TWIS #15 Milestone

This week in science we did a milestone. The milestone was called the "Marshmallow Challenge" which we did a couple times before. In the marshmallow challenge we were put in groups of 4, and given a paper bag with materials such as spaghetti, a marshmallow and tape. The point of the marshmallow challenge is to make the tallest sculpture with the materials you are given BUT, the marshmallow is suppose to sit on top of the sculpture without making it fall. My group and i did not do too well at first but, then we got the hang of it and we did ok. We definitely used a lot of tape and we were afraid the marshmallow was going to fall but, we helped each other out and it actually stood up.

I felt really different when i did the marshmallow challenge this time because i felt like i helped more than i did before and i got along better with my partners. It also went more smoother this time because we all know each other better, and were more comfortable than before. It was kinda hard to not talk but, we were able to write to each other but, that wasted a little bit of time so we started sketching how we want it to look and agreed that it would work out fine. While we were making the sculpture it was way harder than we thought and it didn't really come out the way we wanted it to but, it stood up without falling so we were happy about that.

This was our marshmallow challenge sculpture.

This was the sculpture when it was completed.

this is us building and trying new ways to make the sculpture.

TWIS #14

This week in science we have been going over things that will be on the region exams. We used this week mostly for review. We also made posters about different sources of energy. After we were done with the posters we had to present in groups in front of the class. My group and i had to make a poster on wind. We explained how wind can get polluted and how windmills work. We also labeled the different parts of a windmill and explained how each part worked.

TWIS #13

This week in science we made our spider habitat better. We planted some spinach and some mushroom. We also put in slices of orange for the fruit flies, we put in more fruit flies for the spider and we put more water. So, basically every living thing in the tank has something to live off of.  Lastly we sealed up the tank.
We just got our tanks back and we saw the condensation happened. There is water dripping down the sides of the tank and off the seal. This happened because there is no more air flowing through the tank so its humid inside the the tank, kind of like a rain forest.

This Week in science #12

This week in science i made something called a spider observation log. Everyday were suppose to record how the spider is doing. We also feed them genetic fruit flies. Genetic fruit flies are made so they can't fly. We also learned about producers, consumers, carnivores and herbivores. A producer makes its own food and the consumers eat the producers. Carnivores are meat eaters and herbivores are plant eaters. Another thing we learned about was mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Mutualism is when both animals are benefited, commensalism is when one animal benefits and nothing happens to the other and parasitism is when one animal benefits and the other animal gets affected.

This Month In Science #10

This month in science we are working on creating a human impacts t-shirt design. He got a visit from a few people from the human impacts institute, and they showed us some examples of slogans and pictures to help people understand how were impacting the world. We made up our own slogans and created a design concept for our t-shirts. My group is focusing on how pollution and oil spills are impacting our ocean water. The slogan we came up with is "Water you gonna do when its gone?". We thought it was very simple and catchy. After that we came up with an illustration for the T-shirt. The illustration shows four glasses of water, under each cup is a year. This illustration shows how we will lose water as the years go by. Each of the four cups lose water every ten years(in our drawing:1997,2007,2017,2027). It goes from past to future and show that if we keep polluted the ocean, we won't have any water left.
This month in science we learned how slogans and pictures(about human impact) can either be about awareness or action. Some of the pictures we saw were boring and had too much writing of a boring picture. Most of the other ones had interesting pictures and catchy slogans. They were straight to the point and sent a great message to people. Something else that i learned about was how hydrofracking, oil spills, and pollution is damaging our ocean alot. Soon all the oceans will be contaminated and they'll be no fresh water left. Hopefully my groups poster will make people realize whats happening to our ocean water .

The Sturgeon's Looming Endangered Listing

The Sturgeon species is becoming endangered because of many incidental catches. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working with the fishing industry on ways in which it can minimize incidental catches. Sturgeon numbers have plummeted as much as 99% in some areas of the east coast and the NOAA hasn't developed a recovery plan, the listing could affect as much as 42 fisheries and those that support the gillnetting of monkfish and spiny dogfish in particular. The monkfish fishery generates $50 million alone, yearly so there are concerns about the effects of the listing.

