The End of 2016

Good day SE students! This month marks the end of 2016. It's hard to believe how fast a year flies by. And 2017 is quickly approaching. What kind of year will it be? I think it be a year of new experiences and of course, continual recovery from the earthquake of April, 2016. New achievements will be had for many researching the environment and sustainable energy, as this field is in its infancy. Perhaps many of you will be working in this unique and important field. If you are still wondering what area to research, or in what field you want to work, I think you should focus on alternative energy. Maybe this will be one field where you can be creative, and yet offer many ideas for the future.

This week is the end of classes for 2016. In the next class we will present our erosion control systems for the class. I hope to have you all come to the front and present to us as usual - your presentations are always interesting. If we finish presentations early, we will have an opportunity to learn about Christmas briefly, or work on English Central. See you all then!

World's Changing Weather Patterns

Since the dawn of the new age, the earth has seen many changes. Several of them have to do with advances in technology, medicine, and science. Inasmuch as we would like to believe that our actions have no impact on the earth, we go about our daily lives inventing, creating, using, and discarding. In the process trees are cut down and grasses plowed. But these actions cause erosion (this week's topic) in a big way - bigger than we might expect. A simple straightforward example of an effect are landslides that are easier to form due to the lack of trees holding soil together. Another problem stemming from human activity is global warming in general which causes temperatures to rise globally. These rises in temperature cause heat, condensation, cloud formation, and therefore more thunderstorms. These thunderstorms are becoming more and more severe every year. After hurricanes and typhoons, storm surges form more readily and wreak havoc all over the world. Coastal erosion is caused by beating and bashing waves, but also by the rising sea levels all over the world. More severe storms cause more wind and rain which in turn cause more and more erosion. Perhaps the fact that people have cut down trees from years ago makes the wind blow harder causing more erosion. And global warming causes it to rain more and industrial areas this rain could be akin to acid rain which yet causes more erosion. 
Eventually after millions of years wind will cause crevices that get wider each year, coastal erosion that forces us to move buildings and possible entire towns, and even islands that have been swallowed up for good. What is the key to erosion control? No deforestation, no global warming, and only infrastructure that is in tune with the future of nature in a positive way.

Erosion

Erosion is the process of wearing down the surface of the earth by natural processes such as rain, water, wind, and tectonic movement. Erosion happens over millions of years and shapes and reshapes the land endlessly. Some of the most fascinating sites in the world, such as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, were made via erosion. The earth's natural processes don't stop depending on the location. Places in China, Estonia, Jordon, and Japan, all have been affected by erosion.Coastal erosion, meaning erosion around the coastlines of various countries occurs, too, and sometimes we can see it change before our eyes, even after a few years. Glaciers, huge drifts of ice, play a huge part in erosion. In fact, over millions of years, new continents could even be formed. How will erosion affect the earth in the next 100 years?

In this week's class we will start the topic of erosion. We will first read about the topic, and this will be followed by vocabulary. Then, we will complete a vocabulary word practice, and do our usual listening. Finally, we will write some sentences and share those, too. At last, we will design a project based on erosion. What will this project be? You will find out!

Lightning Energy

Hello all! Today's post is about harnessing lightning energy for use in various  kinds of energy applications the world over. Can we do it? There are many people who have thought that one could both harness (capture) and harvest (take) energy from lightning for centuries. Look at Benjamin Franklin for example. In his famous key experiment, he tied a key to a kite and sent the kite up high in the sky into a thunderstorm. There, he watched as lightning did indeed hit the key. He thought he could conduct the experiment again and this time capture the lightning stroke he generated in a glass jar. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried he could not store the lightning effectively. As we saw in the video last week, there are various ways in which we might be able to store the energy from a lightning stroke in fact, but one of them is not a glass jar. The advent of various kinds of electronics have brought us other electric storage methods such as capacitors and batteries. Storage methods such as these will fare better in storing lightning. But how about you? Can you discover the next best way to capture energy from lightning? How will you do it? How will you use the energy you capture? Think about it! That's all for now.

Lightning!

