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

Ecosystems Lesson 7

5/24/2017

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

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:

I think they all came from plants in an ecosystems. The leaf would come from a tree, the pine cone would com from a tree also, and the grass clippings would come from the grass in the ground.
I do not think so because a month ago, they were most likely attached to a plant. Like for instance, the flower would probably be closed up and not opened yet.
The matter got dehydrated and started to turn harder. Some of the matter got brown, others just started to break apart.
The items will definitely not be same forever. Over time, the matter would start to decay and become a part of the soil. Matter never disappears, it just changes form.
All of them started out either as a plant, or part of a plant. For example, the pinecones were part of a pine tree at one time, and the leaf stopped doing photosynthesis, they just fell off the tree they were on and died.
The relationships between all of the plants are, they all are waste of different plants and they are all matter.
Some of the evidence that we know that they were once living is that they all have water in them and they all have evidence that they were from a plant.
The organic remains that I could think of are fruit, vegetables, polin and all of the other stuff that falls from a plant.
If you left them outside for 6 months, then the matter would start to decompose, and it would become part of the ground to provide nutrients to other plants.
The matter would decompose. This is very important to all living things because it would help us to create more plants and organisms.
I don't know for sure why this doesn't happen but the two things I think could be possibilities are: The remains of the organisms would just break down and all of the nutrients would be used up by new organisms, and that would make a cycle.
Because once the plants that they were or they were on decided that they didn't need it, or it was dying, the plant just let go of the waste.
I think they do because the only 2 categories of life on earth is animals and plants. Animals (including humans) poop out their waste that they don't need anymore. And the plants just let their waste fall to the ground for other organisms to use.

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Matter and Energy

5/17/2017

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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 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?

Answers:

Food provides matter and energy to animals. It gives them the matter to grow, and the energy from all of the nutrients to move.
They both have nutrients but some of the needs of dogs are different from the needs of people. For example, dogs need crude protein, and humans don't need as much of it.
A higher calorie count doesn't make it better to eat. Calories build up more fat if you eat to much of them.
There are multiple things that repair our bodies. Calcium repairs our bones, and protein repairs our muscle. If we eat a fair amount of those things, we will be in good shape.
Calories and fat help us stay warm. It gives us warmth because we are more insulated. Sugars and protein help us have more energy.
Energy transfers to animals in a lot of different ways. One example is when a plant gets eaten by an animal, the calories and sugars transfers over to the animal.
There is a lot of energy in milk. There is a lot of calories, and the sugar helps us too.
There is protein and a lot of other nutrients in milk. The matter helps us grow and stay healthy.

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Plants As Producers

5/17/2017

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

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:

The plants get there energy from the soil and the sun.
The plants get their matter from the carbon dioxide and water.
The plants get their food from the sun, through a process called photosynthesis. Then they take the sunlight and make it into glucose.
Because they produce energy that all the rest of living things need. When a herbivore or omnivore eat the plants, they get the energy that the plants produce. And when the carnivore or omnivore eats the herbivore or omnivore, they get the energy which their prey got from the plants.
If plants didn't have a way to get energy, then every living thing would die. Since the plants and producers start at the bottom of the food chin, all of the animals above the producers rely on them. So if the plants couldn't get energy and die, then all of the animals on the higher part of the food chain would die.
All of he consumers on the food chain would die because the producers wouldn't produce any energy for them.
There are no living components of the plant cycle.
The nonliving parts of the plant cycle are the sun, the soil, water, and air.
The sun interacts with the plant by giving it sunlight so the plant can convert it into food, water helps it get all of the matter it needs to stay alive, the soil gives the plant energy for the plant to survive, and air gives the plants carbon dioxide so the plant will get matter in order to survive.
The matter that is transported in and out of the system is carbon dioxide and oxygen. When the plant takes in the air, the carbon dioxide is the only thing that it needs. So it breathes out the oxygen so animals could use it.

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Players Of An Ecosystem

5/10/2017

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

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:

The one I chose works like this: The sun gives the energy to the producers so the grass can produce food, then the deer eats the grass that has the glucose from the sun in it, and then the mountain lion eats the deer who got the energy from the grass.
It can not be considered a system because a system keeps cycling through. But a food web just stops when the deer is eaten and the mountain lion just eats another deer.
If a plant or animal disappeared from a food web, then the whole web would be all messed up. For example, lets say the deer just vanished, then the mountain lion would not have anything to eat because it's prey is gone. And the mountain lions couldn't eat the grass, because they are carnivores. So the whole web would get messed up.
The worm gets all his matter from the apple, and the apple got all of it's matter from the sun. The bird gets it matter from the worm because of the worm eating the apple. And the cat gets it's matter from the bird that ate the worm, that ate the apple.
All of the energy that an animal ate, transfers to another animal when it is eaten.
Matter can never disappear. When an organism uses it, it just transforms into something else. But if an organism doesn't use the matter, then it just stays the same.

