Digital Scavenger Hunt: Part 2 - Justin Mageau

This is a sea-urchin, which belongs to the phylum Echinodermata. Echinoderms are classified by their spiny or prickly skin (echino-prickly, derma-skin) and are noted for having radial symmetry and internal calcareous (chalky) skeletons. Another characteristic of many echinoderms are "tube feet", which are suction-powered feet caused by internal water-filled canals. This specific sea-urchin has been dead for years and has lost most of its spines. Echinodermata is also the largest phylum exclusive to marine animals and include sea-stars, sea-cucumbers, and sand dollars. 

Shells are usually the exoskeleton created by invertebrates such as mollusks, cephalopods, bivalves, gastropods, etc., although, animals such as hermit crabs are incapable of creating their own shell, so they make home in a vacant shell left behind by a shell-creating creature. Shells are most often composed of calcium carbonate, like egg-shells, and have a chalky texture.

Above is a honeybee extracting pollen and nectar from a french marigold. By doing so, it is assisting in pollination, therefore being a pollinator. French marigolds are hermaphroditic, thus able to self-pollinate, meaning that this specific honeybee could possibly have pollinated this specific marigold by rustling the pollen around until some had come in contact with some of the plant's stigmas, allowing self-fertilization to occur. It could have also retained pollen residue on its body and pollinated a different marigold.

This picture consists of two different types of fungi. The kingdom Fungi consists of yeasts, molds, mushrooms, etc. Many fungi are deathly poisonous, while others are edible and sometimes even hallucinogenic. Fungi are usually asexual and reproduce via sporulation. Certain fungi can also be found bonded to an alga in the form of a lichen, where the fungus is called the mycobiont and the alga the photobiont and the two live symbiotically.

This is a frog that I stumbled upon in Vermont. Frogs, along with salamanders, newts, caecilians, axolotls, etc., are amphibians, belonging to the class Amphibidia. Amphibians are the descendants of the first vertebrates that made the transition from life on water to life on land and are characterized by having smooth skin, being cold-blooded, and being able to sustain life in both aqueous and non-aqueous environments. Most amphibians undergo metamorphosis and spawn in the water. A frog starts its life as an egg, hatches as a tadpole, and eventually morphs into its adult stage. 

This is a picture of a spider that I also found in Vermont. Spiders belong to the class Arachnidia. Arachnids are invertebrates with eight jointed legs and include ticks, mites, scorpions, etc. They are usually predacious and often times, poisonous. Anatomically, arachnids consist of a cephalothorax, where the sensory organs, mouthparts, and limbs are located, and abdomen, where reproductive parts, and spinnerets in spiders, can be found. Spiders are famed for creating webs made of silk that they can travel across, trap prey, and wrap prey or eggs in.

This is the eye of a blue eyed girl. The blue part of the eye surrounding the pupil is called the iris. The iris generally consists of the stroma, dilator muscle, and sphinctor muscle. The stroma is the outermost layer of the iris and can contain pigmentation, although, this specific eye lacks pigment, which is responsible for the blue coloration. The dilator muscle is what increases the size of the pupil, allowing more light to enter, and the sphinctor does the opposite.

These are two ants scavenging moth wings. Scavengers are any creature that feeds on animal corpses and other remains. Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores can all be scavengers, although certain creatures mainly rely on predation. When live food is scarce, animals like foxes resort to scavenging for food. What's left behind by scavengers is usually taken care of by the detritivores who recycle the corpse' nutrients back into the soil.

Kristy Archambault's Digital Scavenger Hunt Set 2

          This picture is of common table salt found in almost everyone's homes. Salt is an example of a compound which can be defined as a substance containing two or more elements in a fixed ratio. In salt (NaCl), the two elements used are sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl). For each sodium atom there is always a chlorine atom to keep a fixed ratio of 1:1. Compounds are important because they are what make up everything around us. Everything in the world is either an element or a compound, so without compounds many things in the universe would not exist. In addition to elements, humans are made up of various compounds such as carbohydrates. lipids, proteins, nucleotides, and water; therefore, without compounds the human race would cease to exist. 

           This is a lake which is near my house and serves as an ecosystem. An ecosystem is all the organisms in a given area, along with the abiotic factors that are interacted with. In this ecosystem the biotic factors would be the living organisms such as fish, birds, squirrels, and vegetation while the abiotic factors would be the water, sand, and rocks. Ecosystems are important because it's where everything in nature interacts with each other, it's where communities are, and where animals live and hunt for food. According to life's levels of organization ecosystem is the second to highest level directly under biosphere with community, population, organism, organ system, organ, tissue, cell, organelle, and molecule following in the levels below. 

