Plankton Wars / Algae in the Cupboard

Plankton Wars!

 Above is Sabrina and I with our plankton. When we finished it ended up looking like a sattelite instead of plankton so we took a picture of it revolving around the earth.

 (The two pictures above were taken by Mrs. Richardson) 
In this picture above we had just finished our plankton and were very hopeful for a win! At the beginning we were worried it would be to heavy, but when we set it in the water we knew that that was the least of our problems. There was nothing we could do to get ours to even sink and stay under the water unless we held it down with our finger. We definitely should have added some washers to our satellite. Ha

 I lucked out and looked at my Dad's Slim-Fast and found out that it contained Carrageenan. I'm assuming this might help keep it creamy or something of that nature.

(The two pictures above were taken by my brother Drew)
Above is a picture of Ranch Dressing I found in my refrigerator. It contains alginates which is a type of algae. I think Mrs. Richardson made us find algae in things we use everyday to open our eyes up to the different uses algae has and how dependent we really are on it. It was fun looking for the algae, even if I could only find two; Alginate and Carrageenan.

( The picture above was taken by Christa Thomas)
 These Jimmy Dean Sausage Biscuits contain Beta-Carotene. I wasn't able to find anything at my house that contained this, but Christa was nice enough to lend me this picture.

Observation Site Five

Observation Site Five

It was a nice sunny day. The wind was blowing but didn't ruin how pretty it was outside. I looked down when we were about to head back to the school and I saw this light colored moss. It was lighter then the normal moss around the base of trees.

(Picture above taken by Sabrina)  This picture was taken right before I took the picture of the moss. This cute little guy was found under a tree that had fallen and started to rott. I think we should call him Fred. :)

(Picture above taken by Mrs. Richardson) At our first site we sat down by the pong and had five minutes of scilence. In this scilence the geese came out onto the pond and Mrs. Richardson got a great picture of them.

(Picture above taken by: Mrs. Richardson)This Chickadee Was sitting on a tree limb enjoying the beautiful day while we were walking around. Mrs. Richardson snapped a great shot of him/her. I think he should be called George or Gorgena :)

Observation Site Four

  Site One

  When we finally got down to the pond, I was very excited about what we were going to get to do. It was gorgeous outside. I could hear a train, the wind blowing and birds above. Feeling the breeze and the sun on my face was very refreshing. seeing Autumn Wood crushing pine cones and Katelynn falling made the trip even better. The picture above was taken right off the edge of the pond. This phytoplankton looks like a large plant under the water. 

Site Two

This picture is supposed to be in the center but this annoying blog isn't working correctly. I could hear the kids talking and wind when we got here. The wind and sun rays on my face felt amazing. The picture above is right off the shore line. There is some nice Algae   on the leaves and stick in the pond. it's definitely phytoplankton. specifically Cyanobacteria.

 Site Three

This site I found a lot of great things. I could feel the sun shining and the wind blowing. listening to the water running from the pond into the creek and a plane overhead. Above i found more algae in the creek. it was attached to the bottom I believe. This is another example of phytoplankton, specifically Cyanobacteria once again.

 
 Sadly as you can see there is pollution in our creek. Most likely the runoff from the football field or the bus garage gets into the pond then when the pond feeds out to the creek it gets caught on branches and this is what it causes. Pretty gross looking, i couldn't imagine being an animal having to drink that.

 Later down the creek there was a little puddle to the side. I noticed small brown/yellow colored Algae on the leaves in this little puddle. It looked to be slippery if touched.

Observation of Plankton

Phytoplankton Observation

 The star-like shapes are actually the tombs of the once living macro Zooplankton. When seen with the naked eye it's a beautiful white sand on Star Beach in Japan. It's slightly gross to think such a pretty view is actually like a big grave yard fro macro Zooplankton. None the less, it is another contribution from the Zooplankton.

This Micro Zooplankton is most likely a Holoplankton. Tyler was VERY excited when he found this worm. You can easily see it's head, butt and also what's inside him as well.  As a Zooplankton this worm would go out and hunt for his food or lure it to him/her. 

Above is a picture of Cyanobacteria (a.k.a Blue-Green Algae) which is Phytoplankton. This is aquatic and photosynthetic.This is microscopic and usually can be found in a cluster or colonies. It is very nice to see in color, So check it out sometime!

This is another picture of Phytoplankton. This is a single-celled Diatom. It's yellow-green with a transparent silica that looks like it surrounded by glass. These are Nanoscopic but can be seen through a microscope.

(All Pictures above were taken by Mrs. Richardson)

Observation Site Three

Site One

           When we first got down to the creek I thought there wasn't going to be much to see, But then as I looked closer I realized there was a lot more to it then a creek. It was freezing and hearing running water didn't help the already red cold hands of mine. Then I saw in the weeds where it looked like deer had been bedding down.

                                              

 After I took the picture of the deer bedding's I looked up and noticed a squirrel nest!  It was highhh up in a tree. It actually looked pretty cozy compared to the cold I was feeling.

Site Two

 After we walked from site one we finally got to the pond. It was still freezing, but now since we weren't in the cover of trees I got to feel the wind too. I could hear the wind and birds crowing in the distance. When I looked down I saw something that I had just seen before, but this time it was a lot smaller. I realized That this must be geese bedding's. Soon as i realized this geese flew right into the pond. I would show you a picture of the geese, but this blog is not letting me insert any more pictures. Sorry for the malfunction of the site.

Site Three

 It was still cold when we got down farther beside the pond. I was trying to listen to what was going on around me but Kim kept talking. Hah :) So that's what I heard. I didn't see much to being with then I noticed where a beaver had gnawed On this tree to cut it down. I wish I could have found where the beavers were.

 Right before we left I noticed a little Goose feather stuck on a peices of pond grass. It must have fell off when the goose was getting in or out the pond :)

Site Four

The last site was after a long walk back up to school. I could hear a lot of vehicles and kids running their mouths. I finally noticed this rotten hole in a tree and realized there was a litttlee bug in one of the little holes it looked like he dug out. It still felt pretty cold outside, the sun made it a little warmer.