Poster Presentations

Day 10 – am showcase

Super Science: An Inquiry AdventureJenna Stampf and Alyssa Mierta

GAMSP June Cohort 2012

Question: How does the wavelength (color) of light affect the growth of lima bean sprouts?

Hypothesis: Beans are green plants so they will grow best under green light.We don’t have green, so we are using a yellow bag and a blue bag.

Experimental Set-up: Results after 10 days:

Time interval (minutes)

Location of fish

Black White

0 All over

1 11 0

2 2 9

3 11 0

4 5 6

5 11 0

Control: 4 light fish from white bowlExperiment: add 6 dark fish from black bowl to white bowl.Result: 1 minute 7 seconds for dark fish to lighten

Control: 11 dark fish from black bowlExperiment: add 6 light fish from white bowl to black bowl.Result: 3 minutes for light fish to darken

Observations: •The fish kept in a black cup were darker than fish kept in a white cup. •The fish kept in a black cup eventually got lighter when put in a white bowl.

Questions: How long does it take for the fish to change from dark to light and light to dark?

Fish Frenzy

Conclusions: Dark fish choose to swim in a black environment.

Conclusions: Dark fish get lighter faster than light fish get darker.

Why?Possibly because of the because of sensory signaling release of hormones that causes color change.

Chemical Concentration Water Quality

Dissolved Oxygen <4 ppm Almost stressing aquatic life

Nitrate Nitrogen (N) 5-20 ppm Poor

Phosphate (PO4) 2 ppm Good

Conclusions: Our water quality results from the two types of surveys did not completely correlate. (Good vs. Poor)

Why?Possible explanations for discrepancy between biotic water quality and abiotic/chemical water quality:•Test kits not very accurate•Lag between chemical surge and bio-death•Human error

Pink Yellow

Clear Blue

Pink Yellow

Clear Blue

Conclusions: The lima beans in the yellow and blue bags had larger sprouts than the beans in the pink and clear bags. We think this is because the wavelength of green is between the wavelengths of yellow and blue. This supports our hypothesis.

What next?•We also wanted to look at this same hypothesis with Fast Plants as a parallel experiment, but due to human error, that experiment did not yield usable results.•Future experiments could be done with Fast Plants or with green bags instead of yellow and blue bags.

Procedure Notes: We added the double measure of rennet before we added the citric acid. We did not give our cheese as much time to cool as the control cheese and other experimental cheeses in our lab.

Results: Our milk began to curdle at only 30⁰C, but took longer to completely curdle. Our resulting cheese was softer and creamier than the control cheese and the other experimental cheeses in our lab.

Conclusions: Adding additional rennet did not obviously increase the amount of cheese, but did decrease the temperature needed to begin the formation of curd.

What next? There were too many variables that were not exactly controlled to determine the exact effect of doubling the rennet on the cheese, but this tasty experiment should be continued multiple times for best results.

Making Mozzarella

Observations: The fish kept in the black bucket mostly stayed on the black side of the pan.

Questions: If the fish are in a black container, then released into a bicolor pan, which side would they go to?

Experiment: place 11 fish from black bucket into bicolor pan (half black, half white) and count fish on each side at 1 minute intervals.

Results:

Question: Is this stream polluted?

Hypothesis: Yes!

Prediction: If this stream is polluted, then we expect to find: •Increased nitrogen and phosphorous content•diminished oxygen content•more pollution tolerant organisms•fewer pollution sensitive organisms•calculated water quality index of less than Excellent

Day 1: Collection and identification of Benthic MacroinvertebratesResults: We found 2 species of pollution sensitive organisms, 4 species of somewhat sensitive organisms, and 3 species of pollution tolerant organisms. This tells us that the water quality of our section of stream is Good.

Day 2: Chemical Analysis of Water QualityResults:

Cedar Creek Stream Study

Colored BeansObservations: Mozzarella cheese made with whole milk, citric acid, and calf rennet began to curd at 37⁰C and created a tasty, firm cheese when allowed to cool.

Hypothesis: Mozzarella cheese made with whole milk, citric acid, and double the calf rennet will make more tasty cheese because the extra rennet will cause more of the protein to curd.

beanstapleswet paper towel

sprout

Observation as Part of Building Background Knowledge for Scientific Inquiry-Based Learning

Kermit Green and Stacie BooseGAMSP June Cohort 2012

Scientific Inquiry

• Make observations • Ask questions

• Create hypothesis

• Investigate • Construct new knowledge

• Discuss and reflect on discoveries

• Apply newly acquired new knowledge in own life

• Generate new questions - Paula Sincero Elementary School Teacher

Experiment #2 Stream Study

Our observations of Cedar Creek helped us determine the health of the creek.

Experiment #1 Lehigh County Zoo

Experiment #3 Minnow Study

By using observation when starting an experiment, students use all learning modalities in order to increase background knowledge regardless of ability.

Based on the observation of various Zoo animal habitats, adaptations, and behaviors we were able to construct our own super animal.

We used observation to develop the background knowledge in order to complete the experiment.

