Bottle Habitat

For our Ecology segment we had to make a bottle habitat that included plastic bottles to hold pond water, dirt and rocks, and insects (optional). We had to use rope to allow water to get from one bottle to another (if we had multiple bottles), and sponge in any of the bottle openings. My groups bottle habitat was made out of a large cheese ball container, and two 2liter bottles. The cheese ball container is on one end with one 2liter cut into its side. The 2liter that comes our from the container is like a bridge that connects the container to the second 2liter. In the cheese ball barrel we put pond water and let one end of the rope rest just below the water line. If we follow the rope, we will enter into the "bridge" of our habitat which holds some dirt and plants that we took from bottle habitats of previous classes. From there the rope continues into the second 2liter which holds the same content as the "bridge". After weeks of letting the habitat grow and change we noticed a growth in the plants, and we also acquired a snail! I'm not sure how it got there but now it is there and living in the habitat. Our bottle habitat shows the natural process of plant growth and how an ecosystem can survive with the bare minimum. With water, a medium for organisms to grow in, and light, you get a sustainable environment.
(Example image not our habitat)

Co-Evolution

Today during class we did a very interesting and unorthodox assignment. We filled a beaker with a mix of beans, noodles, and split peas. Then we were separated into three large groups and labeled as birds. Our beaks were plastic silverware, one group got a fork, one got a knife, and the last group got a spoon. After throwing the bean mixture onto an area of the floor, the whole class had to use their "beaks" to scoop up any food they could get and put it into their stomachs (their cupped non-dominant hands). We only had 30 seconds to eat and once time was up we returned to our assigned groups and counted how many beans, noodles, and split peas each group got. At first it was obvious that the spoons had the advantage over the other types of beaks. Once numbers were plugged into excel we had to replace a couple people into different groups, these "birds" developed a fork or spoon beak through evolution. After a couple feedings, knives were left with one "bird", forks had about 8, if i remember correctly, and spoons led with 10 "birds". In the end spoons trumped all beak types. This activity demonstrated natural selection because it showed that birds with the most helpful and efficient beaks (spoons) would be most successful getting the beans. It also shows that if a certain specie isn't getting the life necessities it will try to evolve and adapt to a different life style with different necessities so it can survive. Survival can also depend on the cooperation of other members of the specie. If one bird was full they could help the other birds get more food. Or, if one bird is by all the food they could help the others by throwing it where they could get to it. I was apart of the spoons and that is the strategy we developed toward the end. One or two birds were in the middle of the mix scooping it toward the rest of the spoons behind him so we could "eat" and help our numbers. It was a neat way to get the idea of co-evolution and natural selection. I really enjoyed it and hope to remember it when the time comes for me to teach it to my class!

The Odyssey

Biogeochemical can be broken up into three parts. First, there is the prefix bio- which means life. Second, there is geo which means earth. Finally, chemical which covers matter like atoms and molecules. The cycle we refer to in this section is the continuous, working path of all three of those things. In the odyssey they start with an X element that I believe to be Sulfur, Phosphorous, Copper, or Iron . "X was pulled up into the world of living things. He helped build a flower, which became an acorn, which fattened a deer, which fed an Indian, all in a single year." This shows how a single element or molecule can effect all species and all aspects of life. It also shows how things are passed through and can be recycled with different uses. Y on the other hand could be a new specie of plant that attracted a new animal. "When Y was thus released from the parent ledge, a new animal had arrived and began redding up the Prairie to fit his own notions of law and order." It makes me think about what we touch, eat, drink, etc. I have always heard about the path of money and thinking this $1 could have been through millions of banks, pockets, dirty bags and greasy fingers. The water we drink has probably passed through many rivers, lakes, and people by the time we get it. It kind of grosses me out in a way and then makes me think how limited resources are.

Thinking Like A Mountain

My favorite season may be summer, but a couple of days ago I found myself enjoying the rain. For about three days we experienced rain and thunder storms. I was in my home listening to the rain pounding on the roof and lightning was shining through our windows as if cars were going by The thunder was shaking the ground it was so loud. Don't get me wrong I am an active person, I love the outdoors and going hiking and such. However, that day looking out and seeing everything blurred together through the rain I figured out my new celebration. The sun and heat is what I prefer, but sometimes you just need some storms, a cup of hot tea and a good movie!

