Blog 15!

E-coli is a prokaryote without a nuclear membrane.  E-Coli is a rod-shaped bacteria.  It is a bacteria that grows in warmer environments and also it is able to survive outside of a host.  Usually when someone hears the word E-coli, they automatically think of food poisoning and other negative connotations such as vomiting and other stomach pains if you are infected with it.  However, even though some forms of E-coli are dangerous, the majority of them are actually completely harmless.  E-coli is in your body all the time and does good things for it.  It lives in your intestines.  E-coli can help with digestion as well as release Vitamin B and Vitamin K.  They can also prevent other harmful bacteria such as pathogenic bacteria that would otherwise reside in the intestine, E-coli helps to prevent this.   E-coli are often used as model organisms in labs.  One reason is that E-coli can be grown very easily and inexpensively.  E-coli has a cell division rate of about once every thirty minutes, making it a easy type of cell to do different types of experiments on that wont be extremely long term.  E-coli can also be manipulated in labs to produce any DNA or RNA

Blog 14!

This experiment was very different than any experiment I had ever done in a science class.  I enjoyed how we created the entire experiment by ourselves in stead of just being given one step by step and just trying to find results.  I enjoyed the long term work as our group bonded and worked well together.  Although creating our own experiment was fun, it was challenging as well.  We had ideas but we were not sure exactly how we would make them work or if things would turn out the way we wanted too.  Another difficulty we had was trying to figure out how much water to use while watering the fast plants.  Because the fast plants direction book only showed how to set up the self watering system, we did not know how much water we should use each day while using our system.  This led to a few complications as our plants seemed to be receiving too much water in the beginning.   Personally to improve the work of the experiment I could have been slightly more specific in my measurements.  Our entire group as a whole was not too great at this part of our experiment and if we had measured more specifically we could have gotten more specific results for our growth of our plants.  I don't think there is anything about our experiment that you should be specifically aware of but I do think that this experiment was a learning experience as it was much different from experiments we have done in previous years and previous classes and I think we will have an easier time with the next experiment and we will be more aware as to what to do and how to keep our testing and measuring more precise.

Experiment Video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r79Qgem_l4Y&feature=youtu.be

Blog 11

Our working hypothesis for our experiment was that the plants that received the lighter rain would grow higher than those that were given the heavier rainfall.  Our prediction was that the plants that received the heavy rainfall would end up getting so soaked and flooded with water that they would not grow as tall and as well as the plants that were given the lighter rainfall.  The plants that received the lighter rainfall would grow taller because they would not be as flooded with water and not be pounded down by the pressure of the water as the plants that received would, allowing the plants receiving the lighter rain to grow taller than the ones that received the heavier rainfall.

blog 10!!

Figure 1: This graph represents how the pressure of rain affects the height growth of  plants. The plants with light rain have grown more (5 cm) than the plants that have been watered with heavy rain (4 cm). This is indicated because the error bars do not overlap.

Flowers!

Henry VIII and Lester have both flowered today!



Also note that our plants are not as tall as the other experiments. Maybe because we are growing them under stressful conditions?

updated schedule

SUNDAY: Caroline

MONDAY: Caroline

TUESDAY: Shivani/Kennedy....we will alternante everyweek

WEDNESDAY: Kennedy

THURSDAY: Sophie

FRIDAY: Sophie

SATURDAY: Shivani





AND WE PLANTED TODAY FINALLY

Blog 7 What we will measure

We have six pots that will hold plants that are watered fast and heavy and 6 that will be watered slow and steady.  We are going to see how they affect the way they grow. When our fast plants start growing, we are going to  measure the height of each plant in centimeters with a ruler. For each pace we will see what the most average heights and how they grow are for the group of plants.  Also we are going measure how many of flowers and leaves grow on the differently watered plants to see if the pace of water affects how the plants grow in all different ways not just their height!

SCHEDULE

Plants are to be watered at some point between 11am and 1pm everyday.  Here is who will water it each day!



SUNDAY: Caroline

MONDAY: Caroline

TUESDAY: Shivani

WEDNESDAY: Kennedy

THURSDAY: Sophie

FRIDAY: Sophie

SATURDAY: Shivani

Experiment Update!!

So far our group has set up most of our experimental table! We figured out a good way to create rain at different paces to water our plants.  The way we did this was with a metal needle and a flame, we heated the needle and poked holes into small buckets to create holes, one bucket with smaller, lesser amount of holes and one with slightly larger and a greater amount of holes. We cut coat hangers and hooked them onto the buckets to hang them onto the ring stands.  We then filled a bunch of pots with mulch and placed them under the grow light and on the other half of the table we placed the buckets and the ring stands, separating the watering section from the grow light.   Our group is not completely set up yet but we are almost there.  Our experiment is to try and figure out if the speed that the same amount of water is given to a plant changes the way it grows!

How are we going to make it rain?

Hey group!

Does anybody have an idea yet as to how to make it rain in the different ways that we want it to?

Fast Plants

Fast plants are a type of model organism.  They have a pretty short life cycle of 28-40 days making it good to use for research. They are a good model organism to use in biology research because of their short life cycle and they are easy to experiment on.  Some factors that relate to their growth are light, temperature, water, humidity, and nutrients.

What was discovered in the area around us?

This past week we went on another nature walk and found a variety of different organisms.  We dug up a certain spot in a dark area below a group of trees.  In the sample we dug up we found:
- eighteen dead oak leaves and one that was still somewhat alive and green.
- There was a large amount of moss amongst a very large amount of dirt with some roots mixed in with both of them.
- There were six small twigs and one small woody plant with small green leaves.
- There were two broken acorns and six dead pine needles. The only animal we found was one black ant, Tobias.
All of these things we found were evidence of what  area we were in, which was a deciduous forest.

Which Variable should we work on?

Hey group!
Did any of you think of a certain variable that we should specifically work on? How do you think we should test it?

Abiotic Factors and Possible Experiments

An abiotic factor is a non-living factor in the environment that affect the environment.  There are many examples of abiotic factors but, two examples of abiotic factors are the sun and precipitation.  The sun affects the growth of the different plants and many of the different aspects of the environment, too much can be bad but too little can be dangerous to the environment as well.  This factor could be experimented in an easy way, using three of the same plants.  Giving them each the same amount of water and space to grow, but giving one no sunlight, one a moderate amount of sunlight, and one that has too much sunlight and see how they are each affected.  The abiotic factor of precipitation is similar to the sun in the way of too much can be bad, as can too little.  A way of experimenting this factor is similar to the one with the sun as well.  Taking three of the same plants, exposing them all to the same amount of sunlight and space, but giving one plant too little water, one too much water, and one with just enough. Both of these experiments will show the importance of abiotic factors and how they affect our ecosystems.

Nature Walk

On the nature walk we walked through a temperate deciduous forest ecosystem.  This was visible by the amount of flowers and the types of trees in the area.  The trees are deciduous because the leaves fall off and change colors during the winter time and then return in the spring, and there are many different types of flowers that would not be able to grow in either extremely cold or hot weather.  The climate is not extremely hot, nor extremely cold.  There are many environmental factors important to the composition and activity of the ecosystem.  One of the factors is the precipitation in this area, the flowers and other plants need enough precipitation to grow and also the snow causes the deciduous trees to lose their leaves in the winter time.  Another factor is the solar power, the different parts of the ecosystem need the sun to survive and grow.