Checking for residual fuel in a 70 year-old sunken wreck without opening the tanks and risking an environmental catastrophe needed a clever solution.
The ingenious answer came from Global Diving and Salvage who created a unique sampling system that is mounted on a Saab Seaeye Cougar XT ROV and can penetrate a sealed container and extract a sample without creating a leak point.
They were contracted by the United States Coastguard to determine if oil was present aboard the S.S. Montebello, a tanker torpedoed in 1941 off the coast of California.
During their investigations Global fitted-out the Cougar with a range of tools to perform 3D modelling, sonar inspection, thickness gauging, a backscatter investigation, the physical sampling of the ship’s fuel tanks and sediment sampling of the general area.
To prepare for the assessment, Global first had to clean off areas of the surface, which meant removing over 70 years of debris. For this process they used the Cougar’s power and tooling capability to clear the tank with a wire wheel and barnacle buster fitted to the manipulator arms.
A Tracerco neutron backscatter system was used to help determine the likelihood of oil in the wreck’s cargo holds. This backscatter tool is a non-invasive contents-sensing device, something like an x-ray that emits neutron particles capable of passing through insulation material and carbon steel to determine the presence of content. It was mounted on a skid attached to the ROV and integrated with the vehicle’s control package. The ROV’s powerful and responsive thrusters held the system steady whilst the backscatter operation was carried out.
Due to depth of water - 275 metres (900 feet) - and the potential risk of leakage of the tank contents, the development of Global’s unique sampling tool system to extract a sample was paramount to the success of the operation. The innovative feature meant that when the hole was drilled through the tank and a sample taken, the hole was then sealed – all in one leak-proof operation without fittings or valves.
The success of this procedure required the reliability and capability of the Cougar’s hydraulic tooling package; for once the sampling operation is underway, a breakdown or glitch can be disastrous. It was essential that the sampling system was held steady by the ROV’s responsive power and suction cups whilst the sample was taken and the surface sealed.
The happy outcome of the mission was to discover that no oil was present in the wreck and that it offers no threat to the ecological environment.
2012年4月27日星期五
2012年4月26日星期四
Art offers connection to healing process, say those who create art for recovery
Carole walks the beach collecting bits and pieces of sea shells that, in turn, she molds with intricate detailing into a masterpiece she simply calls “the fish.” Her pallet is the beach itself, and only Carole and perhaps a few beach trekkers will enjoy this lovely work of art before the tide comes into to take “this fish” back out to sea. “I don’t mind losing my fish art,” Carole told Huliq during an early morning interview April 26, “because it’s already done its job of helping me to heal a bit. When I create the fish, it’s a time of forgetting when all my worries slip away.” In turn, famed Brooklyn cartoonist Roz Chast – whose been published in The New Yorker since 1978; while also recently publishing her own book titled “What I Hate: From A to Z” – explains how her art (cartoons and words) has real healing for her. For instance, she writes: “If you are the sort of person who never worries about spontaneous combustion, has fun at carnivals, and thinks that the shape of a hammerhead shark’s head is just fine the way it is, that’s terrific. I’m happy for you, but this (her) book is for everyone else.” Chast's cartoons also carry the message that art can open the door to find both the humor and reasons for many of life’s troubles.
Roz Chast writes in her new bestseller - “What I Hate: From A to Z” – that art has the power to heal lots of stress; while also using her art talents to both draw and then explain those things that tend to anoy or stress her out in this crazy world.
For instance, Chast writes in opening pages of her new book that “for many years I thought that people who claimed to have been abducted by aliens were either desperate attention-seekers or just nuts. Why else would they say that they were spirited out of their beds and through walls and roofs and into a flying saucer? I changed my mind after attending an abductee conference. Maybe they were lunatics, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t onto something.”
Also, the cartoon "art" of Chast asks the question "why?"
In turn, her cartoons that question the "why" of things that make us either crazy and stressed in life, can be better understood, states Chat's cartoons because they expose our fears and stress having mostly being caused by our own worried minds. Thus, we can make a change once we realize that we're doing our own heads in.