Greetings Science English students! I hope you're having a good week. This week's topic is an interesting and somewhat scary topic and one that everyone grows accustomed to from childhood - lightning. Lightning accompanies thunderstorms with strong winds. Lightning is basically a discharge of electricity, or a giant spark. Sparks like this happen within one cloud, from one cloud to the other, or from a cloud to the ground. Each lightning stroke heats the air to an amazing 30,000 degrees  C. The heat rush causes the air to expand in an explosion, and this explosion causes a shockwave that becomes a booming sound - one we call thunder. Thunder travels from the lightning source outwards in all directions. This is why we always see lightning and hear thunder together. Light travels fast and so we see lightning immediately, but sounds waves travel more slowly, and it takes longer for thunder to reach our ears. As a child, I remember my father telling me that you could determine how far away the thunderstorm is by counting right after we see lightning. Thunder sound travels 1 km in 3 seconds, so if we count 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi (the approximate time to count one second) then we know the lightning has traveled 1 km. If we can count up to 15 seconds, we know the thunderstorm is 3 km away. If the lightning stroke is very close to us, we hear a loud crack and then a loud bang. A rumbling sound indicates that a storm is farther away. What causes lightning? We really don't know. However, on condition for lightning to occur is that there must be separate regions containing opposite electrical charges. Let's learn more in the upcoming class! See you next time.

Nuclear Revisited

Good morning all, just a short blog post to let you all know that in the upcoming class I will read some comments from your classmates regarding your presentations/designs. In addition, we will watch a short video on the Fukushima nuclear disaster. I will not give back your designs, as I have not finished marking them, but will return them soon. Also in the next class we will examine answers to questions and sentences on the board, and will move onto listening, which is quite a long one this time, and onto our designs. What is the next design? I'm sure you can guess, but wait and see!

Nuclear Energy

Last week in Science English we learned about ecosystems, and most of you presented in front of the class. Today the girls will finish presenting, and we will move to the next topic - nuclear energy. Many people fear nuclear energy because you can't see it, taste it, smell it, or feel it. This is scary indeed. Nuclear energy has fascinated me, yet scared me from my earliest days of childhood. After the Tohoku earthquake in March of 2011 and subsequent days, we all became more aware of nuclear energy. After the Kumamoto earthquakes, too, we all became fearful of what might happen in our own neighborhoods after a devastating earthquake. 

In the class about nuclear energy we will watch a short movie about the dangers of nuclear energy, but not only about the dangers - about the potential of nuclear energy as well. Of course nuclear energy is dangerous, but it also has the capability or producing vast amounts of never ending energy. Isn't that we we need to help humanity evolve? Isn't that better for progress? For advancing to the next level of awareness, of creating the next generation after generation of society?  This is something we all must ask - are the benefits worth the risk? Perhaps only time and advances in nuclear technology will tell.

Think about it!

Ecosystems

Good day students! Back to school in Fall semester and back to blogging. Last week in class we started the topic Ecosystems, and that we will finish up this week. I hope to have you do more presenting at the front of the room using the overhead camera. I think the camera is very useful for this purpose. In addition, using a microphone during presentations will help the students hear what you are saying. Many people feel shy using a microphone, but please don't worry about it because everyone wants to learn from you by seeing your work and listening to your explanation. It is good practice, and you may be nervous when you are presenting, but after you have finished, you can take joy in realizing you have accomplished one more presentation.

In this week's class we will check our sentences that we started last week and will continue on to listening, writing answers, and designing. See you in next class!

Summer

Hello Science English students. This week brings us to the close of SE for the Spring, 2016 semester. We have this week's class, and then next week are days for make-up classes. Following that are the exams during the next week. We will have our exam on Wednesday, August 10th. I am thinking about how to make the exam, and have come to the decision it is probably best to make the exam much like the topic design prints we use in class. Therefore, the test will probably contain a reading, vocabulary for you to write meanings and write synonyms, sentence writing, listening, answers to questions, and finally, a design portion. I'm thinking if it's best for you to complete a project on the test that we've already done, or if it is better to use a completely new project.

This week we will finalize the last project of this semester - making a pollution monitoring device. We will probably present in smaller groups and then larger groups as we have done. Then I will collect your designs. I will explain the examination after this, and we will probably have time to work on English Central. I think it will be an effective way to end this semester. I am always looking for new and interesting videos for EC, but I've only been able to find a few Science English related videos. I'm thinking of recommending or suggesting to EC that they should include more interesting SE related videos.

That's all for the blog this week. Until next time, all! See you soon!

