Missin all of ya....

Hey Everyone.... Patatas here.... I hope all of you get this message. I'm stuck here at home and I thought I'd check out the blog. Anyway, I miss all of you. Hope to see ya all soon! 

To Sir, With Love

We, the Blogitty Blog Blog team enjoyed your company for the last 9 posts this blog had. It has always been our pleasure to share with you our thoughts, adventures and experiences. But everything has an end, even good things must come to an end... sad to say, the time has come for our final post , but before that, allow us to take you  to a journey from where these all began...

Blogitty Blog Blog is part of our fourth quarter CEO which was given to us by Sir Rye, an excellent, somehow "strict", warm-hearted and loving teacher (that's how we see him). Anyway, this CEO is about a "Blogging project". It will serve as an outlet and a vessel of everything we have learned and experienced for the past two awesome quarters studying about "Biodiversity". He made us create online journals about our past topics in Science instead of writing it down in a piece of paper where he alone can read it. What a brilliant way to express ourselves...our ideas, our thoughts and even our feelings... we love it!!!

At first we don't know how and where to start, but we, as a group, brainstormed and planned it all together. From choosing the name of our group to the  text layout, from the background colors and graphics up to its  design and content ... plus the snacks in between... We really wanted our different personalities to show in our blog. One idea that we really enjoyed doing was when we created pseudo names for ourselves. That was fun to do...we really thought of it as cool and unique.

Like most of the other groups, we too encountered conflicts and problems--- time, schedule & availability. Just to name a few, when we planned to make our first blog post, we went to the house of one of our groupmates but only three of us came because the others  are  not available. There was also a time when we don't know who will make the next blog post. Nobody wants to take responsibility because of the pile of homeworks from the other subjects that we needed to finish too. Eventually,  instead of arguing with each other, we decided to divide the posting assignments among ourselves, and it was a good decision! And since we wanted to excel in this project, we did everything we could... There was this challenging part of the blogging project where we need to campaign and advertise to win the "The Best Blog Award", our group really strived hard to get as much votes and "likes" as we could... even to the point of staying up late at night to advertise our blog to our friends and relatives... Well, it turned out to be a success, because we are always on top of the lead!!! It feels really GREAT!!!

 

People's Choice Criteria

If you'll ask us if we'd want to do this project all over again...we would definitely say YES!!! It was a good experience! Sitting in front of the computer, composing online journals... pouring your heart out to the subject matter assigned to you... brainstorming with your groupmates... advertising to gather much votes and the thrill of getting the most...those were just pretty awesome!!! Then everytime you get off the seat in front of the computer... when you know that your done with your blog post and you've done your best...you get a good feeling! It came to a point already that we look forward to composing a journal not because it is required of us for our CEO but because we enjoy doing it. 

We do hope CEO will have more projects like this and even more field trips next school year so that students will have a chance to interact and learn more not only inside the four corners of TLT but also outside of its fence. More field trips more blog topics to post!!! Just an opinion to consider... Since this Blogging Project is a great project, why not make it from 1st Quarter to the 4th?!!! But let the deadline be not conflicting and overlapping with the finals anymore so as not to divert the students' attention from reviewing for the finals to advertising their blogs.  

UP LOS BANOS

IRRI

Mt. Makiling Botanical Garden

We want to congratulate and thank Sir Rye for handling our CEO very effectively and passionately. We learned a lot while having fun! The contest was fair & well supervised, the criteria & mechanics were clear and the posting of deadlines were always reasonable. So Sir Rye... keep up the good work! Hats up to you!!!
 

And finally, we learned and realized many things as we go through this year's CEO. Learning is not always found in books but could also be through interaction with things, animals, plants & people and through shared experiences.We should give credit all the memories we had. We must learn to share the things we know and experienced to others by making a record of it (like a journal) whether be it on a notepad or a blog... so that other people in return, could learn too... and in that process, you will realize YOU HAVE LEARNED A LOT!!! 

  

Just a side note, writing down on a paper isn't as much fun as posting it on the web, where hundreds & even thousands of people could read it! Memories are like gifts from God that shouldn't be kept in a pocket. The things we experienced and learned could benefit many so why keep it to yourself?! 

"But how do you thank someone,

who has taken you from crayons to perfume?
It isn't easy, but I'll try..."

"The time has come,
For closing books and long last looks must end,
And as I leave,
I know that I am leaving my best friend,
A friend who taught me right from wrong,
And weak from strong,
That's a lot to learn,
But, what can I give you in return? ...."

