POND PREVIEW

[Sean Nash]

In the space below, reflect on and extend your learning from our last session. I thought we did a really nice job of connecting to the knowledge we already possess on this topic. Not only did we collaborate well in our immediate groups, but we learned other approaches from the other groups in the room. Today, we will take this experience and head into more specific and precise territory via the web.

In the space below, talk about our shared experience in connecting to the freshwater pond ecosystem. What did you learn that was completely new to you? What came up that reminded you of something that you already knew, but hadn't thought about in years?

Then, after diving into the web, and researching more specific characteristics of this ecosystem... what sort of things did you individually (as well as collectively) did you forget, or not think about at all? How accurate was your food web diagram for a pond in our area? Based on what you know about trophic pyramids, what do you expect to actually find in our pond, and it what numbers? What other information needs to be considered before heading to the actual pond to collect data?

How can you tell an ecologically healthy pond from one that isn't? Are there differences in natural vs. man-made ponds? What data do you think we will be able to collect in our lab next week? What other valuable ecological data might not be feasible for us to collect that day?

For the second part of your response, respond about your actual pond experience at Western.
How did actually visiting the pond create a different learning experience for you? What did your pond experience solidify or confirm about your prior expectations? What new learning did you experience? What did you think about the actual techniques we used to learn about the pond? What would you have liked to learn that you didn't get to experience? Remember...we would love to see any of the pictures that you took during our trip last time.

[Amanda Dixon]

when we had our first pond discussion I learned a few new things. When we were first drawing our ponds I didn't think about all the little things that were in the pond that make up a good portion of the pond. Our food diagram was okay but we had a few mistakes in it.

when I looked of the packet you gave us i saw some interesting animals that i never thought about.

When we went to the pond I saw a lot of cool things. I caught i really little fish with really big eyes. I caught a ton of tadpoles and larve. I had 2 dragon flies to!

I never new how many little bugs and small things were in pond. I found all kinds of small bugs and crawling things.

when we looked and some of our water samples I was surprised to find all the little thing moving around in it i had no idea that there were little things like that.

I wish we could of caught some bigger fish and had a chance to look at them I also wish we could of had a frog to look at.

[leigh holland]

As you probably already know i am from Florida, therefore i really haven't been around fresh water or even ponds for that matter. I really don't know what to expect to be in a pond. On the drawing of a pond and on the food web of a pond i was really lost. I wasn't sure what to put in a pond or food web of a pond. The obvious things in a pond were easy, like fish cattails, bugs, and trees. But what really got me was what kind of fish or trees or bugs there are.

The food web was a little bit easier for me, it isn't that hard to imagine what can eat what. The arrows were the hardest to remember witch way they go. Like how the fly goes into the frogs mouth, the arrow goes into the frog. I have a lot to learn about ponds. Not only whats in them but what is around them to. Wondering what is in a pond has never been a priority of mine. I never realized how much i didn't know about a pond until we had this project.

I personally think this whole pond learning experiment is a great idea. It made us have to stretch our knowledge to see how much we really know. It also gave us an opportunity to learn as much about a pond as we possible can. Not to mention knowing whats in a pond could very well come in handy someday. To have chances to compare real life things to science is what i need. I don't really get science but projects like this will help me out tremendously.

[Hunter Ewart]

The only time i bothered to go to a pond was for fishing so going there for an experiment so that was really different. I really liked the way we used the groups and sorted through the information together. I would of liked to learn more about the trail and do another experiment with that because that was fun.

[Sean Grinstead]

In biology class we got into groups and drew on a paper what kinds of things would be in a pond. We put fish, turtles, frogs, bugs, ducks, geese, and other various plants. we drew it form a top down view. We had to do a food web and write what we think the population is. we put that the fish and everything would be about the same.

I think we were pretty accurate with both but not exactly correct with everything. we put lots of fish and plants but there really wouldn't be so many fish compared to the amount of plants and bugs because the amount of food available wouldn't be sufficient for the amount of fish. so, the amount of food available corresponds directly with the amount of food that is available, One of the other groups brought micro-organisms to my mind, I hadn't thought of that before and another group drew it from a side view. it brought a completely different dimensions to the way they could draw there ecosystem. I expect to find less of the 3rd order or "apex prediters" , a medium amount of the 2nd order and an abundance of primary order, or producers because the producers give energy to the secondary and the secondary give energy to the the primary so essentially the producers give energy to the whole ecosystem.

