Weekly blog evolution

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Anatomy_and_physiology_of_animals_Various_vertebrate_limbs.jpg

Summary: 
        Evolution is when a species develops certain traits to live better in the certain environment it is in so when you look at certain animals from one environment it is. Evolution is the thing that made creatures look, like how people think that animals have a common ancestor, humans evolved from apes and things. The diagram or picture above is to show the similarities in arm bones off different animals vs. human, you can see that some look more similar then others and they all have the same function and this is showing proof of common ancestors. When something has a similar function to another in a different animals like arms, legs, eyes, noses, teeth, etc. it is called a Homologous structure.

SP3: Planning and carrying out investigations:
        This week we did a experiment where we would take a fork spoon or knife and some buttons and beans. Then we would have a timer for 20 seconds and we would have to pick up as much as we can with our tool, and if we had 20 or more we would stay alive but if you got under you went extinct. When you get extinct you get replaced and this was to show how in natural selection it is more random and it is something that is chosen based on their fitness in the environment. This experiment was something that helped as a visual and an example and it was something that seems fun to do with more friends.

Weekly blog 9/15/17 mutations

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/DNA_com_GGN.jpg/1280px-DNA_com_GGN.jpg

Summary:
        There are many kinds of mutations and most of the time they do not affect the look or anything about the organism. The bases are A, T, C and G, A is always paired with T and C is always paired with G. You can have insertions, deletions or substitution. An insertion is when you have an extra base added to your DNA, deletion is when you take away a base, and substitution is when you have the wrong base with the wrong base. Not all mutations are hidden and not shown by the person with it but in rare cases it  can help or harm the person.

SP3: Planning and carrying out investigations:
       This week we did a lab where we investigated mutations and how they survive. We got M&M's and tic-tac's, the tic tac's were the mutation and we had to have 5 of them mixed in with the 12 other M&M's. We had to blindly remove 5 each time and replace it with whatever we thought made sense according to our population. We were observing how mutations survive and what mutations would be good and bad. This ended up being a good and fun way to learn and represent mutation. We had a good visual of the tic- tac' and the M&M's to represent mutations.

Project Blog Geologic time scale

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Geologic_time_and_mass_extinctions.png

Summary:

The Paleozoic era was a time that had 6 different time periods in it called the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, and the Permian time periods. Some interesting things about this era is that the continents had shallow water covering them, larger animals like 5.9 foot centipedes and things. In this time it had lots of marine life and the first jawed fish and the fish had certain body shapes and things for special tasks and fins for better swimming. There were 3 major mass extinctions, one of them was in the Ordovician time and the Silurian time where lots of the marine life was killed and reduced in numbers. Another one is in the late Devonian time 3/4 of life on earth died and it was not necessarily all at one time, it could have been over several years. The last mass extinction was the Permian mass extinction or the Great Dying where 96% of species went extinct and the 4% left is what all current life is descended from.  There were lots of crazy things that happened in this time that would be hard to imagine happening now.

Backward-looking: How much did you know about the subject before we started? 

I knew some basics about the dinosaurs that lived in the Mesozoic era and things like the meteor's but I did not know anything about the Paleozoic time or what it was. I have learned a lot of things from this project and I did not have any background on my era because I did not know about it. I am slightly happy that I did not know anything about it because it has taught me a lot and it is something that helped to keep me interested in it and something that was more fun and surprising. I did not know much so it was something that made me think more and was something that was cool and different to learn about. I did not know anything about this but it turned out fun and well in the end of it and I am happy with how it turned out.

Inward-looking: How do you feel about this piece of work? What parts of it do you particularly like? Dislike? Why? What did/do you enjoy about this piece or work?

