Over the past week, the 6th grade scientists have been hard at work writing their first lengthy scientific explanation. Over the course of our unit, we have been gathering evidence that our scientists are now using to prove what they are claiming.

Here are some of their claims:

• The sea lamprey are the top predator in the Great Lakes.
• The sea lamprey caused a decline in the trout population.
• Asian carp are destroying the Great Lakes ecosystem.

We are currently in the midst of our first drafts. After break, we will work on revisions to improve our explanations further.

Take a look at some portions of 6th graders first drafts below:

“The first reason the sea lamprey is the top predator in the Great Lakes is because of its population. According to the Great Lakes population charts, from 1950 to 1960, the sea lamprey population caused other organisms population to go down. By 1960 the sea lamprey population increased to about 300,000. By 1960 the trout population had declined to about 75,000. This means that the sea lamprey eats so much that its population increases while it’s prey’s population declines and starts an indirect effect, which causes other organisms to decline. Another example is based on the Great Lakes food webs, the sea lamprey doesn’t have any predators in the Great Lakes. This shows that the sea lamprey doesn’t have to worry about any predators eating them, which proves that its the top predator in the Great Lakes.”

“According to the DNR, Asain Carp is the #1 purpose to drain a lake. There have been 4 lakes drained in Wisconsin because of carp. The people are forced to do this because the carp are poisoning the water by uprooting plants to make burrows making the water toxic for other fish because there is too much mud and rocks. This means that carp do not only take up all the food but they are forcing other species to move out to fresher waters where the carp have already eaten all the food.”

“The final reason is that the sea lampreys have a deadly mouth. According to fisherman’s journal, the fisherman noticed all the fish having big wounds from sea lamprey. This means that if sea lamprey increases, a lot of fish can not survive because of sea lamprey eating habits. That is bad because the ecosystem will collapse because fish are getting killed rapidly. Another example is when I was dissecting sea lamprey, their mouths had a lot of teeth and were very strong. This shows that their mouths can break through the very tough skin. That is bad because fish that have tough skin to protect themselves, and those fish are no longer safe because sea lamprey’s mouth is so strong and toothy.”

Stay tuned to read their final drafts!

Have a wonderful break,

Gev. McAdams