Friday, February 25, 2011

Discovering your Garden

Ever wondered what kind of plants your garden contains? Or how about wondering why some plants just grow and sprout out of nowhere? Well, as part of our adventure to discover the world's biodiversity, our 4th Quarter CEO goes from the animals... to the living things that help sustain life- the plants.

Hey guys! we're back, and we are here to talk about the 4 simplest plants here on Earth! Introducing the divisions, Marchantiophyta, Anthocerophyta, Bryophyta and Lycopodiophyta! Now let's start the adventure!

Hello again fellow adventurers ! The Mild here, and I'm back to talk more about our adventures and experiences in our Science class.

See Source
For this particular topic, I was assigned to explain a division of plants known as the Division Bryophyta. Not familiar with it? Well, read on to learn a brief explanation about it!

Division Bryophyta (coming from the Greek words bryos meaning moss and phyta meaning plant) used to be composed of the mosses (true mosses, peat mosses and granite mosses), the liverworts and hornworts. But then due to their differences in characteristics, the liverworts and hornworts now have their own divisions- Marchantiophyta and Anthocerophyta. 

Mosses (true,peat and granite mosses) are primitive and non-vascular. They are considered to be the "amphibians" of plants because even though they live on land, they still need a lot of moisture in order to grow. Mosses also lack true roots, but instead, they have rhizoids. In order to reproduce, mosses also undergo the alternation of generations, meaning they have the gametophyte stage and the sporophyte stage, the sporophyte stage being the most dominant.

Mosses are essential to life because they are soil builders, they make the soil formation better, and they prevent soil erosion.

See source
Since I already experienced making a presentation in the past quarter, I thought that it would be a lot easier for me to do this report, especially since my division is one of the simplest. But then I was wrong. It was a lot harder for me. There were a lot of scientific terms, the information gathered was not enough and different sources do not contain the same information. I felt like my mind was going to burst out of "stress". I was even close to regretting the fact that i picked to work alone. But why did I pick to be alone? Why didn't I just work in a group? Well, this is because of one simple reason; I didn't want to blame or be blamed if things go wrong. Sure there are a lot of things to do if you work alone and working in a group would surely be a lot easier, but then it is really hard to rely on someone for a job to be done. Sometimes, I would rather just take all the weight in my back than to blame someone for not doing their job. And if anything goes wrong, if you are in a group, most probably everyone will start to argue. But if you are working alone, you have no one else to blame but yourself.                                                              
See Source


(But this does not necessarily mean that working in the group is not good, it actually is very helpful,especially when you know that you can trust your groupmates) 

Anyway, going back to the topic (my mind bursting out of "stress"), the first thing I did to resolve the problem was I researched some more and I prayed to God that He will clear the path for me.  I tried everything I can do to find some answers. Luckily, after how many searches, I found what I was looking for. 

On the day of the presentation, I was able to successfully report my topic and I felt relieved once again. I thanked God immediately for the guidance and the strength that He gave me, and I ended up leaving the room with a smile on my face.

I learned a lot of things during this experience, but the most important lesson I learned is that I should never give up. No matter how hard it is, I should just do my best and ask God for  the strength to enable me to finish the task. 


It's the Wild here! Let me tell you something, The Earth is like one big, gigantic garden ( imagine being able to put lions in there)!  And that garden holds hundreds of thousands species of plants!And, one of them is the Lycopodiophyta.

Lycopodiophyta or the Lycopods, are the oldest extant (existing) vascular plant, from around 430 million years ago. They are commonly called as club- mosses ar quillworts. I found this Lycopod in a tropical forest in Asia.  ( I mean-- the garden. get it? Cause the Earth is a garden? And it holds forests and stuff, from different countries?-- nevermind.)


It was much easier working on this CEO because this was easier to find! ( I wasn't able to find the etymology. But still.)
But working in a group has an advantage because you are assigned to research on particular data. As for me, I worked alone. It's not only tiring, but you get to say all the exciting infomation. Not only that, but you get the computer to yourself; No one's bothering you, you get to do your own thing, and your group mates don't have to keep changing the ideas. ( Not that I'm saying every group does.) 

