Friday, February 6, 2015

Know Atom Cars

We had a great day yesterday! After finishing our Snow Fort Project, the students worked on finishing up the Know Atom Car project.  The students were given materials and a problem to solve. As engineers, the students needed to redesign the rear-wheel drive car so that the car traveled in a straight line as it moved at a high speed.  As it was currently designed, the car was spinning in circles.  Below are pictures of the students constructing their newly designed cars.






















Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Snow Forts!

We are at the end of our STEM Snow Fort project.  Please remember to send your child to school tomorrow with appropriate snow gear.  We will be outside building our snow forts for about 2 hours.  They should have boots, snow pants, hat, gloves or mittens, and a coat. It is going to be a lot of fun with all of this snow!

Monday, February 2, 2015

David Gallo: Underwater Astonishments

Last week students were asked to watch and summarize the video below.  Read what the students thought about the video and post your comments as well. Enjoy!

I personally found the bioluminescence amazing, with the pinwheel pattern, the bright luminous eyes, and the really weird "flying turkey." It was really cool how light can be used in different ways, from luring in prey, to helping the animal avoid being eaten. I also thought the squid and octopus were incredible. The male squid  with the two colors dividing it in half made sure the female saw his good side, the brown side, but let other males see his bad side, the white side, as if to say, "She's mine, I found her first, now scram and get your own." And the octopus is a master of disguise and illusion.  It is able to look like anything, like a rock moving with the tide, coral, or some algae, all in a matter of moments. It's an adaptation that helps them survive, or else predators will eat them.
P.S.: Mrs. Boucher, can we do more of these TED talks?  Because I really like them!

This amazing underwater video shows unique animals.  I have never seen such shapes or colors ever before.  This man showed us some of the animals that roam in the water high and low.  It was cool and fascinating seeing some of the animals  that live in the ocean habitat.  David explained underwater camouflage of the creatures that are  practically unexplainable because they are so magnificent.  Some of the animals looked like exploding fireworks in the dark sky. Some of the deep water animals looked like underwater fireflies.  David showed me unique creatures I have never seen before.

I saw so many different colors and shapes that really intrigued me.  I was so impressed that the octopus could change how it looked, how it blended in so well and how it made its body to look like algae.  I saw every color from the rainbow.  There were so much shapes like circles,rectangles,triangles, and cones.  there were two male squids that were fighting and one was white and one was brown.  There was another part where a male and a female squid were hovering over the sand.  I saw these strange looking dots that were just in the dark changing colors.  I cant believe that video only explored 3% of the sea. 

In the film that Mrs. Boucher showed us about under water life, there were crazy camouflage examples. It was amazing. I thought it was crazy how the Cuddle Fish could change color and pull it's leg/tentacle into it's body and blend right in with the algae! The octopus also blended in with the sea plants! I didn't see this happen with the octopus until the end of the film when the man showed us how the octopus blended in. I thought the film was very amazing. I liked how the animals can blend so well and hide from predators.

After watching the video my teacher put up on her blog I now want to go underwater to the deep, deep sea to see all the beautiful animals and fish.  On the video, there was so many colorful fish as bright as a rainbow.  Not many fish swim very fast and I don't know why.  All the fish sparkle in the water like small diamonds.  The flying turkey looks like a real turkey that we would eat on Thanksgiving Day!  It is cool how some fish are used for hypnotizing. I wonder how that happens?  The animals patterns are so pretty and have many detailed designs.  When the squid changed the white side of him to the other side of him I thought I blinked for a really long time and missed something. The octopus looked just like a rock and the way it secretly moved sideways, slowly was amazing.  When the man was looking at the algae where the octopus was I could not see the octopus because it blended in so much when it popped out I jumped a little because of fright it gave me.  The octopus looked just like the allege. I hope to once go and see this happen right in front of my face and look at the beautiful fish living deep, deep, deep in the sea!

