"Introduction to Marine Plankton"

Introduction:

 The word plankton comes from the Greek word Planktos which is the means "wander." The meaning of the the word "wander" is that it can't swim against the current or wind. There are four ways that you can classify the plankton by food, color, size. Plankton can come in different colors. The blue green plankton creats 90% of the oz in the air. Holoplankton can spend it whole life as a plankton. Meroplankton only spends part of its life as plankton. The plankton can vary is size from 2mm-<.005mm in length.

Research Question:

What is the diversity of Plankton in South Maui?

Hypothesis:

I think that I will find 500 species of Plankton in the water at the kihei boat ramp.

 Materials:

• Plankton net
• Vial
• jar
• Journal
• Pipette
• Microscope
• Slide/cover slip
• Id Book

 Procedure

1. Drive to the beach
2. Walk down to the ramp
3. Pull net around in water for 3 min
4. Remove vial from net
5. Put all samples in the a jar
6. At school put plankton on to a microscope slide
7. Gently place the cover slide on top but starting from a side so no air bubbles get in
8. Look at plankton through the scope
9. Use the ID book to identify the plankton

Dissolved Oxygen

1. fill the test tube with water from the ocean to the top
2. put 2 tablets in the test tube and shake for 3 mins
3. let it set for 5 mins

Phosphates:  

 

1. Fill test vial to 10ml.
2. Add test tablet and shake for one minute.
3. Wait five minutes.
4. Compare sample color to color on card.
5. Record results in journal.

Nitrates

1. Fill test vial to 10ml.

2. Add test tablet and shake for one minute.

3. Wait five minutes.

4. Compare sample color to color on card.

5. Record results in journal.

For turbidity:

1. Fill test vial to 25ml.
2. Place test vial over the secchi disk on the card.
3. Compare it to the the pictures of the other disks.
4. Record results in journal.

 pH:

1. Remove cap from pH/temperature pen.
2. Place pen in water to be sampled.
3. Wait for numbers to stabilize.
4. Record results in journal.

 Water Temperature

1. Take the cap of the botoom of the prob
2. Stick it in the water for a few seconds
3. pull it out and read the temp
4. Record data in your journal

Compund scope

1. Find a scope holding the scope by the arm and take the cover off
2. plug the scope in and turn the light on
3. Put a drop of water on the slide and taking a cover slip and place on top but starting from one side to put it on.
4. Then place the cover slde on the black tray over the light
5. Then look through the eye peice and count how many plankton you see and record in your journal

Digtal Proscope

1. Find a black box that has all of the different insturments in it.
2. Open the box
3. take out the scope and the  data

Data

1. Temp 20.4c
2. Salinity 26%
3. Dissolved oz 0
4. phosphates 4
5. nitrates 2
6. current/tide/wind high tide
7. wind slight brezz
8. time
9. pH 8.09

Conclusion

 I was only able to find  different species of plankton.What is the diversity of Plankton in South Maui? I think that I will find 500 species of Plankton in the water at the kihei boat ramp.

 Sorces of erro

Having the water sit for a long period of time and not having fresh water every day because the plankton could die.

 

Sand Pre Lab

Introudction:
There are two different tpyes of sand that could be found on Maui one is biogenic comes from parrot and fish they eat polyps and poop. The other one is dentntal which is made of rocks and dead coral.

Question:
Which beaches on the south side of  Maui would be biogenic?

Hypothesis:
I hypothesis that Kam 3 beache will be biogenic because there is a lot birds and fishes in the water and on the beach.

Predictions
I predict that kam 3 will be biogenic because of the rocks that surround it.

Materials:
Cup,Tape,Maker,Van

Procedure:

1. Gather the suplies that you need
2. Get in to the van
3. Drive to a beach
4. Collect the sand in the cup
5. Observe the surrounding of the beach
6. Take pictuers of the beach
7. Repeat steps 2-6 for a total of three more times
8. Once back in the class test the sand by useing vingar to see if it is biogenci or dentntal

Data:
 The beaches that are goup tested where Keawakapu, Kam3, Charlie Young, The Cove, Waipuilani were all biogenic.

Conclousion
In conclusion my hyopthies was correct becuase of the sourrounding. Which beaches on the south side of Maui would be biogenic? I hypothesis that Kam 3 beache will be biogenic because there is a lot birds and fishes in the water and on the beach.


