17th April

Hello fellow scientists, it seems that the day of the celebration os science is come.
I think that we are in the right way in our investigation. Thank you Mr. Marine for your biological information, I think it is very useful as it gives the fundamental ideas of what the bull kelp is. As we said we will focus in the investigation of the bull kelps from our science ans we will put all together. For tomorrow I have an experiment that we can carry out and it is related to physics, since we were worried about the lack of physics in our investigation. As it has been pointed out, the bull kelp grows very quickly and it is very elastic. That is also very important since rafts of kelp help reduce beach erosion ans kelp forests soften the force of waves against the shoreline. This protection is very important in the Juan de Fuca strait where large kelp beds form bay-like areas along the shoreward side. I think therefore that the study of the elasticity and strength of the bull kelps should be investigated since this properties help us to understand the role that the bull kelps play in our ecosystem.

The material we need is: dinamometer (we may not need it), weights and the kelps.

The procedure would be as follows: we will hang the kelps and we will put weights at the end. By applying this force we will see what the elasticity of the bull kelps is and which force is needed to break it (the dinamometer can help us to measure the force, but since we are hanging the kelps, they will experience the force of gravity, so we only will need to know the mass that we hang from the kelp).

We can also study as Mr. Marine said the diferencies between kelps so we get a better picture of their properties.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's experiment and research and I am sure that our investigation will lead us to some satisfying conclusions about the bull kelps.

Horacio