Final Ultimate Survival Reflection

I first did this mind map to help me write this reflection. The mind map shows mostly the things we have covered in things we have covered in this unit. So the "big idea of this unit was to understand how to balance between man and natural environment, transform resources into human goods, and understand us and management of natural resources. I think things that helped me really understand these things were projects like the packaging project, this helped me understand the transformation of the natural resources we have into things that we want (sometimes need). Another thing that helped us understand the bid idea was the blog posts we did. These gave us a chance to reflect back on each new thing we learned and doing them online is much easier and more fun. Last but not least, Watching the films really made the information stick. This is because it gave us visuals that really stuck in your head like, for example, the eggs in the Human Footprint.The question for this unit was, What is a necessity and how does an organism ensure the survival of it's species within it's environment?. Well a necessity is something that is not wanted but needed. If this thing is not obtained it has dangerous and maybe even life-threating effects on the organism. For example, food, water and oxygen are all necessities for humans because we need these things to survive. I think an organisms ensure the survival of it's species by adapting to it's natural environment and then reproducing so that the next generation is then fully suited for the environment which it enters. This unit question helped us to view survival through the areas of interactions. How? Well we were shown that everything almost "interlocks" in a way. This means that everything you do effects a chain, which effects another chain and so on. Even if you are not face to face, or touching the other organism or environment you can still effect it. In this unit I would have liked to have more of these hand ons thing. Becasue the whole unit we talked about how we effect the environment so it really just made you want to get out there and help. So I think we should have gone out and seen first-hand what mega-pollution is really like and then maybe helped by cleaning. From my point of view we covered all of these thing quite well, the ecosystems part with naming the exact species in an ecosystem, etc. we never really elaborated on, but I think that would be taking it to the next level. So all in all I think it was a fun but long unit.

Letter To Canon

Quick background knowledge on Canon:

Canon is a company that does mostly Cameras, Printers, and Supplies for these kinds of equipment. This company was founded on Aug. 10. 1937. The headquarters of Canon are located in Japan. The chairman and CEO is Fujio Mitarai.

To start going green Canon is going green by recycling products, making them recycling, reusing toner cartridges and making them into completely new products. They are also doing recycling activities to help people get more involved.

Canon was started in Japan.

Hello,
I am a student who did a project on the packaging of different products. I looked at your cartridges that are made to "fuel" the printers. While looking at your package I found that there are many layers and non-recyclable materials. Maybe corrugated cardboard would be better because this would allow the cardboard would be able to be recycled. I also think maybe making the packaging smaller with less plastic might be a possibility as well. Aside from the negative aspects of your company, I think that the steps your company is taking to make it more environmentally friendly are very impressive and I did not expect that. I thank you for taking the steps to going green. Going back to the negative side I would like to ask a question. Is it necessary to have so much paper for instruction in so many different languages? As a consumer I have to admit that I rarely will read the instructions and if you have a picture that is all you truly need. I was wondering if there are any other steps you will be willing to take in terms of helping the environment. I have another question where do you make most of the products and from where are the materials supplied from? Also around how many cartridges do you make in a year? I hope you write back and maybe listen to some of the tips that I included in this letter.
Sincerely,
Maria- 7th grade

Green Plastic

How are green plastics being developed?
Green plastics are develpoed by taking chains on polyactic acid which all come together to make polyactic acid oligmers, when due to a chemical reaction become lactide which then become PLA which is the most manufacture type of bio plastic.
What makes these plastics green?
The substances they usually come from is corn, sugar cane, or sugar beet. This makes the natural, biodegradable and renewable. Which pretty much makes them quite green.
What where some of the issues mentioned with the packaging?
Well the packaging can cause effects like:
-Growing corn which makes us use more pesticides, herbicides.
-This also leads to using trucks and these use oil and gas and then emit carbon dioxide.
- We could start using to much food for plastic and end up in a food crisis
- Use to much land for crops
- Bio plastics can biodegrade and give off methane.
How might these green plastics change packaging practices?
It might change it in terms of making the packaging more eco friendly and making our planet better.

