Farmer John

Recently my friend, Farmer John, called me. We were talking about his farm and he explained to me that his irrigation system for his farm was recently shutdown due to a problem with the freshwater source. Farmer John explained that he would not be able to use the stream water he had been relying on due to low water volumes from the dry summer. He said he could only take some water from the stream as other wildlife like salmon depended on it to swim to their spawning grounds. Farmer John said the state is only allowing him to capture a small amount of water. He's worried about the crops he's planted. However, I told him why not use some of the saltwater from the ocean nearby. I said, "You could mix it with the freshwater you're allowed to harvest and conserve your freshwater and grow your crops!" I told him we've been experimenting with different levels of salinity. We could study the problem and share our findings. I said, "We'll find the range of tolerance for the crops." He said, "That would be great!"

Well, you guys have heard the story. Now, we need to think about the experimental design. Let's review what we did yesterday.

First, what predictions do you have for the seeds in the different cups? Remember we have cups with 0, 1, 2 and 4 scoops of salt per 1000 ml of water for irrigation.

Yamilet: "I think that the one with zero will have more growth than the cups with 2 and 4 scoops of salt."

Elizabeth: "She took mine."

Chris: "The cup with zero scoops of salt will grow."

Haylee: "I think that 1 and 0 will grow, but 2 and 4 will not because there's too much salt."

Estefani: "The cups that have 2 and 4 they have too much salt. I don't know if some plants have salt."

The Mono Lake Story

Take some time to view the video. It reviews the story of Mono Lake and may help you to improve connections with the study we did with brine shrimp for Dr. Flint Jackson in aquatic environments with salt.

Brine Shrimp Investigation 1

Check out the brine shrimp in the video below.

What are your predictions for the last question?

Fama: "If you put 2-4 scoops of salt in the cup with zero scoops, the brine shrimp will hatch. If you put water in the cup with 6 scoops some might hatch."

Riley: "The cup with zero scoops, if you put 2 scoops of salt, it would be just as good as the other cup with 2 scoops. More would be hatching."

Khanetria: "The cups with 6 scoops, if you put more water in it, some of the salt will evaporate and more brine shrimp will hatch."

Estefanie: "If you make the changes in the video, the brine shrimp will hatch."

"Goodnight Elodea."

We found the other day that organisms, like goldfish, give off carbon dioxide. In an aquatic environment the carbon dioxide can mix with the water and result in carbonic acid. This is bad for the fish. We were unsure if plants gave off much carbon dioxide. We wondered if they react differently at night. Our tests were all done in a daytime environment. So, I placed some elodea in my closet for the weekend. If the plant gives off a lot of carbon dioxide it will change the blue water to yellow. What do you think will happen? Let me know what you think and leave a comment.

Haylee lets off some hot air.

Today we discovered that when carbon dioxide mixes with water it creates carbonic acid. Check out the video demo with our BTB indicator. The blue water will change to yellow as carbon dioxide reacts with it to create carbonic acid. We finally got to the bottom of why our fish were dying. After a few investigations we concluded that the fish were poisoning themselves. They create carbon dioxide as water is pumped through their gills. Yikes! Our aquariums needed a quick water change. Hopefully this helped. We'll see on Monday. Keep your fingers crossed.

Where did the acid in the tanks come from?

Today we got our first taste of the Scientific Process.

• Our class looked at using an indicator to get more information about something we're studying. In our case, we're studying aquatic environments. We used BTB to determine if acid was present in the aquariums we were observing.
• This forced us to think about the variables that may have caused the acid to occur. We considered the fish food, water source, algae, bacteria, fish waste, fish and plants.
• Then, I challenged you to consider which of these variables could have caused the acid. We narrowed it down to plants and fish. These could be called organisms.
• So, each group conducted a controlled experiment. Everything was the same, or controlled, except for the type of organism in the water. The organism was the manipulated, or changed, variable.

The results are indicated in the photo. Remember that when the BTB remains blue, there's no acid. When it begins to turn green-to-yellow there's more acid in the container.

Science Journal Entry

-Take some time in your journal to write the question down and to answer it in your journal. Don't forget to number and date the page.

Which organism created the most acid? How do you think this organism created the acid in the water?

What was the question that motivated us to conduct a controlled experiment?

Aquariums!!!

Science Reflection

Today was a great start to science! We covered lots of material in a short period of time. This trimester environments will be our general focus. To start, we will be observing 2 different aquatic environments. Right now each table group in our classroom is in charge of managing a fresh water aquarium. We will track factual information in an Aquarium Log at each table group. This includes feeding, measuring water temperature, checking the water level and watching fish behavior. It will be a big challenge for all students to keep our little goldfish healthy. There have already been some predictions that our tanks are going to get pretty dirty in a hurry.

We started work in our Science Journals by making observations. We discussed the difference between "fact and opinion." Below is an example that I created. I used a diagram to create more meaning for the parts of the environmental system. We learned that these are called environmental factors. Some examples we listed are the tank container, water, temperature of water, goldfish, etc...

Take some time now to watch the short video I took in class yesterday to respond in your Reflection Journal. Don't forget to update your Table of Contents, page # and date. This will give you time to remap your thinking and to make your connections stronger. ZZZZZ! Get the electricity flowing. Get smarter now!