Chernoff Faces

The activity that the class participated in called Chernoff faces really taught me a lot about the classification of living things. One main thing that specifically stands out to me is the fact that there were many many individuals in the room and not two of the sane were together the whole time. There are so many varying factors to any individual living thing making it almost  impossible to find a certain amount of categories that could truly fit and be accommodating to all of them.
I think that the chernoff faces activity is a wonderful way to present the difficulty of classification of living things and completely categorize living things into one category alone.

Presque Isle Community Ecology

Parasitism is where one organism benefits and one is harmed but does not die. An example would be a leech, flea or tick.
Commensalism is when one organism benefits and the other is neither harmed not helped. An example would be a bird nesting in a tree.
Mutualism is when both of the organisms benefit. An example would be cattle and grasses.
Intraspecific competition is individuals within a species frequently find there are insufficient resources for everyone to have all he/she needs. An example would be deer in the UP competing for wintering grounds and for food during winter and droughts.
Interspecific competition is when two organisms share a similar niche there will be competition between them. An example of this would be when a species competes for habitat, food or other resources.
Microhabitat: The conditions and organisms in the immediate vicinity of a plant or animal.
The Niche of a camel: A camels habitat includes dry grasslands and deserts. This grazing mammal favors grasses, leaves and shrubs, but it can also stomach thorns and dry vegetation that other herbivores cannot digest. This enables them to survive in areas of sparse vegetation.

Observing "the natch"

My group had a very FUN and educational time while studying our habitat within the small string circle that we placed on a almost random stop on the ground. As we were sent off to find the spot we were going to place our sting we were looking for something more than just a place on ground. After much thought and consideration we decided on the edge of an old rotten out tree trunk. Initially when we put the string down our surface observations were not as exciting as we expected them to be. We saw a lot of dirt, old dead leaves, a little but of moss and a few twigs. Disappointed in our choice of view for the next 45 minutes we began to dig deeper. By the end of our dig, as you said we would be, we were all attached. Deep down under the cover out the old withered up leaves we came across a bright yellow and orange mushroom blooming from the dirt. We saw even more moss but brighter with little tiny plants sprouting from the middle of it that got us interested to learn more about it. Another thing that I found to be the most interesting of all was a large spider that came up from deep down under the dirt. As we moved the large spider around to keep him inside our circle and learn more about him he surprised us with his reaction to his surroundings. The spider shrunk into a ball and tucked all of his legs so close to his body that they were no longer visible. Beside my dislike for spiders, I became very curious. As the spider was all curled up into his ball of "protection" we had flipped him onto his back to discover two very bright round circles on his belly. Overall I thought that the project was very interesting and it truly made me realize how much is going on in just every small foot in nature, even if it is not visible from the surface. 

After our time observing within our sting we began our walk back to find the rest of the class when we came across a deer on the trail. The deer was very thin but very friendly and not frightened by us three excited humans. We trailed behind the deer observing her slow cautious motions. She wandered slowly eating food off of the ground and sticks where she could find it and at times came so close to us we were amazed by her. The deer led us off trail through the woods and of course, we followed. Eventually, we came across what we thought to be a cool fort that someone had once built and decided we just could not turn it down. As the four of us crawled into the fort and sat on the tree stump benches we found that hidden under a piece of bark was a notebook filled with hundreds of journal entries by various people and various topics. I thought that it was amazing to see how people who were comp lee strangers confided in one another and shared their own individual touching stores. Of course, we added to the notebook. 

I really enjoyed this experiment and got a lot of information out of it in so many different forms. I also thought that at the end of the class period it ended up being a great bonding experience for my group and I. 