 This video is so amazing in a whole bunch of different ways.  There are so many scenes that just do not look real.  There is something that looks like a  turkey swimming in the water in one of part.  Did you know that when squid gets really mad and fight they turn white?  When a Octopus blends in with one of its surroundings it changes its texture and color.  It really just does not look real.  The Octopus blended in with coral and I had no idea that the octopus was there.  There was and octopus that was mimicking a rock and when it wanted to move it moved it moved with the water when the predator wasn't watching.  This video is so interesting because some of the scenes just don't look real.  I did not know that could ever happen.

 I viewed a video about ocean exploration.  It specifically  focused on bioluminesense and camouflage.  Did you know that people have only explored 3% of the sea.  In the deep sea there are many animals that have bioluminessence.  That means that the animals create their own light.  They light up to attract pray.  Camouflage means to blend into your surroundings.  In the last clip an octopus appeared to have vanished into thin air. But it did not vanish it simply changed color and texture to look like a piece of coral.  I find it amazing that some sea creatures are so unique that they seem like aliens from another world.  The ocean fascinates me and I hope to find out more interesting facts about it.

This is a really cool video about bio luminescence. It shows all kinds of different animals with different styles of bio luminescence. For example, The pinwheel one. That was really cool! It also shows footage of Cuddle fish, octopus, and squid! Did you know that when male squid get aggressive when the fight, They start to turn white? I didn't! Another thing is that fish can have luminescent eyes. Or that octopus can blend in with their surroundings. 

I just watched a video on sea animals and all sorts of sea life.  I think it's amazing that us as humans have discovered countless forms of life. In the video a man is talking to some kind of  audience about an onscreen video about the wonders of sea life. He talks about fish and tiny organisms that live on the dark of the sea floor. To me it's pretty miraculous how we've only discovered and/or explored 3% of our universe.

I think this video was very cool and sciencie with the luminous organisms, fish, and squid.  They used the light to there advantage by using it to distract and escape predators and the predators using the light to attract and eat prey instead of chasing there prey and having to waist energy.  Also I liked how they showed the octopus disappearing and reappearing when it got spooked and the squirting ink was cool then bolting away and puffing up to try too look big and scary.  Also the man explaining about the animals seemed like he was very smart and adventures because in order for him to do this he would need to go to the deep ocean and get a scholar ship in marine life.  That's how I'd summarize that video in one paragraph.

 Recently I watched a fascinating video about some sea creatures and there adaptations. I thought the deep sea creatures are  very cool for how they light up then disappear then light up again. Except the thing that definitely caught my attention. I loved the different kinds of octopus! One of them was swimming around then all of a sudden settles in and disappears. Another one was so mind boggling it not only blended in but even changed the texture of its skin to blend in even more. All in all I just find the sea fascinating and even more so that we have only discovered 3% of what is out there, that leaves 97% that's a lot! This video has made me want to learn more about the discoveries of new things. In conclusion I think this video was very cool and super interesting, please show us more!


That sea creature video was very incredible, especially the octopus scene. All the animals in the first segment shared something quite special, and that is the ability to light up in the abyss. The correct term for this is bioluminescence. If bioluminescence wasn't an ability, sea creatures wouldn't be able to maneuver themselves to different places where they can hide themselves. They wouldn't know which way is up, so up isn't an option. In result, these abyss sea creatures couldn't hunt or EAT. The designs the man showed were beautiful both a provision. Onto the second segment, which I found very quite extraordinary. Much like the first segment all these animals have one capability: camouflage or mimicry. For example, the octopus can do both. First, it was camouflaged in the algae, then when it saw the human it gave him the hairy eyeball with a brown spot, for the finale it gave him an ink cloud and swam away. The other animals only could camouflage themselves. That video was very interesting, and it showed things that are very extraordinary, and most of it was just a preview to the long list of sea creature provisions.

The video I watched was about  amazing  sea creatures.  These sea creatures blend into their ocean world below the surface, by  transforming to look like ocean plants.  They do this  to hide from predators.  The one sea creature I found the most interesting was the Squid. The male squids  change their  bodies, shapes, and texture to attract  females.  They are in hope that the females find the males very attractive.   The male squid will only show one side of their bodies to the female .  The other side of the male squid stays white so it can portray it is strong to the other males.  I  found this video very interesting and would like to learn more about the mystery of the ocean sea creatures below the surface!