Is Taxidermy Important?

I am taking a class called Population which is the first STEAM class for my sophomore year. In this class, we are currently discussing different ways of studying animals such as taxonomy, videos, photos, and even drawing. I chose to make my project on taxidermy because it is something I can connect to and it is also a very interesting process. So far for this class, we have taken FEs to the Lincoln Park Zoo, the field museum and the Peggy Notebaert museum where we observed animals.  For this AP, we had to choose between a slide show and a few other options for presenting. I chose a slideshow because it was a good form of presenting the information. I chose taxidermy because I think it is very important for us and I wanted to explain it for my project. Please enjoy my project and hopefully, you learn something new. 

Chris Or Capt. America?

I took a class called Stories which is the first Humanities class of the year. In this class, we discussed many many different things such as how stories influence people, how stories are passed along different generations and, finally, how to write a story. During this class, we took a couple of different FE's (Feild Experience). The first field experience was when a professional storyteller came to talk to us about how a story is developed and we even ended up creating a story with her combining different people in the class. For this final action project, we had to compare two different people, one fiction, and one non-fiction. I chose Chris Kyle and Captain America. After choosing these people we have to compare their heroes journeys and how they are similar and different. In this slideshow, I'm going to take you through the lives of these two amazing people and compare them along the way.

These two heroes are actually very similar. First of they both fight for their country and have come from a childhood that wasn't the best. Both heroes rose to fame and power by being the best they could be and saving people. I think that this is the most prominent similarity because it is what has defined them and when we think of these two people you think of them as patriotic and a symbol of freedom. Some things that are not as similar are when they come back from war. Chris Kyle was super supportive and continued helping people but was eventually killed. On the other hand, Captain America is asleep for many many years but when he wakes up he doesn't help immediately and he doesn't die.

I chose these two people because, one, Chris Kyle is an inspiration in my life and I think he is a very cool person. I chose Captain America because he is basically the fiction version of Chris. I also thought that this would be a very interesting comparison because people react very differently to war and a comparison between a real-life vet and a fictional superhero would be an interesting topic.

Polar Bear Plunge?

This class is called Population and we are currently wrapping up the second unit. In this class, we have discussed Mean, Median, Mode, Range, Max, Min, 1Q, 3Q, and IQR. These are all different math terms that relate to the idea of evolution. Evolution is another idea that we dove into during this term. In this Action Project, we have to create an unusual situation for our animal and decide how it will evolve over the course of a thousand years.

My animal is a polar bear which is scientifically known as Ursus maritimus. In this project, we have to describe how the polar bear will evolve (or die) in there environment when something has been altered. We also have to choose a living relative of our animal and an ancestor.  The relative I chose for my animal is the brown bear. For the extinct ancestor, I chose the short-faced bear. All three of these animals are (or were) large predators. To give you an idea of the three different animals the polar bears weight about 990 pounds and are white. The brown bear's weight up to 1,300 pounds. Finally, the short-faced bear weighs up to 2,500 pounds. The polar bear lives in the Arctic circle in places such as Russia and Alaska. The climate is cold all year round and there is always snow. The Brown bear lives in a much warmer habitat and cant stand the same type of cold as the polar bear. The short-faced bear lived in the grasslands of North America.

My situation is that the habitat of the bears has recent apartment development which is cutting down the animal's habitat. I have to decide which bear will be most likely to survive. I think the polar bear will be most likely to survive because they usually have to most space to thrive. I also think the polar bear will survive over the others is because they have adapted to be able to survive extreme cold or slightly warmer climates such as zoos. So they could adapt better if the new people had an impact on the climate. I also think that polar bears have the capability to change color because modern-day polar bears actually evolved from brown bears.

I don't think the short-faced bear will survive because it is very large and won't be able to chase food. Also, the people who move in around the area will be much more scared of the bears because they weight many times more than the other two bears. I think the key to surviving with humans is for them not to be scared of you. Also, short-faced bears were very aggressive creatures so therefore they would not do well near humans.

The brown bear would do well because it is a lot smaller than the short-faced bear and won't be as scary as the short-faced bear. But this bear is still bigger than the polar bear so it is not quite as nimble as the polar bear. Also, its size will still scare people more than the white polar bear.

In one-thousand years I believe polar bears will look darker than they do now and will have become lighter since only the fastest bears will escape the humans who hunt them. Polar bears also may change their diet slightly to include all types of food. Below is what I think a polar bear will look like in one-thousand years.


Polar bears have evolved a lot over time. They used to actually be brown bears but the farther north they moved the lighter they got. Polar bears also have more streamlined skulls for swimming and wider paws to match. The claws and paws on a polar bear are perfect for keeping traction on slippery ice. That is how the polar bear has evolved from its cousin the brown bear.

Out of the entire data set on the polar bear fat percentage, I think the top three bears that will survive will be the three heaviest bears because they clearly have the ability to catch their prey and like I said earlier being nimble and able to catch prey is important.

Biggest

Smallest

 Below is my dataset for the fat percentage of the polar bears.

40, 45, 46, 47, 47, 47, 50, 50, 55

Below is the Min, Max, Range, Mean, Median, Mode, 1Q, 3Q, and IQR.

