Download Terrarium Notebook - The University of New Mexico

Terrarium
Notebook
&
Unit
Organizer
By:
Nicole Miller
10/27/05
MSET 353
Science
Terrarium Notebook
Group Members:
Angela
Laura
Jane
Alisha
Nicole (myself).
We were asked to create an environment that is sustainable and record the changes.
Definition of a Terrarium:
A terrarium is a clear container (often plastic or glass) used to grow plants and to examine or hold
small creatures. They may be cubical, spherical, rectangular, or other shapes. Often in terrariums
the species' ecosystem is copied in smaller size and is even controlled in humidity, temperature,
and water chemistry. By: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrarium .
How to Build Your Own Terrarium
It’s fun and easy to make your own small ecosystem in a bottle—a terrarium. Begin with a clear
container that has a lid, such as a two-liter soft drink bottle or a glass jar. Soak the container in warm
water if necessary to remove the label.
Gather pebbles from near your home or buy some at a gardening store. Rinse the stones, and then lay
them on the bottom of your container. A one-inch (three-centimeter) thick layer should be plenty. If the
neck of your bottle is narrow, you can make a funnel by rolling a piece of paper. Then drop the stones
through the funnel.
Add a layer of potting soil, which you can also get at a gardening store. This layer should be two or three
inches (five to eight centimeters) deep. Soil from your yard or garden might also work, but terrarium soil
needs to be extremely fertile, so potting soil is your best bet. Adding a little ground charcoal to your soil
will make it richer still and better for growing plants.
Now find plants to grow in your terrarium. Mosses and lichens from the woods work well. So do ferns,
small flowering plants, and ivy shoots, which you can pinch right off a growing ivy plant. (Be sure to get
permission before taking anyone else’s plants.) Make small holes for plant roots in your soil with a stick,
and then position your seedlings. Cover the roots with a little soil. If the neck of your container is narrow,
use two long sticks pinched together chopstick style to position your plants.
Add enough water to dampen the soil. Punch small holes in the lid. Air can get
in, but most of the water gets recycled in the container rather than evaporating
away. Put the lid on the container and place it somewhere that gets lots of
light—but not direct sunlight, which would overheat the plants growing inside.
Add water occasionally if your terrarium gets dry. And watch your miniature
ecosystem come to life!
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/plastics/build.html
09/01/05
Building the terrarium:
Soil:
6 cups potting soil
1 cup top soil
3 cups wet soil from outside, Education building
We mixed these ingredients together to create our foundation.
Rocks/Bark:
2 cups tiny rocks/pebbles from outside, Education building
2.5 cups wet bark from outside, Education building
We placed the tiny rocks/pebbles down the middle of the terrarium separating one side of soil from the
other. The purpose of this was to act as a trench collecting water so that our plants will have available
water. We will flood the rocks with water. We place soil on top of the rocks. We then place the wet bark
on top of the soil to keep the moisture in the soil. We watered 1400 ml down the trench of rocks which
caused the soil to get very muddy.
We over-watered and the mud just completely soppy. How will this affect our terrarium? Will it hurt us?
We dealt with it and began planting our seeds.
Seeds/Plants:
4 Pearl flower seeds
6 Gold flower seeds
80 Grass seeds
23 Basil seeds
1 Hypoestes Splash plant (a cute, small one)
We planted our seeds, separating each one in their own area. We added tape to measure the Splash’s
growth. We then closed the lid, leaving only some air to escape through the hole on top.
Predictions:
I predict our basil will sprout.
I predict that we have to water more next week.
I predict that our flowers will sprout and our grass will grow.
This is the way we wanted our Terrarium to start out looking like:
This is the result of how our Terrarium started out looking like:
09/08/05
Our Terrarium has grown in the past week and things have sprouted beautifully.
Results:
Basil
9 sprouts
1 of them was already 4 cm long
The sprouts have pushed up the soil to appear, looks like an earthquake.
Grass
13 on one side
3 on the other side
Splash
Had brown on the tips of the leaves
Measured 5 cm tall, 7.5 by 8 cm width and length
Flowers
No visible flowers
Soil
Dry and flaky.
Why was our soil so dry? Before we had watered it immensely and it was now, bone dry. Why did our
trench not work? We need to come up with a better plan.
New Plan:
We decided to tape the vent shut. This way, the moisture will collect like the Water Cycle around
the earth. Moisture will move up, get trapped by the lid, and drip back down, watering the plants.
We agreed that mulch was a good idea because it does not let the water float on top of the soil, but
lets it sink down.
