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

2018 Inventor's Challenge!

5/29/2018

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KinderPals Reflection

5/22/2018

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My Reflection Questions

Answers

What is the KinderPals Program?
In what ways do you think the program benefits the kindergartners? Try to explain several with support.
Why is the KinderPals program beneficial to 5th graders? Believe it or not, you should be getting something out of the program as well!
What challenges did you experience in KinderPals this year?
What improvements could be made to the program for next year?
Do you think the kindergartners enjoyed the stories from Peekapak? Why do you think that? Do you have any evidence to support your answer?

KinderPals is where us (the fifth graders) go in with our buddies or our KinderPals and teach them about important life skills. For example, some of the things that we do are honesty, empathy, courage and teamwork. We use links from Peekapak.com to help explain to our KinderPals whatever it is we are talking about.
In my opinion the program benefits theKinderPals because a lot of times we teach them very complicated emotions like empathy. I feel that Kindergarteners wouldn't usually learn those types of things until at least 3rd grade. So they get ahead of the game with social emotional skills.
I think it benefits us by helping us explain thing which is the best way to really learn something is by teaching it to others. It also improves our patience because sometimes Kindergarteners can be hard to work with. Also we better our people skills and speech.
Sometimes I would find my buddy drifting off and not paying attention so I would have to keep making sure she is on track. Also trying to explain the very complicated words the my buddy.
I think that one improvement that could be made is to include a very simplified version of the definition of the word because explaining that to a Kindergartener is very hard because the words are very complicated. So if I had a definition simplified (or not) I could even change it by putting it into my own words but I think that would make this program better.
I think that they do. One way I know this is because my buddy always remembered the characters so that means she must have been paying attention. And I know that in Kindergarten I only paid attention when I was actually interested.

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Testing Plant Growth

5/14/2018

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I Was Absent for Part of It Including the Video.

Independent Variable

Plant seeds in different kinds of soil (e.g. potting in soil, perlite, sand etc.)

Dependent Variable

Measure heights of each plant at certain checkpoints.

Evidence

We can record our data using measurements (in cm).

Questions

Answers

Name your Control Variables (What will stay the same for each of the three cups)?
Name the Independent Variable (What is it that is different for each of the three cups)?
Name your Dependent Variable (What is it that you are testing & recording data on?)
What data are you collecting to serve as Evidence to show how plants grow in organic material versus inorganic planting material?
Why is everyone starting with the same three cups? Why do we need to test so many plants?
What sprouts first in a seed: the stem or the root?
How do you know? How do the pictures below help explain your answer for #6?
Why do you think it goes in that order?

The place the jars are in, the jar that the plant is in, the amount of water it gets, the soil that the seedling has been planted in and the amount of Sunlight each one gets.
Well the soil type is different for all of the cups.
We are measuring the plants.
We are measuring the heights of the plant in inches for all of the different soil types.
So that we can make sure all of our data is correct by checking all of them. So if one thing is strange then we will know it is all because of the different types of soil.
The root because water is the "activator" to tell the plant to start growing, and the root is the thing that gathers the water.
The first picture has it where the thing coming out is white not green. (Roots are white) And in one of the other ones the thing is all squiggly and stems usually stick straight up to find the Sunlight in the shortest time possible.
I think it goes in that order because the root finds the water which is what activates the plant to start growing. So it pretty much just needs water before sunlight.

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Plants as Producers

5/3/2018

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Reflection/Synthesis Questions:

Answers

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?

They get their energy from the Sun.
They get their matter from water, the nutrients in the soil and carbon dioxide.
They don't get it, they make it in a process called photosynthesis. That is why they're called producers
As I answered in my previous question, they are called that because they "produce" their own food.
They would eventually die because they would have no way to make their food if they didn't have energy.
The herbivores would die and omnivores would lose a lot of their food. If you consider humans as animals then we would die because of unfiltered air.
Some living components are the plant, and the Sun.
Some non- living things are the soil, the water, oxygen and the carbon dioxide.
They all work together by making the plant it's energy and matter. They mix and create the plant's food.
All of the water, sunlight, carbon dioxide, trace amounts of oxygen and the nutrients are transported in. The things that are transported out is one thing, oxygen.

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Players in an Ecosystem

4/23/2018

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Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

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?

The sun gives it's energy to the grass which converts that into it's own type of sugar. The deer eats the grass and the deer gets it's energy and matter from the deer. Then the mountain lion eats the deer.
Yes it can because the definition of a system is "a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, in particular." seeing as there are different parts that work together, I would consider that a system.
If a plant or animal goes away from the food web then most to even all of the other species would either overgrow or go extinct.
The apple tree gets it matter from the water and nutrients soil and the tree converts that into sugar and then it uses that matter to grow the apple. The worm eats the apple which gives it matter because it has stuff/material. Then a bird eats the worm and since the worm had matter the bird gets its matter. Then the bird’s matter gets eaten by a cat and then the cat has the matter that it needs to survive.
Pretty much the same things happen as in #4 but instead of taking the matter, they take all of their food's stored energy.
I think the matter that is not used leaves the body and depending on what's inside it could have seeds from plants so it would start a new plant. Or decomposers such as fungi decompose the food back into the soil.

