10/31/14

Happy Halloween! This weekend's homework is to write a one page reflection in response to the following - How does climate and geography impact biodiversity? See additional resources below.

Remember that exam corrections will take place on Monday after school. You will have the opportunity to get (some) credit back for multiple choice and/or free response question points that you missed.

Also, the exit card/check-in scheduled for today will take place on Monday.

10/30/14

Tonight's homework is to review your notes for tomorrow's check-in and prepare for your presentation tomorrow. If you are using a Google presentation or Powerpoint, then please share it with me at pwhelton@sof.edu. Thank you.

10/29/14

Tonight's homework is to complete the written documents and presentation for the Biome Mini-Project. See previous posts (and your handouts) for the instructions and some examples.

Biome Mini-Project Resources

Model Food Web, Discussion Question, and Bibliography

Model Presentation

Model Summary

10/28/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 22 and work on the biomes mini-project.

Assignment #22 - Ecosystem Roles Review Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability. Use your notes as a reference. Write in complete sentences for all short answer questions.

1. Use the following information to construct a food web in a meadow ecosystem:

·      Red foxes feed on raccoons, crayfishes, grasshoppers, red clover, meadow voles, and gray squirrels

·      Red clover is eaten by grasshoppers, muskrats, red foxes, and meadow voles

·      Meadow voles, gray squirrels, and raccoons all eat parts of the white oak tree

·      Crayfishes feed on green algae and detritus, and they are eaten by muskrats and red foxes

·      Raccoons feed on muskrats, meadow voles, gray squirrels, and white oak trees

NOTE: Some (not all!) of the organisms have been started for you. Add the rest of the organisms and then use arrows to show the flow of energy between organisms.

 Red fox

          White oak                    Red clover

2. Create a table and identify all of the herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and detritivores in the food web/ecosystem.

3. Which of the members in the food web has the most biomass? Explain why.

4. Describe how the muskrats would be affected if disease kills the white oak trees.

10/27/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 21 and read Chapter 5.1, 5.2, and the Sea Otters case study (p. 81 - 87) in Botkin and Keller. There is also a brief reading here to help you with Assignment 21's questions.

Assignment 21 - “The Day They Parachuted Cats into Borneo” Comprehension and Thinking Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences in the space below

1. Before learning the actual answer, explain how you imagined the course of events that occurred to lead to cats parachuting into Borneo.

2. Read about what actually happened and then summarize the situation.

3. How does this situation relate to our discussion so far/your understanding of ecology?

4. At this point in the unit, what questions do you have about ecosystems?

10/24/14

This weekend's homework is to: find a news article related to ecology from the past year (don't know what ecology is? Well, you are already online so...), read that article, summarize it, explain how it connects to ecology, and then write a bibliography. Your write up will be collected on Monday.

Here is an example of an interesting article.

10/23/14

There is no formal homework - continue to prepare for the second part of the exam and also be sure to finish up the Earth Systems and Resources Exam Warm-Up so that it can be submitted tomorrow.

Earth Systems and Resources Exam Warm-Up

Why is Earth habitable?

Use your notes and accumulated knowledge to develop and support a claim as to why the Earth is able to serve as a home and support life as we know it. NOTE: Your claim itself is not being assessed nor should you posit a counterclaim.

	Mastery – 4	Proficient – 3	Satisfactory – 2	Needs Revision – 1
Support of claim	Thoroughly supports claim(s) with several detailed, convincing, specific reasons/pieces of evidence	Supports claim(s) with multiple detailed, specific reasons/pieces of evidence	Supports claim(s) with multiple reasons/pieces of evidence but they are lacking in detail or specificity	Supports claim(s) with reasons/ evidence that are not convincing due to lack of detail, specificity, or clarity OR not having enough pieces of evidence to support each claim
Demonstrates knowledge	Consistently demonstrates deep knowledge of material in readings by constantly: using vocabulary, explaining examples clearly, incorporating statistics, etc.	Consistently demonstrates knowledge of material in readings by: using vocabulary, explaining examples clearly, incorporating statistics, etc and minor errors or occasions for further explanation may be present	Demonstrates knowledge of material in readings by using vocabulary, etc. but with multiple errors, a glaring error, or lack of detail	Does not demonstrate sufficient knowledge of material from readings through errors or lack of usage/explanation.

