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SCIENCE ALIVE! - Bottle A Biome

Added Mar 26, 2021 •

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Discussing different activities you can do with 'bottle biology plants.

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Welcome back to SCIENCE ALIVE! My name is Mercedes and this is Peggy Today's session is titled "Bottle A Biome" Our session occurring on Tuesday March 23rd will be "Meet the Mealworm" which will be featuring our mealworm kit and we will be observing the different life stages of the darkling Beetle. So, let's get started with our session today. Now what is a biome, Peggy? A biome is usually a large area that has four characteristics. A certain climate, has a habitat for certain animals, it has biodiversity of plants and living things, and human activity. And today, we're going to take a biome and squeeze it into a bottle. Should be fun. Cool, it sounds like fun. So, a bottle biology is a fun example of a living system specifically a life science ecosystem. There is interdependence between plant and animal life. Also, the aquatic and terrestrial, which is land and water. Bottle biology also give students a great opportunity to review living and non-living materials. Thank you, Mercedes. I think what we should do now is point out the materials that we're going to be using. We're going to need a clear plastic 2-liter bottle this one is already been cut a third from the top and 2/3 on the bottom. We're going to need scissors and Scotch tape and you can tell that that bottle has string attached. We need about a 50-inch-long string because we are going to...not that one. There should be another This one right here. That one that's been attached. Because we're making a hanging bottle this morning. And then we're going to need some small rocks They're right here. And what you held up before, the mop string and as you can see that's already been attacked through the bottle cap and to do that we need a drill. And the drill I used was a quarter inch bit. And we need Soil and dechlorinated water for the fish. Then we have some living materials. We have fish and the fish that we have today is are platys and guppies. Then water plants we have elodea and we also have a soil plant which is often times what we use for bottle biology is a purple heart we also have seeds that we have started from our seed packets. We have radish seeds and mung bean seeds. And this is a really good option especially now because all of our bottle biology plants have frozen with the freeze from a couple of weeks ago. So, to start your own sprouts, is a really good extension of this procedure. How did you sprout these? Very easily. You notice that they have a paper towel and it's a moist paper towel with just the seeds placed on top and then covered with another moist towel and actually I did it in bowls this is just for demonstration but then the height of the bowl, I put plastic wrap over the top to keep the moisture and the humidity in there and within 3 days we had sprouts for both of these things Wow! It's really fun So this is a list of those materials that we just went through I want to point out that even though we are doing this type of a structure and form of the bottle biology, there are many other things and many other forms that you can use and many applications for bottle biology. Over here, we have a chart. This shows a single bottle like we have here that is taped together top to bottom instead of hanging with string separating the section. This one is a 4-tiered eco-column. This one is one of those columns that is... the application includes fruit flies up top. Here you have a plant grow bucket with simply plants and water reservoirs at the base of them. This one is interesting, it’s another column, tiered column this is the Venus flytrap. It's a predator-prey application for the bottle biology and this is composting Watching the decay of leaves and even a possibility of turning into fertilizer. And this one is interesting it's a fermentation, pickling application. There is a recipe for kimchi which is basically or usually cabbage that has been pickled and sometimes other vegetables are added. Another fermentation use for bottle biology.  All kinds of applications and experiments can be done and all different forms with the bottles. Are guppies and platys the only fish available for bottle biology? They are not. We have a variety of fish including tetras and black mollies and goldfish. But the guppies and the platys are smaller more suitable for the size of a bottle like this and the other fish tend to emit more ammonia which requires a lot more maintenance of the water, and so that's why we're using platys and guppies today. And you wouldn't have to use both, you could just choose one So, I guess we should get started on assembling your own bottle biology? Yeah, let's do that. Now, one more question. Okay. Why did you choose to a hanging bottle form? This hanging bottle is very easy to put together and I like it because the separation of the top and the bottom allows you to maintain the water and the rocks, and the fish much more easily than if the bottle.... pieces were taped together. You'd have to take the tape off and all that. The other reason I like this is because it's easy to position for easy viewing. Instead of necessarily relying on perfect size table top or something like that. The drawback of this, it takes a little bit of time to do the string as opposed to just taping two pieces together. But I'll show you how easy that is. The first thing we would do is, like I said, cut the bottle in two pieces. A third of the bottle would be the top and 2/3 would be the bottom. And the top is going to be inverted like this and to connect them I would take a pen and I make a hole, a mark on opposite sides probably about an inch or an inch and a half from the top of the bottom section and I'd also make from the inch of the top section another mark on opposite sides, so that I know where I need my holes to put the string and then just with a sharp knife or a sharp scissor, I would just punch a little hole in here and then put the string through the hole before you tie a knot to keep it secure if you put Scotch tape around the end of the string just like you would have for a shoelace to make it easy to thread it I started down here and I put the string through and tied a double knot so that it was secure and then I came up here to this hole and put the string through again and tied a double knot that loops around comes to the side through the hole, double knot and finally down to the side And as you go you just eyeball to get an even length between the section. With 50 inches, you're going to have plenty to trim off the excess and have enough string. This has holes in it in case I wanted to use it without hanging it. We're cutting off the air so we need holes in it but I can still use this for a hanging one we're going to put water not up to the holes. So, there we go. Let's do the top first and then we'll do the other. Okay. So, we start with this? Yes Okay. Mercedes is adding the cap. Now that you've got the string attached, you notice that it's a little too long. We don't need that much length of the string. So, why don't we cut this... Well, it's got to be where the water is, which is down here, so maybe, two inches off there. And what is the purpose of the mop string? The mop string is going to rest in the water and it's going to draw the water up the string into the soil to water the plant and give water to the other living things that are in there. And we're ready to put the soil in right now. Oops! Ha Ha! That's good. Okay, so let's finish the top here and we have a choice between a plant, like this, or some seedlings. And then we have some more living things, here. We have a couple of earthworms, we have a pill bug and you may want to put some debris in there for the benefit of the worm and the pill bug. And spray a little bit of water, alright. So, we have the top of our ecosystem. And, now we're ready for the water. This is dechlorinated water and the way you can dechlorinate water to put water in a bucket for this purpose and let it sit for 48 hours and the chlorine will evaporate Thanks for reminding me. We need some rocks in there. And it's good if you wash the rocks Try to keep the water as clear as possible. And, I got some elodea water plant some springs Now we're ready for some fish. C'mon platy, co-operate Two guppies. There's a platy. Nice thing about platys, they are very colorful Thank you. All right, we've got a completed model here and now what I'm noticing is my top is a little lopsided, and what I probably will prefer to do is put some tape to secure it and make it less tipsy but there we go A biome in a bottle. How might teachers manage the use of these hands-on materials? One way is for the teacher to do a demonstration just as I did and have the students that are in class do their own in groups of three or four to cut down on the number of bottles and also, if there are virtual students, you can have the supplies ready for them or their parents to pick up. The living supplies that they would get from us. But they have the non-living supplies that may be part of the assignment to collect at home. So, either way it will be a fun process for the students whether everything is provided and they put it together, or whether they have to come up with some of the materials. Well, this was really fun. Thank you for joining us for "Bottle A Biome." Again, I am Mercedes and this is Peggy. Thank you for joining us. You can contact us at livingscience@esc20.net at 210-370-5688 we will see you next time thank you bye bye

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SCIENCE ALIVE! - Bottle A Biome

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