I think that our Splash plant is too close to the wall. It needs space. Our soil is bone dry. We
need more water! We watered 1000 ml of water gently down the center. We cut a cup to make a pool of
water to help moisten the air. We put 2 ml of water in the cut cup.
Prediction:
I predict our terrarium will have a lot of moisture now all around, except for the bottom.
09/15/05
What a delight it was to see our terrarium.
Results:
Basil
15 sprouts now
The tall one is 14.5 cm long
1 cm shortest and 3 cm average
Grass
22 on one side
19 on the other side
11.5 cm tallest and .5 smallest
Splash
Healthy now
6.5 cm tall, 10 by 10 cm
Flowers
1 Pearl flower near the side
Pool of water
Remained full with the same amount
Soil
Perfectly moist
There is Condensation on the lid.
I believe that our Pool of Water is very important in keeping our terrarium moisturized. There is a big
difference from this week to the week before, and I gather it is because of the Pool of Water.
Why did only one Pearl flower sprout and not the rest? We all agreed that we may have planted the Gold
and Pearl flower seeds too deep and they cannot push through the soil…except for one of them.
Prediction:
I predict more growth and same moisture for the terrarium.
I predict no growth of any more flowers.
The 1 Pearl Sprout
09/22/05
Results:
Basil
16 sprouts now
The tall one is 16 cm long
1.5 cm shortest
Grass
12.5 cm tallest and .5 smallest
No more new sprouts
Splash
Looks larger
7 cm tall, 10 by 10 cm
Flowers
1 Pearl flower has 4 little leaves
Pool of water
Remained full with the same amount
Soil
Perfectly moist
There is a lot of condensation on lid, especially near the Splash plant. Why is that one basil so long?
Prediction:
We predict more growth for the Pearl flower.
The Condensation
The Long Basil
Today, we learned about isopods.
What do we know about isopods?
They are rolly pollys.
They curl up in a ball when threatened.
They live in dark areas, damp areas.
They are black and gray.
They have lots of legs.
They are omnivorous, eating decaying plants/things…Decomposers.
They may eat live plants.
They like high humidity.
They don’t help soil.
They love moisture.
They need food, water, and shelter, just as everyone does.
There are Rollers (curl up in a ball when threatened) and Hikers (run away when threatened). They are
terrestrial crestations. They are not native to New Mexico, but are native to the Mediterranean…hence
their love for moisture.
We went outside to find ourselves some Rolly Pollys. We had to look long and hard to find some. We
found 3. 1 was a Hiker, and the other 2 were Rollers. We found them over by the education building.
While we were out there, we grabbed some dead leaves, 2 rocks, and bark for the Isopods in the terrarium.
Exploration 1:
Rolly Pollys can turn over when placed on their backs. The rollers can turn over most of the time,
but sometimes they need a little nudge. The hiker can turn over from his back; he does this very quickly.
We observed that our hiker turns himself over, and then he/she goes and helps the other 2 isopods. He
helps them turn over. I thought this was amazing. Also, dirt helps rolly pollys turn over.
Exploration 2:
The isopods can also get wet. They allow themselves to dry from the water. The rollers did not
try to swim, but just floated there. After we pulled them out of the water, they walked around and
squeezed water out from their butt, leaving behind a trail of little droplets. They did this by pushing their
butt to the floor. The hiker tries to flip himself over when placed in water. He flips his tail up and down
to dry out.
Exploration 3:
The roller walks carefully over the edge of the paper and then walks upside-down on the paper.
The hiker can also do this, but much quicker.
Exploration 4:
The roller traveled 9 squares on the grid, which is 9 cm, traveling the same slow speed the whole
time. The hiker did not go anywhere. He was too busy drying himself doing the “butt-flare dance”. He
was wet and dried quickly. But we know that the hiker is very fast because when doing Exploration 1, we
had a hard time controlling him. The hiker also pooped on the paper.
Next, we added 1 small cricket to our terrarium
We added dead leaves, a rock, and bark into our terrarium. We put the rock and bark in it to provide
shelter for our creatures. We moistened the dead leaves to provide food. We put 2 pieces of paper 1cm
by 1 cm into two corners of the terrarium because Alisha read that isopods eat paper.
We are hoping the leaves decay for the decomposers.
We put the lid on and watched as our cricket and isopods roamed around. One rolly polly dug into the
soil an now we can’t see him. The others explored their new home.
Questions:
Can isopods survive on paper?
What is the right depth for a seed to grow in soil?
My drawing of our terrarium:
My drawings of a cricket and an isopod:
09/29/05
Results:
Cricket
Dead-Was it too moist for him?
