In our Ecosystem in a Jar project, we were tasked with learning and investigating ecosystems in order to properly plan how to create our own ecosystem in a jar and monitoring it’s progress. After planning the types of plants and and animals needed for our jar, we were able to travel to Bain Park to collect plants, fungi, and small animals to put in our jar. Although I had a plan, upon arriving to Bain, I was overwhelmed with the different varieties of plants, insects, and other small animals that I could put in my jar. I got a little too excited and ignored my plan which I believe led me to severely overcrowding my jar. If I were to do this project again, I would stick my plan and not put so many animals into my jar. This made my project harder in the end because I had to deal with including every species in my food web and carbon cycle.
Throughout the project, we used the Fairview Advantage skill of investigation in order to create and analyze our jars. Before creating our jars or collecting plants and animals, the class was tasked with researching and learning of ecosystems and their processes. With information on food webs and pyramids, we created plans that were suited to our individual jars . We also created digital or hand drawn sketches of our plan which were meant to resemble a real ecosystem. Throughout the month, we monitored and investigated that was happening in our jars and analyzed our findings.
Below you will find my infographic, analogy, and collection of vlogs.
Analogy
Throughout the Ecosystem in a Jar project, we have journaled how our jar is related to the Earth. In these journals, we detailed similarities between the two and contrasted their differences. To explain, our jars all contained soil and rocks, plants and animals, and a water source of some kind, just as the Earth. However, when journaling, we were to go more in-depth in explaining their similarities by including aspects such as the water and carbon cycles. Although the Earth differs from my jar in its size and biodiversity, they are similar due to their ability to be disturbed by small changes, their seemingly closed system, and the way in which both can conduct the greenhouse effect.
As a system, the jar is “closed” or sealed by plastic wrap which covers the opening of the jar and is there as to not let any air or animals out. Although the Earth has no problem of animals escaping, it too has a barrier that closes it off, this being the atmosphere. In the jar, plants and animals can photosynthesize or cellular respirate, and the water and carbon cycles can continue much like they would inside the Earth’s atmosphere. Due to the plastic wrap acting as an atmosphere, the jar can also mimic the greenhouse effects present on the Earth. To elaborate, the carbon dioxide released from the organisms cannot escape from the jar, the build-up leading to the jar feeling warmer, much like a crowded room full of people tends to feel warm. The greenhouse effect is also present on Earth but to a much larger scale as the Earth also has factories that give off carbon dioxide. Similar to the Earth, the jar can be thrown off by minuscule changes. For example, if I remove the ants from my jar, my spider will have no food and die, leaving my centipede without any food and leading to an abundance of potato bugs. This is similar to how keystone species on Earth can be the sole reason why an ecosystem is thriving, when they are removed, the ecosystem weakens severely.
As well as similarities, the jar and Earth have major differences. For example, the Earth is huge, way larger than my6x6x10 in jar. Meaning that is has a larger carrying capacity, as well as the ability to house more than one ecosystem in more than one biome. Its size also means it has greater biodiversity compared to my jar, which has three plants and six animals. To conclude, the Earth and my jar have similarities in how their systems run, however my jar cannot match the Earth in size and diversity.
Livia,
Nice job! Please remember to use this during your Senior Exit interview.