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

Skills 21 - Superhero Rehabilitation Program

5/29/2018

I was absent

Kinderpal's Reflection

5/22/2018

Questions:

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.com? Why do you think that? Do you have any evidence to support your answer?

Answers:

The KinderPals program is a program that helps little kids, and fifth graders. It helps them with patience, kindness, and other things, too. Not only that, but it also helps older kids with the things that the book, and the things that kindergarteners say. The things in each book helps each KinderPal have a better understanding of what the lesson is about.
The program helps kindergarteners because in every lesson, kindergarteners learn from their fifth graders about something new, and helpful. Everything that the kindergarteners learn, helps others learn from them, too. If others see what their doing, then the others should learn from what they are doing in a nice, and kind way.
The program helps fifth graders too, because every lesson, fifth graders learn from their KinderPals about something new, and tell them in what ways to improve on it. Fifth graders learn how to improve with what they tell their KinderPals. And I think that is a good strategy to learn new, and helpful things for them, and us in life.
Sometimes the kindergarteners were hard to teach. Some of the kindergarteners would just want to color, or play different games. My KinderPal was always asking to do that, and I would say "No, later. When we're dome with this last part.". So then my KinderPal would whine "OK...". But after 3 meetings with my KinderPal, my KinderPal wasn't so impatient anymore.
I think that some improvements that could be made for the future are: Maybe add some speaking parts to the characters, or make it a video. And at the end of the book, they could maybe add something that said; 'What did you learn?' And the KinderPals could tell us, and then we could type that in somewhere.
Yes, because, every time the character in the book did something interesting, my KinderPal would be loaded with questions... and I would try to answer them. And when they did something related to the topic of the lesson, my KinderPal would give and example for something related to the topic, too. And most of the time she would be correct with her statement.

Plants as Producers

5/3/2018

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:

I promise you I did it, it didn't load or save it :(

Plants get their energy from the sun
Plants get their matter carbon.
Plants make the food from their leaves. The plant gets the food from the carbon dioxide, and then the leaves make it into food for the plant to eat.
Because they produce energy for the animals that eat the plant.
If plants didn't have any way to get energy, then the plant would die, and the animals that depend on the plant for food might die, and then we might die because of no food to eat.
The animals that depend on the plant for food might die, and then we might die because of no food to eat.
Some of the living components are: The sun, and the plant. The sun and the plant have to interact with each other in a certain way to live.
Some of the non-living components are: the soil, the water, the oxygen, and the carbon dioxide. They have to interact with the plant in a certain way so that the plant lives, too.
The sun gives the plant energy, the soil gives the plant a place to put their roots in, the water gives the plant something to drink, the carbon dioxide gives the plant something to breath, and get food out of, and the oxygen is what the plant breaths out so that we have something to breath, and live off of, too.
So that we can breath, and so that the plant could breath, too. When we breath out, what we are breathing out is carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is what the plant breaths, so when it breaths out, what it breaths out is the oxygen that we breath in. So what we breath and the plant breath... it's like a cycle.

Players in an Ecosystem

4/25/2018

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 bug eats the plant, the bird eats the bug, and the fox eats the bird.
Kind of. Because it's kind of like the system of trying to work, or eat, or anything like that
Then the whole food web would be wiped out. If plants were gone, everyone, and everything would be dead.
The plant gives 60% of its energy to the worm, when the worm gives 35% of that energy to the bird, and then the cat gets 10% of that energy from the bird.
They get it from the matter, and the (I forgot what it's called. I know there's something else, but I forgot what it's called).
I think that it that matter goes to the next animal that eats that animal.

Food, Matter, and Energy

4/16/2018

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?

Answers:

We find it by the heat of the food. Or by the part that says CALORIES on the top of it.
You look at the bottom of the back of the food label.
At the bottom of the box thing.

Pet Food Label:

Answers:

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

At the bottom where it says: INGREDIENTS. (But it actually says INGREGIENTS)
You measure the different types of matter by the calories.

Questions:

Answers:

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.

Reflection & Synthisize

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?

I learned that human food and pet food have a different amount of calories in them.
None
Tomato Puree, and Carrot Fiber
On the pet food label, it showed the ingredients first. Then it showed something called: Guaranteed Analysis. But on the human food label, it doesn't show the: Guaranteed Analysis. But on both, it shows the ingredients.
I choose a fish. I think that the fish eats the seaweed. The fish gets its food from the water, and the water provides energy to the plant so that the plant can live.

Answers

Food provides Energy and Matter to both humans and animals.
In the human food label, it shows that there is 6% of Vitamin C, and 10% of Vitamin A. But on the pet food label, it doesn't show how much Vitamin A that there is, and I don't think that there is any Vitamin C.
Because it is good for people to eat calories, so they assume that it is the same for dogs.
The Vitamin B in our food helps us repair our bodies and grow.
Calories in food help us move and stay warm.
It helps animals run and do everything that they do.
There is about 50% energy in milk. Half is energy.
Matter is everything in the food.

Testing Plant Growth

4/12/2018

Independent Variable

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

Dependent Variable

Measure the height of each plant at certain checkpoints.
______________________

Evidence

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

Reflection/Synthesis:

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?

Answers:

My group only had 2 cups. And yes.
We couldn't find the seed in one, and in the other, the seed didn't grow.
Nothing, and a dead seed.
The ones that absorb the water grew, but the ones that didn't, didn't.
So w e can see how ling plants can grow, and how plants adapt to their environments.
The root, because the root has to grow so that the plant can stay up-right, and grow more.
When a plant starts to grow, it uses the energy from the shell of the seed, and then from the water, and then from the sun.
Because if it went the other way around, then the plant would not grow. Because it needs to grow roots before it reaches out to the sun.

Money Island and Vault Reflection

4/10/2018

What Is An Ecosystem?

4/10/2018

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a system of living things

Ducks eat bugs, fish and plants
Grass grows
Fish eat bugs
Ducks interact with each other

Between living & non-living things

Ducks swim in the water
Ducks breath the oxygen in the air
Ducks fly in the air
Grass grows from the water and soil

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a system of living things

Fish eats the plants
Plants grow
Seaweed covers the fish
Fish hides under the seaweed

Between living & non-living things

Plants grow from the soil
Fish swims in the water
Fish breaths the oxygen from the water
Fish hides near the dirt

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:

I can see plants in both of the pictures. The seaweed coming up from the soil, and grass coming up from the soil under the water. Soil is in both of the pictures, too, but in the first picture, you can't see the soil because of the water.
Bugs might be there, because bugs need water, and plants to survive, too. Other things that animals need to survive might be there, too, but some animals (or things) might just need a few things to survive.
Because they need these things to survive. For example: The plants need water and soil to grow, so when they grow, the animals that need to eat plants to live. But t when that plan dies, then that animal goes to eat another thing.
They show how plants and water and bugs and other living and non-living things that plants and animals need to make and ecosystem. But if one thing wasn't there, then some things in the ecosystem would be messed up.

Reflect & Synthesize:

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:

Plants, and animals. There might be some bugs there, too.
Maybe some bugs, or some other tiny things, too.
Because they need to interact with each other to survive. If one thing wasn't there, then Almost everything that lives there that needs that one thing to survive would die. And so on and so on.
By telling about how the living organisms and the non-living ones interact with each other to live and survive.

#WorldPoetryDay

3/21/2018

My Student-Led Conference

3/21/2018