EcoTower Observation 3 4/8/11

On Friday 4/8/11, we had to do our EcoTower observations like we do every Friday. I went to go and get our EcoTower and brought it back the the table. I sat it down and started to look and see what all has happened in the tower and what all has grown. The algae is no longer standing up right it is laying on the rocks on the floor of the bottle. The water is really cloudy and starting to get a lot darker and more cloudy. The algae is slowly breaking down and decomposing into little pieces. The beans seem to be growing very well still. Even though there is no other sign of life in our groups EcoTower the beans are doing a good job of still growing and living well. The plants have grown bigger and taller over the time period since the last time we looked at the EcoTower. The guppies have completely decomposed and they're little pieces floating around on the bottom of the bottle. They're pieces of algae that has started to fall apart and started to float around in the water. The grass has became completely brown and looks like if you would touch it that it would break into millions of pieces. The decomposed worm is still laying there in the same spot and has not fully decomposed yet. It has a hint of red around the worm and looks like it is bleeding everywhere. There is still some green and blue around the worm but not much because there doesn't look like there is much worm left. I think next week that the beans will have grown a lot more and the algae will still be decomposing and wont be much left in the EcoTower wish our tower, the fish,worms,crickets,grass an the algae would have lasted longer than a week like it did.

Spring Has Sprung in a Deciduous Forest Biome

Yesterday on April 8th 2011, our ecology class went outside to see what all has happened since the last time we were out there looking for signs of spring. Last time a few weeks ago, there wasn't much out there that showed the signs of spring, So yesterday, We all walked outside to the field and our first site was "Edge of the field." Conner and I started to walk down to where we took our picture of the berry buds on the limb. As we got to the spot i was very surprised because I thought that the berry buds would have grown into red colorful berries but there were all dried up and brown looking and look dead. There was no breeze blowing at site one witch would have been nice if it was because it was a little hot specially because i was wearing a red shirt under my red Zion crossroads Fire Dept. jacket. It was about 75 to 80 degrees out there on the old practice field from the hot sun beating down.  

As we finished up writing our things down from site one, we stared to head down to the pond . site two was called " Pond."Conner and I went over to the blue berries bush and looked to see how they were growing along. Some of the berries have grown bigger and bigger some have died off and been eatin of the bush. They were a nice dark blue color. A ways in the distance i could hear two birds chirping a lot. There was a nice cool steady breeze blowing across the pond to where i was sitting on the bank writing my observations down. It was feeling good and cooling me down from when it got hot on the practice football field. I could sit there and watch the dark water blow and make little ripples across the water as the wind blew across the pond. We waited for the class to get doe writng down their observations. As they got done they walked over to where the rest of the class was standing with Ms.r.

We started to make our way to site three. We walked up and around the little hill and down to the creek and started looking for things to write down on our observations. I was standingon the bank as the rest of the class was around the creek and was looking down at the bottom of the creek. There was a lot more water in the creeks than last time we were out there looking aroud in the woods. The water was flowing pretty good and moving well. There was skunk cabage all around the creek bed and on the sides an banks of the creek. their was  frog but albert's fell an dropped in the pond where the frog was. POOR FROG!! There was a few little crayfish swimming around in the bottom of the creek. I didnt see them but ms.r and some of the other did. The breeze was nice and cool blowin threw the woods and trees, blowing cool and softly threw the trees and hitting me. It felt pretty good. It was warmer by the pond than down by the creek. Even though down in the woods was cool and had a breeze sittingon the bank by the pond felt better than down by the creek. Owell it was fun just that you could smell the skunk cabage as you walked by it or it got stepped on. It was a fun day outside looking at the changes from right before spring to it being spring now, just the ways its different and how the flowers are starting to grow was pretty neat. Hope next time their will be more suff to look at and more things that have started to grow

Animal Ears

On April 5,2011 it was a cold windy day. We were told that we were going to do a lab called Animal Ears. We got our lab papers from Ms. r and our paper plates. She told us to count off to 13. My number was 3. We had to find the other person that had the same numbers that would be our partner for the lab. My partner was Kasey. We were told that we were aloud to go out in the hall and do the first part of the lab. after the first part was done, Ms. r told me to go around the hall and get the rest of the class and tell them that we were going outside. As we got outside, we were all standing in a line on one of the marking lines in the sidewalk. She said that now were doing this as a class for an average. So one group of the class lined up on the line and she said"i am going to click the pen and every time i do, move back one step until you cant hear the clicking of the pin same thing for same thing for you guys that's going in the second group. After both groups got done we all went back in the classroom and ms.r asked us to read out our distance numbers to her when she calls on us. everyone had to copy down all the data as everyone called out their amounts to ms.r. It was a fun lab and hope their will be many more fun ones to come.

