My Biosphere Project

I recently made a biosphere in a bottle for a science project. This is a bite sized ecosystem in a jar. Here is my recipe and a video on the biosphere I made:

Disclaimer: This recipe is based on my biosphere but I cannot guarantee that it will succeed.

Making a self-contained biosphere

Ingredients:

½ CM Gravel which can be found at the school baseball field or anywhere else with gravel.

½ CM Activated charcoal which can be bought from pet stores.

2.5 CM Soil which can be found anywhere with plants.

Abiotic elements: A moderately large and nice looking rock that will be the centerpiece of the biosphere. You can find this almost anywhere outside.

Biotic Elements: Grass, leaves, A 3 leaf clover, worms, Small bugs I think are ants, that I put in by accident and I can no longer see.

 

How to build:

1: Put about ½CM of gravel into the jar, find coffee filter/activated charcoal. 

2: Insert filter ½ CM, be sure it covers the full layer.

3: Insert about 2.5 CM of soil. (Note: This is the part where the bugs likely got in.

4: Scatter around abiotic and biotic elements making sure it looks nice and orderly. Make sure plant roots are buried in the soil. Designer Tip: The bugs and worms seem to burrow through the soil which improves the aesthetics.

5: Insert about 100ML of water which may or may not drown the worms.

6: Close the lid but not fully or else the biotic elements will suffocate.

My Jewish Values

Recently in class we did a jewish studies project where we picked 5 jewish values from a list and did a slideshow on them. This was to teach us about the many jewish values, and we did learn about many of them. Here is my slideshow!:

After presenting it I feel that I over crowded the slides with info and I should have made cue cards instead, but other than that I think I did a good job.

My OJCS “Set the Scene”!

My class recently did an assignment where we had to write about a day of school as if we were sending it to a film producer who would make a movie about the school. The goal of this assignment was to improve our descriptive writing, I’d say it did improve my descriptions. Here’s mine! (Be warned that the day I talk about didn’t happen, it’s just a day that could happen with some events that did happen mixed in):

Dear Mr Fake Director, 

 

Welcome to OJCS! I will now walk you through a day in my life! 🎵It’s a lovely Friday morning and I’m waiting at the door. There are lots of people with me but I’ve seen them all before! The door opens and I go in. Sanitize my hands and-🎵 you know what? I’m not rhyming this. The stairway is shiny, perhaps it was freshly polished? I walk up saying hi to the other students as I venture through the deep hallway. I walk through the hall watching lots of kids go into colourful and exciting classrooms. Oh? I’m at my stop! I walk into Mr. Wash’s class. The first thing I see is the teacher’s desk. Between it and me is the smartboard, and on my right is the speaker and phone. I take my seat at the back of the class and start chatting with the other students because our class doesn’t start for another 15 minutes. The desks are 3-4 feet apart from what I can tell and they are relatively bland looking. “BING BOM!” The bell has rung! Mr. Wash walks in and describes today’s lesson. Give me a minute, this is important. (One hour and 20 minutes later) Whoops, I forgot about you! That was a boring two periods anyway! So much grammar, and math! At least it’s Phys Ed now. We go out to the field, it seems we’re playing baseball! I’m fourth at-bat, and after 3 singles in a row, bases are loaded and I’m due up to bat! The ball hurls towards me. As time slows down I swing, it’s a home run! I’m a her- Okay I may have over-exaggerated that. The bases were empty and I struck out, but at least it’s snack time now! Mmm, my apple is sweet today! Wow, that’s a good babybel! (Is that product placement?) Ah, that was a good snack! Now it’s time for the next three classes!

 

Now we have a period of French down in the basement. The basement is a bit chill and drably coloured but hey, it’s charming! As I walk by the entrance to the library which is filled with posters and second graders I chat about current events with Ben, and Audrey, my twin sister! We are in the classroom and the lights are off. As I look around seeing the couches, desks, the bookshelf, and of course that mural of the world on the left wall I wonder. Could it be? Yes! We’re watching Hamilton in French today! I guess this is because we had the test yesterday! We have a double so we have time for half the musical. 🎵Alexander Hamilton! My name is Alexander Hamilton! And there’s a million things I haven’t done!🎵 Nice! Now we have Hebrew. I am working on a Sukkot project back upstairs in the primary classroom. I do some quick research on the four species and the sukkah and- RING! Is the period already over? I guess this block wasn’t as exciting. Lunch!! It appears I have breaded mac and cheese for lunch. The smell is relaxing and comforting like the sound of a fireplace.on’t even get me started on that cheesy and yet serene and bread-like taste! It’s recess, and all the boys plus Meirav are playing bump. I shoot… I score! Yes, a swoosh! Yes an out! It’s the end, just me and Ben. He hurls his ball as I take aim, and fire! Oh no his ball is headed straight for the net! Wait what’s that? My ball knocked his off track and landed in the net, Oh Yeah! (👍Kool-Aid man approves👍) Bing Bom, Bing Bong! Well, this block is over, see you in third!

 

We are back in the basement for science! The class is sitting, and listening in the makerspace. (The school science lab) We are classifying biotic and abiotic life forms in an image. Once we are done we watch a bill nye video on ecosystems. We answer some questions and the period has ended. Now we go back upstairs. We have to do some reading and question answering for Lookstein, an online Jewish studies program. We read through Perek 3 of Shmuel Bet a book about King David and that period too has passed (See what I did there?) Finally, it’s Jewish studies with Mr Washerstein. We have a class discussion about Simchat Torah which is on Sunday and then we play a game. The game is much like charades but the player can talk as long as they don’t say the name of the thing and the goal is to guess as many as possible in a time limit. Yardayna and Audrey win with 8 points! 🎵And now our day is done my friends! Our time here has come to an end! But I’ll miss you very much! Don’t forget to write and such!🎵 See you later! -Yours Truly Griffin Baker.

So that was my “Set the Scene” project. For the future I should probably use more advanced descriptive vocabulary, but overall I think I did a good job. See you next time!