Min	Smallest 40
Max	Biggest 55
Range	55-40 15
Mean	Add all numbers then divide by 9. 47.44
Median	Crossed numbers off each end until I reach the middle. 47
Mode	Most common number. 47
1Q	Center of the first half of data. 46
3Q	Center of the second half of data. 50
IQR	50-46 4

Below is the standard deviation

X	_ X-X	_ X-X=	_2 (X-X)
40	40-47.44	-7.44	55.35
45	45-47.44	-2.44	5.95
46	46-47.44	-1.44	2.07
47	47-47.44	-0.44	0.19
47	47-47.44	-0.44	0.19
47	47-47.44	-0.44	0.19
50	50-47.44	2.56	6.55
50	50-47.44	2.56	6.55
55	55-47.44	7.56	57.15

                                                                                                                  Total: 134.19

Here is the box and whisker plot of polar bear fat percentage.

Below is the fat percentages for each of the polar bears in each picture.

40,45,46,47,47,47,50,50,51,55
The NCR is, 273438880
The NPR is, 99225500774400
Permutations are more useful for this because the first three most likely bears to survive are in order from 1-3 so therefore they wouldn't make sense in a combination.

Citations:

“Main Page.” Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.

“Free Image on Pixabay - Polar Bear, Glacier, Cold, Threat.” Free illustration: Polar Bear, Glacier, Cold, Threat - Free Image on Pixabay - 2376928, pixabay.com/en/polar-bear-glacier-cold-threat-2376928/.

THE POLAR BEAR PROGRAMME, programmes.putin.kremlin.ru/en/bear/multimedia/photos/47408.

Center, NASA Goddard Space Flight. “Polar Bears Across the Arctic Face Shorter Sea Ice Season.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 15 Sept. 2016, www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/29664357826.

Research, NOAA Ocean Exploration &. “Polar Bear.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 1 Dec. 2016, www.flickr.com/photos/oceanexplorergov/30986547240.THE POLAR BEAR PROGRAMME, programmes.putin.kremlin.ru/en/bear/news.

Michel, Christopher. “Polar Bears on Thin Ice.” Flickr, Yahoo!, 17 July 2015, www.flickr.com/photos/cmichel67/19160462274.

“Free Image on Pixabay - Polar Bears, Wildlife, Snow, Nature.” Free photo: Polar Bears, Wildlife, Snow, Nature - Free Image on Pixabay - 1665367, pixabay.com/en/polar-bears-wildlife-snow-nature-1665367/.

The Story of The Stick

In unit 2 for stories class, we discussed different types of stories and how some of them teach lessons. The stories that teach lessons are called fables. For this action project, we had to write a short fable that teaches a lesson of our choice. In the class stories, we also went on a couple field experiences (which are simply learning experiences inside or outside of school). For example, we had a professional storyteller come in and we worked with her to develop a short story about the class. So far in this class, I have learned many new things and had many new experiences. I hope you enjoy my story.

Once upon a time, there was a Bald Eagle named Joe. Joe was a full grown, majestic, and tough eagle. Joe is a retired fisherman but likes to fish when he has the time. But unfortunately for him, the trail to the best spot cuts through a dangerous part of the woods called the Channel Of Death. Joe carries his heavy-duty wooden stick with him on a daily basis so that he doesn't fall into the hands of whatever lies in the woods. The only problem is that he also has to cross over a city to get there, and everyone in the city is afraid of sticks because they have never used them before. Sticks are banned everywhere, from the cafes to the grocery stores. Joe is left vulnerable to the predators in the woods.

Joe accepts the rules for a while, but one day he gets attacked! Joe instinctively reaches for his stick, but it's not there! The ferocious animal is actually not any stronger than Joe, but it has a stick of its own. Joe fights with all his might and manages to escape the deadly encounter but vows to never leave the house without his stick again.

Joe devises a plan to protest the horrible rules that banned the sticks. He created hundreds of posters to put up around the city asking to allow sticks. No one in the city listens. They just simply ignore him and continue with their preachings about how bad sticks are. Joe realizes how little the people of the city really know about the infamous sticks, so he devises a plan to show how safe they are when in the right hands.

Joe changes his posters to show how little people get hurt by sticks in comparison to other common activities. He couldn't understand why people couldn't just look at the simple numbers and understand what he was saying. One day, Joe overheard a group of foxes plotting to spread more bad information about sticks. Joe got very mad at this and confronted them. But before Joe could ask any questions the foxes all ran away to their homes, so they could continue deciding how to ban sticks. He decided to spread the word that the foxes were spreading rumors. Joe realized what was really happening, the people of the city had only one unreliable source of information, the foxes. Joe had to change that so he decided to start a channel on the most popular video watching website ever, animal views. On this channel, Joe discussed how to use sticks, how cool they were, and he portrayed them as not a device to hurt animals but as a tool. He saw the impact it had on the city because he was starting to see more and more people get angry at the fact that sticks were banned from so many places. That's finally when it happened, the stores took down there horrible anti-stick signs and started to let people carry sticks in peace. From that day on Joe realized that the best way to get your point across was not to force it in people's heads but to help them understand what you are saying.

The moral of the story is to always fight for your rights.

S, D. Eagle And Fox. Chicago, 15 Oct. 2017.