Sourrces of erro:
Not puting the same amount of sand in the beacker every time to test the sand. Not the same amount of vingar in every time

Sand Origins Lab 4/12/11

The beaches that we went to were Keawakapu, Kam 3, Carlie Young, The Cove, Waipuilani.
My observations from the beaches that we went to were that some of the beaches were biogentic because the beaches were made from the rocks that srround the island.

Whale observation / clinometer blog 1/25/11

Whale Observation

On our whale observation the class went looking for whales at the point. So we can watch there movments now and then when we go on the whale watch later in the season we can look and there movments. We also look at there behaviors also to see what the whales are doing.

Question:
Will we see more whales jump early in the season than later in the season?

Hypothesis:

I hypothesis that there will be more breaches early in the season because the whale will be more active during this part of the season.

It was ok for me because I have done this lab before last year. But this time when we went to the look out it was a little different for me because I have never used a climonter before so it was something new for me. My faviort part was that was the first time of the season that I got to see a whale this season. There was one challenge that I had was that are weight fell off more than once. I saw one whale that was just showing its back.

Clinometer Blog

1. Spot a whale
2. Hold your clinometer to your eye looking through your eye peice.
3. Have your partner take the reading on the protracter on the outside line.
4. Then you convert it in to feet using the floumal of (ft*dgr*tan=?)

•The graph you created for your data analysis section of your lab write up.

The graph that you see is the number of different breach from the two different observations that the science class did one in March and the other in Januaray.

.

Conclusion

Will we see more whales jump early in the season than later in the season? I hypothesis that there will be more breaches early in the season, because the whale will be more active during this part of the season. There for my hypotheses was sported because I saw more whales breaching early in the season then later in the season.


Some sources of error where the position of the boat, miscounting the whales, difference in the data collection on land vs. off land. Another reason is that the class went observing at different times so the whales where less active.

My experience on the whale watch boat was good because I knew the captian of the boat. I love going on whale watches because you only get to see them for a few months out of the year.

 



Geocaching 11/16/10

1. Introduction to geocaching (be sure to include the website we've used)

www.geocaching.com

Geocaching is were people put prizes in boxes and hide them all over the world. Then they put the coordinates on the website so people know were to look for them.

2.What you learned during the unit
I have learned how to use a GPS a little bit I still don't know how to put in the waypoints. Before this unit I had no idea that there was such a thing about geocaches.

3.Results of your geocache hunts
In my group only 4 out of the 9 toal people worked and help to find the geocaches. We found a total of 1 geocache.
 

Termite Reflection 10/14/10

1.Description of the initial jar set up.
When the class set up the jar we had  one lab jar, 120 termites, one pecice of douglas fir, 19ml of water and 120 grams of sand.



2.Descriptions of changes in the substrate (sand), the wood piece, the moisture content, and the activity level of the termites.

The pecie of wood that was in the jar has holes. In the begining of the lab we had a lot of activity level from the termites and then when we got to the end of the lab we had to activity. The moisture content seamed that it was super wet. There was still the same amount of sand.

3.What did the termites do to everything in the jar?

The termites ate most of the wood that was in the jar. They also made tunnles in the sand.

4.How did human interaction impact the jar? How did the termites react to this impact?

It runied the tunnles got all caved in and runied. The pecie of wood got moved to the bottom of the jar.
5.What did you think of the termite unit? Did you enjoy it? Was it interesting to you? What was your favorite part? What was your least favorite part?

I liked how I learned a lot of new information about termites.  Yes I did injoy the unit. When we got to see the termites gut and when we did the flow the leader lab. When we did the websites of the termites.

Termite Feeding

1.The Pictuers are not from my group we took them from another group. 

2.Define symbiosis as it relates to organisms.

3.Describe the symbiotic relationship between termites and their gut protozoa.
The protoza recieves a home living in the gut and that is how new termites are made.
4.Describe the procedure of our lab. How did we study the protozoa?
We studyed the protozoa by pulling it out of the termite and looking at it under the scope.
5.Include a personal reflection of your experience with the lab.

• Place a drop of saline solution on a microscope slide.
• Gently grab the termite’s head and thorax with a forcep.
• Locate the tip of the abdomen and the end of the termite’s gut.
• With the second forcep, grab and pull out the termite’s gut.
• Place the gut in the saline solution on the microscope slide.
• Slowly lower a cover slip on to the sample and press down gently.
• If there is extra saline solution on the microscope slide, use a paper towel to wipe the slide clean.
• Observe the gut sample under the microscope and complete the laboratory worksheets.

I think that this lab was ok but the one thing that I did not like was my group did not want to work together, insted they jumped right in with out reading the directions.