Effects of Sand

Sand is always moving. The beaches you might visit everyday are not perminent features. The shape and size of beaches change everyday on a small scale and somtimes drastically over a longer period of time. The changes occur becasue of various reasons but its always because of the sand moving.

In our Oceanography class we looked at different sand samples from around the United States under microscopes and noticed the many differences. Some of the differences are visable to the naked eye and some require the use of a microscope. Here is the list of traits we observed:

• Color
• Magnetite
• Size
• Texture
• Wentworth Scale
• Sorting
• Composition

A few days after doing our observations we went on a field trip to our local beach. We looked at the sand closely but it did not look any different than the sand we were used to. Although the sand varys greatly around the world, it usually doesnt look very different when the beaches are close to each other. The drastic changes can only seen if one compares sand from different areas across the world. Here is a few examples of the diversity found in beach sand colors.

source:

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/beacherosion.html

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A Walk Through Nature

Yesterday, Sunday May 9th, I went on a walk around my yard.  I noticed many organisms.  First, I saw a bumblebee flying around.  It went up to a dandelion and pollinated it, then flew away.  The bumblebee was very large, probably half an inch large and wide.  Now that the bumblebee has pollinated the flower, the flower can now make its fruit. 

On my walk, I also saw a robin land on the grass.  It pecked the ground & pulled out a worm, then flew away, back to its nest I think.  I heard small birds chirping, so I’m guessing the bird was getting food for its babies.  A few other interesting things that I saw on my walk were pine and oak trees.  These trees were very green and were gr0wing large.  A few months ago, these trees did not have leaves on them. They are now in full-bloom. 

I also went to the river near my yard.  There, I observed a bass eating  a smaller fish.  This made me ask myself what the smaller fish ate, and so on.  Although I do not know what kind of fish it was, I’d like to find out eventually.  My nature walk made me observe many parts of nature that I would not have noticed otherwise.

  -Alyx

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One with Nature

 

On our walk around the pond, we observed many different types of plant, animals, and trees. We looked at our pond in front of our school.  The pond was mucky and dirty but with many frog in it. If the muck was removed from the pond it would look crystal clear but nothing would be able to live in it. We saw many frogs around the pond and if their entire habitat was removed they would not be able to strive. There *food chain might be altered if their environment is changed. We also observed many dandelions all over the fields. They were every where and we picked them and Calvin put them in his shirt. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EcvgZyQvLo 

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_chain

AlexanderM.

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Interaction Between Organisms

How do organisms affect one another’s survival?

Organisms can be separated into two main groups according to what they eat, autotrophs and heterotrophs.  An autotroph is a producer that makes its own food.  Heterotrophs are consumers and can be either carnivores (eat animals) or omnivores (eat both animals  & plants).

On the class trip outside I observed many things that support these facts about the food chain and ecology.  For example birds eating insects.  I also observed fish and their nests around the pond.  In addition, there were many different plants that help animals to survive by providing food for them,  the plants also help filter the water and provide oxygen.

An example of this in nature is that worms and other insects are eaten by birds and other animals to provide nutrients for the animal that eats them.  Also another example of this in nature is that plants provide energy for herbivores and omnivores.

If all of the plants died then so would all of the herbivores and the animals that feed on the  herbivores.  It would eventually lead to an entire disaster because all organisms would starve and die.

If one organism dies it does not have as much of an impact on the ecosystem than if an entire species because there would still bee food/energy to provide for all of the other organisms.

It is difficult to make accurate predictions about changes in communities of organisms.  This is because you never know if the organisms could make adaptations and still survive.  We would never really know until the situation actually happens.

Amanda C.

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Animal In the Wild

Today, I went to the backyard because it looked like a nice day.  When I got outside it was really windy and I could see the leaves being blown all around and I could see birds flying everywhere along with bees.  The bees were huge, not sure what exactly they were, and they kept flying around looking like they were about to fall down.  They kept going flower to flower which I think was probably them spreading nectar from flower to flower.  The bees get food from the nectar of the flowers.  I saw chipmunks running in the grass and even up trees. I’m guessing the chipmunks live in the trees as over the course of an hour I went outside again and continued to see random chipmunks running to and from the tree.  If there was no tree I’m pretty sure the random birds would swoop down and catch one of those critters.  It’s hard to tell because anything can happen in the wild.  For all I know, the chipmunks might eat the birds!  No one really knows what will happen but can only presume what will based on their prior knowledge.  There seems to be a swampy place behind the fence.  Not really a swamp but the land there seems wet.  I heard a random sound.  It sounded like something ran past the plants that look like the plants you see where lions live.  I checked out what it could be but when I got there it was gone.  On the lookout now for what animal is living in the swamp area.

Alex H.

           

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