Week Seven

~What science experiments did you preform?

> This week we did a couple experiments to help us learn about cells. First we took a toothpick and rubbed the sides of our mouth with it. We then made a wet mount slide of it. On one of the slides we put two drops of blue methylene dye. This is exactly what my cheek cells looked like on low power objective.We also looked at the cells of a two kinds of stained potatoes, unstained potatoes, and grass cells. What we found in those "images" was what looked like a bunch of crowded bubbles and blank blobs of nothing. The blobs were probably air bubbles and not nothing. On Monday we will analyze the images and discuss what we found.

We also researched animal and plant cells. Although they had a few of the same parts, they were very different.

This week the theme was "Cells" and we will continue to learn and experiment with and about cells on Monday.

Lab Report (Not Final Copy)

Disease in Truman/Jackson Middle School

Background: The Community Health Department contacted Mr. Segen and the 7th grade student body for help. They said that a large amount of kids were out sick from similar symptoms. They wanted to know if it was an outbreak or just a mild bug. We hypothesized, at the beginning of this experiment, that the kids got sick from a band competition they had around the same time. We also hypothesized that the kids might have gotten sick while swimming in the pond water.

Hypothesis: My hypothesis was that the kids had the band competition, went to celebrate, and got sick at Cheap Chicken Hut. I don't think that the pond water caused the kids to get ill because not that many kids went swimming but a lot went to Cheap Chicken Hut.

Prediction: My prediction was that after the band competition, many kids didn't go to school the next days. The inspection the restaurant had also wasn't very sanitized. It had violated many regulations. Another reason I predicted this was that because a great percentage of the kids ate at Cheap Chicken Hut.

Equipment/Materials: For this experiment we needed several materials. We need a microscope to zoom in on our pond water, the actual pond water, a slide/slip cover to make a wet mount slide, a pipette to transfer the pond water from the container to the slide,and pen and paper for any observations.

Procedure: This is the procedure on how to make a slide and mount it onto the microscope to observe it for details on the pond water.
1. Take a clean slide and wipe off any excess debris ( make sure you hold the slide on its sides with your fingertips)
2. Take a pipette and stir the pond water, you should get all the black particles mixed in with the rest of the water
3. Now insert the pipette half way into the water and squeeze the top, there should be little little black particles and water in the tube area now
4. Wait a minute until the black stuff has dripped towards the bottom part of thew pipette, make sure that your holding it over the pond water cup so no water gets on you or your clothes (if it does wash it immediately!)
5. Now squeeze a little bit of the water onto the slide
6. Take the cover-slip and carefully put it on top, make sure your not touching anything but the sides
7. Now look at the pond water without the microscope and make observations
8. Turn on the microscope by just plugging it in
9. There will be a black plate like thing called a stage and two clips (stage clips), put the wet mount slide in between
10. Use the fine and coarse adjustment knobs on the side to get the pond particles into view
11. Make observations and draw pictures of what you see and any other notes or things you found interesting
12. Research your findings and make any conclusions you have

Observations:
This is green algae. It is one of the most commonly found particles in freshwater ponds. It is so common, it's harmless. This is so because we have ingested so much of it over the course of life, we have grown immune to it. On the slide we found so much algae, it was mostly all that was seen. I never thought this was causing the illness because it is used in foods like sushi (the green stuff wrapping around it is seaweed, a kind of algae). It is also used as fish food.
This is a flatworm. The only harmful kind of flatworms are the kind that don't live in freshwater. Most of the 20,000 species are harmless and only cause problems like having your insides be eaten out or a rash. There are no kind of flatworms that stay on the outside of your body so the kids had to swallow a great amount of water to have a flatworm be ingested. At first we though this was causing the sickness because it included symptoms like fever and diarrhea, but the picture didn't match. A flatworm is also commonly mistaken as a water-bear, but has less severe outcomes.
The microscope really helped me do an assessment of the pond water. You found out that not only did the bacteria not affect the kids but is also safe to continue to swim in. There were surprisingly not that many different types of microscopic bacteria seen. It was relatively a lot of bacteria ,and dirt, but the same kind.