Chernoff Faces

Chernoff Faces was an exercise we did that would help us further understand classification. We started with pairing face shapes with where we all were from. The options were the UP, lower Michigan, or other. I chose the lower Michigan face shape which was a "Stewie" or "Hey Arnold" shaped head. Next, the shape of the eyes were determined by our major and minors. All of the students in our MSED 251 are education majors and I am an elementary education mathematics major. My eyes were oblong shaped along with my pupils which were based off of the kind of sports we enjoyed. Noses were determined by which kind of pet we would prefer, rodent/rabbit, bird, or reptile. I chose a rodent/rabbit which gave me an oblong shaped nose. Finally, the mouth of the first face was chosen by which food the student enjoyed. I chose Italian because I can never get enough pasta! After we all put together our faces we were separated into groups by the shape of the heads. Our groups were divided again, this time by a different attribute of the faces. When all is done we know that many species have similar qualities but are still totally different.





We made a new face by changing around the attributed and face shapes. Turns out the groups that were made the first time stayed that same only changing by one or two students. There were many with exact face matches. This is an example of classification, just less scientific.

Predator Invasion

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/wild-predator-invasion.html


Above is a link to a PBS film we were shown about reintroducing predators into different areas of the country. The first and most prevalent topic are the wolves put back into Yellowstone National Park. Biologist D Smith put wolves into Yellowstone to help decrease the elk population enabling the vegetation to grow again. For 70 years Yellowstone had no wolves in the park. In 1995 they brought in 14 wolves into a fenced area of the north part of the park (the part with the least vegetation) to keep them from going back to where they were from. After a while they released the wolves from the fenced areas and observed what was changing. There were some negative effects of the wolves being reintroduced. One being the 90% decline in the coyote population. Since Coyotes are scavengers they would feed off of the wolves kill because they thought the wolves were done with it. The wolves never strayed far from their kills though and would kill the coyotes to show dominance and to keep their food. That is an example of intraspecific competition. There were also many positives that came from bringing the wolves back. One was the increased growth of vegetation around the creek and in the northern area of the park. Also, because of the vegetation, the beavers were back! These effects give us an example of the trophic pyramid levels. The Trophic Pyramid is a diagram showing the different levels of consumers, or what eats what. On the very bottom level there is the producers (plants). Above the producers there is the Primary Consumers ( things that eat plants, i.e. humans, elk, herbivores). Things that eat Primary Consumers are the Secondary Consumers (carnivores). Finally, at the top of the Trophic Pyramid is the Tertiary Consumers (eats the Secondary Consumers).

We were also taught about the different classifications of animals. For example a predator is an animal that kills to eat, a Prey is the animal that is killed and eaten, and a scavenger is an animal that eats anything it can find to survive. Technically humans are scavengers because we eat what others kill (beef from a cow, deer, turkey, ham, etc.)

My feelings on the wolves in the UP is to let them be. Obviously eliminating a species from an area is unhealthy for the environment and causes imbalance in the food chain. Now if there are too many and they are starting to kill people or diminish another species their numbers should be controlled. Humans are right in reintroducing animals or controlling their population if they are doing it to revitalize the land and bring things back to a balanced state. However, I am not pleased with people who enter a wild animal's home just to trap, tame, or kill it for pleasure.  

 

I Dont See Skies of Blue (New Celebration)

My favorite season may be summer, but a couple of days ago I found myself enjoying the rain. For about three days we experienced rain and thunder storms. I was in my home listening to the rain pounding on the roof and lightning was shining through our windows as if cars were going by The thunder was shaking the ground it was so loud. Don't get me wrong I am an active person, I love the outdoors and going hiking and such. However, that day looking out and seeing everything blurred together through the rain I figured out my new celebration. The sun and heat is what I prefer, but sometimes you just need some storms, a cup of hot tea and a good movie!