I think that this project was a great and fun project and it was not too long for time and not too short of time and I think that it was one of my favorites. I like this project because it had lots of creativity and flexibility to the end product like how we could make it with flaps, 3-D, a poster, diorama and more but it was definitely fun. I liked almost everything but it was hard because our team would argue and it would create more stress for the project and getting it done. I think that I would love to do more projects like this because it had lots of flexibility because everyone's was unique and it was fun getting to come up with and be creative. Overall this was one of my favorite projects and I would love to do more like it.

Outward-looking: Did you do your work the way other people did theirs? In what ways did you do it differently? In what ways was your work or process similar? 
Ours was different then everyone else's because we had the giant flap for each era and the small flaps on the inside and even when people did flaps they did not have a giant flap with smaller ones inside. Every groups was unique and In some ways it was similar because we all had the same base with the information about the era's but everyone wrote different things even if it seemed similar. The process was that we had to do the research and that we had to create the project in the end. This process was similar to everyone else's and we all did things around the same time but it always ended up different. Everyone did a great job and everyone made theirs different and unique which I liked.

Forward-looking: What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again?
If I did this again I would make it so that we would have done a little bit more at our house or met up after school so that we would have had extra time to add more drawings. I think that we did pretty well and I am happy about the end result of our project. I would want to do another project in a similar manner with the fact that the project was flexible for everyone to make something different. I think that our project looks great and even if we wanted to change anything it is done now and I am happy that we have it done and I am happy that our whole group was happy. Everyone did equal work which was nice and no one had to do someone else part and when it came to supplies we did not have to by much and some of the stuff our team already had or we used from the maker lab. I would not want to change much but it is over now and it was a great project that I would like to have another project done in the same matter.

Era report WAC

WAC: Era Report

        Have you ever heard of the Paleozoic era? The Paleozoic era happened from 541-251 million years ago and is separated into 6 different time periods. The different periods were the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous and the Permian. The Paleozoic time Era was the era after the Precambrian and it is before the Mesozoic. During this time the continents looked a lot different then now and the things on the equator are different too. All of the continents were closer together and in the beginning of this era the continents were mostly covered by shallow water and a supercontinent called gondwana was formed by the south pole. Another thing is in the beginning on the equator was australia and kangaskhan but near the end continents were conjoined and on the equator was South China and the top of South America and the top of Africa There are lots of interesting facts to learn about in this era that I am sure not a lot of people knew about.

         In the Silurian period there was the first plants with vascular channels appeared and they could transport food and gases so the plants became larger. There were lots of plants in the Paleozoic era and three examples are the Cooksonia, Zosterophyllum, and the Fern. The Cooksonia is the oldest known vascular plants and it grew to about 6.5 cm long, on the tips of its branches its arms it had Sporangia which was terminal. The next one is the Zosterophyllum and this was a plant in the late Silurian time, it had no leaves and only branches as well as a short body with Sporangia. The last one is the Fern that was found in the Carboniferous and is similar looking the the current tropical and floral plant that we know today. These 3 plants are all different and unique plants found in the Paleozoic era.


          During the Paleozoic era there was lots of life and most of it was marine life but during this Era life started moving to land. In this period there was the first jawed fish and different animals were special for what they need to do like some were tube shaped for burrowing and fins for better swimming. Some land animals that were there were the scorpion, dragonfly and the centipede but they are different then we now know them. The scorpion was larger than they are now and they were about 19.5 inches or about 1 foot and 7.5 inches, the current world record for the largest scorpion is 9 inches and in this Era they were 10.5 inches more. The centipede's in the Paleozoic time could get to about 70.8 inches or 5.9 feet and the current largest centipede is only 10 inches. The current largest dragonfly has a wingspan of 7.5 inches but in the Paleozoic time they could have a wingspan of 27.5 inches. In the Paleozoic time lots of the life was larger than we now have our life.
         