Also, on pages 7-8 of her book “What I Hate,” Chast both explains and draws a cartoon about elevators. She writes: “The perfect storm of claustrophobia, acrophobia and agoraphobia” is found in elevators; while stating these thoughts next to funny drawings of people in elevators. “You can get stuck by yourself,” or “You can get stuck with a crowd,” or “You can get stuck with a psycho,” and then “there’s the obvious: getting stuck in an elevator with spiders.”
Chast also fears “general anesthesia,” and to help vent her fears of having to get anesthesia when in hospital, she drew a cartoon of herself with fear on her face stating: “what if you’re lying on the operating table, aware – i.e., watching, hearing and smelling everything? But you’ve been paralyzed by the anesthesia, so you can’t call out? And what if the anti-memory drug that is part of your anesthesia cocktail then erases this experience? Except it’s not really erased. It’s just been buried really deeply, like a ticking time bomb.”
At the end of the day, “we’re all sort of sitting with a ticking time bomb,” adds Carole while walking the Florence, Oregon, beach collecting sea shells to create more of her “fish art.” This accidental artist then quips: “The time bomb that Roz Chast is talking about is “stress,” and we all have it and need to deal with it. I think art is one good way to help rid yourself of stress and those worries in your life.”
Roz Chast writes in her new bestseller - “What I Hate: From A to Z” – that art has the power to heal lots of stress; while also using her art talents to both draw and then explain those things that tend to anoy or stress her out in this crazy world.
For instance, Chast writes in opening pages of her new book that “for many years I thought that people who claimed to have been abducted by aliens were either desperate attention-seekers or just nuts. Why else would they say that they were spirited out of their beds and through walls and roofs and into a flying saucer? I changed my mind after attending an abductee conference. Maybe they were lunatics, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t onto something.”
Also, the cartoon "art" of Chast asks the question "why?"
In turn, her cartoons that question the "why" of things that make us either crazy and stressed in life, can be better understood, states Chat's cartoons because they expose our fears and stress having mostly being caused by our own worried minds. Thus, we can make a change once we realize that we're doing our own heads in.
Also, on pages 7-8 of her book “What I Hate,” Chast both explains and draws a cartoon about elevators. She writes: “The perfect storm of claustrophobia, acrophobia and agoraphobia” is found in elevators; while stating these thoughts next to funny drawings of people in elevators. “You can get stuck by yourself,” or “You can get stuck with a crowd,” or “You can get stuck with a psycho,” and then “there’s the obvious: getting stuck in an elevator with spiders.”
Chast also fears “general anesthesia,” and to help vent her fears of having to get anesthesia when in hospital, she drew a cartoon of herself with fear on her face stating: “what if you’re lying on the operating table, aware – i.e., watching, hearing and smelling everything? But you’ve been paralyzed by the anesthesia, so you can’t call out? And what if the anti-memory drug that is part of your anesthesia cocktail then erases this experience? Except it’s not really erased. It’s just been buried really deeply, like a ticking time bomb.”
At the end of the day, “we’re all sort of sitting with a ticking time bomb,” adds Carole while walking the Florence, Oregon, beach collecting sea shells to create more of her “fish art.” This accidental artist then quips: “The time bomb that Roz Chast is talking about is “stress,” and we all have it and need to deal with it. I think art is one good way to help rid yourself of stress and those worries in your life.”
2012年4月25日星期三
Healthier buildings for healthier occupants
It is estimated that people spend at least 90 percent of their lives indoors. Much of this indoor time may be spent working inside of an airtight office building without operable windows, where exposure to air pollutants is significantly greater as compared to being outdoors.
Over the past several decades, office buildings have become increasingly airtight in order to maximize comfort and improve energy efficiency through central heating and cooling systems. But this effort has also translated into little control of one's physical environment, and ongoing exposure to potential allergens and materials used in such things as carpeting, furniture, printers, etc., and components of the building itself.
In the 1970s, the term "sick building syndrome" was coined to describe collective symptoms experienced by people working in the same environment, typically an office building. These workers would complain of symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, eye, nose or throat irritation, and sensitivity to odors not linked to any specific disorder other than time spent in the building. The World Health Organization suggested that up to 30 percent of new or remodeled buildings worldwide have sick-building complaints.
