T-rex Was a Wimp??

The recent discovery of a fossilized skull in England crowns the new king of predatory dinosaurs: a 53-foot “sea monster” called a PLIOSAUR. The 155-million-year-old monster’s fossilized skull was found on the shores of Weymouth Bay, England, along a 95-mile stretch of land that is called Jurassic Coast.

Experts believe that the skull - which measures over 6-feet - contains the largest dinosaur jaw ever found in England, or the world, and that it means pliosaurs were powerful enough to rip a small car in half. “This is one of the largest, if not the largest, pliosaur skull found anywhere in the world,” said Dr. David Martill of Portsmouth University, “and contains features that have not been seen before. It could be a species new to science.” The pliosaurs were marine reptiles with a head similar to a crocodile and large, paddle-like fins. These predators lived throughout the Jurassic period. Their fossils dwarf those of the 40-foot long T-rex of the Cretaceous era.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime find,” said Richard Edmonds, earth science manager for the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

How would YOU feel if you made such a discovery????

GIANT Spider - Creepy!!!

Just in time for Halloween!!!

Move over Spider-Man. Scientists have discovered the remains of a new species of spider the size of a CD, making it the largest known web-slinger around. The spider, classified as a new species of golden orb-weaver, is known as Nephila komaci. Its remains have been found throughout South Africa.
A live specimen has yet to be discovered, prompting many scientists to believe that either these spiders are endangered or that they dwell far up in treetops.
With a body length of 1.5 inches and a leg span of 4 to 5 inches, the female N. komaci is the largest web-producing spider in existence.
Female Nephila evolved to a large size not only to carry more eggs, but to overcome a predator of those eggs as well. Some female Nephila spiders can even snag birds, bats and lizards, the report stated. Males, on the other hand, have never evolved past a modest size.

M.E.S.S. October 27th - Qualifying Words

When taking a test, be "word-wise". Watch out for QUALIFYING WORDS!

These are words that help you decide if a sentence is true or false!

Words like NEVER, ALL, NONE, and ALWAYS usually make a statement FALSE.

Words like FREQUENTLY, USUALLY, SOMETIMES, and GENERALLY usually make a statement TRUE.

I'm going to write a sentence using a qualifying word. The next person should tell me if it is a true or false sentence, what the qualifying word is, and then change that word to make the sentence the opposite (true or false). Then...you write a new sentence with another qualifying word for the next person to respond to - OK?? Here's my sentence:

Middle school students never clean their rooms.

M.E.S.S. October 20th - Test Taking Skills

When it's time to take a test - these 3 words will serve you best:

DESIRE

PREPARATION

CONFIDENCE

What advice can you give other students about the qualities for success when taking a test??

NASA's Moon Bombing - Crashing in a Crater, Looking for Ice

NASA's LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite)sent a missile traveling at twice the speed of a bullet to blast a hole in the lunar surface near the moon's South pole today, October 9, 2009. Take a look at the video so see the results! What do you think of this 79 million dollar venture??

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Return To The Moon Activity

Moon Computer Lab Work

The Bar Code is 57 Today!

Today marks the 57th anniversary of the day the first patent was made on the Bar Code.

Granted to American inventors Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver three years after it was filed, patent number 2,612,994 was for a pattern of concentric circles, rather than the set of straight lines used today.
The first trial of the bar code was in 1966, and in 1970 the familiar Universal Product Code (UPC) design, still used around the world, was agreed on as an industry standard.

The first item to be scanned using UPC was a packet of Wrigley's chewing gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio in June 1974.

For more fun info about bar codes & how they work - check out the following website:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/upc.htm

Celebrate World Space Week - October 4-10, 2009

Join educators and space enthusiasts around the world to celebrate World Space Week, Oct. 4-10, 2009. This international event commemorates the beginning of the Space Age with the launch of Sputnik 1 on Oct. 4, 1957.

World Space Week is the largest public space event in the world, with celebrations in more than 50 nations. To learn more about World Space Week, search for events in your area and find educational materials related to the event, visit http://www.worldspaceweek.org/index.html

Why not participate in two exciting activities occuring this week:

The Great Worldwide Star Count - This international event encourages everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations and report what they see online. Check it out - http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/starcount/

Send Messages into Space - To celebrate the United Nations declared World Space Week, you can send your own special message into deep space. It will be transmitted from British Telecom's satellite earth station at Goonhilly in the UK and it will travel through space forever. Your message will pass the moon just 1.3 seconds after being transmitted, it will pass the Sun eight minutes later and it will pass Pluto and leave our solar system after just 15 hours. That's because your message will be traveling at the speed of light - 671,000,000 miles per hour! How Cool Is That??? http://www.sentforever.com/free_message.cfm?pid=43

And...be sure to visit http://www.windows.ucar.edu/ An incredible interactive site where you can learn firsthand about space - the planets, the solar system, the universe, missions, climate and a whole lot more.... You Gotta Check This Out!!!

Let us know how YOU will celebrate World Space Week - it's a out of this world event!!!

October Pumpkin Fun

Pumpkin E-Quilt

The O.R.E.O. Project

Join us in the 2009 O.R.E.O. Project (Our Really Exciting Online project)

Here's the rules...(And you MUST use REGULAR - NOT double stuff cookies)

•Place one cookie on the table and then add one cookie at a time to the stack. (Yes you MUST use the whole cookie as it is when you take it from the bag!)
•Do NOT adjust the cookie after you have placed it on the stack and have moved your hand away.
•Cookies need to be freestanding and NOT leaning against any kind of support.
•A tumble has occurred once 1 or more cookies have tumbled from the stack.

How many cookies are in your stack?? Can you beat our record of 35? Tell us the number of cookies in your BEST stack. What strategies/suggestions can you share to get even more cookies in the stack??

Be sure to take part in the 2 OREO surveys found at the right - your opinion counts!!

Who Will Host the 2016 Olympic Games?

The tense and tight battle to host the 2016 Olympics is taking place in the Danish capitol of Copenhagen.
The stakes are huge for all four cities — Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Madrid — and for the International Olympic Committee. It faces the choice of sending the games to uncharted territory in South America, appealing to those committee members who believe the Olympics should touch all corners of the globe, or opting in tough economic times for more familiar and perhaps more lucrative ground in Europe, the United States and Asia.
The winner gets the international prestige of staging the world's biggest sports extravaganza and billions of dollars in potential investment.
Years of preparations and lobbying by the four candidates will come down to 30 minutes of voting by the IOC's members, when they will eliminate the city with the fewest votes in successive rounds of secret balloting until one city receives a majority.
Which city is your choice for hosting the 2016 Games?? Take part in the 2016 Olympic City Choice poll found at the right! See if you are in agreement with the International Olympic Committee!