Interpreting Artifacts

Digging up the artifacts in DIG was one challenge, interpreting them was an all together harder task. The Serpents spent hours reconstructing the pieces of the plaster mural and other artifacts the Stingrays buried then trying to decipher their written language to make sense of what their culture was all about. They concluded the culture lived on a tropical island in 810 AD, ate seafood, played ball games in the sea and land, had little technology and worshiped birds. The Serpents can't wait to meet with the Stingrays to find out if they were right!

DIG

Oh my an archaeological dig is some serious work especially artifacts buried by the fiendish Stingrays. Four hours of work later the Serpents found everything, they hope, and now the real challenge begins, putting it all together. Here's a few scenes from the dig.

Persuasive Essays

The Serpents have spent the year working on their writing, in particular essays. Their final essay was a persuasive essay in which they could write about anything they felt strongly about. Here are a few examples:

 Rainforest Depletion

By: M.S.

The rain forest trees are disappearing at a rate of 6000 acres every hour. When these plants are cut down the animals that live in them have to flee quickly. But some don’t have time to move and hundreds of animals are dying every day because of this.

The rain forests are there to help us breath and live. It makes almost half of the oxygen here on Earth. If the rain forest dies we die too. The rain forest has 90% of the biodiversity in the world. The rain forest will soon be a desert if we don’t stop cutting down the trees. Many cattle farms bring their cattle to graze there; because there is so much grazing land after the cutting.

The rain forests are being cut down because people are using their bark for rubber, wood, oil, etc. The people who work for these companies are probably just fine with what they’re doing. They don’t seem to mind that they are killing hundreds of animals and plants. They even let people burn the leftovers of the rain forest’s wood.

If you go to the rain forest there are lots of stumps left from the destruction of the trees. It is sad to see the stumps just sitting there and animals lying dead. They are very sad to see so we should stop cutting down the trees in the rain forest. It will save species, trees, and it will save people sorrow.

Some people say that “Trees are trees how many more do we need to look at.”  Others like me say that “It is not right to cut them down for wood when we could get wood from less inhabited trees.” Prince Charles even said that “I, for one, am determined to do everything in my power to ensure that this future is not snatched from our children and grand children.” He is nice to think that he can help and maybe you can too. Start a donation jar of money for the rain forest plants and animals.

Dyslexia             By: G.T.S.

Why can’t dyslexia be diagnosed sooner?

It is important to test as early as kindergarten for dyslexia because the earlier the students can get tutoring or support the better off they’ll be. For students with dyslexia learning is harder and more frustrating. So having support would help them be more confident, braver, and successful. It would also be easier for the family to understand dyslexia.

Testing should begin as early as kindergarten. Make sure teachers and the staff understand what dyslexia is.  Some people think it means you won’t be good at other subjects like math or social studies or science, but it’s not true.  Work on all subjects with them.

Currently diagnosis can occur in 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd grade. Some ways to test for dyslexia include naming shapes and reading some letters. Good ways to support someone with dyslexia are to tell them about tests and what it involves. Tell them how the tests happen. Say something like “There is not a right and wrong way.” Have teachers learn about dyslexia and their learning styles

 Some helpful tools for supporting those with dyslexia are: Audio books with text that you can read along with. Using tutors. Using creative writing with writing assistants.  Also, having someone write down the student’s ideas.  Use specialist support. Have comic books and graphic novels and more visual books. Find reading specialists for exams and tests. Help by using art for subjects. Also use more visuals of the materials, any kind of pictures help.

As a person that suffers from dyslexia it would have helped me a lot more if I had known sooner than later. Now that I know, I understand what I have and am a more successful student.

Alternative Energy

By: S.B.

               Alternative energy is the energy of the future! It is found in many places, prices are lowering for technology to obtain the energy, and it is nearly pollution free. Oil and gas prices are going up as reserves are depleted, and they also cause methane pollution which is a large cause of climate change. We must change our ways before it is too late.