Although data is not always sufficient to make a conclusive link between symptoms and time spent in the building, some potential causes for the syndrome are thought to be due to inadequate ventilation -- combustion pollutants such as carbon monoxide from malfunctioning heating systems, or the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from elements such as formaldehyde, which can be found in some carpet backings, resin finishes, and many other indoor materials or equipment. VOC levels may be up to 10 times higher indoors than outdoors.
With the advent of the green movement and LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification, buildings are rapidly becoming "healthier." LEED recently certified its 12,000th commercial project that incorporates LEED standards for energy and water conservation, and promotion of indoor environmental quality, among other requirements.
Ironically, although many historic buildings have inadequate insulation and need to become more energy efficient, many already incorporate health-friendly features such as natural ventilation and light, and have greater cubic feet per minute (cfm) of outside air for each building occupant.
Building ventilation standards of the early to mid-1900s called for 15 cubic feet per minute of outside air for each occupant. With the oil embargo of 1973 and spurred efforts to conserve energy, these standards were reduced to five cfms per building occupant, thereby increasing indoor pollution. The cfm ventilation standard was recently revised upwards by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers to a minimum of 15 cfms per person, and 20 cfms in office spaces.
Over the past several decades, office buildings have become increasingly airtight in order to maximize comfort and improve energy efficiency through central heating and cooling systems. But this effort has also translated into little control of one's physical environment, and ongoing exposure to potential allergens and materials used in such things as carpeting, furniture, printers, etc., and components of the building itself.
In the 1970s, the term "sick building syndrome" was coined to describe collective symptoms experienced by people working in the same environment, typically an office building. These workers would complain of symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, eye, nose or throat irritation, and sensitivity to odors not linked to any specific disorder other than time spent in the building. The World Health Organization suggested that up to 30 percent of new or remodeled buildings worldwide have sick-building complaints.
Although data is not always sufficient to make a conclusive link between symptoms and time spent in the building, some potential causes for the syndrome are thought to be due to inadequate ventilation -- combustion pollutants such as carbon monoxide from malfunctioning heating systems, or the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from elements such as formaldehyde, which can be found in some carpet backings, resin finishes, and many other indoor materials or equipment. VOC levels may be up to 10 times higher indoors than outdoors.
With the advent of the green movement and LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification, buildings are rapidly becoming "healthier." LEED recently certified its 12,000th commercial project that incorporates LEED standards for energy and water conservation, and promotion of indoor environmental quality, among other requirements.
Ironically, although many historic buildings have inadequate insulation and need to become more energy efficient, many already incorporate health-friendly features such as natural ventilation and light, and have greater cubic feet per minute (cfm) of outside air for each building occupant.
Building ventilation standards of the early to mid-1900s called for 15 cubic feet per minute of outside air for each occupant. With the oil embargo of 1973 and spurred efforts to conserve energy, these standards were reduced to five cfms per building occupant, thereby increasing indoor pollution. The cfm ventilation standard was recently revised upwards by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers to a minimum of 15 cfms per person, and 20 cfms in office spaces.
2012年4月24日星期二
Restoring Ecosystem Health Will Fight Climate Change and Allergies
What do itchy eyes, runny noses, and asthma have to do with the weather events you hear about on the TV, or even have experienced personally? It sure seems as if there are more violent and unpredictable storms and severe weather events in recent years.
Most scientists point to global climate change as the underlying cause of the increased frequency and intensity of such events. But regardless of cause, the actual numbers of weather-related disasters, like the tornadoes that blew down the entire community of Joplin, Missouri, are undeniably on the increase. From flooding, to hurricanes and tornadoes, to blizzards, NOAA reported a record-breaking 14 weather events in 2011 that topped a billion dollars in damages. Typically, 2-4 are recorded.
Dollar amounts only tell a fraction of the story. Damage and disruption are not confined to human communities. The same kinds of winds that destroy a town, also blow down tens of thousands of acres of forests. The droughts that destroy agricultural crops, also bake and stress natural communities. After such disturbance, the land is left vulnerable to erosion from hard rains that carry away topsoil, depleting the land and impairing adjacent water bodies. Strong winds likewise mobilize dust, carrying it long distances, contributing to degraded air quality, and exacerbating allergic respiratory illnesses.
