Picture:

1. Given the challenge and the performance of your car on Test Drive #1, what change(s) did you make for Test Drive #2?

We tried to make a different kind of wheel to help stabilize the car but we ended up changing it last minute because we thought that the idea worked.

2. What differences did you predict these changes would make in your car’s performance? What makes you think this?

I thought that stabilizing the car with the different wheels would help it balance and not fall so it could go faster. I thought this would work because it fell when we didn’t have it.

3. Think about the variables such as the size of the spool, weight of the washer or tension of the rubber band. How might these affect how far or how fast your car will go?

I think that if the rubber band had more tension, it would probably make the car go farther because it has more Ge and EE in it when it is stretched. I also think that if the spool was bigger or smaller, it would affect the speed and distance because the less weight, the faster it can go and the more weight, the harder it might be to “drive”.

4. What worked better the second time?

Nothing really worked better the second time except that the car didn’t break last minute.

5. What still is not quite working?

The car still isn’t going far at all and it doesn’t go fast either.

6. What questions do I have?

Will we ever do this again?

7. What might I try next?

Next time I would try to make the wheels attached to the rubber band so maybe it could be kind of like one of those pull back cars.

8. Explain the energy transfer that is taking place in the racer.

When you pull the rubber band, it gains EE and GE and as it’s going it gains KE and loses EE and GE.

1. What do you like about your initial design?

I like how the wheels kind of moved without moving/rolling (like rolling the thing on top) the whole car. We ended up not being able to use this feature though.
2. What has been challenging about the initial design?

We had to change our design last minute so it was not very good because we ran out of time.
3. How well did your racer perform in the first race? Did it go far? Fast?

It performed very poorly and didn’t go fast at all or far only about 39 in.
4. How will you modify your design for the second race? What variables do you feel will affect how far and fast the racer goes? Why?

We will make our wheels better and balance the racer. We will do this so it can move better.
5. What have been your strengths and challenges during the design process?

Our strengths are that we had a good sketch but our challenges were taking it off the paper and actually building it.
6. What questions do you have?

How much time do we have for this?

Racer: Sketch:

Pictures:

Video:IMG_0047

Describe your prototype design.

My design had half-deflated balloons and newspaper inside a box to hold the egg.b The outside had balloons to help break the fall
How does your prototype protect the egg?

It protects the egg by having padding inside and outside of a cardboard box.
Describe your design process, in detail.

I first made a box with Yg21 (8cm by 8cm by 8cm), then I put newspaper in it, then I realized my balloons deflated so I figured that would still be useful for padding. Then I taped the balloons to it. I tested twice and refiled the box twice. The egg never broke.
What worked well in your design?

My design padded the egg and made it so it wouldn’t break and it didn’t break while testing either. It also was within the building rules (at most it could be 25cm by 25cm by 25cm).
What was challenging throughout this process? What would you do differently?

What was challenging was that overnight the balloons would deflate so next time I would just use different balloons for the final test.

Do you think the temperature of the room affects the time it takes an odor to get to your nose? Explain your answer. Provide two pieces of scientific reasoning to explain why.

I think that yes, the temperature DOES affect how fast or slow an odor gets to your nose. If it’s hot and humid, then the air molecules are heavier which could make it harder for the odor molecules to get to your nose. When it’s cold, the air molecules are probably lighter so it wouldn’t be as hard for the odor molecules to get to your nose.

Did the sea lamprey cause a decline in the trout population?

Sea Lamprey made (and are making)  the trout population decline.

This is true because it says in the readings; “When the Sea Lamprey feed on fish, they kill them by causing a lot of damage to the fish.” , “Today’s catch was much smaller than usual again.” and lastly, “I remember coming to this spot and catching twice as many trout last year.”. We also looked at a graph for the population of the trout and Sea Lamprey and saw that when the Sea Lamprey increased in 1960 to almost 300,000, the trout declined a lot, to almost 50,000.  I know that the Sea Lampreys are causing the trout population to decline so much because, in all the readings and charts, Sea Lamprey could be the only fish making the trout population decline so much. The Sea Lampreys also are at the top of the food web, meaning they don’t have any predators, and the trout’s other predators are probably dying because they can’t eat as much trout. This proves that the Sea Lampreys are the main animal making the trout population decline so much.

