Algae Observations

The temperature outside was fifty-seven degrees. The wind was blowing very strongly and the sun was shining brightly. The class walked into the woods to the creek to look for algae. There were several sitings of algae. Some algae was bright green and some was a dark green or brown. Some algae was thin and stringy or leafy. Some algae looked thick. Some algae looked mossy and long. Some of the algae spotted was also found in the lake. The brighter algae was found in the creek, where the darker algae was found in the lake.

 Long, mossy algae (found in lake)

 Dark brown, thick algae sticking out of the water (found in lake)

 Bright green, thin, stringy algae (found in creek)

 Brown, thick, mossy algae (found in lake)

Bright green, thin, stringy algae (found in creek)

Plankton Observations

One of the slides I viewed was sand. The sand was actually star-shaped plankton. It looked rough and pink with little red dots in the center. Some of the star-shaped "sand grains" had more than five sides. This plankton would be classified as macro phytoplankton because they are bigger than a millimeter. Another plankton observation was plankton that was made of tiny, glass boxes. Inside every little box are little lines, which I think are chloroplasts. The boxes are a rectangular shape. The box-shaped plankton are called diatoms. The last observation was a worm-type plankton. The worm was a green-brown color. Little small hairs were all over the worm's body. The head of the worm looked like it had small antennae and at the end of the worm were thin, long hairs. This plankton is called macro zooplankton because the worm is bigger than a millimeter and it eats phytoplankton. The pictures were taken by Mrs. Richardson.

Star-shaped Plankton

Box-shaped Plankton

Worm Plankton

Site Observation #3

The first site was in the woods next to the road that leads to the Bus Garage. It felt like it was about forty degrees outside. There were dry, dead leaves that covered the ground. I found fungus on a log that was lying near the creek. After the class was done taking observations at this spot, we moved to the lake. The grass was brown, dry, and dead. I found a few holes in the ground that were dug up by animals. The class then moved to a trail that led to the side of the lake after we were done observing that site. Cat tails were spotted on the side of the lake. Most of them were very tall. Beside the cat tails, the grass was flattened and looked like an animal tried to make a bed out of the flattened grass and cat tails. Next to the lake, I found more fungus on a tree branch. The fungus was very strange looking. It was in the shape of coral and was a very dark, brown and black color. After we were done taking pictures and writing observations about that site, the class moved back to the front of school to our next site. There weren't many traces of life there. In the mud were many human foot prints. There weren't many trees, but I did find a tree that has moss on it. The moss went most of the way up the tree. It was a sea-foam green color.

 Fungus on site 1

 Holes in site 2

 Dark fungus in site 3

 Moss in site 4