The Life Cycle

Everyday in science we learn something new and interesting. As for right now I am going to focus on the Life Cycle. A life cycle describes the cycle of a person or an animals life. We once did the life cycle of a plant too! Here are a few pictures of the two different life cycles that I will describe.     

This is a Life cycle example of a cat . It starts out as giving birth. Then the growth stage. Then the adults reproduce. Then sadly, the death stage.---->

The Plant life cycle is a little different. First is the birth or germination. Then of course the growth stage. Then the pollination (reproduce). Then sadly, the death.----->

And that's all about the life cycle.

Adapt or Die

Imagine one million years later humans no longer exist. The animals have changed, some have adapted, some have died, but they all have changed, this was our science project. In this project we chose an animal and listed five adaptations structural or behavioral. But then we got to get creative, we cut out pictures of our animal and drew their habitat. Then on the future side, we did the same thing but changed it to what we think will happen in the future.

Producers, Consumers and Decomposers.

There are three different types of organisms on this Earth. Producers, consumers and decomposes. In science class, we learned about them when we were learning about the life cycle. The producers are plants, that produce oxygen and other things we consumers need for life, such as fruit. Consumers are organisms that eat the producers and consume each other. It sounds a little gross, but whenever you eat a salad or a pork, you are following the natural order of things. Decomposers are usually insects and they decompose dead plants and animals, which is why there aren't Piles of dead animals lying around. Each of these organisms, producers, consumers and decomposers, they all play their part in nature.
                           
                                                                               

The Future is Wild

In science we're learning about the future. The class watched a video called The Future is Wild. It showed animals today evolved so that they can cope with the harsh environment. The movie is broken up into three parts. They are 5 million years, 100 million years, and 200 million years in the future. One animal , for example was called the swampus. It evolved from the modern day octopus. It could now breathe on land, though. It could also excrete a deadly venom that protects it from predators. It was like walking with dinosaurs but in the future. This helped us learn about behavioral and structural adaptations.

The Food Web

A Food Web

     The food web is basically a bunch of animals that are connected by where the energy travels. A food web involves lots of different animals eating others and the energy travels from the sun to a producer then to a herbivore then to a carnivore, then once the carnivore is dead, a decomposer may come and eat it. In the example the food web starts with grass, then either a rabbit, a mouse or a cricket eat it. An owl eats the rabbit, the mouse or a snake. Then the frog eats the cricket, and the snake eats the frog. The problem is, when one animal goes extinct, the whole food web will collapse. This food web has 4 different food chains in it!

Adapt or Die Rubric

Rubric

Adapt or Die example

In this project you have to give an animal of your selection its 5 adaptations. After that you have to show your animal
in its future habitat and give it 5 new
adaptations. In this project you will be graded on neatness and creativity,
accurate labels and describe 5 reasonable adaptations that will help
your animal survive in its new habitat. The drawing effects your grade alot, so you have to do a good job!

Food Chain Games

Ever wonder how a food chain works? Well, this blog entry will solve that problem. Say hello to this food chain game, Sunny Meadows! In Sunny Meadows you select an amount of foxes, rabbits, and plants. Then click 'start game' to see the food chain in action! In a 50 year time period see how long your animals last. Another game is a game called the Food Chain Game! In the Food Chain Game, you are given three to six plants and animals, and you have to link them into the food chain in order. If you are correct, you get to see the food chain in action as well! Really hope this helped with learning the food chain just like it helped us when we learned about food chains. Have fun with the games!

Seed Vault Terror

Oh the terror, the worlds about to end. There is a seed vault that will replant all the plants and trees, no worries. Then there will be life on earth again. Every single seed on the planet is in the seed vault. The seed vault is in Norway because, there is barely any storms or people living there. The vault is made to last 10,000 years.The polar bears over populate humans but, the reindeer over populate everything. In the future, who knows maybe there will be a dooms day but, the seed vault will be there to help. At least life will still be in a room way in the ground. We learned all this from the video below. And in class we were learning about life science and that's what helped us to.

