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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Biomes of The World

I was sitting in class one day when my teacher told us we were going to be learning about biodiversity in the different biomes of the world and the creatures and plant life that inhabit them. The only thing is she put a twist on learning the unit. She said instead of her giving us a big lecture on the different biomes and the fauna and flora that inhabit them she told our class of about twenty to choose a biome and make a brochure on that biome.I ended up choosing a deciduous forest and I found it interesting that many of the biomes are classified by how many seasons they have. For example my biome had four seasons Summer,Winter,Fall, and Spring whereas other biomes such as the Tundra only have two seasons Summer and Winter. I also found out from my class mates presenting their own brochures that a rain forest has very poor soil but a deciduous forest has very rich soil I found that very perculiar because one would think that an area with so much life would have very good soil but because of all the rain the nutrients are washed away but in the deciduous forest the ground keeps most of its fertility. A couple other determining factors on the biomes are the temperature the climate and the elevation. I thought the way we learned this unit was very interesting and it probed our thinking and creative abilitys and introduced us to a new way of learning. So instead of learning about envirments that are long gone we could learn about enviornments that interest us.

Jeff H.

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Reflection on Friday’s Class Discussions

On Friday, D period class went outside to discuss the world’s biomes. I really liked going outside. It helped me visualize how our area would be different in different biomes. I liked the brochures idea, although as a result from School Loop dying and a power outage, many students did not have them in. That was a pity because I felt like we could have talked about biomes more/stayed outside longer. I noted the similarities and differences the alpine and tundra biomes had. They are both cold, have high winds, and had snow in the winter but less or not at all in the summer. The alpine was all over the globe, while the tundra was mostly in the Arctic Circle region. I really liked how the class was structured on Friday.

Jacques L.

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I simply enjoyed the serenity of this video, i hope some of you might as well

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Running in the Wild

Usually when I’m out on a run I’m thinking mostly about trying to maintain my pace, which road I need to turn down next, and any homework I have due.  Unfortunately for me, when this thinking process is taking place I somehow manage to forget to do other important things such as you know breathing, but I usually manage to keep it together pretty good.  I decided that the next time I went out for a run, I would completely clear my mind from all my thoughts, and just observe what is ‘nature’.

I noticed that while I was running there was this large bush, which I almost thought it out to be a small tree.  Of course it wasn’t until later that I found out it actually was a shrub.  It was called a ‘Quince shrub’.  The reason I noticed this particular shrub was mainly from all of the bright pink flowers it had blooming.  As I got closer and examined it more clearly, I heard loud buzzing noises so my initial reaction was to just keep running!  But as I backed away I also saw some hummingbirds at the top circling it.  It was very interesting and of course naturally the process taking place right before my eyes was ‘pollination’.

To see a small part of pollination occurring was definitely cool and it got me thinking about how each organism in nature relies on one another to survive.  For example, if the Quince shrub did not produce any flowers, then the birds and the bees would not be able to survive since they rely on the nectar.  However, if the birds and bees did not fetch for the nectar and pick up pollen at the same time to disperse it as they fly to different plants, the flowers in question would not exist.  Overall, pollination and the relying of organisms to one another is an ongoing process that will definitely continue for years and years to come.

Jake Getz

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A Walk on the Wild Side

On Tuesday morning our class took a walk around the nature filled fields of Pentucket. I was surprised at the amount of wildlife that was hidden in the pond, fields, streams, etc. One of the first things we observed was the fish in the pond. I had no idea there was anything living in the pond, but there were actually many fish, frogs, and even a turtle! The fish were hard to see because the water was murky, and the frogs were very elusive. The turtle was camouflaged by the surrounding mud. There were also many plants surrounding the pond such as cattails and skunk cabbage. The plants are considered producers and primary consumers such as the turtle eat them. Secondary consumers like an eagle would eat the turtle. Each organism provides energy for the animal that eats it. If one element of an ecosystem was removed, then the rest of the ecosystem wouldn’t be able to function. For example, if you removed the plants or producers from an environment, then the primary consumers would suffer causing the rest of the food chain to crumble. Organisms depend on each other for energy, for nutrients, for shelter, and in order to make an ecosystem complete. 

