Non-renewable energy sources

Oil Station in the sea

Petroleum

This black liquid forms underground from decayed plants and animals. It's the source of the fuel oil, diesel fuel and petrol that we use for heating and running vehicles.

Fuel oil is also used to produce electricity in oil-burning power stations.

Crude oil

Millions of years ago the world’s oceans were filled with plants and plankton. When these died they fell to the bottom of the seas. Over millions of years, these remains were buried under layers of sand and mud. Heat and pressure turned the remains into oil and natural gas.

Petroleum, also called crude oil, is a fossil fuel. Like coal and natural gas, petroleum was formed from the remains of ancient marine organisms, such as plants, algae, and bacteria. Over millions of years of intense heat and pressure, these organic remains (fossils) transformed into carbon-rich substances we rely on as raw materials for fuel and a wide variety of products.

Millions of years ago, algae and plants lived in shallow seas. After dying and sinking to the seafloor, the organic material mixed with other sediments and was buried. Over millions of years under high pressure and high temperature, the remains of these organisms transformed into what we know today as fossil fuels. Coal, natural gas, and petroleum are all fossil fuels that formed under similar conditions.

Coal

This black rock is composed mainly of carbon. It's formed underground from decayed plants. Coal is used as fuel in some industries, and to produce electricity in coal-burning power stations.

Coal Mine

Coal is a hard rock which can be burned as a solid fossil fuel. It is mostly carbon but also contains hydrogen, sulphur, oxygen and nitrogen. It is a sedimentary rock formed from peat, by the pressure of rocks laid down later on top.

Surface mining

Miners can use excavators and bulldozers to dig for coal if it is less than 200 feet underground. They remove soil, and then layers of rock to expose or reveal the coal. Sometimes miners have to use dynamite to remove the tops of mountains. This makes it easier to get to the coal. After the coal is collected, the area is filled in with soil and plants and trees are re-planted. This method is cheaper and safer than underground mining.

Natural Gas

Natural Gas is a mixture of gases that have formed from decayed living organisms. It's found underground. Natural gas is used as a fuel in many industries and to produce electricity in gas-burning power stations. It's used in homes for heating and cooking.

Natural gas

Natural gas is colourless and lighter than air. It’s mainly made up of molecules of methane and is found in reservoirs deep under the ground, often alongside oil or coal.

Uranium

Uranium is a chemical element with the atomic number 92 in the periodic table. It is represented by symbol U. Uranium is a silvery white metal, found in the row seven of the periodic table in the actinide series. Among the naturally occurring elements uranium is the heaviest element.

This radioactive metal is found in rocks. It's used in nuclear power stations to produce heat in nuclear reactions. Electricity is produced from this heat.

Uranium is used by nuclear power plants as a source of fuel. Uranium is known for its unique nuclear properties. Nuclear power plants use uranium to cause a controlled fission chain reaction to generate power. This reaction helps to generate a huge amount of power from a small amount of uranium. One kg of uranium can produce energy equal to the energy produced by 1500 tons of coal.

Past Continuous

Here is an example of Past Continuous:

At 9:30 I was having a class of science with Simon.

The Past Continuous is formed with the verb To BE in the Past + a Verb followed by ING.

That's all! Easy? Really easy. Here are some examples:

I was eating an apple yesterday night.

She was reading a book.

They were running fast.

My dad was cleaning the dishes when I arrived at home.

My teacher was writing on the board while I was reading a book.

Here is a video that you can watch!

Why don't we use the magnetic energy to create electricity?

Hi! This is a page in which you can ask any scientific question you have.

Here you can read the article about this issue.

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

One of the most famous of all English writers, Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on 7th February 1812. His parents were John and Elizabeth Dickens. His early childhood was very happy.

He went to a good school and he was an excellent student. But when he was 12 years old, his father went to prison, because he owed a lot of money to other people. All Charles' family went to live in the prison apart from Charles. Charles went to live with a family friend called Mrs Roylance and he worked 10 hours every day at a shoe polish factory.

Portsmouth nowadays

Charles worked hard, but he hated the factory. It was dirty and there were lots of rats. After a few months, John Dickens' grandmother died, so he inherited some money. John could pay the money he owed, so the Dickens family left the prison. Charles left the factory, because he could go to school again.