Then, after warm rains have watered disturbed lands, conditions are ripe for the establishment of annual weeds. Alas, a large proportion of these annual weeds, so favored under cycles of storm-created disturbance, are prodigious producers of pollen —the bane of allergy sufferers. In croplands also, when extreme weather causes farmers to miss their window to plant crops, the land lies fallow. What flourishes in these fallow lands? The same pollen-producing annual weed species known to wreak havoc with human allergies!
Ragweed, an annual weed notorious for its ubiquitous nature and large releases of wind-dispersed pollen, is one of the plant species experiencing a longer growing season correlated with the warming conditions of the earth. The resulting earlier flowering, as well as longer seasonal growth facilitated by longer and warmer growing seasons, translate to more pollen for a longer period of time, and increased discomfort and suffering for those with allergies. It may also increase the number of sufferers by sensitizing more people. In short, the synergy of land disturbance, disrupted crop cycles, and prolonged growing season is “made to order” for a wide variety of allergen-producing weedy plants like ragweed.
More severe and prolonged precipitation events also lead to increased erosion, particularly on disturbed lands, and significantly more flooding. As floodwaters recede, the residual organic material facilitates increased growth of molds, among the most common human allergens. Water quality is also impaired by runoff that increases when healthy, intact plant communities are absent. In a related health threat, polluted water, warmed during increased ambient temperatures, creates a fertile medium for the growth of pathogens.
Stormwater and sanitary water treatment facilities are often inadequate to meet this challenge from new stresses caused by weather events. Waterborne illnesses, such as the cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee in 1993, can be the debilitating and even lethal, result.
Most scientists point to global climate change as the underlying cause of the increased frequency and intensity of such events. But regardless of cause, the actual numbers of weather-related disasters, like the tornadoes that blew down the entire community of Joplin, Missouri, are undeniably on the increase. From flooding, to hurricanes and tornadoes, to blizzards, NOAA reported a record-breaking 14 weather events in 2011 that topped a billion dollars in damages. Typically, 2-4 are recorded.
Dollar amounts only tell a fraction of the story. Damage and disruption are not confined to human communities. The same kinds of winds that destroy a town, also blow down tens of thousands of acres of forests. The droughts that destroy agricultural crops, also bake and stress natural communities. After such disturbance, the land is left vulnerable to erosion from hard rains that carry away topsoil, depleting the land and impairing adjacent water bodies. Strong winds likewise mobilize dust, carrying it long distances, contributing to degraded air quality, and exacerbating allergic respiratory illnesses.
Then, after warm rains have watered disturbed lands, conditions are ripe for the establishment of annual weeds. Alas, a large proportion of these annual weeds, so favored under cycles of storm-created disturbance, are prodigious producers of pollen —the bane of allergy sufferers. In croplands also, when extreme weather causes farmers to miss their window to plant crops, the land lies fallow. What flourishes in these fallow lands? The same pollen-producing annual weed species known to wreak havoc with human allergies!
Ragweed, an annual weed notorious for its ubiquitous nature and large releases of wind-dispersed pollen, is one of the plant species experiencing a longer growing season correlated with the warming conditions of the earth. The resulting earlier flowering, as well as longer seasonal growth facilitated by longer and warmer growing seasons, translate to more pollen for a longer period of time, and increased discomfort and suffering for those with allergies. It may also increase the number of sufferers by sensitizing more people. In short, the synergy of land disturbance, disrupted crop cycles, and prolonged growing season is “made to order” for a wide variety of allergen-producing weedy plants like ragweed.
More severe and prolonged precipitation events also lead to increased erosion, particularly on disturbed lands, and significantly more flooding. As floodwaters recede, the residual organic material facilitates increased growth of molds, among the most common human allergens. Water quality is also impaired by runoff that increases when healthy, intact plant communities are absent. In a related health threat, polluted water, warmed during increased ambient temperatures, creates a fertile medium for the growth of pathogens.
Stormwater and sanitary water treatment facilities are often inadequate to meet this challenge from new stresses caused by weather events. Waterborne illnesses, such as the cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee in 1993, can be the debilitating and even lethal, result.