          This is a wholphin that I saw when I went to Sea Life Park in Hawaii a few summers ago.The wholphin is half bottlenose dolphin and half false killer whale, the mother being the dolphin and the father being the false killer whale. This wholphin is a prime example of a hybrid, which is the offspring of parents of two different species or of two different varieties of species. Hybrids are significant in life because they create diversity and sometimes are created for specific characteristics. For example, the cama (hybrid of a camel with a llama) was created in Dubai. Scientists made this hybrid hoping for ideal characteristics to help better their society. The scientists hoped the cama would be as big and strong as the camel, but be easier to deal with and give mass quantities of wool like the llama. While many hybrids are made in laboratories, many hybrids do commonly happen in the wild.   

           Water is all around us; water makes up the majority of the human body and the majority of the earth's surface. Water is held together by hydrogen bonds which are a type of weak chemical bonds formed when the partially positive hydrogen atom participating in a polar covalent bond in one molecule is attracted to the partially negative atom participating in a polar covalent bond in another molecule. In short, hydrogen bonds are what keep atoms of water together. In a molecule of water, the hydrogen atom is partially positive while the oxygen atom is partially negative which allows four other electronegative atoms or in this case four more molecules of water to bond to this one single molecule of water. Hydrogen bonds are significant for many reasons such as helping to make a proteins shape, holding the two strands of a DNA molecule together, making water cohesive, and moderating temperatures in water. 

          This is a common bar of soap that can be found in anyone's home; soap is a perfect example of a hydrophilic and a hydrophobic molecule. A hydrophilic molecule is "water loving" which pertains to polar, or charged, molecules that are soluble in water. A hydrophobic molecule is "water fearing" which pertains to nonpolar molecules that don't dissolve in water. Soap is made with sodium hydroxide, different kinds of fats, and oils. The scientific makeup of soap is a hydrocarbon chain with carbon and hydrogen in the tail and carbon and oxygen in the head. In soap the "head" is hydrophillic and attracted to water while the "tail" is hydrophobic and attracted to substances such as grease. In this specific case, the hydrophilic head and hydrophobic tail is important because water itself cannot clean off grease, so the head of the molecule attracts the water while the tail attracts to and lifts grease allowing the grease to be washed away. This is only one of the reasons why hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules are important, these molecules are all around and explain many things in nature. 

           Butter is a prime example of a saturated fat. Saturated fats are fats and fatty acids whose hydrocarbon chains contain the maximum number of hydrogens and have no double covalent bonds. This basically means that the molecules are packed close together and cannot attract more hydrogen atoms. Saturated fats come from animals and are usually solid at room temperature. Saturated fats and fats in general are a significant part of human life because they help to insulate the body, protect organs, and balance hormones. On the other hand having too many saturated fats can result in many cardiovascular diseases and illnesses such as heart attacks; therefore, saturated fats need to be taken in moderation.  

           Grapes and many other fruits such as apples have waxes and oils on their surface to act as a coating. Waxes are lipids that consist of a fatty acid linked to an alcohol. Waxes are very hydrophobic which is what allows water to bead on its surface such as the water on the surface of this grape. Waxes and oils aren't only used on fruits to keep the insides juicy, they are also very important because they're used on animals and insects to keep them from drying out. For example, hummingbirds haves waxes on their feathers which allow them to fly through the rain without their wings getting soaked to the point where they can't fly. Additionally, ducks have oils on their feathers that help them from getting soaked which makes it easier for them to float on top of water. If their feathers absorbed the water, the ducks would be heavier which would make it more difficult for them to stay afloat. 

Laura Chen's Digital Scavenger Hunt Set #2

 

 

This is a picture of a lobster, which is a crustacean that has an exoskeleton made of the protein chitin and calcium. This external shell protects and supports the attachment of its muscles. The exoskeleton is made out of separate plates that are connected by thin membranes. This segmented exoskeleton creates joints, which allows the lobster to move its body and appendages. When a lobster grows, it must shed its exoskeleton through a process called molting. During this process, the tissue layer under the exoskeleton detaches and secretes a new exoskeleton. When the new skeleton is completely formed, the old skeleton will split along specific points that are weak. Once the old exoskeleton is removed, the lobster's mobility will be limited, since the new exoskeleton isn’t firm enough to keep the limbs stiff.

