Dandelion seeds

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We have been studying plants and looking at seed dispersal. We looked at dandelions, whose seeds are dispersed by the wind.They have an ‘umbrella’ to catch the breeze and the seed is barbed so it will catch on things or stay in the soil. Brilliant design. No wonder they are everywhere! When looking at it under our MiScope,we found a little insect. How small it must be that it hardly made the fine parts of the seed move? Yet it still has wings and all the other body parts of an insect.. Watch the video.

Dandelion seed

 







The World of the Scribbly Gum

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In Australia, we have many species of eucalyptus trees or gum trees. One interesting tree is the scribbly gum – called such becaue it looks like someone has scribbled on it. In fact the scribbles are caused by the larva of a scribbly gum moth. We pulled off a small peice of loose bark. What we found underneath was a whole world of minibeasts.

We took the photos of a few other things but they seemed to be BMP files which we can’t upload. How can we stop this from happening?

The legs of an ugly but camouflaged bug

The legs of an ugly bug in the bark

eggs in a spiderweb under the bark

Eggs in a web under the bark.

A bug made these scribbles



Skin

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Wart on sole o foot

This wart is on the sole of a girl's foot. It grows in instead of out.

Wart on finger
This is a small wart on a boy’s finger.

In our class we have been learning about the human body. Today we have been learning about skin. Austrlia has the highest rate of skin cancer in the world. This is because we can play outside all year round because of our mild climate. Aussies like to go to the beach a lot. This reslts in our skin getting damaged. Our first lot of images are of warts. When you look at them closely, you can see it has lots of ‘fingers’.

Wart on elbow

This large wart is on a girl's elbow. It was bigger and drier.

 

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Seaweed – interesting stuff

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Shell on seaweedX100

On the leaf of a piece of seaweed x50

flowers on seaweed

These looked like flowers on the seaweed

Schools in Sydney are on vacation until the end of January. I went to the beach where it was very weedy today. I thought I would look at what the seaweed looked like under the miscope. It is fascinating how a tiny piece of seaweed looks so different up close. I can see why marine biology is so popular.



A new investigation

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Angora?

IS it merino wool, nylon or angora?

Our teacher has a garment that is soft and knitted. It says on the label that it is made up of merino wool, nylon and angora. This fibre was taken from that item of clothing and is shown at the hiest magnification on the celestron. Is it nylon, merino wool or angora? Nylon is a synthetic, a merino is a type of sheep in Australia and angora is a rabbit (we think). We think it maybe angora because rabbits are soft and smooth and the edge of this fibre is smooth. When we looked at wool from a carpet it looked rough like the damaged hair on a shampoo ad.



Sandy claws

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crab claw

Hermit crabs are soft body crabs that live in the shell of a sea snail. As they grow, they need to change to a bigger shell. Soemtimes they fight other crabs to get a desired shell.

They are often found on the beach but will withdraw into their shell for protection. When you place them in the sand, they did into the sand to hide from predators. This was found on the same beach as the blue bottles, at Ocean beach, just north of Sydney.

We wonder what the hair like structures are on the shell. Do they help them grab on to their prey?

joint on a hermit crab