2012年4月23日星期一
Area leaders see need for trained workers
A group of about 25 Rockford-area manufacturers met Monday morning with elected officials at Sunrise Restaurant on Wansford Way. Represented by the Tooling and Manufacturing Association, these are business owners who don’t often have time to go to an 8 a.m. breakfast because they’re already at work.
Winnebago, Boone and Ogle counties have hundreds of these small factories making all sorts of high-precision gizmos out of metal. They’re worried, not just about high taxes and mind-numbing regulations, but about the lack of young people trained in industrial skills needed to make up for retiring baby boomers.
Brian McGuire, president of the association, explained the situation to U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Shannahon, state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, state Rep. Joe Sosnowski, R-Rockford, and Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey, a conservative independent.
“Manufacturers have been notified that did not fund the Employee Training Initiative Program, which many manufacturers take advantage of to help train their workers,” McGuire said. At the federal level, manufacturers are concerned because the Department of Education reforms put through by the No Child Left Behind Act actually gave an incentive to dismantle vocational training in high schools. “We are very concerned with the shortage of skilled workers that is already here, and by the massive retirements that will come. It will affect the recovery of the economy because there’s just not going to be new workers to put into these positions.
Production will go offshore simply because of lack of manpower,” McGuire concluded.
Sosnowski noted that his brother Doug, six years older than he is, “went to high school and was able to take shop, a carpentry class, an electrical class. The only thing left when I came along was automotive class,” he said.
Not all students are college-bound, Sosnowski continued. “There’s a whole lot more out there than going to a four-year college,” he said, asking what the schools are doing to offer students who aren’t going to college “the opportunities that are out there.”
The reason state-funded training programs are being cut out, Sosnowski said, “is that we are dumping our cash into a variety of other entitlement programs, and now we’re at the point this year where we’re starting to trim back on every single area so we can continue to fund other programs that aren’t producing well.”
Syverson said “there are important (training) programs that our manufacturing caucus is trying to get legislators to understand we need to keep those going.”
Kinzinger, who beginning in January will represent much of Rockford in Congress, said No Child Left Behind is a dud.
“My mom’s a public school teacher, and she told me when this law was passed that ‘there’s a train wreck coming,’” Kinzinger said. “It looked good on paper but in practicality, it doesn’t work.” It needs to be repealed or drastically changed, he said.
Kinzinger said that around the year 2000, a national attitude developed that manufacturing was passe.
“It became cool to go work on Wall Street. A financial job isn’t bad, but it doesn’t create wealth, it just shuffles money around. Now it’s OK again to want to go into manufacturing. It’s the biggest driver of the middle class we have. We talk about a disappearing middle class, and it’s not because of tax inequity, it’s because of disappearing manufacturing and jobs,” Kinzinger said. The federal government can help with funding, but “let’s allow state and local governments to educate kids as they see best.”
Kinzinger and U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Western Springs, are introducing a bill to develop “a manufacturing strategy, basically a way for the federal government to take all the entities associated with manufacturing and to figure out ways to streamline those, bring them together and make those more effective, and make a report to Congress, to get a grip on how the federal government can better help manufacturing.”
Winnebago, Boone and Ogle counties have hundreds of these small factories making all sorts of high-precision gizmos out of metal. They’re worried, not just about high taxes and mind-numbing regulations, but about the lack of young people trained in industrial skills needed to make up for retiring baby boomers.
Brian McGuire, president of the association, explained the situation to U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Shannahon, state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, state Rep. Joe Sosnowski, R-Rockford, and Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey, a conservative independent.
“Manufacturers have been notified that did not fund the Employee Training Initiative Program, which many manufacturers take advantage of to help train their workers,” McGuire said. At the federal level, manufacturers are concerned because the Department of Education reforms put through by the No Child Left Behind Act actually gave an incentive to dismantle vocational training in high schools. “We are very concerned with the shortage of skilled workers that is already here, and by the massive retirements that will come. It will affect the recovery of the economy because there’s just not going to be new workers to put into these positions.
Production will go offshore simply because of lack of manpower,” McGuire concluded.
Sosnowski noted that his brother Doug, six years older than he is, “went to high school and was able to take shop, a carpentry class, an electrical class. The only thing left when I came along was automotive class,” he said.