 

In this picture, it show the stems holding the flowers upright toward the sun. The stem is a necessary part of a plant, since it provides support to help keep the flower vertical. This allows the plant to change the light energy it obtains from the sun into chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis. In addition, pollinators have a better chance of pollinating the flower when it’s upright. Stems can also carry water and minerals up from the roots to the leaves, as well as taking food back down to be stored and distributed to the plant. The tubes in the stem that obtain the water and minerals are the xylem and the tubes that carry the food back down are called the phloem. Without a stem, a flower would have difficulty growing and obtaining the necessary nutrients and water to prosper.  

 

This is a picture of my friend's eye, in which we can see the pupil. The pupil is the opening in the center of the iris that can either expand or contract, depending on the amount of light entering the interior of the eye. After the light passes through the pupils, it comes in contact with disk-like lens. These lenses focus images onto the retina, which is a layer just inside the choroids. The shape of the lens is determined by the ciliary muscles, which contract when the eye focuses on a nearby object. This contraction pulls the choroids toward the lens, reducing the tension on the ligaments and causing the elastic lens to become thicker and rounder. This specific change is called accommodation, which allows the diverging light rays from a close object to be bent and focused. When the eye focuses on a distant object, it requires less bending and allows the ciliary muscles to relax. Through this process, it allows humans to use their pupils to focus on both nearby and distant objects.

 

This picture shows the chrysalis a caterpillar has made on a plant in my yard. A caterpillar goes through a transformation called metamorphosis to become a butterfly. This process has four different stages, which are egg, larva, pupa, and adult. In the first stage, the eggs are covered in chorion and lined with a waxy layer to protect and prevent dehydration in the egg. The egg is then attached to a plant by the female butterfly, which will be the food source for the caterpillar once it hatches. In the larva stage, the caterpillar will eat and sheds its skin approximately 4 or 5 times. The food eaten during this time will be stored and used later when it transforms into an adult. The pupa stage can be considered the transition stage, since the caterpillar will create a chrysalis to encase itself in. In the chrysalis, the insect’s body is liquefied by digestive fluids, causing the body to restructure itself using specialized formative cells. This process is called histogenesis and once it’s in the adult stage, the butterfly’s primary behavior is to find a mate and produce viable offspring to carry on their genes.

This is a picture of the skin on my left arm. The skin acts as a waterproof, insulating shield that helps guard the body against temperature, damaging sunlight and harmful chemicals. It's made up of three layers and the outermost layer is known as the epidermis. This layer consists mainly of cells called keratinocytes, which are made from the tough protein keratin. These cells create several layers that constantly grow outwards as the exterior cells die and flake off. The epidermis also contains defensive langerhans cells, which alert the body's immune system to viruses and other infectious agents. It’s bonded to the dermis, which gives the organ its strength and elasticity. This layer also contains blood vessels that help regulate the body temperature by increasing or restricting the blood flow to the skin. The last skin layer is the subcutis, which contains fat that can be used as a fuel reserve, in case there's a food shortage in the body.

This picture shows different fishes in a glass tank that all share the common feature of gills. Gills allow fish to absorb smaller concentrations of available oxygen in the water, while maintaining an appropriate level of sodium chloride in their bloodstream. They’re located on either side of the body, just behind the head. This particular arrangement increases the surface area when the gills are immersed in water. Within the water, a fish can reduce the amount of pressure in their mouth cavity by lowering the floor of its mouth and widening the operculum. This causes the water to rush in; however, an inward fold of skin in the bottom of its mouth forms a valve to keep the water from rushing out. The pressure is then increased, leading the water to be forced through the operculum opening and across the gills. Gills are vital organs for fishes, since it allows them to breathe oxygen, while allowing them to keep an appropriate amount of sodium chloride in their blood.

 

This picture shows a horseshoe crab I found on the beach when I went fishing with my uncle. Horseshoe crabs are known as arthropods, which can be found on the sea floor in warm climates. They may appear to resemble crustaceans; however, they’re more closely related to arachnids. Horseshoe crabs have a hard outer shell, five pairs of legs and a long, thin tail. This tail helps the horseshoe crab flip itself back upright or change direction while swimming. They breathe through their book gills, which are thin plates on the abdomen. These creatures have a specific nesting season, since it only takes place during high tides in the three days before and after a new or full moon. During this season, male horseshoe crabs move parallel to the shoreline and intercept females as they go by. Once a male spots a female horseshoe crab, he will attach himself to her with his specialized front claw. As the female lays her eggs, he will fertilize them. Once they’re done, they will return back into the water.