ChemMatters - Episode 2: Plastics Go Green from ACS Pressroom on Vimeo.

Food, INC. Reflection

After watching food, inc. my impression of how the science, technology of food industry and society are interrelated is that, society not only depends on the food industry but it also influences the food industry. If you think about it we need food to survive but depending what we buy we also influence the food industry.Society then tells the food industry what the demand is, better tasting,etc, and that goes straight to the science of the food industry. The science of the food industry then alters our food to better suit the consumer(society), using the technology, and the circle starts again. The question is does the science and technology of the food industry have a negative or a positive impact on society or environment, well this film definitely describes the negative impact on society and environment. So how do we affect this all, it is in fact supply and demand, the companies supply what we demand so we can alter what is on the market and even (if we refuse to my products that we not made with correct and cleanly practices) change they way our food is made. This is sort of how we are connected to this earth, because we can change the way the people who handle our earth. We will say no to high tech devices when we learn to say no to the big companies and stop relying on them. We only really care about how because that is what gives us the product and that is what we want to why isn't important to most of society because that makes everything much to complicated and expensive. Natural farming is in moderation and letting most thing be natural while industrial farming is forcing animals to grow faster, lay more, etc. making everything go at a faster pace. Well natural farming is better for the costumer because in terms of health it is much healthier but for the food industry industrial is better because it makes things much faster and they can supply quicker. Science and technology are responsible for making things fatter, bigger and cheaper but this also makes it more unhealthy which ruins our human health and ruins our survival with GMO foods because the GMO foods eventually over power the natural foods making there only 1 type of unhealthy plant. We definitely saw health costs in this film with the bacteria and obesity due to the foods, we saw environmental costs as well with the fields and fields used for agriculture. Economic costs where prevalent because having workers work for you and dropping because of conditions and also paying people to not speak about your company all costs money. I thought this film really shows you the true gory details and showed me why my mum forces such strong healthy eating habits unto me and my brother.

Current Events: Can cacti escape global warming?

97F (36C), thats how high air temperatures can get in the summers of the Chihuahuan Desert in Southern Texas, but thats not as bad as the found temperatures which can exceed 158F (70C)! When plants encounter this type of extreme heat they have to find very creative ways to survive in this kind of trecherous and maybe lethal environment. Work by Dr.Gretchen North and her colleagues shed the light in how cactus Ariocarpus fissuratus, which is a desert resident, copes with these high temperatures. A crucial point is that small desert plants such as "living rock" (which is the name for the cacti) can live on the surface of desert soil, one of the hottest habitats on earth. How did this type of cacti earn its name the "living rock"? This is because this cactus blends into it rocky surroundings and is level with surroundings. A hypothesis researchers have is that this cactus could almost "escape" high temperatures by moving slowly below soil surface, which is cooler. North and co-workers determined that the cactus moves deeper in to soil using it roots, to find this they measured changes in plants depth and the anatomy of the root. But does this help play a protective role by modulating temperatures. To figure this out researchers took plants growing on a rooftop on Los Angeles and mimicked summer desert conditions. In this experiment the air temperatures where about above 99F for several days. The cacti were all grown in soil that was sandy which is similar to there native habitat. Yet half of them had rocks covering the surface of soil the stems of these plants had a temperature internally which was about 39F lower then those grown in just sandy soil. Th cacti in just sandy soil all died, but those in the rocky soil survived. This survival was aided by the root contraction because it lowered the stem temperature. "Even in rocky soil, experimental plants attained nearly lethal temperatures during a summer heat wave in Los Angeles" said North. Meaning that maybe root contraction and rocky soil wont be enough to protect if desert temperatures get any higher due to global warming.
I chose this article because we are doing products on packaging and how if you do not recycle it effects your environment, so I chose to do this current event because it explained an effect of global warming. I think that to prevent even the predicament of having plants that are trying to protect themselves against global warming would not be happening if we could better sustain our planet and we can do this by recycling, turning off light, etc. So many little things can help.

American Journal of Botany.
"Can cacti 'escape' underground in high temperatures?
How a certain species will potentially handle
global warming." ScienceDaily 25 November
2010. 28 November 2010
/releases/2010/11/101124162220.htm>.

