Tony Dewane Wed Oct 28/09 3/3

What we did today
-two groups presented their nematode experiments
-we started our new unit

My thoughts on the material
-I thought the materialwas easy to understand as we did mostly reveiw of last years material
- if you wernt their we have to do page 202 questions 1 a-c 2 b-d 3 a+b
-we talked abourt photosynthesis and cellular respiration,we had tothink of 2 things we know and 2 things we didn't know about both

Above and beyond
one question that was brought up in class was were dose cellular respiration take place in a cell? Acording to
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_in_a_cell_dose_respiration_take_place it takes place in the mitochandrion.

What we did today:

- we presented our findings on nematodes
- watched the end of  "becoming humans"
- comoparing Teddy G's assignment to Darwins theory

My thoughts:

- I was thinking about what we watced in class today and it was saying that humans have the biggest brain in the phylogenetic tree and i wonder if this applies with all animals do humans have the biggest brain considering weare the smartest ?

- The assignment on Teddy G's was very interesting considering we got to eat at the same time but what does this really have to do with evolution.

- Something i learned in class was that scientist aren't 100% sure that we are decendants of neanderthals.

Above and Beyond :)

- Ifound out on this website : http://health.howstuffworks.com/10-brain-myths5.htm this tells me that the human brain is defenitly not the diggest which means size does not matter.

- I thoughtabout how Teddy G's could show us evolution and i figured out that this can show us how a certain species that has advantages can survive when the other becoms pray for most animals which causes them to go extinct and there is only left with the one species tht survived. The same with the Teddy G's we were the predators and we ate the happy teddy's at the end of this experiment we hade about 85% of our teddy's Sad and not happy which mans that extinction does happen and this is how some species all of a sudendisaper.

Kyla Stevenson (October 21,2009)

What we did Today: (Tuesday, October 20,2009)

-Reviewed Lamarks Theory
-Learned the concept of Allopatric Speciation
-Started talking about our new project on nematodes

My Thoughts:

-One new term i learned this class was Allopatric Speciation.

-It was also nice to do some reviewing on Lamark, and what he contributed to the theory of Evolution.

-Another new thing i learned in class was what a nematode is, the project seems like it's going to be exciting.

Above and Beyond:

-The link below shows a picture of what the nematode looks like:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/SoAtlantic/fp/stpp/burelle/nematode.jpg

-Key Facts of Lamarks Theory:

• Environmental changes create new needs.
• Simple species come from Spontaneous Generation.
• Structures that aren't used diminish.
• Traits are passed on to offspring.
• The theory however is incorrect, traits are not passed on.
• The main contribution was: Evolution is adaptive, ad species change over time in response to environmental pressure.

Allopatric Speciation:  means new species being formed due to isolation.

-Three main points of Allopatric Speciation:

• Physical barrier separates populations in to two or more groups isolated from each other.
• Natural Selection.
• Accumilated physical and behavioural differences.

Class was good I'm not a fan of your pop quizes though. haha. Te maerial we covere was good I like the topic evolution. I find it interesting and neat. I find it wierd how everything may have evolved from one organism on earth to be thousands of different species. It's hard to believe that there is a theory that all the continents connected together to create Pangea. I am not finding much difficulty with this unit an I think it's because i'm interested in it. It's cool how you can see how closely animals are related using the DNA codes of the animals. It's hard to believe that animals can shange their traits over tme if they don't get used and they adapt to different environments.
I'm not sure where we are supposed to put the mark we think we should get but I thnk That's a 3 out of 3 for sure.

Taylor Plemel (October 15, 2009)

What We Accomplished Today: well, actually on Tuesday

- made progress in our ecosystem field study project
- put our information into tables, artfully designed by me
- made a play list on my iPod
- finished the climatogram
- classified some of the insects we trapped
- ate my lunch
- classified some vegetation


My Thoughts On The Class:


- I'm glad that Nils did the climatogram because I probably would have done it wrong and don't really understand the concept of it
- finding the height of the tree was easy since I'm so good at trig and it was a good reminder
- it would have been more beneficial to do this in the spring because we would have trapped more insects and seen more wildlife
- it would be interesting to see the finished products of the class next semester to see the differences between our projects


Above and Beyond:


- a climatogram is show variation in only two factors; temperature and precipitation. Although there are other factors that affect the climate, a climatogram does give a rough idea of the climate in a particular biome
- below is a picture of the wood ant resembling the one that we trapped and classified

- below again, is a picture of some moose I saw the other day

- also, just wondering if this fish is actually real or not

Taylor is awesome

Lexie Nylund Oct 14,2009

What We Did Today (Friday Oct 9,2009):


•We worked on our Ecosytem Field Study assignments


• Looked up what type of trees and insects we got





My Thoughts:


•Looking at the bugs on the microscope was pretty sweet.


