Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Study On Rana Pipiens Essays - Amphibians, Rana, Frog, Free Essays

Study On Rana Pipiens Essays - Amphibians, Rana, Frog, Free Essays Study On Rana Pipiens Leopard Frog - Rana Pipiens Distribution: Found throughout Ontario but more abundant in southern and central Americas. Range: Adults maintain small home ranges (up to 500 m2) in fields or open forest during the summer. Where terrestrial habitats are quite dry, home ranges include some shoreline. A minimum of 4 ha of terrestrial habitat is recommended for the vicinity of breeding sites, however, individual adults may move several kilometres away. Most recently metamorphosed froglets stay within 20 m of shoreline although some froglets begin dispersal before metamorphosis is entirely complete. Diet: Larvae eat algae, phytoplankton, periphyton and detritus. Adults eat mainly invertebrates but will also take tadpoles or very small froglets. Reproduction: Successful breeding sites are permanent ponds, marshes, or pools or backwaters of streams. Eggs and tadpoles require warm (prefer 18o - 28o C), shallow, sunny areas. Breeding occurs from mid-March to mid-May in southern Ontario, and a few weeks later further north. Metamorphosis occurs in 2-3 months. Tadpoles require minimum oxygen concentrations of 3 ppm. Habitat: Relative to bullfrogs and green frogs, leopard frogs use open fields more and prefer denser terrestrial vegetation. In aquatic habitats, submerged vegetation, detritus and soft mud are used for cover. Lookout/Sunning Froglets require muddy shorelines, lily pads, rocks, logs or beaver dams with clear access to deeper water. Adults prefer unmowed fields (15 - 30 cm high, no more than 1 m high vegetation) or open forest in the vicinity of shallow open marshes. Connectivity/Corridors Corridors may be required among breeding, hibernation and summeringhabitats, within 2 km. These may be either aquatic (streams or rivers) or terrestrial (field or forest, usually not cropland except during periods of irrigation). Hibernation Hibernate in deep or running water that will not freeze solid or become anoxic. Are found hibernating on muddy substrate or under rocks, sunken logs, leaf litter or vegetation. Oxygen levels at one known successful hibernation site were 7 ppm. Tadpoles metamorphose in the year of hatching. Hydrology Permanent wetlands with fishless areas or near fishless (temporary) wetlands. Breeding requires sufficient water for metamorphosis to be completed (mid-late August). Soils/Substrate In water prefer muddy bottom. On land prefer moist soil, leaf litter or moss. Design Criteria Vegetation Prefer egg-laying sites with emergent vegetation on about 2/3 of edge and submergent vegetation in 1/2 of surface area in May. Structures Rocks, logs, floating vegetation or dams to sun on, with access to deep water. Submerged vegetation, logs or rocks to hide in. Soils, Slope, & Substrate Prefer wetlands with gradual slope at edge. Hydrology Hibernate in streams with minimum depth 90 cm, moderate mid-depth water velocity, minimal sedimentation, and rocks with average diameter of 20 cm. Critical Periods Breed April-June, metamorphose July-September Other Considerations Froglets are used as bait for fishing. Has declined in much of its western range and apparently in northern Ontario. Tadpoles and froglets are vulnerable to predation by large Bullfrogs and fish. Bibliography Cook, F. R. 1966. Amphibians and reptiles of Saskatchewan. Regina: Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History, Department of Natural

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Book Review The Official SAT Study Guide, 2020 Edition

