Making Sugar Crystals

Making Sugar Crystals

Ingredients and supplies 

• small saucepan
• stove
• wooden stirring spoon
• sugar
• 100 ml water
• pyrex measuring cup (300 ml minimum)
• wooden skewer 
• thread

Procedure 

1. Pour 100 ml of water into the small saucepan and bring to a slight boil.
2. When the water starts to boil, slowly add sugar while stirring the sugar into the water.
3. When the sugar starts to accumulate on the bottom of the saucepan immediately transfer the sugar water in to the pyrex measuring cup.
4. Wrap the thread around the skewer, leaving enough thread hanging of it to almost reach the bottom of the pyrex measuring cup, and secure it.
5. Slowly submerge the thread into the sugar water and rest the skewer on the brim of the cup.
6. When the sugar starts to cool, it will form crystals on the thread.
7. After about a week, crack any crystals on the surface and pull out the thread.
8. Now you can eat the crystals you made yourself!

The surface crystals

The crystals on the thread

The crystals seen from the side

Winogradsky Colums

Making The Winogradsky Columns

Ingredients

• 4 tomato sauce jars (about 0.75 liters)
• 1 gallon of soil
• 1 egg yolk 
• 1 egg shell
• little strips of paper
• about 1 liter of water

Procedure

1. In a bowl I mixed enough soil to half fill three jars with the strips of paper.
2. Then I filled 1 jar half way with the paper enriched soil
3. After that I mixed the egg yolk into the soil in the bowl.
4. With which I filled half way another jar with the paper+yolk enriched soil.
5. Then I crushed the egg shell into the bowl and mixed it together.
6. And then I filled half way another jar with the paper+yolk+shell enriched soil.
7. The remaining soil in the bowl I discarded.
8. With the last jar I filled it 3 cm. from the top with unenriched soil.
9. With the other three jars I filled them 3 cm. from the top with unenriched soil above the enriched soil.

(abbreviations: paper enriched jar, P. paper+yolk enriched jar, P+Y. paper+yolk+shell enriched jar, P+Y+S. unenriched jar, U)

Observations of the Winogradsky Columns

Day 8

Paper enriched jar

P-enriched jar

The paper enriched jar has amazing signs of life. The organisms I can see are some sort of worm like things that squirm in every direction and poop out dirt that could possibly come from tunnels they are digging. I can see about five of them, and I can see that they are surrounded by little mounds of dirt poop that are shaped like pellets. One of them is bigger than the others and could be the parent.

P+Y-enriched jar

Paper and yolk enriched jar

Interestingly, in this jar there isn't a little worm but there is a web like thing that stretches across the jar 1 cm. from the bottom and has a orange color. If it is an animal that has made it, I have not seen it yet. It could also be possible that the web is an animal its self because it has just fallen onto the soil in a tube shape. If it turns out to be an animal, I will be extremely shocked.

P+Y+S-enriched jar

Paper, yolk, and shell enriched jar

In this jar there is no living thing that I can see, but I hope that in the days to come something will happen.

U-enriched jar

Unenriched jar

In this jar I can see one of those worm things but nothing else. I hope something will happen in the following days in this jar.

Day 12

P-enriched jar

The worms seem to have grown quite a lot. There are still five of them but three of them are really long.

Worm tunnels (a)

Worm tunnels (c)

Worm tunnels (b)

Worm tunnels (d)

P+Y-enriched jar

In this jar everything seems dead. At the top of the soil there is a ring of black soil, and the overall soil is grayish in color. I hope it will revive its self.

Band of black soil

P+Y+S-enriched jar

This jar also has a black band but it is much smaller than the other jar. The soil is also grayish in color. I also hope it will revive its self.

Band of black soil but smaller

U-enriched jar

In this jar there is only one worm but the soil is orangish in color. The soil could be some sort of clay.

Day 17

P-enriched jar

Every thing in here seems dead. Those worms are nowhere to be seen. Also in this jar the black bands of soil have appeared. 

P+Y-enriched jar

Every thing in this jar is still dead and the water is clouded. Probably the only organisms in here (just like the P-enriched jar) are micro-organisms.

P+Y+S-enriched jar

The water in this jar is yellow maybe because a micro-organism that is yellowish in color is thriving here.

U-enriched

In this jar nothing seems different. The little worm is still alive, and the color of the water has not changed.

Aquarium Microcosms

Making My Aquarium Microcosm

Ingredients

• 500 ml soil near a stream
• 1000 ml stream water
• 2 aquatic plants
• 1 rock

Procedure

1. Gathered all my ingredients at a slow moving stream near my house. I used a zip-loc for the plants and another zip-loc for the rock, and I used two 1 gallon milk jugs for the water and one 1 gallon milk jug for the soil(I used the rest for another experiment).
2. I put 500 ml of soil in a jar. Then I inserted the plants and the rock in the jar. Lastly I put 1000 ml of water gently in the jar.
3. I placed the jar in a sunlit room but not in direct sunlight.

Observations of My Aquarium Microcosm

Day 1 

The water is slightly brown. The surface of the water has many bubbles. The plants seem to be surviving well. I have already seen at least 1 organism visible to the naked eye. It look like it was some kind of shrimp or plankton.

(Days 2-3 are not included because I had activities and could not make my observations)

Day4

Everything seems normal. The plants are fine, they are green and show no signs of dying. The shrimp/plankton thing seems more active today, maybe it is more accustomed to its environment. I can also see little shells of possibly water snails.

Day 17

Every thing seems to have died except for the plant, although I can see some sort of algae on the surface of the water.

Specimens under a microscope

Specimen: Hydra

Hydra at 4x magnification

Long body with slightly bigger "head" at bottom. Long tentacles stretching out from bottom "head". Seems to be made up of many dots, could be cells but not sure.