woodchurch science

this site (breathingearth.net) shows how many people are being born and dying around the world and just how much CO2 is being produced. interesting and just a bit worrying…

a very important subject and one we take for granted. here’s a few links to get you started:
sewage treatment, water pollution (easy guide), waste water made clear.

ensure you cover the following topics in your presentation:
screening
sedimentation
biological filters
disinfection
sludge disposal
and try to find some good photographs to illustrate your work…image search


Drive Green: How To Prepare Used Cooking Oil For Biodiesel

making 2bn tonnes of cement globally every year pumps out 5% of the world’s CO2 emissions – more than the entire aviation industry, so any innovations which will reduce this must be welcomed. british scientists (hooray!) have developed a new type of cement that ‘eats CO2′. you can read all about it here.

here’s a clip from topgear with james may showing us the future of motoring – a hydrogen powered electric car. handy for when crude oil runs out…

more than a quarter of sharks and rays in the north-east atlantic face extinction from overfishing, conservationists warned today. a “red list” report from the international union for conservation of nature (IUCN) found that 26% of all sharks, rays and related species in the regional waters are threatened with extinction. seven per cent are classed as critically endangered, while a fifth are regarded as “near-threatened”.
read more here.

yes really…it’s been calculated (by someone?!) that if all the men on the planet stopped shaving then we wouldn’t have to worry about the negative effects of carbon dioxide any more. here’s some reasons:

less hot water used in the shower or at the sink; less or no need for disposable plastic razors or shaving cream or foam(which often comes in those huge unrecyclable containers) and hair on your face keeps you just a bit warmer outside and inside. turning the thermostat down just 1 degree can also save you 5% on your heating bill!

we’ve had a question from abbie wilson in year 7 about bees. einstein once said that if all the worlds bees died out then humans would follow within four years! here are a couple of articles about this problem which is worrying conservationists worldwide. article one – last flight of the honeybee, and article two – so what’s plan bee?

but here’s something to look into…did einstein really say that? here’s a letter in this weekend’s guardian:

Alison Benjamin states in Last Flight Of The Honeybee? (May 31), “According to Albert Einstein, our very existence is inextricably linked to bees.” There is no evidence for this being true, as can be found easily by reference to the myth-busting snopes.com. Snopes’ conclusion is that the supposed quote was probably concocted as part of a campaign by European beekeepers protesting about perceived threats to their livelihoods. Martin Whittaker, Edinburgh

here’s a few pictures of stephen, phil, dillon and robert cleaning out the school pond as part of the go for green project.

there are some resources available from bp education services about climate change (posters, leaflets, teacher notes). i have some copies if you want some for your lessons or if you want just a poster for your room i have 4 left…see me first come first served…