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We began our study by examining the habitat of our new pet. Rex is a Black Moor with dual tails and bubble-eyes. Our observations of Rex in his bag told us that we needed to provide him with more oxygen. We discussed what every animal (and person) need to survive (e.g.; air, water, food, shelter, space) and students suggested we add more plants, pump in more air, watch the temperature and other suggestions. We used live data taken every 10 minutes to monitor his water temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen. Rex used most of his oxygen in the first few days as our learning log revealed that Rex's oxygen lowered from 8.5 mg/L to 5.2 mg/L. Students became concerned so we added a bubbler which raised it to 9 mg/L and then added plants a week later. Rex is doing fine (even receiving phone calls from his friend Ralph). We will compare his habitat to other animals in future weeks.
Some of the most interesting questions that have arisen from students include:
"Can Rex hear us?"
"Is if happiness that Rex shows when we feed him or is he feeling something else?"
"Do his big bulgy eyes help him to see better? He doesn't seem to see me when I sprinkle food above him."
"What color is Rex when I turn off the light? The Snapple bottle top said he's white in no light."
"Which temperature changes the most? Rex's water or our classroom temperature?"
"How is Rex's habitat different from other animals?"
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Monitoring Rex's Habitat
DAILY ACTIVITIES
Monitor Rex's...
-Water tempterature
-Outside air temperature
-Dissolved oxygen
-pH
Document observations of Rex's behavior as we care for his feeding and cleaning
A jpeg of the data we have collected over the course of a given week is available at the link below.<BR>
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WEEKLY ACTIVITIES
-Construct a food web of the pond ecosystem
-Complete monthly project report (individual choice)
-Document the different animals at each tropic layer in a pond
-Draw a connected cycle of predator and prey from the pond
-Draw a life cycle of an insect living in the pond (or the mealworm in the class)
SCIENCE FRIDAYS:
Compare and contrast the ecosystems of four different local areas. Note the plants and animals in each
-A dead log
-A core sample of dirt taken 0-18 inches down
-Pond water under a microscope
-A bio square outside the classroom
-The Mealworms' habitat
The survival game written response to how the ecosystem is threatened by the removal of one species
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One of the most interesting activities to date was trying to answer Christopher's question, "What color is Rex in the dark?" It seems he found a Snapple top which he believed said Rex would be white. We studied light coming from the overhead, light making rainbows in our class, how color is made from absorbing selected light from sunlight and how light colors combine. We shined a variety of colors on rex - pure red light, green light, blue, violet, yellow and all of them showed Rex as black. We concluded Rex absorbs all light. When we shined red and green light on him at the same time, we made predictions as well. The best part was the yellow ceiling above us with different green and red shadows produced from blocking one light source.
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