Algae in the Cupboard (:

  I found the algae alginates in UGG water proof.

 I found the algae carrageenan in tooth paste.

I found the algae alginates in Ben and Jerry's ice cream

The reason I think Mrs. Richardson had us look in our cupboards for these particular algae was to show us how they are commonly used in everyday items and how they are important.
(All Pictures taken by Brittany Henslee)

Plankton War (:

Matt and I had a hard time at first deciding on how to design our plankton. The goal was to create something that would sink but not sink all the way. So we decided to create something with a flat surface. Then we took wooden popsicle sticks and broke them in half and layed them across the bottom of our surface. By adding the wooden popsicle sticks, we knew wood would float so we used this to help it float. Next we added buttons onto the top of the surface to add some weight to our plankton. Even though our plankton did not win. We were still one of the top planktons (:
(Picture taken by Mrs. Richardson)

Adventure 5 & Bird Watching (:

 At the first site when we were sitting by the pond listening and watching out for birds, Mrs. Richardson had us sit quite for 5 minutes and believe me it wasn't easy. But in this time I has 2 black vultures, 2 crows and 1 cardinal. I could hear birds chirping and  a horn beeping.

(did not have any pictures for this site)

 This is a salamander one of our classmates found under a gross old tree. It was very cool and windy outside on Friday. Mrs. Richardson is holding the salamander in this photograph.

 We also found this mold at the same site we found the salamander. It was surrounding the bottom of a tree that had fallen over. 

(pictures taken by Brittany Henslee)

 

 This was a picture taken by Mrs.Richardson. In this picture you can see it is a warbler. It was sitting on top of a pine tree.

Adventure 4 (:

  Site 1

Our first stop on adventure 4, was the shore line on the pond. It was very cold outside and we were looking for algae in the pond water. Inside the water I found phytoplankton and it was algae. It was green and icky looking.

 Site 2

Right before our second stop on our adventure, Mrs. Richardson found something unusual on the ground. At first I thought maybe it was some type of bark that was all wrapped up. But she informed us that it was a old turtle egg shell.

 Site 3

The third stop on your adventure was at the creek down in the woods.  This is a picture of some algae I found along the creek bottom. It was very cold and windy outside.

On our way back into the school, I saw a feather lying on the ground. Since it was so neat looking, I decided to take a picture of it (:

(All pictures taken by Brittany Henslee)

In-class Observations (:

This is a picture of a worm that we found in the pond outside of the school. This plankton is known as zooplankton. It is bigger than 1 mm which makes it macro.

This is a closer up picture of the worms body. As you can see the worm has little hairs along its body which acts as little legs to help swim. Also this allows them to float.

This is a picture of dead forams skeletons which are zooplankton and holoplankton. This sand is found in Star Beach, Japan.

This is a observation of phytoplankton. They are responisle for the oxygen we breath. This plankton is microscopic.

Adventure 3 (:

Site 1

The first stop on our adventure was a little creek right outside the bus garage. It was very cold outside and very damp from the previous rain we had this week. In the creek we saw pollution. Someone had thrown out some cans in the creek

Site 2
The second stop was the shore line against the pond. It was still very cold outside and it was so cold that some of the pond had frozen over. There was lots of grass against the shore line. There was not much sign f animal life. The only animal life we saw that day were a couple of geese across the pond.

Site 3

The third stop on our adventure was the pond its self. Across the pond there were a couple of geese. It was still very windy and cloudy outside. This made it very cold.

 Site 4
The fourth stop on our adventure was outside of the school, at the green doors. There were a couple of trees. On the trees there was some algae and mold looking stuff on the bark.

(all pictures by Matt Apperson)