Owl Prey graph and pie chart

Answers to questions 1,3,5 in packet.
My data collected:
5.50%- Birds
1.11%- Shrew
20.32%-Mouse
31.44%- Vole
41.61%- Rat
1. Looking at the data we collected as a class I think that the prey that is most frequently consumed by the "owl population" is the Rat. This makes sense because rats are big which means nutrients and more food for the owl. Yet also rats are fast breeders and their are lots of them. Also rats are usually slower and less quick making them easy prey.
3. I think the smarter choice between 35 insects at 1g each or one 35g vole when looking at conserving energy is definitely the vole, because both of them will give you the same energy value if you didn't have to hunt for them. Since you have to find each insect, which would mean you would have to hunt, eat, hunt, eat, etc., you are wasting the energy you just collected on hunting again yet with the vole you simply catch, eat, rest which means in conclusion you will have much more energy.
5. Looking at the data we collected you will see that the percentage of shrew in an owls diet is 1%, which is not very much at all. So if the shrew population declined I doubt it would have any to no affect whatsoever. This is because shrews are such a small part of the owl diet they really do not depend on them.

Current Events: What killed these whales?

The whales have been a lot of issues lately, first sunburn and now the bodies of 33 whales washed ashore on Rutland Island on the northwest coast of Ireland. It is one of the biggest mass whale deaths in Ireland ever and environmentalists are still stumped over what could have killed these whales. Experts are running tests on these deep-diving pilot whales and have found that these whales were dead very much before they reached the shore. Some say they might have died from illness after a deadly storm hit. People are pointing fingers at the Royal Navy because one theory is that their sonar equipment damaged they whales hearing. First piece of evidence that needs to be collected is whether the group of whales spotted of Scotland's South Uist coast a week ago are they same that have just been beached.Since the whales spotted in Scotland were being monitored by the British Divers Marine but went off the radars after a storm made them impossible to track. These types of things are not always rare on the Irish coast. Yet this time environmentalists are very concerned with the fact that this might have something to do with the Royal Navy using sonar equipment that might have caused this mass death. Sonar equipment with low-frequency can emit a noise which can sound as loud as a jumbo jet taking off This can damage a whales hearing severely. This is bad becasue whales rely on their hearing to care for their young, follow migratory routes and find food sources. So this means it is impossible for them to live if their hearing is damaged. Yet this is not old news, studies have shown that due to sonar equipment not only whales but also dolphins have been affected. There are many reasons these whales could've died but the most important thing is preventing it from happening again.
I chose this article becasue I think whales have been the focus of many problems when it comes to the interaction between them and us. Meaning we are profoundly effecting them with our habits. This is important because the whales we lose cannot be replaced naturally as fast as they die unnaturally meaning this could effect the food chain or Eco system in that area. I think that this ties into our unit that we are finishing up which is all about Eco systems and how small things effect the bigger picture. I think the best way to prevent whale mortality is to not use the sonar equipment in areas which have whales in them.

Human Footprint

Sustainability to me is the ability to be able to go on with your daily while living in harmony with the earth. Ways to do this is to conserve water by taking shorter showers,recycling the plastic we use and simply cutting down. Using a site that calculates how much of a certain product you use in a lifetime based on how much you use in a week or maybe in a day. Using this I found out that I will use around:
8,086 eggs in my lifetime
12,129 newspapers in my lifetime
16,172 glasses of milk in my lifetime
I will drive 270,465 miles in my lifetime
4,043 bananas in my lifetime
100 sodas in my lifetime (This is because I do not drink soda that much)
28,301 shower in my lifetime
8,086 potatoes in my lifetime
1,095 slices of bread in my lifetime.
For me something I could do is to cut down on newspaper and instead read the news online. Yet if I do have to buy a newspaper I should remember to recycle the newspaper. This is mainly my human footprint. A human footprint is what we consume and how it makes an impact or imprint on the earth. We have to learn how to make our footprint less "deep" and make it have less of an impact.

Current Events; Whales and Sunscreen?