This picture shows pieces of kelp that has been moved onto the beach by the water. Kelp is a type of brown seaweed that grows in regions with cold coastlines and can form extensive undersea forests. It thrives on sunlight and takes in nutrients and minerals that are present in the water around it. As a result, kelp can contain types of protein, carbohydrates, and essential fatty acids. In addition, eating kelp can have several benefits on the human body that will help treat various disorders. Once digested, it has a type of therapeutic effect on the body, such as strengthening the immune system’s functions or increasing resistance to infections. Kelp is also beneficial to the nervous and endocrine systems, since it will enhance the jobs of the adrenal, thyroid, and pituitary glands. This type of alga has numerous advantages and serves a large amount of purposes in the body; however, those that have high blood pressure or thyroid problems should consult their healthcare practitioner before using or digesting it.

Samantha Brown's Digital Scavenger Hunt Set #2

Well, the picture above shows me and the reason this picture relates to biology is due to my eyes. My visual acuity, the ability of your eyes to distinguish fine detail, stinks. I can’t see anything! Well, I’m exaggerating I can see something’s. Three of the most common visual problems are farsightedness, nearsightedness, and astigmatism. I am afflicted with nearsightedness and cannot see very far away, at all. What this mean for my eyeball is that it is longer than normal. The lenses can’t flatten enough to compensate, and it focuses on distant objects in front of the retina, instead on it. 

Plants are both autotrophs and producers which means plants provide themselves with their own food while also acting as an ecosystems food supply. The chloroplasts within the plant cells capture light energy from the sun and convert this energy into chemical energy which is then stored as sugar and other organic molecules. Since Plants produce organic molecules from inorganic molecules they are also known as photoautotrophs. Plants are not the only photoautotrophs though, other organisms like photosynthetic bacteria and algae also fall under this category. 

I love seeing rainbows luckily they are part of the electromagnetic spectrum called visible light. The electromagnetic spectrum shows the full range of wavelengths from the very short gamma rays to the very long-wavelength radio waves. Wavelengths are the distance between to crests of two adjacent waves. Visible light is the radiation that eyes pick up as color. Visible light only a small fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum and consists of wavelengths of 380nm to 750nm. 

This picture of Italian dressing is the perfect example of hydrophobic molecules (water-fearing) and hydrophilic molecules (water-loving). Oils are pretty much liquid fat and fats are made out of large lipids composed of two smaller molecules, glycerol and fatty acids. Anyway, lipids are nonpolar molecules which make then hydrophobic; therefore, oils are hydrophobic and the oil separates from the vinegar, which is mostly made up of water. 

Fats are not the only type of lipids in existence, for example phospholipids, steroids, and waxes. This image displays a candle, which is made of wax. Waxes consist of one fatty acid linked to an alcohol and are more hydrophobic than fat, which would explain the many uses of wax. Many fruits even have a natural wax coating as do many insects like ants. The waxy coat on insects helps them not to dry out. All waxes are organic compounds, naturally and synthetically made. 

So, there is a group of chickens and one rooster hanging around where I live. The rooster can be pretty intimidating, not going to lie, especially after its owner explained how they attack people. I feed them and took a couple pictures with my phone. Anyway, chickens have a pecking order which is an example of a dominance hierarchy. A dominance hierarchy is a ranking of individuals based on social interactions. Once this hierarchy is established the member of the group are pretty much stuck with there status. Chicken’s, like this one, establish pecking orders by pecking each other. Once the dominant hen has been decided they have access to food and water first and is not bothered by the other hens. The alpha hen also gets the best nesting sites. 

The ocean is a very important aspect of the world, especially since life originated in the sea. The oceans consist of 75% of planet’s surface and affect the world significantly. Their evaporation provides for most of the earth rainfall and the ocean temperatures have a major effect on the climate. Photosynthesis by marine algae and cyanobacteria supplies a portion of the world’s oxygen. In the picture above the intertidal zone and photic zone of the ocean can be observed. The intertidal zone is the area of shore where land meets ocean and the photic zone is a relatively small portion of the ocean that is exposed to a significant amount of sunlight and where photosynthesis occurs. The intertidal zone is home to many different types of organisms such as mussels, algae, barnacles, suspension feeding worms, clams, crustaceans, and small fishes. 