Bog Walk

I found the entire bog walk to be particularly interesting. Although some parts were more attention drawing than others I really enjoyed the overall experience because I had never gone on a bog walk before. One thing that immediately stood out to me was that besides the paths put in the entire thing was minimally disturbed by man and and full nature experience. I loved the smell as you got further and further down the trail and how the trail became more beaten and overgrown. I also found that if you looked and listened closely there was so much life other than plants surrounding us the whole time. I took note that I had cam across many bumblebees, spiders, flies and one fawn slowly walking through the grass. I thought that it was amazing to be able to see all of these creatures and so many forms of life in their natural habitat. Another thing that really stood out to me was all of the yellow and purple flowers growing almost everywhere you looked. I thought it was really interesting how something so beautiful could play such a strong roll on the environment around it both positive and negatively.

What's Alive

I loved the "whats alive" activity and how easily it is done compared to how much it can teach about the definition of life and life itself. In the beginning of the activity we were able to discuss within our groups what we think is alive and what we think is dead. We were also told to go outside and pick up a few things that we thought to be living. As we were making our list based on whats alive and whats dead, we chose the items that we thought to be obviously dead to place on this part of the list. Some of the things that we chose were the toothpick, the cotton ball, the rock, the popcorn kernel, etc. We then chose the remaining items to be placed under the category of whats alive. Some of the things that we chose for this group was the bean, and our two bugs and our plant that we picked up from outdoors.
After a couple weeks in the plastic baggie with a wet paper towel we were able to identify what really was alive compared to what was already dead. When we revealed our results we were mostly right but also wrong on a couple of our predictions. One thing that surprised us was that the corn kernel had begun to grow. This was one thing that we predicted to be no longer living, since we eat it as a snack! Another thing that my group was shocked about was that our two bugs were still living in this plastic bag for so long. The small worm type creature had made a habitat out of the dirt that was collected on the bottom of our now dead plant that we picked.
I feel that this project taught a lot about the value of life and how things can be so deceiving when you think you know an objects state. I was so surprised to see our two little bugs still crawling around after they were left in such  confined space with so little. This is something that I especially took note of and related it to us and the life we live. In todays world people go around thinking that we need so much to survive but this comes to show that really, we do not need that much at all.
I found this to be a truly neat project that could  be enjoyable for so many different age groups. A note has been taken to someday do this in my own class room!

THE INQUIRY WHEEL

After learning about the inquiry wheel and more details about my project I now perceive my project to be more productive and efficient in terms of following the inquiry wheel rather than in terms of the typical "scientific method" approach. I believe that trial and error is the best way to find out the best results. The way that I predict our project to go would be to start with the many questions that we already have about our project. We are going to be studying bioluminescent dinoflagellates and how they react differently in terms of toxins in their environment. We will need to observe others as well as talk with others to help complete our  extensive research to find out what the ideal conditions are for these organisms to live. We will need to know what container to use, the temperature, the lighting etc. These will be all of our questions asked while observing, communication with outer resources, forming more questions and investigating everything that we already know. This process will lead us to our hypothesis on weather or not we think that they chemicals of our choice will significantly effect the bioluminescent dinoflagellates. After we make our hypothesis we will then be ready to carry out our study. We will then examine and reflect on our findings. Based on our results we will either be led back to more questions and a new hypothesis or we will be ready to present our findings to others.
 I strongly believe that the inquiry wheel is going to be very beneficial to our project and I look forward to get started and put it into action.

DHMO

The whole meaning of this activity really surprised me on the results of it in the end as well as how much it truly taught me. This activity taught me that even though you are being told a valid amount of information on a specific topic you may just be being told what they presenter wants you to hear. I learned that first hand that I was not told enough about this topic when I found out that I voted to ban water from the students at NMU. This not only taught me how easily individuals including myself can be fooled by a surface amount of information but it also taught me a lesson that I need to look more into multiple sides of a situation before I take a vote or make a choice that could affect so many people. Although this was just an in class activity this could relate to real life situations such as the K-8 science standards that we have been discussing or even the presidential election.

