This Week In Science # 15

This week in science we did the marshmallow challenge. In this challenge we got with same group of people  we were in, in the beginning of the year. You would think that our results would be the same or better, but our teacher changed the rules. Last time we stacked up the desk because we were allowed to, so this made the tower to be bigger, but now that was't allowed so all we measured but the height of the structure itself. We weren't also allowed to talk in this challenge or we were disqualified this even made it harder because the group and had so many ideas, but the lack of talking made it harder for one of us to understand what the other was doing. We also made a video dedicated to our future 10th grade. We wrote something like a script answering a few questions about ourselves and how we have grown over the year, then we video taped it and then posted it to our blog.

This week in science I learned that when doing a certain project with a group of people YOU NEED TO TALK. The challenge we did was even harder because we weren't speaking so all the ideas that each or us had we just trying to all be put in to the project causing both ideas to clash and not making it work. However, we were drawing out our ideas on a little note pad which in way helped out, but not completely. Also, because our teacher changed the rules we weren't able to use the table to make the tower bigger causing our structure to not be ass big as it was last time, but it was still the tallest on out of the class.

This Year In Science - 10 Grade intro

This Week In Science # 14

This week in science we did a Marine Food Chain explaining what eats what and how they get the energy they need by using videos. This was a bit difficult for me but after I started to think "outside the box" I found an easier way to find the videos and put them together. We also continued to do the Spider Observation Log and we did the over view of HIPPO which is not what it sound like. I will explain what it means in the next paragraph. We also kept feeding our spiders and writing down the changes that the tank has made during the time it has been watered and revealed to the sun.


This week in science we learned about Phytoplankton and how they are the first organisms in a Marine Food Chain. We also learned about the HIPPO. HIPPO stands for Habitat loss meaning when people cut down trees and other places that animals might live in, Introduced species meaning species of plants or animals travel with other things and land in new land and take over the place, Pollution meaning pollution kills the environment which doesn't allow plants and animals to live, Population growth meaning the more people there are the competition will get stronger over the natural resources, and finally Over-consumption sort of related to population growth which means people use more resources than other.

Marine Food Chain

This Week In Science # 13

If I was to add five more spiders the cycle of photosynthesis is increased. I say this because the spiders provide carbon dioxide so this will allow the tank to produce more photosynthesis. The plant will take the carbon dioxide that the spider makes then make glucose to create oxygen.

This Week In Science # 12

This week in science we made observation logs. We also put information in them like what our tank looks like. David also fed the spiders flightless fruit flies which was pretty cool because we saw the way that the spiders eats it. They wrap it around with their web and then they eat it.

This week in science we learned about three symbiotic relationships. They were: Mutualism, Commensalism, and Parasitism. We learned that Mutualism is when both organism benefit ( +,-), Commensalism is when one organism benefits and the other organism is neither benefited or harmed (+,0), and Parasitism is when one organism live in another organism and harms the organism while its benefitting.

This week in Science # 11

 This week in science we were focusing on making a habitat for our cellar spider the purpose of this week was to learn about ecosystems. On Monday we had to write on a post-it note information that we know or want to know about an ecosystem, food chain, water cycle, producer, etc. On Tuesday we went outside to Seward Park to pick out the things we want to put in our tank. My group and I picked out insects, plants,nuts,big rocks and smaller rocks to put in it. I found and couple of small worms that reminded me of a rainbow because they were so colorful. On Thursday we did some research on the cellar spider. We also did a design on how the tank looks like from the top view and from the side. We did a google doc that included picture that Mayra (my classmate) took in the park, we put these pictures on the google doc and on the side we explained how that was important to have in that environment.

This week in science I learned that cellar spider mostly found in the basement of house. I also learned that the cellar spider live anywhere except Antarctica because its too cold for them.I learned they  eat host and eggs. I didnt know the body grew 2mm to 10mm in length, the legs may reach a size of 50mm in length until my partner researched it.

This Month In Science#10

This month in science The Human Impact Institute came to our class and introduced us to their program. They told us to choose between Waste, Water, Transportation, and Energy . My group Yasmin, Sofia, Mayra and I chose Waste. We chose this because here in New York you see a lot of waste everywhere we go so we thought that waste is a very huge impact in our lives that if we don't do something quick about it, waste can easily take over our lives.

 We went around the Lower East Side to take a survey. When Yasmin and I finished the survey we took the data and put it into Google Docs that sorted out all the information for us. We also had to take a survey on how much trash we throw out and how much of it do we recycle. We also tested water from Brooklyn, our school (New Design High School) and the fish tank using a tablet that detects if the water had chlorine,  bacteria, and its hardness. After that we planned out a slogan for our T-shirts that we are going to make that  has to be related to the waste problem. Our team slogan is "One Starts, Millions Continue". When we made  all the changes that needed to be made to our slogan we came up with a picture that explained what our slogan was about. Our picture was a little boy throwing trash on a pile of trash instead of the trash can that was right next to it. We did some refining to it just to make it better.