The Bog Blog...

Marquette has some very unique attractions that a lot of people do not know about, or have not been to. I personally, had heard of the Bog Walk but had never experienced it. Our class took advantage of one of the last warm days of the season and I finally got my experience. One by one we walked the path that led us to multiple signs, some new, and some old. Apparently there had been a flood that took some signs away and so many were replaced. Lucky for us though because those signs gave us the most information about what a Bog really is, how it is made, and what we can find in one. So, following my packet page by page I started with observations and reading the signs. I found out that a Bog is basically a swamp. However, it is a wet acidic habitat of spongy mosses. All around was tall grass and weeds along with some flowers. I also had the experience of learning about a "Pitcher plants". These were unable to be found about 2-3 years after the flood i mentioned earlier, but now they grow a plenty and they are interesting. We noticed their yellow and orange color that separated them from the surrounding greens and browns. Now you may think because we were in a swamp like habitat that they smell would be something fowl. My nose did not sense that we were in a swamp though. To me it seemed like we were in a normal field and i could breath deeply without scrunching my face and thinking to myself  "what is that awful smell?"
 Besides the plants and special trees, there was also wildlife and I caught a glimpse of many frog species that played around below the docks and on the edge of the pond areas. There were also many dragonflies and the unbearable grasshopper. It may sound strange to many people but I have an intense fear of grasshoppers and I will walk to completely opposite direction, even if it is miles out of my way, to be away from those ugly things! The Bog was really something enchanting and for a second I forgot I was there because I had to. I plan on going back, hopefully on another warm day, to see if any changes have happened since our last visit.

It's a Mystery

We were handed an opaque container with out the permission to open it. Troubling i know! Our curiosity kept building the longer we had to examine it and ask as many questions as we could. My group came up with 37 questions about what could be inside the container. It rattled a little bit but was big enough to take up most of the space it had. We asked questions that pertained to all of the senses and then some that not everyone would ask. The class has realized that the more questions you ask the easier it will be to narrow down your choices of what could be in the container. Finally we got a hint about the mystery objects by getting a plastic container full of the items that could be in the container. So we started a guess-and-check process by filling a seperate container exactly like the other one with the objects given to us. At the end of the hour we were given permission to open it! Unfortunately we were one object away from knowing what was in our mystery container. Our senses were off that day but now we know a piece of what scientists really do! The key to all science is to ask questions!

Inquiry Wheel

So this past two weeks I have learned that the Scientific Method is not the way to go about a secience experiment. We learned instead, the Inquiry Wheel. It is the Scientific Method for experiments but it does not give you a set guideline on how to go about things. "Science is messy" is the phrase that has stuck in my mind since we started this lesson and after being assigned our projects I realize that is going to be a lot more work and there will be a lot more questions to ask. My group has chosen to look at the effects of organic honey and processed honey on mold. Of course we are starting to research kinds of honey and mold and starting to find out it is going to be a lot harder than we expected. But the more we research the more we are able to narrow done our questions to the ONE BIG QUESTION! Then we will start getting together materials to experiment, and ask all new questions. Wish us luck!

What's Alive?

How do you determine what is alive? If it walks, talks, breathes, or eats? Well we came up with a list that we believe characterizes all living things. But we did learn the official "working definition of life". Number one is growth; number two is reproduction, number three is homeostasis (the ability of keeping internal balance), number four is sensory and response to stimuli, and finally number five is the ability to obtain and use energy. Now what I have just listed is what we are aware of as life on earth! Could there be other life forms that do not require water or food or air, sure. But we just do not know!There are questions that make you really ponder the idea of life. For example, If you die and your still beating heart is given to a transplant patient, are you still alive, or are you dead? In my opinion once you are pronounced dead, you are dead. There is no brain activity and no ability to do the five things i listed earlier, therefore I believe you are dead and your heart now belongs to someone else. Enough of the morbid talk though, life is beautiful and asking if you are alive is a different question than if you are living!