Marvelous Metamorphosis

There are two kinds of metamorphosis. Incomplete, and complete. Incomplete metamorphosis is when the life cycle is only 3 stages: Egg, larva and adult. Complete metamorphosis is when the life cycle has 4 stages: Egg, larva, pupa and adult. An example of a Complete metamorphosis is the Butterfly. An example of an incomplete metamorphosis is the Dragon Fly.

Food Chain

Recently in science we have been studying food chains. Food chains are diagrams that show the flow of energy from one organism to another. All food chains start with the Sun, the a producer (a plant) and then consumers.  Then a decomposer eats the dead consumers and the chain starts again! A series of food chains are called a food web!

Photosynthesis!

You know it, you love it, put your hands together for the thing called photosynthesis! It is everywhere, in your backyard, in your house, and it's also in the school! Plants use it all the time! Why? They use it for food! This is how it works, plants have this special chemical inside them called chlorophyll, it's what makes plants green. The leaves are like solar panels full of chlorophyll which take in the sunlight and makes glucose also known as sugar. But you may be asking why do we need plants, well it's a win-win situation; we give them our carbon dioxide and they give us oxygen. That's why we need plants, but what do plants need, photosynthesis.Click on this to go to the Photosynthesis song!

Erosion Path

A few weeks ago some Fifth Grade students, after an enormous rain storm, traveled on their garden path created by previous 5th Graders. What they discovered was surprising. First of all most of the gravel underneath our picnic table had been washed down the path. You may think that they are just footprints, like Christopher, but who listens to him? Anyway that is unlikely because the gravel was carried all along the trail, as shown in the video. The water carried a lot of ribbon and junk through the sewer and out into the forest. Also the tiny creek got a lot deeper and moved some big rocks and soil. Now some plants are starting to grow over the edge because the river got wider.

Stream Floods

In science we did a stream table flood. The stream table wash us all away with the amazing conclusion. For this experiment we needed a flood cup, ruler, tray with a hole at the end, a right angled wood or a fat book, collecting cup and sand. Lay the sand so it is 20'' flat and make an incline. Then put the ruler so that it can hold the flood cup. After that put water in the flood cup, so that the tray would flood. Put water in the flood cup and wait for it to make a delta or to get weathered. Let the water collect in the cup. My conclusion is when we made a bigger hole the "flood" water went faster from the flood cup and if you had didn't have a right angled wood, then the water would go no where.

The Rain Lab

The rain lab cutting through the sand

Here is a new way to show how an erosion works. An erosion works by some rain falling down on an area and the longer it falls and the more it falls through the years then it can cut through the rock. That's what happened to the Grand Canyon. And we thought it was Paul Bunyan's pickax!

Glaciers

Recently in science we have been doing flood tables. There are 3 parts. Rain, flood, more rain, and glaciers. This post will be about the glaciers. We took a tray, and filled it with sand on one side, and put a giant ice-disk on the sand. Then we pushed down on the ice-disk and it slip-and-slid down, taking some sand with it.

This is an example of erosion. Erosion is weathered land being moved by natural forces like wind, water, and glaciers. So that is what we did, see you later!

Refraction Lab

For refraction lab we put a ruler inside a cup of water. Inside the water the ruler looked bent. The ruler looked as if it were broken. We then put it in the oil AND the water. It looked as if it had two cracks. Since the oil was lighter it went to the very top. The ruler looked larger or magnified in the oli than the water. Refraction means when light bends as it passes from one object to another object because it changes speed.

For A Spin

Since we are learning about light in science, we have used a cool little tool called a radiometer. The radiometer spins when you put it somewhere that receives sunlight. It has four little squares on the sides of it. These squares are black on one side, and white on the other. The reason it spins is that the black sides absorb light while the white sides reflect it. It is one of the coolest things we have. In our class, it never moves, but across the hall, where it isn't in the shade, it spins like crazy! See you next time on Science News!

