National Geographic has compiled a list of the new seven wonders of the world vs. the
Seven Ancient Wonders of the World.

Panoramic View of New Seven Wonders

Click on this link to access Sadlier-Oxford

A "net zero" home is a dwelling that produces as much energy as it consumes.  General Electric
has developed a Net Zero Home Project which has established a goal of energy neutral living by the year 2015.
Our third graders will just be graduating form Holy Family Catholic Academy in the year 2015.
During the first trimester, we will be studying homes of the future. 

Please click on the following links to research your home of the future.  You will be preparing
a PowerPoint presentation which records your conceptual Net Zero home.  Click on the following
links to gather information about interesting, non-conventional homes and Energy Efficient Building:

New Zero Energy Buildings

America's Favorite Architecture

Ewok Style Tree House - An eco-friendly home.
O2 Sustainability Treehouse
Tree Habitats
More Tree Houses
Ultimate Tree Houses

Very Cool Ocean Dwelling

NASA Moon Base for Human Habitation

Scienceray - Three Extreme Eco-Friendly Homes

Prince Charles turns his Highgrove home into an eco-friendly estate. (Consumer Reports)

Unusual Houses around the World:
The Bubble House - France
The Cubic Houses - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater House - Pennsylvania
The Story Book House - Washington State, USA
Crazy House - Vietnam
Habitat 67 - Montreal, Canada
Dynamic Architecture - Rotating Buildings in Dubai
50 Strange Buildings of the World

Possible Components of a Net Zero House:
Solar Panels with Electricity Grid
Geothermal Basics - US Department of Energy
Geothermal Heating
Video - Geothermal Energy - A Renewable Option
Concrete Walls
Small Wind Turbine for additional electricity
The Pickens Plan - Wind Turbines
Demand Response Appliances
Water Filtration
Computerized Home Energy Monitor
Composting System
Clean Energy Ideas

Informative Websites:
Energy Information Administration
Great Buildings Website

Coal as an Energy Source
Video - Coal Pollution
Strip Mining and the Kingston Fossil Plant
Video of TVA Coal Ash Spill

Nuclear as an Energy Source
Nuclear Waste
Key Issues - Nuclear Waste Disposal
Yucca Mountain Repository, Nevada

Technology Class Supply List for the 2009 – 2010 School Year

Dear Parents,

A 1GB Flash Drive is required in Technology Class for all students in grades 5 through 8.  This Flash Drive must be kept at the Technology Lab in order to facilitate the storage of your student’s ongoing projects.  If you have not already done so, please obtain a 1GB Flash Drive for your student.  Please label the Flash Drive with your student’s name and grade.

All projects in Technology Class are “in school” projects and there is no need to remove this Flash Drive from the Technology Lab.  If your student is completing projects for another class, please provide them with an additional Flash Drive that can be transported to and from school.

The Flash Drive is due in class by Monday, September 14, 2009. 

Please remember to check my website for Summer Activities to keep your student at the top of their Math and Reading skills! 

Have a safe and happy summer!

If you have any questions, please contact me at mrsmistretta@gmail.com

All the best,
Sharon Mistretta
Technology Teacher

In this assignment, we will be using the presentation website Voicethread to examine the availability of an adequate supply of drinking water on Earth.

1.  Use the login sequence that you received in Technology Class to log into Voicethread and follow the steps in the flowcharts pictured below to format your presentation.  Here are several links for research:  World Health Organization

2. Create your own Gliffy document to recreate the EPA Flowchart of Water Treatment. Export your Gliffy document as a JPEG file and save it to your flashdrive.

3. Create a Make Beliefs Comix to describe one of the Common Water Usage problems.

An Excel Spreadsheet can be used as a data base for a Mail Merge.  We use a mail merge when we would like to send the same basic letter to a group of recipients.  There is a certain amount of variable information, such as name and address, that is contained in the columns of the spreadsheet and pulled in by Microsoft Word Mail Merge Manager.  Take a look at the following spreadsheet and letter:

How Ancient Egyptian Scribes Solved Multiplication Problems

Using Only Doubling

                                                                                            Math problems:

 

                                                       a. 13 X 25                           b.  25 X 73                      c. 125 X 240

 

 

        1.   Open a new Excel Workbook and format the columns using the instructions to follow.  You may only use addition to solve all math problems.

        2.   Use a new sheet for each problem and edit the bottom tab of each sheet to contain the math problem.

        3.   Format Columns A, B and C as numbers with zero decimal places.

        4.   Column A: Start cell A1 with the value of 1.

        5.   Double the next 9 cells in Column A based on the previous cell and using only addition.

        6.   Cell B1 will contain the higher of the factors listed in the math problems.  Using the contents of the previous cell and using only doubling, fill the remaining cells B2 through B10 with doubled amounts of the previous cell.

        7.   Using the numbers in Column A, determine which numbers in the Column A rows will add up to the lower factor of each problem.

 

For example:

     25 = 16+8+1       125 = 64+32+16+8+4+1    13 = 1+4+8   

        8.   If you have used a Column A row in the calculation of the lower factor, repeat the number contained in Column B of that row in Column C.  If a row has not been used, place a zero in Column C for that row.

 

        9.   Add Column C together to arrive at your answer.

     10. Setup your pages as landscape, with gridlines.  Your team name and date are to be placed in the header of each sheet.

        11.   Create two problems of your own and solve with the same method. 

                 

 

All living organisms require fresh water.  The earth’s supply of water, however, is not all drinkable.  The oceans contain 97% of all of the earth’s water.  Ocean water is undrinkable because it contains salt.  Only 3% of the earth’s water is drinkable and that water comes from “surface water” as in lakes and rivers and “groundwater” as in wells. 

The Water Treatment Industry, therefore, plays a very important part in the health of our population and is a growing sector of our economy. Water Treatment includes Wastewater Treatment, Filtration and Chemical Treatment and Desalination. 

Water Treatment Companies Table

Company Name	Stock Symbol
Aqua America	WTR
Pentair Incorporated	PNR
Millipore Corporation	MIL
California Water Service	CWT
Pall Corporation	PLL
ITT Industries	ITT
Calgon Carbon Corporation	CCC
American States Water	AWR
Consolidated Water Company	CWCO

 

I have listed nine companies that produce Water Treatment products. Take each of the stock symbols above and plug them into the Yahoo Finance Website.

I have placed two red arrows in the following screenshot of Yahoo Finance. The first shows the Get Quotes field where you can plug in each company’s Stock Symbol. The second red arrow shows the graph that can be clicked to obtain a history of the company’s closing trading price for each day.

Click on the graph indicated with the second red arrow.  This will bring you to the following screen.  I have place a red arrow to show where you can click on the button “1M” to obtain the last month’s activity for each stock.

 

Click on the “1M” button and hover your mouse over each day beginning with December 1^st.  Create an Excel spreadsheet that tracks the daily price of each company’s stock listed in the Water Treatment Companies table. You should record ten days of stock activity.  Keep in mind that stocks are not traded on the weekend.  I have included a picture of an Excel Spreadsheet that I have created as an example of the completed assignment.  Once all of your data has been entered, create a Line Chart that graphs the combined activity of all of the Water Treatment Companies.