Friday 14 June 2013

emerging trends in first draft data charts and graphs











Some early drafts of the method emerges.

Measuring flower colour
Each 100m strip we walked. While doing that the colour of flowers was recorded. The flowers were counted in the three zones; the results were verified by double checking and sharing with other groups to see if they were roughly the same. This affects the different types of bees because if there are no brightly coloured flowers then hardly any bees will pollenate them, this means the different types of bees will decrease.
Preferred bee plants   
While walking the 100m strip, preferred bee flowers were found then recorded. This was also done in the three zones the urban zone, agricultural zone and the wild life zone. Dandelions were mostly found in groups in the agricultural zone, daisies were also found in that same zone.

To find the bee prefered walk slowly so the bees don't get scared, and carry a plant spotting guide to check which plants bees prefer. Observe which plants the bees land on and then record the name of the plant. If a spotting guide is not availble, take a photo (with flash off) of the plants the bees land on so it can be studied in the lab.
 
Select a strip that is 100m long by 4m wide. Estimate the frequency of the flowers in the strip.
Score                                                              
A  (90%)Abundant
C  (75%)
Common
F  (50%)Frequent
O  (25%)Occasional
R  (<25%)Rare
NF (0%)Not Flowered
 

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Great student reflection

Have you been a critical friend?Yes because, I wrote on my classmates work what they could improve on and how they could do so. I also spoke to a classmate and was very specific when I told them what was good and what could be better.
Why is this important?
To you?

This is important to me because, I am learning about different species of bee and I am discovering many different things about plants and flowers. It is also important because I am helping the bees in the area by looking into how we can save their natural habitats and how we can make the bee popuation increase.
To Bees?
It is important to bees because, it means that they can continue to produce honey and their population will continuously grow. This means that their habitat will be safe and they can survive longer.
To the wider community?
It is important to the wider community because, it means that any plants being grown by people will stay survivng as they are being pollenated by the bees. They also create honey so people in Cramlington can buy their honey which has been made in the local area.
What has been difficult and how have we over come it?
It has been difficult when trying to figure out how often a group of certain plants appear in a certain area. It was difficult to do because we had to estimate so we didn't get a very accurate answer which made it more confusing to do. We overcame this challenge by thinking about each of the different rankings and how we could estimate by just looking at each area of plants.
 
 
 
1. Me and my friend prepared different ideas to what is good and what is bad about the work. We then compared them. I thought about what could be included and what is already included. There was also the fact of not enough of something. I was hard on the work and not the person and I took into account th Scientific vocab need in one piece of work.

2.It is important because we need a better explanation on the disappearance of Bees.This is due to the lack of Bee preffered species of flowers growing in the lands around us. I feel that Bees are a necessity to the Urban Wildlife, I for one am interested in the going ons of Bees around places Bees call their homes. This project will hopefully tell pople that this problem is serious because if there are no Bees a Human's life would be very difficult.

3. I was out on the day the Project was introduced, I overcame this by asking those around me for help. It was pretty easy to understand the Project from there on out. With the useful work we done I learnt mor about th Project and am catching up to my peers.
 
 
I have been a critical friend throughout reading the methods, I have done this by being tough on the work and not on the person. Also I have not only said what the work could have included, but what is good/ what should stay the same in their next draft.
 
This project is important to the community as it tells us about the population and what is happening with it, it can help to tell people was we can make sure we always have many bees. It is important to bees so that the data gets out that the numbers of bees in the UK is going down, this means that more people can help stop gasses going in the air and killing bees.
 
I found it quite difficult when I was writing up my last homework about the populations of bees in the UK. I found this hard as I didn’t really know alot about the population of bees so I had to do alot of research into it.
 
 
 

Monday 10 June 2013

More student reflections on the emerging project

 I have been a critical friend because when I was critiquing other people's work I made sure I gave specific advice and kept my advice friendly so that it didn't hurt people's feelings.

- This project is important because we need to know whether we are providing a good enviroment for bees and if they will be able to live in these conditions for much longer. It is important to me because I quite like wildlife and bees provide us with honey for food. It is important to the bees because they might not live much longer if we keep our enviroment the way it is and we might be able to change the enviroment a bit so they will live on. It is important to the wider community because even though I don't like honey myself, lots of people do and the bees provide us with that.

- The hardest bit so far was making sure you didn't get the bees mixed up or got confused over which shape the flowers were that you had seen because if you got that wrong you would be letting down the whole class by providing them with incorrect data.


This half term in science the project we are doing is based on the Cramlington. At the start of this experiment we had to take in everything about bees in our area, this included the flower species they prefer, the number of them we actually saw and the range of flower colours we could find. However, all of this would be completely irrelevant   if the project did not have a main aim to focus on.

 Although, there will be a range of aims to observe throughout the topic not to mention a main one that the whole class will be focusing on I think I may have my individual aim. My aim which I would like to have completed at the end of the topic is based on what to do with knowledge. Therefore; my individual aim for the end of the unit is to have gathered enough knowledge on the local bee population to the figure out how to increase the bee population of Cramlington.

Despite aims and key focuses this project is very important as the research that took place in it may eventually help the bee population in the surrounding area. It will do this by educating people on the importance of the bees in Cramlington and what ways we can stop ourselves destroying their environment.

Monday 3 June 2013

What do good Critical Friends do- 7s1



Early Student reflections

I have been a critical friend because i have been enthusiastic and confident whilst doing the work. The topic is important to me because it shows us that bees are important and that we should save them and their habitats. We can dk this by not using lots of pesticides. It is helpful to the bees because it gives them a better chance to go onto flowers and pollinate without getting a disease or even dying. It can also help the community because they will have more bees to look at in your garden but also it can provide the community with honey. I found nothing difficult during the lesson so I have nothing to improve or overcome.

I have been a critical friend by giving feedback to other groups.
The project is important to me because it is giving me ways to bee a better learner.
The project is important to bees because it is telling us if we need to do more in our area to help them.
It is also important to the wider community because it shows where we can help bees so that the crops are fruitful.
I have found working as a team difficult and we have overcome that by stopping and talking about what we should write.

1. I have been a critical friend. I was helping Jamie what he should put in the method. 2.This project is important because bees need nectar from flowers, and make the flowers grow and plants help us breathe. 3.I don't know if we found it difficult

7s1 Success criteria for writing methods.

All distilled from loking at previous student work on the headland project.

Student start to generate questions about the data?

It's really pleasing to see that they are connectimng independent and dependent variables?

A student friendly bee survey method

A student friendly bee survey method. A good start point.

Bee Survey Method- a professional one.

Very detailed but useful Bee survey method.

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Raw Data

The raw data for study can be found here

Four repeats should give some interesting and trust worthy data!

Thursday 9 May 2013

Bee Walk Route Map.


Using different zones will allow us to make comparisons across the town.