Light Properties Lab

Translucent

Opaque

Transparent

  This blog about is about transparency and opacity (and translucency). Basically, these properties how much light can get through.Something opaque will not let light through, something transparent will let all light through, and something translucent will let some light through. We tested some objects by holding it up to the light and trying to see an outline/shadow or our knuckle ridges. Basically, if we saw nothing, it was opaque, a shadow was translucent, and if we can see the ridges of our knuckles its transparent.

Conductor or Insulator?

Conductor or insulator? In Mr. Matus's science class, we learned about electricity and what it can flow through. We tried many different things, including a paperclip, a pencil, and tape. Out of those, one of them worked, and the light bulb lighted up when we placed it on the battery. The others... not so much. We made predictions on what would light the light bulb up, and we were surprised when some of them were wrong. We learned a lot, and it was one of the best parts of science class in 5th grade.

chalk: insulator

Amazing Tools of Science!

One amazing tool of science is a graduated cylinder. We use the graduated cylinder in science to measure the amount of liquid. To use the graduated cylinder, you pour in the liquid and see at what mark the liquid stops at. Liquid is measured in mL (milliliters).

Another amazing tool of science is the triple beam balance. The triple beam balance is used in science to measure mass. To use the triple beam balance, first you need to make sure the pointer is pointing to the zero mark, then you put the object on the grey pan, then you start by measuring with 100 g and work your way down to the smallest mass 1g. Triple beam balances measure mass in g (grams).

Electromagnets

Electromagnet at work

Electromagnet Tools

An electromagnet is a thin coil of wire wrapped many times around a nail. There is left over wire attached to the nail that touches the positive and negative sides of a D battery. The nail becomes a magnet and will be able to pick up objects like paperclips, staples and the pointy part of a tack. The more times the wire wraps around the nail the more it attracts these objects. The class drew models of the electromagnets in their interactive science notebooks and labeled all of the parts like the nail wire and battery and finished their lab.

Switching It Up



This is the switch off.

You have just witnessed the pictures of a switch in action. Here is how it works, the battery supplies the electons that travels through the first wire, into and out the bulb, into the next wire and hits the switch. If the switch is closed, the electrons will continue on their journey to the next wire and beack to the batterey. This will make the indicator, the light bulb in this case, light up. We interveiwed John, and receved his thoughts, "I believe that it is amazing how all of this works."  This has been Switching It Up, join us next week for a surprise guest.

This is the switch on.

Path Finders

 Path finders was an electrifying lab! In path finders, we had to test out different circuits. If the light bulb lit up, it meant it was a complete circuit. In these test we had to find what circuits would work and what didn't work. The one to the right is the one that worked and the one on the left didn't. Only 4 of the nine circuits worked. In Path Finders, we also had to draw 2 examples of circuits that would light up.

The Periscopes of Science

One plastic bear, three paper tunnels, two mirrors, one mat, and you have a periscope. When you look down a corner, you can't really see around it. With a periscope, you can. This is how it works. 1: Fold three pieces of paper into 3 tunnels and put them in a Z shape. 2: Put a bear on either end of the tunnel. 3: Put mirrors on the open corners of the tunnel position the mirrors in the right angles and now you can see the bear. It was interesting to see the bear.

How Light Travels

Light shining through

Little dust particles

In this suspense filled demo, we tried to get light through holes in cardboard. It took a lot of teamwork to do. Some people were holding the card board while the other person held the flashlight. After a while, we managed to line all the card board things up, and we got the light to shine in a straight line. We also took chalk dust and put it in front of the beam as you can see in the picture on the right. It was so cool looking! We learned that light travels in a straight line. Well for now stay smart and join us on the science blog!

Making A Battery

Testing the battery

Energy is EPIC!

