Field Day at the Aboretum

Task: To find plant species, temperatures, and describe the environment in the Desert, the Woodland, and Tropical Rain Forest.  All of this, done at the CSU, Fullerton Arboretum.

What an adventure! It was my first time at the Aboretum and my-oh-my! there are a lot of really interesting plants there!  We observed some of the plants in the region to see what kind of qualities they have.  Then we took the temperature of the soil at ground level, 1-inch deep, and 1 meter up.  Technically there would be greater differences in temperature if we were really in the different biomes, however, because we were in the same city, about 2-300 feet away from each of the ecosystems, there weren't too drastic of a difference.

We also looked around to see what kinds of animal life are present in each of the areas.  We realized that there were a lot more birds and bees in the Desert region than in the Woodlands, however spider webs were present everywhere.

Here are some pictures of what we saw. 

A fig tree that is specific to India and Pakistan

 Aloe Vera plants close to the desert

 Large leaves, typical of plants in the Tropical Rain Forest where they always try to catch some water or sunlight in order to survive.

You can also click here to see the powerpoint presentation of our morning in the arboretum.

Today in Science, we made a podcast about Conor the Conifer.  We went around campus taking pictures of a tree that we were interested in.  The pictures were broken down into 100%, 50%, 25%, 20%, 15%, 10%, 5%, 2%, 1%, and then microscopic zoomed photos using a proscope.   The computers were able to take pictures of what we saw.

We recorded the sound/voice-over using Audacity - a program that I have never used before.  Then we used iMovie to put everything together.  It's really exciting!  I'll hopefully post the end-product on the blog soon enough.

A Comparison of 2nd and 5th grade Science Standards

Meaning of Science

The definition of science is definitely something different for everyone.  For me, science really is everything that encompasses our lives - from Aspirin to Zip-lining down a hill in Hawaii.  All of these things required some form of science, some form of observation, experimentation, reproduction of facts and results.

I will soon add the cover of my composition book to show you just exactly what science means to me.  Until then, happy exploration and observation!