Monday, January 16th - Volume 3 - Ecosystems

What are we working on?



This month, students have been using a variety of strategies to investigate the ecosystems of our world and how energy is transferred through all living things!

The 2nd marking period is almost over!  In terms of grading, all station work submitted on or before Wednesday, January 18th will be counted for the 2nd marking period.  Any work submitted after Wednesday may be counted for the 3rd marking period.  

At the end of this newsletter, please take a look at some information on our current classroom guest, and the student who brought it in!

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What's coming up?

1. Current Events (2) for the 2nd marking period will be due this Friday, January 20th.  If your child is having any trouble with these, please refer to the 'Current Event Rubric' instruction doc posted in Google Classroom.  Current events may NOT be turned in late as students are given the maximum amount of time to get them done by the end of the marking period!

2. All stations (6) and check-ins (3) will be due on Wednesday, January 25th.  Please make sure your child completes work at home as needed to ensure this deadline is met!

3. Beginning Monday, January 23rd, Officer Marcus Lisa will be coming in each Monday to work through the 'Too Good' program with the students.  The Too Good program teaches 5th graders about character building, decision making, and other useful soft skills that will benefit them throughout middle school and throughout life!  (The Too Good program was formerly the DARE program)  

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What do our stations consist of in this unit?

Students have been working their way through six ecosystem-based stations to investigate all different aspects of ecosystems and energy transfer, according to the Next Generation Science Standards.  All of these stations utilized information that we learned in class and recorded in our Golden Packet.  These stations were:

Molly shows off her food chain at Station 3

1. 'The Journey of the Energy' - Students were asked to come up with and write a story dealing with something they've eaten in the recent past.  Students were asked to trace the "journey" taken by the energy to get from the sun, work its way through a food chain, and make it all the way to their dinner plates!  Some students got quite creative and even extended the food chain past themselves...  Station 1 was graded on this rubric.

2. 'Photosynthesis in Elodea' Lab - Students used straws to add Carbon Dioxide to water, and chemical called BTB that changes color along with the CO2.  We then placed an aquatic plant in that water and allowed it to sit overnight.  The next day, students observed how the color of the BTB had changed, indicating that there was no longer Carbon Dioxide in the water.  Photosynthesis is real!

3. 'Create a Food Chain' - At this station, students were asked to research and create a food chain consisting of any combination of producers, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, decomposers, and scavengers.  They created their individual food chains on colored index cards, then hung the chains around the room to create a grade wide food web!  All of the energy in that web starts with just one sun!

4. 'Invasive Species Presentation' - Students chose one invasive species from a provided list and gathered research on it, including items such as: where it came from, where it invaded, how it hurts its new ecosystem, and how it might be stopped.  At the end of the unit, students will present their findings either on Google Slides or using the website Prezi.com.

Ryan, Jhett, and Jake try to transfer their water energy as
efficiently as they can at Station 5

5. 'Trophic Level Investigation' - Students learned how energy is transferred among trophic levels by passing water through a series of cups with holes in the bottom.  As energy moves through a food chain, much of it is lost back into the ecosystem to provide more energy to more organisms!

6. 'Using Multiple Sources' - One of the skills we're working on this year is synthesizing information from multiple sources, like videos, images, and nonfiction texts, to answer a single question.  At station 6, we continued to build this skill by answering the question 'Would living things be able to survive without the sun?' using both an article on photosynthesis and a chart demonstrating the transfer of energy through a food chain.  Station 6 was graded on this rubric.

That's enough from Mr. Morris - some students have volunteered to share with you what we've been up to!

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Station 1 Reviews:

Erin LOVES using writing strategies and Language Arts skills in Science class!...

...Most of the time

Ryan K:

My favorite station was station one. We wrote a paragraph about how one food was passed to us in a food chain. So I enjoyed the writing bit because I really enjoy writing paragraphs and this one was so interesting. I learned how the energy was passed in an ecosystem and how it works! That is why I really enjoyed this station.

Andrew Bi.:
The station I liked best was station 1. I chose station 1 because I got the extra credit work by including all of the vocab words and I aced it!  I enjoyed making your own story of a food chain and how energy passes through organisms.  I learned that energy gets used everything it goes through and passes through.

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Station 2 Reviews:

Nhi, Nina, and Josh put the BTB chemical into a flask of water, so they
can determine how much carbon dioxide is in the water!

Holly demonstrates how the water in the test tube with the plant turns blue.  This shows that there is no longer carbon dioxide in there!

