Aloe Vera Giveaway This Week in Class! Happy 50th Post!

The PongSats are Shipped!

Getting ready for our PongSat MIssion!

Sliced Pongs

Ist Period Hurricanes!

2nd Period Hurricanes!

3rd Period Hurricanes!

4th Period Hurricanes!

The Praying Mantises emerged from their pod!

Happy First Day of Spring from Tica! (Mr. Burris' Dog)

1989 Autographed Atlantis Crew Picture from NASA!

The Amazon Rainforest, in South America gives off over 20% of the world's oxygen through the process of photosynthesis!

Astronaut Mark Kelly Speaks at UTA: Endeavoring to Build a Better America February 19, 2013, 7:30 p.m. Texas Hall

Winter Storm Nemo Hits Northeast

The Weather Channel

USA Today:Traffic in Boston

USA Today

River Deltas! Landforms or Artforms?

The Lena river delta in Russia. NASA

The Mississippi River Delta entering the Gulf of Mexico. NASA

  The Ganges River delta. Taken by space shuttle Columbia. Created by a glacier almost 22,100 feet in the Himalayas, the delta is 200 miles wide is one of the best places in the world for plants to grow because of its fertile soil! It is always changing shape because of the weathering, erosion and new deposition constantly happening. The southern part of the delta even has a forest that is home to a tiger preservation where many exotic tigers live!

Uninhabited Ariel Vehicle from NASA!

Geminids Meteror Shower This Thursday 12/13/12!

Viper Fish!

NASA Finds Ice on Mercury!

Click Here to read about NASA's discovery of Ice on Mercury!

Another Sun Dog in North Texas!

"Sun dog" Photo taken by: Mr. Burris November 21, 2012 in Forth Worth, Tx

 

 

 

 

Sun Dogs are a atmospheric weather phenomenon where ice crystals, usually in wispy cirrus clouds, refract the light rays of the sun.  This forms a rainbow around the sun! Sun Dog is Greek for "beside the sun." The rainbow spot, to the left of the sun, is the "dog," in relation to the fact that dogs often stay near their owner.  These are visible in every country around the world in any season but can be viewed best when the sun is low in the sky.

Butterfly flys Southwest airlines to Texas from New York!

 ALBANY, NEW YORK 11/5/12
Today a late blooming monarch butterfly was assisted in its normal trip south without lifting a wing!  "Butterfly Lady" Marleen Manos-Jones had been keeping her eye on arthropod since September when it was in the mid-stages of metamorphosis.  Soon all the other butterflies in her Albany neighborhood   

 had begun their trip south, covering thousands of miles to Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountains.  When Marleen saw the
butterfly emerge from its pupa, she felt the butterfly belonged with the departed butterflies, along their journey south, so as to survive the frigid New York winter.  After receiving permission to bring the butterfly aboard a southwest flight and obtaining a butterfly traveling permit, Manos-Jones prepared the butterfly's habitat.  The butterfly traveled in a small tupperware with holes to breath accompanied by a damp cloth of sugar water.  She then had the tupperware surrounded in another container with ice to help keep the butterfly calm and cool on its journey.

 “I knew if I just let her go, she'd die,” Manos-Jones said. “But she's so fabulous she deserves to be in Mexico with all of her millions of brothers and sisters. She was such a magnificent specimen, and my heart just responded to her.”

Manos Jones has raised and released thousands of butterflies of her own and worked at the American Museum of Natural History's seasonal butterfly conservatory for over a decade.  Today she released the tardy butterfly in the San Antonio Botanical Gardens, hoping to reunite it with its brothers and sisters along their epic trek across America.

Did You Know?

Monarch Butterflies are the only species of butterfly that make the amazing migration across our country.  It takes three to four generations of monarchs to make the journey north to south and back every year.

 

Hurricane Sandy Makes Landfall on the East Coast

East coast prepares for hurricane Sandy late in hurricane season

OCEAN CITY, NJ - OCT. 28: Ed Wicks secures plywood over the windows of a hair salon to protect from the high winds of approaching Hurricane Sandy in Ocean City. New Jersehttp://www.slate.comy is expected to be hit hard by approaching storm sometime on tomorrow, bringing heavy winds and floodwaters.
Mark Wilson/Getty.http://www.slate.com

http://abcnews.go.com

New Planet Found Just Outside Our Solar System

Scientists have found a planet around the same size as earth but with much less mass and with a surface temperature reaching over 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit! (1,200C).  The unnamed planet cannot support life, that we know of, but scientists believe other planets could also be orbiting the same sun that are capable.  The planet revolves around it's sun every few days, so you would have a birthday every 3 days!  Though scientists are calling it a neighbor of earth, the planet is 25 trillion miles away and would take over 40,000 earth years in our fastest spacecraft!  Since the 1990's scientists have found over 800 exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) but none as close as the newly discovered planet.

Felix Baumgartner Freefalls to Earth from Outerspace!

On Sunday October 14, 2012 Australian Felix Baumgartner plunged to planet earth from the edge of outer space.  Felix traveled in a small capsule attached to a 7 story hot air balloon from a height of over 128,000 ft from the surface of the earth.  He became the first human to break the sound barrier by free falling.  Felix reached speeds of over 850mph passing the speed of sound by almost 100mph!

2011-2012 Ranger's Science Vocabulary Challenge Winner!

With Rusty Greer

Lynn Hale Comes to Visit!

September 26, 2012

Happy First Day of Fall!

Lost Maples State Park
Vanderpool, Tx

Guatemala's Volcan De Fuego erupts forcing over 33,000 people to evacuate

Volcan De Fuego (volcano of fire) night eruption in Palin, Guatemala 9/13/12

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/guatemala-volcano-of-fire-eruption_n_1881764.html 

Hurricane Issac makes landfall on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

 Photo taken on August 25, 2012 Courtesy of Divacfo.com

Hurricane Isaac made landfall today, August 28, 2012, slamming into the coast of Louisiana around 7:00 CST.  Tomorrow marks the 7 year anniversary of one of the most devastating hurricanes our country has every experienced, hurricane Katrina.  Scientists watched closely today as the tropical storms winds reached 74MPH making it a category one hurricane.  The center of Isaac is a direct hit on the city of New Orleans, the town ravaged by the category 3 hurricane Katrina in 2005. To learn more about Hurricanes and how they form visit weatherwhizkids.com

 Listed below are wind speeds that determine which category a hurricane is classified. 
1.Category 1 Hurricane: 74-95mph
2.Category 2 Hurricane: 96-110mph
3-Category 3 Hurricane: 111-130mph
4.Category 4 Hurricane: 131-155mph
5.Category 5 Hurricane: 155+

Mars Landing! NASA lands high tech robot on the surface of the red planet to study the surface of our closest neighbor. 8/5/12