This Week in Science #9

This week in science I dissected a cricket and a skate. Both dissection were sickening yet incredibly fun. I learned a lot about those animals during the dissection. I think that this was something we benefited from and learned a lot from. I would to for there to be more hands-on extreme experiments like this.

This week in science we learned a lot about dissection. IWe learned new terms that would help us during the dissection. For example, ventral, dorsal, proximal, and distal. My parenter, Alexa, and I learned about the parts of the skate. We found organs such as the liver. I think this is an experience I will never forgot.

This Week in Science #8

My partner and I dissected a cricket. We thought about whether to cut it from a dorsal or ventral view. We decided to put it on the ventral view since we thought it would be easier too. Once it was on a ventral view we cut it from the anterior to the posterior. The giant cricket has specific features that help it survive in its environment. The crickets special features are because of adaption. Animals have special features that relate to their environment. Those features help the animal obtain food, and survive in the type of weather there is. The cricket has features like their long legs that help it jump for one place to another quicker.

During this dissection I observed very interesting things. Inside of a cricket it was completely different. The  I learned about the crickets physical features like his antennas, forelegs, hind-legs, and etc. I learned new vocabulary words that are relevant to dissection. Words such as dorsal view, ventral view, proximal, distal, anterior, and posterior. I learned how to use utensils to cut a cricket. 

This Week in Science #7

1. This week in science what I did was make a video with my group. We each put our work to make our video.  I made slide about the vegetation in the Epipelagic Zone. I also did a slide about the secondary consumers in the ocean like the octopus. I drew a before picture of the ocean.  It had drawings of all the animals in the ocean by layer. Lastly I drew a picture of my animal I created. It was called the octosoa and it was an after picture of the octopus. The ocean dried out because of global warming. The octopus evolved because of their new environment. The got new features like their claws and a sponge like skin that absorbed and stored water to keep itself moist. 

2. What I learned this week in science is that the epipelagic zone is the only water zone that has plants. That it because that layer is the only layer that has direct sunlight. Some of the plants in the epipelagic zone are algae, phytoplankton, and seaweed. I learned about the landforms of the epipelagic zone. I saw the ocean currents of the ocean. I learned about the different animals that are in each zone. I learned about primary consumers, like the shark, and secondary consumers, like the whale, and the octopus. 

Challenge Activity

Kingdom:	Animilia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Suidae
Genus:	Sus
Species:	S. scrofa

Animalia means it is an animal. Chordata means it has a back bone. Mammalia means its nurses the young. Artiodactyla meant is an order of mammals that comprises the even-toed ungulates. Suidae means that it is in the pig, boar, hog family. Sus means it is a genus of the Suidae. Lastly S. Scrofa which is a wild boar. 

The other members of my group chose a chicken, cicada, and. They are similar to the pig because they are all in the animalia kingdom. 

The Wild Boar is the "wild" ancestor of the tamable pig. The wild boar, also known as the Sus Scrofa, is the "wild" ancestor of the pig. It is commonly found  in woodlands across much of Central Europe, the Mediterranean Region and much of Asia and has reached down lower to Indonesia. Wild Board can weigh as much as 900 lb and can be up to 9 ft long. Wild boars can be highly dangerous and aggressive. When it comes to eating they eat both meat and plants making them omnivores. They prey on reptiles, eggs, and amphibians. They also enjoy eating fruits.

Cricket Investigation

Question: Does the cricket prefer a light or dark environment?
Hypothesis: If the cricket spends more time in the light then the cricket prefers the light because it is more attracted to it.
Background Research: They are approximately 900 types of crickets. Crickets have good vision and good hearing. Crickets have compound eyes which means that they are able to see in many directions at once. When it comes to chirping crickets chirp more when the temperature is hotter. They chirp by rubbing parts of their body together. When the temperature is 52 Fahrenheit, crickets chirp about 60 times a minute. The reason crickets chirp is to attract female crickets. Only male crickets chirp. Crickets diet consist of fresh fruits, tomatoes, fresh seedlings, fungi, alfalfa, apples, bananas, grapes, and etc.

