HOMEROOM

1. HOMEROOM • CHECK for trash • Straighten the tables • Put chairs up

2. Warm-up • If you do not have a notebook or paper take a sheet off the front table….Introductions: Name and grade level. Why do you want to be in this class? What do you expect to get out of this course?

3. Warm-up • What is ecology? • What is Botany? • Predict if you do not know.

4. The study of the relationships between living organisms and their physical environment. Ecology also provides information about the benefits of ecosystems and how we can use Earth's resources in ways that leave the environment healthy for future generations.

5. The study of plants… • Which includes the study of plant structure, growth and differentiation, reproduction, biochemistry and primary metabolism, chemical products, development, diseases, evolutionary relationships, medicinal uses, and plant taxonomy. Dominant themes in 21st century plant science are molecular genetics and epigenetics, which are the mechanisms and control of gene expression during differentiation of plant cells and tissues.

6. In your ecology/botany notebook write “Ms. Zeches classroom diagram” as your title for today’s entry. • Next, draw a large square to represent this classroom • Inside the square label all of the safety equipment and exits. If you finish before the allotted time compare your square with your table partner. Did either of you miss anything? Add it if you did.

7. Warm-up • What is environmental Stewardship? • Predict if you don’t know.

8. Stewardship is… • Responsible use and protection of the natural environment through conservation and sustainable practices in unselfish ways

9. Warm-up • List the steps involved in using the scientific method in any science investigation. • Can you think of anything we could investigate in this class? • List at least one investigation we could conduct and write a hypothesis.

11. Step 1 – • Ask a Question Step 2 – • Form a Hypothesis Step 3 – • Test the Hypothesis Step 4 – • Analyze the Results Step 5 – • Draw Conclusions Step 6 – • Communicate Results

12. WARM-UP • DO NOT TOUCH ANY OF THE PROJECTS! • Get your notebook and sit in your seat. You must be quietly answering the question below when the bell rings. • What is a wetland?

13. WARM-UP • What is a wetland? • Wetlands are areas that are periodically or permanently inundated by surface or ground water and support vegetation adapted for life in saturated soil. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas.

14. Warm-up • Define ecosystem.

15. EcosystemWrite this definition in your notebook An ecosystem is a system involving the interactions between a community of living organisms in a particular area and their nonliving environment.

16. Warm-up • Be ready to go on our perimeter walk of the wetlands. • Follow all expectations- those who do not follow will not go to the wetlands next week.

17. Warm-up • List today’s date in your notebook. • What did you learn about the wetlands on the perimeter walk?

18. Warm-up • Be ready to go to the greenhouse to try on boots. • If you don’t know your shoe size check it now.

19. Warm-up Be ready to go to the wetlands. Choose Jobs for walnut creek: Be a water surveyor Trash surveyor Lookout for living organisms Lookout for all of the different plants and trees

20. Warm-up • No notebooks today... we will continue working around the greenhouse pressure washing and organizing boots. • Be ready to go to the greenhouse-line up.

21. Warm-up • No notebooks today... we will be working out front. • Please sign the card for Ms. Hagwood, the wetlands director that donated $100 to our program. • Be ready to go to the greenhouse-get gloves from one of the buckets and line up.

22. Warm-up What is the proper way to hold a shovel, rake, “tree trimmers”, and a garden hoe when you are not using it and when you are walking with it?

23. Warm-up • BE ready to quickly walk to the wetland center for our scavenger hunt and to meet Mr. T the turtle, Norm, the king snake & Electra the corn snake

24. Warm-up • What did you learn at the wetland center. List at least 3 interesting facts you learned and discuss at least one thing you learned about Mr. T, the box turtle and one thing you learned about either Norm the King snake or the Corn Snake, Electra.

25. Warm-up • What do the walnut creek wetlands do for the local environment? • Where does most of the trash come from?

26. Answer: • They provide a habitat for organisms and have a lot of diversity • They prevent flooding • They filter out the trash and pollutants. • The trash either comes from the city (flows into the storm drains when it rains) or it comes from people dumping trash into the wetlands and surrounding areas.

27. WARM-UP • List or predict what one water quality test is that we can conduct in Little Rock Creek.

28. Warm-up Be ready to go to the wetlands. Choose Jobs for walnut creek: 1. Be a water surveyor: water quality testing: dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates, temperature, and turbidity (and one person to record data). 2. Trash surveyor- take a trash grabber or hold the bag 3. Lookout for living organisms (both plants and animals): 2 people with nets and one carrying the tray.

29. WARM-UP • What did we test the water for on last week? Predict what the results of our testing are…

30. Warm-up • Read the agenda for today and decide which job you want to do. • Be ready to go to the greenhouse.

31. Warm-up Why are we creating so many pollinator gardens (6-8 beds will be for pollinators)? How do pollinators allow plants to reproduce? What role do they play in the fresh foods we buy?

32. Warm-up • Define Symbiosis • Predict if you don’t know

33. Symbiosis An association between two or more different organisms of different species that may, but does not necessarily, benefit each member. This is the “umbrella” term for mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism.

34. Warm-up • HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!!! • Be ready to go to the greenhouse… • We need rakes, gloves, shovels, and wheel barrows to work with our volunteers out front.

35. Warm-up • What is ecology? • What is botany? • Be ready to go directly to the greenhouse.

36. What do you know about soil and water conservation?

37. Warm-up • Be ready to go directly to the greenhouse. • Today everyone will help split, label and organize.

38. Warm-up • What are the perks of the wetlands? • Did you enjoy our first 2 trips? • Why or why not?

39. Warm-up • What are algae? • What is an Algal Bloom?

40. Algae are a diverse group of plant like aquatic microorganisms that can conduct photosynthesis. • The rapid growth of a population of algae. There are freshwater and salt water types of algae.

41. Warm-up Is a newt an amphibian or a reptile?

42. Warm-up • Today we will learn about algal blooms and how they occur. • You will have algae cultures and liquid fertilizer • Write a quantitative hypothesis using the words IF, Then, and Because to predict what will happen over time when the 2 are mixed to create a solution in water.

43. Warm-up • Create this chart in your notebook

44. Warm-up • Check status of Algal Bloom and record the data on your chart. • http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/habharm.html

45. Write at least 2 paragraphs: 1st-Summarize your experiences in the wetlands and in the ecosystem around the greenhouse. What have you learned? 2nd-Write a detailed description about what you have learned about the Walnut Creek Wetlands:  Where does the water originate from?  Where does it go (Where does the water end up)?  What do the wetlands do for the Raleigh area?  What do they do for most of the southeastern part of N.C.?  Why is our focus in the wetlands so important?  What does it do for plants and animals?

46. If we add 4 drops of fertilizer to 200 mL of water mixed with 14 drops of Algae then the algae will increase in growth by ?% because fertilizer contains phosphates and nitrates that are believed to increase the growth of plants.

47. Warm-up • List today’s date in your notebook. • What did you learn last week about the wetlands? • Be ready to watch the magic school bus episode about the wetlands.

48. Warm-up • Write at least 3 sentences explaining what you learned from the NORESCO visit.

49. Warm-up • Predict/remember: • What do the Walnut Creek Wetlands do for the local environment (including our “habitat”)?

50. Warm-up • What do the walnut creek wetlands do for the local environment? (Explain what we discussed last week) Relate what you have experienced/seen in the wetlands to what you have learned in class.