In Energy, (while we were at Live Oak) we learned how to make our own battery. It was made out of nickels, pennies, and cardboard disks. The disks were soaked in salt water, because salt water conducts electricity. This was called a voltaic pile, which was an early battery. You stacked it nickle, disk, penny, disk and so on, ending with a penny. The counselor there used a little device with two wires to measure the voltage. The battery was about a volt. That's all for today. Maybe you can make a battery like this! See you next time!

Science at Live Oak!!!

Static Electricity at Live Oak!

The guys using the static ball

The guys using the static ball

This ball is stored with electricity when turned on, and can store electricity in a tiny container which brings it to a tiny ball on top of it. That is called static electricity. If you put your hand on when it is on, nothing happens, but if you take it off when it is still on, that is gonna hurt a lot because you will get a little shock. Static electricity is what makes your hair stand up, but be very careful with static electricity. If you ever see anyone doing it, they might be a highly trained professional. This experiment was cool because you could see the little bolt connecting to the metal object and the ball.



An image of the static ball



The Big Fish

At Live Oak, the group, Beach Party, was fishing at the dock on the Pedernales River. Almost everybody caught a fish, but the most impressive fish was Christian's Flathead Catfish. It weighed 5lb and 10 oz, and it was 26 inches long! It was a struggle trying to catch the fish. Two of the volunteer fishermen had to come over and reel it in!
"That's probably the biggest fish I've ever caught.'' Christian smiled.

Live Oak Fishing Part 2

Last week the fifth graders left to Live Oak and got to go fishing. We learned about the science behind fish.  We learned that fish don't technically breathe out their gills, the water flows through allowing them to, well, breathe without dying! The fish swim using their fins (obviously), but fish move their fins side to side which makes them able to swim. They stay afloat by using a thing called a swim bladder. "The fish were weird and hard to catch.", said Ahad. "I almost caught a fish, and I felt the excitement surging through me, but he got away from me!", exclaimed Spencer. "The fish was slimy so I dropped it on the deck.", squirmed John. See you next time on FTE Science!!!!

Sparky's Lab!

 

You may be wondering what Sparky's Lab is? Now you can find out! It all has to do with science of course and making a complete circuit in order to light a light bulb. A circuit is a flow of electricity, and Sparky's Lab can help you do that. You first need a wire, battery, and a mini light bulb (source, indicator, conductor). There are many ways to light the bulb with these items. Here is one of the ways: Put the battery standing up and put the light bulb on top (the positive side) and touch the wire to the light bulb and the negative side of the battery. Then- voilà! The bulb lights!

Energy!

Energy, energy, energy! We learned a lot about energy at Live Oak, but one of the coolest things we did at the energy station at Live Oak was the solar oven! Here you can learn all about it. First we put sliced up peaches in a tray and then sprinkled some cake mix and added some cherry pie filling (yum!) Then we took the tray full of peach cobbler out to the solar oven and placed it inside. We then went back inside to learn more about energy.

   After a while we went back outside to check on the peach cobbler. It was ready! After interviewing someone who ate the peach cobbler, they said, "It was delicious!" That's all about the Live Oak solar pannel!

Live Oak Fishing

 Check this out! It's the Live Oak fishing dock!
Everybody caught a fish down here.We had to wear life vests so if we fell in the water we would float. The biggest fish caught at live Oak was 5 pounds. Mostly all of the fish were catfish. But there were some blue mouth bass and a couple other fish. We got use live bait. They were worms. Some of the girls got freaked out. There were at least 2 dozen fishing poles so every one got to have one. The boat ramp we had to walk on to get down to the dock was very steep. But mostly I think every one had fun at fishing.

Mixture Lab

the remnants

the mixture

In science we made a cool but gross mixture with flour, salt, water, and mulch. We were separating the materials. We used a screen and poured the mix into another cup to remove the mulch. After we poured it, the mulch stayed on the screen. The next day the flour settled on the bottom, and we decided to try and separate the salt from the water. We did this by taking 5mL and put it into a petri dish. After two days the water evaporated and the salt was the only thing left on the petri dish.