Plankton Wars & Algae in the Cupboard!

--->Plankton Wars!<--

(hey NOW, HEY now)

Ika Wika!

(Wanaey)

This is Me (left) Autumn (Right) and don't ask me why, but Lydia ( on top). The little blue figure Autumn and I are holding is the one and only.. IKA WIKA!! That is our plankton. She is beautiful, as you can see. Though she was beautiful, her good looks didn't make her at all successful. She was too heavy at the tail and sank to the bottom quickly. We did get fourth place out of the class though and she landed feet first so we were proud of our plankton! We used a lot of clay because clay is pretty buoyant in water, and also we used a sponge as her head to try and soak up the water to keep her floating. We think the reason our plankton wasn't very successful was because we put a brad as her tail along with a paper clip that dragged her to the bottom. I think if we wouldn't have used the brad, we would've done a lot better!

Observation Site Day 5!

Observation Site 1

At this site we began observing birds for the Backyard Bird Count. I didnt get any pictures from this site though:( But Mrs. Richardson did.We began by listening carefully for the birds.We would listen for their chirps, the flap of their wings and their callings. We went over by the pond and sat quietly for five minutes and observed everything we heard and saw. We heard: hammering in the distance (banging noise), birds chirping, intercom, people whispering, car starting up, phone ringtone, bus starting and horns. I felt the pine needles sticking into me as sitting on the ground, the wind blowing against me. It was nice and sunny outside so it was a beautiful day for observing. At this site we saw a Cardinal, Black Volture, 3 Crow, Chickadee, 2 buzzards. 8 geese, 1 squirrel, 1 sparrow and 6 junco, Downey Woodpecker and a Warbler.

This photo is credited to Mrs. Richardson. This is a Warbler, it is a small bird and is quite quick. They eat mostly small insects.

Observation Site 2

At this site we saw lichen moss on a lot of the trees surrounding the area. As you can see from the picture above, the moss is a light pale green and is crusty looking. 

At this site it was warm! The temperature was great with a light breeze. As you can see from the picture above the sun was shining brightly which made the observations more enjoyable!:)

Observation Site 3

(Unfortunantly the last stop that we made...)

At this site we observed a tree that was broken and on the ground. The tree was smoother because one of Mrs. Richardson's classes had previously ripped most of the bark off the tree and left some bark on it. As you can see from the two pictures above there were fungi on the tree. The white fungus on the left was found more on the tree than the bright orange fungus on the right. Little bugs were also found under the bark of the tree, but I wasn't able to get a picture because the little guys moved to quick!

Kim Dabney found a salamander under part of the tree. The salamander was a dark grey and was about 2 inches long. It almost looked more like a worm than a salamander! The salamander likes the dark and cooler areas, just like under the tree. At this site it was also nice and warm with a gentle breeze!

Observation's Day 4!

Observation Site 3

As you can see in the picture above, in the creek there is a very bright green piece of algae floating. In this area it was much cooler because it was shadier from the surrounding trees. You could hear the running water from the creek and the wind blowing the leaves and trees.

Observation's Day 4!

Observation Site 2

 At the opposite side of the pond we observed more algae. Over on this side though, the algae was more brown than green. The temperature was warm and there was a nice breeze.

Mrs. Richardson along her way to Site 2 found a turtle shell. To me it looked like a leaf. I asked her, "How can you tell its a turtle shell and not a leaf?" She told me because of the way the shell curls up after the turtle hatches out as you can tell from the picture above. THERE'S A TURTLE ON THE LOSE!!

Observation's Day 4!

Algae!!!

Observation Site 1

When around the shallow area part of the pond, we observed the slimy looking pale green light brown phytoplankton. This phytoplankton is Algae. At this site we could hear the wind, leaves, and the swaying of the trees blowing. The weather outside was warm and nice! :)

Plankton Observation!

Plankton!

(All pictures are credited to Mrs. Richardson)

 This is a picture of a Zooplankton. This one in particular is a worm that is micro size. This worm is Holoplankton because it stays the same size throughout its lifetime.

 This also is Zooplankton which is worm You can see from this micro sized picture the little hairs that work like cirria. This helps the plankton to move around. This worm is Holoplankton because its stays the same size throughout its lifetime.

 This is a picture of Phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are free floating unattatched palnts usually microscopic. This phytoplankton in particular is Cyanobacteria which is also known as Blue-green Algae.  Its responsible for photsoynthesis and producing oxygen.



 This is another form of Zooplankton. This Holoplankton is called Forams. This picture above is actually a picture of sand but its actually skeletons from what used to be Zooplankton. These are macro sized.



Site Observation's Day Three!

Observation Site 4

The green stuff on the side of the tree was rough and it seemed to be like some kind of fungus maybe!

 This whole looked interseting maybe insects formed it!



From the looks of this leave its look like a small insect ate away the part of the leaf!

Site Observation's Day Three!

Observation Site 3!

 Our class heard and saw ducks at the pond! They were swimming with their little group.. QUACK QUACK!!

                                                             

^^ From the pictures above it looks and feels like from the sharp edges that a beaver has chewed on the trees^^

Site Observation Day Three!

Observation Site 2

 I think that this is a mole hole!

 As you can see from the picture above some areas of the water was still frozen while some of it was not.

I could hear the rustling of the cattails swinging back and forth and you cant really see but the tips of the cat tails have fuzzy little white stuff on the top of them.

Site Observation Day Three!

Observation Site 1!

 As you can see, there is a piece of trash in the creek, people are littering habitats!!

 OUCHHH!! This thorn pricked me when I walked by it, it didn't feel good since it was already freezing outside!

 I could hear the creek water running, im surprised it wasn't frozen because it was so cold outside!

There's another peice of trash in the creek, it didnt make me very happy!! >:O grrrr

Site Observation's Day Two!

Observation Site 4

This tree definantly looks as if a deer has scraped up against this tree.

 I thought the way that this tree grew slantly was sort of cool

The only little tree I found with a few little leaves on it because of the blistering cold weather

Site Observation's Day Two!

Observation Site 3

 The bark worn away from this tree looks as if a deer has maybe scraped up against it.

 I found a human sign of life with this orange ribbon wrapped around this small tree. WAY TO LITTLE HUMANS!

I took this picture just because I thought the trunk of the tree looked like a withces couldron! haha

Site Observation's Day Two!

Observation Site 2

 I heard a lot of birds around this area; I couldn't get a good picture of any because they were flying around but I could hear the birds in the trees.

 I found this tree because with the cold wind blowing that day, the bark that was hanging of the tree kept making a cracking noise that led me to that tree.

This looks like maybe termites or some kind of small insect has aten away this tree.

 

Site Observation's Day Two!

Observation Site 1!

(I had to do my observations at home because I was absent, so I focused my observations mainly on trees)

 It was very cold while taking these pictures; and as you can see from the picture above the trees have barely any leaves on them because of the cold season.

 This tree looked interesting because of the way it was broken, I'm thinking it was either struck by lightening or just died and collapsed, what do you think?

 The shredded bark on this tree looked pretty cool, and when I rubbed my hand over it i expected it to be very rough, but it really wasn't all that rough.

 This dead tree was pretty neat because you are able to see all the dead roots underneath of it.

 This tree was found laying in the middle of my woods; it was super smooth.