1. It wasn’t thunder. It was a “hail cannon”.
2. The “peals” likely were about 4 seconds apart.
3. The idea is to shoot up a very loud boom of sound into the storm clouds when they are passing over to prevent hail from forming. This is done so that crops aren’t damaged.
4. This is quite new, and not proven scientifically, but with the unpredictability of the weather, it’s going to be very hard to say conclusively whether it works or not.

In my class, we’ve been talking about the layers of the earth, leading up to the concepts of plate tectonics. One of my students did a great job on this picture. Here’s the post that I shared on my classblogmeister site.

You’ve GOT to see this great picture that Daniel made!

I guess I share this here to show what I’ve learned about how to use pictures in a class blog. I used Flickr (had to do it from home, since it’s blocked @ school), then when I’m looking at my own picture online, I copy that URL to use in the blog article.

Here’s where I came out: I should be modeling for my students how I use a blog to reflect on my learning. I just learned about this thing with Pluto, so I need to practice this myself, and show them how it’s done. My enthusiasm will only grow about the power of this activity for a person’s learning. I put this post on my classroom blog, but obviously I decided to put it here, as well. I thought some of you would like to read my thoughts. If not the specific Pluto stuff, then maybe these reflections about how to model for kids!

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I just read an article about how Pluto will no longer be considered a planet. Wow!

This will really change how students learn about the planets. All of those sentences that are really acronyms that help us keep the planets in the right order (My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas) will have to change!

Here’s the gist of what has occured:
The International Astronomical Union voted on Thursday, August 24th, to downgrade Pluto from its status as a planet to a “dwarf planet”. They did this by approving a new definition of “planet”, which has been met with a bit of controversy, which I found interesting.

Here is the new definition. A planet 1) orbits the sun, 2) is round due to gravity, and 3) “has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit”.

One point of controversy mentioned in the article made me laugh. One of the scientists quoted said, “What exactly is meant by planet ‘clearing its neighborhood?’” He said that Pluto swings inside the path of Neptune for 20 of the 248 years it takes for Pluto to circle the sun. He said, “I’d say Neptune’s neighborhood still needs some clearing!”

Pluto was discovered in 1930, when the instruments to view objects that small were not as advanced as what we have today.