Isopods
1 Dead- roller
1 Alive- hiker, eating basil
We can’t find the other roller- either buried or dead
Basil
New sprouts
The tall one dead
19 cm longest, 1 cm shortest, 3 cm average
Grass
Some has turned yellow.
Splash
9 cm tall, 10 by 10 cm
Flowers
1 Pearl flower has 4 little leaves that were eaten by creatures.
Pool of water
Remained full with the same amount
Soil
Still moist, but maybe too moist because there is some mold.
There is a lot of condensation on lid, especially near the Splash plant. It smells wet and woody. There is
mold/moss growing on one side. The paper has holes in it!...Alisha was right to say that isopods eat
paper. The leaves on the Splash also have holes on it from the cricket or isopods. There is mold on some
of the sticks of mulch. We are guessing that the hiker at the long basil leaves.
What killed the cricket?
Who ate the leaves?
Who ate the paper?
Why is mold growing now? Why on that side?
Where’s the other isopod? Dead? Hiding?
We cut our long grass on one side because it was hitting the ceiling and perhaps dying because of it. We
made it 5 cm long. We will see our results next week to see if the cut grass grows better than the uncut
grass. We left the dead cricket in there for the isopods to eat him.
Prediction:
I predict things will begin to die as the isopods eat it.
I predict that the cut grass will grow.
I predict that our isopods will still be alive and thriving.
Designing an experiment
How long will the splash plant live without water?
How would a terrarium do in the darkness? Why?
Which is better natural or artificial light?
Can an isopod survive on only paper (no plants)?
Why does mold grow?
How much water needs to be maintained to keep a terrarium healthy form week to week?
10/06/05
Results:
Cricket
Decomposed
Isopods
2 Dead- roller
1 Alive- hiker, poops all over the place
Basil
New sprouts
The tall one dead 11.5 cm longest and shriveled white and dead
1 cm shortest, 4.5 cm average
Grass
Cut- grew 9 cm from 5 cm.
Not cut- Grass grew 14.5 cm
Splash
10.5 cm tall, 11.5 by 10.5 cm
Holes on leaves are larger.
Flowers
1 Pearl flower has 4 little leaves that were eaten and now dying.
Pool of water
Remained full with the same amount
Soil
Still moist, but maybe too moist because there is some mold.
There is still a lot of condensation on lid, especially near the Splash plant. It still smells wet and woody.
There is still mold/moss growing on one side. The paper has more holes in it and has shrunk. Did the
isopod eat the paper or did the moisture kill it? The leaves on the Splash also have larger holes on it from
the cricket or isopods. There is more mold/moss on some of the sticks of mulch. There is poop all over
the large rocks and the leaf.
We concluded that our flower seeds were buried too deep in the soil to sprout. Cutting the grass helped
its growth. We build a great terrarium and I enjoyed watching its growth.
We then took apart our terrarium.
Summary of Findings
After doing this Terrarium project, I have come to a conclusion that basically, with sunlight (or
artificial light), water, and soil, plants can grow. Yes, better soil means better growth. But, all and all,
our terrarium turned out great. We messed up in the beginning with planting the seeds to deep in the soil,
but the basil fought back and pushed their way through. Our terrarium was able to support life (the
isopod) and support plant growth. We developed a proper water cycle method so that we did not have to
re-water our terrarium. I think that working as a team really helped our project because we all put in ideas
and supported them. Looking at the other groups’ terrariums, I have come to the conclusion that there are
many ways to build a terrarium. Our terrarium turned out beautifully and I am sad that this project had to
come to an end.
5-E Lesson Design
Knowledge Goals (Applicable NM Performance Standards)
Grade Level: 1st
1. Know that living organisms (e.g., plants, animals) have needs (e.g., water, air,
food, sunlight).
2. Know that living organisms (e.g., plants, animals) inhabit various environments
and have various external features to help them satisfy their needs (e.g., leaves,
legs, claws).
3. Describe the differences and similarities among living organisms (e.g., plants,
animals).
4. Observe that living organisms (e.g., plants, animals) have predictable but varied
life cycles.
Lessons (Science Unit)
Grade Level: 1st
Lecture about how to grow a seed, asking questions- (5-10 min) --Engagement
Read a-louds about Gardens (15 min everyday for 1 week) --Engagement
Field trip to Green House (half a school day) -- Exploration
Examine a leaf and a flower up close, under a microscope, label and color parts (20
minutes) --Exploration
Grow a garden/flower/plant and examine results, data, and ideas (2 weeks) Explanation
Adopt a tree and help it live (6 weeks) –Elaboration
Assessment through presentation of plants/flowers (2-3 minutes each, 2 days) Evaluation
Build a terrarium (6 weeks) -- Evaluation