Recipe cooking 11-30-13 humanities

One of the hardest challenges that I faced was probably setting up and finding the ingredients in the first place. Many of the ingredients that we needed we already had, but were expired or did not have enough of. I had to postpone the cooking because some of the ingredients were expired so I had to go to the market and pick up new ones.
Throughout the whole cooking process, I did not need help for any of the cooking or cleaning. The directions were pretty easy to follow, and I remembered the training we were given at the cooking class, and used them to my advantage. If I had not been given the cooking instructions from KCC, it would have made the direction following much harder than before.
One thing that I need to work on before the cook off is my direction following. Before I start to cook the food, I need to look over the directions and figure out everything the directions say before I start to cook. One of the things that messed me up a little during the process of cooking the rice was not looking ahead While following the directions. Next time I will remember to always look a step ahead.
I had very good feedback on the rice and parfait. My parents said even though the recipe was fairly simple, the ingredients used really complemented and contrasted each other, which in turn made a very good dish. The rice went very good with the other meat  we had for dinner, and the parfait finished the meal on a very sweet note.

Animal cell plant cell MPX STEM 11-4-13

Sleep MPX STEM 11-1-13

Sleep habits

On average, I usually get about 6-8 hours of sleep a day. After practice, I am so tired, that I usually go to sleep earlier than before. This both helps, and hurts me. Going to sleep is always better than going to sleep later, but sometimes I am so tired from practice that I cannot get all of the homework that I have due for the following day finish. This hurts me academically, and also hurts my education. This totally pushes the electronics away during the week though. Since I have so little time when I get home, I usually do as much homework as I can, then go straight to sleep. So I have no time for any social media or video games. This also means that I have minimal time to study too.

Nothing really keeps me up at night. Even if I try, I will immediately fall asleep because I am so tired from soccer practice, and because I have to wake up early to get to school, because I live on the east side. The only thing that will sometimes keep me awake is studying. If I have a test coming up, or if its the next day, I will try to get the perfect balance of sleep and studying. But, this means that I will stay up much later than I usually do if I just finish my homework and go to sleep. Some things that will keep me up are also if I remember I have to finish something, and I didn't finish when I was supposed to. For example, if I have to do reading for Mrs.Calabro's class, and I forgot, it will keep me from sleeping, because I know that it will hurt my grade if I don't finish it. This blog post also is keeping me up, because I have to finish all of my homework before I go and do anything, and I want to go to the beach tomorrow, but I forgot to finish this on Friday, so I am staying up doing this and other work that is due on Monday.  

Nitrogen notes MPX STEM 10-28-13

Nitrogen is important to all life. Nitrogen in the atmosphere or in the soil can go through many complex chemical and biological changes, be combined into living and non-living material, and return back to the soil or air in a continuing cycle. This is called the nitrogen cycle.

lants need nitrogen to grow, develop and produce seed. The main source of nitrogen in soils is from organic matter. Soils in Missouri commonly contain one to four percent organic matter. Organic matter largely arises from plant and animal residues. The nitrogen in organic matter is largely in organic forms that plants cannot use. Bacteria found in soils convert organic forms of nitrogen to inorganic forms that the plant can use. Nitrogen is taken up by plant roots and combined into organic substances in the plant, such as enzymes, proteins and chlorophyll. Chlorophyll gives the plant its green color. When the plant dies, it decays and becomes part of the organic matter pool in the soil.


Plant and animal wastes decompose, adding nitrogen to the soil.
Bacteria in the soil convert those forms of nitrogen into forms plants can use.
Plants use the nitrogen in the soil to grow.
People and animals eat the plants; then animal and plant residues return nitrogen to the soil again, completing the cycle.



The largest single source of nitrogen is the atmosphere. It is made up of 78 percent of this colorless, odorless, nontoxic gas. However, plants are unable to use nitrogen as it exists in the atmosphere. Nitrogen from the air enters the nitrogen cycle through several  types of microorganisms that can convert N2 gas to inorganic forms usable by plants. Some of these microorganisms live in the soil, while others live in nodules of roots of certain plants.

Nitrogen also can enter the cycle from other sources besides the air, manure and decaying plant materials. Nitrogen also can enter the cycle from the application of commercial nitrogen fertilizers.

Nitrogen can be lost from the cycle. It can be lost to the atmosphere, removed by harvesting crops or lost to surface water or groundwater. However it is lost, nitrogen can enter the cycle again through one of the processes discussed above or through other processes. These additional pathways of gains and losses to the nitrogen cycle are illustrated in Figure 2.

Farm article MPX STEM 11-1-13

Since ancient times, it has been tradition to plant and grow crops in the spring. Even though it is is a tradition that has been celebrated for thousands of years, it is ineffective. Planting the crops every year deteriorates the soil, and makes it harder and harder every year to plant crops and have them flourish. Without fertilizer, it makes it almost impossible for big name crop planters and companies to plant and grow crops organically. That is what Jackson's whole campaign is about. He wants to create a prairie like growing system, mainly for different types of grains. His goal is to basically rewrite the way we grow our crops. He will be growing not only one type of crop at a time in the same space, but multiple crops in the same place, to level out the nitrogen in the soil.

"Jackson has a biblical way of speaking: “The plow has destroyed more options for future generations than the sword,” he says. “But soil is more important than oil, and just as nonrenewable.” Soil loss is one of the biggest hidden costs of industrial agriculture — and it’s created at literally a glacial pace, maybe a quarter-inch per century. The increasingly popular no-till style of agriculture reduces soil loss but increases the need for herbicides. It’s a short-term solution, requiring that we poison the soil to save it." Jackson wants to stop the short term saving of the soil, because it literally is putting poison in the soil to save it, but only for a short time. He believes that perennial polyculture, with fields containing varieties of mutually complementary species, planted once, harvested seasonally but remaining in place for years, is the answer to the crisis we are desperately trying to avoid.

His article connects deeply to our year long project. Our goal for the year long project is sustainability, which is also Jackson's goal. Finding shortcuts and loopholes is what created our crisis. What both Jackson, and the students of MPX are trying to do is find ways to sustainably grow crops, while thinking of the ecosystem, the plants, and soil before the profit.