Ms. Turnbull's Room : JanaN I-Search

JanaN I-Search

Posted by JANA_N, 4/24/03 at 11:02:16 AM.

Jellyfish

Jana N
May 23, 2003
Language Arts

Introduction

Clear, blobby, and glowing sea creatures are wandering in the dark depths of the ocean. It looks like an alien from Mars and has a body you can see through. What is this weird animal that can live without brains and how did it survive after millions of years? Jellyfish are one of my favorite sea animals because they look so cool and can live without some organs. Read more about this amazing life form that can hurt or kill its enemies or prey with one sting, its unique life cycle, and more interesting information.

How does jellyfish survive without brains or bones?

Jellyfish have special sacs that help them balance in the right direction. Humans have them too, in their ears. When humans get tangled in their tentacles they will sting. They use their tentacles to catch prey. They have no lungs or no gills or any special breathing organs. The walls of the body and tentacles are so thin that the oxygen molecules are able to pass directly from the water into the internal organs and the carbon dioxide molecules pass out of the body in the same way. Thus, one might say that a jellyfish breathes with its entire body.

How are they important to us?

Jellyfish can be eaten by people and are an extremely good source of health food and delicacy when other food is scarce because there is a large number of jellyfish in the world. They are also part of the food chain and are eaten by spadefish, sunfish, loggerhead turtles and other marine organisms. They can tear easily so they have to be put in circle-shaped tanks with no sharp corners.

How long does a jellyfish live?

It is likely that most jellyfish have quite short lives. It must be remembered that the jellyfish stage is only one stage in the life-cycle of most species. For jellyfish this stage buds off from what is known as a polyp stage. The jellyfish is the sexual stage and is the stage that has mature gametes. The sexes are separate. Since jellyfish roam freely in the plankton it is during this stage that dispersal takes place. The young planula larvae settle and grow into the polyp stage which can live for many years. In temperate waters the growing polyp buds off new jellyfish once a year, often in the spring. The young jellyfish grow rapidly through the summer, spawn, then usually die. So most jellyfish live from a few weeks to 1 year.

How can they sting you?

Tiny "harpoons" in the stinging cells of the tentacles shoot out venom to paralyze their prey or to defend themselves when it comes with contact. They can still sting when they are stranded on shore as long as their tentacles are moist. Stinging cells called cnidocytes are located all over the jellyfish's tentacles. If you or someone has gotten by a jellyfish, get first aid and call a doctor immediately.

How do you tell poisonous jellyfish from the non-poisonous variety?

The deadliest jellyfish are mostly the colored ones. Although all jellyfish have venom the colored ones heve more toxic and can be more dangerous. But in Australia, there are clear ones that are venomous too. But you should avoid all jellyfish and its tentacles.

Closing

Now you've read my whole report about jellyfish, what did you think? Were you fascinated by the cool pictures? Shocked by the interesting facts you never heard of? Check out my journal to see how much research I have done and the biblography to look up new stuff about jellyfish. I hope you had a great time reading my report and learned some new things about the world of jellyfish!

Biblography

Wrobel, Dave and Mills, Claudia. Friday Harbor Laboratories. 1998. February 2001 http://jellieszone.com/jelliesfaq.htm

Taylor, Leighton. Early Bird Nature Books: Jellyfish: Lerner Publications Company, 1998.

Buchsbaum, Ralph and Mildred. Pearse, John and Vicki. Animals Without Backbones:Third Edition: The University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Childcraft:The How and Why Library Vol.7: Story of the Sea. World Book Inc, 1992

http://www.aqua.org/animals/species/jellies.html (link is no longer available.)

The Complete Encyclopedia of the Animal World. Octopus Books Limited, 1980

Behler,Deborah A. "Alien Stingers: The Sting's the Thing With Jellyfish" Wild Life Conservation Magazine, October 2002 pg 22-27

I-Search Journal

Posted by JANA_N, 3/9/03 at 6:22:05 PM.

2-25-03

Today I went on the library web site to search some books about jellyfish. It was pretty hard because some of the search engines replied that they couldn't find it. So I went on a web site on them and found some books. But when I found the books on the library site the branches said the books were ordered but not recieved yet. These are the books:

Jellyfish and other sea creatures/ by Oxford Scientific Films; photographs by Peter Parks ( I already got this book from the library.)