-Calleigh L.

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Pond Excursion

To Much Algae

    

Pentucket Pond

   

As I was walking around the pond yesterday I saw a frog leap in to the water. As the ripples from the frogs leap disturbed the surface of the water I saw a few fish. Seeing the fish was weird because previously I thought this algae infested body of water was able to sustain no life except the insects which floated on its surface along with the green and brown algae. Seeing this got me to wondering what if their was no algae on the surface? With that question on my mind I went off to find out what was the purpose of algae. I found that the purpose of algae was to oxygenate the pond. If the algae were for some reason to disappear I found that there would be no other plant to oxygenate the water which would cause the fish living in the water to die. I also thought what if the insects floating on the surface were to some reason disappear and I found that the fish would lose their food source and begin to die which would cause the algae to increase and over run the pond and then die. When algae dies it takes all of the oxygen with it which would kill the pond and make it uninhabitable. From my research I found that it is difficult to tell if something starts to die if it will die off completely or it is just being reduced to maintain homeostasis.    

                                                                                                                                Jeffrey H.    

      

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Attention to detail

  

Gifford Woods State Park, 34 Gifford Woods, Killington, Vt.

 

It’s not easy nowadays to find an open stretch of land untapped by humans in some fashion, even the rolling Appalachians of New England were once completely shaven for the lumber industry in early America. One thing you will find, however, is that nature has the fascinating ability to recover itself in the long run. Even if given bare rock and air you can find, that after thousands of years, the most complex and amazingly colorful ecosystems forming, and with every cycle, every life, every death,  the ecosystem evolves, changes, ever so slightly.  Most of this really hit me one time when I was hiking on a trail close to Rutland, Vermont going up a shallow-incline mountain [to which I can’t place a name]. My father and I were talking about how the forest used to be when he was young as me. He talked about how the trees that he had seen when he was my age seemed just a little smaller than they were that day we went up to Vermont. He talked about how in the 1800s almost the entire range of the Appalachian mountains, apart from a handful of old growth trees in secluded areas, was torn down for lumber. Looking around, I found it fascinating that after such a thing, so much nature, so many living things could survive out of such decimation. It shows plainly the strength of nature itself. Millions of years have adapted organisms to suit the sometimes hostile environment of the world, and the not-so-old trees I saw that ay demonstrated that perfectly. Each bird, carrying seeds from miles around, aids in the survival of the forest. Each little worm in the soil leaving in its wake healthy, usable soil. This correlation between the hundreds of different organisms in the universe is an almost flawless system, an extensive masterpiece, a work of art that has taken hundreds and millions of years to create, and is still not nearly finished. 

Presentation~
Deven McKee 

Video provided by~
mms://video.wr.usgs.gov/movies/the_southern_appalachians.wmv

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Along the Merrimack…

I went on a walk after school on Thursday, the 6^th of May outside my house in West Newbury. I live on the Merrimack River, so i that was a good place for me to find nature. Along the river, I saw a veriety of animals. It was just about 6:30 at night, so the water bugs were just starting to come out. The bugs were able to sit on top of the water and jump around. I saw 2 fish jump out of the water. they were frown and slimy looking and they were trying to eat the little water bugs on the surface. There were lot of plants along the river bank. Most of which were green grass sort of plants. Alot of the trees were hanging and elaning over the edge of the river. I thought it was funny how they would not grow up strait. I think it is because they like the water beter than the pavement on their other side. If these trees and grasses were not there, the world would look really different, and would not function. Plants produce oxygen, and without oxygen, humans cannot breathe. Therefore, without prodecers, the rest of the world cannot live. On the way back to my house, I saw 4 wild turkeys in my driveway. Three were females and one was a male, i think. The male was showing off his huge brown feathers to the females. I think that means that it is breeding time for the turkeys, and that he was trying to get girls. Overall, my walk along the Merrimack River was very interesting.

– Dori Sarkis

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