September+discoveries+S.V.B.

Science Discovery Journal September 1, 2014 Sean Boorum

I went to the beaver dam behind my house on the Portage River. There was a weird fishing line or current made by a bug in the crick close to the tree. There was also a spider web on the way down to the crick stuck to the prickers. I think it is neat how the water rushes through the rocks and looks like a little rapid. There are a lot less branches and parts of trees in the beaver dam. I heard crickets and the water trickling through the rocks. I also heard my dog whining. She must have smelled something. I couldn't smell much at all besides a trace of a fern. It was getting that time of day where the sky turns just a tinge of gold when mosquitoes and flies like to come out a lot. My mom and I were getting eaten alive. In some places leaves are already changing to yellow and orange and are starting to fall off the trees. I saw a few red leaves, too. There were pretty purple and yellow flowers and also goldenrod starting to bloom. There were also plants that I call poppers because the seeds pop when squeezed.

Sean Boorum 9/7/14

For my science discovery this week I looked at the small creek that runs under my road. I noticed it hasn't rained in awhile so the creek is all dried up. What’s left of the creek is a little tiny puddle. Now even a small trickle can’t get through because the heavy flooding forced all the rocks to make a h ill in the middle of the creek bed. The only way for water to get through now is to fill up the shallow area the rock dam created.

While I was in the creek I found poppers again. I did some research and found it is commonly known as Jewelweed or Jumpseed. The scientific name is impatiens capensis. It can be used in herbal medicines to help with skin problems. It can help burns, itches, eczema and poison ivy and poison oak. It’s a very useful plant. Here is a picture.


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Sean Boorum September 14, 2014

Today I decided I wasn't going to venture very far from home so I checked out our red maple tree on the left side of our house. I chose to climb to the tree and investigate. I found out that the higher branches had smoother bark than lower parts of the tree like the trunk. It’s leaves are a very deep shade of red. The red maple has a strong, sturdy trunk. Where the bark splits because of the branches it’s really puffy, almost like the seem of a stuffed animal. I found out with a bit of research and a little help from my grandma that our tree is a Crimson King Maple.

Sean Boorum 9/22/14

For this science discovery I decided to find out why leaves change colors in autumn. I discovered from the internet that the leaves don’t really change colors. Leaves are actually already the colors they turn in the fall, truly the chlorophyll is just masking them. You see these colors because the chlorophyll is breaking down. The cause for this is the temperature change and the length of sunlight. The other chemical called xanthophyll is the cause for the colors like orange, red, and yellow. The reason these colors show are because the green of the chlorophyll is no longer masking the reds, oranges and the yellows.

Sean Boorum American Dagger Moth 9/28/14

Today my science discovery was the American Dagger Moth. The dagger moth is yellow with two black antennae in the front and middle and one thick antennae in the back. They like to eat the leaves of maple, oak, poplar, alder, ash and walnut trees. The dagger moth is a forest caterpillar. When young they rest on the underside of the leaf and chew on the soft part between the veins. When they are older they can eat more of the leaf. Tree farmers might consider the dagger moth a pest when it is older. After it pupates at the end of fall it stays in the cocoon in the winter months and comes out in the summer. The caterpillar I saw was probably a fairly old one and may be getting ready to make a cocoon. It was starting to turn a lighter yellow. I’m guessing the one I saw is older because the research I found online states it becomes pale yellow or white when it is ready to pupate.

This is a picture of one that will make a cocoon shortly This one is fairly young