Twitter

Before this assignment involving Twitter, I was somewhat familiar with it. I was required to use it for a college credit course I had taken in high school. The purpose of it for the class however was much different than what I was required to complete for the Hixson class. Before, the only time I needed to tweet was to alert my teacher when I had completed a project. Obviously, this class required me to use Twitter to a much fuller extent.
I am not what-so-ever a fan of Twitter. Over the past couple of weeks, while being required to use it I have become more accepting of it, but I would still much rather stick with Facebook. I can see potentially how Twitter could be usefeul to people. Reasons might include keeping up to date with friends and collegues, or just as I had used in my class, alerting one or more people when something is complete. I can also see how Twitter could be fun for some people. It gives you a chance to see what your friends are up to, and even follow celebrities. These are the benefits I see of using Twitter.
Just as with any type of social media, people need to be careful what they tweet. By tweeting inappropriate messages, people can get in trouble at the workplace, with friends, or with anyone familiar who is using Twitter. I do not see the need to let the world know what I am up to. This is what bothers me most about Twitter. I can see using it occasionally when it's needed, but I find no pleasure in tweeting for fun. You may agreee or disagree with me, but these are my thoughts I have come to develop about twitter over the past couple of weeks while we were required to tweet.

Diversity Event

At first I was unsure of attending a diversity event. I was unaware of what they were, what they were all about, and the fact they were even offered. Upon first arriving, I was suprised at how many professionals were present at the seminar. The keynote speaker was a professor from another univerisity which was in Minnesota I believe. The speaker was very knowledgeable about the content of his presentation. He presented his presentation in an outline format, which I found to be conveniant. The presentation was for the College of Engineering, and some of the material was a little over my head, but by refering back to his outline at the beginning, I was able to follow along quite easily. The material I remember the most about the presentation was how he included math formula's to push his point of diversity through to his audience. It was a unique and effective method. The key message I received from the seminar was although diversity can be hard to accept at times, it can be very beneficial to communities and work places. The professor gave a few examples from a book which had the similiar message about diversity. Most of the examples given were of a how a problem was given to a diverse group, or even just opened up to the public verses a select group of people, and the results and answers found to these problems were phenominal. After attending this diversity event, my mind is more open to diversity and welcoming of other ethnicities. It gave me a greater perspective on diversity compared to what I thought I had previously had. I felt it was well worth my time and I would not object to attending another diversity event.

Being the Best I Can Be

One way of looking at life is to consider it a competition. There are old sayings such as, "the early bird gets the worm," which describe the day to day rivals throughout life. In many situations there are winners, and then there are the losers. There can be several reasons for why the winners come out on top, most often they are at the top of their game. A time where I felt I did my absolute best, and also achieved my goal was when I was elected a Northeast District FFA Officer.
For those of you who are not familiar with FFA, it's an organization which is heavily involved with agriculture education. FFA starts at the chapter level in the class room at high schools across the country. The next level is districts; in Iowa there are six districts. Each level encompasses a larger area with the next level being state, and then nationals. The district officer team is in charge of organizing events for the district including competitions, and responsibilities which are parallel with setting up, like fund raising money for the district. Before applying to be a district officer, I was the reporter for my FFA chapter and enjoyed the work I was responsible for and the leadership position. I was looking for an opportunity to become more involved with an organization I had become passionate about and also hold a position which required leadership skills. After consulting my ag advisor, I decided to run for a district office.
I first filled out an application which after many drafts, I finally submitted. I recorded Northeast Vice President and Reporter as the positions I was aiming to obtain. The next step was to prepare for District Officer interviews which consist of a personal interview, a group activity, and a test over the FFA Foundation. Over the next week, I studied hard for several hours memorizing everything there was to know about the FFA. The day of interviews seemed to come much faster than I had anticipated, but I felt I was ready to rock my interview. When the interview finally came, I had sweaty palms and was nervous as could be, but I held my composure and answered the questions to the best of my ability. The next morning, I arrived at school 45 minutes early to see if I had made ballot or not. It turned out that not only had I made ballot, but I was balloted for the reporter position which is one of the toughest offices to get balloted for! I was ecstatic, but it also meant I had more hard work ahead of me.
Since I was balloted, the next and final step was to compete at districts for my office against the other person who was balloted for reporter. This process involves "campaigning" during the day, and giving a short speech and answering questions from delegates. Each school in the district has two delegates who represent the school during the election process. Although I am comfortable with public speaking, I had a difficult time writing my required speech. I wanted the speech to be "just right." It needed to be catchy and inspirational all at the same time; I needed it to engrave a positive impression of me in the delegate's minds. After many edits and help from classmates, I finally had my speech. Over the next few days, I practiced my speech and rehearsed my answers to any questions I might be asked. Just as District Officer Interviews, the day of Districts seemed to arrive all to fast, but I felt I was well prepared. Looking back now, the day seems to be a blur. I conversed with people in the morning, gave my speech in the afternoon (with no mistakes), and answered questions with what I felt were satisfactory answers. When it came time to wait for the end of the closing session where the new District Officer team was to be announced, I felt I had done my best and my hard work of preparing for the day had paid off. After waiting for what seemed to be eternity, it was finally time to find out the results. My name was read off the office of reporter, and my chapter cheered loudly for me. While standing on stage with the rest of my new fellow team mates, I was in shock. My hard work had paid off, and I had preformed at the top of my game to accomplish and obtain my goal of becoming a District Officer. It was a very memorable moment for me.
Being a District Officer provided me with many opportunities to meet new people, make new friends, and improve my leadership skills. Although at times it required much extra effort and work on my part, I am still glad I had the opportunity and experience. Everyone has accomplishments in life, and I feel being elected a Northeast District Officer can be considered an accomplishment of mine. It took much work and dedication, but by being prepared and fiercely competing, I was the best I could be.

