Otters

Otters are otterly amazing animals. I chose Otters for my post because they are super fascinating. I always thought that otters were always in water, but actually they spend more time on land, being in water is just a stereotype. Otters live in freshwater habitats, such as lakes, rivers, and ponds. But there are sea otters too, living off the coast of the Northern Pacific, in shallow waters. Otters are carnivores, their main food source being fish. Otters were around over 4 million years ago. If you had to guess who was related to otters, you may guess the beaver because they both swim, and you would be wrong. They are actually related to badgers, ferrets, and minks. Otter’s tales are surprisingly long, about one third of their body length. Otters tend to live to around ten years old, but much longer in captivity. Otters are very skilled creatures. One of the cool things they make are their own dens just like beavers, also they have special vision that makes them able to see very small food sources that other organisms may not be able to see because they have very tiny eyes. You may not think this, but it is true. Otters are super fantastic, and I loved studying them! By now you should all love otters! To find out more info, go to Otter-world.com. To see an adorable video of a orphaned sea otter pup go to https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NWxYDKXJV2c. (by Violet)

Turtles Have Built in Compasses

Would you believe me if I told you that turtles have built in compasses? Well they do. It leads them to their place of birth. They also reproduce at their home beach. Turtles rely on Earth's magnetic field. Scientists believe that turtles track their home turf’s magnets. Each hatchling registers their home’s unique magnetic coordinate. When they leave, they follow ocean currents to different regions. When they are ready to reproduce, they automatically go home and lay their eggs there. This is called geomagnetic imprinting, which means absorbing the magnetic fields shortly after their birth. I think this relates to our science class because we were studying water animals and this is a cool fact about an ocean reptile. I found all of this here. Check out the turtle video at this website! (By Sofia)

Project for Pond Ecology Unit

Recently in my science class, we have started doing projects for our Pond Ecology unit. We have been learning about pond ecology since the beginning of the school year. The projects include information for three organisms we have been learning about in our previous classes. The three organisms are Daphnia, Hydra and Planaria. Our class got the choice of telling story in iMovie or some other resource, or make a Venn diagram to compare all three organisms. If you chose to tell a story, you had to choose between one of the three organisms, and tell a story about them. You can make the story up, but the facts need to be true. If you chose to do a Venn diagram, you have 3 circles instead of 2. Each organism has it’s own circle. In the organisms circle, you only write about facts about the organism only. If you bump into a cross over section, you write facts about what the two organisms have in common. There is one section where you have to write facts about all three organisms and what they have in common. You will also create your Venn diagram in Thinglink to make your project interactive. Here is my Thinglink.

I chose the Venn diagram because I thought it would be cool to not just only write facts down about the three organisms that we have learned about, but to learn more about them than I did before the project started. My favorite part of the process is actually making the Venn diagram on Thinglink because it is nice the way the app lets you layout your projects, or presentations or anything you are doing freely. Here is my Thinglink that I made on the three organisms my class has been studying about. (by Cece)

All About the Hydra

We learned about the Hydra in science class. Hydra is carnivore. The Hydra has stinging cells called nematocysts. The hydra can't see or hear, the only way it can catch its prey is if the prey bumps into it. Then it will grab its prey quickly and paralyze it using its stinging cells. When it becomes paralyzed the hydra uses its tentacles  to push the prey into its mouth. A food chain involving the hydra is Algae~Daphnia~Hydra. The hydra eats  Daphnia and other cyclops. The hydra is a relative to the jelly fish species. The hydra lives in ponds and sticks on objects underwater. That's the facts I know to the hydra! (by Sakaria)

Here is a video I made while looking at a hydra through a microscope.

Water Bears

Did you know that there is an organism that can survive in most environments? It’s called the water bear. The scientific name is Tardigrade and it means slow walker in Latin. They can survive the coldest antarctic ice, hot springs, deep sea trenches, Himalayan mountain tops and much much more.  Water bears are translucent with a hint of taupe-ish brown color.  They are 1/16th of an inch long, have eight legs with claws, and a snout.  Scientists have proven that water bears can go to space and come back unharmed and reproduce as well in space. Water bears can slow down their metabolism, lose most of their water and curl up into a state called “tun”, when they are dry or salty. Tuns can handle 600 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth. Also tuns can be frozen for more than a year, at 300 degrees below zero.  If you add water to a tun it can turn back into a Tardigrade. Tuns have been brought back to life after a century and still look the same as it did before. Water bears are super cool and there is so much to learn about. (By Lolie)

I got my information from this article. Be sure to check it out!