Danger: DHMO

"Everyone look out DHMO is everywhere and can cause a lot of damage."
 These are the words we began with before we watched a video about DHMO. We were convinced that it was a dangerous thing to have around our campus and in our homes. After the video, and what seemed like valid reasoning coming from our professor, the class chose to ban DHMO from campus. What is DHMO you might ask? It is in fact, water. Without knowing what DHMO really stood for and without enough information we decided to ban water. Of course all of us felt foolish and realized that from now on we need to get the whole story. I learned to ask more questions and get all the facts before making an assumption. You shouldn't trust everything you hear from your professor, the news, TV, social media, etc.

8th Grade Science Quiz

In my college level science class I took a quiz that they give to 8th graders. I got a 53%! I was shocked by the amount of things I have forgotten and the number of questions I couldn't begin to answer. Some words and concepts were familiar but I didn't know the answers! Our professor warned us it would be like this and she made the point that many teachers do not make you think deeper and help you keep that information in your mind to recall later. We memorize note cards, vocabulary, formulas, and other things until the final test and then it is like the slate is wiped clean. Taking that quiz made me realize how much harder I need to work in my studies to really understand things and not just memorize them. Now I understand why there is the game show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?"

Celebration Remembered

At 5 years old I was running across a small field scoring goals and pushing girls around. Soccer was my new favorite thing and I played every year from then on until i graduated high school. So, as you can assume, i spent a lot of time at the soccer fields. I can recall almost every season at those fields, but there was one specific day I remember the most. A day that my family and I went, not for soccer, but to fly kites, pass the ball around, and throw a Frisbee. The sun was out and there was not a single cloud around. We left our shoes at the fence and ran through the thick, soft grass that would leave imprints of where we stepped before like memory foam. Hours went by with no worries, no negative thoughts or energy. I celebrate that time and those fields because it was the last place that I could be a care free, responsibility free, happy, child.

It All Started July 7th, 1994

 My name, as you know, is Jessie Willett. I am a 20 year old college student studying Elementary Education, specifically mathematics. Crazy I know, but there is something about having a certain way to do something and plans to follow that I love. Oh and the kids of course! Its my third year of college and I am less than thrilled to say I probably have another two years under my belt easy.
I am a middle child of three with a 22 year old sister, Adrianna, and a 16 year old brother, Nathan. My mother's name is Barb and she works two jobs to supports herself and my younger brother down in Gaylord, MI (my home town). She is a nurse and works as a gas station attendant. My sister moved out about two years ago and has gone from Florida, to North Dakota, and has recently set up camp in West Virginia.
Things for our family became difficult about 7 years ago when my father suddenly passed away. I was what they call a "daddy's girl" and I lost a lot of myself that day. I played soccer for 13 years. My love for soccer died off when i lost my number one support system and so did my grades and my dedication for almost everything. I focus a lot now on finishing my education and trying to be a good role model for my younger brother. Nathan does not have a father to discipline, mentor, or to be there for him to teach him manly things. I will not be able to do any of those things as well as my dad could have, but I like to think I am doing something for him.
To try and find myself again I decided to take a semester and go abroad!I left my family, my friends, my boyfriend, and my comfort zone on January 11th of 2014 for the great Italia!  I found myself in Rome trying to make my way to the necessary train through all the cigarette smoke and shouting. I had never thought I would find myself in such an amazing and historical place. It is exactly like the pictures in books and images on TV. My fellow travelers welcomed me with hugs and enthusiastic "hellos" and right away I knew it was where I needed to be. From that moment on I was changed. I speak more, I laugh more, I enjoy more, and I want to start to learn more. I miss the people I spent four months traveling with and I plan to make trips in the future to see everyone of them! However, now that I am back in Marquette, Michigan I am ready to get back to work.

My Family (left to right: Adriana, Mom, Nathan, me)

My plans are to teach somewhere between Kindergarten and 2nd grade somewhere warm and exciting! My real dream is to teach all around the world! I also want a family and a home so I do not think that will be much of a reality for me. Some day though, you never know where you are going to end up!

My Boyfriend of over 2 years(:

The old team

#1 dad

The Italian Crew!

Rome, Italy: the Colosseum