Lab: Habitats and Adaptations• Ask questions - What habitat, body parts, body coverings, physical traits, diet, behaviors, and life cycle did the different animals exhibit? - Is there anything that seems unique to that species?

• Make Observations/ Investigation - While walking around the Lehigh Valley Zoo we observed different animals and how they have adapted to their habitats.

• Construct new knowledge - Our observations allowed us to see patterns between the different animals and their habitats.

• Discuss and reflect on discoveries - We discovered many of the animals were not native to Pennsylvania and had adapted to their new environment.

• Create hypothesis - After compiling the observations we created the “Urban Mutant Spiny Otter” .

Urban Mutant Spiny Otter

Lab: What lives in a stream? •Investigate - What Benthic macroinvertebrates were living in the microhabitats in our 20 meters of Cedar Creek?

• Make observations - Environmental conditions i.e. temperature, nitrogen, dissolved oxygen, and phosphorus. - Collected organisms from three microhabitats from Cedar Creek: boulder and riffles, gravel and pool, and emergent vegetation.

• Discuss and reflect on discoveries - We sorted the organisms into groups and identified them using a Dichotomous Key. • Ask questions - How are the organisms you find related to the health of Cedar Creek? Are the organisms intolerant, moderately tolerant, or very tolerant of pollution? • Construct new knowledge - Together, as a group, we read the handout called “What lives in a stream?” to determine how our classes of organisms related to stream health.

• Create hypothesis - Using all of the collected information, we determined the health of Cedar Creek using the Biological Monitoring Data Sheet.

Pollution Tolerance Index (PTI)

PT Group 1 Intolerant

PT Group 2Moderately Intolerant

PT Group 3Fairly

Tolerant

PT Group 4Very

Tolerant

Stonefly Nymph X

Dameslfly Nymph

Midges Left-handed snail

Mayfly Nymph X

Dragonfly Nymph

Black Fly Larvae X

Aquatic Worms X

Caddis Fly Larvae

Sowbug X

Planaria X

Blood Midge

Dobsonfly Larvae

Scud Leech Rat-tailed Maggot

Riffle Beetle Crane Fly Larvae

Water Penny Clams/ Mussels

Right-handed Snail

Crayfish

# OF TAXA=2

# OF TAXA=1

# OF TAXA=2 # OF TAXA=1

Weighting Factors (x4)

8

Weighting Factors (x3)

3

Weighting Factors (x2)

4

Weighting Factors (x1)

1

23 or More Excellent

17-22 Good11-16 Fair10 or less Poor

POLLUTION TOLERANCE INDEX RATING

16

Lab: Fish Study •Make observations - Minnows changed skin color depending on environment. - After acclimating to the pan water the minnows seemed to prefer a darker environment.

• Ask questions - How long does the color change take from light to dark and dark to light?

• Investigate - We acclimated a group of minnows to a white container and a different group of minnows to a black container. - Next, we removed 4-6 minnows from each container and placed them in the opposite colored container. - Then, we recorded the time it took the minnows to change color as compared to the remaining minnows in the white and black containers.

• Construct new knowledge - We learned the change from dark to light is 3x as long as the change from light to dark.

• Generate new questions - What is the process involved in color change?

Minnows in white cup

The Dark Side- An InquiryRosimar Lloyd, Judy Angelus, Maria Spinosa

GAMSP

Observations

Minnows were observed in a black container. The minnows were slate gray.

Minnows were transferred to a container that was painted half black and half white.

Minnows swam to black side of container immediately.

Within 20 seconds, a small number of began to the white side of the container but would return to the dark side.

Minnows were put in a white container and left there for several minutes.

When the minnows entered the white bowl, they were agitated.

In less than a minute, agitation subsided.

Within 3 minutes the minnows’ color lightened.

Asking the QuestionWhen the starting environment is changed ,how will this effect the minnows?

Materials and ProcedureMaterials: Large basin of water 2 aluminum pans – one painted white one painted black with a small opening 5 silver mouthed minnows timer dark colored cup

Procedure: 5 minnows were placed in the cup with water. 2 aluminum pans were interlocked and submerged in the large basin of water. Minnows were transferred into the black pan. Minnows were observed every 30 seconds for two minutes. Results were recorded. Minnows were then placed in the light side of the pan and observed within the same time parameters.

Outcome

Minnows prefer the environment to which they were already adapted.

Interpretation of Results The graph shows that when the minnows were placed in the dark pan, 3 minnows explored the lighter side but they all preferred and ultimately stayed on the dark side within the 2 minute timeframe.

When the minnows were placed in the light side, within the first 30 seconds all 5 minnows swam back to the dark side. Even though at the 2 minute mark 2 minnows returned to the light side, it was only to explore and they immediately reverted back to the dark side. This experiment answered our question.

Predicting The Outcome The minnows will prefer the environment to which they have adapted.

Guidelines

• Groups of 2• Open-ended• One activity or multiple activities– Inquiry-based

Things to ponder:• Audience:– Student Centered (share with students)– Teacher Centered (PLC, share with

colleagues)