When he left school, Charles worked in an office. He left after a year and a half because he wanted to be a reporter.

His first novel, The Pickwick Papers, was published in March 1836, but it wasn't in a book. It was in a magazine. In 1836 he got married and he and his wife, Catherine, had ten children. In his life he published lots of novels, short stories, plays and non-fiction books too. He died in 1870.

He wrote a very famous story called a Christmas Carol.

Golden rod and purple aster

Here is a short but beautiful story that you can read and listen in the following link. The story has been written by Ada and Leonor Skinner.

Here is the link. Enjoy.

Goldenrod

Aster Flowers

Money and business

We use money to buy and sell products and services. Money has its own history. In the past people changed objects and things between them. For example, I had a lot of fish and you had meat, then I could exchange fish for meat.

That was called bartering.

Bartering

With money everything changed because it's more flexible and I can always get what I need. 

Ecosystems

An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals and organisms) in a given area, interacting with each other, and also with their non-living environments (weather, earth, sun, soil, climate, atmosphere). Ecosystems are the foundations of the Biosphere and they determine the health of the entire earth system.

Tropical Rainforest is a type of ecosystem

Mutualism is an example

Types of ecosystems

There are different classifications of ecosystems and some can get very complicated, but in general we can talk about ecosystems that are made of land (terrestrial) and others that are made of water (marine when the water is salted). 

Tundra has low temperatures because it's close to the Arctic region

There is also water ecosystems like:

Oceans: huge bodies of water that almos cover great part of the planet.

The five oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic.

Rivers

River Ebro

Lakes and ponds

Lake in Panticosa (Spain)

Coast

Coast Ecosystem

Coral reefs

Coral reefs

Wetlands

Where has this photo been taken?

Mutualism

Mutualism happens when two living things have a mutual benefit. Both help each other in some way and this happens all the time in nature.

Here is a video that can help you understand this relationship.

Crocodile and the Plover Bird

What do you think this courageous bird is doing in the crocodile’s mouth? Why isn’t the crocodile doing anything to her?

This tiny bird is called the Egyptian Plover bird. She gets into the crocodile’s mouth and picks out the tiny bits of food stuck in his teeth.

Mutualism happens when both organisms have a benefit

What does she do with them? She eats them and often this completes her diet.

This cleans the crocodile’s teeth and keeps his mouth fresh and free from infections. So, the Plover bird gets her food and the crocodile gets his mouth cleaned. In this way, both are able to help each other! They have benefit. That's mutualism.

Let us get to know a little bit more about these creatures :

A crocodile is a carnivore which means it eats all kinds of animals that live in the water and even cattle. They have strong jaws. They do not chew their food, just swallow the entire prey into their stomach where it is broken down.It is while swallowing that the bits of flesh get stuck in their teeth.

Don't forget the other relationships which are:

Exploitation = predators and parasitism. + --

Commensalism = + o

Ammensalism = o --

Competition = --  --

Trophic relationships

Trophic level

The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. 

A food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain.

Food chain

Trophic relationships

The trophic relationship is the relationships between the organisms that eat and the organisms that are eaten.

Trophic levels

For example, an owl eats insects like a praying mantis or a grasshopper and of course many other animals, they are carnivores. 

Owl eating a grasshopper

Owls are tertiary consumers while praying mantis or grasshoppers are secondary consumers, they are carnivores and they feed on herbivores like caterpillars.

A praying mantis eating a caterpillar

Caterpillars are primary consumers. They feed on plants. Plants are producers, they make their own food making photosynthesis. So, we can say that the primary consumer eats the producer, like the caterpillar eats the leaves of a plant. 

Caterpillars eat the leaves of a plant.
Caterpillars are primary consumers and the plant is a producer.

Fungi, bacteria and some insects are decomposers. They break down the remains of dead organisms.

A food chain shows the trophic relationships between different organisms.

A food chan shows the trophic relationships between diferent organisms. Normally you will see pictures of animals with arrows pointing. 

Food chain sometimes called food web

After reading this. You can make the food chain of the following living things: owl, grasshopper, caterpillar, plant and bacteria.