Katie's Journal

December 3, 2007

                Today I pretty much just tried to figure out how the wiki works. Taylor and I figured out what research we were going to do like the specifics of our bacteria. I also tried to do the timeline but I did not do that right because I only did one day instead of the full 2 weeks. Later I did some preliminary research because Taylor and I were not totally sure what rhizobia were. I learned that the Rhizobia fix nitrogen into roots in plants. And that the Rhizobia needs a plant host to fix the nitrogen into the roots. I also learned that rhizobia are extremely necessary for countries with less money for agricultural uses because countries with more money have fertilizer that does what the rhizobia do without the bacteria.

December 4, 2007

     Today Taylor and I worked together to fix our timeline because we didn’t do the timeline right. So we put it into calendar form. We also separately looked for pictures for the website so we each made a folder of what pictures we wanted to use. I have about 5 pictures that I think are good for representing rhizobia. When I got home I went over the website a few times and tried to fix some glitches that were messing the website up. I put up a link on the journal page to this document. Then I went on Net Trekker and typed in rhizobia as the keyword and nothing came up at all, so I typed in bacteria nitrogen and dirt and still nothing came up. So I left net trekker because I didn’t want to stay on there for too long if nothing was coming up. So I went to Encyclopedia Britannica and also typed in all those keywords and still nothing is coming up. I think that there aren’t that many websites or documents explaining rhizobia so tomorrow I am going to tell Taylor that we shouldn’t really bother with the school databases just because they are so narrow sourced. I think tomorrow I’m going to try to get some help to fix the links on my website because I am a tad confused on how they are working.

December 5, 2007

    Today we didn’t get to do anything during class on the website because of Mrs. Jansen being there. But, Taylor and I talked a little bit about maybe working more researching smaller topics than the larger topics. We also are going to start putting some information on the website tomorrow. I’m not totally sure if I’m supposed to put this stuff on here but I think I am supposed to. Well I read the bacteria sensitivity lab that we are going to do tomorrow. It is about how different bacteria operate when they are faced with antibiotics. On our timeline I am supposed to look on Net Trekker again to see if I was too hasty in my thinking that there was nothing that I could use for our website. I looked on Net Trekker for the 3^rd time and there is still no website that shows up about it. So, I strayed from the timeline and went to Gale Group and found a lot of newspaper and educational books about current news events about rhizobia. So tomorrow I’m going to tell Taylor that the Gale Group website is our best bet for current events articles about our bacteria.

December 6, 2007

    Today we got a lot done in class. I created a new page called Rhizobia vocab. Right now all it has on it is nitrogen but I’m looking up more words that have to do with it. I also made a page with pictures, and tomorrow I'll try to give captions to so people to know what’s going on in the pictures. I got 3 pictures of roots with the rhizobia fixing the nitrogen to the roots. I found a really good picture of the cycle of Rhizobia’s job but it wouldn’t load all the way. Then i fixed some things on the timeline so that the work would go on for a couple more days because at the rate Taylor made the timeline it was going to leave us with 4 days of not doing anything. So I fixed it to where every Friday we check over the website. And i moved everything from our weekend research and moved it to weekly research. We also found ways to change the settings of our website so Taylor and i played around on there for about 10 minutes. I also inserted a picture onto the title page so that it would look more finished. I also found a couple independent sites that had really good information about Rhizobia's habitat. So i made a new page all about Rhizobia's habitat.

December 7, 07

    Today I only looked around on the website making sure everything was in the right place and nothing was spelled wrong or sentences made sense. I also looked on a couple websites to see what they had on the habitat of rhizobia. I found out that rhizobia live in the dirt and roots of plants. I found this website about ONLY the habitat of rhizobia, I thought that was a very cool coincidence so I looked on there for about half an hour. I put the research on the Rhizobia's Habitat page. I didn't do that much else on it because our timeline didn't tell us that we needed to do anything. I will probably write more on the Rhizobia habitat because I will go on more websites to see if there are more than just the Rhizobia lives in dirt.

December 8 & 9, 07

    Today again I worked mainly on checking over the website to make sure everything was saying what we wanted it too. I also put up a picture of roots on the habitat page so it could have a diagram of what the habitat looks like. It will also be easier for kids if they don't get it they have a picture to help them understand. Also, I added a new word for the vocabulary list: proteobacteria which is a bacterium that fixes nitrogen to plant roots. I also went through the timeline and fixed a couple things, like when we should do the website evaluations. I also looked up on the internet how to make a quiz online, it was a little bit confusing but I'll talk to Taylor tomorrow to see if we actually want to make a quiz. I think it would be a good part to our website but only if we get the quiz to work.