In my opinion, I think that they should do what ever it takes to save the sturgeon species. They shouldn't go extinct just because fisherman keep accidentally catching them. Fisherman should try to be more careful and if they catch a sturgeon, they should return them back into the water. I have to admit that the article was confusing but, i agree with the author(Deborah Weisberg).

Science And I

Cricket Behavior Investigation

Question: Do crickets prefer wet or dry environment?


Hypothesis: The crickets will stay on the wet side more than the dry side.


Background Research: Crickets have good hearing and good vision. Some people believe that crickets are good luck, therefore they give them a good environment and food to survive. Crickets are strongly attracted to light, but if they are indoors they are found in dark places like basements or crawl areas

 Picture:

 

TWIS #6

This week in science we did a mission challenge with jelly beans. Our mission challenge is to categorize the jelly beans by dichotomous key. We had to draw out a chart with different questions to put each type of jelly bean in different categories. My group and i asked questions like, does the jelly bean have spots? or is the jelly bean dark in color?(etc). After we finished the dichotomous key, we had to copy it onto a big piece of chart paper and then we got to eat the jelly beans.
I didn't make any errors this week, but my group and i had a little trouble getting things done fast. When it was time for us to present our charts, my group and i had just started writing things down. We didn't have enough time to finish the chart, but we did all of the work. Also, i had an aha moment when i realized how easy the dichotomous key. When i first saw it, i thought it was kind of difficult, but once david explained it to us, it was easy.

TWIS #5

This week in science we started a new unit. The unit we just started is about animals, and their behavior. We saw some videos on animal behavior. All of the animals had different behaviors and different reactions to what ever was happening or was about to happen. The first video we saw was about a rare parrot in New Zealand. It was trying to mate with the person trying to take pictures of it. At first i thought it was attacking the man, but then my teachers informed me that he was trying to mate with him.
Another video we saw was about two cats fighting randomly. I was confused when we were watching the first video because the parrot was just ignoring the man while he was taking pictures of it. Then after that it climbed on top of his back and started to slap him with its wings(as shone in the picture below). It also clawed the back of his neck while it was trying to mate with him. I would really like to know why it did that to him though.

                                       this picture shows the parrot trying to mate with the man.

TWIS #4

This week in science we completed our Plant Investigation #2 Write Up. We all picked what we wanted to do in the plant investigation. The next day we did what we were suppose to do on Google docs. Then we took a photo for the results. After that we were done with it so we revised it and fixed up some errors.

This weeks aha moment was when jaime posted the comment saying that i did the procedure wrong. I thought i had it just fine,but anyways i fixed it up a little. I added the measurements we got through out all the warm ups and i included how much we watered the plants(daily). The results to our brassica rapas in the dark were bad because they all died,but the one in the sun grew healthy and beautiful.

This Week In Science #3

This week in science we were taking a look at our plants. The plants that my group are growing, are kind of tall. The two that we put in the dark are yellow with white stems, and the one that we put in the sun is green and healthy. We have been drawing illustrations of them for our warm ups and we have been watering them.We haven't completed the plant investigation yet, but we are almost done.

Another thing we did was we completed a chart based on a mission we were given. My groups mission had to do with clothes, so we had to go around the room asking people if they were wearing what was listed on our data table.After that we had to draw a bar graph based on the data we collected, then we did an explanation answering a question we were given.Also today was our digital day so we are doing are this week in science(on this blog post).

TWIS #2

This week in science i learned about the brassicarapa.  We did our second plant investigation background research then we did the actual experiment. Also, we had to draw an illustration of the experiment. Me and my group wrote down testable questions, then we planted the seeds. When we did the background research we were told to summarize what we learned about brassicarapa and right down facts we came across.

During my plant investigation background research i learned that brassicarapa is commonly known as field mustard. I also learned that it can be cooked and eaten. It was naturalized in the wild and is not native to California. They are also poisinous to bovines,pigs, and sheep. Another thing i was introduced to was a popper, which i've never seen or played with one before.