I learned about myself personally that I may not have been careful enough and got into the routine of just trusting what anyone tells me. This activity will and has definitely changed my behavior and my thought precess for the future. In the future I am going to try to be more aware of  the entire situation and not just the surface information presented me to. A little research can go a long way!

I found a situation such as this picture or illusion to be a similar situation. At first glance you may say the elephant has four legs. Others may say that at first glance the elephant has eight legs. Although someone could easily tell you the amount of legs the elephant has you will never truly know until you  look into the sources of both parities. 

Mystery Container

I found the mystery container activity to be such great lesson and something a definitely see myself using in my future classroom. I feel that this activity is one that really gets the minds going and could educate so many different age groups. I learned that no matter how many questions you ask in science you can still never be 100% of your results. Within my group we had begun eliminating one object at a time based on the weights of them within the container as we weighed them to compare to the unknown object. We came to the conclusion that there was a magnet in our container and tested this hypothesis by letting the magnet hold up the paper clip from the outside of the container. Although we were sure there was a magnet in our container we faced the question if there was ONLY a magnet in the container. This question arose when we discovered that the two weights did not match up. In the end it was a simple scale error but this just came to show that even though your results presented them one time there is still a very good chance that the next time they may be different and you can never be 100% sure in science. 

This ties into the inquiry wheel because the process to find out what was in this container followed that process. We formed a hypothesis, tested it, proved it wrong and then began again and again. 

https://prezi.com/do6gzxyefeh9/the-inquiry-wheel/?auth_key=9ca52218e075b4c4def7a1fac83a5fabe24786c4

New Michigan K-12 Science Standards

I found the conference based on the discussion of the new Michigan K-12 science standards to be very interesting to me as well as loads and loads of new information for me to take in. Although I learned a lot while attending this conference as well as participating in the discussion within the class, being my first semester within the education major, I still find a slightly difficult to make up my mind and draw connections about these standards.

From what I obtained from the conference I really like the new ideas being presented for the future standards. I like the idea of having  a certain amount of science begin a requirement within the schools. One thing that I found not only very shocking but disappointing was that some schools only cover the topic of science for only 30 minutes and some don't even leave the book. Which leads to the next thing that I support. I support the fact that all science classes should be interactive and hands on. The should be interesting and fun and enjoyable to learn about to the children. I don't like to think that some children grow updating science because their teacher wasn't able to show them how cool and fun it really can be.

I feel that I need to further educate myself of the science standards before I would be able to make an educated and honest vote but from what I have obtained up to this point I am a strong supporter of the new Michigan K-12 Science Standards.

8th Grade Life Science Test

When I was told that my classmates and I were going to be taking a test based off of 8th grade life science I wasn't really sure what to think. As much as I love science I already knew that I was going to be a little rusty on the terms that I learned eight years prior to this test. All I could think was thankfully, this wasn't going to destroy my grade. Looking back now, I learned many things from taking this test. Not only was my memory refreshed on many terms and facts about science that was buried way down deep in the bottom of my brain but I also learned a lot about teachers in our discussion afterwards. As the class all gave their opinions based on the test they differed a lot based on how easy or hard they thought the test was depending on the methods of teaching that their teacher had when they were that young.

This is where I feel that I learned a lot about myself and it really made me think a lot about the kind of teacher that I want to be in the near future and the way that I want to run my classroom. Personally, I found the test to be rather difficult in some areas more than others. I learned that those that experienced science class at a young aged based off of reading and book work did not recall as much as the students that had a hands on science class where the children thought of it as "fun". 

Two things that I learned about myself was that I was not lucky enough to experience the hands on class and was more based on a book and it really helped me focus on the type of teacher that I want to be. 

One thing that surprised me was that so many students learned science in different ways. Also, I was surprised on my own personal knowledge. Although I found the test to be semi difficult I was surpassed at how many rusty topics I was able to recall after a a few minutes of thought. 

I enjoyed taking this exam and found that the test and the discussion following was very beneficial in many ways.