But working alone is stressful. I had to keep going on and off the computer. I , amazingly, did not drink water for about 3 hours, because i had a hard time working out the powerpoint and handout. 

And, i finally found out the etymology of LYCOPODS.




Lyco meaning wolf
      +

Phyta meaning plant
             =
 PLANTS  VS. DOGGIES!

       ( coming soon)




 And now, the most important lesson i've learned from this is to learn how to protect the Garden, by being more eco-friendly. Learn how to prioritize and put more effort into my work, no matter what.

I'm back fellow readers, It's Wasabi! From all those exciting and witty introductions from The Mild, and the Wild, there's not much to say, so I'll be moving on to what is asked from you.

My fourth quarter CEO was done individually. It is about Division Anthocerophyta, a division which should have been under Bryophyta (Which is the Mild’s CEO). These assortments of plants were placed in a separate division because of their difference to both Bryophyta and Liverworts (Which is the Child’s responsibility) by a strand of DNA. It was only done recently so it must be hard to get information about it, but there are dozens of pictures showing their life cycle and horn like structure earning them the name Hornworts (Sounds like Hogwarts, no?).


Ha, what a question, I guess this already spread through out the 6th grade batch. I was the girl without a power point! And to make it even worse, since this classification was only done recently, there was little information about it and its species. So it was entirely my fault, I procrastinated and waited until the day before the reporting, and I sent the wrong document type to our Urban Guru, but I figured that it wasn’t all that bad… I guess…

 Well, I’m not one to depend on somebody else entirely, and I don’t really know if I’m a so called ‘leech’ or something, but one thing sure is clear. Working alone gives the responsibility no other place to go but yourself, and that way you sure can’t procrastinate, especially if the topic you are trying to research isn’t on most reference places.

As I said, my references were limited to Wikipedia and other sites. Resulting to only a small bit of information, and I kind of sent the power point the day before and wasn’t able to read about the corruption of said power point, so I ended up lecturing on the board. But it was fine if you add a little bit of back bone into it.

 I really shouldn’t procrastinate. The Mild kept telling me how the report should have been equivalent to possibly a sixty-three. I also learned that you shouldn’t be dependent on the visual aid, because it always can’t help you. I was lucky to memorize at least three-fourth of the hard terms in my hand out and in my lecture.


Hello there everyone! It's me, the Child! Wow! I guess I'm last!
But anyway, for this CEO, I was tasked to report on the simplest division of plants on earth- Division Marchantiophyta. So what about it?
Division Marchantiophyta(from the words Marchantia, meaning a genus of liverwort and phyta) is a division of non-vascular plants called liverworts. They are recognized by their liver-shaped structure. Liverworts are usually small, being only 2.20 cm  wide, and less than 10 centimeters long. The liverworts also posses rhizoids, but unlike true mosses, its rhizoids are unicellular.


Because of its name, during the Ancient times, it was believed that liverworts cured diseases of the liver. Aside from this,  the liverworts are a great help in the erosion along stream banks (although not directly). They are also soil builders and they improve the soil formation, just like the mosses.  
In the ecology, liverworts serve as shelter for some epiphytes.
See Source
Preparing this CEO was a lot easier for me compared to the previous one. This is because this division is simpler and easier to study. Also because there are less facts I had to research on. 
There are some advantages and disadvantages on working alone. 
One advantage is that you don't have to go to other people's houses to do the project. Another is that you would always know what your report is about and you know that you are not missing out on anything.
On the other hand, however, working alone is slightly harder.  You can't get the help you can receive from a group if you are working individually. For example,  if you do not understand a certain portion of your research, you don't have any person beside you to explain it to you. Also, working alone means doing all the work, and this part was quite difficult for me. When I had a hard time getting the information I needed, I had no group mates to help me solve the problem. Good thing I had a mom who was caring enough to lend a hand and help me in my research.


