Symbiosis is the process of organisms living together within the same environment.

The three main types:

Mutualism is a win/win situation. Remember putting your fingers in a "m", then flipping them upward into a "w". This relationship is positive for both organisms.

Commensalism is positive for one organism and it really has no effect on the other (neither positive or negative).

Parasitism is positive for the parasite, but negative for the host organism.

Two other relationships to add are predator/prey and competition. The predator is the hunter and the prey is the hunter. Competition is negative for the entire population of organisms if the food situation gets too slim. If all of that population depends upon the same food source, then eventually there will not be enough food.

We have been reviewing the human body systems and their functions. It is important to remember that the function is what is does and the structure is what it looks like. The human body is designed so that the structure meets the function. For instance, remember when I made you turn your tables sideways and upside down to show that they were not designed to work that way. Our body is the same in that we need certain structures to meet certain functions. For example, the heart has four chambers because the blood has to be sent to the lungs for oxygen and then back to the heart to be sent throughout the body. The chambers help hold the blood for it to go to the next area. The heart is also made of thick cardiac muscle because it has to pump very often and to far away areas. I have attached some websites that will help you review the systems.

We are currently studying the chemical and physical properties of substances. We are going to concentrate on physical properties during this lesson. A physical property of an element or compound is a property (or characteristic) that can be observed without changing the material itself. Such properties include density, magnetism, color, luster (is it shiny), ductility (can it be stretched into a wire), malleability (can you flatten with a "mallet"), and conductivity (can heat or electricity pass through it). Three of the most important are the melting point (Mp), freezing point (Fp), and boiling point (Bp). These properties allow the state of matter (i.e. solid, liquid, or gas)to change, but not the matter itself. Refer to the lab we did with the boiling water (posted below as attachment).

We will demonstrate some of the other physical properties with the rotational lab using density, viscosity, luster, conductivity and magnetism.

Your test will cover the following items: 1. All of the particles of an atom and their charges: protons +, neutrons 0, electrons - 2. You are to know that the Atomic Number = the number of protons of that element. The Atomic Mass = the number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus. 3. To find the number of neutrons you take the Mass Number - the Atomic Number = neutrons. 4. Protons can never change and still be that same element. 5. If the protons and neutrons are a different number then you have an isotope. 6. If the protons and electrons are a different number then you have a charged ion. 7. Make sure you know how to create a diagram of the elements 1-20 on the periodic table.

Okay you should know the main particles of an atom now. Please answer these questions on a piece of notebook paper and turn it in to the basket above your composition books.

A proton has a _____________ charge. A neutron has a ________________ charge. An electron has a _________________ charge. Who's in the house? The ____________ in the house. Who's in the house? The _______________ is in the house. The house is the __ __ __ __ __ __ __. Who's not in the house? _____________ in the ___________. Please add to this an additional two pieces of knowledge that you have learned about the atom during the past two days.

Refer to the following website: www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es0501/es0501page04.cfm

Refer to the following website for atomic structure: go to the All About Atoms and the section labeled Atoms http://www.sciencejoywagon.com/chemzone/02atomic_structure

Once upon a time there were some positive, happy people that wanted to have some friends over to hang out at their house. These positive people invited a group of people over and started asking them questions about what type of food they might want and what kind of music they wanted to hear. However, all they could get from their friends were comments like. "I don't care...I don't know". It was hard to have a conversation with them because they were so neutral!!! Well there were a few people that were not invited to the party and they were not happy. They ran around the outside of the house talking some negative "trash" to the party goers inside the house. Now what does this have to do with Atomic Structure? The positive people represent the protons. The neutral people represent the neutrons. They are in the house which represents the nucleus of the atom. And finally the high energy, yet negative trash talkers, represent the electrons which are found outside the nucleus.

Welcome to the exciting world of science!!! I hope that this year will be a year of discovery for you. We will have many "objectives" or pieces of knowledge that we'll need to cover, but more importantly, we will be learning to reason and figure things out about the world surrounding us. But you say you don't like science because it is boring or it doesn't have anything to do with your life. How much do you like your cell phones or your facebook pages and IPods? Just the touch of a letter on your phone involoves Biology (your finger movement), Physics (radio waves), Chemistry ( the bonding of elements to make lighter materials to create the phone), Cosmology-Space (setting up satellites to receive and send signals)....and I could go on for a long time. Our world is literally at our fingertips with Internet, cell phones, and satellites. These are amazing tools if used properly. These tools can enable us to have a better understanding of how events in other parts of the world could affect our lives. For instance, there are scientists working together right now in remote (far away and hard to get to) areas of the world tracking diseases through blood tests they are doing on people we didn't even know existed 20 years ago. All these scientists throughout the world are using a tracking system set up on the Internet. How does this affect you? It will enable scientists to see how these diseases are changing so that we can be better prepared to fight these diseases....diseases such as AIDS. Okay, let's put it into everyday terms for you..science is everywhere and is involved in everything!!!!!