10/22/14

Tonight's homework is just to study and finish preparing for tomorrow's exam on Earth Systems and Resources. You can work on/complete the Exam Warm Up if you choose, but your priority should be studying for the actual exam. See the previous posts for resources.

10/21/14

Good trip today. Tonight's homework is to finish up Assignments 19 and 20. If you need any help or feel as though you missed something from the exhibits, then please check the following:

Hall of Planet Earth
Hall of North American Mammals

Assignment #19 - AMNH Visit – Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability. Take notes for the first two questions and then write in complete sentences for #3.

1. How has the Earth evolved? How do we know? (Check Sections 1, 2, and 5 on your map.)

  

2. How has the Earth’s atmosphere changed over time? How do we know? (Check Section 1 on your map.)

3. Why is the Earth habitable? (Check Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 on your map. That was helpful!)

Assignment #20 - AMNH Visit – Hall of North American Mammals

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability. You are visiting this hall in order to learn more about different types of biomes (areas with similar climates), the organisms that inhabit them, how they interact, and how they are impacted by humans. Eventually you and your group will be writing and presenting this information (and more) to your class.

Your assigned biome: _______________________________

Search the hall and look for organisms that inhabit your biome. Record any interesting/relevant information.

Note-taking space (flora, fauna, geographic features, locations, adaptations, sketches, diagrams, etc.)

 How have humans impacted this biome?

How does the geography of your biome affect the diversity of the organisms within it?

Earth Systems and Resources Exam Study Prep

There was some demand for more practice questions, so here you go.

Practice Geology and Earth Resources questions
Practice Air, Weather, and Climate questions

Today, I mentioned that it would be advantageous to look over today's Powerpoint. Click here to do so (a lot of it looks like garbage/gibberish until you download it as a .ppt - if you can't just keep scrolling... the important stuff is more towards the end).

10/20/14

Tonight's homework is to prepare for tomorrow's field to trip to the American Museum of Natural History (and, of course, continue to prepare for Thursday and Friday's exam). You will prepare by watching and reading the following:

The Rise of Oxygen and "An Ode to O," "Earth Without Oxygen," and "Life Makes a Mark."
Restoring Dioramas in Hall of North American Mammals and Modeling Animals in Habitat Dioramas

REMEMBER that we will be meeting to leave for the museum at 12:30pm tomorrow on the 2nd floor out of the auditorium.

Earth Systems and Resources Topics list

Woohoo! Get excited! Below is a list of topics to become experts on for next week's exam. The topics are arranged in order of relative importance (expect the topics on top to appear more often on the exam). Good luck.

•        Plate tectonics – causes, consequences
•        Properties and characteristics of soil – soil horizons and their characteristics, types of soils, nutrients – N/P/K, humus, sand, clay, silt, permeability
•        Composition of Earth – layers of Earth and characteristics of each - crust, mantle, inner/outer core, lithosphere, asthenosphere
•        Human impact upon soils – fertilizers and runoff, salinization, erosion – and how to combat them
•        Composition of Earth’s atmosphere – organization, chemical composition
•        Weather and climate – convection, weather v. climate, Coriolis effect, greenhouse effect
•        Rock cycle – types of rocks, their characteristics, and how they form
•        Carbon cycle – sources, sinks, fluxes
•        Volcanoes – types of volcanoes and characteristics, connection to plate tectonics
•        Earthquakes – P and S waves, Richter scale, how earthquakes are measured
•        Properties of water – polarity, specific heat, cohesion/adhesion, expansion in solid form
•        Requirements for life
•        History of Earth and mass extinctions

10/17/14

This weekend's homework to

1. STUDY for the unit exam on Thursday and Friday
2. get your permission slip signed for Tuesday's trip to AMNH
3. complete Assignment 17. If necessary, use the links below to improve (or create) your notes to a level that allows you to more easily answer the questions.

Prehistoric Timeline
Big Five mass extinction events

ALSO! Mr. Z forwarded info about this interesting competition... it involves writing about sustainability (basically). Hmm, I wonder who could be good at that? Here's the relevant info.

Assignment #17 Early Earth and Extinction Practice Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability. Use the questions to generate some basic notes about the early Earth and use the links on the website/your textbook as resources. Write in complete sentences where appropriate.