Sir Rye, thank you for making memories with us... thank you for being a GREAT TEACHER! We salute you! You have left a very significant mark in our lives and we are forever grateful. 

It really was a wonderful journey....

from the beginning, till the end... with you!!!

TLT Grade 6 Batch 2010-2011

Stairway to....more stairs?!

Hello blog readers! Patatas here! Todays topic is "Makiling Botanical Garden"

Ahhh.... yes, of course, The "Makiling Botanical Garden". Who would ever expect to ever be in a garden this big? Well, actually there was a sign there that helped us discover how much more bigger the garden was. The sign had a picture of "Maria Makiling" And it said "Tuloy po kayo sa aking Hardin". Little did we know that, that sign, had tricked us into fatigue because it was full of stairs! But hey, it wasn't that bad. With a little motivation, and some coaxing, we all successfully made it to the end of the stairs at the very bottom where there was some sort of a river. Well I guess it was a reward for reaching the end or something. The river was awesome, but then we all felt we wanted to return to the bus. Boy! were we sad when we found out that to get back, you had to climb another series of steep and slippery stairs. We had no choice, we climbed.... AGAIN. Then.... can you guess what happened next??? Yes! that's right! we reached the top, but we could hardly walk another step.So anyway, we reached the bus and all got to rest. THE END.

Okay, so that story was all about the adventure we all had.... now, I'm going to change the topic and talk about what we learned there. We learned that..... It's hard to climb stairs when you know you're not prepared especially if it's that long. But Other than that, we learned.... The importance of nature!!! Yes! we learned that the air is fresher with all those plants around, and that it's just simply relaxing being in a surrounding with a lot of different plants, trees, and beautiful flowers.

As for the whole field trip, it was awesome. Well, to be honest, It was way better than what I expected before we left the school. It was also more fun than I expected. The greatest lesson I learned from this trip was the importance of plants and animals in our world today. With all that pollution, I guess everybody agrees that we need a lot more plants than what we have now. As for the animals, not one of them would be put in this Earth without having a purpose to fulfill. I guess it's all about the nature!

I/ We will never forget this learning Experience because We really learned a whole lot of stuff. It also answered a lot of our many questions, and also because we had loved the fun and adventure we had with our friends and classmates.

Thanks for reading! Log on for the next post, exclusively here on Blogitty- Blog- Blog.

Rice Unlimited!!

Most of you are aware that the sixth graders went to UP Los Banos. Our blog has taken you to Dairy Training and Research Institute, our next destination will take you to INTERNATIONAL RICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE! Yeah! That's right! ALL RICE!!! It  is a nonprofit independent research and training organization which was established in 1959. We went there as ready as ever! We toured the place including the Riceworld Museum, the place was really huge and it was cold inside! There were these nipa huts, scarecrows and  manequins dressed up as farmers. There were farming tools too. And just a side note, once you're inside, you can't help but to take pictures because it was really awesome there.

IRRI Headquarters

Riceworld Museum

The Nipa Hut

"Feng shan che" - Chinese winnowing fan

 The winnowing fan is a traditional machine used to separate bran and other light foreign materials such as errant straw and dust from milled rice.  It can also be used to remove chaff and straw from unmilled rice. 

We watched a video about IRRI and everything about it...Their mission: to reduce poverty and hunger; improve the health of rice farmers and consumers, and  ensure environmental sustainability through collaborative research, partnerships, and the strengthening of national agricultural research and extension systems. How this organization aims to reduce poverty and hunger, improve the health of rice farmers and consumers like me (who loves to eat rice) and to see to it that the rice production is environmentally sustainable is so commendable. Thank goodness we will not run out of rice!

grains of rice

In that video, there was this question that was raised and the answer caught our attention, "What does IRRI do to the farmers around the world?" The answer, "one of the things IRRI does is to  help educate farmers in different parts of the globe, and amazingly, most teachers are Filipinos." Doesn't it feel so overwhelming to know that we, Filipinos, are being used as God's instrument to teach other nations about the science of rice!!! Wow!!!
Check out their website for more knowledge and information about them. They will also amaze you after you learn how noble their purpose is that will benefit ME!!!... kidding... the entire world. 
Here's a link to their website, http://irri.org/about-irri

We expected to learn significant things about the organization, rice and farming and after the IRRI visit,  we did learn a lot. We now know how great the need is to find ways to improve and increase rice reproduction around the globe, we also realized the great responsibility IRRI has ... IRRI has a lot to offer, not just to some but to millions of people around the world. Proud as we are to be Filipinos, we felt it even more because IRRI's headquarters is here in the Philippines, particularly in Los Banos Laguna, and we're just so happy we've been there.