EcoTower Observation number 1 3/25/11

On 3/25/11, we were told that we were going to get to see our groups Ecotower and see what all has happened over the week. So Conner went to go and get ours and he came back and sat it down on the desk and we looked at it. All of our worms(12) had died except for one. Their is this one worm that has started to decompose. It has turned blue green and a white color and looks stuck to the side of the bottle. It is kind of nasty looking but neat at the same time. The bean plants(5) have started to grow a lot but not growing straight up and didn't help nothing else in our EcoTower live. The plants were a pretty good size for how short of time it took for all of our animals to die. All of our fish(guppies)(5) have died and started floating belly up laying on their backs. They have started to turn a white color and stared the decomposing phase. Thier eyes have turned a white color and started falling out and floating to the bottom. The water the fish are laying and falling apart in has turned really cloudy and doesn't look good at all. All of our crickets(6) have died and turned a dark brown color. We had algae(5 pieces) that we thought woulod help out our fish, worms, and crickets a lot but it didnt look like it did.

This is our EcoTower, you cant really see all of the dead animals but they are there. Wonder whar were going to see next time wee take an observation???

Ecotower Sealing Day

Early last week, Ms. R pasted out a packet and told us that we're going to be building an Ecotower with three other people as we make a group. So Conner, Riley, Marcus and I got together and started drawing what our Ecotower was going to look like. Conner and I started drawing the bottles and Marcus and Riley pitched in so ideas on how it should look like. After the detailed drawing of our Ecotower, we made a list of what we needed. Conner got the duct tape,  Marcus got the rocks, Riley got the two bottles, Conner and I went and got the soil and the warms, and I got the electrical tape. We borrowed the fish, snails, crickets. Our whole group got the algae and the grass together from the pond. After we gathered all of our materials, we started to build the Ecotower. Riley and Marcus were on their senior trip on Friday so Conner and I got most of the tower built that day. When Monday came around, Riley was at home sick for a few days. We added the fish, snails rocks, water and algae to the bottom bottle and started to tap the top bottle to the bottom one. Conner and I got some onion netting and taped it to the bottom of the top bottle so the soil and other stuff would not fall into the water. We got everything tapped up and added the crickets, soil, worms and the grass in the top bottle. After all that was finished we put the top back on the bottle where the worms, crickets, and grass would live and taped it up with duct tape and electrical tape.  The next day while everyone was finishing up their Ecotowers our fish had babies ALOT OF BABIES!! We did this project because, to show our three cycles working together and also to show a well working ecosystem with Biotic and Abiotic factors. The three cycles that were used are: Nitrogen, Carbon, and Water. No i did not get a look at our Ecotower yesterday. Friday will be the day we get to look at our Ecotower and see how its doing.

Abiotic Factors of LCHS

Yesterday, we went outside and got in groups of two and had a ruler and a thermometer, are first stop was the black top behind the school near the commons and we all laid down our thermometer and waited two minutes to see what the temperture was of the back top. Tangie and I had a reading 20 digrees celcius. After we got our reading on thr thermometer, we started walking down the baseball batting cage. Ms. r told us that we need to find a spot of bare soil and lay the thermometer down and let it set their for two minutes we got our reading and it was 25 digrees celius.  I was standing around talking to conner about the fire calls that came in the night before while waiting for everyone to finish writting down their reading. Ms. r told "come on were moving to the next site". So, we walked to the fence behind the softball feild and had to find a patch of grass so Tangie and I went to the top close to the fence and found a pice of grass that we had to mesure. The grass was 19cm tall. We laid the thermometer down to get a reading of the grass temperture. We waited for 2 minutes like we have been doing and after the 2 minutes were down the temperature was 16 digrees celius. I wrote down my reading and was talking to conner about the fire calls again. So we started walking down to the practice football field and as we were walking down the hill it was feeling warm as the sun was beating down on us and it made being outside yesterday feel great. We were told to find a shrub and messure and take the tempurature. So tangie and I walked to find an shurb and found one so we messured it and it came out to be 9 cm and the temperature was 15 digrees celius. As we were standing waiting for the rest of the class to get done and for Ms.r to tell use where the next site where we were going to messure and take the tempurature of the base of a tree. About a few minutes later Ms.r told us "okay lets go". So we started walking near the garden behind the school and wnt back down the trail close to the garden and Ms.r told us to spread out. We found the smallest tree close by that wouldnt be so hard to messure and get the tempurature. We sat the thermometer down and messure the tree while the thermometer was getting the reading and the tree was 48cm and then after the reading, the tempurature was 16 digrees celius. I think the relationship between succession site and tempurature is that the tempurature is what was messured from each sites. Biotic factors influences the surfaces tempurature at each site?expalin. Well i think that the Boitic factors influences the surfaces tempurature because every time somethin walks on the sureface of any of the sites we were at yesterday it warms up the surface under us as we walk