our cricket has died after just a few days. His name was Magnus. The reason to his death was very unclear, and there were significant changes to our habitat after we did what we assumed to be small tweaks. First things first, Magnus was much much smaller and weaker and less active than Tyrone (our first cricket) and we predicted that that would play a big role in how long he lived. With that aside, we can make some assumptions on how Magnus died.

reasons:

1. lack of food – tyrone lived a long time, with basically the same food and conditions so we think that this was not the case. However, we do not see any bite marks on the plants, so that mean that Magnus was not eating them.
2. lack of water – the plants did not seem moist as when Tyrone was living in there. We took out water, but this time it seems like it was too dry.
3. mold – we do not know the specific reasons yet, but there was mold in the habitat, and that would have effected the cricket some way or another.
4.  mold is visible in the bottom right corner
5. again, we think that the main reason is that Magnus was simply weaker than Tyrone. He was smaller, and did not run around the habitat like tyrone did. So next time we will be sure to get the bigger cricket we can find to make sure that it lives longer in our habitat, so that we can have it live for over 4 months,

fixes:

1. we will put just a tad more water about 15 grams
2. we will add more plants, to make sure there is variety
3. we try to figure out why the mold is there, and get rid of it just in case
4. we will make sure to have a bigger and stronger cricket.

 

Our first cricket has died (Tyrone). There was food, and there was oxygen (our plant was doing fine), but we think the reason that our cricket died was because  there was too much water. When I took the eco dome out from it’s place, it was just filled with water, much more than the photo beneath. So we think that the reason that our cricket died was because he suffocated, for the air was too humid. Other than that, our cricket lived a very long time, so we think that we are on the right track and we trying to find out how it died, for it was very healthy for the days that it lived.

(above) you can see how water was all over the eco-dome

adjustments:

1. got rid of access water (10 grams instead of 20)
2. put more plants in (just incase there was a lack of oxygen)
3. put extra nutrients in the soil (to make sure the plants were healthy)
4. and we remade the rain contraption, so that water would rain down just like in the forest.

we are still not 100% sure on how our second cricket died, but he lived for a very long time, so we are trying not to tweak the habitat too much, and compromise our good results.

what we kept the same:

1. the soil- nothing was wrong so we didn’t teak it.
2. the plant- we put a new plant in, but the old one we did not take out, for it was (presumably) doing it’s job.

Me and my partner (Hwee) are trying to create a eco dome that our cricket (tyrone) can live in indefinitely. We think that the three most important components would be oxygen, food, and water. For food, we put plants and some carrots. The carrots are mostly for fertilization though, for we know that crickets will eat almost anything when desperate. For water, again the plants will have water droplets stuck on them, and the cricket can drink off that. And for oxygen, we have the plants to make oxygen.

The cricket is still alive, and is walking around the eco dome in circles. We have a pretty well balanced amount of water (no floods or droughts). The plants seem to be healthy and the soil looks decently damp. The soil is wetter in the middle because of our contraption. The plants are still good, and they are the source of food for the cricket, and they are still plenty. To the touch the dome feels cool. The circuit looks well, and we think that it should be able to survive well for a few more days. It has been 3 days and the eco dome is looking very good. Our rain contraption is also working, for the middle of the soil is damper than the rest.

Component	Amount Units	Reasoning
Food(carrot, pear, pepper, broccoli)	16.1 grams	Source of food for the cricket.
Water	20 grams	Water is the source of drink for the cricket and for the plants.
Brown dirt	1cm	For extra nutrients
Plants	2 plants	For food and for oxygen
Nutrients (dead grass)	5 grams	For fertilization
Black dirt	2 cm	To store water

What did you do today? How?

We are almost finish withe whole thing, the next things we will add in are not really a part of the artwork, but rather just to make the art look better.

How do you think your group members went?her didi the problem.

it was really good, we started cutting out the designs, and when we encountered a problem, we split up so one person did the work and the to

What do you think of your progress so far? Why?

What is your group plan for the next 2 classes?

What did each of you do today?

• Ben: Made designs with paper to stick on the walls.

• Hwee: Painted one of the walls and made a small design to stick onto the tree.

What problems did we face?

• Hwee: Having trouble painting the walls without getting it wet.
• Ben: Accidentally cutting the wrong part of a design.

Did you work on the job you mentioned in the last reflection? If not why not?

• Yes, Ben and I did design the walls, but we’re not finished. We need to add some final finishing touches, like the paper cut outs.

What is your plan for next class?

• We will try to finish designing the walls, inside and outside. Preferably redo the paint job on the front wall where it is messy
• Ben: Finish crafting the designs.

What did your group achieve today?

• Hwee: finished sticking the trees inside the high school building and we finished painting everything. Ben clued the trees in the building. Hwee Hong painted the front wall and helped Ben glue.
• Ben: we glued the trees inside, and are ready to start sticking things on the outside to decorate it.

What did you do well today as a group?

• Hwee:We cooperated and we started putting more things together and we work independently to make the building come together.
• Ben: The independent work is finally start to come together, and we have a better view of our final product.

What is the plan for next class?

• Together: Ben and I are planning to design the walls and inside with different shapes. But we still have to plan things out because we started with a facade, but our ideas changed, so therefore, we’re still thinking.

What did you do today? How?

I made a wall to represent a window, and started on the foundation, and the wall.

How do you think your group members went?

I made the trees that went inside, and made the big one that would be the center of attention. Unfortunately, it did not turn out well, due to the lack of hot glue. So we had to really glue that in and the back really did not look good. Overall as a group, I would say decent.

What do you think of your progress so far? Why?

we are very close to finishing, because once we finish the tree, the rest should be fairly straightforward.

What is your group plan for the next 5 classes?

We need to decorate the wall, and make them tell some kind of story.