On our spaceship, the shark would be represented by the human crew, since we eat all of the protein. For this reason, the minnows are the protein such as:

cows, pigs, chickens, fish, beans (soy), and many other sources of protein. The minnows would have to eat the seaweed, so what would be the seaweed?

The plants! The plants ,which are already there in the greenhouse room! The sources of protein listed above need plants to survive that they can feed off of, and if they don’t, the result can be drastic! If the plants die, then that means that the animals have nothing to eat! If the animals–our only source of food–starve, then we’re left on the spaceship without any food! After three weeks, the loss of food will be deadly to us.

This is similar to the Shark Tank simulation because if the shark ate all of the minnows in the very first round, the seaweed would have no predators and therefore would overpopulate. Plus, the sharks would die out since, no matter how many times they were able to reproduce in the first round, they will all die in the second because there are no more minnows to eat. (It is the same thing with all of the minnows eating all of the seaweed…etc.) The food chain is just that–a chain–and if someone takes off one link, the entire thing will fall apart. It’s a domino effect, and for this reason, we need to keep us, the animals, and the plants all balanced.

This is my model of an atom. I was representing one large atom (the blueish-greenish pocket) with many smaller atoms inside of and around it (the yellow egg-like balls and the sickly-colored yellow on the outside). It closely resembles Dalton’s model, since it is of all different colors, shapes, and sizes. Dalton made his model around 1808, and I think that it’s really cool how his model represents various factors of one atom.

When I was younger, I never really thought about the truth, the truth being that everyone and everything is made of atoms. I was always really confused because I didn’t know how atoms could possibly be THERE, just THERE, without being able to see them. It annoyed me for a while, but now I think that it’s really cool.

Also, after studying atoms in science, I understand just how important they are. Everything is made of them, and without them, there would be NOTHING. I really think that it’s incredible how atoms are necessary to life of ANYTHING at all. It’s really crazy. There’s also some other, more important things about atoms. First off, here’s the parts of atoms: The nucleus. It’s the middle of an atom. Inside of a nucleus are protons, which are positively charged. Then there’s neutrons, which are neutrally charged, otherwise known as not charged at all!

Spinning at top speed around the nucleus are thousands of electrons, whizzing around the nucleus like race cars on a track! These spinning electrons are NOT in one orbit, and therefore are called an “electron cloud.”

Here’s some facts about elements. Adding more neutrons, protons, and electrons can all make different elements. However, you ALWAYS need a balanced element, so you always need the same number of electrons as protons. Atomic number is the little number that you see in the upper left hand corner of an element box. That’s also the number of protons. The longer, tinier number is helpful also. For example, the element beryllium has 4 protons and the small number is 9.0121. 9.0121-4= the number of neutrons, which is around five.

My atom is actually a very inaccurate representation of an atom! There is no visible “middle” (or nucleus) and you can’t tell what the yellow blobs are. It’s a SUPER confusing model! If I could make a model of an atom again, it would have a lumpy middle, with other protons and neutrons coming out of it. It would be similar to the chocolate-chip cookie model, but not exact.

I also think that my model can relate to J.J. Thomson’s model because there’s one main piece filled with many different pieces inside of it. But whoever’s model this looks like, atoms are incredible things. This is my atomic model.