RI2./RSHT2. Science/Language Arts Article

Learning about science is more and more crucial to understand what's going on around you. I am continually amazed at how often I am reading the news and something comes up that would be really confusing to me without the science classes that I took as a student.

So, the science department and I thought it a good idea to plan some joint readings to show the important connections between our disciplines. This particular article, about a proposed rebuild of a bridge right over the New Jersey border in southern New York state, requires a basic knowledge of how sound waves travel in order to understand fully. Click on the link to read the article, and then practice the "chain of main ideas" technique in order to create a summary. Think about what you have learned in science about sound waves in order to understand the seriousness of the problem of protecting the fish underwater from the construction noise.

Important Note: Since this is a news article, and so keeps its paragraphs extremely short, which makes our "Chain of Main Ideas" too much work. So, you should simply group the sentences together and remake full paragraphs by summarizing once every five sentences or so. Never be afraid to alter your tools when your intelligence suggests this.

5.2. Giver Nonfiction Topics: Geoengineering RI2.

Why We Should Read This Thing Right Now: One of the science fiction aspects of The Giver that is getting closer to science fact is the idea of controlling the weather. The vast majority of scientists are warning that the behavior of people on earth is altering the climate. Now, scientists are talking about a topic called "geoengineering," which is the practice ("-ing") of changing the earth ("geo") on purpose through technical means ("engineer"). So, as is happening more and more lately, science fiction is turning into science fact.

What You Need to Know: Remember, this week's skill is "Determining the Central Idea of a Short Reading" - so you only need to write a single sentence about this reading. We'll discuss all this in conversations throughout the next few months, in science and language arts, so I'd like you to have this reading. We've reviewed this twice, so you may already feel comfortable, otherwise click on the link to get a little help.

The Text: Today's article,  How Stuff Works "Cloud Seeding", is a look at one way that people have proposed to fight global warming - not by recycling (which does not do anything for global warming, but people tend to think recycling solves all environmental problems) or reusing stuff (which does help the environment) - but by actually doing something active to change the environment more.