Our Carbon Footprint | Emissions We Never Realized We Made

Our carbon footprint is bigger than we think. Simple everyday items come from all over the world and pollute the air. This brings up the questions, what do you think should be done in order to reduce the transportation environmental impact? How do you think your answer to the previous question would affect the price of products? These are questions we had to think about as we found where all of our products came from and their journey. Some simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint is to buy items lovallay and use items that were manufactured closer to home. You can also buy things from the same store to reduce the amount of carbon released when you are driving. This would affect the price of some of these products because it could be more difficult to make them locally and closer to home, therefore raising the price. But it could also mean that using less transportation costs less money and therefore lowers the price. Overall, I found it surprising just how much carbon we emit into our atmosphere and how far some items travel to get to us.

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SP2: Using Models

We modeled how our raw materials for our project have traveled. We modeled where they were manufactured by purple dots. We then modeled where we bought them with black dots and connected the two with a line to show how far they traveled to get from the manufacturer to the retailer. Then we connected the retailer to the school modeling how the materials got from the retailer to us. This overall modeled the whole journey of our product, from start to finish.

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XCC: Patterns

Every day millions of American's go to the store. Buying things like food, furniture, and other things. People usually go to the store buying food a couple times a week, starting a pattern. They go to the store and buy food, then come back once they run out of something. Creating the pattern of buy, run out, and buy again. This then repeats itself over and over and over again. This creates a ton of carbon emissions, causing a pattern here. They go to the store and emit carbon driving, the store then must restock the food, causing it to emit more carbon. Then in the days, they don't go to the store, they emit less carbon, creating the cycle, carbon, more carbon, less carbon then finally carbon again as they go back to the store to buy more food.

Mantowausu | An Evolution Fantasy

Mantowausu by Jane Partsch

 

Has your imagination ever taken you away to a far-off land, full of different creatures and plants? This leopard went through the same thing, but it wasn't its imagination, it was its reality. A Mantowausu was first a figment of the imagination of me and my team. But we brought it to life with its evolutionary story and history. We gave it a name, home, diet, body, protection and more. Everything that you need to be able to be a successful species. It's habitat full of dangerous things that we had to think about and process to figure out its protection, diet, and predator(s). The food chain already figured out, was a problem that we needed to solve, seeing as our animal couldn't be the almighty animal that rules the forest and is not eaten. It needed to adapt to be able to survive. Its mutations kept it living, while natural selection was fighting for it. The Mantowausu endured a lot, hoping to find a home where it fits. The Mantowausu was part of the quest to understand evolution and the way that it works, changing the course and lives of whole species forever. The Mantowausu has shown my group and me, really just how evolution works and how it changes lives. The Mantowausu and evolutionary fantasy, has come to life. With everything it needs to survive and live on, making for a successful life. In the end, the Mantowausu shall be revealed to the public, as the wonder it really is. This has taught me about the different ways that evolution happens and what evolution does to affect different organisms and ecosystems.

Backwards-Looking

I went through a lot to get to this point. My team and I have figured what animal we wanted to make and it's evolutionary story and background. We then created the slideshow above and made sure to add all of the adaptations and information. Then we decided what our animal should look like and what its name should be. We then decided how we would make our poster and prototype. Then we made a prototype and made it look nice so that we were proud of the work that we did.

Inwards-Looking

I really like this project and am proud of this and like the work that I have produced. I really like the slideshow and the image and all of the work that we put into it. I think that we could have done a little more in the slideshow and the picture could be a little better. Overall, it was a very good project I am really proud of it.

Outwards-Looking

Compared to those groups who choose the same project, we did ours similarly. We all made a poster and a slideshow and an animal. But our animals were different as well as our slides, poster, and presentation. We decided to paint instead of color, our poster. We decided to include bullet points instead of paragraphs. We didn't label our animal's poster, others did. Some did it individually, we did it in a group. Overall, we had a lot of differences within the very similar outcome and project.

Forwards-Looking

If I was to do this project again, I would have changed my slides a little, and added more to the project. I would have added a cladogram and visual representation of the food chain and how our animal, the Mantowausu, fits into it. I would also have added some more images to the slideshow/presentation. I also would have liked to make a website for our animal that went along wth our project further exlaining our anima and it's adaptations. But I think that I managed my time well, which is an imporvement, and worked hard to get this project done and do it well.

