Mr. Jamie Watts Presents

Last week we had an amazing guest speaker in our Grade 7 classroom to talk about his experiences in both the Arctic and Antarctic poles.



After his presentation, you all created a food web in your notebooks or online and posted them to your blog. I would like you to now create a new post OR go back to your blog post and write a reflection about the various things you learned about these two amazing ecosystems and how all the organisms there interact to ensure their species survival.

Points to discuss:

• What interactions between these animals did you notice? (For example, think about these various forms of interactions that you have been studying for your project: producers, consumers, decomposers, predation, commensalism, parasitism, mutualism)
  
• Why do animals migrate? (What is occurring within their environment that triggers this response?)
  
• How do animals know when it's right to reproduce? What conditions are they looking for?
  
• When do most large animals reproduce? What does it depend on?
  
• What adaptations did the animals exhibit in the polar region? (For example: body shape, appendages, wing span, food, coloration, stream-lined bodies, teeth, beaks, blubber, fur, group formations, hooks on tentacles, etc...)
• What various (breeding) mating rituals do species have?
  
• How do they ensure survival of their species? (Feeding, reproduction-production rates/birth rates/death risks, growth, etc...
• How did this presentation provide examples of what we have been studying?
  
• What are you wondering about now?
  
• How did Mr. Watts help tie in everything that we have been discussing during this unit?

If you want to find out more of what Mr. Watts does and is still doing, here is a Website I found. :)
http://www.quarkexpeditions.com/why-quark/our-people/expedition-team/jamie-watts

*When you have finished your own response, visit at least 4 other classmates blogs and see what they have reflected upon, once you do this go back and comment on your own blog with additions to make to your primary blog post. Questions to help you: What did you notice that other classmates talked about? How did they structure their writing? What ideas did you forget that they reminded you of? What did they write that sparked your own thinking? What did you like about your own writing?

Current Events

This week we will begin with reading science news and learning how to find the main idea of articles.

Choose one of the articles below, copy and past it in as a hyperlink into your blog.
Go to Moodlic and log into your Grade 7 Science Course.
Go to this week in Moodlic and there you will find the current event guidelines for weekly blog entries. Be sure to follow these guidelines.
Be prepared to discuss the impact of this type of scientific advancement on society.
You should take notes in your notebook and I encourage you to use a graphic organizer to organize your ideas as well as your writing. When you have finished, publish your summary and reflection in a new blog post on your science blog as well as the link.

James Bond-like Worms?!
http://www.sciencecastle.com/sc/index.php/home/james_bond_like_worms_discovered_in_deep_sea

Pea-sized Amphibians?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825094915.htm

The Oily Gulf Disaster
http://sciencenewsforkids.org/articles/20100602/Note2.asp

Tobacco Plant gives no Mercy to Predators!
http://www.eurekalert.org/features/kids/2010-08/aaft-wpc082010.php

Dirt! to the Rescue

Click on the link below to go to the Science Daily website. Read the article about soil.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2008/0711-saving_marshes__saving_the_planet.htm

Read the article above and write a reflection about it in your blog post. Discuss the impact of this type of scientific advancement on habitats and ecosystems.

Ecosystem Organization

Go to the website below to read about the difference between an ecosystem and biome. In your blog, create a table, or venn diagram to show the similarities and differences between them. Today, we will investigate how Ecosystems are organized.

http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/ecosystems.html

As you saw from the various animals in the film 'SURVIVAL', survival is based upon individuals adapting to their environments and utilizing the resources to the best of their abilities. Below is a list of 8 different ecosystems

	Tropical rain forest
	Subtropical savannas
	Deserts and semi-deserts
	Temperate grasslands
	Oceans and Seas
	Temperate forests
	Coniferous forests
	Alpine and polar regions You will be assigned an ecosystem in your class. The top four are for 7A to complete and the bottom four are for 7B to complete. Your task is to work with partner to create a concept map on poster paper to show how many habitats are within that specific ecosystem. Begin with the name of your ecosystem and then sprout out with the various habitats. Think back to the book I read you called "The Salamander Room" How many different habitats did the boy have in his room in the end? This is what you should find out. In the end, you will write a post about the similarities and differences between the various ecosystems and their habitats. Here is a link that may help you. http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org Questions to guide your project: What regions of the world is your ecosystem found in? (What about the climate?) What populations live in your ecosystem? What organisms interact with each other? (Who are the consumers, predators, decomposers?) What are the 3 types of interaction among species within the ecosystem? (For example: predation, competition, symbiosis (mutualism, commensalism, parasitism) What adaptations do these animals have? How does it help them to survive?

Living Things and the Environment

After reading the section on living things and the Environment in your textbook, apply your knowledge to answer the following questions in a new blog post on your blog. What needs are met by an organism's environment? What are the two parts of an organism's habitat with which it interacts? What are the levels of organization within an ecosystem? Why do you find different kinds of organisms in different habitats? Think about what will soon start happening within Belgrade. How do animals prepare for such a change?

Now, search for and embed a video showing a living thing in its environment. What would happen if we took away one or more of the living or nonliving factors in its environment? Which factors could they survive without?

Look at (at least) two of your classmates blog posts. Respond to them in their comments section under their post about either their answers to the questions or the video they have posted. Email me the names of the classmates who you respond to.

Blog Introduction

This blog will be used to post assignments for you to access such as videos, articles, podcasts, etc... After viewing your assignment on this blog, you will then respond in a new post on your own blog. I encourage you to use your own background knowledge of the topics we study throughout the year as well as your newly learned vocabulary when completing assignments.