Brazil's Future Population: What Will Happen Next?

1) Brazil's current age structure shows many possibilities for Brazil, in both long and short terms.  In the short term (15-20 years), I think Brazil's population will continue to grow.  Currently, 26.2% of Brazil's population is 0-14 years old and 67% of Brazil's population is 15-64 years old.  As you can see, most of Brazil's population consists of teenagers and adults.  These young adults and adults will most likely have children within the next 15-20 years.  Thus, significantly increasing the population and increasing the amount of 0-14 year olds.  At the same time, the older adults will become over 65 years of age and therefore, the groups will even out.  As the overall population increases, it may be that the 0-14 generation today, who will be adults in the longer term, may not have as many children.  Thereby, eventually leading to an overall aging of the population.

2) The increase in population in the short term may have mainly positive outcomes, where as in the long term, it may have negative ones as well.  More people leads to a larger workforce which leads to increased productivity.  However, eventually as Brazil becomes more developed, the continual increase in jobs and new industries may flatten leading to fewer jobs for a large population and unemployment.  In the short term, everything may be good as the growth engine continues in Brazil, but as Brazil gets fully developed, that engine may slow down which could lead to a large population with fewer jobs and ultimately unemployment.  A larger population needs more space.  This may lead to overcrowding in major cities and a higher cost of living.  With a higher cost of living, not everyone will be able to live in the expensive major cities.  One possibility for them, would be to move out to the countryside of Brazil.  In order to build towns and even houses, you have to clear the land which may have a negative effect on the environment if the towns are not built in a sustainable manner.  At the same time, more people need more food so, the increase farming land may also be at the expense of the environment.  Therefore, as the country grows and prospers, the people have to ensure that this growth is down in a sustainable manner where the growing population need are balances with overall environmental protection and conservation.  A bigger population would also use more natural resources and would also need more energy so, the danger is that they would abuse the natural resources and have to determine the best energy sources which may or may not be clean energy sources.  So as the population grows, they have to plan carefully to meet especially the increase energy demands in a clean way, not using more fossil fuels, but rather developing alternative sources of energy such as, hydro, wind, or solar energy.  If they do not plan carefully, the increased population would most likely lead to increased pollution which would lead to further degradation of the environment. 

Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2010.html 

Legs, Arms, and Height: Measuring Flexibility!

On August 9th, 2011 my group conducted an experiment on the second graders of EAB.  The skill my group tested was flexibility.  Flexibility is the quality of bending easily without breaking.  In our case, "breaking" would be bending your knees or not being able to stretch your arms further.  The factors we tested were arm length, leg length, and height.  At the time of the experiment, we thought that the leg length of a person would be a vital factor in their flexibility.  We thought that if one's legs were longer, it would be harder, because they had a longer distance to reach. In this experiment, our data supported our hypothesis.  Our data show that the some of the people with the longest leg lengths (76, 77, 78 cm) had the some of the worst flexibility scores (-4, -5, 2).  There was one child that was an anomaly.  This child had very long legs (82 cm) and an average to high arm length (55 cm).  Their flexibility score was six, which was one of the highest.  I then analyzed the arm lengths of the children and how it affected their flexibility.  My data showed that some of the children with the shortest legs (69,70,71 cm), had the longest arms (60,64 cm).  As I analyzed my data, it showed that the arm lengths of the children did not affect their flexibility.  Having a longer arm did not give you an advantage.  The children with the longest arms had some of the worst flexibility scores (-2, -4, -6).  Unfortunately, my group was not able to test the flexibility of the child with the longest arm length (64 cm) so therefore, my results may be slightly inaccurate.  If we had tested more students, we would have been able to come to a better understanding.  I was not able to draw any conclusions about the correlation between the height and flexibility of the children.  The height factor varied greatly.  Some of the shortest children had the best flexibility scores (5, 6, 8), and some had the worst.  Also, some of the tallest children had the worst flexibility scores (-4, -5), and some had the best (3, 6).  As you can see, the factors we chose were good elements for testing flexibility.  We were therefore, able to draw clear conclusions.  These mixed correlations shows that the arm/leg length ratio does not affect one's flexibility rather it is the length of the leg that is the biggest determinant in this experiment.  That being said, I feel that there may be other factors that affect flexibility that we have not measured in this experiment.  Therefore, it may be too much to conclude that you can determine a persons flexibility solely by the length of their legs.  I'd like to do more experiments testing different factors such as, length of waist, ability to rotate joints in order to more fully determine the precise factors that determine a person's flexibility.  

First Observations!

Common Name: Azalea            

Scientific Name: Rhododendron

Location: Near main office and music/arts classrooms.

Description: 

·      Leaves: small, short green leaves, leaves more exposed to the sun have turned a lighter green or even yellow color

·      Flower: bright pink with a long pistil and stamen, have brighter pink markings on the inside possibly used to attract insects to the flowers, pistil and stamen can be easily differentiated

·      Stem: brown (thinner and thicker at different parts), thicker parts could mean those parts have more nutrients, new stems growing

·      Branches: thin brown branches, flower buds on branches, the branches with more flowers is thicker (more nutrients), and has been exposed more to the sun, new branches growing, one branch is growing (possibly has been trimmed)

·      Roots: not visible

What attracted you to this particular plant on campus?

-What first stood out to me about this plant was the vibrant color of the flowers.  The earth is so brown and dry right know, that the already-bright color was even more striking.  I also suspected that because of its small size, it is a young plant and I will be able to observe its growth over the coming year.

What changes do you expect to see over the next 9-21 months?

-I expect this plant to get taller and grow more leaves and flowers.  I also expect for the leaves to become more lush and fuller.  I do not expect for the plant to grow fruit.  I also do not expect for the plants roots to surface.  I expect the flowers that have not yet bloomed to bloom.

After studying the plant for approximately 20 minutes, what surprises you or what aspect did you not notice before?

-I noticed that the majority of flowers were on one side of the plant and not as many on the other.  I then looked at the stem/branches of the side with more flowers and noticed that they were thicker, meaning that they have more nutrients than the other stems/branches.  This could be because one side is more exposed to the sun.  I noticed that some leaves had a lighter green or even yellow color, which could also be connected to the sun.  I then took a closer look at the flowers and could clearly see the pistil and stamen.  I also saw the brighter/darker pink markings on the inside of each flower.  I suspected that these markings could be used to attract insects to the flowers.

Diving into AP Biology!

August 8, 2011

Question #1: How is the puzzle like science?

Answer #1: I think the puzzle we did last class relates to scientific lab experiments.  When we first received the pieces of the puzzles, we tried several times to get the pieces to fit together to make a square.  We conducted trials or in other words experiments. In science, we use the results of several experiments to form a hypothesis.  Once we received another piece, I formed a hypothesis.  I saw how the the previous pieces fit together to form a square and predicted where the extra piece would fit.  I then tested my hypothesis by putting the pieces together as I had predicted they would fit.  In this case, my hypothesis proved incorrect because the pieces did not fit together to form a square as I had predicted they would.  I then conducted more experiments to determine how the pieces fit.  Once I discovered how they fit, I formed a conclusion on how the pieces fit together.  

Question #2: Why did you choose AP Biology?

Answer #2:  I love learning about how living organisms work and how they relate to each other.  Last year I took regular Biology and was fascinated with the details I learned about all sorts of living matter.  This led me to want to learn more.  AP Biology, although a hard course, will be worth the challenge.