Conclusion: My conclusion is that the kids at Jackson and Truman Middle School got sick from salmonella in the chicken, not the pond water. I think this because the symptoms are the same as reported and the bacteria is the same. Although I didn't do a lab report on the chicken from Cheap Chicken Hut, my classmates told me about their results. They said that the sickness was temporary, the kids didn't feel bad enough to go to the doctor, and the food inspection at Cheap Chicken Hut wasn't very good. All these factors add up to salmonella. The bacteria in the pond water wasn't harmful either. It had some causes but none related to what the children reported. So after all this, my hypothesis was definitely correct. According to their schedules, they had a band meet (known before hand), went to Cheap Chicken Hut, and did get sick from the salmonella infested chicken. It was not the pond water that got the kids sick.

Week Six

This week, I and many other kids missed school. When I went to the nurse, she told me many kids were out do to the same symptoms. Since I was out, I was told to do a hypothesis on why and when this all happened.
I hypothesize that many kids got sick at the dance. The virus might have spread because someone coughed on the food or in tight dancing spaces. I also predict that a few kids got sick before the dance. I didn't go but I still got really sick. I was also not in contact with any classmates after the dance. The transfer might also could have been during lunch the day of.
Another way the virus could have spread was that kids who's symptoms didn't show yet went to school and got others sick. I asked a lot of students and they said they went to school Monday but stayed home the next. The flu virus also could have thrived in the cold weather and healthy children.

Week Five

What science ideas did you learn?
This week, we finished up the microscope tests, wrote procedures, and used the microscope to make predictions. I also started doing some research on the types of bacteria we (my group) found. So far we just found out what it was and not if it was harmful, helpful, or neither.
How did you learn these ideas?
We learned all of these ideas by actually working hands on with the microscope. After we drew up some sketches and made mental notes, we searched the web for microscopic pond organisms. Our link that was most helpful was http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?
Why is it important to know this idea (What real world application is there)?
It is important to know these ideas in the future when we have to make slides and properly handle a microscope. When we get into the higher grades, the teachers won't tell us how to make a slide or what to do with our information. This will really help us.

Week Four

Q: What science ideas did you learn?
A: This week, I learned about the functions of bacteria and whether a virus and bacteria are living or non-living. I also learned how to use a microscope.
Q: How did you learn these ideas?
A: I learned these by doing some research. I found out information on the bacteria on http://www.cellsalive.com/. We analyzed the parts of the bacteria and found out that it supports the theory of life. We also made a chart showing the functions of the different parts:
Flagella-- moving around
Pili-- moving around and other purposes
Cell Wall-- skeleton
Capsule-- protection
Cytoplasm-- holds everything in place
DNA-- controls heredity and actions
Cell Membrane-- keeps everything contained; controls inside and outside
Ribosomes-- converts food into energy
The virus was a bit more difficult because there are so many different types. There are animal viruses, flu, the flu was the main kind but there many sub viruses. I found one diagram that said it was the main virus (flu).

We determined that the virus was non-living. This is so because there was no cell wall/membrane, it can't respirate (no mitochrion), can't reproduce on there own, and some only have RNA, not DNA.
Q: Why is it important to know this idea (What real world application is there)? A: It is important to know these ideas because for the Truman case, we'd need to know if the "germ"was a living bacteria or a non-living virus. It is also helpful to know because flu season is coming soon.

Week Three

A: What science ideas did you learn?
Q: This week we learned about how bacteria is small compared to a pinhead. It was so small that most of it was a simulation. We also learned how to use a petri dish. We also made a prediction chart of what we thought was a clean or dirty area of the bathroom.
Clean
- mirrror
- water
- outside of door
Dirty
- floor
- Flusher
- sink handle
- lock
For the middle category (ok), I put toilet paper. So this week we learned the difference between macroscopic, microscopic, and sub-microscopic. We determined that big means looking macroscopic, microscopic means very small, and sub-microscopic means that you can not even see it under a microscope.
A: How did you learn these ideas?
Q: We learned how small bacteria was by looking at a simulation. The link was http://www.cellsalive.com/howbig.htm. The simulation helped me realize how small germs and bacteria are. I learned how to use a petri dish by taking samples from dirty or clean areas in the bathroom.
A: Why is it important to know this idea (what real world application is there)?
Q: It's important to know these ideas if you ever need to test the cleanliness of an area. For example, if the flu strikes and you wouldwant to examine the areas of common use for bacteria. You would need to use a petri dish.
A: How does bacteria that's sub-microscopic spread ro a deadly amount?
Q: It spreads by multiplying. It reproduces and has hundreds of thousands more bacteria. It then keeps reproducing until the bacteria is living on top of each other. It also uses the energy off of the object to continue living.