•Thought it was hard to find what some of the insects are like one of the spiders.


•I think this project is pretty fun and should do more like this but with nicer weather.
 
• Think it cool learning more about our ecosystem.


Above and Beyond:


•Aspen Poplar



(Populus tremuloides)
Up to 30 m in height, bark at first smooth, greenish-white, becoming rough and dark grey with age, terminal bud is sharp and pointed, all buds dark brown.

• The Aspen tree is one of the most common in Alberta.

Jesse Morin october 13 3/3

What We Did Today:

• We worked on snake hill on our field study project.
• Then on the second class we worked on our field study project in the classroom.
• We checked for bugs that may have been caught overnight in the bugs traps that were set up.
• We measured temperatures.
• Thank you for the hot chocolate.

My Thoughts:

• The weather was bad for working on snake hill especially if you didn't dress well.
• Collecting the bugs was kind of cool just to see bugs that you may have never seen before.
• So far the project is going well, and hopefully we can do some more labs like this.
• The hot chocolate was nice to have in second block because it was so cold outside.

Above and Beyond:

• There are many spiders in alberta. One of the most common spiders in alberta is the wolf spider. They are most abundant betwen april and october. They are commonly found near lakes, rivers and forests. There are several kinds of wolf spiders usually ranging in colour from brown to black and can have deep blue markings. They can also grow to 2 inches in length.
• other spiders such as the ground spider and the grass spider are prominent in the fall months.

Grant L. Wednesday, October 8, 2009 3/3

What We Did Today:

• We went to Snake Hill to work on field study
• Perfromed basic tests (temperature, weather)
• Measured tree height using trigometry
• Calculated percentage of shade, grass and shrub coverage of the quadrant

My Thoughts:

• "Wow, it is way to cold for this."
• Calculating tree height was kind of interesting because it showed a real application of math. Plus I've always wondered how high the trees on Snake Hill and all around Sundre are.
• This field study is an interesting way to get a first hand perspective on what Biology really is, which is hard to see in a classroom reading a textbook.

Above And Beyond:

• I noticed that on Snake Hill, and in much of the Sundre area, trembling poplar are the dominant species. This is because trembling aspen are one of the few trees that spread by suckers from each other. This means that much of a forest (or growth to use proper terminology) is connected. This lets the trees live in areas other trees cannot due to poor soil or water because they can share nutrients and water. Also, trembling aspen are well adapted to short growing seasons as they can perform photosynthesis from their trunk, not just the leaves.
• I would suggest at least thinking about why plants and trees are where they are, you would be surprised at how well adapted they can be.
• You should know the difference between the circumferance of a tree and the diameter. How to make a triangle to calculate height of trees and what percent means.

Codee Koch, Mon. Oct 5,2009 3/3

What we did

• reviewed the Bio-20 Ecosystem Field Study Assingment
• reviewed and proceeded with the lab ''Examining water stratification''

My Thoughts

• After we finished the lab i found it very interesting that the salt water and fresh water cycled, but the warm and cold water did not.
• I found it even more interesting that because the salt water was more dense then the fresh water, that the salt water forced the fresh water up, there for cycling the mixture
• However I do question if there is an easier way of completeing this activity, because the removing of the laminated card from the two jars seemed to be somewhat difficult for some groups

Above and Beyond

• the photo below shows the layering of water and is a key element in the lab we did today
  

• 
  
  I would suggest knowing the terms in this photo along with  humus, litter, topsoil, subsoil, bedrock, biotic potential, and carrying capacity along with any others from chapter four (e.g limnetic zone, profundal zone, benthos, and latteral zone)