Friday, January 26, 2018

Project Blog (1/26/18) Biogeochemical Cycles

Image result
https://pmm.nasa.gov/education/water-cycle

Summary
          In the project we made cartoons based off biogeochemical cycles. There are a lot of biogeochemical cycles on earth. Water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, phosphorus cycle, and sulfur cycle. Mine was the water cycle. It turns out that there are a lot of steps involved and it is not as simple as it seems.

Backward-Looking
          Before the project I thought I knew everything about the water cycle. But, there is a lot more to it. Instead of it just being; Condensation, Precipitation, Runoff, Evaporation, there is also transpiration and infiltration. I also did not know that there were more cycles; carbon, nitrogen, etc. There are so many of cycles that I did not know about.

Inward-Looking
            I really liked my finished product of the cartoon. I really liked that the drawings were clear and neat. I did not like how I started coloring in marker and later switched to colored pencil. But, I found a way to make it work (kind of). I did not like this because it looks kind of uneven. I found it satisfying coloring and seeing my drawing start to pop and look nice.

Outward-Looking
         My approach was different because cartoon was circular instead of linear. I did this because it demonstrates how cycles go in circles. My process was similar because I did research, then drew the cartoon. If I were the teacher, I would say that the arrows in the middle of the circle are confusing. I would give this piece an A- because it has everything it is supposed to have but, it is slightly confusing.

Forward-Looking
          If I were to do this again, I would know my supplies so that half of my coloring isn't in marker. Next time, my goal would be to review all the guidelines before I start on the final draft. I would also have a clear plan before my final draft. One thing I would like to try that other people did, is neater hand writing. It was not all easy to read in my finished product.

Friday, January 19, 2018

Weekly Blog(1/19/18)Water Cycle


Image result for water cycle
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwil2Lu0pu
XYAhUByWMKHcuyDNMQjB16BAgAEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fslideplayer.com
%2Fslide%2F10628721%2F&psig=AOvVaw1mlh00aRk5VFjkP4s4ry3h&ust=1516495036115974
Summary

          The water cycle is way more complicated than just the usual 4 steps: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff. It also includes, infiltration and transpiration. Infiltratration is the process when the ground absorbs water. Transpiration is the process that is when a tree loses water through it's leaves and is pretty much just evaporation from a plant. Infiltration and transpiration connect because when infiltration happens, the plant absorbs the water out of the soil, then the plant brings the water to the leaves where they perform photosynthesis or the water evaporates and this is called transpiration.
Image result for water cycle
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sou
rce=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjlh
bWSrOXYAhVS42MKHVCKA0oQj
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Fhoopmanscience.blogspot.com%2F
2012%2F01%2Fgrade-8-week
-11-water-cycle.html&psig
=AOvVaw1mlh00aRk5VFjkP4s
4ry3h&ust=1516495036115974

S&EP
          I constructed physical, mental or conceptual models to represent and understand phenomena when I made a cartoon of the water cycle (aka Hydrologic Cycle). This helped me understand this concept better because I had to do research, to find the information I needed.  I drew a cartoon  that  helped me visualize the process more. For condensation I drew my character (a water droplet with a face) in a cloud. For precipitation I drew him falling and it was scared.

XCC
          I realized that the water cycle has a lot of cause and effect because if nothing evaporates, then there will be no condensation. Then with there being no condensation that means no precipitation. The sun makes water evaporate, and as I just said, the water cycle can not happen if there is a missing step. If there was no water cycle, then nothing would be alive because the water cycle includes water going into the soil and going into plants. We then eat the plants etc. food chain. So without the water cycle then nothing would live because nothing could get the water they need to survive.

Friday, January 12, 2018

Weekly blog (1/11/18) Photosynthesis

Image result for photosynthesis
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjJocKs2NHYAhUL3mMKHZizCHQQjB16BAgAEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fd
ata.allenai.org%2Ftqa%2Fphotosynthesis_L_0424%2F&psig=AOvVaw2IBYUEJxT-PgewcpOkmu2r&ust=1515821247200216


Summary
     Photosynthesis is the process of taking Carbon Dioxide, Water, and sunlight, and creating food for the plant. There are a lot of cycles like this in the environment. There is the Water cycle, Carbon cycle, Nitrogen cycle, Sulfur cycle, and Phosphorus cycle. The cycles each have a time when they are biotic and a time when they are abiotic. Biotic means alive, and abiotic means not alive.

S&EP
Image result for foxes and rabbits population simulator
"http://www.jbprimaryscience.co.uk/_/rsrc/1468886917412/animals/Rabbit
%20and%20foxes%20simulation.png?height=153&width=200"
     I used models to explain and predict behaviors of systems, or test a balance of animals as I question why you need foxes to keep rabbits alive if the foxes kill the rabbits? I was confused at first because how would foxes help the rabbits by killing them. As I learned more I found out that without foxes, the rabbits would overpopulate. That would make it so that food like grass was more scarce because it would eat all of the food supply. But there's foxes eating the rabbits, the rabbits will not overpopulate and eat all of the grass


     XCC
     The idea that if there are not enough foxes, the rabbits would overpopulate is an example of Cause and Effect. This is because the rabbits (the primary consumers) eat grass and if there are too many of them they will run out of grass and start dying. But if there are foxes(the secondary consumers), then they would eat the rabbits before they overpopulated then everything is happy (except the rabbits that get killed). But if there are too many foxes, they would kill off the rabbits and then they have no food. So this is why there should be a good balance of producers, consumers, secondary consumers etc.