1. Which of the following puts the events below in proper chronological order?

A. The formation of the Rocky Mountains

B. The formation of the Appalachian Mountains

C. The Pleistocene Ice Ages

D. The Holocene Epoch

E. The Precambrian Era

A. E, B, A, C, D                                                 D. C, E, A, B, D

B. A, E, B, C, D                                                 E. C, B, E, A, D

C. A, B, E, D, C

2. The Mesozoic Era was also known as the Age of

A. Mammals                                                   D. Fishes

B. Reptiles                                                       E. Invertebrates

C. Amphibians

3. The first atmosphere on Earth was most likely composed of

A. H₂ and He                                                    D. O₂ and CO₂

B. H₂ and O₂                                                     E. NH₃ and O₂

C. He and O₂

4. What process causes gases such as CO₂, SO₂ Cl₂, NH₃, and CH₄ to form in Earth’s early atmosphere?

A. Photosynthesis                                            D. Evapotranspiration

B. Animal respiration                                      E. Chemical weathering

C. Volcanic outgassing

5. Define extinction and provide an example.

6. The largest mass extinction occurred during which period?

A. Pleistocene                                                 D. Permian

B. Creatceous                                                  E. Devonian

C. Triassic

7. Ten thousand years ago, a mass extinction affected primarily

A. bacteria                                                      D. rodents

B. phytoplankton                                             E. invertebrates

C. large mammals

8. The last six hundred million years have seen _________ major extinctions.

A. 2                                                                  D. 5

B. 3                                                                  E. 6

C. 4

9. Which of the following was the geologic era when the dinosaurs roamed Earth?

A. Jurassic                                                       D. Mesozoic

B. Paleozoic                                                     E. Cretaceous

C. Cenozoic

10. Describe the Cambrian explosion.

11. Explain the Earth’s atmosphere changed from one that contained almost no oxygen to its current state where it is over one-fifth oxygen.

12. What possible benefits could mass extinctions have had for life on Earth?

10/16/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 16 and review your notes. Additionally, you should get your permission slip signed - provided you received one (sorry, 12BD). If you so choose, you can print a permission slip here.

Assignment #16 Soil Characteristic Investigation – Day 4 Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences in your LAB NOTEBOOK.

Activity 3 – Analysis of Free Ions (Soil Nutrients)

1. Make inferences and draw conclusions based on your observations and data. Support these inferences by referring to your data. Be specific.

2. Make inferences and draw conclusions based on observations and data conducted by other groups about other soil nutrients. Support these inferences by referring to the data. Be specific.

3. Using data and observations from all of the activities, make a well-informed prediction about the what the ideal soil composition would be to maximize productivity in plants. You will actually be producing soil and will have available to you: humus, sand, silt (from sifted potting soil) clay, potting soil. Remember that quality hypotheses are specific, measurable, and supported by rationale.

4. How do soils become depleted of their nutrients?

5. What can be done about nutrient depletion in soil?

Class Results

	Local Soil	Potting Soil
pH	7.0	6.0
Nitrogen	Low	High
Phosphorus	Low	Medium
Potassium	High	Medium

10/14/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 15. To do so, you may need the help of today notes found here (you may want to download the file if possible since there is some useful information in the notes sections of some slides).

Assignment #15 - Soil Practice and Comprehension Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability and in complete sentences when appropriate. There are multiple choice questions on the back.

1. You are a honey badger. You don’t care. But then you died, so it’s more like you were a honey badger and you didn’t care.

One day, your nitrogen and iron will become part of herbivores (and possibly beyond!). Describe the processes necessary and the paths involved that would bring your nitrogen and iron from you, into the soil, and then into other organisms.

NOTE: Out of respect/fear, scavengers left you alone. Only decomposers interacted with your earthly shell.

2. Explain how humans rely on soil (either directly or indirectly).

_______ 3. Which of the following types of soil listed below contains the highest amount of nutrients?

A. clay                                                             D. gravel

B. silt                                                               E. loam

C. sand

_______ 4. Poor nutrient-holding capacity, good water infiltration capacity, and good aeration properties are examples of what type of particle found in soil?