Ali:

Kayla and Ali carefully pour the water full of
carbon dioxide into a test tube with the elodea plant!

I very much enjoyed station #2. It was very fun doing the experiment, but there was one part that I thought was a little dangerous, which was blowing carbon dioxide on our mixture of BTB and Water. Besides that, I think that the station was very fun!   I liked having to make a scientific question and hypothesis on what we thought was going happen.  I think that we should more experiments like this one, where it has to sit and changes a property over night.

Luca A:

In station 2 we did a lab about photosynthesis with a plant called Elodea and put it in a vial with a liquid called bromothymol blue which changes colors if it was carbon dioxide inside it.We put a vial  with just bromothymol blue and a vial with bromothymol blue and a plant and left it overnight.We saw the results we next day and the plant took all the carbon dioxide.I was really cool because I got to use a new liquid that I never heard of.Things I learned were a new liquid,more about photosynthesis..

Sofia:
My favorite station so far was “Photosynthesis in Elodea Lab” because it was fun to learn about how a plant goes through photosynthesis and how it takes in carbon dioxide. In this station we used a chemical that turns yellow when carbon dioxide enters. We started off by pouring it into a beaker while it was blue. Then, we used straws to blow in carbon dioxide. After we blew in carbon dioxide and the liquid was yellow, we poured it into a two test tubes. Soon after that, we took the elodea, and put it into the liquid and left the second tube empty so that we had a control and a variable. We left it on the window cill overnight so we could see what happened in the morning. The next day when we came back, only the tube with the elodea in it turned back to blue, because the plant took in the carbon dioxide. That means it went through Photosynthesis.

Claire:
My favorite station that we did, was the Elodea Lab. I liked this station because it was hands on, and I got to do a lot of jobs. At this station we mixed a chemical called, BTB. We mixed this chemical with water, and put an underwater plant called an Elodea in it. We took straws and blew carbon-dioxide into a beaker with the solution. The solution turned from blue to green from the carbon-dioxide. We used a control and variable to compare and contrast results. I learned about the chemical BTB, and about how it reacts to different things. I really enjoyed this station, and want to do one like it again.       

Luca adds carbon dioxide to his
group's water.  By blowing into it,
we made the BTB change from
blue to green!  I wonder what will
happen when a plant
absorbs all that CO2?

Jack and Nick prepare to add carbon dioxide to our water and BTB solution.

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Station 3 Reviews:

To the left, 
Ryleigh and Grace 
work together to 
construct a food 
chain, while ...

  ...To the right, 

Abby puts her 

food chain 

up on the wall, 

adding to our 

grade wide 

food web!

It's gotten pretty big!

Dylan:

Jordyn enlists her locker for help when stringing together her food chain!

My favorite station so far was the food chain station, station 3. I enjoyed drawing the pictures on the cards. I also enjoyed putting the cards on the string. I learned that a food chain could be made up of 16 animals / plants. I also learned that a food web could go on forever when it is made up of so many food chains.  

Bethany:

 My favorite station was station 3, it is called creative food chain. In this station I made my own food chain . I enjoyed being able to use my imagination and creativity I also enjoyed being able to draw the animals on the cards. I learned how food chains work and how to make a food chain this station was not the easiest but in my opinion it was the most fun . This is why station 3 was my favorite station.

Scientists at work

This crew works together to come up with some creative food chains

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Station 4 Reviews:

Dylan, Meghan, and AJ gather research!

Timmy shows off his Prezi

Nate:
At station 4 we had to research an invasive species and make a prezi on them. I chose the Asian Longhorned Beetle. I enjoyed making a prezi during this assignment. I extremely enjoy getting to make a prezi for the first time. I learned about what an invasive species was. I also learned what they do and how they affect our environment.

Nate's Prezi on the Asian Longhorned Beetle

Sarah:
My favorite station I have completed so far is station four. At station four, we had to research an invasive species and complete a presentation. The invasive species I researched was the European Starling. I enjoyed researching about the problems the Starling was causing. It was also fun to learn about how the Starling came to North America. I learned about all the diseases the European Starling can carry, and why they are bad.


Ella:

My favorite station is the research station.  At this station I research about invasive species and made a prezi.  What I enjoyed about this station is learning things about the sea walnut that was my invasive species.  I learn that they live in the black sea, they look like jellyfish etc.  I also enjoyed making my own prezi. 

