Wow, have we been busy! Students brought in tons of 2 liter pop bottles and I washed and cut them all and then students assembled them into ecosystems! Aside from the ecosystems, other grades have been busy too! We have been doing a little woodworking with a community volunteer who was kind enough to bring in all the machines and materials for students to create a mother's day gift. We also had our tech guy come and bring a few computers for students to take apart and identify the different components. Top that all off with normal day to day stuff, and throw in the STEAM Showcase my Lego League Team participated in, and a dance recital...
But back to the worms - I already had the fish scooped out of the big fish tank when they came to class and then I showed them the steps to construct the top part of their ecosystem. They put two pieces of string through the mouth of the pop bottle and then made a coffee filter into a cone that they fit into the neck of the bottle and covered it with a little gravel to help “filter” any water that would drip back down to the fish. Then they added a scoop of sandy “bad” dirt followed by a layer of food scraps and 10 worms and then another scoop of bad dirt. Cover it all with a scoop of good dirt where they planted either marigold of four o’clock seeds and then they stacked it onto the fish part of the bottle their part was done! From there I made sure the string was in the water and taped the seams of the pop bottles together and added the top piece to complete and seal our ecosystems. I shipped the fish down to their classrooms and the students were excited to see their hard work and be able to watch it work!
I apologize for the lack of pictures, we were trying to squeeze the whole ecosystem assembly into 25 minutes and i had dirt hands for most of it. I will take a few pictures this week to show off our ecosystems!
But back to the worms - I already had the fish scooped out of the big fish tank when they came to class and then I showed them the steps to construct the top part of their ecosystem. They put two pieces of string through the mouth of the pop bottle and then made a coffee filter into a cone that they fit into the neck of the bottle and covered it with a little gravel to help “filter” any water that would drip back down to the fish. Then they added a scoop of sandy “bad” dirt followed by a layer of food scraps and 10 worms and then another scoop of bad dirt. Cover it all with a scoop of good dirt where they planted either marigold of four o’clock seeds and then they stacked it onto the fish part of the bottle their part was done! From there I made sure the string was in the water and taped the seams of the pop bottles together and added the top piece to complete and seal our ecosystems. I shipped the fish down to their classrooms and the students were excited to see their hard work and be able to watch it work!
I apologize for the lack of pictures, we were trying to squeeze the whole ecosystem assembly into 25 minutes and i had dirt hands for most of it. I will take a few pictures this week to show off our ecosystems!
More pics from out last class before the ecosystem building. All the students love to watch the fish as they line up for class! The baby worm is pictured next to a sharpie for reference.