Reflection on the Beloit College Mindset List

The Beloit College Mindset List is something new and unheard of to me. I find it to be an interesting way of documenting today's occurrences and life style. Items on the list ranged from very familiar acts to unheard of descriptions in my perspective. I also found some facts to be interesting, while others seemed insignificant. The list describes the class of 2014, some points good to be known for while others not so much.

A few descriptions on the Beloit List portray the class of 2014 in a dim light. For example number 28 states, "They've never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day." The action of pointing to your wrist is a universal sign for asking the time. The class of 2014 surely has enough common sense to understand this small and simple gesture. Another example is number 45, "They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college." While this statement may be somewhat true, earning money for college is not the only reason the class of 2014 volunteers their time for community service. We also care about our community and environment and strive to make it a better place for everyone. These were a couple examples from the list I found to be inaccurate.

There were other descriptions on the list I found to be interesting. Number 58 for example is almost comical. "Beethoven has always been a good name for a dog." The majority of the population knows who the actual, musically talented Beethoven is. However today, you hear the name "Beethoven" used to call a dog more often rather than in discussion of the music Beethoven. To prove this point, there is even a series of movies named Beethoven where a dog is the main character. Number 31, "The first home computer they probably touched was an Apple II or Mac II; they are now in a museum" is also an interesting point on the list. The class of 2014 has grown up with technology. When the first computers came out, they were coolest thing around; today those computers are ancient and no one wants them because of the newer, better technology available. Number two also goes along with this point, "email is just to slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail." With so many other means of communication available, email is often rarely used. Texts messages, phone calls, and instant messaging are much faster methods of communication. These points can be compared to previous year's list and it is obvious how much things have changed over time.

There were other items on the list I was able to connect with or strongly agree with. Being born in 1992, I agreed with the first sentence which stated most students were born in 1992. Point number one stated, "few in the class will know how to write in cursive." Cursive was curriculum taught in elementary school, but never re-enforced later in our education and many students have forgotten it, besides how to sign their name. Points relating to the government were 69. "The Post Office has always been going broke" and 71. "The nation has never approved of what Congress is doing." Growing up, these were common news stories and it no longer is breaking news. These are a few of the points which I strongly agree with.

I found this list to be unique. It can be stated the class of 2014 experienced a much different childhood from what their parents did. Some of the points on the Beloit College Mindset List are postive comments about the class of 2014, while other points were not so good to be known for. It is most certainelty an interesting topic of discussion and hopefully the class of 2014 will go on to accomplish great things in life.

Science Vs. Religion

Science and religion are two different beliefs which attempt to explain the world around us. Science is based upon knowledge and religion is based upon belief. When the two overlap, it means controversy due to the fact that neither side is negotiable or willing to listen to the other's side view and heated debates often follow. Religion and science have both similarities and differences.
Truth can be viewed as a similarity, but also a difference. In religion, pastors/priets claim to preach the truth, but on the other hand, science claims to have discovered the truth and it is ever-changing as more discoveries are made.
Another common similarity about the two groups is explanations, but how things are explained is different. Science gives to the best of its abilities, logical explanations with information to back it up. Religion has no exact evidence if their explanation is true or not, but you are expected to believe it because it has been right according to generations of people before you.
The final similarity/difference that fits into both the religion and science category is teachings/books. There have been thousands of books wrote on science, which educate the pulic about scientific theories and scientific discoveries. Religion has books as well, such as the Bible, which preach religion, and give reasons why for believing in it.
Medicine and evoloution are two things which fall into both the religion and science categories in today's society. The progress in the medical field helps people everywhere. People who are devoted and immersed in their belief system dislike the ideas of scientists and often turn to natural ways of healing the body. There are several theories of how the earth/Universe was created in the religious category. A popular belief is that the world was created by God in 7 days; however, science takes a different approach to tell more about how the earth was formed. Science and religion explain things differently, and combining them together rarely turns out in a good way.

