Traveling Otters

Welcome to a new post. This is for Unit 2 of the STEAM class Population. This class focused on adaptation and evolution. We discussed how animals have adapted over time to be better suited for their environment. We talked about mutations and watched a video of bacteria traveling through antibiotic by developing mutations to pass through them. In this class the central tendencies in math became important and was used more frequently up to the Action Project. Like in the last unit there was another dissection. This time we dissected an owl pellet or owl regurgitation. In my dissection I found three skulls of what looked like rodents and some other bones as well. This dissection did not smell as bad as the worm. For the AP I chose to look at the North American river otter. With these amazing mammals I tried to predict what they would be like in at least 500 years and made a data set from ten river otters. One important aspect from this AP is our group of animals being transported to a different environment they are used to. So the ten river otters I thought looked up for the challenge went on a virtual trip to the El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico. The slideshow consists of everything required in the AP and enjoy.

I hope you liked the slideshow I created talking about the river otters. We did go over some of this in class such as who is most or least likely to survive and I changed a couple after looking at it a second time. Doing this in class was very fun because we were all together and made it into a small story that played out in front of us. I think all otters are pretty amazing creatures. Their abilities like closing their noses and ears when underwater are really crazy and the movement is interesting given the long body. I can't remember what animal I was going to observe more before the otter but it might have been ferrets. This AP was cool to work on even if we had a shorter amount of time than usual. This is the end of the Fall term so we were trying to get everything that needed to be done fast to get started on the AP. We still made it work though and this class was great and even better with our very fun and cool teacher. Thank you for looking at this post I hope to see you in the next term.

Sources:

“Otter Evolution.” Otter Facts and Information, www.otter-world.com/otter-evolution/.

“North American River Otter.” National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/Educational- Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/north-american-river-otter.

Comments

Diddley Bows: One-stringed guitars

Welcome back to my blog. This post is for the second Action Project of the STEAM class: Light, Sound, and Time. This unit, sound, was all about how sound is made and what happens for humans or animals to perceive it. Sound travels as a longitudinal wave and is explained as vibrations coming from a source that we perceive to be sound. To start, we examined how the human ear worked and our range of audible frequencies compared to infrasound and ultrasound which humans can’t hear. We then looked at the speed of sound and how it changes based on the medium it travels through. Following the understanding of how sound travels, we investigated traveling faster than the speed of sound or breaking the sound barrier and also the Doppler Effect. Lastly, we looked at stringed instruments like guitars and found how they make sounds. We also had one Field Experience at Guitar Center to look at the guitars and other instruments there. For this Action Project, the task is to create a diddley bow which...

Building GCE's New Laser Cutter

Welcome back to my blog. This post is for my elective class Digital Fabrication. In this class, we have been looking at all things digital. More specifically 3D printers, silhouette cutters, CNC routers, and laser cutters. 3D printers are machines that can create three-dimensional objects from CAD models by layering filament to create shapes. Silhouette cutters are small electronic cutting machines that can take a file on a computer and cut it out on vinyl, acrylic, paper, and more. I have used the cutter to create stickers on vinyl. The CNC router we used in this class was a machine called the Carvey. The Carvey uses a drill bit mounted on an operating system like a 3D printer to drill into wood, foam, and other materials to create designs or molds. For each of these machines, we learned how to use their programs and later work with the machines to create things we made on the programs. Last but definitely not least, laser cutters. A laser cutter is a machine similar to the Carve...

Redesigning Chicago, One Neighborhood At A Time

Welcome back to my blog. This post is for the third Action Project of the STEAM class Urban Planning. In this third and final unit, Flow, we focused on how cities and urban areas have developed over the years. We first learned about how cities have always been centered around trade which has always relied on transportation and studied different modes of travel over the years that all contribute to urban planning. We took some time to learn about eminent domain which is something the state can use to claim private land from a private citizen for its own use if it has a strong case such as public use. We then looked at INVEST South/West, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's community development initiative to reverse disinvestment on Chicago's South and West Sides. This initiative is trying to bring together multiple city departments, community organizations, and corporate partners and so far the city has aligned more than $1.4 billion in public and private investment. We then moved on...

GS Portfolio

Search This Blog