Sunburns are generally something humans usually get but recent studies have shown that now whales are also getting sunburns, these cases have also become more frequent over the years.
Proceedings of Royal Society B was the first place where this study was published. It shows how the damage of the whale’s skin due to the sun is on the rise. This is most likely because the ozone layer is thinning which is increasing the levels of ultraviolet radiation. They get sunburned because they have to come to the surface to breathe yet there is no hair, feather or fur to protect from the rays. Hiding in the shade is how some other animals have adapted to this predicament yet whales cannot do this. Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, a postdoctoral fellow at the Zoological Society of London and her colleagues have looked at this problem, and together they have preformed skin biopsies and photo surveys in the Gulf of California on blue, fin and sperm whales. In this region, which is near the tropical latitudes, the dosages of skin cancer radiation are much higher than in the mid-latitude zones. With stainless steel dart skin samples from 2007 to 2009, all the skin cells collected were sunburn cells/ abnormal cells these are cells that have been DNA damaged by ultra-violet light. This was found even on the lowest layer of skin. Due to the over exposure of ultraviolet radiation researcher believe that these sunburns will worsen over time. For this hypothesis they tested on blue whales while bite marks and the other skin problems remained unchanged the blisters from sunburn became noticeable. Darker whales such as sperm or fin whales tend not to get as sunburned as lighter whales do, similar to humans. Yet some of these whales spend more time on the surface making them still prone to sunburn. Scientists have only recently become aware of this, since this year marks the 25th anniversary of when the hole in the ozone layer was discovered. Even though e hope that the ozone levels will return to the 1950’slevel by 2080. Yet this is a lesson from the ozone hole on how quickly our planet can change or how we can change it.
This article interested me because it made me ask questions, how do whales get sunburn? Since we just finished our one world essay presentations which really talked a lot about effects of humans on the environment this is another very good example of how we affect our world.

Current Events: Free as a bird.

Being a bird and having wings, it may seem that they have the freedom to fly wherever they like but studies down in the University of Missouri show that what happens on the ground might effect where a bird flies. As we know what everything living organism does has an effect on aspects of biology. Movement in this case determines where a bird will reproduce and where they are affects which species meets what other kind and then this dictates how the genes spread. Scientists have found the birds that do not migrate lean more to traveling over areas that are protected by trees so that if a predator attacks it is easier to make an escape and it is easier to find food. This means that man-made areas such as gaps in areas of forest, rods and housing areas can make the areas in which birds reproduce smaller. When there is less space for a bird to find a mate this can eventually lead to inbreeding which will then produce smaller and weaker birds. This then has an impact n the species of bird as a whole which is then bad for the environment. During the summer Dylan Kesler, and assistant professor in fisheries and wildlife at the University of Missouri's School of Natural Resources and a graduate student of MU named Allison Cox tagged 33 young red bellied woodpeckers from Missouri's Mark Twain National Forest. The tags were used to study the birds daily flights using radio telemetry and GPS technology but there is only 4 months of research since the tags are designed to fall of after 4 months. But this is done during the summer and fall months since this that is the time in which the young birds are the most active, are establishing territories and looking for a mate.
I found this article interesting because I thought birds are only picky when it comes to the area they lay and eventually hatch their eggs in. I did not know that birds actually rely on landscaping and how "natural" the area is to not only lay eggs but also pick a mate. I think this topic ties in with our unit because we just finished our one world presentations, which mostly talk about the effects that humans have on animals and the environment. Well, this is a good example, because if we continue to keep on cutting down trees and then building roads, buildings, etc not only will birds be forced to inbreed but deforestation will also be a problem.
To learn more:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100831164946.htm