Why Study Astronomy

Astronomy is the study of the stars. It can tell us about the Universe, and how it came to be. If it weren't for Astronomy, we wouldn't understand the movement of the sun, the moon, or even how the earth rotates. Without this knowledge, life would be very different. Time is related to astronomy, and it is time that runs our lives. Astronomy explains the stars in the skies, and the constellations we see on clear, cloudless nights. It explains the phases of the moon, why we have different seasons, why things occur here on earth. For example, the ocean tides occur because of moon's rotation around the earth. Astronomy provides us with the anwers to those "Why?" questions we have about our world. Astronomists are working to find answers to questions we still have and about things located in our universe. Things like galaxies, pulsars, quasars, black holes, alien life, and how the Universe was created still remain somewhat of a mystery to us. Astronomy reminds us how small we are in the grand scheme of thigs. Astronomy is somehow related to almost everything, whether is be here on Earth, or in outer space. This is why it is important we continue to study it.

Beginning of the Big Bang

How our world, solar system, and Universe formed is still remains an unanwered question today. Both science and religion have tried to answer this question. When science is compared to religion or vis versa, agruements usually arise. We use discoveries we have made in science over the years to explain why things happen the way they do throughout the world; however, with the creation of the Universe, no one was there so ultimately no one really knows. This creates a huge gap in science filled with uncertainity. Many theories have been made attempting to expain how it really happened. The most widely believed scientific theory is the Big Bang. With the Big Bang, the Universe was created in a couple of seconds and then rapidly expanded. It later evolved and stars, planets, and galaxies formed. This is only a theory and has not been proven. This allows room for religion. Every religion has an explanation of how the earth/Universe formed. The Christian belief, as stated in the book of Genesis, is that God created the Earth and everthing on it in seven days. This belief dates back to the first century of human beings. With a belief being around for that long, wouldn't it be the truth? This is the constant battle where religion and science fight against one anther. Pseudoscience has come from this agruement, and used both religion and science to explain the creation of the earth and the Universe. Unfortunately, the question may never be answered.

Differences

Quasars, pulsars, and black holes are a few of the many, many things found in the Universe.
In scienific terms, a quasar is a very energetic radio source and distant galaxy with a active galactic nucleus. In other words, they are the most brightest and distant objects in the Universe. They are not actually stars, but emit a lot of energy at one time. Quasars are located in the center of a massive galaxy which surrounds the super massive black hole. Not much is known about quasars, and they remain somewhat of a mystery to scientists.
Pulsars are rotating nuetron stars which are highly magnetic, and emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. They are known to be one of the strangest things in our universe. They are given their name because of the radiation pulses they give off, which can only be observed when directed at earth. Pulsars form when a massive star collapses and it blasts out into a supernova. Some pulsars can be seen with visible light, and are found with large radio telescopes.
Blackholes are a region in space where nothing can escape, not even light beams. They are thought to form from explosions of super massive stars. It slowly tears pieces into smaller and smaller objects, and the gravity within black holes is very strong. The event horizon, also known as the point of no return, is an undectable surface which surrounds the black hole. Black holes are found at the center of galaxies.
These are a a few of the many puzzling things found in our universe.

