Ecology Questions

You have learned about the factors that can cause a population of organisms to go up and down. You have also learned about the complex relationships that exists between organisms in their environments. Answer the following questions about ecology.
1.) What is the difference between a food web and a food chain?
2.) In the Food Web game you learned about a producer organism called kelp. What might happen to the rest of the food web if a disease suddenly killed most of the kelp?

Krusty Krabs Breath Mints

Read about the following experiment and answer the three questions at the end.

Mr. Krabs created a secret ingredient for a breath mint that he thinks will “cure” the bad breath people get from eating Krabby Patties at the Krusty Krab. He asked 100 customers with a history of bad breath to try his new breath mint. He had fifty customers (Group A) eat a breath mint after they finished eating a Krabby Patty.
The other fifty (Group B) also received a breath mint after they finished the sandwich, however, it was just a regular breath mint and did not have the secret ingredient. Both groups were told that they were getting the breath mint that would cure their bad breath. Two hours after eating the Krabby Patties, thirty customers in Group A and ten customers in Group B reported having better breath than they normally had after eating crabby patties.

1. What is the independent variable?
2. What is the dependent variable?
3. What were some of the control variables?

New Year

Greetings New 6th Graders!
Welcome to your first week at Colonel Richardson Middle School! I know that coming to a new school can be really exciting and even a little frightening! Don't worry. If you just look around, you will see a whole bunch of kids that are in it with you. You don't know it yet but a lot of those new faces will become old friends before you know it!
This year in science we will be learning about Geology, Physics, The Environment, and Ecology. We will be doing experiments in the lab and investigating lots of different science concepts. I can't wait to start!
My question for you is "What are you most excited about for the coming year?" Please respond to this post during this first week.

What did you do?

Ok, what happened to the summer? I can't believe how quickly time went by!
Even though it seemed short, I had a lot of fun and did a lot of stuff. This summer I had a dream come true when I got to go with my family on a trip to Italy, Croatia, and Greece. We had a great time, especially when I got to climb to the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. While there I got to see the Parthenon along with many of the world's greatest, ancient treasures. I will remember it forever.

Did you go on a special trip this summer? Tell us about it!

Summer Break

Wow! The year seemed to go by so fast. It seems like we just got back from NorthBay and here we are on Summer Vacation already. I'm glad that we all got the chance to know each other during the year. I see so much potential in this group of students and I can't wait to see what you guys do in the future!
I am taking a few week-long classes and my family is going on a cruise of the Greek Isles. We're really excited about this because we have been planning it for a long time.
So, what do you have planned for the summer? Post your comments when you get the chance and don't forget to tell your friends to log on as well.
Have a Great Summer!

Chemistry and Rocks

We recently went from studying geology (rocks) to the study of chemistry (the states of matter.) The states of matter that we learned about are solids, liquids, and gasses. How do you think the two topics are related to each other? Post your response as a group and don't forget to use examples from our experiments and simulations.

Weathering Experiments

You just completed an experiment about weathering. Which experiment did you complete (describe it) and what was your conclusion?