Today in science we made a big food web of the population of the great lakes. I had two animals, one of which was a Lake Whitefish and the other was the Great Blue Heron. The Great Blue Heron was at the top of the food web while the Lake whitefish was toward the middle. We got strings to show the food chains. In the end, I had so many strings because the Great Blue Heron ate so many organisms in the food web. I wonder what would happen if a disease came and wiped out two of the Great Blue Heron’s prey’s population. This activity helped me understand direct and indirect interactions because when we took out a population the chain would fall, and anyone who was connected to that chain would have a piece of string that would fall.

During the past two weeks in science, we dissected a Perch and a Sea Lamprey. 

The Perch was smaller than the Sea Lamprey and looked more like a normal fish that you would see in a lake. The Sea Lamprey looked like an eel and was long unlike the Perch. I noticed that when I opened up the Perch it didn’t smell as bad as the Sea Lamprey and it was more “organized” it also had a heart. On the other hand, the Sea Lamprey smelled awful and I was disgusted also the Sea Lamprey was all over the place it was a mess and it didn’t have a heart.

If I had the opportunity to improve my solar oven I would do the following. 

I would first add more tinfoil, I would add more tinfoil so the box could get more sunlight. Which would heat the food faster

Then, I would make the plate for the food better, so it could always get sunlight. 

Last, I would make sure that the installation is neater. This would make sure that the plate could fit in and so that the food inside could be seen. 

Air has mass. I know air has mass because when we weighed a balloon without air it weighed 2 grams, but when we weighed the balloon with air it weighed 2.7 grams this shows that the weight changed. We also can feel the air, when it is windy out you can feel the wind which is air. When I felt the balloon without air it felt rubbery and was able to stretch, When I felt the balloon with air it was more firm and couldn’t really stretch. Also, when you bounce a balloon it goes up than down which means it was affected by gravity and it kinda floated a little bit and after it dropped. This proves that air has mass because it weighed more which meant there was a substance inside that had a weight which meant it would have to have mass. Also when we blew air into the balloon and it expanded so that showed that the air had mass because it made the balloon and different shape. This proves why air has mass.

The young salmon is the only omnivore on the river food web. I know from the image that the young salmon eats algae and sculpin which are both plant and animal. This supports my claim because omnivores eat both plants and animals, which the young salmon eats both, so that makes the young salmon an omnivore.

My energy efficient house is whit so the sun reflects off of it, it has solar panels all over the roof, all the appliances are electrically powered by the solar panels which are powered by the sun which also means the lights turn off at night which saves energy. My house has windows mostly in the south but in other places too. This is why my house is energy efficient.

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 energy that slows heat transfers 

Here is a picture of our original design:

The materials we used were…

We used a water bottle, tin foil, wire, hot glue, fabric, and pipe cleaner

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

Started temperature: 50 degrees F, Temperature after 15 minutes  54 degrees F after 35 minutes 62 deegrees F

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 take off the handle and plastic wrap and add more tinfoil and cover it in 

These changes will improve my insulator because…

The polyurethane is a good insulator.  

New results:

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: <insert picture here>

My original design is….

We have a slingshot and the boat is a few sticks and tape and clips at the top and bottom.

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

It will be shot by the slingshot and we will hope it floats and goes far.

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

It moved and it floated but not very well and it didn’t go very far because the paper clips made it heavier and made it not float.

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

we are going to take the paperclips and have the rubber band reinforced and the bottom reinforced. 

My re-built boat: <insert picture here>

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

because we removed the clips and added more reinforcement on the rubber band and on the bottom of the slingshot.

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

It floated much better and it went farther because we took off the clips and reinforced it.

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

reinforce the boat and slingshot even more but it wouldn’t be necessary.

This challenge was comfortable because…

the boat was simple and easy to make and it worked very well.

This challenge was difficult because…

the slingshot wouldn’t work or it would fall apart because there wasn’t a lot of tape provided.

This taught me about potential and kinetic energy because…

when the boat and slingshot were in action I saw how it moved and how it was before we shot it.

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 pullback 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:

A door

The mapping of energy transfers:

The door goes gravitational, to motion/ kinetic then to sound

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

when you first see a door it is still that is gravitational  (unless someone is holding it for you) then when you open it, it’s motion and kinetic because the kinetic is you opening the door and motion is the door opening then the sound is when the door shuts. 

In science, we have been learning about producers, consumers, herbivores, and carnivores. In this blog, I will tell you about them and some examples of them.

A Producer is a living thing that makes its own food like a tree and a flower. Producers are very important because like trees and flowers they produce oxygen which we need to live. 

A Consumer is a living thing that eats food and doesn’t make it. like a lion and a human. Consumers are important because if they didn’t exist the world would be overpopulated.  

A Herbivore is a living thing that only eats plants like an elephant and a vegetarian. If they didn’t exist the world would have way to much grass and plants.

A Carnivore is a living thing that eats meat like a tiger and a polar bear. Carnivores are important because if we didn’t have them there would be so many animals.