Archive of ‘Science’ category

Plant Blog Post #4

A seed pod is a pod and inside, it has black seeds. It also has a shell that protects the seeds inside. It grows near the pistil on a flower. It’s sometimes skinny and sometimes fat. The pod is green.

The plant cycle is: First, the seed gets planted. Next, it grows with water and sunlight. When the plant grows leaves, it will use photosynthesis to give itself food. The roots find water underground. When the flower part of the plant grows, pollinators (Bees, butterflies, etc.) come and pollinate the flower. The sticky pollen sticks to the pollinator and when the pollinator goes to the next flower or plant, that’s called pollinating. After that plant gets pollinated, the petals fall of and the plant dies. The seeds stick on the petal and the plant cycle goes all over again.

Yesterday, my group and I picked seed pods from the Wisconsin Fast Plants and today, we opened the seed pods. We got six seeds from the seed pods. Yesterday, we dried the seed pod under a lamp so today, it would be easier for us to open the seed pods. We picked out two  big seed pods from our plant. I wonder, What if the Wisconsin Fast Plant is in nature? How will the seeds come out of the pod?

Plant Blog Post #3

We pollinated our plants for a few days with our fingers and q-tips and now we have a seed pod. At first I thought it was a very long pistil but my teacher told us that it’s a seed pod. We have 11 seed pods. Most of them are tiny though.

For our Controlled quad, it grew a lot. Even though cell 2, 3 and 4 are growing a lot, cell 1 it going to snap soon and are losing leaves. We didn’t break it because a few weeks ago, we thought it was going to snap but it didn’t snap. We have 1 seed pod in cell 3. It’s about 2 centimeters tall. We have many flowers in this quad. For our Manipulated quad, we still watered the dead cells but so far, it’s not doing anything. Cell 3’s tallest measurement is 8 centimeters tall.

I think what will happen next is our Controlled quad’s plants will grow a lot, cell 1 in the Controlled quad won’t snap and cell 3 in the Manipulated quad will still survive.

Plant Blog Post #2

For our Controlled quad, our tallest plant is about 11 centimeters tall. The leaves and stem is green and the flower is yellow. The most flowers we have are 3. At the beginning, our tallest was probably 2 centimeters tall. Our plants grew about 9 centimeters tall throughout the weeks. I think that the yellow flower is a Buttercup or Sunflower. Some of our plants are going to snap soon.

For our Manipulated quad, cell 1, 2 and 4 is dead. Only cell 3 is surviving. I think this happened because we have really little soil in the Manipulated quad. The tallest measurement for that cell is 13 centimeters tall. It has a tiny flower that is yellow and the stem and leaves are green. In the beginning, the tallest was about 6 centimeters tall. Our plants grew about 7 centimeters tall throughout the weeks.

The outcome are a few yellow flowers. The yellow flowers bloomed from the buds. I think this outcome happened because of the seeds, water and sunlight. Also, photosynthesis.

Plant Blog Post #1

My class and I are learning about plants in our science unit we’re doing right now. We learned a lot. I am with a group of three girls, including me. Our scientific question for this experiment is: What is the effect of having less soil on plant growth? Our hypothesis is: If we put less soil in the cells, then the plant won’t grow as high everyday because the plant doesn’t have enough soil. Our controlled quad is normal. We are manipulating the soil.

We have two quads. One quad is controlled and one quad is manipulated. Controlled means that everything is the same. Manipulated is where we change one thing in the process. We have four cells in each quad. Everytime we water the cells, we took note of what was happening. For our Controlled quad, the tallest plant is 2 centimeters tall. The color of the plant is green. Our Manipulated quad’s plants are 3 centimeters taller. What we changed in our Manipulated quad was the amount of soil. It turned out to be taller than I thought.

Maglev Post #3

Our first design on the track was to use strip magnets, 4-6 each and in a row to fill the track. Our first design on our train was to use disc magnets, 1-2 each and put them on opposite sides.

One of our problems was that the train magnets weren’t lined up with the track magnets so we lined up the magnets on the train with the magnets on the track. We looked at the track and the train to do it.

For our final design, for the tracks, we used strip magnets like our first design, 6 of them and 3 on the long sides. For the train, we used strip magnets instead of disc magnets, 2 of them and 1 on two opposite sides. Our model worked because our magnets on the train lined up with the magnets on the track, our train levitated and our train moved across the track with the rocks in a paper cup safely and efficiently.

We were excited in the beginning because we never made a model of a maglev train. We were frustrated a lot in the middle and the end of the process because sometimes our magnets attracted when it was suppose to repel. And also, a lot of times, the train couldn’t levitate across the track.

Technology is…

You might think that all technology is electronics but you’re wrong. What makes technology is stuff that people created to solve problems and make things easier and helpful to do.

My object is a paperclip. It’s bendable and at both of the ends, they’re pointy. The paperclip is also really light, it’s smooth and colored. The paperclip is technology because it helps to put things together so if you have a few pieces of paper, you just slip it on in the middle and the pieces of paper will stay together. It makes life better because it helps organize things and put pieces of paper together.

The paperclip is made out of metal.

This is the paperclip I had.

 

Maglev Post #2

What we did today that worked was that we got the magnets on the track to line up with the magnets on the train. Before we figured out that we had to do that, our magnets on our track attracted with the magnets on the train. We needed like poles and since the magnets are not labeled, we needed to find a system. So we marked the tape on the magnets with stars so we would know which side would repel and which side would attract. We also got the train to levitate a little higher with some more strip magnets.

What we did today that failed was that we tried to put some magnets on the side the train was going to on the attract side and a few magnets on the beginning of the track on the repel side. We thought the magnets on the repel side would give a push to the train and the train would get attracted to the magnets on the attract side so the train would move there, but that didn’t work. I learned from my failure that we needed stronger magnetic forces.

My goals for the next session is to get the train to move to the other side with a slight push and for the train to not tip over.

This is my group with our maglev model.

Maglev Train Post #1

A maglev train is a train that works on magnets. It levitates and goes really fast. The maglev train levitates because of magnets. The magnets on the track repels with the magnets on the train. My group’s idea was to put 4-6 strip magnets on the track and 1-2 disc magnets on the train.

Today, we made our train levitate. Before, we got it to levitate but then one of our group members wanted to tape the magnet on the train and after she did that, we couldn’t make it levitate again. But we couldn’t make the maglev train move with a slight push.

The challenging part was to make the train levitate, then it was making the train move with a slight push. What worked well was that my group got to make our train levitate on the train track. Also, we all worked together so that was the best part. I think this activity is really fun.

This is my group’s sketch for our maglev train. Mrs. Maglevs is our group name.

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