  We dissected a Sea Lamprey and trout and when we were looking at the Sea Lamprey, we saw how sharp their teeth are. Their mouth is not like a fish’s mouth- according to page 68- They are “fish without jaws” which makes sense because their mouth is circular. We realized that they were a BIG threat to the trout. We tried to take out one of its teeth and it was so hard the get out we had to CUT IT and even after that we only got like one-third of the tooth. The teeth were also all over its mouth because it needs to be able to grab onto a fish and suck their blood. The teeth were orange! Their teeth are very sharp and can really hurt a trout. This could make the trout die or just bleed and die. This is making the trout population decline because when the Sea Lampreys do this, they damage the trout and kill them.

  We saw a picture of a Sea Lamprey eggs and there were so many! According to the reading 7.2, they lay about 60,000 to 100,000 eggs! This could be bad because that means that the Sea Lamprey population will only go up because from each female sea lamprey, about 60,000 more come from that ONE Sea Lamprey! Well, not 60,000 because not all the eggs hatch but there is still a lot of Sea Lampreys being born. This is making MORE Sea Lamprey and if there are more Sea Lampreys that means there are less trout because there are more Sea Lamprey to kill the trout.

• What is the value of dissecting?

You can look to see what is in the animal, if there is a disease in the animal, and without that if there was a disease it might spread to humans. It also helps people write books about the animal for a science class or something.

• How did the dissection help you understand what is happening between the sea lamprey and the trout?

It helped me understand how much of a threat the sea lampreys were. I didn’t really understand how bad of a threat they were until I saw their teeth. After that I knew that they were a BIG threat.

• How did you feel about dissection? If you enjoyed the process, why did you enjoy it? If you did not enjoy it, what was difficult about it?

It wasn’t DIFFICULT but it was pretty gross and I was too scared to touch the fish or sea lamprey. Also when we took out the sea lamprey’s intestines, it made the most DISGUSTING ripping sound and I was really grossed out. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be because I thought it wold bleed or something when we cut it.

What do you think invasive species means?

I think invasive species means an animal that comes and messes up the ego system/food web.

What does it mean to invade something?

It means that you go somewhere without permission. Like for example, you go to someone’s birthday party even though you weren’t invited or you ask people what they were talking about and “invade” their conversation.

Can animals invade?

Yes animals can invade, they can probably invade a food web/chain and mess it up.

What about plants?

I think they can invade because I think that weeds are plants and weeds invade other plant’s space.

How might invasive species affect other organisms in their environment?

They can mess up the ego system and kill a lot of animals because they might eat a lot of animals that some other animal needs to survive. So that animal would die and then the food web would get all crazy.

Today in science we tested a bean seed and a potato for starch to answer the question, “Do plants contain the food that organisms need?” Below, is my scientific explanation that explains what we learned and discovered from our lab today.

Image of lab:

Claim:
Plants contain the food that organisms need.

Evidence:
When we looked at what people ate for dinner last night, we could trace the food back to a plant. We also tested a seed in iodine and there was some starch in it which means there’s food in it. The way we knew there was starch in it because when we put the iodine in/on it it turned black/darker.

Reasoning:

We know there’s food in plants because when the seed turned black, that’s saying there’s starch in it. For something to be food it has to have either starch, fat, sugar, and/or protein and the seed has starch.

• Potential energy (stored energy)
• Kinetic energy (energy of motion)
• Conservation of energy (basic law of physics)
• Gravity (when you jump, you come back down, and that’s gravity)
• Velocity (how fast something goes in a certain direction)
• Friction (when something rubs on another thing)
• Slope (rise/run) (something that tells how steep and what direction a line is going in)

Visuals of my project:

I don’t have the pictures right now, I will put them up when I can.

Summary of my project:

My roller coaster didn’t work, so we don’t have anything to measure. The reason I think it didn’t work is because where the two tubes were taped together, they kind of got apart, so the marble would get stuck in the middle of them/

HL: Documenting

OC and SM: Presenting/Testing

First, OC and SM got a new balloon and a new straw

Then, SM put the straw in the balloon and tied it of with a rubber band

After that, OC blew up the balloon.

The first time OC blew up a balloon, it didn’t work because there was a hole in the straw

The second time though, it worked when OC blew up the balloon because SM got a new straw

Then OC and SM tested/presented the boat.

When OC and SM presented the boat, it moved!!

Then we took the balloon out of the water and SM and OC took the balloon and the straw out of the boat and threw it out.