In science we all choose one earth period to study for three weeks. This project was a bit different than others because we had to come with not only our project, but we were going to be prepared for our presentations. And for some people, that meant that their actual project was to be a presentation, or for instance, a keynote presentation. Either way, it meant that we had to take at least three times (most likely) to practice our presentation. And I am pretty sure most of us did it at home, but that meant less time at home to put some finishing touches on projects. Another factor was, if you didn’t make your project a presentation, you have to think about how to deliver the information you want, while still sharing your project. And we all did great, but before I get to that, I need to explain my project.
So I was just by myself, and I was studying the paleogene period, right after the fall of the dinosaurs, and also known as the rise of the mammals (to learn more check out my blog, I will soon be posting the paragraphs I wrote, as well as pictures of my project). Once we decided the required basic facts for when present we could have good comparisons with other periods, I set off just researching. I wanted to research a little before I chose what I was going to do. About a week and a half into the project right where I was just about done researching, I got an idea to do a memory game. The basic idea, or what it came out to be was that I would put a couple of plants, animals, shells, temperatures, and more, draw them, cope my drawings onto some thick paper that makes weird noises when you move it. If the animals changed over the period (which happened to last 42 million!years by the way!), I would make two different version that were similar with the background and use of colors, but different. Then for my presentation, at first I gave a quick overview of the period. LIke for instance, climate, how the different temperatures rose and dropped, carbon levels, what was going on at the two poles, and so on. And for the game, as someone would find a pair I would explain that pair. And, if those pairs changed over time, I would have them try to remember what I said about which one came earlier and which one came later. If they could figure it out, I would give them a gold version of that card that would count as another pair. In the end of the game we came down to a tie, and I took the three water animals that I had and asked the two competitors which one like to stay mostly in shallow water, whoever got it right was the winner.
I thought my project went well. I wish I could have made a graph that showed the climate change over all the epochs in the period with pictures and words so everyone could have a better understanding of the period, but o well. Someone also gave me another idea when we were reflecting in class about these projects that I really wish I would have done. Some people learn a lot better when they have actually words to look at rather than me just talking, so for each of the cards it would have been nice to have a list of bullet points on the gold cards I created that were taken from the paragraphs I wrote. Over all thought I thought it went really well and I enjoyed working alone. I also wish I had made more pairs. Probably two more plants (at lease one flower), the continent placement, and insects. I did not look at any insects that were in my period and would have loved to know more about them. So I don’t regret doing anything, I just would have liked to do more.
When I presented I thought it was pretty good. Like I said before my system of giving out the information was dependent on which pairs got matched first. But I also gave an introduction. I thought I gave out enough information. I would have liked to have one portion where I would say, “ok, this information will be good to know for the game,” and then I would say the information that I gave extra points for in the game. Over all though, I thought it went pretty well.
I have to say, I learned a lot on this project. You see, much like our planet project where we had to make or find scale models for our planets, we did the same for time using yarn. For every million years we would add an inch. It was actually really funny because some everyone but andrew had string 40-80 inches long. However andrews period was only 2.7 years. You could imagine how sad it looked next to all those other strings hanging on the board. But that really did help me, and I think all of us to understand the difference in time with all the periods. And also how much time they actually lasted. I mean think about how long even a million years are. Its crazy to even think about, let alone 80 million years. We could also see, as time went on and people presented the evolution of dinosaurs and creatures and just how big everything was. It was like taking what we know today as our world and Cosco-lising it.
So starting with Carwai, the latest period we studied, the plants were most interesting to me. She actually said this a week after her presentation, but I found it interesting; she said that she noticed a pattern in the plants. So basically all the plants in her period had their leaves go two out in two then each of those had two and so on. I thought that was a ver interesting pattern. In Taelon’s period, all the animals were like the ugly teenage version (as he puts it) of all the dinosaurs we recognize from movies and whatnot. In Charmaine and sherif’s period, what I though was interesting was also the animals. They were like smaller versions of the ones we recognize from TV and books. In the period that Ruby and Maxx studied, the water was so interesting to me. The water level was really high, and the temperature was 99 degree average. In case you don’t know that like crazy hot. Next came my period which had really cool mammals. There was this one snake, the titan boa, that was 40ft long and had a diameter of 1m or 3 ft. Ya, gross, I know. Next came andrew. He had a very interesting armadillo-like creature, with a twist as he said it. It is the size of Bmw! Holy cow. Or should I say holy many cows. Haha…ya that was bad. Anyway, next came Rob. who focused on the period which had us. I really thought is was interesting how much the population had grown. It has almost doubled since the 80’s!
I look forward to the next project and I hope to do something that actually makes an impact on our earth. Like, I don’t know, plant trees or clean the beach, or something more creative…. I don’t know, once we choose the next part of the earth that we want to study, I’ll come up with a better idea. So I was really pleased with with what I learned and accomplished in this project, and I can’t wait till the next one.
