Day Two

Day Two Observations

Today we noticed that all of our chambers had condensation within them. The aquatic and decomposition chambers had more condensation than the terrestrial chamber. All of our creatures are still alive in the aquatic chamber also. Our plants look healthy. Today we added a 1 cm land bug into our aquatic chamber.

DayTwo of Ecocolumn

Today we observed our ecocolumn and found that it had some condensation forming in the chambers. The air hole had no condensation around them and we assessed that to the fact of temperature change. The water level was measured at 10 cm in height. The animal life was still alive and kicking. The plant leaves were folded up but remained green in color. I look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings.

Day Two July 11

Today, we observed our eco-column to notice changes that have occurred. The biggest change that was evident is the amount of condensation throughout the column. Since the system is partially closed, the water that has evaporated or transpired from the plants is collecting on the sides of the bottle. It is difficult to see inside of the column due to the amount of condensation present. We added a small land bug to the terrestrial ecosystem today. It is bright green and can fly. It is about 1 cm in length.

Day One Ecosystem

Day One

To construct the ecosystem you need the following supplies:

• five clean two-liter bottles with caps
• scissors
• push pin or awl
• clear tape
• soil, water, plants, compost, small snails, spiders, worms, etc

The directions for constructing the system can be found in my MSP EARTH Science binder or in the book Bottle Biology.

Our aquatic layer contained water from the Mandeville Water Treatment outdoor water garden. We also included 2 minnows, a snail, duckweed, and other aquatic vegetation. In our composting layer we had layers of soil and humus. Our top terrestrial layer contained soil and several small plants. We then placed our ecosystem in a window careful to avoid direct sunlight.

Building an Ecosystem

Building an Ecosystem

Building an ecosystem will enable students to define observe a working unit made up of organisms interacting with each other and with other nonliving factors. This is an excellent activity for meeting the fifth grade grade-level expectations for Unit 5 Ecosystems.

The following website has excellent directions for constructing an ecocolumn along with detailed lesson ideas.

http://www.tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=3152

Ecocolumns

We created ecocolumn in class. This is a great way to use cooperative grouping and engage your students in your science class. I have used the bottle biology in my classroom and have had great success with it. The two problems I have incurred was lack of space and limited time. I look forward to the results.

Creating an eco-column is a great way to get kids interested and involved in learning about ecosystems first hand. In the fifth grade comprehensive curriculum, Unit 5 on Ecosystems, there is an opportunity to use eco-columns. Students set up an ecosystem and try to keep it balanced for two weeks. Once they have made many observations and are able to recognize the living and non-living components of an ecosystem, they try to pollute it or see what happens if they remove one of the essential components of the ecosystem. I am anxious to see how everyone's ecocolumns evolve over time. This will give me valuable information for helping my students understand what is happening in their own ecosystems.

Observation: Day One--we have a tadpole, two minnows, and a snail in the aquatic part of our ecosystem. In addition, we have some duckweed and submerged aquatic vegetation. Unfortunately, we have lots of algae that will probably negatively affect the amount of dissolved oxygen in the bottom of the eco-column over time. We will see.....
In the second layer, we have a composting layer with layers of soil, humus, and more soil. We also have a small larva of some sort. We have plants in the terrestrial layer and are ready to go! It looks healthy today!