Ecology Field Trip

Friday we took a short field trip across Friends School Road to learn about the Ecology research project that is happening over there. We were met by Aspen Reese, an ecology doctoral student and she told us about the project that is looking at patterns of succession as a grassy field turns into a forest over time. They have six study sites of which this is one. The other sites range from Florida to upstate New York. They are looking at similar grasses that grow in each site and golden rod (Solidago) and they are growing them in different types of soil that are various mixtures of sand and topsoil. In order to control their experiments they are doing everything in kiddie pools. Kinda like giant flower pots. They will plant trees next year to continue the study.

Graphing data

Wednesday we practiced our graphing skills using Excel and Numbers. Each student got a fun-sized bag of M&Ms and had to practice graphing by counting up the numbers of each color of M&M in the package. We also graphed the class data. They had to do a pie chart and a bar graph and a chart of their choice.

Friday we will go on short field trip across the street to visit the Duke field study plot.

Graphing Intro

We went over the latest deadlines for our bird studies. Everyone should be pretty much done with their data collection by now. Friday, Nov 2nd is when everyone should have their data posted and graphed on their wikipages. We looked at 4 basic types of graphs and charts and when to use them. We used a short introduction from the Cornell BirdSleuth guide. Here is a copy of the section that we looked at: 4 Basic Graphs. Depending on the type of data that they collected, they will need to choose the most appropriate type of graph to show that data.

Nutrient Web Quest

We went to a website set up by Harvard School of Education to learn more about nutrients and chemical testing in a small pond outside of Cambridge. With a recording/note-taking sheet to guide us, we went through several tutorials on dissolved oxygen, the carbon cycle, phosphorus, chlorophyll, pH, and turbidity. Here is a link to the site: http://ecomuve.gse.harvard.edu/Pond_LQ.html.
And the worksheet that we used: Nutrient Learning Quest.
For folks who weren't able to do this today, they can do it for homework, due on Monday, October 29. We will go over the details on Monday.

More Nutrient Cycles

Wednesday, we skimmed over a reading, Nutrient Cycles, that won't be fully due until after Halloween, unless people are not too busy with their projects. We watched two slideshows that follow an Oxygen atom through a food web in a forest ecosystem and a Phosphorus atom through a forest and pond ecosystem. You can check those out here: Oxygen slideshow and Phosphorus slideshow. We revisited the concept of Eutrophication,when bodies of water become choked with algae and decomposers after excess nutrients end up in them. Here is a photo from the TakePart.com website.

Nutrient Cycling

We went over the rubric again for the bird study project. Here is a link: Project Rubric. It is on the wikispace. Everyone should be well on their way with collecting data or digging through the data to look for answers. We have one more week to finish this up. Everyone should have all their data by October 30th. Then we will look at the data and see how we can make graphs or charts to show our results.

We played a simulation game about nutrient cycling. Each player was an atom of some nutrient like Carbon or Nitrogen and they moved through the ecosystem from one organism to another depending on which "interaction card" they pulled. There was no beginning or end, but rather a continuous cycling of the nutrients.

Parent Teacher Conferences and Bird Studies

Monday and Tuesday we worked on our bird studies and updated our wikipages. Most everyone is ready to start their bird studies during the time off for Parent-Teacher Conferences.