IHSS A 2021-22

Harper Young Roddy IHSS May 25, 2022 Earth Is Running Out of Sand  Sand is a crucial resource frequently used in construction. Sand is so popular that we use over 50 billion metric tons of sand. Glass and concrete are the most used product that is made with sand. But the worlds only have so much sand, and it is quickly running out. Because sand is unregulated, it can be taken from the ground with no rules to protect the enviormnetal impact. The action of harvesting   sand is already causing significant effects on the land and deserts that are used. Instead of harvesting natural sand, scientists recommend using gravel or reclaimed concrete to reuse it as an infinite source. The article refers to this theory as a circular economy, but it does come with its downsides like increased prices. I like the idea because harvesting any material we will run out of is not suitable for the environment. I want the world to be healthier for me and generations to come. I also think this is an ...

Natalie Gross Mr. Roddy IHSS 26 April 2022 Mail Orders          In the 1800s, people couldn't just go online and order what they wanted from a website. So what they could do was look at mail-order catalogs and mail in a letter saying what you wanted. The mail back then, though, was not the same speed as it was now.  The letters could be delivered by horse or by train depending on how far away it was being sent, so it would travel 4-5 miles per hour by horse and 9ish miles per hour by train. Then, once the letter was received, the company would have to process the order, and then it would have to be shipped back for the customer to receive. Due to the length of time it took to receive the items, it wasn't the most popular way of buying things, but it was still used by many.  The way people talk about online ordering makes it sound like it wasn't a thing before. But now that I have looked into it, while it wasn't online ordering, it was still mail orderi...

 Khadijah Ahmed Mr. Roddy IHSS 17 April 2022 The Rio Grande goes dry in Big Bend, revealing a river system in crisis For hundreds of years, the Rio Grande has been a marvelous ecological development, sustaining life for plants and animals in the dry Texan desert. Its swooping canyons and enriched banks provide for wildlife in one of the most remote places in the region. But recently, the river has began to prove itself humble. Since early April, the Rio Grande has gone dry in patches around the Big Bend National Park. While this occurrence is not unfamiliar in the hot area, the reasons of cause this time are not likely to cease. What is happening now may continue happening until the entirety of the river is run dry. Retired wildlife biologist at Big Bend National Park Raymond Skiles explains that this is a strange situation for the park. "It’s a bizarre scene to witness,” he says, “especially for someone that knows the river quite well over many years. It’s astonishing. It’s sad. ...

 India Riley Mr.Roddy IHSS May 17, 2022 Sand Shortage  Sand is an extremely important resource, used in every construction site. Annually we use around 50 billion tons of sand, so you can imagine how detrimental a shortage in such a necessity could effect our entire agricultural stability. This crisis has been overlooked for years, but finally some countries are recognizing it as a problem. The Kenya-based United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), submitted a report with ideas on how to conserve sand, and mellow the crisis. But unfortunately if we do make sudden changes we would be sacrificing a good portion of the economy. Sand is also not the easiest resource to farm. In order for certain materials to be made, like cement, course and large sand granules are required. So in order to get those specific granules they need to farm from one specific place. Sand is also extremely necessary for a lot of Eco systems, for example, some small reptiles and amphibians require sand to...

 Natalie Gross Mr. Roddy IHSS  May 17, 2022 Buy a whole cow!     The article I read was all about how you can buy either half a cow or a whole cow and store it in your freezer so you can have meat for a whole lot cheaper than if you bought it from the grocery store. Some farms, such as Ray Law's cattle ranch are selling whole cows to people as opposed to selling the cows to a place that will then go on to package and sell the separate cuts of meat. If you buy half a cow, it is usually between 200-250 lbs of meat and it would cost from $1,400 to $1,700. The price would then be about $6.90 per pound when the average price for a pound of beefsteak at the grocery store is $8.65. This way though, you are getting a variety of cuts of meat such as brisket, roasts, ground beef, steaks, and more. The only catch is that you would need to have freezer storage for the beef until you eat it, but an extra freezer is pretty easy to find. Another benefit of buying your beef this way...

  Since the pandemic, many people have realized they can't spend valuable time, on work. These people started finding contract work instead. This work includes independent consulting, student recruitment, project strategy, and leadership. Most people that are working as a contractor have children. Some people said it was important to drop off their kids and attend every soccer game. Something they weren't able to do before quitting their full-time jobs. Not only did becoming a contractor increase the amount of free time people have, but it also increased their pay. They are their own bosses so they control the number of hours they work. Some people said that it was important for their jobs to stay meaningful and always be engaged. Even though doing this profits people with a better quality of life, they don't have job security like they did at their full-time jobs. 

