Algae is in our food!?!

Our home work assignment was to go home and find things that had these three types of algae in them: alginates, carrageenans, beta carotene. I could only find two of the three in my house hold. I found alginates and Beta carotene. I found alginates in easy mac & cheese. I found beta carotene in cream of chicken soup and in  chicken noodle soup. I can make a very good inference that it is chicken. I could not find carrageenan in my house so I asked a friend, Hali Goad, and she had one. She found it in slim fast.

This has beta carotene in it.

This has beta carotene in it.

This has alginates in it.

This has carrageenans in it. Photo credited by Hali Goad.

Observations: Day 5 (BIRD WATCHING)

 When we went outside it was so nice. The weather was in the mid-70's. We went out bird watching. We are participating in the Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology Backyard birds count. We counted a total of 21 bird in LCHS's Backyard. These two pictures are birds that we found. The top one is called a Warbler. The bottom one is a picture of a Downey Woodpecker. My favorite is the Downey Woodpecker because it has a red moahawk and I have red hair so it is my kind of bird!!! :)

 As we ventured down a path we ran into a tree, that was covered in moss and fungi on the lower part of the trunk.

At the same site as the tree we, I, lifted a log and we found this little creature. Ashley Harris picked it up and named it Sam, as she says. It was a very slimey creature ant it was a very fast runner. Ashleys emotions were excited.

THIS IS THE BEST PIC OF ALL!!!
ALL PICTURES ARE CREDITED BY KATHY RICHARDSON!

Obsevations: Day 4

 When we went outside it was much warmer than  usual. You knew spring was on its way because of higher temperatures and the birds were chirping so they were coming back from migration. Today's task was to find and identify the different types of algae. 

 The cattails were continuing to disperse their seeds!

We worked ourselves over to a creek coming from the pond and I saw this jiggly-jelly like cluster. I thought it was frog or salamander eggs, but I poked it with a stick and it was just a rock. The way the water was hitting the rock made it look like it was a jelly substance.

Special Obsevations: Plankton Edition

 In this microscopic picture, we see a zooplankton that is the Micro size. This zooplankton is called a Holoplankton, which means permanent.  Holoplankton organisms remain plankton their entire life.

It  has short hairs to move around quickly.

THIS IS PLANT CELLS!!!

This long strand is a microscopic strand of phytoplankton. Its responsibility is to produce oxygen in to the air and take out the carbon dioxide. This is to small to see without a microscope. It is classified as a nano size.

 

Some of the southern Japanese islands are famous for their beautiful "star sand". These grains are the shells of microscopic, single-celled organisms called foraminiferans or forams (this image is of Baculosypsina sp.). Foraminifera commonly produce a calciferous test (skeleton) that is divided into chambers. Live forams have filopodia (thin cytoplasmic extensions) that are united in a complex fashion to produce reticulopodia. Some of the southern Japanese islands are famous for their beautiful "star sand". These grains are the shells of microscopic, single-celled organisms called foraminiferans or forams (this image is of Baculosypsina sp.). Foraminifera commonly produce a calciferous test (skeleton) that is divided into chambers. Live forams have filopodia (thin cytoplasmic extensions) that are united in a complex fashion to produce reticulopodia.

                                                                              -astrographics.com
             http://www.astrographics.com/GalleryPrintsIndex/GP2150.html
ALL PICTURES COURTESY OF MRS. K. RICHARDSON 

Observations: Day 3

 Site 1

When we first arrived at the sitem the sound I heard was engines running from the bus garage. I noticed a small creek where the rocks were dry and the water had stopped flowing over them. It was extremely cold as Mary, Brittany H., Matt, and I discussed what was going on in the environment around us.

 Site 2

As we walked along the shore line of the pond, I checked on the cattails progress. They were still dispersing their seeds for new ones to grow. The water was a little frozen over and it was so cold. BRRRRRRR!!!

 Site 3

As we moved along a trail, I saw these two trees. As you see in the background, the tree has brown leaves and they are falling off. The tree in the front is still green. I wonder why that is? Well there are different types of trees. the brown one is a seasonal tree, which is called deciduous trees. The green tree is an example of a year-round tree, which is called coniferous trees.

Site 4

As we walked back to the school we stopped at the front doors and got our last site for the day. At this site I noticed the sidewalk side and the grass and rocks have been eroded away because of the recent weather we have had. We finally went inside and watched The Blue Planet where half through class we had to take a Jump-Out/ Sleep Quiz because 2 people fell asleep. :(

Obsevations: Day 2

 Site 1

On this tree, there was a tree branch that was budding and it was showing life as we were there. The very end of the tip is where the bud is. The wind was blowing so hard it was difficult to hold on to the branch.

 Site 2

 On this bark of tree, on the ground, there is mold on the center portion of it and has started to take over on the leaves that have fallen too. Mold growing is a sign of life. We moved on to our next site with the sound of crunching leaves.

 Site 3

As we stumbled on over to the next site, we had to jump over a muddy creek and go over a bridge, and that is where I came upon this log. This is special log because it has many types of life, such as fungi and moss. It felt hard because it was so cold.

Site 4

We were returning back into the school when Mrs. Richardson said, "This is site 4." I had to think to myself, Where is life? What is it doing? I looked over my left shoulder and saw this gate with branches growing all over it. The gate was totally taken over in the branches. If you wanted to go on this little dock you would have to climb through all of the branches first, which I was not going to do!