Not all students are college-bound, Sosnowski continued. “There’s a whole lot more out there than going to a four-year college,” he said, asking what the schools are doing to offer students who aren’t going to college “the opportunities that are out there.”
The reason state-funded training programs are being cut out, Sosnowski said, “is that we are dumping our cash into a variety of other entitlement programs, and now we’re at the point this year where we’re starting to trim back on every single area so we can continue to fund other programs that aren’t producing well.”
Syverson said “there are important (training) programs that our manufacturing caucus is trying to get legislators to understand we need to keep those going.”
Kinzinger, who beginning in January will represent much of Rockford in Congress, said No Child Left Behind is a dud.
“My mom’s a public school teacher, and she told me when this law was passed that ‘there’s a train wreck coming,’” Kinzinger said. “It looked good on paper but in practicality, it doesn’t work.” It needs to be repealed or drastically changed, he said.
Kinzinger said that around the year 2000, a national attitude developed that manufacturing was passe.
“It became cool to go work on Wall Street. A financial job isn’t bad, but it doesn’t create wealth, it just shuffles money around. Now it’s OK again to want to go into manufacturing. It’s the biggest driver of the middle class we have. We talk about a disappearing middle class, and it’s not because of tax inequity, it’s because of disappearing manufacturing and jobs,” Kinzinger said. The federal government can help with funding, but “let’s allow state and local governments to educate kids as they see best.”
Kinzinger and U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Western Springs, are introducing a bill to develop “a manufacturing strategy, basically a way for the federal government to take all the entities associated with manufacturing and to figure out ways to streamline those, bring them together and make those more effective, and make a report to Congress, to get a grip on how the federal government can better help manufacturing.”
2012年4月22日星期日
NJ ASK stakes raised for teachers
At Manalapan’s Pine Brook School, kids were learning to argue. Students at Ridgeway Elementary in Manchester were urged to log onto game sites. And at Stafford schools, they’ll be throwing pep rallies.
It may not be how their parents prepped for a test decades ago. But readiness for the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge, or NJ ASK, is the name of the game at many events and in skill-building exercises being held at schools throughout the state this month, educators say.
The hours of open-ended and multiple-choice math, language and science proficiency testing for third- through eighth-graders are set to begin Monday. The test will continue in four- and five-day schedules separated by grade level through mid-May.
NJ ASK was launched in 2003 after the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. New Jersey applied for and received in February a waiver from the federal requirements, which critics said were too lofty and imprecise.
But a new state school accountability system — and expectations that the scores will be part of teacher and principal evaluations tied to tenure and salary — have raised the stakes yet again, some educators say. They insist, however, that the prep programs are just a supplement to already rich curricula.
“The reality is if teacher evaluation is connected to test scores then, yeah, the stakes are higher for the teachers. I think each year we all feel the pressure,” Pine Brook Principal John Spalthoff said. “But at the end of the day, the stakes are higher because we’re trying to provide the best we can for our most important assets — for our future.”
To that end, about 35 special-education students here meet 40 minutes before the morning bell for the school’s Project Achievement program. The classes were launched after Pine Brook, now considered a focus school in need of improvement, was found to have a significant proficiency gap between mainstream and special-education students. The program at Pine Brook, which cost the district about $8,650, was extended from 10 weeks last year to 15 this year.
It may not be how their parents prepped for a test decades ago. But readiness for the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge, or NJ ASK, is the name of the game at many events and in skill-building exercises being held at schools throughout the state this month, educators say.
The hours of open-ended and multiple-choice math, language and science proficiency testing for third- through eighth-graders are set to begin Monday. The test will continue in four- and five-day schedules separated by grade level through mid-May.
NJ ASK was launched in 2003 after the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. New Jersey applied for and received in February a waiver from the federal requirements, which critics said were too lofty and imprecise.
But a new state school accountability system — and expectations that the scores will be part of teacher and principal evaluations tied to tenure and salary — have raised the stakes yet again, some educators say. They insist, however, that the prep programs are just a supplement to already rich curricula.
“The reality is if teacher evaluation is connected to test scores then, yeah, the stakes are higher for the teachers. I think each year we all feel the pressure,” Pine Brook Principal John Spalthoff said. “But at the end of the day, the stakes are higher because we’re trying to provide the best we can for our most important assets — for our future.”
