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Now that we have answered questions about how nurse logs help plants live and grow, we can explore our questions about animals. In this lesson, we gathered information about termites and bark beetles.
We learned that termites eat the heart wood of a tree, and bark beetles eat the sapwood which is below the bark.
heart wood
We can see that bark beetles change in size, appearance and weight throughout its life.
Mathematical Model
Students created a mathematical to show how matter moves within a bark beetle larva and nurse log system. They started with 200mg nurse log and a 10mg larva. The system is 210mg. Each day the larva eats 10mg of the nurse log.
First, we modeled this with Unifix cubes. Starting with 20 cubes for the nurse log and one cube for the larva, we moved one cube at a time over from the "nurse log" to the "larva."
Then, using graph paper, we used a scale that each box represented 10mg. Students showed that matter moved from the nurse log into the larva, while the system remained 210mg.
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