Organelle Trail Project Blog 9/24/15

Summary: This week we continued our cell unit. The organelles that live in both plants and animals are the vacuole, the nucleus, the mitochondria and the cytoplasm. The ones who only live in plant cells are the chloroplast and the cell wall. The vacuole stores food, water, sugar and  waste. It looks like a bubble. Plants have one big vacuole, and animals have a bunch of little ones. The cytoplasm it a jelly-like substance that suspends all the other organelles in place. The cell wall holds up the plant. The chloroplast turns light into energy.The nucleus is the brain of the cell. The mitochondria provides energy for the cell. The cell membrane lets things go inside and out of the cell.



Backward looking: How much did you know before the project?  I didn't know very much about cells at all. My old school was not very big on science education. We started talking about plant cells, but that was once a week and we were in 4th grade. We didn't do very much. All we did is read the definitions of the organelle. Then, we made a cell out of candy, yogurt and fruit. That was fun, but I like this better.



Inward looking: What did you like about the project? What was satisfying? The physical description was very satisfying. The picture was very realistic.I feel very proud of the work that my team accomplished. I had a lot of help that was badly needed. On the day it was due, we were very productive.

Outward looking: What grade would you give it? why? I would give my project a B+ because our poster does not even look like a wanted poster. We forgot it was supposed to even be a wanted poster so we made it as though it was informative. The pictures and crime are really corny. And I wrote Academics instead of Accomplices!The picture under that is weird.


Forward looking: One thing I want to improve for next time is.....
I want to make it look more like a wanted poster. And even though you can't tell, we were arguing a lot. Tuesday was our only productive day. We were spending all our time fussing over a worthless google doc. This is what I want to improve on. 

Cells 9/18/15

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2305/2202231656_a195d05883_b.jpg

This week we were beginning our study of cells. We were discussing, 

• what are cells?
• Were can we find them?
• plant .vs. animal?
• how many cells does a human have?
• we watched a video

and many more questions were asked. Now we are making a cell wanted poster which includes:

• what does the organelle do?
• where is it?
• plant, animal or both?
• what does it look like? 
• what other organelles does it work with?

and so on. Sasha, Ellie and Dylan are working with me on the chloroplast. Sasha is location.Ellie is description. Dylan is what organelles work with it? I am Crime.

Project Reflection 0907-0911

http://opencage.info/pics/files/800_5628.jpg

Summary: This week it was up to us to try to save science education. The board of education wanted to take science away. We turned in our letters on Friday. We were discussing what made science important. Here are some things that I had written:

• Science helps you "fix things."
• science can save lives!
• science helps you figure out how things work

Backward Looking

Which recourses did you use on this piece? Which ones were helpful? Which ones will you use again?

The thing that I found helpful was my science notebook. I really found that helpful because I write all sorts of information in there and I found it nice to see my answers.

Inward Looking

What does this piece reveal about you as a learner?

I think that it reveals I am good at paying attention.

Outward Looking

What did you want people to see?

The three bullet points.

Forward Looking

One thing I want to improve is...

Typing up the blog.

Oreo Cookie Mystery

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Double-Stuf-Oreos.jpg/1024px-Double-Stuf-Oreos.jpg

Summary:

The mystery we were solving this week was were double stuffed Oreos really double stuffed?

Our hypothesis was if double stuffed cookies were really double stuffed, then the double stuffed will weigh twice as much as a normal cookie and be twice as tall. The materials we used were 

• 1 regular Oreo
• 1double stuffed Oreo
• 1 balance
• 2 cups
• 1 metric ruler 

We put the ruler vertically next to the cookies and measured them in centimeters.`Then, we would put one cookie onto the balance and evened it out with beads.

 Conclusion: Our hypothesis was correct because if you consider weight, they are triple stuffed!

But if you consider height, they are normal.