Current Events: Bedbugs are Back

Bedbugs were almost wiped out in the 1950's by a chemical called DDT. They are found behind headboards, mattress seams and furniture. Then when they are ready they go on a search for human blood, but they are back after a few surviving multiplying. Why not use DDT? Because DDT is no longer used due to the fact it is bad for the environment. The most common bedbug that has been found all around the world is called the Climax letularicus. A recent survey revealed that 95% of 1,000 pest-control companies have said they have dealt with a bedbug problem in only the past year. Out of all countries New York City is the most effected, bedbugs have been found in the Empire State Building and any other places. Even though bedbug bites are harmless, and 1 out for 3 people often have no reaction, and even though they are often mistaken for mosquito bites. These bugs and do emotional damage. Scientists showed at the first ever bedbug summit in Chicago, September 21, how bedbugs hop from continents by traveling on handbags, purses, etc. Experts say to people that the best way to prevent bedbugs from entering your home is to check clothing, bags, etc. for signs of bedbugs. If bedbugs are found it is advised to call in a professional or you could wind up doing what Amanda Shaw of Bloomington, Indiana did, she fought the bedbugs for 2 years and then called a professional. "In the next 10 years, a silver bullet will be found," says bedbug expert Richard Cooper. "Somebody made Velcro, and it changed the world. Somebody will figure out how to deal with bedbugs, and after that, they will be just another pest."
I found this article interesting because it was something that I had heard on the news, and was scared(which helped me understand what they said in the article about emotional damage) So reading this helped me understand more about bedbugs. This ties into our Unit 1 about interactions because what we have here is a type of a symbiotic relationship, the kind of relationship which is known as parasitic. This relationship between bedbugs and humans is actually, from my perspective, kind of in the the middle between Parasitic and Commensalism.
To learn more visit: http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/teachers/wr/article/0,27972,2027217,00.html

Current events: Another Earth!

There is a star known as Gliese 581 and its is ordinary in mostly every way possible. Gliese 581 is a red dwarf which is one of the most common stars in our galaxy. Gliese 581 is relatively nearby, it is 20 light years away.Yet 116 stars are closer than Gliese 581. But Gliese 581 does have just one special factor.A team of astronauts on Sept.29 declared that they had found two more planets circling this star bring up the total to 6 planets. Gliese 581g was one of the planets which was given a name, and it may be truly historic.This planet is found in what is called the "Goldilocks" Zone.The planet is far away enough from it's home star that the temperature is not to cold, yet it is close enough that it is not to hot. Meaning that the conditions are suitable for life a Gliese 581g is a lot like earth.

Probably having a solid surface and being in the "Goldilocks" Zones which allows temperature to be stable and making sure it is not so hot that water boils or so cold that it freezes. Gliese 581g looks pretty substantial for life. For thousands of years scientists have been searching for an earth like planet.And since 1995 they haven't another planet. But they don't know yet whether there is life on this planet. "We're pretty excited about it," admits Steve Vogt of the University of California at Santa Cruz, a member of the team that found the planet. "This is right next door to us. That's the big result."
I really like this article because when I was in 3rd grade we studied global warming and I got very worried that the earth would burn up and the human race would have nowhere to go. Yes, I now know that will logically probably not happen but it is nice to know that there is another planet that scientists have found. I think this ties into our unit about ecosystems very well because this planet is an ecosystem that is being studied. If you want to learn more about Gilese 581g go to: http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/news/story/0,28277,2023304,00.html

Current Events: Move over, Ticeratops!

Move over, Triceratops! Maria L. , 7A, 9/29/10, Science

The Triceratops has always stood out among other dinosaurs because of its great horned face and head. But due to a new discovery it looks like the Triceratops wasn’t the only dinosaur to have pretty impressive head gear. In southern Utah two new giant horned dinosaurs where found recently, and have been named Utahceratops gettyi and Kosmoceratops richardsoni. Both of these dinosaurs are part of the same family as the Ticeratops. Something that is similar in all these names is the the word Ceratops which means Horned Face in Greek. The reason all these dinosaurs have this in their names is because they all have horns on their face. The Kosnoceratops richardsoni was an impressive find because of its interesting skull which has 15 bony horns and is the most decorated of all dinosaurs. “ Kosmoceratops is one of the most amazing animals known, with a huge skull decorated with an assortment of bony bells and whistles,” says Scott Sampson , research curator at the Utah Museum of Natural History and host of the OBS television series Dinosaur Train. How did the Utahceratops gettyi get its name? From the state in which it was found, combined with ceratops .And gettyi is includedbecause of the person who discovered the dinosaur Mike Getty. Kosmoceratops richardsoni is kosmos which means “ornate” combinded with ceratops. This then follows with the part that honors the founder, Scott Richardson in this case. The site of excavation for both dinosaurs is located in the Grand- Staircase-Escalante National Monument. This site covers 1.9 million acres and rests on what previously was Laramidia. It is the largest national monument in the U.S and one of the last undisturbed dig sites for dinosaurs.

