1/28 BLOG

Today in class I thought about my experimental design but when I got home today I decided to make a pretty big change in my experiment; I going to use the oyster mushrooms rather than the Enokitake kits. I decided to make this change because there was a major problem with the Enokitakes, one kit already had extensive amounts of mushroom growths and other one had none (and I don't even know if the growths were Enokitake growths). I added the ice cubes to the Enokitakes anyway just as a side project but now I'm focusing on the oyster mushroom kits my dad also ordered and are now set up and ready to experiment on. I'm bring the oyster mushrooms in on monday to set up and start my experiment.

1/25-27 BLOG

On 1/25 I submitted my research paper rough draft. The only problem I think my research paper had was it's length, it definitely should've been longer and I already know that that's one of the things I'm going to work on for my final draft.

On 1/26 I thought a lot about what I should measure in my experiment and how it's going to be set up.

1/27, I was sick today, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to be back at school tomorrow. Unfortunately I've noticed that one Enokitake kit has a pretty large amount of growths already and the other kit has none. Tomorrow I'm supposed to add the ice cubes and whatever is in the next step.

weekend BLOG

It's Jan. 24th and I just unwrapped and began the growing process of the enokitake mushrooms, these were my observations:

Observations:

@ 3:20 pm on 1/24 I unwrapped both enokitake kits. I would like to note that the kit I brought to school that one day looked the same when I unwrapped it as it did when it got here, but the kit that stayed at home already had growths of mushrooms. They are sitting in indirect light and are supposed to stay that way for four days until i can add the ice cubes and continue with the growing procedure.

Also I'm just finishing up my research paper. There are just a few questions I plan on asking Ms. Weissman in class tomorrow before I submit the paper.

1/21 BLOG

Today I continued research with the same source.

1/20 BLOG

Today in class I began my research for the paper. My first source is on Encyclopedia Britannica. The URL is: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-216166

1/19 BLOG

Today I continued to work on my application. MLK weekend was really busy for me, and I did little work on the project, but tonight I'm finishing my application and tomorrow in class I'm going to begin working on the research paper.

P.S. There was no blog for friday since I was at SPP all day, not at school.

1/14 BLOG

This was my last science class of the week and I think I used it really well. I did a little more than double the length of my first paragraph in the application and did some research on fungi. Over the weekend I plan to finish my application.

1/13 BLOG

Today in class I looked over my intern application. I was expecting it to be rejected mostly because of it's length but there are some other details, especially in the first paragraphs, that I should add in. I also did the forum question about the research paper.

Over the next few days I think I'm going to be focusing mainly on the application so it can be nice and solid for next tuesday. I've also really got to start researching more about acid rain and mushrooms, I know that there's a lot out there about both.

Also, this is the link to the site where we bought the mushrooms from: http://www2.mailordercentral.com/fungi/Prodinfo.ASP?NUMBER=LKFP/K&VARIATION=&AITEM=1&MITEM=1

My Topic

I am proposing this as my topic on the intern application: the affect of acid rain on fungi.

I thought of it mostly because of its originality and because fungi is kingdom of life less known about then most others and its good to educate people about how it can also be damaged by acid rain, not just the wisconsin fast plant or brine shrimp.

I plan on using the Enokitake mushroom as the fungi I'm experimenting on. I'm using this type of mushroom because it's a fast growing, fast fruiting mushroom made to be grown for fun in a household (so it comes with a whole kit on growing it).

Possible Experimental Questions

How does X affect Y?

At what point does X affect Y?

What are the implications of X to Y?

At what point does X not affect Y?

Biotic and Abiotic Factors

Biotic Factors-

• living or produced by living thing
• organisms
• predation
• starvation - lack of food
• disease
• old age
• injury
• competition

Abiotic Factors-

• dead
• water
• minerals (rocks)
• gases---CO2, O2, CH4 (methane)
• air
• sunlight
• rocks
• Weather
• temperature
• too hot too cold
• drought
• flood

Other-

• Toxic waste
• depends on what waste is.