The birth of an aurora begins 150 million kilometres away on the surface of the sun. A solar flare sends showers of charged particles hurtling through space towards Earth. Surrounding the Earth is a giant invisible magnetic field and most of the particles are deflected away into space. However, some are able to penetrate the field and when they reach the upper atmosphere they produce a visible light which is called the Aurora Borealis. The same thing happens in a neon sign.

Astronomers predict that the next sunspot peak will be in 2013, which is called a solar maximum. This last occurred in 1958 and there were spectacular displays of the northern lights that were visible as far south as Mexico. Below is an amazing stop motion video called the Celestial Lights which was shot in the northern parts of Norway, Finland and Sweden during the Autumn of 2011 and the Winter and Spring of 2012.

This year we participated in the Tomatosphere program. It involved receiving two packages of Heinz tomato seeds, with 40 seeds in each package, labeled “S” and “T” One package of seeds is the control group – Heinz 9478 F1 seeds; the second set of seeds – also Heinz H9478 – has been “primed”.

By watching the seeds grow it encourages classroom dialogue about the elements of life support requirements for space missions – food, water, oxygen and the need to consume carbon dioxide exhaled by crewmembers. Traveling to and from Mars, could take almost three years. It’s imperative to know how to grow food for the journey there, the stay on Mars and the return journey. The results from out science experiment will help Canadian scientists to understand some of the issues related to long-term space travel.

In class we have been using a program that allows students to create their own unique comics. They can add different backgrounds, characters and speech bubbles. Emma has created a comic about how to save the polar bears by taking better care of the environment. To view a full screen version of Emma’s comic click on the lower right corner and then the ‘Esc’ key to return to our class blog.

Ben has created a humorous comic about a piece of moldy Swiss cheese.

At 11:40 p.m. on Sunday April 14, 1912 the Titanic on its maiden voyage struck an iceberg 375 miles south of Newfoundland. The iceberg tore a number of holes in it’s hull and 5 of the ship’s 16 watertight compartments filled with water. Within 3 hours the ship would sink and come to rest on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean at a depth of 3,784 metres. This year is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic which resulted in the death of 1,514 of it’s 2.224 passengers. It’s one of the most famous ships in history because it’s memory has been kept alive by movies, books and exhibits. Many artefacts have been recovered from the wreck and are on display in museums around the world.

When the ship was built in Belfast, Ireland it was considered to be unsinkable. The Titanic was 269 metres long and 28 metres wide. The rudder was nearly 24 metres high and it was so huge it required it’s own engine to move it. Notice in the picture of the Titanic the man standing at the bottom of the image.

I got Sumi then we drove to Whistler. We watched a movie on the way up. We stopped at Squamish for dinner. Sumi went into the restaurant with me, and sat on his head the whole time. When we got to Whistler me and Sumi flew airplanes, and I almost threw him off the bed. Sumi slept with Nic’s stuffy Bobby.

In the morning I took Sumi out of his bed and did yoga with him. Then we watched tv. I’m going to go skiing with Sumi today. I took Sumi skiing and we took pictures. Sumi went to Bounce with us. Then we went to bed. Sumi didn’t go skiing today because I had ski school. We went home today. Sumi hung out in the trunk. I had to go to school, so Sumi hung out in his case all day. We took him for a walk after school. Cause we thought he needed something to do. I have to take Sumi to school tomorrow. I hope Sumi had fun with me, and I hope Sumi visits my house again!

A couple from Britain were visiting Lake Minnewanka in Banff National Park. They set up their camera on the rocks to get a picture of themselves with the lake and the mountains in the background. The noise from their cameras autofocus sparked the curiosity of an inquisitive Columbian ground squirrel. When the timer on the camera took the picture the Columbian ground squirrel had crashed the photo! Thanks to the internet the Columbian ground squirrel is now famous and even has his own twitter account.

A group of scientists in Britain and France have been trying to figure out what causes colony collapse disorder. This is where colonies of bees are mysteriously dying in many countries. There have been theories that it’s caused by parasites, diseases or the disappearance of flowers growing wild in the countryside.

However, the scientists have found that it’s a result of pesticides that are used in more than 100  nations on farms crops and in gardens. The chemicals are sprayed on seeds that are grown for crops of cereals and sunflowers to deter aphids. As the plant grows the pesticide is in every part of the plant including the pollen and nectar. The pesticides damage the way the bees navigate and reduce the number of queen bees. The scientists in Britain found an 85% drop in queen production. This has an effect on the bee colonies ability to survive. Here is the link to the article as it appears on the BBC News – Science & Environment website.

The class has been busy learning all about our solar system. Brady and Matthew found out that light from the sun takes about eight minutes to reach Earth. Charged particles from the sun are carried towards the Earth by the solar winds. Emma researched the beautiful light display in the sky called the Aurora Borealis. Mercury is the planet closest to the sun and Joshua learned that the side facing the sun is very hot, but the other side is extremely cold.

Brendan decided to look at our own home the planet Earth which takes 365 ¼ days to go once around the sun. One day you might like to visit the Barringer meteorite crater in northern Arizona. Nick showed everyone how 50,000 years ago a huge meteorite impacted our planet and exploded with a force equivalent to 2 ½ million tons of TNT. Hawaii and Florida are popular tourist destinations and Kiana described her visit to the Mauna Kea Observatories which are on top of the 4,200 metre summit of a dormant volcano. Ryan is knowledgeable about the Kennedy Space Center in the Cape Canaveral area which was the base for the Apollo missions and the space shuttle program. Nearly 354 km’s above us is the International Space Station and Maya told the class that inside they have to keep it very dry and as a result the astronauts lose about 3 g of skin each day.

One of the biggest planets in our solar system is Jupiter and Aliah and Briana showed us pictures of the Great Red Spot which is a huge storm which could fit four Earth’s inside of it! Eli taught us that the spectacular rings of Saturn are made of ice, dust and rocks. Caitlin informed us that the axis of Uranus is tipped and the planet spins on its side. Ben and Thomas talked to the class about Neptune’s beautiful blue colour which is caused by a large amount of methane gas in the atmosphere.

Alec decided to study the moons of Mars and let us know that Phobos continues to get closer to the planet. Carson and other scientists are very interested in Titan which is like a young Earth. This moon, which orbits Saturn, is one of the only moons in our solar system with an atmosphere. If you want to visit the coldest place in our solar system then you should read Joey’s report about one of Neptune’s moons called Triton.