I thought this article was interesting because not only did I learn more about dinosaurs I also learnt about how the dinosaurs are named and a lot of Latin terms. I think this has quite a positive effect on the world because this can also help us later on discover more dinosaurs. I wonder if the species and the Ticeratops had any other things, except for name and the same kind of face with horns, in common. Did they eat the same things, live in same environments, etc.Since scientists have shown that the more complex a creature is the better chance it has of survival. So in conclusion since these dinosaurs are so complex they probably have quite a could chance of survival. This is an adaptation and this is what this article has to do with our unit. If you want to learn more visit: The dinosaur

Reflection on Mr.Watts' presentation

Last Friday Mr. Jamie Watts, who is a researcher in Antarctica for the British Antarctic Survey in 2004, while in Antarctica Mr.Watts studied fisheries and marine ecology. He came to talk to our science class about his work in Antarctica. During this presentation we learned a lot, and it helps us answer these question:

• What interaction between these animals did you notice?

Interactions between these animals that I noticed that there were not many kinds of interaction. It was a very competitive ecosystem, there is mostly predators who kill, and prey that that gets killed. So it's a very organism-eat-organism world.

• Why do animals migrate?

Many animals migrate due to the fact that it gets colder, and the animal cannot stand the cold so they move to a warmer climate. Or they move due to food when there food moves they move as well so they have to move to eat. Animals also move sometimes due to mating reasons, like salmon.

• How do animals know when it is right to reproduce? What conditions are they looking for?

Animals mostly reproduce when the food source is at its richest. And this is usually during the summer. The reason they do not reproduce in the spring, when the food source starts to become plentiful, is because they first feed themselves most of the spring and in summer they then reproduce.

• Adaptation of animals in the Antarctic usually include having blubber so that they can keep from in winter if they do not migrate. Migration is also when where when the climate is too cold animals simply move to a warmer climate that is more pleasant. Teeth, like in some seals, help they break through they ice so that they can get air from the surface. Also one bird which has a huge wing span

  , instead of flapping its wings, uses them to glide in the air. And the colossal squid has hooks on its tentacles so that when it grabs onto prey the only way the prey can go is into the squid’s mouth.

  · What various breeding rituals did the animals have?

  One ritual was with elephant seals in which the bull (male) would challenge another male a fight by bellowing. The males are fighting for all the females, so the winner will be able to breed with all the females in the group. It is usually the biggest who win in fights like this. Also when the male wins he is somewhat “in charge” and he decides what goes on in the group.

  · When do most large animals reproduce? What does it depend on?

  Most of the big animals need food for their young so they mate at times where the food source in there region is plentiful. So it depends on the time of year and season because this is what dictates when the food source is supplied.

  · How did this presentation provide examples of what we have been studying now?

  It showed us examples of animals reacting in ecosystems. How they adapt, when they reproduce, when they feed, what happens when it gets cold, literally how they survive in such a harsh ecosystem like the Antarctic. It also helped because the examples weren’t general they were quite specific each about a species of animal.

  · What are you wondering about now?

  I am wondering whether it is possible that different species, examples Gentoo and Macaroni penguins, ever end up accidently or possibly purposefully breeding together. Would this only be possible if there were very small numbers in a group and two groups came across each other? Or is it simply impossible? But species of bogs sometimes mix but do they have different mating restrictions than humans.

  · How did Mr. Watts help tie in everything that we have been discussing during this unit?

  He helped us understand how intricate ecosystems actually are. By explaining in great detail of each little part of the ecosystem the whole idea of what the ecosystem is actually about comes together much easier, somewhat like a jigsaw puzzle. I understood that the Antarctic is harsh but also has much more life then I would have thought.

