Ecology

Ecology \i-kal-e-je\ n 1. a branch of science dealing with the relation of living things to their environment 2. the pattern of relations between living things and their environment.

For science, during the past six weeks, we've been learning about our world and how it interrelates.

Q. What are some of the biomes of the world?
A. Grasslands, deserts, tundra, scrublands, deciduous forests, coniferous forests (taiga),
tropical rain forests.

Cailin and Delaney spent the week learning about the grasslands in Africa--the Savannah. Delaney especially enjoyed learning about the elephant. Cailin learned that each continent has it's own 'grassland'.

Q. What are 3 types of consumers?
A. Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores

Q. What are the parts of the food chain?
A. Producers, Consumers, Decomposers

Q. What are the natural cycles?

A. Water Cycle, Carbon and Oxygen Cycle, Nitrogen Cycle

Here we are learning about the water cycle--watching ice cubes turn from solid to liquid to gas-- parlaying that information to the cycle of water precipitation, evaporation, condensation and back again to precipitation.

Q. How do animals react to environmental change?

A. Adapt, Migrate, Hibernation---Online, I found a fun song about animals and how they prepare for winter cold. It drove the older kids crazy to hear us sing, but it sure did help Delaney understand about animals adapting, migrating, or hibernating.

Q. What are six forms of pollution?
A. Noise, Air, Water, Land, Thermal, Radioactive

This week we spent some time reading about where our trash goes once the trash truck takes it away every Tuesday.
We read about reducing, reusing, recycling. One evening we spent time making new paper out of old. It turned out to be a fun project.

After soaking paper in water, blend till it's a jumbled mess like this.
Using old screen, evenly distribute paper pulp over screen.

Blot excess water out between newspaper

Roll to squeeze even more water out. Let it dry overnight and it should look like this--

Our paper didn't have a smooth even texture as you normally have with store bought paper, but it's still easy to write on!

If our source books are correct, I believe, that recycled newspapers go through a similiar process.