Saturday, September 20, 2008

Week of 9/15

Hi All,

It was an eventful week at Scofield! On Monday we finished cleaning up our notebooks. On Tuesday and Wednesday we conducted out our population study (see last posting.) On Wednesday and Thursday we started learning more about food chains and webs and we discussed why we are solar powered. Did you know that we are all really solar powered?

Here are two images from our attempt to make an actual food web using yarn and playing the roles of producers and different level consumers.





On friday our first teams tried their hands at creating their own balanced ecosystems. They carefull measured and then included abiotic factors, producers and consumers. These are sealed up to make them air tight. Let's see how long they will survive! Hopefully they will do well! Here are some pictures from their efforts.








I created a mini-ecosystem of my own. It is a minnow, a water plant, some gravel and a snail. I sealed them up and will observe how long they will work as an ecosystem. What do you think will happen? Why do you feel that way? Respond to these question for extra-credit! :-)


14 comments:

  1. HI Mr.Forde, I think that the fish that you put in the container might survive.I think that the sunlight should make the plant grow and the fish could nibble on it for food. I think that if it is placed in the proper spot it should be able to survive for at least a month or two.
    -Sanju

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  2. HI Mr.Forde, I think that the fish that you put in the container might survive.I think that the sunlight should make the plant grow and the fish could nibble on it for food. I think that if it is placed in the proper spot it should be able to survive for at least a month or two.
    -Sanju

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  3. The ecosystem experiemnt was really fun. I really enjoyed it.

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  4. The ecosystem experiemnt was really fun. I really enjoyed it.

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  5. I think that the fish might survive for a few weeks, it lasted a weekend so it should be able to last a while longer! I really like this experiment, excpet for the other two fishes dieing =(
    ~Janina

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  6. Hi Janina!

    Why do you think the fish will survive? What in the system will keep it going?

    Mr. F :-)

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  7. Well, plant needs sunlight to grow not only that but the sun helps to keep the water from getting too cold, I’ve have a few fishes die because the water got too cold. The plant is also a good food source for the fish and the slug is suppose to help keep the water clean.
    ~Janina

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  8. Hmmm, I think the the fish will survive if all goes to plan. It has everything its ecosystem should have for it to live. It has a producer, (the plant)abiotic factors, (the rocks)and its self being the consumer. I'm not so sure if the ecosystem has a decomposer, but I still believe the fish will live until Friday. The fish also has the sunlight to help it survive, too.
    -Janine M.

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  9. I have a question about the food web we are making in technology. Will a crow eat a chipmunk?

    Anonymous

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  10. Hi Mr.Forde!
    I think that the fish in the container will survive because it is in fish tank water and has plants that will produce oxygen. Even though the other two died, I think that you know not to make those mistakes again.
    Melissa D.
    (Black team)

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  11. Hi Mr forde
    i think they fishy will survie beacuse it stays in the sunlight and the water plant needs sunlight to grow and when it grows the fish can nibble on it for food. And it might stay for at least 3 months or so.
    -Jael.F.

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  12. Thanks for the comments Jael and Melissa!

    Also... crows will eat just about anything, especially if it is already dead.

    Mr. Forde :-)

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  13. Mr. Forde what happened to the fish are they still alive?

    - sanju

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  14. Sadly Sanju, after 8 days the fish passed on. It looked really great so I decided to give another day but something must have gone out of balance over night.

    What do you think happened?

    Mr. F :-)

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