Book Review The Official SAT Study Guide, 2020 Edition SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips The College Board recently published a new versionof The Official SAT Study Guide (2020 edition). What’s the book like? Is it helpful? In this review, I’ll break down the strengths and weaknesses of this newest edition of the official guide, discuss how students feel about it, and tell you whether it’s ultimately worth buying. Should You Buy theOfficial SAT Study Guide? While the Blue Book (as it was called by students)used to be the must-have source for SAT prep, The Official SAT Study Guide,2020 Edition, is mostly not worth purchasing. The book in its entirety - including its eight practice tests - is available for free online, so don't waste your money buying the book. Why did the College Board release this edition for free?It’s part of the College Board's attempts to make the SAT more accessible and to reduce SAT inequality based on socioeconomic background.This is a wonderful move by the College Board, but it now means buying the book is a complete waste of money. If you have the time, is it worth reading The Official SAT Study Guide, 2020 Edition, free online?Yes and no.The eight practice tests from the book (which are all available online for free)are absolutely crucial to your SAT prep. However, the book doesn’t provide you with details of how to score your practice test; you have to go online to do that, rendering the book useless. If you can’t even score your tests using the book, why buy it? Also, the educational material other than the practice tests doesn’t give much helpful test insight or strategy.The educational material just provides surface-level details about the test.It doesn’t teach you the content needed for the SAT.There are far better, more in-depth SAT study guides out there including the free ones that we’ve written: check out our Reading, Math, and Writing study guides. The educational material also mostly just tells you to go learn more on the Khan Academy SAT prep site, which is free for anyone to access, regardless of whether you purchased the book. Strengths The strengths of the books are very limited: Eight College Board practice tests are pre-printed for you, so you don't need to spend money printing them yourself (including two, Practice Tests 9 and 10, that are not yet available on collegeboard.org) You can recycle the book (AKAuse it for kindling in your bonfire or use it for a paper machà © project). Weaknesses Unfortunately, there are many: The entire book is available for free online (including two extra practice tests not included in the book!) The book doesn’t provide you with scoring information for your practice tests; you have to go online to get the information. The book only provides surface-level descriptions of each section and doesn’t offer instructional material, so you can’t actually learn skills and content from the book. There are no content lessons, so if you’re, say, struggling with geometry questions, you won’t get any assistance from this book; you’d need to seek additional help. Just taking SAT practice tests without a method of learning from your mistakes will not help you improve. The book sadly offers no guidance on how to learn from your mistakes or how to study content. How Students Feel About theOfficial SAT Study Guide 2020 If you don’t believe me, check out how other people feel about it.On Amazon, the book is currently rated 4.3 out of 5 stars, with 69% percent of raters giving it 4 or 5 stars (remember, it's still full of official practice problems!). That said, the 2016 edition of the book (which contained fewer practice tests and was also available for free online) has several hundred more reviewers. Of these reviewers, 82 percent gave it 4 or 5 stars, and 7 percent gave it 1 star: The 1-star reviewers of both editions of the official guide generally agreed with my feeling that the book was a waste of money, noting that everything in the book is available online for free. The 5-star reviewers, on the other hand, generally felt that although the material is available for free online, the book was worth the money since it’s a hassle to print out the practice tests. HowYou Should Use the Official SAT Guide I recommend that no students buy the book, but all students should be using the free practice tests available online. I don’t think any student needs to read the additional information included in this guide.The information is superficial yet difficult to parse: it discusses the types of question and content covered without giving many, if any, examples.We’ve created better free guides forReading, Math, and Writing. If you’re a worrywart (like me) and are stressed that you don’t know everything you can about the test, then go ahead and read the extra material for free online.You should be able to read all of it fairly quickly.As I said, it’s pretty sparse and superficial. However,reading this book alone will not prepare you for SAT success.You need to review your SAT practice tests to learn from your mistakes.You should also do in-depth content review of subjects you don’t know well or might've forgotten, such as systems of equations or semicolons. You still need to study! What SAT Prep Material Should You Use? Now that you know not to buy this book and to print the free practice tests from the College Board website, what other resources should you use to help you prep for the SAT? First, I recommend our free SAT study guides forReading, Math, and Writing. As I mentioned before, these guides are all available here on our blog at no cost to you. If you find yourself still struggling to improve after taking a few practice tests and using our free guides,consider using a highly rated SAT prep book, hiring a tutor, or enrolling in an online program. Whatever option you choose, make sure the program is specialized to you.You want a program that will identify your strengths and weaknesses so you can improve your weak areas as well as your SAT score. What’s Next? Studying for the new SAT? Check out our complete guide to test changes and our ultimate SAT study guide. Looking for extra help? Check out our guide to the best SAT prep books. Trying to decide whether to hire a tutor or do an online prep course? We can help. Getting ready to apply to college? Unsure of where you want to go? Check out our guide to finding your target school and how to find out what your target SAT score should be. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points?We have the industry's leading SAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so you get the most effective prep possible. Check out our 5-day free trial today:

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Friendship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Friendship - Essay Example It could be shared experiences – so, two mothers meet at an antenatal clinic. Both are pregnant, both have a toddler running around and craving attention. They look at each other and smile and a conversation begins. Next week there they are again and so it goes on. It could be a shared interest or hobby. A group is formed to create a community garden. They discuss things together, make plans, and work together. Then someone suggests a meal, or invites everyone to their home for a Christmas drink. The conversation turns to non-gardening subjects and again friendships already begun become more established. It can be an alliance in shared difficulties. Two little boys fight in the playground. They are taken to the head teacher’s office where both are disciplined. One finds himself defending the other: ‘It wasn’t really his fault.’ Once outside the office, grins are exchanged and two former enemies become allies against authority. It can be based upon a need to rely on each other as in two comrades fighting alongside each other, and depending upon teamwork for their survival. Some friendships are based on less than perfect motives. I think of two little girls being put next to each other in class. One has a pencil case full of sparkly pens, comical erasers and even a packet of sweets. The girl next to her suddenly decides to become friends. A poor reason to start a friendship, perhaps, but soon they really do become bosom friends. According to Kelly (n.d.), who is writing from a Christian point of view, true friendship can be identified by three aspects - it is morally helpful to both parties; there is a genuine basis of agreement between the parties and, thirdly, their mutual love is characterized by a spirit of self-sacrifice. He was speaking specifically about relationships between people of opposite sexes, but the principles hold for other types of friendships.