New Blog

My new site is at stegybones.com

Bromeliad

Bromeliads
Aaron Shepard

Outline:
A. Introduction
1. Why I like bromeliad
2. How bromeliads are important to ecosystem
B. What do bromeliads eat?

1. Microbes from air

2. Water from rain

C. Where do they live?

1. Warm, wet climates

2. Tropical climates

D. What do they look like?

1. Large flower or fruit in center when fully grown

2. Roots snaking out

a. Wiry grasping roots

b. Water and nutrient collecting

E. Reproduction

1. Bees

a. Pollinate flower using legs

2. Ants

a. Eat fruit and spread seeds around

3. Humans

a. put plant at 25º degree angle, let roots grow into soil

F. Uses

1. Food

2. Protection

3. Decoration

4. Meat tenderizer

5. Money

G. Conclusion
1. experience of bromeliads
2. Opinion on bromeliads
3. Try it!

Protozoa

Objectives: To make careful observations of protozoa moving and to practice using a microscope.

Predictions:

If I look through a microscope at some pond water I think I will see lit up green pond water with bits of green and gray speckling it. I also think the gray bits will be protozoans that will move in random directions.

Observations:

It took a long time to find some protozoa. Mom, Sarah, and I tried taking a sample of water from the pond in our backyard, but we couldn’t see any protozoa. The same thing happened with a sample of fish-tank water and also with a sample of rain water soaked in leaves. Finally, Dad, Sarah and I scoured the pond for a water sample that had protozoa in it. We finally found it by our cat tail reeds. Here is what they looked like:

The top protozoa is a Euglena because it has a tail and it swims. The second one is a Amoeba because it changes shape to move. The third one is a Paramecium because it is covered in small hairs that move when it moves.

Results:

Compared to my initial predictions, the water was a different color. Instead of lime green, the water was clear.

The first thing I noticed about the water sample was that there were fast moving black dots running across the view screen.

Compared to my predictions, I saw a lot more life than I expected. The most surprising thing I saw was protozoa that looked like it was splitting in two, but was not.

I found at least ten protozoa, but only about four kinds of them.

I found several different methods of moving that were common among the protozoa. Some of the protozoa changed shape to move, some were covered in little hairs, and some didn't seem to have any way of moving, but still zipped around like little bees.

My favorite protozoa was a see-through green color and seemed to be in the process of splitting in two. I liked that it spun in circles like a fan, and appeared to be eating a black string of plant.

Conclusion:

Protozoa are one celled organisms, but that does not stop them from moving in all directions. Protozoa swim, crawl, or change shape to move in what appears to be an intricate ballet.

My First Mystery Story

Chapter 1
A Mystery Car

Tim was in the middle of lunch, looking out the window at the landscape of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, when he heard the boom. He jumped up, and ran outside into the snow, just in time to see a red, cadillac-like flying car crashing through his living room where he was eating just seconds ago. Shocked, he collapsed to the snowy ground, unconscious.

About a week later, at the Center for Disease Control in Ohio, scientists had tracked a mysterious virus back to a recently destroyed cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The virus made all animals it infected go insane and act like they had rabies for several days, before they turned black and started drinking blood. Whenever they met others of their kind, they melded together into one, larger model of one of them. An example of this is a that a turtle and an octopus with the disease were kept together in a cage and they mixed together, creating a black turtle with tentacles. Nobody knew where the virus came from. Some people believed it came from the past, but this was quickly dismissed by skeptics.

A few months later, a scientist called the CDC. He said, “I’ve got one of those creatures in my basement... -(static deleted)- ...come look before I’m infected... -(static deleted)- ... Bye!”

The scientists took several samples of the creature’s virus, and looked at records of virus’s and announced, to the astonishment of everyone, that the virus was from about 75 million years ago. Now, to figure out how it got here...

Chapter 2
The Detective

A detective named David worked for the CDC, and because he worked part time, was considered expendable. Because of this, he was chosen to go investigate the cabin with minimal disease protection equipment. When he got there, he discovered human footprints leading away from the house and a circular swirling vortex of purple floating above a pine tree in front of the ruins. He discovered it completely by accident, while climbing a tree to get a good look at the house. David was nearly at the top of the tree when a clawed hand grabbed him and pulled him up to the top of the tree. The last thing, he saw before he descended into blackness was the swirling vortex rushing up to meet him.

Look at Book 2 (Or post 2) to see more of this adventure!

Telescopes

Objective: To make a simple telescope and explore how it makes far away objects larger.

Predictions:

The two lenses are round and see through.

There are eight tubes.

I think the tubes are used to build the telescope.

I think I will be able to see three times farther with the telescope.

Observations:

To start our observations, we went to the EMU’s campus and compared looking at things with our eyes and looking at them with the telescope we had made.

First up, a sign. As you can see, the telescope allowed me to see the sign much better.

Next, one of those plastic windmills impaled on the bank of the pond.

Third, a patch of flowers.

Next, a canadian goose.

Fifth, a reed.

To see the night sky, unpolluted, we went to the University of Michigan’s Peach Mountain Observatory. We made a few comparisons between looking at the sky with our eyes and looking at it with telescopes.

With my eyes, I could nearly make out a square of stars in the sky.

With our little telescope, I could see this.

With my eyes, I could see this. (Jupiter above the red line, trees below)

Looking through a commercial telescope, I could see this. (Jupiter's moons are circled in red)

With my eyes, I could see this. (cloud circled in red)

Looking through a 24 inch telescope, I saw this. (24 inches is the diameter of the telescope)

Results:

Building the little telescope was very easy. I think that the commercial and large telescope that we used were much harder to put together than our little one.

My telescope starts out fuzzy when viewing things and gets fuzzier as you zoom in on anything. The commercial telescope had no such problems and was very easy to use. The large telescope was very hard to line your eye up with the view port and if you moved, you would lose the picture.

I was able to discern more detail with the telescope than without them.

Using the telescopes, I saw that Jupiter had multiple moons and that what looked like a cloud was actually a group of stars.

Conclusion:

Three things changed from when I looked at the objects with my eyes and when I looked at the objects with a telescope: light, colors, and space. 

The telescopes all had something in common, they all resolved what the stars look like.

Circles of Corners

Here is another work from the (rather messy) Lego workshop. Today it is a ring made out of Lego corner wall pieces.

The ring, as you can see, has an interesting star shape in the center of it.

It is a very strong connection. In the process of making it, I dropped it several times on the floor, but it did not break. Try it!

Circles and 3.14159

Today I made a Lego circle, the fueled by one my mom's comments on Desi, our dog, while he was spinning in circles. 

Here are pictures of the segments used to make the circle. Both pictures feature slightly different models for a highly functional bendable circle segment. The first picture shows the upper facing segment, and the second shows the lower facing segment.

P.S. Today our dog was spinning in circles, so my mom said, "If I ever get another dog, I'll name him 'About 22/7'.".