Taylor

=__~*!♥Welcome to my wikispace page...Hope you enjoy it♥!*~__=

My science class has been doing a lot of hands-on activities. I thought I would share with you almost all of the things that we have been doing! The picture above is a picture of all of the kids at my table doing a cool activity. We are cutting out paper to make a cup. Once we folded and cut the paper, we poured water into the paper cup to see if the cup would hold the water. ( My cup worked!!!)
 * [[image:collazocove:MVC-006S.JPG width="292" height="208" align="center" caption="My friends and I doing an experiment!"]] ||

**The Study of Ecology**
~When two animals live in the same habitat and share the same niche, the two animals will fight over food. ~A scavenger eats the left over food taht another animal has left behind ~Decomposer changes dead organisms into chemicals to be used again; any green plant is a decomposer ~Consumers take in food; any animal is a consumer. ~A food chain is an energy link between different organisms in an ecosystem based on feeding habits ~Food webs are a complex of interrelated food chains in an ecological community; also called //food cycle// ~Balance of Nature is when all needs are met within a habitat for every animal ~A population is a group of organisms of the same species living in the same ecosystem
 * niche- the role an organism plays in their habitat

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Our Classroom Pets, Red Wigglers
My science class has done an activity with red wigglers, a.k.a., worms! Everyone in the classroom got 10 of their own worms. We made a worm home out of 2 liter soda bottles. A few helpers put dirt and shreaded newspaper in our worm homes. Now we are feeding, observing, and studying our worms. In a few weeks, we will dump out the dirt in the worm home and see if there are more worms than we started out with. (Hopefully mine will have more worms than 10!). Month(s) Worked On Experiment: October-November

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**Fun Facts About Worms**
~Worms can grow to 90-300 **millimeters** long. ~Worms have **no** eyes. ~There are **about** 2,700 different kinds of earthworms! ~There can be **more than** 1,000,000 earthworms in only one acre of land. ~The largest earthworm known to man was 22 **feet** long! ~Baby worms hatch from cocoons **smaller** than a grain of rice. ~If a worms skin dries out, it will **die. ~**Worms can eat the **same** amount of their weight each day. ~Worms can grow a new tail but **not** a new head. ~Worms are **cold-blooded** animals. [|Google Images]

When Dumping Out My Worm Home...
November 6, 2007, we dumped out our worm homes. I had eleven worms! YAY! I didn't find any baby worms or cocons though. But since I found one more than I started out with, that means that there was a baby before I looked. I was really excited about that. At first, I could only find 9, but then, when I was mixing up the starch, I found 2 more! I think that some worms mated and had a baby. Apparantly, I didn't dump out the worms early enough to see the cocoons or baby worms. My teacher, Mrs. Collazo, said that cocoons look like little popcorn kernels and baby worms are solid white.

**Our Classroom** **Pet**
Our classroom's pets name is Salazar, Sal for short. He is a ball python. He is only 6 months old and has a lot of spots on him. Our teacher, Mrs.Collazo, put a couple sticks in his tank to play on. Almost everyday he climbs on them and twirls his body around on the sticks. Everyone in the class watches him almost every second of the class. Before the class got the snake, I didn't know hardly anything about snakes, so that inspired me to learn some things about them. Here are some facts below.

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**Fast Facts About Ball Pythons**
~Ball pythons love hot weather. ~Healthy ball pythons will shed their skin sevral times every year (and ours is shedding his right now!). ~Ball pythons can be hard to start feeding. ~They live from 20-47 years! ~Ball pythons are ground snakes, a tree would be good for them. ~Ball pythons feed primarily on rodents (primarily- mostly). ~They lay 4-10 eggs. ~Ball pythons are not poisonous (fortunately!). ~Ball Pythons are constrictors (constrictors- squeeze their prey). [|Google Images] The picture above is a picture of a ball python that looks like Sal. Click [|here] to watch a video clip about ball pythons. It is very informative. If you have any questions that this video doesn't answer, ask me, and I will try to look it up for you.

**Update On Sal, Our Classroom Pet**
Last Friday, Sal got to have a treat. He ate two mice! At first, I was going to watch it, but then I decided that I couldn't stand it, so I left. But before I left, I did see Sal squeeze the mouse. I felt so bad for the little guy! It took Sal a long time to get the mouse. I don't think he even realized that the mouse was in there at first. Our teacher's son had to move the mouse over to where the snake was two times for the snake to realize the mouse was in there. Then, I left the room. I didn't want to see the poor little mouse die. My friend didn't watch it either. We went into our other teacher's room, Ms. Price. I don't know if the class even got to see the snake actually eat the mouse or not, I just left the room!

