project update-plant growth

Good morning children it is Richard Schwulst back from cricket tour. This is an update on our insct project 

We planted some seeds and they germinated and the longest is about 7 cm in the Terra layer and  a few in the decomposing layer we noticed that our slugs are still living. There is less Mosquito  larvae so we think that they have  hatched

.

Here are some of the stats we have gathered (degrees C )

• room temp -24 
• soil temp(Terra)-21 
• water temp-21
• PH level- 10 
• general status- good 
• water status- good
• plant status- very good
• overflow level- 0 cm 
• leaves-14 
• Terra condensation- average and lots of mist 
• aqua condensation- large amount of droplets 

That is it for now 

Richard Schwulst 

Eco-column update

This is just a quick update from last week:

the Eco-column is going steady producing a lot of water vapor in the Terra and aqua zones, our slug is still alive and we are treating it ethically, we have many mosquito lave swimming around in the aqua zone and the current classroom temperature today is about 25* degrees.

 One of the mosquito lave have hatched and is flying around the aqua zone. the seeds that we planted in the decomp zone have sprouted and are well on there way to becoming healthy plants, they have been provided with water (vapor). the seeds and all living organisms have been provided with plenty of sunlight so far, because i seeds have sprouted and all of our animals are still alive and well, our living organisms have been supplemented with plenty of food as well.

we have planted more seeds this week and hopefully they will germinate next week.

 i am signing off now.

21/02/2012

Jaime Garlick

Annotated Drawing

Hello,

This is the annotated drawing of what our plans are for the INSCT, it includes the design of the EcoColumn and the general who eats who.
Fearing that I wouldn't be able to fit all that I needed to onto the EcoColumn, we scanned the drawing in and we have annotated in the text below.

The Planned Design

Various Organisms and their Food Source/s

(All organisms are in the plural, regardless)

Slugs à waste

Worms à waste

Spiders  à insects

Caterpillars  à leaves

(Butterfly à flowers)

Coriander à energy from sun and soil

Small decomposing beetles à waste

Mosquito larvae à algae

Other water dwelling larvae à algae

The Zones And Their Abiotic/Biotic Factors

Terra:

Coriander

Various small beetles

Worms

Coke bottle walls

Earth

Wind

Water

Mini-Terra:

Coriander

Various small beetles

Worms

Earth

Wind

Coke bottle walls

Water

Insect:

Caterpillar

Coriander

Worms

Various small beetles

A Spider

Various leaves

Slugs

Possibly other insects

Sticks

Earth

Wind

Coke bottle walls

Water

Decomp

Coriander

Worms

Various small beetles

Leaves

Rotting Fruit

Slugs

Sticks

Earth

Coke bottle walls

Water

Main Aqua

Mosquito larvae 

Other larvae

algae

Earth

Coke bottle walls

Water

A Stone

Many Thanks,

Our Team

Brought the INSCT to school

Hello,

Today we brought the INSCT to school, and after setting it up and tidying it up, we went around looking for insects ( to Richard's delight). HE had a close encounter with a small, unco-operative wasp, but the ants were more achievable for us all, and we ended up snagging a spider as well, so a very productive hunt in the end.

Also today, I headed off to zeekoevlie (I'm sure thats the wrong spelling) and bagged a bottle of water from there, and got a little water boatman with it. The photos are being stubborn so I'll try to upload them tomorrow 

b

The Build 2

Ok this is the build post No. 2 with the rest of the pics:

The finished framework

A slightly better pic of the framework

The bottles stacked and ready to go

Absolutely essential in this heat (:

Bottles with the framework cropped to size

the different zones

b

The Build

Hey, on the weekend I basically finished putting the bottles together, I've got quite a few pics so I'm not going to put them all up on this one post because I think the blog won't let me put so many on in one post.

Cutting the bottle top off to make way for the others

A very confusing diagram to follow

Trying to make sense of it all

The top portion (I worked from top to bottom)
In this you can see the Terra and the small Aqua

the 'valve' between the insect zone and the decomp zone

The completed column on its side



b

Update

Hey people, today I finally managed to collect what I think will be the last coke bottle needed for our project (:  After looking at the design, I think we need four bottles and something for the overflow dish, but I'm not sure, so will keep collecting.

say hello for me

b

The Finished Sketch

OK, hello everybody, I've pretty much finished the basic sketch of the EcoColumn, and only need to annotate in and it'll be done, I'll attach a photo of it.
We didn't have Bio today so haven't planned anything new as far as getting everything sorted goes.
about the comments, please feel free to leave one, their free and you only need a Google account to leave one(so that's a Gmail, Google+ and some others for those who don't know). So please let us know what you think and I'll get back to you.


b

Here's the finished drawing(without annotations):

Not very big, but that's still to come

The first day

Today we started with our plans for the EcoColumn which we have christened INSCT.
It originally was meant to be an acronym, but that boiled down into INSCT being better than the acronym, and it stuck.
The pictures that follow if I can get them to load up are of our original designs and a few just for fun.
Richard, being away on Cricket Tour has managed to dodge the first period but he's coming back on Tuesday ( tomorrow ) , so he wont miss that much.

So excited

b

The first post.

boyd's initial sketch.

The same initial sketch.

boyd

Jaime

The finished rough sketch (:

Success!!