The most important lesson I learned, well, were the facts that I discovered concerning liverworts. The knowledge I gained is a great part of my adventure in the biodiversity of the earth. 
Although you might be wondering why there are no "personal" lessons that I learned, well this is because I learned these from the 3rd Quarter CEO and I am gradually applying these lessons to my daily life. I am trying to gain from my mistakes from the past and hopefully, I improved.







So there you go! All our CEO's on plants! We hope you've learned that a plant is not only a plant, IT'S ONE OF THE 5 BIGGEST LIVING THINGS. SAVE THE EARTH, SAVE OUR AWESOME GREEN -- leafy trees that can be small or big.

And no matter what, they'll be around you.

Thanks guys! Till' next time! 



Saturday, February 19, 2011

Welcome to the Jungle...

            Ever been to a jungle? If not, a zoo? Well, the most exciting part of these places are the animals you'll be able to find, big or small! During our science class , we had a CEO (Creative Expansive Output) all about animals and the animal kingdom. We discussed about their structures, habitat, reproduction, and the rest of the things you and I would need to know. 

Of course, this would mean, The Wild, The Mild, The Child and Wasabi are included to make these CEO's, so here's what ours is all about!

Hey! The Wild here. My CEO is all about Archaea. Not a familar name now, is it? It's not so wild, but it's pretty strange. Archaea or Domain Archaea is one of the three domains ( Eukarya , Bacteria and Archaea) that build up life. Discovered in the late 1950’s and 1970’s by Carl R. Woese and George E.Fox. Archaea is a group of single-celled microorganisms and prokaryotic. Now, the Archaeal lineage,may be the most ancient that exists on earth.

I prepared this project a bit late because of all the hard information i needed to find. If you would search in the internet there would be only about 3 sites that would give helpful information but not enough. I just needed to focus on it more. I am very messy when it comes  to the stuff i need to do.

Of course, if i was a messy person, i would encounter problems. I had trouble fixing my powerpoint and finding the right information out of all the different sites. It's not easy to find out about something so rare. Luckily, my dad saved me with his magic and helped me choose the right and easy sites so i could finish.

The most important lesson I've learned from that is that I have to learn how to prioritize (Still, practicing though)and  that I have to learn how to use my time wisely and think of what I have to do before I have to do anything else.
And,who knew that archaea can turn into squares?! 

Yeah! Who knew? Anyway, it's Wasabi here. My CEO is about Protists. Yup, you heard me right, PROTISTS.
It is a 'left over' kingdom because nobody really knew how to classify them, and if they did, they didn't know where to put it. So they classified it into a eukaroyotic kingdom all on its own. Sad, isn't it? Here's a picture of the lonely protists..

I started to search for its characteristics a few day after the requirment was given. The outline paper was to be given on Nov. 3, the day right after our beloved Sem Break. I first searched in google and looked at the very bottom of the page, the reference section. There I was able to get the many informations enough to compose a well planned report (Not!!! ) :P 

There were a lot of problems regarding this. First, I was absent the day it was given for my ride to school broke down. But luckily, the Urban Guru sent me the requirements needed for said project. After that, it was a breeze, except for the Subgroups part of the report, I didn't know which subgroups to pick!!! However, everything else was easy because of the many references the internet now holds.


I never knew that a protist was actually an animal. I thought it was some form of Bacteria!!! :))


Well, that was exciting! It's the Child here! My CEO is about Arthropods. Arthropods are invertebrate animals having an exoskeleton, a segmented body and jointed appendages and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others.Check out the picture..

I started on my CEO through the internet. I took sometime to read through all the sites and did my best to fully understand everything. 

Really, what's life without problems? I had a hard time catching up with the time I had left until the day I was due to report. I wasn't able to give my best through my powerpoint and my handouts. But, I did my best through the oral report and questions. 

The most important lesson i've learned is too know how to manage time. I could've done a lot better if i did so. I should've also used my time to focus completely. So, now, i'm trying to do my best.




Hello my fellow adventurers, the mild here!
Wow! With those information given, I think that you are now ready to learn about the most complex organisms in the planet..  introducing... 



the Mammals! 


As I have mentioned, mammals are the most complex organisms in the planet. They have very intricate organ systems, and they have a highly-developed brain,compared to those of the other animals. Aside from that, mammals are also very diverse,consisting of a total of 26 orders.