So, if Sal ate a mouse, that would make Sal a consumer. (Consumer- organism that eats or consumes food to obtain energy. All animals are consumers, even mice!) Sal would also be a carnivore, because he ate the two mice, which are considered meat. Sal might be a omnivore and eat some grass, but I think he is only a carnivore. Sal is also a biotic factor, but I already knew that. (Biotic-living; alive; breathing)

If Sal were in a food chain, it would probably look like this...

Grass->Mouse->Snake->Hawk

Sal's habitat or home, should be very hot. That is why we have a light in the tank that Sal lives in to make it VERY hot. He also likes some things to play with so that he will be occupied. Our teacher gave him to sticks to play on. He climbs them, and twirls al around them. Sal also needs water. He has a small water bowl that sort of looks like a rock on the outside. And that is all for the update! Month class recieved snake: September

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**Paper Towel Test Lab**
This was when my class found out which paper towel brand was stronger by putting a paper towel over a jar and holding it down using a rubber band. After that we put 50 drops of water in the center of the paper towel. Then, we put marbles on the paper towel and kept on stacking them on the paper towel unitl the paper towel broke and all of the marbles fell into the jar. We did this experiment so long ago that I can't remember which brand was stronger, Brand A or, Brand B, (I think it was Brand B). [|Click here] to see some pictures of my friends and I while doing the experiment. Done: September = =

**Lab,** Drops On A Penny Lab
Another lab that my class did was the drops on a penny lab. First, we made sure the penny was nice and clean, then, we got a water dropper and filled it up with water. After that, we dropped the water on the penny one drop at a time. We repeated this procedure 4 times then found the average. While doing this experiment, everyone in the classromm learned what cohesion meant. Cohesion is the microscopic film on top of the water that holds the water together. It forms a bubble like shape on the penny. The next day, we did the same thing, but with a small twist that made a big difference! Instead of only cleaning the penny, we dipped the penny in a testing liquid. ( The teacher wouldn't tell us what the testing liquid was, but it was dish soap). After the penny was dipped in the testing liquid, the penny held about 1/3 less amount of the amount of water that it did without the testing liquid. Here is a picture of what the penny looked like without the testing liquid. (You can sort of see the bubble like form the water made. This is a good example of cohesion!)
 * [[image:collazocove:MVC-030S.JPG width="255" height="192" align="center"]] ||
 * What is cohesion? ||

Month Worked On: September

**Owl Pellets**
Our class disected owl pellets! There were a lot of bones and fur in the pellet. It was sort of gross and cool at the same time. My friend, Alicia (Click here to visit her page.) and I took out all of the bones that we could. Our science teacher said that after we have found out what each bone is and what animal each bone is from, we will try to make one skeleton of an animal. We are going to try to glue it on a piece of black paper.

**Facts About Barn Owls**
~Spit Up Owl Pellets. ~Bones and Fur Are Indegestible. ~Length: 15-21. ~Wingspan: 43-47. ~Diet: Mostly small rodents, also insects, bats, and reptiles. ~Makes a harsh hissing and screeching noise. ~Likes to live in farmlands, grasslands, marshes, deserts, and suburbs.
 * Owl Pellets- Are Fur and Bones.

**Owl Pellet Bone Reconstruction**
Today, we reconstructed our bones from the owl pellet that we disected. At first, I didn't want to touch them, but then I got used to it and did. It was really cool except when we didn't have enough bones to make a whole skeleton. We had to get a whole new pellet to start over. The new pellet had more bones that the old one. It had a strange odor. I wonder what made the smell, the outer fur, or the bones. Maybe I will try to find out. Well, it was still fun. Now, since we have extra time, we are able to write about it.

Month Worked On: November

Racecar Lab
Our class got into sevral groups and tested to see how far a racecar could go down a ramp. It was a ramp made out of cardboard. The ramp started out being on one book, then, two books, and so forth up to four books. As the books got higher, the ditance that the car traveled of got longer. After we had done all of the work, for homework, we had to make a graph that showed the distances that the car traveled. I chose a line graph because a line graph shows change over time, and the distance that the car traveled grew over the time that it took us to add the books and get all of the data. Month Worked On: November

Kinetic and Potential Energy
My science class learned about all different kinds of energy. The two main kinds that we learned abut were, potential, and kinetic energy. Potential energy is energy that hasn't been used yet, but has the "potential" to be used. A good example of when there is potential energy, is right before a roller coaster goes down a big hill. Kinetic energy is energy that is being used. A roller coaster actually going down a hill would be an example of kinetic energy. There are many other kinds of energy, such as, heat energy,electromagnetic energy,sound energy, chemical energy, electrical energy, mechanical energy, and nuclear energy. Later, I will try to put up some facts about these different kinds of energy.