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Westward Expansion Reflections

5/10/2017

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Lesson 1

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What Is An Ecosystem?

5/5/2017

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Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Within A System Of Living Things

Ducks are interacting with other ducks
Ducks eat plants and bugs
Plants release oxygen for the ducks to breathe

Between Living and Non-Living Things

The duck swims in the lake
Ducks breathe air
Ducks drink lake water
Plants are taking nutrients from the water
Sunlight is getting absorbed by plants and turned into food

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

Living To Living

The fish eats smaller fish

Living To Non-Living

Fish swims through water
Plants get nutrients from water
Plants get nutrients from sun

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?

Living things get nutrients, shelter and protection from their ecosystem.
For instance, when apes are in the rainforest, they get berries and fruits from their ecosystem. And when there is rain or a predator, they could take cover in the trees of the rainforest.
An ecosystem is a habitat where living and non-living things interact with each other.
Some questions I have that I hope will get answered in the following lessons are:

How big can an ecosystem be, and how small?
If there were to be life on other planets, would there be ecosystems, or are there only ecosystems on earth?

5. There is the plants, deer, bugs, water, and rocks.
6.

The deer are eating the grass,
The deer ar drinking from the water
The plants are getting the nutrients from the sun and turning it into food.

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How To Write A Book About Your Job

5/4/2017

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Brainstorm unique ideas
Things you want in the book
Write down a bunch of ideas
Think creative ideas if you run into problem
Ask questions to others who do your jobs and are experts
When you have writers block, move on to different subject
Write notes about organization
Do graphic organizer for parts of the book
Take criticism as a good thing and not get hurt by it
Make a quote that summarizes the book
Cut and put things in order to get more organized
Your book can get better with peoples suggestions
You should show other people to get suggestions

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My first week in space was very eventful and interesting. The feeling of no gravity felt so weird! I already have to do my job in the first week! Staying fit in space is a vital part of survival. So far I have taught everyone how to exercise in space properly. They come to me once everyday and they exercise on there own too. The best thing to do to exercise in space is run on a vacuum treadmill. This gives the illusion that you weigh how much you weigh on Earth. This is the most efficient way to stay in shape in space. When we get to Mars, it will be a little easier to exercise on Mars because it has a little gravity. Work has been taking up most of my time. When I have free time though, I just lay low and relax. I play on my phone sometimes, and other times I take naps, or watch T.V. I only have about 2 hours of free time for 1 day. I look forward to this time because it gives me a chance to relax and think about what is going to happen. I will have a lot of time to play games on my phone, because we have 6 months left to get to Mars. We sleep in a sleeping bag Velcroed to the wall, and it has a cocoon that comes over it to control the air temperature. At night I talk to some of the other people in the sleeping quarters. We talk about what is going to happen when we get to mars, and all of the stuff that is going on in the ship. But sometimes at night, I close my sleeping bag and just go right to sleep. I miss Earth and my family and I think about them a lot. I facetime my family everyday, but it takes a little while for them to get back to me because we are so far away. When we get to Mars and create a well run colony, I will try to get my family and friends to come to Mars so I can be with them. When we video chat, I ask what is new on Earth, and they ask me what is new in space, but there is nothing new going around in the spacecraft. I only get to talk to them for about 10 minutes before I have to go to my job. I always look at pictures of Earth from space. They look so cool! On the ship, my roommates and I can get into some arguments. It is hard to not get in arguments when you are right next for them for an entire week! We get into arguments about almost everything: jobs, food, and all other things. Robert Gagne helps us with this problem. He is our psychologist for our journey. He finds ways to settle our arguments, and then calms us down and help us forget about what happened. If We didn't have the psychologist, we would be hurting each other, and we would never make it peacefully to mars. To cap it off, the first week in space has been tiring, annoying, and exciting all at the same time!

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<<Previous

Ecosystems Lesson 7

May 22nd, 2017

Matter and Energy

Plants As Producers

Players Of An Ecosystem

Westward Expansion Reflections

Lesson 1

Our Mars Constitution

What Is An Ecosystem?

Lake Ecosystem INTERACTIONS

How To Write A Book About Your Job

My First Week In Space

Jordan De Backer

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