         In the Paleozoic time the weather ranged from about 57 degrees fahrenheit to 78 degrees fahrenheit in the first 3 periods/ the beginning. During the last 3 periods or the end it was about 53-80 degrees fahrenheit. There were also three mass extinctions and one of them was in the ordovician time and the silurian time where lots of the marine life was killed and reduced in numbers. Another one is in the late devonian time 3/4 of life on earth died and it was not necessarily all at one time, it could have been over several years. The last mass extinction was the Permian mass extinction or the Great Dying where 96% of species went extinct and the 4% left is what all current life is descended from. Lots of life on earth died during the Paleozoic time and it may have been good ad it is what made our world what it is today.

          The Paleozoic time is something that was very different then now with all the mass extinctions and the different life and more. This time is something that happened long ago and it was something that we should be happy we do not live in because lots of land was covered in shallow water, the life was so much bigger, etc. The Paleozoic time had lots of mass extinctions which is what caused lots of life to die and go extinct. There were lots of cool and different animals and plants that is very interesting to learn about and it is weird to think of how our planet used to look and have on it. The Paleozoic time was a very fun and interesting time that had lots of interesting events happen.

Weekly Blog 9/15

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=201810&picture=mixture-of-fossils

Summary:

          For things that used to be alive like plants and animals you can find the age of the fossils or bones by using carbon dating. A half life of something is when half of the carbon decays from a fossil so the amount of current carbon divided by 2 would be a half life. One example of this is if you had 25% carbon a half life would make it to be 12.5% carbon. Pangaea is the theory that before the continents were made they were all one big piece of land and over time they split up into the current continents. Their is proof for this like how the mesosaurus  lived on two different continents across the ocean but it was a fresh weather creature so it did not make sense but they pieced together the continents  and it stared to make sense there are all so other pieces of proof but that was just one example.

S&EP: SP5: Using mathematics and computational thinking:

          For science this week we had to incorporate math to help us calculate how many carbon(or other) molecules there were in fossils. We had to divide the current amount by two to show a half life and it got harder when we got down to 25% because then we had decimals. A example from what we were given is 12.5 divided by 2 which would be 6.25 which was slightly hard. The math was not that hard but it still took a second  to think of it and to figure it out but it was still math to do. It was important to get the math right because it takes multiple steps so if you do one wrong you can get the other's wrong too.

Weekly blog 9/5-9/8

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rock_Layers_at_Quebrada_de_las_Conchos_-_Salta_Argentina.jpg

Summary: 

        There is two different kinds of age, relative age and absolute age. An example of relative age is she is younger then her brother, an example of absolute age is she is 13 years old so absolute is more specific while relative is more general. The law of superposition says that if something cuts across a body of rocks it is younger than the rocks that it goes through. Faults like the San Andreas fault are always younger then the rock that it cutes through. Index fossils also help geologist tell the relative age of a layer of rocks which the fossils occur. When lava cools on the surface it is called an extrusion and it is younger then the rock below but when law cools below the surface it is called an intrusion and it is always younger ten the surrounding rock layers. Unconformities are also when new rock layers are much younger then the rocks below it.

S&EP: SP3: Planning and carrying out investigations:

        This week we did a lab about the rock cycle first we cut up the starbursts to make it like sediments. After we did that then we had to press them together and compact them to make sedimentary rock. Then we had to take the sedimentary rock from there and make it into metamorphic by pressing down on the starburst with lots of pressure till it was almost flat. After that then we had to melt down the metamorphic and then cool it to make igneous rock. This gave a visual of the rock cycle and what steps it goes through.

Weekly science blog rock cycle 9/1/17

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Coastal-rocks.jpg

Summary: The rock cycle consists of many parts and the main rocks are sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks. If you start with magma you can crystallize it in the ground above or below, above makes extrusive igneous and below makes instructive igneous rock. If you then go to to instructive igneous you can melt it into magma, expose and weather it to soil and increase temperature and pressure into metamorphic rock. If instead you went to extrusive you could weather it into soil or increase temp. and pressure and make it into metamorphic rock. If you went to soil you could erode it into sediments.