Eco column day 8

Today our water was a little cloudy. One of our tadpoles was floating on the top of the water it was obviously dead. Some good news was that our tadpole is still alive when we moved our column around he began to swim. Today we added some fruit fly larvae. I can not wait to see if they decide to move toward our moldy banana. This is just another exciting day in the eco column world.

Day 8 Eco Column

Minows, tadpole, and leech are going strong in the Column of Life. Although I am sad to say that one tadpole has pass on to that great lily pad in the sky. But we did add some fruit fly larva to the column along with a new piece of banana because our old piece was just gray and green mold. Hopefully in a few days we may have a few flies. The greenary looks good and healthy and our water, since yesterday's rain (thanks to Diane) looks slightly cloudy, but still clearer than the other teams' columns.

Eco Column Observation 07/18/07

Today we added fruit larvae to our column finally! I put in a new piece of banana in the decomposition chamber due to the fact our banana was almost totally full of fungi. I put the larvae on the new banana piece. The column was full of condensation and finally the water in the aquarium changed colors. One minnow was dead and one was very slow we think it could be because of the turbidity of the water. Our other water animals are okay. I'm anxious to see what the fruit flies will do to the column's appearance. Will the fruit flies change the chemical composition of the banana thus the dynamics of the column? Will the decomposition of the banana by the fruit flies just change where the banana's is located? I learned how to catch fruit flies from Michael, that was information that would be extremely important to demonstrate the process of metamorphosis which addresses a GLE for which in the past I have had trouble producing visible evidence.

Eco Column Day 7

Today we noticed that the water in our system is still clear. Everyone else's water is either brown or green. Could this be because we have more sand and clay in our soil? Or could it be that we did not pour enough water for rain to make it decompose? We also noticed that our tad pole is laying on the bottom and appears to be dead. Was there not enough oxygen for its survival? Why are the minnows still swimming around? Today when we added water for it to rain the minnows began to swim more vigorously and the water did begin to cloud up. I also noticed the lech I had not seen before, it must have been hiding in the bottom and then when we added the water he decided to see what was going on. I can't wait to see if the water clears again or stay cloudy.

July 17th Observations

Today the column lost some critters! Oh, my! The original black bug with a red orange stripe passed away and so did our tadpole. The column had plenty of condensation as usual. But it was even more moist then yesterday because I could see mixing of the clay and river sand. The two minnows were still swimming and we saw the leech move today. The snails were still snailing and the duckweed was still green. all of our plants were green at the top and I poured a large cup of water through the column to watch it percolate. There appeared a new black bug or a previously unseen bug - it was all black. We hypothesized that our aquarium water is remaining clear due to the layers of clay, river sand and black soil in our upper chamber is acting like a filter. Why wouldn't the decomposition chamber cause the water to turn brown? Is our decomp. chamber not working? Did we not have enough water in the column? Why is our banana now turning green?

Day 7 Eco Column

While observing our column today I came up with some questions, "Why is the water at the bottom of the column clear when everyone else's is cloudy? Is it perhaps because our column has layers of clay and river sand that are acting as a filtering system? Or are we not adding enough water to the column, allowing the soils to flow through?" Other than these questions the column's plants are continuing to grow, allowing our bug to feed on it. The banana today has begun to turn from gray to green, not a pretty sight. The minows began swimming around as soon as Diane poured water in the column creating rain.

Monday July 16, 2007

Today I observed that the banana in our eco column had mold on it. Apparently the fruit flies have not come in to do their jobs. Our water was also clear and everyone Else's was either cloudy or green. We saw our spider and my son will be happy when I report that our spider is still alive. My son was concerned all weekend. There were also a few new bugs that were not there when we set up our column. The orignial "critter" was not seen today. I hope he is still alright. The condinsation was still there but not as previlent as before.

Day 6 Eco Column

The column looks great! Our spider and bugs are still thriving. Diane's banana is moldy, but no fruit flies like we hoped for. The bug I placed in the column can't be found, but our new bugs that just appeared are running all over the place. The water at the bottom of the column is very clear and you can see the minows swimming around and the snails stuck on the walls of the column. The walls of the column are damp and misty looking, but our soil seems dry. The green plants we placed in it are looking very healthy and are growing.

Eco Column Observation Day 2

Today I observed that our column was full of condensation every chamber had some condensation. That was because we did not get to observe them until the evening. We added some water and observed that the aquarium animals were still living so there is still Oxygen in the system and the terrestrial animals were still living also. I added a small piece of fresh banana to the decomposition chamber but I did not notice any drastic change to the banana's shape or color! Interesting, I thought it would be browner but it appeared to be pretty close to the same yellow color that it was yesterday. I'll wait and see tomorrow.

Soil Sedimentation Bottles

Touching and observing the soils was very interesting and quite a unique experience for me.
I thought I understood soils and
porosity. But guess what I was wrong!!!!

Sedimentation Bottle

Today we observed the different soils that everyone brought. We looked at it, touched it and smelled it. We then mixed it with 1000 mL of water. We had to make a prediction of what would happen to the water.

Today was lots fun. We learned different ways to teach our students how to learn about density. We used colored water with different amounts of salt. When observing our eco column, I am happy to say my bug is still alive. There's lots of condensation forming all around the bottles and I am wondering if it's because we have lots of moist soil inside. There was some other group that didn't have as much condensation and I "think" maybe it's because they din't have as much moist soil, just lots of pine needle and leaves.(maybe?) Today was a good day.

I thought that the Rainbow Straws activity was a dual learning experience because we had to make our own solutions and then layer them. Which helped us to progress into layering 5 unknown solutions in the clear straw. Learning how to make up different density solutions, helped students to understand how density works.

Density "Rainbow Staws"

We learned how to layer and determine the density of different salt water solutions that we mixed into a straw. Then we received 5 unknown solutions to layer into the straw in order to learn how to determine their position by density in the clear plastic straw.

Eco Column Day 2 Observations

Today our system had a lot of condensation.
It is going to be exciting watching the changes that occure everyday.

Eco Column News Day 2

Ann was working diligently to get everything correct. We had a great time
making the eco-column together because it was a time to establish bonds
of friendship and trust.

Constructing our eco column was fun and difficult. Ann caught a bug that produced a lot of bodily functions on her hand. Diane went fishing in her school's ditches and brought lots of interesting things to add to our column.

Today was our first day to create an Eco Column for daily observations. We can't wait to start observations tomorrow. Will the column change? Why? Dirtbags

I really enjoyed creating my column today. Digging dirt, pulling plants out of the ditch, and scooping snails are tons of fun!!!!!! First thing in the morning I'll be looking forward to seeing what's happening to the bug I caught and put in it.

Smile we got it!!!!!!!

Eco Column completed July 10, 2007. Observations will begin tomorrow.