A. Clay                                                             D. Loam

B. Silt                                                               E. Humus

C. Sand

_______ 5. The horizon of soil also known as the topsoil layer, that contains humus, minerals, and roots, and that is rich in living organisms is known as the

A. A layer                                                        D. D layer

B. B layer                                                        E. O layer

C. C layer

_______ 6. The formation of soil is influenced by all of the following EXCEPT

A. time.                                                           D. slope.

B. climate.                                                       E. farming.

C. parent material.

_______ 7. Which of the following factors does NOT influence a soil’s ability to hold water, nutrients, and air?

A. Soil texture                                                 D. Soil structure

B. Soil composition                                         E. Soil pH

C. Soil porosity

_______ 8. Soil forms as a result of which of the following processes?

A. Erosion of weathered material

B. Movement of material due to gravity

C. Movement of worms and burrowing mammals in the soil

D. Weathering of bedrock

E. Compaction and cementation of sediment

10/10/14

This weekend's homework is to complete Assignment 13 (whatever is remaining from Thursday/today in class) and Assignment 14. It is also strongly suggested that you use the long weekend to begin preparing for the unit exam on Thursday and Friday, October 23rd and 24th. Look over notes, old assessments, and assignments and/or construct flash cards or study guides to put yourself in the best position possible.

Assignment #14 - Soil Characteristic Investigation – Day 3 Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences in your LAB NOTEBOOK.

Activity 5 – Particle Size Distribution

1. What do you think is composition of soils that naturally occur in New York City (as naturally as anything occurs in NYC)? For example, is it sandy loam or silty clay or clay? Use your notes and data from previous parts of the investigation for assistance.

2a. A soil sample is collected, analyzed, and determined to contain 30% sand and 20% clay. According to the soil composition chart in your notes, how should this soil be classified? How much silt is present in the sample?

2b. Another soil sample is collected and analyzed, but all that can be detected is that it is comprised of 60 percent clay. How should it be classified?

3. What is loam and why is it desirable?

4. Make inferences based on your observations and data. Evaluate your hypothesis as well. Support these inferences by referring to your data. Be specific.

Reading

Read “Human Activities Triggering “Global Soil Change” and “High Prices Sow Seeds of Erosion” via the class website and answer the question below.

5. How have human activities impact soils and their quality worldwide?

Activity 4 – Determination of Soil Permeability

	Dry Sample		Wet Sample
	Time for first drop	Time for entire sample	Time for first drop	Time for entire sample
Sand	1:09 0:55 1:07	2:29 4:02 7:55	0:02.1 0:04 0:10	8:03.57 6:15
Clay	5:19 5:38	unknown	3:00
Humus	0:17 0:03 0:12	:37	0:30 0:18	8:34
Local Soil	0:25 0:14 0:20	1:17 1:54 1:10	0:05	10:00

Activity 5 - Particle Size Distribution and Soil Type

Depth of Clay Layer - 5 mm

Depth of Silt Layer - 6 mm

Depth of Sand Layer - 18 mm

Total Depth - 29 mm

% Clay = ?

% Silt = ?

% Sand = ?

Soil Type = ? 

10/9/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 13, but only the questions for the activities you completed in class today. There will be time allotted tomorrow to finish any remaining questions.

Assignment #13 Soil Characteristic Investigation – Day 2 Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences in your LAB NOTEBOOK.

Activity 1 – Water-Holding Capacity and Capillary Action of Soil

1. Explain which type of soil could be added to the local soil you are using in order to…

a. improve its ability to hold water.

b. decrease its ability to retain water.

2. Thoroughly analyze your data – produce a graph, evaluate your hypothesis and support your conclusions by referring to data/calculations.

Activity 4 – Determination of Soil Permeability

3. Make inferences based on your observations and data. Support these inferences by referring to your data. Be specific.

4. Now explain what happened to produce your observations and data. Connect the observations/data to your notes and reading about porosity, permeability, different types of soil particles, etc.

5. Imagine a sloping field of sandy soil and a sloping field of soil with a high clay content, each with an identical drainage ditch at the bottom. After a prolonged, heavy downpour, which ditch would be more likely to be flooded? Explain.

6. Most plants need water to penetrate the soil. What soil particle type could be added to your local soil sample in order to increase the soil’s permeability? Support your answer.

Activity 1 – Water Holding Capacity and Capillary Action of Soil

	Clay	Sand	Humus	Local Soil
1. Weight of Empty Column	3.1	3.1	3.1	3.1
2. Weight of Column and Soil	16.9	22.9	14.6	13.8
3. Weight of Soil	13.8	21.4	13.0	10.6
4. Weight of Column and Saturated Soil	27.1	28.6	20.9	19.9
5. Weight of Water	10.2	6.0	5.2	6.7
6. Water Holding Capacity	.7	.3	.4	.6