The Polar Bear Project

In/Out is the name of Unit 1 for my STEAM class called Population. We learned about the insides and outs of animals. We studied taxonomy, a method created by Carl Linnaeus used to classify and organize animals into categories. We learned about Set Theory, which is the mathematical language used to describe "sets." To help us better understand a creature's anatomy and morphological features we dissected a Lubber Grasshopper. While dissecting we got to compare the way the Lubber Grasshopper's organs were set up compared to humans (Homo sapien) and other animals. We went on an FE to Lincoln Park Zoo as our first step to starting our Action Project. Before going, we chose an animal and learned it's taxonomy so that we could identify it's different traits by seeing it in person. I chose a polar bear, and took pictures of it as well.

Below is my Action Project explaining set theory, Venn diagram, and taxonomy below!

TG. Polar Bear. 2019.

Polar bears are Earth’s largest carnivore, they can grow to be 8ft tall and weigh over 1,000 pounds. Polar bears have evolved to have a slimmer snout and skull so they can swim through water smoothly to catch their prey. Their noses are longer because it helps them when they come up for air. They are the only animal with black skin, though you can’t see it on the outside because they have transparent hair. Polar bears have no natural predators. Their natural habitat is in the Arctic which includes Norway, Greenland, Russia, and Alaska. But 80% of the world’s polar bear population lives in Canada. Currently, polar bears are not endangered, but climate change is causing their hunting grounds (Ice) to melt so they are moving further inland to hunt for food.

TG. Polar bear hair out of water. 2019

Below is the taxonomy of my Polar Bear. I created a mosaic from the video of my polar bear that I took at the Lincoln Park Zoo. After I made the mosaic, I created a GIF out of it to point out some of the morphological traits on my animal. Taxonomy is used in biology and is the science of classifying living things. Taxonomy separates plants and animals into superior and subordinate groups. Carl Linneaus made taxonomy because before his time, people grouped animals and plants analogous and homoplastic traits which means they would appear similar but actually came from different origins. Linneaus decided to groups organisms together using homologous traits. Homologous traits are similar to one another due to shared ancestry.

Kingdom	Animalia	Give birth to live young, multicelluar, heterotrophs
Phylum	Chordata	Notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, post anal-tail
Class	Mammalia	Warm-blooded vertebrate animals, animals with fur and sweat glands
Order	Carnivora	Large brains encased in heavy skull
Family	Ursidae	Big heads, round ears, small eyes, short tails, stocky legs. Plantigrade - walking on the heels and soles like humans do.
Genus	Ursus	Short tail, elongated body, good sense of smell, powerful claws used to hunt.
Species	Ursus maritmus	Is the name for a polar bear.

I created a Venn Diagram to compare my polar to 3 other animals from my class. I choose to compare my animal to a Dwarf Mongoose, a Two-Toed Sloth, and an African Giraffe. You can click on the animals to see my peers' Venn Diagrams and their work as well. A Venn Diagram shows all the possible relations between different sets. In my case it’s the relations between these animals. 

Last but not least, Set Theory. Set Theory is a branch of mathematical logic that studies sets. There are different collections/sets in Set Theory and within the sets are elements. A set can be anything you want it to be; a set it can everything and a set can be nothing. It just has to be defined. Below are my Set Theory sentences which I translated to English as well. 

Epsilon ϵ = Is an element of.

Set Brackets { } = All elements of the set.

Subset ⊂ = A set of. 

Mammals = { polar bears, dogs, horses, otters, lions, wolves ...}

polar bears ϵ Mammals 

English Translation

Animals that are included in the mammal set are: polar bears, dogs, horses, otter, lions, and wolves, etc ... 

Carnivores = {polar bears, tigers, wolves, hyenas, shark ... }

polar bears ϵ Carnivores

English Translation 

Animals that are included in the carnivore set are polar bears, wolves, hyenas, sharks, etc ...

Animals that live in cold weather = {polar bear, beluga whale, reindeer, arctic hare, walrus ... }

polar bears ϵ Animals that live in cold weather

English Translation:

Animals that live in cold weather includes: polar bears, beluga whales, reindeer, arctic hare, walrus, etc … 

Animals with long snouts = {polar bears, elephant, tapit}

polar bears ϵ Animals with long snouts

English Translation 

Animals with long snouts include: polar bear, elephant, tapit, etc ...

Ursus maritimus = {Polar bears} 

polar bears ⊂ Ursus maritimus

English Translation 

Polar bears are the only element in the set of  Usrus maritimus (Scientific name for polar bears.)

This project was fun because I got to be creative with it. Learning the taxonomy of an animal helps us to better understand it’s parts inside and out. The purpose of this project was to know how to identify and compare the animal we chose to different organisms. The Venn Diagram helped us see how 3 completely different animals have relations. Set Theory used some of the taxa traits and broke down different animals that are also included in the mammal set or the carnivore set.