Jellies: Living Art 2002 by Judith Connor and Nora Deans

2-25-03

Searching what you want is not that easy. The books I want to find on jellyfish on the library search engine shows books on jams and jellies (the stuff you spread on bread or bagels). I have found some good books on the SFPL site and my mom would borrow them.

3-6-03

Today I found a great web site to help my research. It is: http://www.aqua.org/animals/species/jellies.html and I learned a lot from it. I copied some of the facts into my notes and it was pretty easy. By the time I finished my jellyfish article, it was time to go to the next class.

3-7-03

I found another web site called http://www.redjellyfish.com/aa-animalhub.html?aa-jellyfish.shtml~main on the internet. It had helped me with my jellyfish notes. I did the Read-Pause-Retell thing and I am almost finished with that assignment.

3-10-03

I found another web site that is about jellyfish stings(http://www.nidaria.com/jellyfish.html) and I read a lot of cool facts I had never known before. They tell you how do they sting and how you can prevent or deal with one.

3-11-03

Today I did the Read and Retell thing with my partner and I did the fastest I can to finish my jellyfish article. I saw other peoples' articles were much longer than mines so I better hurry! I also need some good ones.

3-13-03

Today I made a new story called the I-Search Checklist and linked it to my name page and continued to finish my I-Search notes on jellyfish but, I am not done yet.

3-25-03

Today I learned to go to the SFPL site to find my resources on jellyfish. You need a library card number to find information on everything from magazines to newspapers. It's hard to do that because the internet connection is not working. It won't work for me and the entire class too! Mr. Delaney says it's because of the school district's connection. I have a library card but I am not sure if it works or it has already expired.

3-26-03

Today was kind of boring because almost everyday it is the usual and I am trying to find a person to interview on jellyfish.

3-27-03

Today I am finding biblography information about the books, magazines, and other print sources I found.

4-4-03

We are doing the biblography today and it was kind of hard because the connection is slow again.

4-7-03

Today I am done with everything except the table of contents, title page, and the interview. Ms. Turnbull said don't worry, we'll dicuss it next week. I hope my I-Search will get an A or B.

4-8-13

Today I am done with the biblography but I am not sure if it needs more resources because I only have about six. I think that's ok or not good enough because other kids did more.

4-10-03

This computer's connection is so slow! I rather use my slow one at home with clear connection than this one becauseyou need to keep refreshing.

4-23-03

Today we created a new story called I-Search Interview Questions. We add as much questions we want to when we ask our interviewer. I hope my questions will be good enough to be answered by the interviewer! But I need to find an aquarium that has jellyfish and an expert. Do I need to pay to get inside one, or I can do it for free because of a school project?

4-24-03

Today we are learning how to make our biblography better. We went on http://www.noodletools.com/quickcite/citbook.html and type down the author's name, copyright, and more and they arranged everything in order. I wish they can organize the biblography of websites.

5-8-03

Since last Friday (May 2nd), I got very sick with the flu and stayed home and tried to finish my make-up work. I found a cover page but I'm not sure if it's good enough because it doesn't look so flashy. I answered my 5 I.Q.'s and spent about a whole hour completing the I-Search assignments.

5-12-03

Today is Monday and I am back in school. We are finishing our I-Search Report and I still need an interview. I hope some miracle would make my day and maybe I can find a jellyfish scientist. A week ago on the news there is a discovery about a new species of jellyfish found and has arms instead of tentacles. The new jellyfish has its own family and is called the Big Red.

5-15-03

Today we made a new story called I-Search Revision Conference. You're supposed to ask a person to read or skim through your I-Search notes and ask him or her questions like what do you think? or, is it boring? We also don't need to do the interview anymore because we don't have time and school is almost over.

5-16-03

Today we just need to check and finish our I-Search Report and notes. I still have to have my mom read my report for the revision conference. She didn't do it yesterday because I forgot to ask her while I was watching a movie at home. Today after school, I'll ask her and if she is busy I can ask someone else.

5-19-03

Today there is no assignments so we just need to add the finishing touches to our I-Search Report. I copied and pasted the links and added more work to my report. I can't believe that there is about two and a half more weeks of school left!

5-20-03

Today we just did the same thing and tried to complete our I-Search. I kept on sneezing and I'm not sure if I have allergies (I never had sneezed over ten times today!) or I got a cold. It looks like I am pretty much done with everything and I have nothing else to worry about.

5-21-03

Today is the second to last day of the due of the I-Search. I had my revision conference with my mom and she answered all my questions by typing it down on our computer at home. I hope I will get an A and have fun at the field trip next Friday!