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

Reflection Questions

What is the KinderPals Program?
In what ways do you think the program benefits the kindergarteners? 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?

The KinderPals Program is where we meet with Mrs. A's morning kindergarten class once a month to teach them about being a good person so that they can get through the school year feeling like they learned something important. For instance, we learn about, say, honesty. We would first tell them what honesty basically is, and then we would read a letter from one of the characters in the book. Then we would read the story, and finally do some activities. That is what we do every time we do KinderPals.
I think that it benifits the kindergarteners because they get to know knowledge that they need to know in the future, like how to be polite and kind to someone, and how to say excuse me, please, and thank you.
I think that it is benifical to the 5th graders (us) because we need to know how to be good and patient with young people, and that will help us later in life.
The challenges I faced was that I was struggling to keep my KinderPal on topic, and I didn't always understand her, so it was kind of wasting a little time.
Next year, they could make it a certain theme, or change the themes every year. That might make the kindergarteners more excited about learning if it is a theme they like, maybe like peppa pig or something like that, things kindergarteners would like.
I think that yes, they did, or at least mine did, like the stories because she was talking for almost the whole time, but when I started to read the stary, she got all quiet, and she listened carefully. That's why I think that at least my KinderPal liked the stories.

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Skills21 - Superhero Rehabilitation Program

5/21/2018

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Independent Variable

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

Dependent Variables

Measure the height of each plant at certain check points.
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Evidence

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

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?

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Reflection/Syntheses

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?

Plants get their energy from the sun.
Plants get their matter from the food that they eat.
Plants get their food from the nutrients that it gets, which can be from worm compost and water.
Plants are called producers because they make, or pruduce, their own food, they don't eat other animals to get their food.
If plants didn't have a way to get energy then they would eventually die depending on the plant. They would need the energy to make their food and matter as well, since they are producers, so they would need to get the energy.
If there were no plants to eat, then all of the animals in that food chain would die because the primary consmer needs to get the energy from the plant, because they can't make their own energy with the sun coming down on them. They would need the plant to get the energy for them. Then the secondary consumer would die and so on.
Some of the living components in a plant system is the worms that loosen up the soil for the plants to dig deeper and deeper into the soil to get all of the water and nutrients that it needs to grow, and it also needs bugs to pollinate the plant.
Some of the non-living components of a plant system are the nutrients it gets, the oxygen and carbon dioxide it filters, and the water it soaks up.
The components of the system interact by the plants getting the nutrients from the soil that it gets through its roots, and it gets the energy that it needs from the sun. It also needs water that the roots soak up from when it either rains, or someone waters it.
The plant takes in the carbon dioxide and filters it into oxygen, so that we don't breathe in the carbon dioxide as much.

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Reflection/Syntheses Questions

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 and energy that is NOT used by the organisms in a food chain or food web? Is it wasted or does something else happen?

My food chain is the one directly above (sun, grass, grasshopper, snake, owl) and it works by having the grass soak up the sun, and it gets its energy and matter. Then the grasshopper eats the grass, and it gets its matter and energy from the grass and the sun. Then the snake eats the grasshopper, and if gets its matter and energy from the grasshopper, the grass, and the sun. Then finally, the owl eats the snake, and it gets its energy from the snake, the grasshopper, the grass and the sun. That is how my food chain works.
A food web can be considered a syatem because it has a bunch of animals and plants that are woring together in a way to eat the food that they need. It is also a system because another name for it is a "Consumer-Resource System", and that clearly states that it is a system. And that explains that a food web is a system.
If a plant or animal goes extinct, then the rest of the food web would be disturbed. Say, the secondary consumer goes extinct. Then there would be too many primary consumers, and they wouldn't have enough food that they need, so they would die. And the animals that eat the secondary consumer would die, because they don't have the food they need. That is what would happen if one of the plants or animals goes extinct in a food chain.
When the worm eats the apple, it gets the matter from the apple, because, of course, the apple has matter. When the bird eats the worm, it gets the matter from the worm and the apple. And when the cat eats the bird, it gets the matter from the bird, the worm, and the apple. That is how all of those animals in that food chain get the matter they need.
The apple soaks up the energy from the sunlight, and when the worm eats the apple, it gets some of that energy from it. When the bird eats the worm, it gets a bit less than what the worm got, since it used up some of the energy to do everyday things that worms do. And when the cat eats the bird, it only gets a very small portion of the energy than what the apple got in the beginning. And that is how all of those animals in that food chain get the energy they need.
As I kind of explained a little bit in answer 5, it gets used up doing everyday things, like crawling around, and just moving in general. If the animal or plant burns off too much, then I guess that would effect the rest of the food chain because then they wouldn't get all of the matter and energy that they need, and they would eventually die off. That is what happens to the left over matter and energy that is in the plant of animal.

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The Constitution of The Kingdom of Dustania

4/23/2018

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Reflection/Syntheses

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?

