Classification Challenge

 This is a Sea Turtle.

 Sea turtles are reptiles. They have lungs and breathe air and they are cold-blooded. They eat sea grass, jellyfish and small fishes. Sea turtles have large sturdy shell and they live in almost every ocean basin throughout the world. They nest on tropical and subtropical beaches. They migrate long distance to feed. Sea turtles have been on earth for more than 100 million years. The life cycle of a sea turtle starts when a female lays its eggs on a nesting beach, usually in the tropics. The baby sea turtles emerge from the eggs and scramble towards the water. They never get to interact with their parents.  It is hard to differentiate between male and female sea turtles due to the similarities in size. The way you can identify them is that males have a long tail as this is where the reproductive organs are located.


Kingdom- Animalia (means it's an animal)
Phlyum- Chordata (means it has a backbone)
Class- Reptilia (reptiles)
Order- Testudines
Family-  Cheloniidae

Genus-  Chelonia
Species-  mydas

Cricket Investigation

Question: Do crickets prefer fruit or vegetables?
Hypothesis: If I give a cricket a choice of fruit or vegetables, then I think it will prefer fruit because when we observed them in class there was apple in the glass container. 

Background Research:

" Chopped apples and celery"

Crickets are some what related to grasshoppers. Crickets need a good diet otherwise they tend to feed on each other. They need a good supply of water. They are omnivores and scavengers feeding on organic materials. They live under rocks and logs in meadows, postures and along roadsides. Their predators are spiders, some wasps ground beetles, birds, small rodents and lizards. They are brown to black and the females are larger than males. There front wing varying in length, covering half to entire abdomen. A cricket antennae is about as long as distance from head to end of abdomen. There wings held flat over their body. They communicate with others mainly by sound, scent and touch. Hind wings folded and hidden under leathery front wings. To attract females, males produce a sound made by rubbing their fore wings against each other. The resulting chirping sound is picked up by the female's ears on her front legs. The chirp sounds are different for each species so that individuals can find their own species.

Explanation of Data:
 First I got a tank with chopped apples on one side and chopped celery on the other. Then I used my phone for a stopwatch and timed the crickets for 2mins. I did four trials and every 30secs I recorded their behavior. For two trials I kept the lid on and for the last two trials I took the lid off to see if that would change their behavior. 

 

My data table.

 Conclusion:

 For my cricket investigation I did four trials of 2mins each. The crickets stayed on the side with the chopped apples the most. I predicted that the crickets will prefer fruits. According to my data my hypothesis was correct. I learned that the crickets gets jumpy and active when the lid is open.

This week in science #6.

This week in science we did Cricket Investigation Day 1. We researched 10 or more things about what they need to survive. Then we wrote a testable question according to the information we collected. Then it was Data Day: Crickets. We were placed in groups. Each group were given four different type of methods that we had to use while we observed the crickets behavior. Finally, we had a mission challenge "Dichotomous Keys." Six of us had to take one side of our shoes off, I was one of them, so david can demonstrate what the dichotomous key was. Then we had to create our own dichotomous keys using six different flavors of jelly beans. There was two different type, one " Flowchart Style" and "List Style." 

"Different Flavors of Jelly Beans" We used a chart like this to name the flavors while doing the Dichotomous Keys.

This week in science I learned a couple of things. I learned facts about crickets. I never observed crickets before, so everything about them was new to me. Then I learned the two different types of Dichotomous Keys. The flowchart was the easiest and the list style was a little more challenging. 

" Flowchart Style" 

" List Style" 

This week in science #5

         This week in science wasn't so much of work.  We signed into Google, clicked on documents and wrote our conclusion for the mission rocket challenge. The next day, it was a wrap up day. We either had to finish our milestone for quarter 1 or/and finish your mission rocket conclusion. Since I finished both, Maria, Melenie and I started the Super Rocket. We had to study all the rockets that the other cohort built including my cohort. Then we had to take notes about what helps a rocket go the farthest. We gathered the information and started building the super rocket! Last, we went on youtube and watched weird animal behaviors for the warm up. Then we had to observed real life crickets.

  This week in science I learned that crickets aren't always chirping. I also learned that they don't eat other dead crickets which makes them a cannibals. I learned that they eat apples, they smell bad, have three tails. I also got to see how they mate. I didn't know anything about crickets, so everything was kind of now. I saw them before, but never took the time to observe them and see what they eat or how they really look. :)