My challenge to you this year is to look for the science in things, people, places and events. If you think you can find something that does not have science involved in it, come argue your point with me. If I cannot find a way that science is involved, I will give you two 100s. If I can find a way that science is involved, you learn a little more and lose nothing. Let's get our brains in gear and think as small as an atom to as large as the universe.

Here are a few class standards and routines I want to establish:

Homework:

Assigned once a week on Mondays

Due on Thursdays

Kept in order in your folders

Assignments will be written on your Six Weeks Assignment sheet every Monday

If we do not have school on Monday, due to a holiday, there will be a Tuesday-Friday assignment.

Six Weeks Assignment:

Each six weeks you will be given a special assignment..TBA (to be announced)

YOU need to go up and Read the Posting Policies at: http://www.arp.sprnet.org/admin/Posting_Policies.htm

AND you need to read how to control access to this Blog: http://www.arp.sprnet.org/admin/Blog_Setup.htm

Today you are going to review food chains, food webs, symbiosis and succesion. With food chains and webs they always show the flow of energy from one organism to another. The energy flows from producers to primary consumers to secondary consumers and then to tertiary consumers. Whatever is being eaten is at the beginning of the arrow and what is eating it is at the pointed end of the arrow. Energy flow alwasy begins with radiant energy from the sun being converted to chemical energy in the form of food through photosynthesis.

Go to http://classroom.jc-schools.net/sci-units/food.htm#7 Scroll down to interactive games and do sites #1, #5. and #12.

Now for symbiosis which is the relationships between organism within an ecosystem. Go to www.quia.com/jg/279041.html and choose "matching"and www.interactivegeography.co.uk/games/ecosytems_fling.htm

Okay, just six more days and Thursday is a short day!!!. Let's stay focused a little bit longer, then we will have some interesting projects to complete!!! We will be reviewing vocabulary, objectives and TAKS questions. Next Monday I will try to give you something interesting if you work hard this week. Next Tuesday we will be going to SciPort Museum for a field trip to get us out of the school while the 6th and 7th graders do some testing. This should be fun and should break up the monotony of the TAKS preparation. It will also give us a good last minute review on some important concepts. Okay, today we are going to review living systems and structure vs function. Remember structure is what it looks like and function is what it does. Some of your bones are cylindrical and long---that is their structure. The function for those bones is to support your body and protect your body.

Look at the following website and review the systems of the body. Remember that the structure is set up for the function. For example, a chair is structured or designed to sit in. It is shaped to support your back and your bottom. The legs have to be strong enough to support the person's weight. It would be hard to skate on a chair. It wasn't structured for that function. Also remember that cells make up tissues, tissues make up organs, and organs make up systems.

Log on to www.biology4kids.com and quickly review those systems you don't feel comfortable with. Click on "Animal Systems". There are some quizzes at the bottom if you want to go over some of them.

You will be reviewing basic cycles of the earth today. They will include the water cycle, rock cycle, and plate tectonics. Remember that the earth is constantly recycling its own resources. Too bad we don't do as good a job of recycling as the earth does for itself.

Log onto one of the following websites and walk through the interactive exercises in order to review the cycles.

For the rock cycle: www.learner.org/interactives/rockcycle/diagram.html

For the water cycle: http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/earthguide/diagrams/watercycle/watercycleq.html

and http://apps.southeastwater.com.au/games/education_kidsroom_wcactivity.asp

For plate tectonics: http://www.uky.edu/AS/Geology/howell/goodies/elearning/module04swf.swf

You have been doing a really good job of boot camp so far!!! Pay attention to detail on your TAKS type questions. We will be continuing with our vacabulary words and our TAKS type questions. Today's review will center around physical and chemical changes. This has to do with chemistry and parts of the erosion process (chemical and mechanical or physical weathering). Look over the list of chemical and physical properties. It is these properties that help arrange the elements in the periodic table.

Chemical :Flammability (burning), Reactivity, Rusting or Oxidation

Physical: Ductility (put in a wire form), Conduction ( a conductor moves heat easily), State of Matter (solid, liquid or gas),

Density, Size, Mass, Melting Point, Boiling Point, Color, Luster (shiny), Malleability (flattened).

Also in a chemical reaction you have reactants and products.

NaO + HOH (reactants) Yields(there should be an arrow here) NaOH (product) Reactants (left) are what you start with and Products (right) are what you finish with.

To review phases or states of matter go to www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_changes.html .

Solids - particles are really close together. Liquids - they are a bit farther apart. Gases - particles are spread out.