December 10, 07

    Today I worked mainly on the news articles about our bacteria. I found 3 websites on Gale Group that were really good with current events. They had to do mainly with reasons of why crops were doing so badly. Because Rhizobia have a lot of control over how the outcomes of crops go, they are prominent in farming websites. Taylor and I will look over the websites again and summarize the articles. I feel really good about our website right now; because I went over the timeline again today and we are right on track. I do not feel rushed or anything I really feel like we’re doing a good job also on the website. I am very glad that we aren't putting things off till the last minute and procrastinating our way through this project because I know how big this is. I also like this project more than a test because I have learned so much about the Rhizobia in only a week. I also found a few more pictures online that diagramed what rhizobia do to fix the nitrogen onto the roots. I'll show Taylor tomorrow and see if she thinks they are good for our Picture file.

December 11, 07

    Today on our timeline we are supposed to make the site easier for kids to understand. So, Taylor looked for more pictures and I put the captions on there because I had already looked up a lot of pictures. So I went through the website trying to simplify the sentences so they didn’t sound so hard to understand. Some of the things that I found on the website barely made sense to me so I definitely knew I had to make it simpler for kids. So the website is going really well I know that we are about ot rap up the project and I am totally fine with it, I’m not freaking out because we need more time. I know that we worked hard on it, and I know people who see it will absolutely understand that.

December 12, 07

    Today I was supposed to find out the pro's of rhizobia. This was pretty easy because they are so helpful to the environment they pretty much give us our food, without rhizobia we wouldn’t have crops and vegetation to eat and get oxygen from. So I made a page about for Taylor and I called Pro's and Con's. Which will be for both of us to put our research on there about the good things and bad things about Rhizobia? Rhizobia are a HUGE part of our lives and I've never even heard of it before now. It's amazing how many things we don’t know that go on around us. I put mostly information about what Rhizobia's job is in the nitrogen cycle and how that affects the world around us. And how they pretty much keep our ecosystem alive. I had an easier job to do than Taylor I bet it was hard for her to find out things that are bad about Rhizobia because they help our world survive and how could that turn bad?

December 13, 07

    Today on the timeline I was supposed to look up the nutritional needs of Rhizobia. So I looked on 2 websites about the things Rhizobia needs to stay alive. This is one of the last days for Taylor and I to work on this before the weekend. So I added my research about the rhizobia's nutritional needs onto the page called All About Rhizobia that Taylor made last week. I didn't think it needed its own page it seemed like it would fit in well with the other general information about Rhizobia. I also put History of Rhizobia on the All About Rhizobia page. I found most of the information on the History on Wikipedia. The Nutritional needs were a little hard to find. I had to get definitions of chemoautropic and the other names of the different ways to get the nutrition to bacteria. 

December 14, 07

        Today was the last day at school before we turn it in. We didn't get to do anything during class but I did a lot after school. I put 3 more words on the vocabulary list. But, since we were winding down I took all the pages and put them on a Microsoft Word document so I could fix all the grammar and spelling. I also went to all the pictures and put the website underneath because I didn't know we were supposed to do that until today. I also found a really great animated video that shows the sizes of bacteria compared to other things. I also fixed a couple of things on the News Article page. The links were'nt working for the websites so I had to go back and re-do all of the website page links. When I was trying to fix the grammar and spelling the link wouldn't work. I tried about 4 times to get the link to work so I emailed Taylor to try to help me but she hasn't replied yet. I think tomorrow we will just go over the website again separatley then on the phone we'll go over it together and fix anything we both think doesn't work.

December 15, 07

        Today was the last day before we turned the website in. I spent all day working on trying to make the whole website to the specifications that the rubric was talking about. I went through each one and looked through each page to the things the rubric said we had to do. I think the whole website is pretty up to the specifications of the rubric because I worked really hard to make sure everything was just as the rubric said. I had to change a few things on it like I went back through the bibliography I had on a Microsoft word document and changed a few things. I added another website that I forgot on the Bibliography. I also made a Bibliography page. I also went back through my journal entries again to make sure I didn't miss anything with grammar or spelling. Were turning it in tomorrow and I think when Taylor and I finally turn it in it will be as good as it possibly can because we both worked really hard on trying to make it perfect.