New Mexico is currently on fire, with over 500 miles permiter of fire burning right now, and it's still growing. there are 2 main fires, with one being significantly larger than the other one. the larger one is on the east side of a mountain range near Espanola, in the Pecos wilderness area. the other one is in a part of the Santa Fe forest. If you cant picture how fast the fire is spreading, an ember that gets carried by the wind about 2 1/2 miles away from the fire has basically a 100% chance of igniting the foliage around it. This fire is mainly the result of a megadrought, with little to no rainfall in there the bushes and debris on the ground being super dry, and the humidity is 2.5%, the fire has spread at record speed. This fore combined with the Rio grande drying up is a really bad thing because the Rio grade might have helped guide the fire, but it has dried up in places, and the fire can spread faster via the dry riverbeds. combine all this and you get a really bad situat...

 Charlie Brisch Mr. Roddy IHSS May 17, 2022     In short, there was a leaked draft of the Supreme Court wanting to overturn Roe vs. Wade. If overturned, that means that states have the option to make abortion illegal. Roe vs. Wade allowed women to get abortions without excessive government restriction, and it was passed in 1973. As of recent, many states have been putting laws into place making abortions nearly impossible to get, Texas being one of them. The draft was 98 pages long, and the draft follows many legitimate Court practices. The draft was also being circulated by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who broke Supreme Court protocol by doing this. Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, and all three of Trump's nominees,  Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, have voted to overturn it. Alito's opinion was shared among the justices in February, and was only labeled as a first draft. This means that there is no indication that the other members voted to...

  Niko Cantu Mr.Roddy  IHSS 17 May 2022 The Sand Crisis Out of all the world materials one of the last that we would think would run out is sand, but in fact that is the case. Every year 50 billion metric tons of sand are consumed across the world and for reference that is enough sand to build an 88 foot tall, 88 foot wide wall around the Earth. Sand is an invisible material in our everyday life as it makes up the building blocks we see around us and quite literally as the main component by percentage in concrete, is sand. Things like glass and even silicon, which plays a big role in the phones we carry everywhere, are all made up of a high sand percentage. While sand plays a role in our modern world through construction and technology, it also is extremely important to the environment. Sand helps against storm surges and erosion, it is also a key factor in many natural habits for a variety of animals. The United Nations Environmental Program(UNEP) has done work in helping t...

Shyla Jogi Mr. Roddy IHSS 5/17/22 New Orleans Start-Up Converts Glass into Sand      As a college senior at Tulane University, Franziska Trautmann wanted to do something about the 'sand crisis' (which there is another article about on the PowerSchool page). She co-founded Glass Half Full in 2020 with Max Steitz, which is dedicated to recycling glass back into sand. So far, the organization has recycled about 2 million pounds of glass, just in the past two years. Their New Orleans community showed their support by donating money through the GoFundMe campaign they started. Now the organization has grown from a tiny backyard facility to a location that's around 40,000 square feet. Glass Half Full also employs six people now, which is a huge step up from just Franziska Trautmann and Max Steitz. According to  Trautmann,  “We’re currently recycling about 100,000 pounds of glass every single month." This helps a lot with the coastal erosion crisis that a lot of people ...

Harper Young        May 5, 2022 IHSS Mr. Roddy     The gilded age was a period in time when The United States of America started to develop and grow at a rate that was previously unheard of. The revolution sparked opportunities for new entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. Cornelius Vanderbilt was a native New Yorker who had a great understanding of the city's history. Vanderbilt was born into the transport industry and retained all the lessons and insight he learned through his early childhood. The knowledge he gained was most likely due to his father. His father owned a sailboat that would transport passengers across the Hudson. Vanderbilt also bought a sailboat early in his adulthood. Later in Vanderbilt's career, he saw how the opportunities in the transport industry were limitless due to its rapid growth. Vanderbilt soon started buying railroads constructed during the c...

Harper Young Roddy IHSS - A 4/26/22 The Rise of Skyscrapers Cities in the late 1800s had become so populace that to maintain growth, the only way they could expand was by building taller buildings. Building up was complicated because nobody wanted to climb up 10 flights of stairs, as seen in the first skyscrapers like the Chicago's Home Insurance Building. The Home Insurance Building was completed in 1885 and is considered to be the world's first skyscraper. The Home Insurance Building was the start of a revolution to build taller. The Tacoma Building, also in Chicago, was inspired by the Home Insurance Building and was completed in 1899, being 13 stories tall (165 feet high). The Tacoma Building was also the first skyscraper to use rivets. That same year the Chamber of Commerce tower introduced interior light courts integrated into the structural design of the building. In 1990 The Rand McNally Building became the first self-sustaining steel bounded skyscraper. But the t...