To that end, about 35 special-education students here meet 40 minutes before the morning bell for the school’s Project Achievement program. The classes were launched after Pine Brook, now considered a focus school in need of improvement, was found to have a significant proficiency gap between mainstream and special-education students. The program at Pine Brook, which cost the district about $8,650, was extended from 10 weeks last year to 15 this year.
2012年4月19日星期四
Crafty Mom: Recycled crayons
In anticipation of Earth Day, I finally attempted a project that’s been on my to-do list for quite awhile: recycling crayons.
I’ve had a container in our art cabinet collecting broken crayons for some time now. Whenever I hear an, “Oh no!” while the kids are coloring, I simply remove the paper from the broken crayon and toss it into the bits bin. I also save all those freebie crayons the kids are given at restaurants for this purpose. Occasionally I have been known to forget them in my car on a hot day. Trust me when I say that your vehicle’s cup holder is NOT the place you want to make recycled crayons!
I have read many times about recycling crayons by baking them in muffin tins in the oven, but for Earth Day, I wanted to try something a little more earth-friendly: Melting them in the sun!
We picked a really warm day and started by choosing the color combinations for our crayons. We picked various shades of blue and green, hoping they’d look like Earth when they were finished. Then we broke and cut the crayons into small pieces and put them into the molds we were going to use. Since we wanted circles, we used emptied and cleaned single-serving-sized yogurt containers, but you can use just about anything; containers that would otherwise be recycled or trashed are perfect for the job because they aren’t going in the oven, so they don’t need to be oven-safe. Plus it won’t matter if they get messed up in the process.
We put the containers with the crayon bits in the warmest spot we could: Inside a pot with a glass lid, outside in direct sunlight. From experience, another idea that might speed the process would be to stick them in a vehicle parked in the sun!
Despite our best efforts, the 80 degree day didn’t quite melt our crayons enough, so we put them directly under a light bulb in the house until they were more thoroughly melted. (I’m pretty sure we won’t have any trouble melting crayons outside in another month or two!)
Once melted, we stuck the cups in the freezer since we were in a hurry to see how they turned out. It didn’t take long at all for them to harden. Then we were able to gently squeeze the sides of the containers, turn them upside down, and press on the bottom like a button until our new crayons popped out! From trash to treasure!
I’ve had a container in our art cabinet collecting broken crayons for some time now. Whenever I hear an, “Oh no!” while the kids are coloring, I simply remove the paper from the broken crayon and toss it into the bits bin. I also save all those freebie crayons the kids are given at restaurants for this purpose. Occasionally I have been known to forget them in my car on a hot day. Trust me when I say that your vehicle’s cup holder is NOT the place you want to make recycled crayons!
I have read many times about recycling crayons by baking them in muffin tins in the oven, but for Earth Day, I wanted to try something a little more earth-friendly: Melting them in the sun!
We picked a really warm day and started by choosing the color combinations for our crayons. We picked various shades of blue and green, hoping they’d look like Earth when they were finished. Then we broke and cut the crayons into small pieces and put them into the molds we were going to use. Since we wanted circles, we used emptied and cleaned single-serving-sized yogurt containers, but you can use just about anything; containers that would otherwise be recycled or trashed are perfect for the job because they aren’t going in the oven, so they don’t need to be oven-safe. Plus it won’t matter if they get messed up in the process.
We put the containers with the crayon bits in the warmest spot we could: Inside a pot with a glass lid, outside in direct sunlight. From experience, another idea that might speed the process would be to stick them in a vehicle parked in the sun!
Despite our best efforts, the 80 degree day didn’t quite melt our crayons enough, so we put them directly under a light bulb in the house until they were more thoroughly melted. (I’m pretty sure we won’t have any trouble melting crayons outside in another month or two!)
Once melted, we stuck the cups in the freezer since we were in a hurry to see how they turned out. It didn’t take long at all for them to harden. Then we were able to gently squeeze the sides of the containers, turn them upside down, and press on the bottom like a button until our new crayons popped out! From trash to treasure!
订阅：
博文 (Atom)