  The Antarctic is a cold place and not much life there, but it is much more of an interesting and complex ecosystem and the organisms that do live there are very interesting.

Current Events: Microscopic Frogs

Current Events: Pea-sized Frogs
A frog the size of a pea was discovered by Drs. Indraneil das and Alexander Haas of the institute of biodiversity and environmental conservation at the university of Malaysia. The species was found on the side of the road that lead to the summit of Gunug Serapi Mountain which is located in Kubah National park. The frog that was found is called scientifically Microhyla nepenthicola. And it is a frog that is about the size of a pea (Males are usually 10.6-12.8 mm) This frog is found in Southeast Asia, Borneo and lives in the local pitcher plants. The frog depends on the pitcher plant to raise it's young. The frog lays it's eggs on the side of the pitcher plant and the tadpoles grow in the liquid inside the pitcher plant. Hence the fact that the name of the frog, Microhyla nepenthicola, was based on the name of the plant that it uses to grow it's young, Nepenthes ampullaria. But since these are such small creatures how did the scientists ever find the rest of these species? These frogs where tracked by their call and then made to jump on to a piece of white cloth. The frog has a particular call which is a series of harsh rasping sounds that go on and are interrupted with short intervals. This "song" continues from when the sun sets till the early hours of evening. Amphibians are the most threatened group of animals with 1/3 of the population gone. This is because amphibians are quite sensitive to changes to their surroundings, so discovering these new miniature frogs helps scientists understand what changes that occur in the global environment are having an impact on amphibians.
I found this article the most interesting out of all 3 because it was something I had never heard of before and was such a recent discovery. It also intrigued me that something so small could play such a big part in a ecosystem or on the survival of a species. It helped me understand that the discovery of even something so small can help us understand the other parts of this frogs ecosystem. If you want to learn more visit: Frog Site

Survival

Yesterday, In science we watched an Eyewitness movie called Survival. It is about the way living things adapt and survive in their surroundings using their environment, instinct and tactic. I found interesting that a wildebeest is born and a few minutes later it can run faster then an human, professional runner. I also found it interesting that there are so many different way that animals survive and they can learn these ways so quickly. But then animals need to learn survival skills very quickly when they are in the while so that they are not vulnerable to predators.Two questions I have are :

1. Is there a certain chemical in the brain that trigger the instincts that animals have?
2. With magnetism and migration how does it work?

A interesting survival video:

Living Things and the Environment.

What needs are met by and organism's environment? Needs that must be met in a organisms environment include:

• Food or Supply of Nutrients
• Shelter
  
• Ecosystem
• Water
• Sunlight
• Oxygen
• And a stable temperature for the organisms

What are the two parts of an organism's habitat with which it interacts?

• Abiotic and Biotic which create the habitat.
  

What are the levels of organization within an ecosystem?

• Species
• Population
• Community
• Ecosystem
• Biomes
• Biosphere
  

Why do you find different kinds of organisms in different habitats?

• Because different species have different needs so they go to habitats where those needs are fulfilled.
  

Think about what will soon start happening within Belgrade. How do animals prepare for such a change?

• One thing around this time that happens is that since the weather gets colder animals that have no form of protection against the cold go into a deep sleep for several months, this is called hibernation. During the period before hibernation the animals will gather food for the time after they finish their hibernation.
  

1. 
   

What is a living thing?

A living thing is...

1. Needs Nutrients- Makes energy by taking substances from the environment.
2. Excretion- remove waste
   
3. Growth- become larger and more complex
   
4. Adaptation- adapt to environment
   
5. Reproduction- produce young
   
6. Movement- internally or externally
   
7. Needs to be made up of one or more cells.

Some questions I have are:

1. About how many species die out each day?
2. Is it possible for a human to internally combust?
3. What is the largest group of animals?
   

My Goals

My Goals this year:

1. To be neater with my ISN (Interactive science notebook)
2. To be on time for every class with all my materials.
3. Make sure all assignments are my best work and are turned in on time.

These are my goals for the 1st semester, hopefully by the beginning of the 2nd semester I will have completed these and added new ones.