What's going on in Mr. Solarz' Class?

Nature's Waste Matter

5/24/2017

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Investigation:

Where do you think the items came from originally?
Do you think the items look the same today as they did a month ago?
What happened to the matter in each item over the past month?
Do you think the items will be the same forever? Why or why not?
What do all of the items in the bag have in common?
Do you notice any relationships between the items in the bags? They all...
What evidence do you have that the items were all once part of a living thing?
Another name for "nature's waste" is "organic remains." These are all organisms that are no longer living, or parts of organisms that are discarded, excreted, or no longer needed. What other examples of organic remains can you think of?
What would happen to each item from your bag if it were left outside? What might it look like in 6 months? What would cause it to change?
What would eventually happen to the waste MATTER in each type of organic remain?
Why isn't the earth just piled up with all the matter from nature's waste?
Why could all of the items in the mystery bags be classified as nature's waste?
Do you think that all living things generate waste? What makes you think that?

Answers:

They all came from the trees and other plants.
No, because a month ago they were attached to a plant or growing on a plant.
They all grew and eventually fell off.
No, they are all natures waste and will decompose.
They are all nature's waste.
They all came off of a plant.
They all came off of a plant which are growing living things.
Other types of leaves, fruit, and buds.
It would probably look like soil because of forces of nature causing it to decompose.
It would all eventually look and be soil.
Because it turns into dirt before it can pile up.
Yes other than the baby pinecones, grass clippings and wood chips.
Yes, because plants make nature's waste and creature go to the bathroom.

Reflection/Synthesis:

What are you trying to explain in your investigation?
What is your investigative question?

Answer the following questions at the end of the investigation:

Was the matter in the waste stable, or did it change over time?
Specifically, how did the matter change during the investigation?
What is your evidence of each of those changes?
Specifically, what made your organic item change?
So, does matter from living things stay exactly the same over time?
What evidence do you have from your investigation to support your answer?
What would you change in this investigation if you were to do it again?

Answers:

I am trying to explain how long it takes for decay.
My question is how long does it take for a maple leaf to decay.

Answers:

It changed over time because it absorbed the water and naturally decayed.
The matter changed by becoming really brittle and turning darker.
My evidence is that it looks brown and is brittle to the touch.
It became brittle because all of the moisture has evaporated out of it.
No, it is always changing.
After about a few days it started to look and feel different and everybody knows we grow.
I would have pre done the items so that the we didn't have to wait quite so long.

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Sunlight on the Menu

5/22/2017

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Reflection/Synthesis:

Explain how the matter in each ingredient can be traced back to plants.
Explain how these ingredients can be traced back to the sun.
What MATTER in the food originally came from producers?
What ENERGY in the food originally came from the sun?
How is energy transferred from the sun to ingredients in your favorite foods?

Answers:

They all can be traced back to the plants because they all where made by plants
They all can be traced back to to the sun because it can be traced back to the plants which get their energy from the sun.
All of it because it is all made up of plants.
All of it because it is all made up of plants which get their power from the sun.
It gets transferred by having the plants collecting energy from the sun and every single food item is made up of plants.

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Plants as Producers

5/17/2017

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Reflection/Synthesis:

Plants need energy and matter to grow. Where do plants get their ENERGY?
Where do plants get their MATTER?
Where do plants get their FOOD (be careful - this is a trick question)?
Why are plants called Producers?
What would happen if plants didn't have a way to get energy?
What would happen to animals if there were no plants to eat?
What are some of the LIVING components of a plant "system"? (A plant "system" is everything that a plant needs to survive and everything it produces.)
What are some of the NON-LIVING components of a plant "system"?
In what ways do the components of the system interact?
What matter is transported in and out of the plant system?

Answers:

Plants get their energy from the sun.
They get it from the nutrients in the soil.
Plants get it from the sun and soil.
They are called that because they do not need to consume energy, instead they produce it, hence the word producer.
Everything would die if they didn't have a way to get energy because they are at the very bottom of the food chain.
They would die causing the whole ecosystem to collapse.
The living components of a plant "system" are the plant, worms and other creatures that mix the soil up, and pollinators if the plant is a flowers.
Some of the non-living components are soil, the sun, water, and carbon dioxide.
The plant interacts with sunlight through photosynthesis as well as taking water up through it's xylem.
Air is the matter that enters and exits a plant, It enters as carbon dioxide and exits as oxygen.

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Players in an Ecosystem

5/10/2017

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Reflect & Synthesize:

Choose one of your Food Chains that you created and explain how it works.
Can a Food Web be considered a "system"? Why or why not?
What happens if a plant or animal all of a sudden disappears from the food web?
Using this food chain, "sunlight to apple to worm to bird to cat," How do organisms in this food chain get the matter they need for body repair and growth?
Using the same food chain in #4, How do organisms in that food chain get the energy they need for body warmth and motion?
What do you think happens to the matter that is NOT used by the organisms in a food chain or food web? Is it wasted or does something else happen?