    

Happy we've been there!!!

Going back in time: The Museum of Natural History!

Grumble! Grumble! was what you could hear from our tummies after visiting the Institute of Plant Breeding. We became so hungry after the two stops we went to! So, for our lunch break, we were supposed to go to the Makiling Botanical Garden. But guess what came? Rain! So instead, we had to eat inside the bus where we also had our Ecodama game 3. Finally when the rain stopped, we headed for our next stop which is the stop that we'll be talking about: The Museum of Natural History!
As we headed inside the museum, we expected to learn about a lot of organisms considering the fact that we have many diverse forests. When we finally entered the museum, we were excited because of all the organisms that we saw there! We saw animal fetuses, different plant organisms, and more! So we all headed to the different parts of the museum to explore the organisms there. Here's some organisms we got from the museum:

The first organism we saw was the Philippine toad! The scientific name for this organism is Ingerophrynus philippinicus. The Philippine toad actually native to the Philippines. You can find it in the Palawan group of islands. This organism is an insectivore. It predates on other organisms for food. Other organisms predate on the Philippine toad for food too. So the ecological relationship of this wonderful creature is predation.

Kingdom: Animalia  Phylum: Chordata   Class: Amphibia     Order: Anura  Family: Bufonidae 
 Genus: Ingerophrynus  Species: philippinicus

The next organism we encountered was pretty big. And it's the sperm whale! The sperm whale's scientific name is Physeter macrocephalus. Sperm whale may sound familiar because they are usually portrayed in films and in art. And this big creature is actually the largest toothed whale! Sperm whales are carnivores. It's ecological relationship is predation and it predates on squid, fish and other marine animals.

Class: Mammalia   Order: Cetacea  Suborder: Odontoceti 
Family: Physeteridae Genus: Physeter  Species: macrocephalus

Here's another organism we found in the museum. It's called the Giant Philippine Frog. The Giant Philippine Frog is native to the Philippines and India. And it's a near threatened species. The scientific name of this frog is Limnonectes magnus. It's an insectivore and it's ecological relationship is predation. The Giant Philippine Frog predates on other organisms for food while other organisms predate on it for food too.

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum:Chordata  Class :Amphibia  Order:Anura  Family Dicroglossidae
Genus: Limnonectes Species: magnus




We also found some bacteria. Here's Lactobacillus acidophilus. Lactobacillus acidophilus is also called "friendly bacteria". It can help us in different ways like it can help treat high cholesterol. It can also help in lowering the risk of pollen allergies. Lactobacillus acidophilus is the scientific name for this organism and it can be found in yogurt. The ecological relationship of this organism may be commensalism because it does not benefit from the body but the body benefits from it. Bacteria are decomposers.

Division: Firmicutes  Kingdom: Bacteria  Class: Bacilli  Family: Lactobacillaceae
Genus: Lactobacillus  Species: acidophilus

 Now readers, this is Paramecium. They are unicellular organisms that are able to move, digest food, and reproduce. They are oval shaped and they have cilia which helps the paramecium to move. It also belongs to the kingdom Protista. Paramecium are known for the ecological relationship predation. Didinium, a heterotrophic organism preys on the paramecium. Paramecium are also consumers. 


Domain:  Eukarya  Kingdom: Protista  Phylum: Ciliophora  Class: Ciliatea
Order  Peniculida  Family: Parameciidae Genus: Paramecium

This is bracket fungi. Bracket fungi is also called "shelf fungi". They are tough, shelf-like growths on dead trees. The scientific name for this creature is Schizophyllum commune. Some species of bracket fungi are parasites of trees. The ecological relationship for the bracket fungi is parasitism. Like said earlier, some species of bracket fungi are parasites to trees. So the bracket fungi benefit while the trees get harmed. They are also decomposers.

Kingdom: Eukaryota( Eukarya)  Family: Polyporaceae 
 Genus: Schizophyllum  Species: commune

After looking at all the organisms in the museum, we learned more about different types of organisms and we learned more about biodiversity.
Keep posted to Blogitty Blog-blog for more fun moments in our field trip!