In this month I learned a lot about the Lower East Side that I didn't know. Im not very familiar with the area but when I went around doing the survey other than getting to know the area more I also learned that around this area there isn't a lot of people who recycle. There is a lot of trash being used in the Lower East Side because there is a lot of companies around here. Also even though there is a lot of businesses here most people travel by train, which is a good thing because in conserves gas and there will be less pollution. Something that I really got scared was when i realized that this school water has bacteria and the fish tank water seems to be cleaner.  Also I learned how to take a main idea and turn it into a catchy slogan (which was very easy). This month was a very fun and educational month and i can't wait to see my team's design on a T-shirt

Human Impact Ad Campaign

Well this picture that you see here above is my creation of what the slogan "One Starts. Millions Continue..." What I meant to prove is that there is a mother duck and her ducklings, its been always told that the ducklings always follow the mothers footsteps so that's what this picture shows. The mother is throwing garbage in the water and so are the ducklings. This is just like us humans that once we see and piece of garbage  on the floor instead of picking it up we actually continue to put more trash. I chose this idea because is a myth that the ducklings are always following the mother in everything she does, and i thought that symbolizes us when we follow the person that put the first piece of trash there.

Wasted: New York City's Giant Garbage Problem

This article is basically about the bad and the good stuff that happens to the waste us New Yorkers create. My group and I were reading it and we learned that the waste in the old days was either burnt in the incinerators, throw in the ocean or just picked up to be sent to a poor neighborhood. The article was also saying that Steven Cohen had an idea of how to convert the garbage into energy but certain people did not agree with that. Even thought they did not like his idea they came up with something new that involve high pollution truck to carry out the garbage into a landfill, which was still bad because the trucks cause pollution.

While reading this article I just thought that in wasnt fair that in some cases the trash that was collected was sent to the poor neighborhoods. Also i found it interesting that before there used to be incinerators that burned the waste in the buildings. I felt that the article was very informative because of that i leanred what the people in the past did with the waste before the new system we have now.

This week in Science # 9

This week in science we dissected a Perch. A Perch is a certain type of fish that lives in freshwater. Before we even got to dissect it we did some research on this fish and drew a picture of what the Perch looks like, then labels the parts we see. We also took pictures of the Perch and labeled them on preview. After we labeled everything we saw on the outside the next time we had science we were suppose to open it up a certain way and investigate the inside. The room was smelling very bad the smell caused many kid to actually not want to do the project.

I learned many things this week, and most of them were about my organism which was a Perch. I learned that the perch live in freshwater like pounds, lakes, streams, river. They eat smaller fishes, and sometimes shellfishes. I also learned a few things about my other groups organism the Skate. I leanred that it is in the sharks family, they also have a slow growth rate, they have gills, and live in salt water

Even though my organism looked very different from my other partners organism they did have some similaries. One of the similaries would be they both have gills and one of the difference would be the Perch lives in freshwater unlike the Skate that lives in saltwater

This Month in Science

 

This month in science we did the Zoology Project with our new groups. The first thing we did was decide was biome we wanted to gather data on  that perticular biome. The research lasted a while because we wanted to make sure we got as much info as we needed in order to make a nice presentation (like above) and make sure that all the information we put it to each slide wasnt just slide of information handed to you, but that all the information "flow" together. After we did that David and Jamie gave us a few pointers on how to make a slide and how it goes all together to make sense. After that my group and i decided to assign certain slides to a person. Meaning that the slide or slides you got you are in charge of putting all the infor that need to go there and making sure it is done correctly. Then when all the slides are done David this new thing called screen casting which really is you recording your voice as you go through slides. When you record your voice you need to explain each slide and what it identifies. This is why we created speaker notes. Speaker notes a are the notes on the side of your slide that only you can see and you use that as a guide to go throught you slides and record. At the end we just saw eachothers presentations and gave eachother comments. This was my favorite part i learnded many new things about different biomes by watching my peers videos.

This week in science #8

The picture on the left is the ventral view of the crawfish Yasmin and I dissected, and on the right is the dorsal view. The dorsal part was where my partner Yasmin the open to observe the inside or the crawfish. What I labeled on the picture was the abdomen. This feature is the most distal part of the crawfish. Distal is the back or spine of the body or in this case of the crawfish. The proximal part of the crawfish would be the eyes. Proximal means the closes part to the body. The eyes are located in the anterior part of the body, meaning on the head area. The abdomen is located in the posterior area, mean the abdomen is around where the tail is at. You can tell by the picture this is true. The environment of the crawfish is surrounded by fresh water they mostly live on the muddy bottom area of the body of streams or pounds.


while doing this project i was honestly very disgusted because of the crawfish's guts coming out of it. It wasn't pleasant. Other than the disgusting part i did actually learned something. I didnt know that the crawfish's liver is yellow, but after dissecting the crawfish I saw something yellow then i asked Jamie what it was and she told me its was the liver.

Classification Challenge

Kingdom: Animalia - belongs in the animal classification 

Phylum: Chordata - has a back bone

Class: Amphibia - cold blooded creatures
Order: Caudata
Family: Salamandridae - newts
Species: Notophthalmus
Genus: Notophthalmus - newts

My newt is a North American newt. There are three species, there is the Black- Spotted Newt, Striped Newt , and Eastern Newt. They live in small body of freshwater, if their water habitat becomes unstable the adults move on to dry lands. They it water fleas, snails, and beetle larvas. The adults don't an exact food habit, they can practically eat any small invertebrates.
 

