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10. Create an ecosystem in an aquarium. Describe the abiotic and biotic factors you would include. Describe the niche of at least two different species. If I could create and design an aquarium, I would include many abiotic and biotic factors. First of all, the aquarium would need abiotic factors. One abiotic factor I would include is water. An aquarium needs water; otherwise how would the animals in it survive? Another abiotic factor I would include is rocks. That way, the bottom and sides of the aquarium would be like a marine animal's actual habitat, not some cage. The animals would react normally that way. The final abiotic factor would be sunlight. There would need to be sunlight to facilitate plant growth and to make sure the animals could see. The other thing aquariums need is biotic factors. For my aquarium, the first biotic factor I would include is fish. Fishes' niche in the ecosystem is to get eaten by predators like sharks and to eat smaller fish, seaweed, and plan...

Today I used infogr.am to create an infographic! You create an infographic by selecting a theme and then adding charts, editing charts, editing text, or similar things. You press the "add chart" button to add a chart and then you edit the sample data to your needs. There are many different types of charts to select and options for them. Then there are colors you can choose for the charts and graphs. You can insert the graphs from a excel spreadsheet too. You can insert a title by clicking "add text" and then editing the sample text and the size. Then there is the "add a map" button, which adds a map which can scroll, maximize/minimize, and show data. Then there are the "add a picture" and "add a video" buttons, which are self-explanatory.

Today was the Marine Science "Afloat" science field trip, where we stayed on a boat pretty much the whole day. In the morning, we learned about the Puget Sound. There were four sessions. The first session we went to we got to learn about taking water samples with a Nansen and a Niskin water bottle. They are different devices to get water samples. Then you can analyze the samples. We also used plankton nets to get plankton samples. Then we analyzed the samples under a microscope and found actual plankton in them. It was interesting. Another session we watched plankton move around in our samples under a big video microscope. We saw a baby barnacle, huge shrimp, arrow-worms, copepods, and phytoplankton among other things. The final session we learned about marine mammals and how they survived in the cold. In the afternoon, we watched as the divers dived and the cameras on their heads projected what they were seeing. We saw many different forms of sea life, including the intere...

Today I went to the EMP museum in Seattle. It was a great experience. One of the exhibits we went to was the sci-fi exhibit.It was about all the sci-fi books, movies, and TV shows that ever existed (pretty much). Dr.Who, Men in Black, Star Trek, they were all there. It was very creepy. There was a lot of stuff about killer robots. One creepy thing was about the Cybermen. They were creepy humans who had so many implants that they weren't human anymore. They took brains from other species and put them into Cybermen bodies so that there were more and more of them. They also killed humans and turned them into Cybermen. There was a different panel about the book "With Folded Hands" - one about a dude who created robot to protect people - but they went crazy! They didn't let people play sports because it was 'dangerous'. There were no more computers. And everyone got locked up in a luxury prison so they would be 'safe'. We also went to the Sound Lab, a rea...

Yesterday was Career Day. It was very boring, taught by Mrs. Illingsworth. For the first half of the day, we listened to a lecture that was basically everything taught in the packet she gave us. We spent the rest of the morning filling out questions that were basically asking you things from the packet. Then we watched a video where they repeated everything in the packet. Is this all really necessary? Not really. Then we went on some kid's website about jobs and decided which job we wanted. All there was about every job: a small summary, the pay, and how to become one. It was boring. So we just tried to find the job with the highest pay. It was an anesthesiologist. In conclusion, Career Day was boring.

Today we got to try the new climbing wall that the school put the $50000  from that bloomin' Orange Ruler thingamajig into along with a red velvet stage curtain (really?) and a new plastic/metal stage (they're just going to get ruined by the kids pounding up dust and playing with them (especially the curtains in the gym)). Anyways, it was ridiculous. There was a red 'safety line' not even two feet above the ground that your feet weren't allowed to climb (probably because otherwise you would be able to touch the top of the wall). There was also a 'three-points of contact at all times rule'. That is simply ridonkulous. With only one limb free at a time, how in the world are you going to have fun? And you only got to climb around 4 feet sideways. That is BORING. Then we had a game where you could go above the safety line. That was also boring. The wall was seven-eight feet tall, and with one foot up I could put the beanbag on the holder, the goal. It was stup...

Yesterday I went to the State Chess Tournament. My first, second, and fifth games were simple. I didn't even have to think. I tricked a minor piece out of all of them and then beat them up by using the minor piece to my advantage. One of the games I just took their queen and they resigned. My third and fourth games were harder. The third game was against someone rated 1549, but I won with a sacrifice. I made a mistake there, but he missed it, and started sacrificing instead. I won easily. Then came someone with a rating of 1466. I lost because I made a mistake. He got an advantage by trapping my knight and I lost. I was happy that I got 4 points and 10th place in the state!

Why do people like comic books so much? Is it because comic books are so filled with content and adventure? Or is it because it seems so colorful and surprising? I think it is a combination of the fact that comic books are action-packed and that they are very colorful and surprising. First of all, comic books are action-packed. They are usually about some superhero who flies around saving people. Also, a lot of people are usually screaming. Then the superhero does some mighty deed and the story ends with a lot of chaos still going on. Also, comic books are very colorful and surprising. At one moment, it seems obvious that something is going to happen, and at the next moment, it doesn't. There are twists and turns and explosions of light, very attractive to young kids. In conclusion, people probably like comic books because there is a lot going on and it seems very intriguing how one thing should happen while something else totally different does.

Recently we have been playing hockey as part of a tournament during lunch recess. We have only won one game. That game, we won by one point. It was a close game because we were actually losing 1-0 until we scored two lucky goals. I couldn't believe that we actually won - it would probably have been impossible had some of our sticks slipped. We lost or drawed the rest, sadly. We lost against Kevin's team and we didn't stand a chance against the big non-Quest students' teams. Our only draw was against a team that we later lost to. It wasn't very fun losing against them, especially since some of them were cheaters. In conclusion, even though we got beaten up, I still had fun playing hockey!