After a light shower of rain, water droplets collected upon the leaves within this picture. A water molecule has two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to one oxygen atom. Water molecules are polar because oxygen is one of the most electronegative of the elements, attracting the shared electrons in H2O much more strongly than does H. In a polar covalent bond, the pulling on the shared electrons toward Oxygen makes the molecule partially positive and partially negative. Water also consists of Hydrogen bonds, a weak yet crucial bond that gives water is unusual properties. Hydrogen bonds allow water to be cohesive while also allowing for water to have a much higher surface tension. Hydrogen bonding even helps moderate temperature because it give water more resistance to temperature change. Due to water resistance to temperature change the ocean temperature remain stabilized and water helps regulate the body’s internal temperatures. 

Emily Silva's Digital Scavenger Hunt Set #2 (seven photos)

1) This is a picture of one of the hummingbirds that frequents the hummingbird feeder that my mom hung up outside our kitchen window. The hummingbirds we get here in the northeastern United States are ruby-throated hummingbirds, and they are an example of a sexually dimorphic species. This means that there are distinct differences between the males and females of this species. The male ruby-throated hummingbird has a green back and a red band stretching across its throat, hence the name of the species. The female is a brownish color (the picture is of a female), lacks the red band, and is slightly larger. They are a fascinating and beautiful sight to see.

 2) Flowers need water to survive just like any other living creature. These flowers wilted overnight due to the weather being so hot. Flowers wilt when the water in their cells flows out through the process of osmosis. When flowers have enough water, it fills their cells, no water flows out, and the plants stand up straight for two reasons. The first is because the water concentration is high throughout the whole plant, and the second is that plant cells contain cell walls, which are firm. However, when flowers need to be watered again, the water flows from an area of high concentration to low concentration (osmosis), meaning that the water can’t fill all of the cells and the plants are unable to stay turgid, or rigid. When the flowers are watered, they will be able to become turgid again as the water refills their plant cells.

 3) Here’s my tarantula, Hyzenthlay, again (I hope spiders don’t scare you!). Hyzenthlay has covered a large amount of her substrate (the coconut fiber on the bottom of her terrarium) in webbing. It’s visible above her and behind her in this picture, where there is a sort of white glare. The silk comes out of ducts located on the back of her abdomen. Before entering those ducts, the silk is made of liquid proteins. As it goes through the ducts, cells pull the water in the silk away and pump hydrogen into a different part of the ducts, creating an acid bath. This solidifies the silk, which is excreted from the spider’s spinnerets. The spinnerets can produce different types of silk, from sticky to non-sticky, from thick to thin, depending on what the use of the webbing is at the time. Hyzenthlay’s spinnerets can be seen in the picture. She has one pair of black spinnerets located at the back of her abdomen.

4) This is a picture of my cat, Vervex, eating grass. There are many speculations as to why cats eat grass. First, you may notice that after a cat eats grass, it will sometimes regurgitate it (I know Vervex has before). This could be because the grass is helping to rid the cat’s stomach of fur, bones, feathers, or other things that it can’t digest, and because grass itself is not able to be digested by cats. Therefore, when the cat throws up the grass, it’s removing any other harmful substances from its stomach as well.  Another idea is that grass has folic acid in it, which aids in the production of hemoglobin in blood. A third idea is that grass acts as a natural laxative, helping to break down fur that may get into the cat’s digestive tract and move it along without hurting the cat. Whatever the reason, eating grass has never been shown to hurt a cat, it only seems to be a beneficial thing.

5) These are pictures of the gold finch (Carduelis tristis) that comes to my house regularly to eat the seeds from our sunflowers. This bird has adapted perfectly for its diet, showing off a conical beak. Conical beaks are very short and wide, making them the strongest and most capable of cracking open seeds. Though we have sunflower seeds in the bird feeder next to our flowers, the gold finch (and his mate) prefers to cling to the tops of the sunflowers to get the seeds directly from the source. Some other common “backyard birds” with conical beaks are cardinals, catbirds, and titmice.

6) This is the female turkey that’s been wandering around my neighborhood with her chicks for quite a few months now. They've grown a huge amount. You may notice the lack of a father turkey in this picture. Well, we've never seen him. This is because male turkeys are polygamous, meaning they mate with as many hens (female turkeys) as possible. Males attract mates through a process called strutting, in which they puff out their chests, spread their tail feathers, and drag their wings. The more “attractive” they are to the females of their species, the more they’ll get to mate, meaning more baby turkeys and a better chance of survival for the species, as well as the male's good genes being passed along.