Life Cycle of Stars

Once upon a time, there a dust particle all alone in outer space. She was very lonely and wanted to make friends. As she was traveling along one day, she bumped into another particle who was lonely just like her. They immidiately became friends, and decided to look for others like them. Eventually they came to a colony of dust particles. Once the two friends joined the colony, it started to have gravitational force. It began to move slowly in a circle as they were all celebrating their gravitational force accomplishment. Soon after, the outer layer of the colony collapsed from so much partying. The colony took time to cool off after all of the celebrating. However, soon after, things heated up again and this time they spun even faster! The celebration became a dance to very fast paced music. Once the dance floor temperature reached 27,000,000 degrees, nuclear fusion began. The hydrogen couples danced together (converts) to form helium. After a large amount of the helium couples had formed, the colonly, specifically the center, became a star. The star was so happy about the transformation, it began to shine brightly giving off UV light and other radiation. The star hosts a party and invites nearby objects from the Universe. The star becomes best friends with some planets and they form a solar system. This is a long lasting friendship, for it is the most stable and longest part of the star's life. As almost all of the single Hydrogen dancers are fused into Helium couples, the dance was coming to come to an end. The star began to take deep breaths so the outer layers moved outward and the core contracted to try to catch its breath from all of the dancing, when all of a sudden it exploded!!! The core of the dying star and dead dance floor becomes smaller and smaller untill another fusion occurs and the shrinking stops. The explosion caused the outer layers to scatter away from the dance floor, but because of the star's large mass, the remaining layers come closer together, eventually forming a black hole. That is the story of a star's life with a disco twist to it.

Passion

Everyone has a passion in their lives - something they are devoted towards. Over the years, I have come to realize agriculture is my passion. I have been very active in FFA and 4-H, and have loved every moment of it. I was also the Delaware County Pork Queen where I had several opportunities to promote agriculture; they were experiences I truly enjoyed. I thirst for agricultural related knowledge, and am looking forward to furthing my education in agriculture in the future. My passion is much different from what Annie Cannon's was. Her's was astronomy, specifically cataloging stars. Her work was instrumental in the development of stellar classification. She is credited with creating the Harvard Classification Scheme, which classified start based on their temperatures. She is a well respected astronomer who didn't always have the best working conditions. I hope I am as dedicated to my major in the future as what Annie Cannon was to hers.

2012

There are several different reasons people believe the world is going to end in the year 2012.
One theory includes sunspots. It is predicted there will be a large number of sunspots (the sun burps) in 2012, which will send solar particles at the earth. If a large amount of sunspots occur simultaneously, the amount of solar particles traveling towards earth will be too much for Earth's atmosphere to handle, which would result in the end of the world.
Another belief is the Earth's magnetic poles will switch. If the north pole and south pole switch, this will cause everything to be pulled together. Although this happens rarely, there is evidence it has happened throughout the Earth's history.
Comets is another explanation of why people believe the earth could end in 2012.
A large comet could hit earth causing mass destruction around the surface of the world including flooding, burning, or massive shaking. This would obviously create a problem for humans, and could wipe out all life, although the likelihood of this happening is very low.
The final theory is possibly the most common one which people believe in. The Mayan calander is set to end on December 21, 2012. The Mayans were known for being advanced for their time, and have found other things in the world to be true. People are very intrigued by this, and the Mayan culture and civilization has been throughy studied.
Without a doubt, the world will eventually come to an end. Many people believed it would be at the turn of the new millennium in 2000, but of course this did not happen. There is little humans can do to stop the end of the world, so enjoy life as it comes.

Night Sky

When observing the night sky, there are several observations to be made. When clouds were in the sky, it was difficult so see or observe anything, because the stars and moon were usually covered up. While observing the moon, is became apparant to me that it is impossible not to notice the big round ball which lights up the night sky during a full moon. The moon moves eastward in the night sky untill it reaches the phase of a full moon. The movement is a reminder that the moon has a 28 day (approx. one month) cycle. Another observation I made about the moon as it approaches becoming a full moon is that is becomes brighter.
The location of the stars doesn't change much from night to night. However, they appear to become dimmer as the moon approaches a full moon. On clear, cloudless nights, I could easily see a blanket of stars in the night sky from my farm. However, when I was in town at night, I noticed the stars did not appear to be as bright and were harder to distinguish. This problem is known as light pollution which is present everywhere in the world. Stars are harder to see when bright lights are around us, becuase our eyes are drawn to the brightness of the lights instead of the light from the stars. This is why most astronomy labs are built away from dense population areas. Overall, changes occured in the night sky.

James Van Allan

James Van Allan was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa in 1914 . He attended the University of Iowa where he graduated with a doctorate degree in nuclear physics in 1939. He was the head of the Physical Department at then University of Iowa after he returned from WWII. At Iowa, he continued his experiments to see how things work. One way he would do this was by sending things up in the air and then make observations. He put a Geiger detector and a cosmic-ray experiment into the Explorer 1 in 1958. The information received from the Explorer showed the Earth has a radiation belt around it. This is now named the Van Allan belt. Later, he also studied 24 more satallites, including Pioneer 10 and 11. In 2006, James Van Allan died from heart failure. Many people believe NASA would not be the same without his discoveries.