Presentation Rehearsal

I practiced my presentation yesterday and it went pretty well. My parents gave me a few tips and I am going to try it again tonight, and I'm going to try to do it faster.

Script Work

I'm going to be finishing up my script between tonight and tomorrow so that I can rehearse my entire presentation over the weekend.

Presentation Turned In!!!

I finally turned in my presentation today during class! I've been working on my script since the weekend, and I am feeling pretty good about it. I want to have my script done by the weekend (since I'm presenting next Wednesday) so that I can practice timing my presentation and making adjustments where necessary. I'm hosting Peter which means that I'm going to have to time him which I am a bit worried about since he said that his presentation is 62 slides (and counting!). However, he said that he timed himself, and, talking fast, he could get his entire presentation under 6 minutes which I think is pretty impressive.

Presentation Done!

I have to finish my presentation tonight! I think that I'm done, I'm just going to read through it one more time and then I'm going to continue to work on my script! I feel really good that I got my powerpoint done on time and that I'm not rushing at the last minute!

Presentation

I finished up my presentation today. I was able to put all of my pictures and effects into it so that all that I have to do now is write my script. My presentation is 24 slides long, and I'm glad that it's not too long because that means that I won't have to rush through my presentation and any questions that are asked afterwards.

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday I got my text into my powerpoint. With the exception of just a few details, like color, animation, and pictures, I have the majority of the work for my powerpoint done. Today, I am going to finish my powerpoint, entirely, and tomorrow, I will start to write my script.

Presentation Work

I worked on my presentation a lot in class today, and I think that I'm pretty close to being done with all of the slides (well, just the text and stuff, no pictures).

Lab Report DONE!!!

I turned in my lab report today during CWP which felt really good. I feel like I worked really hard on it and I'm glad that I'm not as stressed out as I know a lot of other people are. Some of my friends didn't take advantage of Spring Break to work, so I'm almost glad that I didn't go away in that respect. I started to work on my presentation last night, and want to be done with it by this weekend so that I have plenty of time to edit and to write my script (I don't want to be rushing at the last minute like I know a lot of people are with this lab report!).

Lab Report --> Presentation

I finished by lab report today which I'm really happy about because I know that a lot of people aren't even close to done, and will be cramming tonight and tomorrow. I am also going to start my powerpoint presentation tonight so that I don't have to stress over it too too much next week, since it is due Tuesday (April 5th).

(blogging for yesterday)

I went to see Mrs. Wiessman today, and we talked about how I can edit my lab report as well as what I need to add onto it to make it even better. I also need to figure out a way to label my axis on the graph that I made in Excel (but I think that I know how to do that).

Graph

I finished my graph today, and I am almost done with my lab report, I just have to read over every thing... then I'm done!

Here's a copy of my graph:

I only graphed the number of brine shrimp alive in each tank because I thought that it would be redundant to graph the number of brine shrimp both dead and alive (since the number of brine shrimp dead can be figured out from looking at a graph of the number alive).

(more) Lab Report Work

I worked on my lab report a lot more today. I was able to get everything up to (or over) its required word count. I was a bit confused because the "suggested word count" sheet suggested that our data be 300-750 words. I was able to add more to my conclusion so that it is no 501 words (yay!). I still have a lot more work to do though!

Lab Report Work

I worked on my lab report today. I found a guide/outline, to help me write my lab report, on moodle. I had a hard time figuring out what goes into my data analysis vs. what goes into my conclusion, but I looked back at past lab reports of mine (from both this year and last) and I was able to answer my own questions.

An Additional Experimental Error

As I was working on my lab report, I thought of yet another experimental error. That is that, in a real lake, if the water were to evaporate, that would increase the salinity of the lake, because when the water evaporates, the salt doesn't evaporate with it. I think that this experiment addressed one very specific problem: space restriction, that being said, I think that there are many ways that I could have made it more "real world-ly" and realistic. For example, I could have allowed the water to evaporate under a heat lamp, but there was, unfortunately, insufficient time for such an experiment. I would have loved to have seen the results from this experiment, and think that much further experimentation is not only absolutely necessary, but vital to the preservation of many national parks, reserves, and many species all around the world.

All done!

Well, I'm not actually "all done" with the project, but my last day of collecting data was yesterday. I dropped science today, and will be bringing my brine shrimp home tomorrow. I got 14 days of data total, which I'm happy with since some kids just started yesterday!

Additional Experimental Errors

Another experimental errors that I thought of today have to do with the food. While I followed the feeding instructions on the back of the food (drops) container, I had to change the amount of food based on how much water was left in the tanks. For example, I had been putting 15 drops in all three tanks at the beginning, but as the amount of water in both tanks #2 and tank #3 decreased, I had to decrease the number of drops that I put in each tank. This number may not have been the right number of drops per gallon (or amount of water).

Another one bites the dust

A second brine shrimp died today in tank #3. So far, that brings my brine shrimp death total to three brine shrimp (one in tank #2, and two in tank #3). I don't think that this one brine shrimp will effect my conclusion however, since so few brine shrimp have died, I can still conclude that space restriction does not majorly effect their life span. Additionally, since a brine shrimp died in the tank where I only removed 100mL of water per day, the brine shrimp that died could have been damaged or harmed before I put them in the tank. However, since no brine shrimp died in my control tank, perhaps space restriction effects some brine shrimp. The brine shrimp also may have been old and/or otherwise "ready" to die.

A Possible Experimental Error

While there are several experimental errors that I know I have to consider when I am drawing conclusions from this experiment, one that I have to consider is not being able to properly identify dead brine shrimp. There are small "fluffy" white things floating around the bottom of my three tanks. I'm not sure if those are remainders of the several dead brine shrimp, extra bits of food, or excrement from the brine shrimp (that are still alive). However, in my first tank, to my knowledge, no brine shrimp have yet died, leaving my first theory about what the "fluffy" things could be, is wrong. Additionally, I had to change their food source for several days because we ran out of the brine shrimp food that I had been feeding my shrimp. I switched to feeding them yeast for 2-3 days. This may have effected them because of the change, even though yeast is an equally good food source for brine shrimp.

Data Table

	Control (Tank #1)		100 mL removed per day (Tank #2)		300 mL removed per day (Tank #3)
Date	# Alive	# Dead	# Alive	# Dead	# Alive	# Dead
2/17/11	25	0	23	0	24	0
2/18/11	25	0	23	0	24	0
2/22/11	25	0	23	0	24	0
2/23/11	25	0	23	0	24	0
2/24/11	25	0	23	0	24	0
2/25/11	25	0	23	0	24	0
2/28/11	25	0	23	0	24	0
3/1/11	25	0	22	1	24	0
3/2/11	25	0	22	1	23	1
3/3/11	25	0	22	1	23	1
3/4/11	25	0	22	1	23	1