Mammals are also very crucial for us humans and other organisms, both economically and ecologically. They provide for our food, they help control the population of crop pests, and they are also for ecotourism industry. Without them, most of the organisms will be greatly affected and a lot of biological relationships will be ruined. 
Since a lot of mammals are swiftly decreasing in number, I kindly ask that you help in the preservation of their species and existence.
I started preparing for my CEO during the first few days of the sembreak. Because of this, I was quite confident to finish it on time. And so I did. But later on, when I was asked to edit it for my presentation in class,i stayed up late for a couple of nights in order to produce a better report. It was very difficult for me because I did not know how i will manage to "master" 26 orders and at the same time, keep the class interested and avoid them from daydreaming. To further explain, I also had to prepare myself for questions that I expected to be asked during the presentation. 

Fortunately, I was able to successfully report my topic to the class. After presenting,I felt very relieved and I thought that all the time spent to finish the report was worth it.

In doing this CEO, I learned that I should always spend my time wisely. I also learned to not be complacent, but instead, try to always improve the material to produce a better output. More importantly, when the day of reporting comes,if I know that I gave it my best shot, I should not be very nervous and have fun in sharing what I have learned instead.



Amazing what the world has. All those little creatures living above the earth, big or small. And with the world slowly drifting away, what else do these little critters have? Just to give a little tip, nothing lasts forever. Give a warm hug to mother earth and her treasures!


                                                 We'll be posting soon more about our adventures!
                                                                          till' next time!
                                              ( this kinda sounds like Playhouse disney channel)


                                                             -The Wild, The Mild, The Child and Wasabi!



Picture References:
http://www.google.com.ph/imglandingq=cute+dogs&um=1&hl=tl&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=IeCblLVY2X_XUM:&imgrefurl=http://www.dancewithizzy.com/home/2010/8/11/cute-puppy-hump-day-cute-puppies-
http://www.google.com.ph/imglandingq=arthropods&um=1&hl=tl&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=46e3V0layV_V9M:&imgrefurl=http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php%253Ft%53D532232&imgurl=http://www.naturenet.net/blogs/media/blogs/eating/coconut_crab.jpg&ei=zMxjTYTzK4fQcZSotJ0K&zoom=1&w=400&h=425&iact=rc&oei=w8xjTdjdEcLUrQev28W_AQ&page=4&tbnh=156&tbnw=161&start=60&ndsp=16&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:60&biw=1280&bih=663
http://www.google.com.ph/imglandingq=domo&um=1&hl=tl&sa=N&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=zr6kisle0qNwyM:&imgrefurl=http://www.tipidsale.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php%253Ff%253D48%2526t%253D255988&imgurl
http://www.google.com.ph/imglanding?q=protists&um=1&hl=tl&sa=N&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=MFp3nusMObSUfM:&imgrefurl=http://www.connecticutvalleybiological.com/the-biology-of-series-c-1237_126
http://www.google.com.ph/imglanding?q=archaea&um=1&hl=tl&tbs=isch:1&tbnid=biEmfzhaDzd-MM:&imgrefurl=http://www.evolv2win.com/product.html&imgurl=http://www.evolv2win.c



Tuesday, February 8, 2011

We proudly present..

Us, The Wild, The Mild, The Child, and Wasabi! The Wild; Our very own creator and artist,Bertha. A hyper and imaginative girl, filled with quixotic bundles of nerves. The Mild, very mild indeed; The nucleus of the cell, Je-an is our secret weapon. The Child; animal expert and sound maker, Christan inspires us to bring out the animal in us! and last but not the least, Wasabi! Why is she called Wasabi? well, it's because of Sam's hot-headed attitude and spicy aura. With her favorite taste of Shakespeare with a pinch of humor!
 
Well, the importance of this blog is to share with you, fellow reader, the experiences in and out of the walls of our science class. From our funny misbehavior, to the UrbanGuru's witty humor. This blog records our experiences exploring the Philippine Biodiversity. Read on to start the adventure...
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