Behavior         15 sec.                  30 sec.                  45 sec.                 1 min

Walking:                     
Standing:              |                             |                           |                             |             Trial 1
Jumping:

Dark/light:        Dark                     Dark                      Dark                  Dark
                 
Behavior         15 sec.                  30 sec.                  45 sec.                 1 min

Walking:                           
Standing:              |                            |                              |                            |             Trail 2
Jumping:

Dark/light:        Light                    Light                      Light                    Light

Behavior         15 sec.                  30 sec.                  45 sec.                  1 min

Walking:                                                                          |
Standing:            |                              |                                                                        Trail 3
Jumping:                                                                                                     |

Dark/light:        Dark                      Dark                     Light                 Light

Behavior          15 sec.                  30 sec.                  45 sec.                  1 min

Walking:              |                 
Standing:                                            |                              |                           |             Trail 4
Jumping:

Dark/light:        Light                    Light                     Light                  Light

Behavior          15 sec.                  30 sec.                  45 sec.                    1 min

Walking:                                    
Standing:             |                            |                              |                           |               Trail 5
Jumping:

Dark/light:        Light                    Light                     Light                  Light

Explanation: In my data table what I did to collect my data I did 5 trials. I collected data by observing what the crickets were doing in the tank every 15 seconds. If they were walking I would put a tally mark next to it and if it was simply standing I'd put a tally mark next to that and the same thing with jumping. Along with seeing where they were every 15 seconds I wrote down if they were in the light or in the dark.

Conclusion: Based on my data table the cricket liked to spend more time in the light. At first the cricket was just in the tube which is the dark part of the environment it is in. Then it began to jump onto the tube which is considered as the light  part. My data supports my hypothesis because my hypothesis states that the cricket would spend more time in the light because it is attracted to it. When I started recording data the cricket was mostly in the tube but then it spend the rest of the time in the light.

This Week in Science #6

1. This week in science we did our cricket investigation. We researched about crickets. We  researched about their diet, and what type of environment they live in. We also came up with some ideas for investigation questions. Another thing we did in science this week was observe some crickets. We tried to collect data about whether the cricket like a wet environment more than a dry one. We used charts to collect our data. On Wednesday we classified jelly beans by their appearance. To me the word classify means to separate a group things by their appearance. We classified them by whether or not they had dots, or a specific color of dots. We made a dichotomous key for our jelly beans. The dichotomous key made it easier for us to understand and track which jelly bean was which.

2. This week in science I learned about crickets. On Monday I researched about crickets. I learned that they have good vision and hearing. Crickets have compound eye which means that they are able to see in many directions at once.  I learned about crickets diet which consists of tomatoes, garden fresh fruits, fresh seedlings, fungi, alfalfa, apples, bananas, grapes, and etc. I also found out the reason why and how crickets make music. The way that the crickets are able to make music is by rubbing their body parts together. They do this to mate with the female crickets. I learned how to make and use a dichotomous key. I used the dichotomous key to help me classify the jelly beans David gave me.

This week in science #5

1. This week in science we completed our rocket investigation. We all worked on our individual conclusion. We finished our rocket investigation and we are currently working on our next investigation which involves animal behavior. We watched some videos on youtube of animals and we wrote down some of their behaviors. We observed how they acted whether they were aggressive or friendly. We saw how one bird tried to mate with a human being. We also observed some crickets that David had in the room.

2. This week in science I learned how to write a better conclusion than last time. We learned how our independent variable affected our rockets distance. In my group the size of the fins did affect the distance of the rocket. That is because our rocket with the smallest fins flew the farthest and the one with the biggest fins few the least farthest. We learned about what were some of the behaviors of the animals we watched on youtube.