Lucid Chart

Lucid Chart Food Webs

The last couple of days, the students have been using a computer program called Lucid Charts.  This is presentation program that the students can use to complete projects for class, or create new documents at home.  The students used this program to create a food web using the organisms that we found out in the Wetlands last week.  They learned how to search and drag in images, create and change fonts, and also how to use arrows to show the energy transfer between the organisms. When finished, the students will share their Food web with me, just like you would share a Google document. They have really enjoyed this program; many students even asked if they could create a new project at home on their own time!!! 

Wetlands!

We Made It!!!

We finally made it out to the wetlands this week!  The students were introduced to Mrs. Wilmore, who gave them a quick lesson on what to find out in the wetlands.  She included the super scary.....DADDY LONG LEGS, which we learned would not cause us any harm.  She mentioned that the "Cute" "Furry" caterpillars that we all enjoy picking up and analyzing should be something that we actually stay away from as they have defense mechanisms that could hurt humans.  Finally, she showed us what to look for when looking to STAY AWAY from poison ivy- "Leaves of three, let them be."

 







When we ventured out in to the woods, the students were to observe a log of their choice.  They were to decide what stage of decomposition the log was in, as well as observe the various organisms that were living on, in, and under the log.  The students food some really interesting creatures!!

Ecology Assessment

Ecology Test is Thursday and Life Science Packets will be turned in!!!!

This week, we finished talking about photosynthesis.  The students should know the necessary resources that a plant needs in order to survive: Sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide.  The plant then converts this energy into Glucose (sugar), which is the plants food (energy).  This energy is then passed to other organisms when they consume the plant.  

Yesterday, we reviewed for our test, by playing a review Bingo game.  The questions that were used during the game, came directly from their study guides.  If they felt comfortable with the game, they should be successful on our test this Thursday!

Today is FINALLY the day to go out to the Wetlands!  We are headed out to dissect a decomposing log and document the organisms found within the log.  It should be a great day!  

Stay tuned for pictures from our adventure!!!!

FabLAB Day #3

Last Day of FabLab Conference:

Final Products!!!!

At my conference today, we were given a challenge to use a Vex Robotic set and create a robot and then program it to draw a square.  The creation of the robot happened very quickly, as we had a great idea of how this "Should look!!"  However, we quickly figured out that, it doesn't always work the way we originally intended it to!  There was a lot of "That won't work!" "Let's take that off, and put it here."  Here are a few pictures of our completed robot!

Here is a video of our robot drawing our "square!!!" We only got it to draw a shape that looked like a flower,  before we ran out of time! 

 

FabLab Training

Where is Mrs. Taylor???

This week, I have had the privilege of attending a FabLab training in Westerville.  This week I have been learning how to use a program called Inkscape.  This program allows for you to take a drawing, blueprint, doodle, etc. and bring it to a polished piece of work.  This week we used Inkscape to create airplane gliders.  Once created in Inkscape we then exported the data to a Laser cutting machine, which took our one-dimensional drawing and made it into the actual model!

 This was my final product on Inkscape. 

Here is my plane, after it was cut using the laser cutter.  Also, you can see the blue details...these were actually cut using another machine, a Vinyl cutting machine.  It allowed us to create our own professional decals to add to the plane (They didn't have maroon and gold, like my original idea on the computer displayed!)

 

This is short video of the laser cutting out my glider!

LUNAR ECLIPSE

TOTAL Lunar Eclipse

Tomorrow morning, we will be able to witness a TOTAL Lunar Ecplise!!!!  This doesn't happen too often, so fingers crossed that the clouds stay away!!!    However, if the weather is an issue, click on the link below to watch a LIVE Webcast of the eclipse!!
I would love to see some pics, if you get up early enough!!!

 

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON:  The Moon is about to pass through the shadow of Earth, producing a colorful lunar eclipse.  Sky watchers in the Americas, Australia, Pacific islands and parts of Asia can expect to see the full Moon turn beautiful shades of red and turquoise for nearly an hour on Wednesday morning, Oct. 8th.  Check http://spaceweather.com for viewing times and observing tips.
LIVE WEBCAST:  Got clouds? No problem. The eclipse will be broadcast live on the web by the Coca-Cola Science Center: http://www.ccssc.org/webcast.html

Centers

Simulating an Ecosystem

The end of this week was super busy!  We didn't make it to the Wetland's (My curse with weather continues!); please stay tuned for a reschedule date!

We got a lot accomplished at the end of the week.  On Thursday, I introduced the students to centers/stations.  The students were creating their own food webs, watching a video on dissecting a decomposing log (to prepare for our wetland's trip), and seeing the direct affects of animal consumption in an ecosystem.