Food Web Reflection

  • What was your biggest takeaway from this food chain activity? That one animal dying effects a ton of animals.
  • How did this activity help you understand direct/indirect interactions and/or predator/prey relationships? This activity did not help me with this.
  • What are some things you are wondering after completing this activity? What if the top of the food chain dyed out, what would happen.
  • What happened after the yellow perch were eliminated from the food web? A lot of animals had one less thing to eat which would cause them to die out. Also if an animal had one less predator, there might be too much of that animal.

Sincerely,

msteigmann

Dissecting Fish

  • What did you learn about the perch? I learned that perches have a toxic spike on one of their fins.
  • What did you learn about sea lamprey? I learned that sea lamprey sucks on other fish’s blood. Ewwwww!!
  • What observations did you make? I noticed that the sea lamprey and the perch have very different body types. I wonder if each body helps the fish do what they have to do to stay alive.
  • What wonders, questions, thoughts, do you have? I wonder what perch eat. I think that they eat smaller organism but I am not sure.

Image result for perchImage result for sea lamprey

Sincerely,

msteigmann

 

Science this week

 

  • What challenge excited you the most? Why?

The saving Fred challenge excited me most because it was fun to fail and work with friends and then when we did it it was awesome.

 

 

 

  • What was difficult about the challenges?

What was challenging was that we could not touch Fred the boat or the life preserver. We had to use four paper clips to save Fred.

 

 

 

  • What was comfortable about the challenges?

What was comfortable about saving Fred was that we could plan and create ideas before the challenge.

 

 

  • What is something you want to work on moving forward?

I want to work on more being of a team player and making sure everyone has a role in what the team is doing.

 

 

  • What are you looking forward to this year in science?

I am looking forward to doing more of these kinds of challenges. They are really fun!

Displaying Sep 13, 2019 at 8:27 AM.HEICDisplaying Sep 13, 2019 at 8:27 AM.HEICDisplaying Sep 13, 2019 at 8:26 AM.HEIC

 

 

 

Sincerely,

msteigmann

 

 

How I would improve my solar oven?

If I had the opportunity to build or change parts in my solar oven I would do the following:

  • I would add more reflective materials because then the heat would be able to move around my solar oven to make my solar oven hotter
  • I would seal the solar oven more so a lot less heat escapes through the holes
  • I would make sure the pan is in the place where the sun reflects into my solar oven so your food would get hotter.
  • I would make sure to add more material, like cardboard so the solar oven could consume more heat
  • I would add more holes so more sunlight could get in the solar oven

Sincerely,

msteigmann

Scientific Explanation Round 2

Scientific Question We Investigated: Does air have mass?

 

Scientific Explanation:

Air has mass. This is because when I weighed a balloon without air it weighed 1.9 grams. After that when I weighed the ballon after blowing 7 breaths in it, it weighed 3.5 grams. This shows that the balloon’s weight increased by 1.6 grams. When I blew air in the balloon it got bigger which meant a mass was filling it up. That mass was air. A balloon filled with air sinks to the ground. According to Anne Marie Helmenstine, “The compressed air is heavier than its surroundings, so the air has mass or weight.” That means that air has weight. All of that proves that air has mass because there is a 1.6-gram difference between the balloon with air and without air and the balloon was bigger after I  blow up my balloon. Also, the balloon feels a lot denser when blown up. All of this is proving air has mass.

Sincerely,

msteigmann

 

Scientific Explanation-First Piece

The young salmon is the only omnivore in the river food web. This is because it eats sculpin which is an animal and algae which is a plant. This indicates that the young salmon is the only omnivore in the river food web because omnivores eat meat and plant which makes the young salmon an omnivore.

Sincerely,

msteigmann

Energy-Efficient House

In science me and a partner are building an Energy Efficient house. We get most of our energy from solar panels and mini wind turbines. To keep our house well insulated we have blue jean and wood to keep the heat in the house. We also have electric cars and a lot of trees for shade. Ours windows face the south do get as much sun as possible bu our windows are thick so the heat does not escape. Also our lights turn off when nobody is in the room to preserve energy. Our lights are LED lights since those lights last the longest.

Sincerely,

steigmann

Building an Insulator

This week in science, we worked in teams to create a water bottle insulator that kept the water inside the bottle the coldest for the longest amount of time. First, we planned what we would need, how we would build it, and sketched our first design. Next, we tested our design to see how well our insulator worked. Below you will see the results and how we will improve our first insulator to make it even better!

 

An insulator is…

An insulator is an object that slows heat down.

Here is a picture of our original design:

The materials we used were…

aluminum, water bottle, and fabric.

Results! What was the temperature of your water to begin with? After 15 minutes? After 35 minutes?

 

Time Temperature (in Fahrenheit)
0 minutes 54 degrees
After 15 minutes 57 degrees
After 35 minutes 61 degrees

 

The engineering process includes thinking about how to make your design better and re-building your product. The improvements that we will make to our insulator are…

We will use a wire.

These changes will improve my insulator because…

Metal is a good insulator and wire and metal are almost the same.

 

 

New results:

 

Time Temperature (in Celcius)
0 minutes  7
After 15 minutes  10
After 35 minutes  11

Sincerely,

msteigmann

Rubberband Boat

This week in science to study potential and kinetic energy we created a moving boat using 2 rubber bands, 5 popsicle sticks, cardboard, 24 inches of tape, and 4 paper clips. To create the boat we went through the engineering design process, which is shown below.

My original boat:  

IMG_20181205_120426.jpg-12h9son

My original design is….

a sailboat. pocicle sticks on bottom, tape cardboard sail.

 

I believe my original design will allow the boat to stay afloat and move through the water because…

it does not

 

When I put my boat in the water tub this is what happened:

sunk

The changes I am going to make to improve my boat design are…

to make the weight more even

My re-built boat: IMG_20181205_122652.jpg-100etd4

 

I believe my new design will allow the boat to stay afloat and move through the water better because…

the weight is very even

 

When I put my newly designed boat in the water tub this is what happened….

it succeeded.

Some more improvements I could make to my boat are….

none

This challenge was comfortable because…

We ended up succeeding.

This challenge was difficult because…

We failed a lot before.

This taught me about potential and kinetic energy because…

sometimes balance is everything.

Sincerely,

msteigmann

Mapping Energy Transfers

This week in science we have been focusing on mapping energy transfers. We discussed the transfer of energy on a roller coaster, when lighting a match, when using a pull back car toy, the list goes on and on. Below you will see an energy transfer and the why/how behind it.

 

Object or thing I choose to observe:

Playing the Saxophone

The mapping of the energy transfers:

GPE, Motion, Sound

A paragraph that explains the how and why of each step of the energy transfer(s) I observed:

It starts with GPE because gravity is pulling the saxophone down. The motion comes from the sound waves that are from you blowing into  the horn. The sound is when the keys are pushed down forming the sound so the sound comes out the way  you would like the notes to come out.

Personal Note….   I play the saxophone

Sincerely,

msteigmann