Definitions About Energy Etc.
liquid or gas. molecules light.
 * contraction-when the size of an object changes
 * expansion-an increase in size
 * radiation-a form of heat transfer that does not involve particles of matter
 * convection-the third form of heat transfer; occurs when heat moves through
 * heat energy- a form of kinetic energy that is produced by movement of
 * electromagnetic energy-comes from the sun and includes radio waves and visible
 * sound energy- produced when something is vibrated
 * chemical energy-is potential energy stored in matter
 * electrical energy-the result of electrons moving through matter
 * mechanical energy-the energy of machines
 * nuclear energy-come from the nucleus of fission reaction

Convection, Conduction, and Radiation
My Science class has been learning about heat transfer. We learned about conduction, convection, and radiation. Conduction is the transfer of heat between two solids and in direct contact. An example of when conduction is taking place is when a pot touches the burner of the stove. The heat is being transferred into the pot by direct contact. Convection is the movement of heat due to fluid movement. For instance, if a pan has half warm water and half cool water, and you put a noodle in the water, the cool water would make the noodle dense and go down into the hot water. In the hot water, the noodle would become less dense and rise up to the cool water. This cycle would keep on happening in a continuous pattern. Radiation is when there is heat transfer but not through direct contact. Like when you are laying in the sun and the sun burns you, that is an example of radiation because the sun is burning you, but it isn't touching you.

**Pangaea?!**
This past week in my science class, we have been talking about continental drift. Continental drift is when plates under the crust of the earth move t he continents very slowly; about 1-2 inches per year. We have also learned about pangaea. Pangaea is what the earth used to be. Millions and millions of years ago, there used to be one super continent. This super continent was clalled Pangaea. Pangaea contained all of the continents except Antartica. The process of continental drift moved the continents to their present-day location. Scientist believe that after a while of the continents moving in one direction, they wil change directions and come back together to form a super continent again.

The Earth
Our class has been learning about the Earth's layers. We have learned about the crust, outer mantle, inner mantle, outer core and inner core. The crust is the outside layer of the Earth and is very thin. The outer and inner mantle are pretty much the same. They are made out of solid rock. The outer core is made out of melted metal. The inner core is made of very dense and heavy melted metals.

Milky Way
In Science, we did a Milky Way lab. This is where we took a fun size milky way and pulled it apart, smushed it together, and fit it together, almost like a puzzle. First, we pulled it only a little ways apart. We saw the layers of the milky way, almost like the Earth. Then we put it together. After that, we smushed it together and it looked like mountains were being formed.

S'mores
The other day in Science, we did a lab to help under stand what the Earth looks like from the inside. We had a malt ball, graham cracker, hershey's, and whipped marshmallow stuff (it was really sticky!) We got to choose which item got to be which layer. The malt ball, of course, was the core. The whipped marshmallow stuff was the outer core because it was liquidy, like the outer core. The hershey's was the mantle because it was the hardest and the mantle is solid rock. The graham cracker was used as the crust because it was thin and can break aparty like the mantle does with the plates.

**Major Project! :-)**
My class has started a project, and it is a major grade! It is going to be a slide show. We are going to make the slide show about earthquakes, faults, different kinds of faults, and even more! We had to get into groups of two, but my group has three since there was someone without a partner. My partners are Alicia, and Dylan. ([|Click here] to visit Dylan's wikispace) So far, we have designed most of our slides and started on the actual slide show. We have to use at least twelve slides for our slide show. Our group is being more specific about faults, so we are going to have to use more that twelve slides. Hopefully it will get us extra points! :-)

Earthquake Lab
In Science, our class had an earthquake! The class got into groups of two. We then built a building that was three stories high out of tooth picks, fetticuini sticks, spaghetti sticks, and marshmallows. After we had a plan for the building, we started building. After we built it, we put it to the test! We put the rubber band to four pegs. [The building was on a platform] Then, the teacher pulled back the platform and let it go. The, the building would shake like an earthquake. Then we had the aftermath. The teacher pulled back the platform again. The other person in my group and mine knocked down!

Science Videos media type="youtube" key="_1uEot-t_SU&rel=1&border=0" height="355" width="425" This is a video from youtube, and it has pictures of my class doing science experiments.
===media type="youtube" key="oUn3GPyXClA&rel=1&border=1" height="373" width="425" media type="youtube" key="r0BBStair-w&rel=1&border=1" height="373" width="425" media type="youtube" key="kLcVcTtSFXI&rel=1&border=1" height="373" width="425" Click [|here] to listen to a voice thread that my Science class made. Also, visit this website http://collazocove.wikispaces.com/Surfin%27+In+Science. It has good links about worms and some pictures of my class while doing some experiments. [|Back to top]===