Monday, February 25, 2013

Practising Scientific Writing

Learning about Black Holes today, included the additional tasks of taking good notes and converting them to text. The Seniors' writing task, after viewing a clip entitiled "Black Holes,"  required beginning with a good topic sentence and using a complex sentence. Do you think Madi has achieved this goal in this excerpt from her report?


A Black Hole is a region of space with its own gravitational force from which no matter can escape. They are impossible to see as they are invisible. Black Holes are created when a galaxy forms or when a huge star collapses and dies. In 2011, using infa red, X ray and radio wave technology, fifty eight people from six different countriesobserved a star being swallowed by a black hole. That was the first time that this had been captured on film. In the future, there will be more amazing observations of the darkest things in the universe, black holes.

5 comments:

  1. Well written Madi, I think you have achieved the requirements of this writing task. Black Holes still have much to be discovered about them, but as 'no matter can escape,' it would be difficult to explore everything about them without losing all of your equipment!
    Happy exploring and learning.
    Mrs Bellesini :)

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  2. Hi SMY
    I thought that the writing on Black Holes was quite fun and well done with the writing i hope we can do much more topic writing this term. I also like the very discriptive writing keep up the good work.

    From Matthewg :) :( :|

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  3. Hello Madi,

    I am impressed by your interest in black holes. Somewhere in the middle of what we can't see is something called a singularity. It's the singularity that is the remains of a collapsed star. So intense is its gravity not even light escapes.

    But wait, have you ever read light travels in a straight line? If this is so, why can't light escape? Light from the singularity travels in as straight a line as space allows. The singularity warps (bends) space itself so the light, in a way, bends. From the outside we see, if anything, an area where no stars are seen, a black hole.

    Did you know it's proposed there is a huge singularity in the middle of our galaxy? Imagine what turmoil must be happening in that region of space as matter is sucked in.

    Sucked in? Maybe you have heard of the event horizon? It’s a point of no return. It’s where anything caught in the intense gravity of the singularity can’t escape. Think of a hill sloping gently at first but getting steeper and steeper. You start walking but eventually you find yourself running and then falling when the slope becomes too great. Now imagine you’re a planet or star. What a journey that would be as the gravity pulls it apart.

    Back in 1987, we were informed of a position in space. A star had appeared to the “naked eye” where once the only trace would have been from large telescopes. A star had gone supernova. Astronomers labelled it SN 1987A.

    Supernova link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova

    What is amazing is the star was about 168,000 light years distant. This means the light from the supernova took about 168,000 years to reach us. While we could see it in 1987, the supernova had really taken place about 168,000 years ago.

    When we look at the stars, we are looking into the past. In a way, we become time travellers. How amazing is our universe?

    @RossMannell
    Teacher (retired), N.S.W., Australia

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  4. Hello Mrs Yore and SMY,
    I thought that was a great piece of writing by Maddy and i Thought see used descriptive Lanauge. I thought that was a great piece of text. Keep up the good writing!!!


    Hailey

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  5. Hi Madi

    In regards to your writing goals, I think you nailed it! Several of your sentences are complex and your opening sentence describes a Black Hole quite clearly.

    Keep up the great work! I'm enjoying your writing and particulary your writing style.

    Cheers

    Ms Scott

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