Hazy Days Ahead

Good day Science English students! This week seems to be starting off quite hot; it is very sunny and bright outside as I write this. Although it is a holiday today, most universities have classes today due to the earthquake. Unfortunately, this can't be helped. We can sill enjoy the day, and look forward to the summer.

Speaking of summer, this summer may be hotter than usual. It seems that every year gets a little hotter, especially in Kyushu. I have heard that Kyushu must grow a different variety of rice than it used to. Many people think is due to global warming. In fact, Hokkaido, too, is now growing rice where it never used to. It, too, is getting warmer. The whole world seems to be getting warmer these days, and where it used to be colder in the north which lent itself to growing certain varieties of food, now the world is getting warmer and therefore those varieties can only move further north. This leads us all to wonder how the earth will be in 50 years time.

We also have to wonder what other environmental problems a hotter climate will lead to. Will the oceans change? Will forests become bleak and disappear? Will mountain streams become dried up? What will our water and food situation be like this summer? Well, this summer will probably be okay, and the next, the next, and the next. However, it is the future we really should be worrying about for our children and grandchildren.

In this week's class we will be finishing our discussion of pollution. Then we will begin to discuss ways in which we can alleviate pollution on the earth and in our small communities. Let's see what we can do!

Disaster Warning System, Pollution

In last week's class, we started to do our disaster warning system slides on google slides or PowerPoint. This is an important topic, so I wanted to look at it more in depth, and have you really put attention into doing these slides. Some of you have already shared them with me, so thank you very much. They look really well-done. I'm hoping in this week's class we can share them all on the projector, with a short presentation. I think this will be a very worthwhile project.

In addition this week towards the end of class we will start what we were going to start last week - Pollution. This is an important topic as well, because most air and water pollution have been with us for decades, and with growth (economic and societal), comes pollution it seems. It is important to keep pollution in check in order to maintain the health of safety of the population. These days we have seen less massive air pollution from coal factories, and less water pollution from chemical companies. It remains in check because people demand it, and therefore it may get better in the future as we start to create greener ways to manufacture products and use the products and materials that we have already been producing for years.

That's all for this blog. I am looking forward to your slides and presentations this week. We will discuss in next class about how to share these slides. Until then, everyone!

Pollution

Last week we learned about natural disasters, and we listened to your design presentations in small groups, and then larger groups. I was happy to listen to all the presentations, because they are getting better and better. The more you speak English the better speakers you all become. It goes without saying that doing anything over and over can be a boon to ability. That includes any skill including scientific measurement, climbing a mountain, or speaking English...speaking any language for that matter!

 This week we will start our next project design topic: pollution. Air, water, noise, and groundwater all are prone to being polluted. Through constant use of materials and throwing things away, our natural environment will undoubtedly become polluted. When I was a child, my parents had a summer cottage. There was a restaurant and dinner club near the summer home, and many cottages located around a golf course. These establishments needed to throw things away, of course. I remember hiking in the local forest around the club, and sure enough, I found a small piece of land where garbage and unused things were "dumped." I was shocked that so many things were just left there, in the woods to rot and be forgotten about. Of course, after some years, this dump came to light, and the local residents cleaned up the area and become more careful about not dumping there. Nowadays, scenes like this probably don't happen. This is because of human awareness. Human awareness can put an end to anything negative, and can put positive actions into motion.

Pollution is one of those things we need to be educated about. It's amazing how many things can be caught up in the midst of pollution - water (seas, streams, and groundwater), soil (chemical seepage), air (dirt and particulate matter [pm2.5], smog, and haze), and even noise (cement trucks, construction, traffic, human voices). We should be careful of pollution not only for ourselves, but also for our future families. There is one thing that can help us in gaining knowledge about pollution and its prevention: education!

Natural Disasters

Good day students! Last week's topic in SE was recycling. We learned that it is very important to recycle for environmental sustainability. The more we recycle, the better we can do for the health of the earth. Your assignment was to design your own recycling center. We will have a look at your recycling centers in the upcoming class.

This week's topic will be natural disasters. Natural disasters come from the natural movement and are common occurrences throughout the world. Although they are natural, they can be large scale, and therefore, devastating to human life and habitats. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict natural disasters at this time. We sometimes just feel the movement of the earth in an earthquake, strong winds blow in a typhoon, or molten lava jetting out in a volcano blast. Once we get to the point of being able to predict natural disasters we may be better off. Until then, we may just have to rebuild and try to get back to life as normal after a natural disaster.