Answers:

It works by having the phytoplankton create energy from the sun, then the zooplankton eating the phytoplankton, the small fish eating zooplankton, big fish eating small fish and sharks eating them.
Yes, because it is a complex web that usually involves an entire ecosystem.
Where ever the animal is in the chain the ecosystem either dies or is forced to adapt, because it will die off because it is overpopulated and their is not enough to eat or the prey dies off.
They get it from the soil because that is where plants get it from and it all eventually comes from plants.
They get it from the sun becausethat is where plants get it from and it all eventually comes from plants.
It is decomposed by decomposers and turned into soil.

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Food - Matter and Energy

5/7/2017

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Nutrition Labels:

As a result of looking at food labels, what did you learn about food?
Look at the ingredients of one human food label. Write down the food name. What ingredients came from animals?
What ingredients in the above food label came from plants?
What similarities and differences did you notice between the human food and pet food labels you looked at?
Choose an animal/insect from the ecosystem walk. What do you think it eats? Explain what you think it gets from its food.

Answers:

I learned that it is easy to tell if a food is healthy by looking at it's label.
The ingredient that came from animals is milk.
Tomato puree, soybean oil, sugar, spices, and carrot fiber.
The pet food label looks different and seems to have a lot more pure vitamins in them.
I think a bird eats worms and other insects and they give it energy and matter.

Reflect & Synthesize:

What does food provide to animals, including humans?
Do the pet food and human food have the same nutrients? In what ways are they different?
Does a higher calorie count mean a food is better for pets to eat? What makes pet owners think that?
What is it in food that helps us repair our bodies and grow?
What in food helps us move and stay warm?
In what way does energy transfer when animals eat food?
Look at the nutrition label above for milk. How much energy is in the food?
What matter is in the food?

Answer:

Food provides matter and energy through calories, proteins, fat, and other nutrients.
No, they are different in one way because it says on the pet food label crude fat, protein, and fiber instead of just regular versions of it.
I don't know it doesn't show a calorie count?
Matter is the stuff in food that allows us to repair and grow ourselves.
Energy is what we need to keep warm and move around.
It travels up the food web when it is eaten by a consumer.
160 calories worth of energy.
9 grams of fat worth of matter.

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Our Mars Constitution

5/5/2017

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Constitution

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Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a system of living things

Ducks eat plants and bugs.
Ducks are communicating with each other.
Ducks fertilize the plants.
Plants release oxygen for the ducks.
Ducks eat bugs.
Bugs live in plants.

In lake:

Fish eat smaller fish.
Fish eat fish eggs.

Between living & non-living things

Ducks breathe air (oxygen).
Ducks swim in and drink water.
Plants growing in the lake take nutrients.
Plants absorb the sunlight.

In lake:

Plants growing in the lake taking nutrients from lake and dirt.
.

Reflect & Synthesize:
Answer the following questions in your blog post. Remember to have at least one follow-up sentence for each question, when possible.

What do living things get from their ecosystems?
What evidence do you have to support your answer to Question 1?
What does the term ecosystem mean, based on your experience in this lesson? (Don't use the definition from the BIG IDEA here. Put it into your own words.)
Brainstorm at least one question you have about Ecosystems that you hope you learn from this unit.
Look at the image below that shows a portion of a forest ecosystem. Name at least five components (living or non-living things) of the ecosystem that you can either observe directly or infer.
What are three (or more) interactions that might occur in this portion of the forest ecosystem?

Answers:

Answer in the photos.
Answer in the photos.
An ecosystem is pretty much another word for habitat except it also involves food chains and webs.
My question is if matter cannot be created than how do we grow.
Deer, Grass, Trees, Rocks, and Dirt.
Deer eating the grass, Fish swimming in the water, and Wolves eating deer.

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Hi, I'm Ren Nakamura and after my first week in space my favorite things to do are mess around in anti-gravity, exercise in the various machines, and looking around in space, but still how can this go on for 6 months! I had a lot of fun with anti-gravity, for example me and some of my friends were attempting to run around and jump up onto the walls, we could make onto the wall but we couldn't run very well without gravity. We also tried to blow bubbles with gum and it floated around until it hit something and popped! Another thing we did was shoot nerf guns it was like slow-mo because they had very little force but they flew extra straight.
The exercise was extra fun because of the strange machines required to exercise and maintain strength and mobility. For example the treadmill had vacuums to simulate gravity higher than gravity on earth and weight lifting machines that push down on your arms and legs so that you are forced to push them away.
When I looked outside to space I saw the most wonderous things in the stars like so many never seen before constellations, their were enough out there that even that any shape could be formed if you tried hard enough it never failed me when I was upset I saw my home, from Tokyo, I saw my loving parents, I even saw a phrase from my favorite book.
But even with all these fun and amazing things I still wondered how I could go on for another 6 months like this even with a phycologist, who I was already tempted to visit even though it was still the first week!

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