This Week In Science #6

This week in science I did a investigation involving crickets. We wrote down a list full of things that we researched on the internet about what do cricket need and do in order to survive. I had many things about the crickets and let me tell you they are insects that don't really ask for much, they can basically eat anything. We also had a data day which involved us looking at crickets and collecting data about which environment do crickets like best dry or damp environment. We also did a Mission Challenge had talked al about a dichotomous key. An dichotomous key is a way for you to take a big group and classify it into different groups depending on their characteristics.


This week in science I learned that crickets don't actually don't need much "nursing" in order to survive. They can basically eat anything even fungi they usually like to live under a damp log, so with information i supposed that the crickets would prefer to live in damp places than in dry places. I also learned of another way of doing a dichotomous key. There is a picture dichotomous key and written dichotomous key. We learned how to take a group of jelly beans and classify them by their characteristics using a dichotomous key.

Cricket Behavior Investigation

Cricket Investigation

Do crickets prefer fruit or vegetables?
Hypothesis: If the we feed the crickets vegetables, then they would eat it more than the fruit, because according to research they eat fungi and seedlings and that is counted to be vegetables.
In order for cricket to survive they need to eat decaying plants, fungi, seedling, and vegetables. They also need water. Their environment is basically under a moist log or rocks.

As you see in my data above you can tell that the crickets like to eat the fruit more than they like to eat fruit. This data does not support my hypothesis, I thought that the crickets would like to eat the vegetables more because according to the information i collected on the internet it said they like to eat fungi, seedlings, and so on and those things are counted to be as vegetables.

 In conclusion, I learned that crickets prefer to eat vegetables more than fruits. I guess they like to be extra healthy. I also learned that there is a certain why to collect data depending on what the experiment is. I think i chose the best one for my investigation.

This week in Science #5

This week in science I did many things since the last time I did a this week in science. We made some rockets out of a straw for the body, index cards for the fins, and clay for the nose. After we built them and wrote most of our investigation we launched them. It was pretty awesome. Our question was how could the placement of the fins effect for far it can go. My group and I decided that the the rocket with the fins on the middle of the body would go the furthest and we were right. Also this week in science we have jus started to watch animal behavior videos. To me this is quite interesting because unlike us human we use words to express what we feel, but since animals cant talk they use movement to express them selves.


This week in science i learned about the different little things that can mess up or cause a really different data. For example, while doing the rocket investigation the rocket I learned that a little opening of the nose on the rocket cause the whole rocket to not fly as high. Also, I learned that animals have many different was to express them selves and to protect them selves because that can't use words.

This Week In Science #4

This week in science we were given a new mission. The mission was a plant investigation of another group. This was like to give us an example of how we're going to do ours. Also, my group and I did a project planner like we did for the first plant investigation to see who would do what. Even though there was a lot of doing we all worked it out and have done all of our jobs. This week in science we also started our investigation write up and my group and I are almost done all we need is the conclusion.

This week in science I learned a quicker and easier way to find averages. I had an "aha" moment when David (the science teacher) showed me that all the work I was doing as too much. When he broke it down into an easier way i felt a little relieved  that i don't have to do so much. Also, something else I learned was that my hypothesis for my plant investigation was right. I was actually amazed that it was right. Also I learned that Barassica Rapa does grow really quickly.

This Week In Science 3

This week in science i have been recording on how my plant has been growing and one of my plant hasn't been growing because it was part of my experiment. One of my plants had to get more than enough water to see if it still grows and lately it has been growing, but slowly. I also got a assigned a driving question and that question was how can we, as scientist, conduct and publish a plant investigation that satisfies all the NDSH requirements  and get us an A? With this question can many more questions like how can we achieve the answer to this question and others.Also, David gave my team and i a mission questions and we had to answer this question, make a graph, and explanation in like 40 minutes 


This week in science i learned what is the if.. then.. because.. format of NDSH. I at first i was really confused but then when it was explained to me it was real simple. Also i learned that when you need to do a procedure in order to get a really good grade you need to explain the step in depth. It needs to make so specific that even a 5 year old or and alien from space that can speak english can do it. I really didn't know it had to be that specific, but now i know better. 

This Week In Science #2

This week in science i was "playing" with poppers. It was kind of interesting because there were many types of poppers and they all acted differently. David reviewed independent variables and dependent variables with us. I wrote done the independent variables we can change to get a certain result. Also i did some reseach on the fast plants (Brassica Rapas). My team and i also did a plant investigation experiment setup for the Brassica Rapas plant and rew out the way the cups look.


This week in  science i leanred that even the smallest things can cause a big difference. I say this because when i was playing with poppers i notice that the smaller poppers didnt jump as high as the big poppers and they also dont make the same sound. I also learned that the Brassica Plants can be pressed for oil. I was amazed by this because the plant is very thin and the fact that it has oil in it i questioned myself how many of this plants can produce a gallon of oil.