The whole world knows about the earthquakes Japan experienced in April of this year. These quakes were unusual because there were two, not just one, as is what usually happens. This was very unusual, but in fact, scientists were aware of the large faults under Kyushu. Of course, as we cannot predict disasters, it was very difficult to know what to do.

Just around an hour before writing this today, at about 7:00 AM as I was waking up, there was another small temblor. I sat up and waited as I usually do, ready to run, and the quake finally subsided, but you never know. What if it were to have kept on going?

Environmental Protection through Recycling

Hello Science English students! Last week we heard presentations from all of you. They were quite good presentations, and we all learned a lot from you. I think it was a good experience for all of you. We will surely do it again this semester. You all had the opportunity to vote for your favorite speaker. I have tallied all the votes, and we will find out who the winner was in this week's class. Actually, there was one clear winner, but many people got some votes as well. We will hear the number of votes everyone received on Wednesday. Please look forward to it!

In this week's class we will start the next topic, recycling. As everyone knows, recycling is very important for environmental protection. When we recycle, some good can actually be done. Sometimes the recycling procedure is not perfect, and full attention to detail from the masses is hard to achieve, but through time, patience, and education, soon recycling will be at the forefront more than it is now. It will become a more important household word, and will be just standard form. Let's keep at it. Recycling is the way of the future!

See you in the next class. If you read this blog, please bring in something that has been, or could be recycled. This will help us begin our discussion. That's all and see you soon.

Recycle it!

Good day, Science English students! Last week we examined alternative energy aspects, and we learned about several forms of renewable energy such as wind, solar, and geothermal power. We listened to a conversation relating to alternative energy. We wrote some sentences and checked vocabulary on the board. For this week, you had to write answers to questions relating to alternative energy, and design your own form of alternative energy. I would like you to present some designs in front of the students in this week's class. Of course, we will practice first, and I will give you guidelines. I hope we can accomplish this goal.

Also in class this week we will introduce briefly the next topic of recycling. Recycling is so important because it can help us take old materials and make new and useful products, thereby reducing the need to buy new products. In addition, this helps reduce the need to throw away used materials into landfills or incinerate them, which causes pollution. We will read about recycling, practice listening, write some sentences, answer some questions, and of course, design your own recycling center with your partner. Like renewable energy, this is perhaps one of the most important topics we will study this semester.

Well, that's all for today's blog. Please be confident in the next class in order to present. I'm sure it will work well. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing about your new and exciting forms of renewable energy!

Alternative Energy!

Hell students! Alternativ energy is very important for our lives. What new kinds of energy sources can we think of? What kinds of renewable energy sources are there? If we don't create new sources soon, our earth might be out of luck for the future. I read recently about a type of battery that can be use forever, and some people are makine alternative energy from waste products.

That will be our focus in this week's class. First, we will check the homework, and then go to work on designing our new alternative energy sources!

Environmental Science and the Atmosphere

Hello Science English students! Two weeks we began to learn about the study of environmental science. We learned key vocabulary related to the field and we have discussed questions with partners. We practiced listening in real-world context. Finally, we designed an environmental learning center with partners and practiced the technique of presentations, first with partners, and then with small groups. It was an effective lesson, I thought, and it will be very useful for you in the future I'm sure.

Last week we learned about the different levels in the earth's atmosphere, and learned key vocabulary including mesosphere, and stratosphere. We learned about the gasses that make up the earth's atmosphere, and wrote sentences that we shared with the class. We practiced listening with a natural conversation, and wrote significant answers to questions. We then began to design an atmospheric cleaning center with partners, which is to be finished for this week's class.

In class this week, we will check the homework, and practice presentations again. I'm thinking of asking some volunteers to present their ideas at the front of the class. It is a very good experience to present your ideas in class, because you may have to do it someday in a conference. Your ideas are very important, and it is a good opportunity to begin to share your ideas with the world!

First Week

Good day Science English students! In this week's class we will start the first project, "What is environmental science?" We will begin by listening to, and practicing, a reading about environmental science. Then we will look up word meanings in both Japanese and English and then write the meanings in English. We will then write the words we learned into the sentences, and practice listening. After listening we will think about questions with a partner and write your answers in English. After this we will continue on to one of the biggest activities we will do in the class: design and presentation. This week's design will contain an environmental resource center will be used for educational purposes. You must write an explanation and design the center with you partner.