Ella and Bethany's Prezi on the Sea Walnut

Lexie:
At station 4, I did Rabbits,I learned what they eat, what kind of enviroment they live in and also what in or where do they sleep and/or hibernate. And i learned that Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world.  I enjoyed that i got to learn about these beautiful species.

Lexie's Prezi on Rabbits

Please check out just a small sample of some other amazing research presentations on invasive species created by the 5th graders below!

European Starling by Hannah P.

                                                                       The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug by Lily P.

Africanized Bee by Tim VK.

                                                                                 Lionfish by Ryan D.

Lionfish by Ryan K.

                                                                     

 European Starling by Olivia S.

Snakehead Fish by Ryan L. and Jhett L.

                                                                   Asian Carp by Nicholas O.

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Station 5 Reviews:

Gavin, Matt, Akshat, and Tim measure out 250 mL of water.  Their goal was to simulate passing energy through an ecosystem by passing water through cups and then measuring how much was left at the end.  The only catch?  The cups have holes in the bottom!  This shows how some energy is lost at each trophic level in an ecosystem.

Addie:

I think I really enjoyed station 5: Trophic Level Investigation. We started to do an experiment about transferring  energy to one place to another. But since, we didn’t have energy we used water as our energy and cups as our organisms to pass the energy through. We had to transfer 250 mL of water into another graduated cylinder. But, the cups couldn’t touch, and cup 5 couldn’t touch the top of the graduated cylinder. Also, we had to put the cups in order to be able to transfer the water.  I learned  that energy is like when you try to transfer water. Sometimes you lose energy, but that energy is picked up by decomposers.

Ryan, Ryleigh, and Grace transferring water

KiKi:

My favorite station would probably have to be the water food chain one, or station 5. Our group had to have five cups, with each one numbered. Next, we had to fill up a tall narrow beaker with 250 ml of water. Then, (this was my mistake, I poured the water all over the cups instead of just one…) we had to poke holes in the cups that we numbered. After that, we had to pour the water from the beaker into cup 1, which we then poured into cup 2, and so on, until we got the water to go back into the beaker and see how much we lost.

         I enjoyed the part when I accidentally spilled almost all of the water onto the table, and then when we had cleaned almost all of it up, JACOB spilled the rest of the water back on the table when he “accidentally” tripped over his shoe lace. Some of the water also spilled onto Jake’s binder, which may be kind of sorta ruined it…

         I learned about the food chain and how it works. When an animal kills an animal for prey, that lowers the population of that animal, like when we started out with 250 ml of water, and ended out with a lower amount. That’s an example of the food chain.

	Starting Volume	Ending Volume	Transfer Efficiency What percentage of water made it from the beginning to the end?
Day 1 (5 cups)	250 mL	100 ml.	40%
Day 2 (4 cups)	250 mL	186 mL	72%

Eva:

For our Ecosystems unit in science, we did stations. My favorite station was station 5. At this station, we tried to get as much water as possible from one cylinder to the other using cups with holes in them. The thing I enjoyed most about this station was finding out how much water we got through the cups because I liked seeing how successful we were. I learned at station 5 that not all the energy that an ecosystem starts out with makes it to the end.

	Starting Volume	Ending Volume	Transfer Efficiency What percentage of water made it from the beginning to the end?
Day 1 (5 cups)	250 mL	150	60%
Day 2 (4 cups)	250 mL	165	66%

Hunter:

The station I am doing is station 5. We transferred water from cup to cup. The cups had holes in them. So at the end we had to see how much energy survived. I enjoyed working with my friends. I learned how the energy transfers in a food chain. I also learned that not all of the energy goes through a food chain.

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Station 6 Reviews:

Stephanie, Rachel, Raya, and Bella work on their written responses

Keith:

At station 6, We had to write about if living things would survive without the sun. I had to use R.A.C.E. and write one paragraph about it.

It was crazy seeing if the sun went away the living things would die out just because of the sun. That is really cool.

I learned if the sun went away everything would die, and if one step is gone, everything after that will die.

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Musk Turtle Lab

Throughout a 2 week period, Michael S. was kind enough to bring in his Musk Turtle for the students to observe in class.  'Musky' has a tank in the back of the room and has made himself at home.

Not only did Michael bring the turtle in, he single-handedly prepared a slideshow, information packet, and other materials for the students to learn as much as possible about the Musk Turtle Species.  Here are some pictures of Michael leading the Lab!

Thanks, Michael!

Thanks for taking a look at our classroom newsletter, Volume 3!