The pond experience was pretty awesome I got there late and I guess the were helping this person trap birds and tag them. They caught a cardinal and some of our kids got to hold it and it was one of the meanest birds that they caught. Anyways, this created a different leaning experience because it was as hands on as could be. it was also cool because we got to look at the things we collected under the micro-scope. It was `primary learning because we did everything ourselves. we even tested the amount of oxygen that was in the water. We put plankton nets in the water and then we put bigger nets in the water. We caught lots of tad poles. we didn't have enough time to look at what we caught but we did catch a dragonfly nymph. We watched a video o one catching a small fish it was nuts.

it was a great experience because we got to go to a pond and actually study what we collected. instead of looking it up on the internet and stuff like that.

[Coleman Wade Babcock]

here is my first post!!!!! (sorry about the lateness) ANYWAYS>>>>>>>..... The other day in class i learned how the food pyramid was set up. before that i always had it backwards. i always thought that the arrow designates what eats what so if i would have done it like that than i would have had a plant eat a fish...

Now my group was heat. we nailed the pond food diagram on the head. (even the mutant fish)

you can tell a healthy pond from an unhealthy pond by the amount of trash in it or by the life in it. the differances between man made ponds and natural ponds is how they stay full. man made ponds normally are filled with rain or water is pumped in and natural ponds are filled by either creeks or springs that fill up from underground.

PART TWOO!!!!!

WELLL i learned alot from our experiance at the pond. I never realized how many different organisms could be in such a close vicinity. there were tadpoles with fish, fish with bugs, bugs wth plants, and more. I also learned that bugs are everywhere in ponds. I dug up alot of dirt and found a bug all the way in the middle of the mud....... (i will finish later)

[Coleman Wade Babcock]

i found bugs crawling an inch deep through the mud. i even found a shrimp.... i only thought that shrimp were found in oceans and such but i never figured there wold be a shrimp in a little man made pond

I

[Sean Grinstead]

heres the link to our presentaion
http://docs.google.com/a/students.sjsd.k12.mo.us/present/edit?id=0A...

[Aziz Siddikov]

I found out a lot of things about pond. I don't think that if we didn't go to the pond we would learn so much. Only the fact that we at front of the real pond made this class special. Visiting the real pond is much better than just setting in the classroom, look in picture and hardly understand what the pond is look like.

As for me as a exchange student, who hardly speak in English, it was a good opportunity to learn little bit more. I hardly understand what it is talking about for example in the book. I must read couple times to understand, but in nature it was exallent.

I knew that it is o lot of microbs. bit when we took samples of the pond water and look it in the microscope i find something like eleven types of microbs.

[Ally S]

When we went out to Missouri Western, it was so much fun, and probably my favorite assignment. :)

When we were in the woods, I didn't realize how many different trees could be in such a small area. Each tree in our 30 meter radius was a different species, and it made me wonder how they got there.

There was also a number of visual differences in the trees. For example, there was moss on some trees, and there wasn't on others. I also noticed the difference in the bark. On one tree, the bark was incredibly soft and mushy. while other bark was hard and easily breakable. Some of the trees had "knots" in them, like this one.

While others, did not.

Randomly off topic, there were also many types of berries that I noticed. The red ones, I think were poisonous. If I'm wrong, tell me please. :) But there was also a white berry. It had a small black dot in the middle, and it was on a red stem. They looked like peeled apples. Look:

When we went to the pond, the thing that surprised me the most was the grasshopper larvae. I had NEVER seen anything like it before, and it was a bit shocking. I was also hesitant to handle it, even on a leaf, because I wasn't sure what it would do if frightened. But it was a good learning experience for me. When I looked at it under the microscope, it wasn't see-through like the other small creatures, and by see-through, I mean the ability to see their organs. I also noticed some interesting vegetation around the pond.

[Terra Younger]

You got some sweet shots, Ally... :)