All the activities in each week's class will be checked after finishing. Please bring all papers to each class. In addition, don't forget pencils, pens, paper, and a USB flash drive if possible. We will present our designs and research to the class, so please try not to be nervous. It will be a good experience for all of you. We will practice presenting in the class from time to time. Presentations will not be completed every week but will done when we finish the unit.

Please try to come to every class, bring all the materials, try to write and speak your best in English, and try to use English rather than Japanese! In addition, please follow this blog. Speaking of blogs, we will all have a chance to make a blog about an environmental issue and also will complete some homework using blogs, google drive, and e-mail. I will write a new blog entry every week, and it will cover past homework answers/comments, things we will do in the upcoming class, and new and interesting information.

Let's have fun in SE! That's all for now. See you all in next class.

Sustain the World

Hello Science English students. I'm sorry this blog is late...I've been busy with so many things. As you know, last Friday I had a business trip so classes were postponed. As you should know as well, we will have a make-up class on Tuesday, February 2nd at 3rd period. We also have one class after that, on Friday, February 5th which will be the last class.

In today's class we will begin to learn about sustainability and begin Unit 12 in the textbook. Sustainability is probably one of the most important topics (notions, really) that we have to take into consideration in the 21st Century and beyond...for the future of our families, the earth, and humanity. It's true - humans have caused a lot of destruction on the earth in the past century, after the industrial revolution, building infrastructures and the like, and while humanity has advanced, insofar as technology is concerned, the more "earthy" or "organic" things in life have take a back seat.

Today we will start lesson 12.1 Vocabulary on page 94, and begin with A, 1 and possibly 2. We will complete B 1 and perhaps C 2 and 3 as well. What we cannot finish in class will be given for homework. In addition, Homework for TUESDAY will most likely be 12.2 Reading (page 96) B, D, and E 1& 2. Perhaps this will be completed on google drive. This book work and homework will help you think about sustainability in the long term.

That's all for this blog. Thank you for reading, and will see you in class soon. If you have any questions about anything, as always, don't hesitate to mail me.

Florida's Environment

Good day Science English students! Welcome back to school after a nice winter vacation. I too am back in Japan from my trip to the US...the state of Florida to be exact. For those of you who don't know where Florida is...look at your map of the US. There it is! The bottom right state that looks like the handle of a frying pan, and hence, Florida has become known as the panhandle of Florida. It's a beautiful place, not as warm and humid as Kumamoto, and has no mosquitoes. That's right, and it's because Florida has two coasts - one on the Gulf of Mexico side and one on the Atlantic Ocean side. My mother lives on the Atlantic side, in a small town called Vero Beach, about an hour directly east of Orlando, the home of Disney World. The Atlantic is interesting because you won't find the ocean right on the coast. In fact, you'll have to go over the Intracoastal Waterway, and then to the Barrier Islands, which are a long, thin strip of islands next to the Florida coast. Finally, on the other side of the Barriers you will find the Atlantic Ocean!

The environment of Florida is particularly interesting. There you will find many exotic creatures from alligators to pelicans to herons, terns, turtles, and manatees. I have always enjoyed visiting the coast of Florida for these elements of wildlife. In fact, I have taken many airboat rides to spot alligators. This is an exciting experience, and for anyone who has not taken an airboat ride, I highly recommend it. I've also seen dolphins being trained at Marathon, southern Florida. You can also see giant sea turtles and, if you're lucky, you can see giant manatees, which look like a water elephant, and which are actually mammals.

The plant life is interesting too. You can find many orange groves there, and the oranges are big and not sweet. There are palm trees Spanish moss, and southern magnolia. In addition, Florida has the Everglades, a flat, swampy area which contains many kinds of plants and animals, such as bromeliads, cacti, lichens, algae, orchids, and many wildflowers.

This Friday is the first day back to class. In class we will read more about Agriculture, particularly the agriculture of Florida. For the next class we will most likely do homework that will lead us into the next topic in the book, Sustainability. Sustainability is another fascinating and important topic because without sustainability practices we won't be able to keep the earth safe and healthy. Let's learn to be aware of environmental sustainability today. In addition, let's learn to be environmentally aware when we travel and take part in ecotourism activities.

Thanks for reading everyone! See you in next class.