7) Last year, as a junior, I took the elective Aquatic Ecology. In this class, I was given the opportunity to dissect a fish. This particular fish is a brook trout. This picture shows the respiratory system of the fish. The part being held back by the stick is the operculum, a hard, bony plate which protects the fish’s sensitive gills. When a fish opens its mouth and takes in water, the operculum closes. When the fish closes its mouth, the operculum opens and the water moves through the gill slits and into the gill chambers, where the oxygen is filtered and diffused into the fish’s blood. The gills are the feathery looking flesh under the fish’s operculum. Carbon dioxide is pushed out below the operculum and put back into the water.

Katelin Kuyoth's Scavenger Hunt #1

This is a Argiope spider, also known as a zipper spider I found near a pond. These spiders along with all other consumers are known as a heterotroph meaning they cannot make there own food, like producers can. The producers are classified as autotrophs. Scientist believe that the Argiope lures it's pray because of the webs material. It is thought that the web has an ultraviolet light, much similar to a flower, that attracts other insects.

 This picture of a hornets nest is a representation of a population. A population is a group of a specific species in a certain area. This population of hornets made themselves at home in the community of my backyard. In my backyard I have all of my rabbits and chickens and various insects forming the community. 

This is my rabbit Harmony who is an English Angora. She is a crossed between a Blue Eyed White (BEW) and a Black English Angora resulting in the white spot on her nose. In rabbits both colors, BEW and a Black, are dominate traits. This is known as codominace. While she mostly acquired her mothers color of black you can still see the BEW from her father by not only the white nose but she also has blue in her eyes (which you can't tell from the photo).

Here is a picture of a great horned owl and a tertiary consumer. Tertiary consumers are near the top of the food chain and have very few predators. In addition these consumers receive less energy than the producers do. This is because energy is lost as it travels from organism to organism. It all starts with the producers with the maximum energy level. The primary consumers then eat the producers only getting a portion of that energy, and the same thing happens when the secondary consumers eat the primary consumers and so on.

Seagulls are scavengers picking up anything they can  find. Not only do they fish on there own but when there is a fishing boat near by, throwing away scraps, a seagull is sure to be there to pick them up.They also scavenge for any trash that we humans would leave on a beach. They truly are "garbage men" (spwickstorm.com)   

This is a pray-a-mantis that I found crawling inside my house. Being greenish in color pray-a-mantises can camouflage with the greenery making it difficult to spot them. This supports Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest and natural selection. If this pray-a-mantis lived where there isn't any greenery its survival rate would decrease where as the brown pray-a-mantis population would increase.

This is a water bug I found in a pond. The way the bug is able to stay on top of the water is due to water being cohesive  and having a high  surface tension.The reason why water has these properties is due to the hydrogen bonds witch allows the water not only to stick together (cohesion) but these bonds also help regulate the temperature absorbing and releasing heat as needed.

Pictured here is a butterfly pollinating a  flower. They have a mutualistic relationship meaning that both organisms benefit. The butterfly solves its hunger by drinking the nectar while the butterfly pollinates the flower so it can reproduce.

Christine Peltier Scavenger Hunt

This photo shows an ecosystem. The tall trees and brush represent the producers of the ecosystem. Producers use sunlight and carbon dioxide and a process called photosynthesis to produce oxygen. Hiding in the green are the consumers. Animals like birds, foxes, and fisher cats  live in this ecosystem. In the dirt are worms and bacteria, the decomposers. These organisms not only interact with each other but the non living things in this ecosystem, like the wood pile covered by a tarp. Small animals  can use this to hide and to live in.

These flowers represent producers in the environment. Not only do these pretty flowers produce oxygen through photosynthesis, the produce pollen for bees.

This photo of my Vitamin D supplement represents a compound. Vitamin D is made up of the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. This compound helps prevent against osteoporosis., arthritis, helps regulate blood pressure and many other things in the body. 

This cereal box represents elements used to fortify food. Calcium, Zinc, Copper and compounds like Vitamin A, C, and D have been added to this cereal to make it more beneficial.

This photo represents how water in a solid form is less dense than water in a liquid form. I found this very interesting to study I Chapter 2 and found that this occurs because of hydrogen bonding. As the water freezes hydrogen bonds with four neighbors form and create a 3D crystal. The molecules of the water are more spread out than in liquid water making the ice float.

An acid is a compound that donates hydrogen ions to solutions. Here, lemon juice represents an everyday acid. On the pH scale, lemon juice has an acidity level of 2. On the other hand, the everyday household cleaner represents a base, or a compound that accepts hydrogen ions and removes them from solution. This household  cleaner would have a lower level on the pH scale.