone's life and aid them in getting help. We cannot stand by and watch something like this unfold. Because to me keeping some secret or joke isn’t worth a single life, and absolutely not 17.

Nothing is.

Students listen as their classmate speaks.

Florida is the farthest state away from Washington, we cannot let those 1000s of miles detract from the seriousness of this.

When we stand together for what is right we become more powerful. We can’t let things like this separate us. When we allow them too we become weaker.

The victims who died were children, friends, sons, and daughters. Just like us

Peter Wang died holding open a classroom door for other so they could escape before him. Teachers threw themselves in front of children to prevent their own students from being shot. They were willing to save somebody else's lives even if it meant their own. We owe it to them to change.

Their kindness and bravery in their last minutes on Earth should move us to show the same. Thank you for listening and showing your support today. If you can take something away from this besides learning to take action please take with you thankfulness for what we have. Because for some in Parkland it is what they lost."

-------

After the shooting, I was really just left in shock and disbelief. The shock translated into action. We spent hours, planning, talking to students, sharing with teachers, and trying to morally understand why something like this happened. Why we didn't feel safe going to school. Why we even had to worry about this. It all accumulated into the walkout. I reached out to the paper and they came out to the school on the day of the walkout. 

We wanted a way to really help students visualize what the after effects massacre like this could be. The idea presented itself at an ASB meeting when our advisor suggested we do some form of representing the victims killed.

After that, we then worked with a group of representatives who helped organize and participate the show of solidarity. Each one of us was assigned a number and when the number was read out loud we came out from the crowd to sit on the bleachers. Underneath our sweatshirts we wore an X, to represent each shot that ended 17 students and teachers lives in Parkland Florida. 

Students with X's on their shirts representing the 17 killed in Florida.

As a student, I feel a responsibility to spread my voice and encourage others to do the same. We all have a voice, it is up to you to make sure it is heard.

by Ava

PS: Our local newspaper covered the story.

Protect the Bumblebees!

 🐝  Bumblebees, the little fluffy insects you see flying around your garden in the spring. When you hear "bee", you may scream and run out of the room yelling "Kill It, Kill It" or, you might be the one who stomps on the bee, squishing it into mush.  Next time you see a bee just open a window and shoo it out, and let me tell you why...                                                                          
        🐝  Did you know bumblebees are endangered?  Well, they are.  You may be thinking "they're just bugs, why does it matter if all the bees die?"  Actually, it matters a lot!  Bees pollinate flowers, which is how plants reproduce and grow food.  Bumblebees going extinct would mean a mammoth drop in crops.  According to Bees-NRDC,  "Pollination helps at least 30 percent of the world's crops and 90 percent of our wild plants to thrive."  Although we can self-pollinate (to pollinate flowers ourselves), it would take hours to do an acre with at least 10 workers.  Now imagine that on a worldwide scale.   Albert Einstein predicted: “Mankind will not survive the honeybees’ disappearance for more than five years.”            
       🐝  OK, but how do we help?  You can help by planting bee-friendly plants, and you can avoid using harmful chemicals like weed killers in your garden. weeds can be good. I know, I know!  Weeds are pests that invade your garden, but honey bees and every other type of bee love weeds! Especially dandelions and clover.  If you have a lot of bees around your home, you can also leave a small tin of water outside for them to drink from.

                                    Save The Bees!

                                                      

                                           References

• https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/bees.pdf 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-pollination
• https://www.quora.com/How-long-would-humans-survive-without-bees
• http://www.queenofthesun.com/get-involved/10-things-you-can-do-to-help-bees/
• http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-and-extinction-of-the-bees/5375684#insertlearning

By Zula

Electric Airplanes

✈🌏 I’d Love To Change The World And This Is What I’d Do 🌏✈

    

By: Zula

Jets leave a large carbon footprint on our earth. Every day roughly 100,000,000 planes take off around the world, emitting more and more carbon into the air. How do we stop this? My idea to change the world is to start making and using electric jets.

By switching to electric jets we will really cut down on the carbon pollution in the air. Burning carbon-based fuels that are absorbed by the ocean and trapped in our atmosphere melt the polar ice caps. This causes the ocean to rise, flooding cities and towns on the coasts. When the ocean temperatures rise and the air temperatures rise, more intense storms are generated.

According to ChooseClimate.org just to fly across the United States of America in a jet takes 310 kg of fuel, which puts 964 kg of CO2 into the air. About 102,465 airplanes take off across the United States that's 31,764,150 kg of fuel, which puts 98,776,260 kg of CO2 into our atmosphere.

A great deal of people believe that global warming is a myth and “we” have nothing to do with it. So, airplanes burning fossil fuels wouldn't make a difference. And more importantly, it will be an expensive process. By going through with this, we will dramatically reduce the amount of CO2 in the air. Yes, it will be an expensive job with lots of work, but the outcome will be worth it.

Because planes have such a large carbon footprint we should start making electric jets. By doing so, we will really cut down on the carbon pollution in our air. It will take a lot of effort but I believe it will have a positive impact on the Earth.