Week 11

Our ecosystem is sad :(. The bean stalk is totally dead. The pepper stalks are still green, but they are wilting and one leaf has fallen off. There is almost no condensation in the top of the bottle. The elodea appears to be dying, one side of it is turning brown. There is a bug in the bottom of the bottle. The daphnea is still not visible, and haven't been for some time now. We saw one baby snail moving, which is exciting since we thought that they were dead last week.

We believe that our ecosystem failed because we did not have enough soil. We feel that if we had more soil our plants would have lived for longer. We feel that the bottom did alright, only losing our daphnea. If we could keep going with it we would try to open it up a little bit to see if this could have helped. We would like to know what would have happened if we would have only put one type of seed in the bottle.

We as a group feel that this is an important lesson to teach students about an ecosystem. We would use this as an on going project for project based learning. It teaches them about the life cycle, and brings up the topic of the water cycle. These are important topics for students to learn about and they are very relevant. This project helps students because it is hands on and minds on. It also teaches students how to log their information like a scientist.

Week 10

November 11, 2013

Overall our ecosystem is failing. The bean stalk is dead. The pepper stalks are still green, but they have not grown over the past week. There is less condensation in the top leading me to believe there is less photosynthesis occurring. The elodea is still thriving. No sign of snails that are living. More algae has grown on the bottle.

Week 9

November 4, 2013

Overall there is has not been too much change this past week. Our pepper sprouts have not grown much if any. I was only able to see one of the baby snails alive and well. The string has broken in half but since it is still in the water it should not affect the ecosystem cycle at all.

Week 8

October 28, 2013

Overall the bottle is looking kind of sad. The beanstalk is getting brown/black and the leaves are falling off. There are only two green leaves attached to one of the stalks. Though with our pepper plants they have gained some new leaves. There is still some condensation on one side of our bottle. There is more algae forming on the bottom of the bottle. Our Elodea has rooted even more. About halfway down our string it is about to dissolve and break in half. Though this should not affect our cycle at all. I am able to see two baby snails still in the water, yet neither of our original two snails are alive. We have noticed bugs in both the top and bottom of the bottle. 

Week 6

October 14, 2013

Both of our original snails have died leaving only their shells behind. But to continue their legacy there are two baby snails on the side of the bottle. We believe to the lack of nutrients in the soil that is left, our bean leaves are dying off with only three green leaves left. The roots of the bean plants are still growing up and out of the soil. The pepper plants are growing at a really slow rate compared to the bean plant, which might also be due to the lack of nutrients in the soil. There is a fair amount of condensation on the bottle, but really only on one side of the bottle which I believe is the side facing the window. More algae is growing on the bottom half of the bottle and the water is growing much murkier.

Week 5

October 7, 2013

• Algae growing on side of bottle
• Roots of bean plant growing out of soil
• Leaves are yellowing
• Bean plant 23 cm
• Pepper plant 8 cm
• Condensation on top bottle
• One of the snails might be dead, its debatable

Week 4

September 30, 2013

• Bean is 23cm
• Bean root is visible
• Pepper is 7cm
• Water is dirty
• No daphnia is visible
• Elodea sprouted limb has grown
• Elodea is rooting
• Lots of condensation
• One snail near bottom with rocks
• One snail is near top of water
• Some baby snails are still in Elodea, while one is on side of bottle