Mesocosm Write-Up

One of the 7 required practicals for IB Biology is to study a mesocosm in the classroom.  This year we made 4 mesocosms.  The first 2 were made on Monday 9/11 using water, plants, and critters from Commonwealth Lake in Beaverton.  The other 2 were made on Wednesday 9/13 using water, plants, muck, and critters from Whitaker Ponds in Northeast Portland.  Your job is to make consistent observations from at least 2 of them, although you can use observations from all 4 in your write-up.

The write-up is due Friday 9/29 through turnitin.com and should include:

1. Detailed observations from at least 6 separate days.  Include water clarity, condition and growth of plants, types of animals, behavior of animals, condition of muck and other debris, etc. Make it clear which mesocosm goes with each observation and which day.  You can include details about the classroom conditions (temperature, light, etc) if you think they are relevant.
2. Use vocabulary from the ecology unit to try to explain what you think is happening in the mesocosms.  For example, information about cycles, energy, and types of nutrition would be appropriate.  You don't have to know exactly what is going on or know the names of the organisms, but do your best to give reasonable explanations.  If you use outside information in your explanations, state where or how you got the information.
3. Predict what you think will happen in the mesocosms, giving a reason for your predictions.

I expect that a good job on this assignment will take about 2 pages of writing, although it is the quality and ideas that count, not the quantity.