Mantowausu | A Flying Rain Forest Cat

Evolution is a huge part of life on planet C. A mysterious, dangerous and interesting alien plant. Full of rain forests, poisonous plants, insects, birds, fish, monkeys, and huge dangerous snakes. On this strange planet, the Mantowausu was born. The Mantowausu used to be a leopard, but when challenged with the harsh and strange environment of Planet C, it chose to take its own course. It started with a mutation, one leopard's DNA was mutated so that it had wings, this trait was passed on and better developed, then through natural selection, those with wings lived longer to reproduce and passed on the trait. Then being separated from Earth's leopards in an act of genetic drift, those Mantowausu's with larger fangs and harder paws, survived longer. Able to catch food and fight back against their slithery predators, they live long enough to reproduce and pass on their traits. The Mantowausu then had another mutation. It now had oils that would release into its fur to keep it dry in the moisture of the rainforest. The Mantowausu has developed a diet for birds, fish, and a smaller monkey if it can catch it. The Mantowausu nest in crooks of trees far off of the ground to avoid the poisonous plants, as the adult's paws are hard, the poison can't enter their body, but the young paws are still soft and vulnerable. Through many adaptations and struggles, the Mantowausu has come to grow into its environment and live a good life.

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SP3: Conducting Investigations

The Mantowausu is a very interesting animal that took a lot of time to create. We had to investigate all of the properties and unique traits that the Mantowausu would possess. We investigated all of the things that the Mantowausu would need to survive and how it would get it. It was a difficult but fun process that I very much enjoyed.

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XCC: Stability and Change

The Mantowausu went through a lot of change to become stable in its environment. It had to adapt and change to fit the climate and ecosystems on Planet C. It also had to keep a stable life and living practice that kept it alive and safe. This was a huge thing. Without change, the Mantowausu would have never become stable enough to continue to live and would have died out. The Mantowausu needed the change to become stable and learn to live in its environment. Change and stability really affect animals and evolution. It is the process in one phrase, changing over time to become more stable and safe as a species.

Cladograms and Common Ancestors

Cladogram Vertebrata by Biology Dictionary Editors

One of the most common things known amongst people who have studied evolution is that we all share a common ancestor. But how do we figure out which one we are the closest related to? The simplest thing to use is a cladogram. A cladogram shows us traits that certain organisms share, who their closest relative is and what common ancestor is shared most recently between organisms. A cladogram consists of a line climbing diagonally upwards, diagonal lines branching off of the baseline, the name or a picture on the top of one of the branches and a list of traits shared by the organisms as we go further up the diagram, below the baseline at certain points. To make a cladogram you first identify all of your organisms. Then you make a table of the organisms and their traits. Go through the table, it the organism has the trait, put a plus sign, if it doesn't, put a minus and if you don't know, put a question mark. Then make a Venn diagram, but not your usual two circles Venn Diagram. Start by drawing one big circle. At the bottom, put the most common trait and the organisms that share it. Then draw another circle inside that first circle. In this one write the next most common trait and the organisms that share it. Continue to do this until you have listed all of the traits. You are now ready to build your cladogram. Draw a line at the bottom of your diagram, this line represents time. Then draw a line branching off of the one you just drew, for every organism you have. Leave space at the top. You will then look at the center of your Venn diagram, you will most likely have one organism and the trait that only it has. Take that one organism and put it on the line at the front of the baseline. This would be the most recent. Then put the trait that it shares, beneath it where the organisms line meets the timeline. Then move o to the second smallest circle in your diagram. You then choose the organism that is not yet on your cladogram. Place it and the trait on the cladogram. Repeat these steps until all of the organisms and traits are on your cladogram. You can now figure somethings out. At the spot where the organisms line meets the line of time, you will have a common ancestor of that organism and the ones above it. The closer the organism is to this spot, the more recent the common ancestor, the closer they are related. You can also use this to figure out what two animals are more closely related. If they share a more recent common ancestor, they are more closely related. You can use cladograms to sort and classify organisms, as well as figure out things like common ancestors, close relatives and who the organism evolved from. Cladograms tell us a lot of things, no wonder they are so common.

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SP2: Using Models

A cladogram is a big model that helps scientists all over the world to understand organisms. Cladograms help people to figure out many things. But to make a cladogram you need other models. These include Venn diagrams and tables. These are two very useful, visual, diagrams that can help you no matter what you are looking for. Cladograms and the process to get them includes many models that make life easier for people.

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XCC: Structure and Function

Cladograms are a type of structure that has many functions. A cladogram is a simple structure of lines and words. It has many different functions. These include showing us traits that are shared, like spikes, claws and hair. It also shows us who certain organisms are more closely related to. Like Bears and Birds or Bears and Monkeys. They also show us common ancestors, like bacterias and other more recent and complex organisms. Cladograms are simple to construct, and tell you a lot about certain organisms, this is why they are used so often.