The Blue Ringed Octopus
The Blue Ringed octopus is an invertebrate that lives in the Australian and Japanese waters. They are known for their characteristic blue rings that warn predators that they are indeed poisonous. They are teeny; around 12cm. They have the ability to change their color to blend with the environment. They use this ability to sleep at night, since they hunt during the day on small crabs and shrimp. Since all octopi have the ability to squirt ink, the Blue Ringed octopus can also squirt venom to kill its prey at medium range. Their venom is lethal to humans, with no known antidote. There is enough poison within one animal to kill 26 human beings within minutes. The octopus’s eggs take around 6 months to incubate, in which the females won’t eat. All octopuses have blue blood and three hearts.
Our biology blogs were meant to showcase our work in a professional way that is easy to view to the trained eye.
Leading up to our project we studied cells, genetics, blood, sexually transmitted diseases and infections, osmosis and diffusion, meiosis and mitosis, sex organs, etc. Then we went through each system: nervous, circulatory, immune, digestive, and reproductive. This taught us about each system so we could have a good major overview of the human body.
The purpose of this project was to become an expert about your system and learn other ways to study and communicate information. We each had to focus on a different part to create an amazing final project.
The decisions in this project as to who did what was a collaborative aspect. We all did our own work, but if anyone else needed work we helped the other. For example, for our Community Connections, Becca needed help presenting. Allie and I volunteered to help, and we all ended up teaching 7th graders about the Nervous system.
The role I was given was Researcher. I had to conduct an experiment or survey to gather real life information about our system and then communicate it across professionally and scientifically. I decided to do a survey about how drugs affect the nervous system and how much students knew about the effects.
I’m proud of my survey. I put a lot of research and work into making them understandable. If I could refine, I’d take away the text boxes. People didn’t understand what I was trying to tell them and some kids took it as a complete joke and abused my survey. To improve on my next project, I’m going to stay organized. I wasn’t on this one and I had to scramble to find everything and to finish. I found relevance that kids do know enough about drugs, but didn’t know as much as I wished. People need to know what they are getting into when they do drugs. I’m going to take away from this project the importance to make good decisions; if my decisions are bad, don’t let them affect the people you care about. Take care of yourself and keep to your word.