               Today, oil and gas make up most of the world’s fuel, especially gas for cars. Methane keeps polluting, and only a small percent of energy comes from renewable and clean sources. The ozone layer is melting, and because of rising temperatures, the ice caps might melt too. If that happens, much of the current land would be consumed by water, including much of some states, like Florida, California, and others. Seattle would be threatened as well. Power plants cause particle pollution, which have shown to cause death and disease from the air pollution.

However, hydroelectricity, air power, and solar energy, when fully invested in, can change everything. If we completely stop using oil and gas, instead using electrical cars and bicycles in the place of gasoline cars, we might be able to save the ozone layer. We would replace polluting power plants with solar panel centers, and solar panels also could be put on houses. Hydroelectricity would produce a most of the energy for large coastal cities, such as Seattle, Miami, and San Francisco, and windmills and turbines would be mobilized everywhere.

Some people support oil and gas drilling, especially fracking, a hydraulic inland version of drilling that covers less land and leaves a smaller footprint. But even though this might be better than regular drilling, many consequences still await. Pollution is caused, as are industrial explosions. And also, people who believe in fracking probably do not know what happens when drilling becomes a part of a community. People’s health, way of life, and future are threatened. People have been fighting back when this happens, a good example Dryden, where the people of the town joined together to see what they could do about it. They eventually found a law that the town officials could decide to prohibit the drilling to stop it, so they made a petition and got hundreds of people to sign it. Luckily, the fracking was stopped. This shows how strongly people who experience drilling near them feel about fracking.

Research that happened in 2012 showed that in mid-latitudes between 4% and 6% the ozone layer has been depleted across the globe and 10% to 12% in higher latitudes per decade. This poses a real problem and oil and gas pollution has played a large part of it. Right now, renewable energy accounts for 12% of energy generation. But since the US is producing a lot of pollution from oil and gas, we could make a real change.

In conclusion, it is important that we switch to mostly alternative energy to stop the ozone layer from melting; the source of global warming. This would prevent the Arctic Caps from melting, which would make sure that waters do not rise and consume a huge amount of land. It also helps people; industrial explosions would be prevented and towns threatened from drilling saved. We must unite to stop oil and gas pollution before it is too late!

  Pet Abuse

By: O.M.

          The U.S.A has thousands, maybe millions of dogs who are abused and have no homes. I believe that pet abuse should not be allowed, and should be banned from the U.S.

Puppy mills are large-scale commercial dog breeding operations that put greater priority on profits than the health of the puppies. When you buy a puppy or dog on the internet you are not only helping puppy mills but you are also risking getting scammed with your money. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, (there is one) hundreds of complaints have been filed each year about people being scammed when buying a dog or puppy online. Not only that but the puppy that you get may not be the puppy that you agreed to buy, or not get a puppy at all.

          Some people tend to not know that they are doing pet abuse, something as simple as tying your dog to a chain and leaving him outside could be pet abuse. Here is a story of a dog named Oogy who was abused and surprisingly still lived.

          Lauren M. tells a story about Oogy “When our dog Oogy was just ten weeks old and weighed 20 pounds he was tied to a stake and used as bait for a pit bull. The left side of his face including most of his ear was torn off. He was bitten so hard that a piece of his lower jaw was crushed. After he was thrown into a cage to bleed to bleed to death he was found by police when they raided they raided the facility and taken to a emergency service operating out of Ardmore Animal Hospital, in a suburb of Philadelphia. There, Diane Klein, the office’s director of operations, simply refused to allow the dog to die. Dr. James Bianco, the head of the hospital operated for hours to stop the bleeding, replace the lost blood, and suture the gaping meat Oogy’s face had become. With the help of the whole staff Oogy survived.”

          Do you think that Oogy deserved all of this? He was just a simple dog waiting to have a life and instead he got abused by some citizen. Think about it anyone could abuse an animal, even me, but I don’t have a cruel mind to do something like this. Most people abuse animals because they want to feel powerful and in control, or because they have problems at home and take it out on the animal.

          The reason why I am doing this is because I have a strong feeling about pet abuse and think that it should go on no longer that it had been. I say that we pull our selves together and STOP THIS. You are the helping hand and I need your help.

          “ If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.”

-       Albert Einstein