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Food - Matter & Energy

4/16/2018

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Questions About Food Labels

On the human food label:

How do we find the energy (calories) per serving?
How do we find the matter (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals)?
Where can we locate the list of ingredients?

On the pet food label:

Where can we locate the list of ingredients?
How do we find the percentage of different types of matter in the food?

You find the words amount per serving calories and the number to the right is the calories per serving.
You find all of the words of the types of matter you are looking for and you look at the number to the right. Also Iron is the mineral.
It is under the dietary fiber at the bottom of the nutrition label.

Pet food label:

It is the first thing at the top of the label.
Next to each of the different types of matter is a percentage.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

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 below for milk. How much energy is in the food?
What matter is in the food?

It provides them energy and matter. It gives them the energy to work and the matter to grow and do body repairs.
They have different nutrients because pets and humans need different types of nutrients. The pets can break down some things that humans can't so they can eat different nutrients. Some ways the nutrients are different are that there are a lot of different types of acids in the pet foods and not as much strong acids in the humans foods.
No it doesn't but most pet owners think that it does because they think it will give their pet more energy.
The matter in food helps us repair our bodies.
Energy, the energy helps us move and stay warm.
First the plants get there energy from the sunlight and then an animal eats the plant. Then other animals, eat that animal that ate the plant. Then after a while of that the animals will decompose and go into the soil to start the cycle again.
160 grams per serving.
The matter that is in the milk is, proteins, sugars, fats, calcium, vitamins and iron.

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What is an Ecosystem?

4/10/2018

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Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a System of Living Things

Between Living and Non-Living Things

Ducks eat plants and bugs.
Ducks quack at each other.
Ducks care for their ducklings.
Ducks are swimming around plants.

Ducks breathe air.
Ducks swim in water.
Ducks fly in the air.
Ducks use grass and sticks to make nests.

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a System of Living Things

Between Living and Non-Living Things

The fish is touching the plants.
The fish eats small fish.
A bigger fish eats the fish.
A person fishes for the fish with a live bait.

The fish is swimming in the water.
The fish is swimming over dirt.
The plant is growing in the dirt.
The algae is growing on the water.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

What kinds of living things (organisms) do you see in both pictures?
What other living things might be here, even if you can't see them in the photos?
Why might living things in these photos interact with each other?
Read the BIG IDEA below. How do these pictures depict an ecosystem?

Answers

In these picture there are: plants, and animals.
In these pictures there might be: bugs, humans, other fish and algae.
Animals, plants and other living things interact to survive. Like animals eat the plants and that is interacting.
The first picture shows an ecosystem because the ducks are interacting with each other and the ducks and some of the non-living things. In the BIG IDEA it says living and non-living things interact and that is exactly what the ducks are doing in that photo. Just like the first photo, the second photo shows living and non-living things interacting with each other and that is exactly what an ecosystem is.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

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?

They get lots of things from their ecosystems. The main thing that they get is energy because energy comes from food and rest. They rest in their habitats and they go hunting for food in their ecosystems. Then they eat and rest.
When I went outside I saw ants scurrying around carrying food, robins flying to their nests in the trees, and worms crawling through the soil. They were going to their homes and getting food which is what I said in my answer to the last question.
In my own words, ecosystems are areas where living things interact with other living and non-living things.
I wonder if different species of animals' home's be in the same niche without having fights?
In the picture below I can see: deer, grass, trees, water, and rocks.
The deer may eat the grass. The water may be drunken by the deer. Another interaction is the rocks sitting on the grass.

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Skills21 Superhero Rehabilitation Center

4/9/2018

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#WorldPoetryDay

3/21/2018

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The Constitution of the Kingdom of Dustania

3/21/2018

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Reflection/Synthesis Questions

What was the hardest part of writing your preamble? Explain how you overcame that challenge.
What is your favorite part of your preamble? Why is that part powerful and important?
What is the purpose of a preamble in a constitution? What does it do?

Answers

It was hard to put each part into easily understood language. I overcame that by just taking the idea and writing something about that.
My favorite part of my preamble is "We the people of the Kingdom of Dustania do believe that each person's value is equal." That part is important and powerful because it means that everyone is equal and as important and everyone else.
It introduces all of the most important ideas that a country values. It also introduces the constitution.

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2018 Inventor's Challenge!

KinderPals Reflection

My Reflection Questions

Answers

Testing Plant Growth

I Was Absent for Part of It Including the Video.

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Evidence

Questions

Answers

Plants as Producers

Reflection/Synthesis Questions:

Answers

Players in an Ecosystem

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

Food - Matter & Energy

Questions About Food Labels

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

What is an Ecosystem?

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a System of Living Things

Between Living and Non-Living Things

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a System of Living Things

Between Living and Non-Living Things

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

Skills21 Superhero Rehabilitation Center

#WorldPoetryDay

The Constitution of the Kingdom of Dustania

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Answers

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