The hardest part was trying to not copy other ammedments that I had written alrerady. I overcame that problem by merging together some of the ammendments of the bill of rights, making it eight good solid ammendments.
My favorite part was doing the final version of it. It was powerful and important because I loved doing the final version and making everything neat, since I am somewhat of a perfectionist.
The purpose of a preamble in a constitution is to establish what the constitution will be about. It says what it'll be about so that people will know what to expect.

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Questions:

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?

Answers:

At the top part of the label it shows that there 60 calories per serving.
In the middle part of the label it shows the matter in the product.
The list of ingredients is shown at the bottom and it tells you what is in the product.

You can find the list of ingredients at the top of the label.
It shows the percentage of the matter in the product.

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.

I learned that we can figure out everything in percentages on the labels, whether it's pet food or human food.
Chicken corn chowder. Chicken stock (ckickens), chicken meat (ckickens), and dehydrated buttermilk (cows).
Tomato puree (from tomatos), high fructose corn syrup (corn), soybean oil (soybeans), carrot fiber (carrots), spices (unknown plants, but they com from plants), and sugar (sugar cane).
The differences with the two labels are that they are set up differently, because the pet food label has the ingredients on the top, while the human food label ingredients are on the bottom. Things that are the same are that they both have a paragraph like thing that has the ingredients on it.
My animals is going to be a squirrel. They eat seeds and nuts, plants and things people grow in their gardens, caterpillars and grasshoppers, and I think that it gets matter and energy form its food.

Reflection/Synthesis

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?

Food provides matter and energy to survive for animals and humans.
In some ways the pet food and human food labels show that they supply different things for different species. For example, the human food mostly had a mix of meat and veggies, while the pet food consists of mostly meat.
A higher calorie count just means that it gives them more energy, and pet owners, depending on what shape theor pet is in, might need more or less calories, so really you can't say for sure yes or no, is it a good thing for more calories.
In food is energy and matter, and that is the things that will help us grow and live. We need energy to move, and to do anything even like moving, and matter is like the food we get to help us keep our belly full.
The thing in food that helps us move and stay warm is the energy.
When animals eat food, they burn off some of the energy, and then when another animals eats that animals, it gets the energy that that one has stored in its body. It burns off some energy. Then when another animals eats that animal, then it gets only a small portion of what the first animal had, so it eats more food.
I didn't see a label below, but our label says that there are 150 calories per cup.
(Our label) The matter that is in the food is vitamin D3 and milk.

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Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a system of living things

Between living and non-living things

Ducks play with other ducks
Ducks eat plants/water bugs
Bugs eat plants
Animals live in trees

Ducks swim with water
Plants sway with the water
Ducks drink the water
Ducks fly in the wind
Ducks breathe air
Plants drink the water to survive

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within a system of living things

Between living and non-living things

Fish swims through the plants
Fish breathes in water to survive
Fish eats plants and other water animals
Plants interact with the seaweed

Plant sways in the water
Plant drinks water to survive
Fish drinks water to survive
Plant gets energy from the sun shining through 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 (show) an ecosystem?

In both pictures, there are plants in a lake.
There might be some water organisms in the lake in both pictures.
I think that the living things might interact with each other because, for instance, the water bugs might need to eat plants to survive, so that's why they interact.
In the pictures, there are living and non-living things, and they interact with each other and that makes an ecosystem.

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

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?

Living things get energy and matter from their ecosystems, and they get that from the animals and plants that are there. If they didn't have the stuff that they need in that ecosystem, then they would have to move.
Plants and animals have to have the things that they need to survive in their ecosystem because they have to survive, of course. That means that they would have to move and be in a different ecosystem so that they can live.
An ecosystem is a place that living and non-living things interact with each other in their environment to help and compete with each other to survive.
I would want to learn if animals could live one week in a place that isn't their own ecosystem.
Some of the living and non-living components of the ecosystem are: Deer, Trees, Grass, River, and Clouds. These living and non-living components of the ecosystem are interacting with each other by eating them, and many other things.
Some interactions are: the deer eats the grass, the grass gets water from the river, and deer gets water from the river as well.

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Student-Led Conference ~ Spring, 2018

3/21/2018

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My student led conference presentation included a blog post that I'm proud of, my passion time round three video, how I set my goals, a lit circle summary/video I am proud of, my leadership skills and deficits, my favorite thing in the year (so far), marble theory, how we're student-led in our classroom, my leadership day videos before and after leadership day, and my "If the World Were a Village" blog post. I presented it to my parent by showing her in presentation mode. I then went from slide to slide explaining what each of them meant. The feedback from her was to edit my work before I show it to her, not while I show it to her.

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<<Previous

KinderPals Reflection

Reflection Questions

Skills21 - Superhero Rehabilitation Program

Testing Plant Growth

Independent Variable

Dependent Variables

Evidence

Reflection/Syntheses

Plants as Producers

Reflection/Syntheses

Players in an Ecosystem

Reflection/Syntheses Questions

The Constitution of The Kingdom of Dustania

Reflection/Syntheses

Food - Matter and Energy

Questions:

Questions:

Answers:

Answers:

Reflection/Synthesis

Money Island/Vault Reflection

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

Reflection/Synthesis Questions

Student-Led Conference ~ Spring, 2018