The Adventure Continues........ To the Institute of Plant Breeding!!

Welcome! In the trip, we went to places like the DTRI to IRRI. Now lets go to the Institue of Plant Breeding! We've seen many plants there. So fresh and green! Walking around the institute, breathing in the fresh air produced by the beloved plants, was very relaxing and felt good. You could see many green and alive plants, growing healthily. With this post, we hope we shared the experience we gained in this trip.
            Here are some Organisms we saw there:

Organism 1
Common Name: White Corn

White Corn

 Scientific Name: Zea mays
 Classification:
           Kingdom: Plantae
           Division: Tracheophyta
           Class: Liliopsida
           Order: Poales
           Family: Pocacaceae
           Genus: Zea
           Species: mays
Characteristics:
          -Sweet
          -High Percentage of sugar and water
Significance:
          - Serves as food
Ecological Role: Producer
Ecological Relationships:
           -Predation:
               >Eaten: White Corn
               > Eats: Herbivores and Omnivores

     

Bayog

Organism 2
Common Name: Bayog
Scientific Name: Bambusa merrlliana
Classification:
           Kingdom: Plantae
           Division: Magnoliophyta
           Class: Liliopsida
           Subclass: Commenunidae
           Order: Cyperales
           Family: Poaceae
           Genus: Bambusa
           Species: merrilliana
Characteristics:
           -has a woody stem or trunk
           -Is very long
           -Has Green, Black, and Brown colors
Ecological Role: Producer
Ecological Relationships:
           -Predation
                > Eaten: Bayog
                > Eaters: Herbivores like pandas!



 Organism 3


Sweet Potato

 Common Name: Sweet Potato
Scientific Name: Iponema batatas
Classification:
           Kingdom: Plantae
           Order:  Solanales
           Family: Convolvilaceae
           Genus: Iponema
           Species: batatas
Characteristics:
            -Big
            -Dry
            -Brown- Colored
Ecological Role: Producer
Ecological Relationships:
          -Predation
               >Eaten: Sweet Potato
               > Eater: Herbivores and Omnivores

                                      We learned that, we need to help our environment with activities like recycling, reusing and reducing, because if we don't we'll be harming the plants around the environment. We need to help our environment, or we'll loose these colorful plants. Pollution can harm these plants and we need to help these plants that produce the oxygen we breathe, the vegetables we eat, and the herbs and such we use for medicine, one of our companions in this earth. We learned we need to help these companions, because pollution is harming them.

                                      We hope you enjoyed this post! We hope we shared our experience and the facts we learned in a presentable and well-mannered way.

Our way to the MILKY way...

Hello there! Welcome again to Blogitty Blog-Blog! So for this post, we will be talking about our Science field trip to UPLB. In UPLB, we learned many things about plants and animals. And even though the trip was long and tiring, there were many fun and exciting moments. We had this field trip so that we could learn more about biodiversity. And so we could understand more about it. This is also why we decided to join the field trip. We joined the field trip so we could learn and understand more about biodiversity. We expected this field trip to be very interesting. And, we also expected it to be jam-packed with fun. fun. and more fun. Before the actual field trip, we all felt very excited because we were going to UPLB. We also felt a little bit tired because we were leaving TLT very early. But being tired didn't really bother us. We just couldn't wait to arrive in our first destination in UPLB which we will be talking about.

So our first stop was the Dairy Training and Research Institute or DTRI. When we arrived in DTRI, we expected to learn something about dairy. We also expected to learn how dairy is produced. When we arrived in DTRI, we were led to a room where our speaker would be discussing about dairy. After, we were toured around DTRI. And some of us bought milk in the DTRI store. After the DTRI trip, we learned about well, dairy. We also learned something about cows because they are associated with dairy. Also, we learned how the milk was taken from the cow. While we were in DTRI, we were able to list down an organism we saw there:

1. Common name: Cow, Cattle

    Scientific name: Bos primigenius



       Taxonomic classification:          

• Kingdom: Animalia                                                  
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Artiodactyla
• Family: Bovidae
• Genus: Bos
• Species:  primigenius  

2. Characteristics

• Can be used for dairy or for meat and for livelihood
• Provides us with food
• sacred in India    
• this organism was chosen because it is one of the most common organisms in the world
• also because there are many things to learn about it

3. Ecological relationship

• herbivore
• predation
• Cows are used as food for other organisms. As food, they give energy to other organisms.

Well, that's all for now. Join us in our next stop!